Half Prince v7 extra

½ Prince Volume 7: Life, Fading Away

Extra Chapter: The Long Family’s Undisclosed Secret – translated by bleachpanda

“My older cousin?” The ten-year-old Long Shui Han frowned. How could I just suddenly have a cousin pop out of nowhere? If I must have a cousin appear out of nowhere, it should at least be a younger cousin; I don’t want to be the youngest one. Besides, this cousin looks so skinny and small. He doesn’t look anything like an older cousin.

“Oh okay, I understand,” Long Shui Han replied reluctantly.

Sigh. Like this, my older brother can probably rest in peace now, right? Long-bà thought. He recalled the past, when his brother had refused to follow the family’s arrangements of marrying another business magnate’s daughter and had dated a poor girl in his school instead.

However, this made him even more determined to find his brother. No matter what, his brother at least needed to burn incense at Mother’s grave and pay his respects to her.

Long-bà shook his head. Those shameless relatives! It’s so obvious how they were treating him from the look of his thin and sickly body to his worn out, oversized clothes. Yet those relatives had dared to say that they would really miss Long Dian, making us… making us give them more compensation for their so-called loss!

“How old are you this year?” Long Shui Han asked grudgingly. I want a younger brother!

“Oh,” Long Shui Han replied, a bit displeased. He really is older! How annoying!

“Th-thank you…” Long Dian still couldn’t believe it. This room is larger than Uncle’s entire house. Can I really live here?

“Sorry,” Long Dian said looking down, ashamed.

(Prince: …Lolidragon, you’re only ten years old and you’re already setting such a bad example…)

“Good, follow me from now on. Jiějie2 has your back,” Long Shui Han said confidently while patting her chest.

“Barbaric kid! We don’t play with uncivilized children like you,” said a handsome boy. He was wearing a white swallow-tailed coat and was looking down at Long Dian disdainfully and arrogantly. Even when saying such spiteful words, he said it with extreme elegance.

“You’re not allowed to say sorry!” shouted an infuriated Long Shui Han who had witnessed this scene. She had only walked away for a bit and her cousin was already getting bullied! Sheesh! This is the Long family’s domain! If he were to go to another person’s house, then he’d be bullied to the point of getting bashed up!

After rolling her eyes at Long Dian, Long Shui Han walked up to the boy in the swallow-tailed coat. Hands on her hips, as if she were a tigress condemning him, she demanded, “Young Master Chen, if I may ask, do you have something against my OLDER COUSIN?”

After considering all of this, Young Master Chen gracefully and politely replied, “Long-xiǎojie,5 I haven’t seen you for a long time. You have become even more beautiful than before.”

After leaving the party, Long Shui Han angrily pointed and shouted at Long Dian, “What the heck are you doing? How could you just let him call you a barbaric kid!? You’re my older cousin, you know!”

“You make me so mad!! Next time, I won’t care about you anymore!” Long Shui Han was so infuriated that her face flushed bright red.

He suddenly noticed two small drops of water falling down his face, bitter and sour… It had been so long… so long since he had last cried. Since his mom and dad’s funeral, he had never cried again.

“Wuu…Wahhh…” It would have been better if she hadn’t tried to comfort him, because once she had done so, it made him remember his mom. In the past, whenever he cried, his mom would always be by his side patting his back and comforting him… Long Dian couldn’t stop himself from crying and wailing even harder.

As Long Dian bawled his eyes out while hugging Long Shui Han, who sat unmoving like a rock, so shocked that she didn’t dare move, Long-bà quietly stood by the door. He heaved a sigh and said, “Being able to cry is good, much better than enduring it and not shedding any tears at all. The latter would make me worry much more.”

Hearing that, Long Shui Han’s eyes became watery. She really missed her mom as well, but her mom had passed away from an illness when she was five. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t even remember what her mom looked like. Mouth quivering and eyes growing warm, Long Shui Han followed along as she cried out loud, “Mommy…wahhh… Shui Han wants her mommy too…”

The eighteen-year-old Long Shui Han quietly walked into the study room. Like a thief, she tiptoed stealthily to the side of the chair where someone was sitting. She breathed in deeply and yelled, “BOO!”

Long Shui Han stuck her tongue out at him, unhappily asking, “Dian, what are you doing again? Isn’t it boring always sitting here staring at the computer?”

“Designing a game? The old fashioned you who has never done anything fun in his life?” stared Long Shui Han, dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe that the guy that wouldn’t play any online games, even when she tried coercing him through force and bribery, would actually want to design a game.

Long Shui Han’s eyes immediately started shining, “Really? Let me see, let me see!”

“Oh, Dad you heard that right? A game with a realism level of 100%!” Long Shui Han turned around to find Long-bà already standing with a smile behind the two.

“Dad~. Let Biǎogē do it. I really want to play such a game!” Long Shui Han persistently whined cutely at Long-bà while shaking his arm.

Long Dian smiled, “I understand. I will decrease the realism level a little bit.”

“What name should we give this game?” Long Shui Han hurriedly asked.

“Yeah, yeah yeah! Let’s give it a name along the lines of Dreamlike Fantasy!” Long Shui Han exclaimed dreamily while ignoring the dark looks of the two men. She was completely enchanted by the words “Dreamlike Fantasy.”

“Hmm, maybe a futuristic realm?” pondered Long Dian.

As she talked more and more, Long Shui Han once again became immersed in her imaginary world. She was envisioning a place with green hills and clear waters where she would be in the same party as a prince. The two of them would defeat monsters on their romantic journey… And of course this prince will be the ultimate bishie! He’ll be extremely strong and cool, very considerate and it’ll be even better if he knows how to sing! Then he could always sing love songs for me to listen to!

Long-bà and Long Dian both shuddered, drops of cold sweat dripping down their backs.

“One. Definitely only one character. You absolutely cannot recreate your character,” replied Long Shui Han again as she turned around. If they’re allowed to make more than one character, then how would I know whether my prince on a white horse is cheating on me?

“Or maybe there will be more people supporting it instead!” Long Shui Han resolutely answered. “Since the game’s realism is practically 100%, then it shouldn’t be possible to create another character; that is what it means to be realistic. This way, players will really be able to experience the feeling of reality.”

“Hehehe! This way, I can ensure that my prince cannot cheat on me or secretly train a new character. Wohohohoho!” Long Shui Han covered her mouth and laughed hysterically.

“Ah! Ah! I thought of an even better name for the game!” Long Shui Han suddenly shouted excitedly. The more she thought about it, the better the name sounded.

Long Shui Han eagerly responded, “Let’s call it Second Life!”

“Daughter, even you can spout out such good words once in a while!” Long-bà said, teasing her as he smiled.

Seeing this scene, Long Dian couldn’t help but smile. At the moment, he was truly blessed with happiness.

“My little cousin Long Dian~~” Long Shui Han smiled evilly using the tone that she would only use when trying to take advantage of him. She couldn’t resist asking, “How is the game progressing? When can I start playing?”

“Half a year?!” Long Shui Han was in disbelief. After hearing Long Dian say one year, she was already quite shocked because her dad had told her that they still needed at least two more years for Second Life to attain a realism level of 99%. Yet now Long Dian is actually saying it will be completed in half a year?

“Dian… are you all right?” Long Shui Han was a little scared. The Long Dian that was usually so gentle was actually displaying such an expression. His eyes seem to be exploding with wild ambition? Although he was being very zealous, she was also a little frightened of him. She couldn’t shake off the feeling that Dian was really frightening when he was like this.

Hearing this, Long Shui Han seriously said in worry, “If you’re too tired, then rest for a bit. Listen to Dad. You’ve put in so much of your hard work and effort into this game, so if it’s impossible to complete it within half a year, then allowing it to be released a little later is all right. Don’t force yourself so much just because I’m always rushing you. You know I am half joking about it.”

“Good! Then, take care of your health!” Long Shui Han ordered before leaving.

“It is a terminal illness; you only have one year left.”

“Every era has illnesses that cannot be cured. As technology improves, new illnesses are constantly emerging… Believe me, I am the most knowledgeable doctor about your illness that you will be able to find,” the doctor said helplessly. “I didn’t want to answer you so mercilessly but I’d rather be cruel than allow you to waste the remaining time you have naively believing that you could be cured.”

“With the assistance of medicine and the most advanced medical equipment, I will only be able to delay it for two years at the most.”

Long Dian stared at the computer screen, looking at the GFX team’s creation of the latest version of the AI administrator in the game… He lightly pressed a few buttons, changing the face to match his own appearance. He hesitated for a moment, but in the end he still chose to give this AI, who looked identical to him, the highest intelligence level possible.

“No! You can’t replace me!” Long Dian roared. He agitatedly swept everything on his table to the floor. “I don’t want to leave them! I’ve only been with them for ten or so years! I want to continue to stay alongside them!”

The computer screen displayed a message: highest intelligence level completed at 50%, 60%…

The ironic thing was that he was unable to make the same program again because the reason the process had finished was due to him carelessly sweeping the whole computer onto the floor. During that process, he had no idea what had been pressed or done to create this miraculous result. The Dictator of Life might possibly be the world’s most intelligent super computer. However, Long Dian even suspected that he wasn’t simply the most intelligent computer on this earth… the Dictator of Life was slowly becoming more and more human!

“Number one; freeze yourself and wait until medicine that can cure your illness is created.”

“Next.”

Long Dian was greatly stunned. He blurted, “Store my brainwaves? Where?”

Store myself inside the game? Long Dian’s fist tightened. Shui Han really likes that place too. If I were to stay there, would that count as staying by her side?

“There are a few methods…” The Dictator of Life suggested a few methods which he believed had considerable feasibility. One of them was the idea that once you enter the brainwaves onto the network, cut off the return path; this would mean directly killing the person’s body. This way, the brainwaves could, hopefully, be stored on the network.

“Need to experiment…” said Long Dian, who was a little out of it. He staggered out of the study room.

“Father can… merge together with me.”

Chapter end