Chapter 00149: A Very New Format
# A Very New Format
Chapter 149
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 149: A Very New Format
Compared to Audel, who was curious about everything she saw, Viola’s attention was always focused on Li Chengxi.
This was especially apparent when they were out.
When they went to the station to wait for the bus, Audel would look around with great curiosity.
Even after getting on, she would press her face against the glass to watch the tall buildings pass by on both sides.
Viola, however, seemed very nervous, her gaze never leaving Li Chengxi for a single moment.
It was as if she were terrified of getting lost, showing no interest at all in things that defied her common sense.
But the two sisters did have one thing in common: whenever they went out, they liked to clutch tightly to the corner of Li Chengxi’s clothes.
He felt like his shirt was being stretched out by them…
Since Viola was not very interested in her surroundings, Li Chengxi was spared a lot of effort in having to explain things to her.
The two of them took the bus and quickly arrived at their destination.
It was the same wholesale street where he had bought clothes for Audel.
There were no big brands, but you could find any style of clothing you wanted.
“By the way, what style of clothes do you want?”
Li Chengxi had asked Audel the same question.
He really didn't know how to buy clothes for girls.
“Anything is fine, as long as it’s not high heels.”
Then I’ll get her two sets of sporty clothes, he thought.
Looking at Viola, Li Chengxi thought that a pure and innocent style of dress would also look good on her.
“Speaking of which, do you have high heels where you come from?”
“Yes, they are generally worn at banquets attended by nobles. I’ve sprained my ankle several times because of high heels, it’s torture. No one else knows this, but I actually formed the Royal Guard Knight Order just so I wouldn’t have to wear them.”
The formal attire for a Knight was Armor.
Even when attending a banquet, they wore Ceremonial Armor, so naturally, they didn’t have to wear high heels.
If the Royal Guards knew this was the reason, they would probably cry their eyes out…
Since Viola had no special requirements for her clothes, the matter was simple.
They casually browsed two shops and easily put together a complete outfit.
The only small surprise was when Viola tried on a dress, it was a great surprise.
Yes, a great one.
Normally, a white dress should have a pure and innocent style, but when worn by Viola, whose figure was stunningly good, it immediately lost all connection to purity.
It was pure, yet alluring.
Li Chengxi quickly had her change into an outfit of flared pants and a T-shirt.
She still looked exceptionally eye-catching, but it was much more presentable than the dress.
After buying the clothes, Li Chengxi saw the Ice Cream Shop again.
Perhaps because Viola seemed more mature, the young man at the Ice Cream Shop didn’t tease her as he had when he brought Audel here last time.
Unlike Magic which required chanting, if Viola discovered she was being tricked, she might just land a punch on him…
“What are you looking at?”
While waiting for the bus, Li Chengxi noticed that Viola was finally not concentrating all her attention on him.
Following her gaze, he saw she was staring intently at an advertisement on the bus stop sign.
“Lord… Ahem, Brother Li, what is this?”
“It’s a promotional poster for a movie.”
“Mo…vie?”
“It’s similar to a stage play, you’ve probably seen one, right? It’s just that movies look more realistic.”
Seeing that Viola seemed a little interested, Li Chengxi took out his phone, checked it, and said:
“Since you’re interested, let’s go see one.”
–‐‐——–‐‐——
There weren’t many customers at the Convenience Store on the weekend.
In any case, going home would just mean sitting behind the Cashier Counter and looking at the Computer, so Li Chengxi thought taking Viola to a movie would be fine.
So, after getting off at the bus station, the two boarded another bus and headed for the City Center.
The place where Li Chengxi lived was a small city.
The City Center might not even be as bustling as the outskirts of a big city, but it had all the necessary things.
They took the bus to the vicinity of the big Mall in the City Center.
As soon as she got off, Viola was shocked by the scene before her.
Even though it was early in the morning, the place already looked like a sea of people, with everyone packed shoulder to shoulder.
Viola had never seen so many people gathered in one place.
Even the Capital of the Avarus Demon Kingdom, before it was captured, was nowhere near as prosperous as this.
This was perhaps a sign that Viola was beginning to relax a little.
She was starting to become interested in the things she had never seen before.
Li Chengxi led Viola into the Mall.
He skillfully refused the sales pitch from a salesperson at a Gold Shop on the first floor for “discounted couple’s rings” and walked all the way to the escalator.
Viola had never seen such a thing.
She stretched out her leg to tap at it like a crane tentatively probing the water’s edge, leaving a passing customer completely baffled.
These days, people who had never seen an escalator were a rare sight.
After a slight delay, the two finally got on the escalator, and then took an elevator.
This time, Viola surprisingly showed no curiosity.
Apparently, a similar device existed in the Capital of the Avarus Demon Kingdom, powered by a winch and ropes pulled by manpower, so she wasn’t particularly surprised.
The movie theater was on the fourth floor of the Mall.
When Li Chengxi was in High School, he would occasionally come to watch a movie.
Ten years had passed, and it was still in the same place.
After buying the tickets, the two walked into the theater.
When the lights dimmed, Viola became a little nervous, tightly gripping Li Chengxi’s wrist.
It was not a pleasant experience, because Viola’s palm was covered in calluses from practicing with a sword, and her grip was very strong.
Li Chengxi felt as if he were being pressed down by a sheet of sandpaper.
Then, the big screen lit up.
Viola’s attention was immediately captured by the movie, and her hand loosened slightly.
As for the movie itself, it was actually very boring.
It was roughly a love story similar to an idol drama.
The subject matter itself was uninteresting, and it was the kind of domestic production that relied on a few trending celebrities to prop it up.
It was then hyped up with some tagline like “the first of its kind,” fully illustrating the principle that as long as you write a good qualifier, you can be whatever “first” you want to be.
Within the first ten minutes of watching, Li Chengxi had already guessed the rest of the story’s direction.
By the thirtieth minute, Li Chengxi was starting to feel drowsy.
At the fifty-minute mark, Li Chengxi had counted how many popcorn kernels were left in the bucket.
At the sixty-minute mark, Li Chengxi had already fallen asleep.
When he woke up, the lights had come on, and the movie was over.
Although Li Chengxi felt that the money for the tickets had been utterly wasted, Viola appeared very excited as they walked out of the cinema.
“A very magical form of artistic expression. Much more direct than a stage play.”
Lady, are you sure that industrial garbage can be called art?
At that rate, couldn't I just piss on the ground and sell it for the price of a famous painting?
“Although I couldn’t understand what they were talking about, I feel it was a complex story of entangling gratitude and resentment.”
So you didn't understand it?
Did you just imagine the entire plot in your head?
It was less that the movie was good, and more that Viola was very fond of this novel form of expression.
It was like in the era when movies first appeared.
Back then, they didn't tell stories at all, purely filming things like street scenes, but even that could deeply move people who had never seen a movie before.
“Wait, hold on. You can’t understand the dialogue in the movie?”
“No, it was a language I’ve never heard before.”
“But you can understand me.”
A domestic movie would of course have Chinese dialogue.
Since Viola could understand what Li Chengxi said, there was no reason she couldn’t understand the movie.
Could it be that the domestic film industry had now evolved to the point of not speaking a human language?
“I don’t know, but I can just understand your words, Brother Li. I can’t understand what other people say.”
“Wait, then how did you answer Qian Sen yesterday?”
“At first, I didn’t understand what he was saying either. But later, he probably used some kind of spell, and then I could understand him.”
Li Chengxi suddenly recalled that when Audel arrived, Qian Sen had taken off a Necklace, held it in his hand, and asked Audel if she could understand him (see Chapter 70).
At the time, Audel seemed to have said something about a Comprehend Languages Spell.
But something still wasn’t right.
Why was he the only one she could understand?
Li Chengxi thought for a moment, then chose to give up.
“Forget it. I’ll call Qian Sen and ask when we get home.”
(End of this chapter)