Night Hacker
Chapter 12

Gu He was met by Fan Debao’s fierce fat face as soon as he opened the wooden door to the bathroom.

“I have a great nose.” Lao Fan appeared to sniff, “You haven’t pooped at all, and you haven’t even taken your trousers down. What did you do in your five minutes of hiding? Isn’t it just plain laziness?”

Fan Debao grabbed Gu He and practically shoved him down the aisle without letting him explain anything.

“Hey…” Gu He stumbled a few times under his feet, but he still rushed to the bar’s landline.

This is another rotary dial phone manufactured by the Santo Company. It is black and composed of mechanical material. At this point, the handle was on the bar table.

Gu He’d been using his phone all day before crossing over, but he’d only used the landline a few times. He now grasped the handle, which had the receiver on one end and the microphone on the other. It was a bit of a throwback.

There are videophones marketed in TV ads, but they are incredibly costly, thus there are none in the Fishpond Izakaya.

“Hello?” “Captain Lorna?” he said as he sat in a chair and relaxed against the bar table.

“It’s me.” “Your mirror box therapy is really helpful!” said Captain Lorna, her tone seeming more vibrant than last night, as if she had gotten a good night’s sleep.

“As long as it serves a purpose.” Gu He drank the warm and fragrant wolfberry water from the thermos he stole already had.

A good psychiatrist will put his problems aside and complete the call with the customer professionally.

The Izakaya had four or five customers, so Fan Debao walked back behind the bar and served the meals and beverages himself.

Old Fan, you should be busy. Gu He determined that this call should go as long as possible; he is definitely not lazy.

“My right hand isn’t bothering me today; it has stopped the momentum of the collapse, and is getting healthier.”

Captain Lorna said joyfully, “Our mercenary group, on the other hand, received a new job today, and there may be a battle in two days. I must be prepared, and it is better to fix the damaged programs and lost data.

She was looking forward to it, “Any way to do it quickly?”

“Hmm…” Gu He listened and considered it.

Captain Lorna’s unusual speech manner is perhaps one of the reasons she is referred to as a psycho woman. Strange speech is a common sign in psychiatry, and he himself is also like this now…

…

“Is it about the state of mind?” he muttered.

“Nonsense.” Captain Lorna was a little annoyed, “My personality is about to collapse, and I want to improve my personality integrity.”

Gu He was stunned by her tone, I am an amateur, such a rookie mistake.

Psychiatrists must maintain their image of authority in order to gain patients’ trust.

As a result, one cannot look timid or uninformed by asking everything, but must instead gather knowledge through observation and speech.

The psychiatrist can use the above strategy, but Gu He is a cowherd now and can’t talk like this.

“Why do I feel like you don’t understand anything?” Lorna questioned, “Haven’t Lao Fan taught you before?”

“Captain Lorna.” He first helped the patient relax with a calm chuckle, “I know enough.”

Personality integrity?

Let’s start with the reasoning. She was physically and mentally exhausted by the life of losing her right hand, having to wear a prosthetic arm, and suffering from phantom limb pain. Her mental state was very unstable, it even affected her personality.    

The psychiatrist will let her take medicine. But Gu He is a cowherd… he just wants her to develop a healthy mentality.

Personality restoration is mostly dependent on self-talk and self-reconciliation.

The most challenging aspect of this predicament is reconciling Captain Lorna’s past.

However, if she has been trapped in the past, and can’t even think into the future, the therapy method must be altered accordingly.

“A person cannot be a complete person without the past.”

 Gu He adjusted his voice to the most tender level and said: “Even if it’s all suffering in the past, perhaps it was those pains that shaped you into the person you are now. If you want to replace your true self, you must fully accept yourself.”

The other end of the phone fell silent, and after a while, Lorna suddenly said:

“You really don’t know who I am. Lao Fan and Kumiko haven’t mentioned my notoriety, have they?”

Uh? Gu He was stunned, what, who are you?

He quickly covered the microphone end of the handle and asked Fan Debao in a low voice, “Old Fan, is Captain Lorna famous?”

Fan Debao just finished serving a few customers with tattoos. When he heard the words, he looked at him and sneered:

“Captain Lorna is not famous; Lorna Luddite is famous, but that was more than 10 years ago when she was just a little girl. Who remembers her anymore?”

Gu He listened and thought, she had said before “When my scumbag parents were beheaded…”

“Is it because her parents abused her?” He asked again in a low voice, “It became news, and there was a lot of trouble back then?”

News headlines of parents who abused their daughters and were condemned to death flashed across Gu He’s imagination, the tragic past that cannot be recalled…

 “Almost.” Fan Debao’s expression became a little gloomy, “Her parents ruined her life back then.”

Gu He shook his head, thinking that if even Lao Fan was moved, then it must be undoubtedly desolate.

He could only say softly to Captain Lorna over the phone:

“I do know, hence why I want you to look back. The nature of life is cruel, your life was crueller than others, but only when you realize what it means to you can you face the future with confidence.”

“Okay, okay…” Lorna interrupted impatiently, “If you don’t know how then so be it.”

With a click, the receiver heard a beeping sound that the call was hung up.

She’s an unyielding person…

Captain Lorna should take a House-Tree-Person Test (1) if feasible so that he may better understand her personality.

House-Tree-Person 房树人 (Fang Shuren) has absolutely nothing to do with Zhou Shuren. (2)

This is a mental projection test in which subjects freely draw homes, trees, and people on a blank piece of paper to project their mental state from the subconscious level.

Among these, the trunk might indicate personality integrity.

Wait… he seems to be better off taking the House-Tree-Person Test himself? (3)

But it’s not going to happen right now, there are several groups of guests now.

“Yes, you have to be open to being a human being.” So Gu He proceeded to pretend to converse with Lorna. He hold the phone handle, and said to himself tenderly: “Eat more, sleep more, go out and play if you are interested, don’t think too much and enjoy the scenery.”

 “Kid, do you think I’m deaf? My ears are still good!”

Gu He thought that Fan Debao’s sensory sensitivity was out of proportion to his body weight.

Fan Debao’s cold voice came, “Come over to work immediately!” 

“Well, Lao Fan called me, let’s talk again later Captain, bye-bye. <3”

Then and only then did Gu He place the handle on the landline and naturally stood up and proceeded towards a group of young female customers who come here from time to time.

“Hello, ladies.”

…

After an entire morning, Gu He was exhausted.

He thought being a Cowherd was supposed to be easy, but it turns out that it was more work than being a psychiatrist!

He has to do everything from greeting guests to wiping the bar, to washing dishes and glasses.

If he had to look on the bright side, Vanderbilt will teach him about wine culture, wine knowledge, bartending, and so on. He now realises that Fenggu wine is a well-known wine produced by the Fenggu Winery in the northern agricultural area.

He’s had wave after wave of guests, and the Cowherd value on the console’s program progress bar continues rising.

However, after one day, it only reached 5% of second gear.

He discovered various console mechanisms after doing some research. First, Each guest gives a different Cowherd value.

Even with a group of people like old dog Jackson, the Cowherd value they brought is not as much as Captain Lorna alone.

Before serving the old dog and them, the progress bar was at 86% of the first gear.

If these guests are ordinary monsters, then Captain Lorna is an elite monster.

2. When the progress bar is on the second gear, the growth rate of the program drops exponentially.

It appears that if I want to progress quickly, I must serve more elite monsters with psychiatric issues, such as Captain Lorna…

However, the phone call in the morning did not increase the Cowherd value, indicating that Captain Lorna was dissatisfied.

If this isn’t transmigration and instead him going insane, it’s because he subconsciously believes Captain Lorna is dissatisfied.

Gu He reminded himself while encouraging Captain Lorna in the morning, although that sub-personality is fierce and sinister. But, after all, he has only recently split from his female side; he still has the potential to integrate and accept it, and he should approach it positively.

So he decided to increase the Cowherd value, take more implicit memory, get a data packet to feed her, and see how it goes.

…

It’s now dusk, the sky outside has turned a sunset hue, and the faulty neon signs have begun to flicker.

“Gu He, do you also think that I have a dream of stardom??”

Gu He was at the izakaya, which was busier than usual during the day. He was sitting at a tiny dining table, speaking with an unknown young actress.

Miss Jiujing Huaqing, in her twenties, is one of many individuals in the city who fantasise about streamers. She mainly hangs out in the “set area,” where various film sets and various crews gather, and only sometimes will she return to the Kabukicho district. 

She is a local street child in the Kabukicho district, and people like her in the city are called “local dogs”.

It has been six or seven years since she was a local dog in the studio area, but she still can only play tricks. 

The biggest role she has ever played has three lines, which are “ah”, “oh my god” and “don’t!” She appeared in a third-rate horror movie where her character was killed by a perverted murderer who smashed his skull with a metal bull mould.

“Really?” Jiujing Huaqing sighed while drinking a glass of sake: “Now everyone here calls me 

‘Three Scream Jiujing’.”

Gu He has acquired formal training. He never smiles improperly and just says calmly:

“Who doesn’t want to be a celebrity? I recently dreamt about it yesterday. You should, nevertheless, have some of your own characteristics. Miss Jiujing, you are a one-of-a-kind individual.”

“Really?” Jiujing Huaqing mumbled and touched her face, still unsure.

“Of course.” Gu He nodded.

Her face is already quite lovely, with huge eyes, a high nose, and a tiny mouth. However, it is so beautiful that it has no characteristics, and it is hard to remember.

Even if she hadn’t mentioned it just now, he had the feeling that this was a cosmetic surgery facelift from a cheap street plastic surgery shop. There was no plan, simply a random patchwork of the faces of actresses and supermodels who were prominent in recent years.

Together with her stage name, there is a kind of extra-actor atmosphere.

“Characteristics determine who you are,” he went on to say.

“All right, what you said makes sense.” “I should go back to plastic surgery and focus on my own characteristics!” Jiujing Huaqing felt increasingly thrilled.

“A cough, a cough…” I didn’t tell her that, Gu He almost choked on his wolfberry water…

However, his Cowherd value is growing once again, the progress bar has moved to the second gear of 7%, 

Suddenly, a sudden scream came from the Li Cai club, and the guests all looked towards the small aisle.

What’s going on?  Gu He groaned in his heart. Did something happen to Miss Kumiko?

Gu He listened intently, it was a rough male voice shouting fearfully: “Mother Kumiko, I don’t dare! I’m wrong, I am a bastard, I don’t dare, let me go…” 

“What’s…” Gu He’s heart suddenly became even more stunned, “What’s going on?”

1. House-Tree-Person Test, a projective personality test, a type of exam in which the test taker responds to or provides ambiguous, abstract, or unstructured stimuli. Further Reading: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_2029-3
2. Zhou Shuren. 周树人, a Chinese poet, better known by his pen name Lu Xun
3. Referring to Gu He thoughts on eliminating the sub-personality (Elizabeth)
4. Regards on Releases Schedule – Optimistically 7 chapters per week; Realistically 2 chapters per week.