D widened his eyes and carefully examined the facial features of the bald player in front of him.
Time passed second by second, as if a whole century had gone by, and D finally convinced himself that the bald player in front of him was indeed Notch.
Looking at Notch's face, a feeling that was hard to describe instantly surged in D's heart. It was like a heavy stone pressing down on his chest, making him feel extremely weighed down.
He thought back to when he and J had just materialized. After J saw D's face, the words J had said still clearly echoed in D's ears even now.
Over these years, D and J's appearances had never changed. They still looked exactly the same as they did more than ten years ago, as if time had stopped flowing on them.
Because of this, D had subconsciously always believed that Notch's appearance would not change much either. Maybe he would still look like the spirited and confident person in his memory.
However, when D finally confirmed that this "young in years but old in look" bald uncle standing in front of him was really Notch himself, his feelings became extremely complicated.
At first, he even held onto a small trace of hope, thinking this image might be something Notch had made up as a joke.
But as time passed, he found it impossible to convince himself with that reason.
The reason was simple. First, based on what he knew about Notch, this guy had never had such a strange hobby.
Second, for a middle aged man, a receding hairline like this was simply the worst taboo of all.
Any man whose hair was a little thin or showing signs of baldness would try his best to hide this flaw.
And when they talked about this topic before, Notch had even joked that if he ever went bald, he would definitely find a way to transplant all his beard onto his head.
If his own beard was not enough, he would pull J's beard.
Although it was just a joke, it showed that Notch cared a lot about his image.
So Notch would never deliberately create such an image as a joke.
After struggling for a while, D finally had no choice but to accept Notch's current appearance.
When he truly accepted how Notch looked now deep in his heart, an indescribably complicated emotion instantly rushed up.
It felt like a bottle of mixed flavors had been knocked over, sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty all tangled together, making his mood extremely heavy.
That feeling was very strange and hard to describe accurately. If he had to compare it to something, it was like suddenly traveling far into the future and seeing with your own eyes that the close friends and family who were once inseparable from you had already grown old.
Their appearance and inner temperament had both changed dramatically.
Although there were still a few familiar traces, there was even more unfamiliarity and distance.
'Back then, you had been extremely close friends who were always together.'
'Yet over the long years that passed, you were not able to personally take part in their lives. You could only watch helplessly as time carved deep gaps between you.'
'It felt like time had been stolen, leaving you full of powerlessness.'
However, D did not dwell on these feelings for long. He quickly pulled himself out of them.
Obviously, now was not the time for emotions and sadness. What he needed to think about was the future.
With that in mind, D quickly calmed down and immediately began thinking about how to deal with Notch.
Notch's sudden appearance was still quite unexpected for D. He had never calculated that he would meet Notch so soon.
Clearly, he had not prepared himself to face Notch, but he did not want to miss this opportunity.
D was certain that Notch must already know something. Even if Notch did not know everything, since he had taken part in the trial and stayed until the end, he must have learned something about this world.
Although D did not know why Notch left the trial early, based on his understanding of Notch, Notch would definitely be involved in what happened next.
He would surely look into everything about the void.
Obviously, the void was the enemy of all factions. The information Notch could gather would definitely be unfavorable to the void.
If Notch verified those things first and then D appeared afterward, Notch would surely form a preconceived opinion. That would definitely be disadvantageous to D.
Since that was the case, it was better for him to contact Notch first, test his attitude, see how much Notch actually knew, and then make long term plans.
Moreover, D knew very clearly that the reason Notch lost his memory was entirely because he could not accept that both D and J had died in the world he created.
When talking with Jiang Ge before, Jiang Ge had clearly said that he was worried Notch could not bear this cruel reality all at once, so his memory needed to be awakened step by step.
For D, this slow way of awakening memories was extremely unfavorable.
Although before losing his memory Notch still knew nothing about the specific details of what had happened in that previous world, D had not been careful enough in his actions and had still left some traces that could be followed.
If Notch followed those clues and gradually uncovered the truth, no one could predict how he would look at D or what methods he would use to deal with him.
Such a situation was undoubtedly the last thing D wanted to see.
Compared to giving Notch enough time to slowly explore and react, it would be better to give him a strong shock directly.
If Notch completely lost control under this sudden impact, then he would definitely not be able to regain those lost powers.
And if the beings used as "hostages" could successfully help D eliminate the huge threat named Xu Yuan, then D could take all of Notch's power for himself.
Only then would he truly get what he wanted. Only then would he truly stand at the top of this world.
So this time, D's sudden move to speak was meant to give Notch a fatal blow.
Because of that, just as Notch saw the message in the dialogue box and had not yet reacted, D instantly flashed to Notch's front.
Seeing the confused and frightened look on Notch's face, D showed a bright, sunny smile and deliberately joked, "Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?"
"Although in a way, I guess I really do count as a ghost…"
"But I really missed you. You have no idea how J and I got through these more than ten years."
"What's wrong? Don't you remember us?…"