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Curse the Mainframe! - Chapter 290

Published at 3rd of May 2020 04:20:47 AM


Chapter 290

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Alec lay awake while Dominique was taking night shift. As both Sekai and Elysia slept, the past two days or so of exertion caught up to the two Main Characters all at once.

With the rank five monster that had been chasing them for an entire day, plus Alec's rather startling and abrupt drop in unconsciousness as well as his high fever, they had been understandably stressed out, though Sekai looked like he would rather die than admit it.

Dominique volunteered to stay on watch before any of them opened their mouths, and at Alec's thanks, the Sin had uncharacteristically lit up, his eyes glittering with the fanatical glee that Alec could see from a mile away.

For some reason, it felt like the Sin was even more fanatical after they spent a short period of time away from each other. And try as he might, Alec couldn't tell whether or not he was just imagining it or not.

Dominique had broken through to the Meister tier, of that much he was certain.

The Sin's magic had flared briefly when he'd been genuinely happy previously when Alec woke, before simmering back down to sit at the advanced stage.

It couldn't have been more than two weeks, but Dominique had broken through in that short amount of time.

The only reason why Alec was able to tell was because of how familiar he was with Dominique's magic, as well as the lapse in control.

If it hadn't been for that, Alec would have remained in the dark, likely for some time.

He still had no idea why Dominique was so attached to him, so as much as he didn't want to, there were still times where he kept the Sin at arm's length, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Alec shut his eyes again, shoving the unnecessary thoughts out of his mind.

How annoying.

It looked like the loss of Ye Sha's companionship had affected him more greatly than he cared to admit.

Then, as if he was coming out of shock, the full extent of the loss of Ye Sha's presence in such a startling way – especially with the added sound effects and combined visuals – hit him fully and completely.

It almost felt like there was a hole in him now, the way that there had never been before the introduction of the quick to laugh and fun-loving System to his mindscape.

Honestly, it hadn't even been that long since Ye Sha was first introduced to his mindscape, but his mindscape felt woefully empty right now.

Alec took a breath.

Then, he slammed down on the useless emotions and locked them behind the wall where they would likely fester until he was able to confirm that Ye Sha was indeed safe and not deleted by the Mainframe or anything similar.

He breathed out.

He'd gotten a good look at the array that painted the cave they'd 'stumbled' into, and the runes danced across his vision every time he opened his eyes.

The array was only contained on the floor and the ceiling of the cave, but they encompassed so much more.


This place was not meant for any of them.

Instead, it was meant for Ye Sha and Ye Sha alone.

He felt like it had something to do with Systems, because even though Alec was in a human body right now, it still felt like something was calling him at a low octave.

Then, he carefully shut his eyes once again and went to sleep.

Just like that.

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Light shuttered, and the darkness casts spots against his eyelids, causing the System to flinch.

Wait.

Eyelids.

Consciousness.

Ye Sha's eyes snapped open, and he regretted it not even a second after he did so as the light practically blinded him, causing him to hiss as his hands scrabbled over his eyes.

The System took a while to get used to the new sensations, having been out of touch with them for so long.

He felt… he felt startlingly human, honestly.

By the time he got used to the light source in the room, he could finally see where he was now located.

His heart thundered loudly in his chest at the unknown that he found himself in, taking in the room.

He was lying in a strange container that appeared to be made out of some transparent material with a purple sheen. It wasn't glass, that was for sure.

Rifling through his database, it told the System absolutely nothing.

Impossible!

How could Ye Sha have no knowledge of this material? The sheer thought of it unnerved him greatly.

How could it not?

He had information at his fingertips for the longest time, and this was the first time that something that should have been known to him showed no trace of it whatsoever in the database.

It shook him greatly, in a way that he never expected it to.

Ye Sha firmly pushed the thought out of his mind for the moment, putting it aside as if he was placing it on a shelf for himself to examine later on.

The room was set in the shape of a cube, and it appeared almost sterile at first glance.

Other than the container that had been holding Ye Sha's body, there was nothing else in the whole place.

The rooms were a pure, unblemished white, and the floors were tiled with silver and white alternatively.

The place was eerily silent, but thankfully it was not filled with white noise. He would have gone crazy if it had been.

Instead, there was a low, soothing hum to the place, and it gave Ye Sha a sense of familiarity. However, the System was very sure that he had never been here. Ever.

Walking up to one of the walls, Ye Sha ran his hand on the surface.

The walls were smooth to the touch, almost icy.

Again, his database failed to tell him what the material was. Now, he was feeling more and more unsettled, feeling out of his element.

But instead of falling into his baser emotions, Ye Sha's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

If the information wasn't made known to him, then he could only assume that they were newly created or had been deliberately kept from the database.

The database was everything that the Mainframe knew about, which meant that this place was out from its realm. Or was it?

Either way, two things were vastly different situations, and Ye Sha didn't know if he liked either. Still, a sense of curiosity was growing in him even as the unsettling feeling faded somewhat.

But… the question remained.

Where was he?

Who was behind all of this?

Why had they done this?

And, more importantly, was he still able to contact Alec?

Ye Sha shut his eyes and dropped into his own mindscape.

Compared to Alec's, Ye Sha's mindscape was something that he had never accessed. Because he was a System, not a human.

Only beings that had a body were able to access a mindscape, so the fact that he'd been able to do so shook him to the very core.

While he had hesitantly thought that he might have gained a human body earlier, it had been a mere speculation at best. Right now, he absolutely knew that he now inhabited a body. He was no longer incorporeal.

Somehow, he had gained a human body.

Unlike Alec's mindscape that appeared like a giant library of sorts, Ye Sha's mindscape was, to put it bluntly, a junkyard. But it was a technological junkyard.

There were metal scrap pieces and gears everywhere, forming piles and piles of technological junk.

Ye Sha loved it.

But this wasn't the time for him to marvel at it.

Pulling up screen after screen, Ye Sha looked for any hint of a link that would help him connect with Alec yet again.

Even if he couldn't find a link back to communicate telepathically with Alec, he would make a path himself.

Ye Sha's eyes shut as he sought out the tiniest hints of a path.




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