'The One'

The link between them had led Alec here, where he could sense that they'd been here briefly, before leaving. Alec likened it to his magic senses allowing him to tell that they'd been here in the first place. He certainly wouldn't have been able to do something like this previously.

Alec wasn't too worried. If they were in trouble, they'd have tugged on their link already, so Alec casually walked around as he waited either for them to show up or for him to find them.

"Exactly how much time has passed since we entered into your so-called legacy hall anyway?"

"I'd say about roughly six hours. One for each year you were gone, then another hour for the time you spent in my 'room'."

That was shorter than he thought.

He still didn't know what was up with the numerous doors in this place, and asked System No.00110399 whether or not he knew.

System No.00110399 shrugged. "Originally, I'd chosen my plot of land to stay already, but there wasn't anything built here. There were various periods of times when I drifted into a hibernation mode, and suddenly, one day when I woke up, it already turned into what you see now."

Alec felt vaguely worried. How much had the other System been trying to save of himself if he had to resort to sleep mode to conserve its energy? Systems generally never needed to go into hibernation at all if they were still under the Mainframe.

"I do know what species built it, though," System No.00110399 continued.

Alec cocked his head curiously. "Not humans?"

"Right. It was a dragon. At least, that's what I think. The magical signature that was left behind matches that of dragon species. Well, then again, it could always be a dragon slayer that's eaten dragon flesh and drank dragon blood, but I severely doubt that. Most dragon slayers excel in physical arts instead of magical. That dragon also caused this place to uproot itself and end up being in a crack between realms."

Alec thought back about the one dragon that he'd seen before. The very same dragon that gave him a single dragon scale.

It certainly seemed plausible enough.

The dragon had just been that strong.

Its strength was clear even to Alec who'd been pathetically weak at that time.

"Eh," System No.00110399 blurted, his voice gleeful.

Alec raised a brow, waiting for the other to talk.

It would have to take some time to get used to having another person in his head. Literally. Even if that person *was* his friend – somewhat friend? – he was still feeling terribly confused, but he was trying.

"Ooh, Alec, you sure made a lot of friends in this time already, huh?" System No.00110399 felt like a doting parent when it saw the number of Main Characters that had been introduced into the [Main Character Page].

His prickly child was growing up!

Alec seemed to sense the System's thoughts as he punched the other spiritually without showing any mercy. System No.00110399 faux cried with dramatic sadness.

Within Alec's mindscape, System No.00110399 frowned. "Hmm. Your [System Shop] is permanently closed to the both of us."

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently the system had an inbuilt response that if another System took control of it manually, then the [System Shop] option will no longer work for either parties." System No.00110399 sounded upset. That meant that he'd already tried to hack it, but to no avail.

"Sorry," System No.00110399 said awkwardly. The words stuck in his throat. He wasn't used to apologising. For anything. He hadn't expected something like this to happen, though that wasn't any excuse. An oversight on his part could cause Alec to hate him again, and he didn't want that to happen.

He wasn't so dumb not to know that Alec had only asked him to join with his system because he'd noticed that System No.00110399 was glitching out.

He'd been very touched at that time, which caused him to overlook something as important as this!

It wasn't excusable that System No.00110399 had fucked up a good thing for his friend when said friend was just trying to help him out.

The System was hit by a strong sense of guilt.

Alec shrugged it off. "So what? I only ever bought two things from there anyway." Rather than thinking about the uncertain future that may or may not come to pass, being able to take action to help his friend now was more important to him.

Besides, the things in the [System Shop] were all terribly expensive – or useless – but there were certain functions in there that he fancied.

Rather than saying he'd given up on them, he had enough faith in System No.00110399 that he could eventually unlock some of those functions for him instead of having to use points.

System No.00110399 fell silent.

He was secretly touched that his originally prickly friend cared so much about him so fast. Especially when the other had only just started considering him a friend.

Then again, Alec originally had this personality type anyway. Even if the other tried to pretend and hide it deep down.

He was the only System under the Mainframe's contracted Systems that ever bothered giving any new Systems a hand or guidance. Unlike him, the Mainframe just left the Systems to struggle through things on their own.

Alec always acted all natural when he took on workload that he shouldn't have to 'because it was more efficient this way'.

If Alec knew what System No.00110399 was thinking about, he would have been baffled.

The other System was making him out to be some sort of saint, which he wasn't. Definitely not.

He gave the new Systems a hand, sure, because that was what he wished he'd had back when he was just starting, but was he really helping?

After all, Alec was the one System that had the greatest number of bad reviews that had been racked up year after year, despite the research and effort he'd put into it.

He didn't turn anyone away whenever they asked him something, but that didn't mean he was actively seeking them out to give them help!

"I have a lot of Main Characters registered in my [Main Character Page] now, but why is it that none of them are the Main Character that the Mainframe originally tasked me to look for?"

System No.00110399 hummed. "Well, from what I can see here, the Main Character that you were originally supposed to help was 'The One' for you."

"Wait. What? What do you mean 'The One'?"

"What do you think 'The One' means? Obviously, your romantic partner. After all, aren't you both a Sin and a Cher? Didn't you hide both of your Societypes so that you come across as an Every?"

Alec was stunned into silence when System No.00110399's words registered in his mind.

Suddenly, there were a lot of questions that sprung into his mind. A few questions that had been plaguing him were suddenly resolved, just as many more were born.

Alec was both a Sin and a Cher?

Why hadn't the Cher side showed up using the appraisal crystal that his mother used on him??

The inner turmoil in Alec's mind caused him to move around haphazardly without any regard to his safety.

"Alec, take that door!" System No.00110399 suddenly shouted, and Alec reflexively entered the door before he even thought about what he was doing.

The space around them swirled abruptly as he was ejected from his previous space, finding himself standing in a lush, green forest.

There was green everywhere, and the sunlight that shone through the gaps of the tree leaves was a normal shade.

This wasn't the place where Tatiana and Dietrich were, nor was it the original crack between realms that Dominique was on either.

Alec fell silent, because he was busy chasing System No.00110399 inside his mindscape with a smiling expression of pure anger on his face.

It was all the other System's fault! He'd made a strong order when Alec was thinking hard about his sudden set of problems, and Alec had followed the order without a single thought.

Now, they were some place strange that wasn't either of the cracks between realms!

"This is still a crack between realms," System No.00110399 said after he recovered from the brutal beating that Alec gave him for causing this situation in the first place.

"Why did you want to come here?"

"Eh, I sensed the aura of a dragon, that's all," System No.00110399 said, rubbing his nose.

Alec was stunned. "And instead of heading away from the danger, you want us to go right to it?!"

"Uh, yes? Didn't you ask about 'The One'? Well, 'The One' is here!"

"What?!"