How to Use Positive Reinforcement Properly

System No.00290596 – or should he say, Alecris Aeden Neil was not a happy baby. The days were a mundane repetition of eating and sleeping. As a proud System who had taken the utmost pride in his exemplary work, to be reduced to this was… disheartening, to say the least.

Alecris Aeden Neil, or better known to his mother as Alec, unhappily stared out the window. The light streaming into the lush room did nothing for his temper. He wanted to be outside. He wanted to bask in the sun, he wanted to run around – it had been so long since he had last basked in the glorious sunlight without any interruptions, sunning himself in the afternoon sun.

Let him just say. He hated being indoors. That was how completely and utterly bored he was right now. He was itching to do something besides eat and sleep, but it didn't seem like that was about to happen any time soon.

The sounds of the door opening reached him, and Alec inwardly shrunk a little at his mother's familiar figure approaching his crib. The System, now baby, tried to roll over, but his mother was having none of it.

She picked him up with experienced hands, cradling his tiny body to herself.

Alec struggled briefly but reluctantly allowed her to hold him in the end. The woman was persistent beyond belief, but he supposed that he couldn't begrudge a mother for wanting to hold her child.

However, he drew the line when she started unbuttoning the front of her shirt. Remarkably, unlike all the other times when he was practically forced to drink from her, she seemed to pause as she caught sight of his unwilling expression.

He did *not* want to be breastfed damn it!

She huffed a laugh, ever the gentle soul, thankfully buttoning up the shirt that she had started to unbutton. Alec was so absurdly grateful at this point in time that he directed the first smile ever since he had been so unceremoniously shoved into this tiny, infantile body.

Shocked, the mother stopped dead in her tracks, staring at the utterly angelic smile that graced her son's face for the first time. She resisted the urge to coo and squeal over her firstborn.

Annalise could hardly believe it. Her grumpy baby's first smile!

As she was about to break into tears from the sheer happiness she was feeling, Alec's stomach grumbled, startling her into remembrance.

She laughed, poking his chubby cheek. "Oh, alright, then! Let's get you some of that milk I got them to warm up in the kitchens. Forgive your dear mother for forgetting that you're hungry, won't you?"

Alec perked right up at her words. Truly, his persistence had paid off in spades. See? Idiot transmigrators? This was what it was supposed to be like! You had to work for what you wanted, not have everything handed to you on a silver platter!

So pleased, Alec clumsily patted his mother's face in thanks, smiling back at her beaming expression. Positive reinforcement was a good thing.

Now, he just had to ensure that she kept it up.

"Oh, Alec, you're just so cute! I just want to show you off to the entire world!"

No, thank you. Alec might have wanted out of this room, but he did not wish to be subjected to any more baby talk. He already got enough of it from his maids that sometimes came in to help. If this continued any longer, he feared that he might lose a few brain cells in the process.

Though, now that he thought about it, his mother never subjected him to the same indignity. She talked like he could understand all of her words, which he did, but she couldn't possibly have known that.

It had only been a few months, but he already felt like he was being confined in this place. Due to his infantile body, he was unable to do much as it was, and there was no freedom in a baby's lifestyle.

The things he saw the most were the ceiling, the window, and his mother's face.

During the course of these few months at least, his mind was rapidly developing, allowing less moments of lethargy and sleep.

His vision sharpened further as the days went by, which was another thing that pleased him. He could now even sit up by himself. He had no idea how he was progressing in comparison to other babies, but his mother never showed a perturbed expression, so that had to count for something, right?

The mother and son duo whisked off to the kitchens.

Alec eagerly drank in his surroundings, finding them fresh and exciting. He had been trapped in the Mainframe's standard office for so long that he had forgotten what the outside looked like.

Alec made a vague sound, reaching in the direction of the sun that was pouring in from the nearby window.

"That's right, darling. That's the sun! The sun keeps all of us here on the planet alive. Without it, no plants could live, which means that we would never have been able to exist in the first place."

His mother's voice was cheerful, warm and indulging all at the same time. Alec didn't know whether or not she was talking because she knew that he understood her, or if she talked just because she hoped that some of it sunk it, but he didn't hate it.

Once again, he clumsily patted her cheek, causing her to beam at him. Positive reinforcement seemed to be working.

Alec glanced around with unabashed curiosity. They just exited from the room where he had been located in the entire time, which was just one of the rooms that were located down the hallway.

The doors were evenly spaced apart, looking uniform both in design and style. Since no one exited from the rooms at the time, Alec had no idea whether the interiors of the rooms were the same as the one he had been located in.

As they reached the end of the hallway, Alec flinched as the light momentarily blinded him, but his eyes easily adjusted under the shade of his mother's hand. The outsides of the building they had been inside was lush and full of greenery that he had spotted during the numerous times he tried to peer out the window from his crib.

The building seemed to be located within an expanse of greenery on either side around, but there was a cobbled pathway from the entrance of the building, leading down into a path that joined with another in a circular fashion. There were surrounding buildings located in the near distance.

Similar to the building they just walked out of, they were two storeys, but the most remarkable thing was that all of the buildings were actually located around a lake.

As Alec squinted, he could spot the blurry silhouettes of a few figures who were on the lake. Some were on boats, some were floating, some were exercising on top.

Instantly, Alec's eyes gleamed. Although he did not understand this world's basic cultivation type, he could already tell that this was one of the planets which likely involved some form of magic or qi cultivation.

The greatest proof about this was the gentle hum of his mother whenever she cradled him close. Though he had no description for it yet, it was almost like whatever was inside her sang to himself, giving him a soft, comforting feeling that he couldn't help but adore.

By the time they reached the kitchens, Alec's stomach was well and truly growling, which had caused his mother to quicken her steps, though she never ran.

"Oh, miss! You shouldn't have come! You could have just sent for a maid to pick up the food for the little one!"

His mother's soft, gentle laugh that was so characteristic of her rang in the kitchen, charming the servants working inside. Alec saw the way that their expressions softened, looking fond. He could garner that his mother was well-liked amongst the servants in the kitchen at least.

"It's fine! I could have used the walk. Today is Alec's first time out in the open, after all."

The servant's eyes sparkled as she looked at the chubby baby in the Fourth Mistress' arms. "Oh, that's lovely! Has it been that long already?"

"Indeed, it has. He's growing up so fast, I don't know what to do!"

Making small talk, the servant quickly brought the warmed-up bottle to Alec's mouth.

Alec's eyes gleamed as he tightly grasped the bottle. Sustenance! No one would be able to take it away from him until he was full! Say no to breast feeding! At least, not for people who were already grown adults inside!

Annalise and the servant watched the baby suck with renewed vigour with warm eyes.

Halfway through the bottle, Alec noticed them staring at him and felt embarrassed. He seemed to have grown more shameless in his short stint as a baby.

He patted his mother's cheek before quickly bringing it back to the unsteady bottle and was rewarded with a blinding smile.

So bright!