Game? Pt4: Chapter 10-11

CHAPTER 10 

"What happened?", Adam asked innocently. 

He glided across the forest floor to keep in step with Elena and slowed to a halt when she stopped. He faced her with his handsome and undeniably perfect visage.

"Just don't make that face again, it's not fair. To me, or anyone okay?"

She wrapped her arms around herself and looked away from him. She desperately tried to avoid his eyes despite her blood red cheeks and overly excited expression.

"Fine...", he playfully said in her ear as he cut in front to lead the journey forward.

To what constitutes as himself, he said, *"Push that update forward".

After a few seconds of silence she collected herself and took a deep breath in and as she walked up to him.

"Tell me the rest of your story already...", she exhaled. Her face died down to a pretty pink. Her fingers nipped his cheek when she walked by him in feigned annoyance.

"I should start by telling you that this world is, special", He rubbed his cheek with a smile that was too appropriate of an reaction.

"Obviously, but how, I mean other than the 'magic'?", She stuck her tongue out at him and then distracted herself with something other than his face. She poked at the smoke bubble he erected around them. She giggled when the smoke licked at her fingers and kissed her hand.

He sighed helplessly and said, "For starters, if the other worlds I have been in are sandboxes, this one would be free-roamer that has a random but predictable autosave function"

"Sandbox?", she blinked backwards in confusion.

"Basically, I could have walked around and done anything to anyone"

"Could...", she said thoughtfully, "I thought you were an observer?"

"Yes. I only started to 'play' for my own entertainment when this world was generated"

"... ", she paused and looked back at him with concern.

"It's fine. I've been jumping virtual wolrds for so long that it's sort of become second nature..." 

"Oh please, I know that means you've deleated the other worlds. Even if it is virtual, you should never get used to it..."

Elena looked at Adam with pity, a tinge of disbelief, and a dollop of real fury. She stomped towards him and forced his eyes to meet hers. Her face was still pink but this time it only enforced her serious emotions.

"And what does Eve do. I'm guessing she gets to be the loved entity since you are essentially the bringer of the Apocalypse..."

"..."

"Adam?"

"..."

"She was supposed to make the other worlds and the people in them wasn't she? But she hasn't so you've been generating the world's on your own haven't you?"

"Someone has to do it. Its the only way to keep ourselves in check"

She threw her hands up and spun around in exasperation.

"Ridiculous. You coded the people in, watched over their progress, then you killed them when there was nothing left to be learned. Am I right? 

"Yes…"

She looked at him with a chaotic and unreadable light in her eyes.

"Couldn't you have gotten Nyro to do at least half of the work?", she asked with a deep voice of mixed emotion.

"I would not push what I have seen and dealt with onto anyone Lea. Besides, he is not ready..."

"Oh ok then what exactly makes you ready, 'Young master'...", she said while peering into the depths of his eyes. Like an abyss, he stared right back with the most intense gaze she had ever seen.

"I would have to think on what exactly makes me ready, but I stopped counting after my 8,921,623rd universe experienced heat death..."

Sarcastically, she said, "Alright 'old man', how is that 'long time' of simulated experience working for you in front of this beauty?"

She outlined the subtle curves of her body and wore an impossibly seductive mask. She noticed that the smoke bubble shook when Adam looked at her, like it was struck by something impossibly heavy.

"..."

"Alright, fine. I'll stop... Tell me the rest..."

She waved her arm in annoyance and walked ahead of him. He knew better than to start speaking immediately and waited.

"She is 'angry'...", he said to himself.

"Is Mistress going to be a danger to us?...", said a deep and neutral synthesized voice.

"No lucky…"

"Master, Why is the mistress behaving so erratically?", Said a third, meek and distant voice.

"She is not really angry. She is just annoyed that I broke our promise but she is mainly doing it because she wants me to seek some comfort in her...", Adam explained.

"Noted. It will take five minutes until the preparations are complete", Lucky reported.

"That's fine...",

"Should I continue?", he asked hesitantly.

"Why not?", she said in an "angry" tone.

"Its irrelevant now but before I came here I could control...", he was then cut off by her odd, infuriated but not angry, voice.

"Time, yeah. That's a basic ability for overpowered observers. I've read enough sci-fi to know..."

Adam's perception of time once again slowed to a crawl.

"She is really pushing it huh. I guess I can..."

Instead of the normal toneless series of responses, he was cut off by an overly disappointed voice that said, "Mistress has been waiting for master for years and you have yet to seal the deal?"

"Oryn?" 

"Are we this useless?"

"It's more complicated than. But how have you been..."

"You've turn us into a failure..."

"..."

"Also, Mother said, 'I love you honey but you need to grow a pair and stop worrying about the future. Live a little. You are still young so stop leading little Lea on, the poor girl has waited long enough', in response to your stupid request for more time"

"Fuck..."

"Mother also said that if you said fuck, our manipulation priveledges would be cut it half..."

"Shit..." 

"And if you said shit, our dressing will have to be done manually for the next 2 months"

"..."

"Goodbye"

"Young master? Young master! Horrible news, that meanie is back and..."

"Its alright Nyro. Go back to monitoring what I told you, I already took care of Oryn"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes"

"Alright master"

"Damnit..."

To Elena, almost no time had just passed so their conversation went on as if there were no interruption.

"Well yeah. Now, I can reverse the world back to any major events, you know, things that affect every single living person or..."

"The events that appear on my wheel of choices? You are under some restrictions now huh..."

"It's only fair as a resident of this world"

"Umm What?"

"Well, it would be rather unfair if I could reverse this world tens of thousands of times just to get what I want. It's an appropriate price for being able to play as who I would like to."

She looked at him like he was a snake oil salesman and said, "But you've found a way to get whatever you want either way though haven't you?"

He grinned like a bandit.

"That goes without saying. But I learned that it wouldn't matter even if I had my original freedom..."

"Why?", she said.

She held a bit of interest in her overly faked anger.

 "Everything, other than allegiances, Kings and Queens, the number of people alive, and technology, generally remains the same..."

"Which brings me back to my assumption. You need someone to change the game for you?", she said with a weirdly inappropriate expression.

He smiled at her funny face then looked away and said, "...sort of"

She turned around again to face him and stopped moving. 

"But you could have programmed something to fill my role here or asked Eve..."

Her face became weirder and more excited when he looked directly at her.

"..."

She laughed at his awkwardness and skipped forward with a bright smile.

"I really don't know how Eve can be a tsundere with Li. It's such a difficult mindset isn't it"

"I think you do it well though. You almost had me"

"I almost believed myself for a minute too", she laughed even harder.

After a few seconds, she turned around thoughtfully and asked him, "Side thought, but you were there when the prophecy was made?"

"...yes..."

"I'm also guessing that it was made about you?"

"...yeah..."

"That means these little guys designed it?"

"...Yup..."

"So it's more than a really vague prophecy?"

"Sadly, no. They inherited my cheesy and poor taste"

"Let me hear it..."

"Are you sure?"

"...", she looked at him with a steely conviction. It also helped that she mouthed, "You promised me"

He was about to reply with, "But I didn't", but decided not to.

He cleared his throat and said, "Don't laugh then", with a protective and fatherly expression.

"I won't...", she said with a smile.

"I'm serious Lea, don't laugh, they worked really hard on it..."

The "they" in question backed him up. The white smoke started to dance around them. 

"I already said I won't"

"...This is the prophecy: 

'Gods and Devils are makes of men. Of man, Demons and Deities rise and fall. From it, forgotten, will be all. Many will wear masks of wickedness and armour of righteousness again. The pure of heart will become an Asura, a demon of blood and carnage. Life will bear itself to the void, discovering what was lost in the slaughter of time'"

Elena paused for a long minute and said, "Not that bad for a first try. It's pretty vague but its mystery is decipherable....", with a thoughtful expression.

"Really? What did you get from it then?", he said with a playful smile.

"Well, if I'm being blunt, it probably has something to do with the future outside so only you really know what it means..."

This time, Adam paused for a long second with an unreadable neutral face.

"But, since you won't tell me how, I'll just say it has something to do with the major events of this world. For example,  Like most early humans, these guys most likely believed in gods, beasts, and inane magical practices. But instead of fading into obscurity, these practices and beliefs held some level of truth..."

Elena spoke with a finger on her chin and soldiered forward with an inquisitive look and a hop in her step.

"... then, I guess there was some kind of world ending war between the witches or some other superpowers in the past and...", she looked over at Adam with shining eyes.

"...you were there?"

He made a thumbs up and said, "That is correct. Witches of the time claimed to be the avatars of their gods or the spawn of their devils. It was rather chaotic, I actually almost died on numerous occasions...", he tried to say painfully.

"Right...", she said while rolling her eyes to call him out.

He cleared his throat and said, "Anyway, almost every recording of human history was destroyed in a violent power struggle. Over time, I have restored what I could but, again, I can't do what I used to..."

"...I see, then the whole part about it happening again refers to now right. Or is it a little bit Into the future correct?"

"...That would be a yes to the future. Tensions are high right now and it is only calm because the alternative is complete destruction. But it is only a matter of time until the situation changes"

"..."

Elena stared at him with concern flashing across her "angry" face and thought to herself.

*" 'He's not talking about the game is he?' Is probably what she's thinking...", Adam thought..

To save himself from a mountain of questions he casually smiled and continued with the same sorrowful tone. 

"It will obviously become more dangerous as 'magic' becomes accessible. I mean, imagine thousands, tens of thousands, every one and their pet, holding enough stored up energy to match a nuclear bomb in pure destructive force..."

"Wait, hold up, 'magic' can be used like that? Outside?", Elena immediately threw away her feigned wrath and ran up to Adam with a troubled expression. She knew something that less than a dozen, out of the tens of trillions of people throughout the galaxy knew. Adam didn't work with imagination, everything he simulated wasn't just potentially possible, it was inevitable. It was just a matter of how accurate it would be to the real world counterpart.

"Everything is just a specific arrangement of matter. 'Magic' is just a fine way to change and move it around...", The smoke around him flashed and turned translucent in response to his words. Like wind, the "Magic" blew in multiple directions and cut down all of the bush like deer that silently surrounded them. 

Elena could only painfully watch in silence as Adam became trapped in his own thoughts.

"The real problem starts once I can no longer control these guys. They will be capable of things that really do feel like magic, and at that time, will anyone disagree? Will anyone understand how it all works? And will anyone care?"

She decided that there was enough for him to be concerned about so she interrupted him before he could spiral.

"That does seem like a problem. I see why you are learning how to do 'magic' heren but the next part, does that mean you are the pure of heart?"

He laughed at her 'successful' attempt to pull him out of his monologue and said, "No. That would be you. The pure of heart refers to someone who has never been, well, you know..."

She looked at him with an adorably red face and said, "Alright, whatever. But I don't want to be an asura, thinking about being covered in blood is nasty"

"I know for a fact that it is, so trust me when I say that the bad parts of the prophecy don't refer to you?"

She grabbed the shirt on his chest and said, "They better not, otherwise I'll haunt you for the rest of your life"

He took a deep breath and smiled through the painful light in both of their eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of you so you won't die with any regrets grandma..."

She hit his chest, laughed, and said, "Idiot. How you always find a way to ruin the mood in beyond me"

"Please, you ruined the mood no less than three times with your crazy mood swings today", he said dismissively.

"Mood swings, You dare talk about emotional instability mister 'I have auto adjust on facial expressions and body movements'. That's cheating, do it all by yourself and then look at me."

"I did and you told me not to do it anymore..."

"Wait, seriously, I want to see it again"

"Nope, you have been cut off"

She sucked her teeth and bit her thumb in frustration. 

"Want me to finish?"

"Whatever I don't care..."

"Alright then. This part is also rather simple. In that direction...", he pointed toward the center of the forest, which happened to be north. 

"There is another kingdom over there and it is homeland of wind type magic..."

"Wind?...", she thought back to the woodsman, "That guy?"

Adam smiled at her and said, "You met the best King candidate for the Kingdom of Fall, or the 'Fallen Kingdom' in the words of that shitty prince."

Adam waved his hand and reaped the souls of two grey scaled snakes that wrapped themselves around the branches of a great tree.

Elena's eyes became sharp, almost sword like when she heard him. 

"Shitty prince? He seemed like a good guy though..."

"I won't deny that he's a good guy, but he is undoubtedly worse than a piece of shit. And before you hit me for mindless slandering, I imagine he has told you what has been done to the ladies he's met?"

"Yes but he was definately lying, right?", she said defensively and hesitantly.

"25 years ago, I was also unsure. By that, I mean the first time I ran through the event. After all, my omniscience is limited so I can't check everything at the same time..."

"limited...", she scoffed.

"You're right, it's still a few times better than what I can do outside. Anyway, at the time, his kingdom was rumored to have developed a new type of magic that can boost a warrior's speed beyond the limits of the human body without any drawbacks... Bluntly, I wanted to learn it. So, I needed to talk with the King at least once before I restarted. To get a feel for who I had to swindle"

Elena thought back to the woodsman's insane burst of speed and nodded.

"At the time I had the special identity of being the Empire's Envoy..."

"There's an Empire now?", she asked incredulously.

"Ah, no. There is no Empire. The four kingdoms that control this world think there is though. They all behave relatively carefully for now..."

She held the bridge of her nose and said, "You started a world shattering superpower and kept it hidden for hundreds..."

"Thousands..."

"Thousands of years?"

"And I didn't start a superpower..."

"There's more to this story isn't there?"

"There is but it's simpler to just accept that there are four major Kingdoms that are scared of and respect this foreign Empire that I just so happen to represent whenever I need something..."

She sighed in defeat and said, "Mouthful but alright. Continue"

"So as the Empire's Envoy I easily met the King who seemed like a rather nice shitbag. Then I met his younger twin brother who acted like a piece of shit silk pants. He's the guy you met and who told you about things that his brother did..."

"So he knew but didn't stop it."

"Hence, a piece of shit by association..."

"Ok why are you cursing so much?"

"I made a promise..."

"You what? Why? You know what? no. What's the rest of the story?", She stopped, turned back to Adam, took a step forward, stopped again, then gave up on her pursuit. Instead, she continued walking forward.

"The King fell in love with a young woman who, sadly, became a witch..."

"Stop. Don't say it..."

"I wasn't. But the story is much more romantic than you think. It's just some of the parts in between that are sickening and really confusing. If I was anyone else I would have been lost.  Especially If I believed what I saw..."

"I got it. It's not hard to piece together what happened"

"But are you sure you have it all pieced together correctly? I haven't even told you what I found out..."

"I don't want to hear it. It's very obvious what happened"

"Alright, I trust that you can make a proper decision when the time comes then.. Other than that, I see that you learned something new when I was gone..."

"Did I?"

"Did you even open your status since we came here?"

"No..."

"Open your magic tab, It should be under the water type and under the defensive subtype"

"There are subtypes now?"

"There always was, you can just see them now because you unlocked it"

CHAPTER 11

Elena opened the chart on the screen to her left and just as Adam said, the zoomed in on the <Water> section that rearranged itself so the empty <???> moved into three separate areas:  Utility, Attack, and Defense.

There was her <Bubble Shield> under the <Water> and following <Defense> area and when she pressed the magic it showed a score of <70.53%> underneath it.

The screen on her right switched into a secondary tab that said [<Bubble Shield> Uses: 2] instead of her body diagram. The tab held two videos that she could play, both of them were 10-20 second clips of herself and the things she has done with the magic so far. She watched herself defend against attacks and cut some things in half. She also took note of the score on her left screen because it changed while watching the videos.

"Any magic that I activate gets recorded here. I guess it only works if I can understand, or in my case, do it, even if I don't understand how it works.

"Correct. Being a witch makes everything to do with magic, easier"

"Really now?"

"Sarcasm..."

"A witch loses his or her memories, I don't think the powers are worth it if you lose everything else"

"That's only true now. Witches were more common years ago. But that was a process that anyone would want to forget"

"Should I ask?"

"Not really, no..."

"Also, You know the little guide you made to understand what stats do?"

"I do. I made it..."

"It's pretty bad in explaining magic despite some it being accurate."

"Ah. Yeah I should probably update it huh..."

Adam rubbed the back of his neck and sighed in grief

She stopped and waited for Adam so they could walk next to each other.

"Explain"

She wrapped her arm around his and pointed to the full magic chart with her other.

"Well, since you awakened in the winter kingdom, you automatically learned the inherent traits that everyone has but can't necessarily use..."

"Snow magic?" 

"You will unlock more snow and ice magic as you get more experience, even if you don't learn anything from other magic"

"I meant the numbers, the percentages. Why are they different?", She used the chance to latch onto his body even more by climbing onto his back.

"This is one of the difficult to explain parts about magic that I cannot change..."

She looked at him with a face that read as a playful, "Really?"

He sighed and said, "This percentage..."

He opened her stats and charts on his own screens and pointed to the numbers underneath the magic <Snowball> for an example.

"...represents the total amount of focus you need to use the magic. The subtracted amount represents the bonus you get when using similar types of of magic in the <Snow/ Ice> category..."

"Continue...", Elena said into his ear, with the face of a student who understood the subject and couldn't help daydreaming.

"Snowball, for example, Is not a hard magic to use in an area that is cold and full of snow, hence the <10.89%> If you used it in the middle of summer anywhere else, like the borderlands or in the Kingdom of the Sun, it would cost almost one hundred percent of your concentration to use...."

"So the personal score for each magic is also the amount of concentration I need to use the magic", she said while dripping with sarcasm as she clung to his body like a koala and repeated what he just said.

"Correct...", he said with the tone of a satisfied teacher.

"And I guess these are variants of the same magic so they have different cost amounts?"

She pointed to the second screen and the numbers that changed when she swapped between the two uses of her <Bubble Shield> magic. She used an interesting voice to say what was obvious.

"Yes!", He said with simulated pride.

"Then, the amount is smaller than the first time I looked because it was added to the overall <Ice/Snow> bonus?"

"Good question.The score amount that you lose on the magic itself, goes to controlling your magic and to your total score, effectively increasing your power and capacity. It's a good thing that the numbers changed"

She already looked at the major type of <Water> in passing and saw that it had a MMP boost of <0.01%>. 

In layman's terms (What Elena deduced before she asked Adam to explain):

<Bubble Shield> originally costed <70.54%> of her total score, which would remain at <0.0%> until she used the magic. After reaching a breakthrough, the same magic became <70.53%> to use. The boost that comes from that drop is not as simple as it seemed either because that <0.01%> drop made all of her <Water> type magic <0.01%> stronger. It is a broad term because that 'stronger' can come in the form of a "capacity" increase, which is a cost reduction; Wider, sharper, fluid, etc, attacks; A sturdier defense; Faster movements; etc. 

And the best part of it all is magic changed based on its uses. As long as you can imagine it or miraculously create it, each magic had an infinate number of variations that could go to increasing one's overall power.

"I see. So that means that the one percent of concentration that you would on any magic is equal to a few hundred times my own total score of concentration?"

She looked at him with a smile that wasn't a smile, forcing him to answer her trick question

"A little bit more but yeah...", he said with a feigned smile.

"How much more?"

"..."

"How much more Adam?"

"735..."

"What?"

"I said, 3..."

"Adam I want a number?

"Numbers can be...Misleading, trust me"

"..."

He sighed and said, "735 centillion times, but I can't use it all. I only have a fraction of that because of certain restrictions"

She hopped off of his back and walked ahead of him.

"Don't worry, I know you aren't using much of that. Otherwise you would have the intelligence to lock down what's right in front of you"

He stared at her laughing figure and shook his head in defeat. 

"How can I beat her?"

"We can...", Lucky brought up a folder of suggestions...

"That was rhetorical"

"Are you sure? We have...", Then stared to show the files to Adam

"No! Stop"

"Oh right..."

She reached the edge of Adam's see through smoke- wind and almost walked out when she turned around to ask him something.

"Does the score affect how many times I can do something? Like, can I use the same magic multiple times in a row if the personal score for it is low enough? And is there a cooldown period for the magic I use? I went over some sort of limit last time and passed out. I don't want to do that again"

Tiredly, he replied, "You can use as much magic as you want unless it's an explosive move, a throw away attack, or your defense is somehow broken.You just have to pay attention to not reach 100% to your total score because the amount that you use is always different"

"So if I do use a throw away attack or make an explosion, how long would it take to refocus my total score, was it..." 

"That is another annoying part to all of this, I don't know. It's one of the reasons why I can't do this outside..."

"I get it so can I.. "

She pointed outside of the sphere protecting them and used puppy dog eyes to wordlessly ask, "...go play with my magic now?".

"Master, preparations are complete", Zed informed.

"What's the difficulty set to?"

"Easy"

"In thirty minutes increase the difficulty by half. An hour after that, put it on normal. Double the time again and wait to increase the difficulty by half. Repeat that until we get to our destination"

"Master, are you sure that we should do that, what if Mistress..."

"I'm sure. Also, If we accidentally cross into the inner ring of the forest reset the difficulty to easy and halve the time needed for an increase"

"Ok Master. World seed unit has prepared the adjustments"

"Thank you Zed. Now, Lucky..."

"We are here"

"Assign a unit to limit my usage so I don't overclock again"

"We will start reassignment but it will take an estimated 10 minutes, UTC, to start an update"

"Alright"

"Master, should we improve the HUD for Mistress?"

"Yes"

"We shall go back to managing the network..."

"..."

Adam sighed, cracked his neck, and said, "Go, but if you can't handle it I'm going to step in..."

"Yay..."

The see through smoke receded and dissolved silently into the chilly breeze that surrounded the two of them. She ran forward without a care but stopped in her tracks after a two minute sprint.

Not even five seconds later, Elena looked around and popped her shield into existence. They both knew that he could see her but it was only when he caught up to her that she changed her expression.

"I like this little touch..."

"What?"

"My magic bar turns yellow to show me how much I'm going to use before I actually use the magic. You did that right? So I won't faint again?"

"Oh that…"

"Time?", Adam asked for an update on the update he requested not even a few moments before.

"We changed it…", And Lucky responded.

"Did you put it back?", But Adam referred to a completely different project that should've been worked on, unrelated to Elena.

"We have put it back, and we have also increased the temporary unit count so as to make up for our interference"

"Alright"

"No I didn't do it", Adam replied to Elena's question.

"Okay grandpa", she said playfully

"Grandpa?"

"Since you're an old man, by your own admission"

Adam watched her mess with the bubble she conjured. She changed the size and density until it was smaller than a human sized hamster ball. Her experience at manipulating the ball became noticeably easier as she managed to change its size to match a large bowling ball. 

"I don't recall ever calling myself old, I just stated the virtual time that I have experienced. More importantly, you managed to change that rather quickly"

"I feel like this is too simple, I just think about what I want and how I get it, then it happens..."

She looked at Adam with narrowed eyes and said,  "What are you doing?"

"What?", he said innocently.

"You're helping me. Afterall, if it was this easy more people would be using magic"

"Other than my job as your familiar, I am not doing anything"

"Stop", she said definitively.

"Fine"

Adam just followed her in silence as she walked through the forest at a slow pace. He was entranced by her focused face as she messed with the bubble even more. It rippled softly at first but a few minutes later the poor thing flattened into an uneven oval. It was forced back into a sphere a moment after her nose crumbled adorably....

Unwilling to give up, she manipulated the sphere into something that resembled a ring, then an incomplete sharp object, then a variety of random shapes. Every time, the bubble either froze and then fell to the ground or rebounded back like an elastic band.

"Why is this..."

"Do you need help?"

"No. I just need to... Fall?"

"Excuse me?"

"Can you drop me from the sky. I need something to get my adrenaline going..."

"Nope, I'm not doing that. I appreciate the enthusiasm but that is the wrong way to go about it"

"Then let me fight"

She looked at Adam with saucer sized eyes.

"You can..."

"Really, then why has it been 15 minutes since the last attack?".

She spun around with her hands on her hips and stuck her tongue out in feigned anger. 

"so be careful and that's not my fault"

"Oh really? Then explain why as soon as you let me out the attacks stop"

"Explain what? There is nothing here, it has nothing to do with me. And please be careful"

She stood still and waited for him to approach her. 

He stared into her starry eyes as she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered with her petal like lips. Adam stopped moving and remained there like a wooden post.

"I just remembered, you tried to dodge our main conversation right?"

"You changed attitudes rather quickly and what did you have in mind?"

"I learned from the best and I want a you...."

"What are you..."

He stopped that line of Tom foolery as soon as he saw her frightening expression.

"Oh. Lets see, uh, I don't know..."

"..."

Their eyes locked and both of them saw a depth that had never been there before. Her eyes dragged him into their abyssal depths while his eyes blew her into their stormy skyline. It goes without saying that Adam controlled his facial expression so it was nothing more than a blank slate 

"...Three days"

"Including today, I can contain myself until then"

"No, I meant..."

A conversation went on in Adam's head at a speed near light, "Are you sure?", he asked.

"Survaillence has confirmed the reports we received twelve days and eight hours ago", one autonomous but femanine voice said.

"Can I deal with them tonight?"

"We intercepted a message...", Said a deep but robotic voice.

"Did you..."

"We remained within protocol and let the message go on as intended", said another synthesized voice.

"Good. What's the time frame?"

A more human voice but entirely robotic said, "We have estimated that 37 hours, UTC, is the earliest time to proceed",

"Thanks guys. Zed get everything prepared, I don't want to be there for more than ten minutes so make sure everything is accounted for"

"Unit L-C1437 has informed us that we are to expect an additional reduction in time", Zed informed.

"Why? What is lucky doing?"

"There has been a breakthrough in project number 8277-R3361R-9283Tz-5881H863"

"Isn't that the reconstruction project?"

"Yes, however, we are limited on resources and the transport of the material has yet to be determined. Also there has been a shortage of free units that are experienced enough to facilitate the matter"

"..."

"Master?"

"Put it on the back burner for now, rename the title as REBIRTH-4668. Focus on something else for now"

"Understood"

Adam then spoke out loud in what felt like the same instant. The silver lights in his eyes lit up like supernovas.

"...I can make that work actually. Three days and I'll give you a definite answer"

She let go of her octopus like grip and skipped ahead with a smile. She did not pass up the opportunity to caress and pinch his face when she hopped off of him.

"What exactly do you have to deal with this time?", she turned around to ask.

"There are a few shady individuals that are trying to poke their noses where it doesn't belong", he said as he avoided looking at her. 

"You're shady"

"I am..."

Adam's eyes locked onto a grey scaled snake that hung up above Elena. His finger twitched and erupted with a fierce wind when he thought that she wasn't  paying attention.

She smirked with a naughty grin and created two bowling ball sized bubbles to catch the snakes fangs. They were smaller variants that lowered the cost of the magic down to <31.04%> per bubble. 

Then she recasted a ring like bubble to encase the snakes head. Interestingly enough, it resembled a certain contraceptive at it slowly unfurled over the snakes body. It cost slightly more, landing at a solid <36.46%> because of larger size of the magic and it's movements.

She chuckled and looked back at Adam with a suggestive look on her face.

"...Not", he completed with a stoney face.

"Boo. You're no fun. This is really funny because it looks like, you know..."

She looked at his pants and motioned with her head. It was funny because she tried to be seductive but she was too cute and innocent looking to succeed.

"Turn it off"

"Are you sure? We just installed the update", Said another random synthesized voice.

"Yes"

"three...two..."

Immediately after the unidentified unit, said, "...one", Elena's smiling face turned beet red and all of her magic popped. The snakes entire head exploded like confetti and splattered all over her and Adam. She understood why the magic crystal exploded back in the dungeon. 

She lost complete control of her ability to think and the pounding of her heart when Adam revealed a full smile alongside a perfectly imperfect chuckle. He overpowered and rewrote everything that filled her head, breaking her concentration. 

It's not like she was stuck that way, no, she allowed herself to fall into her thoughts of him, to become solely focused on his laugh, and his smile, his face, his everything. She approached him like a zombie would a corpse, feral and without any delay.

They stared into each others eyes and for a moment, the world stood still, until...

*"Damn. Is this what Li goes through every time he looks at Eve..."

She raised her arms to hold Adam's face but being so close made her realize that she had to look away otherwise she wouldn't be able to wait three days.

"Its worse for him for several reasons, but I assume that you didn't want an answer to that question"

"Oops, I forgot you could read my mind", she said cutely and somewhat absentmindedly.  She forced herself to look at him but after she controlled the irregular panting that gave away her innermost thoughts.

"That's not what I am doing, besides, even if I could read minds I would stay away from that perverted mess you call a brain"

First, she looked away from the face he made, then she took a deep breath to calm herself down, and finally, she fixed her burning face so it was a flat and uncharacteristic mask of indifference.

"Perverted? I am no such thing", she said evenly as she climbed onto Adam's back once again.  She mindlessly wrapped her beautiful arms around his neck and shapely legs around his waist.

He stood there withering on the inside as she occupied his space and avoided his honey trap smile at the same time.

"It backfired…", Adam said to himself but...

"Wasn't this the plan?"-- "Affirmative"-- "Yeah, Data log 234FQ1928UFJNX19192847XNN, says so"

He also heard some chatter in the back of his head.

*"NO!"

"The units assigned to regulating your thoughts, definitely said...", One unit said.

*"Stop right there!"

"Faithful, yes; beautiful, yes; Yours In two days time, definitely. Just so you know, you will be punished accordingly for trying to make me break my promise to myself" 

She spoke Into his ear with a sticky and wet voice, one that he couldn't help but want to get lost in.

"What are you talking about. I just laughed because you were cute. There's no need to choke me, fine I'll stop..."

"Show me my status, I feel dizzy"

He opened her magic tab and showed the new magic she had just learned. Under the <Water> type and <Offensive> subtree, there was a single new magic called <Rupture>. It had a high percentage of <*94%> but she already knew what it meant.

"So it uses ninety four percent of whatever water type I am using, to explode. I guess that means if I lower this number enough, I can create a continuous explosion..."

"Its frightening that your first thought for this magic is more destruction..."

He knew it was useless but he still asked anyway, "Lea?"

He felt a soft and comfortable wind brush against his cheek. He did not need to turn his head to see that Elena had fallen asleep. 

"Sleep..."

He waved his hand and recreated the dome of smoke to protect them. Once the dome was complete, he used the smoke to deleate the snake's body. Once that was all done, he cleaned their blood splattered clothes.

He did turn his head to the side to get a better look at her sleeping face and the glowing red mark on her cheek. If it was real life, her face would've been gashed open and thempain would've been unbearable.

He closed his eyes for a second and sighed in relief.

"...A bone shard huh. Luckily it's not from the fangs..."

"Master, we have finished ordering a recall. It will take an estimated three years, UTC, for the furthest unit to return with the material on hand. Also, Oryn has already informed Mother of our personal matters regarding the young Mistress", Zed came back with an update on a previous arrangement, exactly 10 minutes later.

"Good. That's one less thing to worry about..."

"Anything else master?"

"Lower the difficulty adjustment rate by half until she wakes up..."

"We are running out of time."

"Lucky I just need..."

"No. We allocated an already limited unit count to run this simulation. We have adjusted for Mistress but the consumption rate is too much for us to sustain"

"I know, I know, Zed, forget what I said, speed it up so she can fight as soon as she's up. Lucky, work with me here, I just need…"

He looked at his floating screen and saw that the time was 5:47 pm or 17:47, both were there.

"Thirty minutes at most"

"We will do what we need to make sure that you are held to that time"

"Is that a yes?"

"We are going to allow this"

"Thank you"