Chapter 344

I don't want to talk to Kevin right now, but I'm pretty sure that the ability to fulfill my wish is my own, and the Yggdrasil system is just an aid. Judging from the things that suddenly appeared in my mind, Yggdrasil is more like a register and a logistical support system.

Simply put, it's about ensuring that your wish can be fully fulfilled.

Just like when Ying Yi made that wish, the Yggdrasil system set up those mandatory forces to ensure that the wish could be fulfilled.

So even without Yggdrasil, you can still fulfill other people's wishes, but without Yggdrasil's system support, fulfilling wishes is more like a product without logistical support.

To take Ying Yi example again, even if Belldandy left without the Yggdrasil system, it would be no problem.

Of course, now that Li Pu is here, this wish naturally carries a coercive force.

"All you need to do now is say it," Li Pu instructed. "My wish is XXXX, especially the 'my wish' part, which you absolutely must say. If you don't say it, there's no way to grant your wish."

This is probably like a voice wake-up function; it really can't be achieved without it.

"Um..." Ichigo scratched his head sheepishly and said, "Um, Goddess..."

"Actually..." Ichigo said cautiously, "The person who called you wasn't me."

"I know... I..." Li Pu was about to say something comforting. Anyone making a wish to their Goddess for the first time that's guaranteed to come true is bound to be nervous. So he needed some simple reassurance, and then...

"Wait a minute!" Li Pu exclaimed, as if suddenly waking up. "What did you just say?"

"You're saying you weren't the one who summoned me?"

It felt strange, but I hadn't thought about it much just now. But now it seems that strange feeling was indeed correct.

"That Mei," Kevin said sheepishly, "Actually... I was the one who summoned you."

Kevin waved his phone and said, "Um... I... ahahaha~ I just tried it out and this time it actually went through!"

"I~you ((*&...))" Li Pu was furious but did not leave.

What the hell is going on? What's going on here?

Kevin got through? Are you kidding me?

Grass! A type of plant.

Chapter 403 Your Wish

"You really know how to cause trouble for people."

Li Pu pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "Really, Kevin, you really are..."

"It's speechless."

She initially thought Kevin had simply run off somewhere to calm down, and that he would have to face the truth once he was done. However, Li Pu had no idea that not only was he not calm, but he had also ended up in such a place. As for what had happened in between Li Pu could guess the gist of it without even hearing it from anyone.

"This matter..." Ichigo was about to say something nice to Kevin.

"Shut up!" Li Pu interrupted Ichigo mercilessly, saying, "You idiot, you don't understand anything at all. I don't need you to say anything good about Kevin, and I don't want to hear your long-winded explanations. You just need to shut your mouth and stay quietly to the side."

"No! I still have to say it," Ichigo insisted, defending Kevin. "I!"

"Shut up!" Li Pu's voice made Ichigo feel immense pressure. All the words he had prepared were cut off by Li Pu.

"Never mind~" Kisuke Urahara patted Ichigo on the shoulder and said, "You can't defy the will of the Goddess right now."

The future is uncertain, but it will likely remain so for a long time. Given Ichigo's potential, he may still have a slight chance of defying Goddess's will in the future.

"Kevin!" Li Pu hadn't expected things to turn out this way.

"I will grant your wish." She was already prepared to say, "I've already told you about many of the ways to make him look bad. Since we've come this far, I don't want to say anything more. I've already told Ichigo how to make his wish come true."

"Now you can express your wish as I just taught Ichigo."

Even if she was unwilling, she would still abide by these basic rules, but Li Pu would not care about what happened afterward.

"Have you thought it through?" he said in an extremely cold tone.

"Hmm." Kevin seemed to have made his decision after much deliberation. He said earnestly, "My wish is..."

Kevin paused here, seemingly hesitant again after a long pause. He opened his mouth as if there was something he desperately wanted to say, but couldn't get the words out. In this final moment of hesitation, he finally made a choice, gritting his teeth and saying resolutely, "My wish is that you, Mei, can help that orange-haired kid."

Do your best!

Li Pu was dumbfounded! She had a feeling that Kevin would make a wish similar to Ying Yi's. She was already prepared to fight Kevin.

I never expected Kevin to make this wish.

The next second, she suddenly felt a powerful force gathering on the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead, followed by a beam of light shooting straight into the sky. Then... then Li Pu felt as if she was being hollowed out and almost fainted.

She recovered from that feeling shortly afterward.

"This is..." Kevin was just about to ask.

"Wait a moment." Li Pu took out her phone, which contained a very special number. It was the number of the celestial being from heaven who had issued her the certificate.

Li Pu had saved the phone number when the call came in earlier.

Now it can come in handy.

"Hello, hello~ Is this Lord God?" Li Pu asked quickly as soon as the call connected. "By the way, I wanted to ask about the wish from earlier, um... um... I understand..."

"Okay, sure." After a brief exchange, Li Pu hung up the phone and said, "I have good news and bad news."

Which of these two pieces of news do you want to hear first?

It wasn't that Li Pu was trying to keep her in suspense; the gods really had given her these two pieces of information.

"Let's start with the good news." Kevin seemed quite unwilling, but he was still determined to put everything aside and asked, "What's the good news?"

"The good news is that your wish has been granted." Li Pu said with approval in his eyes, "From now until Lucia is rescued, I will do my best to assist Ichigo."

"And what's the bad news?" Kisuke Urahara asked from the other side. "Your Goddess."

"The bad news is that the Yggdrasil system has crashed." Li Pu spread his hands and said, "It seems that we encountered some bug recently. Because of the wish just now, the entire Yggdrasil system crashed. The programmers in the Celestial Realm are working hard to maintain it, fix the bug, and restart the system, which may take quite a long time."

Yggdrasil's problems were almost inevitable.

The root cause was Ying Yi's outrageous wish. After he made that wish and it came true, the entire system has been in a state of instability ever since.

This is also the reason for some things that happened later, especially the appearance of Sariel.

Kevin's wish isn't exactly outrageous; it's just that his wish triggered the already unstable Yggdrasil system to crash.

This is strange; I don't think it should happen.

But reality is strange. Li Pu herself isn't a programmer, but she's still heard a lot of jokes about programmers and code. For example, writing a bug that happens to work, and the whole program runs on that bug. You don't know where the error is, but there's a bug. Another example is that something runs perfectly fine on my computer, but it runs on my supervisor's computer.

Anyway, I reckon the gods are having the same problem. I don't know what this wish is, but it just caused the entire system to crash.

"Is it serious?" Kevin had no idea what the Yggdrasil system was.

"Of course there is." Li Pu shrugged and said, "The wish has been registered, so there's no need to worry about that. But because the Yggdrasil system crashed, my combat power will also be severely affected."

"When the Goddess is active in the human world, a large part of her power is supplied by the Yggdrasil system."

The Yggdrasil system is both a good thing and not entirely a good thing for Li Pu. The gods have pulled her into this system and acknowledged her status as Goddess. The Yggdrasil system will also provide Li Pu with energy.

The advantage of this thing is that it allows Li Pu to quickly gain extremely powerful strength in a short period of time, and he hardly needs to worry about the mana bar.

To some extent, it's like having unlimited mana, but the downside is that you're beholden to those who provide it. Since you accept energy from the Yggdrasil system, you're naturally bound by it, just like Belldandy, and must abide by the God Race's rules. And another drawback is...

"Without Yggdrasil's support, my strength has decreased significantly," Li Pu said. "But don't worry, as Battle Goddess, I still have the strength to fight."

Unlike Belldandy, who would be rendered useless and unable to function without the system's support, Li Pu's strength would simply decrease significantly.

And that was it. For her, it was at most like banning her from using an infinite mana bar cheat. It simply changed the game difficulty from easy mode to normal mode.

So while what comes next might be quite challenging, it doesn't mean there's no fun left.

"That's about it." Li Pu snapped his fingers, removing the restraints on Ichigo, and said, "I'm not entirely clear on the specifics of the situation in the Celestial Realm, but I can already sense that my power is no longer at the level it was before. So, saving Lucia is still up to you."

"I can only play a supporting role."

Now all I need to do is save up my strength and scrape something off that Kōtotsu when I travel through time.

"Yes." Ichigo nodded and said, "I will."

Li Pu didn't care about Ichigo's situation; training was probably the next priority. As for turning back into a Shinigami, her words didn't seem to have much effect on that matter.

'But speaking of which,' Li Pu thought of something.

Is that Urd arriving soon?

If she remembered correctly, Urd and Sariel were both Goddess who maintained the Yggdrasil system. Urd the system went wrong, Urd left most of the work to Sariel and then came over herself.

Oh~ Before this, it seems to be Ying Yi sister, Mori Rin... I think that's her name.

But never mind, she wasn't particularly interested in Mori Rin. If anyone was busy, it was Morisato Ying Yi's business. She'd basically achieved her goal, so she didn't need to concern herself with Ichigo's affairs.

Just call her when you're ready to travel through time.

"Let's go." Li Pu grabbed Kevin by the collar and said, "We shouldn't have anything to do here for now. Let's go to Nekomi Institute of Technology first. I reckon Ying Yi there is already as anxious as an ant on a hot plate."

"Huh? Why?" Kevin asked, puzzled.

"Because of the Yggdrasil system," Li Pu said. "Kevin, you don't think I'm joking about Yggdrasil, trying to find an excuse for not performing well in the future, do you?"

'This...' Kevin actually felt that Li Pu's words just now had a slight meaning to it.

What a coincidence! The system crashed right after someone's wish was granted.

"What are you thinking?" Li Pu said, pulling Kevin along. "I'm not joking with you about something like this. I'm not too dependent on the Yggdrasil system yet. But Belldandy is quite dependent on it. Let's get to school quickly. I'm afraid Ying Yi can't handle things alone."

It wasn't that Li Pu was unwilling to believe Ying Yi, but rather it was Ying Yi's personality.

He may indeed lack experience in handling such situations.

Chapter 404 I Became Her

There was not much conversation along the way.

It wasn't until they reached the entrance of Nekomi Institute of Technology that Kevin finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Um... MEI, are you angry with me?"

"Because I got through on the phone?" Kevin asked, sounding a little hesitant.

Kevin's caution amused Li Pu; she genuinely couldn't think of a more suitable way to explain it. Kevin had completely missed the point.

"The point isn't making the phone call," Li Pu said. "The point is about 'wishes'."

"I have to say," Li Pu said with some relief, "Although I was a little angry at first, I was really surprised that you made this wish. I won't be angry with you because of these times."

"Really?" Kevin seemed relieved.

"Of course." Li Pu asked with some curiosity, "I'm quite curious why you wanted to make this wish, since you summoned me, so what kind of wish you make is basically up to you."

"You and Ichigo don't have any special relationship, do you? Why would you ask me to help him?"

"I don't know." Kevin shook his head and said, "If I had to say something, that grateful young man certainly deserved it."

Probably, it might be out of appreciation for Ichigo's gratitude, or it might be in return for the trust Ichigo placed in him.

In the end, Kevin still chose to help Ichigo.

"Speaking of that yogurt you mentioned... what's that stuff..." Kevin said, still a little skeptical, "Did that thing really break down?"

"Isn't this a bit too much of a coincidence?"

"It's not a coincidence." Li Pu didn't think there was any conspiracy involved. "Because of Ying Yi's bizarre wish, the system was already on the verge of collapse, and then your wish just happened to cause the system to crash."

"My wish is nothing," Kevin said dismissively.

"You could learn some programming languages like C++ and Java first." Li Pu didn't intend to explain much to Kevin, and besides, she couldn't explain it herself.

"Why learn all that?" Kevin asked, puzzled.

"I experienced it firsthand," Li Pu said. "I reckon they'd probably burn incense and pray to all sorts of gods and spirits, begging that there wouldn't be any bugs or anything. This bug is incredibly useful; the entire system depends on it."

"Anyway, when your hair starts to thin, you'll probably still not understand how Yggdrasil collapsed."

Anyway, I've heard some programmers say that bugs seem to be irrational.

"What about Ying Yi's side?" Kevin asked tentatively.

"I reckon she's in the infirmary for a while," Li Pu said. "Belldandy is different from me, you know that. Belldandy is heavily reliant on the Yggdrasil system. For me, not having the Yggdrasil system means a decrease in combat effectiveness, but for her, it means restricted movement."

"She should be fast asleep by now," Li Pu complained. "It's like a phone automatically going into standby or low battery mode when the battery is low."

"In a coma?" Kevin asked, somewhat curious. "Why?"