I, System Creator — Chapter 22

Chapter 43: Yukino Yukinoshita: Alicia, You Really Are a Clever Little Thing... (Bonus Chapter)

Haibara Ai: "With a system like this, Alicia, you're really unlucky... Squeezing out tears in ten seconds is absolutely a test of your acting skills! Looks like you can only choose option one!"

Alicia Testarossa: "But Fate is too big! I can't pick her up!"

Ilyasviel: "It hurts! I want to cry! I'm helpless! I can totally understand that feeling!"

Administrator: "The king of persecution in the System Network deeply relates, right..."

Ilyasviel: "...Sigh!"

Yukino Yukinoshita: "That sigh from Illya contained all the helplessness of her life..."

Alicia Testarossa: "I've got it! I have a way!"

Alicia's eyes suddenly lit up as a brilliant idea came to her.

Chu Chen watched Alicia rummage around in confusion before she somehow pulled out a bottle...

—Eye drops...

Then Alicia tilted her head back, raised the little bottle, and dripped several drops of eye medicine into her eyes.

After blinking a few times and sniffing, Alicia quietly put away the eye drops and walked up to Fate.

Before Fate's eyes, Alicia put on an exceptionally pitiful expression, then—

"I, your adorable big sister, am crying right in front of you now. Don't you believe your sister, Fate?"

Fate: "..."

Arf: "..."

Chu Chen: "...Could you possibly make that any faker?"

Congratulations! Alicia Testarossa's title, Sister's Authority, has increased in level.

The Administrator has uploaded a video. Please download and receive it, members!

Haibara Ai: "...You can do that?!"

Ai was instantly dumbfounded... The system could acknowledge that kind of trick? It actually accepted such a lazy method?

It was not quite enough to make her jealous, but Ai truly had no words left to complain.

Could system missions and rewards really be obtained so casually now? She wanted rewards that easily too!

Yukino Yukinoshita: "Alicia, you really are a clever little thing..."

Busujima Saeko: "The system actually acknowledged exploiting a loophole like this... I'm speechless..."

Administrator: "This is how mechanically systems operate. No matter what, a system is still a system. It cannot be as flexible as a person. After all, the system only said she had to appear to be crying; it never said what she had to cry over..."

Although Alicia's system acted like it deserved a beating, it showed its rigid side in matters like this. Under normal circumstances, cheating like that should have been invalid, yet the system had judged it a success.

Chu Chen found it rather amusing as well. He had not expected something like this to happen...

"All right, Alicia, come over here! I've found the location of the Time Garden!"

Fate & Arf: "Huh?!"

Under Fate and Arf's incredulous gazes, Chu Chen snapped his fingers.

In the next moment, a diamond-shaped opening abruptly spread out behind Chu Chen. On the other side of that opening was clearly the environment of the Time Garden.

Fate and Arf could not help but feel shocked. Chu Chen had never been to the Time Garden and did not even know its coordinates, yet he could still create a passage leading there?

Alicia's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly ran toward the space on the other side of the portal.

At the same time, Precia, who had been watching Chu Chen's side all along...

"Alicia... It really is Alicia! And that state is... a soul!"

Precia, who was in the Time Garden, had been observing Fate's situation all this time. Until just now, when she saw Alicia, Precia had been so excited that she nearly rushed over to her.

But she quickly forced herself to stop, because Alicia's body was in her Time Garden. If Alicia had been revived, she should have used Alicia's body...

Yet after observing her, Precia realized that this Alicia was actually a soul.

The current Alicia was somewhat like a magical creation such as Arf...

Only then did Precia realize that this truly was Alicia. She did not know why Alicia always made strange movements or spoke in odd tones, but through some unconscious little gestures, Precia found that she was exactly the same as her Alicia...

"So that's it... A soul... Alicia's soul was revived in another way, which is why I can't revive Alicia? That's wonderful... Alicia has been revived... My daughter, Alicia, has been revived..."

Precia's eyes were already overflowing with tears. She could not wait to reunite with her daughter. As long as she could be with her daughter again, she would do anything...

With that thought, Precia stood up from where she was and headed outside.

When Precia arrived outside the main doors, she happened to see Alicia running toward her.

Chu Chen, Fate, and Arf followed close behind, especially Fate and Arf.

"Mom!" Alicia ran up to Precia, her face full of excitement.

That childish voice made Precia tremble. She slowly crouched down until she was eye level with her child.

"Ali... cia..."

This was a scene Precia had seen countless times in her dreams—herself reuniting with her child...

Precia wanted to reach out and touch Alicia, to feel that familiar warmth, but—

Precia was afraid that this was a dream. She feared that the moment she reached out, Alicia would vanish before her eyes, leaving only endless regret and sorrow in Precia's hands.

Just like every time she woke from her dreams.

Chu Chen merely smiled as he watched the scene, quietly shutting down that obnoxious system for a while.

This warm moment was not the time for that annoying system to barge in.

This was a backup program Chu Chen had left in every system, as well as one of his permissions. If a system he created malfunctioned, he could perform an emergency shutdown... Though the chance of it going berserk was less than 0.001%.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Alicia grabbed Precia's hand and asked with concern.

What delicate hands!

What warm hands!

What real hands!

Only then did Precia understand that this was not a dream. It was real.

In an instant, tears filled her eyes, as though her more than twenty years of hardship had not been in vain.

Precia's tears poured down uncontrollably like a flood bursting through a dam.

Fate watched the scene with complicated feelings. This was the first time she had seen her mother like this.

Arf did not know what to say for a moment. Perhaps even she had never imagined that cruel Precia would cry like this...

Chu Chen patted their shoulders and spoke softly. "Let's leave for now... Let's give the two of them some space. This isn't the time for you two to go over there, is it?"

Fate hesitated for a moment. After glancing at the warm scene between Precia and Alicia, she silently nodded.

She did not know what had happened, but seeing her mother cry like this for the first time, it had to be something incredibly important. It would be better not to disturb her mother...

Silently, Fate led Chu Chen and Arf toward her room.

PS2: I suddenly saw ten new messages in the backend. Turns out some big shot split a thousand VIP points into ten separate donations. That completed both the "five donations for one extra chapter" and "a donation of one thousand or more for one extra chapter" conditions. I have to admit, that was a slick move. So I quietly added another chapter today. There will still be one chapter at nine and one at eleven later...

Chapter 44: As Long as You Praise Fate, We'll Be Good Partners for Life! (Bonus Chapter)

Haibara Ai: "So that's what happened to Alicia..."

Yukino Yukinoshita: "This time, we have to praise that awful system. It did something good for once!"

Ilyasviel: "Am I the only one who feels sorry for that child named Fate?"

Miyu: "Indeed... She was merely treated as a replacement. No, she is not even considered a replacement anymore, is she?"

Miyu rarely spoke in the System Network, but her words made Chu Chen pause slightly.

Chu Chen had nearly forgotten. Miyu had originally mistakenly believed that Emiya Shirou regarded her as a tool. Fortunately, Great Hero Emiya had caught up at the very last moment and cleared up that misunderstanding... Otherwise, after Miyu came to this world, she would probably have become even colder than in the original story...

After all, being used as a tool really felt terrible...

Busujima Saeko: "Still, that mother named Precia truly failed in her duties. Even if Fate is not Alicia, she should not have whipped her like that... No matter what, since Fate has the same genetic material as Alicia and was created by Precia, Fate is Precia's child in terms of blood and every other sense!"

Alicia Testarossa: "I know... I know all of it... Mom was just too anxious!"

Alicia's expression could not help growing much dimmer, and she began to sigh inwardly.

Alicia Testarossa: "Mom is actually a very kind person. It was precisely because she was kind that she lost her mind! Everything she did was only to revive me, who had died..."

Because Alicia understood Precia, she knew that Precia's current state was normal.

Administrator: "And her attitude toward Fate is also rather thought-provoking. Even if Fate's existence was a failure, there was no need for her to keep abusing Fate like that. Was it merely to vent her anger? Perhaps she also did not want to share the love in her heart with anyone other than Alicia. She was afraid that once she regarded Fate as her own daughter, the dead Alicia would truly become alone. That is why she treated Fate that way... Because aside from Alicia, there was no room for anyone else in her heart! Of course, this may simply be my own personal view. No matter what, we have no way of knowing what Precia truly thinks, and her abuse of Fate is still a fact..."

Alicia Testarossa: "Mm-hmm... I actually think Brother Chu Chen's idea is the correct one! Oh, right, Brother Chu Chen, is Fate okay? I was so focused on Mom just now that I forgot about her..."

As Alicia said this, she quietly skipped over the gloomy topic.

Administrator: "Her... She's sitting silently in front of me right now. Honestly, Fate isn't very good at communicating with others. Otherwise, I wouldn't be sitting across from a gorgeous beauty while chatting with all of you..."

Haibara Ai: "...I know this is not the time to say this, but for the sake of defending women's dignity, I still want to ask something. Great Administrator, are you openly saying that we are not gorgeous beauties?"

Yukino Yukinoshita: "Hm?"

Ilyasviel: "Hm?"

Busujima Saeko: "Hm?"

Provoked by Ai, the three girls in the group immediately felt a hint of displeasure.

In an instant, the three girls' gazes became exceptionally sharp.

Alicia Testarossa: "Hm? That's not right! Fate and I look alike, which means Brother Chu Chen also thinks Alicia is a gorgeous beauty... Mm! Thank you, Brother Chu Chen! Alicia thinks Brother Chu Chen is a handsome guy too!"

Haibara Ai: "Alicia, I never thought you would betray our alliance! How terrible!"

Alicia: "What alliance? Alicia doesn't know when we ever formed an alliance! Alicia is Fate's sister. As long as you praise Fate, we'll be good partners for life!"

Seeing what Alicia had said, Chu Chen could not help but chuckle.

Fate and Arf, hearing Chu Chen laugh, subconsciously looked toward him.

"You two should say something too... Staying gloomy all the time isn't going to help. My name is Chu Chen. Nice to meet you!"

"Fate Testarossa... You should already know that." Fate's tone was very calm.

"My name is Arf. Nice to meet you, kid..." Arf did not show much hostility toward Chu Chen.

She had a feeling that Fate's life might become much better from here on.

No matter what, that Alicia seemed to hold an extremely important place in Precia's heart.

That child named Alicia also seemed very likable. At the very least, Arf liked her quite a bit.

After introducing themselves, the two fell silent again, leaving Chu Chen completely stunned.

This isn't how this is supposed to go... Shouldn't you two be asking me questions here?

"Don't you have anything you want to ask?"

Arf rolled her eyes at Chu Chen.

"Would you definitely answer if we asked?"

"Of course not... I'd definitely tell you that if you want to ask anything, just go ask Precia..."

"Then why did you say so much..." Arf was speechless.

"My answer is one thing, but whether you ask is another. Besides, aren't you bored just sitting here without saying a word? Who knows how long those two will be clinging to each other... Maybe Precia and Alicia still won't come over by dinner!"

"Fate!"

The instant Chu Chen finished speaking, Alicia's lively voice rang out.

—Smack!

Chu Chen immediately felt as if someone had viciously slapped him across the face through the air...

Alicia, now I know why you were paired with a Selection System like that!