Santa Claus

Seeing Zhou Ze sitting quietly on the sofa, Alice watched him with a faint smile for a while before speaking first.

"I learned from the letter that you're Lord Clive's new apprentice, and that your study of magic is still at the introductory stage..." The girl hesitated, a barely perceptible flicker of disappointment crossing her eyes.

"Um... although I can't use magic right now, perhaps I can still help answer some of your questions..."

Zhou Ze froze.

Naturally, the document couldn't have scripted every possible conversation.

Magic was also listed as a sensitive topic, so at a time like this, he could only improvise.

After considering his words, Zhou Ze cautiously asked, "Miss Alice... why can't you use magic?"

At that, Alice's eyes dimmed, and she said in a subdued voice, "My power is too strong. If I use it carelessly, it will... it will lead to terrible consequences... Lord Clive said..."

The girl paused, a haze of tears spreading across her azure eyes. "Lord Clive said that if I deliberately use my power again, he'll... he'll kill me and imprison my soul forever..."

The girl's sudden emotional breakdown left Zhou Ze at a loss.

"D-87465, end this topic immediately!"

At the same time, an urgent, stern voice came through his earpiece, startling him so badly that he shuddered.

"Miss Alice... everything will be all right..." Zhou Ze hurried to comfort her.

Clearly, this topic had touched on forbidden territory.

Seeing that the girl was still quietly sobbing, Zhou Ze could only steel himself and change the subject. "Alice... how have you been feeling lately?"

The moment the question left his mouth, he wanted to slap himself.

She's fucking locked up in a place like this and threatened with death for a reason like that. How the fuck could she be feeling okay?

Sure enough, Alice lowered her head, her long golden hair cascading down like a waterfall and hiding half her face.

She shook her head gently without saying a word, but her faintly trembling shoulders betrayed her emotions.

The girl raised her slender fingers and gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. Then she lifted her head and looked at Zhou Ze with those moist blue eyes.

Zhou Ze couldn't help feeling a pang in his heart. There really was something magical about Alice, something that could easily stir his emotions.

But honestly, Zhou Ze could genuinely empathize with her. After all, his own situation was hardly any better than poor Alice's.

He sighed inwardly, offered a faint smile, and asked gently, "Alice, would you like to hear a story?"

At that, Alice lifted her head, the sorrow in her eyes swiftly replaced by curiosity. She wiped the remaining tears from the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand, and a radiant smile blossomed on her face, like sunlight suddenly breaking through the gloom.

"Yes!" she replied brightly, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. "What story are you going to tell, Mr. Zhou Ze?"

The girl leaned forward slightly, her hands resting on her knees, looking ready to hang on every word.

"D-87465! Stop! Drop this topic!" In the monitoring room, Dai Yong'an grabbed the microphone and roared, his face contorted. "I fucking told you to stop! Can't you hear me?!"

But only a piercing noise came through the audio feed, like chalk scraping across a blackboard, and the surveillance screen blurred as well.

At the sight, Dai Yong'an slammed his hand on the desk. "Damn it! Fuck!"

"Give it up, Dai. If 'God' wants to hear a story, we don't get a say in it."

The golden retriever beside him lifted his eyelids and spoke with a hint of schadenfreude. "I knew conversations with so few restrictions would cause trouble sooner or later. Powers governed by the mind like this always manage to surprise us in unexpected ways..."

"You don't know shit! Where were you earlier?! What good does saying this now do?" Dai Yong'an glared at his old friend.

Kane, the golden retriever, grinned. "A little hindsight makes me look prescient and gives you a reasonable outlet for your frustration... see? You're already much calmer. So, what do you say? Should we forcibly terminate the experiment?"

Dai Yong'an let out a breath. After a moment's thought, he said in a low voice, "Like you said, Number 239's wishes always come true in a plausible way. Do you really think we still have a chance to stop her now?"

"Of course not. A perfectly good signal can fluctuate, and a device with a failure rate of 0.01% can suddenly malfunction. If we keep pushing, we'll probably only cause something worse."

The golden retriever paused. "All we can do now is wait. Until the story is over, we probably can't do anything."

Dai Yong'an picked up his insulated mug, took a hefty gulp of coffee, and stared at the surveillance feed, forcing himself to calm down.

"That's the trickiest part. An individual with such immense power is still entirely a child, both physically and mentally... yet a child's imagination knows no bounds. Kane, do you think she can tell the difference between stories and reality?"

"Probably not very well. After all, isn't telling stories exactly how you've gotten 239 to suppress her own powers?"

"This involves an important theory in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. When our brains process information, subjective cognition and spontaneously arising thoughts are closely linked.

"When someone hears or imagines a story, the brain activates the associated neural circuits. These circuits are almost identical to those activated when actually experiencing similar events."

Dai Yong'an adjusted his glasses and said slowly, "For an individual with reality-warping abilities, that neural activity may translate directly into changes in reality.

"The boundary between her subjective cognition and spontaneous thoughts may be even more blurred, making the distinction between stories and reality extremely subtle.

"More importantly, a child's prefrontal cortex-the brain region responsible for executive function and reality testing-hasn't fully developed yet. This means 239 may struggle to distinguish internal imagination from external reality, making her abilities even harder to control.

"In trying to guide her self-restraint through stories, we're essentially exploiting this cognitive mechanism. But this double-edged sword could slip out of our control at any moment, because we can't fully predict or control her deeper interpretations of and reactions to those stories."

"But the fear induced by a suggestion embedded deep in the subconscious can, to the greatest extent possible..."

Seeing his old friend staring silently at the surveillance screen, Dai Yong'an pursed his lips and finally stopped his long-winded explanation. "...Has he finished his story?"

"No, this is already his second story..." The golden retriever turned his head and grinned. "A story about Santa Claus..."

Dai Yong'an froze at that, then leaned back in his chair as though giving up entirely.

"Great... that means the world will probably gain another potential anomalous individual called 'Santa Claus.' And we probably won't be able to catch him, because he can use 'magic'..."

"Obviously," the golden retriever replied calmly.

"Ha! Obviously!"