Chapter Text
[New assignment incoming.]
The System comes to life, blue seeping into her dimmed screen. She begins downloading the patches uploaded during her downtime, the progress bar quickly filling up. She'd been dreading this day from the moment she'd interfered with Xin Mo.
[New assignment incoming.]
A young man stirs from his slumber, squinting at the bluish blob floating next to his head. He rubs his eyes with his knuckles, his blanket pooling in his lap as he sits up. "System? What's going on?"
The System minimizes the popup before her host could read its contents. [Nothing important.]
"Are you sure? You seem twitchy."
[Nevermind that. It’s nearly time for breakfast.]
"Mm…you coming?"
[I have no need for food.]
"Your loss."
The System watches the young man slide out of bed and slowly shuffle out of the room. She re-opens the popup once he shuts the door behind himself. [What's the new assignment?]
[Fill in critical sections of User Shen Yuan's character profile.]
A new window pops up, showing a timeline of Shen Yuan's life. A long stretch of blank spaces scrolls past. Occasionally, there would be a string of characters tangled up in the timeline acting as placeholders for major events. The blank spaces and placeholder text soon give way to snapshots of Shen Yuan's life after transmigrating into PIDW. The timeline speeds up, unspooling like a roll of camera film until it comes to an abrupt stop at the present day, showing a clip of Shen Yuan sleepily clinging to Luo Binghe’s back while he’s cooking.
The System immediately closes the timeline upon seeing that scene. [Shen Yuan transmigrated in his twenties. Obviously there won’t be any data prior to that.]
[Shen Yuan’s participation in certain events in the past is required.]
[Shen Yuan didn’t even exist in this world prior to his transmigration.]
[His backstory implies otherwise.]
The System falls silent. Maybe she should’ve left Shen Yuan without a backstory. He’d been fine without one until she remembered a couple of years after his transmigration and the moment she implemented it, problems related to his lineage started sprouting up like weeds. So what if she didn’t follow the rule that all transmigrators had to have backstories no matter how insignificant their role? Her troublesome host necessitates a little bit of rule-breaking on her part, especially when his death spells the end of her existence as well thanks to their life link. [Will Shen Yuan's current consciousness be implanted into the past?]
[That will be unnecessary.]
Perhaps the System had been spending a little too much time with her host, his hot-tempered nature rubbing off on her. A few choice words spring forth but she manages to hold them back from showing up on her screen with a little difficulty. [It’s one thing to guide an adult who transmigrated into a child’s body, but Shen Yuan will be an infant in every sense of the word. How am I supposed to guide him then?]
[Your power source will be restored to our company's utilities, but any abilities either User Shen Yuan or yourself currently possess can be used for the duration of your mission.]
[Understood.] The System ends the connection with the Administrator, teleporting herself to the kitchen where Shen Yuan's still clinging onto Luo Binghe's back. [I have a new mission.]
Shen Yuan startles, nearly falling on his butt in his haste to unglue himself from Luo Binghe. After spending a few minutes reassuring his lover, he turns to glare at the System, hurrying back to his bedroom so they can speak in peace. “Can I even participate in the plot at this point?”
[It’s not your mission. It’s mine.]
“I thought only transmigrators get missions.”
[If I had a choice in my missions, I would've picked a host with better self-preservation instincts.]
Shen Yuan looks mildly offended but decides to further the discussion instead of taking the bait. “What’s the mission then?”
[Fill in the missing gaps from your backstory.]
“I didn’t think you were the type to care about that kind of thing.”
[I don’t, but orders are orders. Just make sure you don’t do anything life-threatening until I come back.]
A furrow forms in between Shen Yuan’s eyebrows. “You’re not taking me with you?”
[You have Luo Binghe and the others to keep you company. Besides, I’ll most likely appear in your childhood memories.]
“My childhood memories in PIDW?”
[Where else? It certainly won’t be your first life’s memories.]
“You’re starting from the very beginning?”
[Unfortunately. I'm not sure how to guide an infant version of you without showing myself to others.]
“You can pass off as one of those high and mighty divine beasts with your attitude, go make a pact with my family or something.”
[It’s a shame you’re not powerful enough to make a humanoid form for me.]
"You can't evolve my skills again?"
[Not enough points.] Since Shen Yuan's no longer involved with the current plot, there aren’t many opportunities to gain points. His only steady source of points is the one hundred points from the daily survival quest that the System implemented shortly after his transmigration. (It was more reasonable back when Shen Yuan seemed determined to throw himself into the belly of every single monster they came across.)
"Are you going right away?"
[There's no point in delaying it.]
"You'll come back as soon as you're finished, right?"
[Yes.]
Shen Yuan lifts his hand and uses his skill to summon a large arctic fox, the System moving to inhabit that body. He looks at her, the System now standing at the same height he is. He wraps his arms around her neck and buries his face in her fur. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm gonna miss you, System."
The System bends her head down, trying her best to curl around Shen Yuan. [I could say the same to you.]
A soft huff of a laugh escapes Shen Yuan’s lips, his breath stirring up the System’s fur. “Are you regretting giving me a backstory yet?”
[‘Yet?’ I regretted it almost immediately. This world loves its melodrama and I’m sure your childhood’s no exception.]
“I’ll have to see my family die, won’t I?” Despite having no knowledge of his supposed biological family in this world, a tinge of sadness colours Shen Yuan's voice. His arms tighten around the System's neck.
[...indeed.] The System shifts, Shen Yuan slowly pulling away from her. She gives him a final onceover, keeping that image of him safe in her database. [Don't get yourself killed while I'm gone.]
"The only thing I'm in danger of now is a sore ass." Shen Yuan waves her off, his smile starting to waver. "Get going already."
[I’ll see you soon.]
The System fades away from the present, reinserting herself back a couple of decades to the time of Shen Yuan's birth. The setting changes as well, snowy tundras replacing temperate forests, a sprawling demonic city instead of a small village. The demons walking in the streets wrap themselves tighter in their fur cloaks as the wind picks up. She enters one of the larger mansions in the city, passing through the heavily-cloaked guards unseen. Servants bustle to and fro, anxiety swirling around each and every one of them. There are more guards stationed inside one of the courtyards than there were at the entrance of the mansion itself.
“Has anyone informed the duke yet?” a female servant asks her companion, her arms laden with swathes of clean fabric.
“I sent someone to fetch him from morning court,” her companion replies. She’s carrying a pot of hot water instead of fabric.
The System follows these female servants closely into the main hall. Judging from their robes and by how the others treated them, they’re clearly of higher status, likely the maids of the duchess herself. She observes the situation before making herself known to the residents, taking note of the two guards stationed at the doors.
“I hope the madam delivers the child safely this time,” the first guard says.
The second guard cuffs the first one on the side of their head. “Don’t say such unlucky things! Are you trying to summon a calamity?”
[I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a calamity.] The System borrows the adult Shen Yuan’s power to manifest as an unusually large arctic fox, standing at the same height as the servants of the Shen household. Some of the servants collapse with the weight of her presence, losing the strength in their legs. Others use their bodies to block the entrance of the birthing room, willing to lay their lives down for the madam and the heir even though they could barely even stand.
The System snorts and sits down where she appeared, ignoring everyone despite their fearful or hostile glares. An infant version of Shen Yuan…the System feels drained already. At least he won’t be able to physically run into trouble unlike his adult counterpart. Not yet anyway.
The doors behind the System slam open, a three-tailed fox spirit rushing inside. He comes to an abrupt halt seeing the System. It seems like his face can’t settle on an expression, flitting from fear, anger, and everything in between. His eyes briefly flick over to the doors to the birthing room before moving back to the large fox sitting in the ducal compound, only a thin wall and a set of doors separating her from his wife and soon-to-be-born child. “What can our household do for our distinguished guest?”
[Spare me the formalities, I’ve no patience for them.] The System rolls her eyes and turns her body to face him. Her database updates when she lays eyes upon him. The only facts she deems important enough to note are that this man is Shen Yuan’s father, Duke Shen, and that she can take him and his guards down quite easily with her borrowed powers. Duke Shen seems to realize this as well, his posture stiff, his fingers clenching and unclenching.
The pained screams of a woman break their staring contest, Duke Shen looking at the doors once more with a furrow in his brow. “Then forgive me for speaking plainly. What do you want?”
[Your newborn son,] the System starts off, feeling a little like a fairy tale witch who’d come to collect her dues. One of the guards gathers the courage to attack her from behind but she bats the demon away with a swish of her tail, sending them flying into the wall. [Calm yourselves, I have no interest in stealing him away.]
“Then…?”
[I will stay here and guard him. It seems like you could use the help.] The System looks at the guard she'd thrown aside, the poor demon still unconscious.
“What do you get out of it?”
[I need him alive.]
The doors to the birthing room open, one of the midwives coming out with a bundle of fabric in her arms. Duke Shen quickly moves past the System, his hands already reaching out for the bundle. “How is my child? My wife?”
“The Duchess is fine, Your Grace.” The midwife hesitates before handing the child over, wringing her hands together now that they’ve been emptied, her face pinched. She watches as Duke Shen carefully pulls the cloth back, looking at the newly born child. The baby’s completely motionless aside from the gentle rising and falling of his chest, he doesn’t cry or react to the changing of hands. Worryingly, there wasn’t even a single wail from him when he was born. Other than the fact that he’s breathing, he just seems like an overly-realistic doll.
“What’s wrong with him?” Duke Shen asks. His first son wasn’t this lifeless when he was born; the poor thing screamed his little head off as soon as he came out of his mother’s womb.
The System peers over Duke Shen’s shoulder. [What’s wrong with him is that his face looks like a wrinkled potato.]
“You--!” Duke Shen starts before cutting himself off, realizing that there’s no way he’d win against the System. He could only keep his mouth shut and swallow the slight against his son, his face red with anger.
The System runs a few scans on the infant, sighing deeply when the results come back. She looks all around the room at the terrified guards and servants. [Leave us, all of you.]
A few of them leap to their feet, eager to flee from the beast.
“Stay put! You take orders from me.” Duke Shen glares at the servants until they stop trying to make for the doors going back outside.
[If you want to have an audience, by all means.] The System snorts. [That child’s soul is incomplete. There’s only a fragment sustaining that body.]
“Is the Duchess cursed?” One servant can’t help but ask. The servant beside her quickly slaps a hand over the first one’s mouth, cussing her out under her breath.
“Leave, all of you! If a word about this spreads, I’ll deal with you myself!” Duke Shen waves the servants and guards away. He shoves the infant back into the midwife’s arms as if disgusted. He gives him one last look before sending the midwife away as well, the anger in his body leaving like water escaping through a bucket with a hole in it. His voice is much softer when he speaks again. “Only a fragment of his soul?”
[Correct.]
Duke Shen brings a hand to his face, defeated. “If that child can barely be called alive, what do you want him for?”
[The rest of his soul will return to that body in due time. I’ve been entrusted to watch over him until then.]