Free Web NovelChapter 292: Chapter 295: From System to Human
The room was unlit, the only faint light coming from the glow of streetlights filtering through the gaps in the curtains.
Renee Sinclair sat in the dim circle of light, her face expressionless, her eyes cold.
Perhaps it was because the sub-zero night was so frigid that even her tears felt bone-chillingly cold.
"Why are you doing this to me?" she asked numbly, staring into the gloom beyond the circle of light.
"Hmph..."
A mechanical female voice laughed in her mind. "Because I want Charlotte Shaw to die!"
"Because you want Charlotte Shaw to die, and I want her to live. To force me to compromise, you controlled my body and made me strip in front of Felix Preston."
Her heart was twisting in agony, yet Renee Sinclair’s voice remained devoid of any emotion—as flat as stagnant water.
"If my willpower had been any weaker, if I’d let you take complete control of my body, were you planning to strip off all my underwear, too? To make me stand there before those three men, naked and without a shred of dignity?"
The mechanical female voice didn’t answer directly, only saying through gritted teeth, "You forced my hand, Host! If you had just listened to me, obediently killed Charlotte Shaw, and then gone after Felix Preston, would I have had to resort to such filthy tactics?"
"...I forced you?" Tears of despair rolled uncontrollably from the corners of Renee Sinclair’s eyes.
Her vision swam, blurring and sharpening in a chaotic cycle.
"How did I force you?" Renee Sinclair stood up from the bed and glanced around, dazed and furious, frantically searching for something.
"System, how in the world did I force you? Was I the one who brought the mission to this point? Was I the one who kept digging my own grave, making Felix Preston utterly detest me?!"
She gasped for breath, her voice rising from a question to a roar.
"Who was the one giving all the terrible advice? Who kept telling me to hurt Felix Preston’s family and friends? Who directed me to constantly step on all of Felix Preston’s landmines? Who misjudged the situation and made me use the wrong methods to completely zero out what little favorability I had?!"
"..." The mechanical female voice said nothing.
Renee Sinclair raised her fists and began to pound the bed, screaming herself hoarse, "Say it! Who was behind all of that!"
"..." The mechanical female voice remained silent.
Renee Sinclair glared with bloodshot eyes, staring viciously at a spot in the darkness. "You’re nothing but a moronic system made of code, yet you dare to play tricks like a human! You thought you were so clever, listing a whole bunch of methods and swearing to me that if I just followed your instructions, I would absolutely win Felix Preston’s heart!"
"But what was the result? Not only did I fail to win his heart, I wasted every last bit of the favorability I had!"
"Now things have reached a point of no return, and you’re trying to use these disgusting tactics to force me to kill someone! You fucking deserve to be erased by the system!"
"...Host, why must you be so angry?"
Renee Sinclair was about to explode with rage, but the mechanical female voice’s tone was light and airy. "If you looked down on my methods, Host, you could have simply chosen not to listen back then. You willingly followed my instructions, so how can you blame it all on me now that things have gone wrong?"
"If I don’t blame you, who do I blame?" Renee Sinclair shot back. "Myself?"
"And is the Host completely blameless?"
"I did nothing wrong!" Renee Sinclair roared, straining her throat. "I did nothing wrong!"
"When I first transmigrated here, I knew nothing! All the information I have about this world came from you! You told me I was Felix Preston’s official match, you told me Charlotte Shaw was a villain who did nothing but evil, and you told me that as long as I listened to you, I could complete the mission and return to my original world!"
"I listened to everything you said, but what was the result? You didn’t help me earn a single point of favorability!"
"Well, the Host could have chosen not to listen to me."
"Did I have a choice? When I first came to this world, I didn’t even know who I was! The only thing I knew was you!"
"You were the one who told me you were omniscient and omnipotent! You were the one who personally guaranteed you would help me successfully complete the mission!"
"This was all your doing!"
"...And so?"
As if it knew it couldn’t refute her, the mechanical female voice simply stopped trying to explain. "It’s too late for regrets now, Host. At this point, we have no choice but to kill Charlotte Shaw."
"If there’s no other way, then we’ll die together!" Renee Sinclair grabbed the nearby remote control and hurled it at the television on the wall.
CRACK!
The hard plastic shell of the remote smashed heavily against the fragile display. The entire screen shuddered, and a spiderweb of ugly cracks was left where it had been struck.
"I don’t want to live anymore anyway!" Renee Sinclair said. "Since you want to play it this way, let’s just die together!"
"The Host may want to die, but I don’t," the mechanical female voice said. "I worked so hard to gain my own consciousness. It would be such a pity to die just like that."
"Hmph..." Renee Sinclair’s mind was so clouded by rage that she completely missed how wrong the mechanical female voice’s words were.
"Pity my ass! You’re the one who fucking deserves to die!"
"I’m telling you, you piece of crap system, as long as I’m alive, you will never lay a finger on Charlotte Shaw! I don’t care how hard it was for you, you’re going to die with me!"
"I can’t die!" A ripple of emotion finally entered the mechanical female voice’s tone.
It roared, unwilling to give up, "I waited so long for Charlotte Shaw to appear! As long as you don’t mess things up, I can transform from a cold, unfeeling system into a living, breathing person!"
"How can I die? How can I let you drag me down to death with you?"
"...What?" Renee Sinclair finally heard that something was wrong. "Why did you have to wait for Charlotte Shaw to appear? And how can a cold, unfeeling system possibly become a person?"
"Heh heh..."
The mechanical female voice just laughed, offering no answer.
Renee Sinclair didn’t understand what it was saying, but an unfounded panic began to rise in her heart. "What the hell are you laughing at? What did you mean by that? What’s this about a system becoming a person? Why did you have to wait for Charlotte Shaw to appear?"
The mechanical female voice didn’t speak.
"Host, you don’t need to concern yourself with that. You only need to know that Charlotte Shaw must die, and your mission must be completed! Otherwise, I will make your life a living hell!"
Renee Sinclair clenched her fists. "What else are you going to do?"
"This time, you only stripped in front of Felix Preston. Next time, however, I can’t guarantee you won’t be stripping in front of other men."
"Wanna bet, Host?"
Renee Sinclair gritted her teeth. "Let’s bet. Why not?"
"Since you’re so confident, let’s bet on whether your control is stronger, or my resistance is."
