Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1020: A harmless little problem?
“What if I don’t want to work?”

"You have to work, Alice."

"Why?"

"Because this is what Tiantis asked."

"I mean, why should I listen to her?"

"Because you didn't object when she asked for it."

"My not objecting doesn't mean I agree!"

"But if you disagree, why don't you object?"

"Because I'm afraid... Ugh!"

Alice, who had blurted out something in a hurry, stopped talking abruptly, raised her head and looked at Tianjie, they stared at each other in bewilderment.

An awkward atmosphere spread between the two of them. After a long time, Alice, who was thicker-skinned, finally overcame her shame and changed the subject as if nothing had happened: "Ahem, whether I agree or not is not important. What's important is, don't you think Tiantis is too much? Why should I work just because she tells me to? The authority given to us by mother is equal. She has no right to order me around. Don't you agree, Tianjie?"

"Judging from a rational point of view, Alice, what you said is correct; but judging from an emotional point of view, I think what Tiantis did is more correct." The silver-haired girl said calmly, which shocked Alice: "You really should work harder. If you always do whatever you want, you will probably disappoint your mother's expectations."

Since the last incident, the girl also learned to call the goddess mother. This was a matter of course, because she was also a child created by the goddess. However, for some reason, she had always kept a low profile and carefully maintained her respect and humility towards the creator. It was not until Tiantis pointed this out that she naturally completed the transition from creator to mother.

"You've changed, Celestial."

Alice was heartbroken (pretending), and tried to play the emotional card to arouse her sister's sympathy: "You never said such hurtful words before. Have you forgotten the happy time we had playing games together? It must be Tiantis's fault! If she hadn't forced you to repeat such high-intensity work every day, how could you have forgotten the good memories between us? Alas!"

Without hesitation, Alice shifted the blame to an absent person, and then she wiped away her tears in a hypocritical manner, expressing her true feelings: "But it doesn't matter, sister, I will help you find your true heart! So now, let's put aside the tedious and boring work for a while, and go to the game museum on the 99th floor together to find that initial touch of emotion, right?"

Tianjie said expressionlessly: "If you didn't reveal your true intentions so quickly, I think I would be touched."

"Just for a moment?"

"Just a moment."

"Really boring!"

Alice lay on her back, looking at the empty and lonely ceiling, muttering, "That's why I don't want to go back to the Cathedral of Heaven. It's boring every time I come back. You and Tiantis are both workaholics. You never play games with me. Working every day, working every day, is it really interesting? It's more fun to go to the ground. Even if there are no games, at least I can be an adventurer, wander around, punish evil and promote good, etc."

Celestial thought for a moment and asked, "Do you really hate work, Alice?"

Alice scratched her cheek. "I don't really hate it. After all, it's a duty given to me by my mother, and I want to do it well. But if you insist on me staying in the same place for a long time and repeating those tedious and complicated procedures, I definitely can't stand it. It's too boring."

Tiantis nodded thoughtfully.

Of course she knew what boring meant, but she just couldn't understand it. Since she was born, she had been staying in the Temple of Heaven, repeating the tedious and complicated work that Alice mentioned. If she got used to it, she wouldn't feel uncomfortable.

But sometimes, Alice would ask her to play games. In Tianjie's eyes, those were just some simple pixels and graphics, as well as codes composed of 0 and 1. But for Alice, they seemed to have incredible power, which could completely relax her body and mind. Her love for games could be seen with the naked eye. She always talked endlessly to Tianjie about the background, plot, characters or gameplay of each game. Even if Tianjie just listened silently and never expressed his opinion, she didn't care at all, as if she was just talking to herself.

Tianjie could not empathize with the game, and could not understand why those simple pixels and graphics could make Alice so excited.

Is this a defect?
No, it is just a rule established by the goddess since its creation, but few people understand its true meaning: people always get happiness in the fantasy world and then take responsibility in the real world. Alice has a unique advantage in the former, while she and Tiantis are destined to think about problems from the perspective of the latter and cannot do whatever she wants like her.

Once upon a time, the Heavenly Realm thought that the Mother favored her, so she granted her such important observation and decision-making rights; later, she thought that the Mother favored Tiantis, so she handed over the magic circulation system related to the lifeblood of the entire Eden to her; but now, she suddenly felt that perhaps the Mother’s most favored child might be Alice?

Because what she possesses is an ability that cannot be learned, and it is also the ability that is most similar to her mother.

After a moment of silence, the heavens silently activated the management authority of the control center. A series of virtual blue light screens flashed and appeared with her as the center. Dense text and data poured down like a waterfall, and were reflected in the girl's eyes as pure as glass balls, reflecting the faint afterglow.

Alice, who was lying on the floor lazily, waited for a long time, but did not get a reply from Tianjie. She raised her head with difficulty and took a look. She happened to see this scene and could not help but be stunned: "What are you doing, Tianjie?"

Isn't this something that can be seen at a glance?

"I'm working." The girl's eyes were calm and focused. She didn't even look away from the screen in front of her. She just said calmly: "The control center of the Heavenly Temple can monitor and calculate the magic concentration, population distribution, biological population and other detailed data of the Eden Continent in real time. Although in most cases, it is Tiantis who asks me for this data, but I think you may also need it, Alice, so I will compile it into a detailed report for you."

"Ah this."

Does that mean she's busy?

Alice was so thick-skinned that she couldn't help but feel ashamed at this moment. She scratched her hair and looked embarrassed: "Is that so? Then...it's hard for you? No, no, it's not like that!" She shook her head vigorously, then got up from the ground, stretched out her hand and gently patted her cheek, barely waking up from that lazy state, then raised her head and said to the girl: "Let me help too, Tianjie."

This sentence temporarily diverted the girl's attention, and she couldn't help but look at Alice. There was a flash of surprise in her eyes: "Don't you want to work, Alice?"

How could he change his mind and become diligent? If Tiantis knew about this, he would definitely find it incredible and might even suspect that the end of the world was coming.

"Ahem, it's different now." Alice coughed twice in a pretentious manner, her eyes wandering: "I can't let you work while I, as your sister, just watch you, right? I'd be very ashamed, don't you understand?"

Celestial pointed out, "But you were watching while Tentis was working."

He seemed to be at ease and not ashamed at all.

"Because, uh, because, Tiantis is different from you." Alice said righteously, "She is too arrogant and always speaks to me in the tone of a sister. We were born at the same time. Why should I listen to her? But you are different. You are indeed my sister. As a sister, isn't it normal for me to care about my sister?"

To put it simply, it means being soft and not hard.

Generally speaking, this is consistent with Alice's personality traits and behavior logic, and also consistent with Tiandi's evaluation of her "body's actions are faster than brain's thinking". However, when Tiandi heard her say "as a sister, I should care about my sister", Tiandi had to admit that his heart was still touched. That feeling was like a string that had not been played for a long time, and was suddenly plucked gently.

After a brief silence, the girl selectively ignored the part of Alice's words that was trying to cover up something, nodded slightly, and tacitly agreed to her help.

Alice became happy. She walked to the console, rolled up her sleeves, and faced the densely packed buttons on it, eager to try: "Come on, tell me how to use this thing? Which one is the attack button and which one is the jump button?"

"Alice..."

"kindness?"

“This is not a game.”

Tianjie's tone was a little helpless.

……

"The central system of the control center of the Holy Temple of Heaven operates based on the magic power that Mother spread to the entire Eden continent. The original magic power used by the central system represents the main authority from the original law, and the magic power circulating on the Eden continent represents the sub-authority from the birth of the world. By mastering the main authority of magic power through the central system and tracking and monitoring the status of sub-authority, a huge amount of data can be obtained. The amount of information roughly covers all the information in the 100 million years since the birth of Eden. If this information can be effectively used, it will undoubtedly improve the efficiency of managing magic power and civilization. However, because the amount of information is too large, how to identify valuable information from it has become my job."

"Tantis's approach is to analyze specific problems in specific ways. That is, by monitoring the changes in the concentration of magic power on the Eden continent, we can find out the existing problems, and then formulate corresponding strategies based on the causes of the problems, solutions to the problems, and prevention of similar problems from happening again. Then we substitute the data I provided and use the computing power of the control center's central system to perform calculations and simulations to verify its feasibility. If it is feasible, we will adopt it; if not, we will formulate the next strategy."

"This method is undoubtedly the most concise, efficient, and feasible. If you don't know how to operate the central nervous system, you may want to learn from Tiantis's method." After stopping Alice from trying to use the console as a game controller, Tianjie proposed a more feasible plan: "Or what problems do you think exist in the current mortal civilization? We can follow Tiantis's ideas and develop a reasonable solution. What do you think, Alice?"

Do you want me to admit that I am not as good as Tiandis?

"Impossible!" Alice refused flatly: "Absolutely impossible! I, Alice, have never been inferior to anyone in my life. Why should I yield to her? Besides, I think the current mortal civilization is pretty good. There is no problem at all..."

Nothing at all…?

Alice suddenly remembered why she had been staying in the Holy Temple of Heaven for the past half month.

She seemed to have promised Nigfraum that she would come up with a best of both worlds solution to the problems that he and other gods were worried about. However, she thought about it and thought about it, but she still couldn't come up with any good solution. The current Eden continent is like a powder keg that has accumulated too many negative emotions, and it only takes a few sparks to explode. Now that I think about it, Tiantis's evaluation of me may not be wrong. If I hadn't been so lazy and discovered the signs of hidden dangers hundreds of years earlier, I might have been able to curb it.

But even if she could stop it in advance, would it solve the problem completely? Even if Tiantis's plan worked, and at the cost of two thousand years, the magic cycle system was rebuilt, would it be a perfect ending? Would the problems that Nigfraum was worried about now, and the problems that Tiantis was worried about in the past, not suddenly erupt one day in the future, leading to a greater disaster?

In the final analysis, some hidden dangers had been buried at the beginning of creation, but Alice didn't notice it. She was not stupid or slow, but she always deliberately avoided thinking in the worst direction. This was a naive attribute that she naturally possessed as a fantasy king.

Thinking of this, she felt a little guilty and hesitated, not daring to answer the questions from the heavens directly: "There may be problems, but maybe not. Even if there are, they are not big problems. I can solve them myself... I should be able to. Of course, it's not just me. There are many gods in the mortal civilization. They are all my friends and have inherited my mother's will. If we work together, we can always find a way to solve the problem..."

"Alice."

Tianjie suddenly interrupted Alice's words. She stared at the screen with a serious and thoughtful look in her eyes. Her delicate eyebrows had been locked tightly without knowing when. "Are you sure that the current mortal civilization is stable and there are no problems at all?"

"Well, didn't I tell you that there are some minor problems, but they are harmless..."

"But according to these data, it seems that this is not a small problem." Tianjie finally moved his eyes away from the screen and looked at Alice, saying word by word: "In the past half month, a total of 32 large-scale wars and 153 small-scale wars have broken out between the various races and countries of mortal civilization, affecting the 26 major races, 78 minority races and all 312 countries or city-states in the entire continent."

Tianjie looked at Alice, whose expression gradually became dull, with a complicated look in his eyes: "In just half a month, a world war broke out. Alice, is this really just a harmless problem?"

"..."

Give me some meow