Alice in the Land of Steam

Themis was stunned by Alice's amazing ideas. She didn't react for a long time. There was only the voice of the genius player in her ears: "I tell you, the golden apple, the 130 million rules left by the goddess, these are not important at all. The really important things are - love and justice! In traditional RPG works, only the protagonist who implements love and justice can defeat the powerful and evil enemies and create a happy ending that makes everyone happy! And it happens that I, Alice, am such a protagonist who always implements love and justice, and the protagonist group of Yunjing Sky Island led by me can be said to be synonymous with love and justice. We love small animals, take care of flowers and plants, never rob graves, and more importantly, we are united and friendly with each other, as close as family, and logging is tiring - you understand?"

She asked Themis of the Celestial Realm, but the silver-haired girl, who didn't understand at all, nodded blankly. This was a completely subconscious action. The genius player was very satisfied with her statement, and then encouraged: "That is to say, if there is anyone in the world who can stop the ambition of that guy Tiantis, it must be me and my companions. In this case, why are you still hesitating? Why not join us and smash the Witch Society together to teach the goddess a lesson for her restless daughters. Ah, I'm talking about those witches, not Xiaoxia and the others. Besides, a personality like you-"

Alice looked the girl up and down, and sighed: silver hair, golden eyes, delicate figure, and cold temperament. Not only is she a three-no lolita character that old fans of the two-dimensional world love to see, but she is also a mecha girl!
"It's such a shame not to join the team." She said with emotion: "If it were a game, the production team would be scolded by players on the forum; if it were a novel, the author would be bombarded with private messages and comments from readers."

Celestial Themis couldn't help but shudder, feeling as if her whole body was being stripped naked by her gaze. She couldn't help but feel a little regretful. If she had known it would turn out like this, she shouldn't have allowed Alice to indulge in the Internet when she was on Earth. The genius player was very bad at playing games, and was often irritated to the point of impotence and rage, so Celestial Themis had to open up Internet access for her so that she could look up strategies online. But maybe because she had lost her memory and instinctively rejected communication with real humans, she instead developed a great enthusiasm for virtual communication on the Internet, just like a piece of white paper greedily absorbing the colorful paint on it, and unknowingly, she had dyed herself into such a strange appearance.

At that time, Themis of the Celestial Realm had just taken over the Game Command Company as the new president and was busy with the development of Alice Game. She knew how important this company and this game were to the goddess who had been sleeping for a long time, so she dared not be distracted or slack off. Moreover, her understanding of the Earth Network was still based on the goddess's description, "a place full of human fantasy and incredible miracles." In this case, it would not matter if Alice had more contact with it. Perhaps the fantasy works of the earthlings could help her, the fantasy kingship of the Eden world, recover her strength faster?

But what she didn't know was that in the Earth's information network that had been accumulated for hundreds of years, in addition to human fantasy and various incredible miracles, there were also many abstract elements that were difficult to describe in words. The goddess could naturally distinguish between good and bad, and choose whether to absorb them, but her amnesiac daughter didn't seem to be so lucky.

So, I am more or less responsible for Alice becoming like this, right?
Themis sighed helplessly in her heart. When she faced Alice's piercing gaze again, she was no longer at a loss. Instead, she was filled with deep doubt. She couldn't help but ask, "Alice, do you mean to choose to move forward?"

"of course."

The genius player looked at her, as if wondering why she was asking such a reasonable question: "How can we do the main storyline without moving forward? How can we achieve a happy ending that makes everyone happy without doing the main storyline?"

But yesterday, you still looked like you couldn't accept the reality. You were depressed, numb, and closed off your heart.

Celestial Themis thought these emotions were understandable, and she would not be surprised if Alice struggled for a long time with her life experience, the goddess's last wish, and the differences in the concept of the girl's royal power. However, in just one night, all those negative emotions disappeared without a trace, and she was like a different person... No, it should be said that she returned to her original appearance.

The only thing that distinguished these two different directions was just two or three sentences from the young man.

Combining the various game terms that Alice kept using, Themis could more or less guess what the young man said to Alice last night that made her recover so quickly. But is this really a good thing? It is an optimistic spirit to regard the painful memories of the past and the difficult situation at hand as part of the game, but if you take it too seriously, you will be deeply trapped in it, right? Just like luring moths to extinguish flames, if you don't grasp the distance well, the final result is tantamount to setting yourself on fire.

Themis in the celestial world believed that the young man was not unable to see the hidden dangers, but he just couldn't think of a better way. The entanglement of memories, the conflict of emotions, the collision of souls, the repetition of past lives and present lives, the alternation of the new world and the old world, and the intricate maze of memory... Every truth was enough to destroy one's confidence and crush one's faith.

Reality is always cruel, so he chose to build a fortress with false things, overlooking all criticisms from the heights of his mind, at least temporarily sheltering from the wind and rain. If he could solve the biggest enemy before the hidden danger broke out, then the problem would naturally not be a problem.

Fantasy is a force of self-deception.

The silver-haired girl stared deeply at Alice in front of her. Her golden eyes seemed to contain some extremely complicated emotions in the sunlight. She was silent for a long time under Alice's expectant eyes, and finally shook her head slowly, rejecting her invitation: "I'm sorry, but... I won't go with you."

"Eh--!?"

Alice cried out in surprise, feeling very disappointed: "Why?"

Celestial Themis noticed that Alice said "why" instead of "why". If it were the people on Cloud Whale Sky Island, they would have been accustomed to such justified questioning. However, she was stunned for a moment before she reacted. She retracted her gaze, stared at the tiny ruins and forest under her feet, and replied slowly: "Because, this is not my mission."

She is a mediator and an observer.

Her mission is to protect the Temple of Heaven, mediate the conflicts between the young royal powers, and assist them in managing this huge and complex world. However, once the conflicts between the young royal powers cannot be mediated, and the conflicting philosophies have to be decided through fighting, her position becomes very awkward. No matter who she helps, it is not the intention of Themis of Heaven; and no matter who she is the enemy of, it will make her feel painful.

What's more, the two parties in conflict at this moment are Alice, who represents fantasy, and Tiantis, who represents reality?
She was full of remorse and guilt towards Alice, but when facing Tianti, this emotion was probably even more intense, because no matter what, the war that led to the fall of the Temple of Heaven and the destruction of the old world was indirectly caused by her and Alice, and Tianti took the tragic consequences on their behalf. When the celestial Themis was accompanying Alice on Earth, Tianti was sleeping alone in the depths of the dim and cold planet, spending 120 million years in such an empty way - the girl didn't dare to imagine what was in her dream, she even hoped that Tianti had never dreamed in those 120 million years, so that when she woke up, she would not realize that so much time had passed, and she was just distracted when she closed her eyes and opened them again.

But Tiandis remembered, she remembered it more clearly than anyone else, because when she opened her eyes, she still saw the same world as in her dream, a gray, gloomy and sad world.

When the fantasy kingship awakens in the other world, what he sees is still fantasy; when the reality kingship awakens in the new world, what he sees is still reality. They have all changed a lot because of this, and Themis in the celestial world is no longer the simple and ignorant self of the past. "I am neutral," the girl said softly, "and I can only be neutral, Alice. I will not intervene in your fight, will not help any party, and will not reveal the information of the golden apple to any of you - in fact, the goddess has never given me similar authority. When He created the golden apple, He did not hide it from me, which only means that He trusts me, and I will never live up to such trust."

Alice was stunned for a moment. Themis hadn't heard her voice for a long time. She thought she must be disappointed in herself. The girl felt sad and guilty, but she tried to convince herself: It doesn't matter. Anyway, haven't I always disappointed everyone? My choices have never satisfied anyone...

"But," Alice scratched her cheek and asked in confusion, "if you're talking about helping, haven't you always been helping us?"

As she spoke, she pulled out a silver-white cube from her bosom. Its structure and texture were so delicate that it looked like a perfect work of art. It was the limited edition SLP game console released by the Game Command Company. To be precise, it should be the holy vessel transformed from Alice's fantasy monarchy, but she subconsciously shaped it into this shape.

"You admitted yourself that you were the narrator of the game console."

The genius player blinked his eyes and said, "Although I am a genius player and I don't need to watch the novice tutorial, the fact is that without your guidance, I can't even use the power of the game console, let alone come here to see you. So in fact, you have always been helping me and my companions, right?"

To say now that you won't help anyone is a bit self-deception, isn't it?

"This is different."

Themis from the celestial world panicked for a moment, but soon straightened her face and corrected her statement in a very serious tone: "The reason I did this is only because the goddess asked me to take good care of you before she fell into a long sleep. And guiding you to recover your strength is only to fulfill the goddess's instructions. It does not count as intervening in the fight between you and Tiantis, so, so, that..."

"Oh." Alice nodded in agreement, as if she believed it.

"..."For some reason, Themis from Heaven felt vaguely disappointed.

"But you also sent me to the Tianxin Church." The genius player changed the subject: "Since you arranged my crossing, then the place where I landed after crossing must also be chosen by you, right? I don't know the identities of Lingge and Metien, but one thing is certain - they are very special, so special that even Tiandis can't see through them. If I hadn't met them, I wouldn't have met the other girl kings, wouldn't have taken this path, and I might not even be what I am now. You arranged all this yourself because you believed that Lingge and Metien could guide me who knew nothing at that time, instead of me guiding them, right? Doesn't this count as help, Themis of the Heaven?"

She stared straight at the silver-haired girl with a look so serious that even the cold-tempered Celestial Themis could not stand it and looked away in embarrassment. She couldn't help thinking that her intuition was always so sharp that it caught people off guard.

even so.

"Even so," Celestial Themis said softly, avoiding Alice's gaze. Her tone was somewhat sad. "Even if you say that, I still can't agree to your request, Alice."

The genius player quickly asked, "Why?"

"Because I don't want to betray you, nor do I want to betray Tiantis."

Her answer silenced Alice. The genius player did not ask any more questions. She just watched Themis in the celestial world like a wronged child. She raised her fingers and counted the tears she had shed in those endless years one by one: "I don't want to betray Saint Shalia, nor do I want to betray Carabosse; I don't want to betray Xino, nor do I want to betray Pereike; I don't want to betray Olvera, nor do I want to betray Feier; I don't want to betray Leticia, nor do I want to betray Lilithi..."

She read the name of each of the young girls, and she knew the characters and personalities represented by each name very well, because she had seen them live in this city, laughing and playing, snuggling for warmth. The world was still beautiful at that time. They could not see wars, blood and fire, or ideals that were destined to go against each other. They simply believed that such a life would continue forever, until memory, until memory forever.

The girl's voice suddenly stopped.

When she raised her head again, her pale face was full of tears: "I really want to... help you... make peace, but... I don't want to... hurt anyone. I'm sorry... Alice, I can't... I don't want to... betray you..."

The wind from high above swept across the sky of the city, as if bringing a whimpering sound from afar. (End of this chapter)