Alice in the Land of Steam

The sobbing sound faded away with the wind, and the rooftop returned to silence. The silver-haired girl said nothing, but silently wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. There were faint traces of redness and swelling in the corners of her eyes, as if she cried to vent all the grievances and sadness she had suffered in the long years. But no matter what, after the girl cried, her expression did look much more vivid. If she was just a mechanical doll that followed a rigid dogma before, now she has become what the goddess wanted to see when she created her: a living being with her own emotions and memories.

But, do we need to go through so much sadness and pain on the road from man-made objects to human beings? If she had known this, would Themis still yearn for human emotions? Or would she rather give up the qualification to become a human being and let those beautiful memories remain forever?

This is an unsolvable puzzle because bystanders cannot ask and the parties involved will not think about it.

As mentioned before, thinking about what ifs is the most empty pain in the world.

Alice vaguely realized that she had done something very wrong, and she didn't dare to speak until the girl wiped the tears from her face, folded her hands on her thighs again, and returned to her obedient and silent appearance. Then she asked carefully: "Um...if you don't want to go with us, forget it. I won't force you to make a choice, so, uh, that is...you shouldn't cry anymore, right?"

"I didn't cry."

Themis of the Celestial Realm said seriously, as if what happened just now had never happened: "Just now the system overheated and needs to be drained and cooled."

If you dare to look at me and say this, I will believe it.

But Alice was afraid that she would make her cry again, so she could only admit it helplessly: "Okay, okay, I was wrong, you didn't cry. How could a girl as strong as you cry, right?"

If Lingge was here, he would definitely think that Alice was being sarcastic again. She loved to say such sarcastic words to disgust people, and because she said it too much, it had reached the point where everyone would think she was being sarcastic when she spoke normally. However, Celestial Themis had never been exposed to such a high level of language art, so she felt from the bottom of her heart that Alice had believed her excuses. She pursed her lips slightly, leaving Alice with a serious face, trying to show that she was serious.

Another tsundere.

Is this attribute so popular? Or has the industry become path-dependent and too lazy to develop other attributes?

Alice criticized the industry's complacency in her heart, and then she changed the subject naturally: "By the way, since you don't want to go with us, what are you going to do in the future? Stay here and wait until the final day?"

"Yes." The girl nodded gently: "This is my mission and responsibility."

Mission, duty, she seemed to like to talk about these words. The tragedy caused by dereliction of duty 120 million years ago really left a deep impression on her, and she couldn't forget it for a long time. But if you have to investigate, maybe she is the one who is most responsible. She mistakenly believed in some people she shouldn't have believed, and failed her mission and duty as a young queen. Although the subsequent incidents have nothing to do with her on Earth, when she confronts Tiantis in the future, if she says "all the tragedies are caused by you", she seems to have no reason to refute.

That must be a very funny scene. The protagonist who upholds love and justice is actually refuted by the villain who plays with people's hearts and schemes, and is speechless. But this is reality. People's ideas cannot represent their right or wrong, and they cannot arbitrarily define their past and present behaviors.

No way! What am I thinking? This isn't reality, it's a game!
The genius player Alice and her friends are the protagonists of the game, and the evil witch Tiantis and her accomplices are the villains of the game. The positions of good and evil have long been determined, and right and wrong are naturally separated. The protagonists who implement love and justice must be right, and the villains who play with people's hearts and schemes must be wrong. Love defeats ambition, justice defeats evil, right defeats wrong, and then everyone ushers in a happy ending. This is the main theme of this game, and it is also the route for genius players to pass the level!
It was a close call. I almost let those inexplicable thoughts get in my way. It must be the enemy's conspiracy! Alice shook her head violently, throwing them all out of her mind, determined not to give evil a chance to take advantage of her.

Alice then asked, "Will you help me again in the future?"

Celestial Themis couldn't help but look at her, thinking, didn't I make it very clear just now? I won't help anyone. Alice also realized that her statement was a bit vague, and quickly corrected it: "I mean, will you still be the narrator of the game console in the future? If it weren't for you, I might not be able to start the game console, and I wouldn't be able to fight against the Witch Society."

The girl frowned slightly when she heard this. It wasn't because she felt embarrassed, but because she felt that Alice seemed to underestimate her.

"That's not my power."

The girl said seriously, "It's your power - the power of fantasy kingship. It is also the only complete girl's kingship so far, except for the real kingship of Tiantis and the dispute kingship of Favrona. If you want to fight against them, you should really make good use of this power. And I think, I'm afraid only you can make good use of it."

It was rare for her to speak for so long, but Alice felt a little guilty.

"I would like to give it a try, but I don't have the ability."

She muttered, then untied the cartridge box hanging on the game console, took out a cartridge from it, inserted it into the card slot on the game console, raised the silver cube high into the sky, and shouted, "Hensin!"

"..."

There was no reaction, the rooftop was completely silent, only the celestial Themis was watching her silently, not knowing what she was doing.

Alice changed her posture and shouted again: "Lin Ke is dead!"

"..."

“…Bankai!”

"..."

"…Super Saiyan transformation!" "…"

After trying several times, the girl finally couldn't help asking, "What are you doing, Alice?"

"I'm trying to start the game console." Alice knocked on the silver-white cube, making a low muffled sound, and said in a depressed tone: "But you see, it doesn't respond at all. So it turns out that I can't do it alone, I need your help, Themis of the Heaven."

"Impossible." Celestial Themis shook her head. "That power belongs to you. No one can use it except you. I am just guiding you. Alice, is it possible that you are not confident enough? You should believe in yourself more. The power of the kingship is linked to the mind. That is to say, the stronger the mind, the stronger the power that can be exerted. On the contrary, if you don't believe in yourself, it is impossible to exert it to the extreme."

So, believing is your strength? This is too idealistic.

Alice curled her lips and said, "I believe in myself very much, but it doesn't react at all. What can I do?"

That only means that you don't believe in yourself as much as you think you do, and you are still doubting and hesitating in your subconscious. As for what you doubt and hesitate about... Themis in heaven has a vague sense of it, but she dare not say it out loud, because that will inevitably lead to more serious consequences.

Seeing that she remained silent, Alice took advantage of the situation and said with a smile, "So you should continue to help me. You can be the narrator of the game, and I can be the protagonist. If we work together, won't we be invincible? And you just said that guiding me to recover my strength was the goddess's request. It doesn't count as violating the position of the mediator. What else do you have to worry about?"

She came closer, looking at Themis with sparkling eyes, full of expectation and encouragement. The girl couldn't stand her passionate gaze, and looked away in embarrassment. After stammering for a few times, she finally hummed in a low voice, the sound was even weaker than the sound of paper falling to the ground, but Alice actually heard it, and immediately raised her hands and cheered: "Great!"

Seeing her happy expression, the girl couldn't help but think that Tiantis knew from the beginning that she had transformed into the narrator of the game console to guide Alice, but she had never stopped her and never accused her of losing her position. It seemed that in her opinion, this approach was reasonable, so she really didn't need to worry about anything.

Moreover, although it is called guidance, I have never given any clear hints. It only played a role when Alice was using the game console. Where to go on this road and how to go are entirely decided by Alice and her friends themselves. It was like this before, it is like this now, and it will definitely be like this in the future.

She made excuses for herself over and over again until she was completely relieved. When she came back to her senses, she found that Alice was still happy, muttering some incomprehensible words such as "genius player", "best partner", "one life to complete the game", etc. She couldn't help but interrupt her random thoughts and said, "Alice."

She asked, "Now that you have made the decision, then... when do you plan to leave the Holy Temple of Heaven?"

"Ah." Alice came back to her senses, scratched her cheek, and replied uncertainly: "Since it is a time-limited main quest, it must be done as soon as possible. But before that, we have to make some preparations. After all, Tiantis said that the fleet and constructed mechas of the Witch Society are waiting outside the initial star field. Also, I want to know what Lingge thinks, maybe he has some ideas?"

Lingge...is that the young man with silver hair and golden eyes?

Themis of the Celestial Realm was deeply impressed by him, not because he displayed calmness and caution that was not expected of a mortal when he was viewing the files in the control center; nor was it because he made up his mind so quickly after knowing all the truth and guided the other hesitant young royals to make a decision; but because Themis of the Celestial Realm saw many familiar characteristics in him.

Apart from his more obscure personality, temperament and aura, his most notable features are his hair color and eye color.

Did that young man know that before him, there were only two beings in the entire universe with silver hair and golden eyes, one was himself, and the other was the great goddess. But his silver hair and golden eyes were inherited from the goddess, so where did his hair color and eye color come from? If it were in the past, Themis in the heavens would not have any doubts, after all, the mortal race has multiplied to this day, and there are countless people with their own uniqueness, and he is just one of them. But once combined with the current situation, the suspicion becomes more and more prominent: Why does the person who led the young royal powers to this heavenly temple have such a significant feature? Does he have some kind of...close connection with the goddess?

But Themis of the heavens was very sure that, apart from the sixteen young girls' royal powers, the golden apples and herself as the mediator, the goddess had never created any life form beyond mortals. Regarding this point, the girl who had always followed the goddess and watched her self-disintegrate and fall into a long sleep was undoubtedly the most qualified to speak; moreover, his life experience was also very clear. His parents were just ordinary mortals. Because of their poor family conditions, they abandoned the child at the door of an orphanage, but he did not live well there. In the end, he simply escaped and became a street child until he was adopted by a priest - this was the information that Tiantis found.

As for why Themis knew this, it was because Tiantis was inexplicably interested in the young man and had asked her about this information. The key point was whether her mother had left some secret arrangements on the Mirror Star before she fell asleep. She seemed to suspect that Themis chose to send Alice to the Tianxin Church because of this young man - but Themis knew very well that it was because of the golden apple.

And he is not the golden apple.

If I have to say something, it might be because I have been with the Golden Apple day and night, and have been infected with some ambiguous aura.

This is the problem.

If he is not the golden apple, what is he, or is he just the product of many chance interactions?

No, there are no coincidences in this world, only unexpected inevitability.

The girl came back to her senses from her thoughts. When she turned around, she found Alice looking at her eagerly, as if she wanted to say something but didn't dare to. She subconsciously asked, "What's wrong, Alice?"

"Ah?" Alice was confused by her question and spoke incoherently: "No, nothing. I wanted to ask you what happened. Why did you suddenly become silent? Did the computer freeze?"

She used a very rude word to describe the thinking state of Themis in the celestial world. The girl took a deep breath, pretended not to hear this, and said expressionlessly: "Nothing, I was just thinking about whether I should meet... the young man named Lingge."

"What!" Alice was immediately shocked and cried out in surprise: "How did you know that Ling Ge would laugh?"

Themis of Heaven: "..." (End of this chapter)