Excerpt

"Do have fun with your host?" BaoBao elaborated on his question, which was something he has been wondering for a long time.

"Fun?"

"Yeah! My host's really great to be with! How's your host like? She keeps making things hard for my host but I shall forgive it if she's like that because of a mission."

A frown slowly formed on LiLi's little face. "You're really enthusiastic for someone who's strong enough to fix the data that I corrupted that quickly. That girl's your first host, isn't she?"

Right after BaoBao nodded, she continued without waiting to see if BaoBao would have something to say. "I knew it. I've never met a veteran system behaving like you. It can't be your first world since you used the system market. Is this your second?"

"It's actually our sixth! Wha-"

"Sixth? That's considered long enough to be seasoned. Now I know for sure that there's something weird about you."

BaoBao's face fell a little. "Huh?"

"You're the only system I know who talks about... Fun." The way she said the word was as if it was something completely foreign and disgusting to her. 

"What's more, it's about working with hosts? What could be so... Fun about this? Astral odyssey has only one purpose and we have only two goals. Yet you're talking about things beyond that.

Weren't you briefed about the dangers of emotions before you got sent to the Initiate World? Why do you ask if something's fun? Why does it sound to me like you're picking something up from the humans?" 

At this moment, BaoBao remembered how he had also freaked out when Naoko first insinuated that he experienced emotions as well. After spending so long with Naoko, he had forgotten how badly the idea that emotions were bad had been hammered into him from the moment he came into existence.

Right now, he was only lucky that their earlier agreement kept LiLi here and talking to him. Otherwise, he was sure that she would have ignored him the way he ignored Noako for a while.

While he had those thoughts, LiLi's speech continued as she remained completely oblivious to BaoBao's feelings and thoughts.

"Not to mention how you're not the first system I've encountered but you're the first one that I could not detect. If not for your host's weird routine and out of this world behaviour followed by the use of the system market, I would not have known there was a system."

"You mean you can-"

"Yes. Normally you should be able to sense my astral energy signature just as I should have been able to detect yours. This is an abnormality. You're an abnormality."

BaoBao could not help but recall Administrator Hal, the system that instructed him before sending him to Naoko's original world. 

The way she spoke without filter. The way she does not stop until she was done. The way she chose what she wanted to respond to. The list could go on and on. 

This made it apparent to him how he had inadvertently reproduced the same interaction style with Luna, which was what LiLi was likely doing as well. Now that he was on the receiving end, he realised how tolerant Luna have been towards him before he grew to be more sensible. 

"Do... All systems talk like this? Like you do?"

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