"That's it. After that, I got a mission to enter Dragon City, that time since Bai Clan was asking me to go into exile for being useless or just hide into shadows I decided to take the ownership of the city they don't even care now."
Alicia completed her glass of Orange Juice and nodded at him. "Then I met you while you were reorganizing the staff at the Central Office. I tried to scan you only for fun to see what crazy thoughts the new rich Young Master of the city was having to only get some bits of your thoughts, I failed to read them and thought that you had some connection with Grant. But as it happened you were him altogether."
"I am saying this for atleast the 10th time now, call me Bai Changming or Drake, I don't remember being Grant."
"Okay. Okay. Phew, you are quite adamant over that huh."
"You will be too if someone keeps calling you what you are not."
"...That's true. I am sorry, I was too excited. I will call you what you want from now. But I can see you have accepted me quite a bit, I thought it will take some more time."
Bai Changming stopped his hand from reaching the bowl of nachos he got from the third fill of refreshments and nodded at her words as he believed that his initial hesitation actually got reduced.
He paused a bit and started sharing the plausible reason for that.
"I was thinking about us too, but in the end on the basis of our conversation I can understand that unlike marriage I usually knows about the Marriage Contract between you and me is more fundamental in nature, its more like a friendship contract as I can see. But tell me, why we even all this?"
"You will eventually remember all this, do you still want to know?"
"I will? Is this also due to my ackowledgement by the Source you were talking about."
"Yes."
"Even then, spoil me a bit. I am curious about why Gods marry."
"...Gods have long lives. Most of them are experts in removing the emotions and live a lazy life sitting on a same place for many years. A few search ways to end this loneliness. I was quite lonely back then, I was an outcast even as a Goddess of Life and you were a mortal who wanted to, quite frankly, had every possible desires of a mortal. We traveled for a long time, for me it was most fun time in my existence and for you it was the return of warmth you forgot in your quest, we filled in what we wanted most and our souls itself were on quite same wavelength. So we got married anyway."
"...Why you not searched for another one to help with your loneliness."
"I tried you know. Many tried to court me you know. But I felt only disgust from them, so I started roaming around to find the pieces of your soul with the hope to forge you a complete soul. Well, I am not needed to do it now."
"Why do I feel like I am only a tool for to free from your boredome?"
"Wow, you are quite good on uptake huh."
"...Don't just agree like this! Have some respect for the other person!"
"Hahaha, you know, you are quite cute now."
"..."
"Okay. Sorry. Stop looking at me so coldly, my maiden heart will be torn to pieces upon recieveing this gaze from the hubby I met after a long time.
Seriously, relax a bit now, I married Grant only to fight the curse of gods, its fun to be near you so I am fine with our condition now. I will be helping you but in exchange you will have to include me actively in your plans, treat me as a sidekick just like you did when we travelled together in your life as Grant. It is not a bad condition in exchange of getting my help, is it?"
"Yes, it's not...Tell me about your capabilities."
"Hm, I specialize in killing Gods."
"...Please be serious now. And didn't you say that you were Goddess of Life or something like that. Since when do such beings became experts in killing?"
"I told you I am an outcast, I am an outcast for some reason. Anyways, I am currently sealing my strength as this realm can't handle all of the powers."
"...What kind of restrictions are on this world?"
"Nothing major. I believe that this is a higher level world which got demoted due to the loss of Magic System, it has become an Immortal level realm and will only allow Immortal Realm power. Anyone with more power than it will have to leave this realm, no expection, huh there is one expection, becoming so called Heavenly Emperor here but that too is time bound."
"My grandpa has more power than an Immortal?"
"He is most likely an Eternal now, I can't be sure since I never saw him myself. Anyways, I can use top power of an Immortal Emperor. And if I use anything more than it I will be imposed further restrictions and my power level here will fall. Someone else would have been deported, but even Heavenly Will here can't force me out."
"What's your maximum power by the way?"
"I can destroy at least three Dao Universe with my maximum power attack; it can be more as I have not fought with complete power for quite some time."
Bai Changming felt as if he heard something wrong; his body shook slightly as he imagined what she just said and could not help but think that the room felt a little colder now.
"...That's impressive."
"Don't look like this. You were more powerful than me you know. In your prime you could destroy 5 of them easily, well, it will take some time for you to reach that level now."
He silently gulped his cola at her words and barely stopped himself from spilling it towards her as she finished her sentence. He felt a little relieved that his previous life could overpower the Goddess in front of him, but he knew that scale of powers in his mind needed to be revised if he wanted to remain sane.
"...As you said, let's leave all this to time. But now, I am curious about one thing. You said I am a mortal only so how could I be so powerful back then?"
"It was an age of heroes. A crazy era where power levels were distorted. It's more standardized now, but back then, even Mortals like Grant lived more than a thousand years easily and possessed the strength to make Gods run for their life."
"By the way, was our relationship purely platonic? I mean did we...do it?"
"...You are sounding like a kid now. No way, are you really a virgin at this age!?"
Bai Changming felt critical damage at that but could not deny it as he swallowed his pride and nodded at her cruel words.
"Yes. I was initially not interested in those things as it was useless for us but you wanted to have a child so we tried a lot."
She stood up at her words and removed her glasses. Her tall body moved slowly as she moved across the room in a captivating way that Bai Changming could not move his eyes away from him. She moved his chair to make him look at her and brushed away a few wavy blonde strands to let him properly see her beautiful face adorned with electrifying bright blue eyes he saw yesterday.
She pressed his seat and bent down to reach his eye level. His eyes which were tracing her bountiful assets for quite some time, jerked back to see her smile deeply as if she proved her point.
She looked at him in satisfaction and moved away. Seeing him still lost, she laughed at his sorry state.
"Now, tell me, Changming, if you married me, will you not even try to do what you were thinking a moment ago?"
Feeling the apparent defeat, he sighed and shook his head; he can't deny her as even now, his body was getting ready to jump on her. It took all his willpower to defend against this attack.
"What you want to play with this Goddess? Since you can evolve properly now we can try to have a few kids when you become a true God...Or you want to practice it now."
"Stop it Alicia!"
"Its actually quite hilarious, I thought every hero like you gets some girls in their quest. But seeing you, I am again proved wrong. Even the mighty Divine Hero of Earth is maidenless then I wonder how lonely others would be. But fret not, for I am here! I will not let you virgin, lets have some adult fun now."
"Hold your fucking horse down and help me make a proper plan now! Forget about finding some bitches I want to live first!"
[We too agree on this, Miss Alicia.]
Alicia, who was making fun of him and Bai Changming, who was gnashing his teeth with anger, stopped altogether to see a blue screen appearing in front of them. Bai Changming was more surprised as someone else than him was able to see the System for the first time, but remembering that the woman he was talking to was at a level that even System is afraid of her, he didn't find it strange for System to appear openly to her as well.
Alicia arranged her clothes, picked up her glasses, and looked coldly at the System screen, disturbing her fun.
[Miss Alicia, please don't antagonize us. The situation is serious now, and as he is thinking forget about him creating an offspring if he can survive this crisis it would be more than enough.]
"...You found something aftreall huh. I guess no one can hide infront of the master of time and space."
[Don't flatter me so much, or I will get embarrassed...]
"As if a thick-skinned person like you could know the word called as embarrassment. And who are you calling Miss, do I need to teach you a lesson again?"
[You really...sigh...Sister, is it okay now. And yes, I found something. And there is no good news. But first of all, Bai Changming.]
"Yes?"
[You are an idiot. A big idiot.]
"...Excuse me!?"
[You did all those crazy missions and even created a Divine Title on this planet in 25 years you were here. While we were not able to cover for you, you went overboard and established your presence here. Now Void Gods are coming here; just yesterday, one even descended in this realm in spirit form. They know where you are now. Everything is over now! Our years of hiding you went to waste thanks to your hero complex! Do you know how much we sacrificed for avoiding this scenario!?]
"Well. Well. Brother didn't you say that you were protecting him, what are you saying now? Going back on your words so soon? Freya would be disappointed to see the team she prepared while hiding from me acting like this."
[...That was the best form of protection we could think of at that time.]
"No, all of you restrained him. I can bet that he never learned Magic System from you guys. You knew that there was something there that would result into this. You, with your greed of peace literally enslaved me. As of now, I don't care who or what allowed me to meet him, but I am grateful to be here to stop you fools now."
[Don't spout nonsense, sister. I can send you logs to prove that we never stopped him from doing anything. He tried Magic System before too, but this never happened; the problem is more severe than I thought. The techniques he learnt from the Notes he had are mostly experimental studies or something that even we are hearing about for the first time, if you don't believe it, just read them yourself later. Among them were a few techniques that can be used together to use mana to evolve a soul by force, that and the Origin School of Magic was the real cause of all this.]
"Hey, but didn't you say that they were fake?"
[I was wrong. I used all my powers to test each and everything in the notes you had. There were many things, so it took some time.]
"...You did all this in a few hours?"
"Changming, its fine. He is a master of time afterall, if he had to use time then he was quite serious."
[...Yes. I don't use my power nowadays to fear repeating our mistake, so believe me when I say that we screwed up big time now.]
"Come one, let them come, since when we became cowards? We can at least plan, can't we? So my dear brother, calm down and tell us everything that can help us in planning now."
[Very well. First of all, as I said before, Bai Changming is now visible on the radar. We covered for him now, but a few got his location. We will now aim to change his Divine Title a bit to hide from the ones coming in Dao Universe, I will leave the option to Bai Changming on how he wants to change it, but we need to change it. Everyone would instantly know that he is the so-called "Exiled Young Master". Really, how the heck did you obtain such an obvious title.
The second stage will be making him grow. He should be ready to face the enemies on his own now. We will employ our force to make sure that no one above Immortal Level could enter the realm you guys are in, but below it, there would be some who could successfully invade; instead of relying on you, it would be better if he could deal with them as restrictions will be imposed even on you.]
"You will increase the restrictions?"
[We are already on it, even the Heavenly Will there is scared of housing a timebomb like him, it is not an idiot too. We will be able to enforce a proper lockdown soon.]
"That's good. But it will be difficult for me to help him then."
[Yes. Don't help him in battles if you can't control your powers. You need practice too, or else you will be deported, and we will lose our key asset.]
"...This escalated quite a bit."
[So there was my plan, what are your thoughts?]
"What do you think Changming?"
"....I have a say here?"
"Of course you have. Please tell us."
"...It does not sound like a proper plan at all. Administrator, tell me, did you find anything about the entity who planned all this?"
[No, but our investigation is in progress.]
"These Void Gods, why are they coming for me in the first place actually? I am really in a blind now."
[You didn't tell him?]
"I can't tell everything in a few hours can I?"
[Tch. There was an ancient war between them and us. The war ended when you created Heaven's Protocol using the Chaos Law. You sacrificed yourself for that and essentially laid a framework where we could install Heavenly Wills and Cultivation Systems to grow our own powers and control them.
But now, you are not the only one who can use Chaos Law. They also have someone capable of using a different version of the Chaos Law. They want to find you either to kill you off or to learn your version of Chaos Law.]
"...What's this Chaos Law? What's the law you are talking about?"
[You will learn about them from the new Notes we are making. For now, just treat the Chaos Armor you showed me as the Chaos Law.]
"In my past life, as Grant, I named it Chaos Armor too?"
[Yes, that's why I said that name you chose is fine. In fact, after Grant's death, we were not able to find more about the Chaos Law, even its name was told by him. We thought only you obtained by that law and only you know about it, but we were wrong. We don't know the orecise reasons, but the Void Gods are interested in you, the person who proposed the plan of forging your sole was working for them unknowingly. That's why our first step of protecting you was hiding you from the world, until now we were quite successful at that.]
"But why? Is it not better that I got my memories and help you to defeat them? Why did all these troublesome things?"
[...Because we didn't want another war. Their user of Chaos Law is tricky, but they have not breached all of our systems. They were actually waiting for something; no, they were waiting for you to appear. Until now, we only had small fights but nothing major happened. But the day you used Chaos Armor in your tribulation, we caught their sightings in multiple realms. Even now, as we are speaking, their activity is increasing beyond our wildest dream, just a little more, and it will be a full-blown invasion.]
"Why do they really want me...if I surrender then what?"
"Don't talk nonsense! You forgot your promise so soon!? You want to leave me alone once again!?"
"...I am sorry."
[...Even if you surrender, it wouldn't do any good thing for us. We were essentially losing the war back then, but you gave us some time to grow. It seems like we can't delay the inevitable, even with your surrender, they would attack to destroy everything; your capture will only speed up the process.]
"Okay, I get it. As for the plan, let's go with what you said. You will be stopping the information about me, and I will change the Divine Title or something you were saying about, I believe that you will brief about me soon,"
[Yes, I personally will take over the System AI until it is adequately trained.]
"I will try to grow strong. But you do know that its difficult to grow more in Magic System now."
[...We are working to find a way.]
"Don't. It's no use. Why not use Umbra?"
"...What's Umbra?"
[A secret organization Bai Changming created under the missions of the infected system.]
"Yes. The entity who made me follow Magic System also made me establish Umbra. I guess that entity knew very well that I can become Immortal this time but would not be able to grow fast enough to fight the Void Gods alone."
[But it is only a research organization. There is no firepower there, it is just a geek house for creators who want to research the grey areas.]
"...What about Immortal Serum. Can't we mass-produce it? I have a strong feeling that the recipie for that was given by that entity, I don't think that even Gods like you can create perverse thing like that."
[...Correct, We created a Cultivation System to allow Mortals to grow. We would have just injected the Serum if it was so simple. Even we are baffled to see something like it, it would change the entire Universe if it can be mass-produced.]
"Yes, they gave me Immortal Serum as a backup in case I can not evolve properly after using the techniques they designed for me. Even if I didn't consume it since I don't need it now, I am quite sure that it works and can be mass-produced."
[If you can give it to me for study. I can share the report with you.]
"Okay, I will store it in the inventory, take it from there."
"...Can I also look at the report?"
"Yes. And administrator, do something and establish a way so that we can contact with each other."
[...Fine. We will add a friend feature to talk with the ones you trust via System. But you will be able to add only the loyal ones and to whom you can disclose the details about the system. We will leave the choice to you, and I will personally add some tweaks later if it works well.]
"Good. And don't send some missions for a week. I will be moving with Alicia. I feel that I have been too relient on the mission system and actually on some point treat everything as a game. But I don't think that I have the luxury to think like that anymore."
[A great idea. You will be needed to make decisions yourself more and more now. As I said before..]
"...Tutorial is over."
[Yes. I will look for you again in one week. Till then, please take care of yourself.]
The System screen vanished, leaving both of them looking at each other.
"So what now?"
"I guess, we need to do some housecleaning first?"
"Why are you asking me now? You are the one giving orders, I am just a secretory at your commands here."
Bai Changming nodded at her and stood up while smiling at this ridiculous scenario where a god is happier to follow orders.
"I guess I need to change a bit too. It may be boring for you, you will still follow me?"
"Oh god, you don't know what's true boredom is. And I believe that following Young Master Bai Changming will be quite fun."
"...Before that could you hide the ring from my finger."
"..."
Alicia sighed and snapped her fingers, making the ring invisible from his finger.
"You can call it out if you need it. I will teach you how to do it on the way. So where we are going."
"To the headquarter of Umbra. I will wait for you at the gate, please bring Selena with you. And also tell Gildor to meet me at the headquarter."
"...Why her?"
"I promised her. Since I have become a man who needs to fulfil his promise I need to carry out the ones I made with her too."
"Why I am feeling that you are calling her in order to not go with me alone there?"
"...Don't think weird things; please do this as soon as possible. We don't have much time."
"Scaredy cat."
"..."
Not able to bear his cold stare, she coughed a bit and went to gather Selena, leaving Bai Changming, who decided to finish his remaining bag of chips while thinking about his so-called "housecleaning".