"Umm...No. Not exactly."
Both of them were startled by the existence of a third person there. Expecting to see a human or at least someone who looks like a human, they were shocked to see that the sound was coming from a holographic screen with...emojis?
"W-who? Who are you?" Adelia was the first one to react as she questioned timidly. After all, they still didn't know what happened to souls after death. Oh god, they wouldn't be forced to spend eternity in this yellow nightmare, right? Adelia would rather die....Oh wait, she's already dead.
"Who? Me? Well, I'm your own most amazing, dazzling, gorgeous-"
"Can you please get to the point!?" Adelia cried. Though scared, she couldn't take his horrendous use of adjectives anymore.
She regretted as soon as the words left her mouth and continued weakly, "...S-see, if you're gonna kill or torture us, better make it fast. T-there's no need to destroy our ears like that..."
"Kill you?" A confused expression appeared on the screen.
"Why would I kill you?" The screen laughed, "I mean, can I even kill you? You're already dead. It's not like I can kill you twice."
This time Willow was the one who spoke. "We're really dead?"
Even if things became crystal clear before, it was just their assumptions. At the depth of his heart, Willow still held on to the hope that maybe, they weren't dead yet.
"Umm, yeah?"
"Then...who are you? Are you God?"
The afterlife was yellow-land. Now, even if this thing turned out to be God, Satan or literally anyone, he won't be surprised.
"God? Nah. I'm your very own system," A hi GIF appeared on the screen.
"...You're saying that you're a system?" Adelia asked skeptically. Could it be what she's thinking it is? No.....Maybe she just read too much transmigration novels that even in the afterlife, they're all she can think about.
"You must not know what a system is, right? I bet you're feeling confused. I don't exactly know how to explain..." He coughed, "I'm new, you see. You two are my first assignment actually."
"So, uh, a system is a...system, I guess? You guys die in your own world, go to another world and then complete missions. If you succeed, you get a choice to either go back to your original world, or live in that world as a normal person."
Adelia was stunned by his explanation. Was it really happening? Omg, she could believe it! When the sketchy fortune-teller aunty asked her to make a wish, she couldn't help but think of something very ridiculous like transmigration. And it really happened! She should've wished for eternal youth or something....
The grief of her death immediately vanished as excitement overtook her. "Oh my god. Are you like the system in those transmigration novels? Who assists the protagonist to complete the mission to capture the targets and-"
The system was a little creeped out. Although it was his first assignment and he didn't know how these humans usually reacted to finding out they're dead, he heard that they're either crying or simply too shocked to react. There might be varying responses, but an excited human was a first. And she also seemed to know quite a bit about it all?
"I don't know what novels you're talking about, but that sounds just about what I'm supposed to do."
"...Doesn't the system appear right after they die in the books though? Why did you leave us hanging for about 30 minutes?"
"Uh, that.....that's just the way thing here are."
Adelia raised an eyebrow. She wasn't afraid of offending him anymore. After all, he's just a system. "You're lying!"
"..." Since it had no way out of it, the system admitted with a guilty expression, "I, uh, had things to do. You know that its my first assignment, everybody makes mistakes, ha ha." He laughed nervously, avoiding her eyes.
"But you're just a bunch of codes! What things would you have to do?" Adelia snapped, completely disregarding its feeling. He WAS just a bunch of codes, duh.
"HEY!" An angry and hurt expression overtook the previously nervous one. "I also have feelings, you know? I can also have things to do! How dare you call me a bunch of codes-"
"-But you are a bunch of codes though" Willow pointed out in a matter of fact way. He was also a lot less afraid now. Since the 'system' had not killed them till now, it didn't seem to have the intention or ability to do so. They were already dead anyway. What worse can he do?
"Is that how its going to be? Then, you humans are just a pieces of meat. But you still have feelings, right?"
The system turned away from them, like a child throwing a tantrum. It might have looked cute on a kid, but on a holographic screen, it looked plain weird.
10 minutes passed, but it didn't seem like it planned to speak anytime soon. Adelia felt a little guilty. She wasn't a bully who bullies little children....or systems, okay? She didn't know it had feelings!
She tried to coax him, "My dear system, I'm sorry? Please forgive me, okay?"
When he showed no movement, she pleaded again, "Please? Pretty please?"
To be honest, she didn't really care about his feelings that much. But he was still their system, and from what she knew, the hosts need them pretty often.
"Please?" Adelia pleaded for a third time. By now, her patience was thinning. If it still doesn't respond, she'll just ditch him and find the way out herself.
"I can't see your sincerity though. Tell me, how am I?"
It was obvious that he was asking for praise. Adelia sighed as she put down her pride and said, "You are our most amazing, dazzling, gorgeous system."
It immediately turned around with a sunny expression, happy at being praised. Adelia also smiled slightly. Just how simple was this little system? A tiny bit of praise, and he immediately lightens up.
"Where were we? Yeah, one sec....Let me play the official speech for you."
"Official speech?" Adelia groaned, "Ugh, can't you just directly teleport us there? We already wasted an hour!"
She rolled her eyes. "I don't know what this 'official speech' is, but it surely doesn't look like anything interesting."
"It's the formal procedure. Let's bear with it."
"-Ahem" The system lightly coughed before starting.
"Greetings, dear hosts. I am your system. You have died in your original world. No need to panic, everyone die someday." It spoke monotonously, completely unlike his earlier self. For the first time, he actually looked like a system.
"You'll be given an assignment. You two have to develop a novel, to be exact. For every positive review, you'll be awarded two points and for every negative one, one point will be deducted. When your score reaches a hundred points, the mission will be considered complete. When that happens, you can choose to stay in your current conditions without any system, or return to your world, alive and well. And, Uh...."
It trailed off, forgetting the next line. Frantically, it opened a tab in front of him with the written speech. "Shit, I forget that line every single time!"
Willow raised an eyebrow at the sudden outburst. The system awkwardly apologized, "Um, sorry about that. I always forget this one line. It isn't really important, though. Just, you'll die for real when the score reaches minus 20 points. Thank you."
"..."
"Please give me a 5 star rating! Let's work hard to exist together!"
...That might be 'not important ' to him, but their lives depended on that, literally. If there was one thing Willow was sure of, it was that he wouldn't be leaving any '5 star ratings' to a certain someone anytime soon.