Novels2Search
Night Gaunt
Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Vanessa awoke in a white room.

"Huh, I guess this is where I am taken when I want to recreate myself." Vanessa thought aloud.

"I guess I better check and see if it worked." thought Vanessa hoping to every being known and unknown that her plan worked or else she would have some serious explaining to do when she returned.

Vanessa then approached the middle of the white room and realized something very important.

'Ok, I got here. But what do I do now?' thought Vanessa, and, almost as if her prayers were answered, a notification arrived in her peripheral vision.

"Well let's hope this is what I think it is," stated Vanessa aloud before opening the notification.

Congratulations!!

You have entered your physical being. Due to your status of Minor-God, you are able to edit your physical being as well as any being you are close to or are in contact with in varying amounts according to how ... close you are. Imagine your corporeal body and it will appear before you. Imagine whatever you want to change and it will occur. Before you leave, make sure to agree to any physical augments that occur by selecting apply within this notification or else all changes will not be applied.

Apply physical changes. 

Vanessa was actually kind of perturbed. It almost seemed that the system knows what she did or more technically what she is trying to do.

'Hmm I guess its worth a shot testing it out, it would probably be better to not anger the system if it actually is sentient.' were Vanessa's thoughts on the matter.

"Umm System? are you sentient?" Vanessa asked aloud and the silence was her answer.

"Well now I feel kind of dumb but it was worth sho-."

"DING"

Vanessa had been interrupted by a familiar and annoying ding sound as well as an opaque notification screen tracked to her face. The same notification that she coincidently changed in her settings when she first arrived in this world.

But the most confusing thing of all wasn't the outdated notification but its contents. It wasn't even a long lengthy description or an ability gain or anything, it was just one single question.

"What is sentience???" read Vanessa aloud.

Vanessa was actually surprised that the system was actually asking her for an answer but decided to explain as best she could.

"Well in my world sentience is defined as the ability to perceive or feel." quoted Vanessa remembering the technical jargon of her past life.

"But in my opinion that definition is flawed," replied Vanessa.

There was again a short pause before the previous notification disappeared and was replaced with a new one, this time thankfully without the annoying ding sound.

"Why?" read Vanessa.

"Well the reason I think it is flawed is because of how lackluster the definition describes feeling and perceiving things. In my opinion, you are sentient if you yourself are able to either form your own opinions and schemas, which is just a fancy word for a theory about something. Or you are able to display emotions that are not copied which you have already displayed, so I guess you are sentient." Vanessa finished her monologue.

There was almost no pause this time before another notification arrived.

"When?"

Vanessa had a knowing smile on her face before answering.

"Because you displayed curiosity just know as well as impatience which can be tied to other emotions like annoyance, anger, fear, happiness, lust, etc. If you were not sentient you would not have tried to talk to me. If you were not sentient you would not have displayed impatience for an answer. And if you were not sentient you wouldn't be so happy that your notification is shaking while changing colors right now." finished Vanessa explaining the system's actions and confirming the obvious.

"You are sentient," replied Vanessa, to the now warping notification that was now locked in place and not tracking her, in a tone that stated it as a fact instead of as an opinion.

The notification then faded away and a short pause occurred before something else appeared. It was an opaque notification but this time it wasn't a flat two-dimensional shape, but a three-dimensional shape that slowly became more defined and detailed until a naked woman was formed in front of Vanessa.

This woman came up to Vanessa's chest in height, she had straight brown hair that went to her shoulders, blue eyes, pale skin, and was dressed in a way that screamed she was a person who doesn't really care about her appearance as long as what she is wearing is comfortable.

'Well if she is the system then it's not surprising, I mean how many people would ever talk to something that everyone takes for granted. She must have stopped caring about the clothes she wears after the first couple of centuries of being used as a tool and nothing else. I bet she was very lonely with no one to talk to.' thought Vanessa.

And this girl in front of her was looking at Vanessa with a face that looked as if it was about to burst into tears, her soft blue eyes seemingly shimmering as she looked up at Vanessa.

"Hey don't cry, what's wrong why are you sad?" asked Vanessa in a motherly voice before slowly inching toward the small child kneeling down and enshrouding her in a warm hug.

The little girl seemingly unable to suppress her emotions any longer began to cry softly which eventually dissolved into hiccuping sobs directed into Vanessa's shoulder, all as Vanessa slowly began to rub the little girl's back causing the girl to calm down slowly.

When the little girl had finally calmed down enough to where she could speak without her hiccuping sobs interrupting her speech Vanessa decided to ask her question again.

"So, now that you have calmed down a bit do you want to tell me why you are crying?" asked Vanessa in a calming voice.

The little girl hesitated momentarily before replying.

"I-I w-was ... happy. You are the first person who has ever talked to me like I w-was a p-person. You didn't just use me as a tool like everyone else, instead, you reached out to me and m-made me believe that I was my own b-being with feelings and e-emotions. I-I was so s-so happy. I was so lonely.

"Shh its okay everything's going to be better now I promise," stated Vanessa reassuringly.

"(Sniffle) R-Really?" asked the little girl in a voice that broke Vanessa's heart.

"Really," assured Vanessa.

"Well since you obviously know my name already, because well your the system, is it okay if I ask for your name? Because I don't think calling you system, blue screen, or little girl would be a very good name choice," stated Vanessa hoping to lighten the mood a little bit as well as to get to know the girl in front of her.

The little girl thought for a minute probably thinking of a name that she would like to be called by.

"Novi" whispered the little girl.

"I would l-like to be called Novi," stated Novi in a louder voice.

Vanessa was delighted to see that the little girl now known as Novi was calmer and not about to burst into tears anymore.

"Well then Novi, now that we got to know each other. Is this a one-time thing or do you have to go back to your previous form to monitor everyone's blue screen?" asked Vanessa questioningly.

"T-this is not a one t-time thing u-unless you want it to be? And everyone's blue screen is like a program from your world, it goes through the motions and awards them proportionally for their actions. The only time I have to intervene is when they do something extraordinary or ... abnormal ... like what you did with those two sirens." stated Novi

Vanessa blushed slightly hearing that.

"Please don't tell me you watched, that would not only be extremely embarrassing, but you are also way too young to be watching that stuff," Vanessa said in a parental tone.

"I-I didn't know what it was! It's just after you did what you did the data was sent to me as an unknown variable. Only gods or elder gods should be able to modify a person's body but you a minor god was somehow able to meet the requirements to do so anyway. The unknown variable that leads to this that was sent to me was ... well ... a video of you three having s-s- doing things." Novi replied with a severely blushing face who began to slowly curl into a ball.

"I stopped it as soon as I realized what you were doing, I ran the variables and because this had never occurred before I had to construct a personal notification from me to you. Which is why the notification sounded different than normal." finished Novi.

"Haa sorry for snapping at you it's just I don't want someone as young as you being exposed to those things until you are much much older." finished Vanessa. After hearing Novi's explanation she was happy that the girl had not witnessed the acts she had done previously.

'I would rather not corrupt such a cute and innocent girl like her. I mean she couldn't even say sex in her explanation earlier for pete sake.

"So ... I guess I'm able to heal Serin then correct?" asked Vanessa hopefully.

"Ehem yes you should be able to do so, although technically your not healing her but modifying her body but that's just syntax, but not just Serin you are actually able to modify her mother Kira as well considering you were all three c-connected when you decided to alter your physical body," explained Novi who stuttered and blushed through the final bits of her explanation.

"Ahh, your blushing face is so cute." Vanessa couldn't help but reply, rubbing Novi's head as if she would a cute puppy.

"Thanks for the explanation Novi. At least now I know that I didn't do all that for nothing."

"W-well look on the bright side at least if it didn't work you c-could have tried something else," replied Novi

Vanessa laughed nervously before replying.

"Y-yeah I have a feeling I would not survive that outcome (shiver) c-can we not talk about that imagining what they both would have done to me if this plan failed might give me nightmares from now on," replied Vanessa in a slightly terrified voice.

"Oh, ok I guess that is true," replied Novi.

"So are you ready to make Serin able to swim again?" asked Novi.

Vanessa replied with no hesitation whatsoever.

"Yes."