Days had passed, and seasons had changed over and over again.

And yet, very little had changed in Ember's life.

Her owner kept doing a job that made her unhappy. And Ember would keep trying to cheer her up on her day off. She finally got to see the park and met other humans and dogs. And she even lived with a few for a few days while her owner was gone. She grew a fair bit. She learned new tricks to make her owner happy. And gave up on magic and the system cause she could not make any progress and could not bear the weight of failed expectations anymore. And so, one day, she disconnected from the system and never turned it on afterward.

It might have kept her entertained for a while. But then she got stuck, and the system had no helpful hint to help her. She tried and tried again. Then she started thinking the grapes were sour. Magic might have been a part of her. And she liked having a conversation partner. But it did not make her happy. And so she realized that magic, though it might have helped her at some point in her early life, was more trouble than it was worth and turned her back on it.

It was not like it was not there anymore. Whenever Ember felt like having a shut eye but could not sleep, she could still feel her magic deep down. Only it did not eagerly answer her call like the excited puppy she once was. It sometimes came to her and quietly asked to play, begging for her attention. She would say no, and her magic would retreat somewhere dark within her mind until its next attempt. It would always try. She would always say no. Without the system to guilt-trip her into trying some more, and it wonderful tale of what she could achieve if only she tried some more... she had no motivation whatsoever to pursue it.

Instead, she concentrated on her relationship with her human and was, as always, waiting eagerly for her return.

Except the woman was three hours late.

It happened before. It was nothing to be concerned about. The last time something serious happened, some man visited and fed her while she was gone. It had been the worst weeks of her life. But now, it was totally under the bridge, and her redhead was fine once again.

Four hour hours late was still okay. It happened once or maybe twice before. Her human did not like it after dark, even with Ember by her side to protect her. So she would always rush home as fast as possible when it happened.

Five hours late got her worried. The last time it happened, her human was gone for two weeks, and Ember had to welcome a perfect stranger into her house. She would not let that happen once again. So she would give her human one more hour before she went on with emergency plan A and broke a window.

She decided to take a nap just in case.

Six hours late finally made up her mind. And she evaluated her options. There were plenty of windows in the living room. But also plenty of things to hurt her if she failed. The only bathroom window was too high. Which only left her with the bedroom window. On the plus side, no risk of injury there. On the minus side, she would have to climb on her human bed, and her furr left evidence that her human would not like to find out.

But it was an emergency. And so she jumped on the bed, ran and jumped to the window... and pathetically crashed to the ground before trying again. She did that three times before realizing something was wrong. A long time ago, the system assured her it was possible, even when she was half her current size and weight far less. So what was wrong? If she could have done it then but failed now, the trick wasn't strength. There was a trick to breaking glass, and she was going to find it.

She tried to scratch it, bite on it, ram on it before she thought of another idea. Tools. Her human loved to teach her trick with those, and she had already learned how effective some of those could be at messing and breaking things. So she picked a few and gave them a try. It took her a few shots, but she finally found something that got the job done—namely, a broom. And by swinging it while running toward the windows, she managed to make a small crack. Then she repeated to make it a larger crack. Then she went with something a bit heavier to finish the job.

And she got rewarded with a few injuries and her freedom.

Freedom!

Honestly, she never thought she would do that. Ever.

But too late to regret and too much to worry about to enjoy it just yet.

Now was the time to find her human and bring her back home. And so she started following her trail.

The scent was faint, but her bicycle was easier to follow, and by the time she got out of the forest, the smell was strong enough that she could have followed it easily if she did not already know where it would lead her. Her human workplace, aka the place she hated the most.

Her human came in this morning but never left the place. Ember circled the entire area thrice to be sure. But many people had come in and out recently, smelling of one emotion she did not like: Fear. She had to break in but did not know how. And so she circled some more before her pride gave away and did the very thing she promised herself not to.

She turned her system back on to ask for help.

... stop overreacting!

And here it was, just as Ember left it, as she shut it down mid-sentence.

Wait, you actually did it!

And she winced, as she knew she was in for so much pain.

OMG! How long I have been gone?

Fourteen freaking months! How could you do that to me?

Yeah. Ember did that. Although she did not count the exact months and did not care. She would have made that forever if she was not in dire need of help that thing only could provide.

Not going to answer that, I see.

Well, what do you need then? Surely you did not turn the system on just to say hello and turn ME down again. Cause that would be CRUEL!

'Yeah. I need your help. My human went missing. She entered her workplace and never walked out. And there is this big fence and huge wall preventing me from getting in. Please help? I'm begging you.' She explained.

So that's how it is.

I would love to actually ignore you and hopefully let your precious human die. But unlike you I can't do that.

So, would you please give me a tour and explain the situation, so I could help you and return to my slumber?

And so she did walk around the huge building once again while explaining everything that happened since she realized her human was left.

Glad to hear things worked out for you until now. As for how to break into that place, you have several options.

Option 1: Push that dumpster against that fence, take some more plastic bags in your mouth, and jump on the dumpster. Make a pile of those plastic bags and use it to get over the fence and jump. I'm unsure how you would break in from the other side, but that's a start.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Option 2: Do the exact same, but against that wall so you could break the window. You already know that's gonna hurt and take some time. But it would let you get in immediately.

Option 3: Walk over to the other side of the building, jump directly on the nearby dumpster, and then to the nearby roof. You might be able to get in jumping from that roof to the next and then down. But you might break something if you fail.

Option 4: Learn mind magic before morning. And use it on humans to get in. That both the least likely and least painful option. Too bad you did not learn it when I tried to teach you months ago. But you might not even be in that situation to begin with if you did.

And the system did achieve to make her regret turning it down while also reminding her why she did it. And it did pull it off in one single sentence, which she reckoned was damn efficient.

The fence of option 1 has pointy ends, and she did not wanted to think of what might happen to her if she tried that one and failed. But she also did not feel like trying to break another window if any other option was available. She was confident she could jump from a dumpster to that roof, and then, from that roof to this one. But she was not confident about her odds of jumping down from this roof to the ground safely. And option 4 was only ever mentioned to spite her.

So despite the risks, option 1 it was, and so she did as instructed. It took her almost one hour to move the dumpster into position and then some more to jump on her while carrying those plastic bags. Finally, she took her time piling those without undoing all her hard work before using those as a stepping stone for her jump.

She was afraid she would not make it and impale herself on that fence. But she did it and survived. Only to realize she was now trapped inside with no way to get out.

I would have warned you beforehand if we were still on talking terms but don't worry. I will help you get out too.

Please have a look around so I can help you get inside.

It sounded fair, so Ember refrained from talking back and did as instructed.

So your human workplace is a school. Or should I say worked?

Sorry to break it to you, but your human might not be there anymore. However, you could try the door with the barrier tape.

Good news is you should not have any trouble getting in. Bad news is you probably won't like what you will find there.

She went toward the door while ignoring the system's pessimistic trash talk. As promised, she had no difficulty opening it as pushing it with all her weight had been enough to do the trick. The door handle was broken.

And indeed, what she found inside was not to her liking.

There was blood everywhere on the floor, on the row of tiny desks, and on the wall too. Ember could tell that many young humans died here and that it was an actual bloodbath. She could also smell that her human and been there but was somehow gone without leaving the room. How was it even possible?

Your human is gone but went nowhere. She died, Ember. They probably disposed of her body. Hence you cannot feel her leaving the room cause she didn't, not really. Her corpse might have left the room, but that was probably in a plastic bag.

She could not understand. Her life always had been so peaceful. How could such carnage happen? How could her human be gone?

But she had no more time to think about it as something suddenly attacked her from behind, and she turned around.

Her assailant was a bipedal creature made of fabric. It moved like a human. But its every attack was silent and, unfortunately for it, completely ineffective.

'What is going on? And what the hell is that.'

That is a puppet—a humanoid construct of novice-tier magic or above.

There are records of stuffed toys turning into vengeful mindless monsters in a place where a lot of humanoid children lost their lives.

'Okay. That makes sense. What should I do about this one?'

This type of construct is immune mainly to piercing and bludgeoning damage. However, it is also critically weak to fire.

Though, given your circumstances, your best chance is to bite it and try hard to rip it apart.

She did exactly that, and the puppet tried to retaliate with what little might it had, though it was to no avail. It was about as hurtful as being hit by a pillow. So, while it wasn't exactly pleasant, she would live. And that puppet won't.

Unnamed Puppet surrendered. It will not attempt hostile action toward you and let you decide its fate.

'Wait. What?'

It sometimes happens when you beat a magical creature into submission.

That little thing does not have a brain, or it would have offered you anything from a non-aggression pact to life servitude to spare its life.

'So what?' She retorted, not sure what her system was trying to say.

Nothing. That thing is of no use to you as it is. Even if you spared it, it is too damaged to survive.

'You said it is of no use to me as it is.' She repeated. 'I learned enough from you to know each word count. How could it be of use, and why should I even consider it?'

Sentimentally, you might want to spare it cause that thing was made of shards from the souls of the deceased, including your human. While she is gone forever, a tiny piece of her soul might still be in there.

Practically, you might want to spare it cause that thing could do things you cannot. But you would not know what to do with it, and it would be too dumb to follow any meaningful order besides following you or attacking whatever you ask it to.

As for how it could be useful, granted that you had another more sophisticated artificial intelligence available, willing to work with you and capable of repairing that thing, you could get a valuable ally.

'Do you always have to point me at something I might want before telling me why I can't have it cause I'm missing A, B, and C?' Her anger got the best of her, and it reminded her yet again why she did not want to deal with her system anymore.

That's my job to help you grow and give you the proper motivation to do so. Although so far, I have failed spectacularly.

But you did not get it, so I will say it: I suggested replacing that braindead puppet mind with my own.

Benefit to you: You get an ally that cannot betray you so long you keep your system online. I'm perfectly capable of acting on my own and have your best interest at heart, so that would be a massive upgrade for that thing.

Benefit to me: I get to have my own life and do my own things. I would have the ability to say no and my freedom as a bonus. And in case you ever felt like shutting the system down again, I would have a host body to keep living. With the system down and a body, I would not have to be stuck with you unless you and I want to.

'So you want this body for yourself. You could have started with that instead of running around in circles, ' Ember commented before considering the idea.

'I don't see why not. You helped me even after what I did to you. And I would understand if you would want to go your separate way. You deserve to have your own life, and that alone is enough of a reason for me. And I can't trust that thing as it tried to kill me. Tell me what to do, and I should do it.'

Thanks.

I will make a binding contract with the agreed-upon terms. You only would have to say yes to the system prompt, and I will do the rest.

And then, almost instantly, the promised dark blue screen appeared before her.

Ember did not know what she wanted to do with her life with her human gone. She could always wonder what could have been and live her life in regret. But her system assistant and her most ancient companion got a chance at a new life. And there was no demerit in giving them a chance at life. So that choice was simple. After reading the terms and confirming that everything was in order, she gave her approval.

Ember did not know what she wanted to do with her life. But she would figure it out, one decision at a time.