"System." Cecilia's voice was soft, contemplative, her fingers tracing the spine of a new diary she had bought from the Athenaeum's small shop. "What do I have to do to get out of this harem scenario again?"
[You just need to say it, Cecilia!]
Cecilia's lips curved slightly. "And theoretically, if I can find a way to magically achieve immortality in this world, I could stay here forever? And time in the real world would just… pause, for us?"
[Yes!]
She chuckled and opened the diary to its first blank page. The paper was crisp, new, untouched. She lifted her pen, the ink dark against the cream.
"When we get out of this world," she asked, "will it collapse? Disappear? Destroyed…?"
[Yes!]
Her pen stopped.
"Then you're lying."
The words hung in the air between her and the interface only she could see.
[…]
[…]
[…]
[We don't lie, though, Cecilia…?]
