Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
At last, I still skipped my classes.
I had no other choice. I could not walk into class with an unknown creature shaped like a Lolita without drawing attention to myself. What’s more, the best outcome was probably that my form teacher—who seemed like she was approaching menopause—would take this chance to lecture me for half an hour. Most of the time, she would go from teaching me about society to teaching me about morality; but I would have to put this highly-dangerous entity aside.
According to what I have learned from most films and novels, this would definitely lead to a lot of trouble. For all I knew, I would be captured by a bunch of men in tuxedos the moment I ended school. Then, one of these men would probably take a mechanical pencil out, point it at me, and shout ‘Eggplant!’.
… According to my analyses, it was best for me to skip classes. What’s more, I was not feeling well, was I? It was all very logical, very logical!
My sister had already gone to work. There would only be me and Pandora at home. I had to make good use of the time and learn as much as I could about these unknown entities.
“Alright, remember this: your name is Pan Lili,” I repeated. “You are my long-lost younger sister. Unless there is no outsider around, you are not allowed to tell me about the Xyrin Empire, which is located at God-knows-where in the universe. En, let me take a look again at the mark on your arm. Good, constructed beings are indeed amazing. You can really do what I ask you to. Remember not to do anything suspicious in front of my older sister, and we’ll be fine.”
“Yes… Big Brother.” Pandora was not used to this new way of addressing me. She hesitated for a few seconds before she managed to spit it out.
This was my plan! I needed Pandora to act as my long-lost younger sister. In any case, I was an orphan, adopted from a young age. Nobody knew where I came from. Nobody would get suspicious that I suddenly found a younger sister. En, I guessed that no one would find this suspicious. However, why did I feel like something was amiss?
I frowned, scanning Pandora from head to toe again and again. She had already changed to torn and tattered clothes, but for some reason, I felt like something was wrong. Yet, I could not put my finger on it.
Er, I found it.
“Pan… Lili, do you know how to smile?”
This was where the problem was! I just recalled that the girl in front of me had not smiled since I saw her. Not only had she not smiled, but she had not even shown a hint of emotion on her face. She looked just like a human-sized doll. Moreover, while she did speak a lot when she was introducing me to the Xyrin Empire, she did not say much else after that. In fact, she was speaking frighteningly little. A fourteen-year-old girl should not be behaving in this manner.
The above was only a secondary issue. After all, someone with an extremely autistic personality could behave in this way. I could also come up with a corresponding back story to match her behavior. The more crucial problem was something else: Pandora’s eyes!
They were not focused at all. She looked like an ornament. (Although she had already imitated much of the human body, Pandora’s sensing of the outside world was different from humans. At the very least, she did not use something as simple as her eyes to see her surroundings.) Eyes like that would attract attention no matter where they went.
How about…?
…
The day passed quickly. During the course of this day, I tried to explain as much about human life as possible to Pandora. As for whether she could remember all of these things or not, I was not worried in the least. I also used this time to learn a lot more about the Xyrin Empire from the otherwise-silent Pandora. Among these things, I also learned about the 99.999999% of commands that were inexecutable.
According to Pandora’s explanation—since the nearest void node was too far away, every command I executed had to make a long journey before reaching the nearest Xyrin colony. This distance was so long that any signal I sent would become indistinguishable by the time it arrived due to cosmic microwaves and background radiation. Signals like that would sound just like background noise. As for the long-range fire source I activated the morning before, it was a mere rare coincidence. The only explanation for it was that my brain was extraordinarily superb at that exact moment.
Since I could not understand a single one of these reasons, I had to take Pandora’s word for it.
“I can be used as an emergency Xyrin Terminal,” Pandora said. “However, any command you send through me can only be received with ten percent clarity even after I enhance it. What’s more, the criteria to meet before I will help you are extremely strict. Do you need me to build a Xyrin Outpost on this planet? Once the outpost is established, you will be able to initiate combat at any time. Then, this world will become the new frontier of the empire.”
“Forget it,” I answered as beads of cold sweat formed on my forehead. I rejected the very tempting suggestion. “I don’t have plans to take over the world.”
What a joke. Take over the world? Control the human race? Was this supposed to be some kind of movie? What benefit was there in controlling the world? I could not even control Qianqian.
What’s more, those messy commands were almost all for combat purposes. I could not possibly use such large-scale, destructive, and fatal weapons to deal with the human race, could I? Since the instruction set was proving to be completely useless to me, it would be a waste to build an outpost on this earth. En, at the very least, I was being extremely serious.
What, who said that I could use these things to deal with the unsightly little thieves and show off in front of the ladies?
I wasn’t stupid. Was I supposed to use the Xyrin Directional Astral Cannon on whoever accidentally knocked into me? A pan-spatial Fire Support System was not to be used casually. This would be akin to using an atomic bomb to barbecue a lamb.
“Big Brother, a carbon-based being is moving towards us. Please confirm that person’s identity.”
“It should be my big sister.” I looked at the clock and said, “Also, Lili, don’t speak in this way again. You must try your best to sound human.”
I was just instructing Pandora when I heard the sound of the front door opening.
“I’m home,” my sister said tiredly. Then, she exclaimed, “En? Ah Jun, who is this child?”
“This is Pan Lili,” I gently pulled Pandora closer to me and tried to look agitated as I said, “This is my little sister!”
“Little sister?” My big sister was shocked. The next moment, she considered the possibilities and asked in shock, “You’re saying she is your little sister? Your biological little sister?”
“That’s right,” I responded, smiling. “I thought that my family members had all died. I did not expect that I would still find my little sister.”
“How do you do?” Pandora nodded slightly, greeting my big sister with her emotionless voice.
My big sister frowned as if offended by Pandora’s cold greeting. The moment I noticed this, I explained, “Lili’s life had not been smooth-sailing. What’s more… she experienced many bad things. That is why she’s a bit strange.”
At that moment, my older sister finally realized the torn and tattered clothing that Pandora had on. A look of pity flashed across her face, but the suspicion did not leave her eyes.
I knew why she was suspicious. Back then, when she brought me home, I was not even one-year-old. I did not have any recollection of my own family. From the difference in age between me and Pandora, my big sister also could tell that she was not even born when I got sent here. My big sister was worried that I was getting fooled.
I smiled slightly and held up Pandora’s right arm, rolling up the sleeve.
A triangular birthmark the size of my fingernail could be seen. This was the exact same birthmark I had on my right arm as well.
“This seems to be hereditary. It’s not a birthmark. All of my blood relatives have the same mark on their right arm. What’s more, although it sounds ridiculous, there seems to be some sort of connection between me and Pan Lili. I am very sure that she is my biological little sister.”
Thankfully, the heavens gave my big sister a brain with very little understanding of biology. Otherwise, she would have seen through my lies a long time ago. How could such a weird gene exist in the world?
Fortunately, my big sister had never passed biology in her life. She became eighty to ninety percent convinced almost immediately. At the same time, she noticed that Pandora’s eyes were strange.
“Ah Jun, why are this child’s eyes…?”
I immediately put on a pitiful expression and touched Pandora’s hair, saying, “Didn’t I say it before? She has experienced many horrible things. Since then, she became blind; and her character became like this…”
“Poor girl…” My big sister began to choke up as she bent over and pulled the expressionless Pandora in her arms. “Where are you staying now? If you want to, you can move in with us. I will take care of you like a biological big sister would…”
My big sister, filled with compassion and sympathy, completely ignored how I could understand so much about my little sister in just one day.
I’m sorry, Big Sister. I can only hide these things from you now. Speaking of which, I could hide so many things from my sister with just a couple of excuses. Big Sister, you have so much trust in me. I am so touched… so touched that I have no words to express it!