Chapter 42: The Interface

Chapter 42: The Interface

Sitting at her desk, Dorothy read the final few paragraphs on the torn pages by the light of her desk lamp. The alternative solutions for replacing a Guide recorded there caught her interest, and she began to consider their feasibility one by one.

‘An item with compatible spirituality can replace a Guide? If that’s the case, then I’d need to find an object that contains “Revelation.” But “Revelation” mainly exists within knowledge itself—where am I supposed to find an object that contains Revelation?’

That was what Dorothy thought. Given the nature of “Revelation,” it was clearly something extremely difficult to embed within a tangible object. Finding such an item would be extraordinarily hard—at least with her current means, it was nearly impossible. At best, she could ask Aldrich whether he had anything like that, but even if he did, the price would almost certainly be terrifying.

‘Still, this method seems more reliable than directly trying to find a “Revelation” Beyonder. I’ll keep it in mind for now…’

Next, Dorothy turned her thoughts to the second option.

‘Praying to a high-ranking divine entities… and if They happen to be in a good mood, They could act as the Guide for the ritual. This… somehow feels even less reliable than all the previous options…’

Dorothy thought to herself. Leaving aside whether a high-ranking divine entity would even bother responding to a nobody like her, even if one did respond, who could guarantee that It would act out of goodwill and help her? The torn pages made it clear as well: even if there was a response, the outcome was more likely than not to be negative. The result was entirely uncontrollable, the risks enormous—one misstep, and she could very well destroy herself.

More importantly, Dorothy had no idea what high-ranking divine entities even existed. As far as she knew, the only gods in this world were the Three Saints of the Radiance Church. Who knew whether those Three Saints even truly existed? And even if they did, tens of billions of people prayed to them every day—there was no chance they would pay any attention to her. Not to mention that, judging from current circumstances, the Church was openly anti-mysticism and anti-cult. Praying to the Church’s gods would be nothing short of delivering herself straight into a trap.

Leaning back in her chair with a deep frown, Dorothy sank into heavy contemplation, pondering how she was supposed to find herself a Guide at all…

“Tch… what am I supposed to do now? Finding a person is unrealistic, finding an object—I don’t even know where to start, and looking for a divine entity is even more absurd. I don’t even know how to pray properly…”

Dorothy muttered softly. But just as she finished speaking, another voice suddenly echoed.

“Don’t even know how to pray properly…”

Hearing the inexplicable voice resounding within her mind, Dorothy froze, then immediately straightened her back in the chair.

‘What was that just now…?’

She thought in shock. After a moment, she realized that the voice in her head sounded like her own—specifically, the words she had just muttered aloud. Yet it was only part of the sentence, and not even the full line.

‘What’s going on? Are the words I speak echoing inside my head? Is this some kind of illness? Or some other kind of mysterious phenomenon? Or… has that so-called toxic corruption finally taken effect, and I’m losing my mind?’

The moment that thought crossed her mind, Dorothy was startled. Panic rose immediately, and she began trying to figure out what to do.

‘No—no, I need to test this…’

“H-hello… hello… can you hear me?”

Dorothy whispered a few more words softly, but nothing like that previous echo occurred again. For a moment, she wondered whether she had imagined the whole thing.

‘No… think carefully. How did that voice appear just now? Why did it only repeat the last part, and not even completely? What exactly was the full sentence I said at the end…?’

Dorothy recalled it, then tried once more, tentatively speaking under her breath.

“It was something like… something something… not even knowing how to pray…”

As soon as Dorothy finished speaking, the echo appeared in her mind once again.

“Not even knowing…”

‘Holy shit…’

Seeing this happen, Dorothy immediately suppressed her emotions and began carefully thinking about what the two instances of the echo had in common. Very quickly, she reached a conclusion.

‘It seems like right after I mention praying, the echo appears in my head?’

Having reached that conclusion, Dorothy decided to test it immediately. She softly muttered again,

“Praying… hello, hello—can you hear me now?”

“Hello, hello—can you hear me now?”

‘Holy shit, I really heard it again. Am I seriously calling myself inside my own head…’

Hearing her own voice echo in her mind once more, Dorothy couldn’t help but complain inwardly. But after this experiment, she had more or less confirmed what keyword triggered the echo.

That keyword was “praying.”

Afterward, Dorothy conducted several more tests, and in the end fully confirmed that the word praying could trigger this strange echoing phenomenon in her mind.

Why was this happening?

Dorothy only needed to think for a moment before arriving at a rough guess. There was only one thing that could speak inside her head.

‘System… was that you just now?’

Affirmative.

So, it really is the system. 

Only this thing could speak directly in her mind. After confirming that the previous echoes were caused by the system, Dorothy felt much more at ease—at least she could be sure she wasn’t going insane from excessive toxic corruption. However, the system’s response also gave rise to even more questions.

Why did the system react to the word praying?

Suddenly, an idea struck Dorothy. The system that came with her transmigration could access knowledge from other worlds and directly extract spirituality from knowledge itself—no matter how she thought about it, that implied a very high rank of existence. If that was the case… could it respond to prayers?

If the system could act as a Guide, then wouldn’t her current problem be completely solved?

With that thought in mind, Dorothy continued questioning the system.

‘System, can you receive prayers? Can you act as a Guide for advancement?’

Affirmative. Capable of proxy reception and relaying of prayers. Capable of proxy guidance of bestowals…

The system answered. Listening to this response, Dorothy began to parse its meaning. According to the system, it was receiving prayers on her behalf and relaying them into her mind. That meant the phenomenon just now was actually her casual words being treated as prayers and relayed back?

And guidance of bestowals… “bestowals” essentially referred to divine entities guiding mortals as Guides during advancement rituals, didn’t it?

After confirming this, Dorothy frowned slightly. She now began to seriously wonder just what kind of existence this system that accompanied her transmigration truly was.

Nothing in this world existed without cause. That included the system—it had to be closely tied to her transmigration.

After thinking it over, Dorothy finally decided to ask directly.

‘System… what exactly are you? Or rather, what is your true nature?’

Dorothy asked. Based on past experience, she hadn’t expected the system to answer. However, this time, it did. In a voice like a dense whisper, it replied with a single word.

Interface

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