"Huh? Why did you call me... are you I-Iris?
Suddenly, things took an unexpected turn. The woman spoke to me familiarly. Everything about her was unfamiliar, but that expression and way of speaking somehow overlapped with Iris, and, although the chances were slim, I asked the question.
"What did you call me? Since you're embarrassed in public, didn't we agree that you had to call me Love, at least when we're alone? It's the second time today! Wait, is it still today? Hmm, there's sunlight, and before it was night. Well, anyway, call me Love."
"L-Love... wait, why do you look like that? Why are you different?"
If that confirms it, only she would focus on something trivial like this at a time like this. This woman with an unfamiliar appearance was my wife.
"Huh? Didn't you see that form? You know, originally I just wanted to change species, but one thing led to another, now I'm twenty years old again and I ended up like this. But I worked hard, you know, and it's almost wasted time because you were going to make us reincarnate again. Why did you want to do that?"
"Well, I didn't really want to reincarnate. I thought you weren't there. Hmm, I understand it was to stop me, but was that suplex necessary? I still feel dizzy."
"Hehe~ Well, originally I just wanted to hug you and calm you down, but we're in such a perfect position, it would have been weird not to, right?"
"No!"
"Ah, but that wasn't all. I was a little angry because you wanted to kill yourself, not to mention that it took me many hours to create this appearance."
"Huh? You spent hours? I only spent a few minutes. More like, did you have the energy to fill that out? Did you want to reincarnate?"
"Well, obviously, yes. What? Did you want me to stay dead when you were going to reincarnate? Had I already made it clear that 'until death do us part' doesn't apply to us?"
"No, but... did that voice say anything to you? Did it tell you that I was going to be reincarnated too?"
"No, it just told me to fill out the form, but it's obvious that we would be reincarnated together, and since it was a unique opportunity, I took my time."
"Haah~ how your obvious things are not obvious at all."
"Yes, they are, but honey, what do you think of my appearance? I got a little excited, and once I lowered that vestige thing, you could even choose the color of my nipples. Now I'm pink, but a pink you can't imagine. Plus, look at the size of these things. Goodbye B cup, hello G cup. I know you like them big, what do you think? Aren't I pretty now?"
They are certainly big, but that's not what's important.
At this moment, listening to her talking her nonsense calms me down quite a bit and allows me to sort out my thoughts, first of all, suicide is totally out of the question now that she is here with me.
There was a lot to think about, but she seems to be waiting for me to say something about her current appearance.
Yes, she was very beautiful with her distinctive red hair and beautiful, bright turquoise eyes, not to mention her large breasts and curvier figure.
In perspective, all of these attributes were far superior to her previous appearance, but...
"Hmm, I liked you better before. You've left almost nothing of what you once were. You look like a total stranger."
Yes, it really bothers me more than anything else. I've been with her for so long that her new appearance, although more beautiful, doesn't quite convince me.
Honestly, I preferred her the way she was before, and there wasn't even a hint of that.
"Honey, you have to say I'm beautiful no matter what. I mean, it's a new life, obviously we have to be different, and even more so if we were given the opportunity to customize ourselves. You're the strange one here for reincarnating with the same appearance, although you're a little taller now, aren't you? I don't remember reducing my height."
"Am I? Hmm, well, I guess so, you look a little shorter. By the way, now what? I mean, where are we and what's the situation? I understand that we died and reincarnated, but now what? What is the purpose of that voice?"
It turned out that Iris was right and somehow we reincarnated. And since going back up there was no longer an option, I had to understand what was going on here.
Iris and I are starting what is a new life, but obviously this is not so simple, especially with that voice saying something about a 'higher purpose'.
I really didn't want to get into that nonsense of being a hero and saving the world or anything, so I didn't hesitate to end it, but now that Iris is here, things have changed.
Now I have to think about the purpose and goal of all this and what we've gotten ourselves into. As well as focus on what's to come and how to deal with it...
The first thing is to understand our current situation and where we are.
I started to analyse my surroundings, or so I wanted to do, but when my eyes fell on Iris, I realized that for some reason she was now holding her head as she seemed to be writhing in pain.
"Hey, what happened? Are you hurt? Did something go wrong?"
I was distracted for a moment, what happened, was it that voice, did it do something to her?
"Honey, what do I do now? We died, and now that I remember, my mother told me, 'Look, idiot, if you die because of some stupid thing you did before I do, I'll kill you with my own hands.' What do I do? She's going to kill me."
"Haah~ you scared me. This isn't the time for this, besides, it's not like she can come here or anything."
"No! Honey, you don't understand, if it's her, I feel like she's capable of crossing dimensions, ah! Wait! What if she died first? If that would work, let's see, I talked to her yesterday... it's not long ago, but let's think positively and assume she died first, so she won't kill me."
"What makes it worse is that you say it without malice. Hahh~, cut the nonsense and don't curse my mother-in-law with death. Since my mother died, she's been sad and with us now, I really don't know what will happen."
"Oh, what if she joins us? It's possible. If she also reincarnates, hmmm... I'd feel safer if you had done what I suggested."
"Stop it already, it's bad enough that we died. I couldn't keep my promise to keep you alive. Haah~ well, if it makes you feel any better, you weren't the cause of your death, so she won't come for you, so stop wishing for her death, I know you're doing it in your mind, even now."
"Oh!, that's right, uff, I thought I would die again... if that's the case, I hope he didn't die, I hope he has a good life. I hope he takes his time to catch up with us."
"I don't understand how you can be so sure about nonsense. Haah, so now that we've been reincarnated and—"
"System, open window, interface, status, what else? Oh! Open sesame! Honey, my status won't open."
"Yes, let's go outside and see what's going on with our surroundings, something like that, I don't think—"
[Verifying global situation, checking user status, verification complete, stable status, no anomalies checking...]
"Oh, it's the system, honey, we got lucky in this reincarnation, we have system-chan!"
"Calm down, the situation isn't clear, that thing doesn't answer any questions!"
"Yes, because you must be one of those AI systems that just do their thing, how can you not understand that, honey?"
"Haah~ you know what, in this case I think your logic is working, let's see what you think will happen now."
"Well, it must be doing some processing and stuff, because of the higher entity that created it for us or something, it will tell us the introduction and all that shortly."
[Everything is working correctly...
WELCOME TO FRACTALSPHERE
You 'users' were chosen for the higher purpose of ...]
"Here it comes, honey. Now it's going to tell us that we're heroes and we have to save—"
"Wait, you're not letting me listen."
[ity' and make this place prosper from now on...]
"Huh? What place? We're not heroes? I'm not a saint or something?"
"Can you repeat what you said? And love, please let me listen."
"Yes, I'll be quiet."
[...Request accepted. I repeat, you 'users' were chosen for the higher purpose of managing the massage parlor 'Sanctuary of Serenity' and making this place prosper from now on.]
"A massage parlor? Is that the higher purpose you mentioned before?"
[That is correct.]
"I see that you are now open to discussion, so can you tell us the real purpose behind all this? And why were my wife and I chosen?"
[I cannot answer those questions.]
"Why not? Aren't you here to be some kind of guide?"
[Apart from unproductive ones, I cannot answer any questions beyond your understanding.... My job is only to clarify doubts underlying knowledge acquired and related to the massage parlor.]
"Huh? what did it say?"
"That in addition to the introduction, as you said, we have to understand things to a certain level in order to ask him questions. Basically, he won't answer those questions until we figure it out for ourselves... But that basically told us that yes, there is an answer and a real reason why we were chosen, and a real purpose behind all this, and not the massage parlor. Or am I wrong?"
[...I cannot answer that question.]
"Oh, honey, and I thought you were getting silly. That's show that heavenly system who's boss. No!, wait, it must be the source of our cheat, don't upset it too much. What if itgets angry?"
"I don't think so, it's like you said, it's more of a system with an algorithm of answers and questions based on us and our knowledge, so it will do its thing without being affected by anything we say, and it will only say what is allowed without. But it has gaps, like its refusal to answer valid questions. We also have to keep in mind that not everything it says is true or may be a half-truth."
"To be honest, I got lost from the moment you said the system would only answer questions about things we already discovered."
"... Well, never mind, I'll explain it to you later when I have time... Moving on, I guess we still need the introduction and all the basic explanations, right?"
[That is correct.]
"Hey, but answer me something first. My wife's hair is green, right?"
[That is incorrect.]
"I see..."
For now, I'm understanding and piecing together what little I have. I need to gather everything I can, including the nonsense it was saying when it was up there; that could also be an important factor to consider.
It can't answer many things, but I'm figuring out the trick, and I'll squeeze everything I can out of it.
"Honey, ask them about the cheat skill~."
Iris suddenly whispered behind me. I don't know why she's so sure about that, but I'm not dismissing what she said. So far, what she's been saying has worked a little. She's a fan of all this stuff, so her logic makes some sense.
"Also, tell us about the things that will help us fulfill 'that higher purpose' or, for now, that of running the 'massage parlor.' My wife and I have no experience in massage, let alone running a salon. There must be something, right?"
[Affirmative... granting user privileges... complete... before proceeding, first: Please engage in focused introspection, aimed at consciously projecting your functional identity. This will generate sufficient existential coherence to activate the interface through spontaneous cognitive resonance. Once done, I will answer any questions within the permissible range.]
"Honey, the system started speaking in a strange language, I think you broke it."