[Notification: The application "System" has been downloaded. The user is requested to review it.]
Emily frowned and began sliding her finger through the list of apps, examining them one by one. She was certain she hadn't downloaded anything in the past few weeks.
Then her eyes stopped on a single icon.
There was no name beneath it.
A dark blue symbol, covered in geometric electronic lines surrounding the app's title:
"System."
It was strange, her first thought was that someone might be attempting to hack her phone. But when she bought it, she had paid a considerable amount specifically to ensure it was secure and resistant to cyber attacks.
So she pressed the icon, reassured by the assumption that it might simply be a new update.
The screen filled with a faint blue glow, then a window appeared, it was personal information about Emily.
[Name: Emily Winter.
Age: 27.
Job: Secretary.]
Emily stopped breathing for a second, but the information did not stop flowing.
[Psychological state minutes ago: Emotional breakdown.
Status: Orphan.]
Her eyes widened. "What…?"
Her fingers began sliding the screen up and down again and again. One question filled her mind.How could this application know all of this about her? It had even listed other information–things she had never told anyone. Her financial situation, details of her daily life, her sensitivity to chemical substances. even her very outspoken political opinions.
But the moment it crossed the red line… She saw her mother's name.
Her body began to tremble.In the next moment, she hurled the phone violently onto the floor.
Her breathing quickened as panic rose inside her. Has she really been hacked? Has someone been watching her for a long time?
But before she could do anything else, the information on the screen disappeared.
A single line appeared:
Analyzing…
Then another line followed:
Searching for a friend for Miranda's daughter.
"Miranda's daughter…?"
That only made things worse.
The System had crossed the line far more than it should have. Emily didn't spend even a second thinking. She grabbed a heavy object and smashed her phone without hesitation.
She pulled out the memory card, then smashed the device again and again until it broke into small pieces, before finally throwing the remains into the trash.
Her heart pounded violently. If someone had been watching her, then it was over for him. Or so she thought.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, until a faint blue light interrupted her. It appeared in the air, accompanied by moving electronic geometric lines. The same ones that had been on the app's icon. The same ones that had made her destroy her phone.
A translucent blue screen slowly formed in front of her, floating in the air. The geometric lines framed it like a border, and in the center, a single sentence appeared:
[The right friend has been found.]
Emily stared at the screen with sharp eyes.
"Have I really lost my mind… or did that just actually happen?"
There was no other device in the kitchen that could possibly be projecting the screen—other than the shattered phone.
While she tried to analyze what was happening, the display suddenly changed.
It transformed into something resembling a messaging app during a conversation.
A floating keyboard appeared in front of her waist.
Then a message appeared on the System screen. "Is someone there?"
A sharp, cold shiver ran down Emily's spine.
Someone had clearly written that message—but she couldn't find any logical explanation. A dream? One hundred percent not. She let out a slow breath and reached her hand toward the floating keyboard.
"Who are you?" Emily typed.
A reply came from the System. "Just a girl looking for a friend."
Emily raised her left eyebrow. "A friend?" she thought.
Another message appeared. "Can I get to know you?"
Emily stared at the messages, they didn't seem mechanical at all. On the contrary, they felt completely natural… human. Yet her mind still resisted the idea that the kind of "system" she had read about in so many stories could actually be real.
Emily swallowed hard and typed, "My name is Emily."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lin Zodiac from the Empire of Lucrath," Lin replied.
"Empire of Lucrath? I've never heard of it before," Emily wrote.
"What? You don't know Lucrath? It's the most famous and powerful empire on the continent," Lin answered.
"There's no country or kingdom by that name. Not even in history is there an empire called Lucrath," Emily typed.
"That's strange," Lin replied.
"Wait… I have a question. Are you talking to me through a magic paper as well?" Lin added.
"Magic paper?" Emily asked.
"It seems you're not using the same magic paper I use," Lin wrote.
"So there is magic in your world," Emily responded.
"Wait… what? There's no magic in your world? How do you even live?" Lin asked.
"Our life is ordinary," Emily replied.
"Ordinary? What do you mean by ordinary? No magic, no spells, not even simple magical tools to help with daily life?" Lin asked.
"Nothing like that exists," Emily answered.
"How do you survive?" Lin asked.
"We rely on our minds," Emily replied.
"That means you're from another world… a world with absolutely no magic. I can't imagine relying only on your mind—that's so difficult," Lin typed.
"How do you do things? For example, how do you light up houses at night?" Lin added.
"We have electricity," Emily typed.
"What's electricity?" Lin asked.
"A kind of energy we use to power lights and devices," Emily replied.
"Like what? What do these devices look like?" Lin asked.
"Metal things, like a television," Emily replied.
"What's a television?" Lin asked.
"A metal rectangle through which we watch moving lights, like plays. We call them movies and series," Emily explained.
"How is that? Don't you go to the cinema or the opera house?" Lin asked.
"No, we watch from home," Emily replied.
"That sounds a bit lazy," Lin typed.
"I'm sorry for what I just said, Miss Emily. I didn't mean to be rude," Lin added.
"It's okay. Anyone hearing about things different from their life would naturally be shocked or surprised," Emily typed.
"Miss Emily, may I ask you something again?" Lin wrote.
"Yes," Emily replied.
"Do you have nobles in your world?" Lin asked.
"No. No one is born with a title that gives them a higher status than others," Emily answered.
"So everyone is equal," Lin wrote.
"No. In every society there is always some form of class division. It's one of humanity's contradictions, Lin," Emily wrote.
"You sound very wise, Miss Emily," Lin wrote.
"No one has ever described me that way," Emily replied.
"Because you truly seem that way," Lin wrote.
"Miss Emily… may we be friends?" Lin asked.
"I think we've already started," Emily replied.
"Really? Thank you very much, Miss Emily. I'm very happy that you accepted," Lin wrote.
"And please don't call me Miss Emily again. My name alone is enough. Also, no formalities—I can't stand them," Emily wrote.
"Alright, Emily," Lin replied.
"Emily, I want to tell you something about myself," Lin wrote.
"Go ahead," Emily replied.
"I… am noble," Lin revealed.
"Actually… I'm a duchess," Lin added.
"Really? A duchess?" Emily exclaimed.
"Yes, Duchess of the Zodiac Duchy," Lin replied.
"So you're a princess of a palace, talking to a secretary from a world without magic," Emily wrote.
"Is that weird?" Lin asked.
"At least… it's not bad," Emily replied.
Far from the broken phone tossed into the pile of trash, this conversation was never just a superficial icebreaker. It had grown into a deep, unshakable friendship between two women from entirely different worlds, two completely distinct personalities. One was cold and fiercely independent, the other gentle, kind, and a little fragile. A striking contrast—yet somehow, their bond felt like that of sisters. Before one even spoke, the other would understand. And now, a year and a half has passed since that very first message.