Chapter 77: The Vanished Older Brother
After returning home from the Twilight Mansion, Natsume collapsed into bed and slept like the dead. She had spent the entire previous night running on pure adrenaline, handling deadly traps and matching wits without a second of rest. Stretching her aching limbs under the warm morning sunlight, she could only marvel at the sheer stamina of those local detectives. Did those people run on batteries? Did they ever actually feel sleepy?
Once the fog of exhaustion finally cleared from her mind, Natsume found the mental energy to process yesterday's bizarre turn of events. Her thoughts immediately snagged on one glaring detail. That guy. The one who had materialized out of nowhere, claimed to be her older brother, refused to show his actual face, and then vanished into the night.
He hadn't left a single piece of contact information.
She sat up, clutching her blanket. How exactly was she supposed to track him down and demand answers now?
"Um, Tra... Traveler."
A hesitant, distinctly guilty voice echoed inside Natsume's mind.
Natsume's eyes narrowed. She let out a cold, mental snort. 'Paimon. Look who finally decided to show up. I called you repeatedly last night and got nothing but dead air. I honestly thought I might have sleepwalked and eaten you as emergency food.'
"Traveler, don't say such scary things, hehe..." Paimon's nervous laughter echoed in her head.
Natsume's mental tone sharpened, her annoyance flaring. 'You still have the nerve to laugh? Where exactly were you yesterday when I needed you the most? And more, have you finally figured out what on earth is going on with 111?'"I figured it out! I figured it out!" Paimon replied in a frantic rush, her voice pitching higher. "Paimon was busy contacting 111 earlier, which is exactly why I couldn't get back to the Traveler in time! I promise!"'Fine,'Natsume thought, crossing her arms as she leaned back against her pillows.'You had better give me a completely satisfactory explanation right now. Otherwise, the whole "Paimon the emergency food" joke is going to become a permanent reality. I might just strip you of your name entirely and refer to you strictly as emergency food from this day forward. Who knows, maybe one day I really will toss you in a cooking pot.'
"Whoa! Traveler, you're so scary!" Paimon shrieked, her panic entirely genuine.
Sensing Natsume's mental fist clenching, the little guide quickly cleared her throat. "Ahem! So, Traveler, when you first drew the system, it actually calibrated itself into the [Genshin Impact Role-Playing System] based on the specific game you were most familiar with at that exact moment. It wasn't just a random lottery draw. You essentially chose your own exclusive system, and it built its foundation using the game data on your personal devices as a template."
Paimon took a quick breath before continuing. "From the very second the exclusive system successfully bound to your soul and Paimon appeared, your original image, Natsume, was automatically overwritten with the appearance of the Traveler from your game file. However..."
The guide paused, her voice turning cautious. "However, Traveler, do you happen to remember which twin you selected when you started playing Genshin Impact?"
Natsume blinked, the memory surfacing through the haze of her past life. 'I remember. I chose the brother. Aether. And then, just on a whim, I typed in my own real name as the character's name...'
"Exactly," Paimon confirmed. "Originally, the Traveler's physical image in this world was supposed to be Aether's. But right at the critical moment when the system attempted to apply that character template to your soul, it detected something highly unusual. Aether actually possessed a faint trace of his own independent consciousness. He couldn't be overwritten. Therefore, the system had to execute an emergency pivot and switch your physical template to Lumine instead."
Natsume swallowed hard, her eyes widening as the implication hit her. 'Are you telling me I was one system error away from waking up as a man?!'Paimon sounded entirely unbothered by this revelation. "Is that really such a big deal? Alhaitham and Kaeya are both men, and the Traveler plays them perfectly by splitting her consciousness. What's the difference? Hasn't the Traveler adapted to those roles incredibly well?"'That is completely different!'Natsume shot back, her face flushing slightly.'Those templates come with their own residual character memories and instincts to help guide the acting. But this main body of mine only contains my own personal memories. If I had suddenly woken up with male anatomy, I would have lost my mind!'
"Well..." Paimon offered optimistically, "Maybe the Traveler would have gotten used to it after a few bathroom trips? Besides, that situation didn't actually happen, right? So there's no need to panic!"
Natsume let out a long breath, piecing the puzzle together. This explained why Aether had claimed he had been traveling alongside her this entire time. It also meant that the mysterious person who had saved Matsuda Jinpei from that bombing three years ago was indeed Aether. Had he intervened back then because he heard her talking to herself, treating the game characters like confidants?
Still, glaring plot holes remained. 'If that's true, why did he manifest in this world forty years ago? And why does he possess self-awareness in the first place? Do the other character templates have their own consciousness too?'
"This is a bit complicated," Paimon explained, adopting a slightly more professional tone. "When the initial templates were deployed into this world, Aether's template already possessed that spark of self-awareness, which rejected the Traveler's consciousness. However, the template generation process had already been finalized. It couldn't simply be deleted or recalled by the system. The only variable the system could adjust was his deployment timeline. As for why he was dropped exactly forty years ago... Paimon guesses it's likely because that era aligns with the earliest chronological starting point of this world's main storyline."
"As for why he developed self-awareness to begin with..." Paimon's voice softened. "That is entirely because of you, Traveler."
Natsume frowned, her fingers tracing the edge of her blanket. 'Me?'
"Because the Traveler is fundamentally special. If you weren't, you never would have been able to bind with the system in the first place. Back in your original world, when you were playing the game alone in your room... didn't you truly, deeply wish for his existence? You poured your emotions into that screen. If you wish for him to exist with enough soul-deep conviction, then naturally, the system will make him exist."
Paimon paused to let that sink in before addressing the final question. "As for the other characters, Paimon ran a thorough diagnostic check. They do not possess independent self-awareness. It might be because the Traveler had less emotional resonance or direct contact with them compared to your main character. They only contain the baseline memories and personality traits programmed into their templates."
'So that's how it is...'
Natsume stared blankly at the wall, the heavy truth settling over her shoulders. She finally understood the entire story. Deep down in her subconscious, beneath the loneliness of her past life as an isolated office worker... had she always desperately wanted an older brother to protect her?
"How about it, Traveler?" Paimon asked, her voice bright and hopeful. "Are you satisfied with my explanation? You definitely won't treat Paimon as emergency food anymore, right?"
The guide's crisp, cheerful voice sliced through Natsume's melancholy, pulling her out of the tangled web of her own complex emotions. She let out a soft exhale, deliberately casting aside the heavy, suffocating mood.
Regardless of the strange mechanics behind it all, she now had an extra family member in this chaotic world. An older brother who clearly cared about her. That was something worth celebrating, wasn't it?
A small smile touched Natsume's lips. 'Yeah, I'm satisfied. Paimon isn't emergency food. You're the Traveler's absolute best guide.'
Three days later. Haido Shopping Mall.
"I truly did not expect such a fascinating sequence of events to unfold. Tell me, Traveler, have you seen your brother again since that night?"
Nahida strolled casually through the bustling commercial atrium. Her small, delicate hand firmly grasped Klee's, keeping the energetic Spark Knight from bolting toward the nearest toy display. In her other hand, the God of Wisdom held a brightly colored ice cream cone. She took a tiny, deliberate bite of the frozen treat, looking up at Natsume with wide, curious green eyes.
Natsume had spent the entire morning sharing the massive data dump she had received from Paimon with Nahida. She had desperately wanted the God of Wisdom's analytical perspective on the situation. Unfortunately, Nahida's very first question acted like a needle popping a balloon, causing Natsume's relatively decent mood to instantly plummet into the abyss.
"No!" Natsume snapped, her voice tight with irritation. "Forget seeing him in person, I haven't even received a single text message! Sure, we didn't officially exchange contact info in that mansion, but with his obvious connections, I refuse to believe he has no way of finding out my phone number! It has been three entire days, Nahida! Three days, and he hasn't sent a single word!"
Initially, right after waking up from the Twilight Mansion incident, Natsume had been genuinely anxious. She had spent hours pacing her apartment, agonizing over how she was supposed to interact with this sudden, system-generated brother of hers when he inevitably showed up at her door.
But now? After seventy-two hours of absolute radio silence? The anxiety had completely evaporated. Now, Natsume was just plain angry.
Dammit, he was the one who had approached her first! He was the one acting all mysterious and protective! Wasn't he practically glowing with happiness when she finally called him 'Brother' back in that dark hallway? What kind of twisted game was this? Once he finally got the emotional validation he wanted, did he just stop cherishing it?
"Oh my. Is the Traveler feeling angry right now? Does your internal emotional state currently resemble the sensation of swallowing a raw Jueyun Chili?"
Nahida asked the question with genuine, academic curiosity, her head tilting slightly as she watched Natsume aggressively bite off a massive chunk of her own ice cream cone.
"Pretty much," Natsume mumbled around the freezing mouthful, her jaw working furiously. "In short, I am absolutely fuming."
She took another vicious bite of the ice cream, desperately hoping the freezing sugar would somehow cool down the raging fire burning in her chest.
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