<h4>Chapter 117: Viin Simtor, Ch 116</h4>


    What emerged from the summoning circle was neither a monster nor any kind of deformed creature, but instead, a breathtakingly beautiful elf woman.


    Her long, pale golden hair was tied into a neat ponytail, and her deep crimson eyes carried an intense gaze—none other than Klee''s mother, Alice!


    "Oh my, my..." Alice stretched with azy smile. "Let''s see now, who managed to summon me out of nowhere like this?"


    "Lady Alice?" Jean eximed, her face a mix of shock and surprise. "How can this be you?"


    Then it hit her—considering Klee''s boundless boldness, it made sense that the only person she could truly be "afraid" of would be someone as unfathomably powerful as her own mother, Alice.


    "It''s you all?" Alice scanned the group with a thoughtful look, her gaze falling on each in turn. "Miss Jean, little Barbara, and... hmm?"


    When Alice''s gaze finally settled on Klee, she narrowed her eyes with a slight expression of doubt. "And you are...?"


    Since Klee had been transformed by the board''s effects, she now looked like a grown-up, neen years old. Naturally, she no longer resembled the little girl Alice was used to, which left Alice herself uncertain for a moment.


    "Mom!" Klee cried out, running over and throwing herself into Alice''s arms with joy. "Klee missed you so much!"


    "Klee?" Alice''s surprise was evident. "Well, it seems I''ve been away quite a while if you''ve grown this much!"


    Hearing this, the other three couldn''t help but drop a few sweat drops. How rxed did Alice have to be to have no clue about her daughter''s age?


    "Lady Alice, the situation is ratherplicated," Jean interjected with a tense expression. "We''ll exin everything in a moment, but for now, could you please help us deal with the immediate danger?"


    "Danger?" Alice tilted her head in mild confusion. "What danger?"


    "Those monsters, of course!" Barbara replied hastily. "Can''t you see them?"


    Unlike Jean, Barbara had little experience with Alice and was unaware of her terrifying power.


    "Oh, you mean those?" Alice nced toward the approaching horde with a casual air. "Klee, dear, would you like to see some fireworks?"


    "Yes!" Klee''s eyes lit up as she nodded excitedly.


    "Watch carefully then," Alice said with a smile, extending her hand toward the horde that was now dangerously close. She formed her fingers into the shape of a gun and whispered softly, "Bang."


    At her word, an Geovishap Hatchling that was mere steps away seemed to be lifted by an invisible force, rising high into the air before exploding with a spectacr "boom," scattering in a radiant burst of colorful lights like a firework.


    "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"


    Alice continued with a few more casual "shots," and every time her finger moved, yet another monster would be flung up into the sky, only to detonate in an awe-inspiring array of colors. The entire horde of monsters was soon bursting overhead, leaving the scenepletely mesmerizing.


    Indeed, what was a "dangerous" monster surge to the four-person team was, for Alice, nothing more than something she could obliterate with a snap of her fingers.


    Rather than calling it "dangerous," it was more like something just slightly annoying.


    "Wow! Mom, you''re amazing!"


    Klee expressed her admiration for Alice without a hint of restraint.


    Seeing this, Barbara and Jean began to understand why Alice was, to Klee, "the most fearsome existence."


    "Alright, that minor issue has been handled," Alice pped her hands with a smile. "Now, can someone tell me what''s actually going on here?"


    Jean nodded and began to exin, "It''s like this, you had Lu..."


    She paused, suddenly remembering that Lucas had been ying Klee''s father on Alice''s request. She quickly rephrased, "Your dear husband brought Klee a toy, which ended up pulling all of us into this game world. That''s why you were summoned here as well."


    "Husband?" Alice scratched her cheek, looking hesitant. "You mean... my husband?"


    "Yes! Yes, indeed!" Jean threw Alice a meaningful nce, adding, "Wasn''t it you who asked Klee''s father to visit her?"


    "Klee''s father?" Alice looked at Klee, who, now an adult, nodded and said, "Yes, Daddy''s here too!"


    Though she wasn''t sure what exactly was going on, Alice was nothing if not sharp. Catching on to the strange circumstances, she yed along with a smile. "Oh, silly me, how could I forget? Now then... where is my dear husband?"


    Wait... Why did that line sound a bit too familiar?


    "Daddy!"


    Klee immediately pointed at Lucas and waved. "Mom''s looking for you!"


    At that moment, Lucas, who had been trying to slip away unnoticed, had no choice but to stop in his tracks. He turned around slowly, trying to smile. "H-honey, you came too."


    My husband... is a little kid?


    Alice had expected someone pretending to be her non-existent husband to be someone sinister, not an actual child.


    Even though this little boy looked quite cute, to call him her husband was still pushing it, wasn''t it?


    It seemed that he, too, was affected by this game, reverting from an adult to a child.


    "Klee, be a good girl," Alice said with a smile, "wait here with the others for a moment. I need to have a talk with your daddy."


    "Got it, Mom!" Klee nodded, appearing used to these kinds of things. "Take your time. Klee won''t be a third wheel!"


    "Come along," Alice walked over to Lucas, an ominous smile on her face. "Shall we go have a chat over there?"


    This scene reminded Lucas of those days in middle school when he was called out for a "talk" by bullies.


    Except that time, it ended with all of them lying on the ground after he took them down.


    Meanwhile, Klee, Barbara, and Jean watched the scene unfolding from a distance.


    "Klee, I have to say..." Barbara frowned. "Why does it feel like your parents barely know each other?"


    "Barbara!" Jean immediately reprimanded her. "Don''t speak out of turn!"


    "Klee''s not sure either," Klee shook her head. "But Klee likes both Daddy and Mommy a lot!"


    Unlike others affected by the "Dream," Klee, due to her young age, found it harder to distinguish between reality and the virtual world.


    Plus, having been raised in the Knights of Favonius, Klee had few real memories of Alice.


    Any conflicting details between reality and the dream were naturally filtered out by Klee''s brain. Thus, her memories of Alice were entirely based on reality, while her memories of Lucas came entirely from the dream.


    This led to Klee remembering her parents as two distinct individuals with almost no interaction.


    ...


    Only when they were far enough from the others did Alice stop and cross her arms, a smirk on her face.


    "Alright, spill," she sneered. "I won''t even ask why you''re pretending to be my husband. But why does Klee think you''re her father?"


    Even just standing before Alice, Lucas could feel an unimaginable, overwhelming pressure.


    It was the same kind of pressure he felt in the Simtor when he faced the Tsaritsa directly.


    He had no doubt that if he slipped up even once, he would be treated just like the monsters Alice had obliterated earlier.


    "It''s... hard to believe, to be honest," Lucas decided to go with the truth. "Klee and I shared the same dream. In the dream, I was her father. I didn''t expect Klee to have the exact same dream and end up thinking of me as her dad. To avoid disappointing her, I didn''t correct her."


    Honestly, Lucas wasn''t even sure he believed it himself, let alone expecting Alice to believe such a far-fetched story!


    "The dream you''re talking about..." Alice muttered thoughtfully, "could it be... the one where someone kidnapped my daughter Klee to raise her as a criminal?"


    At Alice''s words, Lucas felt his heart sink.


    "Wait..." Lucas stammered. "How do you know about that?"


    "It''s simple," Alice replied, her smile unreadable. "I had the same dream."


    What?


    How could Alice know about the Simtor''s contents?


    Klee''s connection to the Simtor could be exined by her proximity to him.


    But Alice, who was so far away, dreaming about the Simtor too... how did that make any sense?


    "System!" he called inwardly. "Exin yourself!"


    [During the simtion, certain characters may be assigned corresponding roles in dreams to ensure realism.]


    [Generally, the system clears these memories upon waking.]


    [But due to the character''s immense strength, memory erasure may have been iplete.]


    [PS: Final interpretation rights belong to the system.]


    Did they have an intern write this system code?


    This was a major problem!


    Actually, Lucas had been wondering for a long time about the Simtor''s mechanism. If every character in it was created by the "system," then as an NPC, its performance was absurdly advanced.


    So it turned out all the NPCs were real people ying their roles?


    Alice seemed to sense the unusual look on Lucas''s face and gave him aforting smile. "Don''t worry. I already understand why this strange dream happened."


    Hearing Alice''s words, Lucas felt a fresh wave of nervousness.


    Could it be that Alice already knew he possessed a power not of this world—the system?


    After all, the woman before him was the most "unfathomable" person Lucas had encountered since arriving in Teyvat—in every possible way.


    "So, what... exactly are you getting at?" Lucas feigned ignorance, asking.


    "Before we discuss that, I have one question for you. Don''t lie to me," Alice eyed Lucas carefully, speaking in a serious tone. "You''re not from this world, are you?"


    So she really had figured it out.


    The concept of an "otherworldly visitor" would be hard for most people to grasp, but for Alice—who could travel between worlds—it was no surprise at all.


    Lucas''s instincts told him it was best not to deceive her. Her power was likely on par with the Seven Archons and, in some areas, could even... surpass them.


    "That''s right," Lucas nodded, answering truthfully. "It was an ident that brought me into this world."


    "I like an honest young man," Alice nodded approvingly. "Since you''re also a traveler between worlds, this should make my exnation a lot easier."


    She raised her hand, and a stray twig instantly flew into her palm. With it, she poked a point into the sandy ground, then drew a straight line from that point. "Originally, the world we live in was moving forward along a straight line. But..."


    Abruptly, she stopped the twig, then drew two lines diverging from the end of the first line. "At a certain moment, because of some divergent event, the world may start developing in two entirely different directions. This is what gives rise to ''parallel worlds.''"


    With a flick of her hand, the lines in the sand began to branch off continuously, like the boughs of a tree, until there were so many branches it was impossible to keep track of them all.


    "Innumerable points of divergence create countless parallel worlds, and the world we''re in now is just one of those," Alice tossed the twig aside with a smile. "But these parallel worlds aren''t entirely disconnected. When we fall asleep, it''s very possible to experience life... as someonepletely different in another parallel universe."


    "That''s why our dreams are always so bizarre and surreal," Alice pointed at Lucas. "For example, while you and I have no connection in this world, in other worlds, we might be lifelongpanions."


    "So you mean..." Lucas murmured, "those dreams aren''t illusions, but rather, ''reality'' in another world?"


    If Alice''s theory were correct, then everything Lucas had experienced in the "Simtor" wasn''t some virtual construct but events that truly took ce in another parallel world.


    And all the "bad deeds" he hadmitted weren''t just meaningless data.


    "You could see it that way," Alice nodded. "The three of us must have simply dreamed of lives in the same parallel universe—an extremely rare coincidence. Though theoretically speaking, it''s incredibly unlikely, it''s not entirely impossible."


    Unaware of the system''s existence, Alice''s theory ced the probability of such an urrence somewhere around the chance of three people winning the lottery''s grand prize simultaneously.


    "Generally, though, these dreams are faint, and we forget more than ny percent of them after waking."


    Alice suddenly leaned in, gazing intently into Lucas''s eyes. "But that dream involving you felt too real. Rather than calling it a dream, it''s more like I fully experienced my life in another parallel world."


    For a moment, she was ovee with the desire to experience that joy again...


    In that dream, the happiness she had felt with this man.


    Of course, this thought merely flitted across Alice''s mind; after all, it was just a dream.


    And besides, with Lucas turned into a child by the board''s magic, even if she were willing, he certainly wasn''t capable.


    "Miss Alice, it seems we''ve resolved our misunderstanding," Lucas said, a bit awkwardly. "Since it was just a dream, perhaps you should take a chance to exin to Klee that I''m... not really her father."


    "There''s actually a favor I''d like to ask," Alice shook her head, smiling slightly. "I hope that you might... continue pretending to be Klee''s father."


    "What?" Lucas eximed in surprise. "Why?"


    "Klee adores you, doesn''t she?" Alice sighed softly. "I''ve been traveling for so long, I rarely get to spend time with her. I feel terribly guilty about that. If she had a father figure around from time to time, she''d probably be very happy."


    "But that''s only temporary," Lucas reminded her. "Once Klee grows up a little, she''s bound to figure it out."


    "That''s alright. Who knows, maybe before then..." A somewhat ambiguous smile appeared on Alice''s face. "We might... make the act real."


    Wait... was she hinting at something?