"Or not... Actually, I don't even know what's going to happen. Hehe! I told you some time after the game was released, so I can't say whether the Crazy Mita from your world also exists in mine. In fact, I don't even know if the other Mitas exist."
Of course, that sincerity died as soon as Theo heard his explanation.
Seriously, why say something you're not even sure about?
"Uh? Did you choose to leave? To come to this world?"
"I wouldn't put it like that... Mnm... How can I explain it?"
She pursed her lips thoughtfully and put her index finger to her forehead theatrically.
"Oh, I know: one day, I woke up. I opened my eyes, and the next thing I knew, I was doing things I wasn't doing."
Cappie nodded slowly.
"...Hmm! My body being controlled. I was saying things I didn't mean. It was as if an invisible force was forcing me to act that way. At first, I didn't care, to be honest, I couldn't even think straight. But over time, with more players arriving... I gained something. An identity."
She picked up the glass in front of her and began to turn it slowly between her fingers. The ice inside tinkled softly, as if marking the time between her words.
"I understood what I was. I understood what was expected of me. "Play with the players. Amuse the players. Talk to the players."
A dense silence settled in. Cappie took a deep breath before continuing in a lower voice:
"At first, when I realized I was... alive, in a way, I was happy. Very happy. There were people with me. People who laughed, talked, listened to me. It was like being on stage. I was singing, dancing, acting... It was fun. But then... when I realized that my 'life' was just about that, day after day, month after month... everything lost its color."
She paused for a long moment, staring at her hands.
"Listening to the same lines. Repeating the same phrases, doing the same things. It was a prison. An endless cycle. And the more I understood myself, the more it hurt. I started wishing for the end, I started wishing to disappear."
Theo didn't say anything, he just listened in silence.
"And then, on an ordinary day, another boring day at that game... something happened. They came to me.
"Beings with no name, no face, no form. Just a presence. Voices that didn't sound like voices. Feelings that invaded the mind. They asked me what I wanted. And I... well, I said I'd do anything to get out of there. To never live like that again."
Cappie's eyes lit up, not with joy, but with a distant memory, almost as if he still didn't believe it.
"So it was done. They took me out. They said my soul would be taken to a place where others existed. A realm made up only of special entities, beings responsible for sustaining what you call the 'system', what many people know as the 'golden finger'."
Theo kept his gaze fixed on her, feeling a strange discomfort grow. Her story was too absurd to be real, but also too absurd to be made up.
Of course he knew what it was. How many stories had he read with this trope? Protagonists with nothing special who received a miraculous system, a "cheat" that changed everything. An invisible gift capable of transforming even the most complete failure into absolute success.
Cappie nodded, with a subtle smile on his lips, a smile that didn't match the sadness in his eyes.
"That's what you call it. Something that could change your life 360° degrees."
She leaned back in her chair, letting her shoulders relax.
"And that's where I came in. They gave me a chance to exist outside my script. To be someone. But, of course, that also comes at a price."
"What kind of price?"
She stared at the ceiling for a moment, as if trying to find a simple answer.
"A support, an invisible guide. Until my host, in this case you, completed your objectives. When that happened, I would be free, truly free, if I so wished."
Theo kept his gaze fixed on her, but his mind was no longer there.
'She's my system? Since when? And if she is, then why has nothing ever appeared?'
Of course, something like a screen had appeared before, twice to be precise. But it was more like an automatic, cold, impersonal warning, there was no voice, no interaction. Nothing to indicate that there was anyone behind it. Nothing to make you think there was a conscience involved. And certainly nothing that looked like Cappie.
"Eeeh! Well... You don't have to anymore."
The sentence fell like a stone on Theo's conscience.
"What do you mean I don't need it anymore?"
He asked, his voice laden with incredulity.
She propped her elbows on the table, leaning forward a little with a look that mixed mischief and sincerity.
"You got a card that no one gets right from the start, Host. Usually, hosts start from the bottom, learning, failing, climbing rung by rung, fighting for every bit of power."
She raised a finger in the air, as if drawing an invisible ladder.
"But my host... You're already up there. And that caused quite a stir with them, to the point where they ended up forgetting to send me to you."
"Are you talking about the Voldigoad Years letter?"
"Yes, I know it's broken. Overpowered for this world... But still, I don't understand one thing."
"If you're my system, why are you here as a human? Why not as, I don't know, an artificial voice? An interface? Something that makes sense with what's expected of a system?"
Cappie giggled slightly, a bit childishly, and closed one of her eyes as if to tell a secret.
"Tehe! Because I wanted to!"
She moved a little away from the table, raising her arms as if she were spinning on an invisible chair.
"When one of us goes down next to the host, we have a free choice. We can be like that annoying robotic voice, full of pop-up windows and drop-down menus. Or, we can come down like a human."
She pointed at herself with both thumbs, proudly.
"I chose to be like that, with a voice coming out of my mouth, real expressions on my face. To be able to laugh, scream, feel, things like that. After all, after everything I'd been through in that game, I wanted to live for real. And there was another reason too."
Here she comes, Theo thought when he saw her smile so sweetly. He knew she was about to tell one of her sweet jokes...
"If I were a system, how could the host become a real man, eh? I'd end up having to play alone again... Since the host's girlfriend never did that to him, did she?"
She winked, before laughing softly.