Chapter 736: Crossover Part 3

"...Hey Pandora...something creepy is staring at me through the window!" Ayla screams from her room.

"No need to shout!! And don’t worry, it happens sometimes. They’re parasites. They wander through this infinite void of non-existence looking for things to latch onto. Just don’t open the window and they won’t get in."

"Oh, and if they do get in and stick to you, we’ll have to cut that part off. They’re very stubborn and persistent." I shout back at her while glancing at the television, which shows a "map" of the "nearby" universes I’m passing through, as well as scanning for interesting targets for me to interact with.

"..." Ayla steps out of her room. She’d been exploring in there for hours, and now that she’s out, I can see something stuck to her face. Since she just spoke, I deduce she just opened the window too.

"Ooh...that looks nasty." I say to her as she stops in front of me. I can see a considerable bulge on her throat while a creature with the appearance of an arthropod clings to her face with its legs.

"Haa...couldn’t you have just taken it off yourself?" I ask. She shakes her head no. I teleport a jar from the kitchen and toss it to her.

"I told you not to open the window. Throw that on it, and it’ll get off your face. And don’t ask what that liquid is—you wouldn’t have the guts to put it on your body if you knew what it was. You’re lucky I only said that earlier to scare you. You’d have to be a real idiot to open a window when you were warned several times not to." I push her aside with my tail and refocus on the map.

"..." She gets to work removing the parasite right here. Looks like she heard my warning and still wanted to test it. She’s lucky I found something that repels these parasites, and we won’t have to cut her head off.

"GIIIIIKKKK!!" The parasite lets out a shriek as it detaches from Ayla’s face, leaving her all slimy. Ayla grabs it, pulling it off while a long tube comes out of its mouth.

"What the hell was it trying to do?" she asks, opening the window and tossing the parasite outside.

"...It wanted to lay eggs in your stomach. Think of them as the alien version of a blowfly. They latch onto living things and deposit their brood there so it has food. Of course, most beings you find around here are huge. Small creatures like us are rare, so these things end up looking gigantic when, logically, they’re so tiny they’re hard to see." I explain to her without interest.

"Pandora, why are you taking this trip through the multiverse—or whatever this is?"

"Because I’ve conquered everything I ever wanted. So I figured I’d enjoy life traveling—"

"So you’re a cosmic vagabond. And I mean vagabond in the sense of a wanderer without purpose, not as an insult."

"...Whatever. Think what you want. Traveling like this is fun for me. Tell me, as an immortal being, don’t you find life tedious? Don’t you want something to do? The multiverse offers infinite possibilities..."

"You know the irony of infinite possibilities? Infinite boredom is one of them." She says sarcastically, heading for the fridge.

"Oh, really? No kidding? I had no idea." I say, rolling my eyes at her for stating the obvious.

"Pandora, why do you treat me this way? It’s not like we’re friends. You barely know me."

"Why does that matter? I’m an extrovert. It’s my normal attitude to be like this. Don’t read into it. If you don’t like it, just ignore me, and eventually I’ll stop talking to you."

"...Don’t you think your life is kind of miserable? Living like a traveler—"

"No." I cut her off.

"My life is perfect. Traveling is a life goal too." Revenge and family were my goals for a long time. After I achieved that, I decided to spend my time with mundane things like hopping between universes.

There’s nothing wrong with that choice. I didn’t choose this for some special reason or glorious purpose. It’s like people who travel to the beach to enjoy a week or two off. I’m basically a retired woman enjoying the wealth and power she has. I deserve this after all the suffering I’ve been through.

"...You’re so lucky..."

"Lucky? Hahahaha. I fought hard for this ’perfect’ life. Don’t call it luck without knowing me. If you’re jealous, then screw you. Just enjoy the ride while you have the chance. I gave you a pretty good opportunity, you know? You’re the first rational guest to travel with me."

"Most of them were parasites or dumb monsters I brought along for entertainment."

"You’re so crude..." She approaches the sofa, grabbing two cans of a drink I bought from some universe I barely remember now. Both cans are purple.

"..." I watch her drink and decide not to tell her that every liquid inside the purple cans in the fridge is something I replaced. I already drank everything that was in them, and I thought it’d be funny to fill them with my sexual fluids for the first sucker who drank one.

’She’s so unlucky to have grabbed the purple cans.’

"...Your smile is unsettling..."

"It’s nothing." I keep staring at her as she drinks it all, unable to suppress my grin.

"Seriously...your smile is making me uncomfortable...what is this drink with that bitter taste? Some kind of weird tea?"

"...Tea...yeah, it’s tea, alright. Has a lot of magic in it, so it should be good for you." I look back at the map while she sits down beside me.

"Where are we going?"

"I’m deciding. You know string theory? It dictates that there’s always a higher universe. There’s no ceiling or floor—there’s always a universe below another or above another. And a higher universe can see the lower one, but the lower one can’t see the higher one."

"Of course, that doesn’t apply to omnipotent beings who exist beyond any rules and can ascend through universes. Thanks to that, we two can go to higher universes if we want."

"But you know what the problem is with string theory being sort of real? Mapping a path is a nightmare, since coordinates don’t apply to universes the way they apply to continents."

"Wasn’t string theory about particles in the universe?" Ayla brings up another string theory.

"Actually, there are many ’String Theories’—it depends on the universe. We’re both right. There’s a string theory about universal particles, about quantum motion, about magic strings and the connection between them and cosmic entities. It depends on where you are in the universe." When I say that, she looks curious.

"Oh...doesn’t that mean that drinking a soda in one universe, and then taking that soda to another universe, would change its flavor and composition?"

"See, there’s something in that head of yours besides indifference—how shocking! Yes, you’re right. That happens because each universe has its own rules. But we two exist beyond those rules—we’re not affected." I say to her, and she hands me a soda.

"You know, you’re the kind of person I despise—a monster...someone terrible and repulsive. But I think I’ve reached the point where labels don’t matter anymore, so...thank you for inviting me. I think...I needed to get out. To have a chance to discover joy again." She gives me a genuine smile.

"..." But all I can do is stare at the soda and think about what I put in there.

"I don’t want to drink. Thanks for the offer." I try handing the unopened can back to her.

"Come on, it’s a ’friendship’ drink—a way to bond. You should drink it, right?"

’Damn it...’ I take the "soda," open the can, and see the semi-transparent liquid inside.

"...Something wrong?" she asks as I drink it with some disgust.

"Nothing...now be quiet. I have to read the map." When she just accepts that and gets up to head to the kitchen, I pour the rest of that stuff into the plant next to me.

’Ugh...’

"Oh, and Pandora, next time don’t put your fluids in a can. I know the taste of sexual fluids very well, you bitch." She insults me from the kitchen, and I now realize why she offered me the can.

"...You wretch." I mutter back at her with a smile. Looks like she knew all along and still drank it. This girl is interesting. Finally, someone who knows how to play along.