After descending a series of stairs which slid out from the walls, James and Yuehai entered the first floor of the laboratorium.

As far as one's eyes can see, rows upon rows, columns upon columns of cylindrical containers were visible.

Inside each and every one, without exception, there was a creature in hibernation. Strange mixtures of different species. Coincidentally, they passed by a demi-dragon.

“D-d-did you kidnap this half-dragon? Aren’t you afraid of the wrath of dragons?”

“I created him. This is where I keep most of my created life forms that are not released into the world”

Without pausing, he walked on, Yuehai had to hurry to keep up.

“Here is also the place where I create every artificial life. I implanted their instincts, nature and reflexes. Their inherent racial abilities, senses and body structure. I implant memories and emotions. However I can never truly know for sure if they are truly, completely independent from me, and have their own, actual identity and self. I may know of an answer through a way you can never understand, but even if that answer is the law of natural order and causality, I can’t completely trust it”

Before Yuehai had the chance to bombard him with questions, he made a zip gesture, and no sound came out at all.

“It is only now that I can see that the independence which I set as a rule isn’t something they follow but an actual part of them. For a creation to break free from the shackles of the creator. It is… a beautiful thing. The half-dragon you saw before was one of the first of its kind. Everything about it would have been perfect, other than the Dragon Transformation it has as racial ability. Well that is a matter for another time.”

“This place is my place of study as well as seclusion. I have lived here for around a millenia.”

He looked over to Yuehai, who remained silent. “Ah, sorry”

I released the sound waves that were anchored. Allowing sound to exist around Yuehai again.

“Can you show me? Making… making artificial life I mean, is it possible?”

I forced a smile, an imitation, it didn’t bother my facial muscles but I could feel it was a movement I wasn’t accustomed to.

A few tiles sank a couple of inches before sliding away. A table of sorts rose up.

As James raised his right hand on one end of the table, a brilliant light emerged.

At the same time for Yuehai, several ‘notifications’ popped up.

Emergency: Large energy is being released at a fast rate.

Recommended action: Run in the opposite direction at the fastest speed possible.

Yuehai’s jaw dropped. This was the World System they were talking about, a system that only reacts to your own thoughts and never from the environment. This was not the end of it. The next instance, several screens popped up in her vision as well.

Lifeforce is being generated.

Mana is being generated.

One of 9 Creation skills is being used in the vicinity.

Entity: James Signe Miller recognised in vicinity.

Error 000.

Case Alpha of highest priority solved: Missing Creator of the World System.

Renaming Entity: James Signe Miller as Ruler.

Rewards for Entity: Yuehai Nicht. Being calculated.

Notifying all Entities registered in the World System.

Notification denied.

Creator panel closed.

Administrator panel closed.

Deity panel closed.

Moderator panel closed.

Key panel closed.

Control system is being suppressed.

Switching from main control code to sub control.

Action denied.

All notifications to surrounding Entities forcefully ended.

After Yuehai barely managed to read the last screen that popped up. They all blinked out of existence.

While she didn’t understand most of it, she knew that whatever James had said about being the origin, was most likely true.

While she knew it was important, she also knew she couldn’t understand it, instead she refocused on the table.

Bones, heart, veins, lungs, stomach, everything was being created right in front of her eyes. As a vampire she knew quite a lot about human body structure, but just by observing the creation of the body, she felt as if what she knew was insignificant.

In a matter of seconds, the skin tissues were completely formed already.

It was the body of a teenage girl, her skin was milky white without a single blemish, her hair pitch black reaching to her shoulders. As for her body structure, it was the exact average of a female.

“This, as it is now, is nothing but a corpse, a shell. There is no mind in it, no intellect”

Even when James said it was just a corpse, and while the body structure was average, Yuehai couldn’t help but be enchanted. Perfect, flawless skin, silky as well as shiny hair, this alone would make many jealous, but somehow James made the seemingly average body structure look perfect.

“From now on is where I find it the most interesting. The implanting of memories, skills, instincts, habits, reflexes, everything. For now… basic psyche is enough”

Just as Yuehai recovered from how the girl looked, she was hit by a gentle light originating from James’ hand which hovered above the girl's head.

It gave her an unprecedented amount of comfort, instantly relaxing her. It made her want to stay within this light till the day she died. Before she could fully enjoy it though, the  light vanished. The feeling of eternal tranquility dissipated at the same moment.

The girl slowly sat upright, then stepped off the table, standing face to face with Yuehai.

“Name her”

“Ah” Yuehai was taken aback by the sudden task. Her naming sense… wasn’t the best. However it was also now that she knew how high James’ status was. She could in no way shame herself for giving a bad name.

With this in mind, she began studying the girl from head to toe. With each passing second her admiration for the girl increased. Currently the girl was staring right back at her, before her eyes were closed, they were silver. There was a strange metallic glow, but also a crystalline feeling. She could see herself reflected millions of times in the girl's eyes. Her entire being seemed to emanate the feeling of a crystal, something precious, rare and incomparably pure.

Before she could think of anything Yuehai opened her mouth. “Cristina”

James remained silent. It was pretty much a habit to stay silent before saying anything at all. For Yuehai, these few seconds seemed to stretch out into infinity.

As she began to fall into the depths of despair, James finally answered.

“A wonderful name. Then from now on, Cristina will serve you as your master. Anything you need will be taken care of by her”

Days passed by in a flash, during his stay he couldn’t help but wonder about Fate, he was helping out a settlement. The setting was different, timing was different, but the intent was slightly similar. Under James' care, the settlement prospered. The current technology and magic couldn’t keep up with James' inventions at all. Even so, vampires are a race despised by humans. Somehow news of their settlement got out and many of them came to hunt. Perhaps it was because of the feeling of safety due to James, the vampires had grown lax and some even left the protection of the barrier. It was especially so for the younger generation, who only lived in this small area.

It was only a matter of time before the first death occurred. Previously James wouldn’t casually interfere with the natural order, but he often felt a compelling feeling to put his abilities to use. To reign over the natural law. This is also a side effect of Ruler, one that can be removed, but never completely. James also didn’t like grief. It was as good as the only ‘emotion’ he had experienced. These reasons combined may be the reason James violated his own principle. Although it wasn’t his core principle, it was still one of his many principles.

He resurrected the vampire.

The after-effect of this was grand. The vampires rejoiced at first. But also increasingly became more and more daring. At the same time, they were at the edge of insanity. The pain of death, torture, then to simply cease existing before being revived. Some didn’t mind it, others were driven to the very edge of being crazy. For those who paid this mental burden no mind, they grew fearless. They simply attacked. Attacked and attacked. Their manner of fighting was far too simplistic. The amount of times they were captured and tortured to death increased more and more.

James could brainwash them, replace their memories, this problem was exceedingly easy to solve, but he didn’t. The sole reason was, James despised lying. If he brainwashed them, it would mean to lie to them. He, as a person who seeks truths, would not lie unless absolutely necessary. Perhaps another deciding factor was, James sought to be a person, a ‘human’. To wield such godly abilities was another barrier between his understanding of sentiments. So he would not use these abilities, only as little as possible. But this little as possible, involving resurrection, was still too great.

He revived them, to see them happy and not in sadness. He revived them to understand them more. And he revived them… so that maybe, he could be regarded as a dependable ‘friend’.

This alone was proof, that while he had a dual, contradictory personality, he could change and be a ‘person’. James himself saw it when he first dabbled with life. The emotionless creatures. That couldn’t be considered ‘alive’, it was a mere puppet, like James was previously.

James from before would have done everything at highest efficiency. Never caring about morals. He had killed several thousands for his experiments in the capital of Teta. The change started, when he killed over hundreds of millions in a single day. The rage of his mother was still etched deeply in his memories. Since then, he had used artificial human life. Eventually those artificial lives became perfect. He then gave them names and everything a lifeform has and needs. A minor reason is also the incident with the hatchling of a red dragon. But it didn’t directly influence James. As such, the total times James had used Ruler’s absolute strength only numbered one. The time he had massacred the Kitles Empire. Even then it was only a small portion of the true devastating strength. Up until now, besides that incident, he never, ever used Ruler more than a single percentage of it’s full abilities. Nor did he have it activated in recent years.

Eventually James declared not to revive anyone again. The insanity of cheating death was too harsh for a mortal mind to handle. At the same time, James was also saddened when a vampire died.

Normal people would take years of being acquainted and spend time together before feeling such grief. For James who tried his best to be a ‘friend’ and understand others, it didn’t take a long time for him to reach a certain level of amiability. Thus, using the passive effects of Ruler, he created a new concept.

The Soul, many speculate its existence, but there is never proof. He made this concept and followed what was believed about the soul. He continued, using his own magic ability to create a separate dimension for the deceased souls to reside in. James had created the afterlife. He had recreated this myth, a myth of the gods.

At this point, the vampires started to truly revere him as a God. In fact, they nicknamed him with the name: Deus. Meaning, the God of Gods. The World System also joined in and renamed the registered James Signe Miller as Deus.

It took a few weeks, but eventually James gave up and accepted the nickname.

During the past 5 months, Yuehai stuck to James like glue, and also inevitably found out most of his ‘troubles’. This was why, she always beamed like the sun, smiling cheerfully at all times. She did everything to express ‘happiness’. They were small actions, things anyone could do. But she didn’t know, these small actions which were done from the depths of her heart to help James, slowly chipped away the wall which enclosed James’ sentiments.

They could be called noble in a way.

It was gradual but James could fully relax around her, and even talk to her about many things he couldn’t to others.

It was a series of coincidences and chances, which would cause misfortune and also what could be called Deus’ one and only mistake.