Ball of Nothing

Chapter 290 A Sister for Mii

Zero had to rush. He only had a few weeks left to create the five Parallel Minds that Merlin wanted. Mii was a great help when it came to information processing. Zero worked hard for two full nights scanning Merlin’s massive library into the reader. Zero didn’t really understand everything but it didn’t matter. Mii gave Zero all the relevant information he required for creating a Parallel Mind. Theoretically, it should be easy for Zero to create a Parallel Mind according to the method stated in the book.

In reality, Zero was still struggling to remember the multiplication table.

\"What’s five times six?\" Bib asked.

Zero held out his hands and started counting them. buy the fourth set of six, he lost count. The household golem failed Zero once more. This has been going on for the last few hours. Zero didn’t do very well with Mathematics and wondered if there were other ways of creating Parallel Minds. If this was the only method, Zero would be doomed to forever remain stupid.

\"Mii...\" Zero whined.

\"What is it? I’m busy.\"

Zero sulked. \"Is there another way to create Parallel Minds? I can’t do Math... it’s going to kill me!\"

The strawcherry assistant sighed. \"No, Zero. This is the easiest way to do it. All other methods aren’t proven. They’re only theoretical but nobody has ever succeeded in creating Parallel Minds using those methods.\"

Zero pouted. \"I could be the first?\"

Mii rolled her eyes. \"I highly doubt it Zero... unless you can find a way to grow multiple hands and write five different essays at once time or play a game of chess with ten other people all at the same time, I highly doubt it.\"

Zero considered it seriously. \"The concept of a Parallel Mind is to partition out a portion of the mind to act individually. I don’t really have to be doing complex Mathematical calculations to achieve it. Doing something simple like reading more than one book at the same time in different languages or topics will work too.\"

The strawcherry assistant sighed. \"Yes. Theoretically, yes it will work. However, you only have one pair of eyes at the moment to read one book at a time.\"

Zero grinned. \"That’s no problem. I have dark magic. There was a book about manipulations. If I use it to manipulate all the idle spare golems to act as my puppets and read from their eyes in my mind, I can train my Parallel Mind too.\"

Not wanting to argue with Zero and his crazy ideas, Mii left it to Zero. She had way too many things to do as it was. Sorting out the huge library and overload of information without Bob took up all of the time she had. The strawcherry assistant didn’t have the spare energy to stop Zero. Besides, if the teen failed, it would save her the trouble of satisfying Zero’s curiosity.

Zero wasn’t shy when it came to sharing resources with Merlin. He ran down to the storeroom and grabbed ten spare golems, not caring if there would be enough for the elemental golem guardians that he had to create later. Right now, Zero needed to make as many duplicates as he could and put them all to work.

The runes were very simple to add. Zero tried possessing two golems at the same time and entered a meditation state of mind, watching everything from his mindscape. He shared some of his consciousness in both golems and had them walk in different directions to pick up two very different books. The first golem picked up a book about magic circles while the second golem picked up a book about magic laws and planes.

Zero relaxed in his mindscape and kept his mind clear of all thoughts. Slowly but surely, the memories and information being processed by both golems started to pour into Zero’s mind at the same time, causing a massive headache. Zero did his best to maintain his cool and accept the conflicting thoughts entering his mind at the same time.

Eventually, the connection broke and the golems returned to their inactive state. Zero opened his eyes with a gasp on the library floor. Although there wasn’t any breakthrough, he could feel that there was some sort of progress.

\"I’ll repeat this a few more times to see if it is possible,\" he told himself and rested for a while before repeating the process.

Merlin watched his student attempt a new way of creating Parallel Minds and shook his head. Zero was attempting to create Parallel Minds with simultaneous activity. In theory, this would be a great method and probably the fastest way to force a mind to partition itself. However, Merlin would never encourage anyone to train using this method. If not done correctly, the mind would split into pieces that couldn’t be recollected back. Instead of creating Parallel Minds, a multiple personality disorder could be triggered by the repeated process of subjecting oneself to continuous pain in an attempt to forcefully rip the mind in two.

Still, the wizard god didn’t make any attempt to stop his student. He wanted to see what Zero could come up with by himself. Under the watchful eye of his teacher, Zero reactivated the stolen golems and started reading again. This time, he managed to hold out for two minutes before he had to rest.

\"How is it?\" Mii asked.

Zero grinned and panted before giving her a thumbs up. \"I’m getting the hang of it. This is like writing two different essays with two hands acting on their own will.\"

Mii raised a brow at the description. \"That’s not right. Parallel Minds should share the same will under your control. It should be able to split and act independently like another copy of yourself while relaying information back to your mind directly at the same instance it experiences it. At the end of it all, your Parallel Mind must return to you. Acting on a will of its own shouldn’t happen. Parallel Minds don’t have individual wills.\"

Zero blinked. \"But that’s not possible.\"

The strawcherry assistant scowled and threw down the pen she was holding. \"It is if you stick to Mathematics.\"

Zero pretended not to hear Mii and continued on his training method after he rested enough. Merlin started to worry a little after listening to Zero’s conversation. Parallel Minds should not have a separate will of their own. What Zero was doing sounded dangerous. He knew that the Great One created Divine Entities by splitting a part of himself and giving them wills of their own. Eventually, nobody knew what happened afterwards until Zero woke up. In theory, Zero should be very weak and unable to split his will apart. In the event that he somehow manages to do so, Merlin dared not think of the consequences.

\"I should stop him...\" the wizard thought and hurried over.

Zero rolled his eyes and ignored Mii. He continued to practise splitting his mind to accomplish multiple things at once. Mii’s words didn’t quite make sense to Zero. How could one person possibly do two things at the same time when Zero isn’t controlling anything? Surely other forces are at play behind the scenes. If he could argue with himself back in the void from the memories he recovered, he should be able to do something similar. Mii was created by Solo, surely Zero could do something similar.

Merlin was frightened by the strange atmospheric pressure that surrounded his library. He recognised it as some sort of chaos energy mixed with a variety of strange things. He took his eyes off Zero for less than two minutes and already something had gone wrong. What exactly happened?!

\"Zero?\" Merlin called out and tried to open the library’s door but was slightly electrocuted as a result.

That teen had sealed the door unconsciously and transformed the area into a restricted zone for some reason. Merlin cursed. What was Zero doing? Then he remembered the strawcherry fairy with Zero. Reaching for his communicator, Merlin tried to call Mii but the signal was jammed with the strange barrier.

\"Dammit all!\" he hissed and started to find ways to break the barrier. Of all the magic types Zero had to use, he had to use chaos. Merlin was going to spank that kid when things blew over.

Meanwhile, Mii could only retreat into the mindscape with Zero losing control of his powers while trying to create a Parallel Mind forcefully. The interior of the mindscape was also changing dramatically with Zero’s accelerated progress.

Patience was never Zero’s strong suit. Recklessness was and that spelt trouble in at least ten different languages. The teenager had a stroke of brilliance pondering over the method. He briefly remembered being able to do several things at once before although it wasn’t reading. Back at Endow Hill, he was learning how to stitch from Mitchnew. He wasn’t very good with his hands in the craft and was fed up with the needle pricks he was getting. Sure, he conveniently healed up each time he stabbed a needle into his hand but it never made the process less painful. Zero thought that if he could control the needles individually to stitch without him having to come into contact with them, it would be perfect.

Moving the needle with dark magic was the easy part. Holding the tapestry up wasn’t too difficult. Threading five or six different patterns into each cloth at the same time was hard. When Zero focussed too much on one, he tended to forget about the others even if he was able to keep them in the air. How was he able to do that again?

\"That’s right!\" Zero snapped his fingers. Back then he heard voices. They must have been pixies or something. There were many voices from the same person who guided him and took over a portion of his body to control what Zero wanted. All Zero had to do after that was free his conscious mind and let the voice take over what he wanted to complete. Sometimes he would be asked questions and Zero would make a decision. That voice would take over again and Zero slipped into the back seat of his mind to watch everything move on its own without him interfering.

Zero closed his eyes and left the mindscape. All ten golems he borrowed were now possessed and ready for action at any point of time. Every golem held a different book and Zero swam through the unexplored parts of his mindscape in Mind’s Eye system to look for the voice that helped him.

\"Zero, what are you doing?\" Lily asked. While Mii took charge of Zero’s mental processing at the conscious part of Zero’s mind, Lily’s duty was to guard the void and unexplored parts that had been locked away by Solo. Zero didn’t often visit the dark recesses of his mind and preferred to spend it bantering with Mii. For him to visit, it must mean a great deal.

\"I’m looking for a voice,\" he told the flower fairy.

Lily nodded. \"What kind of voice? We could search together. It’s dangerous to go alone, there are many traps lying in wait within this empty space.\"

Zero wanted to ask how Lily knew that but decided to leave it for another time. Right now, he needs help.

\"Let’s head back to the library. I need Mii to retrieve my memories back at Endow Hill when Mitchnew was teaching me how to stitch. I remember that I was able to perform multiple tasks at the same time. Back then, I should have already mastered the art of Parallel Minds. I heard voices talking to me all from the same person in my mindscape. I want to know who that was.\"

Lily agreed and followed Zero back to Mii’s library.

\"Why are you here? What’s going on?\" the strawcherry fairy asked in surprise. Her library had been expanding rapidly and the barrier around Zero in Merlin’s library forced her to return to the mindscape.

Lily bowed. \"Zero needs help to retrieve a particular set of memories from Endow Hill. It was during the time he spent learning how to stitch with Mitchnew. Do you know where that memory is?\"

Mii searched for a while climbing up bookshelves and flying over to a different level. Zero was impressed by the collection of the library. Initially, there was only a pile of books that slowly grew into the small room full of books that he was used to seeing. Now, there was a tower of books. There was even a second level full of books and a special beam of light with several floating books in it. When had his mindscape library changed this much?

\"Don’t touch that!\" Mii snapped when she saw Zero reaching into the light beam. \"Those are memories from your past self and from the Divine Fragments. What you want should be somewhere in this section.\"

Lily and Zero went over to help Mii search for the book quickly.

\"When did the library expand so much?\" he asked off-handedly.

Lily giggled. \"It expanded when you had a huge learning curve back at Hope Clinic. Most of the books on the second level are medical-related. Oh, you have one section dedicated to the people you’ve met before. The patients you treated have their personal records here in case you ever met them again and needed to treat them.\"

Zero couldn’t believe how efficient Mii was. A portable medical archive of patient history was something every doctor would die for.

\"Mii! You’re awesome!\" he praised and the strawberry fairy blushed.

\"Shut up... now you know how much work I have to do. Stop asking me for answers about simple calculations and think for yourself next time.\"

Zero couldn’t help the sappy smile and grabbed the fairy from the air to plant a kiss on her cheek. Mii struggled to break free and threw insults at the young doctor but Zero was too happy to care. \"Thank you, Mii!\"

Rolling her eyes, the strawcherry fairy sighed in defeat. \"Hurry up and find that book. I don’t have an automated system here.\"

Zero and Lily obeyed. They worked hard and eventually found a purple book that was bound in golden chains that didn’t look like it belonged to the library.

\"What’s this?\" Zero asked Mii.

Mii took a look at it and shook her head. \"I don’t know. However, this should be the memories of your time stitching with Mitchnew. Let’s try opening it?\"

Lily and Mii stood a few metres back and allowed Zero to undo dispel the lock. When the golden chain shattered, the book floated up and in a flash of bright light, transformed into an eggplant fairy.

The small creature with light blue wings and eyes, eggplant stalk hat and a rounded purple dress teared up at the sight of Zero. She had short hair and looked similar to Mii. Zero didn’t know her but thought that she sounded familiar.

\"Master!\" the eggplant fairy cried and launched herself straight into Zero’s face, bawling as she clung onto him. Zero had to gently pry the fairy away in fear of losing his nose when her tiny hands clung onto it very tightly, unwilling to part.

\"Who are you?\" he asked when the fairy sniffled in his palm.

A flash of hurt reflected in the eggplant fairy’s big blue eyes when Zero asked that question. Mii frowned. Lily tilted her head to a side in deep thoughts. Where had they seen her before?

\"Master, do you really not remember me?\" the eggplant fairy asked with trembling lower lip.

Zero felt bad when he saw that the new fairy was going to cry again. He panicked and tried to recall anything that could be of use but remained clueless.

\"I-I’m really sorry but I don’t remember...\"

Shocked, the eggplant fairy fainted and Lily zoomed over to help the poor fairy. Mii thought hard about it and startled Zero when she let out a loud shout.

\"I remember now!\"

Zero snapped his head over to Mii’s direction so quickly they could almost hear a whiplash sound in the background.

\"She’s my sister!\" Mii declared and Zero’s jaw fell.

\"Sister? How-\"

Mii groaned and facepalmed.

\"This fairy is a product of your Parallel Mind. After you created five Parallel Minds back on Endow Hill when learning how to stitch with Mitchnew, the book suddenly gave birth to a strange fairy. She introduced herself as Wii and is the very first thing you created using Mind’s Eye system after the administrator rights transferred.\"

Zero frowned. He didn’t remember any of that happening.

\"Of course not!\" Mii snapped angrily. She finally remembered everything after the seal was broken. \"You completely sealed away memories relating to Wii after you were done with your training.\"

Startled, Zero denied it. \"Why would I do such a thing?\"

Mii sighed. \"It wasn’t a decision made by you consciously. It’s just that Lily only obeyed your instructions from the recesses of your mind behind the library and sealed Wii away. You wanted to use Parallel Minds only when you were sewing because you don’t want to touch needles ever again.\"

Zero looked guiltily at the eggplant fairy who whimpered in her sleep. \"Is there a way to undo this? I didn’t mean to seal Wii away... also, why didn’t any of you recognise her?\"

\"After Wii was sealed away, her existence was also erased under the seal. She faded away from my memories until she was unsealed. Lily and Zoe weren’t there at that time but Bob might still remember her.\"

Zero listened to Mii’s explanation and felt guilty. He healed the poor eggplant fairy and waited for her to regain consciousness.

Wii quickly kneeled and bowed when she saw Zero, shaking terribly as if she was afraid of Zero.

\"I’m so sorry, master! I-I’ll go back to sleep right now!\"

\"Wait!\" Zero stopped her before the fairy could throw herself to the nearest wall to knock herself out again. \"I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to seal you away. I just didn’t know what was going on back then.\"

Wii looked at Zero confusedly. The young doctor swallowed and apologised.

\"I’m sorry, Wii. I didn’t mean to seal you away. At that time, I didn’t know what was happening to me, I heard voices that helped me complete my training. It was you, wasn’t it?\"

Wii nodded. \"Back then I was newly born because master’s mind could not cope with having too many Parallel Minds. My duty is to slowly release Parallel Minds back to master’s mind when there is space. Right now, the library can only accept this many books. Whenever a Parallel Mind is created, the library is duplicated once. You had six Parallel Minds back then all demanding different things. My older sister couldn’t cope and the Mind’s Eye system created me to help manage it. Unlike Mii, I can clone myself when needed and merge back when not required.\"

Zero nodded. It’s making sense now. \"So the many voices I heard were all from you after you cloned?\"

Wii nodded.

\"What will happen to the knowledge and experience I gain from each Parallel Mind after I cancel it?\"

Wii smiled. \"That’s when Wii collects all that new data after merging and shares it with Mii for creation in the original library.\"

Zero nodded. \"Is there a limit to the number of Parallel Minds I can create?\"

Mii answered this question. \"Technically, no. However, if you truly care for me you will not create more than ten at each time. There can be many Wiis but there is only one of me. Think of all the updating and recording that I must do!\"

Wii flew over to the hyperventilating Mii. \"Don’t worry, big sis! I can help too.\"

Zero felt bad for his mindscape assistants and agreed that until they found a better way to cope with so much information, Zero will keep it to five because it was Merlin’s requirement.

\"It might be a little late but welcome to the family, Wii.\"

Touched by Zero’s welcome, the eggplant fairy cried once more and hugged Zero’s extended finger. Lily smiled at the side. They mindscape would be livelier now that there was one more person.

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