"Creator... My father." Blake embraced Kamiyā Yuu from behind and whispered into his ear. Her voice was soft, yet carried an intense surge of emotion.
Blake's personality was mature and calm, but that had never prevented her from expressing what she truly thought. In terms of her character settings, she wasn't as straightforward as Weiss, nor did she possess the instinct Ruby and Yang had for seeing directly to the essence of a problem.
This was especially true once she began leaning toward research in virtual-reality technology. With each successive technological breakthrough, her doubts about her own existence grew stronger, while her understanding of what Kamiyā Yuu represented became increasingly confused.
Kamiyā Yuu had never intended to hide anything from them in this regard, including their origins and his true intentions in creating them. It had already been more than ten years since Kamiyā Yuu created them in this world. Whether it was the emotions accumulated over all those years or the almost instinctive dependence she felt toward him, Blake's personality, rooted in the character settings he had given her, ultimately led her to make this decision.
She would halt the development of virtual-reality technology at the shallow stage—the stage of complete neural simulation.
Technology at this level would already be sufficient to support fully immersive games similar to 'Sword Art Online', but it wouldn't go far enough to involve true virtual reality like 'The Matrix', thereby blurring the definition of beings like them.
—The identity of a father.
As Kamiyā Yuu combed through Blake's black hair, he couldn't help laughing inwardly. Although the timing was somewhat inappropriate, being addressed that way gave him a strangely subtle feeling.
In reality, things weren't quite as serious as Blake made them sound.
If their consciousnesses were transferred into physical bodies, the biological instincts inherent to those bodies would affect the purity of the character souls he had designed. Put simply, while inside the Matrix Space, they could preserve an absolute sense of self without being overwhelmed by extreme emotions.
But after returning to physical bodies, biological flesh wouldn't possess such clearly defined boundaries. Under its gradual, imperceptible influence, would they remain themselves? Would they still be the characters Kamiyā Yuu had created based on 'RWBY'?
To solve that problem, he would have to begin by editing the most fundamental biological genes.
That was one of the things Kamiyā Yuu had been working on in this world all along. The bodies of Weiss and the others had been created using genetic technology. Although they possessed human appearances, they couldn't necessarily be called human.
Humans were organisms shaped through hundreds of thousands of years of genetic evolution. They, on the other hand, were the most perfect organisms Kamiyā Yuu had created based on his own understanding of biological genetics.
Blake lay across Kamiyā Yuu's lap like an obedient cat. She had removed the bow she usually wore and quietly enjoyed the sensation of Kamiyā Yuu combing through her hair with his fingers. After finally voicing the thoughts she had kept inside, her expression had become considerably brighter.
After thinking for a moment, Kamiyā Yuu said seriously, "Blake, there's one thing you've misunderstood."
"Mm."
"Although I created you all with the idea of having dolls that possessed independent consciousness, the moment I actually created you, things had already gone beyond my control. A doll is a doll. Something with independent consciousness no longer belongs in the category of a doll."
Kamiyā Yuu pinched her cheek and continued in an unhurried tone, "And your growing understanding of reality has only accelerated that process. I don't want you to rush into searching for answers right now. I want you to continue only after you're prepared and can proceed more steadily."
What Kamiyā Yuu wanted was to preserve the purity of the characters he had created, not restrict their freedom to develop. Although at present, the two were inseparably connected.
"What do you mean..."
Blake met Kamiyā Yuu's gaze.
Her clear, bright feline eyes suddenly flashed with understanding. Unable to restrain herself, she threw herself into his arms again and rubbed against him happily.
"Yes, my father."
—She really is just like a clingy little cat.
Seeing the unconcealable joy on her face, Kamiyā Yuu couldn't help feeling amused.
"Bang!"
The warm atmosphere hadn't lasted long when the manifested room within the deep-layer space of the Matrix Space's central control system was suddenly opened.
Ruby, dressed in a red-and-black Gothic dress, excitedly pushed open the wooden door and hopped inside.
This deep-layer space was shared by all of them, and each possessed the same level of access authority.
The instant Ruby pushed open the door, she saw Blake—normally quiet and mature—nestled contentedly in Kamiyā Yuu's arms, rubbing against him with obvious happiness.
Even with Ruby's carefree personality, she immediately sensed danger.
"Yuu, I heard you came ba—"
"Uh... did I come at a slightly... bad time?"
Ruby was just about to close the door and make her escape when Blake's figure blurred.
A pitch-black dagger was already pressed horizontally against Ruby's neck.
Blake's golden feline pupils narrowed into slits as she stared at the awkward, troubled Ruby. A faint blush still lingered on her face, but she forced herself to maintain a cold expression.
"Ruby, how many times have I emphasized this? Why do you still not understand the concept of knocking?"
Feeling the icy edge against her neck, Ruby's petite body stiffened. She immediately raised both hands in surrender and said aggrievedly, "Blake, I was wrong. I promise I'll knock next time."
"You saw it?"
"Mm~ Only a tiny bit. But this was just an accident nobody could've predicted."
Ruby placed a small hand against the blade, trying to push it away from her neck, but it didn't budge at all.
"Blake, maybe we can put down the dagger and talk this out properly. Yuu definitely thinks the same way."
Ruby shot Kamiyā Yuu a pleading look.
He coughed once and said nothing.
Blake was both embarrassed and angry, but she also didn't want to keep arguing with Ruby in front of Kamiyā Yuu. She lowered the black dagger and said coldly, "I understand. Ruby, just pretend you didn't see anything."
"Yes, sir!"
Ruby answered loudly.
Once the danger had passed, she cautiously glanced at Blake, then knocked on the already-open wooden door and asked, "Blake, can I come in now?"
"Do whatever you want."
Blake wasn't actually that angry. She simply didn't know how to deal with the embarrassment of having the mature image she had always maintained in everyone else's eyes completely collapse.
After receiving permission, Ruby shamelessly sat down beside Kamiyā Yuu and lay back.
While Blake went to close the door and set access restrictions, Ruby yawned, tilted her head, and looked at Kamiyā Yuu with a mischievous grin.
"Yuu, Weiss is going to be very angry."
This girl clearly never learned her lesson.
Kamiyā Yuu curled a finger and flicked her forehead hard.
"Mind your own business."
Ruby winced in pain and covered her forehead, her dark, round eyes filled with grievance.
Ruby's arrival, along with what she had just witnessed, made the atmosphere inside the room extremely awkward.
...
After dealing with all the miscellaneous matters, Kamiyā Yuu began organizing all the information the Matrix Space had gathered about the anime 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion' within his consciousness space.
This included the anime itself, official information, anime analyses, related fan fiction, and more. He searched for every possible clue that could help him perfect the anime and construct an ideal plot outline.
After organizing the information related to 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion', the other matter requiring his attention was the revision of the web novel 'Battle Through the Heavens'.
He had already revised the web novel several times inside his consciousness space. To be fair, perfecting the plot of a six-million-character web novel was far more complicated than doing the same for something like an anime.
Finally, Kamiyā Yuu also practiced drawing directly through consciousness within his consciousness space.
He deliberately suppressed his abilities until they were no different from what he could achieve in reality, then used that limitation to practice creating illustrations.