Time Dilation
It's not like I hated being a tomboy, but there's nothing of value lost.
The main issue is that my parents would freak out if I'm gone. Even if I were the same person, but much hotter, there's no way to return inside this body.
And the way Alexandra talks, she doesn't want to hand it over either.
"I will make you a homunculus and send you back as soon as possible, okay?" Since she explains it as if it were trivial, there's nothing to worry about.
Even if I have no idea, what a homunculus is. Better not to ask.
"If that's all it takes, then fine. Thank you for saving my life." I guess.
According to the mental image she sends inside my head she's satisfied with the response. No matter how I look at her, Alexandra is a breathtaking beauty, even as a silly granite block.
"But it might take time, and class is about to start. You'll have to hang out for a bit, I don't want to be late on the first day of school."
Okay, no matter how trivial this matter is to her, this is too much.
"Right. Evaporating someone and taking them to a different world on the first day is fine, missing class is not."
If I forget that she's the stunning hottie who almost caused me a heart attack, I want to choke her to death. But I'm the hottie now, and she's a literal pebble.
You can't choke a pebble. At least this is something I never tried.
"Look, we're in the same group, I will take notes for you." She bargains, and things make even less sense now.
Are changing bodies and worlds insignificant compared to missing class?
"So you mean to tell me, our uni is so good, that transdimensional hotties commute there daily?" This sounds too ridiculous, I have to ask.
I even feel so bold to refer to her as a hottie. When I don't see her face, it's much easier to talk. That's why I had so many online friends back in the day.
"I wouldn't call it commuting." She ponders.
"I spent an entire year in your world to learn programming, and that's where I could get in with the knowledge I've got." The way Pebble-Sandra explains it, I raise an eyebrow.
"You said you're a Goddess, right? And you have magic and all that jazz. Why would you bother with programming in another world?"
I can't be the only one to ask this question. It makes zero sense.
"I will explain everything once I'm back, all right? It wasn't a deliberate choice. But look what I can do with it."
The pebble spins around and something weird is going on with my head.
[Welcome, Leona! The system is booting.]
This... What is this? It sounds like a cheap AI voice, straight inside my mind.
"It's a simple game I programmed while learning computer science. I'll load up a tutorial while you wait, and by the time I'm back, you'll know everything about this world."
"You can't be serious." She can't be serious.
Did she make a system? An isekai system? How many cliches you can get?
"And what do you mean by the time you're back? You go to class, and return in an hour, right?"
"No, I'd stay for the day, and come back when school's over." She says, and that makes sense. "Except..."
"Except?" Did she say except?
"There's a slight time dilation between the two dimensions." She thinks I'm freaking Einstein or something? My puzzled face gives her a clue to continue.
"Time feels ten times slower over there."
That's it? Sometimes it felt like an hour took an entire year, depending on the class and the teacher. Is it not a thing in her world?
"So how long until you're back?" It can't be that simple if she mentioned it.
"In about five days? No, let's say a week."
"No. Oh, no, no." I shake her sexy head. Even if it's only half a day in my world, I don't want to spend a week here, out in the wild, alone.
[Once online, the system will give you the needed information, and fun challenges to pass the time.]
That AI voice chimes in to freak me out. Right. This is a thing too, huh?
"Can't you make that homunculus thing now instead? On the first day, it's only introductory stuff anyway, it's fine if you miss class." Let's hope this convinces her.
I don't want to spend a week here with an AI designed by some weird and sexy transcendent being.
Hmm. Okay, thinking about it this way, it sounds strange but also hot.
"Fine, I can try, but I don't remember your body in every detail." So it did convince her.
She floats around a bit, then starts humming and shaking, and the mud around the riverbed takes a weird shape.
With the lights and everything, it has to be magic. She doesn't even touch it and it looks amazing until everything collapses. The pebble also falls to the ground.
She remains motionless for a few seconds, and I begin to worry.
"Hey, Alex? You're okay?"
"It's strange." She whirrs up again like a mechanical doll, except I don't know one, that's made of granite and floats.
"What is?" I walk up to her, checking the mess she made with the mud.
"For some reason, when it came to the shaping and the fine-tuned hand movements, it all fell apart." She ponders, spinning above the failed homunculus.
It looks like a stick figure made of clay but it's broken.
"Fine-tuned hand movements?" I raise an eyebrow, looking at the granite block.
A literal, floating block of granite.
No matter how much I look at it, she doesn't have hands.
"Okay, this might be a problem." The world collapses in me as she notes. "But I'll figure something out once I'm back."
"So you leave me here after all?" And here I thought it would be easy.