“Mommy’s here~ Come get a hug… bleh! What the hell am I doing?!”

I dropped the head of my main body back onto the pillow and crouched beside the bed, covering my face.

Please forgive me for doing something so creepily perverted… I guess this is what happens when you grow up emotionally starved for maternal affection.

Still, even doing something this messed up didn’t bring me any of that “mother’s love” I was craving. Well I guess obviously maternal love isn’t fully associated with being buried in breasts or whatever.

With a hollow heart, I wiped the name off the bookmark and felt my consciousness start drifting back into my main body.

When I woke up again…

Damn it, I’m back in the hospital room. Must be another dream created by Master Halliluya.

“Chang Kai girl, looks like you were having fun, huh?”

A cutesy little girl's voice chirped from the doorway. Today, our white-haired loli doctor had gone all-in with the cosplay: she wore an oversized white coat that nearly dragged on the floor, a button-up white shirt underneath, black slacks, black-rimmed glasses, and even held a clipboard. A pen peeked out from her chest pocket—classic competent female doctor look.

You’re the one having the most fun, okay?! You change outfits every time you show up!

I reached out to pat her head—only to have my hand slapped away again.

“Getting way too familiar, aren’t you? Who said you could touch the grand master’s sacred head?”

Rubbing the back of my hand where she’d smacked me, I muttered bitterly, “But Master, you always dress so cute, I can’t help myself…”

Also, her silky-soft hair feels way too nice.

“Even if you can’t help it, you still have to control yourself. Speaking of which, I forgot to mention last time since I left in such a rush… girl, don’t you think your outfit’s kinda dangerous?”

She gave a pointed glance at my chest, where the hospital gown strained tightly. I looked down and—yikes. Between the buttons, there was a glimpse of pale skin that made me wonder why I felt so suffocated. (Ah. No bra.)

“……” Yeah, I had nothing to say.

“Now do you understand how I feel, Cowboobs girl?”

Why the sudden name change?!

Okay, maybe this outfit was a bit much. I still can’t control the dream setting on my own, so I had to ask Master for help.

“Pretty please, Master? Help me change into something more modest~”

“No problem.”

She snapped her fingers—silently, again. Guess she’s still bad at that.

There was a soft poof as white smoke erupted around me, and when it cleared, my hospital gown had transformed into a collared white dress with a black ribbon at the neckline. The whole look was surprisingly vintage.

My upper arms peeked out between the puffed short sleeves and the long satin gloves. A decorative belt cinched the waist—useless for function, but it made my chest look even bigger thanks to the tightened silhouette.

The skirt’s length was unclear, but since I was sitting cross-legged and couldn’t see my feet, I assumed it was long enough.

If it weren’t for the collar, it would’ve looked like a wedding dress.

“Tsk tsk. ‘Clothes make the man, and bells make the dog run happy’—there’s some truth to that after all,” Master said, nodding in smug approval of her work.

“Now you look just like a noble lady, Chang Kai girl.”

If it were up to me, I’d rather stick with regular clothes. Noble lady? That’s a bit too much. Even if I were a girl, I’m just a village bumpkin. I don’t have that kind of innate elegance.

After this whole round of cosplay chaos, it was time to get to the point.

“So, Master… did you figure out what’s wrong with the bookmark?”

It doesn’t seem to work in dreams, and in the real world, only the clone has consciousness. That can’t be what she intended.

Since it was made specifically to let Xiao Lei and Zhao Zhao coexist, it’s useless if only one of them is conscious.

“You’re half right,” she said.

With the hospital gown off and the boob distraction removed, both of us felt a little more at ease. Master hopped lightly onto the bed and scooted over to sit beside me.

“I did come about the bookmark. But there’s no defect in the item itself. The problem, Chang Kai girl, is you.”

I raised an eyebrow. Oh, so now it’s my fault?

“Don’t look at me like that. Let me explain.”

She clapped her hands together, and when she pulled them apart, she was holding a lump of bluish-green modeling clay.

“Let’s say a soul is like clay. The body is the container. You mold the clay and put it inside the container, and that’s a person.” …And then, the soul takes on some traits of the body it inhabits and becomes an unique entity?

She pinched the clay into two lumps.

“Now if I take these two lumps and put them into two separate bodies, what do you think happens?”

She tossed the question to me, clearly expecting an answer.

“They become two separate individuals?”

“Wrong. That’s just what the bookmark is supposed to seem like, right? In reality, it’s just one consciousness controlling two bodies. Even split in two, the soul remains a single awareness.”

Wait, one shared awareness?

That’s bad. Really bad.

If Zhao Zhao’s consciousness takes over, Xiao Lei’s body becomes the ultimate sacrificial lamb for every degenerate fantasy under the sun. Just thinking about it gives me enough material for an entire R18 doujinshi.

If it’s Xiao Lei’s consciousness instead, then Zhao Zhao’s body… would become a 1.9m gay love-struck maiden in love with me. I’m not ready for that.

“But,” Master said, hands on her hips and chest puffed out proudly, “my bookmark doesn’t just create a body and stuff half a soul into it. I severed the connection between the two soul fragments. That way, even though it’s the same soul, it generates two distinct consciousnesses. Voilà! One person becomes two!”

It’s like running two operating systems on the same computer at once.

“But the end result is still the same person, right?”

“Exactly. And it’s a shared fate deal. If one dies, the other dies too. Sorry, I haven’t figured out how to fix that. Life’s full of risk, and now it’s doubled.”

“But if the clone is fatally injured, and I erase the name in time, the soul returns to the original body, right?”

“You’re such a loophole-hunter.”

She didn’t sound mad, though. She smushed the two clay lumps back together and tossed the it to me.

“You’re not wrong. The soul can return—but only if the main body’s nearby. If you’re too far away and erase the name, the fragment might vanish before it makes it back. And once one fragment dissolves, the other’s living on borrowed time. They decay at different rates, but within ten meters is definitely safe.”

That gave me a scare. I’d already used it three times—but thankfully always while near my real body.

“Wait… but even so, that doesn’t explain my experience at all.”

“Like I said—it’s your problem.”

She clapped again, and this time revealed a yellow translucent rubber bouncy ball in her palm.

“You’re different. Other people’s souls are clay. Yours? It’s this thing. Can’t be divided, can’t even break. Doesn’t seem like it can dissolve either.”

“Why is my soul a inseparable rubber ball then?!”

“I’m not totally sure. Maybe because you’re a divine apprentice in training? The Heavenly Principles probably have set up some kind of failsafe for your soul.”

She hurled the ball across the empty room. It bounced off every surface—walls, ceiling—and finally bonked her on the forehead with a loud bonk. She yelped and tears welled up in her eyes.

“We’re inside your sea of consciousness right now. The dream realm is a projection of your soul. Since your soul can’t split, the dream version doesn’t reflect any change.”

She lifted her bangs to show the bump on her forehead. Apparently, that was where the "sea of consciousness" was located.

I really wanted to reach over and rub that bump for her.

“So in the real world, since my soul can’t divide, the bookmark body just sucks the whole thing out of me—and my original body ends up a brain-dead vegetable?”

“Bingo. You catch on fast. And as the soul resides in the sea of consciousness , when a clone and their original body touch foreheads, the connection can briefly reestablish, letting them sync consciousness and share memories.”

The body’s the Gundam, the mind is the cockpit, the soul is the pilot—and bumping foreheads is a full-on Newtype moment.

“That’s all there is to the bookmark. Any other questions, Chang Kai girl?”

“Nope. This thing’s amazing~”

“Of course it is! I made it with my own hands!”

“Master, you’re the best!”

I reached up and patted her head again—her silky soft hair was irresistible.

“Hehe~”

She giggled dreamily, then suddenly snapped back to herself and batted my hand away.

“I told you not to touch my head!”