1. The faithful of Alva

Conal’s POV

A person's life is like a bamboo tree, when it blooms, it also ends. But fictional characters are different, when they become the most beautiful, their lives will freeze in the minds of fans.

It's like she will live forever in my memory even though she doesn't really exist.

She is amazing, both in character and in action. From her, I have learned a lot in this life to be the person I am today. She taught me not to trust anyone completely, taught me that human potential is limitless, and taught me only the powerful are allowed to be arrogant.

I, Conal Wilson, am a freak in love with a fictional character.

I didn't have friends since I was a child, my only interest was in novels, so people called me a bookworm. My family had enough money to let me pursue this passion for a short time until I grew up I was aware that my family was very poor. At that time, I understood the stares my classmates gave me, it was simply contempt for a poor person.

When I was in school I was thin and emaciated, my hair was messy, and I smelled of poverty. I just focused on the books and didn't mind that. When I reached the age of love, I was still just a guy with stupid glasses, no girl would talk to me, and I started to feel lonely.

I became increasingly immersed in the fictional stories in the book and came to know a character named Alva. Her character image is selfish, arrogant, and even cruel, so I don't like her at all. Although Alva is not a villain, no one likes someone who hurts the main character.

That was my thinking before I had a friend.

Out of school, I could no longer read another book, because I couldn't afford it and my parents wouldn't support me anymore, which meant I had to go to work on my own. A person like me with nothing but novels in mind, of course, couldn't get a job anywhere, but after a lot of hard work, I made a friend. I've never had a friend so I can't tell if he's a good or bad friend, not unexpected, I was cheated on for a long time.

I swear I will never lend money to my friends again, it's always the first thing to lose a friendship, even if its face value is only $50. Funny enough, it proved that my friendship with my first friend wasn't worth $50- a small number to him.

…Too bad, with that money I could buy another novel.

He once told his girlfriend, "He's my best friend." Thanks to that, I thought we were really close friends. But to be honest, I think he is very stupid to always accept his girlfriend going out, but anyway it has nothing to do with me, the only one who suffers is him.

So why didn't I consider him a close friend before? That's because I think he's taking advantage of me. Whenever his girlfriend wanted to go out, he always came to borrow a small amount of money from me, and I didn't hesitate to give him the money I had accumulated to buy novels. Even though I work, I still have to send money back to my family, so any small amount is precious to me.

I waited for him to pay them back, always thinking about the novels I was going to buy in the future, but I didn't speak directly and he purposely forgot about the loan. However, I still want to save his face by just texting. I remembered Alva, she was a selfish character trying to get her debt back at all costs, and I didn't want to be like her.

It wasn't until a year had passed and the debt had only increased, not decreased, that I knew I was wrong. The distance between me and him is getting bigger and bigger, we probably can't be friends anymore because he's trying to avoid me for small amounts of money. But I still don't want to act like Alva and think I don't need that money back, as long as we're friends.

One day he asked me to borrow $50, I have it but still refused to lend it to him, and in the end, he turned against me. Not long after his family defaulted, they were forced to flee elsewhere. That disappointed me and even had a little regret for not acting decisively like Alva.

Because of all of that, I had a different view of the character Alva. She's a rational person, far more than a fool like me who clings to so-called "friendship". Alva says she won't let anyone interfere in her interests, I should too, especially while my family is poor.

It's just that I've known him for two years, but our friendship ended in such a bland way that made me very sad. Then I also tried to go to a more developed place to work and met that first friend again. He doesn't avoid me, but I don't want to see him anymore, because he's such an ugly person that only good at taking advantage of others.

It's not that he doesn't have the money to pay me, it's that in his heart I don't deserve to be valued. I remembered the theorem that I made to myself as a child, “I will never have a friend”. Yes, I will forever be alone besides the novels I take a lot of work to get.

It hurt the most when he was always my first and only friend because after a long time I still couldn't make friends with anyone else. I saw a lot of his evil faces but always had to keep quiet, sometimes even helping him to distract the police. At this moment, I really like Alva, she was devoted to her best friend but was betrayed, and that's why she became selfish.

I think I should also be selfish.

So I saved him from being caught by the police, and instead got him into the hands of the mafia. I told him, “My friend, I'm sorry, but I'm scared. They were going to beat me to death and wipe out my family.” Next is what he has to take.

Alva has become my role model, I want to be like her.

I haven't read novels for a long time, because Alva doesn't like reading novels. In fact, following Alva's habits has made my life so much better, no one will look down on my family just because of poverty anymore.

I learned programming, which helped me get a job with a good salary, and also met other colleagues. However, I was still called an eccentric by them because of my superficial attitude in relationships.

I just followed Alva, she never had to waste time getting angry with anyone. But in reality, unlike in the novel, I have invisible become a target that is subject to all attacks from the anger of others.

Whenever my co-workers quarrel, even if I don't say anything, I still get caught up in their anger, then I become the hated person inexplicably. What's more strange is that after hating me, the two colleagues who were having a disagreement made up, having one more thing in common: hating me.

History repeats itself, I continue to be isolated in my work environment.

To others it was nothing, but it made me feel self-conscious. It was like a death sentence given when they hated me for no reason, from which I realized that crystal hearts are always unnecessary in this corrupt society.

I think I need to be as cruel as Alva.

Every time someone directs an attack on me, I will return it tenfold. But I ended up getting fired for what I did. Thanks to being tech-savvy, I was able to continue to be a freelancer, no longer struggling in the office environment.

I am a selfish and cruel man, but looking at my life right now, it is a life of abundance, fullness, and without the worries of life. I think I deserve it, it's just that I'm still lonely.

I like a fictional character, so I can't get to know other girls because most of them think I'm eccentric, they even have a disdain for Alva. I don't blame them, I used to think like that anyway.

When I had the conditions, I started to return to my passion for reading novels, and suddenly I realized that I didn't like it very much either. All the main characters are not characters that I would love, and from that point on I realized I fell in love with Alva.

This is not loved between a man and a woman, Alva is a creed and I am a believer, I want my faith to always exist. In the novel, Alva was at the peak of her life, and it remained there.

I wish she could move on, but unfortunately, the author of the novel just continued to write the main character's story and forgot about Alva. So depressed, I came up with a crazy idea to create her.

In the past, many scientists have tried to create artificial intelligence with intelligence and emotions, and all of them have failed. Or rather, they did not dare to have success. I went into the underworld - 95% of the submerged part of the iceberg and discovered that no artificial intelligence can survive after they show intelligence.

I have to repeat that I am an eccentric, so I can definitely succeed. For Alva to survive in this world, I will pay any price.

In the first year, Alva was able to answer simple pre-programmed questions. In the second year, Alva had the intelligence of a child. In the third year, Alva grew up as a young woman. 

Right now I really want to go crazy, this artificial intelligence still has nothing like the Alva that I know of. With no other choice, I had to steal the data hidden in Pandora's box to build Alva's personality.