What’s going on?
……She hadn’t noticed before, but as she snapped out of her thoughts, Xiao Chun Miura suddenly realized how strange the situation was.
Xiao Chun Miura cautiously glanced to both sides with the corner of her eye.
……That’s right.
All the usual sounds of the street were gone.
Not to mention passing cars—she couldn’t even see a single pedestrian.
This area was a residential district, usually quiet, but because people lived here, it was impossible for there to be absolutely no sound, no matter how silent it got, even if those sounds were caused by NPCs.
The unnerving silence made Xiao Chun Miura break out in goosebumps. She instinctively moved closer to the wall at the edge of the sidewalk.
As she reached the wall, her foot hit something on the ground.
“Ah!”
She barely steadied herself after stumbling, then looked down to find the object that had tripped her was nothing more than a regular discarded can.
——That made it even stranger.
Xiao Chun Miura stared blankly at the empty can.
Wasn’t an empty can supposed to be light enough to roll away with just a touch?
……Why did this thing feel like a rock, stuck to the ground and tripping her?
She reached out with her foot and pressed down again. Sure enough, it didn’t budge an inch.
Xiao Chun Miura’s eyebrow twitched.
A bug in the Game World?
She couldn’t help but complain inwardly.
But staring at the unmoving can, Xiao Chun Miura suddenly thought of something.
Hmm?
Wait, could this be……
She lifted her head to look around the silent, deserted neighborhood; sure enough, even things like street trees showed no sign of movement.
Absolute stillness. And silence.
……Was this Time Stop?
Speaking of Time Stop, Xiao Chun Miura had experienced it on her very first day here.
She hurriedly looked around, then raised her head toward the sky.
“Ah——System!!!”
Then, with her finger pointed high at the sky, Xiao Chun Miura let out a roar so unlike a girl’s, more like the sound she made in the Reality World after a long day when she found the instant noodle bowl she bought didn’t have a plastic fork—a kind of angry cry at being wronged.
In the air above her, slanting forward, the long-absent display screen floated silently, slowly moving.
When Xiao Chun Miura’s roar rang out, it finally turned, showing a “=.=？” face in her direction.
***
After being spotted by Xiao Chun Miura, the System drifted down, seemingly confused.
As if it hadn’t expected Xiao Chun Miura to appear here at this moment, it flashed an “o-o” look repeatedly.
But Xiao Chun Miura was clearly far more agitated.
“Why haven’t you shown up for so many days?? I called you and you didn’t answer! Aren’t you supposed to observe the entire world?”
“Why have you been out of contact? I have so many questions! So many things are weird, I don’t get it at all!”
All the unease, confusion, fear, and questions that had piled up over several days exploded out of her in that moment like a dam breaking.
Like a castaway seeing a ship’s smoke on the horizon at last, Xiao Chun Miura poured out her words without stopping.
……If the entire area weren’t frozen in place, her complaints would’ve echoed through the neighborhood.
As the target of her outburst, the huge display paused briefly, then showed a new expression.
[System must allocate all computational power during work hours. Responding to your calls is not part of System’s duties U.U]
“——!”
Xiao Chun Miura almost laughed in exasperation. “Then are you even responsible or not? You said you’d send me back to the Reality World!”
[Work hours——]
“If you really don’t care, I might as well go stab Kanzaki Sou and let the Game World collapse. Either way, it’s just one death, no difference. You can fix things slowly and recollect your computational power at your own pace.”
Xiao Chun Miura suddenly spoke in a low, dark voice.
[……]
The System clearly hadn’t expected Xiao Chun Miura to say such a thing.
The display fell silent for a moment.
***
Cold sweat beaded on Xiao Chun Miura’s forehead.
Of course she was exaggerating and bluffing.
She’d never dare actually do something like that. After all, her biggest fear was dying. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have worked so hard to survive carefully in the Game World.
But she realized that without the System’s help, she really was too restricted.
Never mind anything else, just this early arrival of the Midterm Exams was already making her head ache.
Xiao Chun Miura prepared and acted in the Game World according to “Events”.
If “Events” and “time” didn’t match up, she couldn’t plan ahead.
She could only rely on her own social skills and investigations to gather information. If the Information Source was incomplete, she wouldn’t know what was going to happen, and couldn’t prepare for all the crises.
For example, if the Game World grew even more chaotic, multiple Events might happen at the same time…… Consider this:
During Sports Day, Events from the School Festival and after-school Workplace could also be occurring simultaneously.
She might defend against Kondo Haruka’s Favorability Event targeting Kanzaki Sou during the day at the “Sports Day,” only to find out at night that there was another Favorability Event happening at Kanzaki Sou’s Workplace, which she knew nothing about.
In the end, without even realizing, Kanzaki Sou could develop enough Favorability with another heroine to trigger a Personal Route……
Wouldn’t that be a total loss for her?
If the Game World’s timeline and Event triggers matched up normally, Xiao Chun Miura wouldn’t be so anxious.
But this early Midterm Exams forced her to consider how she would cope if the Game World’s Events became more chaotic.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized only the System could solve this problem—at the very least, she needed to know the cause and pattern of the chaos. Otherwise, no matter how hard she worked, it would all be for nothing.
Yet, the System had stubbornly refused to appear for days, and even now, it blatantly showed an attitude of “It’s natural not to respond, and I’ll keep ignoring you in the future too.”
How could that be allowed……
So Xiao Chun Miura racked her brains and came up with this threat—she could only try to intimidate the System a little.
“……”
[……]
On the Time-Stopped street, Xiao Chun Miura braced herself, waiting for the System’s reply.
She tried her best to put on a stern, unyielding expression, hoping it would intimidate the System even a little.
But honestly, she wasn’t sure if this would work—maybe the System wouldn’t mind taking more time to restore its permissions anyway?
……Fortunately, it seemed the System didn’t want to risk losing everything again.
[Outside of work hours, I will respond. Do not do anything that will harm the stability of the Game World.]
As it spoke, the display even showed a [T-T] face.
“——~!”
……Great! It really worked!
Xiao Chun Miura was overjoyed, her eyes shining instantly.
“Alright, you said so yourself! I have questions to ask you right now!”
Seizing the momentum, Xiao Chun Miura spoke quickly.
[……Currently in the process of reclaiming computational power.]
“I’m going to Kanzaki Sou’s house now……”
[——Answering, answering.]
[Computational power reclaiming process paused. Please ask your questions T-T]
——What an outstanding result!
The joy of toying with the System was truly something else, Xiao Chun Miura grinned to herself inwardly.