After getting the System to calm down, Xiao Chun Miura brought up her previous questions.
“Why did the Midterm Exams arrive so early?”
She looked at the slowly floating Display Screen, voicing the doubt she had long wanted to clarify.
“In my memory, the Midterm Exams and Sports Day in the game’s plot are back-to-back, with Sports Day following quickly after the exams—But both should be at the end of the Common Route.”
“You said earlier that the game plot is just beginning now, so no matter how you think about it, the Midterm Exams shouldn’t happen so soon—What’s going on?”
Xiao Chun Miura first asked about the plot point she was most concerned with… For no other reason than to confirm whether her memory still matched the current situation.
If the System really told her the Game World was broken, she’d have to adjust her strategy…
On the floating Display Screen, dynamic ellipses appeared for a moment, as if the System was confirming Xiao Chun Miura’s question.
Then, after a while, the System’s answer appeared line by line on the screen in its heavily electronic synthetic voice.
[A deviation in the plot… has indeed never occurred before.]
[For now, it can be considered an effect brought by your entry into the Game World—A detailed answer will require risk assessment before I can reply =.=]
Contrary to Xiao Chun Miura’s expectations, the System also didn’t seem to know the exact reason for the plot’s acceleration.
In fact, it was blaming her influence.
“No, if the cause is unclear, then if future plot points also change like the Midterm Exams, the entire Game World’s timeline could fall into chaos, right?”
Xiao Chun Miura asked, “Wouldn’t that be an extra burden for Compute Power integration? Is there no solution?”
…Although Xiao Chun Miura was pursuing the issue mainly for her own survival, it was impossible to say she didn’t care at all about the System’s Compute Power efficiency.
After all, it directly affected the timing of her return. As long as it didn’t increase the difficulty of her survival, Xiao Chun Miura hoped the System could collect Compute Power more quickly.
[O.O……O.O……]
[According to current real-time investigation: this world is still functioning normally, and no major characters show significant abnormalities, including individual factors affected by the Midterm Exams plot point.]
The System was silent for a moment, then refreshed with these sentences.
[Game plot covered by the Midterm Exams plot point is now in a pending state, and is expected to activate after the Midterm Exams plot ends…]
[——Error detected.]
The suddenly emotionless mechanical voice made Xiao Chun Miura, who had been focused on listening, break out in goosebumps.
[……Error detected]
[An error described as Event Branch 03’s development—‘The Protagonist experiences club activities in order and ultimately chooses one, triggering several possible event branches afterward’.]
[This event branch was not successfully triggered.]
[Adjusting event branch content… Adjustment failed, error detected.]
The string of statements continued one after another, each arriving before the previous had finished, leaving Xiao Chun Miura stunned, unsure what to do.
“System…?”
[……Error detected.]
[Unprompted generation of an incorrect Personal Route detected.]
The Display Screen paid no mind to Xiao Chun Miura’s tentative, quiet words, and continued its “investigation” on its own.
[The Protagonist is currently in a pre-event state of an incorrect Personal Route.]
[The target of the incorrect Personal Route is described as ‘Xiao Chun Miura’.]
“……Haah?”
Xiao Chun Miura, who was named, froze.
She stared blankly at the Display Screen, looking like she couldn’t understand what it was saying.
“What… does that mean…”
Haah?
No, I don’t get it?
The Protagonist—that’s Kanzaki Sou. He’s in an incorrect Personal Route?
And the character of the Personal Route is… me?
“No way! System, you never said something like this could happen!”
Xiao Chun Miura panicked.
“You never mentioned this before. Isn’t it enough just to prevent him from entering someone else’s Personal Route? Why has he ended up in mine instead?!”
[T.T]
As if the investigation was complete, the words faded from the screen, replaced immediately by a bitter expression.
[It’s precisely because you’re not the kind of character who should have a Personal Route that the current situation is abnormal.]
[Kanzaki Sou’s status is now identified as ‘possibly entering Xiao Chun Miura’s Personal Route’.]
[But this storyline doesn’t exist in the game and wasn’t generated by this world either.]
[…By following this logic, perhaps it was Kanzaki Sou’s abnormal information state that led to certain plotlines advancing early.]
[If this problem isn’t resolved, future plot points may also become chaotic.]
Xiao Chun Miura felt she could sense the System’s worry through its synthetic electronic voice.
“…So how do we fix it?”
She was also at a loss.
Recalling the System’s previous words, she spoke:
“You just mentioned Event Branch 03’s error, that it was during Kanzaki Sou’s selection of club activities—wasn’t he supposed to become a Librarian?”
…This had been a strange point for Xiao Chun Miura from the beginning.
In the game, while Kanzaki Sou considered working part-time as a Librarian, regardless of the options, there was never a route or storyline where he actually took up the role.
Xiao Chun Miura had her doubts then, but since it made her own actions easier, she didn’t think too deeply.
Now it seemed that strange point had indeed become a foreshadowing.
The System said Kanzaki Sou now ‘might enter Xiao Chun Miura’s Personal Route’, which means Kanzaki Sou had an interaction with Xiao Chun Miura that ‘could develop into a romantic relationship’… making entry into a Personal Route possible.
That should have been impossible, because Xiao Chun Miura was merely a background character with barely any lines; her Personal Route simply didn’t exist—it had never existed from the start.
So, it was like something that doesn’t exist in the real world being recognized, thus violating the world’s rules?
…In short, it seemed this was the root of the Game World’s problems.
Looking back, it all started when ‘Kanzaki Sou became a Librarian and worked with Xiao Chun Miura’—this event was the source of the anomaly.
If the abnormality began then, it was only natural that later the Midterm Exams were affected, causing deviation from the game plot.
[According to the investigation, Kanzaki Sou’s information state first showed anomalies when he ‘became a Librarian’.]
As expected, the System gave her a definitive answer.
Receiving confirmation, Xiao Chun Miura felt a chill in her heart.
What she had thought was a miracle aiding her actions turned out to be the greatest stumbling block.
By comparison, people like Kondo Haruka were now minor issues.
Was there any way to fix it?
“Is there any way to fix it?”
The girl’s heart and mouth expressed the same plea.
Fortunately, the System didn’t leave her without hope.
[…Based on the identified problem, a correction method can be proposed.]
A single line floated quietly on the Display Screen.
[By removing the abnormal elements and returning the plot to its original trajectory, the issue should be resolved.]
[Kanzaki Sou must not become a Librarian.]
[Kanzaki Sou must not enter Xiao Chun Miura’s Personal Route.]
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