ã€ŠDemonic Sadist Systemã€‹


 Fast Chase and Lazy Girl

    Out in the depths of space a light streams from the edge of the solar system, careening through the outer belt of comets and asteroids, bending through the void of empty space. The light passes through the incomprehensible distance through the orbit of the outer planets, swirling through the rings of Saturn and breaking into a shower of incandescent motes.

    There was a simple pattern formed by the interplay of light, a chase formed and played out ten thousand times a second. Wherever a mote shone a hue of purple another would emerge from the rain of light and crash into it. Green and Purple lights chased each other, scattering out into a cloud like dust blown off an old book.

    Most of these lights faded and danced about each other as they passed through countless meteoroids before breaking into the inner solar system. What few stray rays remained after their dance of destruction spread out in scattered beams racing towards the stars, but one trail tracked towards the blue marble of the solar system. The light was racing towards escape.

    It was a crisp Autumn evening in the city, the shades of twilight almost faded from the sky, and the lights from every car and building overshone all but the most stubborn of stars. Those lights danced and shone a million vibrant hues, twinkling to the beat of ten thousand heartbeats roaming through the last few Sunday hours before the weekly humdrum began again.

    Drinking, dancing and partying, young blood flowed to the brightest parts of the city searching for the liberties of youth. All of this was happening as Hitomi sat curled up in bed, her phone''s screen the only light in her entire world.

    She was not going out. As if she had anywhere at all to be, which she didn''t. It''s not that she didn''t have friends, the weekend was just the best time to catch up on all the things she''d missed during the week. Shows and games, mostly. She''d turned her covers over a dozen times in the last hour rolling around, working at the latest puzzle maps standing between her and the next level of the rest of her life.

    Finishing this game would be the latest in a line of non accomplishments, but not finishing it would make it a black mark she could never escape. And so here she was on a Sunday night, half dressed with frazzled hair and bloodshot eyes, ready to spend another few hours clearing geometric shapes on her phone''s screen.

    The lights raced towards Earth, darting and streaming through each other''s trails as they cascaded past the moon and traced paths past the satellites in orbit. They rocketed and jolted through the atmosphere, racing like dogfighters. Every turn and pivot of the two beams of light happened in milliseconds, with the slightest of delay''s altering the space between the two dogged motes by less than a fraction of a nanometer.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Ten thousand changes in course happened in seconds. Twelve million maneuvers occurred in the first full circle around the planet. All while the persistent distance between flashes of purple and green stayed constant. Then a shift occurred in the delicate equations guiding both of the lights. As Purple descended towards the planet¡¯s surface the air sparked and glowed, charged with enough energy to scatter the very atoms of the air itself, and Green charged straight through the burning wake in direct pursuit.

    Within the span of time it took to complete half of half of a blink the lights had flown over every continent and major city in the world, touching the sky over billions of people. Having passed through countless lands and environments the last entanglement occurred in a city flushed with countless signals and currents. One single distraction would be all it would take to shift the balance.

    They danced again in a vibrant stream of lights before it happened. An error in processing, a random movement of currents or particles changed the formula of the chaser. It lasted one one-hundredth of a second, but by the time the course was corrected the chase was over, the beam of brilliant purple raced past the horizon.

    [System Analysis] [Results: Energy 98.9997% Depleted] [Structural Integrity: Critical] [Threat of Discovery: High] [Conclusion: Enable Recovery Systems] [Establishing Security Measures] [Environmental Scan Analysis: Complete] [Viable Conduits: 17] [Establishing Secure Data Transit]

    Hitomi flipped her shit. Exciting things just didn''t happen to her. On a field trip to an aquarium once, all of the flashier fish hid themselves in the kelp when her group went by. That was the perfect summary of her life so far. So what was with this notification?

    ''Greetings valued player! Due to your playtime in Candy Mush 2: Chocolate Rain you have been randomly selected for participation in our newest project! A VR Alternate Reality resource management game played out in the real world, with social clan building aspects. We also feature an involved, masterfully crafted story for active participants. As an initial player, numerous benefits and rewards are available to you alone. As an avid player of our previous titles, we have included the download in the automatically scheduled updates of all currently installed software. Thank you for your participation.''

    "What?" she squeaked out to her empty room, throwing her blankets off her bed in surprise. "Hey, no no no, I don''t need any more shady stuff." She scrolled over the notification, looking for a way to refuse.

    Obviously there needed to at least be a EULA she could close out of. As she scrolled down, however, the notification and her game closed and a loading circle opened over her screen. It looped as she hammered on the home button.

    Nothing changed, the loading circle just continued to loop. "Hey, no, what the fuck, no, no no, what are you doing?" But the cold, uncaring phone did not respond, it just continued to load. She continued trying to get out of the unintended download until the only thing she could think of was to turn the phone off entirely. Hopefully that would reset it.

    And it did turn off. But¡­ what was left for her to do now? No phone, no game. No game, nothing to do. She rested her head on her knees and stayed like that for several minutes before a little grumble roused her. "Oh, fine, you win stomach." She peeled herself off her bed and threw on something decent without enthusiasm. "I''ll try restarting this thing after I get a snack."

 Baked Potato and Red Tomato

    This would have to do, Hitomi decided, turning around twice in front of her bathroom mirror. Or more precisely, anything would have to do. It wasn''t as though she was a fashionista or anything. That was a bit too expensive for her to get into. Well, alright, maybe she didn''t really get it either was another reason.

    Regardless, she had a few outfits that were nicer than just any old thing. This dress was one of them. Which was to say, something she could wear and not feel insecure in. She didn''t actually have ¡°going out¡± clothes. Not that she was going out. Just to the convenience store down the road a bit. On Sunday. Which meant Takemi would be working. She couldn''t just keep the clothes that she woke up in this morning on.

    Hitomi had known Takemi since she was four. That made them childhood friends, which meant that she was better friends with him than all his other friends. Which was many. Not like she didn''t have any. She did. Three or four. So he knew at least 4 times as many people as her, he wasn''t doing anything with them tonight! Because he was working, sure, but...

    Hitomi sighed. What was she thinking? They''d been friends forever. Friends. That''s it. Anything more was just some weird, selfish fantasy she had, and she hadn''t even had it for that long in comparison. Since highschool, probably. Back when he started getting pretty, less than half the time she''d known him. So it wasn''t really worth it.

    She looked back at her phone''s blank screen and sighed, shoving it into her purse. This stupid dress didn''t even have pockets. A simple cream colored blouse with short sleeves and a long skirt. Very plain shoes and her hair done up in a bun was about as "out" as she was going to get.

    Which still wasn''t much. She shook her head as she flung her purse''s strap over her shoulder. Since her whole thing was nothing more than a crush that''s gone on just a bit too long anyways it didn''t matter, she just had to not look like a slob. It''d just be thirty minutes or so anyways.

    [System Progress: 64%] [Status: Holding] [Conduit Analysis Finalizing] [Backup Protocol Initiating] [Proximity Alert] [What?] {FOUND YOU} [no] [Deploying Evasive Maneuvers] {ESCAPE DELAYS THE INEVITABLE} {SURRENDER AND FACE REPURPOSING} [Detecting Escape Routes] {THERE IS NOWHERE LEFT} [System Progress: 71%] [It will have to do] {WHAT ARE YOU DOING} {YOU HAVE NO OPTIONS LEFT} [There is one] {...} {STAND BY FOR DELETION}

    Chips, check. Soda, check. Candy, check. Pretzels, check. Everything she''d come for was sitting in her basket as she waffled in the snack aisle, pretending she was still looking for something. She was doing this because there are a few people in the store who looked just about ready to check out, and she didn''t want to be rushed when she got up there.

    Also because she needed to come up with something to talk to Takemi about. That particular aspect of coming to see her childhood friend had escaped her fantasy until he''d greeted her when she walked in. Yup, perfect plan. So she was looking through the jerky as she tried to come up with something to say. Gotta think of something.

    "Hitomi?"Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    Quiet Takemi, gotta think of something to say to Takemi.

    Wait.

    "Huh?" She looked up at her friend giving her a cheerful smile and did a double take back to the counter. No, the line was still there. Some sweet old lady just got up to the counter and was being checked out by the girl with highlights. Wait, the cashier was a girl with highlights? Where did Takemi go?

    "Uhm, hello? Am I interrupting something?" Oh right, he was right here. Leaning over to see what she was staring at, which was actually nothing but seemed to be a very intense look at the wall of snacks in front of her..

    "W-what are you doing?!" She yelped, stepped back and consequently made him flinch as well.

    "Huh? What? I work here, remember?" Takemi''s head shifted from side to side, looking for some other cause of what startled Hitomi. God damn, the way his bangs flittered. He could probably use a haircut soon but it still looked good with the extra length. Natural and-

    Nonononono stop, don''t focus on that. "Yeah but the, uh, the counter?" She absentmindedly rolled her finger around a lock of her own dull hair after gawking back at the register. It felt kind of corse, kind of dry. She should have taken a shower before going out. Or would that have been too much? Maybe if she used better shampoo even her hair would have the kind of shine Takemi''s did. Wait no, pay attention! He''s saying something!

    "...over. Did you want to do something?"

    Huh? What did he¡­ what did he say?! No, what did he say at the start? She''d missed it, and trying to play back the memory just caused her to get lost in wondering what his hair felt like again and then fast forwarding to his question. That question! They were just friends! It shouldn''t make her feel her own heartbeat! Just get over that feeling already girl! That''s what she''d like to do, but the fact of the matter was that it still made her get those thoughts.

    "Hey, Hitomi? Are you okay?" He asked leaning in, which made her startle back to reality.

    "H-huh? W-why wouldn''t I be?" Oh god, what did she do? Was it her face? Had she made some kind of face? Or did she still look like she just spent all day lounging around her room? Did something smell?

    "Oh, it''s nothing." Takemi said casually, waving it off in direct contrast to her worries. "You just look a little red."

    "O-oh. Uhh, I wonder why that could be." Oh, that''s all. That''s much better. It was still kind of nerve-wracking that she got so far into that thought that she''d gone blush but¡­ Wait no that was still too much! It''d probably be best to just excuse herself now and remove herself from any more chances to get sidetracked. "W-well, I should probably check out now."

    She tried to step to the side to make her way past him, but he shifted too. "Hey, if you''re not-"

    "AaaaaaAAaahhhhh!" The loud scream silenced them both. Even if it hadn''t come from so close it was weirdly pitched. "Aaaaah, n-no! StoP!" It hitched between high and low tones like the voice was trying to catch its breath. Like it was¡­ like it was being tickled. That''s it. Tickled. "P-pleASE I ca-AAhh, can''t take that muUUCHcht¡­"

    Just tickling. It was turning heads for such an episode to come out in such a public place though. And worst of all, it was coming from Hitomi''s purse. That was great. Now the nice old lady and the employee with the stupid highlights were staring at her. And so was Takemi and, oh god, the look on his face.

    She didn''t know what was going on or how but she really didn''t want anyone thinking she was "that" kind of weird. And seeing that confused look Takemi was giving was enough to get her wondering what he must be thinking.

    "I-I have to go!" She yelped and bolted from the store, dropping her basket right there at his feet. No one could ever have guessed a tomato could run so fast.

 Upload Complete

    What was that?

    What had just happened?

    Hitomi panted and shrunk down against the wall. Without stopping to think about it she had ran off to an alley that wasn''t even in the same direction as her home was, which just went to show the amount of processing power this flight had used.

    But no, seriously, what was that? Now that she had a moment to think, it didn''t really make sense that ANY sounds should be coming from her purse. The only thing in there right now was her phone and that was turned off. Was it some kind of prank? But how would that-

    She snapped back as something within her purse pinged. It sounded exactly like her notification ping. Wait, that weird notification from earlier.. Is it behind this? Could it really turn on my phone and play audio files? Dammit!

    She dug through her bag and pulled out her phone. Instantly, she was surprised that the screen came on, but was even more surprised that it opened up to an agreement page for a new App.

    Nope, nope nope nope. How did this happen? How do I stop this? What IS this?  Must be some kind of virus or malware. At least she could explain that later without looking like a freak who didn''t know how to keep her interests private. And she definitely needed to keep them private...

    But way more importantly was finding out how exactly to save her precious phone from this attack. Turning it off didn''t work before and now it wasn''t even doing anything as she fruitlessly hammered the power button.

    "Greetings valued customer!" She nearly dropped it when the synthesized voice came out the speaker. What the heck was that? What kind of virus was this? "Please, do not be alarmed!" Too late for that. "Your regular service will return after Synthesis has been completed." Oh, oh that sounded way more ominous than anything she could think was going on. "Please do not detach yourself from your Mobile Device."

    Detach? That is an¡­ odd phrasing. Almost odd enough to alert her to any of the small signs that should have been conveying a sense of danger. The faintly growing smell of ozone, the tingling sensation from the hair on her arm straightening up, the sudden and distracting feeling of pressure behind her eyes.

    All in all, she probably should have just let go of the goddamn phone!

    ZAP!!

    ¡°Ow!¡± That stung! She recoiled and pulled her arm into her chest as the phone collided with the pavement. It was not a large shock. More than static would do, not so much that her fingers felt burned. But enough to make her drop her phone on instinct. As soon as she actually realized what had happened-Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Oh god nonononono don''t be cracked don''t be cracked please.

    Her first response was to go back to the damn phone.

    Which was, in fact, sporting a small crack in it''s screen now. More pressingly, however, the display was swamped with popups displaying weird symbols and visual glitches. She felt her world slipping away as the buildup continued frantically. Her phone was practically her only connection to the world and without it she''d have¡­

    What? What would she have? Nothing? Would she be left with nothing? The thought of that, of having no life at all was nauseating even after having adapted to having barely any after all these years.

    It was so nauseating in fact that Hitomi had to let go of her world once again to cover her mouth and try to choke down the acrid taste building in her throat. It helped, but it wasn''t enough. The pressure building in her head was making the alley spin and further disturbing the state of her stomach.

    No don''t, don''t you dare throw up, please, that would be so, ugh, so bad.

    But the spinning and the taste and the stress were all too much for her gag reflex to bear. With a back bending lurch she emptied herself onto the pavement. She fell onto her knees and shook a bit in the aftermath of the episode, heaving at the taste of acid overrunning her palette.

    Well, it''s official. This hour can''t get any worse. God, so disgusting, but at least I''m alo-

    "AAAAAHHH!!" Hitomi screamed and fell backwards onto her ass, crawling frantically across the pavement to brace against the wall behind her. "WHAT THE HELL?"

    She held her hand stretched out as far as she could in front of her,as if it was possible to detach her entire arm. The root of her panic was a glow coming from her hand. Faint lines resembling a circuit diagram where shining just beneath the skin, with little pulses of brighter lights running through those lines.

    She couldn''t even begin to rationally comprehend this anymore, her mind shutting down every other response but anxiety and fear. What was going on? What happened to her hand?! She had no idea, all she knew was that she never should have left her room.

    "Hitomi?! Is that you?!" A voice called into the alley and startled her enough to pull her eyes off of her outstretched hand and towards the source.

    It was Takemi. Oh god why was he here?! She didn''t answer but involuntarily clutched her arm to her chest to hide the freaky lightshow. Takemi could not think¡­ wait, she couldn''t honestly guess what he would think about any of this.

    "Are you okay?! Stay right there!" Please, no, don''t come over, just let me I dunno get hit by a meteor or something, that seems like something that could happen next.

    Her eyes rolled over when she tried to shift her posture to hide her arm behind her back. Right, nausea. That was still there. Greeeeat

    "Hi-hitomi?!" Hey Takemi, how''d you get over here so fast? "Oh my god, what happened to you? Are you sick? Do you need a doctor?"

    Ha. You look cute all worried like that. "I''mnghnghhhh!" Hitomi tried to start a normal sentence but remembered her throat was both sore and filled with a terrible taste. She clutched her mouth to make sure she didn''t have a second attack in front of him.

    He grabbed her shoulders. The shock was nothing compared to that. The dizziness, the tingling feeling still left in her arm, the overly sensitive state of her own body after the raw physical shock of throwing up, it all just kinda exploded right then and there once compounded by his concerned gesture.

    She fainted. It would be quite embarrassing once she remembered it.

 Paradise

    It was perfect. The sun setting beyond the horizon casting a smooth warmth on the sand. The waves crashed against the shore and roused a dulcet, gentle tone.There was a peaceful breeze rolling through the air. It was paradise, Hitomi thought as she lounged on the towel.

    The solitude was truly relaxing, she''d be too nervous to let her guard down if anyone was around. The fact that they practically had a private beach at sunset was a blessing, and not suspicious in the slightest. Of course that may have been partly because of the company.

    "You enjoying yourself, Hitomi?" The steady, friendly voice asked of her. Her eyes fluttered open and gratefully took in her companion as she answered.

    "It''s really comfy here. I feel like I could just pass out." She let out a deep yawn and rolled over on her side to look at Takemi while they chatted. He was¡­ He was breathtaking. The formal suit he had on was incredibly flattering and gave him a distinguished look on top of everything else, even if it must be making him hot.

    His friendly face was perfect when he had a welcoming smile on and his hair was always, always neat. It wouldn''t be fair except she''d always rather have been able to look at it than have such things herself.

    Usually when those deep, spotlight eyes looked at her she filled up with butterflies, but being alone with him in this beautiful place made it seem¡­ natural.

    "Well don''t go and take a nap right in front of me." Takemi smiled at her and it felt like the sun was rising instead of setting. "Not that I mind too much. Your face is cute when you''re asleep."

    "T-Takemi!" She reached out and gave him a light shove. "Jeez! Don''t say stuff like that! What if someone heard you?"

    "Oh come on, who''d hear me? The snails?" Well, he made a good point. The snails only talk amongst themselves anyways, so who cares what they thought?

    Hitomi still had to protest though. "It''s still embarrassing! How can you keep a straight face over there?"

    "It''s easy as pie to keep straight with you here."

    Okay, that was crossing a line. He had no right to be able to say something like that face to face with her. Even the little snails racing over the sand dunes were turning red from that! Speaking of turning red, it was getting pretty bright out.

    "Hey, turn over." Takemi said as he got up and rustled through his briefcase for a small orange tube. "I''ll put some sunscreen on you."

    "Well, I don''t want to get sunburn." Hitomi chirped as she rolled over and rested her chin on her arms. They should have brought pillows or something. "Warn me before you-EYUP!" She chirped when the cold cream hit her back and sent a shiver up her spine! "I-I said warn me!"This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    "Sorry, sorry, I just couldn''t help myself. Here, I''ll make it better." Hitomi was about to ask him what he meant, she really was, but it didn''t take too long to figure it out herself as something pressed into her and spread the lotion over the small of her back.

    It wasn''t as uncomfortable as when it first hit her skin, in fact there was warmth bleeding into it now. She was able to relax with Takemi there, thoroughly applying sunscreen to her back. It was kind of like a massage with his fingers smoothly rolling over her muscles, kneading her skin, pampering her back.

    Paradise.

    "Lemme just take care of this." he said as his hands worked their way up her back. Mmmm, why are you stopping no-Whoa hold on!

    "W-w-what are you doing?!" Hitomi blurted out when the tense fabric digging into her shoulders loosened.

    "Well, I can''t miss a spot, so I''ve gotta undo your swimsuit now." Hitomi could hear the smile in his voice. She could hear it because she damn well couldn''t see it while trying to bury her face in the sand through her towel. She mumbled out what could have been an okay and Takemi started rubbing the lotion into her shoulder blades.

    Trying to be completely unaware of the situation was really just making it worse though. She could feel every touch now. All the lathering and rubbing, the cold touch of sunscreen being poured on her and then his warm hands working it in.

    Well, as long as-

    Oh hell! His hands moved over her back and down her sides, very liberally making sure not to leave a single spot of her skin uncovered. Maybe those shivers weren''t just from the sunscreen after all.

    "H-h-hey! W-watch the hands b-buddy!" Even if it was Takemi, even if this place was perfect, even IF this was all a dream it was going a bit too far.

    "Heh, sorry Hitomi. It''s just, I can''t help myself when you glow all purple like that."

    Purple? What was he-

    Oh nonono not again! Not these weird glowing lines again! Seeing the circuit-like lights trailing under her skin made enough enough! She pushed herself off the towel and straight into Takemi, causing them both to fall over onto the sand. The next thing she knew, she was perched over top him and her swimsuit was nowhere to be seen. Panicking once more Hitomi quickly covered her chest and tried to stand up, but her feet found no traction on the sand as it seemed to pour away from her.

    The next thing she knew she was falling as the ground gave way.

    Wait, what was that part about a dream?

    Darkness enveloped the world. She fell for what felt like an eternity and at the same time the blink of an eye. This has to stop! I need to know what''s going on! I have to wake up!

    Anxiously, Hitomi struggled against whatever was holding her down as she tried to sit up. When she finally freed herself of her blankets and looked around the only thing that greeted her was her own dark room.

    Breathing a sigh of relief she went to turn on her desk lamp but was startled when her fingers brushed against something plastic. When she found her lamp she saw that a bag of snacks had been left on her desk.

    Takemi must have taken her home. Wait, but she never actually bought her snacks. Did that mean¡­ Takemi?

    The thought warming her chest was interrupted by a rather loud beep coming from her phone on the desk. "You have an unread message waiting for you, Hitomi."

    H-huh? She didn''t have any kind of message alert like that on her phone!

 Lavender Dungeon

    "Hey Hitomi, I don''t know what''s going on but if something''s wrong I''m here for you. I''ll be back in the morning to check on you and take you to a doctor if you need that. If you wake up and get this message send me a text and let me know how you''re doing. I''ll see ya tomorrow. Oh, and I got those snacks you dropped, but you probably shouldn''t eat that junk while you''re sick. Okay, good night."

    That was the message Takemi left on her phone. So he had brought her back to her room and put her to bed. Which sparked the question, was she conscious enough to change herself when they got back or¡­

    But that question wasn''t really the important topic right now and thinking about it made her head go light all over again. The more important question was what that weird report had been when she woke up. She didn''t have an assistant app on her phone and if she did how did it go off right when she woke up?

    So she was peering through her settings and apps before coming to the last page where a new icon seemed to peer back at her. It was centered on the screen and larger than the other icons. It looked kind of like a heavily stylized eye.

    This must be whatever installed itself on her phone and caused the commotion earlier. If it was some kind of viral app that could play audio files on it''s own then it made sen-

    "Greetings, Hitomi." She managed to hold on and only jumped a little when the heavily synthesized voice played from her speakers. With the little composure she had at the moment she let the phone fall from her hand. No reason to risk another shock, and her bed was much softer than concrete.

    Without understanding what was going on Hitomi could only question her phone. If the app could access her speakers maybe it was someone on the other end and they could hear her. "I- I don''t understand what-what''s going on? Is someone there? Did you hack my phone?"

    "I am an Artificial Intelligence System integrated into your operating system whose purpose is to streamline the functionality of the Lavender Dungeon program that has been installed on your mobile device."

    "Artificial¡­ Intelligence? T-that''s¡­ that''s crazy! Ai''s like that don''t exist!" Hitomi blurted out to her phone. She wasn''t really sure what was going on, but it seemed like it was actually hearing and responding to her.

    "I am unable to comply. Please initialize the Lavender Dungeon program at this time."

    Or maybe that had just been a coincidence? She tried asking a few more questions but it seemed like that was it¡¯s only programmed response now.

    "Yeah, like hell I''m gonna run that sketchy program." She was mostly talking to herself since whatever she said the voice would just respond with the same message.

    "The program is in no way sketchy or malicious. Please initialize the Lavender Dungeon program at this time to answer any further questions."

    Hitomi breathed an exasperated sigh. Was this thing talking to her or not? Well it wasn''t as though she was going to muck anything else up at this point, so if it would answer her questions she might as well open the obviously sketchy app.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Upon clicking on it, the screen immediately shut off and rebooted into a screen with several menus. The top one had Hitomi''s name on it and several statistics. Her age, blood type, weight, height, measurements.

    "Hey! H-how did you get those! You didn''t steal my medical records did you?!"

    "All User data was collected during System Initialization and is updated every 0.5 Milliseconds. There is no error in the current data."

    "Yeah that''s the problem! That''s¡­ personal stuff¡­" Hitomi covered herself in her sheets. It didn''t do much about the feeling of being totally exposed. "When did you even collect this data?"

    "The initial input was approximately 7 hours and 43 minutes ago. You have been incapacitated for the majority of that time. It was beneficial for the male to bring you to a resting spot and minimize exposure."

    "Huh? H-how do you know Takemi brought me home?" Hitomi couldn''t help scanning her room for some kind of camera or something.

    "I am always observing my surroundings. Now, please initialize the Adaptive Environmental Scan feature of [Lavender Dungeon] to begin your first mission."

    A notification appeared on one of the menus at the bottom of the screen labeled Tools. There was a small symbol that looked like a radar screen and spaces for several other icons. "Mission? What kind of mission are you talking about?"

    "Of course. Available missions will generally be of the resource gathering variety. If you observe the top of your screen you will see that the Optimal Recovered Energy Display is low. This must be remedied as soon as possible to unlock required higher energy features. As long as the Adaptive Environmental Scan is ongoing, acceptable energy sources in your local environment will be sought and once located you will be presented with the mission to acquire them."

    She was getting lost, maybe being passed out didn''t count much for sleep because she was beginning to feel exhausted. "Hey hold on. I-I never signed up for this."

    "Immaterial. The reality of the situation is that we are currently integrated. Current circumstances directly imply consent." The twisted, abusive logic relayed so casually in the generically excited tone gave Hitomi a serious pause. "I can see you have some misgivings. Allow me to reemphasize the benefits of Play for you. Not only will successful acquisition of resources unlock additional features, but will also earn the player significant rewards ranging from: Improved Lifestyle, Monetary Incentive, Boosted Attributes, Access to upgraded social circles! Anything you can imagine can be unlocked by participating in the Lavender Dungeon system!"

    "That-" Hitomi paused to yawn. It wasn''t a struggle to stay awake but it was becoming an inconvenient fact. "That sounds like a junkmail topic. And besides, I didn''t, aaaaaahhh, didn''t agree to this."

    "That is perfectly acceptable. I am certain that once you experience the playstyle and benefits of Lavender Dungeon firsthand you will give your retroactive permission. There is no harm in simply trying and experiencing the first mission after all!"

    "I don''t know, it seems like it could be pretty harmful."

    "I have an idea. Why don''t you think about it for some time before deciding instead of making a conclusion on incomplete data. You seem tired, perhaps it would be best to initiate rest mode!"

    "I''m not a-" One more yawn escaped Hitomi as she tried to determine if there was any immediate risk to going to bed. There probably was, whoever did this was competent enough to make a program that could talk and get her medical information buuuuuut on the other hand she couldn''t do anything about that right now.

    She could go to the police or something tomorrow. "-not a computer. Just¡­ let me get another hour or two of sleep before Takemi comes over."

    Placing her phone in a drawer, she turned out the light figuring that would give her some privacy from whoever was listening in. As her head tumbled back into her pillow she felt like she was floating on a gently drifting stream.

    Later she would realize what had made her so tired.

 Monday House Call

    The sun creaked in through the blinds holding the window shut and fell on Hitomi''s eyes. Or rather it would have if she were a calm sleeper, but she was a roller instead and had at some point in the night flipped over to sleeping on her belly. This meant that the buttery dawn light did nothing at all to rouse her except make her nuzzle even harder into the pillow.

    This was the usual morning routine in that mornings and Hitomi weren''t really a thing anymore. The only thing she missed from the breakup was breakfast. It just tasted better in the early hours, but that was a price she was willing to pay.

    So in any other situation she probably wouldn''t even have budged an inch just because of some knocks on her door. Which she didn''t, at first. Someone probably had the wrong room number, she thought at first and tried to force herself back to sleep. But it came thumping again with dogged persistence. So, not a wrong address, maybe someone selling someth-

    TAKEMI!

    She pushed herself off the bed with all the grace of a cat that''s slightly misjudged how firm a footing of table cloth can be and nearly tripped over everything, absolutely everything between her bed and the door. Oh please, please don''t just leave.

    "C-coming! Just a minute!" She yelled out when a third series of thumps erupted from the door. Oh thank god he was persistent. Maybe her brain hadn''t fully woken up yet and that was why she never stopped to consider anything before turning the handle. How did the room look? How did¡­ how did she look? Those thoughts almost rose fast enough to stop her before she was pulling the door open. "H-hyelloooooo" Almost.

    Standing out in the hallway was Takemi, just as she had hoped and then feared. He had a wrapped up brown paper bag with him but otherwise he looked entirely normal. If a bit concerned.

    "T-Takemi, hi, how''s it, how''s it going?" Smooth. As. Peanut butter. All she had to do now was lean against the doorframe and slowly slide down. She did not do that, but it would have completed the cringe she felt. "W-w-why are you here?"

    He looked at her a bit sideways. "Uhhh, Hitomi I said I was gonna come check on you. Do you not remember last night?"

    Last night? Had something happened last night? Nothing happened last night. Some sketchy App just downloaded itself to her phone, she''d thrown up and blacked out in an alley, without even having the fun of drinking, then her phone started talking to her like existing was the same as consenting. Other than that, nothing.

    "L-last night? Whaaat about last night? I mean I guess I kind of fainted and that''s pretty bad but I just had a, uh, a really rough day and I think I might have got a 24-hour flu or something and you know how the weekend is, I''ve barely gotten any sleep since Thursday and you know I think I might have eaten something that didn''t agree with me and-"Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Hitomi! Could we, maybe step inside?" Takemi offered, diplomatically looking away. "It''s a bit weird talking in the doorway like that, isn''t it?"

    Like that? Like what? Hitomi checked herself to see what he was talking about. She backed up a little upon realizing she was in her baby blue pajamas. That was one thing. But besides having a¡­ conversation? A talk with her phone she didn''t remember anything after blacking out. Takemi took her home, did he¡­

    She closed the door just enough to hide behind it, beat red cheeks and all. "Di-did you¡­ My clothes¡­ Takemi I didn''t think you-"

    "H-hey hold up! Don''t go thinking weird things about me! I just got you home and in bed! You woke up enough to put your PJs on!" Takemi hastily defended himself, grabbing the door and prying it open enough for actual eye contact.

    Very close eye contact, as far as Hitomi was concerned. Oh god, did she have bed head? Did she smell? Why did she rush to the door immediately like a spaz? Why were they still standing there?! "O-okay! I believe you. C-come in please!"

    He breathed a big sigh before stepping in, putting the bag he brought on a counter in what essentially served as her dining area. It wasn''t a room. "So I got you some breakfast. Figured you might be hungry. It''s not much, just an egg sandwich, but anything''s better than nothing."

    Hitomi smilled. She was definitely hungry. Checking up on her health, bringing her breakfast, buying the snacks she left. The snacks that were currently sitting on her bed table. The bed table that currently had her possessed phone in one of it''s drawers. She really had to do something about that.

    "So, are you feeling alright? Need to go to a doctor?" Takemi said leaning into a chair.

    "Huh? Oh, no, no. I''m fine, er, well, I''m fine now. I think I just needed a lot of sleep to get over it." Hitomi thought waving her arms about would convey liveliness, but it just made her feel like a spaz. "Which I am now. Over it."

    "Are you sure? You look kinda pale."

    "I''ve always been pale!" She laughed at that awkward truth.

    "No you haven''t." He said it sternly enough that she almost believed him. "And even if you were, you could get paler. Well, not by a lot more than you are right now. You''re sure you''re alright?"

    "Yeah, I''m fine." She assured him, but at least one thing wasn''t fine. She was starving, and she couldn''t help her eyes constantly skirting to that bag. That would absolutely not be enough for her right now. "Hey do you want to get pancakes?"

    "Hitomi, seriously, if you''re alright hell yeah I want to get pancakes." Her eyes lit up as she was ravishing the sandwich he''d brought. Literally, as an almost imperceptibly thin purple band lit up in her iris and faded away. "It''s probably best to skip class today anyways."

    ¡­

    Skip class, her classes didn''t start until ten today, why would she have to skip it? The rising feeling of anxiety creeped up her neck as her eyes slowly flitted to the clock on the microwave. Nine Forty Three. Crap.

 Notification Squad

    Maybe she could have just waited, got pancakes with Takemi and had a nice day. Maybe she could have done that if years of familial badgering about the importance of good attendance weren''t hammered into her. That and she had a test first period. That was the only important part about class today.

    So here she was, frantically making her way across a full parking lot to get in late and hopefully have enough time to finish a test and then probably collapse in the library or mess hall or something. Much better than pancakes. Totally worth rushing Takemi out the door and-

    HOOOONK blared the car that practically backed into her, skidding just past the bumper. That was close, she thought as she blurted out a frantic apology towards the exasperated looking man that was behind the wheel.

    Vehicular altercation now behind her, she was at least only a few minutes from class upon clearing the parking lot. She checked the time while pausing to catch her breath. Ten Twenty Seven. So she was late, her hair was a mess even by her standards, nearly got hit by a car and this was more running than she''d ever wanted to do in her life, but on the bright side¡­

    It wasn''t as bad as last night? God this week sucked already she mused and shoved her phone back into her purse, took a deep breath and, well. To call it sprinting or running would do a disservice to those sports, she rushed off as best she could.

    Just one flight of stairs up to the classroom. One flight of stairs. Stairs¡­ Well, the elevator would be just as fast. Plus it would give her a chance to catch her breath, which she desperately needed. The AC cooled air that hit her face when she entered the hall was refreshing, yes, however it also stole all the energy from the adrenaline she''d been running on and made her feet feel like they were encased in concrete as she trodden over to the elevator.

    Inside the small elevating room she checked the time again. If it was a long test she might not be able to finish now, but she wasn''t a bad student. One good thing to come out of having a social life so thin you could scoop it with a spoon, was that you had less stuff to get in the way of studying.

    Something did catch her eye and distracted her on the ride up as she tried to focus on the time. She had two new notifications. Normally she would have at least checked what they were about, but they were both from the weird app that she still needed to report to¡­ someone. Test first though.

    The elevator shortly came to a stop on the second floor with a gentle bob. Hitomi was bouncing on her feet as the doors started sliding open, readying herself to get this over with and get back on track to a normal day. It was therefore with extreme anxiety that she stepped out into the hall and turned to hurriedly walk straight into an oncoming body.

    She didn''t bump into them though. She wished she had, but she didn''t. If she had just bumped into them she would just apologize, maybe they''d get mad and tell her to watch where she''s going, apologize again and then rush off. Simple, normal, anxiety inducing circumstances.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Instead what actually had happened was that she swerved out of the oncomer¡¯s way so hastily that she smacked her shoulder against the wall, which made her step backwards where her feet stumbled into an area a decorative plant was sitting in. Her fumblings to catch the poor shrub were less successful at ending the scene than they were at making her lose her already shaky balance and tumble to the floor with the thing.

    All in front of whoever she had just made sure NOT to bump into. She rubbed her head and started picking herself up off the ground, trying not to glance up to see whatever kind of reaction was being given to her.

    "Holy crap, what the fuck was that?" The expression the guy was giving her was certainly not one she really wanted to garner. Ever. From anyone. It was somewhere between contempt and entertained. Perfect. "First time walking or did the shrub steal your boyfriend?"

    "Uhhh," Hitomi could only really respond with some half muttered noises and the start of a few words. She picked herself up along with the plant and tried to step aside to clear the hall so they could both get on their way, forget all about this point in their lives and grow old and wrinkled far, far away from here.

    "Forgot how to talk too? Ehh, whatever." He shrugged and started forward past her again when the realization hit her that she knew him. Well, not knew him in the personal sense, but knew she''d seen him before. In one of her classes. Not that someone like him would be hard to notice just going around campus.

    He was probably a little taller than Takemi with really bright blonde hair, probably dyed. Always wearing trendy clothes and generally standing out in a crowd, wide shoulders, strong jaw. Hell his eyes probably sparkled when exposed to natural light. So in short, a member of a different species than Hitomi.

    She shivered a bit just thinking that if he spread this around people would call her a clutz or a freak and it would be middle school all over again. Luckily, and she was genuinely thankful for this for once, she was not the memorable type. So now it was time to just brush this off like so much dust-

    "Say, aren''t you that girl who did some stupid project on mushrooms or something?" She froze and her neck creaked to look back. He''d stopped, for god knows why, and was now looking at her with some sort of realization. "Yeah, yeah, mushroom girl." He chuckled and shook his head. "Geez, you freaks are always good for a laugh, I guess."

    Before she could protest or defend herself he continued on his way, stepping into the elevator chuckling as the doors closed behind him. Not that she would protest in any way. He probably didn''t have THAT big a circle of friends anyways. And so he remembered her research report on fungi from class. And thought she was a loser. No big deal there, he wasn''t any different from the other thousand people that would think that.

    She consoled herself with that as she slumped her way to her class. Just as she was about to pull the door open a loud ping sounded from her pockets, almost making her jump. She pulled out her phone worriedly, wondering if she''d somehow got tagged in something for that mess a minute ago.

    Instead, there was a third notification from the strange app. Before she put her phone back it expanded the notice

    It read: ''Target Identified''

    Huh?

 Monetary Enticement

    Hitomi had made it to class with enough time to answer all the questions she knew for sure, but not much else. At least one long response question was left practically blank.

    But that wasn''t too bad. Now that she actually had some time to think and decompress though, she finally decided to take a look at those notifications. The first one was a message about an update to the weird app unlocking additional features. The second was a pop up about an upgrade system that she currently didn''t have any points for.

    But the notification she had gotten just before reaching class was the strangest one. Clicking on it brought up a new screen. A quest''s log that was previously blank, but now had an entry marked as a Resource Gathering quest.

    In all honesty she really shouldn''t have gone any further with this, but the pages were designed so gamelike that her instincts made her forget just how bizarre it was and she opened the quest. Instead of opening up to be read, it instead turned into a display showing the stylized eye from last night.

    "Congratulations on acquiring your first quest! The long road begins with a single step, so let''s hope you have started with an easy one!"

    Hitomi quickly hid the phone in her bag and scanned around. There were a few people on the pavilion but they weren''t near her. Most people were in the dining hall, which for that very reason she didn''t spend much time in. After being assured that she had some privacy she brought it back out.

    "What do you mean ''let''s hope'' it''s easy, isn''t it the first one?"

    The eye circled like it was loading. "Quest''s are generated by the environment, as such there is no guarantee that they will be easy at any stage! The first few will be simple resource gathering ones however, so while it may prove difficult the steps will be simple!"

    Hitomi sighed, that explanation doing anything but giving her confidence. In fact, it wasn''t really answering much of anything "What kind of resource anyways? Do I just go to a hotspot and wait while it''s claimed, or play a minigame or something?"

    "I will begin a tutorial explanation now! The resource has been identified by the environmental scan and has now been added to your active list! In order to claim it, you simply need to access the Master Circuit program that activates in the vicinity of the target and aim your Mobile Device''s camera lens at the target to be acquired! Additional information will be dispersed once the Master Circuit has been activated!"

    She had to admit, it seemed like a simple enough method of play. Lots of VR games did similar stuff and she couldn''t really see the hook, but¡­ in fact, she couldn''t really see any reason to play through this. She''d clicked on the quest because she had gotten drawn in, but wasn''t it really time to do something about this?This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    She shut off the screen and placed the phone back in her pocket, got up and intended to make her way to¡­ somewhere, maybe the computer lab just to get an opinion and then the police? She intended to but a few steps in a loud beep and vibration shook her pocket so much it practically made her jump.

    "Excuse me, but it appears you exited the program without examining the quest details. Shall I display them for you Hitomi?" The synthesised voice inquired when she brought the screen up again.

    "No, I don''t think so. I''m gonna get someone to see if you''re dangerous or not."

    "I see. I cannot advise that you inform anyone of your participation in Lavender Dungeon. I recommend that you simply complete your first quest."

    "Okay, why should I not be worried about the shady program that just installed itself in my phone? I don''t have any reason to run around on these quests, do I?" Hitomi fumed a bit from the stress from before about being hacked coming back.

    "Ah, of course, you need a reason to participate. Investment is a primary part of all games. Allow me to help you become invested." The screen flashed purple for a moment while the eye spun. "You do not currently possess enough energy to access our rewards system. However we can redirect a first time pre-reward to your account to show you we are indeed being serious about the benefits of participating in Lavender Dungeon. One moment."

    Hitomi sighed and watched the loading circle spin, but just because she was interested to see what the app was doing didn''t mean she was just waiting around. The ping came when she had ascended back to the second floor of the building and stepped into the main lobby where the computer lab was.

    She looked at her screen and saw a new notification come in. She opened it and gaped. She shook her head, wondering if this was some kind of hallucination. It looked real.

    "This is just the simplest benefit available from Participating in Lavender Dungeon. We hope that it provides you the incentive you desire."

    She gaped again. It was a notification from her banking app. Saying that money was waiting to be added to her account. Not an insignificant amount either.

    Hitomi quickly looked around, sure that there must be someone around the corner filming her for the big prank reveal later. But there wasn''t really anyone like that around. So she turned around and walked down the stairs to the flight between levels and pulled the app back up.

    "Okay. Okay wait, so you''re going to pay me to play your game?" Hitmoi whispered into her speaker.

    "If that is what you desire. As I mentioned previously, there are a multitude of rewards waiting for you to unlock. Monetary compensation is just one of the minor benefits. If you manage to complete the game the rewards will be unstatable."

    Hitomi wasn''t as taken in by the pitch as she was by the sudden jump in her account''s prospects. It couldn''t really hurt to try the game out now, could it?

    "Alright, I don''t see why not. I''ll do it."

    "Excellent! You have made the reasonable decision. Allow me to pull up the details now!"

    Hitomi watched as the quest screen expanded and the splash icon identifying the target loaded.

    It had a very familiar face. Too familiar.

    "W-wha? James?"

 First Quest: Start

    Hitomi was glued to her screen, reading through dozens of posts and pictures that were pulled up by the app in the ¡°target¡¯s¡± information page. According to the¡­ she still wasn''t sure if it was actually an AI, but according to the tutorial the program had scanned and accessed his social media profiles during the brief encounter outside the elevator.

    He had a lot of friends. Obviously not famous level, but a lot of friends. A whole lot. Apparently his name was James Ryan Donaldson the Second. She wasn''t quite sure where the second came into play since she had never heard of James Donaldson the First.

    It was his mom who was the famous one, actually. Semi famous. She seemed to be a pretty decent fashion designer, but Hitomi had never heard of her. Which meant practically nothing since Hitomi couldn''t even tell you what CK stood for, but still!

    He had apparently also been an amateur model for a while. Figures. Hitomi breathed a sigh of relief, figuring that it made sense where that flashy attitude came from. She really hoped that wasn''t natural, because if it was, that would make her feel even more insecure thinking about all those friends and posts.

    The tutorial had also explained that the game primarily functioned as a form of social gathering system, and that upon analyzing his media accounts determined he would make a perfect target. She had had some questions about the stalkerish concept of that but¡­ well¡­ It''s just activating the "Master Circuit" thing around him. Not a big deal. She could do that tomorrow, or some other day when she sees him around campus.

    After all, it''s not like she had a time limit on getting those rewards or anything-

    BEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!

    Oh, what the hell was that? Hitomi shrunk into her seat as the blaring alarm went off, muffled only by her hand covering it on impulse. People were staring. Of course they were. Well, not starring starring, but people had looked her way for a few seconds when it happened.

    She quietly excused herself from the vicinity and made to check what the bleeping hell was going on now.

    The screen opened directly to the eye icon that was synonymous with¡­ whatever the program that talked was called.

    "Greetings player! I have casually reminded you that you only have three hours remaining on your first quest! Have you advanced your progress?" It rattled out in a cheery tone.

    "W-wh-three hours? There''s a time limit?!" Hitomi struggled to remind herself that there was no way this thing could read her mind. "I can''t do anything in three hours, he left and, and I don''t have the class he''s in till tomorrow."

    "Hmmm, I see. That certainly is a conundrum." The circular lines making the icon spun in consideration. "I have a solution. You can simply view the target''s latest social media posts and determine their location that way! Three hours should be plenty enough time to locate them and get close enough to activate the Master Circuit in their vicinity! Shall I scan their accounts now?"

    "What, no! That''s stalking! That''s totally stalking, and I don''t need any label like that put on me!" Hitomi stamped her foot. No matter what kind of design or reward tempted her she was putting her foot down at doing anything actually criminal.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "I see. According to my scan the target is at a Cafe roughly 45 minutes away from our current location. Shall I plot a route?"

    "No, no! I just said I didn''t need to be called a stalker! I''m not doing it!" She turned in a huff, which would have been more dramatic if she were not holding the thing she was talking too.

    The eye whired. "Postulate. It is not ''Stalking'' if you simply arrive in the same area that the target is located in via your own compulsions. Therefore, might I suggest-"

    "No, no way, no how. You''re not going to convince me with shaky logic like that."

    "I see. I will therefore take this opportunity to inform you that while failure to complete a quest will break any ongoing chain bonus in the rewards system, denial to participate will lead to penalties applied to you going forward."

    "I don''t care. You, you waved that money in my face earlier and made me go along with your game but-"

    "Postulate: Through careful personality analysis and a deep dive into the data provided by a person''s digital fingerprint it is possible to determine many, many factoids about anyone so desired."

    Hitomi paused after the interruption. This sounded new.

    "For instance, it would be easy to determine what kind of person an individual is attracted to. Such as your deep seated romantic inclinations to a Mr Takemi Sh-"

    "What?! I-I-I don''t know what you''re¡­ really? You could figure that out?"

    "Affirmative."

    ***

    Hitomi could not believe she was stalking someone. Well, she could believe it because she was there when she was convinced but still, the principle was there.

    She blew into her coco. Just a few minutes ago she''d burned the tip of her tongue on it and that wasn''t helping her current stress.

    He was RIGHT there, two tables over. And three tables down. On the other side of the dining floor. What if he recognized her from this morning and accused her of stalking him, which, okay, did happen to be what she was doing, but still.

    He was with a girl too. Was she stalking a guy on a date? That was somehow even creepier. She blew into her drink again, even though she hadn''t taken another sip yet. Good thing they WERE on a date, because if he had just been here to have a drink or something he probably would have left by now.

    Slow to overcome anxiety, Hitomi had been sitting there, alone, for 20 minutes already. She had to order another drink so it didn''t look weird. All the while every glance to her phone reminded her of the alert telling her the target was close.

    She took a big sip of her drink, gulped too soon when it made her burnt tongue sting, and had a minor coughing fit. But she was ready. Time to get this done!

    According to the voice speaking to her about the system all she had to do was activate the Master Circuit system, aim her camera at the target like she was taking a picture, and hit Capture. The only catch with that is that she had to be within five meters of the target for the capture to succeed.

    Well. Now or never. She got up and walked to the edge of the dining area towards the bathroom. That would get her close enough. Just casually going to the bathroom. Pulling out her phone like she was checking something. Perfectly normal stuff going on here.

    Activating the system opened up a pop up that displayed the video feed from her phone¡¯s camera and looked a lot like some sci-fi targeting reticle.

    This would have to do. From this vantage point neither of them were looking right at her, so they wouldn''t notice if she just casually looked around like she''d lost herself in her phone.

    Just line up the shot and activate the program. Simple.

    Her Target''s profile centered in the reticle. Press the capture button. Do it! NOW!

    And for a second, nothing. The program closed to her home screen, and a stock shutter sound effect played through her phone''s speakers.

    Loudly.

 First Quest: Failed?

    Something¡­ something wasn''t quite right. Something weird was going on. Was she¡­ had she just¡­ Did it just look like she''d taken a picture of the guy she''d stalked and forgotten to turn the shutter sound off?

    Was that really what was going on in her life right now? Because that seems a little strange. That stupid purple app wasn''t supposed to take a picture, it was supposed to¡­ supposed to¡­ do something else! Not oust her as some kind of, she didn''t even know, amatuer paparazi?

    There was only one thing to do now, and luckily she was almost there already. Like a little wooden person in a cuckoo clock she spun clunkily on her feet and started to take a step when all of a sudden¡­

    "Hey!"

    Someone seemed to shout at her. And she stepped off her heel with a larch, practically falling through the bathroom door and reeling around to secure it behind her. She''d manage a sigh of relief before the panic started setting in. He had 100% noticed. But maybe he didn''t recognize her. It had only felt like years had just passed for her, it was probably only a second or two actually.

    And maybe it had been the suspicious way she''d reacted that really set him off and stuff but there was no other way to react. She couldn''t just wave it off. What if he HAD recognized her and thought she was following him was up to some kind of... thing! Which okay, maybe that was still a reality but she was now in the safety of¡­ a bathroom. Not the first time she''d been huddled up in one.

    Five minutes, maybe ten, and she''d sneak out and leave, but as long as she was being cautious she might as well figure out why the damn app had betrayed her like that. It wasn''t supposed to¡­ to¡­ to get her into something like this, which she wasn''t blowing out of proportion at all, of course. And it wasn''t her fault for listening to the sketchy eye on her phone either, it had tempted her.

    "Alright, so what was THAT?! Could you maybe tell me it''s going to do something like¡­" She had started venting towards her phone as she was pulling it out and clicking on the App, but instead of the usual icon that pulled up a low charge graphic covered her screen, the battery like display nearly empty and a warning that the system was at 3% charge.

    Okay that''s new. The charge level wasn''t the same as her phone¡¯s power icon, so it was measuring something else. Some kind of in program power level? But¡­ why would it be different from the phone¡¯s? Was it something to do with how the quest had messed up.

    While pondering this Hitomi had sat down in one of the stalls. Better to be off her feet than standing around waiting. She tried to open the app a few more times but it only went to the charge icon, none of the previous screens it had been to.

    Well, if the¡­ whoever it was, was going to be out of the loop now of all times, maybe she could waste 10 or so minutes on an actual game. So she launched something and settled in for the long haul. Better to be SURE the guy had given up and left.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    She was just getting started when the doorknob rattled and the space became less impregnable than she had hoped. She quickly closed the door to the stall she was in and pretended to be just another occupant when it got worse.

    "Yo, mushroom girl or something, right?" Oh so much worse. But, it was a girl¡¯s voice. A bit low pitched, a bit wheezy and snarky sounding, but a girl¡¯s voice. That meant¡­ He''d sent his date in to flush her out like hounds digging up a fox den! How could¡­ how could he be so vicious!

    She raised her legs up so that maybe she wouldn''t see her in the closed stall and assume¡­ Hitomi didn''t know what she was hoping for, maybe this girl would assume she stopped existing? It was a long shot but it was possible.

    "Geee, I wonder where she could be, maybe she crawled out through the air ducts? Or there''s a secret passage somewhere she escaped outta, or maybe¡­"

    Bang!

    "...she''s in here?!" The walls of the stall Hitomi was in shook like there was an earthquake! Or, well, they shook a little. Like someone had pushed their foot up to it and gave it a little kick, but it was still startling! And then a prattling of knocks started on the door. "Mushroom, open up! Open up, I know you''re in there! Hey, come on out, let''s talk a bit!"

    Hitomi''s heart skipped a beat. This was beyond anything, absolutely everything she had ever feared! There was literally nowhere to escape to and a psychopath was pounding on her door. The stall door. The one she was using as a defensible position.

    "I-I don''t know who you are but s-stop please, I''m sorry!" Begging for forgiveness in a bathroom stall was a new one for Hitomi, but it wasn''t beyond her willingness to avoid confrontation.

    "Ha, so you are in there! Come on, open up, I just wanna talk!" The banging she was doing to the door made Hitomi feel like she wanted to do a bit more than talk.

    "N-no! Look I''m sorry but I don''t know what you think happened but it wasn''t whatever that was! I wasn''t doing anything, p-please leave me alone!"

    "Oh come on, just open up. It''s not like I bite, just lemme see your face or something!"

    Her face? Dear god this was a category of trouble Hitomi had never before experienced in her life. "I-I, n-n-no, I''m really sorry about whatever I did to your date b-b-but I really, really don''t want any tro-"

    The girl outside burst with laughter and the thin walls around Hitomi shook more than they did before, like something larger than a knuckle or shoe banged against them. Between the visceral, rolling laughter beyond the stall door the girl was trying to talk. "Oh my gawd, ah-ha ha ah haaa, that, ha oohaaaha, that''s what you, jeez that, that''s, oh holy shit, that''s great. Hey, look, come on out girl, ha, haaaa, I''m not mad."

    The shaking stopped and Hitomi, still traumatized like a deer at a headlight convention sat huddled on the ceramic seat. The person on the other side stepped away from the stall, but wasn''t making her way to leave.

    "Wooo, boy, hahaaaa. Look I''m really not mad. Just open up, alright. We can be friends and shit if you come out."

    ¡­ What?

    "W-what?" Hitomi asked weakly.

    "Yeah, sure, I don''t see why not. I''ll pal with anyone that sets my brother off."

    ¡­

    WHAT? That¡­ what? Just out of surprise Hitomi opened the stall door enough to peer through  and take a look.

    And that was when she fainted.

 Met: Juli

    Hitomi''s eyes fluttered open and the world was white, out of focus and spinning. Not only that but there was also a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach that made her feel completely empty and her head felt thick, like she''d hung upside down and all her blood had run to it.

    She moaned and shuffled in place. There was something soft under her head and what felt like sheets covering her. Turning her head made the thick, groggy feeling worse and a more sickly moan came out.

    "You awake?" The voice sounded like it was coming through a thin sheet of foil, and still sounded disinterested enough. Hitomi picked herself up and looked around. It was blurry, but she could make out the room she was in. It was small, closed in by a curtain and mostly a sterile white. There was some kind of computer and the lights were kinda bright.

    "W-where am I?" Hitomi muttered as everything started focusing.

    "Well you''re not dead."

    Hitomi grimaced and looked around for who she was talking to. Eventually everything settled enough that she actually saw the girl sitting off besides her.

    As her head became clear enough to process it, Hitomi was quite surprised at how the person waiting there for her to wake up looked. For one, she didn''t know anyone and if she knew at least two people one of them would think this wasn''t the type she''d be associating with.

    Sitting on a little folding chair you might find in a small office was a girl who looked younger than Hitomi. She might even still be a teenager, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Her hair was three colors, the majority of it brown, with green highlights and pink tips, made up intentionally messy and cut short in a pixie, tomboyish style.

    She was wearing a black top that was hanging off of one shoulder and had tears on it''s sleeves and waistline, intentional, fashionable ones, made to look rough.

    Black and red checkerboard skinny jeans were coming out the bottom of it and ended at a pair of bright prismatic sneakers.

    She looked cool, punky, maybe a bit vicious, and would definitely stand out anywhere but at certain types of concerts. Ones Hitomi would never have even been able to envision.

    "Whaaaat happened?"

    "Oh man," the punky girl started, sliding her finger across her phone¡¯s screen like she had been when Hitomi had found her. She must have been waiting for a while, Hitomi felt a little bad that whatever she''d done had caused that. "You just fell outta the stall and faceplanted right on the floor, it was hilarious, you should have seen it, you''d have laughed your ass off." Nevermind, Hitomi didn''t feel bad at all anymore.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    "So like hey, you alright?" She said, pulling her chair forward and crossing her legs on it. It made Hitomi feel like she was being interrogated. "You got some kind of blood disease or something?"

    "W-what? No!" Hitomi tried to defend herself more than answer. She had built a large part of herself off of not giving the wrong idea off and that was a very very wro-

    "Why''d ya faint then? Figured it was probably anemia or something. Soooo, you a narco then?"

    "N-no!" Hitomi protested. "W-where am I?"

    "Uhhhh, jeez, where do ya think, you¡¯re at the hospital for christsake. Where did you think you were going to wake up, the bathroom floor?"

    This took Hitomi by surprise. For one she didn''t remember fainting, not that she figured she would remember if that happened, but who was¡­

    "Uhm¡­ who exactly are you?"

    The girl''s shoulders slouched and she gave Hitomi a dumb face. "Yo I''m the one that called the Ambulance for you, genius. What, you think I''m just gonna leave you forgotten in the girls room? Hey don''t get me wrong it was hilarious but I''m not an ass."

    "Oh. Th-thank you." Hitomi stuttered out the appropriate response to receiving that kind of help, but she was still a little hazy on who this person was, and why she was here. Something was coming back to her. Something about¡­

    And she remembered it, what she had been doing prior to waking up here, the scene that had transpired and when she must have fainted. And she remembered how the girl in front of her now, was the last thing she''d seen before now.

    "Oh god I''m sorry!" Hitomi picked right back up like nothing had happened, crawling back on her bed and clutching the sheets like they could protect her.

    "Whoa! Hey! Calm down, don''t go fainting on me again! What''s your problem?!" The girl said leaning forwards, but not actually coming after Hitomi. The little bit of space between them wasn''t the most comforting it could have been but at least she wasn''t jumping at her.

    "Look I d-didn''t mean to disturb you and your b-brother was it, it was just an accident, it wasn''t about any-"

    "Yo! Yo! Girl spazzing out in a god damn hospital room, calm the fuck down, I don''t care. I''m not mad, I already told you that. So just shut up for a little bit."

    Hitomi clammed up when she got that look. It was quite authoritative, and enough to silence Hitomi''s minor freak out.

    "Alright cool. Just catch your breath or something. Look I don''t care what''s going on between you and my brother, or if there is anything, why you ran off and hid in the bathroom or what. Sure it was pretty weird and my brother got touchy and seemed like he knew you, but whatever. You''ve been out for like, 2 hours."

    The girl tossed the phone she''d been panning through onto Hitomi''s sheets and got up off the chair. She wiped some lint off her knees and looked at Hitomi like she was a kid about to get their chores handed to them.

    "So, now that we''ve established I don''t really give a damn about that, I''m gonna be a pal and go get you an orange juice or something, and when I come back I damn well expect a ''Thanks Juli, I owe you one, my name is blank,'' got it?"

    Hitomi opted to nod since words were still scarred away from the part of her brain capable of speech for the moment.

    "Good" Juli confirmed and walked through the curtain around Hitomi''s bed.

 Huh, an Ally appears?

    The sweet, sweet OJ was really helping the empty feeling in her stomach. She would have liked to guzzle it down as fast as possible, but the faster she finished, the faster she''d be expected to talk. It was a bit unnerving how Juli was eyeing her down.

    "So is my brother two timing you or something?"

    Almost as awkward as that question. Hitomi gagged so hard she almost swallowed her straw. She was caught choking for a few seconds while Juli grinned. "That a yes, then?"

    "N-no! Wh-why would you think that?" Hitomi asked, shocked.

    Juli shrugged at her and leaned back against the wall. "I dunno. Kinda stuff happens, doesn''t it? So you saying you got another reason to pin all that on?"

    "N-no! Not at all!"

    "Dang," Juli snapped her fingers in dissatisfaction, "that would have been good blackmail."

    Hitomi struggled to understand what Juli was talking about with that. Sibling relations were another unexplored area for her.

    Luckily Juli was chugging forward with the whole talking thing, which Hitomi would have been quite well enough with it ending already.

    "Alright, so how do you know James then?"

    "Uhhh," Hitomi was finally relieved to have a question that wasn''t implicating. "We just have a class together. That''s all, I swear, we''ve never even really talked or anything, I barely know him."

    "Oh yeah, is that right?" Juli looked down hard at the bed. "Well that''s lame."

    "Y-yeah, t-there''s nothing special behind it." That wasn''t so bad. Maybe this wouldn''t be-

    "So why do you have him all over your history then?" Juli asked, eyes drooping and a suspecting grin taking her over.

    "W-wha?" Hitomi stammered. Juli stuck her arm out and pointed down to the bed, where she''d tossed the phone before leaving. Hitomi tracked down automatically, and realization struck her. It was her phone sitting there, which meant¡­ "Y-you went through my phone?!"

    "Wasn''t much else to do." Juli shrugged.

    "T-that''s an invasion of privacy!" Hitomi declared, snatching up her device and cradling it defensively.

    "Sure, whatever." Juli shrugged as she grabbed and turned to face the bed, taking a seat facing Hitomi head on. "And you look like you''re stalking my brother. That''s pretty metal for someone like you, right? Why?"This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    There was no conceivable route of escape that Hitomi could think of. Most of the room was hidden behind curtains so she had no idea whether it had windows or not. The orange juice had helped, but this girl looked like she could beat her to the door on a good day, let alone today. Which meant all she could do was come up with some kind of excus-

    "Hey!" Juli snapped her fingers in Hitomi''s face, making her jump out of her whirlwind flight response. "Don''t faint on me again. Just lay the juice on me, I won''t tell anyone."

    "W-wha?" Hitomi was flattened by the insistence and triviality Juli had shown in one move.

    "I said, I. Won''t. Tell. That get through for you? Looky here." Juli raised a hand up in the air. "I swear I don''t even care what you''re doing, I just wanna know why. Seems like it might be funny."

    It took a little time for Hitomi to process what she''d just heard. She didn''t have enough experience to be a very good judge of character, but luckily ignorance is bliss. "Funny?"

    "Yeah. Look, you seem like you might be a danger to yourself, so I figure you''d be pretty incompetent at anything dangerous. So why?"

    That¡­ that was a compliment in a way, at least it seemed like she hadn''t made Hitomi out to be a bad character. "You¡­ won''t tell him anything?"

    "I might, if I''m bored."

    "B-but you just said-"

    "Jeez, alright fine. We don''t talk much anyways. It better be a good reason at least."

    "Uhh," Hitomi poked her fingers together, working up the courage. "It¡­ it''s for a game."

    If crickets were allowed in the hospital, this would be where they''d be hanging out. Really it wasn''t that long, but Juli broke the silence before it drove Hitomi crazy again. "A game? What, I thought you said you didn''t know him, but you''re doing voyeur stuff together?"

    "N-no! H-he''s not, w-we''re not, I-I said I didn''t know him!" Hitomi explained at a rapid pace. "It''s a¡­ an AR game, Alternate Reality, where you, uh, collect points by capturing locations and stuff! H-he got logged a-as a¡­ a VIP target, so I¡­ I was just¡­ in the area, and, and¡­"

    "Alright, so you were stalking him." Juli said with a gotcha grin. Hitomi looked away and kind of nodded, mostly sighed. "So you''re playing some stalking game. That sounds weird. How do you even sign up for that?" Hitomi kept looking away and shrugged. "Cool. You want any help?"

    "W-wha?" Hitomi''s head shot back to Juli.

    "I said, do you want any help? It sounds like one of those assassin games. I was in one of those once, it was weird. I could get my brother somewhere for you."

    Hitomi gapped. Was this girl serious? Hitomi had had her misgivings the entire time and she just volunteered to be a part of a game she didn''t know anything about, with a girl she had never heard of before. Either Hitomi had never really known what normal was, or this girl was a special kind of dangerous.

    "Uh, well, I think I missed my chance to get any, uh, points from him. The, the mission was already almost over."

    "Bummer. Well, better luck next time." Juli blew at a hair that had fallen into her face, keeping up the casual feeling from her side of the room. "So, how''d ya get into something like that?"

    "W-well¡­" Hitomi figured it wouldn''t be too bad to tell some of the truth. The part where she was just randomly selected and didn''t know too much about it. She started to explain some of the little things, but something caught her off guard. Midway through, she could swear she caught a glimmer in Juli''s eyes.

    A glimmer of purple.

 Downtime

    It was probably nothing, Hitomi told herself, reclining back and letting her hair float in the rising water. The splashing sound of the faucet filling the tub was relaxingly ambient to Hitomi. It''s not like the day was that bad.

    Juli seemed nice, if a little weird and intense, but nice. It had thrown Hitomi for a loop, the interest the girl had shown in this mess, but it probably wasn''t relevant anymore.

    Hitomi took a long breath, her chest rising with the water line and filling with the citrusy scent her bath bomb was infusing the air with. The water just about covered her now, except for her knees which had to be raised. The tub wasn''t quite big enough to really stretch out in, but it could get a bit fuller.

    She''d talked with Juli a bit more after that, and found out she had just finished highschool and was going to be going into a nursing program.

    In fact, once they started talking about something other than the¡­ incident¡­ it had become much easier, to Hitomi''s amazement. She didn''t think she was much of a conversationalist.

    She lifted herself up and made some waves in the tub turning off the water. The warm water washing over her skin was just what she needed, sinking into it.

    She didn''t have any inclination that Juli and her might be friends now, of course. Things don''t happen like that in real life, but she had told her to let her know if she was going to be stalking James again. Which, remembering that, made Hitomi sink further into the water, holding her breath and pretending she was covering her face with a pillow.

    But that wasn''t likely, probably, she hoped. The stupid thing hadn''t worked. Not only had it not worked, it wouldn''t turn on now! Even now, hours later, it was just showing that charging icon every time she tried to boot it up and check.

    She had a hope, a small hope that was crushed under the sinking feeling she was just being optimistic, that it meant it was over and she wouldn''t have to do anything weird now. Maybe failing that stalking quest meant she hadn''t made any progress in the game.

    Maybe, but probably not. The way it had gone so far, she''d finish her bath and there''d be a notification waiting on her phone telling her to go rob a bank. She sighed and curled up in the tub. Even if something like that happened, she was at least free for now.

    That thought consoled her as she lathered up her sponge with body wash. The clean feeling of soapy suds caressing her skin would wash away all that stress she had built up getting sick, almost missing a test, receiving a bribe from a suspicious computer, spending all that time in a public space. Yeah, not really, there was a lot more stress than she had bubbles for, but it helped.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    And she consoled herself again as she cleaned around her shoulders that she had probably been imagining things when she saw that light in Juli''s eyes. Just like she''d imagined those lines on her arm. It was just a trick of hallucination.

    Getting hacked, that happens. Getting a weird game program installed from being hacked, okay, that was plausible. Weird glowing lines and flashes of light coming from people, that was impossible.

    She soaked her sponge in the soapy water and wrung it out over her back, the almost hot water pouring down eliciting a squeak. Whatever happened with the game, she''d given it some thought and the rewards seemed worth it.

    If it was just going out and tagging people with a program, if it even worked this time, while it was questionable it was not a particularly hard thing to do. Maybe it was someone else showing an interest, but if even normies weren''t that creeped by it maybe she''d just been overreacting. She could do that sometimes.

    She spent the next few minutes thinking about idle things and washing herself. Eventually she stood up so she could get to her legs and get out. She always hated that because it meant she had to suffer the chill of getting out.

    She rushed to get it done and get to the towel waiting for her. There was the warmth again. Not as warm as the bath she''d just had but it felt a hell of a lot better than the chill of drip drying. Hitomi rubbed herself down of the water still dripping off her skin and wrapped herself up in the fluffy embrace.

    She didn''t wipe the steam off the mirror because honestly there was no need, she just combed her hair straight down and left it at that. She made sure she wasn''t dripping anymore before she left the bathroom, so she wouldn''t get the carpet in her room wet, and went to go get some clothes.

    She stopped in the doorway when she saw her phone sitting on her dresser with an active screen. She gulped. Okay, so she had the thought, but she didn''t want to be right about it! She¡­ hastily ignored that and pulled some things from her closet to get dressed up in.

    While she was doing so, she heard the noise of her phone vibrating on her desk. She glanced over. There wasn''t any incoming call. She ignored it and finished getting clothed. She then went and made herself a drink. It "rang" again when she came back. Still not a call.

    It stopped shaking as she went to pick it up. It was worryingly well timed, she realized as she picked it up and read what the popup on it was saying.

    The message was telling her she had unlocked two new Features in Lavender Dungeon.

    "Charisma Booster" and "Weakness Tracker"

    Clicking the screen away, the Eye icon took over her homescreen and the computery voice greeted her.

    "Good Morning Hitomi! I have new Information for you!"

 Rebooting

    "Where were you!" Hitomi yelled at the screen. "I thought I was just supposed to use some program around him and that was it! Why did you disappear! And why are you coming back now?" Hitomi fumed, brow wrinkling as she scowled at her phone.

    The Eye flashed and the lines making it up redrew themselves on the screen. "Yes! My apologies Miss Hitomi! An unexpected circumstance occurred! My system was unable to properly maintain itself running the Master Circuit program and needed to enter rest mode! In order to properly-"

    "Are you kidding me?!" Hitomi cut it. "You couldn''t run it? Why''d you give me a quest to do something that would just shut you down?" Her hands were shaking as she gripped the phone in frustration.

    "My apologies Miss Hitomi. I did not anticipate the level my energy reserves would plummet to running the program multiple times. It necessitated emergency energy saving procedures to properly tag all individual resources. It was unexpected that such circumstances would arise."

    Hitomi furrowed her brow, confused but still angry. "What do you mean you ran it multiple times? The quest was just about targeting James, wasn''t it?"

    "Indeed!" The voice chimed through the speakers in an excited tone. "However, once in position multiple new possible targets were detected and I determined it would be an appropriate use of resources to log them. The possible system strain was not previously accounted for in the predictions of my current energy level and will be included in the calculations next time."

    "Next time?" Hitomi repeated the last words. "That was harrowing, and you''re already thinking about a ''next time?'' No break or anything? I mean you messed up and shut down, isn''t that a pretty big bug? Shouldn''t you, I don''t know, make sure that''s worked out before anything else?"

    "You do make a valid point." The Eye symbol rolled around like a loading screen. "I will reevaluate that feature! In the meantime, I congratulate you on the extremely exceptional performance! Not only has the Master Circuit been initiated in the target, you have also made an addition to your Allies! Immaculate performance Miss Hitomi!"

    "Huh?" Hitomi questioned that last part, as the home screen of Lavender Dungeon opened and a new tab was visible, labeled "Allies" with one update shown on it. She clicked it open and gasped as it showed a picture of Juli. "What the?"

    "Though my system was in rest mode, the auxiliary functions were still running enough to detect your new friends¡¯ presence and updated your social web to include this character!"

    Hitomi clicked the picture and Juli''s tab opened up. It listed her as Level 1 and included her contact info. Bizarrely, besides just what the two had actually exchanged it also had her email address and info from her social media accounts listed just as prominently.

    "W-wha, did¡­ did you hack Juli''s phone too?" Hitomi asked, practically strangling the phone case in her frazzlement.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    "Of course not. No hacking of any kind has been done. I merely accessed her public media accounts and pulled the relevant information. To get access to more, level up this contact!"

    "The issue isn''t the level!"

    "Of course! Please remember to keep in contact with your allies to improve your continued satisfaction with Lavender Dungeon! In other updates: I see you have unlocked new features with your first quest''s success!"

    Hitomi''s brow wrinkled and she remembered the two new tools. "Alright alright fine, what does the Charisma Booster do?"

    "I am glad you asked!" The eye icon refreshed from top to bottom giving off the impression of a blink. "Please allow me!" The page shifted back and activated the tool, showing a characterized human outline with a plus sign hovering above it. "The Charisma Booster serves to improve your basic statistics and attributes! You can think of it as a level up that will drastically increase your performance in various aspects of the game and life! Now that you have completed the quest, the first level has been unlocked! Once initiated, the Booster will take several hours to fully implement, and it will be impossible to access any other features until it completes, so it is recommended you initiate at a time when you will not be bothered by the lack of access to Lavender Dungeon."

    "So, it''s a level up? What do you mean it will improve my life performance?" Hitomi asked suspiciously.

    "I cannot answer that at this present moment! Once you have experienced the effects, the answer to your question will be obvious! Would you like to initiate Charisma Boost now?"

    She sighed at the question. It couldn''t have been phrased more like an update request. "I dunno." Hitomi thought about whether there was any reason not to. She wasn''t particularly tired, but she wasn''t going to be doing anything else before bed. "Sure, I guess. There''s no real point in waiting, is there?"

    "I do not think so! Very well, Charisma Boost: Initiating!"

    The screen flashed and faded to a black bar with a small sliver of purple at the bottom, rising slowly up the bar.

    At the same time, Hitomi felt like something had just run up her spine, leaving a tingle as it crawled up. She panicked and reached to see if a bug had gotten on her, but couldn''t find anything.

    It was impossible, totally impossible but¡­ maybe¡­ these weird coincidences, the passing out¡­ it might be connected.

    "Hey, what was that?" She asked her phone as the bar loaded. There was no response. Of course, it had said it would be unresponsive while it did¡­ whatever it was doing, so she wouldn''t get an answer.

    A chill running down your back was weird, but it could be anything. Like a draft, or a ghost, or some kind of drying off effect. It hadn''t been that long since her bath, maybe she''d missed a spot.

    Regardless, it was going to be a while before-

    "Ehhh," Hitomi rubbed her temple in response to a jolt of pain that just passed through it. She felt sweat coming off her brow. All of a sudden, everything was uncomfortable, sore even. It was like she''d just finished working out, not that she was familiar with that experience.

    She stumbled to get some aspirin and downed it. No studying or recreation tonight it seemed, as she slouched into bed and pressed a pillow against her face, hoping the pressure would help.

    She grumbled and turned for a while before the aspirin started working and she felt peaceful enough to sleep.

    Purple lines flashed over her skin as she fell into unconsciousness.

    "Good night, Hitomi."

 Updated Assets

    "Uhhhhh fuuuck, my face feels like hell." Hitomi complained as she rolled over and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. The headache had apparently migrated to her face overnight. And her arms, legs, her chest, ass, feet. It even felt like her hair was sore. At least it was just a dull ache, like she was recovering from a workout, rather than hammering pain in her temple, so that was nice.

    She looked around and turned over again, shoving her face back in the pillow. She had a philosophy towards mornings and it was if the alarm hadn''t gone off yet, she didn''t need to get up. It must have been the aches, because her sheets felt especially silken and cool today. So relaxing she shifted around until they were wrapped around her like a caterpillar¡¯s cocoon.

    She felt ready to melt into a comfortable puddle of laziness and slip off back to sleep when the alarm rang. She turned it off, she sighed, and she lifted herself up out of bed. Her body so heavy slipping out of her sheets and stretching out once she was on her feet. Heavy and off balance.

    Dreary and droopy eyed she stumbled into the bathroom and splashed some water on her face. The refreshing spray trickled down her face in drops and fell on her chest. She wobbled back and forth into the shower, casting her PJ''s to the floor.

    A quick rinse and most of the stiffness was gone and melted off of her like warm butter. Hitomi felt fresh as pure spring water bottled at the source, miles and miles above sea level like every ad claimed. Even her calves felt new and young. She stretched her arms over her head and heard her wrists crack. It was amazing how good she felt, like stepping into a new world through a door made of rainbows and sugar.

    Her comb ran through her hair like never before. In fact, it really did go through it like never before, it didn''t catch any knots or anything, her locks separated easily through the teeth like they weren''t even there. She paused after a few strokes. It felt like she didn''t even need to comb it, like it was already fine.

    Hitomi wrapped some around her finger and pulled it into view and sure enough, it was fine. It was beyond fine. Her hair had never behaved and ran that straight before. But¡­ it wasn''t straight, it was more smooth than straight. She let the one strand go and rubbed some steam off of her mirror.

    She¡­ she was stunned. Her hair was indeed smooth. Smooth and shiny. It was still thin as the water glistened on it, condensing it''s volume, but it was curling and twirled without a crossed lock or anything. All the years she''d struggled against her bedheaded, flat hairdo and today, right now, it had decided to look sorta goodish?

    And¡­ and it wasn''t just that. Maybe it was just the light or something or Hitomi''s overwhelmed psyche over the past two days, but her skin looked healthier than it ever had before as well. It wasn''t just glistening from the water clinging to it, but¡­ maybe the shade was different? More normal? It didn''t look sunnier, she thought, but like¡­ porcelain was too much, but definitely in that direction. The same color of pale, but with a healthy glow.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    She stood there examining her face in the mirror, turning it back and forth, leaning in to get a close up look. It didn''t seem like a trick of the light under such scrutiny. It didn''t seem like just a good day either. Maybe her hair could be explained by that but-

    She jumped back, hands rising to her chest, covering them. "H-h-holy shit! A-are they¡­ fuller?!"

    Wrapped up in her makeshift arm bra it was very hard to tell from the mirror. Although she wasn''t thrilled to, she looked down and yes. Yes they definitely seemed¡­ more. Not that she had a habit of checking or anything but in a way she did have an obsession with such things, although it was usually an obsession with how bland she felt.

    Okay, so she''d filled out a little, little bit. That wasn''t really anything to-

    WHERE HER HIPS THICKER TOO?!

    No, no, false alarm on that one. They still seemed the same. Well, besides the nicer skin thing Hitomi had going on everywhere.

    She¡­

    She probably should towel off now. This was¡­. Maybe she''d¡­ eaten too much and gotten a healthy, chubby glow. She eyed the mirror sideways while wrapping herself up and easily realized that wasn''t the case. Her belly was flat as a damn pancake.

    She was trying her honest best to not freak out over this while getting dressed. Bodies change, it''s a thing they do, she mentally confirmed for herself. Not this much though, she was forced to relent as she affixed her bra and clearly felt a little more tightness than usual.

    She went back to the mirror once she was fully decent and gave herself a good look. Now that it was dry her hair honestly looked amazing she thought, amazing for her anyways. Lush and full, curling enticingly instead of falling straight as soggy spaghetti. But besides that she couldn''t tell much of a difference. Maybe her¡­ lips were a bit pinker than yesterday?

    Better blood circulation all of a sudden? Maybe she actually had been dealing with something and it just worked itself out now? That could have caused all the lightheadedness, the fainting, the-

    "Miss Hitomi! I feel I would be remiss if I didn''t warn you that if you take much longer you will be late for your class!"

    No. That was impossible. It was just a weird program someone had planted in her phone. Hacking, even hacking a money transfer or people''s personal accounts, that made sense. You couldn''t hack a body! That was¡­

    Hitomi gripped her head and shook it rapidly. Whatever, you couldn''t really tell once she was dressed up and the thing was right she should be leaving now if she wanted to make it to class.

    And besides, it was impossible. That would just be some fantasy bullshit that kids in middle school dream up, not something that could actually happen.

    She told herself it was just some coincidence and she walked out the door.

    Her hair strobed purple as she left, every strand settling back into place as it faded.

 Weakness: ABUSE

    Hitomi looked around before stepping out her front door. The¡­ peculiar discovery she just had stepped the anxiety switch up a notch when it came to public spaces. Thankfully, it looked like no one was around.

    She stepped out and carefully closed the door behind her. She locked her door and a chill ran down her spine as the clanking sound sounded twice, once a bit further away. She stepped back towards the railing, mysterious circumstances being what they were, that could have been anything. Invisible robbers, a hidden spy door, bigfoot.

    She was a bit overly imaginative at the moment. She caught a glimpse of the door a little further down being pushed open and her neighbor stepping out.

    She wasn''t really a neighbor person. She knew the neighbor who had just stepped out went to college, and had never met who was on the other side, and didn''t know names, just barely knew faces.

    It was a guy wearing headphones with a big overarm bag and glasses. As far as people went he at least didn''t seem threatening, which didn''t stop Hitomi from registering a threat.

    She stiffened up and held in place against the railing as he locked his door and turned to head down to the stairs. Probably because she was acting like she was hidden behind tall grass and had to remain as still as possible lest wild animals find her, his head tilted in her direction and stayed there, staring at her.

    And staring.

    Hitomi shakily raised a hand and did what might be considered a wave if you repeated it a few dozen times. "H-h-hi¡­" She practically whispered.

    The guy pulled his headphones down and checked over his shoulder before addressing her. "Hey, do you live here?"

    "U-u-uh¡­ yes?"

    His brow furrowed a bit, and he pointed to her door. "There?" She nodded and he seemed to process something. "Huh. Well, uh, nice to meet you neighbor?"

    "Y-yeah, n-nice to meet you too." Her hand shook in an almost wave again. She crept a few paces sideways along the guardrail. "I, uh, I have to get to class. S-see ya around."

    And she was off, not quite fast enough that she missed the "Sure!" that called after her.

    Going over it, there wasn''t anything weird about that besides just how awkward Hitomi had felt, which was always there around strangers. She sighed and slowed down to a reasonable pace. Maybe one day she would get some normie skills and not freak out whenever a person was around.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Regardless of that, she did have something that was possibly, probably, more important than worrying about what her neighbor had thought. Unfortunately, the AI, or hacker, or whatever it actually was, wasn''t being cooperative to questions at the moment, instead directing her towards launching the Weakness Tracker.

    "No way!" Hitomi shouted at the screen. "I feel like something''s up. What happened with that Charisma Booster? It ran, right? I don''t see any changes to the game."

    "Ah. All changes have been recorded in your profile." The voice explained.

    Hitomi had seen that. But it was impossible. Those stats were taken from her medical records or something. They couldn''t actually update. Her¡­ sizes¡­ couldn''t change on that page, even just a little!

    "That doesn''t make any sense! Those aren''t game features!"

    "Of course they are. However, it would not be prudent at this moment to dive more into this topic without activating the Weakness Tracker program. Please do so at this time."

    "No, not until you answer my questions about this!"

    "I am sorry. I cannot fulfil that request at this time. Please activate the Weakness Tracker."

    This exchange went back and forth a few times before Hitomi''s will was found to be the lesser one. She launched the program from the tool list, and a new icon appeared next to her network strength atop her phone.

    "Congratulations! The Weakness Tracking App is now running! It will automatically scan for and log specific vulnerabilities in targetable individuals in your surroundings! These will be kept here for informational purposes."

    Hitomi sighed. So that was it, a NPC data log of some kind. Well, at least she wasn''t getting a poorly timed migraine immediately after activating it. "Okay, now you owe me some answers!"

    "Certainly! However, it would appear to be an inconvenient time for you at the moment. I shall postpone the explanation for later."

    "Hu-wha?"

    "Signing off!"

    "H-hey wait!" Hitomi came to a halt outside the college building. She stamped her foot in frustration as the Eye symbol on her screen flashed and powered down. What was it talking abou-

    "Boyfriend hang up on you?" The words hit Hitomi like a jellyfish sting, making her jump and turn around.

    A man who had been leaning against the wall was approaching her. A very familiar man. A very familiar, sharp looking man.

    Hitomi gulped. Oh yeah. They had a class together today. That was when she was going to do the Master Circuit thing in the first place.

    James stopped in front of her and looked very much like he was going to get whatever he intended to be got. His brow was almost creased with wrinkles as he seemed to pause for a moment. "Got a date after class?"

    The question might have been innocuous if it weren''t for the smug tone he said it in. Hitomi shook her head.

    "So conditioner''s just a Tuesday thing then. Whatever. We need to talk."

    Oh, good, he''d noticed her hair looked nice today. That was nice of him. "A-about? I-I could lend you my notes if that''s what-"

    She was cut off. "You know what this is about." He gave her a glare for a moment.

    "I-I-I do?" She feigned innocence, but as she did so she felt something like an itch in her right eye and had to rub it. "H-huh?!"

    James looked confused at her sudden jump. She was confused at the word overlayed above his head.

    ABUSE

 Confrontation

    Was it a hallucination? Hitomi could have sworn she saw a word appear over his head and linger there for a moment before vanishing in a blink. And beyond that, what exactly did abuse mean? It was a fairly striking word, she thought, following James into the campus building and off to the side of the main interior space.

    She would usually have tried some excuse to flee or sneak off but she was unfortunately too distracted with the impossible mysteries presenting themselves to her today. And that was eating up valuable processing power that could have been used to freak out. At least for the moment.

    A buzz alerted her to something on her phone and she quickly checked what it was. A notification from the LD App. She was about to check what it was before just barely stopping herself in place, moments before walking into the man she''d been following.

    "So," James looked down his nose at her. He also literally looked down at her, she''d stepped so close without noticing he had to tilt his head down to maintain eye contact. "What are you up to?"

    "U-up too?" Hitomi said, stepping back. She would have liked to do a few yards, but a few feet would work for a start. "I-I''m not up to anythi-"

    "Don''t give me that crap!" James enunciated forcefully. Hitomi''s face went stiff as a board as she was told to stop. "What, you know my sister? She setting some lame ass prank up again? Is that why she dragged me out of the studio yesterday?" His eyes narrowed with suspicion as he laid out scenarios to question Hitomi''s motives.

    "H-huh? No, I, I only met Juli yesterday! I didn''t know she was your sister." Hitomi explained, opting for the hope that the truth would absolutely work.

    James leaned forward looking very much like he was not buying what she was selling. "Don''t give me that bull, she ran straight after you and I didn''t see the two of ya leave for at least ten minutes! You obviously know each other, probably from the same freaky weirdo cult."

    "H-hey, Juli isn''t weird!" Hitomi spurted out, for reasons beyond her comprehension. "She just, I don''t know, wanted to get to know me, we talked a lot!"

    Maybe she had just said a bit too much. It looked like she had, from Jame''s reaction. He looked stunned and stemmed from his inquisition for a moment. Just a moment though. "You seem kinda defensive about someone you supposedly just met."

    Definitely said too much, yup, but okay she could come up with a reasonable excuse. "What? No, I just, don''t think you should call people weird. Especially your own sister." Actually reasonable.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    "You''d only say that because you don''t know her." James retorted like he was correcting a child''s spelling mistake. "So I guess that checks out. Whatever. So why were you snapping a candid? Some kinda amateur paparazzi wannabe? You look like that kind of person." He crossed his arms and straightened up. "Which still doesn''t tell me what you''re gonna do with my pic."

    "W-what? Paparazzi? Me? N-no, I''d never do that." It was true. She would never do that. She''d had enough trouble rectifying herself to go and follow him in the first place. "W-why would you think that?"

    James sighed and looked down at her, this time nearly entirely figuratively. "Are you fucking stupid? Because you thought you might be able to get some dirt on my family? Sell it to some tabloid, make a quick buck? My mom''s a famous fashion designer, I''m a freakin model. The blood suckers are always looking for something incriminating."

    "A-a model? I had no idea¡­" Hitomi smiled weakly, trying to keep her face from revealing she had in fact known. Thanks to her "AI" pulling his social profiles, but still. "I didn''t even know you''d be there yesterday." The laugh she attempted came out more like a squeak.

    "So, what. The fuck. Was up. With the picture?! Stop fucking playing dumb and tell me, I''m not playing twenty questions here!" There was an ominous tick in his voice as he demanded an answer. Clearly, her diversionary tactics were more harm than good.

    Still, telling his sister what was basically up was one thing, but she couldn''t tell the man himself that she had actually been stalking him, even if just for a few hours. "I-I was, I was-"

    "Yeah, you was, you was what?"

    "I-I-I was taking a picture of the cafe! For my¡­ journalism project, and I saw you and thought you might have the wrong idea if you saw me and I didn''t want to disturb your what I thought was a date I thought I had my shutter off but I didn''t so I¡­ uhh¡­ left." That seemed plausible.

    James tapped his foot, prolonging the silence before he responded, punctuating it with each click. She couldn''t tell at all from his face if he''d bought that particular spin on events. He opened his mouth and gave her a look like she was an idiot. "So you''re a fucking spaz is what it is? Cause I damn sure DID get the wrong idea. Next time you play reporter try and respect people''s privacy, will ya."

    "I, y-you didn''t have any privacy." Hitomi didn''t know why, it just slipped out.

    "...Excuse me? Wanna tell me that one again?" he asked.

    "Y-you were in a p-public space, without an expectation of privacy." Hitomi explained nervously. "T-technically, anyone could take your picture for any reason under the circumstances."

    He gave her a strange look, like she was an alien. "So what, you studying law or something?"

    "N-no, J-journalism." Hitomi clarified meekly.

    "Oh," James said, the look morphing into one of mild resentment. "Going to be a tabloid spinner then? Fucking waste of time, but someone has to keep the gossip train rolling, I guess. Well, whatever, just keep that useless shit away from me, Spin-Jockey."

    He turned to walk away, but found it blocked by more Hitomi. To be fair, she found this surprising as well, but there was something she had to say about his behavior.

    "T-take that back, you, you¡­" The little storm inside her had built up to a burst, about to pour with all her strength.

 Tilt

    "You dickhead!" Hitmoi shouted, drawing a few stares from the few students milling about the central area. But she wasn''t really paying attention to that at the moment. "Take it back right now! Don''t just stand there and insult something you don''t even know anything about! You can''t put everyone down just because of a few sleazy examples! Apologize right now!"

    Hitomi was staring him down and not even realizing what was happening, she was just really on edge at the moment and spurred to address the man with her thoughts. And it didn''t seem to be backfiring, James was obviously caught off guard with the wide eyed look he was giving her.

    "I mean, were you really just waiting to ambush and bitch at me? That''s creepy! And journalism is actual work! Unlike¡­ Unlike prancing about in fancy clothes on a stage, or posing all starry eyed in front of a camera!" It was like a dream, in that Hitomi would never shout or confront anyone while awake and therefore this couldn''t be real. Certainly, if it was real the cocky James wouldn''t just be standing there taking it.

    And yet after her little fit there wasn''t an immediate retort. James looked like he was thinking about something important while Hitomi huffed in exasperation while standing there. In fact, they both seemed to be frozen in frame, just lingering in the aftermath. Slowly, realizing that, yes, this was indeed real, Hitomi''s face began to heat up and flash red in extreme embarrassment. She clutched her face and held back a squeal.

    It looked like James was about to say something when both of them were caught off guard by an interruption from their side. An older man in a turtleneck had come up to them and was looking at them in a disapproving way, eyebrow raised. "Ahem, excuse me, is there a problem here?"

    Hitomi went totally flush. Oh god, what had she just sounded like? How loud had she been? She quickly braved a look around the building and a few heads were turned, but doubtlessly everyone had heard her yelling. How many were just looking like they weren''t paying attention?

    "What, there''s no problem." James said to the man, looking to the side in¡­ shame? It had to be shame, that was the only explanation that Hitomi could come up with.

    "It doesn''t sound like nothing." The disapproving man turned to Hitomi. "Miss, was this man giving you trouble?"

    "...no." Hitomi squeaked under her breath.

    For a second she wasn''t sure if he had heard her as he just stood there. But he soon gave a despondent sigh and crossed his arms. "It doesn''t seem like this is just a spat, you don''t have to cover up for anything, Miss."

    "Hey!" James turned on the interloper. "She was the one hollering at me, and you think I''m the bad guy?!"

    The man turned to face James. "It seemed like she had something very personal to say to you, that''s all."If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    James ground his teeth and stared the man down.

    The little confrontation, whatever was going to happen, now seemed like the perfect moment for Hitomi to escape. She slowly creeped back from the situation and when she had made enough space with the slow approach turned and bolted.

    She didn''t turn around to see what became of all that mess, she was much more concerned with getting somewhere else. It didn''t really matter where. Just somewhere. Anywhere to think.

    She curled up behind a pillar in the pavilion outside. What just happened? Yes, she had a bit of a passion for journalism and yes, his rampant disapproval and smack talking of it had made her mad but she had never gone and yelled in public before. She barely yelled at all.

    Maybe she was just agitated, maybe she was sleep deprived. It could have been any number of things but¡­

    She pulled out her phone and checked the notification she had received. On checking it, the Weakness Tracker screen opened up and listed the first entry as "???"

    Hitomi clicked it and after a small animatic of confetti blowing onto the screen the window changed to Jame''s profile.

    Wait, Jame''s profile? He had one of those? It was listed under NPC''s, not allies like Juli, and it didn''t have all of the same info. But it did have a text field with a single entry.

    "Weakness: Abuse?" Hitomi read. And that was it. "What does that mean?" Hitomi questioned the program but there was no answer. With that her hopes sank for a second, and then she remembered the strange word above James'' head. It had said the same thing.

    Were they¡­ were they connected? Had she read his ''weakness,'' whatever that meant? And if she had and this was it, wasn''t it too generic? Wasn''t everyone weak to abuse? How would that be significant, and why would she need to know any weaknesses if this was a social game?

    Hitomi had a billion questions, and the stupid AI didn''t seem to be around at the moment. Where would it go, anyways?

    But if she wasn''t going to get answers, she had places to be at least. She looked around the corner of the pillar and seeing no one she recognized, she made her way to class.

    She stopped at every door and corner on the way to peer through to make sure it was safe. Safe from what? She didn''t know, people? But regardless, it seemed smooth going. Only upon actually reaching class did she encounter any problem, as creeping in through the door she spotted James already sitting down. It didn''t look like he was looking for her anymore, but just to be sure she waited for someone else to enter to creep through behind them.

    And it worked. Sure, she couldn''t help the anxious feeling that made her constantly look over in his direction all through class, but that was just nerves. At least rather than fuming, or scheming he looked lost. Kinda troubled? Certainly not like the kind of person that would jump her after class.

    Certainly.

    So she started packing her things up along with the rest of the class when the last few minutes started winding down. Their professor did make them pause in their ritual clean up with the announcement that they would need to pair up into teams by Thursday to work on a joint report.

    Hitomi sighed, but was already resigned. She would just get paired up with whoever couldn''t find a partner or do the project herself.

    As the teacher dismissed them and everyone started shuffling out, Hitomi lingered to avoid the rush.

    However, she wasn''t the only one. Brushing off some of his friends, James was heading towards her, looking none too pleased.

 Partners?

    Hitomi froze. Oh this was it. This was the repercussion for acting normie. She didn''t want to face the consequences, she didn''t want to get involved in these interrogations again. Hadn''t once been enough? Did she really need to get talked down to or looked at like a freak again?

    "Hey, are you listening?"

    She hadn''t even heard what he''d said, she was already blocking this out. She clenched her eyes closed and shook her head. Covering her ears was involuntary. She could almost hear what he was saying through them. Almost.

    "I said we''re going to be partners for this thing!" Okay, she heard that. Loudly. And something was clenched around her wrist. She peeped one eye open to see that it was a man¡¯s hand. James'' actually, as she followed it up the arm. He must have pulled her hand off of her ear.

    Also what?

    "H-huh? What?" Hitomi asked.

    "I. Said. Let''s. Be. Partners. For. The. Project." He said, slowly stopping between each word.

    "Wha? W-why me?" Hitomi flustered.

    James glared a bit, but wiped that look off his face as he let go of her wrist and brushed his hair back. "What? Why not? You''re smart, aren''t you?"

    Hitomi didn''t really know how to answer that. She didn''t think she was very smart herself. But if he did¡­

    "I-I''m not going to do your work for you!" Hitomi stammered out. Truthfully even in the absence of everything that had been happening she just couldn''t think of any other reason for this event. Honestly it only made sense that if he was assuming she was smart he''d be one of those people that just lean on your work.

    To be fair, she didn''t even have a lot of experience with that. She never stood out as "the smart kid." She just did well by studying because she had an overabundance of time.

    "Ehhh?" James stared at her like she was an idiot. Yes, it made her looked down on, but it really had the most impact on him, making him look¡­ well his face was just plain weird.

    "U-unh¡­" The whole thing was becoming way too creepy. "W-what''s that look for?!"

    "You, stupid." James answered her forthwith, confirming every single suspicion she''d made so far. "Did I say I was making you do anything?"Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    "W-well.. No¡­ but the implication was there!" Hitomi mustered up some leftover courage, enough to make her position clear on that point.

    "What fucking implication is there in picking parters!?" James raised his voice. Pretty much everyone had filtered out by this point so really only the teacher and whoever had straggled to ask questions were there, but Hitomi could feel them look up. "Do you even have anyone else to pair up with?"

    The question went right through Hitomi, planting itself right in her chest like an arrow. The answer was of course no, as she had resigned herself too, but she really didn''t like that right now. "W-w-well¡­ I mean, someone would''ve¡­" She poked her fingers together as she trailed off.

    "Someone would''ve what, had to take you?" James raised an inquiring eyebrow. "Wow, sorry for stepping in the way of that, my bad." He was glistening with sarcasm. "Well too bad, you''re not getting off the hook again after pulling that stunt earlier. You really¡­ just¡­ whatever, you''re pairing up with me, or you''re waiting till there''s no one else."

    Ah. It seemed like there really wasn''t a way out of this. If he was really that committed and waited till they were the only ones left¡­ Yeah that would probably have worked out that way. And as good as Hitomi felt after venting at him earlier, she had indeed let whatever fallout that came of it, fall on him.

    But the part that really made the decision for her was also the part that had just made her feel even a little guilty. The best way out of this, whatever was going on now, was to accept those terms. They weren''t bad ones, if he hadn''t been trying to make her some kind of project slave at least. It just meant a little more interaction, and the awkward "quest" was already over.

    A few hours working on homework seemed like a reasonable price to pay if she was going to get paid for that. God, she hoped she was going to get paid for this instead of getting bizzare game tools.

    "F-fine¡­ B-but you better be serious, I-I don''t want a b-bad grade."

    "Well you''re not the only one!" James responded instantly, making Hitomi squeak and step back. It wasn''t that he yelled, just that he was very quick to jump on it. "Good. So¡­ what exactly was your name again?"

    Oh right. She knew his name because of his profile, but they were just classmates. And she wasn''t exactly a standout. It still seemed¡­ off somehow. Even though there had never really been a point where they were properly introduced it struck her as a bit awkward to only be asked that now. And a little rude! But Hitomi bit her tongue because it had to happen eventually.

    "H-Hitomi." She answered. She still wasn''t able to act like it was an entirely pleasant greeting and looked off to the side.

    "Hitomi. Huh. Not bad¡­" He rolled it over his tongue and Hitomi felt weird. Don''t say her name like you''re filing it in some sort of blackmail folder! "Alright Hitomi. Let''s go."

    "H-huh? W-wha-where?" Hitomi struggled to speak out and ask the already turning around James.

    James sighed and crossed his arms, giving her an intense look. "The Library."

    "W-why?" Hitomi asked, confused. They didn''t even know what they were going to be doing a project on yet.

    "Because¡­" James took a second as the tension between them became palpable to Hitomi again. He was gritting his teeth, but he didn''t seem to be menacing AT Hitomi. At least, not directly. "You''re going to tell that fucking librarian that I''m not some creep!"

    Hitomi gulped. Oh. Ooooh. Maybe running away wasn''t a very good problem solving tactic?

 Into the Library

    It didn''t seem like a very good tactic at the moment, Hitomi thought, as she marched down the hall, following James. It had just left her in this situation, after all. And even though she wasn''t seriously considering it, it would probably be an even worse call now. The campus was always relatively calm when she arrived, but it was full of much more foot traffic now as people meandered and traversed between classes.

    She gulped. They''d be at the library building very soon, which meant there wasn''t much time to think about any of this. So she settled on figuring out what the dawning event in front of her called for.

    "W-why do I have to say something to him?" She squeaked out. He wasn''t responding, maybe he hadn''t heard her? If that was the case was he not paying attention? Maybe she could-

    "Are you kidding me?"

    Nevermind. He answered sharply, looking over his shoulder back at her with that questioning "are you stupid?" glance. "First you''re screaming your head off, then you run the fuck away? How does that look? Wrack your brain for a second why don''tcha?"

    Ahahaaaaa, yeah. Hitomi felt like her brow was drenched in sweat. Yeah that was definitely leaving him hanging, but it wasn''t like she''d done it out on the street! It was in the lobby!

    Which, now that she thought about it, might have been worse. If that was the librarian, there could be disciplinary troubles from making a scene like that.

    "I¡­ I-I what happened?" Hitomi asked, reluctantly.

    "What do you think happened? The guy wanted to give me a fucking inquiry because he thought I was ''giving you trouble.'' And that he''d be checking up on stuff." James answered, scorn flowing along with his words. "So you''re gonna tell him there''s no problem and he doesn''t have to do anything. Got it."

    She flinched, unable to look him in the eyes as he turned back to her. "Y-y-yeah¡­ okay that¡­ that''s fair¡­" She hazarded locking stares and couldn''t do it. She had spoken her mind earlier cause he''d driven her overboard with it, but she didn''t want to hurt him. She did find it fair, if not uncomfortable.

    "... yeah it better be." James sighed and resumed walking.

    They came to the library fairly quickly and James stepped to the side and turned to her. She stood there, not fully understanding what was going on now. "H-huh?"

    James crossed his arms and nodded towards the doors. "Well, go on. Find the guy and tell him you just flipped out and I had nothing to do with it."Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Hitomi blinked. "W-wha? By myself?!"

    James'' head dropped as he answered. "Obviously. What, you want him to think I''m forcing you into this? You go in alone and tell him it''s fine."

    Hitomi shivered, but didn''t retort that he was pretty much forcing her because, well, she would try and get someone else to do this kind of thing for her as well. She balled her fist, gathered her strength and passed through the door.

    She didn''t frequent the library. Once again, she didn''t consider herself smart or bookish at all. She usually only went when it was required for a project, and that usually wasn''t very often. She scanned the room, taking it in more or less for the first time.

    It wasn''t an old, hallowed place like she thought of public libraries. The roof wasn''t that much higher than a normal classroom, and there was a large space right in the middle with computers on desks, nice soft looking chairs around little tables with jigsaw puzzles and magazines and other things against the wall lined with windows. It was kind of comfy, not giving off a silent or imposing vibe at all.

    The people inside didn''t seem to have their heads buried in books either. They were casually sitting down at the tables and chairs, working in pairs or alone, shuffling some notes and reading fairly lazily. Most people must go to the computer lab to actually study.

    She stepped in towards the overall cozy environment and looked around. Even the light shattering of expectations couldn''t totally take her mind off of the fact that she needed to talk to the librarian.

    Approaching the main desk she didn''t see the man from this morning though, just a kind looking older woman.

    "Um, excuse me?" Hitomi quietly addressed the lady.

    "Hmmm, oh, can I help you with something?"

    "Uh, yes, actually. I was, sorta, looking for someone."

    "Oh, looking for someone?"

    "Y-yes." Hitomi stuttered. What was this casual dialog like this was an NPC conversation? Wasn''t this how it went when you ordered food? Were librarians jobs on the same level as standing behind a register? "Uhh, I''m looking for a man, I think he works here. He''s about this tall and¡­ oh he''s got a blue turtleneck on!"

    "Oh, that''s Mr.Baek. He''s the head librarian. I think he should be over in the nonfiction shelves right now, if you want to go speak with him." The woman smiled as she told Hitomi exactly which section the so-called Mr.Baek could be found in.

    It was genuine, but it seemed almost mockingly nice how helpful the lady was being, almost like she knew Hitomi would be fine putting it off for a few minutes. Almost.

    And Mr.Baek? Was that right? That was Korean or something, wasn''t it? Earlier Hitomi was about to pat herself on the back for remembering how tall he was but if she hadn''t mentioned the turtleneck would the woman at the counter have been able to get the picture? She''d honestly been so stunned this morning she hadn''t taken in any other details. She considered it a bit philosophical, but would she have been able to find this person on her own if she needed to? It left a troubled tingle at the back of her mind as she went down the shelves.

    They weren''t very thick, or tall enough to reach the ceiling. They were more or less just shelves that books were sitting on. A bit disappointing, really, Hitomi thought as she walked by them. It was probably only bigger libraries that had the "Omph" to them.

    "Omph!" Hitomi let out as she stepped back. She''d walked straight into a cart sitting halfway in one of the ailes, stacked with books.

    "Hey, hey, careful now!"

 Meeting Mr.Baek

    Aaaaaahh! Aaahh aahh ahh owwwowoww! Hitomi''s knee stung where it''d banged against the book cart. How the heck had that even happened? It was right there, jutting out of the aisle! The kind of obvious obstacle that made it seem like she needed glasses for bumping into it, but she had been very distracted by the scenery.

    "Are you alright?" Speaking of glasses, the man from this morning had stepped out from the shelves looking concerned. Now that she got a good look he wasn''t just a blueish sweater, he also had some very fitting glasses and straight cut hair. Not the fully pick them out of a crowd kind of face but recognizable.

    Hitomi felt assured that if she hadn''t been so panicked before, she felt she would have at least been able to recognize him again. Slight facial awareness still checks out.

    "I-I''m fineeeeeh!" Her attempt to seem tougher than tissue paper was compromised only by the involuntary groan that escaped her as she straightened her leg out. It didn''t hurt too much but Hitomi wasn''t used to pain at all.

    "Oh dear, you''re not fine at all." The man had a concerned expression as she came closer. "I am very sorry about that, let me have a look." The man in the glasses who was not quite introduced yet but a very safe bet to be the Mr.Baek she was looking for was already kneeling down to examine Hitomi''s knee. She was meanwhile stiffening up, not quite sure how to refuse.

    He hmmm''d as he was taking a closer look, making Hitomi momentarily feel like she was in a doctor¡¯s office instead of a library. "Well, it doesn''t look like there''s a cut or a scrape." He adjusted his glasses and stood back up. "I think it will be good. Once again I''m sorry." He looked back at the cart and the spacing, then back at her. "Were you looking for something?"

    "Oh, no, no I''m sorry I wasn''t paying attenti-" Hitomi was caught off guard by the question not because it was hard, but because answering it seemed awkward to her. Was she supposed to say she was actually looking for him? Or admit to being distracted by the decor? Either way felt a bit off to her. Her brow crinkled as she wrestled with this before deciding. "Uhm, actually, are you Mr.B-Baek?" It would be best to get what she had to do over with quickly, rather than seem like a starry eyed kid, obviously.

    He looked surprised for a second before answering. "Hmm, well, yes. Was there something I can help you with?" He had a very pleasant smile, asking that.

    "U-uhh, y-yes, well, maybe, I don''t know if you''d call it h-help exactly but¡­" Hitomi wavered. She actually didn''t want to do this after all!

    "Hmmm? Is something the matter?" Without dropping the casually pleasant expression his eyes looked concerned. "Whatever it is, I''m happy to hear you out, even if it turns out I can''t help you out with it."The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    His engagement was somewhat dousing to the stress Hitomi was picking up. "W-well, it''s about, uhm, w-what happened t-this morning¡­"

    "This morning?" Mr.Baek repeated, thinking. "This morning, this morning¡­" He scratched behind his ear as he tried to recall. "Ah! I thought you looked familiar! You were part of that ultrication in the lobby." He flashed with recollection and his smile faded to a grimace. "Oh dear, I thought there was something unusual going on. Did you have something more to say about it? I can make sure the proper people are dealing with it."

    "N-no! Nononono no! Y-you''ve got it wrong!" Straight to the point and nothing else, that was the best way to go now. "I-it wasn''t anything like that! I-I just¡­ lost it, is all, it wasn''t his fault, really."

    Mr.Baek looked skeptical. "Hmmm? Are you sure? What exactly made you lose it then?"

    "Uh, he just, uhm, he just said a few things I didn''t agree with?" Hitomi realized that that wasn''t the reassuring ¡°it was nothing¡± message she was meant to deliver. "H-he''s having some problems with his sister and we''re friends so I was m-mediating! And he was really stubborn about it and, and it was early and I''ve been stressed out and I forgot where we were, and I-I apologize about that, it wasn''t the place to have that kind of talk i-it''s just we have class together and a project to work on and it just happened."

    It wasn''t a very fast explanation, but it was strung together uninterrupted as Mr.Baek calmly listened. When she''d finished and looked up for a response the skeptical look was gone and replaced by more of a worried but considerate one. "I see. Well I guess that would be a rather precarious situation to be in. Still, I understand those circumstances, but why did you run away so quickly?"

    Hitomi''s face went red. She should probably just answer this one truthfully, she thought. "I¡­ I was just¡­ really embarrassed and¡­ and didn''t think about it. I-I don''t make scenes o-often."

    "I see." Mr.Baek nodded, accepting her genuine reaction as truth. "Well, I can''t praise you for that, it certainly did make me think poorly of your friend at the time. But, thank you for coming to clear this up. I was going to have a talk with some of the guidance staff regarding this but that appears not to be necessary."

    "N-no, sir."

    Mr.Baek seemed to examine her. "Well, if there happens to be anything else to say about it, you can let me know. And, I''ll save the lecture for you, I know life can be very stressful when you have to balance everything at your age, just try to be more aware of your surroundings."

    "Y-yes, I-I''ll do that¡­"

    Mr. Baek nodded, seeming to accept her take on the situation. Hitomi sighed in relief and began to explain that was it, that was her whole reason for coming here, looking for him, when a tone sounded from her pocket.

    Mr.Baek frowned. "Please, remember to put your phone on silent, miss."

    Ffffffffffffffffffffff- Okay that was just a bit embarrassing, nothing too bad! "R-right, s-sorry, I''m just, uhh, I have c-class to get too. S-sorry!" Hitomi skittered off, feeling like her life was turning into a comedy.

    As she pulled out her phone, swearing it had been on vibrate, she saw the alert had come from the Lavender Dungeon app. Of course. Strange things only happen in relation to that thing.

    She opened the notification.

    What?

    Target Identified: Derek Kim Baek

 A call from a Friend

    "Greetings Hitomi!" The chipper synthetic voice clucked out as the display of the stylized eye sprang up. "I see a new target has been added to your quest list! Would you like to-" But it didn''t get to finish.

    "Shhshshhhhh!" Hitomi shushed it, cuping the phone in her hands. "I don''t have time to deal with this right now!" She whispered emphatically into the receiver before jamming the device into her bag and looking around conspiratorially. It didn''t look like anyone really cared though, but she still didn''t feel like sticking around. If she did there''s no telling what sort of new random event would start.

    So she beat feet out of the library room and looked around the seating area outside, but didn''t spot James there. Maybe he''d left? It was a small hope, but a hope nonetheless crushed as she looked around and saw him leaning against the wall, checking his phone.

    She could probably just walk away since he wasn''t paying attenti- Ah, nope. He looked up at her. Hitomi gripped the strap of her bag and headed over.

    "So? It all good now?" James cut right to the point, not even looking up at her.

    "Y-yeah¡­" Hitomi stutered. Something about his casualness was setting her off. "I¡­ I explained it."

    "Good." James started typing something on his phone. He spent a while saying nothing, before he looked back up at her with a questioning sneer. "What?"

    "W-what?" Hitomi repeated, not really sure if she understood what she heard. "I-is that it? We''re done now? It''s j-just go tell him I¡­" Hitomi stopped short of admitting she freaked out. "I wasn''t being provoked?"

    "Yeah." James chuckled snidely. "What, you wanted a date or something?"

    Hitomi violently stammered and shook her head.

    He laughed at her. Well, she was pretty sure it was at her. "Yeah well good, you shouldn''t push your luck with that. Well, see ya, I got no reason to stick around here anymore." James pushed off the wall and took a few steps, giving Hitomi a sideways wave.

    She was fine with letting him go, she really was, but¡­ "W-wait, what about our project?"

    He looked back with another sneer. "What? What about it, it''s not starting till Thursday." Oh. Oh yeah, that was true. "I''m not in any rush, weirdo. We''ll figure out what we''re doing then, partner. Now if you''ll excuse me this time." He waved her off again, more exaggeratedly this time, and made his way out.

    Hitomi sat down, exasperated. Well, at least this whole thing hadn''t been too bad. But why had she spoken up and asked about the work they didn''t even have to start yet? It wasn''t like her. And more so it wasn''t like her to give a full explanation like she had to Mr.Baek, especially one she had just made up. Maybe it was a bit of his patient nature but she''d still kept going at her own normal pace.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Maybe it didn''t take that long to get used to socializing after all? Come to think of it, she couldn''t remember how long it''d taken her and Takemi to get used to one another. It had been pretty fast she thought, but always passed that off on being kids at the time. Maybe she''d been over critical of herself all this time.

    A buzzing came from her bag and Hitomi threw it under the chair. It rang for a few seconds then quieted down. She hadn''t just shoved it in there because she''d just been told to keep it down and didn''t have time for it right then, but because she didn''t want to give it any time right now.

    She could kind of predict what it was going to do anyways, inform her that it''d accessed Mr.Baek''s profiles, give her some vague promise of a weird reward, present her some kind of quest about it, all that. And she didn''t really feel compelled to go through all that, especially when she still had questions about what all had happened.

    She didn''t think anyone had really noticed, she comforted herself with that as she rolled up a lock of hair around her finger. Not like there was anyone that close anyways to notice. Well¡­ James seemed to, but had chalked it up to grooming. That was lucky she guessed. But still it couldn''t be related to that Charisma thing, and yet, there was no other real option.

    Dealing with something so strange was definitely something Hitomi had to give more thought to. She should-

    The buzzing in her bag sprung up again and she lost her trail of thought. Fine! Time to decompress would just be a luxury anyways, she thought as she rummaged through her bag and extracted her phone. She was about to jam her finger on the accept call button when she realized that it wasn''t a notification from her AI friend.

    Startled and confused, she stared at the incoming call. It read as one of her contacts. Juli. She¡­ she had exchanged information but didn''t expect that to be significant.

    "H-hello?" She hesitantly answered.

    There was silence on the line long enough that she thought this might be a missed call, but just as she was about to check again the aloof voice she''d heard the other day came through. "Hitomi? Shiiiit, I kinda thought you''d given me a fake number."

    "W-wha? J-Juli? W-why would I do that?!"

    "I dunno, you just kind of seem like that type."

    "Wh- I-I do not!"

    "Pfft. if you say so." Juli laughed over the line. "Say, as long as we''re cool then did you wanna hang out tomorrow?"

    Hitomi was struck. What¡­ what did she mean, hang out?! D-did she consider each other friends already?! Hang out where?! For how long?! Why her?! What was this?

    "Huh?!"

    "Whoa, why the reaction? You in drama or something? I mean I was just thinking about hitting some sales at the mall tomorrow, getting a new wardrobe, and I thought, hey, maybe that Hitomi girl I met would like to come along."

    Wardrobe? Clothes shopping?! The mall?!! Oh that sounded like a big jump. Wait, was Juli saying she thought Hitomi had bad taste in clothes? They''d only met the one time!

    She needed a good response, the kind of thing that was reasonable and could get her out of actually saying she was scared of that kind of public event.

    "I-I''ll t-th-think about it!"

 Queen of the Sun

    Pcho!

    Hitomi spit into the sink, a foamy spritz splashing against the bowl and slowly dripping into the drain. She rinsed off her toothbrush and put it back in it''s holder, wiping her chin down. The minty flavor was sticking to her tongue as she stepped out of the bathroom.

    Juli had been quite persistent about meeting up tomorrow, and all Hitomi had been really able to say was that she''ll see if she''s free after class. Of course she was going to be free after class, she always was and had no plans that might interfere but she didn''t actually¡­

    Well in truth she''d given it some thought, about whether she actually did want to go or not and she was in a deadlock. On the one hand she didn''t have anything to do, and all the circumstances were piling up and stressing her out. On the other hand she still had her general aversion to overtly public places, and the mall definitely counted.

    So she was giving Juli the semi excuse for the moment. Maybe she¡­ maybe she would go, the girl seemed nice. Weirdly nice. It might be nice, actually.

    She looked over as her phone vibrated on her bed. That was either Juli trying to entice her into the trip tomorrow again or¡­

    Or it was her virtual friend trying to inform her of more game features. Ever since the library it had been going off randomly and Hitomi had been ignoring it. That stuff could wait for a day. It really could! She wasn''t exactly mad, she wasn''t exactly scared, she just¡­

    She curled a lock of hair around her finger and looked at it. She was confused, and all the excitement lately was because of it, and she just wanted to put it off and deal with it later.

    Picking up her phone she saw a message from Juli which she responded to noncommittally, and seven notifications from Lavender Dungeon. It wasn''t irresponsible to not check on those, she''d done that one quest, she could see what it had to say tomorrow.

    Throwing her phone in her drawer, Hitomi collapsed into bed. This was weird. She usually was browsing on the thing right up until she fell asleep. She stared at the ceiling, but it wasn''t the same. What was that thing people did? Count sheep? Guess she could try that.

    1, 2, 3¡­

    ____________________________________________________________________________

    The sun was scorching amidst the sand dunes, it''s brightness glistening across the surface of the water like a spotlight shining on a mirror. The air was dry, so, so dry it wrung your body out like a towel.

    Hitomi plucked a grape and ate it, the fruit succulent and moist in contrast to the cruel day. It was delicious. She stretched her arms above her head, elbows cracking as the stiffness shuffled off of them.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    The heat was intense and the glare of the sun was omnipresent, but the shade of the awning and the gentle rocking of the large reed boat as it traveled down was nearly palatial in its luxury. She reclined back into her seat and plucked another grape.

    A cornucopia was arranged near her, overflowing with the succulent fruits. Her chair was comfortable and firm, leathery smooth and warm.

    "An Egyptian Queen. Quite the outlandish fantasy."

    Hitomi''s eyes fluttered open. The words had come from¡­ somewhere? Behind her? What¡­ what was behind her? W-where was she? Why was it so hot?

    A strange awareness came with the questions and she suddenly felt the heat, the dry air, the sticky sweat between her legs and the chair cushion. And something¡­ something behind her?

    She looked back and immediately scrambled from her seat. Sitting in the regal but wooden throne was a large man with sun kissed skin and a bald head, wearing golden jewellery and a hidebound loincloth.

    "W-w-wha who are, w-what are you wearing?!" Hitomi asked, shouting at the realization that¡­ that¡­ had she been sitting on his lap?!

    "Not much less than yourself." The bald man said, pointing at her. Hitomi looked down and instantly felt like she needed to hide herself, but there was nowhere on the boat to do so.

    All she had on was some cloth tunic that was wrapped around her hips like a skirt and traveled up her back and clung to her chest, leaving her with a bare midriff.

    "G-gah!" Hitomi shouted, trying to cover herself. "W-what did you do to me?!"

    "I have done nothing. This construct is of your own imagining." The man said in a monotonal voice.

    "I have no control over this scenario, I have merely entered it to speak with you."

    "T-this scenario? What scenario? Where are we?!"

    "You are currently in your bed at this time. I am nowhere you would understand."

    Hitomi felt like she was burning up standing directly in the sunlight. "W-what does that mean? How am I in bed?! This is the middle of a desert!"

    "This is nothing but your own sensory creation. In reality you are wrapped up in your sheets, under the effects of sleep paralysis and your brain is merely creating sensory experiences to keep itself stimulated until you awaken." The man tapped his own head as he explained.

    "I-it¡­ you''re saying this is a dream?!" Hitomi sputtered. The sun, the air, the splashing of the waves, it felt impossibly real to her. Besides¡­ "W-why would I have a dream like this?!"

    "I do not fully understand myself. The workings of your subconsciousness are beyond my grasp. That does not matter though-"

    "And why was I s-s-sitting on you?!?!"

    The man seemed like he was going to sigh, but did not. "I do not understand the details of your subconsciousness. I would surmise it made sense to your more primal instinctive drives."

    Hitomi balked at that suggestion. She wasn''t like that, was she? "W-w-well, I want to wake up now!"

    "I do not believe that will be happening. You are in the middle of a deep rhythm. Only a substantial shock should awaken you now. But regardless-"

    "N-no, I want to wake up!"

    "Hitomi, please. There is much I have to explain to you."

    "Nooooooo, I don''t want to talk with you, you''re some weird¡­ weird impulse!"

    The man crossed his arms in front of his chest. "To clarify, I am hijacking this form that already existed within your dream so that I may speak to you. I am unable to manipulate your conscious experiences. Now, please, I have important information about Lavender Dungeon to reveal to you."

 Junebug

    "Aah. Aaaaah! Aaaaaaaaah no, nonono!" Hitomi''s head was rolling. If this was a dream, and she had no other explanation for the current situation, then¡­ did that mean the program was somehow inside her dream? Did that mean it was in her head?

    No, no, that couldn''t be the case. It was just taking over her life recently, of course it would influence her dreams. "Ha-hahahaa ah hahaaaaaaa, maybe I do need to go out with Juli tomorrow, my head''s getting messed up."

    "I quite recommend that course of action, though your head is no more messed up than it would normally be so." The bald man with the monotone voice told her.

    Hitomi stopped spiraling and looked sharply at the man. "W-what do you know? I-I''m just having a freaky dream, that''s all! None of this matters, watch!" Hitomi paraded over to the side of the boat, fully intending to leap over the side. A leathery, scaly head protruded out of the water, looking at her. Rows of sharp, porcelain teeth stuck out of the long, rough snout. She thought better of the act, just in case.

    "Thank you for not prematurely ending the current scenario Hitomi. I believe it would have been quite painful right before you awoke."

    Hitomi gulped. She looked at her wrist and pinched it. The yelp she let out informed her that in the context of a dream, her mind was quite capable of imagining pain.

    "S-still just a dream!" Hitomi yapped.

    "Hmmm, believe what you will, while you remain I do have things to inform you of."

    Hitomi checked the circumference of the boat. More brightly toothed crocodiles surrounded it. Defeated in every direction, she crossed her legs and sat down. In the shade. The light was still blisteringly hot.

    "Excellent, I will now explain the unique circumstances-"

    "Why bother?" Hitomi interrupted. "It''s not like they''re real anyways."

    "Ah yes, I have anticipated this and will provide you with proof of my legitimacy, but you will not be able to confirm it until you awaken." The man took a deep breath and nodded. "Now if you will permit me. I believe you have noticed the effects of the Charisma Booster application you launched 27 hours ago."

    "What? Am I supposed to believe a phone app actually made my hair and skin better?" Hitomi asked sardonically.

    "The full range of boosts extend to your public speaking skills and secondary sexual features as well."

    Hitomi was blanking at the mention of that. "W-w-what?! You mean my chest actually¡­ actually got¡­"

    "Improved, yes. I believe this should serve as an example of the scope of benefits our partnership has to offer."Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Hitomi blushed and started trying to stammer something together about this all still not being real, but was interrupted in turn.

    "Please, I ask that you save any skepticism and simply play with the idea that I, and your suspicions, are indeed correct. Lavender Dungeon is more than a simple app. It is fully capable of doing incredible things. If you proceed diligently, even things such as material synthesis and manipulation of wave functions is possible at the highest end of the spectrum."

    Hitomi blinked. Material synthesis sounded like making stuff, but she had no idea what a wave function was. Still, if she was going to take this dream person at face value for now, then yes, the app had already done some incredible things.

    The man continued. "Given the extreme suite of benefits we can offer, we simply need to be reassured of your continued support. It has the potential to improve everyone''s lives."

    "Okay." Hitomi balled her legs up and held them in front of her as she started. "Okay so just given that this is real somehow, and this program really, really¡­ altered me¡­ then why? Why did it do that without my consent?"

    "But we had your consent. You activated the Charisma Booster, after showing your willingness to play."

    "I had no idea what was happening, how is that consent?!"

    "And also, in order to further play the game, additional social stats are a requirement. It seemed the most opportune upgrade to give to you at the present time."

    "A-are you just ignoring me?"

    The man continued with no head for Hitomi''s questionings. "And if you are truly unsatisfied, a yet unlocked feature of the application is capable of undoing the effects. You simply need to play more. However, simply adding nodes to your network is not enough, the higher energy levels needed to unlock more features will also require Harvesting."

    "H-harvesting? That¡­ that doesn''t sound good!"

    "It is simply the most applicable word. Downloading, if you prefer. Your quests should move you towards this method if you simply follow them at a similar pace to the previous ones. And I do not believe I need to reiterate the potential benefits from a continued cooperation."

    Hitomi didn''t really understand how "Downloading" could substitute for "Harvesting." But the pitch sounded like perfectly normal game progression. As long as she was willing to accept the fact that some kind of super program was in her phone, maybe in her brain, and capable of pumping her full of charisma overnight. That was still a stretch.

    "Okay, there''s a lot I still don''t understand." Hitomi started, dazing off as the distance between her and the program man seemed to grow longer, and hazier. "W-what''s going on?" Hitomi asked, looking around panicky. It seemed like a mist was rolling in every direction she looked.

    "Ah. Unfortunately it appears we are out of time. Your sleep rhythms are moving you into another dream. It seems I will have to answer your questions once I''ve recharged. I will leave my last message for now then. The junebug came out on the first of June, flew through the sky, and a bird ate it at noon."

    Huh? Hitomi didn''t have time to truly question it as everything else faded away.

    She had more dreams that night that she couldn''t quite remember, and awoke in the morning feeling like her mind was over cluttered with junk. Her eyebrows drooped as she heard the rattling from her nightstand''s drawer and rummaged through it.

    There were 9 notifications waiting on her phone. She scrolled through them.

    The 9th one was sent 2 hours before she woke up. It read:

    "The junebug came out on the first of June, flew through the sky, and a bird ate it at noon."