22 The Gods are making Trouble (1/2)
There was no chime today; Arata woke up on his own. Instead of seeing the shabby apartment, he woke up in his bedroom. It was suspicious since Attori would not drag him back to his house from a far place. His gaze flew to the clock to see the face blank, which never happened before. Every piece of other properties were there, but Arata felt like everything was so wrong. He got up and went to the door to get out, but it would not budge. He twitched out loud and went to the only thing he could fiddle with: the computer.
Its screen was now red with a yellow triangle and an exclamation point in it. It was a warning sign; what for was what Arata intended to find out. He moved the mouse and closed the warning window, seeing that every post in the forum was in gray. He could not access it. Even the private messages were grayed. The player took a sharp deep breath; his account seemed to be suspended.
”No, no, what did I do?” Arata whispered to himself as to scrolled through what could have been the problem. He then noticed that the only message with black text was the GM message. He clicked on it and saw a message he had ignored for a week.
”Hi, TheKing Arata! This is CM Hideki. We saw irregular codes being inputted in your game data, but it does not resemble any malicious third party software modders or hackers use.” The message sounded alarming, and the next part made him sob. ”If you do not confirm with us in seven days, we will be suspending your account for a deeper investigation.”
However, since the message was not grayed, Arata could still reply to it. He did not know what time it was in the real world, but he could check if Hideki will respond. He started typing down. ”Hi, CM Hideki. I just saw this message. How long will I be suspended?”
The waiting time was the longest time again. Arata leaned back and stared at the screen in anticipation of the message. Hideki was a community champion; he should be able to make him feel confident and safe, right? Then again, with the situation at hand, even CM Hideki might not be able to understand. The king continued to wait, eyes closing as he sat back against the swivel chair.
Ping! A message came after a few minutes of waiting. Hideki seemed to be up and working on a Sunday; then again, Arata was not sure if it was Sunday in the world that used to be his.
”Hi, Arata-san. The development team doesn't have work today so I don't know how long it would take for them to check. Did you get cut off in-game just now?” Hideki sounded too casual for a formal GM message.
”Yeah. How long till they start working?” Arata responded like he was chatting with a friend instead.
”Uhh, Monday?”
”What time is it over there?” The player did a facepalm on himself for his own stupid question. Then again, he did clarify that it could be Sunday there as well.
The CM typed and stopped, typed and stopped, and typed and stopped a lot of times before he sent another message. ”Are you overseas, Arata-san?”
”Kinda. Sweat drop emoticon.” Arata forgot to get any formal towards the CM who seemed to be doing the same.
”It's almost five in the morning. Sunday.” CM Hideki's answer was followed by three laughing-crying emoticons and a barrage of sweat drop emoticons. ”Don't get weirded out.”
”Too late. Why would you be working on a Sunday, and that early?” There was an awed emoticon there to reflect Arata's confusion.
”I have no life.” Laughing-crying emoticons followed.
”Aren't you getting too friendly with me? I thought GM messages are supposed to be formal and very informative.” Arata scratched his head and typed down. ”Not that I mind, really. Can I ask what you meant by irregular codes?”
The line died for a few minutes, and then Hideki started typing again. It took a while but he did send another message. ”Sorry, I fell asleep. About that, it's the development team who knows what they meant by those codes. They did not have an explanation for me when I asked as well.” There was another reply coming. ”I would ask off the record, but that's impossible. Did you install any software to enhance game play, Arata-san? It would help if you come clean now.”
”I installed myself.” Arata would mean it as a joke; but for some reasons, it was true in a way. Then again, he might end up mocking the CM with an answer like this.
”Is that a 'piss off' kind or 'my VR malfunctioned' kind?” Hideki instantly replied, with some squinting emoticons.
”Your reply is weirder than mine.” Arata sighed as he patiently chatted with the man. For some reasons, he was having fun chatting with the CM even though he might get deleted somehow. ”What are you going to do if it's the latter?”
”I just choked on my coffee.” Hideki answered with sighing emoticon. ”I don't know what to do with that kind of information, Arata. If you lied to me, I will ban you permanently.” He then sent another reply. ”Do you notice any weird scenes in your game play?”
”He's pretty cool about it.” The player gasped in awe. He then sobbed as he remembered how he reacted in front of Usagi about the same topic. Arata then started typing. ”I suddenly got a notification about accessing a route scene even if I'm in a non-routed playthrough. Also, it felt weird that I got two special scenes with only a day in between.”