The Gods are making Trouble

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."

"If you think it's weird, then it's probably not you." He sent the message. Then again, he replied again. "Never mind that message!" He then continuously send the same crying emoticon as if flooding the screen to get it out of sight. If only he was not controlling the GM message, he would have been muted by the system for flooding. "Wait, a report just came in. I'll be right back."

"This guys acts like someone I know..." Arata frowned at the screen. Since it took quite a while, he kept on switching between message windows, hoping the suspension will be lifted soon. Then again, it was bad to hope that he would have to waste the entire Sunday just by waiting. However, that train of thought made him wonder. "Does the world stop when I get suspended? Or it's just me disappearing for the day?"

A new GM message came, but it had a different thread so it must be from a different CM. Arata went to check the message.

"Hi, Arata. This is Dev. Sayaka. I'll lift the suspension of your account in a bit. Just let me do my magic." It was from a dev, and she, since she was using Sayaka, seemed to be more casual than Hideki.

Then again, it was not like Arata did not know this dev. Dev. Sayaka was the head developer of the game, so it was frightening to receive a message coming from her. Even though it was good news. Sayaka was the name of the protagonist's mother in-game. It was only known since the father referred to her as Sayaka-san in one dialogue before the game started.

"Thanks." Arata replied with a smiley. "Did you find out what was wrong?"

"The technical team noticed the strings." She replied shortly.

Arata would reply, but the thread suddenly disappeared as if deleted from his messages. He was back in the window to see all his private messages. Everything was back to black text, but there was a new message from Hideki.

[Your account with the name TheKing Arata and ID ****45 is now unsuspended. Please make sure to adhere to the game rules to avoid permanent ban and suspension. Play safe and fair, god of the living!]

"This is a weird command, but could you please go back to sleeping, Arata-san?" Hideki sent a suspicious message. "I received a report that your account is now unsuspended. The instructions that came with it were so weird. Does it make any sense?"

"I told you I installed myself." Arata risked his wits in the joke again. This time, he was feeling rather uncomfortable after a deleted encounter with Sayaka, and needed to release it through a bad joke.

"Installed yourself... still baffles me. But you're not capable of hacking the game so it should be okay... ish." Hideki sent an extra smug-shades emoticon with one scratch-head. "You're not going to post anything on the forum, are you?"

"What for? They'd think I'm using a mod." Arata sent in a barfing emoticon. "Don't worry, I can keep a secret."

"Nah, one more suspension, and you're probably banned for good. Don't risk your account, dear OP one. Have a nice day!" Hideki stopped the messages.

Arata frowned at it again. The longer he think about what happened, the more it became weirder. He wished to forget everything, but he decided he needed to pay more attention to any GM message he might received in the future. He got up and went back to his bed to sleep. The command itself was weird, but Arata had no idea how terrifying it was in reality.

His body relaxed, and he fell asleep. However, instead of a chime, weak tugging woke him up. He opened his eyes and stared at Attori's looming face. She smiled at the king, and pulled back to let him sit up from the couch. He was back in the shabby apartment where he left off during the night. The clock indicated that it was indeed the 8 AM action time. He then stared at Attori's curious eyes.

"Did you have another nightmare, Arata?" She hummed with a smile, but it was sad as if she was discontented. She slept together with her boyfriend, but that did not stop him from getting nightmares.

"N-No. I just... feel weird. I never woke up on a couch before." Arata fibbed a little to save her. He watched her make a rather glad face and got up to make her way to what seemed to be a kitchen.

"Mom's still sleeping. The fest opens at ten so we still have time to prepare." The mad girl then started the stove to heat the pan. "I bought some clothes for us to use today. Yours are in the center table. You should change after taking a shower. I have to make breakfast first."

Without further ado, the player got up and took the clothes folded neatly on the table. He told Attori that he was leaving for the bathroom. He knocked on its door to make sure no one was inside. He went inside, locking the door behind him, and found a place to put down his change of clothes. He took his used clothes off and started showering. With the water all over his body again, he felt more relaxed.

'The technical team noticed the strings.' The image of the message remained on his mind.

"What does she mean by string? Should I go ask Usagi? I bet she's going to get pissed." Arata only chuckled, only to gasp when heavy knocking came to the door.

Kanaru yelled from the other side, "whoever you are! Get out!"