Quite the Metacharacter

The events earlier made Arata realized that Attori did not take up much after her mother. They only had the same comparable beauty and probably dancing skills, but their temperament and wake-up behavior were different. Not only did Kanaru forgot she had guests over, but she was also in a deep trance of getting rather grouchy as soon as she wakes up in the morning. Attori was a lot calmer and composed, but she had her violent tendencies as well.

The mother had only managed to recognized her guests after the first sip of coffee. Kicking him out of the bathroom needed an apology, but Kanaru only reasoned with him. Attori was left to attend to their breakfast with an amused chuckle, wanting to hear more. Probably because she had not heard her mother's voice for a long time.

"You'll get used to her when we see her more soon." The girlfriend giggled at her boyfriend who was sighing at the mother's antic and behavior suited for someone half her age.

"Argh, I wished she was more like you." He sobbed at the table, the breakfast already finished and Kanaru had gone away to take over the bathroom again.

"Eh? Would you start liking her, too, if that happens?" The mad girl hummed with a devious curling of her lips. She received a faint shaking of Arata's head, which she patted carefully. She liked how he always pat her hair, and doing the same to him felt a lot better.

His hair was still so soft and so cool even though he did not wash it with shampoo. The soft feeling against her palm and fingers excited her a little, causing her to ball her fist and pulling some hair without force.

"What are you doing, Attori?" Arata noticed the hold on his hair. He then used both hands to cup her hand.

"Do you ever have the urge that whenever you see something nice and fluffy, you just want to... crush it?" The girl chuckled in a meaningful tone, slightly pulling on his head.

"T-That's terrifying." The boyfriend could only laughed, knowing she was not that serious at all.

The rest of the Sunday was uneventful as it was busy. Attori and Arata handled the storefront a lot more than Kanaru did, since she had been working on it when classes were in session. The mother knew it was not right to entrust her work to her daughter and supposed son-in-law, but she was happy someone was helping her with the booth. Her company refused to send another person with her, thinking about how expensive that would be.

Then again, if it was not for that, Attori would not have the chance to present her prized boyfriend to her mother. Even though Kanaru had a two-sided impression on Arata, she was willing to let her daughter continue to see the man. Arata, however, tried his best to gain the mother's favor, despite playing a non-routed playthrough where things were just fixed and non-negotiable unlike in routed playthroughs. It sounded so unnatural to the player, but he had to accept that there was only so much that codes could do.

Thinking about it, he asked the mother if he could take Attori home tonight after the dinner rush. They have classes the next day so it would be bothersome if they had to join the morning rush towards school. Kanaru was grateful of their whole day service after all, and so she gave permission. The king walked the blue-haired girl back to her own house, and left for his own after a few minutes.

However, instead of entering his house, he ran the long way towards the Lumen Park. It was still the 9 PM action time; he figured Usagi would still be there. She would have been pissed, but that suspension had been decided long ago.

Like expected, the fairy was stumped at a bench near her flower bush. She was seated on the back of the metal bench and puffed with her arms crossed before her chest. She glared at the approaching man. "I hope you're happy with what you did."

"I'm sorry. I was careless." Arata smiled at her nonetheless. "I'm glad to see you again, Usagi."

Usagi sighed and flew to his arms, the man propping them out so he could hold her in a bridal carry. She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Aren't you scared? At this rate, they could be..."

"I think I'm getting a little help from someone. I just don't know why." Arata hummed as he walked towards the bench and sat down, letting the fairy sit on his lap again. "Do you have an idea why a dev would try to cover for me?"

"Cover for you would be really irresponsible if you know how hard it was." The fairy pouted.

"Am I really talking to you, Usagi, or is there someone using her dialogue box to talk to me?" The player hummed as he held on her shoulder tighter as if not letting her fly away if she wanted. He received a gaze from the fairy who looked so curious at his words. "I've been testing the limits of the game, and I can tell Usagi should not be talking like she's from outside of it. She plays a part in the campaign so she must tied to the world.

"So who really are you? How come you know of my condition?" Arata looked at her more intently, with his brows furrowing a little as if begging for an answer. "Are you the reason why the dev team saw irregular codes in my game?"

"Didn't it occur to you that you could be the irregular codes?" Usagi pouted again, but she was not mad anymore. She could feel the restraints Arata was putting on her, and she did not even bother with releasing herself. "It's your fault for establishing contact. If you didn't show up in the forums, none of this will happen."

Arata slid his eyes to the side and snuffed. She was right about that. It was his fault to begin with, and he was the one who would take the most damage after all. Then again, there were things that only other players would be able to know.

"I'm sorry about that." The player would scratch his head if he could. "I just needed their help from time to time. I didn't count on Devin telling my problem to a CM in a snap."

"It was you, though." Usagi sighed as she leaned against the man's body. "So what are you planning to do now, Arata? Are you going to call for help in getting out? Or are you going to hide forever?"

"I don't think I should hide at all. I need to talk to that head dev Sayaka. I didn't know why she unsuspended my account all of a sudden, and to think that CM Hideki received an order that would only jive with my current situation." Arata hummed as he finally lessened his hold on the fairy and stroked at his own chin. "She might have guessed that I am in the server" -he brought his gaze at the fairy- "just like someone I know who was aware of it as well."

"Do you think I'm Sayaka? And I'm chatting through Usagi?" The fairy pouted again, but her sudden aversion of gaze made it apparent to Arata that she noticed her mistake as well.

"How does this work though?" The king smiled victorious at the fairy on his chest. "Is there something you want from me?"

The fairy took off his hand on her shoulder before shifting her seat on his lap. She then straddled him, her legs on the bench and her elbows on his shoulders. Usagi stared at him with quite a serious face. "Would you rather not have me around? Or do you want me to keep controlling Usagi?"

"Are you modifying my results?" Arata glared at her, at Sayaka. He knew he was so good in playing the game, but it was insulting if it was out of having his results enhanced like he was using some kind of mod. For some reasons, it was the first thing that popped into his mind when he confirmed he was not really talking to the in-game fairy.

"Relax! The only strings I modified was Usagi's dialogues!" Instead of an offended face, the fairy grinned and stuck out her tongue at him. She followed it with a wink. "It's not like you need that."

The player reached for his forehead and massaged it. "This is now me doubting every progress I've got on this game." He then hissed at her, utterly disappointed at what was happening. "Is this why I keep on getting bonuses?"

"I thought you'd like that..."

"No! Let me have the fair play! I don't want any of that!" Arata frowned his brows. "That will be the last time you hurt my game, Dev-san. If you won't stop, I'll report you to Hideki." He was then met with a laughter. "What's so funny?"

"I never thought I'd come across a player who would rather have low RNG than having the results modified without the penalties." Sayaka, in the fairy's body, laughed out some more. She then started tapping on his shoulder as her ridiculous outburst continued. "You're exactly what I think you are! I love you so much!"

"Stop it." Arata sighed and patted the fairy's head. "I'm no good with real women. Give the real Usagi back to me, and let me play the game like how everyone else does." He was still dejected, but at least he was certain.

"Okay, okay." The fairy hummed as she moved away from the man, hovering away from the bench to give them both some distance between each other. She clapped her hands once and folded her knees to exude happiness from her form, along with the glittering dusts that came with the flap of her wings. "I'm so sorry for checking up on you this way. I just want to make sure you won't feel so lost."

She brought her arms down. "But I still want to monitor your progress. Is it too bad to be worried about you?" Sayaka hummed as she tilted her head to the side. "The road ahead is going to be full of more difficult scenarios even for a non-routed playthrough. We enhanced the realism of the game so it might get bad if you hurt yourself."

"Like what happened to my hand?" Arata raised his right hand, which was only covered thinly by then. The bandage was only a few millimeters thick around his wound, just enough to serve as a cushion if something hits his palm and the back.

"Yeah." Sayaka chuckled and swirled around again, sprinkling a lot of glitters on him. "Also, the Flower Festival event will start tomorrow. It's a campaign event so you'd be able to play it. No need to raise fame over the server. It's just a small token of appreciation since the newbies would have a hard time maxing twelve date-ables." She hovered and suspended herself in front of Arata, reaching out to hold his face with both of her hands. "I'll add you to my game friends. Accept me when you wake up, okay? As long as you don't post anything, it won't get action penalty."

"So, it's just like this? Everything stops being weird?"

"Nuh-uh. Things are just about to get weirder." She pulled away and waved at him. "Remember that this patch would only last for a few months in the time frame, and you haven't max any of the new date-ables." Sayaka vanished into the flower bush which was Usagi's home. "If you're really the greatest player, then prove it!"

Arata stared at the last place he saw her for a while before getting up from the bench. He walked home and stretched since there was no one else around. He looked down at his watch, and it showed him the 12 AM action time phase, which never existed in the first place. He only stared at the wrist watch, only to realize something.

"I'm on a time penalty!" The player then gathered his remaining strength and alertness to dash back to his house.

And just like that, the Sunday ended. Monday rolled in, and even though Arata tried his best, he was bound by the time mechanics of the game. He arrived late in school, and so no one was waiting for him anymore. He managed to get to school during the 12 PM action time, but he was distracted by the banner hanging above the gates.

[It's time! The Autumn Flowers have Risen! Welcome to the Flower Festival Event! During this period, you could go on dates with your unlocked date-ables and earn extra Affection points! You would also receive a special item to add more Affection points! However, the dates during this event would be harder to accomplish! Good luck, lucky ones!]

"The Flower Festival event..." Arata's eyes shone as if he was not dejected hours ago. It would be his first in-game event ever since the dream started.

END OF VOLUME ONE: 1ST MAJOR PATCH 2.9 ONWARDS