"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.
"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."