Asta didn't know where to begin. Clearly she could still interact with the world but what should she think of the 'System'? Due to its sudden appearance, swift retreat and sheer impossibility she was partial to thinking it was simply a hallucination.
However, on the other hand, it was also impossible for the world to freeze at a point in time. So this might as well happen.
It had noted that she had been 'been assigned user privileges' - that sounded like a video game. A lot of Asta's friends at school played games with each other in the evenings. It was actually something that left a bitter taste in her mouth; she would love to play with them but by the time she finished her shifts at the restaurant and her visits to hospital, not to mention her homework, she had no time and found her energy reserves for socialising scraped raw.
She could see them all bonding due to this regular activity, and she was helpless to do anything as they drifted closer and further away from her, like she was the only ship still anchored to the shore. She had nowhere to dump the resentment though, it's not as if they had particularly wronged her, it was just the way life worked.
As a result, Asta wasn't sure if the rest of what was said also sounded like video game language. Was a system something that she should intrinsically understand? It had seemed to be a place - due to the "Welcome to something something System" - but the voice also referred to itself as the system - "Please allow this system..." - so was it a person?
Maybe she could ask, the voice certainly was able to talk to her so perhaps it worked both ways?
Only, where had it gone?
She found herself walking out of the clothing store, gingerly stepping past the solidified forms of parents and children as if she could physically seek out the intangible screen in the walkway between the stores.
She was instead confronted with many, many more people also caught in the eerie spell that was keeping the clothing store's occupants frozen. She peered down across the balcony to the ground floor to confirm this effect extended everywhere she could see.
It was extremely unsettling to see such a large area that was usually chaotic and overflowing with the movement of hundreds of people, crystallised to a single point in time.
It was evoking a word she remembered seeing on the internet relating to the folorn atmosphere of places usually bustling with people but had become vacant and abandoned.
Kenopsia.
Except it was sort of the opposite because the people were still here, just unmoving. Somehow, it still felt very liminal.
Feeling foolish but with no other options, Asta spoke into the nothingness. "Hello?"
The seconds ticked by with no visible change to her surroundings.
She tried again.
"Hello, um, System?"
The same chime from earlier sounded and a window reappeared in front of her. Asta was nervous that the error messages and alarm would spring up again. But this time it was a translucent blue window which simply contained a message, fortunately with no alarm accompanying the voice.
Asta blinked at the words. "So… can I ask any questions?"
Right. Well, Asta's not sure how much useful information she'll be able to glean given the restrictions but anything is better than nothing! "What's going on?"
Asta scratched the back of her neck, okay it seemed she needed to be much more exact with her question. The only problem was that she was so out of her depth that she wasn't sure that she even knew what she didn't know.
"Can you please explain why it seems like time has frozen? Why am I the only one able to move around?" she queried.
Groaning with frustration at that response, Asta contemplated her options as she slumped over the bar of the balcony. "No it's alright. Can you tell me anything about you? What is a system?"
A tiny, stylised icon of a computer keyboard in the bottom right corner of the translucent window flashed yellow.
"Magic?!" Asta jerked upwards as she processed the information and she frowned suddenly, thinking and what do you mean by mentally? Are you in my head?