Chapter 121: Protocols

I saw the axe and the handle, which had four slots, yes only four, since one was filled with a black gem with blue veins. Before, when we’d only absorbed one, it didn’t have it, so that’s a good sign.

Hmm, it seems the System’s explanation still isn’t enough.

Yeah, even though we asked System-chan about the functions of the Heart of Berserk and the Heart of Jester, it seems there are still small details we don’t know.

I wonder if there are things about the Heart of Jester that I’m overlooking.

But putting that aside, I watched as Iris manipulated her weapon again, and a part of it—including the blackish gem—turned liquid. Just like before, this part changed its shape into that of the bracelet on her wrist.

I really think that’s a cool feature.

"Oh! Now it really works. Oh, this is awesome. It’s like an augmented reality system—or rather, like our System-chan... oh, this has GPS! I get it now! That’s why there aren’t any signs or markers."(Iris)

"Huh? What are you looking at? Why does it look like you’re touching thin air?"

"Oh, it’s because now I can see something right in front of me."(Iris)

"Really? What’s it like? Wait, now that I think about it, we have your bracelet, but what about mine?"

We were so focused on making it work that we hadn’t really thought about me, since I don’t have the Berserk Heart, and the Jester’s Heart doesn’t have that ability.

"(⊙ｏ⊙), right. Hmmm, wait, I think I can create a duplicate—if it’s just one more. I can do it. Hmm, okay, I think it’s working."

But Iris seemed to think of something and took control of her axe again.

Another portion of the axe broke off, causing it to shrink in size once more. That part moved toward her wrist, where the bracelet was.

They fused together, and for a moment, it no longer looked like a bracelet, but then they separated into two again, and one part moved toward my wrist and turned into another bracelet.

Iris’s bracelet also returned to normal.

Hmm, that wasn’t exactly something the system-chan would have told us the weapon was capable of doing.

This does seem like an important feature, so either the system skipped over it in the explanation, or Iris managed to do something really amazing without even realizing it.

..

"Oh! I see. It does feel like System-chan’s projections."

Suddenly, letters and a screen appeared in front of me that simply displayed the word "Argos," and then it disappeared. It looked like the startup screen for technological devices in my world, which is curious.

Anyway, this quickly disappeared, letting me see straight ahead, but I could still see things that hadn’t been there before.

In front of me, in the lower-left corner, I could see some icons, and in the upper-right corner, I could see:

Status: Citizen .

That made sense, since everyone we’d kidnapped seemed to be ordinary citizens, and we could only enter places where a citizen was allowed to go.

Hmm, I wonder if we captured students and other high-ranking officials—could we get into other places?

I haven’t been here long, but it seems people trust Argos a lot. Maybe I could get into interesting places without much trouble if we had Iris’s axe devour the bracelets of high-ranking people.

Well, I’ll think about that later. For now, I just want to do some sightseeing and have a little fun. Let’s see, will this work for that?’

Intuitively, I thought I wanted to open the icon that looked like a GPS.

And it worked. A bird’s-eye view map of the city appeared in front of me.

Several green areas were marked—some blue, others red, and various other colors.

It was curious, but green predominated, and it seemed those were the places I was allowed to go as a citizen.

Hmm, I wonder which of these places are restaurants, markets, or tourist spots... Oh, so even functionally, this is very high-tech.

When I thought about the places I wanted to go, several spots appeared on the map with names, locations, and other details, and when I focused on one, it showed descriptions and what kind of place it was.

This was very convenient.

Wait! If this is a guide and it has these service establishments listed, then our place...

I quickly thought of massage parlors—and, specifically, our massage parlor—and sure enough, a marker appeared at a spot on the map.

In fact, thinking back on our route here, that’s the right spot.

Apparently, our massage parlor was in the Argos system, which is really odd, ; I thought that—just like us—the place was operating illegally here and was doing something to hide from Argos.

But just as I was wondering how that was possible, suddenly, the image projected in front of me started to glitch, and the glitch spread further, covering my entire field of vision.

"Huh? What’s going on? All of a sudden?"(Iris)

It seemed like the same thing had happened to Iris.

I could no longer see either the map or what was in front of me, and just as I thought something had gone wrong with the replication, I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

[Interference outside the paradigm has been detected.]

"Huh? System-chan?" (x2)

The voice was unmistakably that of our beloved System-chan, but it didn’t seem to hear us, as it appeared to be in the middle of something.

[Cause: Argos, remnant of the God of Observation, and ▬■▬, reassessing assimilation. Initiating invasion protocol... invasion successful, first barrier breached, calculating... obstruction detected, resistance from Argos, initiating destr-]

The system kept talking to itself, but suddenly stopped dead in its tracks, and just as I was wondering what was going on, it spoke again.

[...reassessing, action executed by users. Canceling protocols.]

After that, the screen stopped glitching and returned to normal immediately.

"Hell!... what just happened here!?" (x2)

It seemed like it was all over, but Iris and I couldn’t help but question it right away.

I don’t know what the hell happened, but even though it sounded emotionless as always, the system somehow felt aggressive and seemed on the verge of doing something drastic—who knows why—but it stopped when it realized it was us.

"System, just in case, can you explain to me what just happened?" (x2)

The situation was so surprising that it seemed like Iris and I were back in sync.

[I cannot answer that question. 3 Myrr were deducted for external actions.]

"Damn it! Just go away." (x2)

Yes, those were the three most misused Myrr

I knew that doing things outside the venue would cause the system to consume Myrr, but the fact that it even cost Myrr to answer a question it didn’t actually answer was awful.

Talking to the system would be pointless, and I’m sure it would lead to an endless exchange of [I cannot answer those questions.], wasting time and money.

It was better to do them once this free time was over; even if it says [I cannot answer those questions.]I’ll make sure to find a way to get some information out of it.

I’m really interested in what kind of connection our system and Argos had, how much the system knew about it, and, more importantly, how much Argos knew about us.

"huaaah~...Well, that aside, we still have a little over 70 minutes left."

"Right. Hmm, since we’re synced, a date doesn’t make much sense, does it? Or do you want to split up and continue with the date?"(Iris)

"Nah, technically we’re together and that’s what matters, and now we can cover more ground. I think it’s better if we each go our separate ways."

"Me too. I’ll take care of buying interesting things, and you take care of trying and eating interesting things."(Iris)

"Okay, sounds fair."

Yeah, technically, at the end of the day, we’ll both remember having had both experiences, so this is the most reasonable thing to do now that we’ve wasted so much time.

It was time to explore; time was of the essence.

The good thing is that we don’t need to keep track of the return trip, since we have the Traveler’s Clock.

And even before we left, I placed a letter on Iris’s body, and I have the bracelet made from pieces of her axe, so we can easily locate each other.

..

.

I walked out of the alley alone—I knew Iris had already gone off on her own.

Hmm, for some reason, the atmosphere seemed a little different than before, and people seemed to be talking to each other, but that wasn’t any of my business, I just wanted to have a good time sightseeing.

"Well, I guess now I’ll go to where... Huh? But look what we have here."

I was about to head to a market to buy some interesting things to eat when, on the way, I spotted a familiar face.

When I saw who it was, I didn’t hesitate for a moment to change my plans, and I walked over to that person, who was standing in front of a fountain as if waiting for someone.

Hehe, I’m going to give them a little surprise.

...

.

"~Hmm, I don’t get why I have to be here, hmm... was that why something happened... or is something going to happen? ...Huh? Huh!?"

At that moment, I approached the person who was muttering something to herself from behind and covered her eyes with my hands, which startled her greatly and made her act bewildered and a little panicked.

That reaction amused me a lot, and I couldn’t resist going with a classic line.

"Guess who I am~."

I spoke to her from behind, very close to her soft, furry ears—which I really wanted to stroke.

"I-I—h-help!"(??)

But, contrary to what I expected—that she would recognize me—she became even more startled when she heard my voice and even raised her voice to call for help.

Now I was the one who was nervous. I quickly stopped goofing around and stood in front of her to clear up the misunderstanding.

"Wait, Shiro, it’s me—calm down."

Yes, it was Shiro, and I quickly tried to calm her down, but...

"W-who are you?"(Shiro)

"Huh?... Oh, wait, let me take off my hood. There—do you recognize me now?"

That’s when I realized my mistake and quickly pulled off my hood, causing the Reduction of presence Cloak to stop working.

"Who a-are you?"(Shiro)

"Huh? Of course— Damn it!"

Only now did I remember that I’d also changed my appearance using Morphogenesis.

I quickly put my hood back on, looked around, and sure enough, there were people staring in our direction, so I did the sensible thing and ran away.

No, I’m not running away—I’m just making a tactical retreat.

...

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