The King's Mandate: Anomalous System

"Hello," I said.

"..."

She is not saying anything!

"I said Hello--"

She slapped me.

"...."

"Why did you do--"

She slapped me again.

"The first slap was for the kiss."

"You are the one who kissed me."

"I had to. There was no other option."

"What about the second slap?"

"It was for all the commotion you caused today."

"..."

She slapped me again.

"This was for the kiss too."

I don't know how I should react. I am here to know the answers; if I do anything, she might not answer me.

"Can you tell me what exactly happened?"

"Everything happened because of you."

"What do you mean?"

"It's because you went insane all of a sudden. The game did an emergency log out for the players."

"How did that happen? What's happening to me?"

"I don't know."

"But you said it happened because of me."

"It did happen because of you. Your emotions react with the game system."

"What?"

"Keep your emotions in control. The game detected it this time but not every time."

"...."

"Every player's body is linked with the game. If something happens to them in the game, it can affect their real body, as happened with the first VR game."

"Do you mean 30 years ago?"

"Yes?"

"How do you know that? I tried looking for it on the internet and in articles but couldn't find anything."

"All the information is destroyed."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, that's because I am...someone told me about it."

"Do you mean your father, the developer?"

"Huh? Developer...oh, yeah. He told me about it."

She is hiding something.

"Does it happen to everyone? The 'emotion' thing?"

"It doesn't; you are special."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I haven't experienced anything like that before."

"Okay. Now, I just want to know one more thing. Why did you kiss me?"

I got slapped again.

"Don't remind me of that. I can't believe it; I kissed a man."

"But why did you do it?"

"It was necessary to calm you down, to keep your emotions in control."

"....."

How? I am even more confused now.

"I kissed someone other than my girlfriend."

That's right; she also loves girls, just like Grace. I will keep Grace and Rias away from Elena.

"It's a game, so it should be alright...wait, how were you able to kiss me? Only married couples are allowed to kiss in games."

"That rule is only for players."

"You are a player too, right?"

"Huh...oh, yeah. I have special permission to do things normal players can't do."

She is lying again.

"Do you know why this is happening to me?"

"I don't know. Go ask him".

"Who?"

"The saviour who saved everyone 30 years ago."

"Where can I find him?"

"He is everywhere."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind. I said too much."

The saviour who cleared the game and saved everyone? Does he still play VR games? Wouldn't he be an older man already? I can't find anything online. I need to find someone who is old, old enough like my parents.

Dad said that he played a VR game with mom. Mom gets hyper every time there is talk about 30 years ago. Does that mean that mom and dad are among the survivors of the VR tragedy that happened 30 years ago?

I want to know, I want to ask them, but I am afraid to see the truth, and besides, mom doesn't want me to know. If I want to know, then I will have to ask dad when mom is not around.

"If I hadn't kissed you...I mean, if I hadn't stopped you, you would have corrupted the game's data."

"..."

"That pixie too."

How does she know about that? No one should be able to see Lily, even if she is a chosen player. Just who is this girl?

"What would have happened to her if you hadn't stopped me?"

"She would have disappeared. She is part of the system, after all."

"....."

"She is just a program."

I know that. You don't need to say it.

"But she is real."

"Your pixie is something advanced, something I have never seen before. Emotions in a program? Emotions in AI? That's unique."

"Are you saying other pixies are not like that?"

"Of, course, they are not. They are just a program, and the program has no emotions."

"....."

"Though I am in no place to say that," She said in a low voice.

"What did you say?"

"I said, why are you getting worked up over an AI?"

"I love her"

"What?"

"Huh? What did I just say?"

"You don't remember?"

"No...I just blurted it out."

"You should avoid VR games for a while."

"I want to play with Elena."

"Elena? Oh, your girlfriend?"

"Yeah"

"Didn't you guys break up already?"

"We didn't!"

"Nice. You should treasure her while you are alive; once you are dead, you can't even see her."

"Don't kill me!"

"Death is just another step in life."

"That's a line from a novel."

"Yeah. It was famous back then."

"The novel is hundreds of years old."

"Dead people can also be alive."

"What's that? A line from some other novel?"

"It's not. Hey, what do you think of dead people?"

"What do I think of...well, they are already dead, so there is no point thinking about them."

"But what if they are alive?"

"Huh?"

"Like someone dead in the real-world but alive in VR worlds."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Goodbye"

She opened my menu and tapped on log out.

.

.

.

.

.

"Das Ryle. So he is that unique human who has a system inside him. The strange miracle that happened to his parents when they were trapped in the game."

She walked to the river, but her legs weren't in the water. She was walking on the water.

"But his body rejected the system. A system inside a human is impossible. If the system inside his body is activated, then he will experience hell now."

"If there is a system inside a system, a game, what do you think will happen? He is even affecting other systems, that pixie too. He gave life to her, to a program. He is like a god, just like Zero, who saved the players 30 years ago, who saved me."

She then swiped her hand in the air and a screen with Das' game avatar and details popped up.

"Let's see" She was checking his details thoroughly.

Gasp~!

She gasped and her eyes widened in surprise as she said, "Even the unusual skills he have is given to him by his system"

She looked up at the sky and admired the stars as she said, "Das Ryle, I look forward to meet you again"

She swug her hand in the air and said, "If we ever meet again"

"What was that stupid girlfriend of mine thinking when she gave him the 'No Restriction' permission? That permission alone makes him the MOD of the game. Moreover, he is a system. If you give a foreign system permission to affect the game system...that's a virus. It will corrupt the game data."

"I need to keep a close eye on him. I have nothing else to do after all. I can't...my girlfriend can't even see me, she doesn't even know that I am still here...still alive."

The girl said as she disappeared into thin air; all that's left is the flowing river and empty streets of an empty. world.