Having settled back onto the conversation pit's sofa, Delphina crossed her legs and stared at the system's screen in front of her. A quick scan around made her realise the water and fruit from earlier had been refreshed.
"Oh well, now that's how they do it."
Grabbing an apple and coquettishly taking a bite out of it, she definitely didn't look like an asshole.
"Right, please elaborate on the answer to my first question, No.69. I don't appreciate it using up one of my questions, but it seems important for me to know now."
[Elaborating on 'what do you mean by current level?' Question number 1…]
[Your level is indeed currently LEVEL 1 due to this being the first day of your Transmigration, with no completed Quests. As you complete Quests and survive through different scenarios, your Level will increase depending on the difficulty.]
[Difficulty level is currently detected as SSS; as such, the User Delphina will receive a 10x experience bonus. For example, from 1 Quest, you should go from Level 1 to Level 5 depending on the completion rate.]
"Can I ask follow-up questions, or will they take away from my 20 Q's?"
[….]
[Answering Question number 2…]
"Oh, you piece of shit."
[Follow-up questions are allowed in a limited scope; otherwise, I will decline to answer to prevent future questions from being used up, as dissatisfaction and hostility to the system has been detected with this behaviour.]
[¯_(ツ)_/¯]
[18/20 Questions now available.]
"Wow, look at you, a quick-thinking system is nice to see. Good job No.69."
[~(˘▾˘~)]
"So I have a follow-up question regarding completion rate. What on Earth do you mean by that?"
[To make things easier for Users in high difficulty Worlds, Quests have completion rates to prevent excessive Quest failure. Earlier iterations with no Quest completion- only YES/NO selections either resulted in User Death or the User being trapped without ever seeing the end of the Quest.]
"Okay, thank you, please don't explain further, I can see where that might go."
"Third question? Um, how old is Delphina right now? Or has she had her coming-of-age ceremony yet? I know from the game it started with the coming of age ceremony because you could customise the heroine before she entered."
[Compiling answers- 17/20 questions now available due to the topic relating to keyword: AGE]
[Delphina de Velasques, at this point in time, is currently 29 years old, with her coming of age ceremony to be held in 3 months, just after her 30th birthday. The User can choose to have Delphina's ceremony held privately or to join the Imperial National Ball that is annually held.]
[It is recommended that the User join the annual ball; a Quest can be opened for this. Would you like to confirm, Delphina?]
"Yes, please start that as a Quest, I know that's the ball from the Game. So I can at least guess what to expect."
[Quest Chain opened; 'Who's the Prettiest Princess of Them All'.]
[…]
[Quest line will include-
"NO! STOP THERE."
"Let's get through all the questions and open Quest descriptions after, shall we! Heavens above, though, what's that name about…"
[Continuing to answer Question number 3]
[Having the coming-of-age ceremony at the Imperial National Ball will lead to a debutante competition where the Ladies have to compete against each other. The Four Families are not included in this competition, however. So, as Delphina, you will be a judge. Not a participant.]
"Interesting, that does lead me onto my following few questions, actually… The Four Great Families. They stand out in looks and skills to the point that it is odd. In the Game, it made sense as it's typical of Otome Games for the leads to be extraordinary. How does that translate into 'The World' that is Mareveil, though?"
"From what I remember, the Burgesses have 'beast-like strength', the de Rios guy, despite being just a technician and alchemist, absolutely thrived beyond The Gates. The de Lunas just in general live way longer than they're supposed to; they don't even have a Sword Master for crying out loud, yet they all are around the 200's mark, and they look like they're in their 20s? Oh yeah, and how's Pietro a Magic Swordsman!?"
[…]
[15/20 questions now available due to the topic relating to keyword: Otome.]
[As you, Delphina, pointed out. The Four Great Families do stand out compared to everyone else. This is due to the trope known as The Big 4. This is reflected in the World through the history of Families.]
[This system has detected that you partially read into this earlier today.]
[Now answering Question number 4.]
[Each of the 4 Families has inherited atavistic traits which are individual to each Family. The Burgesses relate to Beast-men, the de Rios to Dwarves, the de Luna have both Elven and Draconic traits, and the de Velasques have direct Draconic ancestry from the Imperial Family. Technically, both the de Lunas and de Velasques could be considered Arch-Ducal Families due to their long-standing history in this World.]
[However, due to the average life expectancy of humans in this world. There are no Arch-Ducal families to prevent competition for the Imperial Throne.]
"I beg your finest pardon, but what? Are there other species present? There definitely wasn't in the game, though?"
[14/20 questions now available due to the topic relating to keyword: Game.]
[Yes, I shall briefly mention Mareveil's World History; originally extortionately rich in Mana, this continent was led by the Empire of Mareveil. Producing the strongest human Mages and Sword Masters, they were able to compete with other continents. Defeating and creating vassal countries out of them due to the Information Network, other species married their Royalty in to develop friendly relations. A Trading Network was also established.]
[This led to the Empire of Mareveil to become the World of Mareveil, and the Imperial Family expanded to become inter-species. The Dragons specifically took great interest in their hair and eye colour; the gold-loving stereotype.]
[To clarify, the different species lived individually on other continents, but after being conquered or emigrating. Mareveil became the centre of this World.]
"Hang on, why do we not see them in the game then? This is a follow-up question, by the way."
[This system can explain no further due to the complexity of the situation.]
[Issuing the Quest; Investigate the Darkening.]
"Okay, I see. Thank you."
Delphina shifted on the sofa as she said this, angling herself back away from the screen as nonchalantly as possible. Her apple had remained assholishly uneaten till this point, so she proceeded to munch away till the core was exposed. Feeling slightly less unsettled, she waved her hand at the system panel.
A soft chiming noise interrupted her thoughts, and the sound of a flagstone being dragged followed shortly after.
"Sorry to interrupt No.69, but that'll do for now. Can I ask more questions after I find out what this is about?"
[Of course! Do not worry, I won't go anywhere unless you tell me to!]