"Therefore, I can conclude, 'The Darkening' was caused by a series of terrible coincidences. It was ultimately driven by human greed at the end of the day. And 'The Darkening' itself is just a reference to most of the World 'Going Dark' all at the same time."
"What do you think?"
"Wait, before I forget, because I'm now so done with this. Pietro is, in fact, also a Sword Master. He's not a Magic Swordsman; that was just the game's description. Because there seem to be large logic gaps between the Game and this World, magic cannot exist here."
[The above statements seem plausible and fit with known information from the database. The drawn conclusions without the complete information are cohesive…]
[Quest: Investigate the Darkening is currently at 90% completion.]
[Quest: Who Me? is currently at 20% completion.]
[Investigate the Darkening can be marked as complete if confirmed. Do you wish to confirm?]
"Before I confirm that, what exactly do the different completion rates give me rewards-wise?"
[6/20 questions now available]
[The User can force complete a Quest once it reaches above 50% completion. A score below 50% will be considered a fail if the Quest is in a situation where it can no longer be completed.]
[50-70% Quest completion reduces your reward quality by 25%. 75-95% reduces your reward quality by 5%. 100% is the goal to aim for as always.]
"Okay, just use up my questions. I don't care at this point, I'm too hungry, quite frankly. But that's a sharp jump from 25 to 5%? Consider that a follow-up question by the way."
[I thought you just said you don't care. My apologies, Delphina, I will work on reading into sarcasm better.]
[The significant jump is due to the difficulty level of this World, which is…]
"Yes, yes, I know, I know. It's SSS, I got it."
"By the way, my last six questions. I want to reserve them for another time. Or when something important comes up. How do I let you know about that?"
[…]
[Yes, I will now refrain from answering questions in that way. Just let me know at any time- I want to use my X amount of questions. You can always ask typical day-to-day questions from now on. But if it is Quest-related, I will have to use the questions up. Unless you earn any other reward.]
"Speaking of rewards, I'd like to confirm my Quest completed for The Darkening."
[Quest confirmed completed and submitted at 90%. Congratulations Delphina! Your reward is 15% of Delphina's memories! Please stand by for download.]
"No, wait, please! How long will this take, and when is dinner going to be from now?!"
[No problems, Delphina. Download and sync will take at most 5 minutes for disorientation to subside, and the automaton will be guiding you to dinner in less than 15 minutes.]
[Please stand by…]
Delphina felt like she'd been struck over the head with a mallet. The ceiling was gently spinning like a music box ballerina. Wait, since when had she been looking at the ceiling? Trying to grasp her bearings, the onslaught of compressed memories had been ridiculous.
"You said it'd just be disorienting. What the hell is this then!"
She wasn't standing before, but she was now. Bolt upright with her head tilted towards the ceiling like she was venerating something. Her neck felt incredibly uncomfortable.
"Please don't ever do this unless I am truly alone, like I am right now. I don't seem to have a good reaction to the memory downloads or the memory sync. Or, whatever!"
[Apologies, Delphina. You have taken double the allotted amount of recovery time usually required. I will note this for future memory downloads. Perhaps 5% increments might help?]
"It's certainly worth trying in the future, too late right now though. At least I'm not sweating."
"Wait, double the recovery time? So that took ten minutes?"
[Yes, 9 minutes have passed to be exact.]
"No wonder my neck hurts", she grumbled before gently lying back onto the sofa that she had been sitting on earlier. The automaton would be here any minute; she had no time to run through the memories that had presented themselves to the very front of her worn-out brain.
"No.69, I don't want to see or hear you in front of other people, unless I call for you. Or the situation demands you tell me something. I can't trust myself not to react to the screen popping up in my vision right now."
[Of course, Delphina. To call me, please knock twice in the air.]
"Yeah, thank fuck you can't read my mind. Ah, sorry, I meant…"
"Thank fuck the system can't read minds." Delphina thought, mindfully aware that she had already put her foot in her mouth.
[(ʘ‿ʘ)]
[Have a pleasant dinner, Delphina…]
"Phew, I can't just assume things like that. But I'd go insane if I believed this system could tell internalised thoughts. Everyone needs their privacy." Delphina made sure not to verbalise this out loud, lest it be recorded in that dreaded log the system said it would generate.
As this thought traced its way across her somewhat swollen frontal lobe. The familiar noise of the automaton signalling its arrival was heard.
"I'm going to be honest, those chimes are nice to listen to."
I am glad to hear that, young Lady.
"Shall we go then, my dashing directional orb?"
Please refrain from referring to me in this manner again.
"B-8? Bubble-butt? Fascinating Orb of Mystery?"
Young Lady, your jests are as ever, terrible.
"I know Jenkins, I know."
Delphina hadn't wanted to call such an adorable automaton by such a frumpy butler-like name. But it was insistent that her nicknames were too awful for it to hear.
She shrugged her shoulders as she finally made her way to the outer door, relatively excited to see what might lie beyond. Delphina's memories hadn't fully settled. But she knew she could rely on muscle memory.
Pulling open the metal-bound, heavy wood door. She took in a deep breath and stood on the runner carpet that covered the corridor, which ran perpendicular to the bedroom door.
Was this shag carpet? It was deep, and her feet sank in comfortably. Causing her to wiggle her toes in delight…
Delphina slowly looked down at her dirty soled socks. Taking a brief pause, she didn't need to look in any particular direction to feel the derision-laden look coming from Jenkins.
"Haha, so. Jenkins, could you please grab a pair of indoor shoes for me? Preferably, the best ones for going to dinner?"
I'm amazed to see you haven't grown out of this habit, young Lady.
This sentence caused Delphina to freeze up before nodding slowly.
"Some habits are just ingrained, you know."
Upon her uttering this, Jenkins turned around and rolled away towards the dressing room. "Do you think he'll also close the balcony door?" Shrugging her shoulders once again, Delphina didn't have to wait long for Jenkins to return.
These boots will be suitable.
As it handed her the boots, and turned around to close the door. Delphina slipped her feet into them and laced them up tightly to the knee.
"No heels?"
Heels would not be suitable for the amount of carpet that will be present along your way, young Lady.
"My, your care and concern for the carpets' welfare is simply astounding, Jenkins. But I do like the shade of black you chose. Ties everything together nicely."
It's nice to see you wearing such a colour-coordinated outfit.
With this sassy remark, Jenkins rolled off towards the left-hand side, not waiting for Delphina. Mildly stunned, she let out a dry chuckle before following along.