Chapter 122: Chapter 121 - The Observer Enters

Never before had the VR room been so quiet.

As such, Kuro understood that there was something wrong.

Akari had no loud voice to raise.

Rika stopped taking notes or working.

Yui had become an angel instead of creating chaos.

Mina was unexpectedly calm too.

The mood in the room was different from the usual research one and was more like a group of criminals that were waiting for arrest.

Kuro stared at the VR machine.

He then turned to look at the girls.

Next he turned to look at the machine.

"Did something happen?"

"Not sure," all girls said as one unit.

"Nothing in the session," all girls said again.

"Absolutely nothing," all girls said at once again.

"Research," all girls said as if a signature answer to Kuro.

"Science," all girls declared again as if they were all reading from a script.

Kuro began narrowing his eyes at the girls.

They all quickly looked away.

Very suspicious.

Very guilty.

Very obvious.

"Was there anything unusual that happened during the simulation?"

"Not really," all girls replied at once as if they were all singing a song.

"There is absolutely nothing that could be classified as unusual," all girls again repeated like a chant.

"Completely impossible," all girls chanted again.

Minami adjusted her glasses in response to Kuro.

"Nothing of significance occurred," was the best answer Kuro got from any girl.

All of the girls appeared quite embarrassed but Kuro would have a chance to investigate.

Yui suddenly smiled very big.

"Hey Kuro, why don’t you try it for yourself?" she inquired.

All girls stopped what they were doing and looked to Yui at the same time!

Akari, pointing her finger at Yui said, "YOU’RE A TRAITOR!"

"What?" Yui responded.

"Well, now I really want to see what’s going to happen," Rika stated excitedly.

Aoi, Mina, and Minami all stated the same thing.

"No way," Minami mumbled resulting in her face being completely covered by her two hands.

"This is going to be a complete disaster," she mumbled to herself.

Kuro stared at the VR machine and simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay."

All the girls sat up in an instant.

Just the reaction alone should have given him a warning.

But Kuro was Kuro.

Five minutes after that, the headset came down over his eyes.

The machine turned on.

[USER DETECTED]

[KURO KUROGANE]

[SCANNING PREVIOUS DATA]

[WARNING]

[EXCESSIVE COMPATIBILITY RECORDS FOUND]

The room went quiet.

Akari blinked.

"...Excessive?"

Rika looked slowly at the rest of the group.

No one else was looking.

The machine continued.

[MERGING DATA]

[GENERATING PRIMARY ENVIRONMENT]

[ERROR]

[TOO MANY EMOTIONAL FACTORS]

Yui almost fell out of her chair laughing.

"THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL."

Then the world went black.

-----

Kuro opened his eyes.

Then wished he hadn’t because he was standing in a house.

Not just any house.

A really big house.

A house that looked like it belonged to a romantic couple.

With flowers.

And pictures.

And matching furniture.

And an atmosphere that was completely all about newlywed living.

Kuro frowned.

"This doesn’t seem quite right."

Then the front door exploded inward.

Akari ran into the room.

"THE FIRST WIFE HAS ARRIVED!"

Kuro had a blank look on his face.

Akari had a blank look on her face.

Both of them had a blank look on their faces.

Five seconds later Akari’s face turned beat red.

"WAIT!"

She pointed at the house.

"THIS ISN’T WHAT I WAS GOING FOR!"

Then a second door opened, and Mina walked into the room with a bunch of bags of food.

She stopped.

Looked around.

Looked at Kuro.

Looked at Akari.

Then wheeled around and ran out of the house.

"NOT HAPPENING."

The door locked on its own.

"Oh, come on!" At that moment, Aoi appeared and looked around for one second before sitting on the couch.

"As I anticipated."

"What do you mean by that?" Akari screamed. Aoi pointed at the wall, and everyone turned and looked. A framed family picture of Kuro with all the girls was hanging on the wall.

All of a sudden the room erupted.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT?!"

"WHY AM I IN IT?!"

"WHY DO WE ALL MATCH?!"

"WHY IS MINAMI LOOKING LIKE SHE JUST FILED HER TAXES?!" Just then Minami came into the room and looked at the picture before turning around and saying, "I’m leaving," but the door had locked on her, and she was nearly in tears.

---

The system announced: [GENERATED LIVING SPACE, PRIMARY COMPATABILITY]

"No."

"Declined."

"Delete it."

"Burn it."

The AI ignored them all, and Kuro went into the kitchen, followed by the girls, mostly because they wanted to know what wasn’t in the house.

Unfortunately, the answer was everything.

Calendars, family schedules, shared chores, movie tickets, vacation photos, and somehow a wedding album.

There was complete silence in the room. Finally, Rika picked up the wedding album with trembling hands. "Should I open it?"

"No!"

"Absolutely," said everyone.

"Destroy it!" said everyone again.

So Rika opened it, and the reaction was instantaneous.

Akari screamed.

Mina covered her face with her hands.

Minami was getting ready to jump out the window.

Yui laughed uncontrollably.

This album contains all the female guests.

So the AI thinks that real life is not necessary.

Mina yelled, "That’s not even legal!"

Yui responded with, "THE AI DOESN’T CARE ABOUT THE LAW!"

He looked at the album again and closed it up.

"Interesting" was his only comment.

Everyone looked at him in disbelief, "That is interesting?"

"That is all you got from this?"

"The AI is probably not functioning again."

"THAT’S WHAT YOU GOT FROM THIS?"

—

The house began to shift.

The AI said, "ANALYZING MEETING OF RELATIONSHIPS."

"GENERATING COMMON SCENARIOS."

"COMMON SCENARIOS?"

The living room disappeared.

Everyone was suddenly on the beach in their bathing suits.

There was nothing but silence.

There was total chaos.

Akari dropped to the floor.

Mina screamed.

Rika dropped her notebook.

Minami’s body left her soul.

Even Aoi couldn’t believe it.

Yui looked down and smiled.

"This is so evil."

Kuro surveyed his surroundings.

"This looks like the beach trip."

"Does that surprise you?"

Akari shouted and pointed.

"Are you crazy?"

"As a simulation."

"THAT’S NOT THE POINT!"

Then the AI made this situation worse by saying,

"DISPLAYS USER RELATIONSHIPS."

There were videos of all the beach memories.

There was a video of the festival.

There was also a video of the vacation.

There were videos of all the embarrassing moments.

There were instances of all the close accidental encounters.

There were instances where people misunderstood others.

Every single second, the girls wished so hard they could just erase the entire experience and forget what had happened.

It was out for the entire world to see.

In high definition.

For the whole world to see.

For Kuro to see.

Minami nearly fainted when it happened, too.

She recalled a specific time where Kuro was being called "her husband" by a neighbour.

The eyes of the whole room turned to her at that moment.

Minami’s brain stopped working at that moment.

"Delete me now."

"Delete me right now."

Yui was laughing uncontrollably.

---

Everything around them shifted again.

Now it was the festival.

Where fireworks exploded overhead.

And lanterns floated up into the night sky.

And everything was peaceful.

Sort of peaceful.

For about three seconds.

Until the AI decided to create relationship statistics for everyone.

Which appeared in mid-air above everyone’s head.

Akari looked up.

"WHAT IS THAT NUMBER !? "

Mina looked up.

"WHY DO I HAVE A NUMBER ?"

Everyone then turned to look at Kuro.

Above Kuro’s head was the following: 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

[YOUR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT TARGET]

The girls were frozen in place.

Then slowly turned to look at each other.

Then back to Kuro.

Then looked back to each other again.

All at the very moment the same thought popped into their heads.

Kuro had been made into everyone’s primary Emergency Contact.

In an Emotional way.

In a Mental way.

In a Social way.

And possibly in a Financial way.

"That’s ridiculous," said Akari.

And the AI began to display proof of what it claimed.

The AI displayed a giant picture in the air, showing:

AKARI → Calls Kuro when frustrated.

MINA → Searches for Kuro when stressed.

RIKA → Uses Kuro for inspiration when drawing manga.

AOI → Asks Kuro for advice during times of uncertainty.

MINAMI → .....

The screen froze.

Minami’s jaw dropped open, her eyes widened.

"No."

And the AI continued going.

Miinami is experiencing less stress levels being around Kuro.

The house exploded up.

Minami died on the spot.

However, she did not die physically

She died emotionally.

"This machine is a major problem!"

The AI still had more to say, notably:

[CALCULATING TOTAL RESULT]

The house came back.

All of the people that had been in the living room were there.

The mood of the group just got serious.

The first time all Chapter this has happened.

The machine started to talk.

[COMPATIBILITY DATA COMPLETED]

[PRIMARY CONCLUSION]

All were looking.

Even Kuro.

The AI continued.

[KURO KUROGANE ACTS AS THE MAIN SUPPORT STRUCTURE OF ALL REGISTERED USERS]

The room went silent.

The room went still.

No jokes.

No screaming.

No embarrassment.

Just silence.

Everyone knew the above statement was true.

True for many different reasons.

True for their own individual reasons.

True.

Kuro looked around.

At Akari.

At Mina.

At Aoi.

At Rika.

At Minami.

At Yui.

The AI spoke now for the last time.

[COMPATIBILITY RESULTS]

The display started to flicker.

Then it read:

[ERROR]

[TOO COMPLICATED]

The entire room busted out laughing.

All of girls include Minami.

Even Aoi.

And Kuro, smiled a little, because somehow, just somehow.

That was the right answer.

The simulation started to fail.

The walls disappeared.

The lights went out.

The world started to come apart.

The girls began to leave one by one.

Before she disappeared completely, Yui said to Kuro, "You know this is all your fault right?"

"How?"

"I do not know."

"Why is it my fault?"

"Because this way is funnier."

Fair enough.

As soon as Kuro’s VR simulation ended, he heard Akari yelling at him "I AM STILL ACCEPTING THAT I AM WIFE NUMBER ONE!"

Then it went dark.

Kuro took off his headset in the VR room.

All of the girls instantly turned their entire bodies towards him.

They were waiting for him to say something.

They stared at him in anticipation.

Kuro gave it a moment of thought and then replied, "The system is in need of maintenance."

When he gave this response, the entire room exploded with noise from the girls.

"THAT’S YOUR FINAL ANSWER?!"

"YOU WERE IN THAT THING FOR AN HOUR!"

"THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY?!"

Kuro stood up and said, "It was educational."

"EDUCATIONAL?!"

"Yes."

Minami put her face in her hands.

Yui was trying to laugh again but couldn’t.

Rika was writing down everything that she heard.

Aoi sighed hands over her face, and was shaking her head.

Mina looked like she needed to take a nap.

Akari threw her hands up in the air and dramatically pointed at Kuro saying, "I blame him."

Kuro replied, "Why me?"

Akari stated, "I don’t know."

Yui quickly agreed with Akari and said, "Me too."

The girls all nodded in agreement with Akari.

Kuro looked seriously confused.

This made everything 100 times worse.

The virtual reality arc ended up exactly how it started - chaotic and embarrassing.

As for Kuro, he was in the middle of it all, and had absolutely no idea how he got there.