Literature Club: Return to their reality

Chapter 20: Renegotiation

                     Operation complete.

                    Resume simulation?

                          [Yes]          [No]

I'm slightly taken aback by the window popping up. I don't remember us setting this up, why did Monika add manual unpausing here? I take a deep breath and press the button. The world resumes as if these forever lasting minutes have never happened.

Even the change of scenery is barely noticeable. It's now the room I set up for Yuri's emergency script – but it's based on the same model, and this time the desks got dragged along.

"Just what did you do?" Sayori asks, blinking.

"This place once again?" Natsuki grumbles, glancing around.

"Now we should be safe to discuss it," Monika says somberly.

"Safe from what?" Yuri asks nervously.

Monika sighs. "That's exactly the problem."

"Before any accusations," I declare, "I've started this project on my own, I'm the one who made this grave mistake, and I'm the only one to blame for it coming to this once again. Monika has done her best to fix it, but it proved too deeply rooted."

"Is this about all those... incidents?" Yuri asks.

"Yes, we've finally identified the culprit," Monika says. "But it's not that simple."

"Just get straight to the point," Natsuki mutters, looking at the cloudy skies behind the windows.

"I believe you did it with the best intentions," Sayori reassures. "Please, don't be afraid to share, even if some mistakes happened."

"We've triple checked all the other possibilities," Monika says. "It's the narrative engine itself acting up."

"Basically, it's a virtual game master system," I explain. "I've used it to recreate your world from the minuscule amount of actual data originally presented in the original game. It's supposed to do everything: from visualizing assets in 3-d to rebuilding unseen parts; from polishing minor details to covering plot holes; from creating illusion of functioning world to... actually emulating those functions when needed. And with this source material, the reliance on it got a bit too deep."

"Cool thing," MC says. "So what's the problem?"

"The problem is in how it operates," Monika says.

"You're making it sound like dark magic," Yuri comments.

"Actually, I think I'm starting to realize the second problem," I say. "Damn it! How could have I missed the true meaning behind that warning?!"

"Second problem?!" Monika gasps.

"Could we start with the first one?" Natsuki asks.

"The first one is," Monika says, "that it's meant to constantly challenge the... people. That's why it's been insisting on recreating the incidents from the game." She then looks at me, or maybe even through me. "What's the second?"

"The way it's supposed to do that," I answer. "It's meant to be fair."

"Fair?!" Sayori exclaims. "What can ever be fair about all of that?!"

"Let's say, it's supposed to avoid excessive meta-knowledge and use the means already present in the source material and the associated setting," I try to explain. "Balancing is a separate topic that never happens right. So for a normal romance plot it shouldn't go further than creating a love triangle... although, maybe it could invoke actual crime if it decides to murder someone... The point is: it shouldn't drop an evil sorcerer onto a non-magical world that has no means to oppose that."