Ch.122[Episode 122] Enhancement Failure…?

[System error has occurred.]

[Attempting backup.]

[Some content may not have been saved.]

Huh. Sir Dominic came to his senses.

“Master? What’s wrong?”

Alice asked Sir Dominic with concern.

“Tsk.”

The dwarf behind the counter clicked his tongue.

“They said the server was unstable, and now it seems trouble has finally struck.”

“I think I just saw the word ‘backup’.”

Sir Dominic asked the dwarf.

“Remember when they did emergency maintenance recently because the server was unstable? They must have given out compensation.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a continuation of that. No, it got worse until they couldn’t bear it and rolled back the server.”

The dwarf frowned severely, then took out a cinnamon candy from the pouch at his waist and crunched it loudly.

Sir Dominic thought he could somewhat understand the dwarf’s behavior.

Just now, the sensation felt when the server backed up was the kind that evoked terrible and indescribable emotions.

Clearly, something sweet would be needed to shake off that sensation.

“Ugh, nothing beats candy at times like this. Would you like one?”

The dwarf offered Sir Dominic a cinnamon candy.

“I’m fine. I carry my own candy.”

Sir Dominic politely declined the dwarf’s offer and took out a mint candy from his pocket and put it in his mouth.

And he felt his mood improve a bit with the refreshing aroma and sweet taste spreading in his mouth.

Sir Dominic spoke with the candy between his teeth and lips.

“I didn’t even notice during the previous maintenance, but I don’t know why I felt it so intensely this time.”

“That’s to be expected. This is the epicenter of the maintenance.”

The dwarf grumbled while chewing another candy.

“You felt it more intensely because you’re at the source. Or maybe your equipment has been enhanced enough to detect the tier.”

“Tier?”

“Value, I mean. Value.”

The dwarf looked around to see if anything was missing and realized that several papers had disappeared.

And one of them was a check the dwarf had written to buy materials today.

“Damn. I’ll have to go back to the bank. Anyway, the higher your tier gets, the differently you’ll see Gachaland. Seeing that you detected this backup, you might have exceeded 3 stars.”

“I’m still at 2 stars.”

“Then your tier must have exceeded 3 stars. Ah, sorry. Value. I meant value.”

I don’t know why the word ‘tier’ keeps sticking to my tongue, the dwarf muttered before speaking to Sir Dominic.

“By the way, have you lost anything? Every time there’s a backup, there’s bound to be at least one problem. And you need to find out what it is to get compensation. The Executive branch officials never do anything on their own.”

Watching the dwarf start writing down the damages caused by the backup in a notebook, Sir Dominic examined himself.

Outwardly, nothing seemed to have changed or disappeared.

But often others notice changes better than oneself.

“Ah!”

Alice exclaimed.

“Master! The shield! The shield!”

Hearing Alice’s words, Sir Dominic instinctively reached for where his shield should have been.

But there was nothing to grab in that spot.

“Good heavens.”

What happened? Sir Dominic couldn’t understand the current situation.

He touches his other equipment.

His sword is still there, his clothes are intact, his eyepatch and head ornament too…

Sir Dominic took out his card and opened his status window, hoping to find any system errors.

“Ah.”

And he noticed that something was wrong.

[Censored(T4)]

[Censored(T4)]

[Accessory: Alice(-)]

[Censored(T4): This equipment exists but does not exist.]

[Achievement unlocked.]

[Achievement: SAVE Fail]

[You have experienced losing something due to bugs/maintenance/backup.]

[You gain 5 Achievement Points.]

The shield and flag that should have been clearly listed in the equipment window had disappeared.

Instead, Sir Dominic carefully observed the word “achievement” that appeared as soon as he confirmed the missing slots.

“An achievement, huh.”

“Ah, so something did disappear after all.”

The dwarf nodded as if understanding.

“I’ve achieved the ‘SAVE Fail’ achievement.”

“Congratulations. It’s an achievement that anyone who’s lived long in Gachaland will unlock, but not one that’s easy to get deliberately.”

The dwarf seemed genuinely congratulatory.

“The fact that achievement popped up means the Executive branch will definitely compensate you. What did you lose?”

“Equipment. The equipment I was enhancing just now.”

“Ah, as expected.”

The dwarf made a bitter expression upon hearing Sir Dominic’s words.

“I thought that might be the case since the backup happened right when you pressed enhance. Is it completely gone?”

“It says it’s censored.”

Sir Dominic showed his equipment window to the dwarf.

“Hmm. That’s the worst kind. The data is completely corrupted. It seems the gap between the old data and the current data was too large, causing a conflict…”

Sir Dominic didn’t understand the dwarf’s explanation, but he just nodded.

“It would be better to go to the Executive branch for compensation and buy new equipment. If you need, I can write you a certificate stating that two T4 equipment were broken.”

“Thank you. Would you do that for me?”

At Sir Dominic’s words, the dwarf pulled out a document from under the drawer, filled in the blank parts, and stamped it.

Then he handed the document directly to Sir Dominic.

“Here you go. If possible, go straight to the Executive branch without stopping anywhere. People with problems like yours will be flocking there now.”

At those words, Sir Dominic rose from his seat.

It seemed that resolving the backup issue was the priority now.

“At least that’s fortunate.”

Alice said to Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic turned his head to look at Alice upon hearing those words.

“Indeed it is.”

Thinking about it, it was true.

What if Alice had been in an enhanceable state, and Sir Dominic had carelessly pressed enhance?

And what if a backup had occurred in between, causing an error?

Would Alice have been properly restored?

Or would she have disappeared with errors?

Sir Dominic offered a prayer of thanks to whoever had proposed the law prohibiting enhancement of humanoid equipment, though he didn’t know who it was.

“That’s not what I meant. I meant it’s fortunate that at least I’m still here with you, Master.”

Alice said to Sir Dominic with a posture full of bravado.

“Since you don’t have your shield or flag now, you probably can’t properly use your [Tanker] trait or your special ability [Standard Bearer].”

Sir Dominic considered Alice’s words.

And he realized that Alice was right.

The [Tanker] trait was one he had gained when utilizing his shield.

Without the shield as a medium, it was uncertain whether it would activate or not.

At least [Standard Bearer] could still be activated since the flag only played a supplementary role in the technique itself.

“Now is the time for me to use what I’ve learned from you, Master!”

Alice believed that Sir Dominic was currently in a powerless state.

And she thought that now was the time to protect her master with what she had learned from him.

Alice’s logic seemed a bit strange, but in fact, it was natural logic for those born and raised in Gachaland.

When system problems occurred, people in Gachaland would become drastically helpless, and sometimes even their bodies and minds would collapse.

Alice knew this well, having learned it from her father.

That’s why she wanted to help her respected master, Sir Dominic.

“I appreciate the thought.”

Sir Dominic smiled happily with a smirk.

He thought Alice’s mindset was quite knightly.

In fact, Alice had a misconception.

The fact that Sir Dominic was not a native of Gachaland but a knight from Feralant—

“But this was everyday life for me. It actually feels nostalgic and good.”

And the fact that he was the type of person who became more tenacious when backed into a corner.

Alice stared blankly at Sir Dominic.

With eyes of admiration, thinking that such a mindset was necessary to become a knight.

“Ah, Sir Dominic! Are you done with the enhancement?”

As Sir Dominic and Alice walked out, Unryu Hime, who had already finished her business, waved at them in greeting.

“Nothing special, just an error due to a backup problem.”

Sir Dominic said as if it were nothing.

“Oh my.”

Hime thought about the aftermath of the backup that had just occurred.

Fortunately, Hime had resolved everything before that, so she had no problems, but it seemed Sir Dominic had been unlucky and encountered an issue.

“I hope your enhancement materials didn’t disappear or the enhancement didn’t fail? If so, we should go to the Executive branch right away.”

Seeing Sir Dominic’s unexpectedly calm demeanor, Hime thought it might not be a big problem.

“Two equipment slots disappeared. Along with the equipment.”

“What?”

Until she heard Sir Dominic’s explanation.

The situation Sir Dominic was in was a bigger incident than Hime had anticipated.