Ch.233[Chapter 233] Messed Up Magic: Damage Over Time

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “…Is this an anomaly?” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic was startled by the system window that suddenly appeared and looked around.

And Sir Dominic discovered that not only the dialogue, but the entire appearance of Gachaland had changed.

For some reason, Gachaland had been pixelated.

Sir Dominic recalled fighting in 2D before, but he noticed that this was somewhat different.

In 2D, they couldn’t see each other when on the same layer, but now things looked 2D while still being realistic.

It might sound confusing, but it felt like 2D images standing in a 3D field.

Sir Dominic walked over to the glass window of a nearby building.

He wanted to check how he had changed by looking at his reflection.

However, the window he approached was merely painted with light blue and white pixels, and couldn’t reflect Sir Dominic’s appearance.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “What on earth is happening?” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic shook his head in confusion.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Perhaps I should return home…” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic seriously considered this option.

He hadn’t yet bought melon-flavored candy or melon-flavored ice cream, but in the current situation, it seemed impossible to distinguish between them.

While Sir Dominic was seriously contemplating returning.

[Unryu Hime: “Oh? Sir Dominic?” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic checked the dialogue window that appeared before him and looked around.

The name written in the dialogue window was one he knew well.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Ah, Lady Hime.” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic raised his arm in greeting.

More precisely, he thought he was greeting her.

He didn’t know how his appearance looked to others right now.

However, Hime seemed to understand Sir Dominic’s action properly, as she smiled slightly.

[Unryu Hime: “Pfft. What kind of ridiculous greeting is that?” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “I apologize. This situation is new to me, so I don’t know how I appear.” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic readily agreed with Hime’s comment.

[Unryu Hime: “Well, I suppose that makes sense. Sir Dominic hasn’t been” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “in Gachaland for long. I sometimes forget that fact.” ▷▷]

After speaking using two dialogue windows, Hime landed on the ground with a thud.

Then she looked left and right at 90-degree angles before looking in Sir Dominic’s direction, and only then could Sir Dominic see her appearance.

Hime was composed of 16 pixels horizontally and 32 pixels vertically, and Sir Dominic could tell this precisely despite not knowing about pixel units.

It seemed to be knowledge hidden among what he had gained upon coming to Gachaland.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “By the way, Lady Hime, don’t you find this situation strange?” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic asked, puzzled by Hime’s unexpectedly calm appearance.

[Unryu Hime: “Ah, so that’s what you were curious about. I can tell by the ‘?'” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “floating above your head.” ▷▷]

Hime displayed a pixelated ‘!’ above her head.

Apparently, Sir Dominic had displayed a ‘?’ above his head in a similar manner.

[Unryu Hime: “It’s nothing special. We’ve just gone a bit retro, that’s all?” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Retro?” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “It means vintage style.” ▷▷]

As Hime said, she was quite familiar with this situation.

In the early days of Gachaland… when Gachaland was still a tiny dimension, it briefly looked like this.

After the Unborn President intervened and Gacha Stone and Credit were invested, it gradually improved to its current appearance, but in the beginning, there was a time when everything was pixelated due to budget issues… no, due to dimensional energy shortage.

[Unryu Hime: “Still, the resolution seems better than before. Back then, it” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “was just 8 pixels wide and 8 pixels tall. But this is strange” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “though… I hadn’t heard about this kind of event…” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic listened… no, read Unryu Hime’s words carefully, but felt somewhat frustrated and uncomfortable.

After briefly pondering why he felt frustrated and uncomfortable, Sir Dominic found the cause and said to Hime.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Um, could you stop cutting off your sentences in strange places? It’s becoming frustrating to read…” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “Ah.” ▷▷]

Hime realized that she had unconsciously been breaking up her dialogue as she used to do in the past.

[Unryu Hime: “I’m sorry. Back then, this box was only 640 pixels wide. I got into the habit of breaking up conversations to fit within that space…” ▷▷]

Hime bowed her head to Sir Dominic.

The pixel mass that could be called Hime bent about 4 pixels and then returned to normal.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “I simply cannot get used to this. It’s too different from normal.” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “Oh? Don’t tell me you turned off the standing CG?” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Standing CG?” ▷▷]

New information sprang from Hime’s mouth.

Sir Dominic displayed a large pixelated ? above his head.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “How does one turn that on?” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic asked Hime, hoping it would be better than these uncanny pixel masses.

[Unryu Hime: “If you look next to the dialogue window, there should be several buttons. Select the one labeled [Settings] and press [STANDING CG ON]. Not [SKIP] or [AUTO] though. Those would cause bugs right now.”▷▷]

Sir Dominic followed Hime’s instructions and turned on the standing CG.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Is this how it… Whoa!” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic was about to speak to Hime to check if the standing CG was on when he was startled.

A pixelated CG of Sir Dominic appeared on the right side of his dialogue window.

The CG, drawn slightly more handsome than the real Sir Dominic, had changed from a basic pose to a surprised pose according to his mental state.

[Unryu Hime: “Judging by your surprise, you must have turned on the CG.” ▷▷]

A pixelated CG of Hime appeared on the opposite side of Sir Dominic’s CG.

When Hime’s CG appeared, Sir Dominic’s CG became slightly smaller with lower saturation and brightness, apparently activating based on who was currently speaking.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “How remarkable. I thought I knew a fair amount about Gachaland, yet new things keep appearing.” ▷▷]

When Sir Dominic spoke, Hime’s CG darkened and Sir Dominic’s CG became active.

Sir Dominic seemed fascinated by the CG before him and began trying various expressions.

After several experiments, Sir Dominic discovered that his CG had 8 variations: default, joy, sadness, pleasure, happiness, anger, surprise, and disappointment.

Perhaps Sir Dominic missed some CGs, but those were the 8 he discovered.

[Unryu Hime: “You seem quite fascinated.” ▷▷]

Hime remarked to Sir Dominic with curiosity.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Of course everything is fascinating. This beep-beep-beep dialogue, these images called standing CGs.” ▷▷]

After responding, Sir Dominic displayed a thoughtful CG and then continued.

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “Come to think of it, every day has been a series of wonders since coming to Gachaland. Ah, this must be the ninth image.” ▷▷]

Sir Dominic displayed the thoughtful CG again.

[Unryu Hime: “By the way, Sir Dominic was 3-tier, right?” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “That’s correct. Why do you ask?” ▷▷]

[Unryu Hime: “It’s nothing. I just think your CG is quite well-made.” ▷▷]

Hime carefully examined Sir Dominic’s CG.

Creating standing CGs required considerable effort.

Perhaps for this reason, there weren’t many people in Gachaland who had standing CGs, and even those often used generic CGs or free distribution CGs.

Sir Dominic’s CG, regardless of where it was made, was among the better ones.

Something of that quality might cost around 20,000 Gacha Stones.

Hime opened her mouth to ask Sir Dominic where he got the CG.

[Unryu Hime: “Hey-” ▷▷]

[Sir Dominic of Feralant: “By the way, what is this button?” ▷▷]

Hime’s words were cut off by Sir Dominic’s question.

Speechless, Hime looked at Sir Dominic for a moment and then in the direction his CG was pointing.

[Unryu Hime: “Ah.” ▷▷]

As soon as Hime saw what Sir Dominic was pointing at, she began to panic visibly.

Hime’s CG showed her so flustered that her fox ears and fox tail popped out, while her face turned bright red with embarrassment and confusion.

[Unryu Hime: “I-it’s nothing! Just a UI? Image? Something like that. No, is there a bug? Why is that here?” ▷▷]

Hime’s CG changed five times in one second, reflecting her state of mind.

What Sir Dominic had found was hidden in the upper left corner of Hime’s dialogue window, a mixture of text and symbols.

[Unryu Hime: ♥♥♥♥♥]

[‘Why on earth is this here?’]

Seeing Hime’s panic, Sir Dominic thought there must be something hidden here.

Something very carefully hidden.