Sakura Emma, ​​I'm going to control you fiercely!

It's profitable, and not too bad. As long as it doesn't become a pay-to-win gacha game, he can accept it.

"Get on the phone."

Open Stream and log in to the game. Soon, a series of pink circular logos will appear before your eyes, indicating that you have entered the game.

Before he could even start the game, a pop-up window filled the entire screen:

[The interlude, "The Girl's Journey of Discovery," has been unlocked for you.]

[Note: This interlude contains some meta elements.]

[Start playback?]

【whether】

Yang Wen: "..."

Even though he didn't click on the option, Yang Wen still noticed that the AI ​​taking over was moving forward on its own.

Yang Wen clicked "Yes." He was curious about what kind of "reason" Emma was seeking.

Then, he saw Emma Sakuraba walk into the library.

……

Emma was greeted by the aroma of books and the enclosed atmosphere as she entered the library.

She was completely unaware that there was another "person" watching her actions with great interest.

Emma has had a strange interest since she was a child:

She somewhat liked the smell of the long-closed attic and the ink smell of books.

It's embarrassing to admit, but she doesn't really enjoy reading, and her grades are only so-so...

I found the librarian and asked a few questions about books related to the history of magical girls and gods.

Yang Wen felt that this AI was quite immersive. When looking for a book, the user actually asked the librarian instead of just receiving a perfunctory progress bar.

Following the directions, Emma arrived at a bookshelf.

Yang Wen, sitting in front of the screen, couldn't help but sit up straight:

coming soon!

Emma looked around at the titles of the various books and soon spotted one titled "Magical Girl and Witch Chronicles".

Open it and browse through it briefly...

Seeing the dense text, not only Emma, ​​but even Yang Wen felt a little sleepy.

He in front of the screen and she on the screen yawned at the same time.

Despite their drowsiness, the two continued watching.

The book is filled with praise for the existence of magical girls, including positive terms such as "the embodiment of hope" and "the opponent of despair."

As for witches, the term is overwhelmingly derogatory: "the embodiment of despair," "should not have been born into this world," and so on.

Emma saw the stark difference in evaluation between magical girls and witches and nodded subconsciously.

Yang Wen scoffed at this.

He could roughly guess how the story would unfold.

Presumably, the protagonist, having endured various trials by wicked witches, will eventually encounter a good witch. This will then reveal the darkness and cruelty of the world, and tell the player:

Not all witches are bad—such a cliché plot.

And then, incidentally, a grand principle is inserted to lecture the players:

Humans are not simply good or evil; they all have two sides.

Don't the developers know that players play games simply to relax?

If the storyline is well-written, that's another story; if it can make players cry, that's a way to release their emotions.

Some game developers not only create a mess of storylines, but also resort to sentimental, melodramatic, and overly sentimental narratives.

The two continued watching.

On the witch's side, there were also some magical girls who had previously borrowed the book writing their evaluations of it:

[Yes, yes, witches deserve to die!] [If there were no witches, our work would be much easier]... and so on.

However, among these evaluations of witches, there is one line of words that stands out from the rest:

I think there must be good people among witches!

Emma: "..."

Yang Wen: "..."

The tone of this line, along with the typo, perfectly matched Yang Wen and Emma's stereotypes about Shirley.

Emma pondered... "That can't be, right?"

Even Sherry wouldn't believe that there are good people among witches.

Yang Wen, on the other hand, noticed the trail of the "Shirley line".

This might be related to Shirley's character and storyline.

Upon further perusal of the book, Emma still found no information about the "gods" she was looking for.

Closing the book, she continued her search for books about "gods".

Yang Wen was already drowsy.

He skipped class because he didn't want to study. Then, "The Judgment" even made him study in the game...

The production team seems to have gone too far in anthropomorphizing the characters.

Yang Wen simply went and got himself a glass of soda.

While Yang Wen was away, Emma was also reading through books and found some information about "Full Bloom" and "Scattered Blossoms".

"After the petals fall, small flowers will grow on its body..."

Because it was too creepy, Emma only got the general information before putting the book back.

When Yang Wen returned, he noticed that Emma had found another old book.

Magical Girls and Gods: ****

"As expected... magical girls do have gods!" Emma exclaimed in surprise.

The AI's words immediately perked Yang Wen up.

Magical Girl God…

He smelled the true ending!

Yang Wen perked up and watched Emma open the book.

Then, the rows of tiny, tadpole-sized characters made Yang Wen start to feel sleepy again.

After flipping through a few pages, Emma put the book back.

Emma: "..."

it's wired.

Emma found a few more books with similar titles, opened them, and quickly flipped through them.

She flipped through each book for a few seconds before putting it back. Each book took her no more than ten seconds to handle.

Emma sighed as the last book on the subject returned to the shelf.

How strange...

too weird.

The important content in the books about gods has all been blacked out.

What remains are all empty platitudes like "historical significance" and "enlightenment."

There isn't a single hiragana character describing the true nature of the deities, such as their introduction, appearance, or how they became deities.

Yang Wen also understood that the part that was "blacked out" was probably the "reason" that Emma's interlude was looking for.

He also wanted to see how the AI ​​would handle the situation.

Emma, ​​however, refused to believe it and went back to look at those books again.

But all sorts of black completely obscured and covered those important words.

During this time, Emma also tried rubbing those [black] things together.

Yang Wen's display box popped up: The so-called "black" is not ink, but something like "magic".

In the end, Emma simply posted the book title on Google and Bing to search for it.

But no matter how hard Emma searched, even after scouring all the books of the same kind...

The important text that Yang Wen saw was still covered in black.

It's as if someone is deliberately trying to prevent them from seeing anything about "gods".

Finally, Emma, ​​feeling utterly defeated, casually found a stool, sat down, rested her hands on her thighs, and sighed.

"So...it still doesn't work? What should I do..."

Yang Wen lay back in the chair, still admiring Emma's thighs, which were slightly concave due to the pressure.

Who knows?

I'm just here to see the cutscenes, so I can just relax.

A pop-up window suddenly appeared:

Please begin your decryption.

Upon seeing this, Yang Wen even forgot to admire the girl's thighs.

"...Doesn't this mean I still have to do it myself?"

If the game character can't solve the puzzle, then it's time for the player to solve it. This is a common tactic in games, allowing players to immerse themselves in the character's role.

It's euphemistically called "immersion".

Yang Wen has played quite a few puzzle games. If we combine this with the hints given in the initial pop-up window of [Interlude]—

[Note: This interlude contains some meta elements.]

Emma's current problem is that the game's text has been blacked out.

Yang Wen had a solution.

He pressed Win+D to return to the computer desktop, opened the menu for "Magic Judgment" in the stream, and found the game's root directory.

Yang Wen's gaming experience extends beyond major titles.

And butter.

He is well-versed in various techniques for patching, decoding, and adding mods.

Based on his years of experience playing adult games and adding "uncensored patches," he immediately spotted the culprit—a completely black image named censor_bar.png.

This is the culprit behind the text being covered in black.

Yang Wen sneered, right-clicked to open the drawing software "Paint", and used the eraser to erase the black text, turning it into a completely transparent blank image.

The story unfolds by having players modify the game's root directory...

This behavior is also recorded in "Doki Doki Literature Club"!

It was also Monica who "taught" him.

To get all the achievements in Dokki Literature Club, you really need to delete Monica's character file.

Yang Wen wasn't sure if the game developers thought that way.

But we'll try anything, even if it seems hopeless – save and overwrite the original file!

Meanwhile, Emma was still praying with her eyes closed.

'My Lord, what are you thinking? Did I find the wrong information, or are you simply not allowing me to understand you properly?'