Parallel Play

"So you made it to the Adventurers' Guild yo! And straight to E-rank too."

"Yeah. Maybe I over-leveled on Baby Turtles — goblins go down in one hit. Just 'pow' and they're gone."

"Well, better than being too weak yo?"

"That's true. This game has permadeath after all."

The next day, I was already chatting excitedly with my coworker about the game.

"By the way, the town's called Tsudon — is that where you are too?"

"Nope, different yo. Mine's called Frirene. Looks like meeting up will be far off yo."

"That's too bad. Oh, I'll give you my friend code. Totally forgot about it."

"Yo! I forgot too yo! What a blunder! I'll register later yo!"

I sent the friend code I'd saved in chat.

"Oh. Speaking of voxel display yo?"

"Yeah, did you try it? It has its own charm."

"It wasn't there yo."

"Wasn't there? Huh, no way."

I tilted my head in confusion. I definitely went into the config and switched to voxel display. I wasn't misremembering.

"… But when I hit Lv 15, it appeared yo."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"A level cap on system features? This game's too mysterious lol yo."

"What? I've never heard of a system like that. What's going on?"

Come to think of it, Penpen said she was Lv 15 too. So the starting level is random, and features unlock as you level up? Visual options increase over time?

Putting it all together, that seemed to be it.

"Games adding options as you progress is common, but for graphics it's a first yo."

"Hm? Is that really common?"

"Like story progression unlocking enhancements, or getting a base unlocks base customization — stuff like that yo?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah."

"But level-capping graphics options makes no sense yo!"

"That's true."

It really didn't make any sense.

"You uploaded combat screenshots, right? If so, people who started with voxel display like Penpen should've said something."

"Oh, checking the wiki, there's a comment saying 'This is totally different from mine. Is this a screenshot from another game?' yo."

"Oh, there is?"

"And that person's uploaded screenshot was SD character command-based combat yo."

"… …???"

I couldn't make sense of it. SD characters? Command-based combat? Like an RPG?

"Isn't that just someone uploading a screenshot from a different game?"

"But several other people were also doing 'look at my cute girl' with SD characters yo."

"Maybe they're playing a different game with the same name?"

"Hmm. Searching doesn't turn up anything like that yo. One thing's for sure though — the wiki's getting more chaotic yo…"

We're supposed to be playing the same game, but everyone's ending up with different games.

That's, well… how do I even put it…

"So the AI GM is building different game systems for each player…?"

"Nice one yo! Sharp observation yo! That's definitely possible yo!"

"Then there's no way to know what kind of game this even is."

"Maybe that's why there was barely any info about the game content beforehand yo?"

If the AI constructs game systems from scratch for each scenario, of course they can't release information. They don't know what kind of game it'll become.

In fact, they could market that as a selling point, but "Kaito a Luise's" developers haven't announced anything.

… Do they even want to make money?

"Hm? So that means Penpen is playing a sandbox slow-life game, but she can adventure with me in the same world even though I'm playing a 3D action RPG. How does that work with different games?"

"Maintaining high flexibility while adapting to circumstances on the fly yo?"

"That's absurdly vague. How does that even work?"

"Modern AI is amazing yo. Well, there are probably some templates yo? What do you think as a programmer yo?"

"Hmm? Let me see…"

If they designed the shared interface layers properly, maybe different games could somehow link up? That's different from cross-platform though.

Ah, wait. Hmm?

"What if there's one virtual world, and everyone gets their own slice with their own game's filter, their own shell? Like, we get 3D action, Penpen gets cozy slow-life, and the wiki's SD person gets RPG. Those kinds of shells."

"Does that explain it yo?"

"For how different game types can coexist in the same world and play together, more or less?"

"Ohhh."

"But there's honestly no explanation for why different game types coexist at all. Shouldn't 3D action be enough… How does RPG even work?"

"It's a mystery yo… Oh, should I add it to the wiki's 'Mysteries' section yo!"

That seemed like a good idea. There was too little information — it was all completely unclear.

Not only are the scenarios unique and varied for each player, but the game systems are different too…

"Maybe in the future, we'll be able to play cozy slow-life games too yo? Like production class unlocks specifically yo."

"Hmm, but I don't have room to put production skills on Tria."

"Your info's outdated yo! There's already someone who unlocked a second girl yo!"

"A second? Not from losing one?"

"Yo. Not Takuro — someone who's still alive and has a second yo. According to Aruru-shi, 'I hired a second and did character creation! Time to earn big!' was the comment yo."

Huh. A second one. So that's possible too.

"Hm? Wait a sec. What do you mean 'hired'?"

"… Maybe it's yet another different game yo?"

I should check the wiki comments later myself.

For now, time to get back to work… If I slack off too much, my paycheck's gonna take a hit.