"Hey Hitomi, I don't know what's going on but if something's wrong I'm here for you. I'll be back in the morning to check on you and take you to a doctor if you need that. If you wake up and get this message send me a text and let me know how you're doing. I'll see ya tomorrow. Oh, and I got those snacks you dropped, but you probably shouldn't eat that junk while you're sick. Okay, good night."

That was the message Takemi left on her phone. So he had brought her back to her room and put her to bed. Which sparked the question, was she conscious enough to change herself when they got back or…

But that question wasn't really the important topic right now and thinking about it made her head go light all over again. The more important question was what that weird report had been when she woke up. She didn't have an assistant app on her phone and if she did how did it go off right when she woke up?

So she was peering through her settings and apps before coming to the last page where a new icon seemed to peer back at her. It was centered on the screen and larger than the other icons. It looked kind of like a heavily stylized eye.

This must be whatever installed itself on her phone and caused the commotion earlier. If it was some kind of viral app that could play audio files on it's own then it made sen-

"Greetings, Hitomi." She managed to hold on and only jumped a little when the heavily synthesized voice played from her speakers. With the little composure she had at the moment she let the phone fall from her hand. No reason to risk another shock, and her bed was much softer than concrete.

Without understanding what was going on Hitomi could only question her phone. If the app could access her speakers maybe it was someone on the other end and they could hear her. "I- I don't understand what-what's going on? Is someone there? Did you hack my phone?"

"I am an Artificial Intelligence System integrated into your operating system whose purpose is to streamline the functionality of the Lavender Dungeon program that has been installed on your mobile device."

"Artificial… Intelligence? T-that's… that's crazy! Ai's like that don't exist!" Hitomi blurted out to her phone. She wasn't really sure what was going on, but it seemed like it was actually hearing and responding to her.

"I am unable to comply. Please initialize the Lavender Dungeon program at this time."

Or maybe that had just been a coincidence? She tried asking a few more questions but it seemed like that was it’s only programmed response now.

"Yeah, like hell I'm gonna run that sketchy program." She was mostly talking to herself since whatever she said the voice would just respond with the same message.

"The program is in no way sketchy or malicious. Please initialize the Lavender Dungeon program at this time to answer any further questions."

Hitomi breathed an exasperated sigh. Was this thing talking to her or not? Well it wasn't as though she was going to muck anything else up at this point, so if it would answer her questions she might as well open the obviously sketchy app.

Upon clicking on it, the screen immediately shut off and rebooted into a screen with several menus. The top one had Hitomi's name on it and several statistics. Her age, blood type, weight, height, measurements.

"Hey! H-how did you get those! You didn't steal my medical records did you?!"

"All User data was collected during System Initialization and is updated every 0.5 Milliseconds. There is no error in the current data."

"Yeah that's the problem! That's… personal stuff…" Hitomi covered herself in her sheets. It didn't do much about the feeling of being totally exposed. "When did you even collect this data?"

"The initial input was approximately 7 hours and 43 minutes ago. You have been incapacitated for the majority of that time. It was beneficial for the male to bring you to a resting spot and minimize exposure."

"Huh? H-how do you know Takemi brought me home?" Hitomi couldn't help scanning her room for some kind of camera or something.

"I am always observing my surroundings. Now, please initialize the Adaptive Environmental Scan feature of [Lavender Dungeon] to begin your first mission."

A notification appeared on one of the menus at the bottom of the screen labeled Tools. There was a small symbol that looked like a radar screen and spaces for several other icons. "Mission? What kind of mission are you talking about?"

"Of course. Available missions will generally be of the resource gathering variety. If you observe the top of your screen you will see that the Optimal Recovered Energy Display is low. This must be remedied as soon as possible to unlock required higher energy features. As long as the Adaptive Environmental Scan is ongoing, acceptable energy sources in your local environment will be sought and once located you will be presented with the mission to acquire them."

She was getting lost, maybe being passed out didn't count much for sleep because she was beginning to feel exhausted. "Hey hold on. I-I never signed up for this."

"Immaterial. The reality of the situation is that we are currently integrated. Current circumstances directly imply consent." The twisted, abusive logic relayed so casually in the generically excited tone gave Hitomi a serious pause. "I can see you have some misgivings. Allow me to reemphasize the benefits of Play for you. Not only will successful acquisition of resources unlock additional features, but will also earn the player significant rewards ranging from: Improved Lifestyle, Monetary Incentive, Boosted Attributes, Access to upgraded social circles! Anything you can imagine can be unlocked by participating in the Lavender Dungeon system!"

"That-" Hitomi paused to yawn. It wasn't a struggle to stay awake but it was becoming an inconvenient fact. "That sounds like a junkmail topic. And besides, I didn't, aaaaaahhh, didn't agree to this."

"That is perfectly acceptable. I am certain that once you experience the playstyle and benefits of Lavender Dungeon firsthand you will give your retroactive permission. There is no harm in simply trying and experiencing the first mission after all!"

"I don't know, it seems like it could be pretty harmful."

"I have an idea. Why don't you think about it for some time before deciding instead of making a conclusion on incomplete data. You seem tired, perhaps it would be best to initiate rest mode!"

"I'm not a-" One more yawn escaped Hitomi as she tried to determine if there was any immediate risk to going to bed. There probably was, whoever did this was competent enough to make a program that could talk and get her medical information buuuuuut on the other hand she couldn't do anything about that right now.

She could go to the police or something tomorrow. "-not a computer. Just… let me get another hour or two of sleep before Takemi comes over."

Placing her phone in a drawer, she turned out the light figuring that would give her some privacy from whoever was listening in. As her head tumbled back into her pillow she felt like she was floating on a gently drifting stream.

Later she would realize what had made her so tired.