Having settled back onto the conversation pit's sofa, Delphina crossed her legs and stared at the system's screen in front of her. A quick scan around made her realise the water and fruit from earlier had been refreshed.
"Oh well, now that's how they do it."
Grabbing an apple and coquettishly taking a bite out of it, she definitely didn't look like an asshole.
"Right, please elaborate on the answer to my first question, No.69. I don't appreciate it using up one of my questions, but it seems important for me to know now."
[Elaborating on 'what do you mean by current level?' Question number 1…]
[Your level is indeed currently LEVEL 1 due to this being the first day of your Transmigration, with no completed Quests. As you complete Quests and survive through different scenarios, your Level will increase depending on the difficulty]
[Difficulty level is currently detected as SSS; as such, the User Delphina will receive a 10x experience bonus. For example, from 1 Quest, you should go from Level 1 to Level 5 depending on the completion rate.]
"Can I ask follow-up questions, or will they take away from my 20 Q's?"
[….]
[Answering Question number 2…]
"Oh you piece of shit."
[Follow-up questions are allowed in a limited scope; otherwise, I will decline to answer to prevent future questions from being used up, as dissatisfaction and hostility to the system has been detected with this behaviour]
[¯_(ツ)_/¯]
[18/20 Questions now available.]
"Wow, look at you, a quick-thinking system is nice to see. Good job No.69."
[~(˘▾˘~)]
"So I have a follow-up question regarding completion rate. What on Earth do you mean by that?"
[To make things easier for Users in high difficulty Worlds, Quests have completion rates to prevent excessive Quest failure. Earlier iterations with no Quest completion- only YES/NO selections either resulted in User Death or the User being trapped without ever seeing the end of the Quest.]
"Okay, thank you, please don't explain further, I can see where that might go."
"Third question? Um, how old is Delphina right now? Or has she had her coming-of-age ceremony yet? I know from the game it started with the coming of age ceremony because you could customise the heroine before she entered."
[Compiling answers- 17/20 questions now available due to the topic relating to keyword: AGE]
[Delphina de Velasques, at this point in time, is currently 29 years old, with her coming of age ceremony to be held in 3 months just after her 30th birthday. The User can choose to have Delphina's ceremony held privately or to join the Imperial National Ball that is annually held]
[It is recommended that the User join the annual ball; a Quest can be opened for this. Would you like to confirm Delphina?]
"Yes, please start that as a Quest, I know that's the ball from the Game. So I can at least guess what to expect."
[Quest Chain opened; 'Who's the Prettiest Princess of Them All']
[…]
[Quest line will include-
"NO! STOP THERE."
"Let's get through all the questions and open Quest descriptions after, shall we! Heavens above, though, what's that name about…"
[Continuing to answer Question number 3]
[Having the coming-of-age ceremony at the Imperial National Ball will lead to a debutante competition where the Ladies have to compete against each other. The Four Families are not included in this competition, however. So, as Delphina, you will be a judge. Not a participant.]
"Interesting, that does lead me onto my following few questions, actually… The Four Great Families. They stand out in looks and skills to the point that it is odd. In the Game, it made sense as it's typical of Otome Games for the leads to be extraordinary. How does that translate into 'The World' that is Mareveil, though?"
"From what I remember, the Burgesses have 'beast-like strength', the de Rios guy, despite being just a technician and alchemist, absolutely thrived beyond The Gates. The de Lunas just in general live way longer than they're supposed to, they don't even have a Sword Master for crying out loud, yet they all are around the 200's mark, and they look like they're in their 20s? Oh yeah, and how's Pietro a Magic Swordsman!?"
[…]
[15/20 questions now available due to the topic relating to keyword: Otome]
[As you, Delphina pointed out. The Four Great Families do stand out compared to everyone else. This is due to the trope known as The Big 4. This is reflected in the World through the history of families]
[This system has detected that you partially read into this earlier today]
[To confirm- do you, Delphina, suspect the Four Great Families are 'Past Livers'?]
"Yes, I suspect that the de Velasques know this and are mainly protecting their own family, with the other three Dukes protecting their families in their way."
[Your answer is incorrect. The system will now continue with this misinformation in mind]
[To elaborate- The Gap consists of Worlds ended by Megafauna. Every time a World ends, a new Gate is connected to Mareveil, causing Mareveil to end up being a 'Hub-World' due to its original level of Mana (the highest in the Administration). This is no longer the case]
[Megafauna feeds on Mana. Making Mages, Wizards, and Sorcerers ineffective in The Gap, whereas Sword Masters, Artificers, Alchemists, and Otherworlder Technicians are effective. Primarily, when materials from The Gaps themselves are used]
[This explains why Mareveil is the dumping ground of reincarnators, transmigrators, and regressors. Some of these 'Past Livers' abilities were passed down into the families they married into, or still exist due to them hiding in 'The Underworld']
[In other words, your suspicions of 'Past Livers' being present in the de Velasques family are correct, but their abilities have also been passed down atavistically. The same is true of the other 3 Families. But no 'Past livers' are currently present outside of the de Velasques]
[This system can explain no further due to the complexity of the situation.]