Kusoge Online (BETA) - Volume 2 - Chapter 4

Extra Chapter 
 
Kirine's Diary 
An Avalanche of files crashed down in front of him. 
That was after Sasaraki had opened a small room within the debugging room. 
"Uwah. What are these documents?" 
"Hm. Those look like project management protocols from Kirine." 
Alice picked up a file with a blue binding and handed it to Sasaraki. 
It certainly did say 'Schedule Draft #24.' 
"But why archive schedules in such a primitive manner when in a virtual world?" 
"They could've been entirely digitalized too, but if they have no substance at all, data tends to bug and disappear." 
"Documents disappearing through bugs… That's why people mustn't do work in virtual space…" 
In any case, he opened the schedule. 
The first page was blank. Only 'It's already hopeless' was written in one of the corners with a red ballpen. He already had a bad feeling about this, but he tried turning the page for now. It was a table with particular tasks. All of them already behind schedule. 
Comments were written here and there into the open spaces. 
[Event implementation behind schedule. Takanaka-san is working on a day off to catch up. I'm sorry for all this.] 
[Unforeseen bugs. It's hopeless, so I'll call them features. Bugs are cultural.] 
[Earthquake. An already run-down harddisk fell and broke, but I restored it somehow. I'm not going to lose.] 
All of these seemed to be hand-written memos by Kirine-san. 
 
"Why is she putting comments on everything?" 
"Isn't this a 'If I don't put my emotions out somewhere, I'll go crazy'-kind of thing?" 
"That's a really unpleasant reason…" 
"Ah, Sasaraki, this one's a diary." 
"Is it really okay if I read it?" 
"I've Kirine's plenipotentiary powers, so it's fine." 
He'd gained permission, so Sasaraki opened the diary. The first day. 
[Announcement. Kirine-san will give it her best as a developer. I'm not going to lose to bugs!] 
The next day. 

[I can't win against bugs, after all… I give up.] 
"She's fast to give up, isn't she—?!" 
"It's fine. Kirine's strong point is that she drinks the nights after she gave up and is back on her feet the morning after." 
He tried to read more of the diary. Its contents nothing but desperation like the player count further declining, critical bugs being found, and so on. And on top of that an endless cycle of Kirine-san being dealt a downer and then trying hard again. It was a roller coaster that hurt to read. 
"Hey, can I stop reading…?" 
"Rest assured, the next page is the last." 
She said to him, so he opened the last page. 
[Something really good happened today.] 
"Oooh—" 
What could that have been? That's rare— He thought and read on. 
 
[Takanaka-san, Suzuki-san, Satou-san, Kentahara-san, and the part-timers aren't coming to work.] 
[Surely everyone wants to surprise me and are secretly preparing a party.] 
[After all, today's my birthday. I didn't tell them, though.] 
[It definitely has to be a party.] 
[There's no way that everyone would just abandon the company and run away.] 
[Just no way.] 
[It has to be a party, so I went and bought champagne.] 
[I did a dry run and had a glass by myself.] 
[I'm ready. Ehehe. What is holding them, I wonder?] 
[Kirine-san will always, aaalways be waiting for them.] 
The diary ended there. 
"................................................Uwah…" 
"By the way, I returned to the company the day after." 
"How was she?" 
"She was hugging an empty champagne bottle and crying in her sleep." 
"Kirine-san really has it tough, huh…?" 
If I ever meet Kirine-san outside of this game, I've got to be kind to her— Sasaraki swore to himself.