[You have taken a photograph.]

[Based on the aesthetics and the conditions of the picture, an overall rating will be awarded.]

[Due to the extremely low quality of the product all ratings have been significantly reduced.]

[Dark atmosphere: +2]

[Bonfire illumination: +1]

[Single person focused shot: +5]

[Surprise shot: +2]

[Natural pose: +3]

[Total rating: 13]

[First photograph bonus: Total rating*2]

[First use spent bonus: +10]

[First human caught on picture bonus: +5]

[Overall rating: 41RP]

[Current balance: 91RP]

Looking over the multiple notifications that appeared around me, grew a mixed feeling between aggravation and joy within me.

Mostly caused by the sudden increase of my rating points, which was a great thing as, now, I could start to plan on how to make the utmost out of my shots. But it, also, did give me a bad taste, in my non-existent mouth, to learn that there are penalizations for taking low quality pictures.

That’s not something I can control, you know?

[Remaining uses: 9]

Although nothing was more distasteful than seeing that number decrease by one.

Why can’t you let this one photo be for free, like a tutorial shot?

[You have gained a level.]

The last notification to arrive made me hopeful, perhaps I would be able to unlock new features or be awarded free ones. Such thoughts began to sprout and take root, even if nothing had yet changed in both my profile or the store.

Okay, okay. I repeated that mentally to close all the notifications, as it had to be done one by one, before I paid full attention to my surroundings.

I quickly noticed that the clothes of the two girls were quite leather based, and that one of them, the blonde girl, had belts around both of her thighs and above her belly. While the other was wearing some sort of white garb below her leather pieces.

A certain question crossed my mind, that maybe they weren’t the same type of ‘humans’ that I was before I became a camera.

And if so, how did she figure out how to take a photograph?

I couldn’t tell if she had knowledge or experience with cameras, but I knew that my model of camera was actually more complicated than it looks at first glance. The handles on both sides of the camera can, actually, be slightly turned inwards and that’s what unlocks the shutter button; a safety mechanism of sorts.

How did I find out all that?

Pretending to be asked by someone, I also responded.

Well, it was told to me by the screen when the cabinet fell and my shutter button was hit during the landing.

Now, without any more distracting thoughts in my mind, it was better to try and analyze what their actions meant.

The belt girl seemed to be arguing and going from upset to slightly happy while gesturing with her hands, much like a negotiator.

Meanwhile, the white garb wearing girl, she wasn’t visible to me, except for her covered legs, but she seemed to be thinking about something by how she walked from side to side.

I then lost sight of the garb wearing girl when the other one took a seat on the pile of grass she had been using as a cushion, right next to the bonfire, and put me on top of an embroidered cloth.

It took several minutes before some movement entered my range again. The belt girl held me up and her expression had turned serious, she didn’t even glance at me before pushing my folding lens back into the socket and then closing the metal plate that served as my support.

And at the same instant that my sight was covered in darkness by it, I also lost consciousness.

—Hmm?

So this is how it feels to fall asleep as a camera. Was my first, or maybe second thought upon regaining consciousness.

What a large place. I looked through my lens to see where I was this time, the white walls that seemed to expand for miles reminded me of some large cathedrals.

The center of the venue showcased a vast and yellow carpet covered in green embroidery. It spilled towards the immense wooden double door that guarded the entrance.

Distant from the carpet's reach, overturned on to the gray tile, there sat many wooden benches. Ranging in sizes from insignificant to monstrous, created a formation of rows. Descending towards my eyes as they crept to me.

The seats were filled by the people of their respective sizes, many wearing formal vestments and some with traditional garments. The crowd slowly organized themselves into their places, and very few places were left empty.

It sure feels like I’m about to be worshiped. I went back to the short panorama view, there was a purple cushion beneath my body and, apparently, an invisible spherical glass was surrounding me, as I couldn't reach as far as usual because this function doesn’t really allow me to go through objects.

Seems like, whatever happens at this point, I can only look ‘forward’ to it.

After a minute of silence, I wished I could sigh.

I want to forget what I just did. I immediately focused on the lens view and, this time, there was someone standing in front of me.

That person had an azure blue hair flowing down to their legs like a river, they wore a white and tall hat, and a red mantle with white and purple adornments on the shoulders. As there weren’t any symbols that I could use as reference visible, I decided to label them as the ‘announcer’ for starters.

The announcer seemed to be giving a nice and riling up speech, and whenever they gestured towards a side, someone jumped up from their seats momentarily. It was like a concert where the people would swing glowing sticks to the beat of the music.

Without giving me a chance to figure out what this was all about, my view became higher and then began to move.

I was taken into a sort of backstage, but with a long corridor that had an open view of trees. From there, I went to a metal door. Then a small and well cared for hand stretched towards the handle, the cloth that reached its wrist was exactly like a black garb’s sleeve.

After opening the door, they walked through a room that I couldn’t describe as anything but an office room. With candle lamps instead of light bulbs, and all of the furniture made out of intricately carved wood.

Though our stay in that room wasn't for long. We headed down a flight of stairs into an underground passage, with only candles to keep the way visible. The walking went on for a good while without me being able to recognize if we were going straight or taking a turn, thanks to how far apart the candles were.

Suddenly, we were in another room. I couldn’t make out anything around as there weren’t any candles around, but I did know that we had gone through some sort of veil to get in here.

It was very subtle but I felt like I landed on something. So I tried my wide view again, and there wasn’t an invisible bubble around anymore.

There was a pedestal beneath the cushion that I was on, and as far as I could reach, there wasn’t anything but darkness in this room.

Am I being left in the dark now?

But before I could complain about my bad humor, the same hand from before lifted my support and put me to sleep.

—Huh?

I wanted to be snarky when I got to wake up again. But hey, hello there!

In front of my lens was the up close face of a girl.

Slightly tanned skin, nut-brown eyes under slim ginger eyebrows, her nose wasn’t big but it was the part that was closest to my lens. I couldn’t ignore that the bangs, of ginger smooth hair, covering her forehead were straightly trimmed.

And only once she took some distance from me, did the surroundings come into my view. Another girl, with the same skin color and a white hair, was standing next to a fence farther away.

Besides the two girls there were a few trees, some thin and some thick, with verdant leaves all over their top. A tilled road outside the fence, and from the limit of my sight I could make out the corner of a large building painted in red.

I could be mistaken, but now it seems like I was shipped off to a ranch?

I had a hunch that a lot of inexplicable events occurred during my sleep, but it wouldn’t do me any good to ponder about it until I can communicate with people.

Maybe now I can start something.

The girl came back to me hopping with a smile on her face, she held me with both hands and almost naturally went into the right posture for taking a picture. She aimed my lens towards the white haired girl and unlocked my safety correctly before pressing the shutter button.

[You have taken a photograph]