How Do You QA Test a Tsundere Android!?

Test 12: Eric

"That's not a bad start. Just a sec, I'll make a call and then I'll show you the QA office."

Eric scans the list of phone numbers hanging on a board and types digits on a telephone. He puts the call on speaker and doesn't lift the handset.

"Hello, Eric darling~"

A flirtatious voice comes from the other side. But it's... a guy's voice, isn't it?

"Heh, what's up, Lou."

Eric throws a small laugh as he rubs his eyes.

"What can I help you with, my sweet?"

"Heh, do you have an unused model for testing? We got a new guy in the department, as a QA."

Eric continues to crack laughs as he speaks.

"Hmm, we do have two which are turned off. Though, one of them is used for static testing, like internet connection and automatic updates."

The guy's voice stops being playful and he sounds... normal. I can only assume that his flirtatious voice was some sort of casual joke.

"Could you arrange for one model to be delivered to room 635? With the right configurations for testing, of course."

"Okie dokie, darling!"

The guy answers in a playful manner again. Eric doesn't seem to bothered by it, he only laughs whenever the guy talks in that silly manner.

"Speaking of which, dear. We have been testing these automatic updates of your imprinting... do you know that it corrupts the data unless we do a cleanup first? We had to reformat the whole thing from scratch!"

"Yes, there's a bug open about it in the server too. But give up, it's not going to be fixed for this version."

"WHAT!?"

The guy shouts, producing an unpleasant pitch voice. Eric immediately cuts him off by picking up the telephone's handset and dropping it down.

"A funny guy, isn't he?"

"Ah, yeah... quite."

I give him an awkward smile, not sure what else I can say...

Eric stands up and circles around his table; I also instinctively stand up.

"Bugs?"

I ask as I follow Eric to the door.

"Yes. This one in particular gives me a headache, everybody come crying to me. But it won't be fixed for this version, so I just ignore them."

Eric speaks with an expression of relief on his face.

"I'll show you where your office will be."

"Okay."

I obediently follow the veteran. We exit his room and walk toward the direction from which I came.

Not much was clear to me from that phone conversation, but I'm pretty sure about one thing: Eric isn't a QA tester.

A QA finds bugs, but he doesn't fix them.

If people expect him to fix bugs in the product, then he must be a developer; probably a programmer, based on how his office looks.

This begs the question: why is he showing me the ropes? Shouldn't someone from the QA team do that? The QA team leader might be busy or such, but surely there are others who could fill that role.

"Say."

"Yes?"

"You aren't a QA, are you?"

"No, I'm a programmer. Why?"

"Then... why did they ask you to be in charge of me? Shouldn't that be the work of the QA team leader?"

"QA team leader, heh."

Eric throws me a smile, as if I said something funny.

"If you want there to be a leader for our QA team, then you are free to claim the title."

"... sorry?"

"You are the QA team, pal. The whole of it."

"... huh?"

"We don't have a QA team in our department. Or rather, DIDN'T have one until now."

That's...

I...

Eh...

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?

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