kscans

Chapter 10 - An Anticlimactic Reunion

My vision, once dyed white, gradually regained its color, revealing a bustling scene as sound washed over me. I blinked repeatedly, my eyes adjusting, and looked around the fountain plaza where I had logged out the previous night.

I’d made a complete fool of myself in front of a huge crowd yesterday, but now that I was back in the virtual world, few people were paying me any mind. It was only around seven in the morning in the real world, yet plenty of players were already coming and going. I was relieved to see I’d avoided an awkward run-in with any of yesterday’s spectators.

After a good night’s sleep, Sora returned to the virtual world with renewed spirits. “Alright!” she declared, full of motivation. First and foremost, she had to find Haru, the boy she had so abruptly left behind out of sheer embarrassment.

He had helped her so much, yet she had logged out on him without even getting a way to contact him. She had to meet him again, apologize properly, and—if possible—ask him to be friends.

Even though she’d made a conscious decision, it seemed that new players choosing Istia were still a rarity. After yesterday’s ordeal, Sora was painfully aware that she, being apparently inept at combat, needed allies to make any progress. Since she couldn’t reasonably hope for any fellow newcomers to join her, the only person she could think to rely on was Haru.

She felt a pang of guilt for leaning on him so much, but beggars couldn’t be choosers… and more importantly, adventuring with him had been fun. She had glimpsed a rather… unique side of him at the very end, but she could write that off as him just getting carried away by an uncontrollable surge of excitement.

“I wonder if I’ll see him again…”

Her biggest regret was her own foolishness last night, logging out in a fit of shame. In this game, you couldn’t exchange messages with someone unless you were friends, in the same clan, or connected through some other community line.

That meant for Sora to find Haru again, she would have to swallow her pride and ask passersby for his whereabouts, or trust in luck for a second chance encounter.

In an Istia devoid of new players, they would have stood out as obvious beginners, so the first option probably wouldn’t be too difficult—the problem was that Sora suffered from a case of shyness.

Realizing her heart was leaning toward the latter, more passive option, Sora shook her head. No, no. She scolded her naturally timid self.

“I’m the one who messed up, so I have to be the one to fix it!”

One moment she stood there with a melancholy expression, the next she was smiling as she recalled yesterday’s adventure, then her eyes would droop sadly at the memory of her failure, and finally, she would pump her fist to psyche herself up.

The girl, an undeniably beautiful avatar, was drawing warm, amused gazes from the surrounding players, but in her determined state, she remained completely oblivious.

Naturally, some saw the girl, who was clearly a new player, and thought, Here’s my chance, preparing to approach her. But Sora’s attention was elsewhere, and she was about to call out to a kind-looking player passing by when—

“—That damn boar! I’ll never forgive him!!!”

—Without any warning, Haru’s furious roar upon respawning echoed across the fountain plaza, louder than anyone else’s.


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Seriously, what the hell was with that boar, popping up out of nowhere and then hitting me with an unavoidable stun-and-charge one-shot kill? How was I supposed to deal with that? I’d just wiped out the entire mob and my combat high was completely gone. So it’s a boss that spawns when you meet a condition? What’s the trigger? Do I have to train all those idiots together again? What are non-AGI builds supposed to do? Is there some other condition? “H-Haru-san…?” There has to be, right? Like killing a certain number of them? Well, hunting them one-by-one is a pain too, so maybe training them is the way to go, but still, how am I supposed to handle that AoE stun—

“Um, Haru-san!”

A familiar, sweet voice pulled me out of my rage-fueled spiral of thoughts. Not just familiar, I mean…

“Eh, ah… Sora?”

It was the girl I had adventured with yesterday, my partner for one night before we parted ways in a rush.

“Uh, um… g-good morning.”

“Oh, yeah. Morning…”

“…”

“…”

…Crap, what do I do? I’d hoped we might meet again, but my last impression was so intense that I had no idea what kind of face to make. It’s just… weirdly embarrassing.

Should I thank her for clinging to my arm for some reason? I feel like I’d get slapped.

She seems to be in a similar boat. Maybe she’s remembering the same thing I am, because a faint blush is coloring her cheeks, making things even more awkward.

…………Ugh.

It’s not that I’m completely opposed to this kind of sweet, heart-fluttering situation. I’m a college student this spring, still a youth permitted to enjoy his prime.

Her appearance may be an avatar, but… she has a great personality, a cute voice and mannerisms, and most importantly, she’s a girl I can be around without feeling strangely exhausted. She’s comforting. I’d be honored to be in a rom-com-like situation with a girl who has, for all intents and purposes, won the title of “perfectly lovely girl.”

But honestly, right now, I want to enjoy the game called [Arcadia] to the fullest. More importantly, after adventuring with her last night, I know she feels the same way about enjoying this world.

Which means, for now, it’s a hard pass on the rom-com. I know if I said that out loud to the veteran players glaring at me for creating this awkward atmosphere with Sora, I’d be risking an endless cycle of merciless PK-ing, but—it’s a no from me.

Okay. From this moment forward, I will treat the girl before me as my “little sister.”

“—Alright.”

The moment I made that decision, I felt all sorts of troublesome things vanish from my mind. Sora is cute. But she’s not that kind of cute. She’s a little-sister type of existence who’s fun to play with. Case closed.

“Sora.”

“Y-Yes…”

“I forgot to ask yesterday, but I was wondering if you’d want to register as friends.”

I spoke, dispelling the previous atmosphere with a speed that felt a little unnatural even to me. Sora must have been taken aback by my sudden change in demeanor; her large eyes blinked in surprise. Cute.

“R-Really…? A-Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. Most guys would be overjoyed to become friends with a girl like you.”

“Huh…? …!?”

Ah, crap. Once I excluded her as a romantic interest, my choice of words got a little too casual. It was clearly different from the gentlemanly act I’d been putting on yesterday, and my slightly flirty tone seemed to deepen Sora’s confusion.

Time for a course correction. She’s my little sister, but I should keep a bit of distance and lean back toward gentlemanly…

“I had a lot of fun yesterday. I’d be happy if we could keep playing together.”

I offered a natural smile—behold, the natural, customer-service smile I’ve cultivated over three years of part-time work!!

“…”

Sora seemed to be thinking something over. Whether it was my part-timer-warrior smile that did the trick or some other factor, I had no way of knowing, but—

“Y-Yes, I’d like that…!”

And so, with a somewhat nervous bow from the girl, Sora’s name was etched into my previously pristine friends list.


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Sora extended a welcome invitation, “Since we’re here, would you like to adventure together today?” I accepted without a second’s hesitation and immediately invited her to my party. After guiding her to an NPC shop to gear up like me, we headed out together to the [Plains of the Horizon].

By the way, she purchased a [Ring of Novice], apparently to assist with casting magic, and a set of leather armor that wouldn’t impede her movement. I wish a certain barbarian who bought only a weapon and is still running around in his starting visuals would learn a thing or two from her.

“So yeah, that’s what I was up against with those boars.”

Having just returned, I gave her a quick lecture on the main enemy of this field, the stupid boars. She nodded along before tilting her head.

“From what you’ve said, they don’t sound that strong…”

“Well, they’re weak. Oh, wait, with your AGI, they might be tough if they charge you from up close.”

“Right, I’ll be careful with my spacing… but that’s not what I meant. Are they strong enough to even defeat you, Haru-san?”

Hmm? …Ah, I see.

“If you’re talking about me respawning just now, these guys weren’t the culprits.”

Well, I did get run over and killed once because I was messing around at first, but I wasn’t about to share such a stupid failure with her.

“A different enemy…?”

“Different, or rather… the big boss of all these stupid… boars.”

That thing, designated as the enemy [Buried Great Boar], was a ridiculous beast that was buried in the ground despite being no less than five meters tall—the area boss that ruled over these Plains of the Horizon.

“To be specific, the earthquake it causes when it appears stunned me, and then it trampled me flat.”

“…Wow.”

Sora’s only experience with death had been a relatively soft one—a body slam from a fungus, creepy as it was. Hearing my story of literally being “minced” seemed to shock her; her cheeks twitched faintly.

I didn’t want to see a scene as shocking as a beautiful girl being squashed flat by a giant boar either. I wanted to go into this with a chance of winning, but… well.

“My positioning was the worst, too… I really don’t want to believe that it normally pops out of the ground right under your nose.”

“Was there, um, any kind of warning?”

“A warning, huh. I was messing around with a herd of about thirty of them right before it happened, so it’s possible I missed a sign.”

“Thirty… Wh-What were you doing?”

Don’t give me that “you’re doing something weird again” look. It’s not like I’m actively trying to do strange things.

“Anyway, this is your first time with the smaller boars, so let’s try hunting them one by one.”

“Ah, yes!”

After hunting about ten of them, I had abandoned all pretense of caution and chosen to become the wind, but if I had stuck with it more steadily, I might have noticed the trigger.

Now that I had reunited with Sora, I’d just pretend my solo journey a little while ago never happened and switch to a more relaxed, enjoyable approach.

“Um… but even so, I still don’t have any way to attack…”

Sora trailed off, seeming to shrink as she remembered… but wait.

“Didn’t you just log out last night? I got a few skills, so you should check yours too, Sora.”

“Oh… now that you mention it, I forgot.”

It was true that I’d handled all the attacking, but without her healing support, there’s no telling how many times I would have been scattered into death effects. It was hard to believe she wouldn’t be granted any skills after we defeated a boss, especially given her solid contribution to the fight.

…Well, if it was based on player actions, she probably wouldn’t get any attack magic. But who knows, maybe she got lucky. I believe the system is kind to pretty girls—

“Um… is this… Healer’s Precept?”

Yep. Confirmed for the pure healer route.

Sora read aloud the name of a skill that was in no way related to attacking, her face a mixture of emotions that was hard to decipher. Knowing that deep down, despite her lack of aptitude, she wanted to fight on the front lines herself, I found the sight too painful to watch and quietly looked away.