Chapter 297: I've Already Stayed Here for More Than Five Months
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24
After the jacketed man left, Seiji attempted to interact with other humans as well as non-humans.
No matter what he did or said in front of everything and everyone, they all had zero reaction and continued to do whatever they were doing.
Seiji was now certain that all of them were similar to NPCs!
NPC stood for non-player character. These characters were common in just about every game.
Seiji had played various open-world RPG games in his past life, such as Assassin's Creed , The Witcher , and so on. There were large amounts of realistic NPCs in those games that walked, talked, and performed various actions.
But no matter how realistic they were, they were still only fake humans that would act according to their programmed actions, just like puppets or humanoid androids that were capable of moving on their own.
All the living creatures in this city were like NPCs… although Seiji hadn't explored the entire city, he believed that this was likely to be the case.
He didn't try anything too extreme as a test, for example breaking the scenery, because he didn't know what would happen. If he was viewed as an enemy invader and every creature here ganged up on him, that would be bad.
This wasn't a game, after all.
He couldn't find out any information… so how was he supposed to find Sensei's consciousness?
Seiji thought about it, and tried imagining a dog that would be able to track Sensei down!
This tactic failed.
He tried imagining being able to cast a spell that would directly help him see Sensei's location.
This also failed.
He tried to imagine a spell that would allow him to view the entire city!
Another failure.
Everything he tried ended up failing.
Was he really going to have to search through this entire city by himself?
He wracked his brains for a solution. If Sensei's consciousness was still awake, then…
Seiji thought of another method, so he decided to fly into the sky and imagine a large cannon.
'Fire!'
The cannon shot out a burst of light that exploded into brilliant, long-lasting fireworks!
Seiji observed all the living creatures' reactions. There was no reaction from anything, which was very good for him.
He continued flying above the city and shot fireworks everywhere.
If Mayuzumi's consciousness was still awake, then she would surely notice him upon seeing these fireworks!
Seiji also imagined a holographic projector and made it continuously project his image in the sky. The enormous hologram version of himself flew back and forth above the city, and it caused Seiji to feel rather embarrassed.
After doing this for a while, he suddenly saw a small firework shoot up from a part of the city!
Seiji instantly flew in that direction.
He arrived at an apartment.
Standing in front of the apartment on the street was…
"Sensei!"
Seiji flew in Mayuzumi's direction.
The manga author stood there dazed as she watched the golden-red iron-armored figure descend from the sky and land next to her.
Seiji opened up the mask to reveal his face.
"I finally found you, Sensei!"
"Harano-kun, how did you…"
"I imagined this iron suit of armor. How is it? Pretty cool, right?" Seiji made what he imagined to be a cool-looking pose.
"…It is pretty cool." Mayuzumi blinked. "But what I wanted to ask was…"
"Why I'm here, right?" Seiji chuckled. "Of course, I'm here to find you!"
"Harano-kun…" Mayuzumi's eyes sparkled.
"We can't waste any time here; you'll learn the situation anyways once you wake up in real life. We should leave this place immediately." Seiji paused here for a moment. "President, did you hear me earlier? I found Sensei!"
There was no response.
"President!?"
Seiji felt an ominous premonition. He shouted for Natsuya several more times, but received no response at all!
'Did something happen? Is it that my voice can't reach her? Or did something happen in the outside world!?'
Seiji's expression became serious.
Mayuzumi watched him quietly.
"I apologize, Sensei… maybe something has happened," Seiji explained. "It should be fine after we wait for a while."
"My apologies, Harano-kun. You've been trapped here as well because of me," Mayuzumi said, sighing.
"It's just a small problem. I've already located you, and as long as the president can get in contact with me again, she can wake both of us up." Seiji smiled reassuringly. "No need to worry. The president is quite strong. She'll definitely be able to handle things."
Mayuzumi remained silent and lowered her head slightly.
"By the way, did you… meet with anything here in this world?" Seiji asked her out of concern.
"No… I wasn't harmed," Mayuzumi answered softly. "It's just… Harano-kun… how much time has passed outside in the real world?"
'Time?'
"In the real world… from when I discovered that Sensei fainted to when I entered, I think it was slightly over one hour," Seiji replied.
After all, the preparations for casting the spell to enter Reo Tachibana's soul had taken some time.
"As I thought…" Mayuzumi slowly lifted her head. "Time here flows differently to time outside."
"Eh?"
"I've already stayed here for over five months, Harano… no, Haruta-kun," she said in a grave tone, looking up into his eyes.
'Over five months?' Seiji was astonished at this. 'Over five months!?'
He inwardly repeated it one more time.
Peach-sensei had a serious expression, and she obviously wasn't joking. She… Mayuzumi Amami had really stayed inside this soul world for over five months!
Yet only an hour had passed in the real world.
Seiji was rendered speechless.
Accel World , Inception , Interstellar … and other such anime and movies flashed through his mind.
Time flowing at different rates was a common occurrence in many anime, manga, and movies. The Room of Spirit and Time from Dragonball was a classic example.
Staying one year in that room would only cause one day to pass in the real world.
And… Sensei's experience was even more exaggerated! The time ratio wasn't one day to one year—she'd spent almost half a year in the world while a mere hour had passed in the real world!
Seiji fell silent. He didn't know what to say anymore, and could only look at Mayuzumi blankly.
Mayuzumi also looked back at him. After a while, she retracted her gaze.
"Follow me," the manga author said, walking into the apartment.
Seiji followed after her. He cancelled the iron-armor transformation as he entered the apartment.
They took the elevator to an upper floor.
After exiting the elevator, they started walking down the corridor. A middle-aged woman walked up to them and warmly greeted Mayuzumi when she saw her.
Seiji's gaze focused on the woman. Although the middle-aged woman had greeted the manga author warmly, she hadn't even spared him a glance.
Mayuzumi also responded to the woman as if she were talking to an ordinary neighbor. Afterwards, the woman walked off.
Seiji followed Mayuzumi to her apartment. The inside of the room… was unfamiliar to him.
"This is the Tachibana residence," Mayuzumi explained. "This is where Reo Tachibana and her parents lived."
"Reo…"
"She's currently at school, her father is overseas on an extended long-term business trip, and her mother is… me."
Seiji was astonished for the umpteenth time upon hearing this.
"She's treating me as her mother," Mayuzumi said, sighing. "If I deny it, she'll start crying and make everything around here turn really frightening."
"I can understand… I have a similar experience." Seiji recalled meeting the younger version of Shika.
This was Reo Tachibana's soul. She had the power to influence the entire environment here, not to mention there was also some mysterious power present.
Mayuzumi would be completely unable to defy Reo.
"In the past five months, I've always been living together with her. That child... it's as if she's living in a dream, and she can't sense anything abnormal here. I accompany her and follow her will by doing anything she wants, and I haven't been harmed, but still… At first, I still wondered what I should do, and tried various things, but… none of it worked. And finally, I began getting used to it…"
Mayuzumi looked towards Seiji again. "When you appeared, at first I thought that I was finally hallucinating, and didn't react at all.
"Thank you for coming to find me, and I'm so sorry that you've also been trapped here… Even though maybe I shouldn't be saying this at such a time, but… I'm really happy…"
A faint smile spread across the manga author's face. "I'm truly happy… to see you again."
Crystal-clear tears began to roll down from her eyes.