Chapter 510: “Anna”
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
"I'll talk to you again once you finish your duel against Akatsuki Mitarai!" Hana said before she abruptly stopped the video chat. She seemed to be somewhat angry.
Seiji was quite mystified at her apparent anger.
Was it that she would feel too much pressure from being his vice-commander?
But this was truly a position that could only be left for her… he decided to talk about it with her later.
Since Mayuzumi had Awakened now, perhaps Reo would soon Awaken as well.
No, more accurately speaking, since Seiji was currently being pulled into Reo's soul realm every night when sleeping together with her… perhaps this counted as her Awakened ability already.
Currently, her ability seemed to remain as was.
Just like always, Seiji continued cultivating in Reo's soul realm while he was asleep. By the time that it was almost morning, he successfully learned the defensive technique, [Ksitigarbha technique]!
He then checked [Dragon Counterattack] in his system and saw that the first two prerequisites were now fulfilled.
The new conditions that the system required of him were...
[Read information regarding Mana usage. Learn and understand – current progress of 0%.]
[Improve your experience in practical combat – current progress of 100%.]
[99 points required to exchange.]
Improving his practical combat experience… this seemingly most difficult requirement of all was already completed!
Seiji felt that it must have been last night's experience in Rinura's realm that helped him to fill this bar completely. After all, those battles were quite fierce, especially the final battle to protect Prince Adnan as he returned to his original world.
As for information on Mana usage, he figured that the cell phone filled with secret technique manuals which Yui gave him before would have such information.
And the 99 points required for the skill? Seiji had plenty of points, so that was no problem. Still, he wanted to comment about how his system seemed to be making things more and more difficult for him.
System's retort (as imagined by Seiji): [I'm only charging you 99 points for such a pretentiously grand ultimate ability. You dare to have objections?]
The next morning, Seiji woke up and then proceeded to cook breakfast.
He based today's breakfast menu on the information that Mai Houjou sent him. He cooked more dishes than usual, which took him a while.
Still, it would cause the maid to become angry at him unless he did so. He decided to obediently cook a well-balanced, nutritious breakfast for the sake of Shika and Reo's healthy development as well as his own puny life.
Seiji hummed a song as he cooked, enjoying the process.
When Shika woke up and saw how her adopted older brother was busy cooking, she smiled alluringly.
She'd witnessed this scene endless times already. However, she never got tired of seeing it no matter how many times she saw it.
She silently observed him for a while before she walked over and began helping him quite naturally.
After they finished cooking breakfast, they had a joyous meal together with Reo who had just woken up.
At this moment, someone knocked on the door.
Seiji went to open the door and saw Mika, who seemed rather tense, as well as a yawning Chiaki.
"Good morning…"
"Good morning to the both of you." Seiji smiled in greeting. "Would you like to eat breakfast together?"
The double pigtailed girl's expression eased up slightly to see that he was behaving just as normal.
"No need, we ate breakfast already," Mika replied.
"Come in and have a seat," Seiji invited both of them in.
Chiaki went to the living room and sat down by the kotatsu, laying her head down on the table and immediately going back to sleep.
Mika's eyes flashed as she looked at Seiji who returned to the dining table.
The last time after they spoke, she hadn't seen him for two days already. She was feeling quite nervous.
However, the fact that Seiji still acted just like normal helped to reassure her, along with giving her other complex emotions.
Mika felt as if all her worries and thoughts over the past two days had been unnecessary…
Suddenly, there was a clear *Ding!* sound that resounded in the room.
Chiaki lifted her head in a zombie-like fashion and dug out her cell phone from her pocket. She turned it on and began poking at it, smiling in a foolish fashion.
Mika sighed upon witnessing this scene.
"Chiaki, it really seems like you've gotten addicted to gaming."
"Addicted to gaming… that sounds good… I should just take a break from school and play all I want…"
"Stop being so foolish! Why are you so addicted to it? While this game is indeed quite interesting, it's not necessary to go to such a degree for it, is it?"
"It's because I'm in love with 'Anna', ehehe…"
Chiaki who had obvious dark circles around her eyes was now giggling foolishly at her cell phone screen. She definitely seemed like a complete NEET who was addicted to gaming!
Mika was rendered speechless by this scene.
She then took out her cell phone and loaded the same game as Chiaki.
"Welcome back, Mika."
A beautiful girl who had long black hair and bright red eyes greeted her. This girl was wearing a white lace one-piece dress, and she closed the book she was reading and revealed a gentle smile.
"I've been waiting for you."
Mika felt as if a real person was actually speaking to her through her cell phone, not a character from a cell phone game.
"Anna…" She reflexively called out this character's name.
"What would you like to do?" The character named Anna lightly waved her hand, causing various options to appear on Mika's cell phone's screen.
Mika chose "Explore the garden."
The camera instantly zoomed out as the girl in the white dress stood up from the vine chair she was sitting on. She walked through a fantasy-style living room, exited the house, and entered a garden.
There were no cutscenes during this entire process as it was all rendered smoothly. The character's realistic movements and the exquisitely detailed background made this all seem so real.
The garden was incredibly beautiful with all sorts of pretty flowers growing inside. However, some strange black bugs kept appearing.
"Mika, my power still hasn't recovered yet. I can only rely on you this time," Anna spoke to Mika while looking at the black bugs.
Then, a minigame of bug squashing began. The player needed to accurately judge the black bugs' movements and tap on them. Accurately tapping on a bug would squish it, while missing the bug would cause Anna to lose HP. Once her HP fell to zero, the black bugs would suddenly turn large and attack Anna directly, causing her to escape the garden and end the minigame.
This minigame's difficulty level was quite low. Mika successfully got rid of all the bugs and was able to continue exploring the garden with her.
During this process, Anna kept interacting with Mika. Anna's words didn't sound like they were preprogrammed lines at all. Even her expressions seemed so real, and her lips matched the words she said exactly!
Before long, Mika lost herself in playing as well.
Seiji finished eating his breakfast and walked up to the kotatsu, only to see that both girls were too busy playing with their cell phones to even notice his arrival.
Out of curiosity, he took a look at what they were doing. He found that both of them seemed to be playing the same cell phone game.
"What's this game called?"
Mika suddenly regained her senses when Seiji spoke to her.
"'Anna,'" Mika responded. "I started playing this game two days ago… Chiaki started playing it on Monday, and she's really addicted."
"I can see that." Seiji's cheek twitched as he looked at Chiaki's foolish appearance.
This game must have been quite something to make the tomboy addicted to such a degree in just a few short days.
Seiji asked Mika what precisely was so interesting about this "Anna" game.
"The main interesting feature is Anna herself," Mika indicated the beautiful girl on her cell phone screen. "Her behavior is quite realistic. It's almost as if a real person is acting as her."
Seiji looked towards Anna.
Anna also looked at him and smiled.
"Nice to meet you. Are you Mika's boyfriend?" she asked gently.
Anna's question sounded quite natural, and she even displayed a curious expression. She didn't seem like a preprogrammed NPC at all!
Seiji paused in astonishment at this.
This Anna character was able to recognize different people's faces, greet them, and also…
"She said your name," Seiji looked at Mika. "You used your real life name as your ingame name?"
"This game requires its players to identify themselves using real world ID, and the ingame name isn't changeable," Mika explained.
There was even such a thing?
Seiji didn't find it strange that a cell phone game would require signing up with one's real name. The strange part was that this game even required players to use their real life names as the ingame name, and that they weren't even allowed to change it! This was something never seen before. At least, Seiji had never seen such a game before.
He felt that something was off about this game.