Hey, Shun here!
Along with the rise of the word 'otaku' in western countries, there was also a phrase that rose in usage rate around that time as well. That term was 'Men of Culture'.
Why are they called that? If you don't know about it then you don't have to find out.
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(Shun's POV)
On a bench nearby the fountain where players who dies revive, I saw a blonde girl with clear blue eyes sitting on her own, her eyes wandering all over the place. Is this how I looked when I first came to play this game?
This girl seems to be around 13-14 years old based on her face and build, but her really developed body says otherwise. Her long blonde hair goes until her waist, with one of its locks braided and clipped using a crown-like hair clip with a green gem embedded on it.
Like any other newbie, she's wearing the beginner's clothing.
The moment I saw her, it seems like Tsuka also spotted her sitting on that bench, surrounded by thirsty males who's gawking at her for some time now. Well, they're mainly focused on looking at her huge assets though…
You should stop buying those adult magazines my guys. It's seriously unhealthy.
Look at me, I don't own one. Well, my past self was really into such things so I got a lot of knowledge regarding that but that's not me but the other me… Wait, I'm beginning to confuse even myself so let's stop that.
"Rokuko! Wel, come~!"
Tsuka was really excited to see her long time playmate, so she released her grip on my hands before running towards Rokuko. The moment she reached her, she dove straight towards her chest and hugged her.
"Ah—! Wait, who are you!? I don't remember telling my name to anyone here! Wait, this feeling… Tsuka?" The moment Rokuko recognized her, Tsuka's smile brightened even more.
"Hehe~ that right. It's, Tsuka!"
But Rokuko, I'm wondering how you managed to recognize her just by touching Tsuka's hair a little. Is there something with her hair that I don't know about?
"Ooh, so you could play this game, huh. I should get Fenny one for herself then. Also for Ikumei and Zenko. Right! I almost forgot. Where's Shun?"
"I'm here Rokuko. Let's go somewhere else before we continue our talk though…" I said while looking at the many people taking glances at us.
"Okay! However, this place really is quite weird. It's kinda similar to Tsia City, isn't it?" Rokuko doesn't seem to fully understand what I was implying but she still readily agreed.
"Yes~! But, no guard person?" Tsuka replied.
"Wait, there's no one guarding the town's entrance? Won't there be many bandits here then!?"
"Yeah, it really is quite similar to Tsia. Also, no, there are no bandits in here." There are PKers who, now that I think about it though, are kinda similar to bandits as well. However, they're also kinda different.
Like what I did when Tsuka first arrived in this game, and a day haven't passed yet ever since she started playing, I showed Rokuko around the town before accompanying her to finish her tutorial quest. The curious thing is, even though she really like rabbits, she didn't show any hesitation in murdering many of them…
When I asked why she did so, she gave me a simple and concise answer.
"I like rabbits since they're cute but I would kill them if I need to kill them. Liking them doesn't mean I can't kill them, right?"
Although it sounded like something a yandere would say, I could attest that Rokuko is not one. She's just too pure and have this ideology innate to every Dungeon Core, that's why her thought process is like that.
I mean, I think it's kind of a given for them to be wired like this since they, the Dungeon Cores, more often than not have to do Dungeon Battles and etc against each other. They will meet their doom if they don't have this kind of mindset.
After we went to a more silent location, we began talking about what Senses she wanted to pick up while also catching up. I asked her about the state of our dungeon but it seems like everything is going fine.
In the end, She ended up choosing a Sense Build that mainly focuses on focuses on combat like; [Sword], [Physical Attack Increase], [Speed Increase]. She also picked up the essential Senses to cast magic such as; [Magic Talent], [Magic Power], [Flame Magic Talent], as well as [Air Magic Talent]. As for the remaining three slots, she took [Taming], [Cooking], and [Enchant].
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Just like usual, I woke up early in the morning. Accompanied by Tsuka, we went for a light jog and greeted everyone we came across. People find the sight of a bunny nodding at them very strange but no one really voiced it out for some reason.
Well, works for me since I didn't have to explain things to people. Which I'm not obliged to do by the way.
Without even noticing it, the remaining twenty or so odd days in our summer vacation ended and our happy laid back days have come to an end alongside it as well. Man, how time flies.
I'm not sad though. The days during our summer vacation was really fun and it was really well spent.
There were times when I would video call with the girls to keep in touch. I have to say though, our topic of conversations were really quite pointless but fun at the same time.
There was even that one time when Mutsuko-san's sister saw her chatting with us over the phone. The screen of smartphones are small so, whenever someone is talking, the [Group Chat] would automatically enlarge the video feed of that person.
I don't know how it works but the system of this [Group Chat] is really good at recognizing who is leading the conversation. If everyone is talking, it would just show the video feeds of everyone with the same sizes.
Anyway, about Mutsuko-san's little sister. When she saw my face over the phone talking about some useless stuff, she was so shocked that she became rooted on the spot.
Then, as if she saw a ghost, she ran outside of Mutsuko-san's room screaming at the top of her lungs that Mutsuko-san got a boyfriend to her parents who's downstairs. It was such a funny and at the same time troublesome incident.
I also went out with Miu and Tsuka every other day so that Miu could remove her attention from the game for some time. I took them to bowling alleys and theme parks, among other places, so that we could have some fun and relax.
Tsuka had to hide for some time but, after we passed the inspection, she would stay in either my arms or Miu's. No one really paid attention to her since they probably thought that she was a stuffed toy.
Enough about my summer vacation memories, I could talk on and on about it since it was one of the most fun summer breaks I had. Instead of recalling my fond memories, I refocused and continued with what I'm doing, which is cooking our breakfast and boxed lunch.
My attire is composed of our summer school uniform, with a blue apron top. If there was a test for househusbands, I think I'd pass with flying colors.
My little sister, Miu, was sitting clad in her summer school uniform as well. She's currently waiting for breakfast to be ready, along with our resident Vorpal Bunny, Tsuka.
In front of Miu is an extremely thin laptop, so thin that it's probably half the size of the laptops back in my past self's world. She's probably browsing for some info online.
She was too serious in gathering information that she didn't even notice a curious bunny sit on her lap, looking at the laptop with her. It was such a cute sight so I stopped what I was doing and snapped a picture.
"So, did you find anything?" I asked while putting my phone back.
"Onii-chan… right now, there's a server maintenance ongoing."
"Yeah, I know. I saw that earlier on the official site."
"Oh, looks like you're interested in what's going on as well! That's my Onii-chan for you. Have you seen the patch notes?"
"Not yet. I only had so much free time early in the morning so I just checked the site briefly. Tsuka and I went for a light jog and trained after all." Whilst we were talking, I quickly packed the lunch boxes and served the dishes on the table.
"Is that so? Then, why don't you look at it with me? Oh, Tsuka come he— Eh? Where is Tsuka?" Miu beckoned me to come over before calling to Tsuka. However, since she was so fixated on her laptop's screen, she still haven't noticed her sitting on her lap this entire time.
People really tunnel vision sometimes.
"Squeak, squeak~? Tsuka, here, you know~?"
"Eh!? Oh, there you are Tsuka. Gee, I didn't notice you! Also, why didn't you tell me immediately Onii-chan!?"
"You didn't ask. Also, you were too focused on what you're searching that you didn't even notice her sit on your lap."
Miu rolled her eyes at me before patting Tsuka's head.
"Anyway, it says here that the game devs introduced a satiety system which utilizes the mishappen [Cooking] Senses." Oh? Lucky that I picked it up then. It's already at level 15 right now.
Rokuko's, Mutsuko-san, and Kaede-san's cooking Senses are much higher leveled than me though. There's also Satania-san but I don't know if the stuff she makes could even be classified as food…
"So, this means that will be also necessary in-game, huh."
"Yep. The stats will decrease with hunger and, at worst, you can die of starvation. Haa, this reminds of a certain rogue-like game back in the day."
My my, this little sister of mine who's only at the third year of her middle school sure is acting like some old woman who remembered something nostalgic from ages ago. What do you mean 'back in the days? Haha.
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※~To be continued~※
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Author's Remarks:
※ The happenings during the summer break will be shown in side stories. I no longer want to prolong arcs xD. As for when it will be released? We'll see. I don't wanna start saying dates and then be unable to fulfill it.
Special thank yous to Ad-it and Ototsu_Yume for deciding to support me once again. It's been a tumultuous month, with my update schedule becoming erratic due to that but I'm thankful that I could still continue on xD.
I would like to of course thank my 6 other supporters who still continued to support me after all this time!
Sam Morgan
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