Chapter 26
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While waiting for his uniform to dry, Cora cuddled Arata to warm him. There were no more people passing that area in the park so he could stay like that without feeling awkward at all. Soon, they started chatting again until the uniform got dried enough for him to wear again. They got themselves dinner at a nearby fast food chain, and he walked her to her house.
The Cosmos Crown slept in his inventory. Since it was not bound to whose date a player got it from, he planned to save his crowns for Yukari and Tohru, quickly getting them to maximum affection. That would cut off the need for Encounters for Yukari, and hasten his progress with Tohru. Seeing that veterans like him only had two new date-ables to choose from, the event seemed to be rather early. Perhaps it was because the spring version did come as early, and made it hell for other date-ables. Or that, they wanted to gift the players with the albums as fast as they could. They already had the comeback event, though.
To think about it, he had no idea when the live would happen. He hasn't talked to Horsepower about it for a week now, and it would be suspicious if he asked out of the blue. He still have one action time before the day ends, and he was planning on using it to see the forums. He was pretty sure they noticed he got suspended for minutes. Then again, he only cared what his friends would say, rather than what the community would as a whole.
Arata reached his house and noticed how dim the Ginmachi residence was that night. It could be because they all had to sleep early out of fatigue and worry about Yuuta. He had been for almost an entire week, and even Yukari's extracurriculars and study were disturbed by this. He should ask Yukari out sometime; but then again, he could be making it worse for her. He wondered how long should he wait to get a bit of her free time.
He finally entered his bedroom and stretched a little. He got rid of his dirty clothes and threw them in the laundry basket set to be laundered before going to school on Saturday. He changed into more comfortable clothing, activating any effect as if he was going out again. He sat in front of his computer and logged into the forums, seeing the various posts about the Flower Festival event. He used his mouse to flip through the posts, only to have him receive a notification for a mention.
"Wow, they know I'm online?" He could only chuckle. With that long list of online players on the side, how did they know he was online? It baffled him.
It was on a post regarding the Dates during the Flower Festival event. Pantsu was asking if anyone had ever unlocked a secret request, and how to spot one. Devin was already there, but he did not give much indicators unlike when it was Arata's post. Botan did not get to unlock any, while Mumumu cried over the same issue since a second event album was too precious to pass. For some reasons, Arata paused scrolling as he saw who tagged him. Someone named Mama Ookami did, and they should be a friend of his in order to do so.
"This must be Sayaka..." He sighed before responding to Pantsu in text. "Yo, I opened one. It's called falling into the fountain water basin during Cora date in LP Flower Tunnel. Bummed emoticon."
"You fell into a what?" Botan sent with laughing emoticons.
"How did you even trigger that?" Pantsu arrived with angry emoticons. "Ah, so OP."
"I just tried catching the leaves that fell after we cleared the water basin. Cora fell victim to the joke MC made for Ruby. Remember the cleansing of the water gods?" Arata started to chuckle as he remembered the joke. He received some laughing emoticons and lol's as replies.
"Even for me, that's a weird one." Devin came with laughing emoticons. "I can't spoil anything. The requests are awfully based on the day of the date, time of the date, who the date, and where the date!" A barrage of laughing emoticons followed.
"Just try not to be careful and make the date-able laugh. That's the cue, I think?" Arata shared the reaction as a basis of action. "And oh, so wow, much poetry."
All of a sudden, Horsepower replied as well. "I took Attori skateboarding in the arcade. Got sent to the hospital for busting the lip in a very bad way. I got the secret request, but didn't complete the date. What."
"Look who's alive now!" Pantsu laughed out followed with a patting emoticon. "Losing one date is less worse than losing a chance to get a secret request."
"Secret requests are absurd scenarios!" Botan sent some roars, activating the roar emoticons from everyone else's emoticon lists. It was a few tens of lines before text started being uttered in the thread again, Botan continuing. "(At) Charge Devin, any secret request you got?"
"Ruby asked me to pick a rose from the park. She just wanted to lick my blood." Devin laughed out, following his replies with some vampire emoticons. "Vampire Ruby costume when!"
"What's up with those scenarios?" Mumumu sent a the-scream emoticon. "Why are we experiencing this!?"
"They always look like they were not giving it thoughts, but end up planning for every single thing that happens in the game." Arata sighed along with the sigh emoticon he pressed thrice. "I bet there's a reason why they were asking us to do absurd tasks."
"How much do you bet?" Devin sent a devil laugh.
Botan answered in his stead. "There goes the devil again! Gah! I hate you, Devin!" He sent a shaking-head emoticon. "I don't like it when you datamine everything..."
"Sorry. I was just being a good servant to the OP one..." Devin sent a line of sweat emoticons.
"Nooooo! Servants don't mock their king!" Mumumu laughed out as she replied to the 'bad servant' with some angry emoticons in between. "Then again, I hate how Arata would get things right most of the time."
"Those are just mere guesses with a lot of speculations." The king sent in some sweat emoticons.
After spending a lot of time in the public posts, Arata turned to the private messages, cringing at all the other messages he had. He only browsed through the messages of those he knew from the game, but did not reply to anyone at all. Then again, another message from Devin arrived as he was checking their one-sided conversations.
"You rarely come see the forums. How are you?" The friend seemed to be worried for reasons that Arata could not think of, aside from because he was missing on a lot.
"I'm good. Thanks for worrying, though. You don't have to." He sent smileys as if they could alleviate the other's bad feeling. "I just get a little busy so I seldom have the time to talk." He then remembered a little thought earlier that night. "By the way, was the live for the Challenge mode done?"
"Yeah, but Horsie didn't show up. He used an excuse and didn't log in for a week. He just came back, I think." Devin was unsure as well. "I never saw his holy green light shine until earlier."
"Holy green light?"
"Huh? It's a new function in the forums. You can follow someone who had posted in like ten threads or more. Whenever they are in the forums, their names in the list will have a green dot. That's how I know whenever you're around." He followed with a barrage of devil laughs. Devin paused before sending another one. "Still no patch notes?"
Arata reached to massage his forehead. Just when he thought he could just go around the forums and stroll, he was actually being noticed by everyone who had followed him. He was a popular name in the game for topping the leaderboards a lot; it also helped that he was not scared to interact, or too smug when talking to others. It was a headache since he was not trying to attract the attention of a lot of players. He had no idea he was walking blindly into the spotlight.
He then remembered he was talking to Devin. "Uh-huh. Can you do me a favor? Can you send me a short gist of what's new now?" Arata sent in a sighing emoticon. "Please, oh faithful servant." He just could not help but to laugh in front of the computer as he hit the send button.
"I'll get that ready for you, sire!" He sent hearts instead. "I just need to report for work now."
"Isn't it night time?" Arata replied, quite confidently because the time with Hideki jived with this world he now lived in.
Devin took quite a while before responding again. "Yes. My schedule is flexible this month so I work whenever I am asked to do so. Nothing really bad about it. I missed a lot of days anyway."
"Ah, must be hard to be working, huh." Arata lied down next to his keyboard, feeling the call of the expiring action time. He then closed his eyes before trying to open them again.
"It's getting really late. You should sleep, Arata."
"You don't have... to tell me..." His hand fell to his side, and the man started snoring as he slept on the desk again.
Morning came, and Arata woke up with a sore neck and back around the shoulders. His body was twisted in a bad way last night, and holding that position for the entire night made the pain worse. He kept on rubbing his back even when he met with Cora who was in the lounge. He did let her in earlier after all. They got out of the property and soon saw Yukari and her little brother going out of the house.
"You look like you're sore!" Yukari immediately pointed it out as soon as she saw the tired man who kept on rubbing his back. "You better rest on the bus. Let's see if I could massage you a little when we get to school."
"Wow, thanks for the service!" Arata laughed out a little, feeling the strain as his body shook. Maybe it was bad to overtire himself even though he only had eight action times in a day.
They went further into the path towards the bus stop, only for them to see Tohru and Keiko standing together underneath the roof. Arata walked faster as if congratulating their conciliation, only to be shocked by the next words coming from the childhood friend's mouth.
"I'll surely get her someday. You don't need to act like you care."
Arata stared at Keiko, as much as Yukari did. However, they could not start a scene as Yuuki was with them, holding the hand of his older sister. The three greeted their schoolmates like nothing happened, but Arata kept on looking at the other girl. Keiko noticed his gaze, before she smiled at his direction.
'Did this kind of rivalry exist before?' He thought as he looked away, and entertained Yuuki instead.
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While waiting for his uniform to dry, Cora cuddled Arata to warm him. There were no more people passing that area in the park so he could stay like that without feeling awkward at all. Soon, they started chatting again until the uniform got dried enough for him to wear again. They got themselves dinner at a nearby fast food chain, and he walked her to her house.
The Cosmos Crown slept in his inventory. Since it was not bound to whose date a player got it from, he planned to save his crowns for Yukari and Tohru, quickly getting them to maximum affection. That would cut off the need for Encounters for Yukari, and hasten his progress with Tohru. Seeing that veterans like him only had two new date-ables to choose from, the event seemed to be rather early. Perhaps it was because the spring version did come as early, and made it hell for other date-ables. Or that, they wanted to gift the players with the albums as fast as they could. They already had the comeback event, though.
To think about it, he had no idea when the live would happen. He hasn't talked to Horsepower about it for a week now, and it would be suspicious if he asked out of the blue. He still have one action time before the day ends, and he was planning on using it to see the forums. He was pretty sure they noticed he got suspended for minutes. Then again, he only cared what his friends would say, rather than what the community would as a whole.
Arata reached his house and noticed how dim the Ginmachi residence was that night. It could be because they all had to sleep early out of fatigue and worry about Yuuta. He had been for almost an entire week, and even Yukari's extracurriculars and study were disturbed by this. He should ask Yukari out sometime; but then again, he could be making it worse for her. He wondered how long should he wait to get a bit of her free time.
He finally entered his bedroom and stretched a little. He got rid of his dirty clothes and threw them in the laundry basket set to be laundered before going to school on Saturday. He changed into more comfortable clothing, activating any effect as if he was going out again. He sat in front of his computer and logged into the forums, seeing the various posts about the Flower Festival event. He used his mouse to flip through the posts, only to have him receive a notification for a mention.
"Wow, they know I'm online?" He could only chuckle. With that long list of online players on the side, how did they know he was online? It baffled him.
It was on a post regarding the Dates during the Flower Festival event. Pantsu was asking if anyone had ever unlocked a secret request, and how to spot one. Devin was already there, but he did not give much indicators unlike when it was Arata's post. Botan did not get to unlock any, while Mumumu cried over the same issue since a second event album was too precious to pass. For some reasons, Arata paused scrolling as he saw who tagged him. Someone named Mama Ookami did, and they should be a friend of his in order to do so.
"This must be Sayaka..." He sighed before responding to Pantsu in text. "Yo, I opened one. It's called falling into the fountain water basin during Cora date in LP Flower Tunnel. Bummed emoticon."
"You fell into a what?" Botan sent with laughing emoticons.
"How did you even trigger that?" Pantsu arrived with angry emoticons. "Ah, so OP."
"I just tried catching the leaves that fell after we cleared the water basin. Cora fell victim to the joke MC made for Ruby. Remember the cleansing of the water gods?" Arata started to chuckle as he remembered the joke. He received some laughing emoticons and lol's as replies.
"Even for me, that's a weird one." Devin came with laughing emoticons. "I can't spoil anything. The requests are awfully based on the day of the date, time of the date, who the date, and where the date!" A barrage of laughing emoticons followed.
"Just try not to be careful and make the date-able laugh. That's the cue, I think?" Arata shared the reaction as a basis of action. "And oh, so wow, much poetry."
All of a sudden, Horsepower replied as well. "I took Attori skateboarding in the arcade. Got sent to the hospital for busting the lip in a very bad way. I got the secret request, but didn't complete the date. What."
"Look who's alive now!" Pantsu laughed out followed with a patting emoticon. "Losing one date is less worse than losing a chance to get a secret request."
"Secret requests are absurd scenarios!" Botan sent some roars, activating the roar emoticons from everyone else's emoticon lists. It was a few tens of lines before text started being uttered in the thread again, Botan continuing. "(At) Charge Devin, any secret request you got?"
"Ruby asked me to pick a rose from the park. She just wanted to lick my blood." Devin laughed out, following his replies with some vampire emoticons. "Vampire Ruby costume when!"
"What's up with those scenarios?" Mumumu sent a the-scream emoticon. "Why are we experiencing this!?"
"They always look like they were not giving it thoughts, but end up planning for every single thing that happens in the game." Arata sighed along with the sigh emoticon he pressed thrice. "I bet there's a reason why they were asking us to do absurd tasks."
"How much do you bet?" Devin sent a devil laugh.
Botan answered in his stead. "There goes the devil again! Gah! I hate you, Devin!" He sent a shaking-head emoticon. "I don't like it when you datamine everything..."
"Sorry. I was just being a good servant to the OP one..." Devin sent a line of sweat emoticons.
"Nooooo! Servants don't mock their king!" Mumumu laughed out as she replied to the 'bad servant' with some angry emoticons in between. "Then again, I hate how Arata would get things right most of the time."
"Those are just mere guesses with a lot of speculations." The king sent in some sweat emoticons.
After spending a lot of time in the public posts, Arata turned to the private messages, cringing at all the other messages he had. He only browsed through the messages of those he knew from the game, but did not reply to anyone at all. Then again, another message from Devin arrived as he was checking their one-sided conversations.
"You rarely come see the forums. How are you?" The friend seemed to be worried for reasons that Arata could not think of, aside from because he was missing on a lot.
"I'm good. Thanks for worrying, though. You don't have to." He sent smileys as if they could alleviate the other's bad feeling. "I just get a little busy so I seldom have the time to talk." He then remembered a little thought earlier that night. "By the way, was the live for the Challenge mode done?"
"Yeah, but Horsie didn't show up. He used an excuse and didn't log in for a week. He just came back, I think." Devin was unsure as well. "I never saw his holy green light shine until earlier."
"Holy green light?"
"Huh? It's a new function in the forums. You can follow someone who had posted in like ten threads or more. Whenever they are in the forums, their names in the list will have a green dot. That's how I know whenever you're around." He followed with a barrage of devil laughs. Devin paused before sending another one. "Still no patch notes?"
Arata reached to massage his forehead. Just when he thought he could just go around the forums and stroll, he was actually being noticed by everyone who had followed him. He was a popular name in the game for topping the leaderboards a lot; it also helped that he was not scared to interact, or too smug when talking to others. It was a headache since he was not trying to attract the attention of a lot of players. He had no idea he was walking blindly into the spotlight.
He then remembered he was talking to Devin. "Uh-huh. Can you do me a favor? Can you send me a short gist of what's new now?" Arata sent in a sighing emoticon. "Please, oh faithful servant." He just could not help but to laugh in front of the computer as he hit the send button.
"I'll get that ready for you, sire!" He sent hearts instead. "I just need to report for work now."
"Isn't it night time?" Arata replied, quite confidently because the time with Hideki jived with this world he now lived in.
Devin took quite a while before responding again. "Yes. My schedule is flexible this month so I work whenever I am asked to do so. Nothing really bad about it. I missed a lot of days anyway."
"Ah, must be hard to be working, huh." Arata lied down next to his keyboard, feeling the call of the expiring action time. He then closed his eyes before trying to open them again.
"It's getting really late. You should sleep, Arata."
"You don't have... to tell me..." His hand fell to his side, and the man started snoring as he slept on the desk again.
Morning came, and Arata woke up with a sore neck and back around the shoulders. His body was twisted in a bad way last night, and holding that position for the entire night made the pain worse. He kept on rubbing his back even when he met with Cora who was in the lounge. He did let her in earlier after all. They got out of the property and soon saw Yukari and her little brother going out of the house.
"You look like you're sore!" Yukari immediately pointed it out as soon as she saw the tired man who kept on rubbing his back. "You better rest on the bus. Let's see if I could massage you a little when we get to school."
"Wow, thanks for the service!" Arata laughed out a little, feeling the strain as his body shook. Maybe it was bad to overtire himself even though he only had eight action times in a day.
They went further into the path towards the bus stop, only for them to see Tohru and Keiko standing together underneath the roof. Arata walked faster as if congratulating their conciliation, only to be shocked by the next words coming from the childhood friend's mouth.
"I'll surely get her someday. You don't need to act like you care."
Arata stared at Keiko, as much as Yukari did. However, they could not start a scene as Yuuki was with them, holding the hand of his older sister. The three greeted their schoolmates like nothing happened, but Arata kept on looking at the other girl. Keiko noticed his gaze, before she smiled at his direction.
'Did this kind of rivalry exist before?' He thought as he looked away, and entertained Yuuki instead.
While waiting for his uniform to dry, Cora cuddled Arata to warm him. There were no more people passing that area in the park so he could stay like that without feeling awkward at all. Soon, they started chatting again until the uniform got dried enough for him to wear again. They got themselves dinner at a nearby fast food chain, and he walked her to her house.The Cosmos Crown slept in his inventory. Since it was not bound to whose date a player got it from, he planned to save his crowns for Yukari and Tohru, quickly getting them to maximum affection. That would cut off the need for Encounters for Yukari, and hasten his progress with Tohru. Seeing that veterans like him only had two new date-ables to choose from, the event seemed to be rather early. Perhaps it was because the spring version did come as early, and made it hell for other date-ables. Or that, they wanted to gift the players with the albums as fast as they could. They already had the comeback event, though.To think about it, he had no idea when the live would happen. He hasn't talked to Horsepower about it for a week now, and it would be suspicious if he asked out of the blue. He still have one action time before the day ends, and he was planning on using it to see the forums. He was pretty sure they noticed he got suspended for minutes. Then again, he only cared what his friends would say, rather than what the community would as a whole.Arata reached his house and noticed how dim the Ginmachi residence was that night. It could be because they all had to sleep early out of fatigue and worry about Yuuta. He had been for almost an entire week, and even Yukari's extracurriculars and study were disturbed by this. He should ask Yukari out sometime; but then again, he could be making it worse for her. He wondered how long should he wait to get a bit of her free time.He finally entered his bedroom and stretched a little. He got rid of his dirty clothes and threw them in the laundry basket set to be laundered before going to school on Saturday. He changed into more comfortable clothing, activating any effect as if he was going out again. He sat in front of his computer and logged into the forums, seeing the various posts about the Flower Festival event. He used his mouse to flip through the posts, only to have him receive a notification for a mention."Wow, they know I'm online?" He could only chuckle. With that long list of online players on the side, how did they know he was online? It baffled him.It was on a post regarding the Dates during the Flower Festival event. Pantsu was asking if anyone had ever unlocked a secret request, and how to spot one. Devin was already there, but he did not give much indicators unlike when it was Arata's post. Botan did not get to unlock any, while Mumumu cried over the same issue since a second event album was too precious to pass. For some reasons, Arata paused scrolling as he saw who tagged him. Someone named Mama Ookami did, and they should be a friend of his in order to do so."This must be Sayaka..." He sighed before responding to Pantsu in text. "Yo, I opened one. It's called falling into the fountain water basin during Cora date in LP Flower Tunnel. Bummed emoticon.""You fell into a what?" Botan sent with laughing emoticons."How did you even trigger that?" Pantsu arrived with angry emoticons. "Ah, so OP.""I just tried catching the leaves that fell after we cleared the water basin. Cora fell victim to the joke MC made for Ruby. Remember the cleansing of the water gods?" Arata started to chuckle as he remembered the joke. He received some laughing emoticons and lol's as replies."Even for me, that's a weird one." Devin came with laughing emoticons. "I can't spoil anything. The requests are awfully based on the day of the date, time of the date, who the date, and where the date!" A barrage of laughing emoticons followed."Just try not to be careful and make the date-able laugh. That's the cue, I think?" Arata shared the reaction as a basis of action. "And oh, so wow, much poetry."All of a sudden, Horsepower replied as well. "I took Attori skateboarding in the arcade. Got sent to the hospital for busting the lip in a very bad way. I got the secret request, but didn't complete the date. What.""Look who's alive now!" Pantsu laughed out followed with a patting emoticon. "Losing one date is less worse than losing a chance to get a secret request.""Secret requests are absurd scenarios!" Botan sent some roars, activating the roar emoticons from everyone else's emoticon lists. It was a few tens of lines before text started being uttered in the thread again, Botan continuing. "At Charge Devin, any secret request you got?""Ruby asked me to pick a rose from the park. She just wanted to lick my blood." Devin laughed out, following his replies with some vampire emoticons. "Vampire Ruby costume when!""What's up with those scenarios?" Mumumu sent a the-scream emoticon. "Why are we experiencing this!?""They always look like they were not giving it thoughts, but end up planning for every single thing that happens in the game." Arata sighed along with the sigh emoticon he pressed thrice. "I bet there's a reason why they were asking us to do absurd tasks.""How much do you bet?" Devin sent a devil laugh.Botan answered in his stead. "There goes the devil again! Gah! I hate you, Devin!" He sent a shaking-head emoticon. "I don't like it when you datamine everything...""Sorry. I was just being a good servant to the OP one..." Devin sent a line of sweat emoticons."Nooooo! Servants don't mock their king!" Mumumu laughed out as she replied to the 'bad servant' with some angry emoticons in between. "Then again, I hate how Arata would get things right most of the time.""Those are just mere guesses with a lot of speculations." The king sent in some sweat emoticons.After spending a lot of time in the public posts, Arata turned to the private messages, cringing at all the other messages he had. He only browsed through the messages of those he knew from the game, but did not reply to anyone at all. Then again, another message from Devin arrived as he was checking their one-sided conversations."You rarely come see the forums. How are you?" The friend seemed to be worried for reasons that Arata could not think of, aside from because he was missing on a lot."I'm good. Thanks for worrying, though. You don't have to." He sent smileys as if they could alleviate the other's bad feeling. "I just get a little busy so I seldom have the time to talk." He then remembered a little thought earlier that night. "By the way, was the live for the Challenge mode done?""Yeah, but Horsie didn't show up. He used an excuse and didn't log in for a week. He just came back, I think." Devin was unsure as well. "I never saw his holy green light shine until earlier.""Holy green light?""Huh? It's a new function in the forums. You can follow someone who had posted in like ten threads or more. Whenever they are in the forums, their names in the list will have a green dot. That's how I know whenever you're around." He followed with a barrage of devil laughs. Devin paused before sending another one. "Still no patch notes?"Arata reached to massage his forehead. Just when he thought he could just go around the forums and stroll, he was actually being noticed by everyone who had followed him. He was a popular name in the game for topping the leaderboards a lot; it also helped that he was not scared to interact, or too smug when talking to others. It was a headache since he was not trying to attract the attention of a lot of players. He had no idea he was walking blindly into the spotlight.He then remembered he was talking to Devin. "Uh-huh. Can you do me a favor? Can you send me a short gist of what's new now?" Arata sent in a sighing emoticon. "Please, oh faithful servant." He just could not help but to laugh in front of the computer as he hit the send button."I'll get that ready for you, sire!" He sent hearts instead. "I just need to report for work now.""Isn't it night time?" Arata replied, quite confidently because the time with Hideki jived with this world he now lived in.Devin took quite a while before responding again. "Yes. My schedule is flexible this month so I work whenever I am asked to do so. Nothing really bad about it. I missed a lot of days anyway.""Ah, must be hard to be working, huh." Arata lied down next to his keyboard, feeling the call of the expiring action time. He then closed his eyes before trying to open them again."It's getting really late. You should sleep, Arata.""You don't have... to tell me..." His hand fell to his side, and the man started snoring as he slept on the desk again.Morning came, and Arata woke up with a sore neck and back around the shoulders. His body was twisted in a bad way last night, and holding that position for the entire night made the pain worse. He kept on rubbing his back even when he met with Cora who was in the lounge. He did let her in earlier after all. They got out of the property and soon saw Yukari and her little brother going out of the house."You look like you're sore!" Yukari immediately pointed it out as soon as she saw the tired man who kept on rubbing his back. "You better rest on the bus. Let's see if I could massage you a little when we get to school.""Wow, thanks for the service!" Arata laughed out a little, feeling the strain as his body shook. Maybe it was bad to overtire himself even though he only had eight action times in a day.They went further into the path towards the bus stop, only for them to see Tohru and Keiko standing together underneath the roof. Arata walked faster as if congratulating their conciliation, only to be shocked by the next words coming from the childhood friend's mouth."I'll surely get her someday. You don't need to act like you care."Arata stared at Keiko, as much as Yukari did. However, they could not start a scene as Yuuki was with them, holding the hand of his older sister. The three greeted their schoolmates like nothing happened, but Arata kept on looking at the other girl. Keiko noticed his gaze, before she smiled at his direction.'Did this kind of rivalry exist before?' He thought as he looked away, and entertained Yuuki instead.
