Chapter 24: Balance of Games and Real Life

「Fuh……」

Waking up, I can see the rays of morning sun entering my room through the gaps in the closed curtains. Even though I knew it, it was still hard for me to believe that I was playing ShanFro all night long, and dear God…… If it wasn’t for health issues, I would love to stay logged in forever. But that being said, playing all day long was something I couldn’t do. So I drank some water, took the empty bottle with me and went down into the kitchen.

「Good morning.」

「Good morning to you as well, it seems that even though you are playing so much you’re still keeping your sense of time and reality about you.」

「But logging out is really harsh……」

There was once a time that I lost all of my data after forgetting to save after nearly eight hours of playtime without a break, and as the aftermath of that I was unable to taste food properly for some time. So in order to not repeat that tragedy ever again, I set some iron rules for myself to follow, and so far I was doing a good job at abiding by said rules. Even though the console itself was equipped with a battery in case of a sudden power outage, repeating such a marathon of gaming would be potentially hazardous for my health.

Other people would often voice concerns over the way of upbringing in our house, but that is only because it was decided that the family members could freely cultivate their own hobbies without having to worry about the interference or critique from other people. So far this way of living was proving to produce satisfactory results.

My father, Senji, loves fishing on an almost pathological level, and every month he’s using a part of his salary to go on fishing trips.

My mother is a huge maniac of insects of any kind, and she is quite a famous researcher in that field. She even managed to write a groundbreaking article regarding the population of butterflies in South America.

I, of course, am an avid gamer. I spent most of my free time on playing VR video games.

My little sister, Rumi, is a fashion nut and she begged our parents to have a second separate room just for clothes she likes to buy at such an astounding pace that her monthly allowance was unable to keep up with her overall expenses. So just to be able to buy the clothes she wanted, she now works as a part-time model almost every single day. If I remember correctly, lately she’s been featured in some really popular fashion magazine.

It seems that our family circumstances are what you might call far from normal, because when I told this to my homeroom teacher back in middle school he responded by insisting on having a conference with my parents. It was a total waste of my time, because we also had a rule at our house that stated that we eat our meals together and spend Sundays as a whole family together.

「What about you, Dad?」

「I went fishing yesterday…… In fact I just got back.」

There was a time when dad had to sell some of his fishing rods because he had received a penalty for fishing a swordfish in a place where it was prohibited to do so. For a while he was even refraining from fishing in all out of fear. But the swordfish he caught was indeed delicious. The truth is, every member of the family added something of our own to help out, either by selling clothes (my sister), selling some rare butterflies to collectors (mother), or selling the limited versions of the sh*tty games that were still in my collection (myself). Since then we all keep an eye out for one another, but our relationship is good and healthy. Really.

「Now that I’m back, I managed to catch some really good carp. Maybe I’ll ask mother to make us some tempura for tonight.」

「Good morning…… Oh, Dad, are you back? Is that a tuna you have there?」

「I wish it would be like that, but with my current equipment and in this area it is impossible to catch one.」

Aaaa

「And how are you lately?」

「I’ve started playing this new game and I’m really enjoying it so far.」

「I started working part-time as a model.」

Dad has a track record of going to distant places to fish, and on one such trip he claims that he managed to catch a bluefish tuna. Allegedly it was truly massive, but he had no way to know for sure. And since Mom would often travel to collect butterflies and insects, Dad’s escapades were really on an acceptable level.

「Recently there were more people caught fishing for swordfish, so I think that I am going to quickly become friends with those people.」

Miso soup with rice, natto, grilled sea bream…… Since our household has a fishing maniac, we were always having a variety of fish dishes to try out since we were young. Mother joins us as well after tending to her butterflies and the whole family can enjoy their meal. Usually we would discuss our hobbies and interests, and sometimes the topics would shift to grades, school and work.

After breakfast, we all return to our own little world. Next time we meet it is probably going to be around 7 p.m for dinner. Since mom and dad go to work and little sister goes out to her part time job. And even though some of the neighbours were worried that I was being neglected, I am still a proud member of this family, so please don’t call child protective services on our house.

「Hm? A mail?」

Before I managed to get back to ShanFro, my phone rang, informing me that I received an e-mail. It was all possible because my mobile phone was linked with my head gear. Now, when we talk about my gaming friends, there was really one possible option as to who it might have been –– Modorokatsu, my online best friend.

We’ve never met in real life but we know each other well enough to exchange mails and messages, but we rarely play together because our tastes in games differ as much as day and night. But we do consult one another if we happen to come across walls of any kind in our games that we cannot jump over on our own.

Subject: I bought it as well

From: Modorokatsu

To: Sanraku

Body: I bought ShanFro as well. Where are you? I can meet you if you want.

「So, Modorokatsu bought ShanFro as well? Who would have thought?」

I know for sure that he’s a professional gamer, but is his time management going to be alright? Nowadays professional gamers can undergo as rigorous of a training regimen as athletes. They are not yet established as an Olympic Games discipline, but Modorokatsu himself believes that we are slowly getting there.

And wasn’t a tournament drawing close? Oh well, let’s just inform him that currently I am right in the middle of a unique quest, so he knows in advance.

There was also one more message. This one was from……

Subject: Is it going to rain tomorrow as well?

From: Pencil Warrior

To: Sanraku

Body: I heard it from Modorokatsu, but is it true that Sanraku, the legendary sh*tty games hunter tried something new, ShanFro no less!?

Aren’t you hungry? Are you allergic to anything?

Ah, I’m a high-level player in ShanFro, so once you reach Fiftsia, we can go hunt together!^^

It was nothing but a friendly chatter, but the perspective of reaching Fiftsia was truly tempting, since then I could gain a powerful ally in my battle against the Night Prowler. Also, I should send him an image of Emul sometime later.

Anyways, maybe I should collect some information before logging in again? It wouldn’t hurt to do so, especially since the game was way more complex than I was initially thinking.

I guess my family would be worried about my well-being if I only had friends with whom I couldn’t even meet.

And please don’t worry about our social skills and abilities. Us gamers need to maintain them at a pretty high level in order to communicate and search for information.