「Miyagi-san」
「Miyagi-san? 」
Miyagi didn't respond to her name being called via words, instead all she did was turn to the person whom spoke to her which was Kotone and looked at her with absentminded eyes.
「Yes, Miyagi Aoba-san, was one of my classmates back in the day」 (Kotone speaking)
「Is that so? umm...Miyagi-san?」(Taiyou speaking)
Taiyou called out towards Miyagi in an inquisitive voice. Thereupon her wrath filled gaze, was raised by one level in intensity.
What was she so angry about I wonder?, Taiyou thought that, he shouldn't have done even a single thing to offend her in the slightest, however, in the next instant he recalled the words spoken by Aoba and he formulated some sort of understanding "ahh so that's what this is about".
——-Out of the three Hayakawa-san's, which do you like the most?
Yesterday, the three sisters were talking quite intimately with him in the classroom.
From the get go, they were asking Taiyou questions about the games he was playing, and the crowd could somehow accept the fact that they were asking advice from Taiyou considering his special knowledge in the matter, however, the fact that the three sisters were all vying for his attentions was something everyone felt was weird/unusual/ridiculous.
Simply put, the three sisters were practically swooning all over him. The fact that the three sisters merely used the game as a pretext for approaching Taiyou….. Was so blatantly apparent that even a natural airhead would be able to figure that out.
The fact that the three sisters, no longer saw Taiyou as just a regular classmate became so wide spread that the entire school heard the rumours before school even finished.
Three famous sisters, the identical triplets.
Within the school, the sisters were existences accepted as some sort of a celebrity personality. Consequently, the rumour spread like wildfire.
"The three were making some moves on a single man."
In order to extract the truth from those words, a certain person game to interrogate him.
(Even so, her hostility is so fierce I can almost feel it on my skin...…Oh well, let's leave it at that)
「I'll ask you once again, you, which of the three sisters do you like the most? 」
Aoba repeated her words a second time, without hiding any of the indignation she felt towards Taiyou.
「Rather than who I like the most, it's more like....」
「You won't say you like them all equally right? 」
「If I may be bold/daring that is what I meant to say...」
This was his true opinions.
For now he hadn't know the girls long enough to find a distinctive component which could clearly differentiate which girl he liked the most. The three girls had the same face, and the amount of time he spent with each individual is about the same. If a favourability/likability factor was converted into numericals, Taiyou predicted that they would all be the same number.
That's why he answered in that manner, however, it would seem it did not meet up to Aoba's standards.
「You're the worst! 」
「Eh? 」
「You are that kind of guy aren't you? You are just fooling around with their feelings and trying to have an affair with them!!」
「No, I haven't done anything to them…..」
「Hayakawa-san! 」
「Eh? Yes? 」
「Are you ok with that? As you just heard, this is the kind of man he is」
Hearing Aoba's question, Kotone looks unblinkingly
at Taiyou.
「Are we really, all liked equally? 」
「Yeah, that's how it is」
「Thank you, this is why we like you」
「ehhhhhh? 」
Aoba raised her voice in a bewildered shriek.
「Are you insane? That guy, he's clearly just playing around with the three of you? 」
「No, in my case, I'm not just playing around」
「What did you just say? 」
Aoba gave Taiyou a stern look. However, Taiyou was indifferent towards Aoba's reaction, and he looked towards Kotone and began to talk to her.
「From the previous talk we just had, I'd like to clarify, due to your circumstances, is there even such a thing like "differential treatment"? 」
「What do you mean? 」
「What I mean is, do you guys think of yourselves as one entity? Or three separated individualistic entities? 」
「Ummmm…..」
Kotone tilted her neck and was trying to think.
Apparently, this question was never considered by her before, and this is the main reason that it would be impossible to give and answer and choose a single one of them especially at this early point in time.
Whilst in the middle of class, Taiyou was turning over his 1 yen coin above his opened text book. When he was using his smart phone to level his characters in the game, it was not possible to play his games during class and it made him slightly unsatisfied.
But now he didn't need to worry, and he was happy with the fact that he could continue accumulate experience points. This is because all he was really doing was just flipping the coin from heads to tails over and over, it wasn't anything overly fancy and even the teachers can't really make out a complaint.
Even other students would do similar type of actions, it was like the steady action of spinning pens in class.
Whilst doing this action, Taiyou was looking around inside his classroom.
Kotone, Suzune and Kazane.
The three of them were lacking in uniformity and each of them were absentmindedly staring into space It was the kind of situation where, they had their textbook's out and notes open, but even so the sharp pen's in their hands stopped moving and they weren't listening to the lecture. It was clear that they were thinking deeply about something.
(Were they thinking about what I said to Kotone earlier?)
Taiyou was feeling a slight sense of responsibility as the one who asked the question.
He didn't know whether the statement he made towards the girls, was good or bad, but that was for the girls to decide, and Taiyou didn't have any power in the matter. However, without a doubt it was his brief comment that made the girls become troubled.
Making them feel troubled/worried, he felt a sense of responsibility towards them.
When he was just in the process of thinking, "what should I do about this?"..... Hera appeared out of thin air. It was as if she instantly teleported in front of him, in front of a spatial area that had nothing, she suddenly blinked into existence. (Goku style teleportation)
She was floating delicately, but she just fluttered there silently whilst looking at Taiyou.
Level Up!
Those words surfaced into his mind.
「Teacher! I have a sore stomach please let me go to the toilet」
After having said that, without even caring about his classmates attention. Taiyou dashed out of the classroom. Hera was keeping true to her promise, and only after they entered an unpopulated corridor did she begin to open her mouth.
「Te re re te te te—♪ Taiyou-chan levelled up! ~」
「So it finally happened! I'm level 4 aren't I」
「Yeah—. You became stronger again Taiyou-chan~」
「Wait a moment, let's move to a more secure place so that we can confirm」
He ran through the corridor, went to the stairs located in the interior part of the building and began to climb rapidly into the rooftop, this was a place where nobody seemed to visit.
Under the clear blue skies, he turned towards Hera who was following right behind him.
「Alright, show me my status」
「Roger that~, nanodesu」
In response Hera began her whirling dance in mid-air. Taiyou lay his back straight on the rooftop ground and closed his eyes, as the torrent of numerical values went straight into his brain.
He immediately concentrated on the numerical value he was most anxious about and tried to make it appear.
「Popularity is 0, Charm is 65535 so I see it hasn't changed」
「Yes〜」
「Well, then that's good I suppose」
Taiyou said this in a disappointed manner.
Well for him this was naturally the case, the figures started with 1 and 0, but when it reduced from 0 , the Charm value was instead overflowed and increased to an unimaginable league. He was anticipating/expecting that when he levelled, his values could decrease further or even that the bug may go the other way and his values would reset back to 0.
「I would like to confirm, these two values, none of them has changed right? 」
「Yeah〜, both these values were unaffected〜」
「I understand」
He nodded at Hera's response and he put these matters at the back of his mind for now, he then proceeded to check the other numeric values.
Although he levelled up the other values barely moved at all, it was to a pathetic degree that each value only increased by a maximum of 1.
Although there was one particular status value that showed high prominence.
The strength/power value, was raised from a value of 6 to a value of 30!
「So that's how it is」
After he finished checking his values, Taiyou slowly opens his eye lids.
「As I predicted, I'm some sort of power specialised character, the way in which my stats increase seems to confirm this. Yeah」
Taiyou inclines his head.
「Is there something bad about it? 」
「It's not really something bad per say, but it's more like, how do I explain it…. In an offline game a character who specialises in strength will be effective immediately and be battle ready as a valuable war potential. however in comparison to that, Whilst strength is important in an online game, rather than having an all rounded character it is much more stronger to focus your abilities in one category」
「Is that so? 〜」
「When the environment changes….. The hypothesis is that the type of specialisation that is advantageous will also change. And I was pondering which of the stats are good to focus on in real life.」
「I believe in Taiyou-chan, so no matter what stat you focus on I think you will become strong〜. You will immediately become battle-ready, and continue to become stronger until the end〜」
「If that was true, it would be nice」
Hera was trying to encourage/cheer on Taiyou with such innocence that Taiyou could only put on a wry smile, if it was really true, it would be great he thought.
「Well, even though my strength has increased, I don't actually feel any difference in my body. To begin with, a value of 30 how much stronger is that in human terms? 」
「I'm sorry, I am not knowledgeable in that matter〜」
Hera looked pitiful when she realised she couldn't help. Seeing this Taiyou tried to cheer her up.
「That's alright, Even though there aren't any apparent results yet, being able to increase my level like this is really fun, so don't worry too much」
「Yes〜…..」
「More importantly what is the next task I need to accomplish in order to level? 」
「Yes! Umm it is〜....」
Hera was folding her arms and thinking. Taiyou thought she was feeling down, but in the next second, she was already recovered. Seeing her like this, it reminded Taiyou of playing with a cute small animal, it gave him a pleasant feeling.
Whilst having a small smile that slightly raised the corners of his mouth, he stood up and went to turn the door lever, however——
BAKI! (Sound effect)
A loud sound was heard, and Taiyou fell backwards.
He did not comprehend what just occurred, Taiyou fell onto his bottom and it took a while for him to digest what really transpired, but, it turns out that inside his hands was, precisely, the door lever that broke off!