"...."
Haru cooked breakfast quietly while Tabane, Charlotte, and Sumire were sitting on the chairs in the dining room without saying anything.
The mood of the four of them wasn't good, especially after they remembered their nightmare last night. It might be because of Tabane's program that it made them remember clearly their nightmare last night.
Even if Haru had a strong mind, it didn't mean he was alright when he dreamed of himself being killed by Brandish. He knew that he was wrong since he hadn't met Brandish after the side effect of his magic had disappeared and he also had left her without saying anything. He also dated a lot of women and lastly, he also married Esdeath. He fully realized that he was a bastard and scum, but when he thought about the consequences of his action.....
"....."
"Sigh..." 4x
Everyone sighed at the same time.
"Breakfast is ready."
Haru made quinoa, salmon, mushroom, and yogurt. All of the ingredients which he used had a function to boost the mood.
Everyone ate quietly for a while and their mood had become slightly better. Then after that Haru said, "I have a very bad dream."
"Same." 3x
Sumire looked at Haru and asked, "I'm curious, what is your dream?"
"I was killed," Haru said simply, however, he felt that it wasn't wrong that he was being killed since he had left Brandish for so long.
"....."
Everyone was speechless when they heard Haru's answer. They couldn't imagine how it felt being killed in the dream.
"I know that we just had a nightmare last night and I won't ask about your nightmare, but we need to try "burst brain" to see our avatar," Haru said.
They nodded and knew that what was important was the quest and everything which they had seen last night only happened in the dream. They ended their dinner quickly and went to the living room to prepare.
"Haru.... pamper me..." Tabane said while looking at Haru.
"..."
"Lay on my lap," Haru said.
Tabane laid her head on Haru's lap and suddenly felt quite relaxed.
Haru also caressed her head slowly while telling her that everything would be alright.
Tabane closed her eyes and felt very comfortable. She started to forget the nightmare which she had gotten last night.
"..."
Charlotte and Sumire looked at Haru and Tabane for a while.
"Do you want to try it too?" Haru asked.
Charlotte and Sumire nodded to see how effective Haru's lap was.
---
After being pampered by Haru for a while, three girls had become better and understood why this guy was being called harem protagonist by everyone.
"Ready?" Haru asked.
"Yeah!" 3x
Everyone was ready and they decided to test this game which was known as "brain burst".
"Burst Link!" 4x
Suddenly the world turned blue and their consciousness came out from their bodies.
Haru looked at everyone on "Network Avatar".
Tabane was wearing a maid uniform with bunny ears on the top of her head.
Sumire and Charlotte were the same since they didn't change their appearance that much and only wore a lab coat.
Haru was different since he was wearing a crocodile costume on his body.
"..."
"Why crocodile?" Charlotte asked.
"You don't need to think too much about it," Haru said. He sighed and saw that there was also a wolf costume too, but he didn't say anything about it.
Charlotte felt a bit confused, but she nodded regardless.
"But this is a "Burst Link", huh? I'm sure that a lot of children use this feature to cheat during an exam," Sumire said.
When they were using "brain burst", there was an effect that was known as "accelerated".
Everyone was checking this "Accelerated World" curiously since in this blue world, everything seemed to be frozen.
But the truth was, that wasn't the case.
The blue world is a 3D imaginary reconstructed world which was created from the footage taken by multiple social cameras.
But what if there weren't any social cameras within the room? They would be transferred to another stage where they defaulted from the game.
In their case, it seemed to be an abandoned building with a blue color since there weren't any social cameras inside their condo.
Then how were they able to see this blue world? It was because their brain perceived this imaginary world through "Neuro Linker" with an accelerated thought process.
When being "accelerated" the processing rate of the "Burst Linker" or the player of the "Brain Burst" rate was a thousand times faster after acceleration. In other words, one second in the real world was the same as 1,000 seconds or 16 minutes and 40 seconds in this "Accelerated World".
Haru felt that "accelerating" was similar to a superpower and it could help a lot of things from the study, fighting, and a lot of more. He checked the list of players that were activated within the network in this building. If he used a global network then he might be able to see a lot more players, but it wasn't necessary now since he wanted to get used to the game first.
'There are four players...'
Haru didn't see "Silver Crow" and that meant Haruyuki hadn't played this game but...
"What the heck is this name?"
His voice attracted Tabane, Sumire, and Charlotte who were looking around the blue world in their surroundings.
"What's wrong?"
Haru looked at them and asked, "Have you checked your avatar name?"
"Avatar name?" 3x
"I'm a Maroon Owl," Charlotte said.
"Sunset Lop," Tabane said.
"Lilac Deer," Sumire said.
Then Haru noticed their gaze and said, "I'm Ocean Stingray." He felt that the nickname of his "Duel Avatar" was a bit weird. 'But really? Stingray?'
"Stingray?"
They hadn't seen their "Duel Avatar", and they didn't know what kind of shape it was, but from the name, they could tell that it must have something to do with an animal.
Owl, Lop, Deer, and Stingray; the four of them had an animal name in their avatar name.
"Then how about we have a match? We have four people and we can do a tag-battle," Tabane said with a beaming smile.
There are two types of matches on "brain burst"; first was a normal match and the second was a tag-match.
In a normal match, a player needs to fight against a player. In other words, it was a one-on-one battle. But in the tag match, it is two players against two players which means a team battle.
"I'll go with Charlotte," Haru said.
Tabane nodded and said, "I'll go with Sumire."
Only Haru and Tabane had experience in fighting. Even though Charlotte and Sumire might have seen a lot of fights, it was only a theory.
"Wait, we don't have to get serious during the match. We need to get used to our "Duel Avatar" and grasp our avatar's ability," Charlotte said. She didn't want to fight for real and wanted to know more about her avatar first before they really started their quest.
They nodded and had a party with each other before they started their tag match.
---
The world suddenly transformed once again, from a blue world to Twilight Stage.
Haru looked at his surroundings and the condo building turned into an abandoned building without any walls or doors in their surroundings, but what was the most noticeable out of this stage was the shining moon which shone brightly in the sky.
"Haru, your avatar...."
Haru felt weird since he heard a voice from above him. Then he saw three "Duel Avatar" from Sumire, Tabane, and Charlotte, but his position was a bit weird since he could only see them by lifting his head. He tried to move, but he didn't have legs and was only able to move by flapping his sides to move slowly forward. Lastly, he realized that he had become a stingray. Not a humanoid stingray, but a real stingray who was only able to move on the water.
"What the hell is this?!"
His scream reverberated throughout the building, but no one could answer his complaint at this moment and he knew that he was stuck in this form which made him very helpless.