"I'm home." Yuuta greeted. "Oh, and remove your shoes before coming in."
"Yes, I know." She said, remembering that she almost forgot to take her off when she came for the first time.
Sakurai Rin, who was comfortably sitting on the living room sofa, heard the slight commotion so he decided to sneak up on the doorway. He was convinced that he heard a girl's voice as Yuuta entered the room so he was a bit nervous. He didn't know how to react since this was the first time his son was bringing a girl home. Technically, this is the first time.
Seeing Yuuta and Miki by the front door made Yuuta's dad a bit emotional as he calmly retreated back to his safe haven, the living room sofa. A stray tear left his eyes as he tried to compose himself. 'He did it, that son of a— he did it. As expected of my son. How did he find such a gem? I guess looks do kill after all.' Rin said to himself as he greeted his son back. "Son! You're home early. Did the school have an early dismissal today?" Rin asked.
Although deep inside, he knew what probably happened in school. He dreaded to hear about it from his son but he decided to act clueless just so he wouldn't ruin the atmosphere and chemistry in place (He just assumed that such was the case since his son and Miki were together.)
"There's a new homeroom teacher." Yuuta simply responded, omitting the fact that he just skipped school.
"Big brother you're ba— eh?!"
"Yui, come here." Sakurai Rin called for his daughter, trying to hide the excitement in his voice. He knew that it would be coutnerproductive if Yuuta and Miki were to be interrupted so he decided to remove any and all distractions whatsoever.
"Why?" Yui asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Just come here." Rin gestured
For a few seconds, Yuuta and Miki stared at each other as they stayed still by the doorway. They didn't know what do next since Yuuta's dad and younger sister were whispering at each other as if they're formulating a plan in front of the one involved. Yuuta could barely hear a few words but he instantly knew that they were talking about him.
"Don't distract them, okay? There must be something important going on here." Rin furrowed his brows as he tried to wonder what else he could do for the two. "We must not interfere no matter what."
"But dad, why? The first time Miki visited, the three of us spent the time in Yuuta's room. Why can't we do it again this time?" Miki asked, totally oblivious of the signals that her father was sending her way.
"That is that, and this is this. Right now, we can't interrupt them. This must be an important time for them." Rin continued. "Just bear with it for now. You can spend time with them the next time they come, okay? Better yet, just wait for them to call you so you won't accidentally interrupt with anything."
After a brief moment, Yui finally agreed, much to Rin's surprise. In the end, Yui concluded that this must be a criticlal time for her brother so she decided not to interrupt. Although she knew what her dad meant, she also didn't want to believe all those things either since she knew her big brother to the core.
'Big brother wouldn't do that sort of thing.' Yui said to herself.
Meanwhile, Yuuta and Miki awkwardly tiptoed their way up Yuuta's room. But just before they reached the top of the staircase, Yuuta's dad called both of them from downstairs.
"Yuuta! Miki! Just take your time, dinner will be two hours from now." Rin excitedly announced. "Are there any particular dishes you want for tonight?"
Although Yuuta didn't want to cut off his dad's misplaced excitement, he turned around and walked halfway downstairs before replying. "Dad, we won't be having dinner here tonight."
"Well well, are you going to a restaurant? Do you need some pocket money?" Rin asked as he smiled from ear-to-ear.
"Um," Miki muttered. "My parents invited him for dinner, would that be okay, sir?"
There was pause...
Rin and Yui's jaws dropped to the ground in shock as they realized what Miki just said. 'How is this possible?! Are they already that close? Then... was my hunch on point?Is that why Yuuta brought her home? How could they get so close at such a short span of time? What do I do? Should I do something? Argh~ why can't I recall my highschool memories when I needed them most!' Rin screamed his heart out in his mind before responding to Miki.
"Ah- yes, that would be nice." He forcefully smiled before excusing himself.
.....
Yuuta blinked twice, trying to take in the amount of colors his eyes were seeing right now. But to his surprise, he found himself inside a house that was somehow familiar to him. "That's weird. Where am I?" He pondered in bewilderment.
The house, in and of itself, looked like a normal house with wooden floors, wooden walls, and wooden ceiling. In fact, except for the cushion on the bed and some books on the shelves, the house was made wholly of wood. And yet, Yuuta could tell that he had been in this house before; even though technically, this was his first time entering the world of the Lucid Dream Server.
And just like in real life, every time Yuuta gets puzzled, he just closes his eyes and tries to think about the weird feeling that tickled him. Although blind, this habit of his enables his mind to shut off the things outside and just focus on the problem at hand. And just like that, he finally realized what was wrong.
For some reason, the house is structurally modeled on their house in real life. Appearance-wise, Yuuta wouldn't have noticed anything but now that he was closing his eyes, he could finally perceive how identical the house's structure is to his actual real-life house. "Now, this is weirder." He muttered to himself.
"Right?! I was surprised as well! But apparently, everything here is a representation of the real world!"
Hearing someone's voice in his head, Yuuta's eyes shot wide open as he tried to detect the source of the voice. To his relief, it wasn't a voice in his head; but rather, a voice coming from a girl who was speaking beside him.
The most distinguishable feature on the girl's face was her mesmerizing deep pools of blue eyes as she excitedly stared at Yuuta. Her orange hair, which is close to the color of auburn than blond, reached to her hips, swaying as the breeze brushed on it.
"It may look different but all the structures, as well as main roads and the like, mirrored the real world. Of course, a majority of the houses were built just like the villager's house but larger ones, like mansions, represent the building. Some landmarks, like police stations and fire stations, are replaced by Guild Houses or Town Halls. This is where we get quests and earn points and money. As for the schools, they are replaced as a school for Dreamers where NPC's teach new players how to live in this Virtual Reality Game." Miki continued explaining as she pointed at every landmark they could see. "Huge tourist spots like our Japanese Shrines are represented here as dungeons or labyrinths and this is where we could get some epic equipment and learn some skills. These are just the general knowledge, if you want to learn more, you should go to a Dreamer School or something. In fact, you can join where I'm taking my studies!"
"Or, you can go straight ahead and skip all the tutorials just like what the majority of beta-testers did. It's up to you. This is an open-world virtual reality MMORPG so you get to do what you want."
"Wait, if this is a Lucid Dream, then how come everyone can coexist in this single world? As far as I know, having a lucid dream makes one able to control everything in the dream world. Does that mean that the Servers are always resetting to keep this world from being destroyed by us dreamers?"
"There are restrictions in place. If you go to a guild house or a school for dreamers, you will know everything about those restrictions." Miki continued. "I can tell you all the details now but that would just rob you of the experience in playing this game and learning what you can."
"I see. Thank you, Miki." Yuuta gratefully muttered as he looked around. There was only one thing on his mind— and that is, to uncover as much information as he could about the Lucid Dream Server.
After all, just like any other MMORPG's, gathering information and learning everything in that world is something that a new player must do.