When we got to the restaurant, we didn't immediately order, mainly because we wanted to wait until the others got here as we had something important to discuss with them - and that was the next primary quest, the one with a timer on it.
But before that… Hina-nee and I also had something we needed to talk about. Luckily, the waiter had led us to an isolated corner of the diner, where we could talk in private.
"Kaze-kun… about the news article…"
I nodded, understanding what she was about to say without her needing to finish the sentence. "It seems uncle and auntie submitted a complaint."
"Was I… too rash in coming in here to look for you? I just never thought I would wound up trapped as well…"
"That's not your fault. You thought I got trapped because you unplugged my AR helmet, but that's not true. I was already trapped anyway, but you didn't know that, so you came in the game thinking you were safe as long as no one unplugged the AR helmet you were wearing."
"Right… but still… what do we do now? The excuse of me being sick won't last forever. Jim doesn't know us two in real life, but the other three all do. Even the two dimwits would be able to tell something's wrong if you keep showing up in-game but don't appear in class."
"They're in a two-week suspension right now, but… it's as you say - once they return to school, they'll notice I'm not there."
"Not to mention that girl, Chiaki-san. She seems to be quite… careful and observant."
I nodded in agreement. "She's definitely not the type to be easily fooled."
"So? What's our move here?"
I bit my lip as I attempted to think of a plan. After a few minutes of silence, I finally spoke.
"Well, I do have a plan, but…"
"Hm? Let's hear it, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee tilted her head curiously.
"It's simple, really. All we have to do is abandon them."
"Abandon them…? As in…"
I nodded once again. "Basically, escape from their confrontation. The primary quest timer reaches zero two weeks from now, correct? That's perfect. Once we finish that quest, we'll immediately leave Qilian City and continue onwards to wherever the next quest will be."
"But won't they follow us eventually?" Hina-nee asked. "I mean, we all have the same primary quests."
"Yeah, that's true, but there's two ways around that."
I cleared my throat and raised my fingers according to the number. "One, we purposely let them surpass us in terms of quest progress - though that would mean a time delay for god knows how long."
"Hm…"
"And two, finish all the quests as fast as we can so that they can't catch up even if they tried," I concluded, and set my hand back down again. "Which one will it be?"
Hina-nee thought for a moment. "… I think I like the second option more. In the first method, we have to indirectly rely on them - the speed at which we do things will end up being controlled by them, although inadvertently. I can't say I like that very much."
I smiled. "Exactly what I thought you would say. To be honest, I like the second option more as well, and thought you would too. Still, I had to ask, just in case."
"Hehe~ we've always been the type to not let anyone else dictate what we do, for better or worse."
"Yeah… if life was a ship, then we'll be the ones steering it, no one else," I agreed.
After all, if we weren't the ones at the rudder of our ship, then it could hardly be called our ship at all.
I wish I could just leave outright without caring whatsoever, but reality isn't that simple. If I truly wanted to make 100% sure I would not run into these guys again, I had to take these countermeasures - it was inevitable.
And besides, if it's like this... I won't be completely cutting off my relationship with them. That way, if I ever have a need for a pawn, I could always just wait for them to catch up to Hina-nee and I in terms of quest progress. When that happens, Ichigo and Horiya would be there for me to manipulate, since they were still trying to befriend me. Jim wasn't a bad guy, so I'll spare him, and Furuwa would be difficult to control. Therefore, the two idiots were my best bet.
Playing friends with them wasn't so bad, considering I get two pieces to move to my will in exchange.
*****
Soon after, the others arrived. Ichigo and Horiya somehow managed to make their way back to the city, though they appeared wounded and battered. I heard Hina-nee do her best to stifle her evil laughter from beside me. Furuwa seemed to have led them here after running into them by chance, perhaps at the Hunter's Guild.
They sat down on the chairs all around us, six of us in total. We had asked for a large table when Hina-nee and I first got here, in preparation for this.
"Man, Igarashi, where did you and Sakura-senpai run off to?" Ichigo complained, scratching his hair after we all ordered our food and were waiting patiently for it to arrive.
"Us, running off?" I scoffed. "That's rich, coming from you, the same guy who charged straight ahead into the forest without thinking, leaving us behind."
"U-Uh, I was just following Horiya…" he murmured, attempting to shift the blame.
"W-What?! Me? Nah nah nah kid, I was following YOU!" Horiya quickly denied.
Before they started yelling and fighting in the restaurant, I quickly interrupted as to not disturb the other customers here.
"Shut up, both of you," Furuwa cut in. Looks like I didn't need to intervene. "Does it matter who was following who? It's like you're trying to compare who's the bigger idiot."
Both Ichigo and Horiya zipped their mouths after being met with Furuwa's cold glare. I sighed.
"Doesn't matter. Hina-nee and I managed to complete the quest anyway."
"Yeah, but… we didn't get any rewards…" Ichigo sobbed.
"Welp, ya got no one to blame there," Jim said with a soft chuckle. "500 gold per quest is pretty good! They ain't easy, but don't take long at all."
"That aside… " I began, eyeing all of them. "I do have something to discuss with you."
"Hm?" they raised an eyebrow in puzzlement.
"It's about the new primary quest," I explained. "The Qilian City one."
"Ya mean the one with a bloody timer on it?" Jim asked.
I nodded. "Yes. I took a look at it, and saw that in order to complete this quest, we had to first reach Level 30… before the two week timer runs out."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because this primary quest is introducing Tournaments to us. And in order to unlock tournaments, we have to hit Level 30. I don't know what exactly they are or how they work, but I did notice the 'annual' adjective in the quest description. If my guess is correct… if we don't make it this time around, we'll have to wait a whole year before being able to access the quest again."
"A time-restrained main quest…? That's never been seen in other video games before…" Furuwa murmured in thought. "Currently, I'm Level 16. What about the rest of you?"
"17," Ichigo and Horiya replied in unison.
"14," said Hina-nee.
"16, just like ya," Jim responded.
"And finally… Kaze?" Furuwa looked at me.
"I'm Level 17 as well, but really close to 18."
"I see, so you're in the lead," Furuwa murmured. "You'll have the easiest time, then…"
"Yeah, but it's still going to be difficult. Going up 12 levels in a mere 14, now 13 days, is pretty challenging, especially because of school," Ichigo argued, then turned to me. "Igarashi, how long are you planning on taking school off for?"
"Uh… I don't know," I said awkwardly, scratching my cheek. "When I woke up today, I felt pretty bad, so… two weeks, maybe even more?"
"Geez… you sure you didn't like, catch a pandemic or something?" Horiya mused. "I don't think there's one going on in Japan right now, but sheesh."
"Maybe," I shrugged. "But in any case, starting from tomorrow, we should just grind as much XP as possible."
Of course, I was just saying this for show. The best scenario here for Hina-nee and I would be for them to not make the timer and end up having to wait a year, while the two of us go on ahead. Of course… this was pretty unlikely to happen.
"What's the best method available fer us right now ta farm XP?" Jim asked.
"Hm… the Hunter's Guild," I replied after some thought. "Pick a quest, complete it, return to the guild, then pick up another quest, and so on. This way, not only can we get XP, we can also get money and eventually rank up to the next rank. By doing this, we can tackle harder quests, slaying tougher enemies that obviously grant more XP."
"That makes sense," Horiya murmured, seeming to buy my words perfectly.
"Yeah, we're gonna put our all into doing those quests one-by-one starting tomorrow!" Ichigo chuckled. "This tournament thing has got me fired up!"
"… To think you didn't even know it was a tournament until Kaze told you…" Furuwa sighed and facepalmed slightly. "What a joke."
"Well, I have a bad tendency of not liking to read, whether its books or even short quest descriptions," Ichigo replied quietly, avoiding looking at Furuwa in the eyes.
"Ha! Same here, fella," Jim laughed in a boisterous manner.
What I told them was half-truth, half-lie. Hina-nee noticed this and sent me an amused grin. While the method I told them was indeed the best method on the surface, it would not be enough for them to make the deadline. Traveling to and from the quest destination to return to the guild would take so much precious time out of their day. But this was the only option they had.
Why?
Because they didn't know about the fact that you could take on multiple quests at the same time. Hina-nee had been the only one around when I asked the receptionist that earlier today, and I would take advantage of that fact.
Even if they did find out about this somehow, I had a back-up plan. Hina-nee and I would set out during nighttime to do quests, while they were all logged off. That way, we would be able to gain a huge increase in terms of levels. If they asked about it… well, they won't - because we'll be avoiding them for the next week. That was the plan, anyway.
And now, it was time to put the final nail in the coffin to successfully trick these four.
"From now on, let's split into groups - Ichigo, Horiya, Jim, and Furuwa, you guys can be a group, and Hina-nee and I will be another," I proposed. "This way, quests will be done quicker as a group. Strength in numbers."
Once again, this was a lie. Sure, single quests will be done a lot faster, but the XP each person of the group would obtain from this quest would also be dramatically reduced. They didn't seem to realize that, however.
"Huh? Why not just 3 and 3?" Horiya asked.
"Hina-nee and I are used to just being a duo. We're more efficient like this," I replied. I had prepared for this question as well.
"You can do whatever you want, but I'm not grouping with you," Furuwa said, perfectly ruining my plan.
"W-Why?" I asked, stuttering a bit from the surprise.
She turned to me and looked at me directly in the eyes. "Just like how you and Sakura-senpai work better as a pair, I work better alone. It's that simple."
… Using my own words to fight against me, huh?
With this, I have once again confirmed: Chiaki Furuwa was truly a terrifying girl.