By the time Hina-nee and I got back to Qilian City, it was around 6 PM. After entering through the northern gates, the same ones we exited the city from earlier, we headed directly for the Hunter's Guild branch.
"Yo!" a voice called out to us when we entered.
"Jim," I said in greeting. "Done teaching?"
He nodded. "Professors don't have ta teach all that long."
"Eh? But I heard it's a very busy job…" Hina-nee murmured. "Don't they have to spend a lot of time preparing class material, assignments, and lectures?"
Jim shrugged. "For some, yeah. Me? I just teach whatever comes ta mind."
"If that's the case, I'm surprised you still have your job," I chuckled.
"Yeah, well… none of my students ever filed a complaint against me, so everythin's fine," he laughed, then noticed something. "Where's the two brats?"
I sighed, putting up the best exhausted look I could muster. "We were out doing a quest just now, but the two of them rushed on ahead without us, so we ended up splitting up. I have no idea where they went."
Jim facepalmed. "Ah… that's the only bad part 'bout bein' too young."
"But never mind that, with Horiya's LUC stat, they should get out of there eventually," I continued. "What about you? Have you registered for a guild card yet?"
"Yep. Just finished, actually," he replied, then turned to the receptionist who had greeted us earlier. "Hey, kid… that receptionist's bloody cute, ain't she?"
"… You can't be seriously thinking about this, right?"
"Why not? I've always wanted a woman, ya know?! I'm already over 30 and I still don't have a wife. Both of my parents are dead now, but if they were still alive, they would definitely be annoyin' me 'bout this!"
"But… um, you do realize this is a game?" Hina-nee reminded. She probably said this on purpose to test whether or not Jim had suspected anything about our situation.
"So what? It's a bloody realistic one, that's fer sure. Besides, there's Japanese men marryin' anime characters, why can't I hit up a girl in a game?"
"Ah, I… see," Hina-nee murmured, sending me a glance, confirming that Jim had no idea about the fact that this 'game' was in fact not really one at all.
"Oh yeah, by the way, I saw some pretty interestin' news outside about this game," Jim then continued, catching both Hina-nee and I by surprise.
"Y-Yeah?"
"Apparently, a pair o' siblin's got trapped inside or whatever, and their parents are now tryin' ta sue Ascentech. Funny, eh? If yer gonna try and scam money from a company, at least pull somethin' more believable outta yer ass."
Hina-nee and I exchanged glances and let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that the news about us two did get out, but our identities were hidden. Jim didn't believe it though, which was good. I could only hope everyone else also thought the same way as him.
"Ahaha, yeah…" I laughed awkwardly. "I saw that article too. I don't believe it either, to be honest."
"Mm-mm!" Hina-nee nodded along. "After all, this is just a video game. Getting stuck inside… that kind of stuff only happens in manga!"
"Ain't that right?" Jim chuckled. "Alright, I gotta go do my first Hunter's Guild quest, since that chick told me to. I'll bloody impress her, that's for sure!"
With a hearty laugh, he walked off, leaving Hina-nee and I gazing at his figure disappear with uncomfortable emotions.
"Kaze-kun…"
"Yeah. We need to talk… but not here."
We quickly lined up for a receptionist. Once it was our turn, we were asked to show our guild cards and press our fingers on them to verify our identity. The receptionist then took our cards and scanned them with some sort of machine, most likely to view the evidence we had taken earlier. After several seconds, the process was done and she handed the cards back to us.
"Congratulations, Recruits! With this, you've successfully completed your first quest. You have nine more quests to go to reach the Hunter rank," the receptionist said happily, then took out a bag that seemed to be filled with gold coins and handed it to us. "Here is your reward of 500 gold for completing the quest."
As we accepted the gold gratefully, a hologram appeared in front of both Hina-nee and I. Without even looking, I knew what it was:
[Side Quest Complete: Snowolf Hunt]
[Claim your rewards in the 'Quests' tab of your System.]
I quickly claimed my rewards of 1,000 XP, then closed up my System again and asked the receptionist a question.
"By the way, is there any way we can check how far we are from reaching the next rank?"
The receptionist shook her head. "No, but every time you successfully complete one and return here to claim your rewards, a receptionist will tell you like I did just now."
I nodded slowly in understanding. "Ah, I see… and one more thing. Can we take on multiple quests at the same time?"
She nodded. "Yes. But keep in mind, all quests have a time limit of one day, unless otherwise specified. If you go over the time period, not only will you not receive any rewards from the guild, but you will also have to pay a monetary penalty."
Geez… they're certainly strict about that… though I can see why. These quests are all put up based on the situation at the time. For example, the snowolves Hina-nee and I killed today were in the Lidya forest right now and were possibly spotted by someone a while ago, hence why the guild put up a request to have them exterminated, but there was no telling where they would be tomorrow after moving overnight.
There were exceptions, of course - some quests were emergencies and needed to be dealt with immediately, while some had no time limit at all. As an aside, emergency quests usually provided greater rewards, according to what I read in the Hunter's Handbook.
We waved goodbye to the receptionist and decided to go somewhere to eat dinner.
*****
While we were busy finding a restaurant, we were called out by a girl.
"Hey! Kaze!"
We turned around to see who it was, and it turned out to be a familiar face.
"Furuwa…? What is it?"
"I've been looking for you for three hours, ever since school ended…" she muttered in disdain. "Where have you been?"
"Uh… Hina-nee and I were doing a quest from the Hunter's Guild," I replied truthfully. "Speaking of, you should register yourself for that."
"I will later, but that's not why I was looking for you," she said, then shifted her gaze to Hina-nee. "Sakura-senpai… I was just wondering, why didn't you come to school today?"
"E-Eh? Um, I was sick. Woke up today with a bad cold, ahaha…" Hina-nee laughed awkwardly. "I must've caught it from Kaze-kun, or maybe the other way around..."
Smooth. I had lied to Ichigo and Horiya earlier today with the excuse that I was sick, so if Hina-nee said she might've caught the sickness from me, then the story fits together.
"If that's the case, then… shouldn't you be resting instead of playing video games…?" Furuwa asked, frowning in suspicion.
Hina-nee's expression froze as she tried to figure out how to continue this lie. I decided that I needed to help her out here, unless we wanted to be exposed.
"Her physical body is resting right now," I said. "Whatever she does in the game, it won't affect the real world. So, technically, she is laying down on the bed in peace right now, even though time is frozen for her physical body. That's how AR technology works. I'm sick too, but I feel perfectly fine in-game. Just another one of the beauties of Alternate Reality - we won't have to lie in bed and do nothing when we're sick."
"… I don't know all that much, so I'll just take your word for it, I guess…" Furuwa sighed. "I was just a bit worried because I saw a news article saying something about two teens getting trapped in this game. They were siblings, too. I know there's plenty of sibling pairs in their teens out there, but it fitted the description of the two of you so well that I… ah, nevermind. Looks like I was worried about nothing."
Hina-nee and I exchanged glances. This was the second time someone had brought up the article today. It seemed that the news about us was spreading like wildfire on the outside. Deciding to throw in a little icing on the cake, I spoke.
"I saw that article too, but… you seriously believe that?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I mean… this is a video game. How are you going to try and tell me someone actually got 'trapped' inside here?"
"Qin Yao did, didn't he? For some time, at least."
"Yeah, but that's not fully 'trapped'. If someone forcefully disconnected the AR helmet from the outside, he would get out of the game just fine," I argued.
Qin Yao's situation was different from Hina-nee's and mine - A.R.X.A. hadn't messed with his System to physically trap us in here. For example, if someone unplugged the power cord connecting Hina-nee's helmet back on Earth, then she would have her physical body also enter this world, thus having her connection to our old reality plane severed just like me. However, if someone were to do the same to Qin Yao, he would just be forcibly logged out like any other player.
"That's… true, I suppose," Furuwa muttered in thought.
"Look, whoever wrote up that article is clearly just trying to get attention, or throwing shade at Ascentech," I continued, thoroughly manipulating her thoughts. "Worst case scenario, they're trying to get some money from the company out of this scandal. It's not like something like this hasn't happened before."
"I… yeah, you're right…" Furuwa looked around at the passing-by 'NPCs' and the realistic buildings of Qilian City.
"It's just… this world… it seems so real…"
"That's the whole point of Alternate Reality, isn't it? To be as real as possible."
"Yeah. Sorry, I panicked," she muttered. "I'll go register at the Hunter's Guild or whatever now. Which direction is it in?"
"… Don't you have your minimap in your System?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I do. But I'm too lazy to use it, since you're literally standing right here. Hurry up and just tell me."
"That's… okay, fair. It's in the direction we were just walking here from."
Saying this, I pointed behind us in the direction of the guild building. Furuwa nodded.
"I'll come find you two again when I'm finished. Hope you get better soon, Sakura-senpai."
"Sure! We'll be in the restaurant we ate at yesterday~" Hina-nee replied, waving her off.
With that, Furuwa walked away.
"Seriously…? She said something to you, but not to me?" I sighed.
"Hehe, it's okay, Kaze-kun… I'm sure she's just embarrassed," Hina-nee said, looking at Furuwa's slowly disappearing figure amidst the crowd.
"Embarrassed? To do what? Say bye?"
"Mou, Kaze-kun, don't pretend like you don't understand. I know you too well - you're not that dense."
"…"
It was true. I did understand what she meant. But… I just refused to believe it.
We resumed searching for a restaurant after that.