"Good afternoon.." I greeted a woman that looks like she is in her 30's. She has a tall body with a modest assets. She has a short black hair that only reached her neck. She has a gentle and kind gaze that would make anyone's day better.
"Oh, hello! What are you doing here, little girl?" She asked me with a smile. It will be hard to say this but..
"I am meeting Genki.." I muttered but she seemed to have heard it. She then headed inside and a moments later Genki came out wearing a simple blue shirt with a simple white trousers. When I saw him I signaled to him with my eyes to meet me outside and he understood. So I just straight up walked out of the store but not before thanking Genki's mother.
"Thank you.." I said before opening the door and heading outside. The scorching heat could clearly be felt and it doesn't really help when I'm only wearing a simple dress. But it didn't budge me as much probably because I'm already used to the heat here.
"I see, you are already here" I heard a voice with the sounds of steps to my right. I looked over and sure enough, I saw the same person as always with his shiny glasses. He wore a thin t-shirt that says 'Knowledge is Incredible' alongside the most known inventions on it.
'He really looked like a nerd..' I thought silently.
"Good afternoon.." I greeted him with a small voice. He walked over to my side and reached into his pocket and took out a lollipop.
"Here" He handed me one of them. It is grape flavoured one of my most favourite flavor of things.
"Hmm~..Thanks" I opened the wrapper and popped it inside my mouth. I then made sure to throw the wrapper inside the trash can.
"You sure enough really look like your in-game avatar.." He said. He didn't really look surprised but I could tell by his action that he is clearly baffled. I mean who wouldn't? Your friend suddenly changes gender without any wind or storm. How could one be not surprised?
*Kring~*
"Oh hi, Setsu!" We then heard the energetic voice behind us. There was Genki running towards us in full speed.
"You must be, Kuuji, right?" Genki asked while observing me closely.
"Indeed, please call me Miyu for now. I don't want to raise much suspicion on my condition" I said to him which he nodded in understanding. But he kept on staring at me like a weirdo.
"To think of it.. You actually look really cu-" Before he could finish his sentence I kicked his leg so he would shut the hell up.
"Ouch! What did you do that for?!" Genki yelped in pain while complaining.
"Shut up!" I said while looking away.
"Well, well. We should get going before it got even more hot" Setsu came in before our argument got even more heated.
"Well you're right.." I calmed down and walked away. They only stared at me from behind before following suit.
.
"Can they not stare at me so much..?" I hid behind Setsu as I felt the stare of so many people.
"Well maybe if you aren't the definition of a real world loli anime character, you won't get stared as much?" Setsu said jokingly. It honestly felt really annoying to be stared at like this.
"I mean what do you expect? You have a catching bright red eyes with a beautiful yet cute face! How can people not stare at you?" Genki said with his energetic voice.
"..." I can't really deny him as even I know his words are true. I have a really really eye-catching traits of red eyes and a really cute face if I must say so myself.
"Just endure it. We have arrived at the place!" Setsu said while we stopped in front of a giant area. It was filled with people. From children, teenagers to even adults they all gathered here. This is a convention of games, we have played most of the games but we only came here for a reason.
"Where is the main event?" I asked Setsu.
"It should be that" Genki said while pointing his finger at a place where there are hundreds of people forming a giant crowd. If you zoom in closely you could see a giant stage behind all those crowds.
"..Damn that is a lot of people" I muttered with a small voice.
"Well let's go!" Genki immediately ran towards the crowd in excitement. I and Setsu just stared at each other and sighed while following him from behind.
.
"Welcome to the first ever conference of the game Tale of The Unbound after release!" We finally arrived in front of the crowds and took a seat.
"Today, we will hold an annual questions session" The person behind the mic which is the person who has the most influence over the company and the game that made 'Tale of The Unbound'. He is the CEO and Founder of Kosmos Production Company, Kosmos Arata. He is also the leader of his own project the Neo project which made the game Tale of The Unbound.
He is one of the richest person on earth with a net worth of around 29 Trillion USD. He is one of the richest person in history. He invented and made the revolutionary way of long distance transportation by sea and air. He invented and manufacture a type of environment safe plastics. He also revolutionised the technology industries by creating one of the most used piece of technology in all of industries today.. ARN Gear.
"Let's start, shall we?" He said and the QnA session began between the CEO and Founder of the company and the media.
"Is the game Tale of The Unbound truly finished?" A person asked Arata. He looked at the person and shook his head.
"The game production has finished but the game Tale of The Unbound right now was only the beginning. I am sure no one have even reached outside of the first town. There is still a lot of content that needs to be unlocked yourself" Arata explained vaguely.
"Is there any limitations to our gameplay in the world of Strelitzia?" Another person asked again.
"Yes and No. The limitations depends on your own moral compass. Nothing is impossible inside the game. But remember every actions have it's own consequences" Arata explained again.
"How big is the world of Strelitzia?" Another person asked Arata about the game. It seems the game was getting more and more popular even though back in pre-ordering session, the amounts of pre-orders only reached around 50.000 total.
"The world of Strelitzia is huge. Simply huge enough you won't be able to finish exploring it in one year or even a decade alone." Arata said which earn the gasp and murmur of the crowds. They seemed impressed at the game's quality itself. But I also wanted to ask something. But I'll wait for a bit.
.
"Don't you think that this game will make the current and future generations lose their grip on reality?" After a bit of questioning and answering we overheard a question that made the crowd silent.
"Do you think so?" Arata said emotionlessly. He looked up a little and released a little sigh.
"If this game made the current and future generations lose their grips of the reality than it could be accounted to your own fault, doesn't it?" Arata said with a neutral voice. His voice held no hostility, no emotion and even no intention.
"How can you..?!" The questioner seems to be offended by his words.
"The fact that the children get bored of their lives are because you the parents and parental figures do not do a good job in teaching them. So that could be accounted for your own faults" He looked at the direction of the questioner with stern eyes. But when he looked at the questioner's direction he also saw us as we sat right behind the questioner. When he saw me I could see his eyes brighten up a little. So I took this chance to asked him about something.
"Are we really 'free' in the world of Strelitzia?" I asked a simple question. A question I would like to just know. But whatever the answer is It won't really change anything.
"Yes. You have your freedom guaranteed. We won't punish you for breaking the 'rule' but the consequences are there." Arata explained shortly.
"Well that is it for today's conference. I hope you all have a great day, Thank You" Arata said while bowing a little then just straight up walked away in silent. This had happened around a dozens of times before so we never question it because the moment he stepped out of the area that meant the conference was over.
.
"Hmm~ Hmm~ Hmm~" I just hummed some random melody that came up inside my mind. I looked towards the long line of people waiting to buy some food.
I just asked Genki and Setsu to get me something and I'll just wait somewhere. This is just because I hate crowded places that will make me gather attention towards myself.
"Why do you ask that question?" I then suddenly heard somebody behind me. I didn't even heard his steps. I didn't even dare to look back at him as I felt something bad would've happen.
"I don't know what you mean?" I asked him back. I know what questions he meant but I do not know his intention for knowing it.
"Nothing really.. You know forget it. Be careful" He just suddenly says. Suddenly the bad feeling was gone completely and nothing could even be felt.
He was gone just like that. No sounds of steps, no evidence of him being there. I do not know who he is. I do not know his intentions are. But one thing I know he held hostility in his tone.
As I was thinking I suddenly heard another person's voice again. But this time it's a familiar voice.
"Oii!! We get you your stuff!" It is of course Genki's voice. He is coming with Setsu besides him. He is holding two ice cream cones. When he is in front of me, he held the Ice cream forward to hands it to me.
"Here!" I just took it in silent but then I looked at them again and said.
"Let's go the usual place.." What I meant as the usual place was the arcade here. Every time we came to this area we always came to the arcade to play some games and challenges some people.
"Sure let's go!" Genki said excitedly and Setsu only chuckled as a response.
"I don't mind let's go" In the end Setsu just agrees with my suggestion.
"Then let's move.."