[The next day]
"Mom, I am leaving now."
"Hmmm, you seem more energetic than usual. Do not tell me you are still excited about the kiss Miko gave you yesterday, and you want to see her as soon as possible, hoping she'll kiss you again?"
"Mom, stop thinking about strange things," I said blushing. "Anyway, I'll be off."
"Take care of yourself. But mark my words. One day you'll be married to her."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," I said, and left the house.
I was pretty excited about this contest. Finally, I could show my skills. But also the prize was too important for me to miss.
When I arrived at the school, I saw Miko and Yuuki waiting for me in front of the building. When she saw me, she immediately rushed up to me and hugged me.
"It seems like I missed a lot. You two seem to have gotten really close." said Yuuki as he walked towards us.
"You'll understand when you find a girlfriend. It may take a while, but do not stop trying." said Miko, patting him on the shoulder.
"Huh? But I already have someone I like." Yuuki said, blushing.
"Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot about that. Go ahead, tell Shinji about it."
"Well, Shinji, I have to confess to you that I have a crush on your cousin Ruby." He said and his face got even redder.
"Oh, okay."
"Huh? What do you mean by okay? You are not surprised at all?"
"Well, I mean it was pretty obvious, to tell you the truth."
"Eeh? What do you mean by that? I was sure I had hidden it very well."
"No, no you did not. It was obvious to everyone." I said, and Miko nodded.
"Eeeh?" He said and lowered his head.
"But do not worry about it, because to tell you the truth, she likes you too."
"Oh really?" He said, becoming cheerful again.
"Yes, so do not worry about it."
"And when will I see her again?"
"I'll tell her to join us the next time we play the game."
"No, no, I mean in real life."
"Um, well, that's a little complicated..."
"Hey. Enough with the chit-chat. We have a competition to compete in." said Miko as she grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the backyard of the school.
Damn, they had already built a stage for the competition. It was the same as the one used for concerts.
While I was looking at it, someone came up to me.
"Hello, I am Kosuke Yakime and I am your main competitor. Nice to meet you."
I turned in the direction of the voice and saw a boy about my age with brown hair and eyes, wearing blue jeans and a red jacket.
"Nice to meet you, I am Shinji. Wait, aren't you the one who helped the police with a cyber crime?"
"Ah yes, hehe. I am the one." He said, scratching the back of his head.
"How come you are participating in a school competition? Aren't you too good for that kind of thing?"
"Maybe, but you are not easy either. I heard that you solved the problem with the phones in your school and also caught whoever was behind it?"
"Wait, how do you know that? I am sure I did not leave any footprints."
"You did not either, but the day you broke into the police database, I was also connected to it and saw that someone from this school was in the database."
"Oh, I see."
"At last I shall be able to fight a worthy opponent."
"Yes, me too."
We both smiled, shook hands, and walked in opposite directions.
Miko came up to me and asked me who this boy was. I explained everything, she nodded and said that she and the others would cheer me on from a spot near the stage. Just before she left, she gave me a kiss 'for good luck'. And to be honest, I was pretty excited after that.
After about five minutes, our director, a middle-aged man with black hair and brown eyes, announced the start of the competition and explained to us what it would be about.
To summarize, he said that there would be 6 phases in total and we would compete in hacking. In other words: In each phase, two participants will compete against each other by hacking each other's computers.
There will be 64 participants in total. And the only one who seems to be able to challenge me is Kosuke. I am really looking forward to our match.
And so the competition began.
I have to say that most of the participants looked like they did not even know the basics. I mean, my first 3 opponents were so bad that it took me about 1 minute to beat them.
God, I want to fight Kosuke. Everyone else is so weak.
At the beginning, Miko and the others were cheering me on, but when they saw that I beat the others almost as soon as the fight started, they stopped yelling and just watched. Hajime even brought popcorn for the others.
And the last match could begin. Of course, it was against Kosuke. We had won all our matches without breaking a sweat. But to be honest, all the other participants had no chance against us.
The director announced the start of the game and both me and Kosuke sat in front of our computers. I could not help but smile the whole time. Finally, it was time to have some fun.
Then the principal called "Start" and we both started writing as fast as we could. The computers provided to us by the school were pretty good, so I could use my skills to the fullest without worrying about it shutting down or lagging.
So we both started attacking each other as best we could. At first I did not pay much attention, so he almost caught me for a moment, but I quickly blocked his attempt and launched my counterattack.
Apparently I was more capable than he was, because I saw him trying very hard to expel the virus I had sent him.
When he managed to counter my attack, I started my final move. All this time I was only countering his attacks because I was preparing to send him five viruses at the same time. And that's exactly what I did.
Even though he was good, much better than the others, he still could not defeat me. But at least I had a lot of fun in that match. It had been a while since I had used my hacking skills. He was a worthy opponent.
After the match was over, I walked up to him and extended my arm to him. He looked at me and grabbed my hand with a smile.
"Wow, I did not expect to lose here. You are indeed a worthy opponent. But I am not sure I was a worthy opponent for you."
"No, you were pretty good. I had a lot of fun. You forced me to get serious."
"Ha, well then I guess I'll be going. I'll leave you to accept your award." He said and stood up from his chair.
"Wait. I have a proposition for you."
"What is it?"
"Would you like to be my friend? It's really hard to find someone with your skills."
He smiled and said, "I would love to."
We shook hands and I accepted my prize.
And then I heard, "New friend, acquired."
I looked around in confusion.
What was that? Had I heard correctly? No, I was probably just imagining it.
But then I heard a voice again, saying, "Kosuke Yakime has joined your friends list."
"Hey, who are you? Why do I hear you in my head?"
"Host, it's me. The AI from the place where you did your first training."
"Huh? What are you doing here? And more importantly, why do I hear you in my head?"
"That's because when I first logged in, my data was transferred into your chip, which is located in your brain."
"And why did you do that?"
"That's what I was programmed to do. When a host leaves this place after his training, I am obliged to accompany him and support him."
"I see. And what was it about this friends list?"
"That seems to be what the host's brain signals were focused on. You seemed a little concerned about whether he would accept your friend request, so I supported you by assuring you that he would indeed accept your proposal."
"Oho, that's interesting. So this list includes the others?"
"Yes, there are also the members of your student council."
"Very well, then we will talk more about your duties later. Now I am going to get my prize. Because I see that everyone is staring at me because I am talking to myself all this time.
"As you wish, host. I am on standby."
"Aah, I wonder what else I'll experience in the future."