The street was bustling with people. The Japanese government reacted very quickly to the disaster, and just in 2 weeks, they established safe zones in cities, towns, and even in some villages. However, there was still a sizable portion of the population without safe zone residence.
"People are recovering fast," said Haruka while walking towards the meeting point.
"That's more likely because everyone was affected by this, so they understood each other's suffering and helped each other, but we can't rule out the increased crime rate. If going out of the house, a person has a 5% chance to get attacked on average."
"No need to let the mood down when we are going to hang out," said Haruka, trying to make him comfortable.
As they approached the meeting point, they only saw 12 people standing together, whom they recognized, but they had 25 students in their class.
"Haruka, Hoshi-kun, here," Michi waved her hand cheerfully, and everyone saw them.
"Michi," Haruka happily went and held hands with Michi. But she didn't want to say anything that could trigger a bad mood.
"Where have you been for 2 weeks?" Michi asked enthusiastically.
"We went to dungeons and took a long time to clear, so we didn't return home for 2 weeks," said Haruka.
"Did you go hardcore?" Michi asked.
"Look for yourself," said Haruka.
Michi looked above Haruka's head. There was a small panel with the name Haruka Level 25. Michi was shocked and a little disappointed.
"Only level 25? Didn't you say you were mostly in a dungeon?"
"Yes, but mostly we tried to survive," said Haruka awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Akira was staring at a boy in the group while another boy came to Akira.
"Hey, Hoshi-kun, we didn't speak that much in class. I am sorry for your three best friends. They sacrificed themselves to protect our classmates. They said you wouldn't forgive them if one of our classmates died when they were still alive. They are the bravest people I ever saw."
Akira squinted his eyes; he didn't like when he said they mentioned him before dying. They died protecting, but his words gave credit to Akira.
"Yes. Being a hero is tough. So you better make sure you all will live a good life," said Akira, acting sadly. He didn't remember their names.
Everyone heard that and said, "Yes."
"I don't remember him being in our class," Haruka asked looking at the person Akira was constantly staring at. 'Aki is glancing at him. He never put attention on someone like that.'
The boy came forward confidently and gave his hand to shake to Haruka. "Hello, Haruka-san. I'm Iwasaki Gakuto."
A slap immediately came to his face from Akira, and everyone around paused with their mouths open in shock, including Haruka.
"Hoshi-kun, why did you slap him?" a girl flared up condemning.
"Did I give you permission to call her by her given name?" Akira said in a cold tone.
"Aki, you are making our classmates angry."
"I don't care, only your friends can call you that. Why are you not apologizing yet?" Akira asked in a very serious tone, he had the look of murdering him.
The boy was enraged inside, but he couldn't show his bad side. 'This bastard! How dare a low life slap me, but for my plan, I should endure it.'
He laughed it away and said, "Haha, sorry about that. I lived in America, so it became a habit, besides, I didn't know her surname."
"You can just call her madam if you don't know," said Akira, "but I am not an unreasonable person, so I will forgive you."
"Sorry, Iwasaki-san, our classmate is rude. He always speaks his mind," a girl tried to comfort him.
"No, I was the one being rude to his girlfriend," said Iwasaki.
"She is not his girlfriend. They are just childhood friends."
"Then why did you slap me when she is not even speaking?" Iwasaki asked to ruin his image.
"Because I am the most important person in her life," said Akira confidently with a straight face.
The mood became awkwardly silent.
"Did I hear that wrong?" the girl asked, "you mean she is the most important person in your life?"
"No, you heard it right," said Akira without any hesitation.
Haruka got embarrassed, and she looked at her feet unable to raise her head.
"Then what about you?" asked Michi.
"I am also an important person in my life," said Akira, trying to avoid saying what Michi wanted to hear.
'Of course,' thought Haruka, 'he can't say it because that girl will be more important to him than me. Sigh, I feel sad now, but the fact that I am thinking that I am sad means I am not that much sad.
Although I am not his number one, he is always my number one, no, he is the only one. I am too deep into this, or maybe I am too high on my hormones right now, so I can't think properly.'
She tried to distract herself from feeling down, but that led to some other topic in her mind.
"We still don't know how you met Iwasaki-san," Haruka asked.
"We met him in a dungeon," said Michi, "he saved Rina from a monster. Later we met him coincidentally in another dungeon. He was alone, so we asked him to join our group and become our leader."
'Coincidence? I know exactly why he came,' Akira thought remembering the first time he met Iwasaki in his previous life.
Haruka gasped trying to act shocked. "He is your leader. I am sorry for what Aki did to him. It might cause trouble to you from now on."
"Iwasaki-san is not that petty; stop worrying," said Michi.
"So where should we go?" a boy asked.
"Most of the entertainments are closed; it's hard to find," someone said.
"Let's go to a dungeon," Akira suggested. "You all are level 30 and Iwasaki-san is level 45. I want to see how the people my friends protected with their lives are doing."
"Hey, just say you want to get carried by Iwasaki-kun," the fangirl said.
'This... She's overdoing it.' Haruka became mad.
"Most of you seem to be stuck at level 30 ascension," said Akira, "how about it? We won't join your party and won't ask for any crystals. We will just watch; this is a class reunion after all, so why not give fellow low-level classmates some lessons."
That elevated a few of them when Akira put himself below them.
"No, Hoshi-kun. How can we leave out our friends like that?" Michi spoke up.
Haruka tapped her shoulder. "It's fine, Michi, we don't have big aspirations. We already have a house in the unlimited absolute safe zone."
Everyone suddenly looked at her with envy. It was a normal reaction because the only unlimited safe zone in the world was in Japan. To have a place there meant they were safe forever.
Other safe zones must be purchased as a subscription from the system. Even then, it was not an absolute safe zone. It was just a normal safe zone where monsters couldn't enter.
Humans can still harm other humans in safe zones. Safe zones had different ranks from F to S. As the rank increased, the cost of the subscription also would increase. The safe zone could only stop same-level monsters from entering. Higher-level monsters could break the safe zone like a barrier with some effort.
"Haruka, you are really lucky," said Michi.
"Yes," Haruka replied awkwardly and thought, 'Why did Aki take the initiative to take us to the dungeon? That's most likely because of Iwasaki. Did Iwasaki do something in his futuristic view?'
"Shall we get going?" Iwasaki called everyone.
"Yes." Everyone agreed.
While going, Haruka noticed 3 girls wearing short skirts including Michi and thought, 'aren't we going to fight? Maybe they will change on the way.'
They reached a violet-colored portal dungeon.
'They didn't change; maybe they will change in the dungeon,' Haruka thought feeling awkward.
"Everyone, take out your weapons and equipment. Quickly change," said Iwasaki.
Phew Haruka got relaxed.
After everyone got ready, one by one entered the portal. Haruka freaked out. 'Wait, they only equipped weapons and artifacts. Aren't those low-quality items? Oh right, I forgot. Normal players only have access to items of their own level. Aki is right; I got spoiled by him. But the most important thing is, they are still wearing skirts.'
"Isn't this risky?" Haruka asked Michi. "All of us are level 30 and below."
"It's fine, we already went in 2 violet dungeons before. We won't go far from the portal. We can always run away."
Haruka just realized. 'Oh, yeah. I didn't realize we don't need to kill the leader and get dungeon reward. No, I take it back, Aki is not spoiling me; he is grinding me to the bone.'
They entered the dungeon.