Game
Thoughts
"Talking"
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"Gray-"
Swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim
For a split second in between swim strokes, a soft face appeared.
"Do-"
Swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim
He barely managed to register the hazel eyes as they stared at him warmly.
"You-"
Swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim
Soft skin, shown off completely by the small bikini on her body.
"Want-"
Swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim
A slim body, long hair, and sizeable breasts distracted him for merely a nanosecond before he continued his training.
"A-"
Swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swim swi- perfect timing!
[Swim] level up! (20000/20000)
+10 AGI for leveling up an AGI-related skill! (10x multiplier from [Nightmare Mode])
+100 XP (10x multiplier from [Nightmare Mode])
"Snack?" Asuna finished, her words coming out smoothly as the sentence only took a second or two to say, despite the fact that Gray managed to swim numerous laps around the decently sized island during that time.
"Sure," Gray said abruptly, stopping in his tracks mid-stroke. He swam towards the nearby beach, pressing his feet into the sand as the water became shallow enough to stand.
+100 Reputation with Asuna (For looking sexy shirtless) [4x from [Ladies Man], [A Humble Master]]
Gray ignored the way Asuna's eyes trailed down his water-coated body, then blushed and wouldn't meet his eyes.
"What'd you bring this time?" Gray asked casually, walking towards Asuna as water dripped down his body.
This wasn't the first time this interaction had happened, as over the past four days Gray had spent a lot of time at this beach. It was on a pretty isolated island, far away from both West City and any official territories from any faction.
It was the perfect spot for Gray's training - isolated, away from the distractions of both West City and his companions, as well as far enough out of the way that he wouldn't have to worry about being randomly ambushed.
"A sandwich!" Asuna offered, smiling brightly at him. She raised her hands, showcasing a delicious-looking sandwich wrapped loosely in thin paper.
While Gray had been diving head-first into his own skill-based personal training, Asuna had proven herself to be very caring. He had been pleasantly surprised when he exited the gravity chamber after training for nearly two days straight to find a collection of handmade food waiting for him.
He had brought enough food into the room with him to last an entire week - as nutrition was very important for training - but he had appreciated the gesture nonetheless.
Then, over the past few days, when he had gone to this island to train, Asuna had shown up multiple times throughout the days to bring him handmade meals.
She's a good cook too.
"Thanks," Gray grinned, causing Asuna to blush lightly again as he took the sandwich from her hand, their fingertips touching lightly.
I'm glad at least one of them is pretty normal.
Compared to Saeko's aggressiveness, and Celia's lack of emotion-turned jumping him in his bed, Asuna was normal by comparison. She acted how Gray expected all of them - being young women - to act in regards to romance.
She brought him food, blushed when their hands brushed, and stuttered at any flirting he did. Compared to Celia's seemingly randomly appearing in his bed, and Saeko's aggressive teasing that almost went too far at times, Asuna was a breath of fresh air.
It was nice to feel relatively 'human' again for once.
"You're not pushing yourself too hard, right?" Asuna asked worriedly as Gray bit into the sandwich, "I know us Saiyans train a lot, but this is excessive. I don't think I've ever worked as hard as you are now, even during my time at the academy."
"I'm fine," Gray waved her off dismissively as he flashed her a smile, "When I've got such a cute girl making me food, how could I not work my hardest?"
+100 Reputation with Asuna (For calling her cute) [4x from [Ladies Man], [A Humble Master]]
"S-Shut up," Asuna stuttered, looking away with red cheeks.
"I need to get as strong as I can as quickly as possible," Gray continued, answering seriously this time, "After my performance on this planet, I'm not sure what King Vegeta will have in store for me."
While Gray hadn't gone too far on Earth in order to avoid Frieza's attention, King Vegeta would be able to get a read on his strength when he went back to Planet Vegeta.
Hopefully he'll let me continue to lay low for a bit longer, but I don't know what he'll do.
King Vegeta could let Gray continue to grow his strength silently in the academy, or he could try to force him to take on a bigger role.
I don't want him to try to make me an actual squad leader or anything. Preferably, I just continue to train and climb through the academy ranks. By the time Frieza even knows I exist, I'll be too strong for him to do anything about it.
"You're plenty strong already, Gray," Asuna said softly, "I've never seen anyone as talented as you. There's probably only even been a couple of Saiyans in history to be as strong as you at your age."
"Just because I'm strong now doesn't mean I can just take a break," Gray shook his head, taking his final bite of the sandwich, "Talent doesn't matter if you don't work hard."
'Talent' in this case is just a gamer system, but she doesn't know that.
"Now that I think about it," Gray started, dragging the conversation away from his training, "I don't know much about you."
I've been training pretty much every waking hour of the day over the past week. I don't want to talk about training.
"Huh?" Asuna blinked, tilting her head at him cutely, "What do you mean?"
"How'd you become the squad vice-leader?" Gray asked, "Celia told me that you graduated from the academy early, but that's all I know."
"Well, I don't know about 'early,'" Asuna hummed, putting a finger on her chin, "Since anyone can graduate at any time."
Right.
Celia had explained to him previously that you could leave the academy whenever you wanted, but that it wasn't preferable to do so unless you were A-Rank at least. Anything below that, and you were essentially vying for a position on the frontlines of the war. Which, in turn, meant you were vying for the position of 'first cannon fodder.'
"I was fine with staying there longer," Asuna continued, "But a friend of my Father's decided to sponsor the Raditz's squad, and he wanted me to be the vice-captain. It was a good offer, so I took it!"
Celia mentioned that her Father was friends with a higher-up in the Frieza Force. That could come in handy later.
"Sponsor? Is your family a bunch of big shots or somethin'?" Gray pushed, but Asuna merely giggled in response.
"Something like that," She nodded, then quickly changed the subject, "A-Anyway, Ranfan wanted to take us to a shopping mall today. Do you want to come?"
I'd rather die.
Gray had already been pushed into joining them on a 'shopping trip' once, and it had been miserable. Despite being able to do hundreds of thousands of pushups without tiring out, holding the large pile of shopping bags had somehow made him feel as if his arms were going to fall off.
"I'll pass," Gray shook his head, "I'll, uh… join some other time."
I will not join some other time.
"Alright, good luck with your training!" Asuna cheered, then turned around and shot up into the sky. A second later, Gray was alone on the sandy beach of the island. He hummed as he turned back to the vast ocean behind him.
Well, let's get back to training.
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"Wanna go shopping with us, Gray?" Ranfan asked excitedly, poking her finger into his side.
"My answer won't change just because you asked again," Gray replied dryly, casually flipping a pan in front of him. The pancakes flipped on in it, flying into the air and then landing with a sizzle.
Hey, cooking might only give him CHA, but stats are stats!
I don't know the next time I'll have easy access to so many cooking utensils.
He didn't have the chance to cook at all in the academy - their food was just dispensed from a machine, and he doubted he'd be doing much cooking during a mission. Maybe if it was a long one and he ran out of rations he'd have to cook some meat over a fire, but that'd be it.
"Come onnnnnnnnnnnnn! It'll be fun!" Ranfan cheered, peeking around him at the pancakes, "Oh! Those look good!"
"You want some?" Gray asked casually, grabbing a plate as they finished cooking. Ranfan nodded, and he dumped them on the plate, then handed them back to her.
Ranfan grabbed a fork off the hotel kitchen counter, tore off a piece of the pancake, and took a bite. As she did, her eyes suddenly went wide. She slowly turned her head, looking at Gray with stars in her eyes.
+100 Reputation with Ranfan (For being a good cook) [4x from [Ladies Man], [A Humble Master]]
"S-So good…" Ranfan muttered, staring at him in slight awe.
"You can have the rest," Gray said casually, grabbing another box of pancake mix. He had already gone through over a hundred so far today and was planning to go through at least a hundred more.
I need to grind as many levels as I can before we leave.
Though, even with his optimizing the training - as he had multiple pans sitting around him on the counters so he could cook multiple pancakes at once - it was still a rather slow process.
Ranfan didn't need to be told twice, as mere seconds later the entire pancake was devoured. She slowly looked back up as he started sizzling another pancake.
"C-Can…" Ranfan trailed off, nearly drooling as she stared at him cook, "...I have another one?"
"Sure," Gray nodded, grinning as she stared hungrily at his food, "As many as you want."
"Yay!"
+100 Reputation with Ranfan (For giving her pancakes) [4x from [Ladies Man], [A Humble Master]]
This is pretty nice.
Gray felt a sense of satisfaction as he continued to cook, the beautiful woman behind him continuing to ask for more and more pancakes as she tried to convince him to join her on her shopping trip.
It was different from the joy that came from a fight, but it was still nice.
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"Grayyyyyyyyyy! I'm back!" Ranfan cheered, walking through the hotel room door without knocking, "And I bought something for you!"
"For me?" Gray asked with a raised eyebrow, looking over his shoulder at the girl. As he did, Ranfan stared at him incredulously.
"You're still cooking?!" She asked, staring in shock at his pan full of pancake mix, "More pancakes?! For dinner?!"
It's a pretty quick and efficient meal to make.
The pancakes only took roughly a minute to make, and they seemed to give a good amount of progress towards his [Cooking] skill.
"Yup," Gray said casually, moving the conversation away from the literal near-thousand number of pancakes he'd eaten that day, "Anyway, what'd you get me?"
"Oh! Right!" The airheaded girl nodded, then suddenly blushed as she became shy. She slowly opened up one of the shopping bags in her hands, pulling out a white apron.
"Y-You don't have to wear it if you don't want to! I j-just thought you might like it since you've been cooking a lot lately!" Ranfan stuttered out, her face flushed red as she held up the apron at him.
Gray deadpanned as Ranfan held up the world's corniest apron at him. It was white, looking like it was too small for him, and had the words 'Shut up and eat my meat' with the picture of a hotdog.
"You saw that, and I came to mind?" Gray asked teasingly, grabbing the apron out of her hands.
"M-Maybe," Ranfan stuttered, then suddenly became more confident as she looked up at him, "Just so you know… it's something the store called a 'naked apron.' When you cook, you have to wear it, and only it!"
"Oh, really?" Gray smirked, reaching up as he started to take off his shirt, "Thanks for letting me know."
"W-Wait! Are you putting it on right now?" Ranfan blushed again, watching as Gray pulled his shirt off and placed a hand of his pants. She held up her hands, waving them at him frantically, "W-Wait! You don't have to put it on right now!"
"What? But you bought it for me!" Gray smirked teasingly at her, giving her a break as he started putting it on without fully taking off his pants, "It would be rude not to test it out, right?"
+100 Reputation with Ranfan (For looking sexy shirtless) [4x from [Ladies Man], [A Humble Master]]
Ranfan blushed, glancing away shyly, "I-I guess…"
"Why are you acting all embarrassed?" Gray deadpanned, "If I remember correctly, the reason Kami wouldn't train you is because you got naked mid-fight to distract your opponents."
"I didn't get naked! I-I just showed a little skin!" Ranfan huffed back, blushing still, "Besides, taking off your clothes in a fight and taking them off when it's just the two of us is different!"
"Yeah, yeah," Gray hummed, finishing wrapping the apron around him, "But you bought it for me. Stop blushing like a virgin."
Gray turned back to the pan, giving it a flip as the pancakes sizzled on it. As he did, he heard a quiet mutter behind him.
"...I am a virign," Ranfan muttered. Gray glanced over his shoulder, watching as the girl's face was beet-red while she stared at her feet.
Who would've thought she could act like this?
Compared to the normally flirtatious, airheaded, and confident Ranfan, this was a side to the woman that Gray hadn't seen yet.
She's cute.
Gray couldn't resist smiling as he stared back at the gorgeous woman.
Maybe I should take her with us?
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gray Tanaki:
[Saiyan Squad Captain]
Age: 18
Wallet: 4,595,770 Coins
Lvl: 23 (3,922,770/10,000,000 XP)
PL: 3,637,430,200
Available Points: 450
HP: 1,889,950/1,889,950
TKI: 2,341,925/ 2,341,925
STR: 1525
AGI: 1780
END: 1340
INT: 1415
CHA: 1245
LUK: 795
KI: 1655
HREG: 1176
EREG: 1176
Skills: [Observe LVL 10], [Running LVL 17], [Determination LVL 20], [Ki Control LVL 14], [Ki Gun LVL 11]. [Ki Enhancement LVL 9], [KI Suppression LVL 10], [Ki Sense LVL 8], [Pushup LVL 17], [Punch LVL 17], [Kick LVL 17], [Jump LVL 17], [Flight LVL 9], [Prediction LVL 7], [Zenkai Boost LVL 6], [Cognitive Acceleration LVL 7], [Ah! Lord Freiza! LVL 7], [Mouth-Beam LVL 6], [Ki-Blade LVL 6], [Cooking LVL 10], [Ki Barrage LVL 8], [Ki Explosion LVL 6], [Ki Vision LVL 6], [Attack Boost LVL 1], [Swimming LVL 9]
Perks: [Gamer's Mind], [Gamer's Body], [Double-edged Sword], [Legendary Super Saiyan], [Perfect Ozaru], [A Cute Pawn], [A Humble Master], [Ladies Man]
Fighting Styles: [Boxing Style: Kolra LVL 2], [Fighting Style: Broly LVL 1]
Party: [Saeko, Celia, Asuna, Ranfan]
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AN: Thank you for reading! Sorry for the lack of update last week, I was focusing heavily on writing ahead for the Patreon! BUT! Weekly updates are back, and I'm aiming to update at least one of my stories every day, so it'll be more often than weekly!
The next part of this chapter will be out later, or I've recently updated my Patreon! You can now read 20 chapters ahead of my public publishing schedule, which includes 10 chapters for this story, and I'll be adding even more!
Patreon.com/Koyon !