novelWinning Conditions / Growth
| ← Ch.259 | Ch.261 → |
Translator: Ranzan
Editor: ryunakama
「Well, Natsuno-kun, wait here. 」
At Oritachi Station there was a large building that was linked to the station.
Going inside, there was an escalator that you could ride to your desired floor. Reaching there, Aoba turned and told Taiyou to wait.
Her flopping trademark ponytail was so cute in a feminine way...Taiyou thought silently.
「Are you going to be okay?」
「Yeah, just shopping, I'm fine alone. You can wait for me, Natsuno-kun. You want to raise your level, right?」
「I can come along a bit...I mean, if I do something separate, there's no reason we came here together...」
「Then I'll go for you, I'll be your representative. 」
「I don't know what you mean by that. 」
Or that it meant nothing, Taiyou thought.
「That's not so, I always go with you in my heart. Pretty much together always, as we share the same heart. 」
「I guess you can use something like that when we're far apart. 」
「That's why I'll go with you and it'll be fine, desu. 」
He ignored Hera's response and said:
「Since you're so willing to give in, having you go along with her makes me worry even more. 」
「Wha! That's rude, desu. 」
Hera put both hands up and growled at him.
「Okay, well then I'll find a place to sit and level up, so...」
「I'll come back and tell you when we're ready to join you again, desu. 」
「Yeah, that's fine. 」
Taiyou nodded and watched Aoba and Hera leave.
He looked around him and walked to find a place to sit.
He walked around the store and found a bench next to the bathroom to sit, sat, and took out the earphone from his pocket.
The cord was pretty jumbled up, so he went to untangle it.
A repeated, meaningless task.
No, all the meaningless tasks had ended.
One might say that about leveling up, but you could feel something welling up in your heart as you did it.
The first time he felt that was digging a hole in the park, and he could feel it as he dug. Lately that feeling had given him pleasure.
If one were to give an example, it was like having a boner and walking around, letting it rub on your pants, something like that.
「Because I leveled up, that simple feeling changed, I guess. 」
Taiyou spoke to himself alone.
It seemed clearly different than before, and it was interesting.
「...either way. 」
He thought, and made the decision.
It's not that there wasn't a basis for it, he was following a precedent.
Taiyou, up until now...until Hera appeared, had cleared several dozen games.
And it wasn't that the had beat the end boss and seen the ending that cleared the game, but it was getting your character and everyone in the party to the maximum level.
Thinking about it, that's how he felt about games.
Getting the level as high as possible, leveling up...feeling that small pleasure in the body from all that level you accumulated.
And in the later half of the game leveling became difficult...and the pleasure increased.
Even though it was purely psychological, it was still pleasure.
In other words, since you leveled up, the feeling would change.
In other words.
「I wonder what happens in my later half. 」
All the things he did to get to level 19.
What he could feel now, was that 99 was the max in most games, and the feeling of passing into the 90s.
Whether it was real or not, thinking about it made his expectations swell.
「At the end of the game it's like five times as strong, or to the fifth power. 」
He smiled at himself.
He felt the throbbing pleasure in his body just from remembering.
He focused on leveling up.
He untied the cord, and coiled it up.
He untied the cord, and coiled it up.
He untied the cord, and coiled it up.
Repeating over and over.
Finally, it became dark in front of him...and the next instant.
「Owwwwwww!」
The same time his sight became dark, as sharp pain attacked his eyes.
Something was covering his eyes, and he had no idea what was happening.
「Good, you noticed, desu. 」
「Hera, what are you doing?」
「I called you over and over Taiyou, and you didn't respond so I had to do something, desu!」
「So you poked my eyes?! You could have been a little nicer!」
「You were slouched forward so I couldn't kick you down there, so I had to go with the eyes, desu. 」
「That's even worse!」
Taiyou yelled at her.
We wondered which pain was worse for a second.
「There's something way worse, Taiyou!」
「What?」
「Aoba's mixed up in something, desu!」
「What's that?!」
The pain quickly disappeared.
He opened his eyes and looked at Hera. She was floating in front of him with an upset face.
It wasn't one of her jokes.
「Where?」
「Over here, desu!」
He ran after Hera.
He broke through other customers and past the registers.
Finally, he found Aoba in a cafe inside a department store.
There was a man and woman in front of Aoba.
They seemed in their 20s and workers, the woman had tears all over her face from crying, the man was angrily looking at Aoba, and was shouting.
「You're not part of this! Mind your own business!」
Taiyou stopped, he had come to help, but what he saw stopped him.
He felt deja vu, as something like this had just happened before.
「This reminds me...」
Without thinking he felt some nostalgia that almost crushed the whisper he was about to speak.
「Bastard!」
The man was in a fury and raised his hand.
An open hand, while Aoba glare unhesitantly at him.
Taiyou dashed at the man.
The 50 feet between him and the man were covered in an instant.
He got between the man and Aoba, grabbed his slapping hand, and stopped it.
| ← Ch. 259 | Ch. 261 → |