Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 20: Distant

Kazuki didn't say anything else. Instead, he just sighed and nodded at me before he left the kitchen. I couldn't blame him. He's not a genius when it comes to certain subjects as well as PE, but he is still a good kid and I want him to succeed in his studies. In any case, I focused my attention back to preparing tonight's dinner.

----

A few hours later, I was back in my bedroom as Kazuki and I prepared our <VeilCons> to log in into <Isekai> once more.

"Remember, Kaz. We're just going to play for about 30 minutes or so," I said. "We need to be early for our exams tomorrow and I don't want Mom to come down on us once she gets back home."

"Don't worry about it, Hayate! We only need you to do some [Cooking] tests that you've mentioned," Kaz answered. "Besides, we got plenty of items and ingredients from those monsters. So it would be a waste to sell them to NPCs if we don't utilize our non-combat <Masteries> more often."

"You're right. But let's finish this quickly and try to avoid encountering any problems in the game."

We then laid down on our own beds with the <VeilCons> on our heads and eased ourselves before shouting out the trigger words:

"<Dive In>!"

As the devices on our heads began to activate, I slowly slipped into unconsciousness as a familiar flash of light clouded my vision.

----

Once I opened my eyes, I found myself staring at a wooden ceiling right above me, though I wasn't surprised at this. We were in the room we rented in the inn, which after our several trips in the game for a few days, we started to call this room our very own "apartment" of sorts in this virtual fantasy world. But to be honest, the more time we spent in this room, the more <Lapi> we had to spend in order to retain our access to spawn in this world without being bombarded by other players at in town square.

As I got up from my bed, I saw Kaz yawning as he got up and stretched his arms. "Well, it's a new day for us in <Volo>! Though, it's almost afternoon, but still..."

Yet as I watched my brother check on his menu, I began to wonder:

Did I make the right choice? Do I have to risk myself to take care of the one who has always stood by my side beforehand?

To be honest, I hadn't always been an overprotective brother. In fact, in the past I had been more distant and careless towards Kaz.

----

I was in middle school back then. Dad was starting out as one of the assistant programmers in a well-known company while Mom was barely home due to covering a massive political scandal. I didn't much care about anything. I didn't socialize with my classmates too often. Heck, I even ignored Kazuki and barely talked to him even when he was little. I didn't feel anything for him at that time. All I did back then was to watch TV and surf the internet without a care in the world. It's not that I was bored with the world, I just felt that there was something in my life that was missing, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I even started questioning myself about my own future.

What do I want to do with my life? What should I achieve? What should I become when I grow up?

I often asked myself this whenever I overheard my classmates talk about their parents or how they wanted to be something like a police officer or an actor someday. But what would they gain in return? Helping people is rewarding, but is that all you want to do? And even if you're famous, what will you really get in return?