Planeptune's most notable feature was its futuristic technology.
While Leanbox proved to be advanced and highly urbanized and Lastation had an outstanding level of industrial development, Planeptune had the most advanced technology but still retained classical tendencies among its districts. There were also things like public baths and hot springs on the outskirts, but Alex didn't really see any point in going there alone.
Oddly enough, this nation's main economic focus wasn't industry like Lastation or Leanbox, but hobby and entertainment goods such as manga, anime, video games, PVC figures and other types of goods related to the otaku culture.
This initially confused the young boy, who couldn't understand how a nation that relied mostly on that kind of market could become the most advanced in terms of civilization and technology.
Later in time, he learned that despite its advanced appearance, Planeptune was also the most ravaged and attacked by monsters and the nation once faced a serious economic crisis in the past, but thanks to Histoire's efforts it managed to get back up on its feet and thrive, which is why she got chosen as Planeptune's Oracle by the citizens.
As his mind recalled this explanation from the oracle, Alex leaned on the rail of the tower's balcony and checked out the view. This gave him a surpising feeling of calm and quiet, which unfortunately didn't last long.
"Ally! Let's play a game!"
The sudden sound of Neptune yelling right behind him caused the young boy to move forward by reflex, slipping off the rail and nearly falling off of it if he hadn't grabbed the rail with both hands in the last moment.
He then quickly placed his feet on the floor and regained his balance before turning around to look at Neptune with an unamused expression.
"I've you many times. It's Alex. Not Ally!"
"Ah sorry, sorry!" Said Neptune while smiling.
Despite apologizing, Planeptune's CPU didn't really seem to feel sorry about it in the least, or at least that's what it seemed like to the young boy.
"Just what do you want?" He asked after regaining his composture.
"Like I said! Let's play a game!"
"A game?"
"Yeah!" She replied before putting both hands on her hips and frowning. "Ever since arriving, you're always here staring like an idiot! How can it be fun to read about that!?"
"Do you really need to say it like that?" Asked the young boy while sweat dropping.
"This chapter's all about you bonding with me! If we don't spend time together, we won't trigger the needed event to advance the story!" She said while pointing at him and smiling again. "That's why we need to start by playing games together!"
'How the hell does that even make any sense?' He thought to himself before lowering his head and sighing.
When he first met Neptune, the young boy had no idea what was going on within the CPUs head whenever she spoke 4th wall breaking stuff like that, but he later learned from IF that it was a bad habit Neptune had.
It was probably developed from the combination of her childish personality and all the anime she watched.
He still couldn't understand too well what she meant sometimes though, but Alex decided to simply accept that it was indeed how Neptune was.
"Fine, let's play..." He said.
"Sweet! Now you're getting it!" Said the perky CPU while turning around and heading back inside.
In the end, he decided to agree since Neptune seemed determined to monopolize all of his attention and unfortunately, she was a rather stubborn girl, if nothing else.
Alex couldn't even remember the last time he sat down properly and played videogames since he was always focused on mercenary work and didn't really see a purpose in buying a console for himself.
Once inside, he saw the perky CPU was already resting on a large cushion with the controller on her hands and waiting for him. He also noticed that Nepgear and Histoire weren't around. Histoire was most likely busy working, but it's rare for Nepgear not to be around Neptune to pamper her.
Perhaps this was the reason she seemed so eager to get his attention.
"Hey Neptune, where's your sister?"
"Nepgear went out. She said something about work."
This reply suddenly reminded the young man a tiny detail about Neptune. She was Planeptune's CPU, so shouldn't she have work to do or something similar?
"Now that I think about it, shouldn't you be working right now?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ally, this little Nep doesn't do boring paperwork...A goddess only moves when the people are in danger!"
'No wonder this nation nearly went down the drain once.' He thought while sweat dropping again.
Not wanting to put too much thought into it, he sat down next to her and grabbed the remaining controller.
At first they played a game where odd looking human-like animals moved at great speed while collecting rings.
After a couple of hours they played a different game where you would choose a martial artist from a sheet of characters and fight each other to the death.
The first hour and half was rather difficult for Alex since he only had a basic idea of how the controller operated and no experience in both games.
Neptune going all out against him without even bothering to teach him anything besides from the basics didn't really help either. The CPU justified her behavior by saying that "learning was part of the fun", but Alex honestly couldn't see the fun there, especially when the other player was going all out and taking advantage of the fact she knew a lot more than him.
Fortunately, Alex was quick at learning and managed to stand on equal ground with Planeptune's CPU but after three hours of constantly fighting over and over again, even with different characters every time, the games got repetitive.
Eventually, Alex put down the controller and stretched his arms while getting up.
"Eh? You don't wanna play anymore?"
"It's a bit too repetitive for me." He said before feeling his stomach grumble "Besides, I'm getting hungry..."
"Ah, if you're raiding the fridge, please get me some pudding!"
"Fine..."
The young boy headed to the kitchen and opened the fridge but saw there was nothing in there.
When closing the door, he saw a note attached to it with scotch tape. It was addressed to Neptune.
"Let's see…" He said after taking the note off of the fridge and reading it out loud "Neptune, there was no pudding left so I went out to buy some groceries. I should be back soon enough. Please be patient."
Seeing the pearless handwritting on this note and the way Neptune's name seemed to be written with even more care than any other word made the young man assume it was written by Nepgear.
'Shouldn't the older sister be the one asking for the younger one to behave and be patient?' Thougut Alex.
Brushing that aside, the young boy returned to where Neptune was and laid down on the couch while resting his head on the couch's arm.
"Hey Ally, where's my pudding?"
"There's no pudding left."
"Eh?" She said with a blank stare.
It took a few minutes for Planeptune's CPU to fully process the words that came out of Alex's mouth. Malicious words that for Neptune were nothing short of a sin against morality and common sense.
"EHHHHHH!?" Said Neptune before quickly letting go of the controller, getting up on her feet and turning around to face Alex. "Wha-wha-wha-what do you mean there's no pudding left!?"
"Just what I mean, there's none left."
"An emergency! No, a disaster! This is a disaster! How am I supposed to survive without my P-Vitamin!?"
"P-Vitamin?"
"Ally! What do we do now!? I'll starve to death without my pudding!"
"Don't know about you, but I'll be taking a nap" Answered the young boy while turning around.
"Wait! You're turning your back on me!?"
"Just wait for a little. Nepgear will be back with some soon enough."
"I can't believe you'd abandon a cute loli girl like me to starve! You demon! Bully! Devil! eggplant!"
"Say whatever you want. It won't change a thing."
"But I'm hungry!"
The young man didn't answer this time, he simply pretended to have fallen asleep and ignored her. All with the hopes that she'd just go back to playing games.
"Ally, I'm hungry!"
This didn't discourage Neptune, who would keep complaining to Alex whether he wanted it or not until she got what she wanted.
"Ally, Hungry!"
Even if he tried to ignore her, the loli CPU's complaints were starting to annoy him.
"Alllllllyyyyyy!"
"Ahhh damn it! Stop calling me that already!" Yelled the young boy while sitting up on the couch and turning his upper body to look at Neptune. "Fine! I get it! I'll take you out to eat something! Just shut up!"
"Sweet! You're the bestest of the best!"
The young boy simply groaned as he got off the couch and walked towards the door, accompanied by Neptune.
"So, where are we going?" Asked the perky CPU while following through the streets with a skip on her step.
"There's this place that has high reviews so I figured now would be a good time to check it out." He said.
Alex took Neptune downtown to the highly rated place which wound up being a ramen shop.
"Welcome!" Said the Owner as he heard the new customers coming in.
"Hello Sir." Said Alex who bowed as he walked inside.
After following the young boy inside, Neptune looked around her and felt amazed with her surroundings.
"Ohhh! This place reminds me of that one show with the loud, blonde ninja!" Said Neptune.
"Oh? Is that your little sis?"
"Eh?" Said Alex while turning around and looking at Neptune. "We literally look nothing alike sir."
"Oh…" He said while his expression came back to normal. "Well, never mind that. What would you like?"
"Pork Bowl." Answered Alex while taking a seat on the stool.
"One pork bowl, right up!" The owner then looked at Neptune, who sat down in the stool next to Alex's. "What do you want, missy?"
"Pudding!"
"Eh?"
In response to her answer, Alex would smack Neptune on the back of the head.
"Owie!"
"It's a ramen shop, you idiot!" Said the young boy.
"Ho-How dare you hit me!? The fans are going to hate you if you hit women!"
"Who gives a damn!?"
"Hey, young boy!"
Alex's anger was suddenly cut short by a sudden call of attention. When looking forward, he saw the owner looking at him with a rather stern expression.
"Ye...Yes?" Asked the young boy with certain hesitation.
"No matter the reason, a man can never hit a woman."
Alex was definitely caught off guard by this but decided that it'd be best if he just went along with it.
"S-Sorry..."
"Not to me..." Said the owner with his arms crossed.
The young boy knew what he meant by that.
After taking a deep breath, Alex turned his head to look at Neptune, who seemed rather eager for hearing it too as the boy just looked at her with an irritated expression, especially since the CPU had quite the broad smile, as if knowing she had won this battle.
"Sorry." He said.
"It's okay; just buy me a pudding later." Said the CPU while beaming at him.
While the Owner and Neptune had quite the cheerful expressions again, Alex could only lower his head and sigh.
"Fine. Just eat something now. We can get one on the way home..."
"Okay!" Answered a perky Neptune before looking at the shop owner again "Mister! I want the same one as Ally!"
"Two pork bowls, coming right up!"
With that, the two would have a nice meal together and eventually would return back to the Basilicom.
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Chapter 30: Complete