202 A Mother's Suspicions

Hey, Shun here!

They say that a woman's intuition is very strong but a mother's intuition is even stronger when it comes to their children. After all, they're the ones who gave birth to us.

Of course they'll know more about their children.

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(Shun's POV)

Waking up very early in the morning, I got off from bed and did my morning jog. I came with Tsuka, as per usual, but I struggled a bit on something.

"Say, Tsuka, did we pass by here already?"

"Squeak~? What pass, master~?"

I asked this because I am, without a doubt, lost as of right now. I can't pinpoint where I am, maybe because I got a bit too used to the scenery around the neighborhood of where we live at Yukiko-san, Rinka-san, Touka-san, and Ritsu's dimension.

This is primarily the reason why I woke up very early, aside from the reason that I'm just doing my usual morning routine. I want to once again familiarize myself to my place.

I could kinda remember the route on this place, since I have a pretty good memory, but because we lived at that dimension for 8 whole months, I have to get used to the scenery again. This is basically what I did when I came back home from that long quest at Rokuko's dimension.

It was then that I found a very familiar place. It was a convenience store that's a few streets away from our house.

"Oh, I found a place I'm pretty familiar to. Nevermind. Let's go there to buy some snacks before going home, Tsuka."

'Man. Good thing I have a pretty good memory.' I thought to myself while walking towards the convenience store with Tsuka in my shoulders.

"Squeak~! Tsuka like, orange juice, Master~!"

"Yes yes, we'll buy some then…"

After some bread, onigiri, and some other things, we ran back to our house which was only a few kilometers away from the convenience store. We came across a few elderly who we often meet whenever we go to our morning jogs.

Arriving at our home, I saw my mother sweeping our front yard with a small smile on her face. One might say that she looks a bit too out of place if you consider that she and Dad is rarely home but, every so often, when she doesn't have any work to do — which is already very rare in of itself — Mom actually does what regular mothers do when they're home.

I personally think that she's way too into doing house chores despite those days being her day off. I think she's too used to working, that's why she's finding ways to somehow do some work even when she's supposed to be sitting back and relaxing.

"Mom, we're home!"

Alongside me, Tsuka said something along the lines of my words as well. She even waved her hands, probably so that Mom could spot her easier.

"Squeak~! Master and Tsuka, home, Mom~!" She's really quite attached to Mom.

The moment Mom heard us, she stopped what she was doing and looked at us.

"Ara, welcome home Shun, Tsuka…"

Right after saying those words though, she immediately stopped for a moment before looking at me curiously. Is there something on my face?

Even though I was clearly puzzled, which I think is pretty obvious in the expression in my face, Mom approached me and looked at me even more intently. At that point, I wanted to ask her what it was all about but, she immediately snapped out of it and asked me something that absolutely caught me off guard.

"Say, Shun my dear, did you go out to somewhere last night?"

"Eh? What do you mean I went out last night, Mom? I didn't go anywhere, you know?"

When I told her that, Mom looked at me doubtfully for a moment before she took a step back and observed me once again. Then, out of completely nowhere, she took a step forward and hugged me tightly.

"You changed a lot, Shun… It feels like Mom haven't seen you for almost a year."

I was shocked to my core due to how spot on she was. It's like she really knew I've been out for so long or something.

However, I'm pretty sure that this is not the case. Time stopped in my dimension and everyone else's dimension when we left, so she shouldn't know about my disappearance.

I was both impressed and a little spooked by Mom's intuition. Like, seriously.

"I didn't go off to anywhere Mom. Maybe it's just your imagination."

The moment I said that, Mom broke the hug and said.

"Really now? Well, maybe it is just Mom's imagination then… Saa, let's go inside? Miu asked me to teach her how to cook earlier and… She should be finished cooking by now."

Oh, that's yet another surprise. Miu actually not only work up early, but tried to earnestly learn how to cook from Mom?

I guess she really is eager to learn.

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We are having a good time eating breakfast together. Miu, most especially, is having fun talking to Mom about her progress in-game.

"Me and my party are about to go to the East to defeat Golem-sensei, Mom. I'm so excited to go there to night!"

"Fufu, is that so? Could you introduce your friends to Mom later? I want to meet my daughter's friends."

"Is that alright Mom?" I asked.

"What do you mean, Shun?"

"I mean, is it alright for you to play the game you had a hand in making?" The reason why I'm asking this is because, you know, she might have some knowledge about the game.

She is one of the people who made it for Christ's sake. Although it isn't really much of a problem for her to play her own game in my opinion, there might be some people who'd complain about it.

There are whiners all over the gaming world, after all.

"It's fine, Shun. Even if I'm one of the people who made the game, most of the quests in the game are made by the AI and are tested by a certain department. There should be an update in the future where there would be many random time limited quests…"

"Eh, really Mom!? Like, you could get a quest just by bumping into a random NPC or something!?"

"Yes, that's right."

Mom then went on to explain how they plan to develop [OSO] in order to further write home the main concept of the game, which is to make each and every player have a different experience playing the game. They wanted to really emphasize on making players be the [Only One], their own unique character, it seems.

After we had our breakfast, we were sent off by Mom as we went off to school.

As we walked through the streets, Miu suddenly hugged me by the arm. There seems to be something off about her today but I couldn't really put my finger on it.

"Did you like my cooking, Onii-chan?" Miu asked while looking up at me.

"Eh? Hmm… Yeah, it's good, actually. Delicious. You might have a knack for it." I said.

Me and mom have been teaching her the basics ever since. So long as she put her heart into it, she should be able to cook more delicious food.

How to say it. She's just a little bit lazy in practicing, that's all.

"Really!? That's good…" Miu beamed after hearing what I said as she tightened her grip on my arms.

I wonder what's gotten into her these days? I feel like she's beginning to make a little bit of effort on other things other than gaming.

It was a little bit stuffy and hot since Miu was clinging to me and it was a very hot day but I paid it no heed. It was very nice to have her company after not seeing her for too long.

I didn't really think much about the sudden clinginess of Miu that day. It seems like, after going out for a very long quest, I subconsciously welcomed the skinship.

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After escorting Miu to her middle school, I went directly to my own school.

"Ah, the weather is so hot so early in the morning… Should I buy [Ice Magic Talent] or something to keep me cold?" I wondered while blocking the scorching rays of the sun using the palm of my hands.

It was then that I saw the back of my friend, Taku, who was walking towards the school gate with his back slouched.

"Yo, Taku!" I said while slapping him on his back, just a little bit above his waist.

*smack*

"Yeeaoooch! What the heck, Shun!? That hurts, you know!?" Taku protested while pushing me away. He of course didn't forget to add a slap of his own in my shoulders.

"Hahaha, well, I thought I'd help you wake up. What's up, anyway? Why do you look like you haven't slept for days?" I asked while pointing at the glaring eye bags on his face.

"Yeah well, I had to stay up all night doing some planning for a boss hunt so…" Taku said while smiling wryly.

"Hee… Who knew that you would actually bother doing that? Are you really Taku? No, Taku isn't this diligent. Dude, did you eat something bad last night?" I looked at him as if I saw a ghost.

My friend Taku can't be someone who'd bother staying up late doing something other than gaming. Oh, wait, he's a gamer and the thing he stayed up late for is in regards to a game…

"What do you mean I'm not that diligent you f*cker!? I could be diligent if I want to, ya know!?" Taku replied as he snapped.

"Oh really? Did you finish your homework, then?" I asked while smirking. I already know the answer to this but I asked anyway.

The moment I asked this, Taku's momentum seems to have died down as he began scratching the back of his head.

"…Can I copy yours? I didn't have the time to finish mine."

"And you're saying you could be diligent if you wanted to?" I said while chuckling.

"Bro, shut up. Just let me copy your homework and I'll treat you at lunch." Taku snapped back once again.

"Hmm… What to do…"

Along with my friend who's giving me a sideways glare, we entered inside the school's premises.

As time went on, in between breaks, I would open my phone and chat with my friends at the [Group Chat].

"Oh, right. I almost forgot. The presents. Also, I should buy some VR Gears later on my way home." Remembering what I should do, I opened the notepad app on my phone and wrote it down.

Looking at the [Group Chat], everyone is currently taking about using the new function of our [Group Chat], which is the [Dimensional Train]. According to the description, it's a train that could be used to travel to the dimensions that we already visited and/or live in.

The cost of traveling between dimensions back and forth was 1,000 d-coins, and the maintaining balance per day after two days is 200 d-coins. While it doesn't provide any other benefit other than traveling between dimensions, I think it's still quite cheap considering how we could basically gather together without any problems now.

There's also the perk of being able to access the [Dimensional Shop] of different dimensions ourselves if we want to but I think it's cheaper to just make an exchange with those who already lives in that specific dimension.

Whilst I was thinking of such things, I suddenly got called out by our teacher in Math.

"Mr. Shirakami. Please stand up and solve the problem shown on your board please."

The moment I heard that, I looked down and saw the problem that was written on a giant tablet. This is a school tablet that is installed in every student's desks.

This could double as a book as well since every book that our grade teaches us is stored in here, making it so that we didn't really have to bring books with us anymore. And, like this scenario, we no longer have to walk in front of the class to solve a problem.

"Yessir…" I replied while solving the problem using the digital pen on the side.

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ Took me long enough to create a chapter. Work and personal life issues piled up so I was not in the mental state to create a chapter. I couldn't create a chapter for the past few days, to be honest. Apologies if I didn't inform you guys.