A Day At School And The Shocking Update (1)

Hey, Shun here!

Did you know that if you want to calm a person down, you yourself need to remain calm and not go all defensive and angry? I know, right!? What a surprise.

Who would've thought that… Simply amazing.

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(Shun's POV)

It was still early in the morning but the scorching rays of the sun was kinda irritating but it's normal for the weather to be like this every summer. Aside from the sun who's emitting such scorching rays, my little sister beside me is also blazing with anger and confusion.

Tsuka is already hiding somewhere inside my spirit or something. I didn't really ask her how she could do that but she's my spirit-bonded familiar so that's probably connected to how she could disappear and reappear.

"Why would the devs do that!? Players are now mad that they can only play the game for a limited time! Why do they have to limit it anyway!? Ugh, this is so unfair!"

"Well, calm down for a second, Miu. Even if you rant all day long, you can't really do anything about it. That's the decision of the devs…" I patted Miu on the back to hopefully calm her down but it seems like she's just seething in anger.

Well, the reason why she's like this was actually the update that we read about before we ate our breakfast…

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"Yep. The stats will decrease with hunger and, at worst, you can die of starvation. Haa, this reminds me of a certain rogue-like game back in the day."

My my, this little sister of mine who's only at the third year of her middle school sure is acting like some old woman who remembered something nostalgic from ages ago. What do you mean 'back in the days? Haha.

Actually, I played this game before with Miu. It's an RPG game that heavily focuses on the player's tactical skills and all those kinds of stuffs.

In the world of my previous life, it's probably similar to Final Fantasy Tactics wherein it's a turn-based RPG game that involves tactics and moving around on square-ish designated units. Players and mosters continue to act by alternating turns, a very simple game where the behaviour is determined by order which is influenced by their agility.

However, if you don't make full use of items and traps, you will die surrounded by enemies. If a single player is surrounded by eight or more enemies, it would not end well for them.

Basically, if one continues to level while remaining in the same field, he will start feeling hungry. It was a challenging game.

I remember that Shizuka-nee was really good at these games. She used to be like, "Player's skills will work only if you can predict what's ahead. And if you can't look ahead, there's no choice but to learn by dying."

Yep, she's a huge gaming nerd like Miu and is quite a gaming addict as well but when it comes to real life, she tends to be quite airheaded. She was actually the one who introduced Miu to gaming.

Now that I think about it, would eating in-game affect our appetite outside of the game? I mean, it does give our brain the information that we ate something so, is that a possibility? I thought to myself.

"I don't think that'll happen. I tried eating food item [Rice Ball] in the beta version, despite having a taste, it didn't fill my stomach. So it's just a game status-based thing." Oh, it seems like I said that out loud.

"Well, you never know. It might even be able to treat bulimia nervosa or something."

I said while looking at the screen filled with various samples of food items, arranged in a neat pile. Dang, there are many of them.

Oh, now that I think about it, since many of the members in our yet to be established Guild have the [Cooking] Sense, maybe I should also open some shops on the first floor where we will sell all the food that they made? The business in there is booming as we mainly dealt with consumables and equipments made by me, Mutsuko-san, and Magi-san.

Adding food-type items to the offered products sounded interesting. The girls like to cook and I like to cook but we don't have anywhere to put these kinda things, so might as well sell it, right?

"You're thinking of opening up a business in-game again, aren't you, Onii-chan? Geez, you should focus on me and what we're talking about, you know?" Miu childishly puffed up her cheeks so I let out a slight laugh before focusing my attention to the monitor again.

That was when my eyes saw the last piece of update patch notes. It says there that, "Due to health issues that might affect our regular players who plays the game for extended periods of time, to the point that it's unhealthy, we will begin imposing an 8 hours(Real World Standards) playing time."

There were many hidden clues to this such as the 'regular players' and 'Real World Standards'. Are there sick people who play this game for fun? I guess they will be putting some restrictions on them so that they wouldn't gain any advantages over players who will now have a limited time of logging in.

Not unless they could develop a technology in which a player's actions would actually translates into them also doing in it real life, like walking around in game for example, it would definitely be detrimental to their health if they continue to play the game over extended periods of time. Why? Because we players aren't actually sleeping when we're playing the game.

When Miu saw this last bit of information, she was at first dumbfounded. Then, her face gradually morphed into that of confusion, then into that of anger.

"Whaaaat!? Imposing a time limit on us!? Why!?" She was holding her laptop so tightly that a few keys were getting pressed by accident.

That was when the information about the latest update on a video format, wherein the devs are talking about the new update, was played.

『Nice to meet you everyone. I'm Yoshino Kazuhito from [Only Sense Online's] development department.』

The moment this guy began speaking, Miu's rage calmed down a little as she paid attention to what he was saying with her creased forehead. To calm her even further, I took a chair and sat down beside her and began patting her back.

Tsuka also helped big time as she took Miu's arms and wrapped it around herself. Good job Tsuka, you know what's up.

We watched the man who appeared on the laptop's screen. The guy is someone around his twenties and his looks were definitely above average.

He's kinda around my father's level of looks when he was younger. Nothing too uncommon if you ask me though.

『The announcements this time is the contents of the update as well as an event announcement.』

I glanced sideways to check how Miu is doing and saw that she pretty much calmed down. Her eyes were still sharp though. It's as if she wanted to make a hole in it with her piercing gaze.

Seeing that she's mostly okay now, I silently got back to looking at the video while still patting her on the back.

『This update incorporates more realism by introducing the Satiety system. Now, aside from that, I know that everyone is wondering why we decided to impose a gaming time limit on you dear players. It is to maintain a good physical and mental health. But don't worry, by tomorrow, you'll know why we did so.』

Oh? Is there an event right after the update today?

『Yes, you guessed it right. We will be having our first official event in-game. It's an event that we have been preparing for a long time for you, dear players. This update was delayed due to some errors but tomorrow, at 5 PM, there will be an official event that will be held in the town of Agann. The participation is restricted to parties up to 6 members. The number of items one person can hold is restricted up to a hundred. Depending on how you conduct yourself during the event, even players who haven't played for a long time can become strong in a short period of time. Moreover, the event also contains gift-type elements to it, please join us and participate.』

Although the video was peaceful and no longer than three minutes, Miu started pondering about its contents. I bet she's thinking of what these changes and the event implies.

"An official event… getting stronger in a short period of time… the imposed time restrictions…"

Although it was good that she's finally calmed down a bit, I had to interrupt her.

"Come on, let's eat now, Miu. Put the lid on your lunch box or it's gonna get cold."

"What's in it today?"

"What? You didn't even pay attention to the smell of what I was cooking? It's chicken rice."

"Yay! Onii-chan, I love you!" It's good that she was happy, even about such a childish meal like chicken rice.

"Come on, put the lunch box in your bag before you forget and let's eat."

"Okay, Onii-chan! Let's go, Tsuka-chan! Let's eat! Go sit on your baby chair!"

"Squeak~! Tsuka, eat with, family and Master~!"

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ Part 2 will be more about a Slice of Life with a bit of Group Chat involved. Let's see what I could cook up.