Chapter 2

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Chapter 2 - A Silver Transfer

Student (Silver Queen)

The average grade of the high

school I attend is in the upper middle. I could have gone to a higher grade

school, but they were all too far from home, so I have to take the bus or train.

On the other hand, the high

school I attend now is only a ten-minute walk away. Thanks to this, I can play

games until the last minute. I must say, it was a good decision to choose this

high school.

「Now,

is there any interesting news?」

Even though it’s only a

ten-minute walk, I have no time to waste on the road. I press the button on the

smart ring on my right wrist to activate it, as usual.

Then nanomachines are released

from a small hole on the ring, and a screen appears in front of me. I

manipulate the screen with my brain waves and launch a news application.

---It's amazing how far

technology has come, because a long time ago, you had to use your fingers to

control the screen.

「What......?」

In the midst of all the news

about a game tournament in Neo Akihabara, the completion of the world's largest

floating forest 『Gigaforest』, and

the shady application of nano-machine technology in the medical field, I

stopped at an article.

「......

Idol debuts as a professional gamer?

I

think I saw something like that last week. Is this a popular thing?」

Professional gamers are now

one of the top five professions elementary school students want to be. The

annual salary of the top class is said to be more than that of famous athletes.

It's quite an impressive thing.

However, there are still some

hard-headed people who have a hard time accepting VR games. My mom is one of

them. She should try it once.

After that, I watched a couple

of news and before I knew it, I arrive at school.

The time is 08:10, which is

just the right time.

「......? There is something going on...」

As I walk through the school

gate and head for the shoes locker, I notice that there is a crowd of people on

the way.

I still have some time before

morning homeroom. There is nothing to do when I arrive at the classroom early,

so I take a peek out of curiosity, and to my surprise, in the center of the

crowd, there are two men facing each other with weapons.

One of them is a naked,

muscular man. He is holding a rugged axe in his hand.

The other is a knight clad in

armor. In his hands he is holding a shortsword and a buckler.

They stare at each other for a

moment, then run out at the same time and clash their weapons. Sparks flew and

the sound of a clash echoed around them.

「......

You've been very active this morning. I don't know how you manage to do that

when the school rules forbid it.」

I thought I'd watch a little

bit of it, but it didn't turn out to be very interesting, probably because

neither of them had much experience in battles.

I guess that's what happens

when you're not a pro. I decided that there is nothing more to gain from

watching this, so I headed to class before I was late.

*

Most of my classmates were

already gathered in the classroom.

Some of the students were

watching the battle outside through the window. They're very interested in

what's going on.

I sit down in my seat and try

to activate my smart ring. Then the guy sitting in front of me turns around and

starts talking to me.

「Yo

Sora, don't you have any interest in the battle out there?」

「I'm

not interested. Neither of them seem to have much skill.」

「Hmm. I know you're pretty good at Real-On.

Let's do a quest together sometime.」

「I'm a solo gamer. I told you that before.」

「Tsk, you are a pain in the ass.」

Shiina, one of my few friends,

said boringly and started watching the battle outside.

He and I are seated by the

window, so we have a good view of the battle outside. By the way, I'm seated at

the very back of the window, which is my favorite seat because it's so calm and

comfortable here.

I ignore Shiina and start

surfing the net, but he doesn't care and starts talking to me.

「It's

amazing, isn't it, that you can bring a game character into the real world and

have them fight each other. I heard there was a lot of lag and misalignment a

while ago, but now there's almost none.」

In this modern age,

nanomachine technology has advanced. The stage for games has advanced beyond

the sea of electronics and into the real world.

With the power of

nanomachines, the game characters are projected into the real world and move as

if they were there. Of course, the characters are not fully three-dimensional,

but rather holograms, so if you touch them, they will shatter, but the players can

still touch and fight each other.

The two warriors fighting

outside are not actually there, but are nanomachine-created characters that are

being moved by the students.

So far, the only game that can

be projected with nanomachines is 『Real

World Online』.

Since

the main element of Real On is battle, many people are fighting against each

other with the characters they have developed and are proud of. The battles

have now developed into competitions and are now called 『Re-sports』, an acronym for e-sports and Realistic.

The number of competitors is

increasing every year, and countless professional gamers specializing in

Re-sports have been born. The idol that was on the news this morning seems to

be a professional gamer specializing in Re-sports.

「So, Sora is playing Real World Online, but

not Re-sports? What a waste.」

「I just want to play games. Hitting each

other in the real world is like fighting, right? That's nonsense.」

「Oh, what a waste. It's a shame that you

don't like something that's so fun.」

「Everyone has their own way of enjoying

games. You can't force it on people.」

「I know that.」

Shiina

is not convinced and gets beaten up instead.

Well,

I can understand what he's trying to say.

The

world-famous game 『Real

World Online』, also known as "Real-On", was

originally a very high quality VR game, but it was not a world-famous game in

the past.

However, after the

implementation of nanomachines to augment reality, the game's popularity and

number of users grew rapidly, and now there are billions of users. One out of

every ten people in the world plays this game, and if you include those who

watch it, the number would be almost double. It's truly a monstrosity in video

games.

I also like the game itself,

but I don't like......Re-sports. I don't like the topic itself, so I'm going to

change the subject quickly.

「Don't you have anything more interesting

to talk about?」

「Anything else? Hmmm...... Oh, that' right,

that's right. There's a rumor going around that there's going to be a new

student in our class.」

「At this time of year in June? Is that

true?」

「Yeah, there's a rumor that she's really

pretty. Somebody saw her.」

「That's ridiculous. It's not an anime.

There's no such thing as a school transfer event.」

「Yeah. I don't really believe it either,

but it's okay to look forward to it, right?」

「...... I envy you with your optimistic

nature.」

I

said that half sarcastically, but Shiina seemed to take it as a compliment from

me. 「Really? I am embarrassed,」 he replied happily. I'm really starting

to envy you when your stupid positivity reaches this level.

I've recently realized that

it's more fun to be a bit of an idiot in life than to be slanted. However, I

can't live honestly now. Once my character has become slanted, it can't be

straightened even with a little beating.

「Oh,

here we go.」

Shiina says, and the teacher

walks into the classroom.

Now it's time for another day

of the same old school life.

I can't wait to finish this

and continue playing the game...... As I was thinking this, a student followed

the teacher into the classroom.

The classroom is buzzing.

It was a girl. And an

incredibly beautiful one at that.

Everyone in the class,

including me, was taken aback by the new student who walked in with her

silvery, silky hair blowing in the air. When describing a beautiful woman, we

often use the metaphor of "like a doll," and that's exactly what she

is.

Her eyelashes are five times

longer than mine, and her eyes are long and clear.

Her face deviates from the

rest of the class in a way that makes up for the fact that she seems to be cold

and sober. In an instant, the hearts of her classmates were gripped, and they

all sighed as they gazed fervently at the newcomer.

「Well,

this is Rena Ginjo, who transferred to our class today. Please make friends

with her.」

「Everyone,

nice to meet you.」

She says this in a cool way

and bows her head. This little gesture alone is enough to make her classmates squirm in agony, clutching their hearts. They're a noisy bunch, but...... well, I can understand why they become like this.

「See, I

told you.」

I looked ahead and saw

Shiina's smug face.

Yes, yes, yes. You are right.

However, just because a

beautiful girl transferred to my school doesn't mean my life will change.

There's no way that a beautiful girl with silver hair and a boring game otaku

can have any contact.

We'll graduate without getting

involved with each other, and when we grow up and look back at our graduation

albums, we'll probably just look back and say, 「Oh, I

remember that person.」.

I have nothing to do with

Reina Ginjo. That's what I call the unchanging natural order of things.

Looking away from her and

gazing blankly at the sky. I had no way of knowing at the time that my life

would change drastically because of her transferring to a new school.