Volume 8.5 Chapter 2

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Towano Chikai’s Online Game Chronicles

“Careful, Suzuka!”

“Kyaaa?!”

I was left unable to defend against themonster’s attack, so Onii-chan used his own body to shield me.

“Ugh…!”

“Onii-chan!”

The monster’s claws dug deep intoOnii-chan’s body, but he still managed to fight back and strike itdown.

“Are you okay, Onii-chan?! I’llhelp you recover…!”

Supporting Onii-chan’s body with myown, I started casting some healing magic.

“Healing!”

Thanks to my magic, Onii-chan’s lifewas spared… Thank God. If something happened to Onii-chan, Iwould…!

“Hey Suzuka, why are you crying?”

“I-I mean…! If something happenedto you…!”

“I’m fine. I won’t die thateasily. It’s my job to protect you, after all.”

Onii-chan held a comforting smile,trying to ease my worries.

“So come on, start smiling again,”he said, as he started to pat me on the head.

His hand was so big and warm, whichmade me feel very relaxed.

Ehe… Ehehehe…

“…Yeah, my wounds have been healedthanks to your magic. It’d be great if your magic could fix yourcrybaby tendencies, right?”

“W-Whatever! I don’t care anymore!”

Onii-chan threw me a teasing smile, andI started feeling embarrassed and averted my face. I’d rather notbe teased by him, but hearing my beloved Onii-chan laugh makes mefeel all fluffy inside.

“…Oh, look, there’s a fountain ofrestoration over there. Let’s get in there.”

After walking through the forest for ashort while, Onii-chan came to a sudden halt.

“We’re both exhausted from thefight, right? Let’s enter it together.”

“B-Bathing together…!”

When I imagined the scene that wouldunfold, my face flushed bright red. However, Onii-chan flashedanother teasing smile.

“What’s there to be embarrassedabout? We’re siblings. Right, Suzuka?”

“B-B-B-B-But…! M-M-More thansiblings…!”

“Ahh, right now, we siblingsare—lovers, right?”

“Hauuu… Hauuuu…!”

My face went as red as a tomato at theword ‘lovers’, and I lost my ability to speak.

“If we’re lovers, bathing in theretogether shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“B-But, t-t-t-t-that’s…!”

“Suzuka…”

Onii-chan looked at my face, which wasstill as red as ever, and his passionate gaze made me feel like pinsand needles were running all over my body. Onii-chan softly put hishand on my shoulders—B-But, I can’t say any more than that!O-Onii-chan and I are lovers, so there are no more words needed!After all, in this fantasy world, we can even marry like it’s themost normal thing in the world…! Ehe, ehehe—

*

“Ehehe, ehehehehehe”

“U-Umm, Suzuka-san…?”

Why did she suddenly start buggingout…?

I, Nagami Yuu, was unable to understandthis sudden change in my little sister, Suzuka. I could only watchher in confusion. Anyway, let me clarify the situation I’m in rightnow.

It was currently a bit before 10o’clock in the evening. Suzuka and I weresitting next to each other in my room, with two laptops lined up nextto each other, playing an online game together. Why did it come tothis, you ask? Well, I was just minding my own business, writinganother novel that I was planning to send in to another light novelcontest, when Suzuka suddenly stormed in and asked me to play anonline game with her.

“H-Hey, come back to your sensesalready. We were going to write down our ‘Experience Records’from here, right?”

“…Ehe? …Ha?!”

Suzuka finally returned to reality, andjust when I thought she was looking at me with a red face, shequickly averted her eyes.

“I-I-I-I-I-I’m sorry! I was a bitlost in my fantas—Excuse me!! So focused on the game!”

Suzuka suddenly panicked a bit, andafter taking a deep breath, she finally calmed down.

“What kind of situation were we injust then…?”

“…We were fighting in the tutorial,and now they’re explaining the function of the fountain ofrestoration.”

I pointed to the screen. In response,Suzuka let out a flustered “T-That’s right!” Her cheeks weregetting a bit red… What happened?

Anyway, the reason that Suzuka hadwanted to play an online game with me was for the aforementioned’Experience Records’. Apparently, she had received an email fromour editor Shinozaki-san asking her to write a report on her gameplayexperience for the ‘Lunatic Realism’ online game, or ‘Lunaria’for short. And, since she’s a complete newcomer when it comes toonline games, she asked for my assistance.

“Still, I’m surprised that you getrequests like that as a professional light novel author.”

“I-I was also surprised, but it’sgreat that I can be lovey-dovey with Onii—Nevermind! I thought thatmaybe we could use this to collect some data, so I agreed!”

As soon as she says that it’s tocollect data, I don’t have any choice but to assist as herstand-in. Also, since I’m normally a completely unreliable olderbrother, I’ll jump at any chance to help her out, really.Otherwise, she’d probably never stop hating me.

“A-And Shinozaki-san sent us twocodes, after all! She even wrote in her email that ‘You can feelfree to play this with your Imouto-san and deepen your bonds withher… Fufufu…’, so we might as well!”

“She sure doesn’t change!”

“W-We can’t help it. She thinks ofTowano Chikai as a little sister-loving person.”

That’s because you were possessed bysomething, and ended up writing that little sister novel. Since I’mthe public face for the light novel author Towano Chikai, it can’treally be helped, but having people think that I’m lusting after mylittle sister is still pretty tough.

“B-But, this might be good luck forus. Since we have two codes, I can play this game together withOnii-chan.”

“…Well, I’m not completelysatisfied, but I’ll just leave it at that.”

In the end, I had no other choice butto help her out.

“Umm… Thanks to this fountain, wecompletely recovered.”

My gaze turned towards the game on thescreen again. There, our respective fully-customized characters hadfinished resting in the fountain of restoration.

“B-Bathing together with Onii-chanlike this…”

“……”

If you’re that embarrassed about it,then why did you make the character look like you in the first place?Suzuka had said “We have to write this report as detailed aspossible, and fully experience this game. Making the character looklike me is an important part of that,” so I gave up on arguing. Bythe way, we also named our characters “Yuu” and “Suzuka.” Inthe meantime, a fairy appeared around our characters in-game.

“ With this, you understand how tofight and restore health in this game, right?”

She seems to be serving the purpose ofa tutorial character, and she’s been following us ever since welogged in.

“ Then I believe it’s time todive into the special system.”

“Hm? What special system?”

The fairy’s words surprised me a bit.

“ You two are a couple, right?There’s actually a dedicated in-game couple system.”

“Wha—?!”

When she suddenly mentioned somethingas ridiculous as that, I couldn’t hold back my voice.

“C-Couple…?”

“T-The thing is, the codes thatShinozaki-san sent me were codes specifically for couples.”

“I never heard anything about that,though…”

“I don’t really understand it thatwell, myself, but since we used them… umm… we’ll be playing thegame as a couple…!”

…So basically, it’s like a specialaccount? Still, it’s an online game, and we’re playing as acouple ingame… and it’s with my real little sister. I feel likethere’s a hidden motive behind Shinozaki-san’s request…

“I-It might be sudden, but this isfor work, right?! I’m not thinking of this as a chance at all!Using this to collect data for my novel is the only benefit to me,and it’s definitely not like I want to experience being a couplewith Onii-chan!”

“I-I get it already!”

For some reason, Suzuka got reallyagitated as she tried to explain herself… Well, considering thatshe hates her older brother, she must be putting up with this for thesake of her job, so I won’t complain any further.

“…Still, what is this couple systemabout?”

“ The goal is to strengthen yourflirting even further! We call it the Flirty Burst!”

“Lame!”

I found myself complaining aloud atwhat the fairy had said..

“F-Flirty burst…! Becoming strongerwith the power of love… I like it!”

“…Seriously?”

But Suzuka actually happened to likeit, it seems. Maybe my taste is just old-fashioned?

“ Let’s try it out right now.Come on, Suzuka. Cling to Yuu.”

Ignoring how confused I felt, the fairycontinued explaining.

“C-Cling to Onii-chan?! S-Somethinggreat as—No, something as indecent as that…!”

“C-Calm down, this is just an ingameemote—”

I tried explaining it to Suzuka, butbefore I could finish my sentence…

“E-E-E-Excuse me!”

Suzuka suddenly jumped on me andstarted hugging me tightly. Not in the game, though. In reality.

“Wha—?!”

“…………!!!”

When I found myself being hugged likethat, I was left speechless, frozen in place. Suzuka was being Suzukalike always. Her eyes were firmly shut and she had a red face. Shewas quivering slightly, and she showed no signs of separating from mewhatsoever.

“……” “………”

A few minutes passed like that, until…

“U-Umm… Is it still nothappening…?!”

When I heard Suzuka’s shaky voice, Ireturned to reality.

“Ah… Well…! The fairy wasn’ttalking about hugging me in real life…!”

“…Eh? What do you mean by that?”

“You can hug other charactersin-game. The fairy was referring to that…”

I desperately tried to explain whilekeeping my beating heart in check, and a moment after she wore aconfused expression…

“~~~~~~~~~~!!!”

With a tomato-red face, she quicklyseparated from me.

“I-If something like that ispossible, then tell me about it at the start!”

“I’m sorry?!”

“…I-I just did that withOnii-chan…! I-It was so embarrassing… but it wasn’t too bad…!Ahhh, but it was so indecent…!”

Suzuka was muttering to herself as sheheld her head in her hands. She’d probably keep doing that even ifI called out to her.

After a bit, she finally calmed down,and she spoke up again with a red face. “…I-I’m sorry. I didn’tthink that you could do that in the game…!”

“W-Well, as a newcomer to onlinegames, there’s no way you could know about that, so let’s justforget about it, okay?”

“T-That’s right.”

‘What’s wrong? Hurry up and do it!’

“Can you read the atmosphere a bit?!”

…After clearing my throat to calmmyself down, I taught Suzuka how to do the emote.

“…Ah, we’re really hugging eachother in the game.”

While watching the in-game Suzuka clingto Yuu, the real Suzuka’s cheeks were slightly flushed. Since thecharacters looked almost identical to the two of us us, I rememberedwhat had just happened, and I could feel my face getting hot. Rightwhen I was thinking that…

“ This is the flirty boost!”

As soon as the fairy spoke those words,Yuu started glowing. Ohh? This is…!

“ During the flirty burst, yourattack power gets a tremendous boost! Try it out!”

Several clawed monsters suddenlyappeared before us. When I tried attacking them, unlike before whenthey took four hits to kill, I could now defeat them with just two.

“Double the damage? Seriously? Isn’tthis more like breaking the balance of the game more than anything?”

“ However, that flirty burst isjust a momentary buff, so it wears off immediately.”

I-I see… I seems like the buff hasalready disappeared.

“D-Defeat the enemy with the power oflove…! This is the strength of Onii-chan and I when we worktogether…!”

Suzuka was just gazing at the screen,going ‘ehehe ehehe.’ Kind of scary, if you ask me.

“…Still, Shinozaki-san really askedus to try out a weird game.”

While I was busy showing the game abitter smile, the fairy once again spoke with a grin on her face.

‘ There’s actually an evenstronger form of the flirty burst! We call it the Flirty Burst EX!”

“How cheap!!”

Naturally, my reply couldn’t reachher, and the fairy continued her explanation.

“ If you get even more lovey-doveyand flirty, you can get even stronger! It boosts your attack strengthby a factor of four!”

“The way it’s done, the name, andthe effect… Everything is so simple and cheap!”

“T-There’s even more…?!”

While I was busy letting out a sigh,Suzuka showed the exact opposite reaction. She seemed to be morecurious than ever.

“W-What should we do to getstronger?! Ah, umm, of course, this isn’t my actual wish oranything, but just necessary data for the report—” Suzuka askedthe screen.

“ You use an even more daringemote! Like a lap pillow!”

“L-Lap—?!”

Although she seemed quite shocked,Suzuka sought out the lap pillow emote at a speed you wouldn’t haveexpected from a first-timer, and input the command for it.

“……Ugh.” “……Hauuu…”

We were now watching Suzuka give Yuu alap pillow on the screen. Let me tell you, it was really awkward.

“U-Umm… Onii-chan.”

“W-What is it?”

“T-There is absolutely no ulteriormotive behind this, but, um… in order to write the report moreefficiently, I feel like we need to become even more like thecharacters on the screen.”

“Y-Yeah, and?”

“T-That’s why… I really don’twant to do this but…! I think that we need to do this lap pillow aswell…!”

“So you’re saying that we should…do it?”

“D-Don’t get the wrong idea?! Ireally don’t want to do this, but this is all to collect data?!”

Suzuka was frantically waving her handsat me and approaching me with a red face.

“W-We can’t, after all?” she saidwith a slightly worried expression, looking up at me.

Of course, getting a lap pillow from myreal sister is an absolute no-go for me, but it would break my heartto say no to Suzuka now, so I just silently nodded.

“I-I have prepared myself…!”

With those words, Suzuka waited for meas she sat down on the floor. Her movement as stiff as a robot, shewaved her hand at me, begging me to come over… Really, is thereanything I won’t do for her data?

“H-Here I go…”

I received confirmation from Suzuka inthe form of a nod, and I slowly lowered my head onto her thighs.

“Hya…! Nyauu…!”

While I listened to her soft moans, myhead slowly started to fill with weird thoughts.

…H-Her thighs are so soft! T-Thisisn’t good! But I have to calm down… they belong to my littlesister…!

I tried to constantly remind myself ofthe fact that it was Suzuka’s thighs I was using, but…

“O-Onii-chan…! Could you not fidgetlike that, please…! Hyau….! I-It’s tickling…!”

I heard a soft, bewitching voice fromabove, rendering my ability to think calmly useless.

After a bit, Suzuka spoke up again.”…T-That should be enough, Onii-chan.”

“I-I see…”

I got up at Suzuka’s command, andwhile both of us felt really awkward, we focused on the game again.On the screen, Yuu was still receiving the lap pillow as he waswrapped in a red light. The fairy was unable to read the atmospherelike always, and was talking again in an energetic voice. “Thisis the flirty burst EX! Now your attack damage is four times higher!”

“ With this, I’ve finishedexplaining the systems of the game. All that’s left is to practice…But before that, you’ll receive equipment according to your class.”

“Oh, that’d be great.”

“But we’re already wearing clothes,aren’t we?”

“What we’re wearing totally feelslike beginner stuff, though.”

As the two of us were talking, thefairy used something that seemed to be magic, and our clothes changedin an instant. Since I was a fighter, I received an armor and shield,while Suzuka changed into a white robe and wand, since she was ahealer class.

“T-The skirt is too short…”

“Yeah, you’re right. You look lesslike a priest and more like a magical girl. But you look pretty cutein that.”

“C-Cute…?!”

In that moment, Suzuka looked like sheremembered something and she suddenly lifted her head.

“What’s wrong, Suzuka?”

“U-Umm, Onii-chan, could you wait amoment?”

She got up all of a sudden and stormedout of the room. I assumed that she wanted to get something to drink,but she took quite some time to come back.

“What is she do—ing?!”

The sound of the door openinginterrupted me mid-sentence, and when I turned towards her, I lost myability to speak momentarily.

“Please don’t stare at me likethat…”

As to why that happened, it was becauseSuzuka was wearing a similar outfit to her in-game version. To beprecise, she was wearing frilly, cute, pure-white clothes, with aminiskirt and knee-socks. Although she didn’t have a magic wand, itstill really looked good on her.

“W… W-W-Why?!”

“A-All to collect data, of course!It’s certainly not like I want Onii-chan to call me cute oranything. This is all just to experience something similar to thegame!” Suzuka tried to explain herself.

That’s the true Towano Chikai foryou. She’s so thorough with everything data-related… I guess?

“S-So, how is it…?”

“E-Eh, how is what?”

“Like I said! It’s not that big ofa deal or anything, but… Do I look… umm… as cute as in thegame…?!”

“A-Ah…! Yeah, you, uh, look reallycute. I think it suits you…!”

For some reason, I stuttered whileresponding. Maybe because this time it wasn’t in the game, but myreal little sister.

“I-Is that so? Ehe, ehehe,ehehehehe…”

“B-But where did you get clothes likethose?!”

I asked her in a flustered manner tohide my embarrassment and discomfort.

“Oh, Double Peace-san brought thesewith her once, and she left them here.”

“Ah, that explains a lot…”

Thinking about it, this really lookslike cosplay, so it can only be from her. As a side note, this”Double Peace-san” is actually the illustrator who draws theillustrations for Suzuka’s light novel. Her full name is actuallyAhegao Double Peace.

“ Now it’s time to make your waythrough the first forest with everything you’ve learned!” Thefairy in the game said.

Feeling motivated, Suzuka sat back downin front of her laptop again.

“Let’s go, Onii-chan. W-We’llmove forward with the Flirty Burst that we learned.”

“I think that we need to save thatfor truly strong opponents—”

“ By the way, from here on out,enemies will be balanced against your flirty burst, so you’llprobably need to use that all the time to progress~”

“……”

I feel like there’s something goingon here…

“ Also, Suzuka can receive a flirtyburst from Yuu, as well! Try using ‘head pat’ on her!”

“H-Head patting?! O-Onii-chan, let’stry that! N-Naturally, to collect data!”

“Y-Yeah…”

…Well, like this, the two of usstarting moving forward with the techniques that we had learned.

*

“…Whew, we flirted a lo—Not that!We finally managed to get through the first forest.”

“Yeah…”

For some reason unbeknownst to me,Suzuka was in high spirits, while I could barely muster up enoughstrength to respond.

After all that happened, we somehowmanaged to make it through the first area. We had been assaulted theentire time by unnecessarily strong enemies like the fairy hadpredicted, but we finally made it to the first city.

“Wow… There’s so many people.This must be the heart of the city.”

We arrived at a large, open area. A lotof people were gathered here, and there were lots of stands andbooths around us.

“…But there are a lot of peoplehere. Won’t we get separated?”

“Then how about we form a party?”

“A party?”

“It’s like an in-game group. Withthat, we won’t get separated no matter what.”

“So there was a mechanic like that. Agroup together with Onii-chan…! Let’s do it right now!”

“Right-click on my character, andrequest a party formation.”

Shortly after, a status screen appearedin front of me, saying ‘Suzuka asked you to form a partytogether.’ I quickly accepted.

“This is indeed very convenient.”

Suzuka commented with a slight smile,until she suddenly leapt forward and glared at the screen.

“T-This is…!”

Her body was shaking furiously. When Ichecked her screen, I saw several commands beneath my character’sname, and her mouse cursor was currently dead-center on the ‘Marry’option.

“M-Marry…?! Y-You can do somethinglike that…?!”

“There are online games that allowsystems like that—”

“L-Let’s do it! Let’s getmarried!”

Before I could finish my explanation,Suzuka had already jumped towards me. But immediately after that…

“O-Of course, only to collect data.Not to mention that we started this game as a couple, so we have tolook at all the possibilities. It’s definitely not because I wantto marry Onii-chan, so don’t get the wrong idea about that.”

She averted her face with a pout…Even though I keep telling her that I won’t get the wrong idea.

“A-Anyway. I’m surprised that youcan marry in this game. I definitely have to collect some data onthis. There’s no other meaning to it, naturally.”

While still looking away from me,Suzuka went to click the option.

“H-Huh?”

But, soon after, she tilted her head inconfusion.

“What happened?”

“I can’t request it. Even though itseems to be working fine otherwise.”

“Hm? Let me see.”

When I looked at my own screen, therewas no message or anything that Suzuka had requested something likethat. But, when I looked at Suzuka’s screen, I immediatelyunderstood why.

“Ahh, I see.”

“W-What’s wrong?”

“In order to marry, you need an itemcalled ‘Engagement Rings’. If you don’t have that, it won’twork.”

I pointed at the screen where it saidthat.

“…You’re right. And where can weget these engagement rings?!”

“The item… Let’s see.”

I opened up the wiki homepage on myphone.

“…Apparently, an NPC in the churchsells them. But since you can also craft them if you level up askill, it’s apparently cheaper to buy them from player stalls.”

“So there might be a chance that wecan buy them around here. Can we look at the product lineup aroundhere? Ah, over there!”

Suzuka made her way to the stalls andstarted looking through the items on display.

“Onii-chan, help me search for it!”

“O-Okay.”

When the little sister commands, theolder brother obeys. This is the relationship that Suzuka and I have.Anyway… the item category should be ‘gift,’ right…? Woah,they even have hair accessories here… Ah, search for the ring now,the ring.

“T-There it is! The engagement ring!”

Suzuka pulled on my clothes and pointedat the screen. There, I could indeed see the rings.

“The price is… 50.000G, huh.”

“I only have 100…”

“Samehere. That must be the starting amount. That’s a pretty highprice.”

In response to my words, Suzuka seemedto be quite shocked as she muttered a sad “N-No way…” Suddenly,the fairy appeared again.

“ The Flirty Burst has a widevariety of bonuses. It’s not just a power-up in battle. You’llalso be able to get discounts or bonuses when buying and sellingitems.”

“Eh? Seriously?”

“If that’s the case, then we haveto do the flirty burst right now…!”

The in-game Suzuka clung to Yuu’sback. Immediately after, my character went into the flirty burststate.

“Now, Onii-chan!”

“I-I get it! Umm… the price is…”

I once again checked the ring in thestore.

“45.000G… Hold on, this is barelyany cheaper!”

“ If it was too strong, it wouldbreak the balance of the game, after all.”

As the fairy offered a metaexplanation, I could only give up and nod in agreement.

…Thinking about it, there’s no waythat you could get a 50.000G item for just 200G by hugging eachother.

“Uuuu… But what can we do then?”

“W-Well, I doubt that this marriagemechanic is supposed to be achievable this early in the game anyway,so let’s forget about it for now and go do something else,alright?”

I tried to offer a plan for what to dofrom then, but Suzuka just shook her head.

“N-No, let’s save up the money.”

“Eh?”

“I-It’s not like I desperately wantto marry Onii-chan or anything! It’s just, umm, in order to collectdata, I think that we have to try out every option in the game, don’tyou think?”

“T-That might be true…”

“Exactly. That’s the main reason,and there’s definitely no deeper meaning to this, but, um, I saythat we make it our goal to buy these rings as we research the game,okay?”

Feeling some kind of pressure emanatingfrom Suzuka, I just nodded along in silence.

“So how can you earn money in thisgame?”

“The most orthodox way would be todefeat enemies and pick up money and loot. Maybe while going on aquest.”

“I don’t really understand it thatmuch, but it feels like that will take some time…”

I mean, we barely started the game, soI can’t imagine that there would be a method to earn great amountsof money this early.

“What should we do about this…?”

Suzuka walked along as she wracked hermind. I followed her obediently, and soon we arrived at a largegathering of people.

“Hm? Some sort of event?”

“O-Oh…! Maybe there’s a way toearn money over there! Let’s check it out, Onii-chan,” Suzukasaid, and made her way to the mass of people. However, her feet cameto a sudden halt soon after.

“O-Onii-chan, this is…!”

She pointed at the screen, telling meto take a look… But why would she—Huh?

“Wha—?!”

While I understood the scene in frontof me, I was at a loss for words.

“ I’ll say it as many times as ittakes! Towano Chikai’s novel is godly! You definitely won’tregret it, so go buy and read it immediately! You have my guaranteeas his number one fan! The URL is— “

For some reason, a player was preachingon the street, trying sell Towano Chikai’s novel! Not to mentionthat her character name was ‘Towano Chikai LOVE’, which alreadymade me feel kind of disgusted.

As I mentioned before, Towano Chikai isSuzuka’s pen name. Since she’s so popular, I’d imagine thatthere would be people naming themselves after her. However, that’LOVE’ part at the end was way too crazy to ignore, and the factthat she’s street preaching in an online game like this… Not tomention there’s one more thing about her that stood out.

“O-Onii-chan, this female characterand her reddish brown hair… It feels like I’ve seen her before.”

It seems that Suzuka also noticed. Justas she said, I also felt like the character’s outer appearance wasfamiliar to me. Although she was wearing a pointy witch hat with ablack mantle, her face… and her calling herself my number one fan…?

“ Hm? Yuu? And Suzuka? Thesecharacter names…”

At that moment, Towano Chikai LOVE alsospotted our names. So she really is…?!

“ Come here for a second!”

Pulling us out of the mass of people,she took us with her to a deserted place.

“ You… are you Mai…?”

“ It really is Yuu! And Suzuka-san!Why are you here?!”

“ S-So it really is Himuro-san…Why are you playing this game…?!”

Suzuka was extremely surprised to findMai here, and it was the same for me.

Himuro Mai was my classmate as well asa professional light novel author. Her pen name was Enryuu Homura.She was also, without a doubt, quite the beauty. She’s theself-proclaimed number one fan of Towano Chikai, and she’s alreadyset foot in stalking territory. She’s on the clumsy side, though,so it’s not really dangerous. It’s more troublesome thananything. Still… why is she here?

“ We received a request to write areport on this game by my editor, so we decided to play it.”

“ Same for me! And since I wasalready here, I thought that I might as well advertise your novel!”

Towano Chikai LOVE—or rather,Mai—did an emote where she puffed out her chest… Noill-intentions at all.

“ Now listen! Even watching fromthe outside, that was crazy embarrassing!”

“ W-What about it? I’m yournumber one fan, so let me do my work! Also, it wasn’t just me…”

…Hmmm? Did I just hear something veryominous?

“ …What do you mean by that?”

“ Come over here. You’ll see.”

Guided by Mai, we moved to a differentlocation.

“I have a really bad feeling aboutthis…”

Suzuka muttered from next to me. Aftera bit of time passed, we were greeted by a similar mass of people—

“ The charm of Towano Chikai’snovel is undoubtedly the impressive, yet secret, pervertedness that’shidden between the lines, desu! If you enjoy fiendish perverted stufflike me, you’ll definitely enjoy it!”

In the midst of that, we spotted ablonde-haired, niche-looking, bikini-warrior-wearing character, alsostreet preaching?! A-And, this name…!

“Isn’t that Double Peace-sensei?!”

“I-I thought so…!”

When we saw yet another person werecognized, both Suzuka and I let out a sigh.

“ Ohhh, Sensei! It must be destinythat we met in a place like this, desu!”

Just like the real Double Peace-sensei,the character on the screen called out to us… Really, why do we runinto people like this all the time…?!

“ Are you also here to collect dataor something, Double Peace-sensei?”

“ No, I heard that this game hasvery detailed character creation, so I wanted to make myself look alldirty with that, desu!”

Ah, that sounds like her…

“ And when I saw Mai, I thoughtthat making everyone realize how great Sensei’s novel was wouldmake you happy, so I joined in, desu!”

T-Those two are…! Both in reality andin game, they sure don’t change…!

“ Still, I feel really lucky tohave met Sensei and Imouto-san here, desu!”

“Ugh… it was just the two of us, sowhy did we have to get interrupted like this?”

Suzuka was the exact opposite of thedelighted Double Peace-sensei, looking as if she was about to cry.

“ Hey, Yuu, let’s work together!How about it? Our goal to write a report is the same, after all.”

“ That’s right! Let’s do that,desu.”

Both Mai and Double Peace-senseisuggested the same thing, and I agreed that it would be a good idea,seeing that this was an online game, but…

“ No, I feel bad for declining likethis, but the two of us have a different goal. That goal is to earnmoney as quickly as possible.”

Before I could respond, Suzuka hadalready turned them down.

“W-We have to buy these engagementrings to collect data after all. But let’s keep that a secret fromthe two of them, okay?” Suzuka warned me with a red face.

…Truth be told, I didn’t want toknow what would happen if the two of them found out about me andSuzuka wanting to buy engagement rings… All this time, they’vebeen treating me like the kind of perverted older brother who woulddo dirty things to his little sister, so if they find out that I wasplanning on marrying my little sister, even if it’s just in-game,they’d never let me hear the end of it.

“ Is there something you want tobuy?”

“ There was a really strong weapon,so we thought that we should save up for that.”

Hence, I covered up that fact with alie of mine.

“ You want to money, huh? If that’sthe case, then let’s all go to a dungeon together, desu!”

However, Double Peace-sensei completelydisregarded my intentions, and brought up her own idea.

“ Rather than going alone with justthe two of you, we can team up and earn money faster by conquering adungeon together, desu!”

“…Conquering a dungeon?” Suzukaasked me.

“Ahhh… Basically, we’d target amonster stronghold. Although it might be a bit tough for us, we’llbe able to get a lot of loot that we can sell.”

“It’s decided! Let’s go thereimmediately!”

The color in Suzuka’s eyes changed.But just when she was about to agree to Double Peace-sensei’s idea,Suzuka stopped herself.

“…Ah, but if those two come withus… My time together with Onii-chan will…!”

For some reason, she hesitated. Andafter she had thought about it for a while…

“ Can we earn around 50.000G inthere?”

“ Including boss drops, I think itshould barely be enough for that, yeah.”

When she received that response fromMai, Suzuka thought for a bit, and finally let out a sigh.

“…Can’t help it. Let’s team upwith them and go to the dungeon.”

“Y-Yeah… But why were youhesitating like that?”

What problem is there if we can playwith everyone and earn money faster…?

“ Now then, Double Peace-san, couldyou guide us to that dungeon place?”

“ OK, desu! Let’s do our best toconquer the dungeon!”

“ Nice idea. This will be good datafor my report.”

While the girls were getting fired upin their chat, I had a sudden realization, and typed it out.

“ We’ve barely started the game,though. Can we go to a dungeon this early?”

“ No problem, desu! The dungeondifficulty is scaled to the player level.”

Ohh, that’s a nice system.

“ Our classes are also prettybalanced. Suzuka-san is a healer and I’m a mage, while Yuu and theperverted illustrator are fighters.”

Now that she mentions it, that’sactually the case. If we all go through the dungeon together, it’llbe great reference for Suzuka’s report, and we can earn money andget data. Two birds with one stone.

“ Huh? That’s not quite right,Mai. I am not a fighter, desu.”

“ Eh? Then what is that armor for?”

“ I’m wearing this because itlooks perverted, desu! I’m a freeloader!”

“ I don’t remember there being aclass named that, though…”

While retorting, I checked her statusscreen. When I did, it said Paladin in her class description, forcingme to take a second look out of shock.

“ Wasn’t paladin an advancedclass that you shouldn’t able to take in the beginning?!”

“ Ahh, that’s right, I bought aclass-change item with real money, desu. This class had suchperverted equipment. It was great, desu!”

“ So you’re the type of personwho uses real money… But, if you’re such a strong class, thengoing through the dungeon should be pretty easy.”

“ Ah, well, I only boughtperverted-looking equipment, so I’m actually not strong at all. Ihaven’t been leveling at all either, desu!”

“ What a horrendous playstyle,” snarked Mai.

I couldn’t agree with her more. Thatwas actually just ridiculous. Still, when I looked at the bikiniarmor she was wearing, I could still tell that it was rather strong.That’s a fantasy world for you.

“…Onii-chan, what exactly are youstaring at?”

I suddenly heard a cold voice next tome, making me sit up straight out of fear. When I looked over, Suzukawas glaring at me with tears in her eyes.

“O-Onii-chan really is a dirtydemon…! It’s almost like you’re drooling while looking ather…!”

“It’s a misunderstanding! I wasjust checking the stats of her armor!”

“S-So are you saying that herequipment isn’t indecent?!”

…Ugh! That’s the same logic DoublePeace-sensei always uses…!

“For crying out loud, Onii-chanreally is a perverted demon lord…!”

Uuuu… Why does it always end up withme being the bad guy?

“A-Anyway, staring at other peoplelike that is rude. So please, umm… I really don’t want to, butI’ll take that role and wear those clothes.”

“Huh? …E-Ehhh?!”

“O-Only in the game, though! I’lljust become the victim who garners Onii-chan’s lustful gazes!”

With a bright red face, Suzuka startedtyping “Please lend me that armor.”

“H-Hold on! You can’t wear thatamor in the first place!”

I tried to stop her, and indeed, shecame to a sudden stop.

“…W-What do you mean by that? It’strue that my character’s chest might be lacking a bit, but…!”

“T-That’s not what I meant! You’rea healer, so you can’t wear her equipment!”

“No way…?! So I really don’t havethe qualifications to wear it…?!” Suzuka let out a scream ofagony.

…Why are you looking at DoublePeace-sensei’s character with such envy in your eyes? Also, I seeyou patting your chest in-game there, Suzuka. Why is that functioneven implemented into the game?

*

“ Now then, let’s attack thedungeon!”

With Double Peace-sensei guiding us, weset foot inside the dungeon.

“Onii-chan, what should I do whilewe’re here?”

“Well, since you’re a healer, youhave to make sure that we don’t die to the monsters by using yourhealing magic.”

“I-I understand. I won’t letOnii-chan die!”

While exchanging a few words like that,we made our way deeper into the dungeon. The enemies that appearedbefore us were fairly strong, but with everyone’s combinedstrength, we managed to defeat them all. The dungeon level wasprobably being scaled down because of Suzuka and I.

“ Hey, Yuu, there’s more enemiescoming.”

“ Sorry, I’ll be more careful.”

“ There’s sadly no fanserviceevents happening here, so be sure to protect me, desu!”

“ I’m wasn’t hoping for that,anyway! Also, you’re a fighter like me, so you should be the onedoing the protecting!”

“O-Onii-chan, you’re way too clingywith them! Come here and do the flirty burst with me!”

“We’re in the middle of our fight,so we have no time for that at all! Also, pay attention! I needhealing!I’ll die at this rate!”

Though it became a bit chaotic in themiddle, we managed to get through fairly safely. We raised ourlevels, learned some more skills, and started to stand our groundevenly against the stronger enemies in the depths of the dungeon.

“Onii-chan, the enemies are droppingmore and more money!”

“Yeah, as well as materials that wecan sell.”

If we kept this pace up, we might beable to afford the rings. Suzuka seemed to have felt the same,because she started giggling to herself, muttering “Engagementrings… Ehehehe.” She seemed super pleased.

In the meantime, we were smoothlymaking progress. We defeated several bosses inside the dungeon, andafter around thirty minutes had passed, we made it to the last boss.

“It’s finally time. Once we defeathim, Onii-chan and I can…! Let’s go!”

“O-Oh, you sure are motivated.”

I sure didn’t expect Suzuka to get soabsorbed in the game, but that’s very much appreciated, consideringhow we’re gathering data for the report.

“ What kind of boss will we bedealing with?”

Mai asked inside the game.

“ Umm, let me see, desu.”

In front of us, some distance away,something gigantic appeared. With a plopping sound, we saw somethingdrop down from the ceiling, followed by some transparent liquidgathering in one place—Ah, this is…!

“ Oh right, it’s a Huge Slime.”

Before she could finish typing hermessage, the Huge Slime came storming to attack Double Peace-sensei.Not good! Her HP bar is already in the red after that last attack!

“T-This is a strong one! I’llattract its attention, so you go heal Double Peace-sensei!”

“Y-Yes!”

I shouted rushed instructions at Suzukaand separated from them to act as the enemy’s target. After barelyavoiding death, Double Peace-sensei’s health bar was regeneratingthanks to Suzuka’s magic, and thanks to Mai’s magic, the enemy’shealth bar was slowly but steadily shrinking. However…

“Shit, what’s happening?! Hisattacks hurt like crazy!”

“I can’t catch up with the healing!And your shield is about to break…!”

Just what you’d expect from the lastboss of a dungeon. Its damage output wasn’t something to be trifledwith.

“ Ahh, so much HP! It feels likeit’s not getting lower at all!”

“ Just what you’d expect from oneof the most perverted enemies in fantasy worlds aside from orcs,desu!”

Mai was desperately trying to cut downthe boss’s HP, while Double Peace-sensei was busy talking aboutsomething weird again. Anyway, our battle continued withdifficulties, but it started to feel like we could actually do this.

“ Double Peace-sensei! Take my roleas tank for a second!”

“ OK, desu!”

We smoothly switched our roles, and Istarted to see the path to victory. The enemy’s HP gauge was slowlyshrinking, and I could feel myself growing more tense, like I couldfeel the victory within my grasp.

“Ah… Eh?!”

But while I was thinking that, Suzukasuddenly froze up next to me.

“H-Hey, what are you doing? Continuewith the healing!”

“W-Why is Double Peace-sensei doingthat…”

…W-What happened with Suzuka? When Ilooked at the screen next to me, however, I had a similar reaction,and I swallowed my breath. After all…

“Why did Double Peace-san’scharacter suddenly get naked like that?!!!”

Just as Suzuka had said, DoublePeace-sensei’s in-game character had lost the bikini armor, and nowonly the underwear was left.

“ My armor was destroyed, desu!”

And then, it finally clicked in myhead. Does this slime have an attack that lowers the durability ofequipment?! Let me check my equipment… There it is! My equipment’sdurability is closing in on zero!

“ This development is a typicalslime event, desu!”

The next moment, Double Peace-senseisuddenly sounded rather delighted at the situation, completelyengulfed by the slime this time around. It didn’t stop there. Theslime slowly crept towards Mai.

“ Kyaaaa! D-Don’t come here, youperverted slime! I don’t want to look like that in front of Yuu!”

Mai was engulfed in some kind of liquid(which seemed to be the armor destroying fluid), and she soon endedup only in her underwear as well.

Naturally, I tried to make my way toher rescue, but…

“Don’t look,Onii-chan!”

“Wha—?!”

Suzuka’s arms suddenly wrapped aroundmy head, cutting off my view.

“Woah?! What are you doing?!”

“You can’t look! They’re bothnaked!”

“This isn’t the time to be sayingthat, though! Also if you’re over here, then your healing magicwill…!”

When I looked at the screen through thegaps of her fingers, I saw Suzuka’s character just standing there.Not to mention, the slime was slowly approaching her.

Plop! (The sound of the liquidhitting Suzuka)

“Nyaaaaaaa?! M-Me too…?!D-D-D-Don’t look, Onii-chan!”

“C-Calm down! This isn’t you inreal life, but just a character in the game!”

“It’s basically the same!!!”

Suzuka hurriedly hid her character,snuggling up behind mine… N-Not good! Now we’ve lost even Suzukaafter Mai and Double Peace-sensei. And the enemy is stillapproaching.

Full party wipe. The moment I realizedour situation, I could only resign myself and wait for the end…Until—

“W-What’s going on?!”

Suddenly, my in-game character startedglowing while I was still being hugged tightly by Suzuka’s. Thetext that appeared on the buff icon was—’Flirty Burst MAX’?!

“U-Uuuuu…!”

Suzuka apparently didn’t realize thather actions had triggered this buff. Meanwhile, the boss wasapproaching us even more, readying the final attack to annihilate us.

“Ahh, whatever! It’s make or breaknow!”

I ignored my defenses and startedreadying my attack skill. Though my HP was slowly being chipped away,I managed to hold my ground thanks to the buff, while I kept slashingaway at the boss.

—Please make it in time!

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Right before my HP reached zero, theboss’s body collapsed.

“I-I did it…!”

Gazing at the defeated enemy in frontof me, I let out a sigh of relief. After a few joy-filled momentsfilled passed, I turned around to put my hand on Suzuka’s shoulder.While she slowly and carefully raised her head, I called out to herwith a soft voice and a bitter smile.

“…We won. With the power of love!”

For some reason, though, Suzuka didn’tlike that at all. She just started screaming “W-W-W-What kind ofembarrassing things are you saying?!” at me… Weren’t you theone who said that at the beginning?

*

“With this, we can buy the engagementrings! Yay!”

After turning our loot into money, andchecking that we had the necessary 50.000G, Suzuka immediately headedtowards the shopping area again.

After all of that happened, weresurrected Mai and Double Peace-sensei and returned to the city.Since it was already pretty late, our group split up, and Suzuka andI headed back towards where we had seen the rings before.

“W-We bought them…!”

After we found the item again andbought it, Suzuka let out a relieved sigh. Though she immediatelystarted shaking her head as if to rid her mind of some thoughts. Sheheaded over to me, requesting the marriage. However…

“W-Why won’t it work?!”

Even though we were holding therequired item, a status message popped up, saying “You cannotget married to this character,” which left Suzuka in shock.

“I-Is this some kind of bug…?!”

“Oh, there’s another message belowit.”

Umm, let’s see… “Suzuka and Yuuare siblings, so they can’t get married.”

“W-What?!”

“…This might be because we made ourcharacters have that relationship when we created them…”

I was confused as to why an online gameoffered an option like that, but this was probably the reason why.

“No way…! What do you mean thatsiblings can’t get married?!”

“Siblings can’t marry in reality,you know?!”

“This is a game, so that should befine!” Suzuka was trembling with anger, but she finally gave up andall the strength left her shoulders. “Uuuuu…”

“I-I don’t think that you have tobe so depressed about it. You got enough data for your report,right?”

“That might be true, but… I reallywanted to do this…” Suzuka muttered with tears in her eyes.

She might be depressed that she can’tcollect all the data she wanted… I feel bad that she’s such aperfectionist. That being said, if it’s impossible within thesystem itself, then there’s nothing we can do, really.

“……”

But… well…

When I looked at Suzuka, who was makingsuch a sad and hurt expression, I could feel my chest filling with agloomy feeling… Normally I’m just an unreliable older brother,and that’s true, sure… but I still am her older brother. That’swhy I want to do something for her. As her older brother, I can’tstand to see my little sister be so sad, and it’s my duty to saveher in any way possible.

…Then what should I do here?

“Ah, I know…”

A certain thought crossed my mind, andI once again headed towards that stall from before to get a hairaccessory that I had seen earlier that day.

“Here, put this on.”

I sent her the hair accessory via thegift option, and Suzuka accepted, though she seemed completelyconfused.

“Umm… What is this…?”

“A present for you.”

“A-A present?! From Onii-chan tome…?! W-Why?”

“You know, um… Although we mightnot be able to marry in the game, we can still become lovers in acertain sense.”

“L-L-L-L… Lovers?!”

“Ah, don’t get the wrong idea,though! This was just to cheer you up, and I’m not thinking that atall or anything, okay?!”

…Ahh, she’ll definitely think thatI’m disgusting again…!

“A-Anyway, this is also something youcan do in online games! So I thought that maybe this would be goodreference…”

At the very end, my voice completelydisappeared and I ended up muttering… Was this all just unnecessarymeddling on my part?

“O-Onii-chan did that for me…!”

But Suzuka just blankly stared at thescreen, her face as red as a tomato, until…

“Ehehehe…! L-Lovers…!”

She suddenly started laughing toherself.

“U-Umm, Suzuka-san?”

“Hya?! I-I-I-I-It’s nothing! Um,umm! It’s true that we weren’t able to marry, but this isn’t sobad either, yes!”

“I-Is that so? I’m glad to hearthat.”

Then why are you looking at me with apout on your face?

“…T-Thank you very much,Onii-chan.”

Finally, Suzuka once again looked atme, showing me a smile. It was mixed with a slight bit ofembarrassment, but she seemed happy. It was a wonderful smile to lookat.

…Well, if she’s smiling now, thenthat must’ve been the right decision. Maybe I managed to act morelike an older brother?

*

“Ehe… Ehehehe… A present fromOnii-chan…! Ehehehehehe…!”

After I returned to my room, I onceagain booted up the game, and I spent time gazing at my character,who was now equipped with the hair ornament. I know that I’ve beenacting like this for a while now, but can you really blame me…?!It’s a present from Onii-chan, you know?! Ehe, ehehe, ehehehe!

“N-No no, no matter how happy I mightbe, I can’t just look at it forever. I have to write that report…!”

Hence, I booted up my writing software.What did I experience during the game…?

—Onii-chan softly whispers ‘I loveyou’ into my ear, as he carefully puts the hair ornament on myhead, and ever-so-slowly raises my chin with his hand—

“……Ah?!”

Before I realized it, I had writtendown my flirty fantasies instead of the actual report…

“T-This is no different from theusual Onii-chan notes I write!”

I furiously shook my head to rid myselfof the thoughts, but all I could think of was Onii-chan.

…Uuuu, it’s because you made me sohappy that I can’t focus, Onii-chan…! W-Well, it’s not like Ihated what he did, but—

“…Hey, Suzuka?”

“?! O-Onii-chan?! W-W-W-W-Why are youin my room?!”

“Ah, well, I did knock, but youdidn’t respond at all… Here, you forgot your mouse pad.”

“I-I-I-I-Is that so?!”

I was nearly scared to death whenOnii-chan poked his head into my room. If he were to see fantasieswritten down like this, it’d be the death of me. I closed thewriting software just in case.

“Hm? Are you still playing the game?”

What appeared on the screen now was thegame again, so I quickly thought of a way to cover it up.

“Y-Yes! It was pretty fun, so Ithought I wanted to play some more!”

“I-Is that so? But it’s prettylate, so don’t overdo it, or you’ll get addicted, okay?”

With those words, Onii-chan left myroom, and I was finally able to breathe again.

…T-That was way too close forcomfort… But, Onii-chan? You don’t have to worry about me gettingaddicted. After all, I’m already an Onii-chan addict—Ahh,what am I even saying!

“Auuuuu…!”

Unable to contain the embarrassment ofmy own thoughts, I jumped onto the bed and rolled around on top of itfor a while.