Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 35: Machine Building

After dinner, we decided to head back to our bedroom while letting our parents have time to themselves in the living room. As much as I disliked parental affection for obvious reasons, I thought they deserved it since they had to spend the entire week away from each other for their jobs. Besides, we had some business to attend in <Isekai Online>.

Over the next few minutes, we logged back into the game and quickly went through our inventory in our rooms while also double-checking our current skill, or rather, our current [Mastery] levels through the menu. It was a bit much since we had stocked up only yesterday, but our next destination could possibly be rather dangerous. So we had to make sure our equipment and skills were ready to go and focus on our...

"So, what were you and Dad talking about back in the kitchen earlier?"

The second I heard his question, my focus towards the menu broke as I turned around to see Kazu staring at me with a small pout on his face. Out of all the expressions I saw from him, this one worried me the most since he was usually curious at just about everything. And by everything, I mean literally everything that involved me.

"Well... he actually asked me about school last week, and he told me that he might not come home tomorrow because of work."

"Are you sure? Because you two were in the kitchen for longer than usual. I doubt it was just about work and school," Kazu said as he walked closer towards me, at which I awkwardly backed away to my bed.

"Like I said, it's nothing important, okay? Besides, you should stop focusing on our discussion for now and try to focus on today's objective, okay?"

Usually, I would sigh in relief once I told him this. However, much of what I told him said wasn't true since I had promised Dad that I would keep our discussion secret from Kazu. Unfortunately, Kazu is very curious and I knew for a fact that he would do anything to know the truth about our little meeting about that date. Even worse, he was very smart for his age. He hums to himself for a few seconds and then his eyes perked up.

"Nothing important, huh? Last time I check, next month is not only Christmas but also my birthday. I bet you two are chatting about my birthday presents, huh?"

I gulped once Kazu said this. To be honest, I was hoping that he had forgotten about next month because of <Isekai>. Guess I was wrong again. Of course, I had to defend myself once more to avoid our plans falling through.

"Not exactly. But we did discuss me buying you a birthday cake next month. Heck, we even debated if we go all out with your favorite flavor or mix it up this year."

I hoped that might be enough to satisfy his curiosity. He might've been smart, but he was still a kid. To my relief, he just shrugged and smiled at this.

"Well, if you say so." Kazu then waved his hand in the air, closing his menu, and grabbed his new staff. "Anyways, we should head out right now. I can't wait to test out my new [Plasma Staff]!"

"Um... Before we do that, we still got some free time to stay in this game, so how about we do something before we go? You know, like preparing for a bigger storm."

Kazu raised his right eyebrow as he turned towards me and looks at me in confusion. "A bigger storm? What do you mean?"

"Well, do you remember what Star just suggested to us? How about we set up before we head out? If we want to face off against tougher monsters, we should at least gather as many resources as we can."

"Oh, yeah. Good idea! Got any ideas about how we can do it though? I don't know if we can with this game's settings."

"That's true. But don't forget, there are times that some people can make something extraordinary from a crazy idea. And from what you demonstrated yesterday, I think it's even possible in this game as well. Heck, without those ideas, we wouldn't have what we do in real life right now. For now, we just have to rely on our current skill level and work from there. We'll worry about the kinks in the future."