Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 63: Meeting

"This is so cool! I can't believe I'm here in a guild's crafting hall of sorts!"

I shout as I roam around the building alone. Yeah, I wandered here with Wind in our tour earlier, but just the size of its interior and its resemblance to <Initio's> <Crafting Hall> is enough to make my jaws drop in awe. But I'm still shocked to see how the guild managed to build this large building as their personalized crafting hall. I wish Wind and I had our guild house of our own.

"...Hm...?"

Huh? Did I hear someone just now? I turn to look around the empty floor to check. But so far, I see no one is here. I would guess it might be Wind, but even if he's here, he might be using the first-floor facilities by now.

"D-Di...he...?"

So I'm not imagining things. Someone is here! But where...

CLANG!!! CRASH!!!

W-What the heck? I hear voices in one of the [Magecrafting] stations just now. I want to leave after hearing that, but judging by the noise, I can't do so without knowing that they are okay or not. With that, I rushed towards the source of the noise behind one of the stations.

"Hey, are you okay?" I call out, hoping that someone would answer. But when I reach the source, I gasp to see a white-haired young boy in a yellow robe, gray shirt, white tie, and light blue pants and shoes. When they see me, their eyes widen and they gasp.

"U-Uh... a girl?" I mutter in confusion. They do look like a girl from their hairstyle, but their clothes say otherwise. Before I can do anything, the kid got up and left in a hurry. "H-Hey! Wait! I didn't mean to hurt you! Come back!"

Despite I tried calling out to him, he doesn't turn back. I guess he's a lot like me before Wi- I mean Hayate opened up to me. I'm guessing befriending them will be more difficult than Annie. And I can't force them to be friends either. For now, I should try to replenish some potions and make new ones for our upcoming adventures.

----

"Alright, now that's all settled, it's time we should decide our next plans for the upcoming update," Ellia says as she walks to Anton's side as Yuzoku, Barry, Lizo, and Katrine sat in front of the table and their guild leader.

"If I recall, the devs hinted that they are adding a new system and event to coincide with it," Katrine says. "Though the real question is what kind of system they are going to add."

"There should have datamine information about it, right?" Yuzoku suggests. "Maybe we should check that out and..."

"Oh no... we promised that we're going to play this game without any spoilers. Besides, Star will kill me if we do that, even to my little sister," Anton rejected. "Besides, you saw how angry she is after what happened earlier."

"He's right, Yuzo. Plus, it will be too boring if we know things too early."

The rogue growls before turning his head away from the group.

"Even if we're going in blind, how are we supposed to know what's next for the game? I mean, we have to be prepared for anything, right?"

"That's true. Although, those two brothers might be keys to the next update."

Everyone raise their eyebrows as they stare at their leader.

"U-Um... I-I don't get what you're saying, leader," Lizo spoke up.

"Yeah, what do those two have to do with everything?" Katrine added.

"Well, I'm not the manipulative type, but remember the kind of game we're facing right now. Advanced AI, [Hidden Quests]... Those two might have unlocked something that we didn't. Not only that, I just heard some rumors from the NPCs recently."