"I have no idea what Pickpocket is for. Whether in reality or in the game, it's never been useful..."
Yamada complained bitterly as she cooperated with Natsuki and the two to copy the skill, full of resentment.
She was a female office worker in her twenties, wearing glasses, with an ordinary appearance but a good figure. She hadn't been a player for long. After being 'recruited' by the Strange Tales Management Bureau, she joined without any hesitation to receive generous benefits.
So from the beginning, she actively cooperated with a respectful attitude—anyone important enough for the Strange Tales Management Bureau's expert to call personally, the three people in front of her, were definitely not ordinary players.
Natsuki nodded:
"Used alone, it's indeed not very useful."
To Pickpocket a sheep: in reality, doing so is either theft or poaching of wild animals; as for in the game... there are no sheep, completely nowhere to be seen.
Kaguya said softly:
"Copy successful. Yamada, you can take your hand away now."
"Okay." Yamada nodded, but in the end, she couldn't resist her curiosity. "Um... can I ask why you wanted to copy this ability?"
Chika smiled brightly:
"Because I have a skill that can turn people into sheep, so maybe they can be used together."
Secretary Chika was always a frank and open person, never hiding anything. As she spoke, she generously demonstrated the Sheep Transformation Technique.
"Eh, eh, eh?"
Upon seeing the skill description for Sheep Transformation Technique, Yamada's eyes quickly lit up.
Want it!
Super want it!
Combining the two skills might have the power to turn decay into wonder!
Chika put her hands on her hips:
"Yamada, if you have a copy scroll, I can copy the skill for you, you know."
As for directly giving a copy scroll to the other party... she couldn't bear to, absolutely couldn't bear to.
"Thank you."
Yamada bowed gratefully and sincerely thanked her.
A moment later.
Natsuki and the two bid farewell to Yamada and walked out of the cafe.
The three had left in the afternoon and traveled all the way. Now, after copying the skill, it was unknowingly evening. The sun was setting, the evening glow was golden, and the afterglow of the sunset was exceptionally charming.
"Phew..."
Chika raised her hands above her head and stretched hard, her voice clear: "Kaguya-chan, President, have you ever visited Osaka?"
Kaguya gently shook her head:
"No."
Natsuki also shook his head: "I haven't visited either."
"Hmph hmph hmph~" Hearing the answer, Chika immediately put her hands on her hips, proudly raising her chin. "I've been here, and more than once. Osaka is in Kansai, and it has many foods that are completely different from Tokyo. Let's go back tomorrow, and I'll treat you to a good meal tonight."
Natsuki had no objections. It was summer vacation, so traveling was perfectly fine. He turned to Kaguya and said:
"What does Kaguya say?"
Kaguya gently nodded:
"Then we'll go back tomorrow."
Chika pointed towards the setting sun:
"Let's go!"
"..."
As Japan's third-largest city, Osaka has developed marine fisheries, a large population, and affordable seafood. It can satisfy tourists' needs for eating, drinking, and entertainment. The only drawback is probably that evil spirits are also found throughout its streets and alleys.
Eating, drinking, and having fun needs no further explanation. Apart from encountering many evil spirits, no game instance was triggered.
Today also happened to be the Summer Festival. After eating and drinking their fill, Natsuki, Kaguya, and Chika went to the sea to watch the fireworks display.
Chika looked around curiously: "Eh, there are so many people."
Nonsense, it would be strange if there weren't many people at a fireworks display.
"There are so many snack stalls there." Chika's eyes lit up, and she quickly tugged at Natsuki's sleeve. "Do you want to go eat something?"
Natsuki's mouth twitched, and he couldn't help but retort:
"Didn't we just finish eating before coming here?"
"That's dinner," Chika said, hands on her hips, speaking with conviction, "The most classic dishes are often hidden in the street food stalls."
Natsuki said, speechless:
"Aren't you afraid of getting fat?"
"Heh heh, not at all," Chika lifted her chin, smiling triumphantly, "I've decided, next time I copy a skill, I'll copy that fat-burning one that lets you eat whatever you want without getting fat."
Hey, hey, those scarce Copy Scrolls, you should use them to copy highly practical skills, don't just think about using them for weight loss!
It's like, if you worked hard to clear a dungeon one day and received a reward that could be enhanced by one level, but then you enhanced something like [BEEP—], wouldn't that make people complain?!
"Kaguya, what do you say?"
Chika looked over, her eyes sparkling.
Kaguya pondered for a moment, then raised a hand to tuck a strand of hair that had been blown by the wind behind her ear: "...It's fine to try it."
Natsuki looked at Kaguya in shock: "You're also going to copy fat-burning?"
"No need," Kaguya said nonchalantly, her hands clasped across her chest, "I have the attribute of eating without gaining weight."
"Ugh…" Chika puffed out her cheeks, muttering in a low voice, "Suddenly, I don't feel happy anymore."
"…"
The three went to a street food stall by the sea and ate again.
Bang!
While strolling.
A firework suddenly bloomed in the night sky, brilliant and dazzling, blossoming magnificently.
Everyone looked up, gazing at the night sky.
The Firework Festival officially began.
However, Natsuki only looked for a moment before his gaze quickly fell on the profiles of Kaguya and Chika.
The two girls stood side by side, looking at the sky, and the brilliant fireworks could clearly be seen blooming in their eyes.
Summer night.
Firework Festival.
A spontaneous trip.
Girls who like each other.
This ordinary day was quietly lit up, as if it had become a sparkling pearl on the beach, which would forever remain deep in their memories, shining brightly.
Natsuki stepped forward half a step, gently squeezing between Kaguya and Chika.
Then he extended both hands, holding Kaguya's hand with his left and Chika's hand with his right.
"Hmm?"
"President?"
The two girls quickly noticed Natsuki's little action.
Too much!
Absolutely outrageous!
Sneaking around in private was one thing, but now he was openly holding both hands, what a scumbag President!
"Sorry," Natsuki looked up at the night sky and said softly, "I'll let go after we finish watching the fireworks."
"…"
Kaguya and Chika exchanged glances, then silently averted their gazes, saying nothing more.
When out and about, they had to give Natsuki some face… They'd teach him a lesson after the Firework Festival!
Before they knew it, it was half past nine in the evening.
After watching the Firework Festival, Natsuki, without being told, quickly let go of Kaguya's and Chika's hands: "I'm thirsty, do you want some ice cream?"
Kaguya crossed her right arm over her chest, biting her silver teeth lightly:
"No!"
"I…" Secretary Chika wasn't actually very angry; it was just holding hands, and with Kaguya too, she'd gotten used to it. She was about to say yes, but hearing Kaguya say no, she quickly aligned herself, "I won't eat either!"
"What a pity," Natsuki said with regret, "Then I'll go eat by myself."
"Ugh…"
Chika quickly puffed out her pink cheeks, signaling with her eyes:
President, buy me one!
After eating the ice cream.
The three left the sea and found a nearby hotel to stay.
Chika and Kaguya shared a room, and Natsuki naturally had a room to himself.
After washing up, Natsuki was charging his phone when he suddenly felt his pinky finger tremble slightly, followed by a message from secretary Chika:
"Ah ah ah! President, come quickly, there's an Evil Spirit in the room, staring straight at Kaguya and me from the ceiling!"
Natsuki: "Coming right away."
Chika: "Wait, President, you don't need to come over for now."
Natsuki: "Hmm?"
Chika: "Let's leave the Evil Spirit aside for now. President has already learned Sheep Transformation Technique, let's test if we can use it as a combo skill."
Natsuki had already learned and mastered the Pickpocket skill copied that afternoon, but with so many people around, he hadn't used it yet.
Natsuki quickly agreed: "Then let's try it."
"President, please wait," Chika quickly said, "I'll use Sheep Transformation Technique on Kaguya."
"…"
A moment later, his pinky finger trembled again.
Natsuki, reminded, extended his right hand and made a grabbing motion in the air, using the skill Pickpocket.
The next second.
A transparent ripple suddenly appeared in the air, followed by a small white lamb appearing out of nowhere, landing in Natsuki's hand.
"Baa?"
The little lamb seemed a bit disoriented until it clearly saw Natsuki, and then its eyes settled.
Natsuki smiled and said:
"Good evening, Ms. sheep."
"…"
Sheep Transformation Technique turns a player into a sheep, and then Pickpocket is used to directly pull the 'sheep' to oneself, ignoring space and obstacles. When the two skills are combined, they indeed possess the power to turn decay into magic, simply perfect.
Well, actually, there were also imperfect aspects.
For example, after turning into a sheep, the clothes on one's body naturally disappeared.
Being held in someone's arms in the form of a sheep was probably quite embarrassing. Kaguya struggled lightly, jumped from Natsuki's arms onto the bed, lost her footing, stumbled and crawled, then transformed back into her human form…
Natsuki instinctively looked over, and his gaze immediately became difficult to move away.
Kaguya, like Juju, was also 'not just her hair was pink'.
The next second.
A black and white bunny girl uniform appeared on Kaguya out of thin air.
It was the instant change function of the Skin Card.
Kaguya quickly sat upright, sitting on the bed in a duck-sitting posture, one hand covering her chest, the other covering her skirt, her pretty face flushed like fire, glaring over with both shame and anger.
Natsuki said seriously:
"I didn't see anything."
"Natsuki-kun is lying," Mrs. Shimizu said faintly from the side, "I saw everything clearly, how could Natsuki-kun not have seen it?"
"Mom!" Kaguya's pretty face was burning hot, and she couldn't help but shout in shame, "What are you talking about?!"
If he saw it, he saw it, it's not like he hadn't seen it before… But don't say it out loud! And that posture just now was too embarrassing!
Thump thump thump.
A knock on the door suddenly sounded.
Needless to say, it was most likely Chika.
Natsuki looked at Kaguya.
Kaguya also turned her head to look.
Their eyes met.
Neither of them moved.
"President?" Kaguya finally couldn't help but speak, "Why aren't you opening the door yet?"
Natsuki coughed twice and said:
"Let's rest for a bit, it's not convenient to move right now."
"Not convenient…" Kaguya's tone was puzzled, but she quickly realized, her gaze dropping, and she said indignantly, "Pervert!"
And he said he didn't see anything, he must have seen it!
There was no other way, Kaguya could only get out of bed to open the door.
The door opened.
As expected, it was secretary Chika outside the door.
"Kaguya," Chika stepped inside, asking curiously, "Why did it take so long to open the door?"
"Why?" Kaguya bit her silver teeth, "Of course, because of Sheep Transformation Technique!"
She had just come out of the shower and knew nothing, then she was hit by Chika's Sheep Transformation Technique, and then she was grabbed by Natsuki using Pickpocket. She was completely bewildered.
"Sorry, sorry," Chika clasped her hands together in front of her chest, apologizing sincerely, "Sheep Transformation Technique can't be used on oneself, you see."
Natsuki had calmed down by now, and he stood up and said:
"The Pickpocket combo skill is super useful, it completely ignores physical laws and directly pulled Kaguya over. I feel like it will be very useful in the future."
"Exactly!" Chika quickly became animated, "When I saw Kaguya disappear out of thin air just now, I knew the combo skill must have succeeded."
Kaguya straightened her pretty face and walked towards the door:
"Hurry up and go back to rest."
"There's still an Evil Spirit," Chika waved, "President, President, go and eliminate the Evil Spirit."
"Coming."
Natsuki followed them out, came to Kaguya and Chika's room, activated Evil Spirit Banishing, and purified the Evil Spirit wandering in the room.
"President, you can go back now," Kaguya said, her hands crossed over her chest, issuing a dismissal.
Natsuki put on a serious face and said:
"You tell me to come, and I come, and now that I've just arrived, you tell me to leave. Wouldn't that be very disrespectful?"
"Hmm?"
Kaguya tilted her head and looked over.
Natsuki quickly turned around: "Leaving immediately."
"…"
Back in his own room, replying to messages and reporting Kaguya's whereabouts to Hayasaka, it was already eleven o'clock at night before he knew it.
Natsuki put down his phone and went to bed on time.
It was a night without words… but not quite.
After an unknown amount of time, the gentle vibration of his phone suddenly woke Natsuki from his sleep.
Natsuki picked up his phone and saw that it was a little past five in the morning, with the first light of dawn just appearing outside the window.
The sender of the message was none other than Kaguya.
"Has the President woken up?"
"Hmm?"
Natsuki was mostly awake: "First, I need to confirm your identity… What was the first thing you said to me?"
Kaguya: "…Surrender."
Natsuki: "Correct answer. Why are you calling me to open the door so early?"
Kaguya: "I just woke up and wanted to go to the restroom, but there's an evil spirit in the toilet."
Having an evil spirit in the room was one thing; out of sight, out of mind, you could pretend not to see it and endure it.
But an evil spirit in the toilet, staring straight at you from inside, was unbearable, completely unbearable!
Left with no choice, Kaguya could only send a message for help.
"I'm opening the door," Natsuki said after reading the message, getting up. "Come quickly."
"…"
A moment later.
Kaguya, dressed in her pajamas, quietly slipped over.
"Excuse me for intruding."
Kaguya was still thinking about yesterday's events, and after using the restroom, she prepared to return.
"Don't go, Kaguya," Mrs. Shimizu pleaded pitifully. "I'm so bored. Kaguya, won't you talk with your mother?"
Kaguya said softly:
"We can talk tomorrow."
"It's already the next day," Mrs. Shimizu said, with her hands on her hips. "And look outside, the sky is already bright."
Kaguya: "…"
"Natsuki-kun, can you still sleep?"
Mrs. Shimizu turned her head and asked.
Natsuki answered truthfully:
"I probably can't sleep anymore."
As a player's physical fitness continuously improved, their required sleep time gradually shortened.
Waking up at five in the morning, he basically couldn't fall back asleep.
Kaguya hesitated slightly, then said softly:
"What does mother want to say?"
"There's so much I want to say," Mrs. Shimizu raised her hand to cover her mouth. "This is mother-daughter talk time, Natsuki, don't eavesdrop."
Natsuki looked over, speechless:
"So I should leave?"
"Go, go," Mrs. Shimizu waved her hand. "Natsuki-kun, hurry and leave."
Natsuki turned and said:
"Farewell, I'm going to Chika's room."
He had barely taken half a step when his arm was grabbed.
Kaguya said expressionlessly:
"If the President goes out looking like this, won't someone call the police?"
"I don't think so," Natsuki retorted. "A few days ago, I saw news about a couple traveling in Bali, Indonesia, who were murdered in their hotel.
The man struggled and crawled in the corridor for over twenty minutes, and the hotel manager was still looking for a wheelchair, not even knowing what the emergency number was."
"…"
Next was casual talk time.
Natsuki, Kaguya, and Mrs. Shimizu—two people and one ghost—chatted until the sky was fully bright without realizing it.
Of course, while chatting, Natsuki and Kaguya were not idle; they took turns infusing luck into coins, so they wouldn't be flustered when they needed them.
"It's already seven o'clock?" Kaguya looked at the time, only then realizing it was fully bright, and quickly stood up. "No, I have to go back."
Natsuki said:
"Why go back so early?"
"If I don't go back soon, Chika will wake up," Kaguya glared at him. "If she doesn't see me, she'll definitely be suspicious… I'm leaving."
Kaguya pushed open the door and stepped into the corridor, about to return to her own room, when she suddenly saw a pink-haired girl standing in the corridor, eyes wide, lips slightly ajar, looking at her in shock.
"Chika, let me explain…" Kaguya felt inexplicably guilty and quickly began, "When I got up just now, there was an evil spirit in the restroom, I just came over to borrow the restroom."
Chika said with a resentful tone:
"Kaguya, does borrowing the restroom take two hours?"
Kaguya said guiltily:
"It wasn't that long."
"I woke up once in between and checked the time on my phone, I remember it very clearly, it wasn't even six in the morning yet," Chika said. "Borrowing the restroom shouldn't take that long, right?"
Kaguya coughed twice and said:
"We chatted for a while afterward."
Chika's tone became even more resentful: "Just chatting?"
Kaguya nodded and said:
"Of course, it was just chatting."
Chika pointed a finger: "Then why are Kaguya's pajama buttons all crooked?"
Kaguya: "…"
That was because she had bad luck when flipping coins, got something on her clothes, and when she took them off to pat them, she accidentally buttoned them crooked!
Chika clenched her pink fists and said resentfully:
"We agreed to stay together, but Kaguya secretly ran over last night to sneak attack the President, that's too much."
Kaguya was filled with guilt: "Listen to me explain…"
Chika puffed out her pink cheeks and said:
"Next time, I want to come too!"
Kaguya: "…Eh?"