✦ ✦ ✦
“The reward is one remberry, huh?” asked Nemesis. “A tad shabby considering what we went through, I’d say.”
If I recall, it’s a fruit worth about 500 yen.
However, I felt that it had more value than that.
I wiped the remberry on my clothes and took a bite. It had the taste of a strawberry and the texture of an apple, but that one bite was more delicious than either one.
It was the taste of accomplishment.
“All righty then, it’s time to party,” said my brother. “It’s dinnertime. Since today is Ray’s first day playing, I prepared a feast.”
“You did?” I asked.
“I have heaps of meats and vegetables ready. Not that bear-bones stuff, either! Top-grade stuff.”
“Ohh, that sounds fascinating,” chimed in Nemesis.
That does sound tasty, I thought. Nemesis seems to agree, as well... Wait, Embryos eat food too?
“And for dessert I’ve got remberries.”
“Ohhh...” I said. “Wait, what?”
“For dinner, I bought up all the remberries available at the market this morning. It’s all-you-can-eat.”
“.........You.”
If I remember correctly, the reason Milianne went to Old Reve Orchard was because all the remberries were sold out, right? I thought. Which means...
“Damn it, Bro Bear, you were the start of this whole mess!” I couldn’t stop myself from shouting, and it echoed about the royal capital as the sun began to set.
✦ ✦ ✦
After chewing my brother out for a while, we made our way to the restaurant he had made reservations at. It was run by a player, and not only did they serve their own food, they also allowed customers to bring their own ingredients that chefs from the restaurant would then cook. My brother had apparently already handed over a mountain of ingredients.
“All right, in celebration of Ray’s first day and completing his first quest, cheers! Thank you beary much!”
“Cheers!” said Nemesis and I, as we all clinked our drinks together. My brother had a rem liqueur (made from remberry), while Nemesis and I had a drink that was similar to orange juice.
Infinite Dendrogram checked age restrictions based on each player’s citizenship, so I apparently wouldn’t be able to drink alcohol until I turned twenty. If I were to go into further detail, sexual material was R 18, while alcohol and tobacco was R 20.
Since these things exist in the game, I’m not sure if I should call this wholesome or indecent.
“Hmph. Thanks to my kiddy Master, I can’t drink any alcohol, either,” Nemesis griped. “Six years in our time... that’s long.”
“Based on appearances, when it comes to who shouldn’t be drinking, you’re number two,” I pointed out.
Number one would be my brother... for various reasons, I thought. ...Don’t drink alcohol from a glass while in a bear costume.
“Chomp, chomp,” grunted my brother. “Go on now, eat up. Meat. Eat some meat. Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp.” My brother ate the food laid out on the table and encouraged us to do the same.
Really, you can eat and drink while wearing that costume? I thought. It’s high-spec, even in weird ways.
“Okay, okay... What is this? It’s delicious!” I cried. I was surprised at the taste after trying the unknown food I had been recommended. It had been made using ingredients and cooking methods I didn’t know, and yet it had all come together in a tastiness I could comprehend. On top of everything, it was incredibly delicious.
“The owner of this place is a Star Chef,” said my brother. “It’s the top class fur the Cook Job. His cooking skills would be about a three star in our world.”
“That’s amazing,” I said. “But after eating a feast like this, it’ll be tough to deal with the difference between this and what I eat in the real world.”
It should be about dinnertime for me back home, and I should be getting hungry.
“By the way, my body back in the real world should still be lying down, right?” I asked.
“Yes. But you’ll get a notice if something happens in the real world. Like fur bathroom breaks or hunger, for example.”
Right after he said this, a window appeared at the edge of my sight.
“Notice: urge to urinate.
Notice: hunger.”
Oh, I see. “Okay, then I’m going to log off for a bit,” I said.
“All right. Try to come back as soon as you can.”
“Do return quickly, Master,” said my Embryo. “I can’t help myself to the food until you come back.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, and then selected the Logout option from the Main Menu.
“Logging out. Should your next log in point be your save point or current location?”
“Current location,” I replied.
“Understood. We await your return.”
And like that, my avatar disappeared from the world, and as if waking from a dream, my consciousness receded from Infinite Dendrogram.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...Ohh.” The first thing I did after logging out of Infinite Dendrogram was check the clock. The time was about three hours later than when I had started the game. I was impressed to see that time really had only advanced by a third of what I had spent in the game world.
I then went to the bathroom. After that, I ate a balanced nutrition bar and drank some mineral water to replenish my body’s nutrients. Although I had eaten inside the game, my actual stomach hadn’t been filled.
I checked my cellphone in case I had any missed calls or messages, but there were none. I also looked at the news on my computer, but there wasn’t anything that stood out.
After about ten or so minutes, I logged back in.