"Ugh... seriously! I should have realized that the women in Zuke's house were in that kind of relationship!"
In her room, Gabriel stared at the private chat messages on her computer screen, covering her face and letting out a frustrated groan.
Now that she thought about it, it made sense. A guy living with several girls who weren't related to him—how could there not be some kind of relationship?
It was just that Gabriel had been so absorbed in her online games that she hadn't paid attention to this before. Now that Shin had pointed it out, it felt like a sudden wake-up call.
Tohru wasn't indifferent to Sayu Ogiwara and Irisviel. It was just that their relationships with Shin had already progressed to a certain level, so Tohru's jealousy didn't really matter anymore.
Thinking back, during her visit to Shin's house last weekend, the other girls had looked at her with mostly friendly but slightly wary expressions.
At the time, Gabriel hadn't paid much attention to that subtle wariness, thinking it was just because they were meeting for the first time and were still unfamiliar with each other.
But now, she realized that the wariness wasn't due to unfamiliarity—it was because they were worried she might also be a "threat" trying to steal Shin's attention!
Now, things were awkward. Originally, Gabriel and Shin were just gaming buddies, but after this strange dynamic was brought to light, Gabriel suddenly felt a wave of embarrassment.
Even if she hadn't had any such intentions before... to outsiders, it probably looked like she was now one of the rivals competing for Shin's affection.
"Gabriel? What are you doing? Why are you making so much noise?"
Just as she was rolling around on her futon, hugging a pillow and trying to ease her awkward feelings, the door to her room opened, and Vignette walked in.
Vignette was holding a feather duster—not to hit Gabriel, of course, but to clean up Gabriel's room, which tended to get messy very quickly.
Vignette often came over to clean Gabriel's room, and today was no exception. She had also taken the opportunity to confiscate most of the wages Gabriel had earned from Shin.
Seeing Gabriel rolling around in front of her computer, Vignette immediately grew suspicious:
"You're not about to ask Shin for something, are you? We haven't even saved up enough to buy back the 'First Horn of Apocalypse' yet. Don't go borrowing more money from him!"
It was clear that, in Vignette's eyes, Gabriel was a troublemaker who could easily cause problems if left unchecked.
"I'm not!" Gabriel quickly closed the private chat window—while she wasn't asking Shin for money, the conversation she'd just had wasn't something she wanted others to see.
Not even Vignette, her best friend... Even though Gabriel had fully devolved into a gaming addict, she still had some sense of shame when it came to this.
"...Really?" Vignette had obviously noticed Gabriel closing the private chat window and narrowed her eyes, staring at her for a moment.
Gabriel started to panic, wondering if Vignette was about to pounce on her and force her to open the chat window to check the conversation.
Fortunately, Vignette had some restraint. Seeing how nervous Gabriel was, she ultimately didn't force the issue and instead said with a slight pout:
"Fine. If you're not up to anything, I can just call Shin later and ask him directly."
It seemed Vignette was already getting used to communicating with Shin over the phone.
...
Late at night, after taking care of Tohru and the others, Shin logged back into the Infinite Terror VR game.
This so-called "game" was more like a system cheat than an actual game. Whoever created it had decided to call it a game, forcing Shin to endure being addressed as "Zuke" every time he opened it.
[Respected Zuke, please select the mission world you wish to enter:
"Dragon Ball" (time not adjusted); "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" (main quest generating); "Holy Round Table Domain" (time not adjusted).]
[Respected Zuke, your special mission world is:
"Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards Chronicles" (refresh attempts remaining today: 1).]
[Respected Zuke, you have 2 remaining play attempts for today.]
Looking at the usual list of mission worlds, Shin pondered his next steps.
First, the Dragon Ball world—this was a must. He needed to collect as many Super Dragon Balls as possible before Bardock gathered the other Saiyans and returned to Planet Vegeta.
Next, the Type-Moon world—he didn't need to enter this one today. According to the original story, after leaving the Rammeseum Tentyris, Fujimaru Ritsuka and her team would take two days to reach the Holy City.
It was in the Holy City that they would first realize the strength of their enemies, so Shin planned to wait until they arrived there and witnessed the power of the Knights of the Round Table before joining them.
As the saying goes, "adding flowers to brocade is not as good as delivering charcoal in snowy weather." By stepping in when they were most intimidated by their enemies, Shin could maximize his leverage in negotiations with them.
Finally, the Yu-Gi-Oh! world... this one was a bit tricky. The Sky Striker team had said it would take a few days to build the control console for AA-ZEUS, but only two days had passed so far.
Shin doubted they could finish the console in just two days, so he figured he could wait a few more days before entering, to avoid going in and having nothing to do.
"So, the only world worth entering right now is Dragon Ball... There's not much to do in the Type-Moon or Yu-Gi-Oh! worlds at the moment."
Shin felt a bit frustrated, once again feeling like he didn't have enough mission worlds to choose from.
He glanced at the "refresh attempts remaining today" for the special mission world. Although he had one attempt left, he hesitated and decided not to use it.
What if he refreshed it and lost the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Chronicle world? Then he'd miss out on collecting AA-ZEUS and TY-PHON.
Those two massive mechs had planet-busting capabilities and could also serve as mobile fortresses. Considering that his "Army of the King" might eventually include many Saiyans, having such a fortress would be incredibly useful.
"Let's just head into the Dragon Ball world for now and focus on collecting all the Super Dragon Balls in Universe 7."
With that thought, Shin selected the Dragon Ball world and entered.
{Transitoning to Zuke}
To be continued…
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