NEET Receives a Dating Sim Game Leveling System
chapter-337

Seiji reached out to touch the woman's black veil, but he only felt empty air .

"Eh?" Seiji realized that his hand had passed straight through the black veil . "This is… just an image?"

He tried touching the woman's body, but his hand went straight through her body as well . There was no sensation of physical contact .

This was indeed only an image . It was just a shadow that appeared real .

"It's no good; I can't touch anything . "

Seiji retracted his hand and looked towards Natsuya . When he saw her unsurprised expression, he understood that this was within her expectations .

"The correct method must be used in order to communicate with a Guardian Spirit . The problem is that each Guardian Spirit has a method unique to them, and I don't know the correct method for this one . "

"Method… is it to play this game?" Seiji asked .

Natsuya blinked at this . "It's possible . But you guys beat the game already, and she didn't express anything, which means that just beating the game normally isn't the correct way . "

"Hmm… do we need to gather a total of six players, one for each player piece? Land on some special spaces? Or even have all the players defeat her first before winning?" Seiji made several guesses .

"Anything could be possible," Natsuya said lightly . "We could experiment, but…"

"It'll be a big hassle," Seiji said with a sigh .

The two of them entered a brief silence .

"Let's just leave it for now," Seiji said . "We can explore our options after investigating Mr . Uehara . Perhaps we'll learn more information regarding this board game then . "

Natsuya nodded in agreement .

The two of them looked back at the black-veiled woman . She merely stood there quietly, without making a sound .

The next morning, Seiji told Mika the result of last night's tests on the spiritual artifacts .

"…Natsuya will send someone to begin investigating today . If she finds out about anything important, she'll contact us . All we can do now is wait . "

The pigtailed girl nodded . Then, she looked towards the television in Seiji's room .

On the television screen, there were two small, large-nosed figures wearing plumber uniforms . They were jumping around, stomping on pitiful monsters, stealing shiny golden coins, touching strange objects that somehow caused them to transform, and wreaking havoc everywhere…

Kaede and Reo were playing a video game together . They seemed to be having lots of fun .

Seiji looked at Mika's expression and felt that something was off . He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but nothing came out .

He decided to maintain his silence and watched the video game on the screen .

A while later .

"I thought about many things last night," Mika said in a soft voice .

Seiji looked back towards her again .

"I suddenly started thinking and couldn't stop myself . I thought and thought until I fell asleep . After I woke up, I thought that maybe I thought too much about it, but…" The pigtailed girl revealed a complex expression . "I always thought that my dad was just a normal person, same as my mom . I always thought that I… that we were just an ordinary family .

"But now… to learn that my late father might have been not so ordinary after all . . . Just thinking about it, I feel… I don't know what I should say .

"I know that I shouldn't think too much about it, but I just can't calm myself down . I don't know how to describe this feeling . "

"You just feel uneasy," Seiji told her gently . "You learned something that changed what you knew before, which is why you feel uneasy . Now that there may be a secret about your father that you don't know about, having this type of reaction is normal . "

Mika looked towards him . The two of them faced each other directly .

Seiji smiled gently at her . "Mika, you should know, no matter what the truth is, or what secrets there may be, you're you .

"No matter if you're actually the daughter of a superpowered ability user, or the secret daughter of some mega-powerful family, or even someone who has a vicious demon sealed inside her… you're still you . You won't change into someone else . Our relationship won't change because of this . Before, at the Grand Spring department store, I told you and Chiaki that no matter what our identities may be, we're all good friends . You're someone important to me, and this won't change . "

"Seiji…" Mika recalled the words he said at that time, thanks to the similarity between his rather moving smile then and his gentle smile now .

The scene before her overlapped with the scene in her memory . How moved she was back then also overlapped with her current feelings .

Mika's eyes sparkled, and her face flushed red .

'He's just like this . I just happen to like a man who's like this . This heartfelt feeling of mine won't change, so… why am I worrying? Just like he said, I won't change . I'm still me, no matter what the truth is . '

"Thank you," she said from her heart .

Seiji smiled in return . "There's no need to thank me . "

'He has always been like this . '

After Mika returned home, Seiji received a parcel .

It was from his sister, Hana Haruta .

'It's probably the high-class streaming equipment . '

Seiji carried the box to his study and opened it up . There was an action camera, rechargeable batteries, a Bluetooth headset, a signal amplifier, a tripod, and a camera stabilizer…

He unwrapped everything and did his best to assemble the pieces by himself . He used the instruction booklets to guide him as he installed everything . It wasn't long before he succeeded .

Seiji turned on his computer, opened up his stream, and attempted to stream with his new equipment .

It was a success!

His computer displayed the scene from the new equipment .

He password-protected his stream, then notified Hana on the chatting application that everything was ready . She responded instantly .

"The video quality is excellent . Very good . "

"It's because of the high-class streaming equipment that you purchased . "

"But of course! I picked them myself! Is your headset connected?"

"It is . "

Hana sent him a voice chat request in his chatting application's conversation window .

Seiji clicked on Accept .

He then heard a clear and pleasant-sounding female voice in his headset .

"Hey, hey… can you hear me?"

"I can hear you," Seiji answered . "Really clearly . "

This was the first time he had used his real voice, not a voice-changer, to speak to her .

Hana's body tensed up upon hearing his familiar yet also unfamiliar voice . He had the same voice as "Seiji Haruta . " However, he gave off a different feeling from the "Seiji Haruta" that she knew .

"You… you're my familiar! Walk around and show me around . "

"Yes, Master . "

The stream thus began moving as Seiji walked around his room . The camera was quite steady, and the video didn't shake or anything . It seemed that walking normally wouldn't be a problem for the stream .

Hana saw a Sakura Island-style living room, with a kotatsu sitting atop tatami mats . Next to the kotatsu sat a beautiful, blonde-haired woman and a green-haired little girl . They were playing a video game together .

"Who are they?" Hana asked .

"A child who's temporarily living here and the upstairs neighbor . "

"Temporarily living… is this little girl is the person you said you're now living together with?"

"No, she only came here recently due to some reasons . The person I mentioned before is someone else . "

"…Is that person male or female?"

"Female . "

"Is she beautiful?"

"Yes . "

Hana was momentarily rendered speechless .

"That is to say," she said, her voice steadily growing in volume, "you're currently living together with a very beautiful girl as well as the cute little girl I can see right now, and the three of you are living together? And you also have a very good relationship with this beautiful blonde lady that lives upstairs?"

"That's right . "

An indescribable feeling surged within Hana's heart . It even surpassed her urge to yell, "Winners in life should go explode . "

Instead, she came out with something far more shocking: "Perverts should go explode!!"

Seiji was rendered speechless .