It has only been a few minutes since we’d left the house for the store and so far, there hasn’t been a single obstacle to stop us. A few cars passed by and there were very few people on the sidewalk. It isn't a surprise to us since this street mostly consisted of our neighbors and some shops we knew, such as the barbershop, the general store, and a few small secondhand shops. It wasn't as elegant as many other streets in New York, but I preferred it this way. It’s less busy and crowded, and the best path for me to take when I walked to my school.

Of course, our destination this time is the grocery store, which is stationed near a secondhand bookstore and a small newspaper stand. As we entered the store, a brunette-haired bag boy and a black-haired cashier turned around and saw us. "Oh, welcome Hayate. Doing your mother's errands again?"

I smiled at the cashier. "Yeah. We're just buying some vegetables for her this time. And Kaz is with me today." Speaking of the little devil, I turned around to see him grinning sheepishly.

"Y-Yeah. Hi there, Ms. Sinclair."

Usually, everyone could see Kazuki's smile when they greeted him. Of course, considering that he rarely tagged along with me to the store, it is understandable why he’s acting like that. Not to mention that he’s not the type to go out more often. It isn’t just because of his age. He rather read fantasy novels than to go out and spend time with his friends. Truth to be told, I felt a bit sad for him. Despite his optimistic attitude, he was very shy towards strangers. And this is no exception when meeting the employees in the store.

"Oh, hi, young Kaz. Nice to see you helping your big brother out on some grocery shopping."

Ms. Sinclair then held her hand out towards Kazuki. I guess it is her way of telling him that it’s okay to trust her. She does often has certain ways of befriending anyone she met. Heck, when I first met her during my first grocery trip with Mom, she just offered me a high five and a candy. Now that I think about it, she is a real social butterfly back then and even more so now, not to mention she has her way with words.

Well, almost.

As I looked down, I noticed that Kazuki wasn't budging one bit. I even feel that he’s clutching his green shirt too tightly. "Come on, Kaz. Shake her hand. I promised that she won't do anything to harm you."

"Really? Are you sure she won't say anything strange just like Zac?" Yikes. I can hear Ms. Sinclair gasp upon hearing that. Sure, I admit that she has her ways of greeting new people, but I doubted that she was like him.

"No, she would never say anything inappropriate. Heck, she's not like him at all." No sooner had I said this, I heard a growling sound right behind me. I knew who that was as I turned around to see Ms. Sinclair pouting at me. "U-Uh... I didn't mean in like a weird way!"

Ugh, me and my big, fat mouth. I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but I’m too panicked to say anything to her.

But before I can do anything, the bag boy approached her and said, "Um... as much we’d like to discuss this even further, how about we leave these boys for a while to shop some vegetables? We can't waste their time chattering about random stuff all day."

Saved by the bag boy. I sigh in relief as I saw Kazuki leaving by my side and grab a cart for me to use. But before I can enter the grocery store, I approached him and grinned at him. "Thank you, Brig! You saved my neck back there!"

"No problem! But one tip: Unless you want to make an enemy out of Ms. Sinclair, be careful of what you say." He's right. Ms. Sinclair may be sociable and nice, but she can be a rage monster right on par with my mother. I know because Zac ended up as one of the first victims of her rage. Just the mere memory made me shiver. Thankfully, Brigham told me about her in advance, and you can guess where I am today. "Anyway, you best get on with your shopping."

I nod at him as I push the cart with Kazuki right behind me. After the small chat, we spent an hour getting vegetables and other items on our Mom's grocery list. It was essentially uneventful, but we managed to get everything we needed in the cart.

After a while, we’re back at the cashier and we waited for Ms. Sinclair to check out our items on the counter. As we wait, I felt a tug on the right side of my shirt and turned around, suspecting that Kaz wanted something. I was right as I see him pointing a small rack near the cashier. When I did, I see that it contains several prepaid cards hanging by the hooks. I took a closer look at the cards to see what they are and my eyes widened. The cards had some pictures of a warrior and a female mage with a logo of [Isekai Online] embedded in each card, along with the written prices, which ranged between $5 to $50. I realized what my brother is trying to tell me as I looked at him with suspicion. "Really, Kaz? What are these for?"

I see him showing a big grin on his face, which is a sign that he wants to buy it. "Prepaid cards for [Isekai]! Can I buy them?"

I was right. And I knew what my answer is. "No."

I don't want to give him such a blunt answer, but it’s for his own good. However, I could see he wasn't giving up on the subject so easily. "Aww... Why not?"

"We only have enough money for the groceries and I seriously don't want to tick Mom off over us coming back with empty wallets. Plus, you don't know what they really do for the game anyway." As much I want to buy it for Kaz's sake, there is no way I could disobey Mom. Sure, we have our own money, but if we spent it on the prepaid cards, we probably don’t have enough for bus fare next week.

"Come on, Hayate. Just one card... I want to see what they can do. I promise to pay you back!" Oh man, I don't want to do this. I loved my little bro. But I didn't want to act like a stern parental right in front of him.

"Now K-"

"Wait, did I just hear the 'I' word?"

I stop when I heard Brigham's voice. Ugh... Don't tell me...

I turned around and to my surprise (shock, really), Brig appeared right in front of me with a plastic bag in hand. "You two play [Isekai Online]?"

I knew it... I mentally facepalm myself at the thought of Ms. Sinclair's level-headed co-worker played a VRMMO. I don't want to say anything, so I let Kazuki answer. "Y-Yeah. I play as a mage while Hayate is a hunter."

"Seriously?! Man, I just got the game yesterday and I never expected you two would get hooked on it so easily!" This is worse than I thought. If Zac were here right now, they would go on and on about the game until midnight. I can also see how Ms. Sinclair was also frowning at this revelation.

"Really? And just wasting about $50 from your paycheck is worth your time?" Brig's eyes widened as he turned to his co-worker with his eyes narrowed. Judging by how his face turned red, I can tell that she managed to hit some of his triggers.

"Give me a break! I just pre-ordered it online and no disrespect, but how I spend my paycheck is none of your business!"

Then, I see Kazuki's expression turned into confusion as he approaches the two employees. "Really? Is that expensive? We just got it the day before the launch from our Dad."

"Before the launch day?"

I can see the two grocery employees raised their eyebrows when they heard this. I forgot, they had no idea how we managed to get a game before it was even launched to the public.

"Oh right. I forgot to mention that my Dad worked on developing artificial intelligence for the [ADVR] applications and programs. Right now, he’s working on the AI for the game and he asked us to test-play it to see if the programs inside were working, which is how we got the game so early. As for how Kaz can play, I entered as his [Guardian Player]." I had to say it in case both of them have questions about it. "But please, don't share this information with anyone. We seriously don't want anyone stalking us just because we got some connections."

I groaned when I imagined what could happen if Ms. Sinclair would accidentally blurt out the fact we got it because our Dad worked with a gaming company. She isn't very good at keeping secrets. Thankfully, Brig was very good at keeping her in line, so just seeing him nod at my explanation made me sigh with of relief. "Got it. We don't want to lose any potential customers after all. And I will make sure Ms. Big Mouth won't say anything important."

"Hey!" I laugh as I saw Ms. Sinclair frown in response to Brig's remark. Well, it made her a bit upset, but it was a small price to pay to keep this a secret.

"Well, Ms. Sinclair's big mouth aside, you should buy one. You may get some awesome premium items in [Isekai] that can give you an advantage."

"What do you mean an 'advantage'?" I’m suspicious at what he said as I stared at the cards.

"Well, do you know about DLCs?" I nodded yes. Like before, I’d heard from Zac that they are known as 'downloadable content", which means whether they are paid or free, you can get new content like new locations and weapons. "I just read this from the official site, but these cards will give us a premium currency called [Adament] that will allow us to buy some exclusive costumes, useful items, and weapons from the game's cash shop. And not just any ordinary items that you can get typically get from an item shop. Shiny and beautiful costumes, consumables that increase how much EXP you can get in the game, awesome gear... you name it! You could be the MVP of the whole game if you buy those items at the [Adament] shop! Not to mention you can support the developers just by buying [Adament]."

"Huh. So in other words, you can able to spend these [Adaments] for some new items to increase our EXP and stuff, right? That sounds pretty cool." I hate to admit this, but he did have some good points. However, I do find something suspicious about his explanation. "But why in the world do we have to pay more money if you already paid about $50 for the game itself? More importantly, isn't buying [Adament] just to get those premium items taking away the fun of the whole game itself? Sure, the extra EXP and some expensive exclusive costumes were nice, but to me, it's pretty much like bribing yourself to be the best gamer in [Isekai]. Besides, the last time I checked, Kaz and I only play the game just for fun. And just buying those items to become invincible will destroy the true joys of the game."

As I said this, I notice that everyone is staring at me in shock. Oh, right. They hadn’t seen me having one of these talks. Just realizing this made me want to shut my mouth. However, I noticed Kazuki staring at the cards with a frown on his face.

"As much I would like to buy them, Hayate's right." I smiled when I hear this. At least he understood what I was trying to say. "Just buying this would just make our whole experience a bit too boring for my taste. Maybe I shouldn’t buy it."

Good choice. I pat my brother's head as I smiled at his decision. However, I expect Brig would react negatively to this. Then again, I highly doubt he would. He just recommended it and wasn’t forcing it on anyone. All he did afterward is shrugging his shoulders as he packed most of the vegetables in a plastic bag. "Well, it’s your choice. Besides, everyone has their different play-styles."

"That's true." I give the money to Ms. Sinclair as Brigham gave us the grocery bags. "And there is no way we could change that. Right, Kaz?"

"Right!" No sooner had I gotten my change, Kazuki had run to the door with a bag on hand. "Now come on! We only got an hour and a half before [Sleep Mode] turns off without us!"

"O-Okay! Hang on!" But before I rushed to his side, I turn to the grocery employees and bowed my head to them. "Sorry for taking so much your time."

"Nah, it’s okay! Though if you guys want to meet up, I'll be in [Isekai] as a [Beastfolk] rogue in a black outfit," Brigham said as he waves goodbye to us.

"Don't worry, we won't forget!"

"Be careful and don't stay in the VR for too long!" Ms. Sinclair added as we’re about to leave the store.

"We promise! See you!"

With that, Kazuki and I left the grocery store as we try to hurry over back to our house. Not only did we have to get back in the game before the timer ran out, but we also didn't want the groceries to get spoiled because of our idle chat.