A few days passed and, much to my relief, I managed to finish my homework before the weekend. Sure, I still need to study for next week's exams, but at least I had one less burden to worry about. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but setting up a small food and potion stand in had gone off without a hitch.

At first, I was a bit reluctant to set up shop after what happened at the . But after following Damon's advice, not only did Kaz and I survive the wave of customers, but we managed to sell a lot of rabbit steaks along with those strangely crafted potions that Kaz made in our first day. I still don't know why we sold so few [Healing Potions] and [Mana Potions], but we managed to earn about 1500 [Lapi] that day. Ever since then, we’d spent the rest of our days after school selling food and potions due to the short time we had to be in the game because of our studies. It was a bit boring for Kazuki, but it was all we could do for now. As for Zac, he decided to help out Damon on learning how to play the game until he was prepared enough and gave us advice that we should seek out a player who knew how to make armor themselves rather than visiting an armory. I didn't know why, but it’s the best we can do for now.

Thankfully for us, today is Veteran Day, meaning there was no school. So we could play almost all day. We had already eaten breakfast, so we immediately logged into the game and walked around the sunny streets of . As usual, I see several players entering and leaving town while some were chatting at the town square and setting up food and potion stands. Thankfully for today, we’re not going to set up shop today as we already had plans to sharpen our crafting skills.

"Alright! Man, I'm excited! Just the thought of building new weapons makes me want to get out there and conquer more monsters and dungeons more than ever!" Kazu declared loudly through the streets, which caused some people to stare at us as a result.

"Hey, quiet down, Kaz! I know you're excited about the weapons crafting, but we still need to find someone who can make new armor for us. I don't know how long it will take to complete, but I do know we need to make use of our remaining time in the game carefully. Considering that there is a chance for us to lose time the longer we're here, I feel we need to schedule our activities for now."

"That's true. But how can we even find an armor crafter around here? There are so many crafters in and I don't know if there's one willing to take the time to make some equipment for us to use."

That is true. With the number of players around the city, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. It wasn’t like we could just bump into anyone who can help us find...

"Um... Excuse me..."

Huh?

As Kazu and I heard a voice behind us, we turn around at the same time to see a young girl wearing an auburn dress, white long socks, and black Mary-Jane shoes. I would have shrugged her off as another NPC, except she was also wearing silver pauldrons around her shoulders and a purple belt with a dagger hanging on her left hip. Not only that, she’s carrying a large bag in her hands that seemed to be too big for her.

"Um... Can you help A- I mean help me? I'm lost... I don't know where my big sister is and I don't know where I am right now... She said not to wander around without her permission. But I didn't listen to her and now, I don't know where she is." The girl sniffled, at which I saw her trying to hold her tears, but it was in vain as she started to cry. "Why did my big sister drag me here in the first place? I don't like this place, I don't know much about video games! Plus, it's too scary and there are too many people! I want to go home! I want to go back with my Mommy and Daddy!"

Oh boy... Just seeing her like this reminded me of Kazuki all those years ago. Not only that, just the mere mention of "video games" made me realize that she was a player of , albeit in an unwilling manner. I decided to try to comfort her a bit to help her to stop crying. However, Kazu quickly approached her first and smiled at her as he said to her, "Hey, don't be scared! We're going to find your big sister and if you're scared of anyone, we will protect you as well. Right, Wind?"

Obviously, I can't refuse my brother’s promises. So I nod in agreement before I turned to the young girl. "Kazu's right. Just stay with us and we'll make sure you're back with your sister before you know it."

The girl sniffled once more as she stopped crying. "A-Are you sure?"

I nod again as I moved my right hand towards the girl. "Yep. Heck, you can hold our hands just in case so you don't get lost again." However, the girl just slightly backed away from me as she stares at me fearfully. I realize she still sees me as a stranger. However, it doesn't deter me as I turn my gaze towards Kazu and then smiled. "Or if you like, you can hang with Kazu until then."

As soon as I said this, Kazu's eyes widened and recoiled in shock. "W-Wait, me?! You want me to hold her hand?!"

I just shrug at him in response.

"Sorry, Kaz. But she isn't scared of you, so you should be the one to accompany her for the moment. Besides, she seemed to be relaxed when you approached her first and promised to help her find her sister."

The girl then approaches Kazu and nods in agreement. He simply sighs and turns to smile at the young girl. "You're right. A hero never refuses a cry for help! But do we even know where her sister is right now?"

I hum for a bit as I wondered about that. "That's true. We don't know who she is, and I doubt using the friend list's functions would help us..."

To be honest, my guess at who the girl’s sister is would be Mari, since she's the only girl that we added on our friend lists. However, I doubt that would be possible since we not only had vague details about the girl's sister's appearance, but we didn't even know if Mari had a sister. But just as we discussed this, I heard another female voice.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"

Just as I turn around to see the source, the young girl suddenly smiled and quickly left Kazu's side and shouts, "Big Sis! You're back! Annie was worried that you were gone forever!"

When I look, I’m surprised to see that the girl's sister was a young blonde-haired woman who seems to be at the same age as me. However, what was surprising about her appearance was that she was wearing a brown jacket, a black vest that exposes a bit of her upper chest, black Capri pants, and white high-heel shoes. This made me wonder if she even really was the girl's older sister.

"Don't worry about it, Annie. I'm just glad you're safe." The woman said to the girl in a comforting tone. However, her smile suddenly turns into a frown as she shifts her attention towards me and Kazu before marching up to me and grabbing the collar of my shirt. "As for you, what were you doing to my little sister?! If you were even thinking of harming her, I'm gonna stuff my dagger up your ass!"

Yikes. She’s not only protective but also crude with her vocabulary. Is this woman really the girl's sister?! Thankfully, before she can do anything to me, the girl quickly tugged her jacket and shouts, "Wait, sis! They weren’t going to do bad stuff to me! They just wanted to help me find you! It's my fault that I lost you, so don't punish them, please!"

I have to thank this Annie girl later because of her, the woman released her grip and sighs in dismay. "Well, if Annie says you just wanted to help her, then I believe you. Sorry about that threat."

I sigh with relief as she calmed down. For a second there, I thought she was about to pull out her dagger and make good on her threat. It would be a bloody nightmare if the girl and Kazu would witness something like that. Regardless, I’m glad that the misunderstanding was resolved. "Don't worry about it. We were worried that she might be in danger as well. You know how these VRMMO and social media things are."

"I agree. But damn it, I still can't believe I had to agree to be Annie's nanny while he's out and about with his friends." The woman gritted her teeth as I see her tighten her hand together into a fist, at which I started to fear she may use it to take her anger out on me. However, I snapped out of that mindset when I realized something.

"Nanny? Who are you talking about?"

"Well, truth to be told… Her brother's the one who convinced us to play the game with him. It was an attempt to help her cope with her social skill problems without endangering herself in real life. Unfortunately, he’s become so busy with his online friends lately, that he forced me to be Annie's [Guardian Player] to keep an eye on her while both of them are in this game."

[Guardian Player]?! My eyes widened upon hearing those words. That title was supposed to be for older players tasked to keep an eye on younger players who were below the age range of regular age minimum. However, I’m not the only one shocked at those words as Kazu stepped forward with his eyes widen in shock.

"Hold on a second! If you're a [Guardian Player], then that means Annie is..."

The woman just grins in response as she crosses her arms together. "Yep! Annie is actually 10 years old, which is one of the reasons I protested her brother's decision to bring her here in the first place. And before I forget, my handle name in here is , but you can call me "Star" if you like. And I already mention her name many times, but this is . I'm not really her older sister, but I am her cousin twice removed."

So she is a surrogate sister. Well, crude vocabulary aside, she seemed to do her role very well, which I can respect. "What about you two? Judging by your reactions, I guess you're familiar with the term [Guardian Player], correct?"

"You could say that." I smiled before I take a small bow to Star and Annie. "My name is and I'm a [Guardian Player] to my younger brother."

Kazu then steps forward and nodded to them with a smile. "And I'm ! I’m 12 years old, a magician-in-training, and hero-in-training!"

Star then stared at Kazu for a few seconds, and then grinned mischievously. "Hero-in-training, huh? Seems like you already got a feel for this place, huh?"

"I didn't just get used to this place! It's like I lived here my whole life! Thanks to Wind, I can play this game and be like the heroes from my favorite fantasy novels!"

Oh boy. I knew I should have warned her about Kazu's fantasy obsession to begin with. I slightly chuckle sheepishly when Star looked at me in confusion. "Anyways... You said Annie's brother dragged her into to help her with her social skills, right? But why in the world would he leave his own little sister and the [Guardian Player] title to you in the first place? He can't just abandon her because of his friends."

"Well, I can say he does a terrible job as her big brother. But then Annie changed her mind about being here after seeing some several players creating clothes and accessories. I’m sure you can guess why she accidentally wandered off me earlier."

So that explains why she’d been separated from Star.

"I can understand why. Guess she took an interest in crafting after seeing them in action, right?" Of course, when I tried to talk to her, Annie just backs away from me again. I guessed gaining her trust might take a while. "But still, just pushing the responsibility on to you is kinda unfair to both of you. Aren't you worried that he might keep pulling away from his sister the longer he's away from her?"

"Yeah, I thought it was a bad idea to leave Annie to me to babysit too. Besides, I almost got kicked out of the game because she wandered off without my knowledge! Thankfully, I managed to find her thanks to you two before the system got me. But still, what's the matter with that jerk?! This is his little sister, for Pete's sake! Virtual or not, this is a dangerous world filled with trolls and scary images, no place for a young lady like herself to be in! The monsters might not be real, but she could be traumatized for life by harsh comments and cyber-bullying if I leave her alone for a second!"

I sigh when I heard the words "cyber-bullying". Even to this day and age, bullying and toxicity still exist and my brother was living proof of that. No wonder there were laws enacted to prevent tragedies and incidents involving minors from happening. I'm just glad that this [Guardian Player] feature exists to counteract those fears. "But don't worry. Knowing her brother, I feel he won't be too long with his friends. Besides, we did promise to meet back here before curfew and I did make some threats that I would beat his ass if he forgot. But never mind us for a moment. Let's talk about you and your brother for a second."

"Us?" Kazu and I exchanged glances at each other before we turn our attention back to Star. "What do you want with us anyway?"

"You did help Annie reunite with me and she seems to dig your brother. It would be very rude if I say goodbye without rewarding you with something."

I scratch the back of my head when I heard this. All we did was to help Annie find Star, so I doubt we would earn any monetary rewards just for that. "Don't worry about it. We're just happy to help. There's no reward necessary."

"Nonsense! You not only helped my little cousin, but you also saved my account from accidentally breaking the rules! It's the least I can do for you. In fact, how about I offer you my services free of charge?"

Just as she said the word "services", I quickly froze in horror. Okay, her slightly revealing clothes were okay for us, but there is no way that my brother or I would agree to such a deal! But Star soon seemingly realized what we must’ve been thinking as she waves her hands panickedly and shouts, "Wait, wait, wait, WAIT! I didn't mean those kinds of "services"! I run a small armory stand not far away from the town square where I sell custom-made clothes and armors for low-leveled players. And judging by your outfits and how they seem so worn out from excursions out of town, I think you two could use a new set of threads immediately."

So that’s it! Such a relief. But even more, the fact that she owns her own armory and made custom-made clothes still surprised me. Not only that, she somehow noticed how she could tell our clothes were reaching their limit in the terms of protection and defense. I had to say, she did have an eye when it came to clothes and their statuses.

"Really?! That's awesome! We’ve been trying to find a crafter to help us upgrade our attire so we can survive the high-level fields and dungeons in a few days. Not to mention that we’ve been trying to avoid spending too much so that we could buy extra materials for our crafting [Masteries]," Kazu explained to the girls.

"I see. Well, your search is over! And since you helped us, how about we make a deal? After we help you with your armor problem for free, I'll give you guys a little discount on future purchases."

A discount?! Damn, she isn't kidding when she said she wants to reward us just for our good deed. I also see that Kazu was also excited upon hearing this offer, but still, I felt that something was up with it though. "Okay, I get the whole discount offer, but what's in it for us? I know that stuff like this always has a catch."

But to my surprise, instead of stating it immediately, Star just approached me with a huge grin on her face. "Well, it’s not that much, but I do need something in return..."

Wind's Masteries

[Archery] Level 11

[Woodcrafting] Level 2

[Swordsmanship] Level 10

[Cooking] Level 4

[Wind] Level 9

[Physical Enhancement] Level 3

[Hunting] Level 10

Kazu's Masteries

[Arcana] Level 10

[Thunder] Level 11

[Wind] Level 7

[Alchemy] Level 12

[Magecrafting] Level 1

[Magical Affinity] Level 11

[Scribe] Level 1