Being in shock is a bit of an understatement. Sure, I'm happy to see someone from my school playing [Isekai Online]. But him being hired by our Dad as a beta tester has caught us off guard especially after he suddenly recognized me. As much as I'm happy to see Yuri, I’ve got a lot of questions about his appearance in the game right now. Before I can ask, I notice Wind's friends rushing to my brother's side after he fainted while Ol' Wally rushes to Azel's side to check on them. As for me, I approach Yuri for some answers.

"Yuri, I-I'm happy to see you playing the game. But why are you here? And how in the world did you buy some equipment to play it?"

"Ask my folks about it. Dad finally got a discount on the [VeilCon] thanks to Mr. Palmer's recommendation," Yuri explains. "As for the beta tester gig, it's thanks to you that I finally decided on my answer after moving here from Japan."

Then, I see Arthur walking to us and say, "Oh? A Japanese newbie kid, huh?"

He clears his throat as I watch in confusion. "Konnichiwa, Yuri-kun. Ore wa..."

"Don't. Please don't," Yuri interrupts and shakes his head. "One, there's the game's automatic translation feature. And two, I can speak just fine without it. Besides, my English is perfect compared to your attempts to speak Japanese poorly. By the way, watching anime is not a good way to learn Japanese unless you're an idiotic otaku."

I don't know what that means. But it is enough for me to hear Razul laughing behind me and seeing Arthur's face turn red.

"Yeesh... Talk about snappy. You're practically an opposite from a gamer kid we know."

Gamer kid? Is he talking about me or Azul?

"Whatever. I'm just glad to see you again, Kaz," Yuri says as he grins at me. "Although, I'm surprised that you got a large entourage in the game already."

"Thanks. But most of them are friends to my older brother," I answer before I turn around to see him getting up after his shock. "Speaking of which, are you okay, Wind?"

"Y-Yeah. Barely..." Wind answers as he rubs his head after hitting it on the ground. "Still, I never expect my brother's classmate would be playing the game, too. I'm Wind, Kazu's partner. Sorry about his antics earlier."

"Hey, it's no bother at all. While those guys might be back for revenge soon, I'm just glad someone is there to protect me for once," Yuri says. "Most of the time, other players were only watching than doing while I got into some rude players' nerves. Sometimes, I had to smack some sense out of them outside . And yet, out of all of them, you're the one who stepped in to save me."

"You're welcome, Yuri. I'm glad that you're safe. But I have to ask. What kind of [Masteries] that caused that guy to get angry in the first place?"

"Oh, that?" Yuri hums in thought as I stare at him out of curiosity. "It might be better if you see it for yourself."

He takes out his status screen and using the share feature of it, he lets me and Wind see his stats and his [Mastery] set.

[Yur1's Masteries]

[Swordsmanship] Level 16

[Arcana] Level 15

[Earth] Level 16

[Fire] Level 14

[Restoration] Level 10

[Dark] Level 15

[Magical Affinity] Level 18

[Physical Enhancement] Level 19

Wow... He has a lot of magic [Masteries] on hand. Though a few of them I spot are [Swordsmanship] and [Physical Enhancement], the very same ones that Wind is using right now.

"Man, you have a lot of magic under your set, kid," Arthur says as he also sees the stats screen. "Though seeing some physical ones might affect your build a bit."

"Hey, nothing's wrong about my build, Mr. Airhead Knight!"

“A-Airhead Knight?!"

Arthur is about to pounce onto Yuri, but thankfully, Wind stops him before he gets close to him.

"Besides, I planned that build in the first place to fulfill my dream in this game. And that is to be the first Magic Swordsman of [Isekai Online]," Yuri declares. "And what's wrong with my build? Isn't the point of this game for us to become anything we want without the worry of stats and jobs getting in the way of becoming our dream role in this virtual world?"

I quickly grin at Wind and his friends since I’d said those same lines before.

"Although, I think this guy doesn't seem to appreciate creativity. He's been hanging around in the MOBA scene a bit too much lately."

Again, I don't know what those terms are, but I agree very much.

"Okay, changing the subject now... How do you and Kazu meet in the first place?" Razul asks. "And yes, I mean in real life."

"Hmmm... How indeed..." Yuri hums as he says this. "To be honest, I think Kazu's the one who befriended me first. I initially saw him as a shy kid at first, but the moment I said those words, I kinda set off his otaku side a bit too much."

I sheepishly chuckle, at which I still have no clue what that word is.

"Well, it's before Wind and I completed the [Hidden Quest]. I remember the first time you entered into our class for the first time..."

"Good morning, class!" My teacher announced as I turned my attention to her at the start of a seemingly usual day. "Today, I would like to introduce you to this class's new transfer student. He came from Tokyo, Japan and he's one of the ace students from his old school."

Then, as soon as I saw the blue-haired boy, my eyes were glued to his attire. Not only did he have a blue hoodie jacket with a strange 8 logo and a green shirt with some swirly designs on it, but he also wore a pair of shorts with wavey designs and green and blue sneakers.

"Now, introduce yourself," my teacher instructed the new kid, at which his eyes then locked at everyone including me.

"How should I start?" The boy muttered. "My name is Yuri Ichiro. As she said, I originally came from Tokyo and... I think that's all."

"Oh, come now, Mr. Ichiro. You must have some hobbies to share with the class."

What was special about this class was that it encouraged us to share our hobbies with everyone in an attempt to become friends with each other. I only shared my love for a fantasy novel, so my class still has no idea that I also played a VRMMO alongside Hayate, which was a good thing, I think.

"My hobbies?" Yuri hums again. "I'm guessing... model kit building? Can I take my seat right now? I don't want to borrow your time a bit too much."

"Oh! Good point. You can sit next to Mr. Palmer if you like."

As soon as he sat down on a desk next to me, I couldn't help but stare at this strange kid out of curiosity. Model kit building? Just what did he mean by that?

"After his arrival, I didn't bother with talking to him for a while. He seemed out of this world and he just focused on the tests and studies during the midterms, something I couldn't even do even after Mom and my brother grounded me from [Isekai] for a while. It wasn't until I visited the library the day before the last day was when I encountered Yuri again. This time, I managed to work up the courage to talk to him."

I sighed in dismay as I sat at the desk before staring at the textbooks that I’d placed in front of me. The more I’d tried to avoid [Isekai] for my exams, the more I’d started to lose my sanity over it. Just one more day, one more day till the midterms were over, I thought.

But then, I noticed a familiar boy in a blue hoodie sat next to me. He also had several textbooks with him and he silently picked up one of them and started reading. Lately, he seemed very quiet, even to the point he has avoided students who pass by him. Not even my former bullies could bother him with even one threat or harassment. The last time I saw them do that was that they tried to mess with his locker. But instead, he screamed and ran for the principal's office. He was weird, yet he seemed normal.

However, I couldn’t ignore him any longer. One, I'm bored studying and I need to ace the midterms. And two, he seems very lonely and I want to talk to him just this once. So I took one step and took a deep breath.

"U-Um... Hey?" I greeted Yuri. Although, he didn't seem to respond to it. "Hello? Earth to Yuri..."

I didn't touch him when I try to call him. But it was enough for him to close his book. Although, he was glaring at me like I became his enemy.

"What?" I gulp as soon as he says it. "Can I help you with something?"

Now, this was a bit difficult. He seems mad, but I didn't want him to be lonely in the library. I just needed to clear things up before I moved on.

"U-Um... I'm just thinking... That you might need a buddy."

Once I said this, Yuri responded by raising his eyebrow at me.

"A buddy?" He asked. "Care to explain?"

Uh oh... Come on, Kazuki! Get it together!

"U-Um... I mean that you seemed lonely lately and... and... I feel that you need a friend here in the library," I tried to explain. "I'm Kazuki Palmer. Nice to meet you, Yuri!"

I sheepishly grinned as Yuri glared at me suspiciously for some reason.

"Kazuki?" He speaks up quietly. "Are you Japanese?"

"Um... Half-Japanese..." I corrected him. "My dad's an American and we lived in New York for my whole life. Thankfully, we don’t have those New York accents since it might be hard for you to understand."

"Good choice." To my surprise, Yuri seemed to chuckle as he softened his glare at me. "I just never met a half-Japanese kid before. I'm guessing you read a lot of Japanese books beforehand or just English ones?"

"English. I mostly read novels specifically, namely the fantasy kind. Although..." I groan as I stare at my textbooks. "These are the only books I'm focusing on right now. It's either this or no more [Isekai]..."

"[Isekai]? You mean that VRMMO everyone's been raving about?"

At that point, my eyes perk up once I hear those words. But I quickly slump down again after recalling my promise to Mom and Hayate.

"Yeah. But I'm grounded from it until midterms are over. And I'm almost losing my mind over it... If I read one more math equation, I'm going to scream!"

I'm not kidding. I was ready to lose my voice over all this studying. I was about to collapse in frustration when to my surprise, Yuri grabbed my book and returned it to my pile of textbooks.

"Then maybe it's time for us to take a break," Yuri suggested. "I heard there's a vending machine in the cafeteria. Would you like to grab some drinks? My treat."

My eyes perked up again, this time for real. Not only I get through him, but he was willing to put down his books to help me cheer up a bit. That was something I'm sighing in relief.

"Sure, I would like that."

"After that, we started talking about [Isekai] at first. But then, we discussed related to fantasy novels and then, those anime shows he watched back in Japan, and his model kit building hobby," I finish. "Ever since then, we became fast friends and we sometimes contact each other after our [Isekai] gaming sessions and before bed."

"Ah... So that explains why I saw you awake when I was about to sleep," Wind says, which I grin in response.

"To be honest, the reason why I'm in New York is that my father's friend asked me to become a beta tester for this game," Yuri explains. "Although, we met after I tried running away to Shibuya out of frustration and I only got the game and system after doing my time after that... So long story aside, that might explain my delay here."

"Running away to Shibuya? Why do I have a feeling that's a plot to a supernatural death game?" I hear Arthur mutter, which I ignore.

"That aside, do you have any [Guardians] with you?" Azel ask.

"Nope! I'm 12 years old, which means I can play this game by myself from the start!" Yuri declares, much to my surprise. "Heck, I completed a lot of [Quests] and even discovered some secrets around here. For example..."

Yuri takes something out from his inventory. As I take a closer look, I gasp to see a familiar hardcover book. The only difference is that it's light blue and it has a few gems on the front cover. It seems it has the same description as my book.

[Mysterious Book]

[A hardcover book that you obtained from a mysterious stranger. It seemed to be sealed with a mysterious magical power hidden inside of it.]

"No way!" I shout before I take out my own [Mysterious Book] and show it to Yuri. "I have the same book as yours. I got it before we did the [Hidden Quest] in the !"

"Seriously?!" Yuri shouts in the same tone as mine. "Did a guy named with the title that starts with 'Seer' gave it to you?"

"Um... Last time I recall, I think so."

Wind then steps in and says, "Kaz said he got it from the town's library. Did you get it in the same place, too?"

"Actually, I got it from a bookstore while I'm searching some books on spells. I'm guessing you guys have some ideas about it."

We have, but just in case...

"Wind, maybe we can take Yuri along with us to ," I suggest. "If it's the same as my book, we might get some answers if we bring both of them together."

"Not a bad theory, Kaz. It might work." Wind turns to Yuri and asks, "If you like..."

"Yeah, I'll come."

I see Wind's eyes widen after hearing his answer. "Y-You're not going to listen to some conditions first?"

"I know what you're trying to say. You seemed to be suspicious about me, so I'll try to be in the backlines. But from what Kazu said about you, I think he has a few ideas otherwise."

And I do. I even give him some hints by glaring at my partner with my arms crossed and a pout.

"And don't worry, I'll leave some [Link Ants] alone to get your revenge soon."

Oh, right. I almost forgot that I told him about my ant problems a few days ago. I sheepishly grin when the others glare at me.

"If you like, I can ask my Dad if you want a new sword for the trip," Azel suggests. "And by the way, my name's Azel. I prefer to be called 'they' or 'them'."

"Nice to meet you, Az. Kaz told me all about you," Yuri greets with a grin as he offers a handshake. "And I'm happy for your father for a new sword. Though my requests might be a bit crazy."

"Wait, you're not going to ask? About my gender identity, I mean."

"Hey, as Kazu said, Azel is Azel. So even I have no qualms about it. I think you're awesome to have that distinction."

Yeah, I think I’ve said too much. At least Azel is happy to be accepted by another player as they accept a handshake from Yuri.

"As for the sword, I'll try to accept any requests from you, kid," Ol' Wally says as he approaches him. “Hard to believe a shy kid like Kazu met a cool kid like you."

"Hehe... Yeah..."

Eventually, my friends begin to start interacting with my first real-life friend as Yuri keeps smiling to meet new people. Something that he didn't have when he first arrived at my school. I'm just happy that I have more friends in [Isekai Online] than ever before. But before I can join in, Wind grabs my shoulder and stares at me, much to my discomfort.

"Kazu... Please don't tell me you told him more about our adventures including our [Hidden Quest] adventures?!"

Ugh... Okay, I don't think I can hide that any longer. It's either tell him the truth or get grounded again...