Sora carefully and swiftly put back his phone into his pocket and began to scout the second floor. Information was vital, and one could never be too careful of the other gender characters in this real life based game. No data could mean being endangered to one’s self character, thus Sora attempted to attain a low profile and used his evasive mechanics while also activating fade to lower detection and drawing aggro. Sora carefully strolled through the corridors, making his way onwards to the school cafeteria.

A range of insatiable smells came tempting across Sora and alarmed his belly, that this would be a deserving feast if he would dare to enter the second floor lair. Sora peaked inwards the school cafeteria wall and almost fainted of the sight he had seen. All three hundred girls were gathered in there, eating, freshmen’s like himself with the exception of only him attending out of the thirty males. His heart raced as he hastily pulled himself back towards the wall.

“You can do this,” Sora encouragingly hushed to himself with a few deep breaths.

Taking a second look inside ensured Sora everyone was done ordering food, and by the looks of it all the ordering was done electronically. You could order through a button simulator what you wanted to eat, or even prepare beforehand only on your phone and a plate would be served under a non-see through board like window. It appeared cold on first sight and at the same time a perfect game mechanical design in terms of delivery and interaction between the adventurer and a NPC at a tavern.

Sora promptly pulled back up his phone and began scavenging for new automatically installed applications up on it and found, “School Cafeteria Pre-Order App”, then placed his order. A wide range of sushi dishes and miso soup was arranged shortly and appeared at the other side of the food retrieval window. Sora gulped and braced himself, it was time, time to man up and walk into the lair to retrieve the necessary ingredients which was the plate, in order to eat the food on top and successfully retrieving a seat at any available table.

Sora slowly and carefully attempted a casual walk in, however on his first step he had pulled already everyone’s attention. Their heads and face expressions were filled with, “What is a guy doing here?”, “Is that a guy?”.

“I never thought I would ever play a tank, but I seem to have an unusual knack or talent for it, considering I pulled everyone’s aggro from their feasting,” Sora told himself while keeping his head and profile continuously low, walking towards his food tray that was lying in wait for him to retrieve.

After retrieving the tray, Sora scouted and found a table for four players unoccupied and free within a safe radius distance apart from every other table at the very left upper corner. Speedily Sora decided on reaching that table the best he could and had successfully managed to do so. The table also offered a nice view to his right to look out on the school's second floor garden, a truly lavish and tranquil sight to lay eyes on which also seemed meant to be a luxury more than a necessity considering Sora’s surroundings and situation in order to take his mind off things.

Sora’s phone buzzed, and he already knew what it meant. Quest time! The tab read as followed.

Tab 2: “Talk to any girl, must be repeated 10 times, and caps at maximum of 3 times per female individual.”

Sora scratched his head in agony whilst reading it. Not only was this another joke quest, but it reminded him that the previous tab still contained the haunting treadmill that had made him his minion the other day. Scouting the school cafeteria and identifying every female player was not as hard as Sora had initially expected. The application on his phone containing every student ID with both a picture and name made it easy to memorize most of the students on campus, even more so now that he had nothing better to do than sit quietly alone while enjoying his meal while memorizing all female player names.

At the middle table it appeared to be sitting the highest ranking female student according to the latest exam tests, “Airi Kurihara”, Sora also noticed she seemed like a loner even though she was surrounded by a kind of fanbase of some sort. Airi had a special air around her, very much so in comparison to the table sitting next to them. A carefree girl, “Kayano Kawano” and a really shy looking one, “Yui Iwase”. Sora sighed and looked at his phone in which caught the reflection of the window, and reflected what appeared to be a silhouette walking closer to him and he dared not to look up until the very end. It was only then when the person was so close up front in proportion to Sora it appeared clear who the silhouette was belonging to, as a perfect reflected image had developed with full clarity on Sora’s phone and seemed to match perfectly the body proportions and face of Airi Kurihara.

“You are Sora right? Do you mind leaving, the second floor does not suit nor welcome your kind here, trespassers are meant to be on the lower floor” Airi smiled cold heartedly as if implying you have no choice but to leave courteously, at a moment’s notice.

“My kind? I thought all level 3 and above were welcome here, and if you compare me to the other males, I believe they have yet to reach level 2,” Sora smiled frightened back, cowering behind his smile and words in order to put up a brave front.

“Amusing, how about we play a game, mister rank one NEET gamer or test exam student, whichever is your most prefered one,” Airi suggested.

“You have caught my attention, and I much prefer the first one if you do not mind, the undoubtedly rank one elite NEET gamer, Sora Nagai,” Sora replied. “Since you challenged me, I will allow you to pick the game, whilst I pick the settings, non-physical ones, either purely intellectual or gaming ones,” Sora added.

Airi nodded and gave it a careful thought. It appeared she was willing to go on about and select an intellectual one, to disprove herself from merely being rank two on the test exam, at least was what Sora thought since he had deprived her from her rank one academic title. Airi perfectly made it look like she needed time to think, however Sora read it as an immediate faint frontier when she suddenly broke the silence in the air and expeditiously turned her head back to him.

“Are you familiar with the rules of Chess?” Airi smiled innocently with a scary non-expressional neutral intent which made it exceedingly hard to read what she was thinking or plotting.

“Sure, why not, may I read up on the rules first?” Sora responded immediately nonchalantly without giving it much thought, hence it was categorized as a game, he would not allow himself his gamer pride to step down from a one-on-one challenge within this category.

Everyone in the school cafeteria reacted. Whispers were shared across the entirety of the room.

“Does he not know what he just accepted?” Some girls chattered.

“Is he stupid? She is the national reigning champion of our generation!” Others added.

“He must not realize it, I would almost pity him if he was not a male,” The final whispers echoed through.

Airi smiled pompously with a graceful touch while expressing a clear thought, a one-sided victory beckoned in her eyes, the process of both revenge and the outcasting of Sora back to the first floor had begun taking place. She scribbled down on her note with Sora patiently waiting for her next reply about the time and place. After a while Airi gracefully laid a piece of paper down with a beautiful handwritten calligraphy touch and excruciatingly well made details about both the rules and a mentioning of the time and place for the event to take place on the second floor. A final touch was given when she picked up her phone and Sora’s phone had buzzed. New quest added, a challenge by a fellow freshmen.

Tab 3: “Airi has sent a request to duel Sora in Chess 1v1.”

Sora promptly accepted the request on his phone as he swiped “accept”.

“In the piece of paper you will find the rules, and the time and place. Do not make me wait or wimp out on me,” Airi added and left walking with her back at maximum possible coldness emanating from her while giving the cold shoulder of a perfect ninety degrees faced angle away from Sora to increase its effect.

In Sora’s gaming life, a duel was never to be mocked or seemed as something so cold nor arrogant in such amount of display that Airi had just done. Inner senses began to tingle as some part of Sora’s senses overcame the cowering fear behind his smile and left it up to his words to defend his pride and honor in a revengeful last word comeback manner.

“It is a date then!” Sora smirked and right after began to question his very action as it overdrew all aggro in the room towards him, while also making Airi turn back.

“Not in a lifetime,” Airi kept her innocent smile through to the very end and exited the school cafeteria.

Sora was now thinking to himself in a deep mental state while his cowering senses had returned back to him, and he was shaken in fear of the situation, not the challenge itself.

“What have I done, I have become the antagonist character of my real life game-based setting,” Sora thought to himself.

At the same time as the imminent danger left Sora cold, shivering in both fear for the situation and sheer excitement of the next quest in line, he was both mixed and perplexed heartedly as to why he was feeling as such while preparing fleetly for the upcoming chess match.