"I can't eat it! I'll die!" whined Mei.

"Hahahaha!"

Her father laughed while her mom watched on sternly.

"You need eat more vegetable! You grow up become big, tall and strong!" said her mom.

"I'm not interested," grumbled Mei.

"Don't worry, it's not that bad. When I was considering buying the VR gear, I read up a bit. The VR gear has many more uses than just gaming! Give it to me and I'll show you."

Mei handed the device to her father nervously. He opened one of the panels and pressed a few buttons.

"Okay, should work now. Wear it and turn it on."

Remembering how she had hurt her head yesterday, Mei decided to sit down before she turned it on. She heard her father snicker in the background as she did so, making her slightly embarrassed.

[Welcome to AR lifestyle mode!]

"Oh," said Mei.

[Saying the words out loud is unnecessary.]

'Oh'

"Mei, try activating the food editor or whatever it's called mode!" said her father.

"Huh? What's that?" she asked.

[Food editor activated.]

[You can now change the appearance and flavours of the foods. Perfect for picky eaters.]

Mei felt like she was being thrown shade at.

"The system will tell you," he answered, a bit too late.

'How do I edit the food?'

[Visualise what you'd like to eat over the food before your eyes.]

Mei closed her eyes and imagined that all the vegetables were pieces of bacon because why not.

[Closing your eyes is unnecessary.]

'Yeah, whatever.'

When she opened her eyes, the plate was covered in bacon... in vegetable shape.

'Um, why does it look like this?'

[Do you want to choke because the food is in a different shape from what you see?]

'No, but you don't have to be so mean.'

[I am a machine. I am incapable of malice.]

Mei decided that there was no point in arguing with the system.

"Mei what you doing sitting there? You eat or not?" pestered mom.

"I was just about to eat it!"

Mei took one of the broccoli shaped 'bacon' bits and chewed gingerly. Mmm... tastes like bacon... with the texture of broccoli... It was a very strange experience.

'Why is the texture not changed?'

[Do you want to injure your teeth by biting too hard or fail to chew your food because the resistance is different?]

Mei: ...

"Waa! Mei actually eat it!"

"See? I told you it would work!" said her dad smugly. "The VR gear will chang-"

"Yeah yeah you tell me already!" interrupted her mom.

Her parents joined the table and began dining as well, her dad donning his own VR gear as he ate a plate of vegetables. Her mom had a plate of chicken rice with small amounts of vegetables on the side. Dad wanted to buy a VR gear for her too, but back then, she complained about how "game is for children" and how expensive they were.

After Mei finished the plate, she took off the VR gear. Bleh, her mouth tasted like vegetables now.

Her mom went into the kitchen and bought out a plate of chicken rice and placed it before her.

"I know I tell you not to eat a lot but vegetable low calorie! Here is your reward."

"Thanks, mom." said Mei.

She took a bite. The chicken was not salty enough.

"I told her to put less salt!" laughed dad.

Mei grumbled. So this was her dad's plan to get her to eat healthier. She put on the VR gear and tweaked the taste to perfection before eating. As she quickly finished the last bites, she got off her chair and headed for the door of the kitchen.

"Mei! Today we go out to shopping! Stay all home all day no exercise, so unhealthy!" shouted her mom.

Mei had a look of dismay. Her father looked at her with a knowing look. Apparently, he too was planning to use the VR gear all day. Her mom must be dragging them out because she felt left out.

*Ding!*

She realised Dad had managed to send her a message despite both of his hands being occupied eating. AR convenience...

Dad: Don't worry, later when we head out, bring the VR gear. There's an AR game mode where you can encounter different monsters at different locations and even get EXP in the base game!

That sounded pretty good to her.

~~~~~

"Hiya!" her father shouted as he swung a non-existent sword at a non-existent enemy with a shopping bag in his other hand.

Mei was also swinging her non-existent blade at the same non-existent enemy.

[Giant Moth slain!]

[100 EXP to Number1, 100 EXP to Zera]

[20 Base Game EXP Bonus]

"Oi, we come out here for you two to play game is it?" Mom complained.

"You talked about exercise, didn't you? We are exercising!" laughed Dad.

"Yeah!" cheered Mei.

She was getting rather tired since she had to do real exercise, but she found it kind of fun too.

For the rest of the trip, Mom felt very disgruntled, until the two of them ran out of battery. She was very pleased when they could only watch random people kill imaginary monsters with envy.

The family returned home hours later, the sky already dark with several shopping bags in hand. As Mei returned to her room, her mom decided to have a word with Dad.

"You better also get me that VR thing. I will see what you two think so fun!"

Dad smirked. All according to keikaku. (keikaku means plan)

~~~~~

As soon Mei logged on, she checked if she was still in the party. Yup. Emerr and Alzeth were online too. She found to her dismay that even Alzeth who didn't get the golem EXP was now Lv16, one level higher than her. Emerr was already at Lv17.

"Hi. Sorry about joining late, my mom dragged me outside for shopping." she entered into the party chat.

"no problem. i'll summon u in a while, fighting stuff" replied Alzeth.

Just as she was about to reply, she received a text.

Mark: Hi Mei! Join my party?

Mei found that slightly demanding of him since her other party members were still online, but she realised that Mark had no way of knowing that so she retracted that thought.

Mei: Sorry. I'm already in a party with a few friends. Maybe you can teleport here and join us? I think the Greylands area I'm in has Lv50 monsters too so you're not too overlevelled.

Mark: Oh. I'll ask Tom if he's alright with joining your party.

Just then Alzeth's invite finally came.

Alzeth is summoning you.

Teleport there?

Yes No

She accepted, flashing to the location of the siblings immediately.

"Hi! We've been farming for a while," said Alzeth.

"Oh. By the way, do you think you can invite two more people? They're my friends... well, one of them." asked Mei.

Alzeth seemed surprised.

"Yeah, no problem. The EXP splitting will be more extreme with more people though, so try not to get too many friends to join."

"They're level fifty plus so it's not that bad," said Mei.

Alzeth was silent for a moment.

"Mei, you know what? I don't mind if you get more friends to join. I changed my mind."