The evening after we had returned from the mall with two sets of the same items in tow.

I am currently preparing our dinner, while Hikari is setting up her game account in her room for UFO, as well as mine since I can't do that right now.

Once the food was well cooked enough, I turned off the stove and served them nicely on two separate plates. One having a bigger portion than the other.

"Hikari! Dinner's ready!" I called for my sister.

"One minute, bro!" she shouted back, as I heard some rummaging in her room from down here.

Just what in the world is going on up there?

Not long after, she came down in some loose clothing. Asking me, "What's for dinner?"

"Chicken curry." I answered. "I made it extra spicy to your preference."

"Ohoho~ All right! Love you, bro!"

"Yeah yeah. Love you, sis. Anyways, let's eat."

Hikari took her seat as I handed her the larger portion since she's a big eater.

Taking a large spoonful of her meal, she proceeded to put everything on the plate into her mouth like a vacuum. To the point where she suddenly started choking on her food.

"W-Watah..."

I handed her a cup of water as requested and she gulped the whole glass down.

"Slow down there, Kirby. The food's not going anywhere." I said jokingly, seeing that she was fine and even laughing.

"Sorry. Couldn't help it. Your cooking is way too good."

"You're overexaggerating. I've only followed the recipe. That's all."

I began eating my meal as well without much problem with the spiciness. While Hikari continued to consume hers like a goblin. Finishing her dinner in no time.

"Bwah~ That was delicious. Thank you for the meal." she said with a satisfied look on her face.

"Oh. By the way, brother, here's the UFO account name and password I made for you." she mentioned afterwards, handing me a piece of paper that was seemingly ripped from a notebook.

"I see... Thanks. I'll play the game later, if I have the time."

"Ok! Then I'll be going to play the game now. I'm planning on playing it with Himeji today, so Brother will have to play by yourself first. We'll play together some other day, so... Adios!"

"Hey! At least put your dish into the sink fir— And there she goes."

I sighed. "Good grief. That child is too energetic." I remarked, before resuming on eating my dinner by myself now.

Once I was done with that, I cleared the table and washed the dishes in the sink. Wiping the table clean with a cloth afterwards, as I then began preparing for Hikari's lunch box, as well as tomorrow's dinner.

Before I knew it, it was already some time nearing eight at night.

Time sure flies by, huh. I thought, as I headed upstairs to check on Hikari in her room.

She's definitely playing the game, let's be honest. But what I was checking up on was the state of her room.

"Yup. As expected... it's a mess, all right."

Her laundry is piled up on the floor; her study desk is completely untidy; and her toys are just everywhere in the room.

A single look at this sight just made me sigh heavily.

"I swear, the number of times I had told her to tidy her room properly... Oh well. Guess I'll just do it myself then."

So, I cleaned up my sister's room while she was on the bed, playing her new game in the Dive Gear we had just bought for her.

Still however, seeing her just lying there without moving a muscle is quite unsettling. Especially when she's normally so rowdy and energetic.

It also makes me wonder what the Dive experience is like.

Well, I got my own Dive Gear thanks to her. Maybe I'll play the game once I'm done folding her clothes.

In all honesty, I wasn't planning on playing today. But curiosity got the better of me. Therefore, after completely making over my sister's room from an absolute mess to a delight to the eyes, I went to my room and began setting up my own Dive Gear along with the game.

Let's see... the instructions say to "find a comfortable spot to relax on, before using the headgear for an optimal experience."

Ok... I got my bed for that, so is there anything else?

"Make sure that the gear is kept plugged in to an outlet," is another one.

Aside from those, there ain't anything important for me to take note of, so... let's just start playing Umbra Frontier Online now, I guess.

The headgear is plugged in. The game is installed. I've memorised the account name and password Hikari made for me. And so, I begin my first time ever playing a game.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

[Welcome to Umbra Frontier Online!]

[Please enter your login ID and password.]

"Right... Got it."

I entered my account name and password. After that was done, another window popped up in my face.

 [Welcome, Player. To begin your journey, we must first create a new character for you.

Please enter the name you wish to be known as...]

Ok. So... I'm naming my character first, huh?

Using my real name is definitely a no-no. That being said, I did not want to divert it too far away from it.

Which is why I went with the name: Yoru. Minus the "to" from Yoruto.

That should be enough, I believe.

 "All right. I'm done with my name."

[Next, please choose a Class.]

A roll of aesthetically different-looking, faceless characters in fancy outfits were then shown to me.

Let's see...

Warrior, Samurai, Shielder, Archer, Magician, Rogue, Cleric, Summoner. These eight are classes available for me to pick.

Warrior is an all-rounder class. Its stats are all balanced and seems to be the easiest to build for beginners.

Samurai is somewhat of a more difficult class to build. It has a really high Attack stats, but really low HP and Defense stats. "A.K.A. they are glass cannons", the description says.

Shielder is the opposite of Samurai. Having really high HP and Defense stats, while being low on the Attack. Its role is to take damage, so that makes sense. But why does the description say "Recommended for masochists"?

Archer is just... Archer. A ranged class that shoots projectiles. "And no, you cannot summon the Gate of Babylon by picking this class." says the description.

Magician is well... the class that uses spells and witchcraft. It has quite a low HP stats, but is compensated with a high MP stats. In all honesty, I would like to pick this one.

Rogue is the quick, stealthy class that utilises critical hits for their damage. "Edgelords, rise up!" says the description at the end.

Cleric is the healer class basically and Summoner is "for those who want to be the very best. Like no one ever was~" according to the description.

Who wrote these?

But anyways, after looking through each class, I picked the Magician because magic just appeals to me.

With my Class chosen, another interface then pops up in front of my face.

[Please allocate your stats next.]

That's what it says, as I did so fairly quickly after looking through what each attribute type is and what they do.

There's Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. And I was given 50 Attribute Points to allocate them appropriately.

For the Magician Class, Intelligence is the recommended option. However, thinking that it would be nice to get some speed in my movement, I put a bit of points into Agility while the rest went into Intelligence. So, I have 30 in Intelligence and 20 in Agility. That should be all right.

And once I was done with that, the final interface popped up.

[Finally, please customise your avatar's appearance.]

Ah. So this is where I make my character. About that though.... Just how many options are there!?

You can not only choose between male or female, but you can also pick a different race for your character as well. What's more, each race has its own customisation options, which also varies depending on the gender you choose!

I'm not a gamer, but I know for sure that I will be stuck in here for hours if I were to begin touching one of these sliders.

Which is why, the moment I saw the Random button, I immediately went for it without looking at what my character had been changed into, since I was afraid that seeing the character would affect my decision on whether I should roll with it or not.

So, after pressing the Random button once, I pressed confirm instantly as the character customisation window then disappeared.

[Your character is now complete. We shall be sending you into the world of our game now. Thank you for purchasing our game and we hope that you have many wonderful experiences with it, Miss Yoru.]

"Yeah. I hope to enjoy the game as well."

And so, I can finally play the game, as a blue light started enveloping me to transport me in the game world.

Although, what I did not realise until later was that the game had addressed me as "Miss".