MV – Chapter 2: A man you can find anywhere

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It is not such a fancy building to be called a chalk apartment complex, but the people who passed by thought of it as if it were a new and elegant complex, and were talking about how they would be able to obtain a home if they were to get around this much of a loan, or if you are around this wealthy.

It is an apartment with 2 bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen. You can live in it with your family or alone. There’s an automatic door lock to enter the lobby, and it is an apartment complex with decently high security.

There was an unmarried man in one of those apartments in that complex.

The calendar showed Saturday, and the alarm clock that was at the side of the bed showed that it was almost noon.

The inside of the room had posters, a pet, decorative plants, and bookshelves lined up.

There were no special traits that could show the personality of the person. The floor had a carpet on it with a small table and a laptop on top.

There’s a cupboard divided in two at the corner of the room, and it was packed with books of haphazard categories that you can’t tell the hobbies or thoughts that led to their purchase.

There’s a television on top of the cupboard.

If asked for a general impression of the room, it would be that it is a simple tasteless room.

Only the bed is a bit fancy, with a high resilience mattress that looks comfy, a fluffy feather blanket, and a custom pillow; giving the impression that he puts importance in his sleep.

If psychologists were to profile him, it would make them troubled at how little defining traits he has.

If asked what the results of the profiling are, the only thing you would get out of it is that he cleans well.

“Aah, it is already noon, huh.”

The blanket moved and the man got up.

He sleepily opened his mouth widely and scratched his head. He then checked the time in his alarm clock, furrowed his brows, and looked troubled.

“Sleeping until noon is the best part about free days, but it makes me feel conflicted when considering what I could have done in the morning. I didn’t think one bit about that in my school days, so is this also what comes with age?”

He thought to himself ‘I didn’t think much about indulging in sleep in my school days’ as he chuckled and went out of his room and to the bathroom to wash his face.

The face reflected in the mirror is already not that of a young man. It is an age that you can call an old man.

It is the age in which the ones who married quickly would complain about the tuition of their children.

He did think about exercising as his stamina decreased bit by bit, but he would just worry about what to do if his weight still increased in the health examination, so it ended with him not exercising.

It is all because of how busy work is.

It is all the fault of the government.

He just brushed it off as this all being the fault of the government in the end as he turned the faucet.

It made a ‘kyu’ sound and water came out from the faucet with good strength, so he scooped it and washed his face.

The cold water felt good, waking up his consciousness, and washing away his drowsiness.

He is still too young to be worrying about old age. Even so, he thought that it is about time for him to marry, but doesn’t want the money he can use freely to be gone.

He chuckled while saying ‘An unmarried man lives an extravagant life’.

He closed his eyes, washed his face, and…

“Lan… Lan…”

He heard a voice coming from his back and his body quivered.

“Lan? Uhm… Lan?”

An unfamiliar voice.

There’s only him there, and yet, he could still hear the voice. Moreover, judging from the sound of it, it is the voice of a young girl.

He thought it had finally happened. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to calm his heart, but his heart wasn’t calming down.

It finally happened after all. Paranormal activity!

It is not that the man doesn’t have any interests. It is just that most of his interests are not material.

Right now it is the electronic era.

There’s obviously games, manga, novels, favorite game streamers…and strange paranormal experiences.

His heart was dancing in excitement, thinking not about how he might die when the sun is still out, but that he would experience a slightly mysterious phenomenon without any basis.

And so, he turned around swiftly with his lips loosening up.

His slightly wet hair hit his forehead and refreshing wind brushed his cheeks.

“What, there’s no one—nevermind, there is.”

The man thought there would be no one.

‘I heard the voice of a girl, but there was no one once I turned back. It was a bit scary’ -he thought it would be the kind of story he could just tell in his company to pass time.

He was even thinking about changing the story to this being about a beauty with an eerie voice instead of a little girl since they might question his sexual preferences and weird rumors might spread.

That was naive.

There was a girl standing behind him.

A young girl with pink blonde hair.

It may make you think she is cosplaying, but it didn’t look like it was dyed despite not being a natural color.

Her hair is unfortunately slightly damaged, so there’s no smoothness to it, but it still extended all the way to her back. Her calm and gentle eyes were cherry blossom color, and her defined bridge of the nose and her small lips, coupled with her small and extremely cute face.

Her skin is white, and still showed the youthfulness of a child, but her loveliness really gave the impression that she would blossom into an incredible beauty in just a few years more.

“Uhm…Lan?”

He was wondering who this Lan was as he was wary about this pretty girl and thinking about how others might find this as kidnapping a minor. But then he doubted his own eyes at what he saw behind the pretty girl.

It is a building. That said, it is more like a run-down building. The worn down concrete corridors and cracked walls, the fluorescent lights are hanging down, and the ceiling evokes sadness. There’s small pieces of concrete on the corridor, and it is dirty with mud.

He was thinking something completely out-of-place like how this would be a place that ruin explorers would love.

“I am sorry. Are you thinking of something? Did I interrupt you?”

The girl nervously looked up with her shoulders shrunk, as if a bit scared, from his gaze.

He thought she was awfully debasing herself and praising him. That this attitude is an act and she is purposely appealing her feebleness, making him smile wryly.

She is aware of her own beauty, and is putting up an act to utilize it to its maximum effect.

A man who has been working in society for long years could easily see through the acting of a young lass.

The girl made a flustered expression, seeing the wry smile of the man, feeling like he is not the same as usual.

She grabbed the hem of her skirt to avert her attention from this.

“Hey, seriously, what’s the matter?”

He thought she was a cute girl while thinking about how she looks like she would be in senior high school. He would definitely be arrested if she were to call the police, and even if he wasn’t arrested, he would be done for socially.

He was once again thinking about a completely different thing.

The girl mistook this as him staying silent. She puffed her cheeks and puckered her lips with an innocent-looking appeal that she is in a bad mood.

He thought her acting had entered the second stage, and chuckled at this.

This pretty girl looked like she was in a bad mood because she is sad about not getting attention.

If a girl this cute were to take such an attitude, a normal person would immediately try to improve her mood.

But she didn’t touch the heartstrings of the man. Not only that, he ended up laughing out loudly.

Even though he understands the subtleties of the heart, his attitude was completely out of the norm, which led to him not being popular with women.

The girl finally raised her voice and hit his arm lightly after he embodied the reason why he is not popular.

She is basically hammering him with 0 damage.

He thought this is within the top 10 of what men in the world would want.

His attitude didn’t change, so the girl showed annoyance as she said this.

“Geez, what made you wash your face? You rarely do that.”

She said something unbelievably rude.

‘What’s this about rarely doing that? I wash my face every day’ -he felt insulted by this as he healed himself a bit by looking at the pretty girl that’s getting angry in a sly manner, and then looked at the mirror.

He thought ‘just how dirty am I?’ and the mirror was weird. Well, he did expect this to a certain degree since the scenery of the run-down building, but it was misty and cracked.

And his own face was weird. Or more like, it is not the face of an average tired old man you can find anywhere, but one with an extremely bad countenance.

His light brown hair was tied in dreads, and his skin was also slightly tanned. There was a bit of indolent beard growing, his whole face was angular, and his eyes were sharp, or like, the gaze of a brutal hoodlum.

His body is also muscular. What he is wearing, which looks like bulletproof clothes, looked pretty good on him.

A villain.

It may be prejudice, but he looked like a villain. Moreover, a minor villain that would do crimes together with his lackeys and cover the role of fodder.

(No, I feel like I have seen this face before…)

‘Stinking of sweat and dirty. It certainly would be surprising to see someone like that washing his face’ -is what the man thought as he looked seriously into the mirror.

He raised his right hand, raised his left hand, and tried winking.

That wink made him think that doesn’t suit him and he chuckled—

“Buha! Isn’t this Lanpeach? Puhahaha.”

He ended up laughing out loud.

He noticed who he was.

(Isn’t this from the game I was playing: Powder of Elements?)

It is an offline open world TPSRPG game with an advanced calculation system and it sold the most this year around the world.

You can become an explorer, a crafter, a city builder, etc. All kinds of actions were allowed. It automatically generated quests, and its selling point was that you can play as much as you want and not get bored.

That was simply its selling point though.

Actually, you can create an original character instead of playing as a protagonist.

There’s no stat inheriting even if you clear the game, so you have to start from the very beginning every time, but the story changes every time you play it.

That said, there’s a main story. You can play around the main story as the protagonist with special powers.

When you choose that route, you will be playing the exclusive story of the protagonist. There’s a lot to it, and the protagonists have different cheat powers from original characters, so it is an impressive game that you can enjoy the story of.

Basically, the original characters end up only doing the important events of the main story in the end, and will clear it just like the protagonists.

It is promoted as having high freedom, but the ending is set, and you simply get excluded from the protagonist-exclusive events.

Bluntly speaking, the original characters are more like extras, and most people would just create original characters after their second playthrough.

And so, the one this man would encounter often in the early scenarios…

The minor villain.

The one that has the role of stealing the cash of the protagonist or trying to make them his underling and die. If left be, he would become unexpectedly strong and grow as a criminal group.

Lanpeach Kouza.

As for why he remembers him. It is because he has finished the game around 5 times already.

He laughed as he went ‘I see, I see’, and the girl at the back was flustered at the sudden laughing of the man.

His eyes were cold and calculative. His craftiness that didn’t suit his age made you wonder if he is okay.

The man continued laughing even when she saw that panicking of hers at the corner of the mirror.

“Aah, I see, I see.”

(I was transported to an isekai while I was washing my face? There’s no way. In that case, there’s only one truth that can be drawn from this.)

“So I am still sleeping.”

This must be a dream.

Way too real dreams do happen often.

Waking up from the sound of the alarm, washing your face, eating food, wearing your suit, and just when you are about to go to work, you wake up.

A dream so real that you wouldn’t think it is a dream for an instant and get confused.

(Who knows how many times I have dreamed of exploring the police department when I was playing zombie games. I got bitten by a zombie at the end and died, so I ended up not sleeping enough though.)

He thought this time around it was a dream of becoming Lanpeach Kouza.

Looks like he played too much Powder of Elements.

“Lan?”

“Aah, sorry. Looks like I was daydreaming for a bit there.”

The voice of the girl changed from worry to suspicion, so he turned around with a grin on his face.

(It would be a waste to not enjoy a dream this real.)

“What business do you have with Lanpeach Kouza-sama?”

The man played the role of Lanpeach Kouza with glee.

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