Fantasies are Not Reality (6)

"Noooo," I was being dragged on the ground as Elise tried to separate me from the headgear.

Elise grabbed onto the headgear on one end to shake me off it. Meanwhile, Eliza watched us like I was hopeless. When their cousin walked into their house, wondering who was causing all the commotion, he noticed us fighting over the machine.

"Rika, Elise is right. It's been more than thirteen hours," he couldn't believe I was still at it.

"But I still have to level up," I wasn't going to give this game up.

I knew this was a bad habit of mine that crossed over from my past life. Once I was obsessed with something, I couldn't stop until I achieved the goal I wanted. This was why my mom had to threaten me that she would throw away all my otaku goods if I didn't start seriously studying for the SATs before I died.

"They've been at this for two hours," Eliza complained.

"I don't know what to do," Elise faced her cousin.

"Just one more hour! I still need to defeat this dungeon," I repeated the same sentence that I have been saying for the past hour.

"You need to eat!" Their cousin tried to reason with me.

"Eating is for losers. People who can't level up," I argued.

"She's addicted, isn't she?" Eliza asked her sister.

"She is," Elise sighed.

I couldn't help but feel desperate. With all the resources the Roselia family possessed, it wouldn't be long until they found a clue where I was. Once I was taken back to the mansion, I didn't know when I would be ever able to play these games again. This was my only chance unlike those fortunate people who had their own game consoles inside their house.

"Please?" My face was drenched with tears.

"Didn't you say you wanted to try out the other things as well?" Elise reminded me.

Elise tried a new approach by showing me all the comic and light novels available through the virtual library. It was true that I had wanted to go through their entire collection before. But I could access them when I visited my parents in the third district later on. I gulped as her offer did seem tempting.

"If you eat breakfast then you can access both the games and the books," she asked for the headgear.

I nodded my head as my stomach grumbled in response. I reluctantly separated from the console, joining them at the dining table. Breakfast was fancy pancakes with tons of strawberries on top of mine. I smiled as I poured an entire bottle of maple syrup over mine as the three of them froze from the sight.

After eating the pancakes and feeling it wasn't enough, I ended up directly drinking the bottle of syrup as the three of them turned from the sight. Four empty bottles of syrup were placed on the table as their jaws almost dropped. This place was heaven. I could eat all the junk food I wanted with no one to stop me.

"The headgear?" I turned to Elise.

"I think you should sleep first," she backed away from me.

"Sleep is a waste of time," I brightly smiled.

"Elise is right," her cousin supported her.

I used my mana to speed towards her to grab the console away from her hands. As soon as I had the headgear in my hands, I sprinted away from her and placed a barrier around myself. Now she couldn't put the game off until I let my guard down. I placed the console over my head as I entered the game world again.

I wore a simple t-shirt and jeans under my armour as my avatar. I smiled as I swung my sword in the air. I was starting to get used to how to move my body here. I waved at my teammates before preparing to enter another dungeon. We were walking inside a cave until we walked down the stairs into lower floors.

"You're always active these days," One of my teammates commented.

"Eating and sleeping is a waste of time," I shrugged.

"I see," he quickly turned away.

I did admit I was a little hardcore once I became addicted to the feeling of leveling up. It was just that I felt like I was the protagonist in all those comic books I read based on the world in the future. All the struggles they went through to level up and all the cheats they got while getting their own harem.

"I'll get my harem one day!" I shouted with one of my arms raised.

I lifted my arms to slash a goblin. I happily skipped to pick up a mana core as I placed it into my game inventory. Why couldn't real life be this easy? Monsters in the first district only caused disaster and pain.

I opened my status screen to see how all my skills and blessed equipment has increased from my fights. I laughed as it wouldn't be long until I would get to buy some better healing potions to get closer to the demon king's castle. Being here made me forget the pain of real life. I wasn't Rika de Impalia Roselia here. I was just a normal player who tried to defeat demons with other players. There were no expectations for me to act a certain way, I was just Rika.