510 Anna” (2/2)

”Addicted to gaming… that sounds good… I should just take a break from school and play all I want…”

”Stop being so foolish! Why are you so addicted to it? While this game is indeed quite interesting, it's not necessary to go to such a degree for it, is it?”

”It's because I'm in love with 'Anna', ehehe…”

Chiaki who had obvious dark circles around her eyes was now giggling foolishly at her cell phone screen. She definitely seemed like a complete NEET who was addicted to gaming!

Mika was rendered speechless by this scene.

She then took out her cell phone and loaded the same game as Chiaki.

”Welcome back, Mika.”

A beautiful girl who had long black hair and bright red eyes greeted her. This girl was wearing a white lace one-piece dress, and she closed the book she was reading and revealed a gentle smile.

”I've been waiting for you.”

Mika felt as if a real person was actually speaking to her through her cell phone, not a character from a cell phone game.

”Anna…” She reflexively called out this character's name.

”What would you like to do?” The character named Anna lightly waved her hand, causing various options to appear on Mika's cell phone's screen.

Mika chose ”Explore the garden.”

The camera instantly zoomed out as the girl in the white dress stood up from the vine chair she was sitting on. She walked through a fantasy-style living room, exited the house, and entered a garden.

There were no cutscenes during this entire process as it was all rendered smoothly. The character's realistic movements and the exquisitely detailed background made this all seem so real.

The garden was incredibly beautiful with all sorts of pretty flowers growing inside. However, some strange black bugs kept appearing.

”Mika, my power still hasn't recovered yet. I can only rely on you this time,” Anna spoke to Mika while looking at the black bugs.

Then, a minigame of bug squashing began. The player needed to accurately judge the black bugs' movements and tap on them. Accurately tapping on a bug would squish it, while missing the bug would cause Anna to lose HP. Once her HP fell to zero, the black bugs would suddenly turn large and attack Anna directly, causing her to escape the garden and end the minigame.

This minigame's difficulty level was quite low. Mika successfully got rid of all the bugs and was able to continue exploring the garden with her.

During this process, Anna kept interacting with Mika. Anna's words didn't sound like they were preprogrammed lines at all. Even her expressions seemed so real, and her lips matched the words she said exactly!

Before long, Mika lost herself in playing as well.

Seiji finished eating his breakfast and walked up to the kotatsu, only to see that both girls were too busy playing with their cell phones to even notice his arrival.

Out of curiosity, he took a look at what they were doing. He found that both of them seemed to be playing the same cell phone game.

”What's this game called?”

Mika suddenly regained her senses when Seiji spoke to her.

”'Anna,'” Mika responded. ”I started playing this game two days ago… Chiaki started playing it on Monday, and she's really addicted.”

”I can see that.” Seiji's cheek twitched as he looked at Chiaki's foolish appearance.

This game must have been quite something to make the tomboy addicted to such a degree in just a few short days.

Seiji asked Mika what precisely was so interesting about this ”Anna” game.

”The main interesting feature is Anna herself,” Mika indicated the beautiful girl on her cell phone screen. ”Her behavior is quite realistic. It's almost as if a real person is acting as her.”

Seiji looked towards Anna.

Anna also looked at him and smiled.

”Nice to meet you. Are you Mika's boyfriend?” she asked gently.

Anna's question sounded quite natural, and she even displayed a curious expression. She didn't seem like a preprogrammed NPC at all!

Seiji paused in astonishment at this.

This Anna character was able to recognize different people's faces, greet them, and also…

”She said your name,” Seiji looked at Mika. ”You used your real life name as your ingame name?”

”This game requires its players to identify themselves using real world ID, and the ingame name isn't changeable,” Mika explained.

There was even such a thing?

Seiji didn't find it strange that a cell phone game would require signing up with one's real name. The strange part was that this game even required players to use their real life names as the ingame name, and that they weren't even allowed to change it! This was something never seen before. At least, Seiji had never seen such a game before.