Suzume wrapped her Rescue Line around a stalactite and pulled. The golden thread went taut. She'd been at this for two hours now, trying to perfect the swing trajectory.
[One more time.]
She backed up to the ledge. Twenty-meter drop below. In the real world, she'd never risk this. But here in this simulator, death just meant respawning.
She jumped.
The rope caught her weight and she swung across the chasm. Her feet hit the opposite wall hard. She rolled with the impact, came up running.
The simulation had three objectives today: reach the treasure room in under ten minutes, avoid all monster encounters, and carry a forty-kilogram weight pack the entire time. She'd failed the first twelve attempts.
This was attempt thirteen.
She sprinted down the tunnel and checked her timer. Four minutes left. The weight pack dug into her shoulders. Her endurance stat was still garbage compared to real Players, but she could feel the improvement. Three weeks ago, she couldn't even lift forty kilos.
A notification popped up in her peripheral vision.
<
[Oh god, not now.]
She slid under a low-hanging rock formation. The treasure room door was just ahead. Three minutes left.
Her phone buzzed again. Then again.
[Seriously?]
She tried to ignore it, but the curiosity ate at her. What if Kasumi was canceling training tomorrow? What if she'd figured out who Suzume really was?
[... Okay, I'll just take a quick look.]
She pulled out her phone while jogging.
Her "phone," of course, in this case, was just an app within the simulation that was connected to her actual phone's messages. Still, it looked and felt like a phone in her hands.
Kasumi: yo
Kasumi: what you up to?
Kasumi: helloooooo
Suzume tried typing while maintaining her pace.
Suzume: Sorrh
She tripped over a rock. The phone went flying.
"Shit!"
She scrambled after it, grabbed it from the dungeon floor. The screen had a new crack. Great.
Suzume: Sorry, training
Kasumi: training without your new teacher? rude
Kasumi: what kind of training?
[What do I even say? "Oh, just swinging across deadly chasms in VR because I need to rescue people from dungeons but I can't tell you that because you hate vigilantes?"]
She kept moving toward the treasure room while typing.
Suzume: Just cardio
Kasumi: boring
Kasumi: you should come to the gym with me instead
Kasumi: way more fun than running
Suzume's foot caught on uneven ground. She windmilled her arms and barely stayed upright.
Suzume: Maybe sometime
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Kasumi: how about tomorrow after our session?
Kasumi: there's this great protein shake place next door
Kasumi: my treat
[Is she asking me on a date? No. That's ridiculous. We just met. She's just being friendly. Friends get protein shakes. Normal friend behavior.]
Suzume reached the treasure room door. One minute left on the timer. She needed to crack the puzzle lock to get inside.
Suzume: Sure sounds good
Her fingers fumbled with the lock mechanism. Three rotating discs with ancient symbols. She'd memorized the solution (it was usually one out of a few different options, so if you knew them all you could get into these very easily), but texting and solving proved impossible.
Kasumi: great! wear something cute
Kasumi: not your maid outfit tho lol
Kasumi: unless you want to??? ??
Suzume's face burned. She inputted the wrong symbol.
The lock reset.
[Fuck.]
Thirty seconds left. She started over with the combination while her phone kept buzzing.
Kasumi: that was a joke btw
Kasumi: or was it
[She's going to kill me. I'm going to die. Not from monsters, from embarrassment.]
Suzume got the first two symbols right. Her phone slipped and she caught it between her chin and shoulder. The weight pack made everything harder.
Suzume: Haha yeah
[Brilliant response, Suzume. Really showing off your creativity there.]
Kasumi: you're not much of a texter huh
The final symbol clicked into place. The door opened. Ten seconds left.
She dove through and hit the treasure pedestal.
[Simulation Complete]
Time: 9:52
Objectives: 3/3
Rating: B+
[Finally.]
She collapsed on the virtual floor and properly looked at her phone.
Suzume: Sorry, I was kind of busy right now.
Suzume: But tomorrow sounds great
Kasumi: no worries! i'll let you get back to your "cardio"
Kasumi: try not to pull anything
Kasumi: need you in one piece for our sparring
Suzume: I'll be careful
Kasumi: good
Kasumi: see you tomorrow
Kasumi: 6am sharp
Kasumi: ??
A kiss emoji.
Kasumi had sent her a kiss emoji.
Suzume stared at it for a solid minute.
[It doesn't mean anything. People send those all the time. Yumi sends them. My mom sends them. The convenience store clerk probably has them on autocorrect.]
She stood up in the simulation and realized she was grinning. Her face hurt from smiling so hard.
[Stop it. Focus. You have work to do.]
She reset the simulation. This time, she'd try it with fifty kilograms. And definitely no phone.
As the virtual dungeon reformed around her, she couldn't stop thinking about tomorrow. Training with Kasumi. Then protein shakes. Together. Like normal people did.
[Wear something cute, she said.]
Suzume looked down at her current outfit: ratty sweatpants and a shirt with three different stains. Her entire wardrobe consisted of workout clothes, her maid outfit, and gear for dungeon diving.
[I don't own anything cute.]
The simulation started. She began running, but her mind was elsewhere.
[Maybe I could buy something? No, that's stupid. It's just protein shakes. After training. While sweaty. That's not a date scenario.]
She jumped across a pit trap on autopilot.
[But she used a kiss emoji.]
The weight pack felt lighter somehow. Her legs moved faster. She cleared the first obstacle course in record time.
[Stop thinking about her. You've got that unstable dungeon in Meguro. People need you. You can't get distracted by pretty girls who smell like strawberries and have perfect abs and call you cute.]
She swung across the chasm again. This time, the landing felt perfect.
[Besides, she doesn't even know the real you. She thinks you're some wannabe Fighter class. If she knew you were Rescue Girl, she'd hate you. She literally said vigilantes shouldn't be praised.]
That thought sobered her up. The smile faded.
She finished the simulation in 8:47. A new record.
[Simulation Complete]
Time: 8:47
Objectives: 3/3
Rating: A
Good enough for today. She logged out and returned to her apartment.
The stack of notebooks sat on her desk. Monster data, dungeon layouts, rescue strategies. This was her real life. Not protein shakes and kiss emojis.
Her phone buzzed one more time.
Yumi: Meguro dungeon update. Three Players trapped. Another C-rank destabilized to B-rank, some are speculating. You going?
Suzume: Yeah. Give me an hour.
She started gathering her gear. The real equipment felt heavier than the simulation weight pack. Her Rescue Line coiled neatly into her belt. First aid kit, check. Flares, check. Gas mask, check.
[This is what matters. Saving people. Not dates.]
But she couldn't help pulling out her phone one more time to look at that kiss emoji.
[... Tomorrow.]
Right now, people needed Rescue Girl.
---
{Kasumi}
Kasumi Hayakawa stood at the entrance to the B-rank dungeon in Ginza. Her party was doing final equipment checks, but she wasn't paying attention.
She kept looking at her phone.
"Earth to Kasumi," her teammate said. "We're ready."
"Yeah, yeah. Give me a second."
She scrolled through the texts again. Suzume's responses were so awkward it was actually endearing. Most people either fawned over her or tried to act cool. Suzume just... panicked. It was refreshing.
"What's got you smiling like that?" Her healer, Taichi, peered over her shoulder.
"Nothing. Mind your business."
"Is that the girl from the maid cafe? The plain one?"
"She's not plain." The words came out sharper than intended. "She's... normal. It's nice."
"Since when do you like normal?"
"Since now. Can we go kill some monsters already?"
She pocketed her phone and grabbed her spear. The weapon hummed with enchanted energy.
"Heh. Suzu-chan is so cute," she muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing. Let's move."
They entered the dungeon. But even as she carved through monsters with her Spear Saint techniques, part of her mind stayed on tomorrow morning.
Six AM couldn't come fast enough.