Isamu felt as if he was being looked down on with that expression… It was an expert player high up above casually dismissing a low-ranked player!
Isamu felt stifled to the point of being unable to say anything. He could only look at his own cell phone.
Although he almost felt like putting his cell phone away, since he brought the game up already, he figured he might as well log in to collect the daily rewards.
And so, Isamu logged in to Puppets' Frontline.
After collecting the daily rewards, the game indicated that there was an "emergency mission".
So-called "emergency missions" were basically random quests that had abundant rewards. These emergency missions could only be completed within a limited timeframe.
Isamu immediately checked the mission, and saw that it was a high-difficulty battle mission with a time limit of fifteen minutes. The reward was quite munificent, and included many resources that he was currently lacking, along with a piece of top-level equipment!
Isamu only had one piece of top-level equipment, which was why he was quite tempted by this mission.
He reflexively chose to accept the mission and entered the map for battle.
Isamu sighed after seeing that this particular map had a labyrinthine layout with countless enemies of various types.
He knew that it was unlikely for him to clear this map within thirty minutes, much less fifteen.
Although he thought this, he didn't want to give up so easily, so he still started analyzing the map.
After a short analysis, he found that perhaps the map wasn't as difficult as he had thought. There was quite an obvious path that he could take. Isamu figured that he could clear this map head on by using his highest-level gun girl puppets in an assault formation.
And so, Isamu used his command center menu to send out his team with the best equipment and skills to begin the battle.
"Let's go! For the empire!" a girl with short brown hair spoke quite spiritedly as she appeared on Isamu's cell phone screen. She had a black one-piece dress with a short skirt, a red scarf, and an assault rifle in her hands. Her eyes had a sharp gaze like an eagle's.
This girl represented Isamu's team on the map. Isamu sent her straight into the enemy formation and began fighting.
After a fierce battle, the gun puppet girls defeated all the enemies. The only price they paid was some ammunition and one member being lightly injured.
"This is the power of the empire!" the brown-haired girl who was the team leader spoke once again. She had dealt the most damage, and contributed the most in battle.
Then, there was a second, third, and fourth battle…
Then, Isamu discovered to his surprise that his team had been surrounded!
Not only that, the enemy base up ahead started spawning mecha troops!!
Isamu's assault team was unable to deal with heavily armored mechas. That would require an armor-piercing team.
Why did things turn out like this? Was this path a trap!?
Isamu widened his eyes, and carefully analyzed his current situation before sighing helplessly.
Indeed, this was a trap.
His team was now surrounded. Armored mechas were now in front of his team. Trying to break through would equal death, and there were also too many enemy forces, so retreating was impossible.
He had lost.
Isamu now had a depressed expression.
He didn't want to see his gun puppet girls being defeated. He simply turned off his cell phone screen as he started putting his phone away in his pocket.
"Give that to me," a voice spoke up in an aloof tone.
"Eh?" Isamu looked at Ryuuma.
"I'll play that for you and help you pass that level," Ryuuma stated lightly.
Isamu was surprised for a moment before he finally realized what Ryuuma was saying. Isamu then hurriedly handed his cell phone over to the expert.
"You have to input your cell phone password for me first, idiot."
Isamu hurriedly unlocked his phone, and then handed it over.
Ryuuma took the cell phone and began controlling Isamu's team.
Isamu observed from the side. He witnessed Ryuuma sending the assault team to retreat and successfully breaking through. Ryuuma then captured a base and changed to using a purely defensive formation. He then sent a new team out from the command center, taking a different path…
"Glory to the empire… the empire shall never fall…"
The first team was defeated soon after defending for a few turns. The brown-haired team leader girl's clothing was now tattered as she kneeled and stated her message of defeat.
Although the entire first team of gun puppet girls had been defeated quite pitifully, they successfully stalled the armored mecha troops long enough for the second team to take a roundabout path to the enemy command center, allowing Ryuuma to successfully capture the base required to win!
Isamu had thought that this map was a sure loss. Yet, the expert player Ryuuma successfully beat the map with diversion tactics.
"That's how you play this game," Ryuuma stated calmly while returning Isamu's cell phone.
Isamu could only be impressed with how cool Ryuuma was acting.
Isamu silently took the cell phone back, and checked the rewards for completing the mission. He then sent his heavily injured gun puppet girls to be fixed.
"What's this game called?" suddenly, a voice spoke up behind the two of them.
Isamu and Ryuuma both turned around, only to see a tall, handsome, smiling boy standing in front of them.
"…Shiroya?"
"That's me." Seiji smiled. "Pleased to meet the both of you."
------------
Shiroya stated that his name was Seigo Harano.
Isamu felt that Seigo didn't seem much like a Spiritual Ability user at all with how much fun Seigo seemed to be having while playing Puppets' Frontline.
Although this was only Isamu's own mental image of what a Spiritual Ability user should be like, and it shouldn't have been strange that Seigo was different, but… Just what was going on here? Seigo had the physical appearance of a meghandsome idol, but was super interested in cell phone games aimed at otaku gamers!?
Seigo appeared to be the highest level of winner in life type. Would such a type of person really be interested in cell phone games?
No… it wouldn't be strange for even the highest level of winner in life to be interested in games. The critical element here was the type of the game. At any rate, Isamu felt that someone like Seigo shouldn't have been interested in a cell phone game like Puppets' Frontline, even if Isamu felt that this was a great game.
Yet, the reality was right before him.
"Ding ding ding~~" A pleasing sound rang out.
This was the sound of receiving a five-star gun puppet girl in the gacha!
"HX99 reporting in. Please protect me well, Commander~" A cute loli girl wearing an extravagant lace dress while carrying a large sniper rifle bigger than she was appeared on the cell phone screen. She placed one finger on her lips while cutely stating her greeting.
"I pulled a five star… how is this character?" Seiji showed Isamu the cell phone's screen.
Isamu widened his eyes in surprise yet again.
This was a character that even he didn't have yet. HX99 was even known as the rarest five star puppet in the entire game!
"She's excellent… she'll be really strong at a high level."
"It would seem that I have good luck when playing this game." Seiji chuckled.
'It's not only good! Your luck is amazing, man!' Isamu was shouting in his mind.
Meanwhile, Ryuuma silently sipped on some tea beside him.
The three of them were currently sitting in the corner of a coffee café. However, none of them had ordered coffee. They were currently sharing a pot of green tea.
After playing the game for a while, Seiji put away his cell phone and had some tea.
"Both of you are high school students, right?" Seiji asked.
Isamu nodded. He then looked at Ryuuma.
Ryuuma glanced at Isamu before looking at Seiji.
"Is that a problem?"
"No, I'm simply confirming." Seiji smiled. "I'm a high school student as well. Can I address you two as Seimkun and Sorimachi-kun from now on?"
Isamu nodded once again.
"Then I'll address you as Harano-kun," Ryuuma stated.
Seiji nodded as well.
"Seimkun, Sorimachi kun. Even your names complement each other. It seems that you're a better match for each other than I first thought."
"Don't you have it wrong? Doesn't that make us destined not to get along?"
"If you two were destined not to get along, how come the first time I saw you two were having so much fun playing a game together?"
Ryuuma was rendered speechless.
"At that time, I told you guys that it was unknown how long the dream would last, that you would need to rely on yourselves until a way to escape the dream was figured out," Seiji spoke seriously. "That's why it's quite important for you to become companions. Not only that, I believe that you guys should get to know and ally with even more companions… But how you do that is something that only you can decide. Still, you're more than welcome to tell me when you do. Feel free to contact me at any time, even if it's the middle of the night. I'll also continue gathering information about this strange dream. I'll let you guys know the moment that I find out anything useful. That's all I can do for now."TL/N: Isamu Seima's last name has the character for "positive", while Ryuuma Sorimachi's last name has the character for "negative".