Chapter 41 - Imagination
Sheila's bedroom.
"So? What is it that you want to tell that required me to come here in your bedroom?"
Cilia said as she sat on the side of the bed and looked at Sheila who was staring at her with serious expression, different from usual her when she invites her to come, it usually leads to playing games together all night, and she didn't make such a serious expression or rather, she makes an idiotic expression who genuinely enjoy playing along with her. Perhaps, sensing the tense atmosphere, she didn't make any funny remark nor joke around as she waits for Sheila to open up her mouth and speak. And so, a silent spread to the surrounding for a short while until few minutes passed and Sheila finally muster enough courage and tell the truth to Ria.
She didn't hide anything and told her everything she has experienced, of course, there are some that she decides not to since it was just a hypothesis for now. Anyway, Sheila slowly explains it to RIa so that she could digest it fully. It took her twenty minutes, and once she was done, she keeps her head down due to feeling guilty since the two once promised that they wouldn't hold any secret and instead rely on each other. They had known each other ever since they were a small spoiled brat, after all.
People usually drift apart when growing up and becoming adult, but not for the two of them as they are more closer to each other instead. In a way, they are more like a sister than just a simply best friend. Every secret and embarrassing things, all of them were known to each other. If one asks them what they hate about each other, they could keep talking for a very long time to the point that you didn't even remember what your previous question was — basically, two peas in a pod.
Ria didn't say anything but keep her silence; Sheila didn't know whether she was digesting the full information or mad at her. She couldn't tell what was on her expression since she keeps her head down. But it wasn't long until she heard a burst of laughter coming in front of her. Sheila looked up and saw Ria laughing while holding onto her stomach. She was puzzled with the reaction that she expects to receive something like getting mad at her, but that wasn't it, and the result was an unexpected one instead.
"Are you writing a novel or something? Is that the plot? Does that mean you're asking me if anyone would read it with that kind of story?"
It seemed that Ria didn't think that what she was told is real but some nonsense fiction that she comes up. So, she didn't believe me, huh. I guess it makes sense if I was in her place and she suddenly told me about all this random crap about getting an app that could make one stronger by killing the monster in different dimension thing. What else can she do other than showing proof of an example? Without saying anything, she picked up the phone from her side and unlocked it before showing Ria the app on the home screen.
"So, this is the app called Leveling system was it? How did you learn to create an app?"
I wish I did, but this isn't. Sheila didn't reply to her remark and opened the app, clicked on the status icon and the window appear on the screen showing a chibi version of her with her stats at the side. She also shows this to Ria.
"Wah~ So cute! The chibi looks precisely like you isn't? Even the clothes! Its very details."
Is this girl for real? She doesn't seem to be in denial by the look of expression of awe on her face, so does that mean she still didn't believe her after all that? She didn't want to do this, but it's the only thing that could make Ria believe in her 'story', that it is real. She put the phone on the side of the bed before taking a deep breath in and out. It's magic time.
Since it was embarrassing to say the spell name, she decides to conjure the spell chantlessly. She calls out the spell name back then just for the fun sake, no, it is not chuunibyou. She feels that the spell is stronger when she did that, maybe. But when she was about to conjure the spell, a thought emerged in her mind. It would be dangerous if she did it in her room since everything here is flammable. She doesn't want anything in her bedroom to get caught in the fireball spell. She was pondering on what to do when she suddenly remembers something. Isn't this a chance?! She picked up her phone immediately and went to the inventory and clicked on the black key icon before it materialises in front of her.
Ria was shocked when suddenly a black unique looking key appear out of thin air in front of her and Sheila. As if it was normal from her expression, Sheila grabbed it before handing it over to Ria's hand.
"W-What?"
It couldn't be helped for her to get stutter. She wants to know about what just happened, yet Sheila gives the key to her without explaining anything. And to make matter worse, she told her to put the key in the air as if unlocking an invisible door. Ria didn't know what to say to Sheila and her wild imagination, but as her best friend, Ria could only do so, even though it was a strange request. She follows precisely what Sheila said and when she twists the key, her worldview suddenly turned dark, and in a blink of an eye, a vast Greenland appears before her.
From Sheila's bedroom to suddenly changed into a pure land filled with green nature all over her view, it was so magically that she had gone blank for a whole minute. And when she looked around, she noticed that she was left all alone. She started to get panic attacks and try her best to look around, in search of her missing best friend. She also started searching in her pocket, looking for her phone but what she found was one single blue card. The moment she took hold of it, a text appears above the card which read as,
『 Welcome to the Trial Tower! 』
The following up after the text was a status window that one usually sees in the game. If Ria didn't know about the game in general from Sheila, then she would not have known about it. It appears just like a status window that one sees in the classic RPG games. But what she couldn't understand was how her name was in there.
『 Cilia LV.1 』(!)
『 HP: 25/25 MP: 25/25
Class: Healer
GOLD: 0
—STR: 4 —INT: 5
—AGI: 3 —VIT: 5
—LUCK: 20 AP: 0 』