Before Asagiri could speak, Yuuki Asuna sighed softly, as if she had already anticipated his reply.
"Sigh, I know, I know. You must have searched for it a long time ago and already knew this information, right?"
"Correct."
Asagiri nodded, then suddenly spoke with righteous conviction.
"Yuuki-san, I am merely training your ability as a 'Player' to independently analyze intelligence. This is all part of the pains I take for your growth, We might say!"
"Referring to yourself as 'We'... are you pretending to be an emperor?"
Yuuki Asuna teased him, then tucked a strand of long hair behind her ear and murmured.
"However, according to the information I found online, the truth in that game is actually about experimenting on mental patients, and the final big boss is a state-of-the-art nanotech robot. It's not a horror game involving evil spirits or ghosts. And... there's no nearly three-meter-tall, bloody-faced orderly. It seems that while the Instance organized by the APP has similarities to this real-world game, it's not a complete, one-to-one replication."
"Mmm, so the ability to avoid being clever—and losing caution by thinking you possess all the information—is also an essential quality for a Player."
"Speaking of which... um..."
Yuuki Asuna's hands, resting on her lap, unconsciously clenched a little. She gathered her courage and said.
"That eye-icon APP doesn't seem to have a feature for sending messages to other Players..."
Asagiri nodded. "Yeah, it's quite inconvenient."
Yuuki Asuna paused, then cleared her throat, hinting.
"Um... have you ever heard of LINE?"
"I know about it."
Asagiri smiled and stated candidly.
"A few girls from our grade tried to ask for my contact information during lunch break that day."
"Then why didn't you give it to them? Were they not pretty?"
"No, that's not it. They were indeed very pretty, but..."
Here, Asagiri suddenly became serious and spoke with solemn conviction.
"As a Player, how could I use my phone in front of others? What if they were also Players and saw the eye-icon APP on my screen? I gave them a cruel rejection right then and there!"
Yuuki Asuna first nodded in realization, but then suddenly paused.
"Wait, that doesn't make sense, does it? Couldn't you have just given them your email or phone number?"
Asagiri shook his head and pointed to his own head.
"I have a poor memory. I can't remember my email address or phone number at all."
Yuuki Asuna was silent for a few seconds, then looked straight into Asagiri's face and slowly said.
"That's the lamest excuse ever..."
"Oh, you caught me?"
"Who wouldn't catch that? So, did you use that flimsy excuse to reject those girls back then?"
"No, I always prioritize honesty and candor. I simply told them I didn't want to give it out."
"I see..."
For some reason, Yuuki Asuna felt a slight thrill when she heard that Asagiri didn't make any excuses but simply and firmly refused the girls who asked for his contact information. Her lips couldn't help but curl up into a smile.
"So... do you have a type of girl you like?"
"Of course."
"What kind?"
Facing Yuuki Asuna's expectant and curious gaze, Asagiri began to speak in a serious tone.
"They should have a unique spark of personality and a spiritual connection with me..."
As Yuuki Asuna listened, she thought that his standards for a girlfriend were surprisingly normal, only for him to immediately continue.
"...and then they must have a good figure, be cute and refined in appearance, and be able to change into different kinds of sexy costumes every night to spend happy times with me. Black stockings on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. White stockings on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Fishnets on Sunday. And ideally, we should have a themed cosplay event every week, such as today's role being a gentle maid waiting for her master's return, tomorrow's being a cold female office worker with wire-rimmed glasses, the day after a shy shrine maiden who plays hard to get, and the day after that, a sexy and enchanting bunny girl, and so on..."
"Stop, stop, please stop right there!"
Yuuki Asuna couldn't listen anymore and interrupted Asagiri directly, her cheeks flushed, and she said irritably.
"I was asking for your preferred type of girl, not for you to... to rant here."
"Oh, so that was it."
Asagiri nodded, then uttered a sentence that made Yuuki Asuna turn completely red.
"Then you should try your best and work towards meeting my standards. By the way, the black and white stockings need to be the sheer kind that show skin, not thick tights. That's not sexy at all."
"Who... who would wear things like that for you!!!"
Just as Yuuki Asuna was close to breaking point, one of Asagiri's actions instantly pulled her back.
Asagiri took out his phone, shook it in his hand, and smiled at Yuuki Asuna.
"Let's exchange LINE email addresses and phone numbers."
"Eh? Oh, oh, mm..."
The slight anger Yuuki Asuna had felt from Asagiri's teasing instantly vanished without a trace. After softly agreeing, she took out her phone and exchanged phone numbers and LINE email addresses with him.
"Alright, since that's settled, let's eat first. Are you eating?"
Seeing Asagiri take out two cups of instant noodles from a cardboard box next to the refrigerator, Yuuki Asuna couldn't help but frown.
"Is this what you usually eat at home?"
"No, I usually eat bentos or order delivery."
Asagiri explained with a smile, "But, as soon as midnight tonight passes, we could enter the Instance at any moment. If I eat a bento or order delivery, there's a small chance of stale ingredients or food poisoning, which would negatively affect my condition when entering the Instance. So, instant noodles it is."
"But you can't eat instant noodles either..."
Yuuki Asuna said this first, then stood up and walked to the door, putting on her small leather shoes again, gently tapping the floor with her toe, and revealing a gentle smile.
"How about this: what kind of food do you like? I'll go out and buy ingredients, and when I get back, I'll cook for you. That way, we don't have to worry about the freshness of the ingredients."