Chapter 17: The So-Called Female Competition
Anon flared up in anger for a moment. What did he mean by "prettier and with a better figure than her"? Was he giving up on acting now?
But when she looked down and saw her own toes, she had to admit that finding girls with better figures than her was far too easy.
Still, that wasn't a valid excuse for Ren's disqualification!
"Ren, how can you be so shallow? Figure and appearance are only temporary. Am I not cute enough? If you confessed to me, it's not like I couldn't be your girlfriend," Anon argued vehemently, hoping her childhood friend would see the light and stop making mistakes. Those other women were only after his looks—she was different. She wanted all of him.
"I'll throw those exact words back at you. If you, Anon, confessed to me, I could be your boyfriend too," Ren spread his hands open. They had even fought after arguments when they were kids, and sometimes, because he hadn't grown into his body yet, he couldn't even beat Anon.
With those memories in mind, though the thought of pinning Anon down and teasing her was somewhat thrilling, it felt less appealing than teasing Hitori a bit more.
"...Never mind, then," Anon said, looking dejected. It seemed like she and Ren were just one step away, but that step just wouldn't happen. How did such close childhood friends end up feeling like family?
"So, I'm going to play games now. What about you?" Tomorrow was still the weekend, and Ren, who hadn't had the chance to pull an all-nighter in a long time, planned to stay up late.
"I'll stay a bit longer and then go back to sleep. Ren, what does she do? Can you introduce her to me sometime?" Anon lay unhappily on the bed, continuing to ask about Hitori. She really wanted to know who this vixen was who had seduced her childhood friend.
"She plays in a band and plays the guitar. I'll introduce you to her when I get the chance. She has pink hair, just like you," Ren said without turning his head, launching into Apex. As his rank increased, he could now match with pro players and streamers. There were even videos online analyzing him for cheating, with people demanding he be banned. It gave him a taste of what it felt like to be accused of hacking—and it felt great.
"Huh?" Playing in a band, playing the guitar, and also having pink hair.
Wasn't that basically like having a replacement for her?
"Ren, was my going abroad such a blow to you?" Anon looked at Ren with pity. She forgave him now. It turned out that in her absence, Ren had missed her so much that he found another pink-haired woman as a substitute.
But she was back now. Shouldn't Ren break up with the other girl? It couldn't be that the replacement was taking over, could it?
"?" What was this pink-haired girl thinking?
Ren glanced back puzzled at Anon's concerned expression but ignored her.
"Don't be shy, Ren. What's between us? Just say you missed me."
Seeing Ren acting 'shy', Anon giggled mischievously.
"I just find you noisy. My game is about to start, so I won't have much attention to spare for chatting."
Ren didn't want to deal with his overly proud childhood friend. He had matched with the same Japanese girl from before, greeted her, and then entered serious gaming mode.
"Fine, ignore me then."
Anon puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction, then began thinking about what to do next. How dare someone try to steal from right under her nose? She couldn't just back down.
Besides, it was just playing the guitar, right? She had already done that in middle school, even performed on stage. It was nothing more than something she'd moved on from.
Come to think of it, this was the era of all-girl bands. After transferring to her new school, maybe she could use band activities as a way to quickly build her own social circle.
Once Ren started gaming, Anon didn't disturb him. She just lay on his bed, contemplating her future path.
Having been abroad for almost a month, she knew it would be hard to fit in or integrate into existing cliques after transferring schools. But a band was definitely a great idea—finding like-minded friends to quickly form a group.
She made up her mind: she would play the guitar and join a band too! She'd show that girl who was trying to seduce Ren what she was made of!
With that thought, Anon got up and left Ren's room. She had a guitar at home and had learned before, so picking it up again shouldn't be too difficult.
But after just ten minutes of practice, her fingers started hurting. She put the guitar down, lay on her bed, and picked up her tablet to scroll through videos.
"Guess I'll continue tomorrow. It's already so late—better not disturb the neighbors."
Meanwhile, Ren began his ranking grind. With reflexes and control far beyond ordinary players, he was terrifyingly strong even playing FPS games with a wired mouse. In just a few days, he had climbed from the lower ranks to the top 100 on the ladder.
He planned to reach rank one tonight. After winning another match with the Japanese girl, he sent her a friend request.
This time, she accepted but sent him a message before deleting him.
[Random string of letters: Not playing with perverts.]
Perverts? Where?
Ren frowned. He hated perverts more than anything, but how could there be one in an FPS game?
Looking at his own ID, Ren shook his head helplessly. Could she mean him? But his game ID was "Loli Feet Sweet and Fragrant"—what was perverted about that?
He just liked poetic names like that. Society's prejudices were still too strong.
Without a regular teammate, Ren could only continue solo queueing, beginning his all-night journey.
By the next morning, Ren had successfully reached rank one. The only thing limiting his climb was queue times, not his opponents.
Seeing his ID visible on the leaderboard with just a click, Ren nodded in satisfaction before shutting down his computer and heading to bed in one smooth motion.
Staying up all night no longer brought him the same joy it once did, but overall, it was still quite comfortable—after all, it was an opportunity he rarely got after starting work.
Today, Hitori was going to Hoshizora for band activities. Meeting too frequently wasn't ideal either, so Ren decided to spend the day lounging at home.
If he got hungry, he'd just message Anon to bring him some food. If lying around got tiring, he'd simply roll over—the epitome of a lazy bum, though not everyone was as idle.
Anon, who had secretly practiced all morning and noon, planned to utterly amaze Ren once he woke up. She grabbed her guitar and headed straight to his place.
"I remember you haven't played in a long time, right? Feeling that confident?"
Back when Ren didn't have the system, he couldn't gauge Anon's true skill level. But now…
Recalling Anon's guitar skills from middle school, they weren't exactly terrible, but they weren't great either—just barely passable. And back in middle school, with so few people signing up for the school festival performance, even the mediocre stood out. As student council president, Anon was considered the best among the limited options.
It seemed she had taken all those polite compliments to heart. Watching Anon's proud and triumphant expression, Ren's face turned subtle.
"Hehe, of course! Just wait, Ren—I'll show you how amazing my C chord is!"
Anon declared with full confidence, then proceeded to demonstrate her C chord. After finishing, she eagerly asked Ren for his thoughts.
"Anon, you do realize that when even I can't be bothered to criticize you, it says a lot about your level, right?"
Ren carefully chose his words before speaking slowly. Generally speaking, childhood friends were each other's VIP critics—if one did something foolish, the other wouldn't hesitate to mock them.
But Ren couldn't even muster the energy to criticize her because Anon was clearly still at a beginner's level. He felt resigned—it wasn't even worth scolding her.
"Is it really that bad? I thought I played pretty well. Everyone used to praise me back then."
Anon understood what Ren meant and scratched her head sheepishly, muttering under her breath.
"That was then, this is now. You're still far from where you need to be. By the way, why the sudden interest in playing guitar again? Is it because of that girl I'm chasing?"
Ren promptly shattered Anon's unwarranted confidence before asking about her sudden motivation to pick up the guitar.
"Partly, but isn't this the era of girl bands? I want to form a band as both lead guitarist and lead vocalist."
Anon didn't hide her vanity in front of Ren. She knew he was well aware of her ulterior motives—there was no point hiding them.
"Well, you'll have to work hard then. At your current level, you might get kicked out right after forming the band. It's bad enough that your guitar skills are lacking, but your singing is nowhere near good enough to be a lead vocalist either."
Ren respected Anon's decision. The Haneoka Girls' School that Anon was transferring to was a school with a strong band culture. Together with Hanasakigawa, these two schools had produced many famous bands. If Anon could really play guitar, it would help her integrate into that atmosphere more quickly.
"How could that be? Are you looking down on me, Ren? Don't underestimate my determination to become both the lead vocalist and lead guitarist! And I'll definitely play better than that girl you've taken a liking to!"
It wasn't just about fitting in more quickly after transferring schools, nor was it merely about showing off. Anon wanted to amaze Ren with her superb skills, to make Ren change his mind and stop watching that other girl play guitar. She could play too, and she would play even better than the other girl.
Anon was filled with motivation.