Spider - Prologue

Uuuun. It’s never gonna stop… could it be that the net is too heavy?

Heavy? Net? I never knew weight could be added to the net! Aira told me that the net is “invisible like air, but that air is almost everywhere now”.

If one person finds it too heavy, then why not two? I’ll give you a hand, Hinata-kun, so that we can split the load.

Wah! I’ve been totally misunderstood!

Nn? Is it not like that?

Basically, it’s not about whether or not I need a hand. Right now, I’ve downloaded a new game onto this game console…

Hiiro-kun, do you know how to download things?

That I was taught! It’s when you take information and store it in a terminal, isn’t it?

Right, right. When there’s a slow storage speed we call that “heavy” … so it’s not like someone helping is going to make it faster.

Uuun. Hinata-kun, if you can’t fix it, then I can’t find the right answer.

Well, all we gotta do in the end is just be patient and let it be until we can play the game!

That makes sense to me now. Fufu, Hinata-kun, you always explain things so clearly.

But, what made it so heavy? If we can improve it, then it would be better if we did.

I think I can guess the reason~ It might be because there’s a sequel to a popular game that was released today, so a lot of people might be downloading it at the same time~

Heeeh, I suppose that kind of glitch can happen when a lot of people do it at once.

This game…? It has an extremely colorful screen. My eyes are starting to sting.

It’s a lot easier to see when you get used to it. It’s a turf game where you take your position and paint¹. Once it’s done downloading, do you want to play, Hiiro-kun?

Me? Are you sure? Last time we played together, I shoved into you, Hinata-kun, and I might do the same this time.

Ahaha. Hiiro-kun, your whole body moves when you play video games.

Umu. I do it out of reflex. It’s hard to play the game and sit still.

It’s alright, it’s alright★~ Don’t worry about your body moving. These games are more fun to play with friends, anyways.

I see. If it really is that much fun, then I want to try it.

Hm? By the way, has Shiina-senpai come back yet? I wanted him to join our group.

I got a message saying “I’m going to be staying with everyone at ES building today, so I won’t be coming back to the dorm”. So maybe you received that message too, Hinata-kun?

Eh, is that so. I was too busy downloading the game, so I didn’t notice. I see~, so Shiina-senpai really can’t come join us then? What a bummer!

That’s good though~ A sleepover at ES sounds like so much fun…

Haaa…

Oiii, everyoneee? If you can hear me, could you please answer?

…

Haa… I can’t hear anything, so I guess that really means there’s no one here…

Kohaku-chan and HiMERU-kun are gone… and then Rinne-kun disappeared too…so that leaves me all by myself in this room…

Just how did it come down to this~? I knew I shouldn’t have done those 100-stories at all. I wasn’t too thrilled about it to begin with, and this isn’t something for the faint-hearted.

Ahh, at this rate… I’m going to…I’m…

GyaaaAAAHHH!

! Th-That scream just now…wasn’t it Kohaku-chan?!

No…! There’s no way…was Kohaku-chan finally sacrificed?!