THE CURSED GAMER

Chapter 9

Title: Family (1)

....

"Wow..." Crouching down, Neji checked the "loot" that dropped from the boss and the other monsters that he gathered in one place. There were things like skeleton's head, skeleton's bones, some (rusty) swords, shields, and bows. But what stood out most from these items were the – potions and armour.

«Stamina Potionx5»

«Mana Potionx2»

«Armour of Dignity»

[Stamina Potion: Restores 20% of Stamina each bottle.]

[Mana Potion: Restores 20% of Mana each bottle.]

[Armour of Dignity: 30+ END upon wearing it.]

'Nice, nice.' A soft laugh left his lips. With the stamina potions, his quirk's main weakness would be covered. Although the percentage of the heal is pretty low, it would be fine after he gets his hands in a moderate number of them. But... 'The mana potions are useless... for now.'

He rapidly shook his head. "Either way, it's strange that I didn't get any health potion. Is it perhaps rare? Hm, meh, I would find out after raiding some more dungeons." He then shot a glance at the huge armour. A person needs to be at least 15 feet tall to wear that thing... "How am I supposed to wear this?"

At that moment, a monotonous child's voice, almost his voice – but feminine, sounded in his head as a message appeared in front of him.

[Ding! Master can equip the Armour from the Character page. The size wouldn't matter that way.]

Neji blinked. Master? Look's like the system had adapted to a more suitable way to call him. The term "Host" didn't really blend properly for him.

He grinned, "Ah, thanks, System. That helps a lot."

[I am glad.]

He nodded and noted to himself for the umpteenth time, Rule number 1: if you have a system, always maintain a good relationship with the A.I/Gamemaster. He had read about tens of protagonists antagonising the system without any particular reason. In his not so humble opinion, they were stupid.

From what he realised, the system isn't mindless, but it's also unknown if it is sentient or not – as it never spoke of its own opinions yet. Up until now, it had just acted like Siri, or Google Assistant... or Samsung Assistant.

Then, he looked at the armour in front of him and dragged his hands forward, touching the armour.

"Equip." At his command, the armour vanished from sight and appeared on his torso, hugging him tightly.

He frowned. "...It's pretty uncomfortable." With a shake of his head, he chanted, "Unequip." As the armour vanished from his torso. He then put the armour in inventory for emergency use.

"Welp, time to get out." Saying such, he jumped in the air and released shockwaves from his feet to stay floating. He looked around and located the park where the gate of the dungeon rested.

He flew towards the park at a moderate pace as he realised something. 'It seems all the other monsters vanished after I killed the boss. Like a typical game, huh. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have dropped any loot.'

Like that, he reached the park and approached the large tree split in two, releasing the ominous purple light. Taking a deep breath in front of the "Gate", he prepared himself for the nauseous feeling that would soon hit him and slowly stepped into the gate as his body was pulled forward, vanishing from the dungeon world....

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«-★-»

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She ran, ran and ran. She asked everyone she saw on sight, but she couldn't find him anywhere.

"Ah, I saw him on the slides..." She ran to the slides. "Mm? Oh, Neji? I saw him at the swings!" She ran to the swing. "Oh, that silver-haired kid? He was in the sandbox the last time I saw him." She ran to the sandbox.

But he wasn't anywhere.

Where was he? Where did he go?

Neji was fairly smart for his age. He never got lost. This was his first time. And it's been 2 hours since he disappeared... so even if he was lost, he is supposed to return by now. So...

D- did one of her enemies catch hold of him? B- but there are guards all around!

Gara's body was shaking. What will she say to her husband? What will she say to Nejire? Her brother was playing and he suddenly disappeared? No, what will she say to herself? That she failed to watch over her own son and now he is nowhere to be seen?

Possibly kidnapped and experiencing something horrible?

Her legs quivered as she fell on her butt. "No... Neji..." Tears found a place in her face as she started to sob while everyone around her looked at her worryingly.

Guards are looking for him, but he is clearly not in the park. She hasn't let her husband know about this yet, because he would freak out, rush to this place and interrogate everyone. Or perhaps that was that the best possible action in this situation–

To be completely honest, she didn't know what to do. Gara became famous at a young age, made quite a few famous friends, but she also made some infamous enemies too. She was unfortunate enough to have experienced being kidnapped once... she was tortured and left to starve for days. Fortunately, before things could have turned for the worst, before her mind could have been broken completely, she was saved by her husband, by chance.

Yes.... it's better to call him here. He can surely find a way through this. He would surely-

"M- Mom?"

The sudden voice of her angel caused her eyes to spring open as she turned around. The confused boy was staring at her with a... slight fear in his eyes? Why was he scared? Was he scared that she would scold him for vanishing? No, no, it's her fault, why would he be scared?!

Gara jumped and brought the boy to a hug, crying over his shoulders with her body slowly calming down, the trembling slowly toning down.

"Neji, oh, Neji... mom is sorry, terribly sorry." Gara hugged him softly, yet tightly.

Gara could hear the people around her sigh in relief, but that didn't matter. She needed to apologise to her son, her little angel.

At the heated moment, she missed her son's words. "...Fuck."

She didn't even realise her son had just cursed, and frankly, she wouldn't have cared even if she heard it.

"N- Neji, forgive mommy, I would never leave your side." She hugged his small body as she felt his arms wrap around her too. A warm sensation ran throughout her body as she stopped shaking entirely, a sharp sigh escaping her lips. Her son was back.

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|Neji Pov|

Ah...?

I didn't mean to make her cry. Fuck me.

I knew she would be worried seeing me vanish, but it was the only way for me to enter the dungeon since she rarely leaves me on my own. Luckily Nejire didn't come with us today, or it would have been worse.

I hugged her while resting my head on her shoulder. We are back in the limo, going back to our mansion. She hasn't stopped hugging me and I haven't either.

I feel kinda bad... no, very bad. She's a nice woman, a nice mother. I recall, my previous mom wasn't really this nice... who am I kidding, she was a bitch. Sigh. I should have been a little more careful with this...

"Mom."

"Yes, baby? Is there anything?" She replied with her usual calm, motherly tone. "Am I suffocating you?"

I smiled. "No, that's not it." My smile dried up as soon as it came. "I just wanted to say... I am sorry."

After a short silence, she raised her head. She looked me in the eyes. Her dried up tears and uneven hair made her look like a person who lost everything in her life. Fuck, what have I done?

"Neji," she called, her look stern. "It's mommy's fault. You don't have to say sorry, okay?" Huh? "You have done nothing wrong, am I clear?"

"..."

I stared at her smile for a while before resting my head on her shoulder. I was tired, mentally, not physically. Soon sleep took over me as I felt the limo move silently.

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After a while, we reached our mansion and I was woken by the sound of the engine stopping.

Mom took me towards the mansion while I rested in her embrace. The moment the huge mansion door was opened, Nejire and father ran forward. Both hugging me tightly.

"Neji, father's sorry. We should have been more careful."

"Neji, did anyone hurt you? Are you feeling okay? Do you want Onee-chan to hug you to sleep tonight?" Nejire asked, looking at my eyes with her eyes red and teary.

This is a good family.

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