Rise of the Gamer [Hiatus]

Chapter 11

~~ 2 Weeks Later ~~

Round. Bouncy. A soft and smooth outer layer with a firm interior. That's how I would describe this ball that Tou-san had given to me after he noticed that I liked throwing Kiyoko's blocks around the playroom. My increased Strength stats meant that I could now hit the wall from across the room, something that Ojii-san seemed to notice.

However, in the interest of not constantly hearing the sound of blocks hitting the wall, Tou-san had given me this red bouncy ball to throw instead. It was the size of a tennis ball but had more elasticity, which meant that I didn't need to move from my throwing spot if I threw it at the right angle, as it would make its way back to me.

It had been a month since 'The Incident' as Kaa-san had come to call it, and nothing much had changed. I still slept in my parent's bedroom at night, I still woke up in the playroom, I still hung out with my two sisters Rumi and Kiyoko, we were still watched over by our three grandparents as my parents and older siblings went about their lives.

The only new thing was that I now had a rectangular paper charm thing hanging from a thin gold chain that I wore around my neck. It's probably for good luck or to ward off evil spirits or whatever. When I asked Kaa-san what it was, she simply smiled and said that it was for my own good.

I was now learning Japanese at an increased rate, picking up words and phrases quickly, learning the proper pronunciations and everything. This was probably due to the amount of Intelligence stats that I now had. Or maybe it's because I'm a baby and babies seem to soak up spoken languages like a sponge. Whichever it was, I was now able to converse with Rumi and Kiyoko as we hung out in the playroom, something that delighted them very much.

When I questioned Rumi about who her doll was based on, she simply said that it was a shinobi named Namikaze Minato, a hero of the Land of Fire. Not remembering ever hearing that name before in Naruto, I simply assumed that he was a famous character from Naruto: Shippuden, something that I never actually watched. Rumi also explained to me that the reason she can't do the katas for the Soft Palm Style was because Kaa-san said she could only do it when she turned four years old, which would be in a few months' time.

'The fundamentals of the Soft Palm Style do require some complex footwork, maybe Kaa-san wants Rumi to grow up a bit more before attempting to learn martial arts in case she injures herself.'

Questioning Kiyoko on what she was building with her blocks resulted in me being regaled with her theories about how a tower surrounded by strong walls would be easier to defend against invasion. The defenders would have an easier time defending due to their height advantage, and being able to garrison the tower once the walls were overrun, all of this in order to buy more time for reinforcements to arrive. She hoped to build her own fortified tower one day to keep our family safe from invasion.

'Defending against invasion? What kind of children's books are being read to Kiyoko anyway? And why is Kiyoko so wary of an invasion? Who on earth would even want to invade Japan?'

Looking towards the bookshelf with all the children's books stacked in neat rows, my eyes fell on something I was rather familiar with: Rumi's scroll on the fundamentals of the Soft Palm Style. Apparently, me absorbing its knowledge inside the Battle Dungeon didn't affect its real-world counterpart. This made sense in a way as items inside a Battle Dungeon were fully functional copies of their real-world counterparts but could not be brought out into the real-world.