Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Girl and the Best Friends

Sora, having managed to pull himself together, decided to explain the current situation to his friends.

However, talking about what had happened to him in front of many players seemed risky. If news spread about encountering the Demon Lord and being cursed, he would surely attract attention from many players in the future.

Additionally, to explain convincingly that he was not a silver-haired girl but actually Sora Kamijo, he would need to share some real-life details as well.

So, Sora determined that the first thing he needed to do was to get out of this spot.

Fortunately, he had experience from a VR spy game called “004,” where he had disguised himself as a girl, so pretending to be one was a skill he had mastered.

“Hey, hey, you two. We promised to play together today, remember?”

“Huh, what?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Come on, stop dawdling and let’s get out of here!”

Sora acted as naturally as possible, whispering softly to them while grabbing their arms and pulling them along.

Normally, it would be impossible for a small girl to pull two high school boys, but this was not the real world but a game. Using the enhanced physical abilities from being level 15, Sora forcibly dragged the level 1 players away.

Though he sensed envious looks and some tongue-clicking from behind, he ignored them all.

Initially, the two resisted, but they couldn’t escape the overwhelming level difference.

Eventually, they gave up resisting against the unyielding strength of the girl’s arms.

After walking through the city for a while, Sora found a suitable alleyway.

Without hesitation, he pushed Shin and Shiro into the alley and hid himself as well.

When he turned back to face them, they looked a bit frightened, unsure of what was about to happen.

Well, it was only natural to be scared.

It was understandable that Shinji and Shiro were frightened. They had been caught by an unfamiliar beautiful girl and dragged into an alley without any explanation.

They might be imagining some rough-looking thugs straight out of a comic book appearing in this situation.

Sora recalled a similar scenario from an old VR game he had played, where he had been dragged into an alley by a blonde girl and asked to help throw off her bodyguards. It had felt quite romantic.

……Wait, no! I nearly lost my train of thought again.

While making sure no one was listening, Sora carefully spoke his real name.

“Listen up. My name is Sora Kamijo. I’m a first-year student at Kamisato High School and a friend of yours for ten years.”

“Ha? Sora, is that you…?”

“Wait a minute. According to my memory, wasn’t it impossible to change gender in this game?”

The two of them looked around suspiciously, wondering if it was some sort of setup by Sora.

In response to Shin and Shiro’s confusion, Sora revealed their real names and a secret known only to the three of them.

“Shinji, you were obsessed with things like eye patches and bandages due to your chuunibyou until recently, right?”

“Ugh… How do you know about that…?”

“Shiro, I heard your brother’s cross-dressing thing has been stressing you out so much that you’ve been losing your hair.”

“That’s something I promised not to tell anyone…”

“That’s right. I am undoubtedly the real Sora Kamijo. You know, I’m not the type to spill my friends’ secrets to others, right?”

“…Indeed.”

It seemed that Shin and Shiro were now convinced.

Immediately, Shin and Shiro tilted their heads and wondered, “But why have you become a girl?”

This was a perfectly valid question. After all, Sora himself found it hard to believe his current situation.

However, when Sora explained the circumstances with the Demon Lord at the start and the curse, the two who had been puzzled now showed intrigued expressions.

“So the Demon Lord was right in front of you when you started the game… I’ve never heard of such information before.”

“I’ve checked, but there’s no one else who has encountered the same phenomenon.”

Rou, who was using one of the VR headset’s features to access the internet during the game, shook his head.

“Well, this is unexpected. I never imagined encountering something like this on the very first day of the game.”

Having turned into a silver-haired, blue-eyed beauty, Sora threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

In other games, the worst-case scenario would be to delete the account and create a new one, but in this game, once an account is created, it cannot be deleted, nor can a second account be made.

Even if a second headset and software were acquired, it has already been proven that this is not possible. This was confirmed during a live broadcast by a famous streamer.

When trying to log in using personal information borrowed from someone else and character data scanned from that person, an access error was displayed, making it impossible. I watched this live last night.

Moreover, when the person who lent the data accessed it, they were able to play, indicating that it wasn’t a malfunction.

Although the exact method is unknown, it has been thoroughly established that creating a second account is not allowed.

Given this, contacting the game’s support would be the best course of action, but this game has no support contact available.

It was truly a dead end.

It was surprising that this game was even released.

When Shin saw Sora, he had an indescribable expression on his face and muttered:

“So, it means that Sora will remain in this form until the Demon Lord is defeated because of the curse, right?”

“Well, that seems to be the case.”

“If your sister knew you were playing in this form, she’d probably be totally freaked out.”

“…I think she was also playing from yesterday. If she saw me like this, she’d probably call me a pervert.”

With a sympathetic look from Rou, Sora looked at his own reflection again.

Naturally long silver hair down to the waist. Height around 150 cm, appearing to be of middle school or upper elementary school age.

When checking his entire body on the status screen, the displayed character was not an ordinary boy but an extraordinary beauty.

What kind of foreign noble girl is this? If someone like this suddenly appeared in the center of the plaza, it would certainly draw everyone’s attention.

Moreover, the game requires real-time scanning.

Everyone must be assuming that this appearance is identical to the real world.

Seeing the status screen reflecting his current form, Sora couldn’t help but adopt a serious expression.

In contrast, using the ?Insight? skill, Sora saw that Shin and Rou’s HP were 20 and their MP was 10.

As Sora pondered this with a vacant expression, he let out a deep sigh, thinking, “It seems like I’ll be standing out in many ways from now on.”

Seeing Sora like this, Rou made a show of clenching his fists and spoke encouragingly:

“Although the cost is high, reaching level 15 is a significant advantage. Let’s focus on that.”

Shin nodded in agreement.

“Well, in the early stages around the city, you’re at a level where you can handle anything that comes your way.”

“…Well, if we’re aiming to defeat the Demon Lord, having a high level isn’t a bad thing.”

As Sora said this, Shin lightly touched his chin and continued:

“Defeating the Demon Lord, huh? Let’s just hope we don’t end up with a group protecting a beautiful demon queen like in other games.”

“I heard that because of that, game completion was delayed by a whole month.”

He recalled how the situation had caused a big stir online, especially when famous streamers joined the so-called ‘Demon Lord Protection Front’.

As Sora and Shin stared off into the distance, Rou clapped his hands to change the stagnant mood of the conversation.

Pointing to the grassy plains outside the royal capital, the brown-haired boy said, “Alright, alright, the path to the Demon Lord is long. Instead of worrying about the future, let’s start with some light combat for now.”

With Rou taking charge, Sora and Shin agreed and decided to head out of the city for the time being.