By the time Yusei returned to the room, Shiro was still playing chess, her cute little face slightly furrowed, her brow slightly wrinkled, as if pondering her next move.
Yusei silently sat down opposite Shiro and looked at the pieces on the board.
His heart stirred, and he picked up a piece with his hand, placing it on a specific square.
Seeing this move, Shiro's brow instantly smoothed.
She looked up at Yusei, who was smiling at her, and didn't say anything, but silently accepted him continuing the game with her.
Compared to Yusei's quick defeat earlier, this time they were trading blows evenly.
Even Shiro, who should always be expressionless, showed a slight flicker of movement, seemingly surprised at how quickly Yusei had improved in such a short time.
Yusei seemed like a completely different chess player compared to before.
In the end, Yusei still lost, but this game lasted much longer.
Yusei wasn't particularly disappointed. He wasn't very good at chess to begin with, and lasting this long was entirely due to the power of the Sharingan.
Just now, when he received the Sharingan, a wave of coolness had passed through his mind.
If he wasn't mistaken, that was probably the mental energy originating from the Sharingan.
Yusei didn't possess Chakra. Perhaps an ordinary human body couldn't directly accept the Sharingan, the pinnacle of Yin Attribute Chakra. So, that mental energy likely had the effect of transforming his body, allowing him to accommodate the Sharingan.
At the same time, this mental energy also made his thinking much clearer.
The practical result was that where he used to hesitate over pieces and didn't know where to place them, things were now much clearer.
"Shall we play again?" Yusei asked his sister with a smile.
"No."
Shiro began putting away the pieces, but paused mid-task and looked up at Yusei.
"You... were insincere earlier."
Shiro suddenly uttered these words, leaving Yusei feeling somewhat perplexed.
"Uh... You mean when we were playing chess?"
"When you were talking to the two adults."
Shiro said flatly, but her gaze remained on Yusei, as if observing him.
'As expected of Shiro, the genius girl, huh?'
It was true. When he had smiled at his new father and mother, he hadn't felt anything inside.
As mentioned before, because he had just arrived in this world, he wasn't particularly invested in anyone.
"You're mistaken. I was just very happy today," Yusei said with a laugh, ruffling Shiro's little head.
"..." Shiro's head shook slightly, but she didn't refuse Yusei patting her head.
She just silently watched him, then suddenly tilted her head.
"Why are your eyes red?"
Shiro's sudden head tilt was somewhat dorky and cute, but her question made Yusei's heart stir.
'Oh, I forgot… the Sharingan was red, which was different from my usual appearance.'
'I needed to be careful about that. Maybe wear contact lenses?' Yusei thought to himself.
"You can think of it as a change that happens when I get serious," Yusei said evasively, squatting down to help Shiro put away the chess set, and then looked for another topic.
"Do you like playing games, Shiro?"
"What games?" Shiro tilted her head to look at her Onii-chan.
Based on her first impression, she didn't feel she disliked this brother, though she couldn't say she liked him immediately either.
It's just that the chess game they just had had piqued her interest somewhat.
'What games...' Yusei really hesitated for a moment.
He had thought about entertaining his sister, but when it came to deciding on a specific game, he really wasn't sure.
In Japan, otaku usually play console games, but Yusei's predecessor wasn't part of that group.
Due to his mother's illness and passing, he hadn't been able to smile for the past year, and naturally hadn't been in the mood to play games either.
"Let's go online first and see what new games have been released recently," Yusei suggested after thinking for a moment.
"Okay."
Shiro nodded, then took out her own phone, climbed onto Yusei's bed, curled up in the corner, and started playing games by herself.
Yusei went online to search for recent gaming communities, wanting to see if there were any new game recommendations.
However, a piece of news on the homepage caught his attention.
[Groundbreaking Invention: The electronic machinery manufacturer [ARGUS] has developed the [NerveGear], a device worn on the head that can control the human brain nerves to connect to a virtual world....
The groundbreaking virtual large-scale online role-playing game named [Sword Art Online] will be officially released for sale on June 30th at 00:00.
Game equipment will be sold exclusively via mail order through the official website. Remember to purchase on time if you don't want to miss out, limited quantities available!]
…
It was more of an advertisement than a news article.
But seeing this advertisement, Yusei was extremely shocked.
'If I wasn't seeing things or misremembering, this should be SAO, Sword Art Online, right?'
'I had just been thinking about finding a game to play, and now a death game shows up?'