For the next few days, after school, Ichin would head straight to the gaming club to have its mbers help test his ga. These mbers were genuinely skilled; within just a few days, the fastest among them had already reached Ascension Level 6, and even those with slower progress managed to hit Ascension Level 3 with both characters.
On the other hand, a certain blonde-haired girl had also been diligently playing every day. But up to now, she had only cleared the ga once with each character, and even reaching Ascension Level 1 had been an enormous struggle.
Watching Eriri's progress on the computer screen, Ichin sighed and remarked, "Sawamura-san, I think I finally understand—this type of ga just isn't suited for you."
"Urusai!"
Eriri retorted angrily, glaring at her screen showing yet another ga over. "It's not ; it's your ga's difficulty! There's sothing wrong with it!"
"Umm… but the mbers of the gaming club have already reached Ascension Level 6…"
"..."
Eriri was instantly deflated, blushing with embarrassnt as she stayed silent for a long mont before shouting, "Aaaah! What am I supposed to do?! I just can't beat it!"
Utaha couldn't hold back her laughter. "I think Ichin-kun's right—you really aren't cut out for this ga. And you fit the bill of soone who's bad at it but totally addicted."
"Hmph! Mind your own business!" Eriri shot Utaha a glare before seriously evaluating the ga on the screen. "Although I can't climb the higher difficulties, the ga is actually quite fun. Ichin, are you planning to release it soon?"
"Yeah, pretty soon. I'll fix the bugs collected over the past few days and optimize the ga a bit. Then, I'll launch it on Steam. After that, I'll reach out to a few content creators and strears for promotion, and then I'll focus on completing the rest of the ga. Now that the foundation is set, the remaining updates should go quickly. I think I can release the full version within three months."
Listening to Ichin's plan, Eriri couldn't help but feel astonished. Counting on her fingers, she muttered, "According to what you said, you started developnt in March, and it's now the end of April. So in just two months, you've already created a fully playable early access version, and then you'll finish the full version in three more months… You really developed this ga all by yourself?"
"Yup, didn't I already say that?" Ichin replied with a grin. "You can call a genius—I'm not one to boast, though."
"Tch, so full of yourself," Eriri grumbled, but deep down, she was genuinely impressed. Thanks to her family's involvent in doujin circles, she had t many other indie ga developers.
However, the gas those teams created couldn't hold a candle to Ichin's work in terms of quality. Plus, their developnt tis were significantly longer, usually taking about a year to complete a single ga.
Considering all this, it really wasn't an exaggeration to call Ichin a genius.
But being a proud tsundere, Eriri wouldn't praise him so easily. Instead, she turned back to her screen and continued playing. Despite her lack of skill, the ga was undeniably addictive. When it officially launched, she planned to make her mother buy a copy and watch her struggle with it—sweet revenge!
Before long, it was 5 PM. Although it was Friday, Ichin didn't intend to stay at school any longer than necessary. After packing up his things, he left the school with Utaha and Eriri by his side.
After leaving the school gates, Eriri headed in the opposite direction from Ichin and Utaha. After saying their goodbyes, she went on her way alone. Ichin, anwhile, walked alongside Utaha, pushing his bicycle.
They had known each other for about two months now, and they were friends. Walking ho together like this didn't bother Utaha in the slightest.
Pushing his bike, Ichin asked, "How's the second volu of your novel coming along?"
Talking about her novel brought a smile to Utaha's face. "Pretty well. I showed the new outline to my editor, and she was quite pleased. She suggested I lean towards a more lighthearted and humorous approach to broaden the audience."
"That makes sense," Ichin nodded in agreent. "If you kept going with the tone of the first volu, while it'd stick to the pure romance genre, the audience would remain quite limited. The new approach can attract readers who don't usually read romance novels—after all, it's still a light novel."
"I have you to thank for that, Ichin-kun. Your suggestions were spot-on. As expected from you."
"Why does that sound a little off?" Ichin frowned slightly.
"It's nothing!" Utaha chuckled softly behind her hand. "I'm simply complinting your vast knowledge. I could never co up with such interesting ideas on my own."
"Please, stop. I already regret giving you those suggestions. Don't go getting weird ideas about !" Ichin protested, looking slightly exasperated.
Seeing his frustrated expression, Utaha's smile grew even brighter.
"I can't help it," she said, "I've been to your place several tis, and I noticed that your room is excessively clean. It doesn't look like the room of a typical teenage boy at all. There aren't even any suspicious collections under your bed."
Ichin stared at her, shocked. "You looked under my bed?! When did that happen?"
Utaha thoughtfully tapped her chin. "Oh, a couple of days ago. The math teacher gave us so intentionally difficult problems, so I ca over to discuss them. When you went to grab so drinks, I got curious and took a peek. Sorry, Ichin-kun, but it was for research. Too bad I didn't find anything interesting."
"Of course you didn't!" Ichin sighed, exasperated. "I'm not like those guys in novels or manga. Who still hides stuff under their bed these days? Isn't it way more convenient to just keep it on a computer hard drive?"
"Oh my, so it's on your computer, huh?" Utaha grinned slyly.
"Don't get your hopes up. You won't find anything," Ichin said with a shrug. "It's not on this laptop anyway; it's on my PC back ho in China. And before I ca abroad, I encrypted and hid all those files. No one's finding them."
Ichin's forr self had been quite cautious. Knowing he couldn't take all his stuff with him, he had encrypted and hidden several hundred gigabytes worth of collections. He even set a complex startup password for his computer and locked the cabinet with his collectible figures, keeping the key on him at all tis. He was wary of any potential little invaders, thanks to all the horror stories he'd seen online.
"You ca prepared. What a sha," Utaha said with a mock sigh of disappointnt. She had been curious to see what kind of collection a boy like Ichin might have, but it seed like she would never get the chance.
Ichin, on the other hand, was curious. "Aren't you writing a novel? Do you really need to collect that kind of material?"
"The protagonist in my story is a guy, after all. It wouldn't be realistic for him to have zero worldly desires, right?"
"Well, I guess that's true…" Ichin said, thinking it over. "Whatever. Even if I did have a collection, you wouldn't be able to find it anyway."
…
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