Around 3 PM, after an entire afternoon of brainstorming, everyone finally wrapped up and left.
As for the next ga in developnt, Ichin chose to keep it under wraps for now. He only assured everyone that it would be a major project—enough to temporarily quell their curiosity.
After tidying up the living room a bit, Ichin returned to the bedroom.
He opened the door gently and saw Utaha sitting in front of her computer—not writing, but resting her chin in her hands, staring blankly ahead.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Hearing his voice, Utaha turned her head and said, "Ichin, I've hit a wall!"
"With your novel? What kind of problem could possibly stump our brilliant Kasumigaoka-sensei?"
Utaha rolled her eyes at him. Once he sat down, she clung to his arm and explained, "The first volu is already done, right? I'm outlining Volu Two now. According to my original plan, I didn't want to just write about the main couple again. I wanted to expand it to a few other pairs, and make it a romantic cody set within a company. But… I've run into so trouble with the side characters' designs."
"Ah, I see," Ichin nodded in understanding. Character developnt was indeed one of Utaha's more challenging areas during the creative process.
Then, she added, "So I started thinking, why not use so of our studio mbers as inspiration? Umiko was the first one I picked as a model—but I turned her into a man. A gruff lead programr who loves survival shooter gas."
"Huh?" Ichin's eyes widened. That was exactly what he had been about to suggest—he hadn't expected Utaha to bring it up first.
"If it's a major supporting character, does he get a love interest?" he asked.
"Of course," Utaha nodded firmly. "Though I haven't decided on the pairing yet."
"Well, isn't that simple? I've got a suggestion for you," Ichin said with growing interest. "Use Sakura Nene as the model. A rookie programr who just joined the company straight out of school—completely green. She gets scolded by her strict supervisor every day. But she has a stubborn, unyielding personality, and as she slowly reveals her strengths at work, the supervisor finds himself falling for her."
"Hmm~~ That does sound pretty good."
Utaha played out the scenario in her mind and began expanding on it. "And the supervisor—based on Umiko—might seem cold and strict on the surface, but when faced with the rookie's direct and sincere approach, he's totally out of his elent—super pure and awkward."
Inspired by Ichin's suggestion, Utaha's ideas quickly began flowing.
She grabbed his face with both hands, planted a kiss firmly on his lips, then turned back to her docunt. "Thank you, Ichin! I've got it now! I finally know where to go with the story!"
Seeing her excitedly return to typing, Ichin smiled. "It's great that you've found your inspiration, but let say this upfront: using the studio staff as reference is fine, but don't make it a one-to-one copy. Art may co from life, but it should still be distinct from real life."
"Don't worry, don't worry! I know that already—it'll be fine!"
As the clack clack of the keyboard echoed, the outline for Volu Two of Utaha's new novel began to take shape on the screen.
After glancing at it for a mont, Ichin asked, "Since you're the one who brought up the novel, you can at least tell the title now, right?"
"The title, huh~~~"
Utaha paused, then smiled and nodded. "Sure! I actually spent a long ti thinking about this. The title is: My Love Story with My Boss. What do you think?"
"Mmm, the title clearly points to the core the. Not bad."
A workplace-thed romantic light novel—Ichin hadn't read any of those before. At most, he had read a few similar manga. So he was genuinely looking forward to this new book of Utaha's.
He gently pinched her cheek and asked, "What do you want for dinner? We're running low on ingredients—just so vegetables and pork left. I'll need to go out and buy more."
Hearing that Ichin was heading out to buy groceries, Utaha imdiately saved her docunt and stood up. "I'll go with you. I've been cooped up in the room all afternoon, I need to stretch my legs. Plus, I didn't go with you when you went out this morning, so I have to go this ti."
"Alright then, let's go together."
---
Monday.
As soon as Ichin arrived at school, he once again beca the center of attention among the students around him—just as expected.
It seed that all the effort to keep a low profile over the past few days had been completely undone by that weekend livestream.
But it wasn't anything serious. As long as he ignored the stares, it was fine. After all, they were just fellow students—no one was going to co barging in.
Once he reached the classroom and finished dealing with the usual group of guys, he could finally settle down and attend class in peace.
Originally, school was just about maintaining attendance. But to his surprise, it had now beco the most relaxing part of his day. He didn't need to think about anything—just listen to the lecture.
From Monday to Friday, Ichin followed a strict routine: attend class during the day, then head to the studio after school to continue ga developnt, or swing by the recording studio to check on the progress of the voice work.
The Chinese voiceover work was also going smoothly. The studio in Shanghai had already contacted several professional voice actors, negotiations were underway, and contracts had been signed with multiple talents. The initial recording sessions would begin soon.
Ichin figured that at the end of the month, he'd need to make a trip back—just in ti to spend the upcoming National Day holiday with his family.
As for Utaha, she would definitely be going with him—otherwise, his mom would never let it slide.
---
Friday, 5 PM.
After confirming the finalized cast of voice actors, Ichin set that matter aside and moved on to review the week's pre-order sales figures.
Last Sunday morning, total pre-orders across all platforms had already exceeded 500,000. Now, as Ichin opened Steam, he saw that the Steam pre-orders alone had surpassed 600,000 copies!
Next was Epic and the Nintendo Switch. Epic's numbers were a bit lower, sitting at 150,000. That platform often ran huge discounts and free ga campaigns, which helped bring in a dedicated crowd of players.
And finally, for the Nintendo Switch, the pre-orders were also looking great—already hitting 400,000 copies.
"So that ans… combined pre-orders across all three platforms have already broken the million mark?"
Breaking a million pre-orders in under a week—this was sothing Ichin had never even dared to dream of.
He double-checked the numbers twice to be absolutely sure.
After taking a few deep breaths, Ichin stood up, walked out of his office, and entered the main workspace. He clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
***
T/N: New Harry Potter story is out, if you want to check it out.
Search→ HP: Trickster System
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