I became the emperor in the comic book series.

"Go in."

The office door opened, and a man in a badger-like outfit peeked in through the crack. After glancing around, he cleared his throat with a dry cough, straightened his back, and walked to his boss's desk. He pulled out a folded A4 sheet of paper from behind his back, bowed sharply at a ninety-degree angle, and presented it with both hands.

"Good heavens, this is a screenshot of the apology I shared in the work group earlier. Please check it, Mr. Higashino!"

Akira Higashino smacked his lips. "Didn't we agree to hand it in to the office the next day?"

"Because Lord Higashino was not here before!"

"You can't pay if I'm not there?"

"Gome na se!"

With a helpless expression, Higashino Akira accepted the letter of self-criticism, tossed it onto a corner of his desk, and waved for the self-righteous and spirited female employee to leave immediately.

Just kidding. A hundred-word self-criticism is more than he could write in elementary school essays; he wouldn't even bother to glance at it.

As a result, this group of women lined up one by one to submit their apologies, just like they had found some shortcut to success, even though there weren't that many people when the screenshot was taken.

They immediately stared intently at me, their gazes burning as if they were looking at some rare animal, a giant panda, which was absolutely chilling.

After everyone left, Akira Higashino looked at Eromanga-sensei again.

"And you..."

"Gome na sei~!"

Before he could finish speaking, his wife, embodying the spirit of advanced craftsmanship, loudly apologized and interrupted him. Her milky white hair, casually braided and draped over her left shoulder, swayed with her movements, a hairstyle that looked quite dangerous.

"I've said everything I needed to say. Just continue making the changes as requested. What I wanted to tell you is that the Yunmeng Vocational School in Chiba is now complete. If you're too busy to manage it all, you can send your daughter there to study, which will save you some trouble."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Higashino."

The wife was deeply moved upon hearing this, never expecting that the busy CEO would still care about her.

"Don't overthink it, it's just basic employee benefits. Besides, I'm saying it'll save Sawu some trouble."

"After all, it's not easy for a young girl to have such an unreliable mother."

Suddenly I'm not moved anymore!

The wife puffed out her adorable round face, just like her daughter's.

That little rascal, Sawu, actually said last time that Mommy was lost, completely ruining Mommy's reputation.

She is, after all, a mature adult.

How could it be so unreliable?

Last time it was an unexpected accident. I met that light novel author and was praised by that little girl like a fangirl. Plus, we really shared the same ideas.

She was so captivated that she didn't realize when Sawu had disappeared.

She wouldn't normally act like this.

Chapter 172 Milk

Afternoon, at Shinomiya's private residence.

"Hayasaka, the relocation of servants at the manor has gradually stopped recently. Did my brothers win the battle?"

Kaguya Shinomiya stood by the window, her eyes lowered and her expression aloof, practicing flower arranging. She seemed to be casually asking Hayasaka, her close attendant who had grown up with her since childhood, a question.

Standing behind Kaguya, looking at her like this, Hayasaka Ai sighed helplessly.

The young lady has been like this ever since the last time.

She's become even less cute.

They might say things like "skin is dry and fishy," but then they turn around and ask themselves, "How can I get more development in certain specific areas?"

After asking the question, he glanced at her chest again, then sighed inexplicably in disappointment.

That's so rude!

Even now, when she thinks about it, Hayasaka Ai still feels some resentment about it.

After all, I'm a bit older than Kaguya-sama!

What does that disappointed look mean?

Moreover, according to genetics, he still has a lot of room for improvement, while Kaguya-sama may not. Under such circumstances, how did Kaguya-sama have the courage to be disappointed in him, who is two models older than her?

Would asking Fujiwara no Shoji (a pseudonym) about his extraordinary talent be of any use?

If you ask her, she can at least help the cavewoman who doesn't know how to use the internet to look up some encyclopedia entries online.

Later, Kaguya bought so much milk and secretly massaged it every night before bed. Did she really think Kaguya didn't know?

That's too naive. Some things and talents are simply not there. Kaguya, who is already in the rapid development stage of puberty and is only at this level, can only grow further by having babies in the future.

No matter how much milk you drink, you won't grow any further if your growth limit has already been reached.

Squeezing it yourself won't help; it will only make the poor maid-san have more underwear to wash.

Hayasaka Ai was feeling sorry for herself, silently complaining in her heart that if Kaguya-sama knew, she would be furious for days on end with her rants, but on the surface she remained calm.

"Perhaps they are facing a bigger crisis, so they can't afford to worry about these minor conflicts right now."

Minor conflict?

Kaguya Shinomiya turned around and looked at Hayasaka with some confusion, repeatedly checking if she was still asleep.

Can a dispute over who gets to inherit such a large family fortune as the Shinomiya family really be considered a minor conflict?

"what?"

"Since yesterday, the Shinomiya Group's businesses have been experiencing a series of setbacks, causing public opinion to plummet and its market value to drop by ten percentage points overnight. Today, it has already fallen by nearly thirty percentage points. Rather than engaging in mutual smear campaigns and vying for the succession position, the priority is to ensure that the position still holds value. The leaders are currently working together to address the crisis, trying every possible way to curb the Shinomiya Group's continuously declining market value. I've heard they've even resorted to metaphysics, inviting many famous figures from Shintoism to offer guidance!"

Kaguya Shinomiya couldn't contain herself for a moment, her eyes widening as she exclaimed in shock, "Thirty percent!!!"

…………

"Only thirty percent?"

Upon hearing Yukino Haruno's report, Higashino Akira sighed with some dissatisfaction.

“Thirty percent is already quite a lot. After all, the Shinomiya Group is a very large company. This loss of so much market value is already a serious blow. If the follow-up countermeasures are not in place, it may not be able to recover.”

Yukino Shino rolled her eyes at her boss and explained seriously, "Moreover, in this incident, Mr. Kongming was incredibly astute. When the market value of the Shinomiya Group just started to fall, he decisively shorted it and stopped shorting it just before the Shinomiya Group stopped falling today. This allowed Yunmeng Group to acquire a massive amount of liquid funds in one go. He even used part of this money to acquire many of the Shinomiya Group's useful assets before the Shinomiya Group could react while it was busy trying to stop the market value from falling!"

At this point, Yukinoshita Haruno also looked on with admiration.

After all, Kongming's operation was too precise, almost like he was using cheat codes. Yukinoshita Haruno didn't even know where her boss had found such an all-around talent. Before, she only knew that Mr. Kongming was talented in literature and management, but now she realized that Mr. Kongming's ability in the financial field was equally outstanding.

When they make a move, it's always a spectacular and astonishing spectacle!

The key is that the other party is still very loyal. In recent times, since Yunmeng Group has become more and more prosperous, there have been outsiders who have been trying to take advantage of the situation by investing or acquiring the company, or they want to poach Yunmeng's talents with high salaries.

Mr. Kongming was the most outstanding one among them.

However, no matter what conditions outsiders offered, or even if they were willing to marry their daughters to him and make him their heir, Mr. Kongming remained unmoved.

Such a level of ability and unwavering loyalty, coupled with Akira's almost unconditional trust and support, made Yukinoshita Haruno even hallucinate that these two might be some Three Kingdoms figures who traveled to the modern era to start a business together, or that Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei had truly been reincarnated.

Of course, she only thought about it.

After all, this kind of thing is even harder to accept than your boyfriend being a god; it's just too absurd.

"Now that the good news is over, what's the bad news?"

Akira Higashino rested his chin on his hands, his fingers interlaced, on his desk, showing no excitement.

After all, it was all expected.

Sha Meng's actions were secretly followed by Luan Lu, who reported back at any time. They used a secret cheat to short sell, and even the most gullible investors could profit from it.

Furthermore, even without intelligence support in this regard, given Kongming's sensitivity to finance, coupled with his prior observation of the Shinomiya Group as an adversary, he wouldn't let such a golden opportunity to strike a fatal blow to a weakened opponent slip by.

"The bad news is... Shinomiya Group has stopped falling. In order to boost its market value and deal with the original crisis, it has launched many new projects."

"Some of these projects are not very friendly to us, such as social games that directly compete with 'Okumizome Story' and are scheduled to launch next Wednesday."

"So fast?" Higashino Akira raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat surprised.

Upon hearing this, Yukinoshita Haruno's face was full of dislike for the Shinomiya Group, "They borrowed more than 80% of the code and even used our code."

"Isn't that just plagiarism?"

“We won the lawsuit; that’s when they plagiarized.”

"Shameless!"

“Right?” Yukinoshita Haruno nodded in agreement. “So, I asked him, and Ryunosuke from the R&D department said that we could write a targeted brute-force program to give to them as a greeting gift when their game is launched. After all, we know best where the vulnerabilities and backdoors are in our code.”

Chapter 173 Disappointment

"Yinno, you're so mean."

Akira Higashino glanced at the cunning woman and uttered this sigh.

On the other side, Ms. Yang stuck out her pink tongue at him, smiled mischievously, and then pretended to look aggrieved.

"So, will Higashino-kun dislike Koyo because of this?"

Higashino Akira straightened up slightly and shook his head, "No, I like it very much!"

It's just talk, a bit of fun, but Akira Higashino's confidence has never come from commercial products that can be copied.

The success of "Okumizome Monogatari" may have drawn on the strengths of many of his previous successful works, but its core essence is that it is not about making money.

They didn't come here to make a lot of money.

This game is able to make a lot of money because it was the first to capture fresh traffic from its new theme and mode, and the system's divine power allowed it to recognize the daily monetary rewards provided by Higashino Akira as a legitimate channel for making payments.

Later writers only saw that Akira Higashino made a fortune through "Okumizome Monogatari" and tried to imitate and plagiarize it. Even if they made the finished product, it was unlikely to become as popular as that, especially if it was made into a free game. Losing money would be the norm, and making a small profit would be the best they could do.

The market is only so big; without any differentiation, how can competitors possibly stand out?

The true value of "The Story of Okumizome" to Yunmeng Group lies in the fact that it has facilitated cooperation between different industries within the group, incubated new industries, and enabled the entire group to develop collaboratively.

For Yunmeng Group, its value lies not in how much money it can make, but in how much influence it can have.

Outsiders don't possess this kind of "golden rule" or similar "bug-like" ability. If they come with the goal of making money, they will only be imitating others poorly and will ultimately end up disappointed.

A blush crept onto Yukino's pretty face, and her eyes welled up with tears as she looked at the man who had so frankly expressed his preferences.

"Are we staying at Yukinoshita's house tonight? Mom seems to miss Yukino-chan again."

Why must we mention Yukino-chan?

Because Ms. Haruno is bad at the game but loves to play, and she's also stubborn. She can't hold her own by herself and refuses to admit defeat. The more she loses, the more like a little devil she becomes. She either admits it verbally but not in person, or she admits it verbally but not in person. Only when the sisters work together can they win the whole game.

However, this time, Akira Higashino really couldn't agree.

She shook her head. "Let your mother go. Auntie has dark circles under her eyes lately. The soundproofing in your house is terrible."

"Besides, it's not good to go every day. I have other girlfriends too. If this continues, I'll soon become the son-in-law of the Yukinoshita family."

Miss Haruno puffed out her cheeks and looked at him resentfully, "Isn't this good? Ever since Higashino-kun came, my status in the family has dropped another level. Mom treats you more affectionately than she treats me and Yukino, her two biological daughters. People who don't know better would think that Higashino-kun is the biological daughter."

“A son-in-law is like half a son, so it’s normal to treat him like a biological son.” Higashino Akira shrugged.

"Uh-huh!"

Beside him, Yukinoshita Haruno was puzzled for a moment, then suddenly realized what was happening, and chuckled as she playfully punched him.

Who has such a thick skin?

I've never seen him this bad before, not even when I was in Zongwu High School.

…………

Walking down the street to the location of the affordable rental housing, looking at the increasingly dilapidated yet familiar scenery around her, Toyokawa Shoko became more and more silent.

Take out the key and open the door.

A strong, pungent odor of alcohol evaporating and fermenting along with other smells instantly assaulted the senses.

This made the girl feel increasingly disappointed.

She went inside and, without a word, skillfully found trash bags and tools, and began cleaning the room bit by bit.

Gradually, the messy room was tidied up and transformed into a habitable environment.

On the bed, a thin, frail man with messy hair and an unshaven, unkempt appearance woke up at some point. He glanced silently at the girl who was moving around cleaning the room, as if stung by her cleanliness and brightness, and then silently looked back at the ceiling above his head.

'Xiangzi...why did you come back?'