Tokyo: Oreimo

Her long, golden hair cascaded over her shoulders, the hood of her Buffet pajamas was askew, her arms were crossed over her chest, and she wore an expression that said, "I'm giving you a lecture, you'd better listen carefully."

But her earlobes were red, her knees were slightly pulled back, and her toes were rubbing against the chair's crossbar, making a soft friction sound.

"Do you want me to go to college, or do you want me to go to school with you?"

After Ryosuke asked that question, Ayano froze.

The blush that spread from her ears to her cheeks spread at a visible speed, even tinging her neck with a light pink hue.

"Who, who said such a thing! I was just thinking of Mom and Dad! Don't flatter yourself!"

She sprang up from her chair and reached for the workbook on the table. In her haste, her knee slammed against the edge of the table, making her gasp in pain. But she gritted her teeth, grabbed the workbook, flipped to the first page, and slammed it down in front of Ryosuke.

"I need to do my homework!"

Ryosuke looked at her flustered appearance and suddenly felt like laughing.

Only Ling Nai would do something so abruptly to change the subject.

This guy's thoughts have clearly been exposed.

Using the workbook as a shield, he tried to portray what he had just said as "just thinking about his parents."

"Okay, okay." Ryosuke took the workbook, opened it, and placed his pen on the blank space of the first question. "I'll think about university."

Ling Nai paused for a moment.

".....real?"

"Ah."

"So, if you were to take the college entrance exam, which university would you choose?"

Ling Nai didn't even look up, casually asking the question as if she didn't care.

"I haven't decided yet, maybe Waseda or the University of Tokyo. If I really go, I might apply to a faculty specializing in literature."

If I really want to learn, it's for the purpose of accumulating knowledge for creative work.

That's what Ryosuke plans to do.

“Then I’ll take the exam there too.”

"Oh."

Ryosuke chuckled.

"What? What are you laughing at? Are you looking down on me?"

Ling Nai glared at him with displeasure.

With her current deviation score, if she wants to get into Waseda University or the University of Tokyo, she must make the most of every minute and second over the next year.

The comic book serialization can't stop, and studies can't be neglected either; to be honest, it's quite difficult.

But she didn't hesitate for even a second.

".....I see."

Ryosuke smiled and nodded.

"What do you know?"

"I know you want to go to the same university as me."

"I already said that's not what I meant!"

Chapter 228 Clinging to a Powerful Backer

In late June in Chiba, the rainy season was not yet completely over, and the air was thick with a humid, muggy heat.

The living room of the Gao family was unusually lively for once.

Mieko started working early in the morning, and Takashiro Isao, who rarely left work early, even brought back a box of not-so-cheap sushi platter.

On the dinner table was an extra plate of tuna belly, which is not usually served. Mieko also made an extra dish of potato stew, which Ryosuke loves.

The news that Ryosuke had been accepted into the Faculty of Letters at Waseda University arrived in the afternoon.

Mihoko's hands were shaking as she opened the letter. Her eyes immediately welled up with tears after reading it. She looked at the acceptance letter over and over again, and finally carefully put it in the living room drawer, next to Ryosuke's report cards from previous years.

"I knew this kid would be fine." At the dinner table, Takashiro Isao drank two cups of sake, his face flushed, and patted Ryosuke's shoulder so hard that Ryosuke almost dropped his chopsticks. "Waseda, the Faculty of Letters, haha, even my colleagues can't believe it."

"Yongfu, keep your voice down," Mieko said with a smile, though she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

"Just lucky." Ryosuke took the rice bowl, only to be kicked by Ryouno from under the table.

"Don't pretend to be modest, you rascal." The blonde girl pouted, poking at the red bean rice in her bowl with her chopsticks, her tone carrying an awkwardness that she couldn't quite explain.

She was the one who encouraged him to take the college entrance exam, and she was the one who kept saying, "I want to take the exam there too." But he actually got in, and she felt annoyed that someone had beaten her to it.

"Ling Nai, you should also do your best." Takashiro Yuu rarely spoke up, a smile on his rugged face. "Ryosuke has been tutoring you for so long, it can't all be for nothing."

"I know!"

Ling buried her face in the bowl.

After dinner, Mieko brought out a strawberry cake with the words "Wishing you success" crookedly written on it in chocolate sauce.

As Ryosuke cut the cake, Ayano leaned over and whispered "Congratulations," her voice barely audible, before she picked up the plate and retreated to the corner of the sofa.

Ryosuke looked at her profile, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously curved into a smile.

.......

The days that followed were relatively peaceful, lasting until early July. Tokyo was unbearably hot, with cicadas chirping from morning till night, and the asphalt roads softening under the sun.

During this time, Ryosuke locked himself in his room to finish his manuscript for "Sword Art Online".

The air conditioner was set to 24 degrees Celsius, and the table was piled with half-empty coffee cans and half-finished world-building sketches.

The script for SAO was much larger than he had anticipated.

The floating city of Aincrad has one hundred floors, each with its own theme, monster design, town scenery, and story events.

Unlike what he remembered, he did not intend to copy it completely, but instead made continuous adjustments based on his own understanding and the program feedback from Saori's side.

In order to make the sense of oppression of the "death game" sink into the player's heart from the very beginning, the text presentation needs to be modified to a certain extent.

After all, it was originally an anime, and there are many things that need to be adjusted to make it into a visual novel.

Fortunately, the original author's novel features a large number of female characters, which provides Ryosuke with some advantages.

The work on designing multiple travel routes is also progressing relatively smoothly.

Aside from the main storyline remaining consistent with the anime, the other different routes will lead to different endings, which requires a lot of work from Ryosuke, as there will be a considerable amount of original content, unlike his previous works.

The cicadas outside the window suddenly increased in volume. He rubbed his temples and continued typing.

.....

Meanwhile, the popularity of Death Note is stirring up a small storm within Shueisha.

After the editorial meeting on Monday morning, Hideo Nomura was kept behind by the editor-in-chief.

"Nomura-kun." The editor-in-chief looked up from behind his desk, took off his reading glasses and wiped them. "The reader feedback from last week's Death Note is back."

Nomura's heart clenched suddenly.

"Ranked number one." The editor-in-chief pushed a printed statistics table in front of him, a rare smile appearing on his lips. "Not number one in the unit, number one in the overall ranking, even surpassing ONE PIECE."

Nomura's hand was trembling when he took the paper.

The statistics table was densely filled with the vote counts for each work, with "Death Note" at the very top, its vote count nearly three hundred more than the second-place entry.

He stared at the words for a full ten seconds before remembering to breathe.

"After the character Misa Amane appeared, the reader feedback increased significantly."

The editor-in-chief put his reading glasses back on. "Her scenes with L, her interactions with Yue, and her 'Death Eye' setting have been discussed enthusiastically in the readers' letters. Nomura-kun, you've struck gold."

When Nomura came out of the editor-in-chief's office, he was practically floating.

He had just sat down at his workstation when Kenta Kimura, who was at the next table, came over.

"Nomura, congratulations." Kimura patted him on the shoulder, his tone filled with undisguised envy. "Death Note has reached the top spot, amazing."

"Thank you, Kimura-senpai. 'This Is a Zombie' did quite well, didn't it?"

"It's not bad, but it's still far inferior to 'Death Note'."

"The development of the Misa Amane part was indeed wonderful. The psychological battle between L and Light was already tense enough, but then a love-struck Shinigami follower suddenly appeared, and the tension of the whole story changed instantly."

Kenta Kimura leaned back in his chair and sighed, "Of all the serializations I'm following, the one I'm most looking forward to the next chapter of is yours. Honestly, with this level of original work and animation, it would be a pillar of any publishing house."

Before Nomura could answer, Tanaka, who was at the opposite workstation, also looked up.

Tanaka is in charge of another comedy manga serialized in "Jump," which has been performing poorly in recent issues, and he always looks tired.

"Nomura, you have to treat us." Tanaka's tone was half-joking and half-serious. "Death Note is currently our editorial department's best-performing journal. As the editor in charge, it wouldn't be right for you not to do something, would it?"

"Definitely, definitely. I'll treat you to the next gathering."

“Let’s not do it next time, let’s do it this Friday.” Kenta Kimura chimed in, “That yakitori restaurant in Shinjuku, haven’t you been saying you wanted to go?”

Nomura smiled and agreed.

But he knew perfectly well what was going on in his mind.

It wasn't that Hideo Nomura was particularly talented; he was just lucky.

It's so good it's almost unbelievable.

Last winter, when Rumiko Takashiro almost had her serialization interrupted due to a hiatus, he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, but he couldn't help her in any substantial way.

Later, Ryosuke resolved the issue, Ayano recovered, and the serialization got back on track.

Ultimately, the original work, storyboard, and plot development were all created by that high school student.

He simply sat at his workstation in the editorial department, collecting manuscripts, proofreading, relaying messages, occasionally offering some minor suggestions, and then watching the work soar to new heights.

"Nomura, what are you thinking about?" Kimura's voice pulled him back from his thoughts.

“It’s nothing.” Nomura shook his head, his gaze falling on the statistics sheet on the table. “I was just thinking that I’m probably the luckiest editor in all of Japan.”

"Ok?"