I have a life simulator.

Having already prepared herself mentally, Shiina Hiyori also showed no intention of leaving.

"Okay, it seems that I'm the only one who needs to sort out my feelings. Let's all stay here and have some drinks and chat. I'll go for a walk outside and take Ying back with me."

Seeing that the originally envisioned trio was about to double, Kitagawa Ryo frowned slightly without hesitation, quietly retreated behind the others, and prepared to take a step back for the time being, sending Hotaru, who was currently the most troublesome person for him, home first.

As Amasawa Ichika predicted, his relationship with Hotaru definitely needed a period of time for both of them to change and adapt. Hotaru also understood this, so when Kitagawa Ryo called her name, she immediately nodded obediently and took the kitten with her.

"If you want to raise Ying, you can take over this month of exam time, since you are originally one person."

Seeing that the kitten had completely achieved its goal, Kitagawa Ryo casually handed her over to his sister. Anyway, the kitten might have already shown his sister all his life experiences, so he could only let her do as she pleased. After all, even if she was locked next to him, people could still give her lessons in her dreams every night, so it was better to just hand her over like this.

"Yes, I'll take good care of myself."

Watching his younger sister rubbing her face affectionately against the pure white kitten's fluffy side, Kitagawa Ryo unconsciously smiled.

Ying once told him that gods are beings born from people's wishes.

So she was born because of him, and he exists because of her.

They are each other's only god.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: Hotaru's romantic storyline in the main story ends here. It will be added in the extra chapters later.

Chapter 79: The Birth of a Mystery (Romance) Novelist

After sending his two younger sisters home, Kitagawa Ryo originally planned to stay at his house for the night as well. After all, according to Hotaru, his room was always cleaned and tidied, and she would sometimes stay there for a couple of nights herself. However, considering that staying at his own house during this special exam would also be against the rules, he had no choice but to give up on the idea.

While he does have some points that would exempt him from expulsion, using them in this situation is a bit of a waste and unnecessary.

And so, after waving goodbye to his sisters, Kitagawa Ryo had no choice but to head back to the hotel. Fortunately, he didn't linger for long, because Amasawa Ichika had sent him a text message explaining everything and stating that he could go to Karuizawa Megumi and Shiina Hiyori's room when he got back.

After all, according to the bet between her and Horikita Suzune, only after the established fact between Karuizawa Megumi and Shiina Hiyori has occurred can she legitimately bring Suzune down with her.

Although he had guessed part of the bet between Amasawa Ichika and Horikita Suzune beforehand, Kitagawa Ryo still couldn't help but feel a bit of a sore throat when he actually saw it.

However, her explanation saved Kitagawa Ryo from agonizing over it. After returning to the hotel, she went straight to the door of Karuizawa Megumi and Shiina Hiyori's room. She knocked lightly twice and quickly received a response. The door was pulled open from the inside shortly afterward.

Compared to the rather 'shabby' room that Horikita Suzune and Kitagawa Ryo booked, which had basically no other facilities besides two double beds, Karuizawa Megumi's budget was indeed much more generous. After all, the theater troupe was, in a sense, no different from her home, so getting a little advance on her salary was no problem at all.

That's why she specifically chose a couples-themed suite when booking the room. Not only were the beds changed to one round and one heart-shaped, but the atmosphere created by the lighting and fragrance was also completely different.

Although limited by the hotel's overall level, these couples' suites cannot be equipped with facilities such as private pools, hot springs, cinemas, small lounge areas, or even minibars. However, they do have basic open-plan bathrooms with extra-large bathtubs, and there are curtains and drapes decorated with rose and star patterns hanging by the bed.

Of course, having only just entered and briefly looked around, Kitagawa Ryo didn't know if there were any clothes or props hidden in the bedside table and wardrobe. Just the sight before her was enough to make this literary girl, who had never experienced such a thing before, blush and her heart race to the point that she almost turned into a steam girl on the spot.

In response, Karuizawa Megumi and Kitagawa Ryo exchanged a knowing glance, clearly recalling Hiyori from her first simulation.

Judging solely from the contrast between the female leads, Karuizawa Kei's first simulation is indeed enough to compete with Sakayanagi Arisu's last simulation for the title of "Major Sick Ward," especially when combined with the real-life situation, making it quite entertaining in every aspect.

Unlike the cramped bathroom at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, which is only big enough for one person (although it is designed for single rooms), this couples' suite has a bathroom that is almost the size of an entire dormitory room. In addition to a huge bathtub for couples to bathe together, it adopts a classic semi-open design, separated from the outside only by a semi-transparent frosted glass partition.

Before Kitagawa Ryo arrived, Karuizawa Kei was already performing a series of actions in the bathroom. When he came in, the huge round bathtub was already filled with hot water at the right temperature. The light steam and fragrance filled the bathroom mirror and even the entire room with an ambiguous and romantic atmosphere.

Since it was summer, everyone's clothes were quite light, so Kitagawa Ryo, who was pushed in first by the two, only closed his eyes and rested for a while in the hot water before the soft sounds of water entering the water could be heard all around. Shiina Hiyori and Karuizawa Megumi, whose long hair was tied up high, also entered the water one after the other.

Compared to having never done anything so exciting in her life, Shiina Hiyori immediately started cosplaying as a mermaid after getting into the water, wanting to bury her whole face in the water as well. In fact, she did turn her back and submerge half her face, bubbling away. Karuizawa Megumi, who dared to wear the attack speed set bunny girl on her first time, had no psychological burden at all. After getting in the water, she reached out and scooped up a handful of water, gently sprinkling it on Kitagawa Ryo's shoulder from behind. As the water droplets slid down, her fingers followed in sync, gently tracing his collarbone. Then, she leaned in close, gesturing for Kitagawa Ryo to quickly pull Hiyori over.

Without any prompting from Karuizawa Kei, Kitagawa Ryo knew perfectly well that the moment Shiina Hiyori was pushed in front of him, it was a signal that he should take the initiative. So, the next second, he reached out and pulled Hiyori closer to him.

The distance between the two was instantly reduced to almost zero. Shiina Hiyori's back was pulled against Kitagawa Ryo's chest, and warm water carrying a few rose petals flowed between them, as if transferring their warmth to each other.

As the saying goes, most literary girls are masters of theoretical knowledge, and Shiina Hiyori is no exception. As soon as Kitagawa Ryo's hand reached underwater and wrapped around her waist, he could clearly feel her tremble subconsciously. Then, she completely lost her strength and collapsed into his arms, as if she was about to melt into the pool of water.

Then, Kitagawa Ryo turned her around in his arms again. To prevent Shiina Hiyori from sinking again, this time he simply used both hands to gently lift her face and leaned in to kiss her skin-to-skin in the water.

More than a year later, when Hiyori Shiina, who had just graduated from Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, began to draft the preface to her first series, she couldn't help but mention this evening once again.

"Around that time, I knew I couldn't be the next Agatha Christie."

This world-renowned mystery queen experienced two complicated marriages in her life. Her first husband gave her beautiful memories and encouraged her to write her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, but he also betrayed her emotionally, to the point that she made the morbid act of disappearing alone for eleven days and finally being found to have checked into a hotel under the name of her love rival.

But just as the saying goes, "When a nation is unfortunate, a poet is fortunate," it was precisely because of this failed marriage that she was able to create classic works such as "The Ghost in the Valley" and "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".

In fact, marriage, love, and mystery have always been complementary and inseparable. Whether it's "Death on the Nile," "Murder on the Orient Express," or "And Then There Were None," love occupies a significant part of the story.

The ingenuity of the core plot and puzzle design is often regarded as the lifeblood of a detective novel, but in fact, so is the motivation. The most common things that can make people have strong murderous intent towards someone that is not allowed by law and morality are love and hate, which are human emotions that can never be avoided.

However, Hiyori Shiina still felt that she could not write a marriage full of suspicion and deception like in "The Valley of the Dead," nor could she write the love that Agatha Christie herself wrote after her second happy marriage, "The Date with Death," which was full of warmth and hope but was still complicated, like a profound enlightenment.

'Therefore, I want to write about a truly unique pair of partners.'

In short, Shiina Hiyori, who for many years was asked by readers why she didn't switch to writing romance light novels instead of mystery novels, has finally achieved her ultimate enlightenment today:

Anyway, people will always care about the detective and assistant partnership no matter how it's written. The most classic Sherlock Holmes and Watson are even more popular among certain groups than among mystery novel fans, so it's better to just use that as the original intention of the creation.

The detective and assistant figures were not created naturally because the mystery was conceived first.

As for Hiwa Shiina herself...

She simply wanted to see these two unmasked characters doing anything together, including her favorite things—deduction and detective work.

----------------------------------

Meanwhile, Yuki, who had recently finished her day's work at the convenience store and successfully reunited with her sister, had just finished showering and was sitting on a single bed in another hotel on the other side of Tokyo, drying her hair and complaining:

"So why do first-year students have to work in places like this...?"

"It's probably because the school doesn't feel comfortable throwing students like us, who have only been enrolled for a short time, directly into companies. Besides, if future summer special exams are like this, we'll have two more chances."

Tsubaki Sakura, who was about to take over her sister's bath in the bathroom, stopped in her tracks upon hearing this and earnestly offered an explanation on her behalf.

"Moreover, it's because my older sister started school a year later; otherwise, she would be a second-year student now."

"Whether it's second year or not doesn't matter, the main thing is that we're quite a distance from Shibuya, and it's too much trouble to go find Ryo... I hate these special exam rules."

Unsurprisingly, Tsubaki Sakurako gave her sister's 'I knew it' look when she heard her sister's complaint. She then picked up her change of clothes and prepared to go back into the bathroom to take a shower, but then she heard Yuki's question.

"Speaking of which, did anything unusual happen to Sakura at her part-time job today? I heard that a first-year student on the forum accidentally caused an accident and was fined half a month's salary by the restaurant where he worked."

"...Yes, there are."

Thinking about how Amasawa Ichika had come to see her earlier that day, after hesitating for a moment, Tsubaki Sakura felt there was nothing particularly that needed to be hidden, so she told him everything as it was:

"Senior Tianze this afternoon..."

"She's the same age as you, what senior? Tch."

Upon hearing Tianze Yixia's name, Xue subconsciously pursed her lips again. It could be said that although she had just said that it didn't matter whether she was a second-year student or not, she was obviously a little concerned about Tianze Yixia, who was a year younger than her, sneaking off without permission.

"What does Yixia want with you?"

"They asked me a few questions about fireflies."

"firefly?"

"Yes, because I spoke with her alone during the club's special exam in May this year, and she seemed to care about this a lot."

"I see... So what did you say back then?"

Because Yuki and Horikita Suzune had been at the student council the whole day, she didn't know much about what was happening at the drama club in the auditorium. Upon hearing this, she temporarily turned off the hairdryer and asked her sister.

"It's about Ryo, senpai."

"Oh, Hotaru does care more about anything related to Ryo. After all, although they are not biological siblings, their relationship is even better than that of ordinary siblings. Before I enrolled in school, I went to Ryo's house several times, and Hotaru always received me. She always kept Ryo's room very tidy and organized."

Without pressing further, upon hearing the name Ying, Xue confidently turned the hairdryer back on and continued focusing on drying her hair, then quite naturally steered the conversation back to the topic:

"By the way, didn't I get some protection points during the special exam when everyone agreed? How about I skip class in a couple of days and go find some time to relax? Anyway, that would cancel one of my expulsion penalties."

"I don't really care, but it would be better if you told Senior Liang before you went, since he also has work to do... even though he's a freelancer."

"Yes, of course I know that. Anyway, we can still contact each other freely by phone, just like on campus. I can just send a message in advance."

As she spoke, Xue suddenly became curious about what Kitagawa Ryo was doing. She casually opened her contacts and sent a text message asking what was going on. However, after waiting for a while, she did not receive any reply from the other party, and the message status did not even change from unread to read.

As Tsubaki Sakurako went into the bathroom to take off her clothes, she casually took out her phone from her pocket and glanced at it. She immediately saw that a certain account she followed on social media had updated with a new post.

That was Hotaru's social media account that she told her before leaving after the last club special exam. Although Tokyo Advanced Educational High School prohibits students from communicating with people outside the school, there are no restrictions on accessing off-campus accounts on social media platforms; they just cannot reply.

"Today is our anniversary from the first day we started dating—"

Tsubaki Sakura glanced down, then looked a second time as if to confirm, before peeking out of the bathroom and seeing her older sister lying on the bed, muttering about why Kitagawa Ryo hadn't replied to her message yet.

Well, she does have a very bold guess now.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: How come some readers still guessed I was writing two books at once? I definitely don't have the energy or time to do that. After all, I messed up when I was writing two books at once two years ago, so I know my limitations very well. Right now, I'm definitely focusing all my efforts on finishing this one.

Chapter 80: Achieving Big Results with Small Investments

The second day of the special summer exams.

While Kitagawa Ryo was still engrossed in creating in the studio, Ryuen Sho, who had somehow gotten the news from Shiina Hiyori, suddenly came to his door.

Although he had only been away from Tokyo Advanced Educational High School for a day, he seemed to have completely integrated into the streets and alleys of Tokyo. However, his flowing red shoulder-length hair made him look more like a delinquent than a student.

Once he took off his school uniform and put on a headscarf, all that was missing for Long Yuanxiang was a motorcycle key in his hand so he could immediately start role-playing and say, "Old Deng, I parked my ghost fire downstairs." However, according to the other party, he really did walk all the way here today, so as soon as he entered the door, he chug down several large cups of tea.

"Your place is really nice. If it's convenient, can I sleep on the floor here tonight?"

As a more traditional Tokyo vagrant, Ryuen Sho didn't even want to spend money to open a hotel or stay in an internet cafe. Anyway, Kitagawa Ryo's place was enough for him to sleep and charge his phone. So, after chatting for a few minutes, he asked Kitagawa Ryo for a spare key.

However, he certainly didn't just prepare this temporary residence for Kitagawa Ryo. According to Ryuen Sho himself, this was the third temporary base he had found from yesterday to today. Ideally, he would have one in every two districts, which would also make it easier for him to wander around this big city more freely.

"But Ryuen, can you really achieve the goal of this special exam while you're just wandering around aimlessly?"

"Right now, we're just accumulating information. Just like you and Shiina, you haven't made any progress yet, have you? There always needs to be a period of preparation."

As he spoke, Ryuuen Sho also raised a finger, offering Kitagawa Ryo a suggestion:

"Besides, I didn't come here today just to freeload. I have some information. Yoshida from our class is interning at an advertising design company. Although he's currently just helping his seniors organize documents and doing odd jobs, the company is quite large, so he can still see some of the cutting-edge advertising shooting needs."

Next, Ryuen Sho took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and spread it in front of Kitagawa Ryo. It had the mark LOTO 6 on it, which is the famous Lotto series in Japanese lottery.

The lottery ticket that Ryuen Sho bought, Lotto 6, has the rule that you choose 6 numbers from 1 to 43, and you win if at least 3 of the numbers match. You can buy a ticket for 300 yen, and the highest prize can be as high as 200 million yen.

If the previous jackpot was not won, the prize money will be added to the next jackpot pool, but it can only be added once, which is a maximum of 400 million yen.

In Japan, people are also very enthusiastic about lotteries. There are even special auspicious days for buying lottery tickets, such as the "One-Pill-Ten-Thousand-Fold Day". The Lotto series is the most popular and highest-paying number lottery in Japan. Even a complete novice like Kitagawa Ryo, who has never been involved in this before, has heard of it.

According to Yoshida, the next series of Lotto is coming soon, namely Lotto 7, which follows Lotto 6. The prize money will be doubled, that is, the first prize of one time is 400 million yen, and the first prize of two times is 800 million yen.

When the figure of 800 million yen was mentioned, Ryuen Sho unconsciously raised his eyebrows, obviously recalling what Kitagawa Ryo had said to him more than a year ago.

At that time, he had just entered Tokyo Advanced Educational High School and was essentially no different from Nagumo Masaru. Both of them believed that they had completely figured out the high school's mystification and underlying logic and wanted to make full use of the school's various mechanisms for their own benefit.

Looking back, he was not even as good as Nan Yunya back then. After all, she had at least controlled the entire second year and half of the student council. She also made a lot of personal points by taking advantage of several loopholes in the school's rules in the special exams. Long Yuanxiang, on the other hand, was still clinging to his so-called plan to achieve a class A for everyone by using personal points. He wanted to achieve the goal of everyone graduating from class A in this evil way.

In essence, it's because both of them made the same mistake: they became overly immersed in the unique ecosystem of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School. After all, compared to yen, personal points sounded more like a game.

However, before this special summer exam began, the third-year students had extensive discussions on the campus forum about which large companies offered better salaries and which university was a better fit for them.

The average lifetime salary for graduates of the top two universities in Japan, the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, is only 460 million and 420 million yen, respectively.

However, the price that Long Yuanxiang would have to pay to achieve his idea of ​​having all students transfer to A class using 20 million personal points is 20 million multiplied by 40, which equals 800 million.

This is an amount that half of the graduates from the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University could never earn in their entire lives, and for ordinary people, the only way is through the small lottery ticket that Ryuen Sho is showing to Kitagawa Ryo at this moment.

With just 300 yen, you could win a grand prize of 400 million or even 800 million yen.

Long Yuanxiang didn't think he would be one of the lucky ones among the millions. In fact, after Kitagawa Ryo converted the 800 million points into yen, he decisively gave up on that completely wishful thinking. Now, seeing this lottery with a maximum prize of 800 million, he was no longer thinking about buying a ticket, but about how to profit from it.

"In order to achieve the largest possible publicity effect, they are preparing to shoot a series of special advertisements for release. If you are interested in this, Kitagawa, you can give it a try. Anyway, you should know more about this than I do, right?"

When confronted with Ryuen Sho's question, Kitagawa Ryo took the Lotto 6 lottery ticket and examined it for a while, but did not give an answer immediately.

In fact, like other parts of the world, Japanese advertising also emphasizes attracting viewers' attention and promoting products in the shortest amount of time. Most advertisements are limited to 30 seconds, which is similar to the short dramas that Kitagawa Ryo is currently making for fun.

"Long Yuan, when you passed by the lottery station and bought this Lotto 6 ticket, did you notice what kind of people were buying this kind of lottery?"

"Office workers, or rather, corporate slaves."

Long Yuanxiang answered without hesitation that, just as he said, most underage students do not actually fantasize about getting rich overnight by buying lottery tickets. On the contrary, middle-aged office workers who have a certain income and are overwhelmed by the pressure of their companies, workplaces, and families are more willing to gamble on their luck. Many people even buy a lottery ticket every day on their way to work, hoping that one day they will be favored by Lady Luck and change their fate.

"If the main target audience is office workers, then the advertisement should ideally be filmed to suit their style. The background and subject matter could be set in the workplace. If it's to be made into a series, the plot also needs to be considered. Each 30-second segment should be easy to watch independently and serve a promotional purpose, while also having an overall main storyline..."

After all, possessing the purple talent known as 'Great Screenwriter' and having nearly ten lifetimes of life simulation experience, Kitagawa Ryo quickly sketched out an outline in his notebook, tidied it up a bit, and handed it to Ryuen Sho:

"Take this plan back and let Yoshida and Higashi Iku take a look, or I can film a short demonstration video here later and take it with me."

Ryuen Sho probably didn't expect Kitagawa Ryo to have hand-wrote an advertisement script so quickly, but after taking the notebook and glancing at it briefly, his eyes lit up: