"It's almost discount season again."

With around ten days left before Steam's autumn sale, it was time to start thinking about discounts once more.

Ichin sat in his office, Peppa the cat nestled in his arms, eyes fixed on the Steam backend data displayed on his monitor.

Thanks to the spring and summer sales earlier this year, even though both Hollow Knight and Slay the Spire were already in their complete versions, their sales continued to rise steadily.

Slay the Spire in particular had been performing well, largely due to its Steam Workshop support. Fans kept creating all sorts of unique and interesting character mods, leading to a wide variety of gameplay experiences. Even players who had cleared the game with every official character found something fresh and fun with the mods.

As for Hollow Knight, Ichin had deliberately chosen not to enable Workshop support. Being an action game, adding mods would require careful consideration of visual style, animations, and more—making it much harder for modders to get right.

Right now, both games were closing in on two million units sold. Slay the Spire had a slight edge at 1.75 million, while Hollow Knight had reached 1.6 million.

Seeing those climbing sales numbers put Ichin in an exceptionally good mood.

"Mm, and the pre-orders for Persona are rising steadily too. Every livestream has had a clear promotional effect on both hype and pre-sales."

There were no streams planned for November, though—they had pushed the next one to December, aiming to hold it during Christmas.

For that holiday stream, they planned to reveal even more game content.

"It's almost the end of November now… then it'll be December… and just like that, this year will be over. If development progresses smoothly, we might finish the core content by April next year. Then all that'll be left is optimization and bug fixes."

If they could wrap development by April, they'd still be on track for the originally planned summer release—around July or August.

Ichin opened the project's development timeline and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

It really felt like… they could pull off a reverse delay.

In an industry where game delays were the norm, pulling off a surprise early release would definitely be a fun twist.

Just as he finished looking over the data, his phone rang—right on time.

"Ichin, I'm done over here. Come pick me up."

"Alright, I'm bringing Peppa with me."

Earlier that afternoon after school, Ichin had dropped Utaha off at the publishing house for a meeting, then headed straight to the company.

The plan was to take Peppa to the vet for a routine check-up once Utaha was finished. Peppa's weight had been steadily increasing, so they needed to start paying more attention.

Cats raised in the city had very different lifestyles from country cats—their activity levels just weren't the same. So health needed extra care.

Ichin packed Peppa into the cat carrier, told Yagami Ko he was heading out, and left the office.

He drove to the publishing house, picked up Utaha, and the two of them headed toward the pet hospital.

"How'd the novel meeting go today?"

"Pretty well."

Utaha glanced back at Peppa, comfortably curled up in the carrier on the backseat, and replied cheerfully, "Sonoko finished reviewing Volume 2. No issues with the content. The editor-in-chief also gave the final approval. Next up is marketing and printing. The release is scheduled for December. Once that's out, my tasks for the year are officially done—I'll finally be able to take a proper break."

Among light novel authors, Utaha's publishing pace was considered fast. Some writers, even with great sales, would take three to six months—or even longer—between volumes.

That's just how things go in the light novel industry here. If this were the online fiction scene in China, even taking a break for two or three days could cause serious problems.

"You may get to rest, but I can't yet. There's still a lot of work left to finish in the remaining month or so of the year."

To ensure the game could be completed within the planned schedule—or maybe even released earlier—Ichin needed to adjust the development plan further and push himself a bit harder.

Now that the Tokyo University matter was basically in the bag, he could afford to focus more attention on game development.

"Work, huh~~~"

Utaha looked over at Ichin, who was driving, and smiled. She reached out and gently poked his cheek with her finger. "Ichin, you really do love games, don't you?"

"Don't mess around—I'm driving."

Swatting her finger away, Ichin chuckled. "But yeah, I won't deny that. Just like you love writing light novels. People need to have something they enjoy doing—and if they can make money doing it, even better."

"Being able to do that makes someone pretty lucky. Gotta say, we've both been fortunate."

"Definitely."

About ten minutes later, the two arrived in front of a pet hospital.

After parking the car, Ichin picked up the cat carrier from the back seat.

"Alright, let's go in."

Just as they were about to push the door open, a familiar voice called out behind them.

"Oh my, if it isn't Ichin-kun and Kasumi Utako-sensei?"

Turning around, Ichin and Utaha saw someone they hadn't met in a while—Akane Akasaka. She was also holding a cat carrier, and standing next to her was a petite girl.

Ichin squinted slightly and smiled. "Long time no see, Miss Akasaka. You here for a vet visit too?"

"That's right. I brought my Persian cat for a spay surgery."

After replying, Akasaka wrapped an arm around the girl beside her and said, "Let me introduce you—this is the younger sister of one of my company's partners. She's also an art student with us: Umi Boshima. Umi, this is the Ichin I've mentioned before. And this is the light novelist, Kasumi Utako-sensei."

Clearly a little nervous, the girl quickly bowed to them. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Ichin, Ms. Kasumi Utako! I'm Umi Boshima!"

"Hello there." Utaha smiled, giving the young girl a once-over. She then looked at Akasaka and said, "Miss Akasaka, this girl—Miss Boshima—she's still in middle school, isn't she?"

Even though her figure was... a little beyond typical, her youthful face and overall presence made Utaha certain she was a junior high student.

Akasaka nodded with a grin. "That's right. Umi just turned 14 this year. She's incredibly talented. In my opinion, she's no less gifted than Eri Kashiwagi. She's someone I'm personally grooming!"

Umi, however, didn't share Akasaka's enthusiasm. Blushing, she humbly replied, "You're exaggerating, Akane-senpai! I could never compare to someone like Eri Kashiwagi-sensei!"

"Umi, I said you're talented, so you are! Don't you trust my judgment?"

Listening to Akasaka's words—and the glances she kept throwing his way—Ichin had a strange feeling.

Was she... showing off?

Still, if Umi Boshima really was as talented as Akasaka claimed, then she certainly had the potential to make a name for herself.

Not that it mattered much to Ichin, though—it didn't affect him one way or the other.

***

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