Chapter 248: Popularity Is Strength!
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24
A [Random Draw] card… so such a card finally appeared, and it was even in a "shard" form!
Seiji instantly understood what it was by the na. He checked the system’s explanation to confirm his thoughts, and it was just as he expected.
[When you have five [Random Draw Shards], you may combine them into a [Random Draw] card. If you don’t have enough [Random Draw Shards], you may also exchange for them with points.]
[Each [Random Draw] card will reward you with a random item.]
‘Now you’re giving [Random Draws] and even [shards]… You’ve finally fallen to such an extent, system of mine,’ Seiji inwardly comnted.
As anyone who’d played an internet-based browser ga or cell phone ga before would know, terms like [Random Draw] or [shards]—or their equivalent—were incredibly common in such gas and the players viewed them with mixed feelings.
The thrill of [Random Draws] was addictive: there were wonderful surprises like "drawing a legendary on the first try" or depressing events like "drawing nothing but commons fifty tis in a row." It was a contrast between heaven and hell, the lucky and the unlucky… and gas reaped huge amounts of profit from the maths behind probability. There were probably enough regretful players to form a line around the world’s equator.
And while "shards" could give players a specific reward, they would have to obtain many of them through certain tasks or by grinding specific levels and so on, which wasn’t all that fun by itself.
Sotis, players would even wax philosophical about it: ‘Am I playing the ga, or is the ga playing ?"; "Is the ti spent on this worth it?"; "What is the aning of life?’ Such philosophical questions were just a few examples from the many out there.
At any rate, if he wanted to, Seiji could comnt on these two common ga factors for three consecutive days and nights, but he decided to forgo that.
No matter what, it was good that he would be rewarded.
Thunderbolt Literature’s magazine would surely sell more copies, so his story would receive more exposure, and more and more readers would enjoy his work, so he would constantly receive more rewards.
‘Now that I have such a reward option, I really need to take novel writing super seriously,’ Seiji thought to himself. 'After all, popularity is strength!’
If he wrote even better novels, more readers would enjoy it, and he would reap a large number of points and items.
He continued writing his novel. And like this, it was lunchti before he knew it.
Chiaki and Mika had both finished reading his novel and had given him excellent reviews.
"I think that your novel has the potential to be extended into a longer one… no, you definitely should continue it," Chiaki told him. "After I finished, I still wanted to read; I felt that there wasn’t enough to satisfy ."
"I also agree; Seigo’s really good at writing!" Mika gave him her honest opinion: "I… don’t know how to describe it. I just think it’s really good, and the end was rather moving. It left enough open for to want to read more."
"It’s good that you guys like it." Seiji smiled. "As for continuing that story… I may do so in the future, but I don’t have any plans to do so right now. First, I want to focus on doing a good job for ‘Brother Monogatari,’ as I believe it will be an even better story than this short story here! That’s because I worked hard on creating it together with Shika-chan."
Seiji assud a resolute eexpression.
Both Mika and Chiaki were rather moved; they felt that he looked really cool with such a serious expression.
"I really look forward to it… when you’re done, could you let look at your draft?" Chiaki asked.
"I’d like to see your draft as well." Mika made the sa request.
Seiji grinned. "Of course. I should say that I'm hoping for the two of you to give an early review."
At this mont, soone walked up to them. It was Kaho Miyamoto.
She had a lunchbox in her hand and was blushing furiously as she walked over to them. She was obviously nervous.
"I… would like to eat lunch together with you guys. Is… is that alright?"
Seiji exchanged glances with Chiaki and Mika. "Of course."
"You’re more than welco, Miyamoto-san," Chiaki said.
"Please have a seat…" Mika chid in.
Naturally, three of them had no problem with her presence.
Kaho inwardly heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed visibly when the trio greeted her amicably. She was still nervous, though, and sat down tentatively.
Her good friend Momoko Matsuoka had repeatedly encouraged her, and her friend's urging had bolstered her courage to the point of doing this.
If it had been up to herself, she would have been satisfied with just being able to talk to Seigo Harano during class ti. A "big event" like eating lunch together with him was sothing to be left for later…
But Momoko argued against her way of thinking and advised her that she needed to take action as quickly as possible in order to ensure their new status as friends.
Eating together during lunchti was common for friends to do. If she could do this much, it would secure her relationship with him as a friend.
And if she didn’t do this much, their relationship as friends—which was only verbal—would gradually fade over ti if they didn’t have constant contact. Eventually, they’d end up being "casual friends."
Kaho felt that Momoko was right, so she accepted her advice and decided to take this step forward.
Voluntarily getting closer to him and adding herself to his social circle… she'd done it once already during the laser tag activity, but this was different, as this was a commonplace, everyday activity rather than a one-ti event.
Participating in an one-ti event together was poles apart from doing sothing like eating lunch with him every day.
This was truly taking a step into his social world. She had taken this step, but she hadn’t crossed the threshold just yet.
She needed to do a good job and make it through lunchti.
Just what should she do? What should she say? Should she bring up a topic of conversation? Would she be able to follow their topics of conversation? Such anxieties filled her heart.
Everyone was able to see how nervous she was.
Seiji smiled to reassure her. "Miyamoto-san, do you like reading light novels?"
"Er… I do."
"We’re currently chatting about light novels… the one that I wrote."
Kaho's eyes widened in surprise. "Harano-san… wrote a novel!?"
A copy of Thunderbolt Literature’s magazine was placed in front of her.
Seiji explained how his short novel was published and asked her to read it as well and give him a review.
Kaho was shocked that Seigo Harano had written a light novel which had been published!
She marveled at this in her heart and quickly began reading the novel in the magazine. The beginning of the story gripped and captured her interest.
Naturally, Seiji involved her in the topic of his light novel as he began chatting with the three girls.
Unbeknownst to her, Kaho's nervousness soon dissipated due to the fact that light novels were one of her favorite topics.
By the ti she finally realized it, they had finally finished a fun lunch together.
‘I succeeded!' she thought jubilantly. 'No… Harano-san succeeded…’
Kaho realized that Seigo Harano was the one who successfully helped her integrate into his social circle, and she felt a warm feeling in her chest upon realizing this.
They definitely weren’t just "casual friends." He really was treating her as his friend.
The handso boy’s smile remained in her mind for a long ti without fading.
…
Atsushi Suzuki was a normal first-year middle school student.
He wasn’t one of the most popular, nor was he an outcast in his class. He had ordinary friends, ordinary grades, and was ordinary at sports—in short, he was a perfectly ordinary student.
Since his older brother was very fond of light novels, manga, and ani, Atsushi was influenced by him and shared his tastes, albeit not to the sa extent as his older brother. Just about everything he read was borrowed from his older brother.
Today, Atsushi’s brother bought the newest week’s edition of Thunderbolt Literature’s magazine just like always and put it down on the table after finishing the series he was following. After that, he began watching so ani. Atsushi wasn’t interested in this ani, so he took the magazine back to his own room.
When he opened it up, a title in the table of contents caught his attention.
I’ll Die If I Don’t Beco Handso … This title was rather interesting, so he decided to give it a try.
Atsushi flipped to the page the story was on and played so music to listen to while reading. He soon lost himself in reading.
He laughed loudly at the comical monts, beca nervous at the tense monts, and frowned when the main character acted depraved. He was overjoyed when the main character recovered his spirit and joined the final battle and was moved by the final scene.
Atsushi remained in a daze for quite a while after he finished reading.
Then, he flipped through to the beginning and read the entire story over again while paying more attention to detail.
‘This is really an amazing story. Why isn’t it a little longer? This isn’t enough at all!’
He felt that this story was his ideal light novel.
Especially the fighting scenes, as Atsushi felt like reading them was just as descriptive as watching an ani… no, it was even more vivid than watching an ani! He could imagine each scene in such vivid detail; he accredited this to the author’s nearly professional-level descriptions.
This author seed too amazing to him.
The pen na was… Idle Dinsion by The Shore.
Atsushi felt that it was a rather strange pen na but committed this na to his mory nonetheless.
This was the first ti in his life he had ever committed an author’s na to his mory as well as the first ti he had ever wanted to write to an author to express how much he liked the story.
Atsushi walked out of his room.
"Bro, can I write the reply letter to the magazine for this week’s edition?" he asked.
"Hmm? Of course. I don’t mind at all… but why are you suddenly interested in writing the magazine a letter?" his brother asked casually. He was curious about this unexpected request.
"There’s a story that I really enjoyed, so I wanted to write in and support the author."
"Oh, which story is it?"
Atsushi told his brother the na of the story, then he went back to his room to fill in the magazine’s reply letter.
He voted for I’ll Die If I Don’t Beco Handso as his #1 favorite in the magazine’s weekly fan poll.
He wasn’t the only reader to do this.
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