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[Game] Chapter 120: Gossiping Girls
🕑 Added 2025-01-24 03:53:20 +0000 UTCAs the owner of the studio, Ichin's responsibilities extended beyond just participating in development—understanding the abilities of his employees was also a key part of his job.
When Aoba worked at Eagle Jump, she had joined straight out of high school, learning 3D modeling from scratch at the company. Despite starting as a novice, her innate talent allowed her to learn quickly. During the development of Fairy Stories 3, she created numerous NPCs, and a few major characters were entirely her work.
After joining Ichin's studio, even though the project was not another 3D game, her efficiency and the quality of her work had remained exceptional.
Yagami Ko had even suggested more than once to Ichin that with additional training, Aoba could easily grow into a self-reliant artist capable of handling significant responsibilities.
After some consideration, Ichin decided to add some pressure on Aoba and see if she could make further progress.
Although Aoba didn’t fully grasp Ichin's reasoning, she could tell he intended to assign her more tasks. Brimming with confidence, she declared, "No problem! Whatever the task is, I’m confident I can handle it!"
"Confidence is good, but don’t rush. Take it one step at a time," Ichin advised.
As he spoke, he got up and walked toward the kitchen. "I’m going to make some coffee. Want some?"
"Sure!" Aoba replied enthusiastically, following him to the kitchen. "Just black coffee for me!"
"Oh? No milk or sugar?" Ichin said with a chuckle as he prepared the coffee. "Looks like you've achieved something I can't."
Although Ichin frequently drank coffee, he couldn’t handle pure black coffee. He preferred it with milk and sugar—he didn’t care about "savoring the unique taste of coffee." If it tasted better with milk and sugar, that was enough for him.
After making the coffee, they returned to their desks. By then, the rest of the team had started arriving, and the studio settled into its workday.
Rin, after hearing Ichin's earlier instructions, reorganized the development schedule and distributed tasks to everyone.
"Aoba, here’s your task list for the next week," Rin said, handing her a sheet.
Aoba skimmed it, and her eyes widened in shock.
The tasks assigned to her for the next week were 50% more than what she typically handled in a week.
Seeing her expression, Rin leaned in and whispered with a smile, "Relax. Don’t stress too much. Ichin-kun asked me to increase your workload a bit, but I believe this is within your ability to complete. And even if you can’t finish, it’s fine. Our development timeline has room for adjustments. Just focus on doing your best, but don’t compromise quality for speed, okay?"
Rin’s words helped Aoba calm down. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she said, "Got it. I’ll do my best!"
Rin smiled and patted her head before moving on to assign tasks to others.
In truth, it wasn’t just Aoba whose workload had increased. Everyone’s tasks had been slightly ramped up as well.
The ongoing updates for Slay the Spire were assigned by Ichin to Narumi and Momiji, with Rin and Umiko overseeing their work.
At 10:30, the studio door opened, and Utaha finally arrived.
Looking lazy as ever, she walked over to Ichin’s desk, hugged him from behind, and closed her eyes. “Ichin, what time did you get up?”
“Me?” Ichin replied without stopping his work. “I got up around eight and came to the studio by nine. You were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t want to wake you. By the way, did you have breakfast after you got up?”
“Yes, I saw the breakfast you made,” Utaha replied with a smile. She kissed Ichin on the cheek before letting go and heading to her own desk.
Their intimate gestures were noticed by everyone in the studio. While most of the team had gotten used to it, Narumi and Momiji still blushed whenever they saw it.
Sakura Nene, sitting next to Narumi, leaned closer and whispered, “Tsubame-chan, you’re still not used to it, huh? Hehe, I was shocked too when I found out they were dating. They’re younger than us, but they’re already a couple—and constantly showing it off in front of us!”
Narumi Tsubame blushed and nodded. “But they’re a great match. Ichin-kun is amazing at game development, and Utaha is a talented light novel author. Her novels are selling better and better. Plus, they’re both top students—always ranking first and second in their grade.”
“Jealous?” Sakura Nene teased in a low voice. “I went to an all-girls college, so I didn’t even think about dating. But your school should have some handsome guys, right?”
“Huh? My school?” Narumi paused, frowning slightly as she thought. “Not really. I’m in a computer science program, so there are a lot of guys, but none of them are particularly good-looking. Although, Momo mentioned there are a few handsome guys in her department.”
“Huh?” Mochizuki Momiji, who had been working, looked up when she heard her name. “What’s up?”
Sakura Nene waved her over, and though slightly confused, Mochizuki scooted her chair closer.
Raising her hand, Sakura Nene asked softly, “Momo, are there any handsome guys in your art department?”
“Guys?” Mochizuki tilted her head. “There are some. Why, Nene-chan, are you looking for a boyfriend?”
“No, no, no!” Sakura Nene quickly waved her hands in denial. “I was just curious. And Momo, you’re so cute—aren’t there any guys at your school trying to pursue you?”
“Not that I’ve noticed,” Mochizuki replied bluntly. “After class, I usually meet up with Tsubame, and we eat lunch or head home together. I don’t really talk to guys. There were a few who asked for my contact information, but I didn’t give it to them. They didn’t seem like good people.”
Wait... wasn’t that a bit harsh? Maybe they were just genuinely interested in you?
Hearing Mochizuki’s response, Nene sighed. “It looks like our studio, and especially us newbies, have no hope. None of us have ever dated, so we don’t even have any juicy gossip to share.”
“Sakura-san?”
A deep voice suddenly sounded behind her, and the petite Sakura Nene instantly shrank in surprise.
“Eek!!”
Startled, she turned around cautiously, only to find Umiko standing behind her.
...
