My second life is a bit strange?

"Would the young lady like to try a bishoujo game?"

"Do you want to hear what you're saying? I have absolutely no interest in games, let alone this kind of thing."

"Shirogane also participated in the game's production, referring to the soundtrack, but I heard from the rumors that there are characters based on him."

"what?"

Kaguya immediately perked up, ran to the computer desk, turned on the computer in one go, and patted the empty seat next to her: "Hayasaka, hurry up and download it for me."

After Hayasaka helped Kaguya successfully purchase the game, it started downloading, which took about ten minutes. During this time, Kaguya collected all the related music.

After downloading, with Hayasaka's help, I successfully created my first save file. The game has a built-in character customization feature.

"Young lady, you really did a... really good job of sculpting her." Hayasaka was at a loss for words.

"This makes me feel like I'm with Kaede." Pink bubbles were already starting to float around Kaguya.

"But Miss, have you ever thought about this..." Seeing that the other person couldn't hear anything after putting on their headphones, she stopped talking and said, "Never mind."

Kaguya, who had never played the game before, was completely amazed by the CG animation. The voice acting brought her to the maximum level of immersion, and the background music was even more healing.

"I'm starting to regret it." Kaguya looked at the beautiful girls in the screen with a strange expression. Controlling the protagonist to win over these characters made her feel like she was showing off.

"Why isn't pressing Y on Hayasaka working?" Kaguya's fingers frantically pressed the keyboard, making a clicking sound.

"These are the button layouts for a game controller. I'll change them to keyboard key mappings for you."

After the settings were adjusted, Kaguya continued to control the character's dialogue. The mundane and realistic daily life immediately resonated with her.

Even she couldn't help but exclaim in admiration, because it was so similar to her daily life.

However, a story is still just a story, not to mention the plot involving multiple female protagonists sharing a common route, which makes the logic somewhat illogical and some of the plot's handling extremely perfunctory.

This type of game inevitably features scenes that will make people blush, after all, that's part of its appeal.

Hayasaka looked at his young mistress covering her face with her hands and peeking through her fingers, and didn't know how to comment.

“Miss, it’s just the two of us here, you don’t need to be so sneaky.”

"Waaah! Stop talking! It's all your fault for making me play this. I'm not pure anymore!" Kaguya scolded as she quickly went through the story.

As time passed, Kaguya-sha quit the game, slumped into her chair, stared at the ceiling, and fell into a state of post-coital bliss.

She learned so much new knowledge that day.

I'm not even as feminine as a two-dimensional character!!

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Water World

"Is she the artist you recommended to me?"

Kasumigaoka stirred her cold drink with her usual habit, the ice cubes clinking together. She knew Eriri; back in the club, this girl would always come back to find Shirogane Kaede to go home together.

Out of curiosity, she naturally did some research.

A new generation painter, whose famous works are "Autumn Village" and "Rainy Alley". Because he and Feng are childhood sweethearts, they are known as the Twin Stars.

Just by glancing at her words, Kasumigaoka knew that the other party possessed talent surpassing his own.

Having such a talented person as her illustrator would definitely be a great help to sales, but the other person's special status made her feel a little uneasy.

She was a smart woman; she extended her hand and smiled slightly at Eriri, saying, "Then it's a pleasure to work with you."

After chatting briefly, Feng took Eriri away to his mother's shop, saying he wanted to bring them along for a staff dinner.

Kasumigaoka watched their departing figures, lost in thought, when his phone vibrated a few times in his pocket.

She glanced at it, and the novel group chat became lively again; a month and a half had passed since the last list was released.

"It's coming! It's coming!"

"Although I am a staunch materialist, I still hope for divine intervention at times like these!"

Office workers don't get summer vacations, and not everyone in the group is a student or a full-time writer. It seems there are a lot of people slacking off at work.

At this point, the administrator also brought up the old topic: "To be honest, with such fierce competition this year, I didn't expect that a romance novel could break through and win the gold award. If it weren't for the limitation of the genre, it would most likely have won the top prize. The most important thing is that it is written by a new author."

His words immediately caused a cacophony of wailing and howling in the group chat.

"You can check the details yourselves; the list of winners has already been released."

After the administrator finished speaking, he posted a link. Kasumigaoka clicked on it, and from what the administrator said, she had a feeling that the other party might be talking about her.

Sure enough, I saw my novel on the homepage.

Overjoyed, she quickly composed herself. As her editor Machida had said, quite a few authors have flopped after winning awards; sales volume and reader acclaim are the ultimate goals.

Hey~

My recently opened bank account received a transfer of 650,000 yen.

Before she could think much about it, she received a call from Machida, the editor.

"Congratulations on winning the gold prize, Ms. Xia Shizi! Your book will be officially released in a month. Have you received the prize money?"

"Oh, right, I've found an artist I like. I'll send it to you after I've finished making the revisions."

"...May I ask which teacher in the industry you're referring to?"

"No, I'll show you a picture and you'll understand why I chose her."

Kasumigaoka took a picture of a drawing that Eriri brought and sent it to her.

"Oh, by the way, her name is Eriri Sawamura."

"..." Machida stared blankly at his phone, wondering if he had misheard. The princess of the art world had come to illustrate the novel?

I had indeed heard that the princess would no longer participate in the competition and planned to take some time to rest.

It could be used as a gimmick during the release, and that would definitely work.

...

Kaguya lay in bed and opened her phone, seeing several unread messages in the group chat.

Feng: "Want to go to the water park?"

Chika: "I want to go! I'm so bored at home."

Eriri: "I'm fine as long as I don't have anything going on lately."

Feng: "Let's go have another meal and indulge ourselves. It's been so long since I've had barbecue."

Eriri: "I haven't had this in a long time either! Now that you mention it, I'm getting a little hungry too! *drooling*"

Chika: "Don't use my emojis! I'm suing you for copyright infringement!"

Kaede and Eriri went even further, launching a barrage of emojis.

Chika could only watch helplessly and furiously, making all sorts of threatening remarks, saying she would steal their lunchboxes and draw turtles on their faces during lunch break.

Kaguya smiled knowingly after reading it and replied in the group, "I'll go too." She casually put her phone to her heart, rolled around on the bed, and began to look forward to that day.

The cicadas outside are chirping incessantly, which is very annoying.

..

"Wow!!!" Chika and Kaede sat on a swimming ring, spinning around on the slide, and finally took off: "Whoosh~ Take off!"

Finally, it fell into the water, splashing up a large spray of water and soaking Eriri and Chika, who were standing nearby, completely drenched.

"Chika!!" Eriri wiped the water off her face. Some water had gotten into her ears, and her voice sounded muffled and uncomfortable.

"I'm so sorry~" Chika apologized by putting her hands together.

"Did you get water in your ear?"

"Left ear."

"Then try jumping twice with your right foot."

Following Feng's advice, Eriri stood on tiptoe and felt a warm sensation in her ears. Just as he said, it was fine.

"I want to go play that one too!" Chika pointed to another, even taller tunnel with shining eyes. "I want to play this one!" With that, she grabbed her swimming ring and disappeared from sight.

"There's no other way but to follow."

They hadn't gone far when they saw Chika lying on a swimming ring, floating back, accompanied by a wave.

They were pushed around and staggered, and Feng even tumbled in the waves. When he saw the curves of Kaguya's swimsuit, he almost choked on his water.

He surfaced, panting heavily, his face flushed, and said, "Shall we go get something to drink and rest for a bit?"

Kaguya: "I'm also a bit thirsty."

Eriri recalled the map in the visitor's guidebook and longed to pass through a quiet tunnel on her way to the rest area.

One group of people followed the road signs and lined up for a while before finally entering the tunnel. The surroundings immediately became quiet, completely isolating them from the noise of the outside world.

The people inside also deliberately spoke in a low voice.

All you have to do is lie on the swimming ring and float with the current, with the ripples of the water reflected on the rock wall above your head.

As soon as he emerged from the tunnel, he was drenched in water by buckets filled with water from above. Feng felt as if someone had hit him on the back of the neck with a stick.

I had just dried my face when someone sprayed me with a water gun.

It turned out that Chika had secretly gone to the side and started operating the water gun.

"look here."

Hearing the sound, Feng looked over and saw that Eriri and Kaguya had also found water guns, forming a pincer movement between them: "Let's talk this out." He quickly raised his hands in surrender, but they had no intention of letting him off the hook.

"Let's splatter him together!"

In his panic, Feng grabbed a plastic shield and a small pistol from the weapon rack. The four of them were in a chaotic mess, laughing all the while.

...

"Ugh, I'm exhausted." Chika lay motionless on the table, her whole body soaked in sweat.

Kaguya looked at her with disdain: "You were the one who was having the most fun just now."

Eriri leaned back in her chair, not wanting to say a word. She had just been accidentally wounded by friendly fire countless times.

Summer is almost over...