World Aid Guide

The car's interior lights were dim under the night sky, and Eriri sat stiffly in the back seat with her legs together.

Being in a small space with the man who had just seen her looking excited made Eriri feel extremely awkward.

Eriri adjusted her glasses, lowered her blushing cheeks, and took out her phone to ease the awkward atmosphere.

Eriri opened her doujin circle and took a look. It wasn't Tomoya's game circle, but Eriri's own manga circle.

Tomorrow isn't a day off, so there aren't many night owls in the fan community's chat group.

My thumb swipes rapidly up and down on the screen, even though I'm not looking at anything, as if this can ease the awkward atmosphere.

Eriri casually browsed through the comments on her club's blog, and then looked at the blogs she followed. Eriri followed quite a few people.

This includes the blog created by Kasumigaoka Utaha under the pen name Kasumigaoka Utako, and the blog of her childhood friend Aki Tomoya.

Eriri's expression froze when she saw Tomoya's status on his blog. Just two hours earlier, while Eriri was frantically drawing Chen Lin and Mashiro, Tomoya had changed his blog status to "[GALGAME making enthusiasts recruiting~]".

The latest tweet is a recruitment drive for visual novel scripts, artwork, and voice acting.

Within just two hours, many people left comments under the tweet wanting to sign up.

Aki Tomoya was a reclusive and overly enthusiastic student at school, but online he is a blogger with millions of followers who reviews anime, comics, and games (ACG).

Eriri clenched her fists, and her eyes became moist.

Although it was true that she rejected Tomoya, Eriri felt somewhat conflicted seeing him start looking for new companions that very night.

Looking in the rearview mirror, Chen Lin noticed that Eriri seemed a little off.

"what happened?"

"It's nothing." Eriri gently bit her lower lip.

Chen Lin didn't ask any more questions. He only stopped the car after dropping Eriri off at the upscale villa area.

However, Eriri did not get out of the car. After a while, Eriri spoke with a complicated expression.

"Hey... I have a friend."

"Okay, go ahead." Chen Lin pursed her lips, not asking if the friend Eriri mentioned was herself.

“I have a friend whose childhood friend wanted to make a game. His game plan was terrible, practically nonexistent, and seemed hopeless. Plus, she wasn't the main character, so she wasn't interested in the game at all and rejected her childhood friend.”

"Well, then what?"

"Then her childhood friend posted a tweet recruiting companions, seemingly without any intention of trying to persuade her to stay."

Chen Lin nodded thoughtfully.

Childhood sweetheart, that would definitely be Aki Tomoya, and the game's heroine should be Kato Megumi.

Mashiro had previously mentioned that Aki Tomoya wanted her to join the club to work on games, but Mashiro promptly refused.

Although we don't know what happened afterward, judging from Eriri's words now, she didn't stay in Aki Tomoya's club after Mashiro left.

And now it's a bit upsetting to see him recruiting companions.

Tsk tsk tsk...

Chapter 80: Eriri's Life Consultation?

Is the friend you're talking about yourself?

Chen Lin resisted the urge to ask, unsure whether what happened to Eriri in this world was the same as the story he knew.

Although Chen Lin didn't know whether Aki Tomoya's trajectory in this world was the same as the one he knew, his impression of Aki Tomoya in the previous world wasn't very good.

It's not because he's overly self-centered in his promotions and freeloading.

In fact, Eriri and Kasumigaoka both rejected Aki Tomoya at the beginning, but under his persistent pursuit, they joined him despite not being interested in his game project.

Eriri felt guilty for distancing herself from Aki Tomoya when she was bullied in elementary school, leaving him to suffer alone. Kasumigaoka felt indebted to Aki Tomoya because he helped promote her book, which was about to be canceled, and brought it back to life.

They also received a share of the profits after the game was released, so it wasn't like they were getting something for nothing.

As for why Chen Lin had a bad impression of him...

Knowing full well that they weren't after the money, and even though they lent him money earlier, and weren't attracted by the game project, he still pretended to be clueless and let them... He would have been much better off if he had just said he didn't know who to choose, or explicitly said he liked Kato Megumi.

What's with pretending to be clueless? Are you worried they won't come to play the game if you just tell them directly?

Chen Lin didn't know if he was genuinely unaware or just pretending.

However, in this world, Masashiro bluntly states that this is only his own dream, making it impossible for him to be unaware of it or pretend to be stupid.

So now he's publicly recruiting like-minded people for a game project online... He clearly had this option before but didn't use it. He's a blogger with millions of followers, and his script and original artwork might not be worse than Eriri and Kasumigaoka's.

Chen Lin didn't believe that he hadn't thought of this method before.

After a moment's thought, Chen Lin spoke.

"Logically speaking, since your friend has already rejected him, it seems like he didn't do anything wrong. It's just that your friend feels very resentful, right?"

Eriri knew that Aki Tomoya's current actions were not problematic, but she still felt somewhat conflicted.

Tsk tsk tsk... That's what being arrogant is like, so conflicted and twisted.

"......Um."

Eriri would normally keep these problems to herself.

But looking at Zhenbai tonight... to be honest, I'm a little envious.

It's not that I envy Mashiro for having Chen Lin's body, which is comparable to that of a manga male protagonist.

Instead, she envied Mashiro for being treated gently.

Perhaps the gentle Mr. Chen Lin could offer some advice?

"First, how does your friend view him? Is he a friend? Or does he like him?"

Chen Lin smiled.

"I...I don't know."

Eriri shook her head blankly. She did enjoy playing with him in elementary school, but she didn't know if that meant she liked him. Moreover, they didn't have much contact after the third grade of elementary school until the beginning of high school.

The relationship has only recently improved somewhat.

"If you're just unwilling to accept defeat... how about you have your friend make a game too? If you beat him in sales, your friend won't be so unwilling, right?"

"I... um, I'll go tell my friend."

"It's nothing, feel free to contact me anytime if you need any help."

"Um...thank you."

After giving Chen Lin a complicated look, Chen Lin opened the car door. Chen Lin watched from a distance until he saw the lights on at Eriri's house before leaving.

……

Back home, Eriri curled up in bed, unable to fall asleep.

Let's make a game to defeat him...

After hesitating for a moment, Eriri took out her phone and dialed Kasumigaoka Utaha's number.

"Hello, Kasumigaoka Utaha, this is Eriri."

Although it was already late at night, there was not a trace of sleepiness in Shiyu's voice.

"Sawamura-kun, you're calling me so late at night because you're no longer satisfied with generating electricity by yourself, and you want to generate electricity by listening to my voice? Sorry, I have no interest in yuri."

"Who wants to be your lesbian partner!?"

She's a lazy and quiet pretty girl at school, but she always says some really awful things from time to time.

She can rattle off all sorts of sexual positions without hesitation; she's definitely a seasoned pro.

She acts so innocent, but she must have read all sorts of strange and unusual novels in private.

"You saw it."

"Ah."

Eriri didn't say it explicitly, but Utaha knew exactly what she meant.

"Should we make a game together and beat him in sales?"

"Hehehehe..." A slightly eerie laugh came from the phone. "I never thought that Sawamura-kun's head, filled with terrible manga, could come up with such an idea. I agree."

Even though they knew that Aki Tomoya's decision to find someone else was not wrong, they were still somewhat unhappy.

I'm both afraid my brother will suffer and afraid he'll drive a Land Rover.

That's roughly the same mindset.

People are always a bit awkward and stubborn.

"But the two of us alone are not enough."

Having only scripts and original artwork means you can only write a light novel, not make a game.

There also needs to be a program to turn the script into a script and then combine the original artwork to create a game.

The program itself isn't too difficult; there are various readily available tools and tutorials online, and Eriri knows some of them too.