They were looking at Setsuko and Ryota, while they both made faces as they read Asahi’s novel.

Asahi poked Setsuko’s shoulder.

Slightly startled, she looked at him. “What happened?”

Asahi chuckled. “We played your game for over an hour now.”

“No way, I just started…” She displayed a light blush as she looked at her phone. “Damn, I’m at chapter ten already. I gotta admit, you nailed the premise, it really hooks the reader in.”

He smiled. “Thank you. Can you bring Ryota back to reality?”

She nodded, leaned towards the other couch chair, and caressed Ryota’s cheek.

Ryota kissed her hand, and looked at her.

She smiled. “They already finished playing our game.”

“Oh, okay.” He then looked at Asahi with a smile on his face. “Your novel is so good, I love it. Lamont is such a complex and intricate character, and the way you handled his schizophrenia was brilliant. I also found the descriptions of the fight scenes to be quite immersive; I’m looking forward to reading more when I get home.”

“Thank you.”

Mayumi, lightly clapped twice. “Yes, Asahi’s novel is amazing, and we can all collectively slobber all over his balls later. Now, let’s decide the genre and theme of our game. Have you guys done stuff in UE6?”

The three of them nodded, while Asahi didn’t need to, since some of the things he did with Mayumi, were done in Unreal Engine 6.

Setsuko had a pensive expression. “Isn’t UE6 a bit too much for the little time that we have?”

Mayumi smiled. “It would be if we were doing everything from scratch, but that would be bad. Think about the professor’s words, and the wording on the competition’s website. What we need to do is to make the best game we can, but it doesn’t require us to have any amount of original assets. Modifying assets is much faster than creating our own, and UE6 is godly for that.”

Amaya nodded. “UE6 does have a lot of sample functions that could make my job a lot easier as well. I think we could make a solid story-driven action/adventure game with a length of five to six hours if we go hard at it. Great catch.”

Mayumi looked at Setsuko. “Can you apply those artistic sensibilities of yours into modifying the 3D assets and visual effects? We don’t need them to be completely different, just to have your touch, and an overall cohesive look.”

“Yeah, I can. But you know that we’d have to pretty much give up on our solo games to pull this off, right? Not that I have anything against that.”

Amaya smiled. “I am in favor of that as well.”

Ryota nodded. “I suck as a solo dev anyways.”

Mayumi looked at Asahi, who had a pensive expression. “What do you think?”

He stayed silent for a few seconds, before speaking. “Medieval fantasy. Former mercenary, that after losing his wife and daughter, ended up as an apothecary and healer in a small village. Not as a job per se, but helping people as a form of self-atonement for not being able to save his family. There, he meets a smart woman with a one-year-old baby girl, who had lost her husband during pregnancy. Since she needed a job, he hired her and taught her all he knew about alchemy and healing over the years.”

He paused, as if he was organizing his thoughts, then continued. “We have a little montage of the time passing, and make the little girl the cutest thing that ever was. Seven years after he arrived at the village, the little girl got sick, with a supernatural disease, just short of a curse. He knows how to cure her, but for that, he needs to go seek an extremely rare ingredient. During that journey, we can have a couple interesting characters, and for the ending… He gets poisoned by the final boss, but by sheer willpower he manages to get back and prepare the concoction. He saves the little girl and dies before she wakes up, but with a smile on his face, because this time, he saved them. I know, a bit cliché, but I think it would be effective.”

Mayumi gestured towards Ryota and Amaya, who were tearing up. “Yeah, I’d say it’s effective.”

Asahi snapped his fingers. “Also, we can do a different ending for those who don’t take any damage from the final boss. He doesn’t die, and after the little girl wakes up and goes to thank him, she calls him dad. He then confesses his feelings to the girl’s mother, the feelings that he had been suppressing due to guilt. We should also put a few lines in the game to hint that there are two endings.”

Amaya nodded, drying her eyes with a handkerchief. “If we do simple crafting for consumables and keep the magic elements to a minimum, without skill trees or inventory, we can focus on the combat itself, make it pop.”

Setsuko had an excited smile. “This is quite the gamble, but if we can pull it off, I doubt we don’t get first place.” She then looked at Ryota. “What do you think babe?”

Ryota thought for a few seconds, drying his eyes with his sleeves. “We can have voice acting as well. We all have nice speaking voices, and even if we’re not that good, I can do some audio engineering to make us sound at least decent.”

Mayumi displayed a beaming smile. “Great, we can do this. We gotta be mindful of what the professor said before dismissing us though. Overwork is the arch-nemesis of productivity.”

Amaya smiled. “I am quite excited to start working. I suggest we go home, create our competition profiles and start scouring the available assets. After we do that, Asahi can tailor the writing to the assets we have available.”

In agreement, the three of them went home.

They agreed to meet online in two hours, in order to start working.

Closing the front door, Asahi pulled Mayumi close to him and kissed her. “Fumiko won’t be coming over today, and we have a couple hours. Wanna take a bath together?”

She nodded. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

He held her hand as they walked towards the bathroom. “You look so happy right now.”

She beamed him a smile. “Of course. My role model in the gaming world became my professor, and I made three friends that share my passion on a single day. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to sleep tonight.”

He smirked. “I can always tire you out.”

She bit her lower lip. “Actually, I can go for some pre-bath fun.”

As she said that, their clothes started to disappear in a rapid pace, and he kissed her, grabbing her butt-cheeks. He pulled her up, and she wrapped her legs around him.

He carried her to his bed as they made out.

On his bed, they engaged in a delicious and voracious sixty-nine.

When they were both good to go, she turned around, and started to ride his cock. As she rode it, he also thrusted his hips, making the sound of colliding flesh echoing through the room.

She moaned loudly as he entered her again and again, until they both climaxed.

Without stopping, he rolled on top of her, and kissed her passionately.

He moved his hips, slowly, while kissing, licking and biting every centimeter of her upper body.

It was extremely intimate, and exhilarating.

She clawed at his back, enjoying every second of it.

The intertwining of their flesh reached an apotheosis with a simultaneous orgasm, an intense one.

They traded light kisses with a smile on their faces.

 

After taking a bath together, they had a really nice meal, then reconvened online with their group, and started to work.

With a few hours of work, they had separated hundreds of objects, constructions, creatures, sounds, and many other types of assets.

Asahi spun on his chair with a pensive expression, then spoke through the voice chat.

(As)- “I think I got it.”
(S)- “Already?”
(As)- “Calm down, it’s just the outline, and it’s in my head. I’ll have the first draft by the weekend, and
          the final version ready for VO by the end of the month.”
(Am)- “I will keep playing around with the engine until you give us the first draft.”
(M)- “We should all do that, and when Asahi is done, we can start making the basic layout, before
          Setsuko starts to modify the assets.”
(R)- “I can help with miscellaneous stuff until I can start working on the sounds.”
(As)- “Tomorrow I have my elective and working out in the morning, I’m also gonna check out the
         Drawing & Painting Club in the afternoon. As soon as I come back home, I’ll start writing.”
(S)- I approve the club choice. What elective did you choose?
(As)- Business Finance.
(S)- *laughs* “Out of everything, you had to choose one of the most boring ones. What did you guys
         pick? I picked Architecture Design.”
(Am)- “Me too! I’ll be in your care then.”
(S)- “Nice, I’m looking forward to it. What about you Mayumi?”
(M)- “Human Resource Management.”
(S)- “Ah, already preparing to helm a studio, but still boring.”
(M)- “Yup to both. What about you Ryota?”
(R)- “3D printing. I want to print Setsuko’s OCs.”
(M)- “That’s so sweet.”

Suddenly ruffling sounds came from Ryota’s mic, followed by Setsuko’s voice and kissing sounds.

They laughed as they finished up for the night.

 

Next day, his morning passed like a breeze.

He had lunch with Mayumi and Fumiko.

Fumiko was also quite excited about their professor, the competition, and everything around it.

After their meal, Asahi hung out with the girls for half an hour or so, then went back to the university.

At the Arts building, he went to the third floor to find the Drawing & Painting Club.

Approaching the large room, he saw fourteen girls preparing their A3 papers, charcoal and stands. One of them, a slender blonde girl with light blue eyes, was looking at her phone, with an impatient expression.

As he was about to enter, she saw him and smiled briefly, followed by a sigh. “Damn it, I thought you were our model.”

Asahi furrowed his brow. “Nope. I just came here to check out the club, which brings me to the question, is there a gender restriction? That should be against the rules.”

She shook her head. “The gender thing is just a coincidence. The Art Club in another campus has just dudes by chance.”

He looked around, seeing pretty much the type of room one would expect. Shelves with materials, a lot of paintings and drawings spread around, and twenty or so stools and stands.

“What does the model need to do? I’m Asahi by the way.”

“I’m Sofia, the president of the club. I hired a guy to be a nude model for today, but it seems that he bailed on us. ¥10,000 is the pay, if you’re interested. But you have to stand still for the most part of two hours.”

He shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

She smiled. “Really?”

“Yeah, I was gonna hang out anyways. Also, you’re paying me to flash all these girls. I’m pretty sure that there is some boyish fantasy buried somewhere in me that would be satisfied.”

Sofia chuckled, and so did a few of the girls, while others smirked. “Alright, you can leave your stuff on that shelf there, and take off your clothes behind that screen. There is a towel there if you want to come out wearing it, to get used to the idea of being naked in front of them.”

He smiled and nodded. As soon as he entered the room, he felt that he was being observed, and it was by someone on the rooftop of the building, clearly a clairvoyant.

As he took off his clothes behind the screen, he read the man’s information. He was actually spying on Sofia on behalf of someone else. And according to the information that he read about Sofia; she had a restraining order against the clairvoyant’s boss.

He also verified that she had no powers, nor direct connection to the TS. Since he couldn’t do anything about it at that moment without arousing suspicion, he decided to put it aside for the time being.

After taking everything off, he walked to the center of the room. Since he was wearing a hoodie and jeans, they couldn’t properly gauge his physique, mainly because it wasn’t bulky.

When he came out from behind the screen, the combination of his hairless, absurdly fit body, and his very sizeable package, made the girls’ eyes grow wide.

There were blushes, bitten lips, seductive gazes and some whispers.

Sofia clapped three times. “Alright girls, he’s hot and hung. We’ve all been on the internet here, it shouldn’t be anything new for any of you. Now, get to drawing.” She then turned to Asahi. “You can just stay there, with your hands on your hips, like this. Oh, and smile.”

He nodded, and did as she asked.

 

Two hours passed.

During the time that he just stood there, he trained his powers by stimulating his body, and playing with the three small spheres in his backpack.

Sofia looked at the girls’ drawings, then looked at Asahi and smiled. “We’re done, you can get dressed now.”

That was followed by booing, which made Asahi laugh.

He went behind the screen and got dressed.

As he came out from behind it, two of the girls were waiting for him. One was curvy, with her blue hair tied in a bun, while the other was slender and fit, with her hair tied in a ponytail. Both had piercings and a few tattoos.

The curvy one spoke. “Hi, I’m Momoka, and this is Akemi. We’re roommates here on campus, wanna come hang out with us?”

It was fairly obvious what they meant by hanging out.

Asahi smiled. “As fun as that might be, I’m one of those people that needs to actually hang out first, but the only free time I had, I just spent posing for you. I’m a first-year game dev major, and things are quite busy for us this semester.”

They were slightly surprised by his answer, but he seemed sincere.

Akemi sighed. “Well, that sucks.” She then smiled. “Maybe another time then, actually hanging out I mean. Good luck with your game.”

Asahi smiled. “Thank you.”

Before he left, he stopped to talk to Sofia. “I’ll be back Thursday to register, is that okay?”

She smiled. “Of course, you’re more than welcome. Here is your money.”

He nodded, picking up the ¥10,000 bill. “See you Thursday then.”

Leaving the room, he thought. ‘I can’t just ignore this, since it might as well involve me if that stalker asshole gets territorial.’

Asahi wasn’t a saint, nor was he trying to be a hero. He wasn’t seeking to save damsels in distress or some bullshit like that. However, if a situation like that interfered with his life, he wouldn’t mind taking care of it.

Not feeling anyone or anything watching him, he took the stairs to the rooftop of the building, thinking about his plan on the way there. At the end of the four flights of stairs, there was a locked door, and since the guy didn’t have a power besides clairvoyance, he had a key.

‘Do I have enough points to buy the things that fit all the criteria of what I need?’

[ Barely, but yes. ]

‘Then buy it, please.’

[ Done, and welcome to poverty once more. ]

‘Ha ha…’

He looked at the things in his inventory screen and smiled.

One by one, all of his clothes started to disappear, including his backpack, leaving only his underwear behind. Then a suit of futuristic-looking black light-armored clothes appeared on him, including gloves, a helmet that covered all of his head, and a futuristic-looking trench-coat with a hood.

He had to lift his feet one at a time in order to make the boots properly appear, since life wasn’t a game, and had to abide by the laws of physics, at least to a degree.

The helmet was a trip for Asahi. He barely felt it on his head, and it didn’t obstruct his sight at all, like it wasn’t even there.

On his hand, there was a futuristic-looking black pistol.

Focusing on the door-lock in front of him, he felt every single part of it, understanding the mechanism, then gently and silently unlocked it.

Opening the door, he saw a barren and walled rooftop, with a handsome thin man in his early forties sitting on a reinforced lawn chair. He had earbuds on, and was watching something on his phone. His right profile was turned towards the door.

Asahi started walking, and when he was about five meters away from the man, he gave the ground a light stomp.

Startled, the man looked at him. Upon seeing that an entity with strange clothes that looked like armor, and a gun that seemed to come from a sci-fi movie, he didn’t move.

Asahi spoke, but what came out was a silky, and eerily clear feminine voice. “Hello, Asano Tomoya.”

From inside his trench-coat, four small objects that looked like black bracelets, and what looked like a somewhat viscous black rope, started to come out, floating.

The man gulped. “Fucking hell… You seem to have no idea who I work for, it’s better that you just let me go.”

Asahi chuckled, as the rope and bracelets swiftly made their way towards Tomoya. The bracelets snapped open and clasped around his wrists and ankles, tying them to the chair, while the rope tied his waist and torso.  

Tomoya knew that he would not get out of that chair, unless the person in front of him allowed so.

“By boss, do you mean Fukuda Shunsuke, the owner several car dealerships, an e-sports team, and a model agency? Oh, right, those are not public knowledge. His official business is the Fukuda Financial Group.”

The man’s eyes widened.

“And you have worked for him for almost ten years. Your husband, Paul, who doesn’t even know that powered people exist, thinks that you work in a cubicle. Every morning, when you kiss him goodbye, he gives you a playful slap on the buttocks. Can you imagine his reaction if he discovered what you actually do?”

Tomoya’s eyes shook. “Who… what are you?”

“That is irrelevant. You are being recorded, and what you are going to do, is spill out everything that the Transcendent Society needs to know, in order to punish your boss. And please, spare me of the ‘but he will hurt my husband’ idiocy, because you know they will not. It is not worth it in the least for your boss, nor will he have the time to do so.”

Tomoya got goosebumps, because when the person impersonated his thoughts, it was his voice that came out of the helmet. He then started to weigh his options.

Asahi got closer and squatted in front of him, then touched his left foot with the tip of the pistol.  “Trust me, you do not want the other routes, so just talk. Oh, and I will know if you are lying. Like I know that when you were fifteen, and was spending the summer in Aomori with your uncle’s family, you and your cousin Tobio had a lot of naked fun together. I can narrate the details if you do not believe me, like how he especially enjoyed when you deep-throated him.”

Tomoya trembled. ‘How the fuck does she know that? Tobio died fifteen years ago, and only the two of us knew that.’

Asahi tapped Tomoya’s foot with the pistol. “There is no point in trying to find out how I know that, it is far above your pay-grade. Now, talk.”

Without many options, and unwilling to suffer to protect his boss, Tomoya started talking.