How to raise a random guy's wife

"The preliminary diagnosis is cerebral infarction, but further examinations are needed to determine the exact cause." Kobayashi Sora paused for a moment, "but we can guess the reason."

"I thought she was a superhero who could survive the destruction of the world, but I didn't expect her to collapse so easily." Kasumigaoka Utaha sighed calmly, but the high-frequency leg shaking that almost caused an earthquake showed that she was not as calm as she seemed.

"By the way, the room she's staying in is an out-of-pocket expense, and it's super expensive," Eriri muttered. "I stayed here for three days when I was a kid."

“Financially, it’s not a problem; I know a little about her savings.” Kobayashi Sora thought for a moment. “Let me put it this way, her savings are one of my goals.”

“Then what we need to worry about... is the game's production.” Kobayashi Megumi looked at Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri. “Judging from her appearance, if the game's production doesn't go smoothly, she probably won't be able to take good care of herself.”

Machida Sonoko sighed, "But if she doesn't take good care of herself..."

“Don’t worry about who dies in the street…” Kasumigaoka Utaha sneered. “Akane Akane Akane always says that.”

Eriri added, "She also said... even if she dies, she will at least preserve the work and finish it for everyone to see."

Kasumigaoka Utaha shrugged. "Conversely, even if we were so disheartened that we died in the streets, she said she would only stand by and watch..."

“There’s definitely some exaggeration involved,” Kobayashi Megumi said. “Although it also reflects her views.”

"That's exactly what she means." Eriri thought the same way. "But now that things have come to this, we can only go along with her wishes."

Kasumigaoka Utaha clicked her tongue. "After all, she's the employer."

Ignoring their sick leader and continuing with their tasks may sound cold, but it is indeed the most important thing they should be doing right now.

After all, that's Akane Akasaka.

"Anyway, you should go back for now." The reliable adult, Machida Sonoko, seized the opportunity during the pause in the conversation to summarize, "I'll stay with her afterwards."

"Then it's up to you, Ms. Machida." Kobayashi Sora and Kobayashi Megumi stood up. "We need to go to the RER to stabilize the situation, and then we'll contact you again."

Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri also left together to continue their unfinished work.

Machida Sonoko did not return to the ward, but continued to wait in the cafe.

Soon, Kobayashi Sora and Kobayashi Megumi returned.

"So..." Kobayashi Sora cut to the chase, "What's the situation?"

Kobayashi Megumi guessed, "Senpai and Eriri probably communicate directly with Akane Kousaka and basically don't interact with anyone from Malz, right?"

“That’s right.” Machida Sonoko had stayed behind to wait because she had seen Kobayashi Sora’s earlier actions. “Akane’s idea is that they should just bear the pressure from Akane.”

Kobayashi Megumi nodded. "Yes, there's no need to put up with the pressure from Malz anymore."

“No,” Machida Sonoko twitched the corner of her mouth, “Akane thinks they don’t need to know about Malz’s bottomless low demands.”

Kobayashi Megumi: "......"

Kobayashi Sora recalled the information she had gathered earlier, "I heard that five members of CG left, so the situation doesn't look good."

Machida Sonoko was somewhat surprised, "I thought you would know more..."

"Um... well, I've been quite busy lately," Kobayashi Sora replied casually. "So, how bad is the situation right now?"

Machida Sonoko pursed her lips. "Malts set a deadline of the end of September... In other words, there's less than a week left."

Chapter 402 So That's How It Is

Because of the sample CGs already released in video game magazines and websites, Maltz's latest work, Chronicles of the Universe XIII, has shown exceptional popularity and buzz among recent titles in the series.

The recent works in the "Chronicles of the Universe" series have all been handled by several well-known and experienced illustrators. Although the style has been established for a long time, it is difficult to give people surprises, but the strength lies in their experience and the results are stable.

Akane Kousaka, however, found a completely unknown new illustrator in the commercial field and a light novel author who had never written a fantasy novel before to take charge.

This kind of thing is a topic of discussion in itself. Coupled with the instigation of some former production team members who were purged by Akane Kousaka, for quite some time, there were as many people who were looking forward to it as there were who were against it.

However, after the initial main visual was released, along with the subsequent release of new illustrations and a demo version, it was clear that the negative voices were weakening, with many of the remaining ones being the kind that stubbornly insisted on their opinions and stirred up trouble.

What seems like a cause for celebration now is actually the result of repeated negotiations between Akane Akasaka and Malz... or perhaps it should be described as a struggle.

“Akane agreed to Malz’s request that if the release date is delayed due to her mistake, she will pay Malz a penalty equal to her payment,” Machida Sonoko explained. “In contrast, Akane Kousaka has absolute power in this project, including but not limited to deciding on the members, reviewing the script and CG, controlling the progress, and so on.”

"To ensure the game's quality remains consistent, the story and CG need to be completed three months before release... which is the end of this month." Kobayashi Sora took a sip of coffee. "Only Akane-nee can manage such a short time—if things go smoothly."

“That’s the problem.” Machida Sonoko frowned. “Originally, the first draft of the script that Kasumi Utako wrote in July was highly praised by Maltz’s development team for its content and writing speed. They thought that the foundation of the work had been successfully completed at this point in time.”

Kobayashi Megumi knew about this, "and as a result, Sister Zhu Yin directly rejected the script."

"Due to her insistence, the original story direction was drastically changed, almost to the point of drifting." Machida Sonoko's face showed a mixture of helplessness and pride. "The revised draft she submitted afterward was simply jaw-dropping. The development team was extremely troubled and even suggested deleting that script or drastically simplifying and detoxifying it."

“Akane-nee will absolutely not agree.” Kobayashi Sora knew Akane Kousaka all too well.

"That's right, her proposed revision was to increase the amount of happy ending storyline."

Kobayashi Megumi recalled Kasumigaoka Utaha's haggard appearance just now, "No wonder..."

"What about CG?"

“It’s a similar situation,” Machida Sonoko replied. “The quality of the line art improves day by day, and it has enough information and quality to make Maltz tremble.”

Kobayashi Megumi looked at Kobayashi Sora, "Line art?"

She remembered that Eriri had always colored the colors herself before.

"To improve efficiency, there are situations where the lead artist is responsible for the line art, and the assistant is responsible for the coloring," Kobayashi Sora explained to Kobayashi Megumi, then pointed out the key point, "However, if the line art is too outstanding, the pressure will fall on the coloring team."

“No matter how hard the CG team in Osaka worked on the coloring, Akane’s answer was always, ‘Effort and results are two different things,’ and she would ask for it to be returned and redone time and time again.” Machida Sonoko took a sip of coffee. “However, Kashiwagi-sensei would occasionally send over CGs that had been colored directly, and the quality of the finished product made those people clearly realize that Akane wasn’t just making things up.”

In the realm of art, there is no such thing as a mechanical deus ex machina.

It is common for a genius to suddenly appear and easily surpass the efforts of ordinary people over several years or even more than ten years with just a single drawing.

Faced with this situation, quite a few people have lost their composure.

This explains why some members of the CG team ran around five times during the development process.

"In other words, from the perspective of game development, the results are getting better and better," Kobayashi Megumi summarized. "However, such high standards require a lot of time to complete—this should be the point of contention between Akane and Malz."

Machida Sonoko glanced at Kobayashi Megumi with some surprise, confirming her thoughts, "Starting in September, the attitude of the Maltz R&D team became much tougher than before. They believed that at the current pace of development, it was simply impossible to release the product by the end of the year, so they unilaterally proposed a revised work schedule."

"They've used it all, then discarded it," Kobayashi Sora sighed with a smile, her eyes narrowing into crescent moons.

Before September, Akane Akasaka could do whatever she wanted.

After all, her actions were genuinely making the game as good as possible.

During that period, Malz did not put up any resistance, and everything revolved around Akane Akasaka.

After all, the publicity campaign has already begun. If the negotiations break down and Akane Kousaka leaves, Malz will be completely unable to resolve the mess that's left behind.

Now Malz's attitude has hardened, and the reason is simple.

We have enough material.

Even if Akane Akasaka were to leave at this point, the materials they had submitted earlier would be enough for them to develop the game themselves.

If Akane Akasaka really leaves, there will still be a lot of money left.

As for the final quality of the game...

Only Akane Akasaka would take this kind of thing seriously.

"In order to strictly adhere to the new schedule, they no longer accept requests to redo the images and will only use the materials completed so far to construct the story," Machida Sonoko succinctly summarized. "In order to make the reduced number of images fit the plot, the script has also been reverted to its initial draft state, with its length reduced to two-thirds of the total amount of the currently written plot."

"So..." Kobayashi Megumi realized the crux of the problem, "During this time, Akane-nee had to fight against Malz's ideas while continuing the game's production, and even adjust the content to balance the game's production with Malz's demands?"

Machida Sonoko nodded solemnly.

It turned out to be the case.

I see......

Kobayashi Sora was somewhat aware of Akane Akasaka's physical condition; working under high pressure was something she was used to.

So at first, Kobayashi Sora was worried, but she thought she could at least hold on until the game was finished.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Akane Akasaka should indeed be able to hold out until the game is completed.

However, Maltz's actions tripled Akane's workload.

As a result, the body, which had been able to hold on, collapsed.

Chapter 403 I do not accept

Just as Kobayashi Megumi said, Akane Akasaka's words to Eriri and Kasumigaoka Utaha were indeed exaggerated.

No matter what, it's impossible to just stand by and watch someone die.

But this does indeed reflect Akane Akasaka's creative philosophy.

The work comes first, the body second.

If she were to apply this standard to others, she would be a complete and utter exploiter.

But when she does this herself and then expects others to try their best to keep up with her pace, the nature of the situation changes.

Ultimately, creators are a bunch of lazy people. If they can update two chapters a day, they'll never write a third. If they can update just before the deadline, they'll never update ahead of time. They always think about finishing ahead of schedule, but in the end, they only start to panic when the deadline is looming...

The trivialities of life, the bottlenecks in the creative process, and the dreaded procrastination—many creators want to create popular works or realize their own value quickly and well, but in the end, most of their time is spent on "taking a break" and "wanting to start."

Akane Akasaka is a symbol that proves people can create quickly and well, which is why many creators want to follow her even though they know it's very difficult.

This feeling is similar to buying a class at the gym.

Everyone knows that consistent exercise is good for your health, but not everyone can stick to it. So they hire fitness coaches for guidance and encouragement, spending money and time, working up a sweat and feeling sore all over.

Akane Akasaka, a creative coach who works alongside fitness instructors, is more experienced in pushing herself to the limit than ordinary creators.

Exploring the limits of the body as much as possible without affecting creative work, this kind of action of soaring like a roc on the edge of death has long been Akane Akane's daily routine.

After all, she hadn't run out of inspiration yet. Akane Kousaka still had many ideas to complete, and she didn't want to let her body break down before finishing the creation she wanted to complete.

For her, the body is a tool for creation.

She doesn't care about the tool's feelings, but she cares a lot about its functionality.

Therefore, during the creative process, Akane Akasaka will devote all her energy to creation without affecting her physical functions, maintaining a delicate and fragile balance between high-intensity creation and physical health.

The advantage is that this is a true example of "creating with all one's might," which is a great thing for creators who want to realize their self-worth by creating good works, and for consumers who want to see good works.

The downside is that, under such extreme conditions, any pressure outside of creative work is like the last straw that breaks the camel's back, possessing the power to crush her.

Malz, on the other hand, placed a barbell.