“Bro, you sure you don’t have NtBM? Have you seen the cases.. have you heard of the rumors? Cailly’s father was admitted to the hospital.”

That’s good news.

“That’s great”

“You wack bro?! Hirs father has NtBM! That’s bad, bad news.”

“It is, if you put it that way.”

“You’re no fun Avner, why did your personality change,” Ares limped on my seat.

I gave my artwork a few more strokes before creating a new layer. Layer mode, overlay, and began to paint again.

“Do you still play games?”

“Yeah? What? Do you want me to join you in a new game you began?”

“No, more like, have you heard of the new game that’s coming out? Alcron’s Revision.”

“No, never heard of it.”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“Are you going to play that game?”

“Might?”

Ares nodded skeptically to my reply.

Shin wasn’t a gamer to begin with. A pure workaholic, draws all day and reads scripts. Other times he would focus on his college and study work.

“Let me see what you’re drawing.”

“Here.”

I toggled the display from private to public.

“What the.. holy, when did you..”

I shrugged. I don’t know how to reply to that. I can’t even tell him that it’s because of my past life. Shin’s skill pale in comparison to my current skill, and it wasn’t like Avner drew before this either.

It’s a cheat I say.

“This is an illustration for the game. A fan art of it, something like that.”

As Shin, the artist for , there was this one time I decided to draw a literal poster for Alcron’s Revision.

Novelle said I didn’t need to overdo the detail, which Shin did anyways. And so when she saw the illustration, inspiration struck and she turned the idea into an integral part of the story. An entire game.

And as a side bonus, since the idea came from me, I know most of how the game is going to play out since I was the one who told Novelle about the concept.

The gist of the characters, settings, story, play style, down to the lore. Most of which wasn’t included inside the novel.

Alcron’s Revision is a farming game, in the grinding sense where you collect resources from your environment. Use those resources to craft items for your team or to craft structures for your base.

Think of the combat system like card fighting, and twist it a little to fit a turn based strategic play style where the level of your characters and their equipment plays a major role in your success.

For PvE, you meet monsters out in the wild, and fight them using your team to level up. For PvP, there are going to be live tournaments held in real life where you need to go to specific locations like parks, convocations, or festivals.

And that’s why it hits so well.

Because they put emphasis on heavily integrating the game into the real world. So rather than it being a game, it becomes a part of everyday life. Like SNS.

Other AR games that I’ve seen have tried to make this work. However, they fail to gain enough traction.

Think of it as a stroke of luck that Alcron’s Revision becomes a game hit.

“Oh man, this looks sick. You’re drawing for the game?”

“Imperatively, no. It’s just going to be for a portfolio.”

I can decide to apply for a job posting in the company couldn’t I now? I’ll have to get closer to that elf next year and ask hir for a job recommendation.

Going freelance might not be possible until I build enough of a reputation in the industry.

Great. Now I feel like I’m just taking advantage of random people.

What value can I provide in exchange anyways?

“Dude, teach me.”

“Teach you what?”

“How the hell do you draw this?”

“You don’t just get better in a day.”

Evidently, you do. If you’re like me and have a cheat. How much I had to suffer as Shin just to reach the point I was previously. Now I have the skill just gifted to me as Avner. What a chagrin.

“I know, I know. I just want to know how.”

“I’ll send you links to tutorial videos. There are more expert people out there. Just because I can draw doesn't make me a good teacher.”

“Seriously?”

“I’m telling you the truth.”

Ares didn’t bother me after that and went to some other person’s desk to strike up another conversation.

With my newfound peace, I resumed drawing.

I don’t exactly know what it means to create a portfolio for a job posting for a company, I’ve never done it before as Shin. So I can only make a wild guess that it’s creating work that shows what art assets I can provide for a company, as an artist.

I paused after an hour.

It hurts. Drawing so much without as much as to rest. I shook my wrist, purple light flowed out from the tips of my finger.

I noticed the faint golden tattoo on the back of my hand, odd diamond shapes weaved into something like a snake.

For some reason, I turned to look at Pu’er.

Our eyes met, xe looked away.

I then glanced at hirs hairpin, realizing just how odd it was to know you can hold a bastard sword in between clumps of hair.

It’s peaceful.

For now at least.

===

“Big bro, are you really going to stay back?”

“Yes, I’m staying back.”

“Is it because of Novelle?”

I nodded silently at hirs correct conclusion.

“Who is this girl anyways? You keep talking about her but I’ve never seen her name anywhere in the school.”

Novelle is a pretty unique name. You don’t just find it anywhere.

“I don’t know. I’m just hoping I might meet her one day.”

Lia gave me a blank stare. Xe was looking at a crazy man, hirs brother.

“Good luck with that.”

“Thanks.”

I was packing my things into a box. These items I would bring to my grandma’s place. Avner has a lot of useless stuff in the room. A bunch of card stands, old anime figurines stored away to rot, troves of male cosmetic products and unused picture stands.

I’ll surely be flamed by my mom when she sees this. Whatever, it’s too late to do anything about it now. Just pack the essentials and get on with it.

“Avner, this too.”

Lia dug out from underneath the bed, a black box. You could literally see the layer of dust on top.

“It’s like a time capsule. I wonder what’s inside.”

“You’re right about that.”

Carefully, I opened the lid.

Paper.

Clean paper.

It was a box filled with A4 paper.

Papers are rare nowadays. This fact made Shin feel a wee bit odd.

What a rare find.

“Wow! There’s so many!”

Lia took out the whole stack and began admiring the white smooth surface. I noticed a small black clip at the bottom. I’m surprised it hasn’t rusted after this long.

I picked it up and observed it.

Could this be a tool?

I feel like such a dumb person for asking that. Just– you never know. Blue Kaizer is a fancy blue pen which I keep on me most of the time, while the photon blade is a yellow ribbon pin.

I took the hairclip and tucked it inside the pocket of my jacket. I set a reminder to remind myself to take it out when I reach my grandparent’s place.

“Big bro, look.”

Lia separated a single paper from the stack. On that paper were neat words written in graphite, a mechanical pencil.

And I recognize this handwriting.

I’m sorry I made you angry.

“Big bro?”

It’s Novelle’s.

===

dotturndot: What happened, I wonder? I have no idea either. I hadn’t written that part so.. the reason is still undefined.

That asides, I feel so dead. Editing sure is hard work..

dotturndot (again): I’m from the future! You’ll see more of the phrase ‘I’m sorry I made you angry’ referenced in Volume 3 & 4. I plan to make it um… a key piece to the BIG BIG mystery. Keep your eyes peeled!!