Isekai Online Game Developer

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Of course, if I were to create it, I could figure it out somehow.

And to be honest, I didn’t want to see Rikal’s identity exposed.

I guess you could call it empathy, but essentially, it’s a societal execution of a person.

But is it right to just kill someone here?

That, too, is not correct.

Of course, I also dislike listening to this unpleasant pig—no, Count Pofos’ words.

More importantly, the fact remains that making it is not easy.

First of all, I’ve never played a visual novel.

To implement a visual novel in virtual reality requires vast data in a different sense than that of an online game.

For instance, creating a single heroine would practically mean creating an entire persona.

Of course, while it will follow a predetermined story, it doesn’t need to be as meticulously detailed as crafting a real person.

Still, to render it as a human-like character would require an immense amount of modeling effort.

At the very least, I’d need to bring in a girl and have her act in various ways to form a character based on that.

And I’ll need to craft invisible lives for the heroines too.

But I had no confidence in asking someone to be a model for a visual novel.

I mean, I didn’t even want the world to know I was making a visual novel.

I’m an online game developer, after all.

“Creating it… is possible, but I think I’ll need a female model. It’s almost like rendering a person as an illusion.”

But honestly, would anyone be willing to be made to act out the lines or actions written by Count Pofos?

Sure, they might do it for an enormous sum of money,”

“I-I’ll give you any amount of money!”

There was a sense of desperation in Count Pofos’ voice.

Could it be that he’s this eager to make a visual novel in front of Rikal?

“Money aside, but there are sexual scenes in the script you wrote, and that—”

“Y-You crazy pervert!”

Thud—

Rikal kicked Count Pofos with a disgusted expression.

Definitely, no one in this world would react any differently.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Count Pofos muttered in distress.

“Th-Then, um… I’d be okay if you took that scene out, can we just keep it to before that…?”

Ultimately, Count Pofos was giving up the 19+ scenes.

But that alone didn’t solve the problems.

“Still, we have to find a female model. I don’t want to make a woman act out such things and be given contemptuous glares.”

“But if you do that, it will fully expose the Crown Prince’s identity…!”

“Honestly, killing him outright seems…?”

“Gahhh—!”

Rikal drew his sword again.

Count Pofos, grabbed by Rikal, made a squealing sound.

It was a headache-inducing situation.

In fact, it was a situation that didn’t concern me.

Whether Rikal killed Count Pofos or if his identity got exposed, neither mattered to me.

“Die already, you pig!”

That prince trying to kill whoever without a second thought was a bit absurd.

I mean, he’s helped so much up until now.

I was starting to get increasingly fed up with both Count Pofos and Rikal.

I’ve been busy and exhausted lately, and my anger was rising.

“Sigh…”

But I’m a rational being. And I have morals.

I’m not one of those raving lunatics like those two.

Revealing a user’s private information is a no-go as an operator.

And thinking ‘then why not just kill him?’ when his identity is at stake is far from sane.

“…!”

In that moment, while thinking of a way to educate these two idiots and resolve the situation,

“I’ll make it.”

“What, what?!”

“Y-You serious?!”

“Yes. But there’s a condition.”

I glanced at Rikal’s expression before voicing my thoughts.

“Make sure to include Zebit among the heroines.”

“W-What?!”

“W-What the hell…!!”

Rikal, looking as if he couldn’t believe his ears, suddenly charged at me.

I spoke, still held by his collar.

“If you kill me, the Crown Prince’s identity will get posted on the ‘Maple Leaf Story’ announcement…”

“But why would you include me as a heroine?!”

“Honestly, there isn’t another character as good as Zebit….”

“AGHHHHHHHH!”

“Or, you could just let your identity get revealed…”

That was just to tease Rikal.

I wanted to convey that he should straighten up a little.

And it was also something necessary for future situations.

“Count Pofos! Speak up! Do you want to do this with me right now?”

“Ugh, ugh… Zebit as a heroine… th-that could be… nice…”

“What the hell, you bastard!!!”

“Z-Zebit and the Crown Prince are totally different…!”

“Just die already!!!”

Anyway, it looks like it’s different for Count Pofos too.

I didn’t particularly want to understand his way of thinking.

“Without that condition, it can’t happen. Naturally, I’ll accept a considerable amount of money. You can handle it however you like.”

From then on, Rikal rampaged for over 30 minutes.

Naturally, I made sure Rikal wouldn’t kill the Count. That’s just not the right thing to do.

Shortly after, hearing the commotion, people started to gather.

As Count Pofos was about to disclose his identity, Rikal ultimately made a decision.

*

“Ugh, ugh… okay!”

A little later, in my room in the Illusion Tower.

Rikal, Count Pofos, and I were gathered together doing the modeling for the visual novel.

“…Shut up.”

“I-I somehow feel uneasy about receiving scoldings from Miko-chan…!”

“Damn.”

Rikal said with a disgusted expression.

He was currently acting out various lines and behaviors in the form of a cute girl, not Zebit.

I made several artifacts similar to the Zebit transformation artifact.

All were illusions of cute girls that fit the characters suggested by Count Pofos.

Instead of modeling each animated action of the cute girl, it was easier to cast an illusion on someone and have them act, then apply that appearance in-game.

Anyway, Rikal, transformed into the heroines, was doing the actions that Count Pofos was commanding one by one.

As we went through it, it got so familiar that I sometimes forgot he was Rikal.

Rikal got angry several times, but the modeling went smoothly.

Rikal had apparently given up on himself.

Having already performed many behaviors like Zebit, it didn’t feel awkward at all.

“…Like this?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s good…!”

In truth, directing the actions of the heroines was almost entirely up to Count Pofos.

Since it was Rikal, he couldn’t act like a real girl anyway, so that part was more or less given up on.

Moreover, since this is a game made for a man’s secret desires, whatever.

I just wanted to get this done quickly.

…But, I did wonder if it felt unnecessary to use Rikal as the model.

As I couldn’t possibly find anyone else I knew.

So, over the next couple of weeks, Rikal and Count Pofos repeatedly visited the Illusion Tower.

“…I think this should be enough.”

“Is it finally complete?!”

“Well, not complete yet. It’s just the beginning. Now we’ll start making the actual game. I don’t know how long it’ll take. But I’ll try to finish it by the end of this year.”

With that said, the two returned to the palace.

“So why have you two been visiting so frequently lately, Rai-kun?”

Once Rikal and Count Pofos returned, Rain asked.

Peeking out from behind her was Hina, who’d been hiding somewhere.

Being shy, Hina had been hiding in the tower as she didn’t want to get seen by unfamiliar people.

“We won’t be coming anymore. Um… I’ll just say we received a request.”

“A request?”

“A request…?”

“Yes. As for the details… it’s a secret.”

“Hmm…”

In Hina’s case, she had a higher level of magic than I did.

Similarly, while Rain was lower than me, she was nonetheless an outstanding illusion mage.

Surely the two had a rough idea of what I was doing inside.

Furthermore, since Hina had done the Zatume Quest with Zebit, she knew that Zebit’s appearance was an illusion.

If she’s quick-witted, Hina might have already caught on to the situation.

So far, Hina hadn’t said anything about Zebit.

“Ah, anyway. It’s a secret. Quickly prepare the next champion balance patch.”

“I don’t wanna work!”

I hurriedly changed the subject.

Then, Hina fled to her room.

“Th-Then I’ll also run away to my room for updates.”

Seizing the moment, I also ran into my room to escape Rain.

No way I wanted anyone finding out I’m making a visual novel…

If someone asked if I was embarrassed about making a visual novel, I’d answer yes.

This was quite a daunting task for someone who had never experienced it before.

Anyway, I cleared my mind and started the development.

Being a proper 15-plus title, I planned to block most sexual actions.

Holding hands or hugging is fine.

Anything beyond taking off clothes or similar actions isn’t possible.

No… kinds of sensations will be included, and if unnecessary touches happen, I’ll slash the heroine’s affection level drastically.

But if they cross the line, the game will automatically end.

The clothing would also be unrealistically rendered with the heroine’s body, so it wouldn’t come off even if they tried to remove it.

However, I did have kissing scenes, so I’d have to implement the sense of a kiss.

The problem is, I’ve never actually kissed anyone.

I suppose I’ll have to think this over.

The kissing scenes would appear in the ending parts, so I still had some time.

“First, let’s take another look at the script.”

Before the real beginning, I skimmed through the script written by Count Pofos.

Surprisingly good visual novel script.

As I read through it, I stopped when I got close to the ending scenarios.

“In the end, the heroines all fall in love with the protagonist… it’s just a typical happy ending.”

Every heroine’s route ends with a happy ending where they love each other.

There were also harem endings and hidden endings written in various ways.

After all, since it’s a game about dating cute girls, those endings are expected.

“Fufu…”

I started altering the endings with a nefarious smile.

*

Lately, Leo occasionally pondered thoughts like this.

‘What am I so devoted to?’

When examined, his life was far from happiness.

Having a glamorous and shining life didn’t automatically equate to happiness.

Of course, he hadn’t doubted it until the COL.

In his world, there was nothing but devoting himself to being the Crown Prince.

But after learning about the world of COL, Leo discovered how to express himself.

As he revealed the things he’d repressed for so long, he began to realize how foolish his life had been.

A life lived without regard for oneself.

That isn’t necessarily bad. And for someone, that could be a happy life.

But it wasn’t Leo’s way of life.

(Team) Reckless Empire Prince (Caitlyn): LOL, Jungle Spice

In COL, Leo lived most freely.

He let out the bad things he’d been holding back.

He violently unleashed the stress that had built up from a repressed life.

Of course, his COL skills weren’t remarkable.

He barely fluctuated between silver tier.

But COL had more meaning to him than just a game.

“…Thus, we need to sort out the trade fees with the Frank Kingdom.”

“To continuously communicate with Trinity, reducing the budget of the magic department is essential. Honestly, the current magic department…”

“Are you saying we should just eliminate the magic department now?!”

Leo continued the national conference with an indifferent expression.

He just wanted to wrap things up and return to COL and his obsession with Zebit.

He yearned for another world, where he could express himself freely, rather than this suffocating one.

COL was good, but sometimes being in a world solely for fighting could be tiring.

While Leo was thinking this, he overheard some chatter on the way back from the meeting.

In the corridors between the inner and outer palace, a few noblemen were gossiping.

“…Is that really a thing? Who would come up with such a thing?”

“Of course, it must be the Illusion Tower. Rumor has it, Count Pofos holds it.”

“Count Pofos? I might think that’s reasonable if it were Count Pofos…”

“Yes. Isn’t it interesting? A game about dating the illusion of Zebit…”

“But did he get permission from Lady Zebit?”

“…?!”

That was a story Leo could not ignore.