Chapter 1. Sign It, Bronya
Tap—tap—tap.
It is a well-defined hand with neatly trimmed nails.
Its flat fingertips tap the solid wood table one after another, producing a crisp series of clicks.
In the reasonably private booth of this café, the boy named Xander watches the person across from him with a smile at the corner of his lips, looking quite pleased.
Under his short black hair is a reasonably handsome face.
It is not jaw-dropping, but you could still praise him as the most good-looking lad for miles around.
Beneath a loose black-and-white casual outfit is a body honed by long training—slim in clothes, solid without them.
Sunlight filters through the glass and spreads across the room.
The air is filled with the bitterness of coffee and the richness of milk.
The mixed aromas lightly stimulate the senses of those present.
In the quiet room, the repeated tapping presses down on the heart of the girl opposite him, making her already tightly pressed lips look even more bitter.
The girl has long silver wavy hair.
Her waist-length hair is tied back with a hairband.
Her pretty face is as delicate as a painting.
But the frown gathered on her brow pools into a shadow that refuses to disperse, stemming from the small stack of A4 papers laid on the table before her.
She wears a dress with a thin gray top layer that outlines a figure just beginning to mature.
Not to mention the clearly defined curves already visible at her chest, the soft black skirt hangs with gravity, and the arc catches the round shape of her legs.
As for the black stockings that wrap her slender calves, they extend down to her feet and are gathered by a pair of brown leather shoes.
Xander's gaze drifts there more than once despite himself, inwardly marveling at how much the girl has grown over the years.
There is another girl sitting beside her.
Unlike the silver-haired girl, this one has shoulder-length black hair with a blue sheen.
Her deliberately dressed, cute face does not carry so much bitterness.
But her sea-colored pupils keep darting about—now at the silver-haired girl, now at the boy—wearing a slightly conflicted look.
She seems to want to say something, but cowed by the mood, she does not dare speak.
She can only pinch at her blue-and-white dress with both hands, kneading it into two wrinkled bunches.
She looks timid—the kind that makes people want to hold her and dote on her.
"Finished reading?
Then sign here."
Tap.
His mocha is only half left.
Xander sets the cup down, looks across the table, and says casually and slowly.
"I, I…"
Clutching the pen hard, the girl bites her lip.
Anyone can see the thick unwillingness in her eyes.
"What is it?
Forgot how to write?
Need me to teach you how to write your own name?
Bron~ya~ Za~y~chik~"
When he speaks the girl's name, Xander deliberately slows his cadence.
His tone is teasing, with a faint thread of mockery.
He is not in a hurry.
As the side currently holding the advantage, he has plenty of patience to savor the cute look of helpless unwillingness on the girl's face—especially the way she glares after being prodded.
It has its own flavor.
"No need for you to teach!"
Squeezed out almost through gritted teeth, those words are followed by Bronya giving the girl beside her an apologetic glance.
Only then does her trembling hand lower the pen tip to the A4 paper.
The whisper of pen on paper sounds by her ear.
Seeing Bronya bow her head, Xander turns his gaze to her companion.
As if in tacit understanding, the black-haired girl also looks back at him.
They meet eyes smoothly.
Gazing into that ocean-colored pupil, a smile curls at Xander's lips and his eyes turn gentle.
He opens his mouth and silently forms a few words.
The girl across from him freezes for a heartbeat, then her face blooms.
She gives him a sweet, adorable smile.
That unreserved, trusting smile—just like always since they were little—makes Xander's vision blur for a moment, as if he has gone back to a time when they were very, very young.
The three of them actually come from the same orphanage.
They grew up together, and their relationship is no less than that of true siblings.
Especially Xander and Bronya—both heavy gamers—who used to sneakily play console games at night behind the aunties' backs.
At those times, the other girl—Seele Vollerei—would keep watch for them.
Seele was always their little tagalong.
In the whole orphanage, the three of them were the closest.
"When we grow up, let's make games together.
Let's make the most fun games in the world!"
One day, little Bronya called the two of them out, a bit excited, and said so.
"Okay."
The little boy agreed without hesitation.
That was his thought as well.
As for little Seele—since her favorite big brother and big sister had spoken—she naturally did not want to be left behind and hurriedly raised her hand.
"Any thoughts on the game genre?"
"Mecha.
Bronya wants to make giant robots!!"
The young girl shouted so.
Back then, the three of them probably thought they would always be together.
Unfortunately, reality rarely follows wishes.
The orphanage director, Cocolia, was so capable that in less than ten years she rose to the upper echelons of Anti-Entropy, one of the world's three major tech companies.
The orphanage's conditions improved accordingly.
She always treated the orphanage's children as her own sons and daughters and never shortchanged them.
But as a strong-willed woman, she understood she could not bind the children to her side.
They needed to learn independence.
So whenever a child graduated from middle school, they would be sent out from the orphanage.
Cocolia would provide initial support, but after that, life was up to the child.
When they graduated from high school or university, the orphanage could help them find a job.
The excellent could even return to her side and become part of Anti-Entropy.
After finishing middle school, the three of them—Xander, Bronya, and Seele—were also sent out.
Because they had already set their target as St. Freya Academy, which had the world's best game-development program, they came straight to the Far East from the start of high school.
Although Cocolia treated every child as her own, she did have favorites.
To her three most beloved children, she gave very generous support.
Each received a house of their own, and enough funds for several years of living expenses.
On the day before they left, Cocolia even called them into her bedroom and talked with them all night.
She said that if life outside felt uncomfortable, they could come back at any time—there would always be a place by her side for the three of them.
Originally, one of their plans to make games was to help subsidize the orphanage's expenses for everyone.
But seeing Cocolia's rank rising higher and higher until she was in Anti-Entropy's upper management, money became just a string of simple numbers in her eyes.
Most people hope their sons or daughters become dragons and phoenixes.
As for them, it was more like hoping their "mom became a phoenix."
Still, this allowed Xander and Bronya to pursue their own dreams without being disturbed by other things.
Leaving the orphanage was, for the two of them, undoubtedly the best chance to start chasing their dreams.
However, at the very first meeting, the two of them got into a dispute that was hard to smooth over.
Bronya wanted to make the mecha game she had long dreamed of right away.
But Xander felt they should start with small-scale games first to secure initial funds.
The help provided by Director Cocolia was enough for living, but nowhere near enough for developing a mecha game.
For their current situation, a mecha game was simply too large in scope.
They quarreled.
Neither could convince the other.
So, to avoid ruining their relationship, they signed a two-year contract.
Depending on how things developed after two years, the weaker side would have to accept the other's idea and follow their lead.
Co-development was, for the time being, off the table.
The plan for all three to live in one house also fell through because of this.
Another big problem arose after they separated—Seele's "custody."
As the little sister both of them liked most, who Seele would live with became their second point of contention.
In the end, Bronya relied on the convenience of them both being girls and forcibly "claimed" Seele, which made Xander grind his teeth at the time.
By now, a year has passed, and everything has changed.
One thing was forgotten: since an illness when he was eight, Xander had often had strange dreams.
Only on the night he left the orphanage did those hazy dreams converge like fragments coming together, piecing into a complete life he never expected.
Again an orphan.
Again lucky to have caring friends and teachers.
After a fairly happy youth, he had just stepped out of school when, saving two kids from a dump truck, he "added another entry of cross-world transfer work" to its record.
Whether because his brain had not fully developed as a child or for some other reason, only that night did he recall the memories of his previous life.
Good news.
He was not completely killed by the dump truck—he was reborn.
Bad news.
The moment he realized he had been reborn, he remembered his childhood playmates and thought: oh no, this is Honkai!
Good news.
Calming down and looking back, he realized there truly was no Honkai here at all.
This was genuine daily life.
Nice!
Even better news.
After the dream fragments fused, they were like a brand burned into his mind, becoming a "book" he could flip through at will.
Everything he had experienced before could be recalled easily with a thought.
Looking at the many famous titles he had played in his past life, Xander could not help drawing a sharp breath.
This world's game industry is also prosperous, but compared with the previous world, it is still a little inferior.
With rapid technological advancement, people here chase technical upgrades, more realistic graphics, and better models.
Gameplay is not as wild and varied as in the previous world.
If he could make all the games in his memory and combine them with this world's technology, the scene he imagined made him shiver.
If it really worked, he could even make the current world's No. 1 IP—Homu's—author, Welt, eat his dust, and then stand on his back and shout that he is the true king of games.
Ahem.
Low-key, low-key.
He has not even shipped one game yet.
Do not get ahead of yourself.
There is one more annoying point.
He only has the memories.
For small-scale games, that is fine.
But for those AAA blockbusters, let alone the tech, the manpower and resources required are far beyond what he can handle now.
So the current primary goal is to make a simple game that can quickly bring in ample funds in a short time.
What kind of game would cost little and still sell plenty even without any name recognition or marketing?
He racked his brains, and then—lightning flashed—one bold idea surfaced.
Between "dignity" and funds for future game development, he did not hesitate long and chose the latter.
Eight months later, a first-person shooter titled Bishoujo Kaleidoscope — The Cursed Legend Girl quietly went live.
The illustrator was him—he had drawn since childhood.
Aside from hiring a few voice actors, the production cost was nearly zero.
This world also has galgames, of course, but art-style evolution is random.
In ACG here, the style is more realistic.
Therefore, when a fresh style like Kaleidoscope appeared, a handful of simple CG previews sent it blazing across the underground scene.
Galgames are a fairly small circle, and that helps information spread quickly.
Word of mouth multiplied, and Kaleidoscope sold just as he expected—explosively.
Local otaku had never seen imagery that "made the blood race" like this.
Just a few preview CGs made them hand over their wallets obediently.
Three months later, riding the first game's momentum, Bishoujo & Kaleidoscope — Forget-Me-Not and the Eternal Girl went up quickly.
He managed the second one so fast not only because he could hire a helper with the money, but also because he was already familiar with this art style.
Back when he made the first game, just learning the style from memory took him two whole months.
As for Bronya—
Relying on Anti-Entropy's AI provided by Cocolia, she poured more than ten months into her mecha game… and face-planted.
Leaving aside the hard-to-follow, somewhat self-indulgent plot, the stages were designed entirely to her own tastes, so the brutal difficulty was simply unplayable for ordinary people.
Add a side-scrolling action format that had already been done to death, and who else but her was going to flop?
For this game, Bronya burned through almost all her funds.
The result, naturally, was losing everything.
Seele wanted to chip in her own share, but Bronya refused without hesitation.
Flopping was shameful enough.
If she also took Seele's money, she really would not have the face to look Xander in the eye.
But without money, she could not make games.
Without a new game, forget waiting for one year—she might as well admit defeat to Xander now.
Just as Bronya was at her wits' end and about to swallow her pride and ask Cocolia for a loan, Xander seized the chance and invited the two of them out with a contract.
The terms were simple.
The final showdown would be moved up to the St. Freya Mini-Game Festival a few months from now.
Xander would cover R&D funds to help Bronya optimize her game.
In return, the "right to have" Seele would belong to him.
As for Seele's own wishes—she could live with either one.
If the three could live together, that would be even better.
Sadly, that wish would take quite a while yet.
Watching her big brother and big sister arguing over her—though it sounds bad—she actually felt a tiny bit happy.
Learning that her favorite brother and sister both liked her most too, her heart could not help leaping for joy.
To win the right to have Seele live with him, Xander really went all in.
Judging from Bronya's research burn rate, it felt like he would pour in everything he made from Kaleidoscope 1 and 2.
He knew Bronya would not refuse this contract.
If she did not sign, then after a year, it would be Xander in charge anyway, and the three would still live together.
If she did sign, she would still have a chance to turn the tables.
For the sake of her ideal, she could grit her teeth and let Seele go for now.
After all, Cocolia's houses were close by; if she wanted to see Seele, it was only a few steps away.
Watching Bronya write her name stroke by stroke on the contract, Xander's lips slowly curled.
He patted the sofa beside him and looked at Seele.
"Seele, time to come over here~"
Hearing her brother's voice, Seele sneaked a glance at the dimmed look in Bronya's eyes, then gave a soft "mm," stood up obediently, and took tiny steps to sit beside her brother.
Seeing this—and under Bronya's stifled gaze—Xander quite unceremoniously put an arm around Seele's shoulder, felt the girl's warm body heat, and looked across the table with a victor's smile.
"It is still early.
Want to go for a walk right now?"
Feeling the warm hand draped on her shoulder and the gentle voice by her ear, Seele's little face turned rosy at once.
She nodded eagerly.
She did not spare even a moment to mourn Bronya's loss.
Her upcoming date with her brother had already occupied the high ground in her little head.
"Do not say that, brother.
Bronya-sister still cares a lot about Seele."
Noticing Bronya's head drooping lower and lower, Seele quickly tugged on Xander's arm and gave it a little pull, speaking in a wheedling tone.
"Really?"
"Really~"
Afraid he would not believe her, Seele leaned on him and let out a syrupy sound.
Compared with the shy little girl in his past-life memories, the Seele here had followed at his heels since childhood.
When it came to mischief, she was her brother's "vanguard."
Though still shy, her overall personality was much more outgoing.
"All right, all right.
If it is Seele saying it, of course I believe it."
His slightly helpless voice made Seele beam—bright-eyed and lovely.
"Let us go.
You know the password for the card I just gave you."
With that, Xander rose with Seele.
The two of them walked off hand in hand, slowly disappearing from Bronya's sight.
Hoo…
Bronya closed her eyes and gently exhaled a breath.
Then the downcast look in her eyes gradually turned firm.
Just wait.
She would make Xander accept her ideas.
Then they would go back to how it was when they were kids—working together for a shared dream.
Just as she lifted her spirits to leave, a waiter with a business smile suddenly stepped in to stop her.
"?"
Seeing her confused expression, the waiter reminded her considerately, "Miss, the coffee you ordered has not been paid for yet.
Cash or card?"
"…"
Her fist tightened.
She took a deep breath and pulled out her wallet.
After seeing the few scattered points of balance left in a seam, she fell silent for a moment.
Then—with cheeks slightly red—she took out the card Xander had handed her earlier.
"C-card."
Even her voice caught, showing just how unsettled she felt inside.
Ding-dong.
Seeing the sudden payment notification pop up on his phone, Xander froze for a second, then could not help but laugh.
"Brother, what is it?"
She took a small bite of the freshly bought taiyaki.
The sweet taste made Seele's eyes squint with joy.
Hearing her brother suddenly laugh, she looked over curiously.
"It is nothing.
I just thought—Bronya is really hard on herself."
Shaking his head, Xander leaned toward Seele with his mouth open.
Seele, very much in sync, lifted the taiyaki toward him.
Chomp.
"…"
Watching the "fish head and body" vanish almost instantly, and then her brother stride ahead on his own, Seele stopped in her tracks, a hint of confusion flashing in her big eyes.
Then she reacted, immediately dashing after him and protesting, "Brother!"
Xander quickened his pace at once.
The two chased each other, leaving a trail of laughter along the way.
Enjoyed the story? Support me and get access to early chapters by joining my Patreon!
Find me at: Patr*eon*.com/Resium
Free members can read 10+ Chapters Ahead of Release
Paid member can read 150+ Chapters Ahead of Release
Stories Available
Honkai? No, This Is Daily Life
Hogwarts Pet Master
Pokémon: Who Let Him Leave Pallet Town!
Scrolling Yu-Gi-Oh! Shorts