Kasumigaoka Utaha really couldn't figure out Eriri's strange thought process.
Kasumigaoka Utaha's current thinking was very simple.
Isn't the mysterious person fond of stirring up trouble? Then I'll just develop Eriri into an external member of the Diary Interest Group and have her be my assistant.
I believe the current Eriri must also "abhor" the mysterious person.
And yesterday, after tricking Eriri into revealing her identity, Kasumigaoka Utaha had investigated Kashiwagi Eri's works overnight.
It had to be said, the skill level of Eriri, a girl who already had several years of experience creating R18 doujinshi despite just entering high school, was definitely not just for show.
After looking at several of her works, Kasumigaoka Utaha really did have the thought of having her draw the illustrations for her own work.
Of course, Koisuru Metronome was already on sale, so that wasn't possible for now.
But the people she had met in the diary and the chat group these past few days were just too perfect as material for her, a light novel author.
Shinomiya Kaguya was a conglomerate's young mistress, Chitanda Eru was a countryside young lady, Hoshino Ai was an idol, and Takanashi Rikka and Kuroneko were chuunibyous.
And then there was Katsura Kotonoha's yet-to-be-confirmed dark yandere state.
By spending some time chatting with them in the group every day, Kasumigaoka Utaha could get a lot of inspiration.
As a creator, the most painful thing is to have a ton of creative inspiration but not be able to casually start a new book.
However, she had already decided.
After she finished writing the second volume of Koisuru Metronome in her hands, she planned to write a new book, and at that time, she could go and find Eriri to be the illustrator.
Of course, that was a matter for later.
For now, Eriri was not in the mood to talk about these things, and she herself still had things she hadn't finished.
Right now, a bunch of people in the group were @'ing her, telling her to hurry up and find the school's gatekeeper to see if he had seen the mysterious person's face.
Of course, there were also a few people there making a fuss, telling her to upload the manga to the group for everyone to see.
Kasumigaoka Utaha directly ignored the words of those latter people.
No matter what, this was the first time that they, the diary holders, had gotten so close to that mysterious person.
During the lunch break, she and that mysterious person might have been only a few dozen meters apart at their closest?
But to be honest, at this moment, Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't hold much hope.
It had been about ten days since she got the diary. Although the mysterious person had been leaking his "information" in the diary, it was all things that couldn't be confirmed as true or false. There was one piece of information that was highly credible: that mysterious person could get rewards from the diary every day by writing in it.
And that reward was clearly much better than the Reading Value they got every day for reading the diary and posting reviews.
So far, the rewards the mysterious person had exposed himself were not many.
The ripple breathing method, the first volume of Passerby Heroine, and this personal IF route manga of hers in her hands.
There were still seven or eight days' worth of rewards that the mysterious person hadn't mentioned a single word about.
Who knew if he had some strange things to hide his identity in his hands now.
Perhaps he only suddenly appeared in their sight after obtaining some kind of reward that ensures he won't be discovered?
Just like that Kaitou Kid, who had once been mentioned by the mysterious person in the diary, who had the ability to easily disguise himself as other people.
However, even for that less than one percent possibility, Kasumigaoka Utaha still had to go and confirm it to give an account to the people in the group.
After telling Eriri about her plan, Eriri naturally agreed.
At this moment, Eriri was also fuming with anger at the "mysterious hacker" Kasumigaoka Utaha had mentioned.
She didn't remember ever provoking any powerful hacker, yet the other party had just doxxed her online like that, and had even cooked up such a manga that was full of malice towards her.
And so, under Kasumigaoka Utaha's recruitment, the Avengers Alliance against the mysterious person successfully added a new external member.
Next, they returned to the school and asked the gatekeeper at the entrance if he had seen a worker carrying a stepladder walk into the school today.
Listening to Kasumigaoka Utaha's explanation of the "life cheat code," let alone the school's gatekeeper, even Eriri was stunned.
Of course, what Eriri was thinking was, is this some new trick that's popular on the internet recently? It sounds a little bit reasonable.
Should the theme of her new doujinshi be developed in this way?
And the gatekeeper, on the other hand, looked a little nervous.
The "maintenance worker" I let in at noon, he didn't do anything bad in the school, did he?
Fortunately, the girl in front of him just wanted to know what the maintenance worker looked like and what he had talked about with him, and didn't show any intention of reporting him to the school authorities.
"I didn't say much to him. I just saw that he was working hard in the middle of the day, so I offered him a cigarette, but he refused it on the grounds that 'smoking this kind of traditional cigarette makes you cough easily, I'll bring you some that don't make you cough next time'."
"As for his looks?" The gatekeeper recalled the man who had refused his cigarette at noon with a troubled face.
The other person was just wearing a safety helmet, with no mask or anything to cover his face, but when he tried to recall it carefully, he found that he couldn't remember what the other person looked like at all.
A very ordinary appearance, with no special features at all. For a moment, he couldn't even recall it.
In the end, he could only barely state his impression of the other's height, build, and skin color.
"Why don't I just show you the surveillance footage? But you can't tell anyone about this," because the handle was in their hands, the gatekeeper finally agreed to show the two of them the surveillance footage from noon.
A few minutes later, Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri saw a somewhat blurry side profile on the surveillance screen.
It was indeed as the gatekeeper had said, plain and unremarkable, with no special features.
"So this guy is that mysterious hacker? He's so far from what I imagined..." Eriri was a little disappointed. This face, if placed on the street, she probably wouldn't be able to recognize it even if he passed in front of her.
Kasumigaoka Utaha did not express an opinion, but took a picture of the side profile under surveillance, preparing to send it to Shinomiya Kaguya later.
Although so far, Shinomiya Kaguya had only @'d her once in the group to ask if she needed help, and seemed not to have taken the picture the mysterious person had posted in the diary to heart.
But Kasumigaoka Utaha felt that Shinomiya Kaguya's emotions at this moment were probably not as calm as she showed in the group.
I wonder if, with the power of the Shinomiya family, they can find anything useful.
After bidding farewell to Eriri, Kasumigaoka Utaha once again went to the diary's comment section to vent by being fiercely passive-aggressive towards the mysterious person.
Although the situation today was a bit thrilling, at least she had obtained this manga related to her, which gave her one more point of understanding about her own future.
If her passive-aggressiveness could get that main story first volume of Passerby Heroine over here, she felt she would be willing to take a little more risk.