"The third volume of Metronome in Love is almost finished. I'll bring the manuscript to you then to see if there are any areas that need modification," Kasumigaoka Utaha held the specialty from Asahigaoka in her hand, looking at Miyauchi Hikage with a trace of gratitude in her eyes.
The results of the first volume of Metronome in Love were not very good. After reading her own novel, she had long analyzed it—
She was indeed not suitable for writing pure romance novels, even if the heroine of the story was modeled after herself, and the male protagonist was the impeccable, perfect male protagonist in her subconscious.
But precisely because of this seemingly overly perfect love story, according to Miyauchi Hikage, it subtly felt like artificial sweetener.
Kasumigaoka Utaha knew that in her original story, she strongly introduced the second female lead in the second volume, turning this relationship into a love triangle. Coupled with the help of Aki Tomoya, who had 100,000 followers on the internet, she finally fought a beautiful turnaround battle, achieving sales of over 500,000 copies as a newcomer.
Of course, in this world, because she obtained the diary, the fate of her and Metronome in Love had shifted.
Originally, only Aki Tomoya helped with the promotion, but the girls in the group were quite willing to help promote it after reading her novel.
Shinomiya Kaguya helped to greet the Bunko editorial department, ensuring that her work wouldn't be cut even if the results were bad.
And people with many fans like Hoshino Ai and Bocchi-chan promoted Metronome in Love on their accounts.
Miyauchi Hikage also had several internet celebrities with millions of followers from Asahigaoka Media help promote it on Twitter.
It could be said that the low period of Metronome in Love only lasted for less than half a month. After the signing event, it inexplicably jumped to become a hit work last month. According to this trend, let alone 500,000 copies, even breaking through 1 million copies was not impossible!
Achieving greater success than the original work, Kasumigaoka Utaha herself was quite calm.
After all, she was now more conflicted about the ending of the subsequent works.
If she really continued to write like this, there was a high probability that under the push of the plot, she would write "herself" in the book as a losing heroine.
But it just so happened that writing such stories made her more handy with it.
Even Miyauchi Hikage had stated more than once that she was a natural genius at writing love triangles.
Fortunately, the suggestions given by Miyauchi Hikage were indeed useful. Some casually proposed love triangle tropes felt even more stomach-aching than the stories of "her predecessors" mentioned by the mysterious person in the diary.
And with his help, not only did the character settings of the two girls become more likable and complete, but even the "perfect male lead," who had almost no character development in the first volume, unknowingly became more three-dimensional.
Although Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't want to admit it herself.
But she knew it clearly in her heart.
Originally, that male protagonist was just her own imagination. Because she had indeed not communicated with many boys since she was a child, the existence of the male protagonist was more of an "all-round tool man" to cooperate with the heroine in distributing sugar in the plot. When she realized this and looked back at the emotional development of the male and female protagonists, she could indeed feel the taste of artificial sweetener that Miyauchi Hikage mentioned.
But now it was different.
In the diary, she gained more inspiration from everyone's stories.
Scumbags like Itou Makoto, the die-hard sister-complex on Kuroneko's side, the passive male protagonist in Yukinoshita Yukino's story, and of course, Doma Umaru's all-round brother who spoiled his sister unconditionally, and Miyauchi Hikage, who became rich by his own ability in the first year of high school and could open a harem even in a cute-girls-doing-cute-things anime.
In the half month of becoming friends with Miyauchi Hikage, Kasumigaoka Utaha indeed knew why Shiina Mashiro threw herself at Miyauchi Hikage the first time she saw him.
As a friend, Miyauchi Hikage was indeed impeccable.
Kasumigaoka Utaha, who originally only wanted to use Miyauchi Hikage to grind tasks, was indeed guarding against Miyauchi Hikage in her heart at first, lest she be attracted by that classic "Japanese gentleness."
But facts proved that Miyauchi Hikage really didn't play the "yasashi" (gentle) card.
He almost never took the initiative to find someone to chat with. If there was something, it would be solved at the time, and after it was solved, he would fall silent again.
The only thing that made Kasumigaoka Utaha feel his emotions was that his gaze would occasionally inadvertently glance at her stockings, but that was all.
Aside from that, when meeting in private, Miyauchi Hikage and she always maintained a stable sense of distance.
And this wasn't the kind of straight male protagonist who was dull about feelings. On the contrary, Miyauchi Hikage understood human hearts quite well. Kasumigaoka Utaha could feel the meaning of his actions:
He became friends with her because of Shiina Mashiro. He would help analyze problems during writing, and would also help as a friend when she encountered trouble, but going further was impossible.
Unless, she forced herself on him and cooked the raw rice into cooked rice directly.
But this was impossible.
Kasumigaoka Utaha, after seeing her original story, was extremely disgusted with this kind of throwing herself into someone's arms.
When realizing this, Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't help but feel a sense of defeat in her heart.
Well, although she could guess that she and Shiina Mashiro were most likely voiced by the same voice actor in the mysterious person's previous world, and she could simulate Shiina Mashiro's speaking voice and tone without any sense of violation with just a little control.
But she was indeed not as clear and lovable as Mashiro.
Under this mentality of faintly becoming a "losing heroine," describing Miyauchi Hikage as the shadow of the male protagonist, she only spent a few nights rewriting the second volume, and even did it in one go, almost finishing the third volume.
Even her editor, Machida Sonoko, couldn't help but sigh at her visible progress after reading the second volume she wrote with all her might, and prepared to strike while the iron was hot and release the new second volume in the next few days while the heat was still there.
The current Kasumigaoka Utaha was confident that the work she completed now was definitely much more wonderful than her previous life.
And with the help of Miyauchi Hikage, she also very keenly eliminated some foreshadowings that would directly make "herself in the book" completely become a losing heroine.
Until the last chapter of the last volume, she wanted the two heroines to form a balance in the book and even among the fan groups outside the book.
Even if "she" in the final released version still became a losing heroine, she could write another IF line ending in the web version amidst the calls of readers.
It was not easy to achieve this step, but as long as she could continue to maintain her current relationship with Miyauchi Hikage, she felt she could still do it.
However, Kasumigaoka Utaha's mood soon dropped a little again.
Before, Miyauchi Hikage was just an ordinary person.
Now he had completed his supernatural awakening. Simply using the breathing method combined with swordsmanship, he was at Grade 2 level. If he took out that holy sword, he would probably firmly have special-grade strength.
Clearly, she had practiced for a longer time and was Miyauchi Hikage's senior, but now she was constantly relying on him, which made her feel somewhat humble.
Originally, she was thinking about whether to find Miyauchi Hikage to confess that she also practiced the breathing method and ask Miyauchi Hikage to help adjust her breathing rhythm, but now she couldn't say it.
She was worried that saying it would affect their current comfortable friendship instead.
However, as Miyauchi Hikage nodded as usual: "No problem, I've been waiting for your third volume too, senpai. If you can continue to maintain the state of the second volume, maybe in the future you will have the opportunity to become a god with one book, with average sales per volume exceeding one million."
Such praise immediately made Kasumigaoka Utaha's mood happy.
Average sales per volume exceeding one million, that could indeed be considered a phenomenal-level super best-selling work. In the entire light novel industry, there were few who could do this.
She knew that Miyauchi Hikage's power seemed to be related to "fate." Since Miyauchi Hikage wished her average sales per volume exceeding one million, she felt much more confident.
"Then thank you for your blessing. If it doesn't exceed one million, I'll come to trouble you then, junior."
Kasumigaoka Utaha responded with a smile. Then, before preparing to leave, she suddenly thought of the beautiful girl she saw before, whom she had not seen in school before.
She asked about that girl's identity casually.
Miyauchi Hikage also decisively chose to divert the disaster.
Let these people tear each other apart; it was best not to involve him.
"That girl, she is a new student who just transferred from Hyogo Prefecture today. Her name should be Suzumiya Haruhi."
Miyauchi Hikage paused, then reminded in a low voice, "Senpai, I feel that girl is a very troublesome guy. You'd better not get involved with her."
Kasumigaoka Utaha was stunned.
Obviously, Miyauchi Hikage was meeting the other party for the first time too, right? Why did he suddenly mention letting her keep a distance from that girl?
Did his ability let him see something?
Wait?
Suzumiya Haruhi?
Why did this name sound so familiar?
It was as if she had seen it somewhere before.
As if remembering something, Kasumigaoka Utaha hurriedly took out her diary and rummaged through it.
Just flipping through a few pages in the diary, she found the name Suzumiya Haruhi in the diary entry on the first day of school.
Possessing the divine power to rewrite the entire world according to her own ideas, and her enrollment declaration was to find aliens, espers, time travelers, and people from other worlds!?
The mysterious person's evaluation of her was only two words.
Overpowered.
Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at that paragraph about Suzumiya Haruhi, and her mouth opened slightly.
So, this is another god with divine power?
But why did she come to Tokyo at this time and become a classmate with Miyauchi Hikage?!
Kasumigaoka Utaha's brain began to run at high speed.
"Sorry, I suddenly thought of something urgent. Don't worry, I won't actively provoke that girl. You be careful too."
Kasumigaoka Utaha quickly, or even hurriedly, explained to Miyauchi Hikage, then turned and walked quickly towards her class with her phone, while sending messages in the group.
Kasumi Utako: "Big crisis, how many people are online right now!?"
Following her inquiry, not long after, several girls who were also playing with their phones during the break, as well as a few who were not at school, responded to Kasumigaoka Utaha in the group.
Bocchi: "Kasumi Utako-sensei, what happened?"
Yotsuya Miko: "Did you encounter a ghost?"
Hoshino Ai: "Big crisis? Was your commission snatched away, and are you about to undergo the penalty for failing the commission?"
Tsukimi Eiko: "Is it a live broadcast of Kasumi Utako-sensei's shame play this time? Looking forward to it!"
Kasumigaoka Utaha was one of the people with the most speech volume in the group. She had participated in offline gatherings and held signing events, and posted many photos in the group.
The girls in the group's perception of her identity and image was probably second only to Shinomiya Kaguya, who had already been shame-played once, and Hoshino Ai, who showed her face every day as an idol.
Seeing these girls waiting to see her embarrassed, Kasumigaoka Utaha's mouth twitched, and she quickly explained in the group.
Kasumi Utako: "It's not about me, it's Suzumiya Haruhi who transferred here!"
Immediately, several girls in the group also began to think about who Suzumiya Haruhi was.
It was Bocchi-chan, who held the diary and phone all day giggling, who reacted the fastest.
Bocchi: "Is it that overpowered character mentioned by the mysterious person on the first day of school?"
Reminded by this, whether online or lurking onlookers, the girls went to check the diary entry of that day.
Immediately, the chat group during class time suddenly became exceptionally lively.
After all, this woman Suzumiya Haruhi seemed too mysterious in the mysterious person's diary.
Having the divine power to make wishes come true, and also being related to aliens and time travelers.
And having diaries and practicing Hamon breathing, they could be considered "espers" for now. Heaven knows what attitude the other party would treat them with if she knew about the existence of their group.
Even Shinomiya Kaguya, who was busy dealing with the former student council president on the first day of school after the holiday, called Kasumigaoka Utaha directly to ask about the situation.
"Suzumiya Haruhi from Hyogo Prefecture suddenly transferred here, and transferred to Miyauchi Hikage's class?"
Shinomiya Kaguya looked at the information about various girls in the diary in her hand with a not-so-good expression.
She had sent people to investigate the identity information of everyone mentioned by the mysterious person in the diary.
Before this, the only one who hadn't been found was Miyano Shiho, who had no reasonable identity and was hidden.
As for this Suzumiya Haruhi, the result of her previous investigation was that no such person was found.
So, where did she suddenly pop out from?