Chapter 183: The End of the Livestream, and the Upcoming Release Date

Shinoda Hajime's gaming skills were impressive. After failing three times in a row, she finally managed to defeat the boss _Broken Vessel_.

"Hah!! Finally beat it!"

Putting down the controller, Shinoda Hajime let out a huge sigh of relief and glanced at the chat. "Hmph, didn't I tell you I'd beat it? How dare you guys doubt me!"

The chat, of course, played along and flooded the screen with messages of praise.

After returning to the main menu, Ichin moved on to the final phase of today's stream—answering some viewer questions about the game.

"Completion time for the game?"

After giving it some thought, Ichin replied, "You don't need to worry about the game's length. For a standard first playthrough, it'll take about twenty hours or more. And if you're aiming for a full completion on your first run, that will take even longer. After the main storyline is completed, we'll be adding post-game content via updates to keep players motivated and engaged."

As for what exactly would be added in future updates, Ichin didn't reveal anything. If he spilled all the secrets now, there'd be no sense of mystery left.

Then, he noticed a Super Chat question asking when the studio would start developing a new game.

Shinoda Hajime was exhausted from the gameplay and wasn't interested in answering questions. Instead, she was already munching on snacks. Ichin thought for a moment before replying, "As for new projects, I've already laid out the general plan. However, it's not the right time to officially start development. After we finish preparing the launch day patch in the next few days and release the game, the studio will take a short break. Once we're back, that's probably when we'll begin working on the next project."

After answering two more questions, Ichin decided it was time to wrap up the stream.

"Alright, we've been streaming for over an hour, so I think it's time to call it a day. After this, I'll be hosting a giveaway on my social feed—ten _Hollow Knight_ activation codes for Steam and ten physical copies for the Nintendo Switch. The winners will be announced two days before the release date, and I'll reach out to them individually. If you're interested, be sure to participate. Okay, see you all in the next stream!"

Shinoda Hajime waved cheerfully at the camera. "See you next time, everyone!"

After shutting down the stream, Ichin stretched a bit and looked at Shinoda Hajime. "Thanks for all your hard work today, Hajime."

"No worries! The stream was actually pretty fun, and all I had to do was play games. It's not like I had to interact with the viewers too much," Shinoda Hajime replied, rubbing her neck with a smile. "But this was still pretty enjoyable—just playing games, chatting, and earning some extra money. Now I can buy more figurines!"

It was obvious why Shinoda Hajime was willing to participate in the stream: to earn more bonus money.

Out of everyone at the studio, she was the only one living paycheck to paycheck. Most of her salary went toward games and collectible merchandise. Ichin had seen photos of her apartment, where a display cabinet was packed with various figurines and models.

Although Ichin also had a decent collection, it was nothing compared to Shinoda Hajime's treasure trove.

Seeing her so happy, Ichin couldn't help but smile. "Don't worry, your bonus is guaranteed. And if we do more streams like this in the future, you're welcome to join in."

At that moment, the others who had been watching the stream together returned to the studio.

Aoba curiously peeked over at the streaming dashboard on the screen. "Ichin-kun, I noticed there were quite a few gifts being sent during the stream. Did we make a lot of money?"

"Not really. The platform takes a cut, so it's not something worth worrying about," Ichin replied, glancing at the backend statistics. The revenue from gifts wasn't much, totaling around two thousand yuan. After all, their stream was just a game development studio's broadcast, not a professional gaming stream.

Yagami Kō leaned over, looked at the numbers, and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow! But that's actually a lot, isn't it? Considering we only stream occasionally, and we still get people showing up to support us, it looks like we've got a decent following."

"It's alright, I guess."

After closing the streaming dashboard, Ichin opened his social media account, preparing to post the giveaway announcement. As he typed, he said, "Hazuki, there's another stream scheduled for tomorrow night on YouTube. You'll join me for that one, okay?"

Hazuki had no issues with it and cheerfully agreed, "Sure! But aren't you considering having Kō join instead?"

"Kō?"

Ichin glanced at Yagami Kō, who was already hiding behind Rin Toyama. He shrugged and said, "Forget it. With her personality, she's definitely not ready to join a live stream. Just getting her to record a video was already pushing her limits."

Kō, who was peeking her head out halfway from behind Rin, looked annoyed at Ichin's words but couldn't really refute them. She could only glare at him from a distance.

Rin chuckled and whispered to her friend, "Kō, you really should work on it, you know."

"Why are you saying that, too?"

Yagami Kō frowned, her slender eyebrows knitted together as she ran a hand through her blonde hair. "Let me think about it a bit more. I really can't get used to appearing on camera."

The stream had ended, and it was already past nine in the evening. Ichin told everyone to go home and rest. There was no need for them to come in the next morning. If anyone was interested in the evening's stream, they could just come in the afternoon.

When everyone left, Yagami Kō, clearly afraid that Ichin would pressure her into joining the stream, literally pushed him and Utaha out of the studio.

After she quickly said goodnight and slammed the door shut with a loud "bang," Ichin froze for a moment before saying to Utaha, "Did she forget that I have the keys?"

Utaha couldn't hold back her laughter, holding onto Ichin's arm as she said, "Looks like she's really afraid you'll force her to join the stream."

"Sigh, what's the point of hiding? Isn't she coming back here tomorrow anyway?"

Ichin shook his head, surprised to see such a childish side of Yagami Kō.

"Let's head home."

As the game's release date drew nearer, there was surprisingly little tension within the studio.

Ichin had prepared everything thoroughly. Alongside Rin and Hazuki, he had carefully mapped out a detailed development schedule, with enough time built in to handle any unexpected issues.

In about ten days, they had fixed all the detected bugs and completed the first-day patch. Everything was finally ready.

On Monday night, after dinner, Ichin was sitting at his workstation in the studio. But he wasn't working. Instead, he was leisurely playing _Super Robot Wars 30_ on his console.

The others were doing the same—some were chatting, others were watching dramas, and a few were playing games. After all, there wasn't much left for them to do.

This was the first time any of them had truly experienced the agony of waiting for their studio's new game to launch.

...

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