A [Random Draw] card... so such a card finally appeared, and it was even in a "shard" form!

Seiji instantly understood what it was by the name. He checked the system’s explanation to confirm his thoughts, and it was just as he expected.

[When you have five [Random Draw Shards], you may combine them into a [Random Draw] card. If you don’t have enough [Random Draw Shards], you may also exchange for them with points.]

[Each [Random Draw] card will reward you with a random item.]

‘Now you’re giving me [Random Draws] and even [shards]... You’ve finally fallen to such an extent, system of mine,’ Seiji inwardly commented.

As anyone who’d played an internet-based browser game or cell phone game before would know, terms like [Random Draw] or [shards]—or their equivalent—were incredibly common in such games and the players viewed them with mixed feelings.

The thrill of [Random Draws] was addictive: there were wonderful surprises like "drawing a legendary on the first try" or depressing events like "drawing nothing but commons fifty times in a row." It was a contrast between heaven and h.e.l.l, the lucky and the unlucky... and games reaped huge amounts of profit from the maths behind probability. There were probably enough regretful players to form a line around the world’s equator.

And while "shards" could give players a specific reward, they would have to obtain many of them through certain tasks or by grinding specific levels and so on, which wasn’t all that fun by itself.

Sometimes, players would even wax philosophical about it: ‘Am I playing the game, or is the game playing me?"; "Is the time spent on this worth it?"; "What is the meaning of life?’ Such philosophical questions were just a few examples from the many out there.

At any rate, if he wanted to, Seiji could comment on these two common game factors for three consecutive days and nights, but he decided to forgo that.

No matter what, it was good that he would be rewarded.

Thunderbolt Literature’s magazine would surely sell more copies, so his story would receive more exposure, and more and more readers would enjoy his work, so he would constantly receive more rewards.

‘Now that I have such a reward option, I really need to take novel writing super seriously,’ Seiji thought to himself. 'After all, popularity is strength!’

If he wrote even better novels, more readers would enjoy it, and he would reap a large number of points and items.

He continued writing his novel. And like this, it was lunchtime before he knew it.

Chiaki and Mika had both finished reading his novel and had given him excellent reviews.

"I think that your novel has the potential to be extended into a longer one... no, you definitely should continue it," Chiaki told him. "After I finished, I still wanted to read; I felt that there wasn’t enough to satisfy me."

"I also agree; Seigo’s really good at writing!" Mika gave him her honest opinion: "I... don’t know how to describe it. I just think it’s really good, and the end was rather moving. It left enough open for me to want to read more."

"It’s good that you guys like it." Seiji smiled. "As for continuing that story... I may do so in the future, but I don’t have any plans to do so right now. First, I want to focus on doing a good job for ‘Brother Monogatari,’ as I believe it will be an even better story than this short story here! That’s because I worked hard on creating it together with s.h.i.+ka-chan."

Seiji a.s.sumed a resolute eexpression.

Both Mika and Chiaki were rather moved; they felt that he looked really cool with such a serious expression.

"I really look forward to it... when you’re done, could you let me look at your draft?" Chiaki asked.

"I’d like to see your draft as well." Mika made the same request.

Seiji grinned. "Of course. I should say that I'm hoping for the two of you to give me an early review." 

At this moment, someone walked up to them. It was Kaho Miyamoto.

She had a lunchbox in her hand and was blus.h.i.+ng furiously as she walked over to them. She was obviously nervous.

"I... would like to eat lunch together with you guys. Is... is that alright?"

Seiji exchanged glances with Chiaki and Mika. "Of course."

"You’re more than welcome, Miyamoto-san," Chiaki said.

"Please have a seat..." Mika chimed in.

Naturally, three of them had no problem with her presence.

Kaho inwardly heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed visibly when the trio greeted her amicably. She was still nervous, though, and sat down tentatively.

Her good friend Momoko Matsuoka had repeatedly encouraged her, and her friend's urging had bolstered her courage to the point of doing this.

If it had been up to herself, she would have been satisfied with just being able to talk to Seigo Harano during cla.s.s time. A "big event" like eating lunch together with him was something to be left for later...

But Momoko argued against her way of thinking and advised her that she needed to take action as quickly as possible in order to ensure their new status as friends.

Eating together during lunchtime was common for friends to do. If she could do this much, it would secure her relations.h.i.+p with him as a friend.

And if she didn’t do this much, their relations.h.i.+p as friends—which was only verbal—would gradually fade over time if they didn’t have constant contact. Eventually, they’d end up being "casual friends."

Kaho felt that Momoko was right, so she accepted her advice and decided to take this step forward.

Voluntarily getting closer to him and adding herself to his social circle... she'd done it once already during the laser tag activity, but this was different, as this was a commonplace, everyday activity rather than a one-time event.

Partic.i.p.ating in an one-time event together was poles apart from doing something like eating lunch with him every day.

This was truly taking a step into his social world. She had taken this step, but she hadn’t crossed the threshold just yet.

She needed to do a good job and make it through lunchtime.

Just what should she do? What should she say? Should she bring up a topic of conversation? Would she be able to follow their topics of conversation? Such anxieties filled her heart.

Everyone was able to see how nervous she was.

Seiji smiled to rea.s.sure her. "Miyamoto-san, do you like reading light novels?"

"Er... I do."

"We’re currently chatting about light novels... the one that I wrote."

Kaho's eyes widened in surprise. "Harano-san... wrote a novel!?"

A copy of Thunderbolt Literature’s magazine was placed in front of her.

Seiji explained how his short novel was published and asked her to read it as well and give him a review.

Kaho was shocked that Seigo Harano had written a light novel which had been published!

She marveled at this in her heart and quickly began reading the novel in the magazine. The beginning of the story gripped and captured her interest.

Naturally, Seiji involved her in the topic of his light novel as he began chatting with the three girls.

Unbeknownst to her, Kaho's nervousness soon dissipated due to the fact that light novels were one of her favorite topics.

By the time she finally realized it, they had finally finished a fun lunch together.

‘I succeeded!' she thought jubilantly. 'No... Harano-san succeeded...’

Kaho realized that Seigo Harano was the one who successfully helped her integrate into his social circle, and she felt a warm feeling in her chest upon realizing this.

They definitely weren’t just "casual friends." He really was treating her as his friend.

The handsome boy’s smile remained in her mind for a long time without fading.

Atsus.h.i.+ Suzuki was a normal first-year middle school student.

He wasn’t one of the most popular, nor was he an outcast in his cla.s.s. He had ordinary friends, ordinary grades, and was ordinary at sports—in short, he was a perfectly ordinary student.

Since his older brother was very fond of light novels, manga, and anime, Atsus.h.i.+ was influenced by him and shared his tastes, albeit not to the same extent as his older brother. Just about everything he read was borrowed from his older brother. 

Today, Atsus.h.i.+’s brother bought the newest week’s edition of Thunderbolt Literature’s magazine just like always and put it down on the table after finis.h.i.+ng the series he was following. After that, he began watching some anime. Atsus.h.i.+ wasn’t interested in this anime, so he took the magazine back to his own room.

When he opened it up, a t.i.tle in the table of contents caught his attention.

I’ll Die If I Don’t Become Handsome... This t.i.tle was rather interesting, so he decided to give it a try.

Atsus.h.i.+ flipped to the page the story was on and played some music to listen to while reading. He soon lost himself in reading.

He laughed loudly at the comical moments, became nervous at the tense moments, and frowned when the main character acted depraved. He was overjoyed when the main character recovered his spirit and joined the final battle and was moved by the final scene.

Atsus.h.i.+ remained in a daze for quite a while after he finished reading.

Then, he flipped through to the beginning and read the entire story over again while paying more attention to detail.

‘This is really an amazing story. Why isn’t it a little longer? This isn’t enough at all!’

He felt that this story was his ideal light novel.

Especially the fighting scenes, as Atsus.h.i.+ felt like reading them was just as descriptive as watching an anime... no, it was even more vivid than watching an anime! He could imagine each scene in such vivid detail; he accredited this to the author’s nearly professional-level descriptions.

This author seemed too amazing to him.

The pen name was... Idle Dimension by The Sh.o.r.e.

Atsus.h.i.+ felt that it was a rather strange pen name but committed this name to his memory nonetheless.

This was the first time in his life he had ever committed an author’s name to his memory as well as the first time he had ever wanted to write to an author to express how much he liked the story.

Atsus.h.i.+ walked out of his room.

"Bro, can I write the reply letter to the magazine for this week’s edition?" he asked.

"Hmm? Of course. I don’t mind at all... but why are you suddenly interested in writing the magazine a letter?" his brother asked casually. He was curious about this unexpected request.

"There’s a story that I really enjoyed, so I wanted to write in and support the author."

"Oh, which story is it?"

Atsus.h.i.+ told his brother the name of the story, then he went back to his room to fill in the magazine’s reply letter.

He voted for I’ll Die If I Don’t Become Handsome as his #1 favorite in the magazine’s weekly fan poll.

He wasn’t the only reader to do this.