After Monster Train was released, Ichin checked its first-day sales, player concurrency, and some of the bug reports that had come in, then took some time to make a trip to Capcom headquarters.
It just so happened that the end of the year was approaching, and Capcom was also waiting for the holiday break. Everyone was fairly relaxed, so during his visit, Ichin naturally managed to learn a bit about the development progress of some of their projects.
After coming back, he discussed what could be made public and then revealed part of it.
For example, the new Monster Hunter, the new Devil May Cry, and Dragon's Dogma 2 had all already moved past the early planning stage and officially entered full development.
As for a new Resident Evil, however, there was indeed still no sign of it.
It couldn't be helped. Capcom was completely obsessed with remakes right now, and they were having the time of their lives with it. They clearly were not going to spare Resident Evil 5 or 6 either. Both had already been folded into the remake plans.
Overall, the result was more or less in line with Ichin's expectations, though he had not expected that a new Devil May Cry was already in development too.
Unfortunately, there was no way to learn any specific details, so he had no idea how the story of the next Devil May Cry would unfold, though it would probably still be more family drama.
As soon as this information was released, quite a few Capcom fans immediately had something to look forward to.
It couldn't be helped. The amount of information announced at TGA had just been too little.
So having connections really does make a difference. He just went straight to HQ and blocked the door.
Dragon's Dogma 2! My Dragon's Dogma 2! So it really is being made at last!
Sure, they're making it, but if they didn't announce it at TGA, then it'll probably still be a long time before we hear anything. We're going to be waiting for ages.
Better to have something to wait for than nothing at all!
After looking through the comments under the post, Ichin smiled, put away his phone, and continued reading.
Soon enough, final exams arrived. Naturally, Ichin had no problems there and passed them with ease.
After the exams, what followed was naturally the holiday break, along with Christmas.
When he got home from work, Ichin saw several large boxes piled up in the living room. These were all things to be used for decorating the day after tomorrow on Christmas.
As for the Christmas tree, it had already been taken out and set up in the corner of the living room.
The nearly two-meter-tall tree was quite eye-catching sitting there in the living room. Once the decorative light strings were hung on it, it would definitely look beautiful.
At that moment, the kitchen door opened, and Utaha said as she looked at Ichin coming in, "Ichin, dinner will be ready in about half an hour. Go take a shower first. Haruno still hasn't come back yet either."
"Alright, then I'll go wash up first."
He went upstairs, grabbed some clothes, stepped into the bathroom, and enjoyed a comfortable shower, then soaked in the tub for a while.
Twenty minutes later, he came back downstairs. Haruno still had not returned, but dinner was almost ready.
Ichin picked up Peppa, who had crawled into one of the boxes, and looked inside. It was full of decorative light strings, and they definitely could not be allowed to get damaged.
Taking the smaller empty box beside it, Ichin promptly put Peppa inside.
"You can't play with the big one. Play with this smaller one instead."
After being placed inside, Peppa immediately settled down obediently, curling up in the box and narrowing her eyes in contentment.
Seeing that, Ichin shook his head. "I really don't know why cats love cardboard boxes so much."
Once Peppa was inside the box, the other cats in the house also came over one after another, all wanting to climb in and investigate.
Ichin had figured it out. These cardboard boxes were definitely more attractive to the cats than the cat tree.
Forget it. After dinner, he would take everything out of the boxes and let the cats have them to play with.
A few more minutes passed, and Haruno finally came back. Utaha and Yukino had also finished preparing dinner, so everyone sat down and happily ate together.
Gnawing on a chicken wing, Haruno said to the three of them, "There's a party on Christmas Eve, right? Good thing I finished all my work today. I won't need to work overtime anymore after this."
"So you finally don't have to work overtime?" Ichin said with a smile. "I thought you'd still be working late even on Christmas Eve, Haruno-nee."
"Tch, not that bad," Haruno said proudly. "As soon as I heard from Yukino and Utaha that we were having a Christmas party, I immediately rearranged my workload. Haven't you noticed I've been getting off work even later these past few days? This was all preparation for the Christmas party! I haven't been able to rest properly these past few months, and now that it's the end of the year, I really don't want any more nonsense popping up!"
When everyone came over for the Christmas party, it was bound to be a lively scene, and Haruno did not want to miss it in the slightest.
Just as she was speaking, her phone rang.
She picked it up and saw that it was Shizuka Hiratsuka calling.
"Hello, Shizuka? What's up?"
Shizuka Hiratsuka?
Ichin and the others glanced at each other. They had not expected it to be a call from Hiratsuka-sensei.
Utaha leaned close to Ichin's ear and whispered, "Ichin, what do you think Hiratsuka-sensei is calling about?"
"No idea." Ichin shook his head. "I haven't seen Hiratsuka-sensei in a while. She's probably asking Haruno-nee out for drinks again or something."
Sure enough, just as Ichin finished speaking, Haruno said on the call, "Ah, drinks won't work. I just got home and started dinner. How about you come over instead? Eh? You're not coming? Alright then. Oh right, Shizuka, how about coming over on Christmas Eve? We're planning to have a party, and everyone will be here. We can have a couple drinks together. It's safer than drinking outside, right?"
As she spoke, Haruno also looked toward Ichin.
Naturally, Ichin had no problem with it. If that teacher could come, he would welcome her one hundred percent. Hazuki also quite liked drinking together with Shizuka Hiratsuka.
Seeing Ichin nod, Haruno put even more effort into the invitation. She also had not seen Hiratsuka in quite a long time. As a friend she had known since their student days, she truly missed her.
Soon, the call ended, and Haruno said happily, "Shizuka agreed. I'll go pick her up on Christmas Eve!"
Ichin smiled. "So Hiratsuka-sensei called today to ask you out for drinks?"
"Yep." Haruno nodded and took a sip of soup. "Even though Shizuka didn't say it, I'm guessing she went on another arranged date again, and it probably didn't go too well, so she wanted someone to drink with."
Well, that guess was very reasonable.
Utaha smiled and said, "If it didn't work out, then it didn't work out. It's not the first time anyway. And it's been a long time since we last saw Hiratsuka-sensei, so this time let's just have a good time together."
After dinner, everyone gathered in the living room and sorted out all the decorations that had been delivered. The actual decorating work could wait until the 24th, when everyone came over.
After putting all the decorations into one box, the other cardboard boxes all ended up becoming toys for the cats.
...
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