Private Mixed High School, Club Activity Room.
As the intense music gradually softened, faded, and finally disappeared, the lingering echoes in the clubroom slowly dissipated like wisps of smoke.
"All done!"
Standing behind the camera, Yukinoshita Yukino pressed the pause button and looked up at the Light Music Club members who had just finished performing.
"Yes! Perfect!"
Ritsu shouted excitedly and immediately ran over to Yukinoshita, grabbing the camcorder from the table.
The others also put down their instruments and let out long breaths.
In the cold winter air, the warmth of their breath instantly formed white mist that quickly dissolved into the atmosphere.
"Ritsu, how does it look?"
After setting down his guitar, Sato called out to Ritsu from across the room.
"I'm checking right now!"
Holding the camcorder, Ritsu watched the recording with excitement written all over her face.
"Let's connect it to the projector and watch it together."
Sato walked over, took the camcorder from her, and headed to the corner where a projector had been set up. Using a data cable, he connected the camcorder to the projector.
After a bit of setup, the projected image appeared on the white wall.
Everyone in the clubroom looked up.
The members of the Light Music Club appeared on the wall. They stood in position among their instruments, facing the camera.
Just before the performance began, Ritsu used her drumsticks to count in with a steady rhythm, followed by the sounds of guitar and keyboard...
The video wasn't very long, only about four minutes.
After watching it, Sato thought for a moment before commenting thoughtfully, "The pacing at the beginning still feels a little rushed. We probably should've waited a few seconds after Yukinoshita said 'start' before beginning the performance."
"Huh? Does that mean we have to do it all over again?"
Mio instantly looked miserable.
"Not really. There weren't any problems with the performance itself. A minor flaw like that isn't a big deal."
Sato smiled and shook his head.
"Forget it. Let's upload it first."
He took out the laptop he had brought with him, inserted the camcorder's memory card into a special USB adapter, plugged it into the computer, and transferred the video onto the laptop.
Then, with practiced familiarity, he logged into the Gensokyo website and entered the creator dashboard for the account named [K-ON].
Three videos were already listed there. The dashboard displayed various statistics such as views, favorites, coin donations, and more.
That's right.
The Gensokyo website had recently introduced a new feature called Coins. Users received three coins per day and could use them to support works they liked, increasing their visibility. However, each work could only receive one coin per user.
Since the projector was still on, everyone could see what Sato was doing.
Their eyes quickly locked onto the statistics displayed on the wall.
"Wow! The first video's already gotten over a hundred thousand views! And more than ten thousand coins too!"
Yuigahama Yui covered her mouth in surprise.
Although she belonged to the popular crowd and normally didn't pay attention to this kind of thing, after spending so much time in the clubroom, she had picked up some basic knowledge.
"It has over thirty thousand favorites too."
Yukinoshita Yukino noticed the most important figure and couldn't hide a hint of surprise.
"Sato! Quick, check the comments! The comments!"
Ritsu stood behind him excitedly, shaking his shoulders.
"Alright, alright."
Helplessly, Sato opened the video and scrolled down to the comment section.
1,228 comments!
Even he was surprised by that number.
Instead of reading the comments immediately, he scrolled back up slightly and opened the video's achievement page.
[Weekly Favorites Ranking: #2]
[Weekly Views Ranking: #3]
[Weekly Coins Ranking: #2]
[Monthly Favorites Ranking: #6]
[...]
"Wah! Sugoi!"
"Our previous video was actually this popular?"
"It's ranked near the top!"
"Doesn't that mean... a lot of people have seen it? Eek!"
Seeing the long list of achievements, the girls of the Light Music Club became excited and immediately started chattering around Sato.
Sato guessed they had probably been featured on the site's recommendations. Otherwise, the numbers wouldn't have exploded like this. After all, when he'd checked a few days ago, the statistics weren't even one-fifth of what they were now.
"The comments, let's see the comments!"
Hearing that, Sato scrolled back down.
[What kind of heavenly club is this?!]
[Four beautiful girls and one guy. There's no way such a perfect classic setup exists in real life!]
[I admit it, I'm jealous.]
[Hey, don't forget that the guy is handsome too. Isn't this basically a perfect match?]
[Yeah! Everyone's visuals are amazing!]
[Haha, the song sounds pretty good, but those lyrics...]
[Right? I noticed that too. I got goosebumps.]
[...]
As they reached the later comments, everyone's gaze unconsciously shifted toward Mio.
Faced with everyone's attention, Mio's face turned bright red. She pressed her lips together in embarrassment and irritation.
"Hey, it's fine! It's fine!"
Ritsu laughed as she patted Mio's shoulder and pointed at another comment below.
"Look, someone here said the lyrics are actually pretty cute!"
Mio glanced at it.
Her face immediately became even redder, and in the end she couldn't help covering her face with both hands.
The embarrassment level was completely off the charts!
Chuckling, Sato uploaded the newly recorded video and then stood up from his seat.
"If anyone wants to keep looking around, go ahead."
Ritsu immediately took over the seat, while Yui and Kotobuki Tsumugi squeezed in on either side of her.
The three eagerly continued browsing.
After stepping aside, Sato suddenly looked toward the window. Under Yukinoshita Yukino's gaze, he walked over and opened it.
A howling gust of icy wind rushed into the room, making everyone shiver.
"Sato, close it already! It's freezing!"
Ritsu complained from nearby while hugging her arms.
Sato looked up at the gloomy sky and suddenly said,
"It's snowing."
The moment the words left his mouth, white snowflakes began to drift down from the sky above...