Non-alcoholic oolong tea tasted mellow and sweet when drunk, without giving the feeling of burning up.
Haru opened a bottle for himself and took a few sips to moisten his throat.
Mm, a bit inferior to iced tea after being chilled, but far better than iced tea at room temperature.
Haru gave his assessment internally, then saw Bronya bring over a laptop computer, sitting beside him without any reservation.
"Ahem, let's talk about the game first. This is the planning proposal I made working all night yesterday."
Bronya placed the computer on her round, black-stockinged thighs, opened a PPT document, then indicated for Haru to come closer to look.
Haru hesitated, then moved his bottom toward Bronya's direction.
There were only him and Bronya in Principle Studio now, no need to worry about Qingque misunderstanding.
And even if Qingque were present, it really wouldn't be a big deal.
The two were just sitting together, not having physical contact. Only virgins who had never touched a girl's hand would find it ambiguous.
However...
Having Bronya let him, a grown man, get so close was indeed somewhat unexpected.
Was it because he had a fiancée so she felt more at ease, or because after a few days of work she felt he was a trustworthy subordinate?
It couldn't possibly be that she wanted to use unspoken rules on him, so she deliberately made him come closer!
Haru thought jokingly to himself, then shook his head and focused his attention on the planning proposal Bronya had written.
As the name suggests...
A game's planning proposal is mostly written by the game planner.
But Principle Studio currently only had three people. He and Qingque served as lead artist and screenwriter respectively, so naturally the planning work fell to Bronya, the game producer.
Having to handle game programming, write planning proposals, and manage other aspects - no wonder Bronya was so busy working overtime every day, even having to work all night in the studio.
While feeling emotional, Haru reached his hand toward the girl's beautiful black-stockinged legs... toward the laptop computer on them.
"Let me see. You wrote this planning proposal very thoroughly. All the ideas we discussed these past few days have been summarized, even expanded upon better."
"However, the game ending settings in the planning proposal seem to have some changes compared to Qingque's outline?"
Haru spent more than ten minutes reading through the planning proposal, pondered for a while, then asked.
"That's right, this is also what I wanted to discuss with you."
Bronya nodded, turning the planning proposal to the game endings section and said softly: "When I was writing yesterday, I suddenly got inspiration and wanted to add a true ending to the game."
"Mm, a true ending..."
Haru stroked his chin, his expression becoming serious.
Having different endings due to affection level differences was very common in Galgames.
And how to arrange game endings was also particular.
In the game they planned to make, "The Famine: A Thousand Li Journey in Late Ming," the male protagonist Liang and female protagonist Mansui started as enemies.
In the cannibalistic famine, Liang could only survive by becoming a bandit, killing Mansui's father, which led Mansui's family toward inevitable tragedy after losing their pillar of support.
Her brother starved to death, her mother hanged herself unable to accept reality, and Mansui survived on her relatives' corpses, left with only thoughts of revenge.
Years later, Mansui finally found her enemy - Liang.
She learned that Liang and his companions would take a job from human traffickers to transport several girls across thousands of li to the "Pig Demon" in Luoyang City. The clever Mansui pretended to be mute, sold herself to human traffickers, and became one of the goods to be transported.
The girl's purpose in doing this was naturally to find an opportunity to kill Liang.
So during the transport plot, players would encounter many choices. If these choices were wrong, they would face the bad ending of being killed by Mansui.
Even if the choices were correct, if Mansui's affection wasn't high enough, the player's Liang would still die upon reaching Luoyang City. The difference was that the girl discovered along the way that Liang wasn't inherently bad and treated them, the goods, decently, so she couldn't bring herself to kill him personally.
If affection was high, Liang wouldn't die, but players would still face a Bad End on their first playthrough, and this would be the most heart-wrenching ending.
"After sending out too many knives, you have to give some sugar, otherwise players might send real blades. So aside from various bad endings, Qingque left one beautiful true ending to conclude the game."
"According to the original flow, after players experience any affection level ending with Mansui once, they can trigger the true ending [Living Together] with full affection, where Liang and Mansui get together years later."
Haru recalled the plot, his gaze moving from the planning proposal to Bronya's pretty face.
"And now you're planning to add a [Dying Together] true ending, where players with full affection can choose to assassinate the 'Pig Demon' prince together with Mansui, taking revenge on the real culprit who caused their suffering, and finally go to the underworld together?"
"Mm, actually I think [Dying Together] is the most romantic true ending."
Bronya nodded. Entering work mode, she carried a serious charm as she explained her thoughts.
"The hatred of killing one's father isn't easily set aside. Even if the [Living Together] ending can be rationalized plotwise, players thinking from their perspective would still feel there's a barrier between Mansui and Liang."
"Only in the [Dying Together] ending can Liang complete his redemption, settling past accounts, while Mansui can finally let go of her hatred for Liang, no longer suppressing her feelings, and express her true feelings for Liang in her dying moments."
Dying together is the greatest romance...
After hearing Bronya's words, Haru nodded thoughtfully.
"That makes sense. Liang and Mansui's relationship is too complex - hate runs deeper than love, which is why there are so many bad endings with Mansui killing Liang... Having only the [Living Together] true ending would indeed feel like something was missing."
"With the [Dying Together] true ending, as they say, debts are cleared upon death. After assassinating the real culprit who destroyed both their families, Liang and Mansui finally achieve reconciliation as they calmly face death. From a certain perspective, this is also a earth-shattering love suicide that truly achieves emotional sublimation for both."
Haru analyzed carefully, his eyes growing brighter with increasing excitement.
Wonderful, absolutely wonderful!
Bronya seemed to have only added one true ending, but actually provided the finishing touch for the entire game, allowing players to better experience th
The inspiration for the [Dying Together] ending actually came from Bronya herself, or more precisely, from her own personal experience in her previous life.
To this day, Bronya still remembered the despair when facing the Herrscher of Finality.
Even after successfully transforming with the captain's help, the power of the Herrscher of Reason was far less than one-tenth of Finality's authority, and others couldn't cause effective damage to the Herrscher of Finality either.
Everyone on the moon played their final cards. Kiana recovered her full six-core state from the Sirin period, Mei wore the God-killing armor that the captain had developed with the full force of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, and the class monitor and principal even directly activated artificial collapse...
But before the Herrscher of Finality, these could only last an insignificant half day.
After half a day, Finality's meteor completely fell.
Even though the captain detonated the Hyperion equipped with Moonlight Throne in time to counter Finality's full-power strike, humanity's elite combat forces fell one after another, leaving only the captain and Bronya barely clinging to life.
Standing on the shattered lunar battlefield, the two mortally wounded leaned against each other, knowing death would come the next moment.
Strangely...
Although Bronya felt unwillingness after failure, she didn't find death particularly terrifying.
If she died while the captain lived, he would surely regret not fighting desperately at that moment, and vice versa... So being able to die together with the captain at the end, letting even death be unable to separate them - this was Bronya's best ending.
Yes, it was indeed like that for her previous life.
The girl licked her lips, her pupils reflecting Haru's image, the desire in her heart rolling like a boulder down a mountain, unable to stop.
Not finding the captain for so many years...
Bronya had thought that after rebirth she could only endure the pain of losing the captain, living out her life alone and helpless, but fate had delivered the captain to her again.
In this world without Honkai, she was alive, and the captain was alive too...
Bronya's originally dead heart began to stir, starting to yearn for a better ending than her previous life.
There had to be someone by the captain's side to grow old with him and spend the rest of their lives together - why couldn't that person still be Bronya?
Dying together in the past life, living together in this life!
This was the goal the girl set for herself, and she would spare no cost to achieve it.
First use soft methods to conquer the captain. If soft methods didn't work, she'd use hard ones. In the end, even if she had to kidnap him, she would tie the captain to her bridal chamber!
After all, Bronya knew clearly what the captain liked, where his sensitive spots were. Taking some time to correct the captain into Bronya's shape wouldn't be difficult.
The girl thought secretly, her gaze seeming to penetrate Haru's clothes to see the strong body hidden beneath.
Hiss, why did he suddenly feel like he was being mentally undressed?!
Haru instinctively shivered, feeling chilled all over, a cold sensation shooting from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.
He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms, couldn't help looking around, but never found the source of the feeling. Finally he could only attribute it to the studio's air conditioning being too strong.
"Hmm? Haru, are you feeling a bit cold?"
Bronya's eyes lowered slightly as she withdrew her heated gaze, acting as if she knew nothing.
"Maybe a little, but it's not a big problem."
Haru picked up the small blanket Bronya had set aside and draped it over himself, immediately feeling much better.
No wonder Qingque liked to wrap herself in a small blanket when working overtime. On cooler nights, indeed only a small blanket could bring a bit of warmth.
"Back to business - I think this planning proposal is excellent, but looking at your expression, you seem to have some concerns?"
Haru recalled Bronya's earlier hesitant appearance and asked tentatively.
"It's nothing really, just considering that adding one ending will increase yours and Qingque's workload and extend the production cycle considerably. For the studio's operation, it has both pros and cons."
Bronya said softly, rubbing her brow, her expression seemingly somewhat troubled.
"Increased workload is indeed a problem. Game delays mean dramatically increased pressure for many small studios..."
Haru pondered for a moment and voiced his opinion: "But someone once said that games that don't get delayed aren't good games. I think game quality is more important than releasing early!"
Games with poor quality remained industrial garbage even if they released on time, while masterpieces remained masterpieces even after delays.
"I think so too... but when making decisions, I still feel hesitant and nervous."
Bronya sighed lightly, planning to show her vulnerable side to get the captain to actively come closer.
However, an untimely gurgling sound interrupted the girl's actions.
Haru blinked somewhat puzzled, following the sound to see Bronya's little stomach that hadn't eaten all day.
"Uh, that's... it's not..."
The girl's pretty face was tinged with embarrassed blush, the panic in her eyes no longer feigned.
Her plan was going so well, but she hadn't expected her stomach to protest at this moment!
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