[Game] Chapter 491-492

Chapter 491: The Night of Release

March 24th, 8 p.m.

After dinner and washing the dishes, Ichin looked toward the two sisters, Haruno and Yukino, who were still sitting in the living room.

“Haruno-nee, Yukino, I’m going to start a livestream later tonight. Do you two want to join me?”

“Oh! A livestream?” Haruno’s eyes brightened with interest. “Is it the Dark Souls launch stream?”

“Yeah,” Ichin nodded. “But I’m not playing it myself tonight. I’ll be hopping around different streamers’ channels to see how everyone’s doing.”

“That sounds even more fun!” Haruno pumped her small fist excitedly. “What time are you starting?”

“Eleven-thirty. I’ll do a thirty-minute warm-up first, and by midnight—Shanghai time—Steam’s China region will unlock the game, same as the console release. That’s when we’ll watch.”

“Got it. I’m in!” Haruno agreed immediately, then turned to her younger sister. “Yukino, you coming too?”

Hugging Peppa in her arms, Yukino stroked its head and said softly, “Sure. I don’t have class tomorrow morning anyway, so staying up late once in a while is fine.”

She herself wouldn’t play Dark Souls, but she enjoyed watching others suffer through it. Back when the company was testing the game, she’d already watched Eriri and Aoba suffer endlessly. Watching streamers struggle this time would surely be a different kind of fun.

Seeing that not only Haruno but Yukino had also agreed, Ichin smiled. “Well then, I guess by the time we start streaming, no one in chat will actually be watching the game anymore.”

Utaha didn’t even need to be mentioned—she’d already appeared on Ichin’s streams before.

Although the audience didn’t know she was Kasumigaoka Utaha, they did know she was his girlfriend… and technically the boss’s wife.

Now with Haruno and Yukino—both beautiful and clearly sisters—joining in, Ichin could already imagine what the barrage of comments in chat would look like.

Though he didn’t say it outright, his words made Haruno quite pleased.

“Heh~ You must be over the moon, huh? Three gorgeous girls keeping you company on stream tonight!”

Ichin chuckled. “You’re absolutely right, it’s an honor. Haruno-nee, want some milk tea? I’ll make a pot as thanks for staying up late with me.”

“Sure! Add some taro balls!”

“No problem—still got some left from before.” He turned toward Utaha and Yukino. “You two? What do you want in yours?”

“Pudding for me,” Utaha replied immediately.

“Me too,” Yukino said after a moment of thought, “but less sugar, please.”

Living around Ichin, even Yukino had gradually picked up a bit of a sweet tooth, thanks to Haruno and Utaha’s bad influence.

Hearing Yukino’s request, Haruno laughed and wrapped an arm around her sister. “That won’t do! Staying up late burns energy—you need the sugar!”

Yukino gave her a side-eye. “No thanks. Half-sugar’s fine. The tea itself will keep me awake.”

And so, after Ichin brewed a big pot of milk tea and poured it into a thermos, no one drank right away. They took turns playing Ring Fit Adventure in the living room, then each went to take a bath before gathering again in Ichin’s room.

Since they’d be appearing on camera, none of the three girls wore pajamas—they’d all changed into casual clothes instead.

Bringing their chairs into the room, Ichin booted up his computer and asked with a grin, “So, how do you want to arrange the seating?”

Utaha spoke first. “I’ll sit on Ichin’s right. Haruno-nee and Yukino can sit on his left. After all, Ichin’s the main host here—we’re just the extras.”

“Sounds good to me!” Haruno turned to her sister. “So then, Yukino-chan, which one of us gets to sit next to little Ichin? Rock, paper, scissors?”

This time, Yukino didn’t yield. She tucked her right hand behind her back and nodded. “One round—winner takes the seat?”

“OK! One round it is~~ Rock, paper, scissors!”

Both threw their hands out at once—Haruno was paper, Yukino was scissors.

“Eh?! I lost?!”

Haruno looked down at her hand in dismay, then grudgingly gave up the seat beside Ichin’s left side.

After the three of them had taken their seats, a spark of mischief flashed through Haruno’s eyes. She dragged her chair behind Ichin and Yukino, positioning herself perfectly between the two from the back.

“Hehe! Now the camera will frame Ichin right in the center—and my face will still be nice and visible! Ichin, pour me some milk tea~!”

Ichin added taro balls to her cup, poured in the steaming milk tea, and handed it to her. Then he filled the remaining three cups as well.

“All right,” he said, glancing at the clock. “I’ll start setting things up—we’re almost at eleven.”

The stream had already been announced on Bilibili the previous day and again that afternoon, so after checking all the equipment, Ichin went live at 11:25.

The moment the broadcast started, the camera came on too. After giving everyone their headphones, Ichin placed the main mic in front of him—he wasn’t using the headset mic this time.

Within just two minutes, as the chat window popped up, a flood of viewers poured into the stream.

Holy hell, how long has it been since his last stream?

Doesn’t matter—THE boss’s wife showed up today!

Wait, there are two more girls now?

This guy’s harem just keeps expanding!

So jealous… do they have any openings at his company?

Ichin didn’t reply right away. Instead, he glanced over to the secondary monitor, scanning through the console section on the platform—sure enough, most streamers were planning to go live with Dark Souls soon.

After confirming that, he turned to the three girls and said a few words, then finally unmuted the mic.

“OK, sound check—can you hear me? Hey everyone, long time no see, this is Ichin. As announced earlier, tonight’s stream is all about the upcoming release of Dark Souls. Since we’re the official devs, we’ll be doing a quick patrol later to check how different streamers handle their first runs. None of the streamers got early access, so everyone’s starting fresh, on the same line.”

But despite his thorough explanation, Ichin quickly realized that the audience’s attention still wasn’t on the game—it was on the three women beside him.

He sighed helplessly. “I knew it. Unless I satisfy your curiosity first, no one’s going to focus on the gameplay.”

He gestured toward the girl leaning her head between his and Yukino’s shoulders. “So let me do a quick intro. The boss’s wife needs no introduction, so—this here is Haruno, and this one’s Yukino. They’re both company shareholders—actually, the only two shareholders I accepted as, well, dog shareholders. Besides that, they’re also my honorary sisters—both recognized as goddaughters by my mom.

“Yukino’s the younger one, a year below me and Utaha, studying law at Tokyo University. Haruno, the older sister, has already graduated and helps run her family’s company. She’s basically a top-tier rich lady. For anyone interested, I’ll drop her Twitter handle after the stream—make sure to give her a follow.”

Before he could finish his sentence, Haruno smacked him lightly on the head.

“Little Ichin, are you saying no one wants me otherwise?”

The moment she said that, Ichin, Utaha, and Yukino all quietly looked away without saying a word.

Meanwhile, the chat exploded in excitement.

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Chapter 492: Dark Souls Unlocked

After skimming through the barrage of comments, Haruno suddenly switched from Japanese to fluent Chinese and said, “Don’t think I can’t read what you’re saying!”

The chat instantly filled with question marks.

Ichin chuckled. “What, you guys really think just because I’m in Japan now, the people around me can’t speak Chinese? Don’t forget—our company has a studio in Shanghai too. Titanfall was developed there. The two sides coordinate constantly for our projects, so communication’s vital. Naturally, I expect all mid- and upper-level staff to be multilingual. As for these two, they’re both top students—learning a new language is nothing for them.”

So that’s what being a genius is like, huh?

Unbelievable—do geniuses just attract other geniuses?

Not just a rich woman, but a scholar too?!

Rich lady, feed me please—hungry!

Resting her hand on Ichin’s shoulder, Haruno smiled and said, “Well, I don’t mind dating a foreign guy, but romance isn’t my focus right now. My priority’s work, so let’s not talk about that.”

Ichin followed up smoothly, “Exactly. Don’t waste your life chasing rich ladies. Even if you find one, most will send you flying with a ‘Rich Lady Happy Ball.’ Prioritize your safety instead.”

Laughter flooded the chat. Ichin continued, “By the way, I saw some people asking about job openings. Our Shanghai studio is always hiring. The pinned post on my profile has all the info—check it out if your specialty matches.”

He glanced at the clock. “All right, enough small talk. Before the timer hits zero, let’s go over Dark Souls a bit.”

“The base game’s fully developed now. If you preloaded it, you’ve probably noticed the day-one patch. So far in testing, there haven’t been any bugs that affect gameplay—just minor ones we’ll keep fixing later. As for system requirements, they’re not too demanding. At 1080p, most PCs can run it smoothly. You can check the Steam page for specifics.”

“As for future content, we’re planning around two DLC expansions. Story-wise, they won’t affect the main game—they’re more like side tales. Once development reaches a certain stage, we’ll release a Season Pass. If you love Dark Souls, consider picking it up later—it’ll be packed with content.”

After chatting a bit more, the clock neared midnight—the unlock time.

Checking the time again, Ichin looked at the stream chat.

“As for the next project—don’t worry, it’s already planned. Once our team returns from their post-launch break, we’ll start development. Aside from Dark Souls, we’ll have another new title later this year, but that one’s slated for the second half.”

Five minutes passed in a flash. On the Steam page shown on-stream, the countdown for Dark Souls finally hit zero.

Dark Souls — officially unlocked.

“Woohoo! It’s live!”

Ichin’s face lit up with joy as he saw the “Play” button appear. Even though he had already played the completed version at the company, seeing the public release go live was still an emotional moment.

Instead of launching his own copy, Ichin switched the stream view to Bilibili’s gaming section and started looking for streamers who were playing Dark Souls.

As he browsed, he explained, “We’ll hop through different streams one by one. At first, most of them will still be stuck in character creation, so no rush. Let’s see if we can find someone who manages to beat the first boss—Gundyr, the Abyss Watcher—within half an hour. If we spot one, I’ll gift them a Captain badge. And if we find more skilled players later, we’ll send them gifts too. I already topped up my account this afternoon.”

Indeed, earlier that day, Ichin had loaded plenty of money into his account—enough to gift a dozen streamers without issue. Of course, he’d still judge based on performance.

He picked a mid-sized streamer and entered their channel, where the player was just finishing the intro cinematic and starting character creation.

Ichin didn’t type in chat. Instead, he began commentating, “Character creation in Dark Souls is really detailed. Once you get the hang of it, you can actually recreate characters from other games or anime pretty accurately.”

He opened a prepared image folder and showed a few examples made by his team.

“See this? Kratos—looks pretty spot on, right? And this one’s Shanks, the Red-Haired pirate from One Piece. As long as the art style isn’t too extreme, you can get pretty close. Of course, you can also make ridiculous ones if you want—but I’ll let you discover those yourself.”

By the time he finished, the streamer had wrapped up their character creation—a quick job, clearly eager to start. They chose a female knight, changed the hairstyle and color, and selected the Knight class as their starting background.

“Ah, Knight class,” Ichin commented, smiling faintly. “Seems they watched some of my previous streams. That’s a great beginner choice—solid straight sword, a 100% physical defense shield that blocks most attacks, and decent armor stats.”

But as he said this, viewers noticed a mischievous grin creeping across his face.

Something about that smile didn’t feel right.

That’s a setup face if I’ve ever seen one.

There’s a trap incoming.

I’m warning that streamer right now.

Sure enough, moments later, the streamer—having just picked up their Estus Flask in the Cemetery of Ash—glanced at the chat and exclaimed, “Wait, the actual Ichin’s here?!”

He quickly checked his follow list and, sure enough, Ichin was watching.

Realizing he’d been spotted, Ichin sent a small gift and typed in chat:

Game just unlocked, I’m doing a quick patrol—go ahead and play.

The streamer laughed nervously and resumed playing.

The early enemies in the Cemetery of Ash were simple—each went down in one or two hits. Anyone with some action-game experience could handle them easily, as long as they watched their stamina bar.

After clearing a few foes, the streamer noticed a narrow side path to the right—and a faint glow in the distance.

“Oh! An item!”

Then, under Ichin’s amused gaze, the streamer ran straight toward the light.

Thus, the Hollow’s instinct to chase glowing loot was born.

Following the path, the streamer entered a wider, sealed-off area. Apart from the glowing item, a large, crystal-covered creature loomed there, coiled and waiting.

“Whoa, that wasn’t in the previous streams!”

So there really was something hidden!

“It’s standing up—it’s huge! Is that an elite monster?”

And under the collective gaze of thousands of viewers, within ten seconds—

The streamer met their first death in Dark Souls.

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