After their lips parted and they calmed down a bit, Megumi Kato finally lifted the coat. Maybe it was because they had been under the coat, but both her and Kotomi Izumi’s faces were now lightly beaded with sweat.

“Happy now?”

“It would’ve been even better if we kissed a little longer,” Megumi replied boldly.

“No way, not here. We’re still in the classroom. I don’t dare kiss you for too long. It’d be bad if someone saw us.”

“Should’ve gone to the sports equipment storage room…” Megumi muttered, still not quite satisfied.

“Get it through your head what that place is actually for!” Kotomi tapped Megumi on the forehead and reminded her helplessly.

Ever since that first time they went to the storage room, Megumi had been constantly scheming to drag Kotomi there whenever she got the chance. After all, it was usually deserted and no one would discover them. They could do as they pleased…

Kotomi checked the time. There were 23 minutes left before lunch break ended, and the afternoon sports events were about to begin.

She had originally planned to take a quick nap before lunch was over. Megumi, knowing Kotomi had the 800-meter run in the afternoon, tactfully didn’t disturb her.

But Kotomi lay on her desk for a long while without falling asleep. Her mind kept drifting back to Azur Lane’s updated limited construction pool.

She didn’t just want Elbe—she wanted Ulrich von Hutten too. She wanted all the new ships this time!

But she only had enough Wisdom Cubes and resources for two ten-pulls. And she was reluctant to use gems to buy more—those were reserved for skins after all.

Kotomi froze for a moment, then suddenly remembered: Right! The whole reason she was acting cutesy with Megumi earlier was to get her to help draw from the limited pool!

But then she found out Megumi was jealous, spent all her attention coaxing her, kissed her for so long that her face was still flushed… She nearly forgot her original goal.

That was just how Kotomi’s attention worked—sometimes brilliant and sharp, other times like she had a three-second memory, instantly forgetting things.

It was hard to say if her memory was good or bad.

“Megumi, help me, help me~” Kotomi opened Azur Lane, pulled up the construction pool screen, and handed her phone to Megumi.

Megumi, who was used to helping Kotomi with pulls, didn’t even need her to finish. She already knew what was up and took the phone naturally. “Leave it to me. Which ship do you want?”

Kotomi pointed to the limited pool and declared like a true warlord, “All of them. I want every new ship!”

“Haha, so greedy. I can’t guarantee I’ll pull them all, you know,” Megumi laughed, shrugging.

She took a deep breath and started the first ten-pull.

After deducting the necessary Cubes and resources, she skillfully used quick finish tools to complete the ten-pull instantly.

Back when she first downloaded Azur Lane to have more topics to share with Kotomi, Megumi didn’t understand most of the game’s mechanics or systems. The construction pool was probably the only interface she was fully familiar with.

Even though she had never spent a single yen on the game, all her pulls came from event rewards and missions. Yet, whenever someone looked at her dock, it was filled with SRs, SSRs, and URs. She didn’t even know how it happened. It seemed like every time she pulled, it was either purple or gold light. White and blue were practically rare.

As Megumi Kato started the ten-pull, Kotomi shut her eyes tightly in nervous anticipation. She knew Megumi had always been incredibly lucky with gacha draws, but with the appearance of a new UR ship in this limited pool, the rates were rumored to be suspiciously low—so low it made people wonder if Ulrich von Hutten even existed in the game.

“Oh? Two golds and one purple. Looks like the first ten-pull went pretty well,” Megumi said with a soft chuckle.

Kotomi immediately opened her eyes. Her previously furrowed brows relaxed the moment she heard the result.

One Prinz Adalbert, one Magdeburg, and one Elbe. Megumi really lived up to her reputation—one ten-pull and she had already drawn three out of the four new ships from this event.

“Yes! Megumi, keep up the momentum! Do another ten-pull!”

“Mhm,” Megumi said with a light smile and tapped the screen again to start the second ten-pull.

With that, Kotomi’s remaining Wisdom Cubes and resources were completely drained.

Zero Cubes left, and barely over 100 resources.

After using quick finish tools, the result wasn’t purple or rainbow light. Instead, the screen played a special summon animation.

“Oh my god, UR!” Kotomi blurted out before hastily covering her mouth.

Sure enough, the very first ship that appeared was the one she’d been dying to get—Ulrich von Hutten!

Before Kotomi could even whisper her joy, Megumi had already tapped to reveal the rest.

Rainbow. Rainbow. Rainbow. Rainbow. Rainbow—

From initial surprise, to shock, to complete numbness, Kotomi stared blankly at her screen. The second ten-pull yielded ten identical UR ships—ten Ulrich von Huttens.

Ten URs in a single ten-pull?!

Unheard of!

At this point, Megumi’s gacha luck couldn’t be described as good—it was downright terrifying.

“Hmm? Why are all ten ships the same? And they all have special animations? Kotomi, sorry, I think this ten-pull didn’t go very well. They’re all the same ship,” Megumi said with a slight frown, clearly thinking she’d messed up.

Before she could finish, she felt a warm softness press into her chest. Kotomi had thrown her arms around her and said, “Megumi, I’m entrusting all of my future gacha pulls to you.”

“Eh?!”

Because Kotomi was too overwhelmed, her words came out in a dazed whisper. What Megumi heard was: “Megumi, I’m entrusting my life to you.”

In that moment, Megumi was already thinking about what they’d name their future children.

When lunch break ended and they returned to the field—

This time, neither Megumi nor Mashiro Shiina fought over who would sit beside Kotomi, because Kotomi had to head directly to the prep area for the girls’ 800-meter race.

In other words, once Kotomi returned after running, she’d just sit wherever there was space.

“Truce for now. Let’s find a spot near the center. I’ll sit on the right, you take the left, and we leave the middle seat for Kotomi,” Megumi proposed to Mashiro after Kotomi left.

The two of them had been subtly fighting over Kotomi all morning, only for Yui Yuigahama to end up sitting beside her instead.

That harsh lesson prompted both girls to reflect. They realized that endless rivalry would only allow some other girl to swoop in and reap the rewards.

Mashiro gave a small nod—an unspoken agreement to Megumi’s proposal for a temporary ceasefire.

…

Even though there was still an hour before the 800-meter race, they had to report to the prep area early to get ready.

Kotomi never really understood what “getting ready” entailed that it required arriving a whole hour in advance. She wasn’t a student from the athletics department, and her knowledge of pre-exercise warmups was limited to the basic movements taught in PE class—and even then, she’d never taken them seriously…

After all, only students who wanted to continue practicing sports would actually move on to the next phase after warmups. As for Kotomi, she’d always timed it perfectly to sneak away after warm-ups and hide on the second floor of the gymnasium, killing time until PE was over.

So warmups didn’t really mean much to Kotomi. She hadn’t taken them seriously during class, and now, before the long-distance run, she just recalled the few movements she could remember, silently counting off “1, 2, 3, 4” in her head as she performed a quick and simple warmup.

The whole thing barely took a few minutes.

Kotomi hugged her knees and sat on the grass field, watching the other students around her who were enthusiastically going through their warmup routines. Many of their stretches and drills were completely unfamiliar to her—beyond the few she recognized, she couldn’t even name the rest.

After observing for a bit, Kotomi pulled a wry smile. She noticed something rather awkward—she was the only non-athletics student in the entire girls’ 800-meter prep zone!

No wonder most of the faces were unfamiliar. First-year sports majors weren’t too extreme, but second and third years basically spent two or more periods a day training on the field. When their training got intense, they might disappear from the classroom entirely after morning homeroom.

If a class had students from the athletics department, even their own classmates might not recognize them after a whole semester.

Kotomi looked left and right—not a single familiar face. Not even anyone to chat with to pass the time. Though, with Kotomi’s social skills, give her ten minutes and she’d be chatting with everyone.

But since they all seemed focused on their warmups, Kotomi didn’t interrupt. She continued sitting there, occasionally tilting her head up to gaze at the sky above.

She loved the afternoon sky.

She loved the way it marked the approach of day’s end.

There was something about the warm sunlight draping over the world, the growing stretch of dusk—it just matched her lazy personality.

Spending the whole day like this, too lazy to even sit at her computer, snacking in bed while watching her favorite anime on her phone…

“I really want to watch Mushoku Tensei, but that anime doesn’t exist in this world. Looks like I’ll have to write the light novel myself first, then hope it gets an anime adaptation.”

Kotomi murmured to herself. Though she hadn’t even sent the draft of Redo of Healer Volume 1 to Haruno Yukinoshita yet, she was already thinking about starting a new book.

Ah, the thrill of starting a new series—how addictive.

No wonder it was so common in the light novel industry for authors to suddenly vanish mid-series. When they finally reappeared, it wasn’t with the next volume of the current work—but an entirely new one. Or they’d keep neglecting the official print version while updating the web version religiously on their personal site.

And if the print and web versions were at least consistent, that might be forgivable. But often, they’d have completely different storylines. Sometimes even the character designs wouldn’t match.

It was perfectly normal for this sort of thing to happen in the light novel world. Writing on “Let’s Become a Novelist” gave authors the advantage of quickly gaining readers and building a fanbase even before being published, avoiding the risk of poor sales due to lack of publicity.

But the downside was harsh—no matter how diligently one updated, there was no manuscript fee. Until a publishing house editor offered a contract, every single word was written purely out of love. Not a cent was earned.

No matter how high one ranked in popularity, there were still no earnings until an actual book deal was secured.

One bestselling author from Dengeki Bunko had started out just like this. He wrote over three million words on “Let’s Become a Novelist” with only mediocre reception. Eventually, an editor from Dengeki took pity and extended a publishing offer, thinking it’d be good to publish a volume or two—just enough for the author to earn a little and move on from the work.

Neither the editor nor the author expected what happened next. Even though the promo video didn’t get much traction, once the first volume hit bookstores, it appeared at #15 on the bestseller chart.

Even if it wasn’t top ten, being on the chart meant it wouldn’t be canceled.

That series is now up to volume 13, having even topped the bestseller list at one point. It usually hovers in the top 15, with steadily rising popularity. While an anime adaptation still seems unlikely, it has already received audio drama and manga adaptations. The author now earns enough each month to write full-time—some say he’s financially set.

Back when he was writing the web version, he didn’t even dare to dream about being published.

Kotomi had read that series—it was called “The Blood Throne of the Demon Saintess,” written by Kei Amane.

Dengeki Bunko even did a special interview with him. His story of writing over three million words online before finally getting published had inspired countless aspiring authors still struggling to get noticed.

“I’ll start writing the manuscript for volume one of Jobless Reincarnation next year,” Kotomi muttered to herself.

She could technically start tonight, but writing two books at once was already shocking enough to Haruno Yukinoshita. If she suddenly announced a new series before finishing Redo of Healer’s first volume, Haruno might just storm her house and give her a serious lecture.

“Class 1-F, Kotomi Izumi, number 28—you’re up. Please warm up your arms and legs,” the supervising teacher called from the prep area.

“Oh, right. Thank you.” Kotomi stood up and did a few stretches for her wrists and ankles. Off in the distance, the students who had just lined up on the track were already running.

Long-distance running: a sport that feels endless when you’re doing it, but oddly quick to spectators.

Kotomi had just spaced out, thinking there was still time before her turn, when the teacher came over to call her to Lane 8.

So it’s finally my turn… Kotomi exhaled deeply. Even though her competitors were all from the sports department, she wasn’t nervous at all. In fact, she was considering slowing down on purpose.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with someone blessed with the Queen of All Females physique.

Back at Class 2-B’s area, Utaha Kasumigaoka was peering through binoculars at the 800m girls’ prep zone.

“Kotomi’s about to take the track. She had her jacket on this morning so I couldn’t see clearly—but now that she’s taken it off… Her athletic wear… hehehe, it’s almost too much for the eyes to handle.”

“Utaha, Kotomi’s up next?!” Kisara Tendo quickly leaned over. “Let me see through the binoculars.”

“No way—I haven’t had enough yet!” Utaha hugged the binoculars tightly.

“Those are my binoculars, thank you very much. And ever since Kotomi got to the prep area, you haven’t put them down even once! You’re so obsessed—is she your girlfriend or something?!”

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep