Watching Mashiro immersed in her own world, Raize rubbed his aching temples and took out his phone to check on his novel's progress.
If the popularity was sufficient, it was time to start developing a game with great potential and a powerful worldview. After all, the novel was just a tool to gather attention for his games, and he took this very seriously.
Opening his officially certified author account, Raize realized he hadn't paid much attention lately, leaving it all to his fanatical editor, Suzuna.
Now that he checked, his follower count was nearing one million.
Considering Suzuna's methods, achieving this level of popularity in such a short time was astonishing.
The popularity of Shinza Bansho rivaled that of Warhammer.
Reading the comments and fan data, Raize saw that part of Warhammer's fans were working adults, while others were high school students.
Warhammer's storylines were extremely oppressive, but Raize handled the atmosphere well, creating an irresistible urge to keep reading.
He openly exposed human nature—how humanity faces unstoppable disasters, what alien invasions truly look like.
Each thought-provoking yet immersive depiction left readers unable to stop.
Despair and shock had become the signature flavor of Warhammer. Once you adapted to it, you couldn't escape.
That's how the forums described it.
Meanwhile, Shinza Bansho's fans were mostly from the ACG crowd, with chuunibyou statements becoming more extreme by the day.
Some show-offs even used famous Warhammer quotes to flex in Shinza's forums, drawing attention back to Warhammer.
[Fairy]: "Hmph! In Shinza Bansho, I only acknowledge the Dualistic Truth of Good and Evil on the first Heaven! The dignity of the first god seated upon the throne shall not be violated!!!"
[Villain]:"To the guy upstairs, so what if she was a first-generation god? Didn't Lord Magsarion still scatter her ashes? I really don't understand why anyone would like a crazy old woman like that. Why not join our Lost Paradise Cult?"
[Dualism]:"My true self! You damn author, you just killed her off like that? Are you looking down on our Dualistic God? Hurry up and arrange a resurrection arc!!"
[Evil Savior]:"As someone who likes JOJO's Dio, I prefer the Second Heaven's world. In the First Heaven's dualistic world where 'good cannot be preserved and evil cannot be eradicated,' what's there to like? Humans should be able to—use evil to control evil!"
[Lost Paradise Is Supreme]:"Living while embracing sin and punishment, that is what humanity is! The ultimate martial macho who slaughtered all life in the universe—how could he be compared to some dualistic old woman who escapes reality and karma?"
[The Second Heaven Will Surely Fall]:"Don't get cocky, the guy upstairs. Dugo-sensei clearly stated in his book that any Tyrant God who ascends the throne is destined to fall eventually, and Tyrant Gods are fated to slaughter one another. Just keep watching the Second Heaven—someone will definitely drag that god down from the throne!"
[Looking Forward to a New God]:"That's right! The path of tyranny isn't easy to walk! Even though the Second Heaven's story has just begun, the world of Lost Paradise will also Fall!"
[Lord of the Third Heaven's Throne]:"The dualistic world has flaws—don't think the Lost Paradise world has none! A world filled entirely with malice will turn into a chaotic age of rampant crime. When that happens, someone dissatisfied with the world like Magsarion will appear again. And then, hehe…"
[Not Chunibyo at All]:"I'm not a fan of either the First Heaven or Second Heaven gods. I'm looking forward to what an entirely new god will be like!"
[Evil King's True Eye]:"Only after passing through seven layers of loneliness can one become a true strong one…"
[Tyranny]:"Warhammer fans upstairs, get lost! You're here again spouting edgy quotes!"
"..."
Raize stroked his chin as he read these comments. He wasn't surprised at all—he was simply gauging the popularity of Warhammer and Shinza. The two works could be said to be evenly matched in terms of heat.
From these comments, it was clear that some hired posters were deliberately stirring up attention. Raize didn't even need to think to know it was Suzuna's doing. The fan growth was rapid, and the spread of influence was steadily expanding.
On the official website, the work was placed in the most prominent top recommendation slot, drawing in a great deal of traffic.
He had put some effort into stitching together Warhammer with other works and was confident it would attract many readers. However, in a society like Japan where ACG works were abundant and diverse, Shinza's wild imagination resonated strongly with many people in the ACG.
Some of the evaluations of Warhammer, promoted by certain people, went like this:
"The imagination is unbelievably powerful. The background of the book is extremely grand. After reading Warhammer, I truly felt how insignificant humanity is compared to the vast universe."
"When you step into this book, you may feel so oppressed that you can barely breathe. But once you feel that way, it means the book has already seized your soul."
"It redefines what science fiction is! The addictive reading experience is absolutely unforgettable!"
"..."
It didn't disgrace the works Raize remembered from his past life at all. Seeing the overwhelmingly positive praise, he nodded in satisfaction.
Stitching works together also required skill. If something went wrong, it definitely wouldn't be the fault of those classic settings—it would be his own. Fortunately, he hadn't failed.
After weighing Warhammer and Shinza back and forth, Raize ultimately chose Shinza Bansho, which better suited the Japanese audience.
Turning on his computer, Raize prepared to personally create the Dies Irae: The Day of Wrath that existed in his mind.
Considering the flaws of the original version and the criticisms it received in his previous life, Raize had no intention of recreating the original wholesale.
In his memories, Dies Irae was the representative work of Masada Takashi, a man with great ambition who wanted to rival the famous Type-Moon.
Dies Irae was a game with very high requirements for its players. Once you overcame those requirements, it became a rare masterpiece worthy of fanatic devotion.
These requirements didn't mean needing encyclopedic knowledge to understand its dense lore, nor extraordinary comprehension to grasp its themes. The quality players needed was both simple and difficult.
That quality was endurance. Yes—endurance.
When playing this game, every character, male or female, would stretch out their lines, strike exaggerated poses, and act edgy the moment they appeared.
The characters' words and actions practically screamed "stylish" in bold block letters across their bodies. Every route contained massive, obscure text. If you didn't clear every route, you wouldn't even understand what the game was trying to say.
However, once you adapted and looked back, those excessive lines and theatrics became one of the game's defining characteristics.
The game was filled with international languages—it made you feel embarrassed greeting others if you didn't know German or Latin. Without some culture, you couldn't even pretend to be edgy.
Of course, the overwhelming chunibyo aura saturating every line of the game was perfect for certain chunibyo types. It would absolutely worsen their condition.
This game wasn't very popular in Raize's homeland, mainly because there was no localized version, resulting in a small audience. But once someone fell in love with it and its story, the fans became incredibly fanatical.
How intense were the diehard fans? They even crowdfunded an anime adaptation and broke crowdfunding records—just think about that.
As for the anime itself, Raize felt that if he hadn't played Dies Irae, he wouldn't have understood it at all.
He would have finished it with a face full of question marks—what was this, what was the story trying to say, what did I even watch?
The original Dies Irae told a chunibyo superpower battle story with strong appeal. The plot and characters were excellently written, especially the three-god battle in the later stages. Paired with intense, epic background music, it was almost explosively hype. When the themes kicked in, it made your whole body tingle.
However, many people disliked the content of KKK: Kajiri Kamui Kagura, since it wasn't part of the main canon and directly killed off the previous female lead and classic characters. As a result, many refused to acknowledge its storyline.
Raize's idea was to merge Kajiri Kamui Kagura with Dies Irae, treating KKK's storyline as a parallel route unlocked after fully clearing Dies Irae.
Only after completing all routes of Dies Irae would this content unlock, effectively merging the two games into one.
That way, if the game received a good response, both Dies Irae and KKK could be unlocked within his game catalog.
With the direction decided, Raize immediately got to work. While helping Mashiro construct her manga's story framework, he also worked on the game script and character design documents on his computer.
When Hikigaya entered the Service Club, the first thing he saw was Mashiro and Raize working seriously together, standing out conspicuously.
So nice. Having a beautiful girl by your side. Hmph—so you're one of those hidden normies too, Raize.
Hikigaya actually admired Raize's carefree school life. Even though Raize didn't have many close friends and seemed rather solitary, he was already far ahead of most students.
Just look at the two games he had made—they were exploding in popularity recently. The money flowing into his pockets would definitely be substantial. At the very least, after graduating high school, his life would be smooth sailing, with no worries about the future.
Unlike Hikigaya himself, who had no idea where his path would lead. He sometimes fantasized about becoming a househusband—but that was just a fantasy.
He didn't want his little sister Komachi to think he was a hopeless piece of trash.