Chapter 321: Hard Science Fiction and Pseudo-Science Fiction Works

Because they were so close, Akiwara Yuto could even feel the body heat of Satake Maki, and due to their posture, he didn't know where to put his hands for a moment.

Furthermore, Satake Maki's soft hair was pressed against his cheek, giving him an indescribable feeling.

Akiwara Yuto answered hesitantly, "It's not that I don't like it."

But he felt this sentence was full of ambiguity, so he added, "Satake, have you run out of patience?"

Upon hearing these words, Satake Maki felt a surge of anger.

As a young woman, she had already been pursuing him, and she had waited for a whole year. During this year, she also had to watch Akiwara Yuto spend time alone with Asano Aiko and others.

And yet, Akiwara Yuto was now asking about whether she could wait or not.

She gritted her teeth, disregarding her gentle image, and said directly, "Akiwara, at the beginning, I paid attention to you because I liked your works, but as we interacted, I discovered that I can no longer live without you."

She lowered her head and pressed it against Akiwara Yuto's chest.

"I know you want the 'real thing,' but can't my feelings be considered the 'real thing'? To tell you the truth, even if you weren't a great writer, I would still like you. In fact, sometimes I even wish you weren't so successful."

Her voice dropped.

"How good would it be if you were just an ordinary person? We could live a simple life together, buy a detached house, have a son and a daughter, and then you would go to work every day while I take care of the home."

"All I want is such simple happiness."

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto fell silent. He thought for a moment and said, "I'm sorry..."

Satake Maki shook her head, seemingly turning back into that gentle and lovely Yoko, and said in a soft voice.

"Akiwara, you don't need to apologize. After all, I'm not the only one who likes you, but please believe that no matter what, I am the one who likes you the most."

She seemed to have made a decision; she stood on her tiptoes and kissed Akiwara Yuto on the cheek. Akiwara Yuto was stunned for a moment as he felt the gentle touch.

"I'll head back now," Satake Maki said with a smile as she took two steps back, "and thank you for the hospitality."

Immediately after, she hurried out of the living room, headed toward the Xuanguan, changed her shoes, and left at once.

After closing the door, her face had already turned bright red.

Ah, what did I just do!? Doesn't this make me look too aggressive?!

She felt a bit of regret, but in her heart, she felt this was the right thing to do; if she kept waiting like this, who knows when someone else would beat her to it.

No, I forgot to give him the bento I prepared earlier.

But it's too embarrassing to go back now!

Akiwara Yuto looked at the closed door, feeling a sense of loss.

He sat on the sofa, his mind filled with racing thoughts.

To be honest, it wasn't that he didn't know Satake's feelings for him, but he also clearly knew that Asano Aiko liked him just as much.

And he himself had feelings for both of them.

This sounded like something a scumbag would say, but if he were truly a scumbag, wouldn't he be with both of them already?

Instead, as it was now, being with one of them would inevitably hurt the other.

Could he really just muddle through with a line like "you are both my wings"?

Akiwara Yuto sighed deeply, then stood up and went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of red wine.

Following that, he returned to the living room, threw himself onto the bed, and covered his head to sleep.

While Akiwara Yuto was fast asleep, the Neon Science Fiction Club was holding a meeting.

Although it was a club, because the members were all science fiction writers, it could also be called the Neon Science Fiction Writers Association.

The theme of this meeting was the future market prospects of traditional Neon science fiction.

However, when the meeting started, everyone had a complex expression on their face.

"This February, the sales of hard science fiction works dropped by 10%, and currently, the monthly average is less than 400,000 copies. Does anyone have any good methods to promote the development of hard science fiction?"

A gray-haired lady said sternly.

Her name was Tatsuzawa Yuriko, the head of the Science Fiction Club, and she was already over 60 years old.

In today's club, she was the oldest writer.

In the life she had lived since her debut, she had witnessed the process of Neon pure science fiction going from its peak to its decline.

"Director Tatsuzawa, readers nowadays prefer science fiction works about space robots."

A young woman sitting below pushed up her glasses and said.

Tatsuzawa Yuriko was furious, "Those works are completely pseudo-science fiction; they are militarism wearing a science fiction skin."

She continued to refute, "A robot over ten meters tall, weighing dozens of tons, can actually have the power to move at high speeds in the air or even in space, and the pilot can withstand such heavy load pressure without even wearing a protective suit!"

"Moreover, so-called humanoid robot weapons have no practical significance at all; they are entirely to cater to the market's aesthetic."

Hearing this, some of the young writers in the audience looked at each other.

They never expected that the director, who always refuted space robots, would know so much about the space robot series.

A male writer hesitated for a moment, then raised his hand and asked, "Director, then how do you view the work 'Space Empire'?"

This "Space Empire" was very similar to the "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" from Akiwara Yuto's past life.

The content was about the contradictions and struggles between two different camps, democracy and autocracy, in the galaxy.

Tatsuzawa Yuriko looked at him coldly, "Do you like this work very much?"

The male writer nodded embarrassedly and said, "I think the space battleships and political systems inside are very reasonable."

Tatsuzawa Yuriko stared at him for a while, feeling as if she had discovered a traitor.

However, the Science Fiction Club was not a traditional writers' association, and she, as the director, didn't have much power; if she criticized the members, they might just quit on the spot.

She sighed and said, "'Space Empire' simply takes the outcome of war as the deciding factor for the entire future of humanity. But it ignores the basic productivity and political logic of human society, so although the story is exciting, I do not acknowledge it as reasonable science fiction."

The male writer fell silent, and the others, seeing this, didn't dare to say anything more.

Looking at everyone's performance, Tatsuzawa Yuriko felt dissatisfied and, at the same time, very anxious.

No, she had to start the submission project as soon as possible.

Otherwise, the future of Neon science fiction would only consist of this pseudo-science fiction!

Could it be that no one could write a hard science fiction work that wins over the market?