Chapter 321: Hard Sci-Fi and Pseudo-Sci-Fi Works

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

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

Akiwara Yuto hesitated and replied, "It's not that I don't like it."

But he felt this sentence was full of ambiguity, so he added, "Satake, have you already lost your patience?"

Upon hearing these words, Satake Maki was so angry she didn't know where to vent.

As a young woman, she had already been chasing him, and she had been waiting for a whole year. During this year, she still had to watch Akiwara Yuto and Asano Aiko and others spend time alone together.

And now, Akiwara Yuto was actually asking about whether she could wait.

She gritted her teeth, disregarding her gentle image, and said directly, "Akiwara, at the beginning, I paid attention to you because I liked your work, but as we interacted, I discovered that I couldn't live without you more and more."

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 hope you weren't so successful."

Her voice dropped.

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

"All I want is such simple happiness."

Hearing these words, 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 kind 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 when he felt the gentle touch.

"I'll head back first," Satake Maki said, stepping back two paces with a smile, "And thank you for the hospitality."

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

After closing the door, her face had already turned completely 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 knew when someone else would snatch him away first.

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

But going back now would be too embarrassing!

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

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

To be honest, it wasn't that he didn't know Satake's feelings for him, it was just that 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, like now, being with one of them would inevitably hurt the other.

Could he just muddle through by saying, "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.

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

While Akiwara Yuto was fast asleep, the Nihon Sci-Fi Club was holding a meeting.

Although it was a club, because the members were all sci-fi writers, it could also be called the Nihon Sci-Fi Writers Association.

The theme of this meeting was the future market prospects of traditional Nihon sci-fi.

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

"This February, sales of hard sci-fi works dropped by 10%, currently averaging less than 400,000 copies per month. Does anyone have any good methods to promote the development of hard sci-fi works?"

A gray-haired lady said solemnly.

Her name was Tatsuzawa Yuriko, the head of the Sci-Fi Club, and she was already over 60 years old this year.

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

In the life she had lived since her debut, she had witnessed the process of pure Nihon sci-fi going from its peak to its decline.

"Director Tatsuzawa, readers nowadays prefer sci-fi works about space robots."

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

Tatsuzawa Yuriko was furious, "Those kinds of works are completely pseudo-sci-fi; they are militarism wrapped in a sci-fi 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 sky and even in space, and the pilot can actually withstand such high load pressure without wearing a protective suit!"

"Furthermore, so-called humanoid robot weapons have no practical significance at all; they are entirely to cater to market aesthetics."

Hearing these words, some young writers in the audience looked at each other.

They never expected that the Director, who always refuted space robots, would actually 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 in it are very reasonable."

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

However, the Sci-Fi 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 sci-fi."

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

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

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

Otherwise, the future sci-fi works of Nihon would only be these pseudo-sci-fi ones!

Could it be that no one could write a hard sci-fi work that could win over the market? ===== CHAPTER 322 =====