What Qu Muying hadn’t expected was that more and more customers would gather in front of their booth.
After one thirty in the afternoon, most of the otaku had already completed their holy war objectives.
They were outside the venue, resting in the shade and drinking water to recover.
And that meant…
Another special group of people finally had time to leave their posts and go looking for food.
“Um… Excuse me, could I ask you something?”
A young man with a “Doujin Circle Participant” badge hanging from his chest stopped in front of the booth.
“Do you have any MME Collector’s Editions left?”
“We do! We’ve still got plenty!”
Shiraishi Ayumu replied with renewed energy.
The young man let out a long sigh of relief and smiled.
“That’s great… I’ve been busy at my booth and couldn’t get away. I thought they’d already sold out.”
“I’ll take three! And… I’ll get one of your Galgames, too.”
“Sure! That’ll be 13,000 yen. Thank you very much!”
This was only the beginning.
Over the next half hour, one group of customers after another came to the YOHaku booth.
Without exception, they all had circle badges hanging from their chests.
Most were developers making pixel RPGs and doujin games.
The first thing they all asked when they arrived was exactly the same:
“Do you still have MME?”
After getting a positive answer, the creators would show the same look of relief.
They bought the software without hesitation, usually starting with two or three copies, clearly intending to bring them back for someone else.
And since they were already at the booth, it wasn’t out of the question that they’d pick up a copy of to support the developers.
Watching the numbers on the sales log keep climbing, Shiraishi Ayumu looked bewildered.
“Qu Muying… what’s going on? Why are so many people from other circles suddenly showing up?”
Before Qu Muying could answer, someone else spoke.
“Of course they’re here to buy it! They just finally have some free time.”
Matsumoto Daisuke returned at a leisurely pace, wearing sunglasses and carrying a paper fan he’d apparently picked up somewhere, along with a huge pile of free merch.
“Manager? Where’d you go just now?”
“To bring in customers.”
Matsumoto Daisuke picked up a bottle of mineral water and chugged it.
“Your real customers are sitting right next door.”
Just then, several more people with circle badges gathered in front of the booth.
“Ah! You’re the developer of MME, aren’t you?”
One of them, a young man who looked like a programmer, eagerly approached Matsumoto Daisuke.
“Thank you so much for your tool! The features you added to this Collector’s Edition have been a huge help!”
“You must’ve been working in the industry for years, right?”
Matsumoto Daisuke looked a little embarrassed by the praise. He rubbed the stubble on his chin and cleared his throat twice.
“Ahem… Um, you’ve got the wrong idea.”
He folded up his paper fan and pointed to Qu Muying, who’d been silent beside him.
“She’s the author.”
“…Huh?”
“Y-You can’t be serious.”
“…A JK made this?”
“Is there a problem?” Qu Muying raised her head, her gaze dark.
“N-No!”
The techies immediately grew solemn and respectful.
The “genius beauty programmer” trope, which only existed in light novels, had actually appeared in real life!
That was even more appealing than MME itself.
They immediately abandoned Uncle Matsumoto and crowded around Qu Muying, starting a technical discussion. Even genius beauty programmers didn’t give programmers anything else to talk about.
“About the constraint propagation part, what depth threshold did you set for backtracking when a contradiction leads to a dead end?”
“I see! And what about the JSON data structure…”
***
Far from the N-14b booth, a man in a baseball cap had been standing for nearly ten minutes.
He held a C78 guidebook in his hands, his gaze fixed on the line of people waiting in front of the YOHaku booth.
“…This person wrote the WFC Algorithm? They look like a high school student.”
He didn’t go over to speak. He simply scribbled “YOHaku” and the booth number on a blank page of the guidebook.
Then he turned and headed toward the West Exhibition Hall.
***
As the technical discussion deepened, more and more developers lingered in front of the booth.
Among them, someone noticed the footage playing on the laptop beside the booth.
“The character art in your PV… is that frame-by-frame animation? Isn’t that way too expensive?”
“This isn’t frame-by-frame animation.”
Seeing this, Shiraishi Ayumu immediately stepped forward, energized. After all, this was something he’d spent a long time studying.
It wasn’t something groundbreaking like MME. He’d just used development tools that were already available, but at least it was something he’d explored himself.
“This is Live2D.”
“Simply put, you split the original 2D artwork into layers and parts…”
“I’ve heard of this technology. It’s still pretty rare in commercial games, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s still not very mature…”
Shiraishi Ayumu joined the conversation, too.
***
People always liked to see what the fuss was about.
At first, it had just been a group of developers discussing technology.
But when ordinary visitors passed by and saw a three-deep crowd around the N-14b island-center booth, with people occasionally exclaiming “Sbarasi” and “Genius”…
Their curiosity was thoroughly piqued.
“What are they selling over there? Why’s it so crowded?”
“No idea. Looks like a new circle. Let’s go see.”
“That character art on the cover is gorgeous.”
The developers drawn in by MME were like a magnet, pulling in ordinary visitors as they passed.
“Hey! N-14b! Don’t block the aisle!” Staff pushed their way through the crowd.
“Quick! Everyone, follow instructions. Two abreast, and follow me as we move the line to the open area!”
And so, during the final three hours, a sight never before seen at Comiket unfolded.
An unknown newcomer island-center circle had been forced to form a queue.
Shiraishi Ayumu, who was handling the sales, and Matsumoto Daisuke, who was hauling supplies, were so busy they didn’t even have time to drink water.
The numbers in Qu Muying’s sales log kept climbing faster and faster.
“Thank you very much!”
Shiraishi Ayumu bowed, then looked up at the next customer and paused.
The next customer was an unusual sight.
A white man with a full beard and black-rimmed glasses stood in front of the booth.
He wore a T-shirt printed with a retro pixel-art design, and there was a hint of excitement in his eyes.
A tall, broad-shouldered Japanese man in a leather jacket stood beside him.
The white man stared intently at the MME Collector’s Edition on the table, then looked at the laptop on display beside it.
“Blah blah blah…”
He was speaking English.
What he said was, “Please give me two MME Collector’s Editions and one visual novel.”
Qu Muying looked at the white man and quoted the price in English.
“Wow… Your English is great.”
The white man praised her, then took out a 10,000-yen bill and handed it over.
After taking his change and the paper bag containing the games, he didn’t leave right away.
He asked in English:
“Could you tell me who developed this MME tool? The one who open-sourced the Wave Function collapse algorithm.”
“Me.”
“Wow.”
The white man looked surprised, then grinned broadly.
“Cool.”
He pulled a business card from his breast pocket and handed it to Qu Muying.
“Keep making interesting things.”
With that, he waved to Qu Muying and turned to disappear into the crowd.
The Japanese man smiled, too.
“You’re an impressive young person. Keep it up.”
He left with a chuckle after offering that praise.
Qu Muying didn’t pay any attention to the business card and casually stuffed it into her pocket.
***
Four in the afternoon.
An announcement came over the venue’s PA system. As the music of played, applause once again rang out in every corner of the East Exhibition Hall.
It was over.
The three of them forced themselves to stand and packed the remaining items back into cardboard boxes.
As they pushed the cart away, Shiraishi Ayumu looked back at the empty, long table.
“Hey, Qu Muying.”
“Hm?”
“I feel like I’m still dreaming.”
Shiraishi Ayumu looked dazed.
Qu Muying didn’t look back. She kept pushing the cart forward.
“Quit grinning and help me push.”