5 Chapter 4- Virtual Character

Afternoon, Tanaka opened his eyes groggily as he looked around. The room was very dark so he couldn't tell what time it was. He checked his phone and saw only a few minutes left before the last class ended.

Tanaka stretched his body and waited for Shirogane to come, after all, there is no point going back to class now, so while he was waiting, he checked the official site of the contest that he joined in.

The submissions had ended and next was a 2 week time of judges evaluating the games that were submitted. According to the statistics, ‌3653 games were submitted and there were only about 10 judges in the game.

That was the first evaluation. After judges select the top 100 games they liked, the second evaluation, the games that were chosen will be released in the official site and this time, it's not only judges who were the ones evaluating but the masses.

This could be easily cheated, so the ones in charge of this contest will only be chosen from at most a thousand players who were reviewed to do this professionally, in this side, only the top 10 can enter the finals. After that, the last evaluation will be evaluated by famous professional game developers.

All of this will happen in two weeks. It would take a long time, so Tanaka is fairly free for the upcoming weeks, but Tanaka is bored so he may do some minor projects in his free time.

Anyway, it didn't take long for the class to end, and Shirogane returned also carrying Tanaka's bag, Ishigami also came along, as for Hachiman, he seemed to be have been forced to join a club, this got Tanaka interested, he may use it to bully Hachiman later.

"The game is done?"

Ishigami asked as he sat beside Tanaka.

"Yep, it's done, let me pass it to you"

Tanaka took out his phone and transferred the package of the game to Ishigami's phone, the total size of the game is only 140 megabytes, not that big and not that small either, it was just right.

Ishigami was already familiar with the game, but what got him interested is the plot of the game. He found it silly and amusing when he first saw it, then it didn't take long for him to focus on playing the game.

"Are you trying to reach the levels you created?"

"Yeah, I want to beat it"

Ishigami nodded. He wanted to appreciate the work he did. Tanaka then talked with Ishigami if there are some things that could be adjusted and some things that could be added. If possible, Tanaka wanted to improve this game as it was one of his childhood memories.

As they were talking, the other members of the Student Council also arrived, Chika and Shinomiya.

Shinomiya wasn't really that interested in games and was more interested in Shirogane, who seemed ‌ interested in what his two friends were talking about.

'How cute'

She thought, meanwhile, Chika was openly expressing her curiosity.

"Eh!? How come you have it on your phone, Ishigami? I want to play it too!"

She reacted when she saw ‌Ishigami was playing on his phone.

"You can download it in your phone"

"Really?"

Chika was excited as Tanaka sent her the package, and immediately she played. She was quite disappointed that her progress on Tanaka's phone had been lost. It didn't dampen her enthusiasm though, as she easily got through the levels.

Seeing these two people enjoying the game, Tanaka became confident in the game. It may have a good chance of winning the contest, though he was not sure what place it will land on, but it may reach top 20 or 30.

He was not so arrogant to know that the game would win the first place after all, he only had 3 days, if he had plenty of time, he could have refined and improved the game a lot more having the chance of reaching top 10.

Angry birds is but a simple puzzle and strategy game that only Tanaka made because of not having enough time to create better games, but he was still hopeful of the chances of winning and getting some exposure.

Once he gets some exposure, the games he will recreate in the future will surely be popular.

"Speaking of which Tanaka, what are you going to do next?"

Ishigami suddenly asked.

"I don't really know, maybe create a game while waiting for the announcement of the contest winners?"

"Then are you going to attend the awarding ceremony if ever your game wins?"

:Hmm, according to the site, we don't really have to attend and could just do it online. I don't really like to show my face in public"

Yes, Tanaka didn't want to be known like those celebrities. If possible, he wanted his game to be known or a brand. If he planned to build a company in the future, thinking about it, how is he going to present himself in the future?

He could go mysterious without showing his face, but that is not ideal as players still wanted to communicate with the developers. Tanaka then opened the Metube app and looked for the popular content creators or streamers.

Looking at these popular people, most of them were ‌ celebrities, singers, Outdoor streams, it could be said that the content creators were still in their infancy, and there are also not that many players who live stream playing games and also most of them are VR games.

But even though there are few, it was still the one that dominates all genres. It was even above some popular celebrities. The only reason it was not topping everything is that there are not that many games from what Tanaka found.

Anyway, he searched for a while until he found that there was something missing, like, he couldn't pin what it was but it was in the corner of his head…It took a while before he finally realized what it was.

"So Vtubers still don't exist!"

Virtual Youtubers, or also known as Vtubers, are online entertainers who are typically YouTubers or live streamers. They use avatars created with programs such as Live2D, portraying characters designed by online artists.

In Tanaka's past life, it was one of the best things that was created in the entertainment industry because there, people don't need to sell their appearances, only their personality and how well they communicate with the viewers.

The pioneer of this genre was Kizuna Ai, a girl who dares to curse online and also known to have many memes, though she went on hiatus when he left and her coming back is still unknown.

:"This is a great idea. I can build a company for this"

Tanaka couldn't help but get excited, though he didn't; have plans but he still imagined what he could do as a Vtuber. Of course, as a game developer, he won't be able to focus in Live streaming, but he could use this to promote his games.

In Tanaka's past life, most of the popular games in the internet came from live streamers, so this is a good way for promotion, anyway, it would take a while as Tanaka still have to make an avatar and if he wants to be a successful Vtuber, he will have to up his avatar.

And to make this may even take a lot of money.

"Hey, wait, do we have an art club here?"

Tanaka looked at Shirogane.

"Hmm, there is one, but it has few members"

Shirogane replied as he remembered.

"Great, how is their artwork? How is the quality?"

"Its quite good, there is a guy who likes to draw anime characters, there is also a guy who draw normal arts"

"That is quite good, I will check them up later, maybe I can commission them to make something for me if the quality is satisfying"

"Are you going to create a new game already?"

"No, this one is different, as for the game, well, I will make some plans first"

"Okay"

It didn't take long for everyone to go home, Tanaka also went home himself as there is really nothing to do at school anymore, so arriving at home, he immediately made his way towards his room and started planning for his virtual avatar.

Making a normal human avatar is no good as viewers seemed to like to have a lore for the characters, for example, there was the 9000-year-old hydrodynamic flat chested shark, or the other one who was the priestess of the Ancient Ones.

"Hmm, who should I go for?"

Tanaka thought, there is a lot of handsome characters from his past life. For example, Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen, or Sebastian from Black Butler. There are more handsome characters but Tanaka wasn't the one to pick recklessly.

He wanted the character to fit into his personality and so he drew some sketches of the handsome characters he knew from his past life until he finally found the one he was looking for.

Zhong Li, this character fits Tanaka's personality very much, Genshin Impact doesn't exist in this world, and Tanaka didn't have to worry about copyrights, he was quite satisfied with this.

Zhong Li is a calm, reserved, and polite man who holds an air of nostalgia. Tanaka felt it was the best decision he had right now, so without waiting further ado, Tanaka started writing the sketches of Zhong Li, his art may not be the best but at least it was comparable to some Manga's in Tanaka's past life.

And so he started, first is the full appearance of Zhong Li, he also added some notes for small details such as his clothes, their patterns, and so on.

Zhong Li is a tall man with fair skin and a stern expression. His eyes are bright and sharp, amber in color with glowing yellow pupils set in the shape of diamonds. He wears red eyeliner on the lower lids of his eyes. When using Geo, his eyes become luminescent. His dark brown hair is styled in a windswept fashion with a longer fringe that hangs from the right side of his face. It fades to amber brown at the tips and is pulled back in a long ponytail that falls beyond his waist. When he is using his Geo abilities, his amber highlights glow.

His attire is elegant and form-fitting, consisting of a beige dress shirt, a brown and amber waistcoat, slim black trousers, black dress boots, and black gloves with twin silver archer rings on the thumbs. His neckpiece is a white tie pinned at the throat by an amber gemstone. His left ear is adorned with a jeweled tassel earring. Over everything, he wears a long dark brown tailcoat with dragon scale patterns, gold and silver accents, golden tassels, and Rex Lapis' diamond symbol on the back. Zhongli's clothes are decorated with diamond symbols found on his sleeves, belt, trousers, waistcoat buttons, and tailcoat buttons. Similarly to Venti, because he was an Archon with an innate Gnosis, the "Vision" embedded on his chain at the small of his back is nothing more than a fake.

Tanaka didn't stop after that. He also made a lot of different clothes, there is a lot of things for Tanaka to add, but the one he put the most attention to is the details of the character, for example, the character must look realistic, every strand of hair could be seen, his eyes, and even the mouth.

It took Tanaka an entire week just to finish it, and when he was done, he made his way towards the Art Club to commission them.

Tanaka opened the door and entered inside.