It's Decided, It's You

Children are magical creatures. On weekdays, they sleep later than pigs, requiring shouts to wake up, but come Saturday and Sunday, they rise earlier than chickens.

Such is the case with little Yuuki.

In Yuuki's room, the blanket had somehow been kicked off during the night, revealing her tiny, pale belly beneath her slightly lifted pajama top.

Seemingly dreaming about something, Yuuki smacked her lips and absentmindedly scratched her belly.

"Mmm... pan-fried dumplings... yummy!" After mumbling in her sleep, Yuuki slowly opened her eyes, looked around in a daze, and with a grunt, climbed out of bed and scampered in her little slippers toward Ren's room.

Finding Ren lying on the floor, she stood with her hands on her hips and sighed like a little adult, "Really, Dad made Mom mad again! So immature!"

"Dad, wake up! The sun's shining on your butt!"

Yuuki then pounced onto Ren's bed.

Startled by the sudden jump, the sleeping Ren woke up.

However, he pretended to be asleep, having stayed up 'cultivating' late into the night and not wanting to get up just yet.

Unfortunately, his desires were secondary to Yuuki's whims.

Seeing that Ren wasn't waking up, Yuuki giggled, laid on top of him, and began tickling his nose with a strand of her hair.

It looked like there would be no sleeping in today.

Ren sighed internally but couldn't really complain—this was his daughter, after all.

He grabbed Yuuki, pinched her cheeks, and couldn't help but indulge in one of his favorite pastimes—squeezing her chubby cheeks.

Perhaps all children are like this, but Ren certainly found squeezing Yuuki's cheeks to be particularly soothing.

"Mmm!" Yuuki protested, slapping away Ren's hands, her lips pouting like a hamster's, "Dad, how many times have I told you, if you keep squeezing, I'll turn into a round ball!"

She felt her face had gotten rounder recently.

"Oh no, what to do? Yueyue won't let Dad squeeze her cheeks; Dad feels unwell," Ren theatrically complained. "Since I can't squeeze, I need Yueyue's kisses to energize me for the day."

He then pointed at his cheek.

"Really, Dad is just like a kid!" Yuuki sighed, exasperated by the immaturity of adults these days.

"Mwah!" She quickly pecked Ren on the cheek.

That seemed to cure all his aches as he sprang up, scooping her into his arms amidst her startled cries, "Off we go~~ to brush our teeth and wash our faces~"

After brushing their teeth, washing up, and having breakfast, Yuuki tugged at Ren's shirt with a pitiful look, "Daddy, can I play the game console for a while?"

"You can, but only for an hour, and keep your eyes far from the screen," Ren agreed after some thought.

Children are often more curious about forbidden things, so rather than outright denying Yuuki, he set some restrictions.

"Okay, got it!" Delighted, Yuuki hurried into Ren's room, retrieved her console, and nestled into Ren's belly.

Her favorite spot was on her dad's belly—it was soft, bouncy, and very comfortable.

Ren shifted to make her more comfortable and began scrolling through his phone.

Suddenly, he paused on a news article. The key words—Warren, manga artist, Jia Rong—caught his attention.

If these words had been separate, Ren might have overlooked them, but together, they reminded him of Warren, the manga artist who had left his wife's company for Jia Rong Comics.

He clicked on the article.

Reporter: "Mr. Warren, there are rumors that you left Picca Comics because your confession was rejected. Is that true?"

Warren: "Sorry, no comment. Today is about my new work, not my personal love life."

Reading this, Ren narrowed his eyes.

A confession?

As Ren was about to call Jada, Yuuki seemed to hear Warren's voice from the phone.

She looked up at Ren's screen with a disdainful expression and complained, "That's a bad uncle! He used to bring ugly flowers to Mommy and then he left, making Mommy stay up late for a while!"

"Here?" Ren turned to his daughter. "Can you tell me more about what happened between Mommy and this man?"

"Um, it was like this..." Yuuki began to recount the story.

Moments later, a cold smile appeared on Ren's face.

It turned out Warren had pursued Jada, who had

 repeatedly rejected him. Angered, he had left, vowing to bankrupt her company!

If it weren't for Ren's sudden appearance and the acquisition of a system, there was a real chance Warren might have succeeded, or at the very least severely damaged Jada's company.

That guy had tried to swoop in while Ren was away? And nearly brought down his future wife's company?

These actions were enough to infuriate Ren.

Checking the release date of Warren's new work, Ren took a deep breath and looked at his system page.

It was just the right time for a showdown as his monthly refresh allowed him to choose a new work to rival Warren's release.

Faced with the options of "Berserk," "Gintama," and "Cooking Master Boy," Ren immediately ruled out "Gintama."

While famous, its heavy Japanese cultural references and multitude of inside jokes made it ill-suited for this world, where those references didn't exist.

"Berserk," though a favorite, was too violent and bloody for the female-dominated readership of Picca Comics.

"That leaves…" Ren's gaze settled on "Cooking Master Boy."

It's decided, it's you, Little Chef!

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