Because Haruno had been exhausted from work the night before, she had gone to bed early. As a result, Yukino had quietly slipped into Ichin's room to sleep.
Naturally, Utaha and Yukino woke up right on time the next morning, but Ichin ended up sleeping in a little longer, missing his morning workout for once.
It was already eight thirty when Ichin finally walked out of his room, yawning lazily.
Almost at the same time, Haruno's bedroom door opened as well.
With messy hair and a drowsy expression, Haruno stepped out. Seeing him, she looked surprised. "That's rare, Ichin. You're up at this hour?"
Ichin nodded and scratched his head. "Went to bed pretty late. And it's summer vacation now. Just this once. After this year, there won't be any more summer breaks."
By this time next year, he would have graduated from university. No more long vacations like this.
Of course, even now, his winter and summer breaks were not entirely for rest. Most of the time, he still worked at the company.
Haruno smiled. "That's right. Less than a year until you graduate. Time flies."
At that moment, Utaha came up the stairs and saw the two of them standing there. "Since you're awake, stop chatting and go wash up. Breakfast is ready."
"Okay~~ right away!" Haruno replied.
"On it," Ichin said.
After washing up and heading downstairs, they found Yukino had already laid out breakfast on the table and filled the cats' bowls with food.
Breakfast was simple but delicious: chicken congee, steamed buns, milk, and coffee.
Taking a bite of her bun, Utaha said, "Ichin, I won't be going to the company today. Yukino and I will tidy up the guest room this morning for when your parents arrive. In the afternoon, I'm going to see Akane. Yukino's staying home to study."
Ichin nodded. "Alright. Do you want me to pick you up in the afternoon?"
"Sure~~ That way Yukino won't have to drive out. We can also pick up ingredients for dinner on the way back." She then looked at Yukino and Haruno. "What do you two want for dinner? Haruno, you can get off work on time today, right?"
"Mm-hmm, finally!" Haruno said happily. "As long as there's meat, I'm good!"
Yukino thought for a moment. "Anything is fine. I'm not picky. Since Sister wants meat, we can also buy some vegetables for balance."
Ichin smiled at Haruno. "See? Learn from your sister. All you think about is meat. You'll gain weight sooner or later."
Haruno stuck out her tongue defiantly. "Relax. There's no way I'll get fat!"
After breakfast, Ichin and Haruno headed out to work, while Utaha and Yukino stayed home to prepare the guest room for Ichin's parents.
Driving out, Ichin made a detour to the Sawamura residence to pick up Eriri before heading to the company.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Eriri asked curiously, "Utaha and Yukino aren't coming to the company today?"
"They're tidying up the guest room. My parents are coming in a few days. Utaha's also visiting Akane this afternoon. Yukino's staying home to study."
"Ohhh, I see. Your parents are coming."
Eriri nodded, then suddenly thought of something. "Hey, when you guys go back to China later, count me in. I haven't traveled in ages. Perfect chance to go out and have some fun!"
"You're planning pretty far ahead," Ichin laughed. "What about work? Don't forget I'm paying your salary."
"Can't I take annual leave? I have ten days, you know!"
Ichin had nearly forgotten. Eriri did indeed have annual leave. If she wanted to use it, he really had no grounds to refuse.
"Fine. I can't stop you from using your leave. But before we go, make sure you wrap up some of your current tasks."
"Don't worry. We're already in the final development stage. I don't have that much left to do. There aren't many character designs or models that still need adjustments."
With Ichin's approval, Eriri beamed. She could finally go on a trip!
When they arrived at the company, employees gradually trickled in and began their day's work.
Once the Tales of Berseria team had assembled, Ichin called everyone into the meeting room to go over the arrangements for this final phase.
Thanks to the programmers' steady efforts earlier on, the final stage was not overwhelmingly hectic. There were not countless bugs to fix. Each day, they simply waited for the testing team to report issues and then addressed them accordingly. If it was an art issue, it went to the art team. If it was programming related, it went to the programmers. If there were balance problems, the balancing team discussed and adjusted them promptly.
Everything was progressing in an orderly manner.
After reviewing the current progress, Ichin dismissed everyone to continue working and remained seated in the meeting room, looking over his notes.
"At this pace, we might finish completely before mid August. That's even counting the time we'll be back in Shanghai. Everyone's efficiency just keeps improving. If our competitors knew, they'd be insanely jealous."
Umiko, sitting nearby, smiled. "It's mainly because our initial planning was solid, and the underlying code was built properly. Once the framework is strong, adding new content or making adjustments becomes much easier. I've looked at a lot of other games' code before. Many are incredibly outdated. Adding new features or fixing bugs later becomes a nightmare."
Ichin knew exactly what she meant. Spaghetti code. Running into that kind of mess was torture.
That was why he had always placed heavy emphasis on clean foundational code. He would never allow such chaotic code to take root in his own projects.
Kō stood up after packing her things. "So, Ichin, are we planning to delay the release in reverse? Finish early and push it back?"
"Not at all," Ichin stood as well. "Once it's done, we send it for disc production. Then we give everyone a few extra days off. Summer's so hot, it'll be nice for everyone to relax at home with the air conditioning."
Hearing that, Kō's eyes lit up. "Paid leave?"
"Don't worry. Paid leave."
"Yes! I'm going to tell everyone right now!"
As Kō excitedly rushed toward the door, Ichin quickly called out, "Kō, you can tell them, but don't let it make everyone sloppy, okay?"
"No problem! We're not rookies anymore. Everyone knows their limits!"
---
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