[At that moment, inside a game development company somewhere in Shanghai.]
“…Wedding skins, huh.”
In a large conference room where he sat alone, a man with glasses muttered briefly as he browsed through images of numerous female characters dressed in wedding gowns on a massive screen.
“They told us to make it like this from above.”
The man checked his tablet. There, he found an email — something his past self from a year ago would never have imagined receiving — from one of the Party’s so-called “high-ranking officials.”
– Regarding the creation of characters utilizing traditional attire.
“…Should I call it propaganda management?”
The materials attached to the Party’s email were filled with images that looked like they came straight off ancient murals.
Among them, there were even instructions to “recreate this outfit as faithfully as possible.”
It was a dangerous task. One that might have proceeded if the Master had not been Korean.
But the man did not obey the Party’s orders. Even if their company’s revenue model was relatively weaker compared to other companies, even if they had survived thanks to Party support and were able to rehire many employees and usher in a second golden age.
“Not on my watch.”
They weren’t a state-run propaganda studio that blindly followed orders from above.
– I like things like this.
The man recalled what a friend — who had been forced to leave the company after a monster emerged from a Tower — used to say often.
No matter how hungry or desperate one was, he believed that as a developer, you had to show the world the world you loved.
So, he went ahead and did it.
Avoiding the eyes of the Party-dispatched senior programmers, he secretly worked with the original company staff to push forward with the production.
As a result, while the color palette differed slightly from the initial illustration and the character’s figure had changed a bit, couldn’t they just tweak the lore to make it fit?
Right. If you tied the outfit and the meaning together, the answer was quite simple.
An android that had once been just a “thing” — Now, that android could proudly be called a “woman”.
“It feels like I’m marrying off my daughter.”
As the lead, he made his decision.
And so, he crossed the line.
Because of that—
Clang!
Even as soldiers in uniform burst through the doors and pointed guns at him, the man calmly set down his tablet and raised his hands.
“I didn’t think it would go this far, kuh?!”
The soldiers quickly restrained him, handcuffing him without giving him a chance to resist. Someone quietly entered the conference room and took a seat.
“This is troublesome, very troublesome.”
“You are…?”
“Defying the Party’s orders and making whatever you please…”
“An S-rank here in person…?”
An S-rank Hunter. A being so rare that even among China’s 1.4 billion people, an ordinary developer like him could never have expected to see one face-to-face — now sat before him.
“Well, the very top ordered me to come.”
Wearing the official uniform of the Party.
“Where is the wedding attire we ordered you to create? Why did you make this?”
The S-rank Hunter pulled out a tablet and pointed at an illustration on the screen.
“We sent you so many references about the wedding robes of princesses and concubines from the Ming and Qing dynasties. So why are we now looking at Western-style wedding dresses for the main character squad?”
“That’s because…”
The man simply nodded.
“Wedding skins have to be wedding dresses.”
“…”
“It’s like how one plus one equals two. In this industry, it’s obvious. Like in those Japanese light novels, where the heroine wears a wedding dress at the true love ending.”
“Hah….”
“I wasn’t wrong.”
“Listen. You are currently the only ‘link’ left.”
The S-rank Hunter tapped his chest in frustration.
“You are the representative of one of the few studios the Master personally selected from our country. And yet you—”
“If it’s a cheongsam, maybe. But would the Master really like it if we forced another culture onto it?”
“…”
“That’s basically the same as the Party’s hated…PC culture and ideological enforcement.”
“The word ‘ideology’ might be a bit much.”
“But still, I’ll say it clearly.”
The man—the company president—straightened his back and lifted his head high.
“I’m not wrong. This is a tribute to the Master, sure, but it’s also the most rational and correct choice to boost sales as the president of a game company.”
“…”
“If they really want to push Chinese culture so badly, they should go over to that new indie studio and make some kind of food-moe game, dress up the characters in traditional clothing, and sell it as a mobile gacha game. Who knows? Maybe the Master will summon them just to eat them up.”
“…Thank you for your input.”
At the president’s words, the S-rank Hunter earnestly began taking notes on his smartphone.
“But that would take time to develop—”
“Brother Wang!!”
An A-rank Hunter suddenly burst in from outside.
“The Master…!”
“What about the Master?! What did he do?!”
“The Master just reposted our wedding skin promotion on social media!”
“!!”
Jump!
The S-rank Hunter literally leapt up from his seat and hurriedly checked his smartphone.
“What the…? The Master, who only ever hit ‘like’ on posts about new maid releases or cat swordswoman humanization promotions…?”
“…Heh.”
The president nodded, as if he knew this would happen.
“Want to know why?”
“How… How did the Master react like this?”
“Simple.”
Nod.
“Because you have to feed the baby.”
* * *
“How long are you planning to stay dressed like that, Drei?”
“I don’t know. Until the Commander peels the skin off?”
“…”
“If it bothers you that much, why don’t you go change into a skin too? Oh wait, you’re not a ‘skin,’ you’re a Separation. In a swimsuit, at that.”
Still wearing her wedding dress, Drei giggled as she twirled her white skirt, and Elaine brewed tea with a slightly twisted smile in response to Drei’s antics.
“Master.”
“Yeah?”
“May I go visit NPia for a moment?”
“Even if you don’t ask for a wedding skin, NPia’s probably already preparing wedding skins on their own.”
After thoroughly appreciating Drei’s wedding skin, I posted promotional images of the newly released wedding dress skins from Drei’s game on SNS.
Even after clearing Towers, I had barely promoted anything on social media—but now I was promoting a Chinese game company’s wedding skin?
The world was struck with shock and awe.
– Is the Master… thinking about getting married?
Rumors like that started to spread, and countries began scouting beautiful women in an attempt to somehow charm the Master.
– No way! Even if that’s the case, asking us to cosplay like game characters to seduce the Master is too much!
– You want us to compete in feminine charm against the Master’s maids and companions? Sure, but have some human dignity! How can we seriously compete with these sparkling cosplay items?!
-T-this is… such a degenerate move…!
“So they say, Master?”
“Trying to use real-world beauties to seduce someone who reacts stronger to 2D than 3D… They’re doomed.”
Even the women recruited for this “cosplay seduction operation,” including Hunters and celebrities, showed open disgust — but at least the message I wanted to send to the world was clearly conveyed.
A wedding dress—
“Master.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you perhaps dreaming of hosting a wedding ceremony where I wear such a lewd wedding dress?”
“…No, no. It’s fine because it’s 2D.”
Mobile gacha game wedding dresses had to be different from the ones you’d see at a real-world wedding ceremony.
“Someone once said that the wedding dresses female characters wear are basically—”
“Mating declaration outfits?”
“Don’t say it so crudely, Drei! It sounds terrible when you put it that way.”
“But it’s not exactly wrong, is it?”
Drei stood up and pointed at her dress.
“Starting with the white garter belt underneath—”
“Hold it. Drei. If someone hears that, they’ll think I asked you to wear that kind of thing.”
“But even after I showed you, you didn’t tell me to change, did you?”
“…”
“Our company’s president has good taste, huh?”
“I’ll admit that.”
Although Drei’s skin was not officially updated into the game or added to the client files, through her own hacking, she had turned it into her current outfit.
And that outfit perfectly preserved the design determined by the production team.
At a glance, she looked like a bride of the battlefield—
“On the bed—”
“Hey, you can’t say things like that when we haven’t even gone to the bed yet, Drei.”
“Then why don’t we go to the bed now?”
“…Ahem.”
Such dangerously provocative words.
“Elaine, say something. Drei is trying to—huh?”
“What seems to be the problem, Master?”
“When did your swimsuit skin release?”
“I changed into it just now.”
Elaine, now dressed in a black bikini swimsuit, placed a cup of tea in front of me.
“Clothing doesn’t have to be a skin. You can simply find it and wear it directly like this.”
“Uh….”
“Haha, she gets it. Good. Commander, choose. Swimsuit or wedding dress?”
“I have to choose between those two?”
What kind of impossible situation was this?
“If you’re going to pick anyway….”
“Partner.”
Suddenly, Kiharu appeared, giving me a thumbs-up.
“As a healer, I’m responsible for keeping the party’s health up!”
“Wait, you’re not saying—”
“Even if you collapse, I’ll keep healing you, so don’t worry.”
“…”
Without another word, I got up and headed for the exit of the captain’s cabin.
I opened the door—
Clunk.
“…Huh?”
[I’m sorry, Captain…!]
“…Illinois, not you too!”
Step, step.
“Commander~”
“Master.”
“Wa-wait, Justice…!”
From my smartphone, a lively voice rang out.
[You called for me!]
“I’m—what the—?!”
[Right now, I’m busy smiting evil!]
[And at this very moment, I’m too busy defeating the ones interfering with justice! The Lion of Justice will retreat for now! Goodbye!]
Click.
“…Phew.”
I guess there’s no escaping it.
“No choice but to face the beauty assault head-on.”
