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Once classes for today were done, Paul and Chris decided to go eat something at the cafeteria. Chris wouldn’t stop yapping about nonsensical things, novels, anime, and the game. But Paul didn’t really mind Chris talking all he wanted; he liked listening to his voice.

“So have you seen any anime lately? This last season has been kind of bad, to be honest,” said Chris.

“Ah, no, not really,” said Paul. “Been too busy in the game for that… I’m surprised how much of a weeb you are, though. And you were the one making fun of me before…”

“W-What? Weeb?” Chris asked angrily, blushing. “I-I’m not a weeb! I just watch anime… Everyone does nowadays, right? So I was just introduced to it by some normies. There’s nothing weeb about me…”

“Uh-huh… Like these drawings you’ve been doodling?” wondered Paul, as he pointed at Chris drawing book, which was full of the drawings of anime characters, sometimes of Chris’ own novel characters. “What about these?”

“T-That’s not it!” said Paul. “I’m just practicing my artistic flair… Ahem, I mean. I thought we were studying programming for game development, right? That’s why I’m here to begin with. So I’ll become my own artist.”

“Wait, so that’s what you wanted to do? Game development?!” Paul was shocked.

He had begun studying programming because, compared to several other careers, it didn’t require so many years to get done, and if he was decent enough, he could get a lot of jobs and money from it.

His entire life he had been taking decisions towards “earning more money,” and even his job decisions weren’t really what he dreamed about when he was a kid, but just “what’s gives me the most money and doesn’t take several years to get done”.

Meanwhile, Chris didn’t need any of such things; he apparently came from a wealthy family and earned money on his own with his art commissions and online web novels.

“Yeah! I never told you? I mean, I guess we’ve not known each other for too long either,” said Chris. “We kind of clicked in a couple of things, and we’ve escalated things a bit... But yeah, that’s why I got here. It’s nice to know me better, isn’t it? I bet you think you’re lucky to have me now.”

“I-I was already thinking that…” Paul blushed a bit as he drank some of his soda.

“Aww! Aren’t you a cutie, you!” Chris giggled, pinching Paul’s face as if he were a little boy.

“Ah, cut it out, I’m not a kid, Chris…” Paul blushed, but he made no effort to stop Chris from pinching his face.

“Eh, you’re like a cute kid sometimes; honestly~ I bet you would be a mess without me!” giggled Chris.

“Who’s ever saying that? I think you’re the only mess here; if it wasn’t for me, you would have already gotten on the bad side of the teacher; why don’t you ever study or do your homework, Chris?” sighed Paul. "Also, there’s an exam coming at the end of the week; have you studied anything yet?”

“Eh?!” Chris gasped. “Wait, at the end of the week? Ah, then it’s fine… I’ll study… err, tomorrow.”

“Hm…” Paul glared at his eyes. “You haven’t studied at all, huh? I bet you don’t even know what exam I’m referring to…”

“Of course I know what exam you’re talking about! It’s the… Err, the Language one, right?” Chris muttered.

"No, that’s just a small individual project,” sighed Paul. “It’s math.”

“Math! Oh… Ugh,” Chris groaned, sighing. “I’m… not that good with Math.”

“You should pay more attention to classes; I know you like doing whatever you want, but don’t be so carefree,” Paul said. “There’s not much I can do for you regarding exams…”

“Come on! Since when have I relied on you that much? I got this,” Chris winked at him. “I can do an exam or two… Um, yeah.”

“You definitely are completely lost… We’ll have to study together at least,” sighed Paul. “I don’t want you to just have terrible grades.”

“I’ll get good grades! I usually do without even getting to study; I have a good memory, you know?” Chris said. “I bet University exams aren’t that complex compared to high school exams.”

“Hmm… I guess you don’t want to study together then, fine,” nodded Paul.

“No wait! I want to!” Chris cried. “Study… Let’s study together… Ugh.”

“Alright, the exam is in three more days; we should start studying right away, honestly,” said Paul. “Come on, take out your book and notes; let’s do some small math exercises first to refresh your mind.”

“Right now?!” Chris cried. “But I’m enjoying my meal!”

“You’ve already eaten your burger like ten minutes ago,” Paul said.

"Yeah, but the fries are left!” Chris said, eating them one by one.

“Come on, if you don’t want terrible grades, we have to start right away,” said Paul.

“Ugh!” Chris was looking rather annoyed, but at the end he nodded and agreed.

Paul tried to refresh his mind, but it became harder than he expected. His fears were right; Chris had paid no attention at all to any classes ever, not even a little bit.

Because of this, he had to teach him a lot from scratch. And Chris wasn’t that motivated to study either, so he was doing things sloppily.

“And so you have to sum this up and multiply it by twenty-three to get the result, easy, right?”

“Uhh…”

Chris was so confused. Paul could swear his eyes were spinning around.

“Chris?”

“This is a bit too annoying…”

“Too annoying? You have to learn this…”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Ugh, why do I have to do math to make video games.”

“I don’t know, but that’s how it is. I mean, just try to learn whatever you can. You don’t necessarily need to get a perfect score either.”

“Ah…”

“And well, it isn’t as if you couldn’t just begin making a video game without having to study either; anybody can make one with enough knowledge, I believe.”

“Hmm…”

Chris sighed as he continued doing the math exercises while looking as if his life had been drained out of him.

“What’s your dream game? What video game do you want to make to begin with?2

“Ah…”

Chris remained in silence for a bit.

“Don’t laugh, ok?”

“Uh? Why would I laugh?”

“Just don’t…”

“Ok…”

"Okay, so what I wanted to make, like my dream game… It would be like a mix of everything I love. I would sprinkle multiple routes, visual novel-level storytelling, farming simulation, fishing, pet raising, the JRPG system, skill trees, crafting, sandbox maybe, and an intricate storytelling, also maybe kingdom building and stuff… The story would be mostly around my novels… I do have a lot to get from, kind of like a massive multiverse!”

“Ah… Yeah that sounds a bit… too much.”

“You said you wouldn’t laugh!”

“I’m not laughing, I think it’s fine… It sounds appealing, but I think you’ll end up burning down if you want to add so many things as an independent developer.”

“Eeh… But that’s what I want to do! It’s my dream… I know it sounds cringe, but I want that.”

“Hah… Okay, I guess if you put your mind into it, maybe one day you’ll get it. Technology’s advancing pretty quickly; there’s new programs that can lessen the workload a lot too,” said Paul.

“Yeah!” Chris nodded. “I know, it’s not some impossible dream after all… It’s totally realistic and within reach!”

“Yes, and your first hurdle is… this math exam.”

“Geeh…”

Chris’ energy was drained out of him instantly as he slammed the table with his head.

Paul sighed, patting his head.

“Come on, let’s work hard, alright? If you can solve these problems… Um, I’ll buy you ice cream.”

“Really? Two flavors?”

“Sure.”

“With chocolate dip?”

“Yeah, why not.”

“Cookies on top?”

“Fine…”

“Three flavors!”

“Okay, but no more than that!”

Chris regained some of his energy as he started working hard.

Paul had remembered he read somewhere that without incentivizing children to do things by offering them a reward if they do something, they’ll never gain the drive to work.

Just simply telling them “it's for your future” will never really work, and this ends up creating adults that are often unmotivated through life and do things with little motivation too.

Therefore, incentivizing them through rewards every time they do something right is the way to go. Sometimes people believe that’ll only make children grow spoiled, but usually, that’s the complete opposite.

By giving the rewards before the children accomplish anything, they grow spoiled and believe they don’t really need to work hard to get anything in life.

Although Chris was definitely not a child, Paul tried applying this to him, and it worked…

Surprisingly well too!

“I-I think I’m done? Can you check?”

He quickly showed Paul what he had finished.

“Hmm…”

Paul glanced at the math problems; there were ten of them, which were very complex. Chris did his best, but…

“This one’s wrong… This one’s wrong too… This one’s… correct. Correct, wrong… correct…”

Chris' face was constantly changing from despair to happiness each time Paul said “Wrong” and “Correct.”

At the end, Chris managed to complete six out of ten correct, and the other four were all wrong.

“You surprised me; that’s pretty decent,” said Paul. “But if this were the exam, it wouldn’t be enough to give you a decent or at least a bare minimum fine grade. You’ll need to get seven or eight correct… I would say eight or nine would be ideal.”

“Damn, let me do them again! I want my full ice cream with three flavors!” said Chris, stealing the paper from Paul’s hands.

He quickly redid them again; this time he did two correct, the other two were wrong.

“I-I’ll try again!”

“Okay, calm down…”

Paul was shocked; it seemed that food was the way to make Chris work hard!

“Well done! You did it, Chris! Did you understand it better?”

“I-I think so… I’m mentally drained though; I need sugar.”

“Haha, alright, let’s go get your reward at the ice cream shop you want,” said Paul.

“I can choose?! Okay, let’s go to the Gelato King! They got the best flavors!” Chris happily said, grabbing Paul’s arm and dragging him away.

They walked through several streets; it was farther away than Paul imagined, yet Chris wasn’t getting tired at all despite walking so much.

He was still wondering how he could eat so much and remain like he did… He was in incredibly good shape, to the point he sometimes couldn’t get his eyes away from his hips or thighs.

“Here, here!” Chris pointed, licking his lips like a hungry little imp. “Buy me! Buy me my reward!”

“Okay, okay, calm down! You’re like a little rabid goblin,” laughed Paul.

At the end, Paul chose cookies and cream, chocolate brownie, and pistachio flavors, covered on chocolate, with extra cookie crumb on top, whipped cream, and several berries.

“Oooh! It’s looks yummy already!” Chris quickly went to sit down and started eating it happily.

“Would you share?” wondered Paul, as he had brought his little spoon to eat along. “It was pretty expensive… I don’t think I’ve ever paid fifteen bucks for ice cream before.”

“Hmm…” Chris immediately became defensive, glaring at him while squinting his eyes, protecting his ice cream.

“Please?” Paul wondered.

“Fine… Nom, nom,” Chris filled his cheeks with ice cream like a little hamster, enjoying the combination of flavors. “Hmmm! This ice cream’s shoooo tashty! Try it out already!”

“Okay, let’s see if this was worth the ridiculous price,” said Paul, taking a dollop of ice cream and trying the flavors. “Oh? The flavors are indeed very different than what I’ve tried in other ice cream shops… They feel much… fresher? Creamier, higher quality too. Ah, there’s brownie in this too? The cookies are still crunchy too.”

“Yeah! See? See?! Gelato King is the best in all of California!” Chris happily ate the ice cream with several spoonfuls; if Paul wanted to eat more, he had to hurry.

“Hey! Don’t eat it all; I want some of the banana split flavor as well!” said Paul.

“Heheheh, you better hurry! It’s going away already~!” giggled Chris.

After a couple of minutes, both ended up feeling quite full; it was much more ice cream than they imagined, and all the toppings made it even heavier.

“Ugh, I think I’m skipping dinner today,” sighed Paul, feeling like his stomach was about to burst.

“Heheh, that was nice.” Chris smiled. “Alright! Let’s go home now. I want to go take a shower. I’m all sweaty… Today’s so hot for some reason… Oof.”

“A-Ah yeah,” nodded Paul, as he noticed the sweat coming from Chris neck and thighs.

A part of him wanted to lick the sweat from Chris neck and thighs, but he suppressed that perverted thought.

As they walked and continued talking, Chris continued waving his blouse and shirt because it was so hot, letting Paul take a peek at his cute, pink nipples.

“Ooh, that’s hot…”

“Hm~? What are you looking at?”

Chris immediately noticed though.

“I-I wasn’t looking at anything…”

"Nah, you were looking; I saw you! Perv~”

Chris only teased him, only making Paul even more embarrassed and a bit aroused.

“Anyways, my Uber’s here already, so I’ll get going! See you in the game?” Chris wondered, kissing Paul on the lips.

“Ah! S-Sure,” Paul nodded, feeling embarrassed from the little kiss he was given. “See ya.”

“Byeee~!”

Chris quickly went back home, and Paul made his way back as well.

After taking a cold shower to calm down and wash away all the sweat, he decided to rest for a bit before logging back into the game.

“Hmm?”

And as he was about to do so, he was checking the internet, noticing that some new videos had been uploaded from Chris.

“These are the videos from… oh, yesterday’s raid- Wait what?!”

He was quickly shocked to find they already had one million views each, and they were uploaded like thirty minutes ago…

“This is dangerous… Just how popular have we become?”

As he worried about that, Chris sent him a message.

[Chris :3]: [Waiting for ya in the game! Come on, log-in already! We got a lot to do!]

[Image]

He had even sent a photo he had taken when they were eating ice cream together, which he had adorned with several emoticons and hearts.

Chris cute smile and his embarrassed face, with the delicious-looking ice cream over the table and the two enjoying it together…

It made Paul smile a lot, feeling even more in love than before.

[Paul]: [Oh so that’s the picture you took… You look very cute.]

[Chris :3]: [Heheh, I know ;3 U cute too]

Paul skipped a beat, as he quickly decided to just log in and then…

“Hey you’re back- Uwah!”

He grabbed Chris and started making out with him right away…

“Oh my! Is this the first thing you two do every day? Fufu!” Insecta giggled.

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