Book Restoration System: Savior Of The Forsaken Legends [BL]

Auri stepped out of the shop and into the cool night air teeming with the thick scent of wet pavement. The rain had stopped already, but the occasional rumble of thunder still echoed in the night sky. He shivered as the faint mist clung to his skin and regretted not bringing any jacket before coming to the shop.

From across the street, a lone car parked under a post gleamed from the streetlight's glow above. Its tinted window was lowered, and a thin veil of smoke flittered out as the young man sitting in the driver's seat puffed out the vapor from his electronic cigarette.

After checking both sides of the streets, Auri crossed the road with both hands tucked under his armpits. He avoided a puddle, rounded the front of the car, and then got into the passenger's seat with a relieved sigh.

"Took you long enough," Jim teased.

Auri rolled his eyes. "Well, you said you would wait."

"I guess I did."

"So, what do you want to discuss with me?"

Jim glanced at him sideways with a strange glint in his eyes. "It's about a new game I'm working on. But let's grab our coffee first, then I'll tell you more about it."

"For some reason, I'm getting a bad feeling about this," Auri said, rubbing the goosebumps on his forearms after putting on his seatbelt. Then he remembered their college days. "This better not be another yaoi game, you damn pervert."

The car started with Jim's guffaws reverberating just as loud as its revving engine. Auri flushed at the memory of countless sleepless nights debating on game mechanics, character designs, and story flow about a game that gave him too much sexual frustration, which eventually led to a night of intense awakening.

In short, getting involved with the man beside him was trouble.

Despite the trouble he could bring, however, Jim was a friend he could trust, and his strongest connection to the game industry. Just like what he told his mother, he knew someone who had already made millions by creating games, and he had helped in developing it too. It's just not the type of games he could brag about to his family.

'If my mom found out I helped a friend work on a 2D gay porn game, she would burn my computer for sure.'

After a ten-minute drive, Jim parked in a space in front of a medium-sized coffee shop. The rich scent of roasted coffee beans greeted them when they entered. While Jim ordered their coffee at the counter, Auri went to look for a suitable spot, which he found at the furthest corner beside the misty glass panel.

The usual daytime bustle was long gone and had been replaced by a soporific atmosphere. A slow lo-fi music drifted in the air, blending in with the hushed conversations and the occasional clink of ceramic cups. It was a perfect haven to run into after a long, tiring day of work.

A moment later, Jim came to their table with a tray of two piping cups of coffee and a plate of an Italian dessert. He took the cup for himself—a plain black coffee—and pushed the tray of caffe latte and tiramisu to him.

"So," Auri started, taking a sip of his beverage adorned with a heart-shaped art before he continued. "What's this game about?"

"An open-world adventure RPG," Jim answered. "But the MC is gay."

Auri almost spat out his coffee. "W-What? Are you crazy? Who would want to play an adventure game like that?"

"Uhh... gay people?"

Auri fought the urge to slap Jim with the plate of tiramisu. "Jim, if you tell me you are just joking right now, I'm going to forgive you for corrupting my mind back in college with that perverted game of yours."

Jim snorted. "Corrupted, my ass. You should be thanking me for helping you discover your heart's truest desire."

"You—!"

"Anyway." Jim ignored his death glare and drank his coffee. "As I was saying, I want to create an open-world adventure game with a gay MC and I'm dead serious about it. In fact, I already have someone willing to fund this project."

Auri rubbed his temples with both hands. "Jim, you know that an adventure game is already a massive and ambitious project, right? It's fine if you really want to, but why do you have to make the MC gay?"

"Why not?"

"Because it's not going to sell!"

Jim only looked at him dead in the eyes. "Says who?"

Auri tried his hardest not to reach out from across the table and pull Jim's hair. "Why are you being like this? You are not a novice game developer anymore. You should know that the majority of roleplaying gamers are straight-identifying males who want to see girls in revealing outfits and have a good jiggle physics."

"But I don't want that! Can't you see that I'm so tired of RPG games with more female than male characters? I want my game to have more male characters that are strong, handsome, and sexy, and the only jiggle physics you will see is the jiggle of their cake!"

"Then just go back to being a gay porn game developer, you perverted asshole!"

"Why are you yelling at me? Can't you see that you are going to benefit from this, too?"

"How am I going to—"

"Ahem!"

The two of them stopped arguing and looked at the shop manager in front of their table.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your... jiggle discussion." The manager cleared his throat. "But I'm afraid I would have to ask you both to leave. We are about to close."

"W-What? But aren't you open until twelve?" Jim glanced at his wristwatch. "It's only quarter to eleven."

"Ah... we're closing early today. As you can see, all of our customers already left because you two are being loud. So please get out."

What did he say? Getting involved with this asshole only brings trouble.

Auri found himself outside the empty parking lot with a paper cup in hand. He didn't get to finish half of his caffe latte. Heck, he didn't even get a single bite of his tiramisu. Now, he's standing outside, the pavement slick beneath his snickers, with nothing but a convenience store-bought coffee.

"This is your fault," Jim said.

Auri glared. "How is this my fault? You're the one who isn't thinking straight. You want to release a game that wouldn't even sell? Even if you have an investor to fund your project, how are you going to return their money if you don't make a profit?"

"At least I'm doing what I want. Unlike you."

Jim's words pierced through him like an invisible knife.

"You think it's impossible? So what? I'll do it anyway. I'll keep chasing after my dreams until I get what I want." Jim crumpled his paper cup and jeered at him. "What about you, Auri? Will you chase after your dreams? Or do you enjoy what you're doing now—patching up trash in your grandfather's shop that no one will read anymore?"

The lukewarm coffee splattered across the pavement, and the paper cup rolled uselessly on the ground. Somewhere beyond the street, the distant wail of the firetruck's siren stretched into the quiet night, but the sound barely registered as blood pulsed loudly in his ears.

Auri's fingers tightened around Jim's collar, his fist shaking in the air, his eyes seething with unrefined anger. "You're going too far, Jim. Say that again, I dare you."

The smug smile on Jim's face didn't waver. It taunted him further. "And what are you going to do about it?"

Auri took a step closer, unbothered by their height difference, and yanked Jim's collar down so their eyes were leveled. "You want to know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make you remember the pain I gave you when you tried to touch me once in my sleep. You remember that? You were crying about your unborn children that night."

Jim's mask of confidence cracked, but only for a little. He exhaled a laugh and raised both hands in surrender. "Okay, I'm sorry. I was out of line. I shouldn't have said that."

Auri could still feel rage searing in his veins, but he let go of Jim's collar and huffed his anger into the air. "If you want to do that game so bad then do it. Why should I care? It's got nothing to do with me."

"But I want you to care."

"Tch."

"Auri," Jim called, his voice a lot softer. His arrogance, gone. "You don't belong in that shop. You belong in this game." He held out his hand. "Work with me. Let's create a new game together, just like what we did before."

Auri stared at Jim's palm. Despite his vehement emotions still running wild, a spark stirred at the tips of his fingers, telling him to reach out and accept. But in one fleeting second, his grandfather's worn and tired hands flickered in his memory, and the spark died down immediately.

Jim grabbed his hand instead. "Auri, I need you."

"But Jim, I'm—"

Ring!

Before he could give Jim a definite answer, his phone rang.

Auri pulled his hand from Jim's grasp and answered the call. "Hello, Mom?"

"Where are you?"

"Um..." Auri cast a quick glance at Jim. "I'm at the convenience store."

"Aurelius—" His mother sucked in a deep breath, panic rising in her voice. "Your grandfather—the shop. There's a fire in the shop!"

Suddenly, Auri's entire world tilted.