the rise of otaku

Chapter 14 See Off

An airship appeared in Zhou Yu’s yard, and with the medieval European-style sailboat structure, it was clearly a classic traditional airship any fantasy stories. But with merely two meters long in length, it looked a bit like a drone. A captain-like person was talking to the beaver, apparently, he had already been waiting for some time.

Seeing Zhou Yu, the captain flew over and said, “Hello, my name is Mike, I am the exclusive airship Captain for Beidou management company. My boss is interested in signing up Mr. Li Weinian. So I am here to pick him up.”

Zhou Yu didn’t know what Beidou was, but if a company was interested in signing up an idol with such bad stats, it meant that this company was not doing very well. But then again, the good company would probably not want little Niannian. Having hesitated for a long time, Zhou Yu still couldn’t decide. In the end, he just let little Niannian decided his own future path.

But what else could little Niannian say? After all, he was born to be an idol. There was no way that he would want to give up himself because of some bad stats.

So eventually he signed the contract. The captain gave little Niannian one day to say goodbye to other people. The ship would leave the next day.

Although Zhou Yu didn’t like boys, it was still the kid that he had spent a lot of effort to raise up. So he was a bit low-spirited, despite the contract fee was as high as 5000 Moe Coins.

Gathering all the villagers of the ACG world, Zhou Yu threw a farewell party. However, there was nothing good to drink or eat at the party. Even if he went to buy the roasted meat, the villagers of the ACG world could only see it, but would not be able to eat it.

On the next day, little Niannian got on the ship and left while only taking the first toy car that Zhou Yu made for him.

Then the camellia flower began wither.

Strangely, seeing the withered flower, the person who was the saddest was He Yuanyuan. She was not interested in any other pot plants, but whenever she came to visit Zhou Yu, she would spend some time to look at the Camellia flower.

She immediately urged Zhou Yu to look at it when she first noticed the withering flower.

Of course, Zhou Yu knew why it would wither, the farmer Tian Niang said that once the flower fairy left the flower, the flower would not live long. But this kind of Chunibyo answer would definitely make He Yuanyuan think that he wasn’t serious. So he could only say, “no one is able to help, it is dying of natural causes.”

It was true. However, He Yuanyuan didn’t believe him. Seeing Zhou Yu didn’t plan to do anything, she took the dying plant away angrily and planned to take care of it herself.

But in just two days, she came back with a sad face, while holding a completely dead Camellia in her hands. Just as Zhou Yu said, no matter how she tried to save it, even if she asked her grandpa, who was very good at all kinds of agricultural activities, he also couldn’t stop it from dying.

Because of this, He Yuanyuan was sad for several days.

Comparing to her, the heartless Zhou Shuyu didn’t care about the death of the Camellia at all. She often spent her time around the Taoist temple. Looking at the temple while murmuring something in her mouth. It even made Zhou Yu questioning what her problem was in his mind.

According to a smattering of the wood identification knowledge that she had learned online, Zhou Shuyu was certain that the main material of the Taoist temple was the Phoebe zhennan wood.

There was another type of wood, which also looked very expensive. It would not be a regular wood if it was used together with Phoebe zhennan wood.

After Zhou Shuyu’s post became widespread, a few old men couldn’t help but want to see it in person.

The materials of the temple could be clearly seen that it had been carefully selected. The design of the model also had a strong antique flavor. So it had a very high ornamental value. What was the most precious was the person who made it, this type of traditional wood craftsmanship was very hard to see nowadays.

After confirming the value of the temple, Zhou Shuyu slowly gave up the idea of doing business with Zhou Yu.

If it was just a good carpenter,  of course, they would want to sell the good stuff they made. But if it was a rich guy? Selling the stuff they made was a humiliation!

Roughly calculated the price of hiring a rich carpenter to make miniature buildings for her, Zhou Shuyu instantly had a cold shudder. Therefore her enthusiasm for working with Zhou Yu quickly decreased.

It was such a rare business opportunity, however, there was no way she was able to take it. She was overwhelmed with disappointment, and in the end, she was almost as gloomy as He Yuanyuan.

Two pretty girls were constantly sighing when they came to visit Zhou Yu, it made Zhou Yu’s house filled with gloomy atmosphere as if it was going to rain at any time.

The awkward atmosphere made Zhou Yu feel extremely uncomfortable. He felt like he had to do something.

One day in the afternoon, Zhou Yu took out all the toys that little Niannian left behind: one fairy tale style house, twenty-three toy cars, a full set of Chinese J-series jet fighters, a full set of Chinese tanks. Laying them out on the ground, it was like a tiny military equipment exhibition. It was extremely magnificent.

“Shuyu, could you help me to sell those toys, you can set the price yourself. They take too much space in my house.”

It was useless to leave those things at home, even if he might need to raise other idols in the future, he didn’t even know if he could still use those second hands toys. Besides, they were made from cheap wooden material, and it didn’t cost many coins to make them. So he didn’t mind to make a new one next time.

Cars, tanks, and jet fighters, they were the toys that liked by boys. Moreover, it could be clearly seen that those toys were just recently made.

‘He is truly a skilled otaku. The toys that were made by him are all very pretty. It is just that fairy tale house has a completely different style than the rest of the toys.’

Zhou Shuyu couldn’t help but think that Zhou Yu might like Barbie dolls. Having thought that she could help but have a cold shudder all of sudden. However, her attention was soon attracted by those “goods” again. In order to determine the value of the goods, it was necessary to inspect each one of them. And soon, the price of each toy quickly began to increase again and again.

All the toys had been handcrafted with meticulous attention to detail!

A toy car had a length of about 30 cm, but its doors could be opened, and the internal of the car was the same as the real car. It even had all kinds of micro-carved instruments. Details determine the success or the failure of a scale model, and those toy cars had clearly reached the peak of hand-made scale models. In fact, because they were handcrafted, their prices would be doubled.

Looking at the jet fighters and tanks again, they were also beautifully crafted to an incredible degree. To the military enthusiasts, those models clearly had great collection value. However, a full set of models was often hard to sell. Selling them individually would lose some values, but selling them in one big package would be very expensive. It would be great if there was a long term supply of each individual models.

Having thought of this, Zhou Shuyu looked at Zhou Yu, who was only focusing on doing something on the internet and did not seem to care about those things at all. She immediately knew that this kind of idea was not realistic. Maybe he would only sell the things that he was no longer interested. There was no way that he would want to do it as a business.

Anyway, it was better than nothing.

“Oh right, what kind of material did you use to make those scale models?”

Zhou Shuyu was scared that those toys would also be made of Phoebe zhennan wood. If that was the case, then the price would only scare many people away.

“Birch wood and some Madhuca pasquieri wood.”

Fortunately, although it was also a type of good wooden materials, it was not as precious as the previous one.

After confirming the material, Zhou Shuyu quickly brought over the camera and took the photos of each one of the models excitedly. Of course, the photo of full set models was also necessary. They were going to be the main product! It was truly a shame that she could only do it once. Who knows when would be the next time. Especially, after she went back to the university, this otaku probably would not even bother to go out to ship the product.

Chapter 14 See Off

An airship appeared in Zhou Yu’s yard, and with the medieval European-style sailboat structure, it was clearly a classic traditional airship any fantasy stories. But with merely two meters long in length, it looked a bit like a drone. A captain-like person was talking to the beaver, apparently, he had already been waiting for some time.

Seeing Zhou Yu, the captain flew over and said, “Hello, my name is Mike, I am the exclusive airship Captain for Beidou management company. My boss is interested in signing up Mr. Li Weinian. So I am here to pick him up.”

Zhou Yu didn’t know what Beidou was, but if a company was interested in signing up an idol with such bad stats, it meant that this company was not doing very well. But then again, the good company would probably not want little Niannian. Having hesitated for a long time, Zhou Yu still couldn’t decide. In the end, he just let little Niannian decided his own future path.

But what else could little Niannian say? After all, he was born to be an idol. There was no way that he would want to give up himself because of some bad stats.

So eventually he signed the contract. The captain gave little Niannian one day to say goodbye to other people. The ship would leave the next day.

Although Zhou Yu didn’t like boys, it was still the kid that he had spent a lot of effort to raise up. So he was a bit low-spirited, despite the contract fee was as high as 5000 Moe Coins.

Gathering all the villagers of the ACG world, Zhou Yu threw a farewell party. However, there was nothing good to drink or eat at the party. Even if he went to buy the roasted meat, the villagers of the ACG world could only see it, but would not be able to eat it.

On the next day, little Niannian got on the ship and left while only taking the first toy car that Zhou Yu made for him.

Then the camellia flower began wither.

Strangely, seeing the withered flower, the person who was the saddest was He Yuanyuan. She was not interested in any other pot plants, but whenever she came to visit Zhou Yu, she would spend some time to look at the Camellia flower.

She immediately urged Zhou Yu to look at it when she first noticed the withering flower.

Of course, Zhou Yu knew why it would wither, the farmer Tian Niang said that once the flower fairy left the flower, the flower would not live long. But this kind of Chunibyo answer would definitely make He Yuanyuan think that he wasn’t serious. So he could only say, “no one is able to help, it is dying of natural causes.”

It was true. However, He Yuanyuan didn’t believe him. Seeing Zhou Yu didn’t plan to do anything, she took the dying plant away angrily and planned to take care of it herself.

But in just two days, she came back with a sad face, while holding a completely dead Camellia in her hands. Just as Zhou Yu said, no matter how she tried to save it, even if she asked her grandpa, who was very good at all kinds of agricultural activities, he also couldn’t stop it from dying.

Because of this, He Yuanyuan was sad for several days.

Comparing to her, the heartless Zhou Shuyu didn’t care about the death of the Camellia at all. She often spent her time around the Taoist temple. Looking at the temple while murmuring something in her mouth. It even made Zhou Yu questioning what her problem was in his mind.

According to a smattering of the wood identification knowledge that she had learned online, Zhou Shuyu was certain that the main material of the Taoist temple was the Phoebe zhennan wood.

There was another type of wood, which also looked very expensive. It would not be a regular wood if it was used together with Phoebe zhennan wood.

After Zhou Shuyu’s post became widespread, a few old men couldn’t help but want to see it in person.

The materials of the temple could be clearly seen that it had been carefully selected. The design of the model also had a strong antique flavor. So it had a very high ornamental value. What was the most precious was the person who made it, this type of traditional wood craftsmanship was very hard to see nowadays.

After confirming the value of the temple, Zhou Shuyu slowly gave up the idea of doing business with Zhou Yu.

If it was just a good carpenter,  of course, they would want to sell the good stuff they made. But if it was a rich guy? Selling the stuff they made was a humiliation!

Roughly calculated the price of hiring a rich carpenter to make miniature buildings for her, Zhou Shuyu instantly had a cold shudder. Therefore her enthusiasm for working with Zhou Yu quickly decreased.

It was such a rare business opportunity, however, there was no way she was able to take it. She was overwhelmed with disappointment, and in the end, she was almost as gloomy as He Yuanyuan.

Two pretty girls were constantly sighing when they came to visit Zhou Yu, it made Zhou Yu’s house filled with gloomy atmosphere as if it was going to rain at any time.

The awkward atmosphere made Zhou Yu feel extremely uncomfortable. He felt like he had to do something.

One day in the afternoon, Zhou Yu took out all the toys that little Niannian left behind: one fairy tale style house, twenty-three toy cars, a full set of Chinese J-series jet fighters, a full set of Chinese tanks. Laying them out on the ground, it was like a tiny military equipment exhibition. It was extremely magnificent.

“Shuyu, could you help me to sell those toys, you can set the price yourself. They take too much space in my house.”

It was useless to leave those things at home, even if he might need to raise other idols in the future, he didn’t even know if he could still use those second hands toys. Besides, they were made from cheap wooden material, and it didn’t cost many coins to make them. So he didn’t mind to make a new one next time.

Cars, tanks, and jet fighters, they were the toys that liked by boys. Moreover, it could be clearly seen that those toys were just recently made.

‘He is truly a skilled otaku. The toys that were made by him are all very pretty. It is just that fairy tale house has a completely different style than the rest of the toys.’

Zhou Shuyu couldn’t help but think that Zhou Yu might like Barbie dolls. Having thought that she could help but have a cold shudder all of sudden. However, her attention was soon attracted by those “goods” again. In order to determine the value of the goods, it was necessary to inspect each one of them. And soon, the price of each toy quickly began to increase again and again.

All the toys had been handcrafted with meticulous attention to detail!

A toy car had a length of about 30 cm, but its doors could be opened, and the internal of the car was the same as the real car. It even had all kinds of micro-carved instruments. Details determine the success or the failure of a scale model, and those toy cars had clearly reached the peak of hand-made scale models. In fact, because they were handcrafted, their prices would be doubled.

Looking at the jet fighters and tanks again, they were also beautifully crafted to an incredible degree. To the military enthusiasts, those models clearly had great collection value. However, a full set of models was often hard to sell. Selling them individually would lose some values, but selling them in one big package would be very expensive. It would be great if there was a long term supply of each individual models.

Having thought of this, Zhou Shuyu looked at Zhou Yu, who was only focusing on doing something on the internet and did not seem to care about those things at all. She immediately knew that this kind of idea was not realistic. Maybe he would only sell the things that he was no longer interested. There was no way that he would want to do it as a business.

Anyway, it was better than nothing.

“Oh right, what kind of material did you use to make those scale models?”

Zhou Shuyu was scared that those toys would also be made of Phoebe zhennan wood. If that was the case, then the price would only scare many people away.

“Birch wood and some Madhuca pasquieri wood.”

Fortunately, although it was also a type of good wooden materials, it was not as precious as the previous one.

After confirming the material, Zhou Shuyu quickly brought over the camera and took the photos of each one of the models excitedly. Of course, the photo of full set models was also necessary. They were going to be the main product! It was truly a shame that she could only do it once. Who knows when would be the next time. Especially, after she went back to the university, this otaku probably would not even bother to go out to ship the product.