"Why?!"

"Does chasing dreams necessarily require money?"

Tomoya's emotional intelligence wasn't low, so he naturally understood what Michiru wanted to express.

But he really had no money, so he could only play dumb and use the "dream" excuse to stall.

"Sorry! Not this time..."

Michiru shook her head and said frankly, "For your dream, I can help you for free. But I can't let the other members of the band be your free labor."

"Why not?"

"You're Icy Tail's main force!"

"As long as you agree, how could they disagree?" Tomoya immediately became anxious.

Since Sobu High School only supported one club of the same type, the school's budget allocation all went to Tenya's club.

He could only rely on skipping classes to work part-time, selling his treasured figurines and manga, and borrowing money through online loans to barely manage to raise the funds for game development.

However, within this limited budget, he hadn't set aside any funds for music production.

"No means no."

"We've received other music outsourcing jobs."

Michiru took out her phone and showed the chat interface with Tenya.

Talking about money right away, the sincerity could be said to be overflowing.

"Damn it!"

"Tenya..."

"Why is it you again?"

"How much more do you want to snatch away from me?!!"

As soon as Tomoya saw the profile picture, he immediately got heated.

He was so angry he slappef Michiru's phone to the ground.

"Ouch, what are you doing!"

"This is my new iPhone 15 Pro!"

Michiru's phone fell to the ground. Luckily, it had a case, but the edge was still scratched, and she immediately felt heartache.

"Michiru, you can't agree to him!"

"This guy is very dangerous!!"

Tomoya was emotionally agitated.

"Tomoya!"

"If you keep being so unreasonable, I'll really get angry."

Seeing that Michiru was really angry, Tomoya quickly knelt down again and begged for mercy, "I'm sorry, Michiru. I got carried away just now..."

Changing the subject, he immediately added fuel to the fire and smeared Tenya, "You don't know, Tenya is a student at our Sobu High School. He has a terrible reputation at school, it's rumored he's a player who's toyed with countless girls."

"Michiru, I'm worried you'll be tricked."

"After all... you're a school idol-level beautiful girl!!!"

Tomoya said.

"Hehe! So that's how Tomoya sees me?"

Michiru's eyes lit up, thinking her dense cousin had finally gotten enlightened.

"I'm just stating the facts."

Tomoya pushed up his glasses, which glinted with an inexplicable white light.

Being a meticulous person, he had actually noticed long ago that his cousin had feelings for him.

It was just that as a heavy otaku, he had no interest in the 3D world.

The reason he hadn't explicitly rejected Michiru was just to trick her into working for him for free.

"That's not the point!"

"In short..."

"You have to listen to me on this, reject that scumbag."

Tomoya's attitude was strong.

"Yes, yes~"

"Since Tomoya values me so much, I'll listen to you~"

Michiru smiled brightly, thinking she had understood the other person's feelings.

"I still have things to do..."

"I'm going to work part-time now!"

Tomoya didn't dare to respond directly and just got up and ran away.

"Really... I wanted to go on a date with you."

Michiru puffed up her cheeks and glared at his retreating back.

Then she took out her phone, ready to reject Tenya's music outsourcing job.

However, what she didn't expect was that the other three members of Icy Tail had unanimously agreed to Tenya's music outsourcing job.

"What?!"

"Wait, how did you agree without permission?!"

Michiru immediately opened the group chat.

"Huh?"

"Didn't Michiru contact that client first?" A member replied.

"That's true, but I only said I'd consider it." Michiru was speechless.

At that time, she was indeed the first one to contact Tenya and then told the three band members about the music outsourcing job.

"What's there to consider?"

"The other party is so sincere!"

"Yeah, yeah! If I earn this money, I can buy a new guitar."

The three members of the band all agreed unanimously.

"You guys agreed too quickly..."

Michiru was greatly surprised.

However, what she didn't know was that the three band members were actually hidden otaku girls, and as soon as they heard the outsourcing was for game music, they wanted to agree immediately.

"Michiru, if I remember correctly."

"Your family is against you playing music, right?"

"Chasing dreams requires financial support."

The trio's persuasion hit exactly on Michiru's pain point.

Putting aside everything else, just buying instruments and recording equipment is a considerable expense.

Without her family's support, she could only rely on herself.

"But I heard that client isn't a good person..." Michiru still had doubts.

"Is that so..."

"Then why don't we arrange to meet the client first and talk?"

The three of them weren't afraid of being exploited.

What they valued most was the outsourcing fee provided by Tenya.

Plus, designing music for a game matched their personal interests and hobbies.

Three against one.

With the conversation at this point, Michiru couldn't forcefully reject it either. She could only agree to meet first and then talk.

...

"The other party agreed."

"Tonight, offline meeting."

Tenya looked at the message on his phone.

"Tonight?"

"I still have to rush the drafts."

Eriri frowned.

The game artwork was of utmost importance. She was working on it every day and still couldn't keep up.

"I can't either."

"Tonight, my parents are back from their business trip, and we're having a family dinner."

Utaha also said she didn't have time.

"Then I'll go talk myself." Tenya said it didn't matter.

Rather, it was better if he went alone.

"Tenya-kun, you'd better remember you're going to discuss cooperation."

"Don't end up getting a room while you're chatting."

Utaha said meaningfully.

"Hey! Look at what you're saying, am I that kind of person?" Tenya waved his hand.

"You are!"

"You're practically a protagonist from a hentai!"

Evening.

The location for the offline meeting was a restaurant.

"So handsome!"

Michiru and her group had a good first impression upon seeing Tenya.

"I am Tenya from the Sobu High School Game Development Club."

Tenya introduced himself, his gaze sweeping over the four girls in front of him.