May 27th. The rainy season was days away. The air grew humid.
Planning ahead, Aoki carried an umbrella in the morning. It never rained.
In fact, ever since buying it, it seemed to ward off rain: if he had it, the clouds held; if he didn't, cloudbursts came out of nowhere.
Irritated, umbrella in hand, he rode home after school. It was 3:20—still time before his convenience store shift.
He let himself into his 1R, dropped his bag—then remembered his neglected video, opened YouTube, and headed to the creator dashboard.
With only a single upload on the channel, the number was unmissable.
"Original Song — 'Lemon' (Acoustic)"
Views: 2.4 million.
He rubbed his eyes. Then jolted. He'd thought three hundred thousand in a day was his ceiling without promotion and with a low-fi phone recording. He hadn't imagined it would explode to this in just a few days.
It had to be trending on some YouTube chart.
And the revenue…
Sure enough—views and ad money went hand in hand. At the bottom of the dashboard: 200,000 yen available to withdraw.
Two hundred thousand.
His monthly wages were around 180,000 combined. A ten-minute recording had earned as much as a month of work.
Work ate time. Recording a song took minutes. The better path was obvious. Still, he thought carefully.
Even before posting, he'd plotted a way to make money from music without relying on the "dating sim." He didn't know if the system would vanish one day—or stop handing out points. He also couldn't assume listeners would keep paying attention without new originals.
Dumping a bunch of premium songs redeemed for points could make fast cash—short term. Not sustainable.
His original plan: use the first video to get a foot in the door; the second to go viral; build a "genius songwriter" persona; then sell scores and lyrics at a premium to secure living money.
Ethical? Questionable. Effective? Probably.
But reality had outpaced the plan. In under a week, "Lemon" had cleared a million and was now at 2.4. His inbox overflowed with messages—most fawning over his guitar, songwriting, and lyrics.
And yet, aside from a few small-name VTubers and indie streamers trying to commission music, no industry olive branches had arrived.
Big picture: the views were great; the name recognition wasn't there—yet.
He sighed, hit withdraw on the 200,000, and, wary of diving headlong into content grind, backed out to the homepage.
A thumbnail caught his eye: "Be original / Rock Band Project."
Because he'd been watching music content, the algorithm had served him a video from PVC Music, the country's biggest label.
In short: PVC was launching an original-song competition for bands. Requirements: at least three members; a fully original song composed after the project began; submit by emailing PVC's official address.
The prize pool was hefty—even ignoring the cash, the platform alone…
If he entered—and placed—his whole plan would accelerate.
But there were snags.
First: he didn't have a band. Fixable—he knew Kessoku. They'd even invited him, and while their skill wasn't world-class, they met the criteria.
Second: money and time. Even counting his system cash and the "Lemon" payout, he had only about 300,000 yen liquid. To be competitive, he'd need to practice and rehearse with Kessoku a lot—probably a solid month. That meant giving up part-time hours—or some study time.
He took a long breath.
Trade a month of income for a shot at a win…
He didn't decide on the spot. The project had just started. He bookmarked the video, pocketed his phone, and looked at the time.
Almost four. He'd be late for work.
He headed out without the umbrella.
On the train, he watched raindrops begin to pepper the window.
-------
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