While Fire Punch was originally a black-and-white manga in Aoyama's memory, he'd decided to release it as a full-color "Gift to the Fans" in this world.
The problem was coloring. He could guess the colors based on the covers and descriptions, but deciding on the perfect cinematic palette for every single panel was a massive drain on his time.
He had a lot on his plate. The Edgerunners signing tour, the animation supervision for the show, and the ongoing development of Cyberpunk 2077 at LightSpeed.
He needed to speed up. Fire Punch was 83 chapters long. I want to finish the whole thing, both drawn and colored, within the next six months as a surprise drop.
"System, help me out."
"Coloring-related abilities detected: [Color Hand (Silver)], [Color Codex (Gold)], [Celestial Brush (Platinum)], [Prismatic Flash (Platinum)], [Future Tints (Diamond)]. Please specify your requirements."
"I don't need 'powerful,'" Aoyama said, thinking. "I need 'perfect.' I want the coloring that Fire Punch would have had if it were a high-budget animated film from my previous world."
"Host requires 'Optimal Probability' from a potential future. Searching... Related abilities found:
- [Oracle's Dream (Master)]: 3M points. Every night, receive the "optimal solution" to your current problem in a dream. 30% recall rate.
- [Araya-Vijnana (Mystery)]: 88.88M points. Complete insight into the nature of reality.
- [World Digital Library (Mystery)]: 90M points. Access any answer from the collective knowledge of this world.
- [Parallel Projection (Mystery)]: 300 million points. Acquire any knowledge from a selected parallel universe. (Usage note: Could be used to find the universe where Fire Punch was a color manga).
- [Laplace's Demon (Mystery)]: 5 billion points. Absolute knowledge of every atom's position and momentum. Past and future become a single book.
- [Omniscient God (Mystery)]: 99.9 billion points. Total knowledge of 999 universes across all time.
Aoyama's eye twitched as he scrolled through the descriptions.
"Are you kidding me, System? I just want to color some fire! I'm not trying to become the God of the Multiverse!"
The cheapest one, Oracle's Dream, was 3 million points. He had 80,000.
"I'm broke! Just give me something I can afford that won't make me spend six hours on a single sunset!"
"In that case, the System recommends [Prismatic Flash (Platinum)]. It allows the Host to instantly visualize the optimal color composition for any scene during the creation process."
"Okay... why didn't you lead with that instead of the 5-billion-point demon?"
"System follows the command hierarchy provided by the Host," the AI replied, sounding like a digital smartass.
"Fine. I'll take the Platinum one."
"Item unavailable."
"WHAT? Why? I have 80,000 points!"
"The System Store has not yet refreshed for [Prismatic Flash (Platinum)]. Please wait for a refresh, or use the Gacha, Fusion, or Enhancement systems."
Aoyama stared at the interface. He was now 100% convinced the System was an 'Artificial Idiot.' It followed the letter of his requests while completely ignoring the spirit.
"Fine. Gacha it is. And you owe me one, you pile of code! Give me the coloring skill!"
He spent 6,000 points on a ten-pull. On the thirteenth pull, the Platinum spark appeared: [Prismatic Flash].
another skill he'd been eyeing, [Universal Shorthand], appeared in the store in a 50%-off daily deal.
Total cost: 36,000 points.
"Perfect!"
Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Aoyama..."
It was Akane's voice.
"Akane? Doesn't she have class today?"
Aoyama looked at Pochita, who let out a curious 'Wan.' He got up to answer the door.
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[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]