Chapter 340: Mash F to Enter the Tank
I'm Rolling In It: "What's this 'mash F to enter the tank' meme about? Feels like Uncle Tony's been way too buried in research lately — starting to fall out of touch with what's trendy. No good, gotta balance work and play from now on, or I'll turn into some crusty old man who can't even keep up with memes."
I'm Rolling In It: "Scientific research's important and all, sure, but staying culturally relevant is clearly even more important!"
My True Form Is Cola: "Are you really that absorbed in research, Mr. Stark? Feels more like you're absorbed in chasing girls — models, celebrities, that kind of thing — living the extravagant billionaire lifestyle every day."
Kaguya-sama: "Truth bomb. Mr. Stark's a famous playboy from way back, after all — the models and celebrities he's been involved with must number fifty, easy."
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: "Fifty and counting — now that's genuinely impressive! This sovereign has been buried in state affairs of every kind lately. Can't even be bothered to think about that sort of thing these days."
I'm Rolling In It: "Pfft... what do you all take me for, some kind of walking siege engine, a real-life Casanova? Fifty's a bit much, don't you think?"
RawrSoFierce: "Aren't you, though? You're probably the single most fickle-hearted person in this whole group."
I'm Rolling In It: "Ptooey! Uncle Tony's turned over a new leaf, I'll have you know — haven't so much as touched a single girl in half a year. Genuinely absorbed in research these days. Don't believe me? Go ask Wolffy!"
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: "Mr. Stark's been quite well-behaved back at Wolf Castle, sure, though that might just be because there aren't any human women in Pleasant Goat's world — makes it a lot easier to keep his beastly urges in check."
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: "He's already gone back to his own world by now, though. What Mr. Stark actually gets up to over there, this king wouldn't know."
I'm Rolling In It: "Hey, hey, hey — you didn't say it outright, Wolffy, but that's clearly you saying you don't believe me!"
I'm Rolling In It: "Poor Uncle Tony, telling the truth and not a single soul believes him. Even the Admin doesn't believe Uncle Tony. So tragic. sniffle sniffle..."
RawrSoFierce: "Yikes! Zip it, you old crook! I can't even imagine the psychic damage those sniffling noises coming out of Stark's mouth are causing people."
Street-Corner Illustrator: "That sniffling noise from Mr. Stark just gave me full-body goosebumps."
My True Form Is Cola: "If it were Little Hinata or Little Sakura making that noise, it'd probably come off cute. But Mr. Stark... that's just downright eye-searing."
Miyaa Miyaa Miyaa: "Eh? Did someone just mention me in the chat?"
My True Form Is Cola: "SHOCKING! Hoshino Hinata, our eternal lurker who's stayed silent since the day she joined, has actually surfaced! Hugs for cute Little Hinata, mwah!"
Street-Corner Illustrator: "Speaking of eternal lurkers, Maidang would like to object — that one out-lurks even Hoshino Hinata and Sakura."
Eternally Seventeen: "Dragon Tohru and Dog Thor would like a word too."
Kaguya-sama: "Wow, looking at it that way, the regular lurkers actually make up a full fifth of the whole group!"
Eternally Seventeen: "Well, not everyone's into spamming the chat, and plenty of people have real-world things eating up their time too."
Edward Newgate: "Gurararara! The ones who chat all day are the ones with nothing better to do — old Whitebeard included, gurararara!"
"..."
And it was true — the handful of members who chattered away in the group constantly were, without exception, a bunch of people with far too much idle time on their hands, doing essentially nothing all day.
Aside from the occasional round through the Arena, the rest of their time was split between basic life necessities and chatting away in the group.
Take Yukari, the youkai sage — she had free time to spare like nobody's business, what with two helpers back home handling most everything, right down to the housework, none of which she ever had to lift a finger for.
Which left her with nothing but idle time on her hands all day — less a "sage" and more a professional "layabout," really, one character swapped and suddenly it fit her a whole lot better.
Ryū counted himself among the idle-with-nothing-better-to-do crowd too. He had no real ambitions in Konoha whatsoever — no interest in building a peaceful shinobi world, no interest in conquering it, and even less interest in becoming Hokage.
With no real-world challenge giving him a reason or a goal to strive toward, he'd more or less been forced into a state of zen-mode idleness.
So when he had nothing else going on, his usual ways of passing the time boiled down to the Arena, watching anime, watching movies, gaming, TV shows, and chatting in the group.
Speaking of which, Ryū had already burned through every anime Kaguya had sent him that caught his interest — next time he had a moment, he'd have her send over more. New releases, old classics, he'd take it all.
Edward Newgate: "Us old-timers don't have much to fill our days with, ordinarily. Take old Whitebeard here — outside of training my bunch of fool sons, killing time in the chat group's about all there is."
Edward Newgate: "Anime's never been my thing, mind you — but novels? Those I'm actually pretty into. Shame every last one of those hack authors writes slower than the last, and on top of that, weekly updates? Weekly?!"
Kaguya-sama: "Pfft... Whitebeard-ojii-sama, if you want, any of us from the modern-day worlds could send you some, you know."
Kaguya-sama: "Time-tested classics, Japanese light novels, Chinese web novels — whatever you can think of, we can track it down."
Street-Corner Illustrator: "Here I was hoping to pitch Whitebeard-ojii-sama my manga, and turns out he's just not into anime at all. Waaah, guess us mangaka don't even deserve a name."
My True Form Is Cola: "@Street-Corner Illustrator, your manga's borderline enough that only diehard otaku would even be into it, I'd bet."
Street-Corner Illustrator: "Ptooey, what do you mean 'borderline'? My storylines are extremely proper, thank you very much!"
My True Form Is Cola: "Bullshit. You sent me a whole chapter last time — 'proper' my foot, you're constantly swerving into the gutter."
My True Form Is Cola: "Lucky for you you're drawing manga in Japan — anywhere else and you'd have gotten a fabulous 404'd right off the internet."
RawrSoFierce: "I'd sooner believe Yukari picks up some shred of decency one of these days than believe a certain H-manga artist ever draws anything without swerving into the gutter."
Street-Corner Illustrator: "Ahem! Ahaha, it's an illusion. All just an illusion."
"..."
☆☆☆
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