[Fight.]

[Peace.]

[What’s written inside the paper?]

[What paper?]

Randell’s cursor pointed at the papers inside itself.

[That one.]

[It’s blank. How about you? What flavor of ice cream are you?]

“Strawberry,” Lia answered.

[What xe said.]

[How about the cone?]

Lia, my etler with brunette colour haired, ring roll style, had already grown bored to the point where xe would spend hirs time talking to the AIs.

I, on the other hand, was enjoying my time reading web novels. Common genres and tropes have evolved from what was popular back in the year 20XX. You can find some really good reads on TeaReads.

The great thing about this site is that they protect writer’s copyright by using blockchain technology. It’s similar to how some websites act as a catalog without actually hosting the story itself.

Authors own their own website and write on it.

I’m currently reading a web novel with your standard revenge plot. Add into the twist is the werewolf MC, vampire heroine and spirit heroine number two, set in a medieval world.

If you disregard the influence of 3 genders in this world, the style of web novels are fairly similar to the ones I’m used to.

I just find it a little odd how having one main lead and 2 heroines no longer counts as harem. So stories with the harem tag usually go out of hand with like um.. how many potential wives has this guy met already?

Stories aside, I came across a thing known as a story generator.

The story generator generates a base which would later be used by the writer where they would fill in the gaps in between. As it’s AI powered, the base is created from data collected from the top series online.

I get it, it’s nice having a tool to expedite writing, but can't they at least put in more effort into polishing the story? I gawked in despair, seeing how similar this genre of auto-generated stories were.

Nevertheless, there’s a market for this so it may just be me. I’m not into it.

When I did more digging into this story generator, out of plain curiosity, I discovered the abomination of all artists: illustration generator.

The AIs can generate 2D illustrations from scratch, turn 2D illustrations into 3D models, and even create concepts for environments by inputting a few images into the settings.

Initially I thought: wouldn’t the art industry die out at this rate?

Apparently not.

For asset creators and concept artists, this technology is an absolute game changer. It expedites their ability to churn out concepts. The fact that the base is automatically generated allows them the time to put more effort into the story-telling elements.

As for creators that produce something direct for the masses like manga, manhwa and webcomics? You have no idea how much the generator has changed the industry. Many story artists these days use the generators for absolutely everything. Creating environments, designs, and even the lighting touchups. Many professionals recommend learning to integrate the use of this new technology.

More research noted how many professionally written novels have illustrations made using the generator. Generating the IP is free, owning it requires you to pay an extremely small charge. You can’t cheat it because there's a blockchain in place to reinforce the copyright.

A small change does even begin to desire how much money and time the creators are able to save.

On the same note, because of the increase in efficiency, there’s less of a need for artists as more can be done for less.

No wonder my art isn’t selling. My skills don’t mean anything anymore in this world.

What now?

Creating a portfolio might be the last thing a company needs.

I need to produce something of value.

But what exactly?

“This is a bummer.”

Just like that, I’ve unconsciously moved out from the world of web novels into the realm of Shin’s worry-wart castle in the sky.

“Randell, has all the files been uploaded into Arthub?”

[Yes, it’s completed.]

A window popped up in front of me.

I’ve already gotten a few hundred likes and a dozen or so comments.

Using some of the money I received from Lucifer, I got myself the professional account for Arthub. I’m hoping I’ll be able to reach out to someone with this.

Honestly, do all artists do this? Post, and then wait for people to commission them? Isn’t that no different than depending on luck?

“Big bro, your teddy bear.”

“Uh-huh? So?”

“I can’t believe you just left it at home. I had to even help you bring it over.”

Teddy bears still exist in this world.

Why, though? It’s not the best teddy bear out there in the world, so why did young Avner want to buy this?

There are so many better toys out there, why this specifically? What makes a teddy bear sellable? What value does it provide? I only see it as junk.

I feel like if I could answer this question, I’ll be able to figure out what exactly is wrong with my current strategy.

“Come on,” the elf dangled the bear at the ear, waving it in front of me.

“Lia, I’ve already grown up.”

“It’s still your teddy bear. I still remember that you always salivate on it.. ew. Why I’m I even touching it.”

Xe threw the teddy bear at me. It slapped my face head on.

I threw it back at her twice the speed.

“Big bro!”

“It’s called retaliation.”

“Innis!”

[Bad Avner.]

“Thanks for the compliment.”

[Lia, your brother is much too kind for my circuits to handle.]

Is that supposed to be a compliment or ridicule?

Lia cackled out in a laugh.

“I’m going to the living room.”

“Then me too.”

“Why did you even follow me here?”

“Because I felt like it.”

I stood up and stretched my back. Shutting off my drawing tablet, I made my way out of the room. Lia had already gone ahead of me.

It’s been a little more than two week since we began staying at our father’s grandparents place. Our parents went to our mother’s mother’s side because she was diagnosed with cancer. What cancer specifically, I wasn’t too sure.

On that note, cancer therapy has evolved a lot over the past century. I get that it’s fictional, but reading the science behind it only made me wonder if such a thing could work in the real world.

Self Response Therapy where chemicals that trigger the inactive self-killing genes in cancer cells to reactivate, thus killing itself.

Or the advanced immunotherapy which uses the body’s own immune system to fight against cancer.

The newest treatment available on the market called the Monoclonal Cell Therapy which involves the injection of on-demand specific bioengineered white blood cells that target only the cancer cells.

That said, all of these will become obsolete once Cycline Inc. completes the development of medical nanomachines. This technology will open up a new frontier to medical science, revolutionizing medical treatment at its very core. Everything from surgery to genetic diseases such as thalassemia, the application is endless.

Which is why despite the catastrophe of the NtBM disease, many medical authorities are pushing to make this a reality.

In the living room, grandma and grandoa were acting as warship admirals. The two of them were discussing their next move.

“Avner, come here, come here.”

“Boy, what do you think? A pink ship or a yellow ship would look better?”

I hadn’t realized that the glass table that had been on the table was an interactive table. Having lived with my grandparents the past few days, I learnt that they spend their days cooperating in this galactic empire game.

It’s like a hyper-expansive version of galactic war games in Shin’s world where you get to build bases and come up with strategies to take over planets and even entire star systems.

Big brain grandparents. They own a base that is composed of 2 star systems and are actively defending, managing, and fighting against other players.

So this is what they spend their life on. I had thought that they were your typical grandparents who read news and spend the rest of the time enjoying a cup of coffee while talking to each other about the past.

“Why pink or yellow?”

“It’s bait. A psychological trick to make the enemy fleet target where we want them to aim. You can ask your grandoa where he learnt this trick. It doesn’t work all the time. But when it works, it really works. We need to make it as flashy as we can. And then put up our suicided squad around it.”

“You know how in mens toilet they sometimes have the picture of a fly in the middle of the urinals? Men would naturally aim for that when they pee. They don’t spray everywhere. Same concept here.”

I stared at them blanky.

Did they go into the men's bathroom just to find inspiration?

Following my long silence, they loosened a laugh.

Lia turned to me with an inquisitive gaze.

“Is that true?”

“You mean about the fly thing?”

“Yes.”

“It’s true.”

“Okay..”

I believe the guy who invented this won a Nobel Prize in economics.

“Which colour? How about you Lia? You want to create a dummy ship too?”

“Fix it with lots of fake lights and have it show a large hologram of DankFrog.”

“Yes, yes.”

…

Let’s just be glad they’re having fun. Grandparents of this era are really swag, honestly.