Afterword

Hello, everyone. It’s me, Blitz/Kiva.

Paying to Win now has a whole six volumes! That makes seven books I’ve written in my life! In addition, HJ Bunko has printed over 600 volumes! Talk about time flying. That’s incredible! While I was marveling at my own incredibleness, my book series, Paying to Win in a VRMMO, reached its final chapter. The web version’s story is also almost wrapped up, so you could say it’s pretty much all settled.

This arc... I really think it has the ring of realism to it. I was able to finish it up thanks to everyone’s support. Thank you very much.

It’s the last volume, so I asked for a lot of selfish things, especially regarding the page count. There was so much that I said I couldn’t cut out! So, we didn’t have much of a choice.

Paying to Win is finished, but in the web version, there’s a sequel called Paying to Win in a VRMMO: Sub-Account, a story about an Iris who’s now in college called Irish Sniper, and a short story collection about Sakurako-san as a curry reporter called Curry Lover Sakurako-san. So, if you’re curious, go check them out.

Also, at the point I’m writing this afterword, I don’t know when it’ll be, but I might write a story about the detective past of the young heir, the lawyer Shaga who appeared in the last volume, and the newspaper reporter Somei whom we saw a glimpse of. I think the title will be Tokyo Surf City Blues. That’s only tentative, though; if I think of something better, I might change it!

Now, let’s talk about my new work! I’ve decided to publish another of my Shosetsuka ni Naro novels with Hobby Japan. This one won’t be published with HJ Bunko, but with HJ Novels instead. So, let’s have a commercial. Take it away!

Don! Don. Yes. This is amazing! I’ve been transported away with my class!

Put simply, an entire high school class is sent to another world, and they’ve all become monsters! There are a lot of characters in this one. Put simply, about 40 of them! And they’re all monsters!

Tasuku, who does a lot of illustrations for TRPGs, will be handling the illustrations! He’s great at doing monstrous-looking things. I’ve managed to cajole him into drawing about a third of the class, around ten characters, and they’re all uniquely cute and cool monsters. I hope you enjoy it!

Oh, about Katsuo who did the cover fold-in comment? Um, well... There will be a Katsuo in this story, too. More precisely, katsuobushi (skipjack tuna flakes). Yes. I’m looking forward to it, too. He’ll make great soup.

There are a lot of crazy transformations, like the protagonist being a skeleton and the main girl being a slime, the quiet library representative girl becoming a sexy-looking succubus, the loud-mouthed gossip girl becoming a harpy, and the handsome jock becoming a dragonewt. Anyway, if you like monsters, please read it! And even if you don’t like monsters, please also read it. You won’t regret it! The class resurrection story will probably come back in fall or winter of this year!

Now, let’s get back to the money story... though calling it “the money story” sounds a little vulgar, I guess. I’m going to be spoiling a few things from this volume here.

Let’s talk about the title page. If you’ve finished reading to the end, you’ll understand what the title page means. It’s like they’ve graduated from the young heir and had a protagonist swap.

Iris has been a popular character ever since the web version, so I was a little uncertain about waiting until the second volume to introduce her. At first she was just your typical stubborn heroine, but the way she gradually powers up... I didn’t really anticipate it, but it was really fun to write. As a result, she’s a leading lady in the sense of being a female hero more than in the sense of being a love interest to the protagonist or a story MacGuffin. She’s the protagonist, you know?

So she had to be the one to deal the final blow against the final boss. And she did it with the power of money. Iris, more than anyone, dominated (physically) with the power of money.

Well, it would take too long to talk about all the characters, so I’d better move on! Acknowledgments!

This is the final issue of Paying to Win.

To Mr. K who has looked after me since I joined up, and everyone at HJ Bunko editorial, thank you very much. To Rein Kirishima, who did wonderful illustrations for all six-plus-one volumes, thank you very much. I still remember dancing from happiness when I saw the volume one illustrations.

To everyone who’s been supporting Paying to Win since the web novel days, to everyone who’s still loving my work in web novel form, thank you very much. I owe all of this to you.

To Kasuga, Natsuya Semikawa, Teren Mikami, Yu Rando, and Tappei Nagatsuki, who did the foldout author illustrations, thank you very much. I think they all looked like me.

And now for the obligatory “AND YOU”...

To everyone who picked up this book and read the afterword, thank you. I hope we meet again! Later!