Rendered in Code and Color

Chapter 1: Worlds Apart

As murmurs and whispers spread through the crowd, a flock of students swarmed around Miyuki, their faces lighting up with excitement and curiosity. With a charming smile, she greeted them, trying her best to accommodate their attention without feeling too overwhelmed.

In the sea of faces, Miyuki's eyes landed on a familiar figure drifting against the flow, earphones plugged in and seemingly unfazed by the spectacle at the entrance. It was him. Tanaka Kazuki, the boy she knew from high school. The boy she had noticed from afar, but never managed to approach due to her constant entourage. To see him here, at the same college as hers, was unexpected.

A flicker of surprise crossed her face as she watched Kazuki slip away into the crowd, his presence fading as swiftly as it was noticed. As much as she yearned to call out to him, she was held back by the throng of students, their incessant chatter and inquiries filling the air.

Meanwhile, Kazuki, his music blaring, was blissfully unaware of the surprise unfolding behind him. As the students congregated around Miyuki, he managed to navigate through the campus gates with ease.

Their worlds, while so close, remained distinct - one graced with a celebrity-like attention, the other blending seamlessly with the background. Their paths, despite their previous lack of intersection, were now sharing a common ground. Little did they know how significant this new day, their first day at college, would be in shaping their intertwined journey.

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The morning classes were fairly unimportant today. Being the first day it was really just an introduction that laid out what the students could expect from the class and what the professor expected from the students. Kazuki kept his earphones in place, nodding to the rhythm of his music while jotting down key points in his notebook as he simultaneously played an RPG on his laptop. It's not that he was unattentive or disinterested in the class- it's just that there wasn't currently much new knowledge being fed to him.

During a morning break, he found himself in the college's bustling cafeteria. Having not eaten breakfast yet, he was about to settle down in an unoccupied corner with his laptop and a sandwich when a lively voice caught him by surprise.

"Hey, you're in the computer science class, right? I recognize you!"

Turning around, he was met with the eager faces of two fellow freshmen. The first, a girl with short, vibrant red hair, wore a wide grin that seemed almost contagious. The other, a tall guy with an unruly mop of dark hair and glasses, appeared more reserved but equally friendly.

"Uh... yeah, I am," Kazuki responded, removing his earphones. He was curious, despite his typically reserved nature.

"I knew it!" the girl exclaimed, her grin widening. "I'm Ayaka, and this is Hiroshi. We share a couple of classes with you. Mind if we join you?"

Kazuki blinked, taken aback by their forwardness, but then he nodded. "Sure, go ahead."

Without waiting for a reply, the lively duo quickly occupied the seats across from Kazuki and immediately launched into a spirited conversation about the latest trends in game development and animation.

"Did you hear about the new RPG that just came out?" Ayaka asked, her hands moving animatedly as she described the game's unique mechanics. "It's unreal! It takes active combat to a whole new level! I mean, you can't just pop off a skill whenever you want. You have to time it right or you leave yourself open for a counter attack which deals extra damage AND cancels your attack. It's brutal, but when you get a hang of it you feel unstoppable!"

Hiroshi, though more subdued, wasn't any less enthusiastic. His eyes shone with an unmistakable spark when he discussed coding and its implications in the gaming industry. "The potential is just mind-blowing," he remarked in an awestruck tone. "With a string of commands, you can create worlds, dictate narratives, shape experiences... When it's all done, you give people the chance to see, no, experience the world you crafted. It's just amazing."