Chapter 24  

Chapter 24   : Sponsor Game (7)

I’m getting goosebumps from just thinking about developing relationships with men . My body immediately shivered with this thought and I looked through each and every person that I’ve made contact with on the people list from ‘Sponsor Game’ .

Mr . Gunpei and Mr . Shigeru were maintaining the highest ranks among my relationships as expected .

‘Damn, they are all men…’

How many female game developers could there be? But still… I cleared my throat and browsed around the list when I stopped at President Yamauchi’s face . Unlike the others, there was a text bubble next to his face .

‘I feel like I’m reading a Kakaotalk message from 2015 . ’

I smirked and clicked on the text bubble next to President Yamauchi .

-Kang Junhyuk is a genius, but he’s an unpredictable bastard that I can’t see through . I can’t let him grow too much-

So that’s how it is… Was the text bubble commenting on a person’s thoughts towards me? Interesting . Regardless, he sent me off with a smiling face this morning, but he was hiding this thought in his mind . In the end, he’s a manipulative Japanese businessman…

I put the Game & Watch inside my backpack and heavily leaned my body onto the chair .

No matter how well I crawled and flew, I was just one of the many foreign workers to them… I was also harboring this line of thought in my mind, so I wasn’t that surprised after reading President Yamauchi’s comment . However, I can’t reveal my toenails yet . Let’s be patient for a little longer…

When did the Compact Disk that we know today get released? CDs had actually existed in the current year that I’m living in, 1986 . It was just that it wasn’t well known yet…

A gizmo and gadget street that was located in a place called Den Den Town, Osaka .

Mr . Gunpei and I visited a CD listening session in a record store, and we stared at the shining round disk under the spotlight .

“Ho~ So this is the item called the compact disk . The colour is very beautiful~”

The middle-aged Mr . Gunpei looked around the CDs with a child-like and youthful gaze . A compact disk… It was definitely compact compared to the LP (gramophone records), but compared to me who was used to SD cards and the USB, I could only sigh in response .

I had no real interest, but Mr . Gunpei dragged me into the store saying we had to interact with new technological developments, so eventually, I got led to be standing here .

“Ah, yes… It’s very interesting . ”

“You don’t have any reaction after seeing this miraculous product? Now now, a young person like you shouldn’t be devoid of emotions already . Humph Humph~ It looks like I have to give you an additional explanation . ”

Waaargh!!! The chatterbox Mr . Gunpei started a product explanation!!! I felt a calamity was coming and quickly tried to escape, but it was too late .

“The thing about this item called a CD is, it’s also know as an Optical Disk . The CD is a way to digitally record sounds in contrast to analog methods like a cassette tape or an LP . Thanks to this, a new standard has been developed for the radio so that you can listen to music without any background noise . Its lifespan is said to be 100 years… Isn’t it truly incredible?”

‘20 years from now, data will become saved electronically, let alone 100 years… But it’s a pretty long lifespan for a music CD…’

However, Mr . Gunpei hadn’t finished explaining yet . “Seeing these huge lines, I can realistically feel that Dragon Warrior is the nation’s RPG game . ”

“Haha, it’s still a distance from your The Legend of Karin, Mr . Shigeru…”

It came again!! This endless exchange of pleasantries!! I started my attack in fear that 10 more minutes would pass like this .

“What did you set as the number of the initial volume?”

“Yeah… The prequel sold about 1 . 5 million copies, so we stocked around 500,000 units initially . We will increase the production after watching the reaction for one week . We set the price of the game to 5,500 Yen . ”

The games that came out of 3rd party companies, that paid royalties to Mintendo, tended to have higher prices . Recently, due to President Yamauchi increasing the royalties, all of the other companies’ prices had gone up as a result, but Phoenix kept their prices the same…

“I thought Dragon Warrior would sell for at least 5,900 Yen, but I was surprised that Dragon Warrior’s price hadn’t gone up by much . Isn’t the increase in royalties, demanded by our president, being a burden?”

“In all honesty, we had discussions within our company to raise the price by a little, but we made this difficult decision to thank our players for supporting us . Dragon Warrior is targeted to children, so increasing the price would place a burden on the parents as well . ”

“Mmm… So that’s how it was . I’ll believe that was a good decision . ”

A moment later .

As the event opened with Dragon Warrior’s magnificent theme song, the people in the lines started to rush to the counter .

Immediately after the shutters were lifted, the swath of people made me recall a scene in a zombie flick from 2000 .

“Everyone, keep your order~!! Please stand in line at the four counters~!!”

After waiting, the people who finally got to purchase the game ran out of the event as if they wanted to play it as soon as possible .

‘I can understand that thought perfectly…’

I, who was behind a counter, picked up a Dragon Warrior cartridge and brightly smiled . Inside the cover illustration, that Mr . Toriyama drew, there was a simple manual, and inside the plastic package was the firmly placed black cartridge .

Kah~ There is definitely a nostalgic scent emanating from a package in this period . I joyously felt the weight as I spoke to Mr . Ouji:

“I’ll purchase one too . ”

“Ah, you want to buy a copy from us, Mr . Kang?”

“I’m also a fan of the game too . I have no time to actively play it, but I still want to keep it with me . ”

“This is~ Thank you very much~!!”

As I finished my purchase and was looking around at the event, I felt a strange gaze and turned my head around; there was one man who was staring inside at the event .

With a bone-skinny body and a unique mustache, the features of this man stood out from the crowd . The man stared intensely at the Dragon Warrior event and our gazes happened to meet before he started leaving the venue .

“Hmphhh…”

‘Mmn…?’

That man seems familiar… could he be!? The director of Final Frontier, Kawaguchi Hironobu!? I quickly hastened my footsteps to catch the man who was increasing his distance from the event .