Chapter 101: “Run and Break”

Once the idea began to emerge like that, all sorts of settings started pouring out one after another. Kodayo wrote them all down on memo paper as fast as they came.

Whether they were feasible or impossible was a problem for later.

The next day, after organizing everything into a thick planning document, he stormed into the president’s office.

“What is it?”

The president frowned, displeased that Kodayo had entered without following procedure, and also irritated by the expression on the little Gnome’s face, which looked not just confident but arrogant. But that was only until he read the planning document.

“Ooh! This is amazing!”

Kokaton was a businessman, but his eye for games was genuine. The planning document was somewhat messy, but he instinctively felt that if the contents inside it were implemented, it would definitely become a game worthy of rivaling Metallic Jumper.

Thanks to that, Kodayo gathered up a large number of Joy Systems developers and threw himself into development with generous support.

The president and management team, unable to fully trust someone who normally had a lazy side, frequently kept watch over him. But this time, Kodayo truly devoted himself to development as if possessed.

And five months later, Joy Systems released Run and Break with a grand ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠title calling it Talados’s representative work, accompanied by a major advertising campaign.

Ras, who had gone to an electronics store to buy the game, saw the advertisement Talados had put up. The illustration was so flashy that it was impossible not to look at it.

“Doesn’t this look seriously cool?”

Ras asked while turning to Ella. Her eyes were already fixed on the poster as well. Unlike Meta Soft, which had been making rather cute characters lately, the art style had simple lines but felt somewhat realistic.

At first, Ras wondered if the protagonist was a Beastman because he had a wolf’s head and glowing red eyes, but seeing the grotesque claws extending from his hands, it did not seem to be the case.

“Mm. It’s really intense. Is this a werewolf?”

As Ella said, it seemed to be a werewolf. The background looked like a forest, and the werewolf had a rather gloomy atmosphere, so it fit quite well.

In this world, werewolves actually existed. However, they were not a race, but a kind of disease. It was not especially related to Beastmen, and any race could contract it.

It was known as a magical disease connected to demons, but in this world, it had almost died out in the modern age and was now practically no different from a legend.

The details were not very different from werewolves on Earth. They transformed into werewolves under the full moon, became violent, took damage from silver weapons, and possessed tremendous strength.

In any case, Ras found it interesting that they had put this much effort into the poster, and since he had come to buy the game anyway, he purchased it.

After that, he accompanied Ella on her shopping, wandered around here and there with her, and then returned home.

“I’ll make the food.”

“Mm.”

Perhaps because Ella was also a person of this world, her way of thinking felt somewhat different from that of people on Earth. She always tried to cook the food herself. Normally, after walking around for that long and returning home, one would want to rest, so seeing her head to the kitchen had felt rather awkward at first.

At first, Ras tried to help her, but that only made things awkward for her instead. Seeing her uncomfortable reaction, he eventually had no choice but to withdraw from the kitchen.

So these days, he only helped unpack the things they brought home, then stepped away and waited while doing something else.

Ras glanced toward the kitchen and connected the Talados to the TV. Ella did not seem to mind at all, but he still felt self-conscious about playing alone while she was working. Of course, it was only self-consciousness, not enough to stop him.

Ras opened the package he bought, inserted the cartridge, and turned on the power.

Oh…

At the beginning, there was an illustration and narration explaining the protagonist’s past and how he became a werewolf. It seemed they had not only put effort into the poster, because the quality was quite high. Perhaps they used every bit of the machine’s performance, because the colors and precision were impressive.

Even if the Hammer Computer had improved its graphics performance, it seemed it still could not help falling behind a console.

Soon after, the game began, and as written on the package cover, it was a side-scrolling action game. The character used simpler lines and brighter colors than the illustration, but it did not look strange.

Rather, it clearly showed the character’s traits. Ras immediately began pressing various buttons. First of all, the input feel, response speed, and character animations were excellent.

At this level, it definitely did not fall behind Metallic Jumper. Remembering the shabby games he tried when he first bought the Talados, Ras felt that this side had also developed a great deal.

“Huh?”

Then, when he pressed the directional button and one of the buttons, the character writhed before suddenly beginning to run like mad. Ras was briefly flustered, but he did not release the directional button.

However, despite that fierce momentum, when the character collided with an enemy that looked like a zombie in front of him, he was thrown backward.

Thinking something seemed strange, Ras picked up the manual. He soon learned that he needed to enter an additional key during the charge.

The charge began again, and this time, there was a log blocking the path ahead. So when he pressed the button with the right timing, the eyes of the character running like mad flashed, and he violently swung an arm tipped with long claws.

The moment the attack touched the log, it shattered into pieces, opening the path straight ahead.

“Ooh…”

It was a good effect. More than that, the feeling of speed was genuinely refreshing. If he compared it to a game from Earth, it felt slightly similar to Sonic.

(Translator’s Note: Sonic (소닉) — Japanese video game franchise created by Sega, first released in 1991. It is famous for high-speed side-scrolling platform gameplay centered on Sonic the Hedgehog.)

However, the reaction from the additional key was not just one type. There was a combo system. If he destroyed enemies or terrain consecutively without making mistakes, the claw-swinging motion became more intense, or rather, it shifted into different patterns. Once five stacks built up, the character went completely berserk and charged forward at tremendous speed.

He was so fast that he vanished ahead of the screen entirely. The camera followed him late and showed the screen reduced to ruins, along with the character gasping for breath.

It was a clever method.

No matter how good the console’s graphics performance was, it was not at a level where it could keep up with that kind of speed, so they covered it through presentation.

After that, Ras continued pressing the buttons with proper timing for a long time, clearing stages one after another. It felt incredibly refreshing. The boss of the first stage was a giant zombie that looked like several corpses clumped together, and the five-stack attack worked here as well.

However, the zombie’s attack power was also high, and especially when it struck with a heavy blow, even the protagonist’s charge was canceled. Because of that, instead of blindly charging in to attack, Ras had to dodge appropriately.

“Ras! Time to eat!”

“Mm…”

He had been so absorbed in the game that only when Ella called him did he come to his senses, as if he had just woken up. This was an even more impressive game than his first impression suggested.

Without realizing it, Ras picked up the package and checked the main director’s name.

Kodayo.

He did not know the man’s face, race, or age, but anyone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who could make a game like this was undoubtedly an impressive developer. Ras felt as though he had finally found a developer worth paying attention to after a long while.

Since it was a game even Ras admired, and since it had also received a large-scale advertising push, the market response was incredibly good.

“Ahaha! Look at this!”

Kokaton opened Gamers and thrust it toward the employees, bursting into genuine wild laughter.

“A masterpiece that threatens Metallic Jumper’s stronghold!”

There were many articles full of praise, but none satisfied Kokaton more than this one. After all, the project had originally begun with Metallic Jumper strongly in mind.

And it was not mere flattery.

The overwhelmingly positive response from gamers and the actual sales numbers proved it. Of course, since the game had been released less than a month ago, it still fell behind in total sales. But judging by the speed at which it was selling, it was expected to surpass Metallic Jumper.

That was not all. Because the reviews were so good, the game even influenced people who previously had no interest in consoles. Astonishingly, Talados sales increased. This was truly encouraging.

For consoles, raising market share was more important than anything else.

That was because hardware sales directly connected to software sales. Unlike computers, consoles existed solely for playing games. To avoid letting an expensive machine sit unused after buying it, people had no choice but to keep buying games.

And those software sales directly became Joy Systems’ profit.

“You did well. Truly. I’ll be counting on you from now on too.”

“Hahaha. Of course.”

Through this matter, Kodayo, who had been disliked, gained a very strong position. Even if he could not win people’s affection, now that he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had produced results that no one could ignore, they could no longer carelessly push him aside. Even Kokaton, the president himself, was no exception.

After playing Run and Break, Ras suddenly remembered the game companies he had invested in before. Of course, Meta Soft’s management team was still managing them, but he felt he needed to check on them.

More than anything, he was curious about the fighting game that he had expected the most from.

They had brought in truly impressive illustrations of female characters, so he was very curious how those would be implemented in-game.

It was not that Meta Soft could not make female characters, but somehow, up until now, it had not created any attractive characters who emphasized femininity. He had not noticed it before, but when he thought back, that was the case.

However, even if he wanted to check, he could not simply barge into someone else’s development room. It would be different if they were far past the deadline, but that was not the case.

“Ella. Connect me to Imiz Soft.”

“Okay. Just a moment.”

If this had been Korea, all his contacts would have been saved on his smartphone, and he would have called them himself. But since this world had nothing like that, contact management was also one of a secretary’s important duties.

The Imiz Soft development room.

Even though they had received investment and greatly expanded their staff, Imiz Soft had no room to breathe.

Everyone stared fixedly at their monitors without opening their mouths, completely occupied with their own work. No, in reality, they might have been cursing Zek.

“Hurry! The deadline isn’t far away!”

Zek was the type to run like mad once he became motivated, and he also applied that same standard to his employees. When only his partners Azem and Truban were around, he could not act like this, but after a large number of employees who were clearly his subordinates entered the company, one could say his true nature came out.

That did not mean Zek was a bad person.

Honestly, he was friendly toward the employees, paid them decently, and treated them like people even while they worked. By this world’s standards, that was enough to call him an extremely good president.

The problem was that the pressure he put on work was enough to offset all of that.

“Ah! Enough already! Can’t you see everyone’s typing away like they’re dying?!”

Azem finally exploded. Since Zek was still the president, Azem had tried not to show himself treating him carelessly in front of the other employees, but Zek was practically possessed by a slave plantation owner as he lashed them with words, so Azem could not endure it any longer.

“Yeah, you bastard! Why did you set the deadline like this?!”

Truban also shouted after him. Another bad point about Zek was that because he ran forward himself, he thought other people would do the same and set the schedule accordingly.

However, the reason it could not really be called a scheduling failure was that, by whipping everyone along if necessary, he somehow made them meet ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it. It was just that the employees forced to endure it felt like they were dying.

“We can do this!!”

Instead of shrinking back, Zek raised one hand high and shouted like that. He looked full of passion, but rather than being inspired, the other employees only let out exhausted sighs.

And yet, seeing how Zek and everyone else kept working without taking their eyes off their monitors, perhaps this too was Zek’s own kind of leadership.