Chapter 123: Territory-Capturing Game

Even so, he still felt slightly uneasy about entrusting them with development that was too difficult. So he thought about what had been easy, fun, and popular.

One game immediately came to mind.

It was Gals Panic, also known by the names each arcade or player used, such as territory-capturing game or strip game.

(Translator’s Note: Gals Panic — Japanese arcade puzzle game released by Kaneko in 1990. The player claims territory on the screen to reveal an illustration underneath.)

It would be easy to explain if one knew the territory-capturing game played before the computer generation, where children drew on the ground with a small stone. To explain it simply, a player started from a small area that belonged to them, flicked a stone three times, and if the stone returned to their own area, the space connected by the three lines drawn became their territory.

Of course, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if they failed, the turn passed to someone else. It could be seen as a kind of turn-based game.

However, this game was not completely the same as that one. Instead of flicking three times, the player simply moved with a lever and could move freely as many times as they wanted. But enemies, or monsters, existed inside the game, and if the player came out of their territory and touched one of them, or got hit by an attack like a bullet, they died immediately.

The rules were very simple, but the difficulty was unexpectedly high, making it quite a fun game.

However, aside from its gameplay, this game also had strong topicality. That was because it was an erotic game. Each time the player expanded their territory, an illustration of a scantily dressed woman gradually appeared, and once a certain percentage of the area was cleared, a bonus illustration was shown.

In truth, by today’s standards, it was nothing special, but at the time, it was regulated as an obscene game, and some versions were released with clothing added to the illustrations.

And this problem seemed likely to apply in this world as well. This was an even more conservative world. If he reproduced it exactly and released it in arcades, he would probably get beaten down hard.

Even if the sexual content did not become a problem, another difficulty remained: this world was inhabited by many different races. Something interesting to one race might mean nothing at all to another.

Of course, humans made up a high proportion of the population, and many people shared human standards of beauty. Even so, if he made it according to human standards, he would be throwing away more than thirty percent of the population, and that was absolutely not a number he could ignore.

In that case, it seemed better to simply use different subject matter.

As far as Ras remembered, it was a game with enough gameplay value even without erotic content. However, it was difficult to give up the logic of receiving some kind of reward after clearing everything.

That gave players a greater sense of satisfaction than what other games could provide through simple clearing alone.

“How about giving prizes?”

It was the opinion of Geogra, the team leader of Casual Team 2. At first, he found it strange that they needed to give a reward beyond simply clearing the game. Actually, that was only natural. It was a lack that only Ras, who knew what Gals Panic originally was, could understand.

Still, it was something the president had said, and if there was a reward, immersion in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the game might become stronger, so he thought about it and offered an opinion.

“Prizes?”

“Yes. I think small things like dolls or commemorative medals might be fine.”

It seemed to be an idea he came up with because they had Arcade Game Land. A device that made prizes come out automatically from the machine would need to be developed, so the cost would be too high. Instead, the idea was to call an employee, have them confirm the result, and then give out the prize.

Ras thought about it for a while, then shook his head.

“It’s not a terrible idea, but realistically, I think it would be difficult.”

Arcade Game Land employees were not just standing by. They were all busy in their own way, so checking prizes one by one would be too troublesome. Then they would need to hire more people, but that would make the cost too high.

Moreover, preparing physical prizes would also cost a lot. They could not just consider the price of the prizes themselves. Distribution costs, storage costs, quality control, and other concerns would pile up one after another.

“And this will be developed as a PC game first, so wouldn’t PC players have their enjoyment reduced?”

“Ah...”

“Also, even if Arcade Game Land is a large business, it still only has a little over a hundred branches.”

It would not be easy for ordinary small business owners to prepare physical prizes. Probably not many people would want to operate such a troublesome arcade machine.

Then, in the end, the circuit boards would not sell.

The image of someone coming out to congratulate the player and giving them something commemorative after clearing the game was nice, but they could not proceed based on that alone.

Geogra fell into thought again, and after a while, carefully offered another opinion.

“Then... how about showing an illustration?”

“An illustration?”

Ras flinched at his words. He wondered whether Geogra meant showing something erotic like the original game did. But that was not it.

“It may sound too simple, but how about showing an illustration where characters come out and congratulate the player? Using well-known characters, I mean.”

“Ah...”

One of Meta Soft’s strengths was that it possessed hit games and popular IPs. Especially in the case of Spirit Stone, its seals were popular enough to become collectibles, so showing a well-made illustration could serve as a reward in its own way.

The spirit characters could come out, clap, set off fireworks, and congratulate the player. No, besides Spirit Stone, it might not be bad to include Bubble Dragons, characters from the earlier Sea King, or even Fighters’ Club characters.

Ras imagined that kind of picture, then nodded.

“I think this is good.”

The reward itself was one thing, but this also seemed like it would become a topic of discussion. After all, even if it were a completely different game, people would become interested if a game character they liked appeared in it.

Ras decided to add an idea often used on Earth.

“But rather than only those illustrations, I think it would be better to give players an actual benefit too. If they achieve one hundred percent, we give them one extra life.”

This was a method commonly used even in this world’s games. There was no need to look far. Even the Bubble Bobble Ras recreated gave a bonus life when all the letters were collected.

“Or we could let them play a hidden stage.”

That could also serve as a way to provide more difficult stages for skilled players.

Or perhaps they could combine the two methods above, not by directly giving a bonus life, but by giving a bonus life if the player safely cleared the bonus stage.

“Ah! I see!”

Fortunately, this idea seemed to sound good to Geogra as well.

“Then I’ll leave it in your hands.”

“Yes! Please leave it to us.”

After all, the developers themselves needed to like the plan for a proper product to come out.

In any case, development of Gals Panic also began like this. Of course, this time, it would become a game completely unrelated to girls, so the name would need to be changed.

Now it was Development Team 1’s turn. Ras already had a game prepared.

But before that, another incident occurred. This time, it was also related to Spirit Stone.

“Chairman, may I have a moment?”

Someone knocked on the door of Ras’s chairman’s office, and a thin Dwarf with an almost childlike impression entered. It was Persple from the Server Management Team.

“Ah. Yes.”

He had been lazing around, chatting uselessly with Ella, so Ras welcomed him with a slightly guilty feeling. It was absolutely not something he always did. He had simply been enjoying a rare moment of free time.

Ras reflexively wondered why Persple had come. What came to mind was the overseas team matter he had entrusted to him before. Come to think of it, it was a bit early, but it was about time for results to start appearing.

However, what Persple brought up was different from Ras’s expectations.

“The server condition has not been good lately.”

“What?”

Since Ras was producing important hard disks for network equipment and servers in-house, he had spared no resources in investing in them. Because of that, there were even comments within Meta Hardware and the Server Management Team that they had assigned too many server resources.

So when he heard that the server condition was not good, he could not understand it for a moment.

“Don’t tell me the resources going into the servers were reduced?”

This was something that could only be done with Ras’s approval, but he asked just in case. If the budget had been cut without his permission, it meant someone had overstepped their authority, which would be a rather serious matter.

“Ah. It’s not that.”

Ras had grown a little tense, but fortunately, Persple shook his head.

“Then?”

“There has been a sudden increase in abnormal connections.”

Naturally, there were people in this world who attempted hacking. They did it not necessarily to gain something, but simply because they could.

And because this world had little awareness that cracking was a bad thing, people with knowledge and skills generally tried it first.

(Translator’s Note: Cracking — Unauthorized bypassing or breaking of computer security systems or software restrictions.)

Because of that, abnormal connections had existed from the very beginning. The Server Management Team worked to block them, and at the same time, they always secured enough surplus resources from the perspective of risk management against resource waste caused by abnormal connections.

But the fact that the management team leader himself had come to report it meant even those surplus resources were at risk.

Once Ras understood this, his expression turned serious.

“Don’t tell me it’s bad enough for the servers to stop?”

“Ah. No. For now, we have deployed the assigned additional resources, so there is no major problem at the moment.”

“That’s a relief...”

The people of this world still had no tolerance for server trouble, so Ras reacted very sensitively to this issue. Spirit Stone had already sold tremendously well, but Ras, who had seen its massive position on Earth, felt like this was only the beginning. He did not want the IP’s value to fall because of something like this.

“But what exactly are these abnormal connections?”

Still, he could not understand it. Even if they were abnormal connections, this world’s communication environment was ultimately limited to telephone lines, so the possible range was not difficult to predict.

Yet a burden severe enough to put the servers at risk had appeared. He wondered if the Server Management Team might have been neglecting their work. With Ras’s knowledge, that was the only possibility he could think of.

“There are connections coming in without going through telephone lines.”

“What?”

But Persple’s answer was truly beyond imagination.

“No, is it even possible to connect without going through telephone lines?”

Ras asked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠again because he could not understand what Persple meant. In the first place, this was a world where no communication network existed other than telephone lines. Even if there were optical communication lines, no matter how skilled a hacker was, there should be no way to connect unless they were physically linked on this side.

Don’t tell me they snuck into the server room at night, installed construction work, and left?

But this was simply because Ras’s imagination was lacking. He had forgotten that this world was different from Earth.

“We believe they are probably connections made through magic.”

It was the existence of magic.

Well, the magic Ras used was centered on ancient magic, the kind that appeared in fantasy novels, so it was understandable that he would not think of connecting to a game server through magic.

But magic in this world felt similar to scientific technology. Like when they held the game tournament and transmitted game screens onto a giant screen in real time, it was used by combining it with ordinary technology.

“Magic...”

“Yes. The amount of connections that can come in through telephone lines is clearly fixed, but connections beyond that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠amount are occurring from somewhere. Other than magical connections, there is no way to explain it.”

Ras scratched his head in bewilderment. But in this world, this was reality. Since that was the case, he could not just stay flustered. He needed to find some kind of solution.