Chapter 135: The Side Effects of PC Communication and Sound Cards

Objectively speaking, it was nothing more than content where players competed against each other using their spirits. But for some reason, battling another player whose identity he did not know was incredibly fun.

Moreover, Spirit Space was filled with information about Spirit Stone and people who loved it, so it always felt like a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠place where a festival was taking place.

Even having just one friend at school who enjoyed the same game was enough to become close and have fun together. But in this space, an unknown number of people shared that joy, making it feel like an amusement park built just for him.

However, not everyone accepted Spirit Space purely as a source of enjoyment.

The Nuchin Kingdom.

In terms of national scale alone, this country was not far behind the Republic of Smite, but its economic power was less than one-twentieth of Smite’s. However, it had once imported a large number of arcade machines, and afterward continued importing games from the Republic of Smite, forming a market. Because of that, although expectations were not especially high, a server had been installed there for service coverage.

The Nuchin Kingdom was still a premodern monarchy, and it was also a place where nobles existed as a privileged social class.

These two facts were closely connected. The class system created inefficiency, which made it difficult for the economy to grow properly.

Of course, even though it was a monarchy, it was not truly at the level of the Middle Ages. Aside from nobles, there was also a bourgeois class that had accumulated money, a constitution existed, and private property was protected by law.

However, it was also true that, unlike global trends, the country still had premodern tendencies, so social dissatisfaction was high.

And there were several factions that carried that dissatisfaction on their backs.

Tuchalen belonged to one such faction, called the Enlightened Revolutionary Party. He was a young lower-ranking noble, and as the organization’s name suggested, it aimed for revolution from above and was mainly composed of nobles.

It might seem strange for members of the current ruling class and vested interests to speak of revolution, but not all nobles were necessarily satisfied with the current system. There were always those who were marginalized.

Not only that, there were also those who feared the global trend and wanted to follow it to some extent. Although it had happened quite long ago, they had seen revolutions break out in several countries and royal families and nobles lose their heads more than once, so such fear was only natural.

Ironically, this noble-centered Enlightened Revolutionary Party was the strongest revolutionary organization within the Nuchin Kingdom. Since it was made up of nobles, it naturally possessed that much money and influence. No matter how low-ranking or marginalized they were, they were still nobles and part of the vested class, so they inevitably had more power than ordinary citizens.

In any case, this noble named Tuchalen was still young, so he liked entertainment and was interested in new culture. Moreover, since he was very interested in global trends, modernization, and democratization, he greatly admired the Republic of Smite, which could currently be called the most democratic country in the world.

That was why he also had great interest in the games and computers said to be popular there. So as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠soon as he heard that something called Spirit Space was coming in, he immediately installed it.

At first, like everyone else, he simply felt interest and enjoyment toward this new world. But he soon realized another possibility.

Spirit Space allowed people to meet and talk with others without restrictions of space and time, and anonymity was guaranteed.

I can use this for organizational activity.

Even though the Enlightened Revolutionary Party was powerful, revolution was still treason in the Nuchin Kingdom. Naturally, they had no choice but to act in secret, but moving covertly came with many restrictions, so their activities could not be very active. But if they used Spirit Space, it seemed they could greatly bring forward the time when revolution would be achieved.

The only unfortunate part was that in the Nuchin Kingdom, only fairly wealthy people could use Spirit Space. Aside from the usage fees, computers themselves were too expensive to begin with.

Because of that, it seemed difficult to use for agitation.

He immediately began writing an encrypted letter to convey this idea to his comrades. Perhaps from next time onward, they would communicate through Spirit Space rather than letters like this.

Meta Hardware had a very short history, but by releasing several hit products in succession, it established its position as a hardware company. And by recruiting a genius named Karkov, it also gained powerful development capability.

Recently, it even released products using new technologies such as the communication card and hard disk, showing off its professional computing technology.

And in accordance with Chairman Ras’s vision, it was even developing a latest-generation computer.

This latest computer was not merely improving the graphics portion like the Hammer Computer, but was planned to add several functions.

First, it included a design optimized so that the communication card and hard disk developed by Meta Hardware could fully display their performance.

Currently, they were compatible with and usable on products from other manufacturers as well, but since they used ports other than dedicated ports, efficiency dropped considerably.

In particular, the communication card used the printer port, so there was a large loss in response speed. The Magical Connector Development Team, which was working to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠improve the magical connector, cited this as one of the reasons performance improvement was not easy.

And what they had recently been putting effort into developing was the sound card.

In truth, the sound functions of computers up until now were quite poor. That was true even compared to the history of computers on Earth. After all, at a time when Pokémon and even Dungeons & Dragons were being developed, they still could not use human voices.

Ras found this quite frustrating. Graphics had reached a level he found fairly satisfactory, but since sound lagged behind, games felt rather unsatisfying.

So he strengthened development in this area as well, but the results did not come out as well as expected.

“It seems we need an expert.”

When they could not produce results, Utaro analyzed the reason. First, it was not a lack of computing technology. Perhaps in the past, but Meta Hardware now occupied such a leading position in computing technology that one could say it ranked at the top of the industry.

At present, there was not only Karkov but also engineers he had trained, and after Meta Hardware gained fame, quite capable engineers had joined as well, so its overall capability was considerable.

The problem was that the engineers lacked knowledge of acoustics. Since Ras came to this world and began developing games, he had brought many changes, but in any case, this was still only the early era of computers.

In graphics, Ras had made flashy games, and the Hammer Computer had appeared, so more people were paying attention to the field, and the number of experts was increasing. But in sound, it was difficult to find talent.

“Someone who is both a computer expert and deeply knowledgeable about acoustics...”

Ras felt frustrated. Of course, the world was wide, so such a person might exist somewhere. But the problem was time. Quite some time had already passed since development began on the new computer.

They could not keep endlessly raising the quality. Since the time to release the product was gradually approaching, the time available to invest in sound card development was inevitably limited.

Fortunately, there was always a way in worldly matters. Ras found the solution in an unexpected place.

After hearing Nebrania sing in the past, he had developed a hobby of watching performances. That hobby still continued now.

Come to think of it, before he started dating Ella, he sometimes went with Nebrania. But nothing in particular had developed between them.

Rather than Nebrania putting up an iron wall, it seemed that Ras had never seen her as a romantic prospect in the first place. Well, there was also a bit of an age gap and a racial difference. This world did have couples where the woman was older, but compared to the Earth Ras came from, it was a world with stronger fixed ideas.

(Translator’s Note: “Iron wall” — A Korean expression meaning someone firmly blocks romantic advances or keeps emotional distance, like an impenetrable wall.)

And after he began dating Ella, those kinds of meetings naturally disappeared. Even so, their connection was not cut off. They still worked at the same company, and since Nebrania had not been conscious of Ras in that way, there was less pressure instead, so they could still be considered fairly friendly.

Because of that, he still often went to see decent performances recommended by her.

Together with Ella, that was.

“This is unusual.”

Ella also liked performances well enough. At first, she felt somewhat awkward, but these were not difficult-to-understand types like classical music. They were mainly band music where emotions seemed to be conveyed very directly, so it was easy to enjoy them even without prior knowledge.

She sat facing Ras under the dim lighting, drinking zail and listening to the music, occasionally offering brief impressions like this.

“Yeah. The instruments seem a bit different, right?”

Ras answered that way, but he knew about the instruments the band currently performing was using.

Electronic instruments.

Recently, electronic instruments like these were being introduced into this world. Like on Earth, they had been developed quite some time ago, but it took time for new things to be accepted.

And although Ras did not know it, he had also had some influence on the recent introduction of electronic instruments. As computers and electronic games became popular, and especially as PC communication recently began, people felt more expectation and goodwill toward new things rather than rejection, and interest in electronics and cutting-edge technology had spread throughout society as a whole.

Music was not free from that influence either. No, since Ras had made a strong impression by creating a rhythm game before, quite a few new-generation musicians became interested in electronic instruments.

The mixed-race band on stage now, made up of several races including Beastmen, Dwarves, and Gnomes, was one such group.

Ras’s gaze was especially drawn to the red-haired Hyena Beastman completely absorbed in playing the electric guitar. It was probably dyed hair, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his wild fashion made Ras think of rock bands on Earth.

Of course, by Ras’s standards, the music inevitably felt quite old-fashioned. Still, by this world’s standards, it was rather stimulating and unconventional. Ella also widened her orange eyes, showing how stirred she felt.

But... doesn’t that electric guitar use something like an electronic chip too?

As Ras enjoyed the performance, the thought suddenly reached him that an electric guitar was also a kind of electronic device. It was probably because he had been agonizing so much over the sound card recently.

Of course, Ras did not know the exact structure or principle of an electric guitar. But in any case, it was an electronic device and also an instrument. If so, a company that developed that kind of product must have a lot of technology and knowledge regarding the relationship between acoustic signals and electronic signals.

Ras felt as if he had found a solution in an unexpected place. The next day, he immediately had information gathered on electronic instrument manufacturers.

“So something like that existed.”

Ustar seemed to have heard of electric guitars for the first time. Ras found this somewhat surprising because Ustar was normally extremely capable, but everyone had fields they were not interested in.

After gathering information and discussing it with the engineers, Ustar became certain that these electronic instrument manufacturers possessed the technology needed to make a sound card.

“That’s a relief. Then please proceed in the direction of technical cooperation—no, either buy the technology or acquire the company.”

At first, he had thought of simply paying royalties and borrowing it. But then he remembered that the computer market was gradually growing, and once the importance of sound began to be emphasized, the value of the technology could grow exponentially.

Thinking of the future, he needed to acquire the technology outright. Of course, if the other party had been a very large company, it would have been difficult to act this boldly, but the electronic instrument market was only just beginning to emerge anyway.

It would not cost that much.