Chapter 139: Moving and the Company Game Tournament
Chapter 139: Moving and the Company Game Tournament
“Wow!”
Ella looked up in front of the entrance to the large mansion and let out an exclamation of admiration.
Combining the first and second floors, the building area was roughly 150 pyeong, and the land area was a little under 250 pyeong. Compared to the apartment they had lived in before, it was a truly large house. But in truth, the genuinely large mansions were in the countryside or suburbs, and mansions located in the city like this were usually just barely large enough to meet the standard of being called mansions.
Even this mansion was smaller than the apartment building he had lived in before if one only looked at the building’s size. Of course, more than ten households had lived there.
“What are you admiring so much? You saw it last time.”
“Come on, it’s different from back then.”
He had been a little busy recently and had half-forgotten about it, but the real estate agency he had asked had contacted him two weeks ago. The previous owner was a businessman, and the house had not originally been occupied. It had only been maintained.
But for some reason, he had suddenly decided to dispose of it. According to the broker, it was probably to secure business funds, but that was none of Ras’s concern.
What mattered was how good the property was. So he had examined the inside of the mansion with guidance from the broker and the caretaker, and there were no damaged areas. It had also been cleanly maintained.
However, perhaps because it had few windows and the style was too classical, he was not completely satisfied. Still, he did not want to wait endlessly until a property that perfectly matched his tastes appeared.
Lately, he had been spending a lot of money on various businesses. But the overall scale of his businesses had grown so much that buying several moderately sized mansions like this would not be a burden.
His thought was that he would buy this place first and live in it, then buy another one later if something he truly liked appeared.
So he paid the price, waited for the previous owner’s belongings to be removed, hired people to decorate it the way he wanted, and came back like this today.
“Welcome.”
“Yes. Thank you for your work.”
Ras entered the front door opened by the caretaker together with Ella. Since the house was so large and both Ras and Ella were busy with company work, he hired quite a few people in addition to this Orc caretaker. Honestly, living under the same roof as hired employees felt a little awkward, but it could not be helped.
In any case, entering a house together with Ella like this gave him a strange feeling.
This is cohabitation, right?
Even when he had a girlfriend on Earth, he had never lived together with her. It was not because they had a bad relationship, but probably because of his personal tendencies. Or perhaps, considering they eventually broke up, they simply had not matched well enough to reach the point of cohabitation.
But things with Ella were still steady, so perhaps they might even get married later. No, with how he felt now, he thought they might already have gotten married if they were not both so young.
No. People here often marry in their late teens, so maybe we’re not that young?
In truth, he was not really thinking about marriage yet, but moving into a new house together made all sorts of thoughts come to mind. However, once they went inside and he began looking at the decorations, those thoughts soon flew away.
When the contractor he had entrusted with the work presented him with an expensive bill, he had felt a little uncomfortable, but perhaps because it really was expensive furniture, it certainly felt different from the old sofa and cheap display cabinets he used back in the apartment.
Ras told Ella to look around freely, then headed to the study first.
Oh! It has atmosphere.
In the large space, there were large bookshelves filling every side, with the books Ras originally owned and the books the contractor had procured arranged in them appropriately. And on one side, like what he had seen at Bert’s house before, magical experiment tools were neatly arranged on a large table, creating exactly the feeling of a wizard’s study.
Should I get some antiques too?
If he acquired things like magic staffs or experimental tools said to have been used by old wizards, they would look fairly convincing. When it came to magic, Ras felt more drawn to ancient magic than modern magic.
But even though his tastes leaned that way, he had recently been studying modern magic. It was because he had felt something when he learned about the magical connector before. There seemed to be a reason why previous forms of magic declined and modern magic rose again.
Ras sat for a moment at the large, heavy desk on one side of the study and enjoyed the atmosphere, then stood up again.
There was another place besides the study that he was looking forward to.
“Ooh!”
Ras turned on the light switch and exclaimed in admiration as he looked at the now-bright underground space. The sight of arcade machines filling the fairly spacious area was magnificent.
In the middle, there were tables and sofas for board games, as well as shelves and a refrigerator for drinks and snacks, so it felt like both an arcade and a private space.
Ras owned the largest arcade in the world, but this naturally felt different from that. It felt as though a childhood dream had come true. He grinned as he looked around the game machines.
That’s Tetris.
As Ras had instructed, the contractor had printed and attached the game names above the machines. Ras began trying them one by one. Originally, he had thought of bringing in arcade machines exactly as they were in the arcade, but constantly filling them with coins was too annoying, so he had that part modified.
The modification had not been done by Ras himself, but by the game machine manufacturer before sending them over.
“Wow. Oppa, you really do like games.”
“Huh? You came?”
While he was playing games for a while, Ella had come over at some point. She looked around the arcade in admiration. Ella liked games quite a bit herself, but it seemed she had never thought of setting up something like this.
Ras felt somewhat embarrassed.
At the same time, he also felt relieved. His ex-girlfriend had not been that fond of games. He also remembered one friend who married early. That friend originally liked games as much as Ras did, but because he had to read the room, he could barely play, and he would whine through messenger all the time about wanting to play games.
Of course, if someone became too absorbed in games, they might neglect their child, wife, and housework a bit, so Ras did not completely fail to understand his friend’s wife. Still, the thought flashed through his mind that it would be a serious problem if Ella became like that.
“Huh? Should we play something together?”
Perhaps that concern was partly why he stopped the game he was playing and hurriedly made that suggestion to Ella.
“Shall we?”
Ras wondered what they should play, then thought of Bomb Special Forces. Most other games were versus modes, so they would have to fight each other. Rather than that, he thought a game they could clear cooperatively together would be better.
Ella was not the type to get angry or sulk just because she lost in a game, but even so, rather than competing where one side won and the other lost, he simply wanted to enjoy something together.
“Wow. This is here too.”
Ella, who had wondered what it was because four machines were placed together, exclaimed in admiration when Ras turned on the machines and the opening appeared. She was interested in this game too. Of course, she had already played the PC version, but she had heard that the arcade version had co-op mode and co-op battle mode, making it a completely different story.
Moreover, since Ras had become increasingly famous these days, it was burdensome to visit an arcade directly. Even though she had been interested, she had not been able to try it, so her reaction was even stronger.
“But did you set this up like this so you could invite other people and play together?”
Ella asked this as she took a seat beside Ras.
“Yeah. Well, something like that.”
In truth, rather than thinking that far, Ras had simply bought four machines because he wanted it to look exactly like an arcade. But now that he thought about it, that did not seem bad either.
After all, this game only revealed its true value when four people played it. And though it was a private arcade, it sounded exciting to invite close friends who liked games like he did and play together.
Then, while playing games with Ella for quite a while, another thought suddenly came to him. Since he had created a facility like this anyway, perhaps he could show it off a little and invite company people to hold a simple tournament.
Hmm. Would that be too troublesome?
In this world, no, in this country, inviting people to one’s home for parties was common, unlike on Earth, so it would not be strange. But because Ras had memories of Earth, he felt slightly uncomfortable about many people coming to his house when they were not even especially close.
Still, he wanted to hold a company game tournament at least once. Of course, there were already national, no, international tournaments being held separately, but he felt that a lighter tournament enjoyed casually among people he knew, rather than something so grand, would also be fun.
Ras was not the only one thinking this.
As gaming communities moved to Spirit Space, widened, and grew more active, small-scale game tournaments like this were occasionally being held.
The large tournaments Ras had already held had become a kind of model for them. Of course, Ras’s tournaments were meant for promotion and the revival of the gaming business, while most of theirs had non-commercial goals such as friendship and skill improvement.
In any case, some time later, Ras planned little by little from his chairman’s office and hosted a company game tournament.
He gave up inviting people to his house and instead placed game machines in one section of the company, where the tournament would be held. Thinking about it, even if it was a mansion, inviting not just a few important people but everyone from the company into his home was physically impossible anyway.
The response was not bad. First of all, the prize money of five thousand del was fairly high for a small-scale tournament like this, and more than anything, Meta Soft was a game company, so most of the employees liked games.
Of course, the tournament was open not only to Meta Soft employees, but to anyone from Ras’s affiliated companies.
Thanks to that, the company was noisy for a while with talk of this tournament. The game tournament itself was interesting, but since it was a team tournament, deciding who to form a team with was also a task.
“How about teaming up with me?”
Jenny from the Graphics Department of Development Team 1 made a matching proposal to Nebrania.
“Huh? What about Miss Pana? No, don’t you have other Graphics Team members too?”
Nebrania looked somewhat puzzled. She had been planning to simply team up with any employee under her in the Sound Department.
“Yes. Well, I do, but those girls are bad at games.”
Jenny answered in an indifferent tone. With her strong competitive spirit, she wanted to win rather than casually form a team for friendship. So while looking for someone who normally had good gaming sense, she felt uncomfortable approaching men and instead approached Nebrania.
“Ah... hm.”
Nebrania hesitated for a moment. But she was not exactly lacking in competitive spirit either, and although she was the Sound Team leader, she was not the type to take meticulous care of her team members outside of work. So she gave a small laugh and nodded.
Well, with five thousand del, I could buy an electric guitar too.
She also coveted the prize money. She was not especially materialistic, but that did not mean she disliked money, and there happened to be something she wanted.
The tournament that began a few days later proceeded like a kind of party. Of course, it was held after working hours, but since the employees had to eat dinner anyway, Ras contacted restaurants he often visited and had a large amount of buffet-style food prepared.
Light drinks and alcohol were also provided, so although they were at the workplace, the employees became quite cheerful.
It was only natural. There was no way it would not be fun when people gathered around the game machines, watched matches, ate, drank, chatted, and enjoyed themselves.
Of course, some people might not like this kind of thing, but it was a tournament where applications and participation were free. There was no pressure forcing anyone to take part.
“Oh...!”
The proceedings were not as professional as the international tournaments they usually held. They simply had someone recording wins and losses, and the rest was just playing games. Naturally, everyone’s skill levels were fairly similar. But watching people they knew play games seriously had its own kind of enjoyment.