Chapter 171: Excessive Demand for Card Packs
Chapter 171: Excessive Demand for Card Packs
After returning home, Tolui carefully peeled open the pack wrapper with his thick green fingers.
“Wow. This is pretty good?”
The revealed baseball card instantly appealed to the baseball fanatic’s heart.
Though the card itself was small enough to cover less than half of his palm despite his large hands, the sturdy paper featured an Orc player striking a cool pose, drawn in an impressively realistic style.
< ’09 Tabula Zek >
Of course, photography had already become widespread in this world. Still, compared to the ordinary player photos sold near stadiums or hobby shops, this looked much cooler.
The card also displayed the player’s name and records.
“Hmm... you can play a game with this too?”
The wrapper even included rules for a game using those stats. But honestly speaking, it did not seem fun. Maybe he would know after trying it, but it looked too simple. The side with the higher numbers simply won automatically.
There was actually a reason such an uninteresting game had been included.
When they first signed the contract with the Baseball Federation, they had stated that the portrait rights would be used for a “game.”
Of course, the card packs themselves were items used in Professional Baseball Manager. However, they were only payment methods rather than directly connected game content, and the cards themselves were merely collectibles, so the IP Management Team judged that controversy could arise.
Thus, they hurriedly created a game that was unlikely to actually be played.
Some people argued that if they were making a game anyway, they should at least make it entertaining, but it turned out to be harder than expected, and with the card pack release date approaching rapidly, they had no choice.
There was also the fact that the TCG side was already heavily pushing Magic and Creature. If they handled this poorly, it could end up as friendly fire.
Tolui spent quite some time admiring and examining the card before trying to put it into a drawer, only to suddenly remember that it was not merely a collectible.
“Here it is.”
After inspecting the card carefully, he found the code printed just above the outline at the bottom.
Unlike Magic and Creature, Professional Baseball Manager cards only contained one card per pack. The game had never been designed around playing with the physical cards, and since their real purpose was to input the code, there was no need to include multiple cards.
Moreover, these were collectibles. If too many were distributed, their value would drop and the desire to collect them could die off. Therefore, Ras had prioritized maximizing the cards’ quality.
< Card Pack Purchased. >
After entering the code, an item called a Card Pack appeared inside the game.
Although the offline cards also had player illustrations and photos, they did not directly add that player into the game. The two were entirely separate. At first, Ras had considered making the player appear immediately once the code was entered.
However, that felt too plain, and since they already planned to sell packs online in the future, they would need a pack-opening event system anyway, so he decided to make actual card packs appear instead.
Besides, embedding unique serial numbers into every single code turned out to be more troublesome than expected. Magic and Creature had no choice because it heavily emphasized offline play, but Professional Baseball Manager had no reason to go that far.
Though Tolui still thought it was strange that he had to open card packs twice.
“Hmmm.”
The moment he clicked with the mouse, the pack opened and dazzling light burst forth. Soon the light faded, revealing the card illustration beneath.
< ’11 Malakto >
It was an illustration of a Lizardman running somewhere.
Since the races were so different, he could not judge beauty standards, but it definitely looked cool.
However, as shown by Tolui’s indifferent reaction, it was not an A-rank player. He had occasionally gained attention because of his stolen base ability, but his batting average was simply average.
Someone else might have been disappointed and considered it a dud.
But Tolui, who knew baseball inside and out, was already thinking about where to place this player.
Afterward, he continued opening cards one by one, but unsurprisingly, there were no superstars.
Still, the ’07 Brox card was fairly decent.
Though his control was somewhat lacking, his pitching speed alone was first-rate, and when he was in good condition, he performed quite impressively. The year ’07 happened to be exactly such a period.
So unlike in other years, even his control reached second-tier quality, and above all, his stamina was excellent.
High stamina was generally a common trait among Dwarf pitchers, but Brox also had outstanding velocity, meaning that if used properly, he could completely shut down the opposing offense. He was a pitcher capable of overwhelming most second-tier batters.
In any case, after opening all the cards, Tolui began adding them into the starter deck he had received by default.
It was disappointing not to have any A-rank players, but gradually becoming slightly stronger was surprisingly enjoyable. As the saying went, you only saw as much as you knew. Reading the players’ specialties and stats and placing them appropriately was difficult for people unfamiliar with baseball.
After finishing his team composition, Tolui nervously started a network match.
There were three network battle modes.
One was Friendly Match, where players simply competed against other players. There were no rewards, and it was mainly a mode for acquaintances to enjoy casually together.
Another was the National League. Usually, when people talked about “online mode” in Spirit Space, this was what they meant.
Players with similar records were grouped into random leagues, where dozens of matches were played to determine rankings. The structure was similar to the professional baseball leagues of the Republic of Smite.
Of course, it progressed much faster, with championships decided once every week.
Lastly, there was the World League, though it had not yet been implemented. In truth, even the concept was still incomplete.
For now, the idea was that once the currently country-separated Spirit Space systems became connected, players from different nations would be able to play together.
However, there were still many considerations, such as whether it should become a permanent competition like the National League or be held during limited periods like the actual gaming tournaments Meta Soft hosted.
“Hmm. Six-thirty?”
The matches took place at scheduled times. After confirming that the game time was not far away, Tolui prepared some snacks and began watching the match.
Since the opponent was another real person like himself, and the matches followed scheduled times like real tournaments, it felt far more authentic than single-player mode, making it much more enjoyable to watch.
Moreover, his team won 12:7, making it even more exciting.
“Yeah!!”
Tolui raised a celebratory drink while watching the players cheer in victory.
In reality, however, the match was not actually unfolding live during that time.
To participate in the network tournament, players had to connect when the match started, but the calculations were completed almost instantly. During the designated match period, the system merely replayed the results based on those logs.
Regardless, players became far more immersed once tournaments began using their own decks, and this immediately led to increased card pack sales.
“I think we need additional production.”
Georg, who had entered the chairman’s office, looked extremely urgent.
And understandably so, because the inventory was disappearing at a terrifying speed. If it were a necessity item, it would be one thing, but for a hobby product to fail to meet demand was a serious issue.
There were losses incurred while products could not be sold, and there was also the risk that demand itself might decline. Though judging by the current craze, it did not seem likely to cool down anytime soon.
“Hadn’t we already built up sufficient stock?”
Ras remembered the contents of the approval documents he had signed previously. They had clearly predicted card pack quantities according to package sales and imposed purchase limits per person, resulting in what should have been a perfectly reasonable figure.
“It seems there are more people than expected finding loopholes to buy them.”
Perhaps feeling that Ras’s question sounded like criticism, Georg answered while sweating heavily.
They had already accounted for people lining up multiple times, visiting different stores, or using others to purchase for them, so production quantities had been increased generously.
Current package sales were around five hundred thousand copies.
Not everyone who bought the game would necessarily enjoy it enough to continue deeply, nor would every player participate in online play.
Still, they had assumed the most optimistic scenario possible, factored in loophole buyers, applied the per-person purchase limits directly to all five hundred thousand users, and even stockpiled ten days’ worth of inventory.
Yet before even a week had passed, the stock was nearly exhausted.
“Well, it can’t be helped. Increase the production lines.”
After thinking for a long while, Ras finally made his decision.
For physical products, once production lines were expanded, reducing them again later was not easy, so he was worried. Still, they could not pour cold water over a trend that was currently surging upward.
I really need to create an online payment system.
After sending Georg away, Ras leaned back in his chair and thought about online payment systems.
He had postponed the idea because there were many obstacles, including legal issues and negotiations with the banking industry.
However, this card pack system, which he had initially considered a clever workaround, turned out to be worse than expected.
Magic and Creature was different because its offline component had already grown enormous, so physical card packs were inevitable anyway.
But in Professional Baseball Manager’s case, it felt like they had attached unnecessary risks beyond what was needed.
After thinking for a while, Ras began drafting plans for electronic payments.
The concept itself was not difficult, so it did not take long.
The people who first invented such systems must have struggled just to conceive the idea, but Ras came from a world where such systems were already widely used.
“...This truly is revolutionary.”
While writing the proposal, Ras himself had worried it might be too obvious and simplistic.
Yet Martin could not take his eyes off the proposal for quite some time.
And for good reason.
This world did not even have credit cards yet.
More precisely, certain industries used something vaguely similar in closed circles, but not the plastic currency people knew on Earth. There was no physical standardized form. At most, it was merely a promise or perhaps paper cards.
So financial transactions conducted through a network sounded like something straight out of science fiction to the people of this world.
Yet despite that impression, Ras’s proposal was extremely realistic.
Of course, there were still problems.
“The linkage with the banks will be rather difficult.”
“Are you saying they’ll refuse to cooperate?”
“No... it’s not that.”
Meta Corporation had already become an undisputed major corporation.
No matter how poor society’s perception of games remained, in this capitalist nation, money equaled power, and few understood that better than the financial sector.
The possibility that they would ignore requests for business cooperation was extremely low.
“The problem is that the banks themselves won’t have the capability to accommodate this system.”
“Ah...”
Only then did Ras realize the flaw in his own plan.
The banks of this world had not even properly completed computerization yet, let alone online systems.
Of course, the basic logic could still function by having people answer calls manually.
However, there was no way such an analog method could handle the enormous number of low-cost transactions generated by things like card pack purchases.
Damn it...
Frustrated that his idea had hit a wall, Ras briefly considered simply creating his own bank.
After all, this world did not even have the concept of separating industrial and financial capital yet, let alone actual laws enforcing it, so it was not entirely impossible.
Huh? Could I actually do it?
Thinking about it carefully, it did not seem impossible at all.
Creating a proper bank would not be easy, but what Ras truly needed was simply a bank capable of computerization and online services for electronic payments.
And Ras’s company already possessed the capability to build such systems.
They had strong software development abilities, hardware manufacturing companies, and even a pioneering position in network technology.
And so, Ras completely forgot Martin was sitting right in front of him as he sank deep into thought.
Footnotes:
Translator’s Notes:
Professional Baseball Manager (프로야구매니저) — Reference to sports management simulation games similar to real-world titles like Football Manager and baseball management simulators, where players manage rosters, tactics, and player development rather than directly controlling gameplay.
Trading Card Game / TCG — A collectible card game genre where players obtain randomized cards through packs and build decks for competitive play. Famous real-world examples include Pokémon Trading Card Game and Magic: The Gathering.
Credit Card — Plastic payment cards tied to banking systems that allow electronic transactions.