Chapter 180: The Orc Empire
And when the time came, Pippin set sail. That was already half a year ago.
“I’m counting on you.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. We even wrote a contract.”
Tadallo emphasized the request again while regretting their parting.
They had built some friendship, and Pippin did not seem like the kind of person who would scam him. Still, Pippin was from a distant foreign country, and Tadallo was investing all the money he had saved so far, so he could not be completely free of anxiety.
Even Orcs from the Orc Empire were not simply bold and hearty in the way people assumed.
Afterward, Pippin took about a month to return to the Republic of Smite.
Normally, he would have gone straight home to rest after returning, but this time, he had a request to handle, so he had to ask around and visit various places.
It was not merely goodwill toward a new friend. For Pippin too, this was a “job” that would earn him money.
That job was to obtain used Fighters Club boards.
Tadallo had become deeply absorbed in Fighters Club, and at the same time, he instinctively felt that it would also work on other Orcs.
He was not exactly upper-class or wealthy, but he had saved a little while doing various jobs in a port city where at least some money circulated.
He had always thought of using that money to do something and succeed, and he believed this was that opportunity.
However, the scale of his funds was not large, so official imports seemed difficult. After discussing it with Pippin, the method they came up with was this.
The market for used arcade game boards was fairly active, so finding the market itself was not difficult.
However, buying Fighters Club boards was not easy.
“Ah, we don’t have that item.”
“That’s not something that usually comes in.”
It was still a popular game with regular tournaments being held, so very few units were being released.
And even when one occasionally came in, it tended to sell quickly. Although it was an older game, operators in deep rural areas or remote places still preferred placing popular games if possible, so demand was fairly high.
Because of that, Pippin had to struggle quite a bit.
He felt too bothered by the thought of Tadallo waiting for months in a faraway country across the sea to simply give up and return empty-handed.
Besides, there was also the side income he would receive per board. Pippin was not short on money, and the amount could not be called large, but money was still money.
And by great fortune, he managed to obtain the goods in the city right next door.
“You’re lucky. Arcade Game Land happened to release some boards while replacing their machines.”
The dealer was an old Dwarf secondhand merchant whose forehead was covered with deep wrinkles and whose beard had lost all its black and turned gray. Even so, despite his age, he was still muscular, and his voice carried strength.
In one messy corner of the secondhand shop, Pippin tested whether the board worked properly on an old used game machine whose casing had been opened up, then bought it.
He had already felt half-relieved when the merchant readily agreed to the test, and sure enough, there was nothing particularly broken.
“I already repaired it once myself.”
“Really?”
Well, since it was something that had been used heavily in an arcade, it would have been hard for all of it to remain intact. If he wanted to sell it, he would have had to fix it to some extent.
Pippin did not realize it, but he had met a decent secondhand dealer.
Among dealers, there were people who openly tried to sell broken goods.
In any case, Pippin crammed the boards into the car and headed home again. This dirty junk car was not his. He had borrowed a company car. After all, someone who was almost never on land had no reason to buy a car.
And three months later, he arrived in Kazabar again.
“Hey.”
Pippin was descending the metal stairs while wondering how he should find Tadallo in this foreign port he had not visited in a long time, when the Orc, looking exactly the same as when they had parted, waved at him with a delighted expression.
“Long time no see. You’ve been well?”
“Of course!”
After exchanging greetings once, the two went straight into business talk.
“So, did you bring it?”
“Yeah. I did. I searched everywhere to find them.”
At Pippin’s words as he gestured toward the ship behind him, Tadallo let out a sigh of relief.
He had asked, but he had not been able to feel sure Pippin would really bring them.
“Oh.”
A short while later, the two went to the unloaded container and received the goods inside.
Fourteen boards were not very large in volume or weight, but if they directly exchanged them, it would become smuggling. So they had to go through quarantine first and unload them at the cargo yard like this.
Besides, they were used goods and entertainment machines, so the tax was not very high.
If they had been industrial machines, it would not have been this easy.
“Did you get the machines?”
“Yeah. I got them from Rande.”
Since Pippin had to confirm that the boards worked properly anyway, he followed Tadallo to his warehouse, helping him push his cart along the way.
This port city felt fairly modern near where the ships entered, but once they moved even a little away, it gave off a strongly premodern feeling.
The walls were made not of cement but earth, the roofs looked thatched, and the ground was not paved but packed dirt, making him feel as if he had flown into the past.
As people gradually became scarcer and more Orcs in shabby clothes appeared, he felt slightly uneasy.
Fortunately, nothing like what he worried about happened.
“Oh? Is this it?”
Inside the shabby warehouse was an unfamiliar arcade machine.
A piece of paper still attached to the top had unfamiliar writing printed on it, which seemed to be Randean.
“Yeah. That’s right. Getting this really wasn’t easy.”
As he said this, Tadallo immediately began connecting the board to the machine.
Pippin found it somewhat surprising that Tadallo even knew how to do this kind of work, and Tadallo seemed to read that thought from his gaze.
“I learned while waiting. If I’m going to run a business, I need to at least handle maintenance.”
“True...”
A short while later, the assembly was finished, and when they connected the power to an outlet awkwardly hanging on the earthen wall, the game machine turned on.
At first, unfamiliar Randean text appeared, making him worry that perhaps it was incompatible. Fortunately, a moment later, the opening screen of Fighters Club, which he knew well, began to appear.
“Oh. It works.”
In truth, even Tadallo, though he had pretended otherwise, seemed to have been anxious.
Afterward, the two sat on old metal chairs and played the game.
There were no particular problems.
At times, the graphics seemed to break slightly, but it was only part of the screen and did not interfere with the game.
“Good. You brought me something decent.”
Tadallo smiled in satisfaction and immediately handed over the payment in cash.
Pippin had worried that he might pay in Orc Empire money, but fortunately, it was proper del currency.
Afterward, Tadallo installed the game machines in Kazabar and nearby cities.
Because the Orc Empire’s public security was not very good, he could not simply leave them unattended as people did in other countries. In secluded places, he hired managers and stationed them there.
This was possible because labor costs were extremely cheap there. The machines were also extremely expensive.
At first, foreigners visiting the port began using them first.
Compared to the subjects of the Orc Empire, they had more money and spent more freely.
“Oh, this is seriously fun.”
A Lizardman wearing a white headscarf struck the joystick and buttons for a while before letting out this exclamation.
Sailors from the Republic of Smite all knew the game, but Fighters Club’s gameplay was quite good, so sailors from other countries also praised it and quickly took interest.
The Orc Empire lagged behind in many areas and had few other forms of entertainment, which made that even more true.
And whenever someone played the game like this, many Orcs gathered to watch.
Naturally, the Orcs of the Orc Empire were also interested in it.
However, it was an unfamiliar object, and the game fee was by no means a small amount by Orc Empire standards, so they could not approach it easily.
But the game was fun just to watch, so many of them kept watching.
As a result, some Orcs began wanting to try it themselves.
And Orcs who had some income began sitting down one by one, inserting coins just as they had learned from the sailors, and cautiously trying it.
“Oooh!!”
This was the Orc Empire, where even TVs were hard to see, let alone computers, and there were countless places without electricity once one moved just a little outside the city.
There was no need to explain how shockingly entertaining Fighters Club would be to people living in such a place.
Some Orcs could not even express themselves properly and could only exclaim in admiration.
Of course, the Orcs here had very low incomes, so they could not enjoy it often.
However, the Orc Empire had an overflowing population.
Even if each individual spent only a small amount, there were so many interested people that the game machines were always crowded.
“Ahahaha!”
Naturally, Tadallo was delighted.
His difficult business attempt had succeeded.
And he worked hard not to let go of that success. He asked around for mechanics who could repair the machines and also supplemented security personnel.
Later, he even rented a small shop and placed the game machines inside.
Though shabby, it could still be called a kind of arcade.
To attract more customers, he also brought in other games.
At first, he thought of Pippin, but Pippin could not come often, so Tadallo obtained games from relatively nearby countries such as Rande and the Pluta Constitutional State.
Once new games came in like that, quite a few people showed interest.
However, they did not become as popular as Fighters Club.
Rande’s games were different, but they somehow did not seem to match Orc tastes well. As for the Pluta Constitutional State, the level of its games was not very high.
After all, it was a place that imported and distributed games from the Republic of Smite in bulk.
“The Republic of Smite?”
“Yeah. When it comes to games, that place is the best.”
As he ran around for business, information naturally came in.
Unlike in the past, the Orc Empire now interacted with the outside world, so there were quite a few import merchants. Tadallo heard this from one of them, an Orc merchant named Orcot.
Pippin is from there, right?
Tadallo thought he had heard it somewhere, and then remembered.
He placed great importance on his connection with Pippin.
Partly because Pippin himself was a decent guy, but more importantly because Tadallo had first learned the civilization called games from him and had been able to succeed like this thanks to his help importing the boards.
“If you want to know about games, try getting magazines. In particular, the Republic of Smite’s magazine Gamers is pretty good.”
“Oh. Really? Gamers?”
By Orc Empire standards, Tadallo could already be considered successful, but he was not yet satisfied.
And in order to protect his current wealth, he needed to know more.
So he gathered information about games.
And Gamers was indeed an impressive magazine.
It was somewhat unfortunate that it focused mainly on computer games, but it contained detailed information clear enough to understand what games were like even without playing them directly.
And beyond simple game information, it was important that it also taught him about overall trends and atmosphere.
It’s fun too.
This was a genuinely well-made magazine.
In the Orc Empire, where there were not many things to enjoy, simply reading it could provide great entertainment.
He had already learned a fair amount of Aran Language while dealing with sailors, but he could not read well. As he enjoyed the magazine, however, his reading ability naturally improved, which was another thing he felt grateful for.
Footnotes:
Translator’s Notes:
Arcade Game Board — The circuit board containing the game program and hardware logic used inside an arcade machine.
Secondhand Arcade Market — Refers to the trade of used arcade boards and machines after arcade operators replace or retire older titles.