Chapter 59: Ranchert Branch No. 1

After a while, the taxi entered an overpass. Now they could barely see the scenery, but whenever they occasionally turned a curve or went up and down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a slope, it felt as if they were flying above the city.

They seemed to drive for about an hour before finally arriving at their destination.

“Take care.”

Ras and Ella got out of the taxi and looked up at the building in the direction the Dwarf taxi driver pointed.

“Wow. This is Arcade Game Land too?”

“Mhm.”

Just as Ella admired it, Ras was also overwhelmed by the sight of the enormous three-story arcade. It was not a narrow building, but a fairly large one, and from the first floor to the third floor, it was all his arcade.

The exterior was made of glass, so the inside was clearly visible. Combined with the racial diversity, all kinds of people were truly enjoying games inside. And the huge neon sign on the third-floor wall was genuinely impressive.

In truth, Ras had already checked the proposal in writing back at the Kames City office. It proposed renting three floors of the building and buying more than a hundred game machines to fill them. He clearly remembered personally signing it and sending it back.

But seeing it with his own eyes felt different.

“Should we look around?”

“Mhm.”

In truth, just confirming it from outside could already count as achieving the purpose of coming to Ranchert. But he simply wanted to look around. He had never seen an arcade this huge even on Earth.

“Cough.”

As soon as they entered, thick cigarette ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠smoke greeted them. It was not exactly pleasant, but considering this world’s era, it could not be helped. This was a world where people smoked openly even inside crowded buses, after all.

The first floor had a large number of Beat Heater machines installed. It was not a bad arrangement. First, the sound could draw people in, and since it was a noisy game, putting it on the lower floor would probably reduce noise between floors.

“That’s the one, right? The one our company made.”

“Yeah.”

Ella also recognized Beat Heater and showed interest. It felt strange, seeing so many people absorbed in a game he made.

Of course, he was only the original creator, and this arcade version had been made by Panchi Games.

However, it was noticeable that Beat Heater’s player base was relatively young.

Honestly, it was hard to tell the ages of Orcs, Dwarves, and Lizardmen, but there were clearly many young people among the other races. And the proportion of women ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was fairly high.

It did not look bad at all. The sight of fresh young men and women pressing buttons enthusiastically to the rhythm had something lively about it.

After watching people enjoy the game for a while, Ras soon gestured upward to Ella and began looking for the way up.

There was no need to go out into the corridor. There was an iron staircase in one corner. Quite a lot of people were going up and down. But the staircase was fairly large, so there was no real congestion.

When they went up, Pac-Man, Tetris, and various other games were running with flashing screens. And as expected, the floor was bursting with people. Even though there were an enormous number of game machines, there were even more customers, so people stood waiting in front of every machine.

“Want to try?”

Seeing Ella look at the game machines with considerable interest, Ras casually suggested it. But she shook her head.

“No. We can play these in Kames City too.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Lastly, the two went up to the third floor, but there was nothing especially different. It simply felt like it was accommodating the customers overflowing from the second floor.

Afterward, Ras went out into the corridor, slowly went down the large staircase, and stepped back onto the street.

“Is it over now?”

“No. I just need to visit the office here at the end.”

While walking around the arcade, Ras had roughly calculated how much profit it would generate. He intended to compare that estimate against the ledgers being recorded at the office. Of course, it was only a rough guess, so as long as it was not completely absurd, it would be fine.

Finding the office was a bit difficult. Since it was not a famous place, the taxi driver had to guess its location based only on the address Ras gave him.

“It’s probably here.”

Still, the driver, who looked to be in his mid-forties, must have had excellent route-finding ability worthy of his years, because after wandering for about thirty minutes, they reached the destination.

Ras checked the tenant directory in front of the building, then opened the large metal door and entered with Ella. Inside was a muscular Orc in uniform. Perhaps because Ras and Ella were wearing proper suits, he only glanced at them once and did not stop them.

Ding.

Elevators were not very common in this world. Yet perhaps because this was the capital, even this unremarkable six-story building had one.

“Let’s get off.”

“Mhm.”

It was not Ella’s first time riding an elevator, but she still was not used to that distinctive sinking sensation. She staggered slightly as she got off while holding Ras’s hand.

The office was on the fifth floor. It was not a particularly large office, so it did not occupy the entire floor. Because of that, they had to walk a little along the corridor. Standing in front of the office door, Ras glanced once at Ella’s face, then knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Once he received permission, Ras immediately opened the door and entered. Since he only approved personnel matters and let the Management Team handle the rest, he did not recognize any faces.

“Who might you be?”

A young Beastman man with blue hair and ears, seated near the entrance, spoke to him. Just before coming here, Ras took out the business card he had made in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Kames City from his pocket.

“I’m Epek Ras.”

“Yes?”

The young man made a face as if wondering what he was supposed to do with only a name, then took the business card. When he saw the title “Chairman” of Arcade Game Land written on it, his eyes widened.

H-Huh?

Only then did the young man recall Ras’s name, his age in the late teens, and his physical characteristics. After quickly scanning Ras’s appearance, he bowed at a ninety-degree angle.

“Good afternoon, Chairman!”

The other employees, who had been doing some kind of work, were startled and looked at Ras, whom their colleague was greeting. Then they too quickly rushed out and began greeting him.

“Hello.”

“Good afternoon! What brings you here without even contacting us?”

Ras was a little flustered by this intense reaction. But that was because he had forgotten what it was like to be a tadpole. There were not many office workers who could stay calm when the chairman of the group they belonged to suddenly opened the office door and walked in.

“I just came to see how the business here is running. Please don’t mind me. Return to your seats and continue working as usual.”

“Yes...”

Then Ras requested the ledgers, sat at an empty table, and began slowly examining them. Naturally, the employee in charge of the ledgers felt his blood run dry, even though he had done nothing wrong.

There don’t seem to be any real problems.

Fortunately, there were no signs of anyone embezzling money. Of course, he could not say he had figured everything out after only checking briefly like this, but the fact that there were no obvious holes put his mind at ease.

“I’ve looked through them. There don’t seem to be any problems.”

At Ras’s words, the employee looked greatly relieved. Ras felt a little sorry at the sight. After telling them to keep working, Ras left the Arcade Game Land Ranchert Office with Ella.

After finishing work like this, Ras spent two days sightseeing around Ranchert with Ella.

They went up a tall building, rode a cable car connected to a nearby mountaintop, and went to a musical theater to watch a performance. Honestly, the performance was not very fun, but he was satisfied with having experienced it once.

Aside from that, they went to restaurants said to be delicious and enjoyed meals, following the usual tourist course one did in a city. Of course, a cliché route did not mean it was not enjoyable.

To Ras, this entire world was a wondrous otherworld, and he even had a pretty girlfriend beside him. Honestly, for a while, he felt like forgetting work and living like this.

But because he had life experience from Earth, he knew that rest was enjoyable because there was a busy daily life before it. Of course, even though it was vacation, he had to study magic, go to the gym, and take care of many business matters.

In the end, Ras followed the schedule and boarded the train home after spending exactly three days there.

After returning home like that, Ras immediately placed an advertisement to find a driver. Of course, since he was hiring a driver, he also had to buy a car.

He was not very interested in cars, so he did not know what to buy.

So he simply flipped through some car magazines roughly, and the Brandina, a sedan recently released by a company called Orlando, seemed to have good reviews. Ras went straight to the store with Ella and bought it.

“You should be able to receive it in about two weeks.”

Ella did not know much about cars either, so she could not offer an opinion. At least they asked, and the employee gave them a test ride in the car. Compared to the taxis they had ridden so far, it was more comfortable and relatively quiet. The seats were soft and the interior space was wide, so it did not seem bad.

The price was not bad either. Even though it was a luxury car, it was not an imported car, so it was only around seventy percent more expensive than an ordinary passenger car. On top of that, thinking of taxes, he bought it under the company name, so the burden was even lighter.

The timing of two weeks later was also not bad. Ras needed time to find a driver too.

“I look forward to working for you!”

Quite a few people applied to work as his driver. Among them, Ras hired a man in his thirties named Radmi, who was confident in his maintenance ability and had about five years of driving experience.

No matter what, hiring people was something that had to be left partly to luck. But after riding around for a few days in the car he drove, Ras did not seem to have made a major mistake this time either.

Still, seeing a luxury sedan with a waiting driver in front of his old apartment felt a little funny.

But that did not mean he intended to find a new home yet. He lived alone anyway, so he wondered if there was any meaning in getting a large house. And lately, funds had been flowing out rapidly because of the businesses, so unless it was absolutely necessary, spending a lump sum felt burdensome.

It was not that he had no spare funds, but seeing money he had once thought was huge melt away in an instant made him a little more cautious.

And now that development of the two-player joystick was complete, he needed to look for a production factory, which made him even more cautious.

As for the patent he had applied for earlier, it was rejected.

The Patent Office’s reason for rejection, written in the reply, was that it had already been developed and used in the arcade game industry, and that the system connecting it to computers was not judged to be a significantly differentiated technology or concept.

Ras had half expected that result. But it was still disappointing.

The main reason was probably that in the arcade game industry, it was already widely used without anyone having filed a patent. Still, he had hoped that the idea of developing it as a computer peripheral might be recognized, so it really was a shame.

In any case, he had developed it, so now he needed to make and sell it. But he could not see a clear answer for how to do that. If he built a factory himself, he had no knowledge or experience, so it felt overwhelming. But if he outsourced it, he did not know where to outsource it or how to make the contract.

Of course, everything had a first time, so he could have just charged into it blindly. But Ras decided to use a slightly wiser method. He would entrust it to other capable people.

Ras decided to create a Business Department for Meta Hardware. The office would once again be created by setting up new partitions on the third floor, and for now, he decided to start with a job advertisement.