Chapter 68: Engineer Karkov
Chapter 68: Engineer Karkov
“Develop something else in the meantime. Right! Something like the joystick Meta Hardware made would be good. If we had something like that exclusively for us, we could raise our market share even more.”
“...”
In the end, Karkov could only leave Victor’s president’s office with a frustrated expression.
He was craving beer, so he headed to the break room. In truth, drinking alcohol at work was not allowed. However, Karkov had been developing while drinking beer ever since Hammer Computer was still small.
And even now, after the company had grown, he kept forcibly drinking beer while loudly using stereotypes about dwarves as an excuse. Of course, he knew how to read the room, so he placed a small refrigerator for his own use in a corner of the break room and secretly drank from it whenever he felt frustrated like this.
As he crouched in the corner of the break room and opened a can of beer, voices drifted in from beyond the window above his head. Normally, he would not have paid much attention, but when he heard his own name, he unconsciously listened.
“Mr. Karkov went to the president again, right?”
Karkov took a sip of beer and scratched his bearded chin. Apparently, someone had seen him talking to Victor.
“Yeah. He stirred up that bastard president again.”
“Hey. Be careful.”
“About what? Everyone knows that bastard president is crazy.”
“I know. That’s why I’m telling you to be careful. If you get caught, things will really blow up.”
He did not know who they were, but they seemed to be people with a lot of complaints about Victor. Karkov snorted and took another sip of beer. In the past, he might have gone out and said a word or two, but now he was also angry at Victor, so it felt refreshing instead.
“Ah. But why does that pushover bastard keep poking the president?”
However, Karkov’s hand froze while he was drinking his beer. The term clearly referring to him was too shocking.
“Well. He’s crazy too, isn’t he? The company is doing well, but he wants to develop some new product again.”
“Right. That pushover shouldn’t be worrying about that kind of thing. He should be telling that bastard president to pay him properly. Isn’t that pushover a founding member too?”
“Not just a founding member. I heard he practically designed Hammer 1 Computer all by himself.”
“Seriously? And he only got seventy thousand del?”
“Yeah. The president really is ruthless too, earning that much and still...”
“Well, that dwarf bastard is the pushover. The development team guys say that too. He says he’s the president’s business partner, but behind his back, everyone calls him a development slave.”
The two unknown people kept chewing out Victor and Karkov for a while, then disappeared, saying their break time was over.
“...”
During that time, Karkov had finished all eight beers in the refrigerator and lined the empty cans on the floor.
He felt filthy. In truth, he knew it too. He knew Victor was a greedy bastard and that he had not properly shared the profits.
However, Karkov came from a fairly wealthy background to begin with, and he was not particularly greedy for money. Besides, although Victor had not properly distributed the profits, the salary itself was not bad. Since he had no trouble making a living, he had thought it was fine as long as he could keep developing.
That was why he had stayed even while cursing Victor.
But to think not only Victor, but the other employees of this company were calling him a pushover too. That was too insulting. He felt intense anger toward Victor rise anew.
After all, he was being treated this way because Victor had failed to properly distribute profits, unlike what he had promised. Karkov wanted to rip out that bastard’s pathetic mustache.
“Son of a bitch.”
Now that he felt this way, he could no longer remain in this company. An ordinary person might have filed a lawsuit or something, but that would not satisfy Karkov.
He felt that only by leaving this place, making something far better than Hammer 1 Computer, and crushing Victor’s company would he feel relieved.
But how?
No matter what, doing it alone would be difficult. Even though he had designed Hammer 1 Computer, he had not actually developed everything by himself. Not only that, but while working with that damn Victor, he had realized something. Products did not end once they were developed.
Karkov thought about who or what company might invest in him.
And the first thing that came to mind was the tattered proposal that had inspired him when he made Hammer 1 Computer before.
Epek Ras.
If he was still looking for developers, he would surely welcome Karkov. And since Karkov had been inspired by his proposal, they would probably communicate better than he would with other computer manufacturers.
Most of all, Ras was already a considerably successful businessman, so Karkov should be able to obtain enough funds and time needed for development.
Having made up his mind, Karkov staggered to his feet to write his resignation letter first.
Ras was in the middle of being busy with preparations for the game tournament.
Unlike Utaro, the Arcade Game Land Management Team was not made up of skilled people, but of university graduates Ras had hired, so there were many areas where they were lacking.
And since a game tournament was something that had never existed until now, every procedure and preparation was also a first. Because they often did not know where to begin, they needed a great deal of Ras’s help.
In truth, Ras did not know that much either. It was not as if he had worked in the event industry on Earth. Still, because he had experience watching game tournaments, he could help draw the broad outline.
And merely having the final decision-maker right beside them also sped up progress.
He could confirm and approve things immediately.
First, discussions on how to run the preliminaries were roughly finished. There was nothing special about it. During the preliminary period, each business location would set aside half of its machines exclusively for preliminaries, and contestants would compete under the judgment of the staff.
This tournament would not charge a separate participation fee, but the coins the participants inserted during their matches would serve as the entry fee. Since the cost was not that high anyway, there was no need to make the number of participants smaller by pointlessly collecting extra money.
The person who won the tournament at each business location would become the representative of that region.
For now, they decided to give them trophies as well, under the title of regional champion. There would be no separate prize money, but if it could be called a reward, they would receive train tickets to Ranchelt, taxi fare, and hotel vouchers.
What remained now were matters concerning the main tournament.
First, Ras instructed them to hire a host separately. They could simply have employees do it, but since matches in this fighting game ended so quickly, a host needed to drag out the time with skilled speech so the event would not feel rushed.
“A comedian would be better after all, right?”
“Yes. Talking ability matters more than visuals. And comedians are cheaper too.”
Brams had ultimately taken the position of Arcade Game Land Management Team leader. He had been the most active in stepping forward and working, and had produced the greatest results, so it was a natural outcome.
Ras was discussing the main tournament of the game competition with Brams when a light knock sounded on the office door. He stopped the conversation and turned his gaze that way.
“Um, the president of Meta Hardware is here.”
It was Ella, who had been waiting outside the office. Lately, she had apparently learned somewhere what secretaries did, and she was now acting in accordance with that in her own way.
Ras felt a little troubled. He was in the middle of talking with Brams, and if he went out just because Utaro had come, it might feel as though he valued Utaro more.
But he also could not ignore him, because Utaro was not someone who did not understand such things. That meant the matter was that important and urgent.
“Ah. It must be urgent.”
Fortunately, Brams was also quite quick-witted. Well, perhaps he had secured the team leader position by winning the competition because he was at least this capable.
“Then please excuse me for a moment.”
Ras asked for Brams’s understanding and left his seat.
When he went outside with Ella, Utaro was waiting with his face flushed red. Ras had intended to say something to him, but after seeing his face, he forgot. He was too curious about what had made this calm man so excited.
“President! He’s here!”
“What? Who?”
Ras was slightly flustered by Utaro’s voice, which sounded even more excited than his expression suggested. Utaro did not care about Ras’s reaction at all and spoke even more excitedly, almost shouting.
“A top-class talent from the computer field has come to us!”
Startled, Ras asked who it was, and after hearing Utaro’s answer, he became even more excited. It was because Karkov, the named engineer who had developed the Hammer 1 Computer, had come to them.
He was currently the hottest figure in the computer industry and a genius recognized by himself and others. Because Ras had complicated feelings and interest toward Hammer Computer, he knew Karkov’s name well. Ras had thought it would be nice if Karkov worked under him, but he could hardly believe the man had truly come like this.
“Why on earth did he leave Hammer Computer?”
“It seems he had a dispute with Victor, the president.”
“Hmm.”
In any case, it was good news for Ras, so he wanted to go meet him immediately. But as a president, that seemed too light. So for the time being, he instructed Utaro to accept him and create a new development team.
He had been excited by the stone that rolled into his lap and accepted it first, but belatedly, he worried whether the man might be a bomb. Of course, since Ras had such a weak technical foundation, he would have accepted even a fairly problematic person.
In any case, they conducted an investigation afterward, and fortunately, Karkov did not seem to have any major personality flaws.
“He doesn’t seem very sociable or good at communication, but he doesn’t appear to cause problems. And it doesn’t seem there were any other hidden circumstances behind his leaving Hammer Computer.”
Ras did not know how he had investigated it, but Utaro brought back this plausible information in just a few days.
“That’s a relief. But how is his ability? Is he as good as the rumors say?”
“Yes... for now, it seems he really is a genius.”
Meta Hardware had been gradually accumulating computer-related technology by combining the young technicians who had developed the joystick and crane with computer engineers they had newly recruited one or two at a time.
But after Karkov arrived, everything they had done so far turned into something like kindergarten children’s play. Lately, the development room had apparently become almost Karkov’s classroom, or rather his lab. Of course, the existing technicians were the pitiful graduate students.
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“Yes. It seems the time needed to accumulate technology will be much shorter than expected. No, I don’t know about Hammer 1 Computer, but under Mr. Karkov’s direction, we could make an older computer from before that.”
“Ohhh...”
Ras greatly admired that. He thought that as expected, the man really was a genius. It made him feel as though Liu Bei, who had barely been holding on with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Mi Zhu, had gained Zhuge Liang.
“But lately, Mr. Karkov has been repeatedly saying that he wants to meet you, President.”
“Ah. Is that so?”
That was welcome news. Ras had already wanted to see the genius’s face.
He had been forcibly keeping his distance because treating a new hire too specially might create discomfort within the company, and because Karkov might become arrogant. But now that he had given Ras a pretext like this, Ras felt he could meet him comfortably.
However, he was slightly worried about what demand Karkov might make when they met. Ras had given him a team leader position and set his salary fairly well, but since he was such an extraordinary talent, he might think it was not enough.
Because of that, Ras was quite nervous on the way to meet Karkov. However, what Karkov demanded when they faced each other was somewhat different from what Ras had expected.