Chapter 85: Aim for the World!

Looking at Sea King’s impressive opening screen, with the blue ocean filling the display, Johnson once again thought this had been the right choice. Still, everyone reacted differently, so he cautiously turned around.

“Oh!”

The other party looked shocked. But it was not because he was impressed by Sea King’s opening.

“Huh? This was a game from your company?”

“Pardon?”

As it turned out, though Johnson did not know exactly how, Sea King was already fairly popular in the Pluta Constitutional State. Of course, it was not the official version, but pirated copies. Furthermore, it had already been translated into the local language.

It probably flowed in from the Brunyard Federation side.

After briefly panicking, Johnson quickly regained his composure and inferred the route through which the game had entered the country.

Originally, the Pluta Constitutional State and the Brunyard Federation were fairly close, and they even used the same language. And since Sea King had already been officially exported to Brunyard, it was entirely plausible.

But this was not the time to dwell on such things. It was upsetting that the game had spread through piracy, but at the very least, it already had name recognition, so they needed to make use of that.

“Yes. It’s a game from Meta Soft, one of the companies whose distribution we handle. Besides Sea King, they’ve also created many masterpiece games.”

With that, Johnson began enthusiastically promoting them. He talked about what kinds of games they had, and how much popularity and success they had achieved in both the Republic of Smite and Brunyard.

And the president of Dales Computer was already slightly shaken after seeing Sea King.

His resistance toward foreign software had not disappeared. But after hearing Johnson’s persuasion, he began thinking that perhaps it would not hurt to bring in at least a small amount. And perhaps they might even earn a decent profit.

Thus, Johnson succeeded in signing the first game export contract in this country. Of course, it was small-scale, but Johnson thought this was enough. The games had only failed to enter because people stubbornly blocked them out. He believed that if even the tiniest crack appeared, these games would definitely succeed.

And his thinking was not wrong.

The games from the Republic of Smite that they distributed on a small scale gradually began selling, then at some point suddenly disappeared from shelves in an instant. Soon after, calls from clients demanding more games started flooding in.

The president of Dales Computer was not a fool. There was no way he would fail to recognize what this sign meant. He immediately made an expensive magical communication call to the Republic of Smite, requested contracts for all the other games he previously put on hold, then began going around factories to produce packages.

After receiving the call from headquarters, Johnson immediately rushed to Dales Computer as though he had been waiting for this moment, bringing diskettes containing the other games. Of course, that was after carefully drafting the contracts.

And this news was immediately delivered to Ras.

“Pluta?”

“Yes. We secured a distribution contract this time. The employee’s name is Johnson. He’s a passionate person, so I knew he’d pull it off.”

Roxy spoke with an unrestrained grin.

They had already entered the Brunyard Federation overseas. But that was difficult to count, since it was less because Barbal Soft worked hard and succeeded there, and more because they simply got lucky.

That was why they continued trying desperately to expand into other countries afterward.

Though he never said it aloud, Roxy had worried enormously that he had spoken too boldly for nothing. But now they had truly succeeded. And not just nearby either, but in a proper overseas nation beyond the sea.

There was no way he would not feel refreshed inside.

“Thank you.”

Ras was happy as well. From his perspective, he already felt like they succeeded in overseas expansion when they entered the Brunyard Federation, but it was always good when the market they sold to expanded further. Moreover, the fact that it was a country on another continent across the sea made it feel especially meaningful.

Afterward, although it was difficult to directly hear reactions from such a distant country, he could indirectly feel their popularity through the money appearing in his bank account.

It was still only the beginning, so it was difficult to define things clearly. But at the very least, it seemed they were drawing popularity comparable to what they had in the Brunyard Federation.

At first, Ras was simply happy. Being acknowledged overseas felt good, and so did the increased income. But while staring quietly at the money entering his account, something like a sense of responsibility began growing inside him.

Of course, simply providing fun games to gamers was enough for a game company to fulfill its role. But since Ras’s company was located in the Republic of Smite, they could only make games tailored to the people of this country and focus their attention here.

That was not wrong, and in some ways, it was natural. But Ras began thinking that perhaps they should show some sincerity toward the Ruta-language cultural sphere as well, meaning the Brunyard Federation and the Pluta Constitutional State. Perhaps by placing a development team there or establishing local support teams.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

It was not solely for fan service either. He also had ambitions for overseas expansion. Of course, they had already expanded overseas now, but because they entered through two distribution companies, it was not particularly satisfying.

To put it bluntly, he wanted to become a multinational giant game company like Earth’s Ubisoft.

Thinking about it, the same applied to his businesses outside gaming. Not long ago, Arcade Game Land even submitted a proposal regarding expansion into the Brunyard Federation.

Ras immediately approved it. After all, they had already entered nearly every moderately large city in the Republic of Smite, so growth had slowed down.

And according to the proposal, Meta Soft and Arcade Game Land both possessed considerable recognition within the Brunyard Federation, while resistance toward games from the Republic of Smite had also declined greatly, so the chances of success did not seem particularly low.

There was no real reason to reject it.

Beyond that, Meta Hardware and Gamers also wanted to expand their markets overseas. It would make money, of course, but the titles of “global manufacturing company” and “international magazine” themselves sounded incredibly cool and desirable.

And if he had to justify it, while this world remained somewhat closed-off for now, judging from Earth’s example, once transportation and communication developed, globalization would inevitably progress.

Of course, there were many differences, such as the existence of various races and the fact that no single nation held complete hegemony, but Ras did not believe globalization itself would fail to occur.

And when that happened, Ras’s companies could either lead as pioneers or secure an early foothold.

In other words, the world market.

This is true world conquest.

The thought made Ras snicker softly.

First, he thought he needed to establish a management team for Meta Soft. Until now, Barbal Soft handled external matters, while Ras and Ella personally dealt with the rest, such as personnel and taxes. But if they were going to operate development teams overseas, systematic management would naturally become necessary.

No, honestly speaking, considering things like their collaboration with Panchi Games, overseas expansion, and the creation of the Casual Team, they should have established ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one long ago.

He personally managed everything because he felt his identity as a game developer would weaken otherwise. But now it was time to make rational decisions. Looking back, since he had already almost completely stopped coding, it was strange that he stubbornly clung to miscellaneous tasks.

He asked Ella to recruit people, and perhaps because Ras’s companies had grown so much, extremely impressive-looking applicants came in.

“Wow...”

There were countless resumes from people with impressive educational backgrounds and experience in managerial positions at major corporations.

Ras stared in awe for a while, then nodded as though suddenly realizing something.

Well, his companies were already mid-sized enterprises. Since the Republic of Smite possessed far greater economic power than Korea, the revenue standards were also much higher, but when combining the sales of all the companies Ras owned, it was more than enough.

And recently, with their overseas expansion even being mentioned on television, their recognition and growth potential would naturally be evaluated highly. It was not strange for people of this caliber to apply.

After sorting through resumes for quite some time, Ras felt there was simply too little information, so he went to find Utaro.

Of course, Utaro was the manager of Meta Hardware, not Meta Soft, so it technically was not his responsibility. But he was the only trustworthy person Ras had, so there was no helping it.

Still, Ras was not planning to leave the hiring itself entirely to him. He only intended to obtain rough information, such as who should be filtered out or who had a good reputation.

“Yes. That much is fine.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

And visiting him was not pointless, as Ras managed to eliminate several resumes. Of course, Utaro did not know everyone, so it was only a portion, but even filtering out a few landmines was a major benefit.

After several rounds of interviews, Ras ultimately hired a Dwarf in his forties named Martin as a management executive. He came from Lumen, a major computer industry corporation famous for creating operating systems, and had even risen to the position of department head there.

“I left after taking responsibility for a project failure.”

It was a difficult question to ask, but Ras still had to ask why he left. Martin answered without particularly trying to hide it. And apparently, the project was a new operating system program.

Since the existing Tan system was already quite old, there was nothing strange about releasing a new product. The problem was that once the Hammer 1 Computer appeared, everything they had been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠developing until then became useless.

Honestly, that was unavoidable. But because such enormous funds had been invested, someone had to take responsibility, and that person simply ended up being Martin.

“I look forward to working with you.”

For Ras, this was fortunate. He later learned that Martin was famous for being a highly capable Dwarf not only within Lumen, but throughout the entire industry.

After hiring a manager, things became much easier. Of course, if he handed over all personnel authority, he could become a mere puppet, so Ras still personally interviewed many of the people hired afterward. But even simply not needing to directly handle all the other processes was already a huge difference.

While they were organizing the management team like this, the Casual Team’s vacation finally ended.

“Everyone enjoyed your vacation, right?”

Ras greeted the returning development team with a bright smile. The team members themselves also looked fairly good after resting well. But those with some experience instinctively sensed that something lay behind this welcome, causing them to tense up.

Of course, even if they realized that, there was not much they could do about it.

“Now then. While making Tetris 2, you’ve all probably become somewhat accustomed to development. So from now on, I’ll divide the team into two groups.”

“...”

As he had mentioned before, Ras decided to split the Casual Team in half. Naturally, the employees’ expressions darkened. They would now have to work with only half the personnel.

Still, it was true that the Casual Team currently had too many people. From the beginning, Ras hired them while already envisioning two separate teams.

The existing team leader, Dure, would take charge of Casual Team 1. Meanwhile, Casual Team 2 would be led by a twenty-six-year-old Elf named Geogra, selected after gathering everyone’s opinions.

“I’ll work hard!”

He gave off a slightly clumsy impression, but he seemed to have more than enough enthusiasm and confidence. And in any case, he had the support of the other team members as well as Dure’s recommendation, so Ras decided to trust him for now.

Ras was just about to pull out the proposal he had prepared, then suddenly paused.

It felt as though he had been operating the development team too dictatorially lately.

Of course, Ras was the president, and this was a development team he created because he wanted to make the games he himself wanted to create.

But anyone who applied to this company probably had games they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted to make as well. He could not say he would grant every wish, but if he never even listened to the most basic opinions, there was a possibility the team members’ motivation would decline.