Chapter 87: Communication Card Test and Securing the Company Building Site

Next was an experiment where Ras went home while Karkov’s development team sent messages from Meta Hardware. They decided to use a method where messages would be transmitted at a set time.

Ras programmed a very simple messenger himself. He could have just used Karkov’s program, but it did not quite have the right feeling, and there was also the practical reason that he could not use the telephone while using this Communication Card.

Before that, the idea briefly crossed his mind to borrow the telephone in Ella’s room, since her room was not far away. But it was troublesome, it might inconvenience the residents, and more than anything, he wanted to try using the messenger, so he gave up on that idea.

Ras felt awkward being in his room at a time when he would normally still be at the office.

Of course, he was the president, and lately even Meta Hardware had a Management Team, so he did not necessarily need to stay in place. He could come home whenever he wanted.

In any case, he kept waiting for the agreed-upon time of 2 p.m., leaving the computer on while eating snacks and reading a magazine. The magazine was Gamers, and he was not reading it simply because he published it himself. Among the magazines of this era, there were not many that were this entertaining.

Not only was it entertaining, there was also nothing better for checking trends in the game industry.

The article that drew his attention most was about overseas games. There were no particularly interesting games visible. Overseas, shooting games and simple action games were still mainstream.

As expected, there was a big difference from the Republic of Smite, which was full of the games Ras personally made and the progressive games inspired by them. The article then flowed slightly in a patriotic direction, saying the Republic of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Smite was impressive.

Ras felt proud inside, but also thought he needed to expand overseas quickly.

Then, when he suddenly looked up at the clock, it was almost time. Ras poured a cup of reddish-brown Zyle and headed to the computer.

The messenger on the monitor contained the conversation he had exchanged with Karkov earlier.

They had agreed to exchange messages at 2 p.m., but there was no reason to wait silently until then. And since they needed to check whether the connection worked in the first place, they had sent simple messages.

They were messages like, <“Have you arrived?” “Yes.” “For now, there’s no problem with the connection.”>

Soon, it was 2 p.m. Ras stared hard at the monitor. The possibility was very low, but he worried about what would happen if the message was delayed or cut off.

<It is now 2 p.m. Was the transmission successful?>

Fortunately, the message was transmitted without any problem. It was only a single line printed across a dark screen, but Ras felt his hair stand on end.

<Yes. I think the experiment succeeded. Is there no problem with this message either?>

<Yes. No problem.>

For now, it seemed even the current Communication Network could use a messenger without issue. Of course, he wondered whether anyone would deliberately use a messenger that was not free and required call fees.

Of course, he already had plans for office use, aside from personal use.

This communication equipment still did not mean much for personal use. He planned to use it in the Pokémon game he intended to make, and he planned to gradually create online content, but for now, there was truly nothing that could be done with it.

That was because this world still had no internet, and online services themselves did not exist.

Ras also planned to create dedicated equipment capable of simultaneously receiving calls from multiple users for online services. Of course, Meta Soft’s relay was not absolutely necessary for battles or trades. Players could connect directly with each other and enjoy it that way too.

But in that case, they could only play with people they knew. Ras intended to create a system that allowed an unspecified number of people to connect and play with one another. And as an added benefit, he planned to suppress piracy. The method would be to prevent access to Meta Soft’s network without an official product code.

The next day, Ras celebrated the success of the test and finalized the mass production plan.

“Please handle it.”

“Understood. I’ll look ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for a factory.”

Utaro tilted his head at yet another unfamiliar device, but since it was a product made by Ras, who had never failed so far, he nodded for now.

After hearing the explanation, he reserved judgment about the personal-use version, but Utaro also saw some potential in the corporate-use version.

After all, sending document files through an internal network without printing them, and briefly exchanging opinions through a messenger in front of a computer instead of meeting face-to-face every time, certainly looked like a way to improve work efficiency.

However, Meta Hardware had never sold corporate products before, so some difficulty was expected in sales.

Still, they had become fairly well-known in this industry by now, so they could at least make people open their proposals.

If they can get that far, selling it somehow is the salesperson’s job.

The hardest part was building recognition, so this was not such an unfavorable battle. Utaro encouraged himself, thinking he should use this opportunity to build recognition in corporate products as well.

Ras had previously assigned Utaro the task of looking for a company building site. And finally, he received a report that they had found a decent building site. It seemed to have taken roughly three months.

“If it were somewhere in the suburbs, we could have found one quickly, but finding a good location inside the city took some time.”

“Ah, that’s fine. We weren’t planning this for just a day or two anyway.”

Ras waved his hand at Utaro, who apologized for the delay. He meant it to some extent. His desire to build a company building and move there was real, but so was his desire to get as much value as possible out of the money he spent on the current office.

“Anyway, this is a good location.”

He had not expected there to be such a wide plot of land that connected directly to a main road when going down from the entrance. There were weeds, shrubs, and a crumbling abandoned building, but once construction began, they would clear everything anyway, so it did not matter.

“Yes. It would have been difficult without the city’s cooperation.”

This was originally the site of some government office. Of course, that government office had already moved elsewhere fifteen years ago. But because the land was very expensive and the site was large, it had not been easy to sell, so it remained neglected.

Even though it was a government office and not a private company, this was a headache. It looked bad, and many people believed and argued that selling it could fund projects helpful to the city, so it became politically uncomfortable.

Then the city heard that the Meta Soft Group was looking for land to build a company building.

This was an opportunity to get rid of a headache and also help Meta Soft, which was recognized as an important company due to its status as a high-paying taxpayer, an exporter, a cultural leader, and a cutting-edge enterprise.

After understanding these circumstances, Utaro greased the wheels appropriately and was able to win the bid for the site at a fairly cheap price.

Of course, this was not exactly clean. But in this world, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠everyone did this, so acting proper alone would only leave one isolated.

“Then please continue proceeding with it.”

“Yes. I’ve already asked around for architects. I’ll do my best so we can move into the new company building as soon as possible.”

Seeing Utaro’s serious expression, Ras could not tell him to take it slowly and only nodded.

Not long afterward, Ras stamped his approval on the building estimate that came up to his office.

It was a ten-story building on an area of 400 pyeong, which felt somewhat excessively large, but he left plenty of room considering future business expansion. He did not know how the construction cost compared to Korea, but it was around six million del, which would be roughly six billion won in Korean money.

Since the land cost was slightly under four billion won, that meant they spent nearly ten billion won on the company building.

Honestly, on Earth, Ras lived a life completely unrelated to real estate this large, so he did not have much of a sense for it. But considering the money he currently had, the money he was earning, and the fact that this would become their home base for a long time to come, it did not feel particularly wasteful.

The expected construction period was shorter than he thought. Ras thought building something like this, especially in this era, would take several years. But they said exactly one year.

And when he looked into it, there had apparently been cases where even sixty-story buildings were raised in a year and a half, so it did not seem like they were forcing it or building carelessly.

In any case, Ras decided to look forward to the day it was completed.

“Ras oppa! Dinner!”

These days, Ella continued coming to Ras’s home and making dinner. Perhaps because she felt more at ease after revealing the secret she had hidden before, she had become even more affectionate.

And Ras had also recently quit the gym, so he now had the leisure to wait for dinner like this.

He had wanted to quit the gym for quite some time. Exercising was difficult, but it was tolerable enough. However, after he improved to a certain level and began sparring, he realized that exchanging blows with fists somehow did not suit him.

It was not completely unfun, but something about it felt uncomfortable. On top of that, now that his magic had reached a certain level, the need to train his body for self-defense had faded considerably.

In fact, a few days after using magic at the shooting range, he quit right away.

“What are you doing?”

When Ras did not answer, Ella looked back and found him sitting in front of the computer, clutching his head. For a moment, she was startled and thought he might be sick, but when Ras soon began roughly scratching his head, she let out a sigh of relief.

“What’s wrong?”

At Ella’s voice, half irritated and half worried, Ras glanced at her expression, then pointed at the game scene displayed on the monitor and said,

“No. This is too fun.”

For an ordinary person, that answer would have gotten him smacked on the back, but for the president of a game company and one of its employees, it was a slightly different story.

The game Ras had been playing until just now was a role-playing game newly released for the Hammer Computer, Trial of Heaven and the Demonic Realm.

There was nothing particularly unique about it. In this world, it was what one would call a Land of Adventure-like game, faithfully following the role-playing game grammar Ras had established.

But its quality was overwhelming. Its graphics, sound, characters, and deep story were certainly worthy of being called a masterpiece.

And it did not try to follow ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Land of Adventure unconditionally. The life skills and hunger elements Ras introduced for realism were all removed, and it focused only on combat and story. That point instead raised its degree of completion even further.

Ras instinctively felt that this game could reach at least a position comparable to Earth’s Final Fantasy. At the same time, he felt relieved that he was preparing a different game instead of Land of Adventure 3.

It was not that he thought he would lose, but they would inevitably divide attention between them.

Ras decided to remember the name of this game’s developer, Hardroa Games. Both as a competitor, and as a name to always check on his new-release list.

“Well, we just need to make a game that’s no worse than theirs. Anyway, eat first.”

“Mhm.”

The meal that day was delicious. Ella’s cooking skills had improved quite a bit. And ever since she thought she had learned the basics to some extent, she began making plenty of meat dishes according to her own tastes, which Ras liked even more.

He was a little worried he might gain weight, though.

At last, Development Team 1’s vacation ended. The team members entered the Meta Soft office one by one with lively faces and expressions full of regret.

“Did you have a good vacation?”

“Yes...”

Among them, Pana in particular looked as though the world had collapsed. After getting a job, going back to her hometown had truly made her feel at ease.