Chapter 94: A Game Tournament and a Noble from the Nuchin Kingdom

Ras had previously considered holding the tournament together with Fighters’ Club, turning it into something like a game festival. However, unless the audience was interested in both games, it could easily become boring. So this time, he decided to hold it separately.

He decided to save that idea for later, when watching matches became more mainstream or when the tournaments became international. If that happened, even people without much interest in games would participate to watch the results and cheer for their own country.

Holding it separately would cost more.

But viewed another way, holding tournaments more often would be more effective for promotion and raising public awareness, so Ras decided to treat it as an investment.

The disappointing part was that Arcade Game Land’s expansion within the Brunyard Federation was more sluggish than expected. There were no major problems blocking it, but since it was work being carried out overseas, some delays were unavoidable.

“There’s no helping it. I think we’ll just have to treat the Brunyard side as invited teams. It’d be a bit much to call participants selected from only a few branches national representatives.”

“Yes. Understood. And I apologize. I should have worked harder.”

Brams bowed deeply as he apologized. Ras, who had no intention of reprimanding him, was slightly flustered and waved his hand.

“No, no. It’s not particularly your fault, Mr. Brams. Please don’t do that. Well, if it still bothers you, it isn’t exactly a substitute, but please pay extra attention to selecting the Brunyard participants.”

“Yes! I’ll do my best.”

Ras gave a faint bitter smile.

It was good that his repeated successes had created strong authority within the company, but when people acted too stiffly around him like this, it felt ticklish and slightly uncomfortable.

Of course, it was not as though he felt no pride at all deep down.

In any case, not long afterward, banners reading “Tetris 2 Tournament” were hung ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on the outer walls of Arcade Game Land branches throughout the Republic of Smite and the Brunyard Federation.

“As expected!”

Gizta saw them and clenched his fist. He was a nineteen-year-old Gnome young man and someone quite serious about Tetris 2.

He remembered that a Fighters’ Club tournament had been held before, so since this was a game from the same company, he expected there might also be a tournament for it. And today, his prediction proved correct, which made him happy.

The prize money printed in large golden letters at the bottom was also the same: thirty thousand Del.

It might have been getting ahead of himself too much. But the reason Gizta had polished his skills to their current level was partly because he expected a tournament to be held and believed he could win that prize money.

With a confident attitude, Gizta threw open the doors of Arcade Game Land to sign up for the tournament.

Across the Republic of Smite, people like Gizta, along with those who simply wanted to enjoy the festival, joined the tournament.

Gamers who had already experienced the Fighters’ Club tournament once knew that even if they did not reach the finals, they could still feel the heat and excitement while the tournament was underway.

After all, playing casually as usual and playing when a tournament was involved were clearly different things.

And watching hidden experts appear from who knew where and desperately compete against one another was also a very entertaining spectacle.

Gamers eagerly awaited the tournament.

“Organize a special feature article outright. There’s plenty of material for articles, isn’t there? You can start with the previous Fighters’ Club tournament.”

“Yes! Understood.”

Ras extensively featured this tournament in Gamers. He did think there was probably significant overlap between people who visited Arcade Game Land and people who read Gamers, but it was still better to advertise through as many channels as possible.

Unexpectedly, however, the magazine advertisements and articles drew the interest of overseas gamers.

“A game tournament?”

It was the Nuchin Kingdom, occupying one part of the Lorasia Continent far across the sea. Taito was one of the nobles of the Nuchin Kingdom, and since he was still young at twenty-five, he was highly interested in new things.

Among those interests were the games becoming popular in the powerful Republic of Smite. At first, they were not especially different from the games of the Kanish Kingdom or other countries. But after a company called Meta Soft appeared, shockingly fresh games began to emerge.

Moreover, after the Hammer 1 Computer came out, it was practically a world-changing upheaval.

Since then, he had obtained and enjoyed games from the Republic of Smite through various channels. Not only PC games, but arcade machines as well, and even a magazine called Gamers.

At first, he had only read the magazine out of curiosity because it was said to specialize in games. But now, he had become a regular subscriber.

In the beginning, he hired someone to translate it for him. But because he played so many games from the Republic of Smite and became increasingly interested, he separately began studying the language. Now, he could read it well enough on his own.

He still had to look things up in a dictionary from time to time, though.

But in the newly obtained magazine, there was one particularly interesting article.

All the other articles were interesting as well, but this one especially caught Taito’s eye.

It was about the Tetris 2 tournament.

He also often enjoyed versus matches with fellow nobles or servants, but he had never thought of holding a tournament with it, so the idea felt very fresh.

But as he read further, the scale seemed far beyond his imagination.

They’re holding preliminaries across all fifty-eight branches in the Republic of Smite? And inviting players from Brunyard too?

Taito had seen photographs of Arcade Game Land before. It was a fairly large establishment. Thousands of people visited it every day, so if there were more than fifty such branches, he could roughly imagine how many participants there might be.

Reading further, he saw that they had previously held a tournament for Fighters’ Club as well, with photos of that event included. Its scale was quite large.

A huge screen had been set up inside a large gymnasium, an enormous crowd had gathered to watch the matches, and singers were invited to perform between segments. It was absolutely not a small event.

I want to go.

Honestly, he did not want to become a player himself. It might be different if he could win, but he knew he did not have that level of skill. Still, as someone who loved games, he desperately wanted to attend a festival like this and personally experience the heat conveyed through the magazine’s articles.

Then he saw a brief section at the end ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the article about the tournament’s winner.

He stared intently at the photograph of the Beastman man holding up the trophy.

Taito felt something strange.

He was not particularly tempted by the prize money. Thirty thousand Del from the Republic of Smite was not pocket change, but to him, a wealthy noble, it was not a particularly meaningful amount of money.

What he coveted was the position of winner.

It was not necessarily that he wanted to take that position himself. He simply felt it would be good if a gamer from the Nuchin Kingdom stood there.

Hmm.

Taito thought about methods for a moment.

The easiest way was to hire people and train them as players. Since the country had low labor costs, hiring a few people would not be too much of a burden.

But that somehow did not feel right.

Taito twisted his beard around his finger.

Using game players who trained because they were paid, rather than because they liked it themselves, felt as if it would only reveal how lacking his country was.

Besides, even games required a certain amount of talent.

Even if he selected people carefully when hiring them, the chances that one of the few selected people would possess outstanding talent seemed extremely low.

As Taito thought of another method, one idea suddenly came to mind.

“Ruto!”

“Yes, Master!”

Taito called a servant and ordered tea.

Then he moved to the chair he used when thinking, and after a while, he sipped the hot tea Ruto brought and pondered.

It was a sudden idea, but it did not seem bad.

The plan was to import arcade machines from the Republic of Smite and distribute them nationwide.

This country already had arcade games to some extent. Honestly, distributing PCs throughout the country was impossible, but there were still quite a few people who could spend coins on arcade games.

At first, the idea occurred to him simply because he wanted to find someone to send to the game tournament, but after thinking about it, it did not seem bad as a business either.

For one thing, the country was not lacking in population, so if he spread the machines everywhere, he calculated that the income would not be small.

Of course, imports were a fairly sensitive national matter, so he would need to think more carefully and look into more things. Still, Taito decided to try moving forward with it.

“The Nuchin Kingdom?”

Not long afterward, Panchi Games was startled to receive an import inquiry from the Nuchin Kingdom, a country with which they had almost no exchange. Then they were startled again by the quantity.

“Isn’t this country not very well-off?”

“Yes. Its national income is probably around ten percent of ours.”

“Then why are they buying ten thousand arcade game boards all at once?”

Cheims and Ajabran were bewildered, unable to understand the situation. Because of that, they could not accept it immediately and suspected it might be a scam.

But after inquiring with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and gathering information through other channels, they confirmed that this Baron Taito was definitely a noble of the Nuchin Kingdom. They also confirmed that he had sufficient funds to conduct such a transaction.

Moreover, since a down payment amounting to ten percent of the transaction had already arrived, Cheims set aside his doubts and proceeded with the deal.

Not long afterward, this export contract was broadcast on TV.

“The excellent culture of the Republic of Smite has reached even the Nuchin Kingdom ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠far across the sea!”

Ras also ended up watching the broadcast at home.

“Haha...”

Seeing the handsome male announcer speak in a passionate tone, as if he were part of an independence movement, made a hollow laugh escape Ras on its own.

Then again, many people probably did not even know where the Nuchin Kingdom was. Hearing that such a country had purchased a massive amount of the games popular in their own nation would naturally stir up national pride.

Ras felt a little hopeful.

Since it had even appeared on the news, he wondered whether this Tetris 2 tournament might also be introduced on TV.

Unfortunately, even after waiting quite a while, no such interview request came in. Ras was disappointed, but since positive news had appeared at least, he decided to believe that the negative perception of games had been suppressed somewhat.

There was also one more piece of good news.

After the advertisement for the Tetris 2 tournament began, sales of the Tetris 2 PC version ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠surged.

This was something that had not happened during Fighters’ Club.

“Maybe tournament participants who have computers at home are buying it?”

Ella said this while cutting meat as they ate together at a restaurant after work. Ras nodded.

“But it probably isn’t just that. Even for people who aren’t participating, the tournament advertisements are basically advertisements for the game too.”

“Ah. That makes sense.”

Forty thousand copies sold in just a few days.

The number of tournament participants was not small, but among them, there probably were not that many people who both owned a Hammer Computer and were passionate enough to buy the PC software separately for practice.

As Ras said, the more common-sense explanation was that many people heard all the talk around it, became interested, and bought it.

In any case, it was a good start.

The tournament had more than one intended effect, but among them, the biggest goal was the success of Tetris 2.

The only slightly uncomfortable point was that as Ras worked hard selling games, sales of the Hammer Computer also rose along with them.