Chapter 96: A Slightly Different New Business

“However, strangely enough, there has not been much progress in attracting advertisements. I judged that an event drawing this much attention would definitely interest them, but companies seem even more conservative than I expected. I apologize.”

“No. Social conservatism isn’t something we can do anything about. Well, for now, let’s at least place our own advertisements.”

It was not that they lacked money. However, Ras had no intention of endlessly investing in this game tournament, so since the number of people had increased this time, he had considered attracting advertisements.

But as Karen said, there were no results.

Even computer manufacturers, which could be considered closely related to games, were the same. Ras was slightly shocked when he heard that Hammer Computer, which was benefiting the most, had refused.

Ras had spoken to Karen that way, but he could not understand it. These were companies in a capitalist country, yet they were missing a chance to advertise their products because they were worried about appearances.

And he also felt a surge of irritation, wondering if they looked down on games that much.

But he did not particularly feel discouraged.

Ras was practically someone who had seen the future. Of course, even on Earth, it was hard to say e-sports had become completely mainstream, but it was certainly different from now.

He remembered companies operating their own game teams, dedicated game broadcasts airing advertisements, and star players’ uniforms being covered with all kinds of sponsor logos.

It’s only a matter of time anyway.

Even if companies kept their distance for now, once games drew more attention, they would not be able to keep pretending not to notice forever. No, it was not only companies. The world’s perception would eventually change as well. It was simply still lacking for now.

First, Ras thought about the advertisements to place inside the venue.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠first thing that came to mind was the advertisements attached to pro gamers’ uniforms.

But it’s still a bit too early for that, isn’t it?

Ras rejected the idea he had come up with himself. They had worked hard to promote the participants as champions and experts, but the current game tournament was ultimately an amateur tournament. The players were not professionals. Because of that, public attention toward them would be too fleeting, making them ineffective as advertising pillars.

Rather than that, it seemed better to place advertisements on the outer walls of the box-shaped soundproof rooms the players entered, directly on the arcade machines, and throughout different areas of the venue.

But when he thought about what advertisements to place, it felt truly regrettable. Since the tournament was not being broadcast on TV yet, the only people who would see the advertisements were those who came to the venue in person.

And most people willing to come watch Tetris 2 matches were probably already aware of Meta Soft, its games, and Ras’s other businesses even without advertisements.

Of course, there would also be people who simply came to enjoy an event, so the effect would not be zero. That was why he would advertise, but it still felt regrettable and wasteful.

Then one thought suddenly occurred to him.

What if he tried something in a different direction from his existing businesses, something that truly needed to be carried by these advertisements?

It was a somewhat impulsive idea, but after thinking it over, it did not seem bad.

Strictly speaking, Ras was currently in a situation similar to someone who had regressed into the past. It was as if he had seen what kinds of businesses would succeed in the future, so even outside games, he had the chance to achieve enormous success.

Of course, he had thought about this before as well.

But he had focused on the work he was already doing, thinking that knowing the future did not automatically guarantee success.

Now, however, things were a little different.

He had learned not only to use his own abilities, but also to hire other people and use their abilities. He also had enough funds to try most things without much burden.

And as it happened, there was one thing he had been thinking about.

Ras had once had this conversation with Ella.

“Ella.”

“Hm? Why?”

They were at a second-floor café with Arcade Game Land visible across the street. Ras drank his tea while watching the people going in and out of Arcade Game Land for a long while, then suddenly asked Ella a question.

“What do you think Arcade Game Land is lacking?”

Business was going well. But that did not mean he could simply relax.

Arcades were a business that eventually declined on Earth as well. Of course, that was due to the appearance of PC games, consoles, the internet, and so on, but it was not as if the charm of arcade games had completely disappeared.

Korea’s case was extreme. In Japan, right next door, the arcade market was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still alive, and large game centers were still operating. Of course, compared to their prime, they had shrunk considerably, but they were still alive.

That was why Ras needed to keep coming up with ideas, even if only to delay the decline of arcades as much as possible.

“Hmm...”

Ella looked at Arcade Game Land across the street together with Ras and sank into thought for a moment.

Just when it seemed she also could not think of anything, she turned her head back and met Ras’s eyes.

“Right! They don’t have that.”

“What?”

“Food.”

“Ah. You’re right.”

After hearing her words, Ras nodded. That was definitely true. Thinking about it, PC cafés in Korea sold food too. No, later on, there were even claims that they made their profits mostly through food sales.

When he thought carefully, even old arcades had people bringing in cups of tteokbokki from nearby snack shops while watching games, or walking in with drinks.

Perhaps humans had an instinct to fill one type of pleasure once they satisfied another.

Or maybe it was simply that people got hungry after playing games for a long time.

Either way, he did think that adding food could keep customers around longer.

And that food should probably be something simple and quick to eat. Customers would want to eat while playing, or eat quickly and then go back to playing.

“When people watch movies, it feels boring to just watch the movie, so they eat popcorn, right? What do you think of my idea?”

“You’re right.”

When Ras nodded as if acknowledging her point, Ella looked pleased and smiled as she ate a spoonful of cake.

But while Ras watched her smiling face warmly, he was thinking of something else instead of popcorn.

When Ras first looked at the streets of this world, he had felt a sense of incongruity. They were similar to Earth, yet different, because the kinds of shops he had commonly seen before were nowhere to be found.

And among those shops, there was one type that had been especially common.

Franchise fast-food restaurants.

And among such fast foods, the most common and symbolic one would be hamburger shops.

In truth, when Ras realized this, he became excited at the thought of creating this world’s McDonald’s.

At the time, however, he was busy making games. And once he actually started thinking seriously about how to create it, he lost confidence.

The moment it first occurred to him, it felt like it would become a huge hit as long as he made it.

But to actually do it, there were many things he had to create: a kitchen structure designed to make hamburgers quickly, specialized tools, employee training manuals, and so on.

More importantly, he needed to make all of those processes succeed.

If it were something guaranteed to succeed just by attempting it, countless franchises would not have appeared and disappeared repeatedly. Of course, in this world, Ras would be the first to attempt it, and he did have memories from Earth. But that did not mean Ras had ever managed a hamburger restaurant on Earth.

That was not all.

First of all, he also had no confidence in the most important part of food: “it has to taste good.” Back on Earth, ramen was his signature dish, and kimchi stew was the highest difficulty level he could manage.

Of course, Ras’s cooking skills had not improved now either.

But unlike back then, many conditions now existed that made it worth trying.

First, he had a lot of money. He had gained the leeway and confidence to cover all the lacking parts mentioned above by spending money to hire people and buy equipment.

He had become a businessman who understood that if he could not do something with his own ability, he could simply hire someone capable and use that person.

Another advantage was that since this business would be linked to Arcade Game Land, he already had a customer base he could secure by default.

He could not be certain about the taste, but he planned to reproduce fast and cheap food somehow, so it would likely appeal to some degree to gamers who found spending time on meals wasteful and whose pockets were light.

After returning to the office, Ras immediately moved forward with the work.

“Ella. Please make a hiring notice.”

“Okay. Just tell me the employment conditions.”

First, he decided to hire enough people to operate one concession stand. Of course, since they had to experiment and practice with various things, he also hired people who could help with that.

Since it was fundamentally a restaurant, they needed a cook. And since they had to design movement flow and specialized tools, they also needed an engineer.

He also immediately asked around for commercial space.

Since he intended to link this hamburger shop with Arcade Game Land, it had to be located right nearby.

However, since all Arcade Game Land branches were in busy areas, it was almost impossible for nearby commercial spaces to be vacant. That was why he needed to look in advance.

Ras decided to open the first branch at the first available location found near any Arcade Game Land branch inside Kames City.

The first vacancy appeared one week later near a branch in the western district. It was a little far from his house and office, but since he traveled by car anyway, it was not enough to become a burden.

“It’s similar to a sandwich. You called it a hamburger?”

“Yes.”

First, Ras asked the cook he hired to make a hamburger recipe. Of course, since Ras had to explain what kind of food it was first, it was not quite enough to call it a recipe, but he pulled out everything he remembered and used drawings and writing to create a detailed “blueprint” for her.

The cook was a plump woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and her name was Dina.

She had once worked at a fairly famous restaurant, but quit after getting married. Now that her children had grown to a suitable age, and because expenses had increased thanks to that, she needed to find work again.

However, because of the gap in her career, restaurants rarely hired her.

Then she saw the notice Ella had written and came to apply.

After hearing the name of the restaurant where she had worked, Ras hired her immediately.

As a gourmet-tour enthusiast, Ras knew most of the famous restaurants in Kames City, and Twala was quite famous.

If she was a chef from that place, he had to welcome her barefoot. To ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ras, she was an almost undeservedly excellent hire.

Since the store was currently under construction, they decided to try making hamburgers at Ras’s home for the time being. Ras was not doing it at his own house because he particularly liked the idea. There simply was no other suitable place.

In any case, after understanding what kind of food it was, she first went out to buy ingredients.

Ras had already explained what fast food was and that this hamburger was meant for it, but just in case, he added one more sentence to her as she left.

“The cooking process must not be too complicated.”

“Yes. I understand.”

It would be troublesome if she tried too hard to impress the president of her new workplace and created a recipe that could never realistically be handled in an actual shop.

Fortunately, when she returned not long afterward, she seemed to have understood Ras’s words well.

She showed him only a very simple cooking method. Of course, there might still have been some deep technique in it that only experts could recognize.

She grilled the patty, made the buns, then stacked the prepared ingredients one by one to recreate a hamburger.

No, to be honest, its quality was so impressive that it could not even be compared to the ones Ras used to buy and eat. It was on the level of the image shots that appeared in advertisements.

“Please try it.”

“Ah, yes.”

Ras reflexively glanced at Ella.

But this was business, not one of their usual gourmet tours.

Ras picked up the hamburger and bit into it.