Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Of course, the actual development process had its own kind of enjoyment. But a concept that seemed perfect running into the wall of reality, failing to pass through easily, and then somehow being shaved down to force it through a narrow opening was truly agonizing.
What made it even more horrifying was how that process seemed to repeat endlessly, in proportion to the massive workload.
Well, tomorrow’s me will deal with that suffering. Or tomorrow’s coworkers, maybe.
This was not simple avoidance. Even rationally speaking, if creativity became limited because one hesitated in the face of development difficulties, the game’s own potential would inevitably be diminished as well.
It was during those days, while he was immersed in planning a new game.
“Insu!”
Eunha Noona, whom he had barely seen lately because she entered a period of rest after the release of The Land Of Fantasy, came to visit. She looked quite excited.
“Oh. Noona. You’re here?”
“Look at this!”
Ignoring even the greeting, Eunha immediately thrust something toward Insu.
A magazine?
It was a game magazine called All Clear. What was unusual was that it was a Japanese magazine.
He couldn’t understand Japanese, but fortunately, there was small English text underneath, so he could roughly figure it out.
He already knew Eunha Noona bought and read Japanese manga magazines and fashion magazines, but it seemed she had started reading game magazines now too. Somehow, he felt oddly proud.
Eunha took back the magazine she had handed over and rapidly flipped through the pages.
“Here! Here!”
Then she shoved it back into Insu’s arms again. She was acting so frantically that he barely had time to think about what was happening.
“Huh? This?”
On the opened page, however, there was a full-color printed scene from The Land Of Fantasy.
Without realizing it, Insu grabbed the magazine and examined it.
...I can’t understand it.
But contrary to the momentum of the moment, it was all in Japanese, so he couldn’t read any of it.
“Noona. I don’t know Japanese.”
“Ah.”
Eunha herself looked puzzled as to why she had naturally assumed Insu could read it. Probably because the impression of him being a genius was so strong that she had subconsciously judged it that way.
“So this is a section introducing overseas games.”
“Ah.”
According to Eunha’s explanation, the article described the game as extremely innovative and fun.
“They said anyone who knows Korean absolutely has to play it.”
“Ooh!”
Eunha skipped around here and there, reading the impressive parts aloud, then pointed to the final section with her finger as she spoke. Thanks to that, even though he still couldn’t actually understand any of it, it strangely felt as though he were reading a translated version, and those parts stuck in his mind.
Insu blankly muttered, “Do we need to make a Japanese version first?”
“Huh? A Japanese version? Then are you planning to export it to Japan?”
Strictly speaking, if they signed a contract with a Japanese distributor, that side would manufacture and sell it, so it wasn’t really exporting. But instead of pointing that out, Insu just vaguely nodded.
“I still need to think about it more, but if it’s already being introduced in magazines like this, then there are probably people interested in it.”
This article itself would become pretty useful material when negotiating with distributors.
“Will it really be okay?”
The momentum Eunha Noona had shown moments ago vanished, and she now looked slightly intimidated. Well, since she was more interested in Japanese manga and culture than most people, she likely understood the gap between Japan and Korea better than others, which made her shrink back a little.
The Japan of this world was also a country with considerable economic power and cultural influence. It tended to be more subordinate to America, but since it directly bordered Soviet puppet states, it had also received even greater support.
However, because the Korean War never happened, and during the Korean Civil War, the Korean government only began importing supplies from Japan in the extreme late stages despite public backlash caused by resource shortages, Japan did not benefit much from wartime special procurement profits.
Because of differences like these, it could be said that this Japan was about one level below the Japan Hyunwoo remembered. But even so, it still ranked among developed countries and was far wealthier than Korea, which had only recently entered the category of newly industrialized nations.
But Insu did not shrink back over such things.
“That magazine said it was a good game too. I don’t think our game would lose at all. Looking at the other games featured in that magazine too.”
At Insu’s words, Eunha sat directly down on the floor and flipped through the magazine pages. Certainly, even compared to the other featured games, The Land Of Fantasy looked more sophisticated.
Insu spoke to her in a slightly teasing voice.
“What’s this? You didn’t trust the work we made?”
“Uh... well.”
Eunha became momentarily speechless, then met Insu’s eyes and burst into laughter together with him. They had spent an entire year together. Moreover, because they had worked side by side on a shared project, spending such dense amounts of time together, they could understand each other’s hearts to some extent.
“But Noona, can you translate Japanese by any chance?”
“Uh... I can read manga books and stuff, but I’m not really confident about translating. If I absolutely have to, I’ll somehow try.”
“Mhm.”
Well, no matter how much she liked Japanese culture, it wasn’t easy for a second-year middle school student to possess Japanese skills advanced enough for translation.
It seemed like he would need to discuss this with his parents after all. Come to think of it, his mother had majored in English literature, so she might know someone.
Now that I think about it, I should ask Mom about English translation too. Ideally, someone with at least some knowledge of games.
Games contained terminology unfamiliar to outsiders, and there were things whose nuances felt completely different. If they were professionals, he could believe they would research everything properly on their own, and there certainly were people who did that, but Insu had seen plenty of cases in his previous life where that wasn’t true.
Even the game I was playing right before I died had pretty severe translation issues in the beginning.
And there had also been manga he read before where the translation was butchered so badly it made him furious. Normally, he never remembered translators’ names, but he remembered that one translator specifically so he could avoid them in the future.
“Ah, right. Noona, there’s another game I’ve been planning lately.”
“Already?”
“No, I’m not making it immediately.”
When Eunha Noona showed a slightly frightened expression, Insu unconsciously let out a small laugh.
“It’s a different genre from the previous work.”
She accepted Insu’s notebook with a somewhat reluctant expression.
“...You’re right. It’s not an RPG. It looks more like a simulation game?”
“Huh? Yeah!”
Eunha Noona had definitely gained much more common knowledge about games compared to before. Since she didn’t have a computer at home, she probably had very few chances to actually play them. If she could tell this much just from books, then she had clearly become genuinely interested in games.
“Nobles? The player becomes a noble?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s nice.”
It seemed the keyword “noble” sparked a lot of ideas for Eunha Noona. Insu himself hadn’t really thought much about nobility; he had only included it to match the simulation system and setting.
The material really is important after all.
Thinking about it, games like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series maintained steady popularity despite not necessarily having exceptional gameplay or highly refined systems. The setting itself created immersion and interest, and as long as the games didn’t disappoint too badly, that interest naturally continued.
Thinking about things like that, when making this simulation game, he felt he would need to pay more attention to historical accuracy and push harder on the graphics.
“If you don’t really have much to do lately, Noona, how about planning the art for this game too?”
“Huh? Can I really do it?”
“Of course. You’re our company’s head of graphics. Though we’ll still need to discuss things to some extent.”
“...Head of graphics?”
In the case of The Land Of Fantasy, Eunha handled the graphics, but the concepts and planning were all done by Insu, and her work was mostly close to simply doing as she was told.
It couldn’t be helped. It was her first time doing computer graphics work, and she also knew very little about games.
But now she had gained some experience and knowledge, so it was time to make full use of her abilities and labor.
Unaware that Insu was planning to exploit her, Eunha pulled out her notebook and immediately began sketching the ideas and images coming to mind.
Still, I do pay her. No, I will pay her.
Insu watched this with satisfaction.
“Then I’m heading out!”
Not long afterward, Eunha Noona returned home, saying inspiration was flooding in.
But when is Mom coming home?
It wasn’t because he missed his mother like some ordinary six-year-old child. It was because of the translation matter.
In the past, his mother almost never left Insu’s side. But after he awakened memories of his previous life and started showing unusual abilities in various ways, and especially after he finally created and released a game, things changed somewhat.
It wasn’t that she neglected him. Rather, she now treated him more like an older child and allowed him more freedom. And recently, a large portion of the things she went out to do were for Insu’s game.
Not just Song Mijin, whom they had been indebted to before, but also reconnecting with personal connections that had faded after marriage.
For the sake of her six-year-old son’s business.
Hyein was just an ordinary housewife. So she didn’t possess any extraordinary network of contacts. But connections were originally the sort of thing where no one knew who might help at what moment.
Even Song Mijin, who had become a huge help, had originally just been an ordinary senior she occasionally attended classes and ate meals with during university.
Ding dong!
Looking through the peephole, it was Mom. Insu immediately opened the door.
“Mom!”
“Yeah. Mom’s home.”
Hyein set down the shopping bags she brought and stroked Insu’s head. He might be a genius, but the way he immediately ran out the moment his mother arrived was exactly like a six-year-old child. Somehow, it made her feel slightly reassured.
“Mom, I have a favor to ask.”
“Mhm. Hold on a second. Mom just got home. Let me breathe first.”
The favors he asked for were often somewhat heavy matters, but the way he impatiently pressed her without context like this also felt childlike in its own way. In truth, although Insu possessed the memories of an adult, he was also undeniably a six-year-old child, so perhaps this was only natural.
“Alright. What is it?”
After washing up, Hyein sensed movement and saw Insu immediately turning away from the computer. With a wry smile, she asked, “So? What is it?”
“Well... Mom, do you happen to know any translators?”
“Translation?”
Hyein was initially confused by the sudden mention of translation, but considering that all of Insu’s interests revolved around games, she quickly guessed what he was thinking.
“You’re trying to expand overseas?”
“Yes.”
Watching Insu show a slightly embarrassed expression, Hyein felt her chest swell with emotion.
Honestly, she still wasn’t completely sure whether Insu truly was a genius or not. After all, she didn’t know much about games, nor had she really felt the response to the game they released.
But this young child ultimately created something and released it into the world, and now he was even aiming overseas, somewhere she herself had never imagined. Only then did she truly feel that her child was no ordinary kid.
“Earlier, Eunha Noona came by. Our game was featured in a Japanese game magazine. They introduced it as a noteworthy overseas game.”
“Japan?! Really?!”
“Yes! Really. I can’t read Japanese, so I don’t know exactly, but Noona said it was filled with praise.”
“Really?”
Seeing her extremely interested reaction, Insu slightly regretted not borrowing the magazine from Eunha earlier.
“Then we’ll need to find someone who can translate Japanese?”
“Yes. But we also need someone for English translation.”
“English? Then America?!”
“Yes!”
She sounded amazed when he mentioned Japan earlier, but when he said he was aiming for America, her reaction became even more shocked.
And understandably so. America in this era was truly the definition of a superpower.
Even in the 21st century, it was clearly still the world’s number one country with tremendous influence, but right now, that influence was far stronger. Its economic and cultural dominance was greater, and its position as the leader of the free world was firmly established.
After all, the Soviet Union still existed, Germany in this world remained divided, and even Japan was effectively divided as well. China, too, had split into two, and in the Cold War, America’s superiority was practically unquestionable.