Chapter 25
Chapter 25
[Deposit — Hyun Soft — 38,595,840 won]
Seeing the second month’s settlement, Hyein let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.
It was even larger than the previous month’s.
The first month could have been dismissed as an exceptional case since it was their first experience with something like this. But after seeing such an enormous sum come in twice consecutively, she could finally acknowledge and truly feel that her son’s abilities had already reached a level recognized by the world.
“Mom. Mom! Let me see too.”
“Mhm. Alright.”
After receiving the bankbook from his mother, Insu looked at the amount and felt relieved.
It increased.
The amount itself was satisfying, but more than that, Insu focused on the fact that sales had risen.
Because that meant word of mouth was spreading and the game’s popularity was growing.
And it also means gamers were satisfied with it.
At first, sales could rise somewhat simply because of marketing and because it was a new release.
But if the game itself lacked appeal, gamers would not continue being drawn in, and their attention would eventually shift to other games.
In this era, maintaining popularity like this was extremely important.
Since information spread slowly and access to games was poor, it took a considerable amount of time before all potential consumers even learned about a game.
And if the game failed to maintain its popularity during that period, it would simply disappear before even reaching all its potential players.
In the 21st century, information spread so fast that even garbage games could sell insanely well if they had good marketing and got lucky.
That applied to package games, and in the case of online games, there were quite a few that milked players heavily at launch and then quickly shut down service once the player count dropped.
But in this era, that kind of strategy would hardly work.
Just as Insu expected, The Land Of Fantasy was steadily spreading through word of mouth.
It was a classroom at Banghak Middle School in Seoul.
“Hey. Did you clear that tower you mentioned before?”
“...No. I think it’s impossible with my current setup. I’ll probably have to reincarnate one more time.”
The moment break time started, Seungcheol, who sat in front, turned around and began chatting.
In the 21st century, boys talking about games together was common.
But in this era, computer ownership rates were only around five to ten percent, so these conversations were shared only among a minority of students.
Still, considering the total number of students in Korea, even that minority was far from small in absolute terms.
And 1990 was also around the time computers finally began spreading more widely.
“You guys have been whispering nonstop lately. What game are you talking about?”
Shin Bonggu had started feeling slightly left out because the two friends he normally hung around with kept discussing things only they understood.
At first, he assumed they would stop after a while.
But watching them, there seemed to be no end to it.
So he naturally became curious.
“Huh? Didn’t we mention it before? The Land Of Fantasy.”
“You’re still talking about that? Is it really that fun? But isn’t it an RPG? Don’t you clear those pretty quickly?”
Bonggu had at least heard the title before.
But he generally disliked RPGs because once the story ended, there was nothing left to do.
“Try it yourself and see if you can clear it quickly.”
“This game’s different from other RPGs. It never really ends.”
Kim Hoon, frustrated because he had gotten stuck at the tower, replied with an indifferent expression.
Then Seungcheol, seemingly delighted that Bonggu was showing interest, immediately started explaining the game.
“If it’s an RPG, doesn’t it just end once the story’s over?”
“Normally, yeah. But this one doesn’t end even after the story’s finished. And there’s a ridiculous amount of stuff to do.”
In truth, Insu had not created a separate main storyline, but the large-scale events were connected enough that most gamers treated them as the main story.
“First of all, you can keep playing through descendants forever. And it’s not fixed either. Depending on who you have children with, the race and stats change.”
“And there are tons of regions outside the story. There are separate events there too, plus special rewards and stuff...”
“The problem is that it’s hard.”
Afterward, Seungcheol and Hoon continued talking at length about the game.
Like veteran players welcoming a newcomer into the community.
Bonggu couldn’t fully understand everything at once.
But he became interested.
It sounded fun, and seeing his friends so deeply obsessed with it made him curious.
Later, he pestered his mother until he finally got the game.
Then, filled with anticipation, he inserted the diskette into the computer.
In a sense, this could be seen as Insu’s strategy succeeding.
By increasing freedom and creating many ways to enjoy the game through its unique systems, word of mouth spread naturally, and more and more people continued buying it.
Good! If it sold over five thousand copies in just two months, that already counts as a hit.
To be exact, the number was 5,411 copies.
At first glance, that might seem low, but considering the Korean gaming market at the time, especially the number of users who owned PCs above the 386 level, it could already be considered a considerable achievement.
By 2025 standards, it would probably be equivalent to selling around one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand copies in Korea alone.
Moreover, it had only been two months since release, and in this era, official sales figures were usually discussed after at least half a year had passed.
So at this point, it was fair to call it a successful game.
And we’ve gathered enough funding now too. Should we try it?
The next evening.
“Dad.”
“Yeah, son. What is it?”
“Well... I think it’s time for us to enter America.”
“Huh?”
Seongcheol had just returned from work and relaxed, so hearing such grand words come out of his adorable son’s mouth took a moment to process.
Of course, Insu had talked about entering America before.
But Seongcheol never imagined the timing would come this soon.
“It sold over five thousand copies in Korea within two months, got featured in lots of magazines, and we already signed a contract with Japan.”
Perhaps because of his father’s reaction, Insu calmly listed their objective achievements one by one.
Well... that’s true.
And after hearing it laid out like that, Seongcheol had to admit those were indeed conditions that could attract interest from the other side.
“But it’ll be difficult for Dad to fly to America immediately.”
Seongcheol spoke apologetically while already wondering whether he should somehow pull his vacation days forward.
“No. I’m not planning to go to America right away. First, we’ll explain the situation over the phone to spark their interest, then send the game over.”
Hearing that, it definitely sounded more reasonable.
Once again, Seongcheol was struck by the realization that his son was a genius.
Perhaps it wasn’t some earth-shattering idea, but an ordinary six-year-old with almost no worldly experience could never think like this so naturally.
And after hearing this much, Seongcheol finally understood what he needed to do.
“You want me to get contact information for American distributors and reach out to them, right?”
“Yes.”
“And through Hyun Soft or the Japanese company we signed with before, we should be able to get a few contacts?”
“Yes!”
Insu nodded at his father’s words.
He thought it really was fitting for someone who worked at a major corporation.
But in reality, this was simply Seongcheol desperately using his brain so he would not seem embarrassing before his genius son.
Seeing his son look at him with eyes full of admiration, as though he had given the perfect answer, Seongcheol instantly forgot the burden of having to make awkward business calls to his contacts.
He thumped his chest proudly and declared loudly, “Just trust Dad!”
After organizing his thoughts, Seongcheol began making calls.
“Yes, yes. You’ve been well, right? Ah, this is all thanks to Hyun Soft working so hard for us. Of course. Ah, the next project is still only in the planning stage.”
Only after chatting for quite some time did he finally bring up the real subject.
“By any chance, could you introduce us to some American distributors?”
[Ah! Are you considering entering America?]
Manager Cheon Wooil sounded genuinely surprised.
In truth, since Hyun Soft only held the domestic contract, it was legally unrelated, but asking them to introduce another distributor could still feel somewhat uncomfortable.
However, perhaps because it involved overseas business, or perhaps because he was simply impressed by Seongcheol’s ambition, the response showed no negativity at all.
“Yes. We’d like to give it a try.”
[That’s impressive. Entering America! I’ll be cheering for you.]
“Uh, then?”
[Yes. I’ll organize the contact information for the American companies connected to us and send it over. Just tell them you received the contact through us.]
“Thank you very much!”
[But your next project will still be with us, right? Hahaha.]
The joking comment Manager Cheon Wooil tossed out was actually rather difficult to answer.
But Seongcheol skillfully avoided the situation by replying that they would naturally consider it positively depending on the contract conditions, just like with The Land Of Fantasy.
Thinking about it, he probably hadn’t even needed to phrase it so carefully.
Those kinds of remarks had no binding force anyway, and since the first game had already been signed under excellent conditions and turned into a hit, there was no way the next project’s contract conditions would become worse.
In any case, obtaining the contact information for American distributors was fortunate.
Now there was no need to contact TechnoShoku immediately.
Of course, they likely had exclusive contacts unknown to others, but they could think about that later if negotiations with the current contacts failed.
Moreover, among the contacts not listed here, two were local subsidiaries of Japanese game companies, meaning they would likely be wary of Korean games entering America.
And several others primarily focused on internally developed titles, making them somewhat unsuitable.
They had effectively obtained almost all the promising contacts already.
The biggest company here is HyperSoft Interactive... but this place...
Since Seongcheol was also deeply interested in games, he knew a fair amount about American developers and distributors.
And HyperSoft Interactive, or HSI, had a rather poor reputation.
Even Hyun Soft had advised against them.
Apparently, they slashed contract terms and handled settlements opaquely, so there seemed little reason to approach them.
The next company that caught his eye was Velocity Entertainment.
Unlike HyperSoft, they were not among the Big Four, but they were still considered part of the Big Eight.
That might sound small, but it was still a corporation with a market capitalization worth tens of millions of dollars.
At that level, in Korea, it would qualify as a major corporation even if it wasn’t a chaebol.
America truly is on another scale.
And I haven’t heard many bad things about them either.
There were several other fairly large companies as well.
Seongcheol filtered out those with bad reputations or smaller scale and narrowed the list down to a few.
Let’s start with Velocity.
Fortunately, while Seongcheol was not good at Japanese, his English was fairly decent.
He wasn’t foreign-educated or anything, but back in university, all his major textbooks were in English, so he was forced to learn it.
Thanks to that, he ended up dating Hyein, who majored in English literature.
Incidentally, Seongcheol’s English was now actually better than hers.
Seongcheol took a moment to steady his breathing in front of the telephone.
There was no way he wouldn’t feel nervous for many reasons.
Then, following the instructions written in his notebook, he slowly dialed the international access code and the American country code.
A ringtone similar to a domestic call yet somehow different echoed through the receiver before someone answered.
[Good morning, this is Alex Carter from Velocity Games. How may I assist you?]