Chapter 54: Early Reactions

At first, he played with considerable fumbling. He was not used to this kind of genre. But in the end, it was still a game. Taeho had grown during that time and had already become accustomed to games themselves, so before long, he was able to figure out how to play.

“It’s really realistic.”

That was the impression he got when he learned that if he sent troops out, he also had to keep sending supplies.

Sending them was not particularly annoying, since once he set the person in charge and the route at the start, it repeated automatically. But the fact that there was something he had to pay attention to made him more cautious when moving troops.

And when he entered battle, a familiar screen appeared.

“Ah! This is the system they said was the same as The Land Of Fantasy.”

The freshness of the different genre so far had been nice, but the moment the system from the game he had obsessively dug into appeared, he immediately felt happy to see it.

Still, it did feel somewhat different from an RPG.

The units had no levels, and their skills and abilities were very simple. Instead, the commander, who could not be targeted, had a level and could use a wide variety of magic.

However, it was difficult for the commander alone to sweep everything away, and attack magic had limited power, while support magic was relatively abundant.

It feels like the commander is a hero different from ordinary units.

It had its own charm. And what Taeho liked was that in The Land Of Fantasy, forming a party took a long time and came with many restrictions, but in this game, such formation was comparatively easy.

Since they were simple units rather than characters, as long as he secured troops, he could freely add and remove them. Units of the same type could also be split and merged to deploy several groups, which he liked.

Attack!!

After diligently gathering troops, he invaded his neighbor. Since he had already become familiar with this combat system through The Land Of Fantasy, he was able to defeat his opponent fairly easily despite having similar forces.

But he did not win every time. He needed to recover the troops and supplies lost during occupation, stabilize the conquered territory, and properly draw out the strength that came from his increased scale. But he was not used to that part yet, and because his previous victory had boosted his momentum, he kept waging war recklessly until he hit a wall.

While looking for a method, he discovered something called “domain magic.”

“So it’s like a strategic missile?”

According to the setting, the territory’s magicians gathered all the energy of the domain and used great magic. But considering that the subject was not a specific character but the player’s own ruled base itself, it was indeed similar in concept to modern strategic weapons.

There were also various types, such as spells that sped up troop movement, improved the climate to increase agricultural productivity, or created barriers to block an opponent’s domain magic. But of course, the most intuitive and explosive ones were attack spells that struck the enemy’s troops or domain.

These spells were developed by investing resources and time. Taeho had not known what they were, and while pressing this and that, he unknowingly invested in and developed a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beginner-level spell.

[Field of Flames]

It was a weak fire spell with the ability to lower the enemy’s troops and condition.

It required him to use all the small amount of mana in his territory, and because it continuously consumed mana every turn, it was quite burdensome early on when income was low. But Taeho, who could not calculate that far yet and cared more about getting rid of the enemy frustratingly blocking him, activated it immediately.

“Oh!”

Then another illustration appeared. It depicted a dark place where robed magicians gathered around a huge magic circle, performing something like a secret ritual, all drawn in a style with strong shadows.

Then a magic icon appeared in the center of the screen, followed by the message: [Field of Flames has been cast on Baron Astil’s domain.]

“Did it work?”

One slightly frustrating point was that unless he sent a spy, he could not check information about his opponent, so it was hard to know what kind of effect was happening.

But when he scraped together his troops again and attacked, the enemy could not stop him this time. So he could only think, half-doubtfully, that it must have had some effect.

“Rebellion?!”

And not long after, rebellions began breaking out.

The in-game systems and guides had warned him that rebellions could occur and what could increase their likelihood. But he had been too absorbed in war, and since it was his first time playing the game, there was too much information for him to properly take in. As a result, he was caught almost completely defenseless.

When he tried to retaliate immediately, the rebel became another noble’s vassal and received support, blocking Taeho’s response. Then more rebellions broke out in succession, forcing him to struggle for quite a while.

It’s hard. But it’s fun!

As Taeho continued playing, he gradually sank deeper and deeper into the game.

On the way home from work, Insu went to a nearby electronics shopping center with his mother. He was curious whether the game had properly reached even this neighborhood and what the atmosphere was like.

“Insu! Look over there.”

“Yes! I saw it.”

On the second floor of the shopping center, a huge poster with the title Medieval Fantasy Nobility and the package illustration printed large occupied an entire wall.

For now, it seemed Hyun Soft was properly pushing the game.

When they entered the shopping center, there were quite a lot of people. Of course, it was seven in the evening, a time when many people came after work, and since it was an electronics shopping center in a busy district, it was only natural for there to be many customers.

“They stacked them up completely.”

After finding the spot they had seen earlier through the glass window outside, the two easily found the place where Insu’s game was displayed. As his mother said, more than ten packages were stacked there like blocks.

And even as they watched, they saw someone pick one up from the stack. Insu silently thanked the large male customer in his heart.

After looking around at the pile of packages and the game store for a while, the two approached a nearby clerk.

“Excuse me, may I ask you something?”

Hyein waited for a moment, then spoke to the clerk when she was not busy.

“Yes? Yes. Go ahead.”

She was a slightly plump young woman with noticeably pale skin, giving the impression of a white bear. As befitting her warm appearance, she answered in a friendly tone.

“You know that game stacked over there?”

“Ah! Yes. Medieval Fantasy Nobility, right?”

In a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠store like this, there must have been far more than one or two games, yet the title naturally came out of her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mouth.

“Yes. It seems to be a popular game these days?”

“Yes, that’s right. It came out today, and it’s selling incredibly well. I heard we brought in quite a bit of stock, but the manager already said we’ll need to place an additional order. Would you like one?”

“Ah. No. Thank you for answering.”

The employee seemed a little puzzled, but when Hyein and the small child beside her greeted her with happy expressions, she simply smiled back and let it pass.

“It looks like it’s selling well.”

After putting some distance between themselves and the clerk, Hyein lowered her head and whispered in a low voice near Insu’s ear. Insu also whispered back in a voice mixed with laughter.

“It seems so.”

Of course, they could not judge the game’s overall success based on a single store. Even so, it felt like they had witnessed a good start.

And in reality, Medieval Fantasy Nobility showed considerable sales from the very beginning.

This was partly thanks to Hyun Soft’s active marketing, but the biggest factor was still the enormous success of its predecessor, The Land Of Fantasy.

People who had bought and enjoyed that game, as well as game magazines and similar publications, continued introducing it. Its huge success in America and Japan had not reached terrestrial broadcast television, but computer and game magazines covered it without fail, to the point that among people interested in computers, very few did not know about it.

So when the next work from that developer was released, there was no way attention would not gather around it.

“Print more! I said print more!”

Hyun Soft was happily screaming.

Because domestic computer adoption rates were rising rapidly, and because the game’s recognition had already become high, they had considered the possibility that the sequel’s early momentum would be stronger than the previous title’s. Reflecting that expectation to some extent, they had printed about twenty percent more packages, but the speed and momentum at which inventory was being consumed far surpassed expectations.

So Hyun Soft was using every available means to print more packages.

“I was worried because software piracy has been slowly raising its head lately, but this is seriously incredible.”

A sales department employee who had been making calls everywhere finally managed to push additional quantities onto a client, then let out a sigh as he spoke.

(Translator’s Note: Client — User-side software program connected to the MMORPG server infrastructure.)

“Exactly. You can clearly see other games getting eaten alive by piracy.”

“I think the package coming out well also has something to do with it, doesn’t it? It really did look amazing.”

“Well, I doubt that has nothing to do with it. But since the game itself is so popular, maybe there’s also that mindset of wanting to properly pay for it and own it?”

The other person wondered whether people would really do that when copying it would be free, but that was not something an employee of a software distributor should say out loud, so he swallowed it back.

In any case, the early atmosphere in Korea was perfect.

The team members at Parallel Soft also sensed that atmosphere.

“Team Leader!”

“Yes?”

It was lunchtime. Since Insu no longer went to school and now came to work in the morning and stayed all day, lunchtime was the best time to talk with the team members. They had come to a Chinese restaurant for the first time in a while, and Mr. Yoonsu suddenly spoke to him.

“Did you see that our game was released and started selling?”

For a moment, Insu wondered whether he had been caught secretly going to check it out with his mother. It was not exactly wrong, but it was also true that it was slightly uncool, so he unconsciously shifted his eyes and answered carefully.

“Yes. The scheduled release date has passed, after all.”

“The atmosphere was incredibly good.”

But apparently, Yoonsu had not brought it up to expose him. In a slightly excited tone, he talked about what he had experienced.

“I went and checked it out too! The poster was huge, and there were tons of packages stacked up! It completely felt like a popular game!”

Yoo Juyeon immediately responded to Yoonsu’s words. For a moment, Insu even wondered whether Yoo Juyeon had gone to the same electronics shopping center as him.

“Right?!”

“…I also went to a game store near my house, and I could already see gaps where lots of packages had been sold.”

Lee Suhyeon joined the conversation as well.

Insu unknowingly chuckled. He had thought he was the only one, but apparently, everyone had gone to check.

Come to think of it, even he was this excited despite this being his second work. For them, this was the first game they had participated in after getting their first jobs as young members of society, and it had now officially launched. There was no way they would not be concerned.

In any case, once they learned that the atmosphere during the launch month was not bad, all the team members’ morale rose.

“Insu, did you go to the electronics shopping center? Huh? Why are you laughing?”

After school, Eunha noona also belatedly brought up the same topic and made the team members laugh.

While Medieval Fantasy Nobility launched and the development team continued planning the next project, Seongcheol and Hyein were also moving busily.

First, Seongcheol resigned.

“If you ever return to Korea, make sure to contact me!”

“Yes. Thank you for everything, Department Head.”

Since he was not an easy person to replace, when he first said he was resigning, they strongly tried to stop him and the atmosphere was not good. Fortunately, things ended without becoming extremely ugly.

He heard that Deputy Manager Song’s son, who had been studying in America, would join the company in his place, and there seemed to be some concerns about that. But Seongcheol also benefited ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from that arrangement, and since he was leaving for America entirely, he decided not to concern himself with it anymore.