Chapter 174
Chapter 174
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 174
Chapter Title: Irony (3)
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In the end, the success of the Dark Martial Arts Tournament was an event that saved many souls.
By holding the tournament, Team 2's martial world rediscovered a place to discuss their arts and code of honor. For Team 3, their faith in the Cult Leader was solidified, mending all the cracks that had formed.
Even if it meant living in the shadows, they would embrace it as long as it brought them happiness.
The tournament, held in secret, soon spread throughout all of Rewind, and from there, to every corner of the globe.
[Rewind: This Dark Martial Arts Tournament thing is pretty sick lol]
It was pointless to wonder where the leak had originated.
The only certainty was that someone's declaration about workplace community forums being the root of all evil was correct.
In any case, one day, as the Dark Martial Arts Tournament continued its streak…
“No unofficial matches. The risk of injury is too high.”
Loose lips sink ships, and word of the tournament eventually reached Yeon-ho’s ears.
“If you’re going to do it, get permission and follow procedure.”
Originally, the martial world was meant to draw its sword when an emperor’s tyranny threw the world into chaos.
However, in the 21st-century modern world, no such thing existed.
To an office worker, the president was god, a legend, invincible.
If he said jump, you jumped.
“No… it can’t be…!”
“B-But why…?!”
“President! Please let me explain! You see, what happened was—!!!”
“Your tone.”
“Eh…?”
“Do not raise your voice.”
The despairing martial artists of the Central Plains and the Unorthodox Sects, who had tried to make excuses, were sunk by Yeon-ho’s single phrase.
The firm and devastating hammer of a pay cut!
The directors swallowed their tears and retreated. And so, peace was maintained at Rewind.
This might be considered an aside.
The wise Yeon-ho, keenly aware that these people couldn't live without sparring, devised a solution.
He created an official schedule for the company sparring room, ensuring it was sanitized and managed at designated times, thereby protecting the directors’ right to spar.
He was willing to do this much because Team 2 had made *Demon’s Relic*.
*Demon’s Relic* was still a cash cow for Rewind.
It wasn't just the package sales; the game had earned a substantial amount of money by solidifying its position across the entire subculture scene.
In fact, the sparring room was built with that money, and the costs for sanitation measures were also drawn from it, so it wasn't a loss.
After settling everything, Yeon-ho said:
“Now, get back to work.”
The war had ended, but one thing remained—the hell of working overtime.
Yeon-ho was still a tyrant!
* * *
Humans are creatures of adaptation.
To be precise, all living things, including humans, have survived to this day by going through the stages of ‘adaptation—evolution.’
In that context, it wasn't strange that people began to adapt to the unprecedented plague, one that was thought to be unmanageable even in the 21st century.
No, the fact that it had such a massive impact was strange in the first place, but in any case, the plague couldn't break the innate survival instinct of living beings.
Everyone was managing to live somehow.
The restless souls who would get depressed if they didn't go out for a single day, the workers who lost their jobs or were laid off due to COVID, the self-employed groaning under the lack of customers, and the elders clucking their tongues at the turbulent state of the world.
Humans have always found a way, and this time was no different; they simply found a way to live in a changed world.
The same was true for the employees of Studio Rewind, this living hell on Earth.
“Haven’t a lot more people started playing games lately?”
“I know, right? And here we are with no time to play.”
“Well, we just have to work hard and make them.”
Though they grumbled, development was proceeding smoothly.
With the intranet system prepared solely in anticipation of a pandemic like this, how could work become dramatically more difficult or strenuous?
Work was always hard.
Having already ‘adapted and evolved’ under the whip of their devil-possessed employer, the employees even began to think that this life, sleeping in their own familiar beds, might be better.
So, as far as the COVID situation went, the stance of Rewind's employees was mostly that of watching a fire across the river.
Even this change in people's lifestyles was just one of many curious phenomena to them.
Not that there were no changes at all. The number of employees who took up Han Seo-rim-style ego searching as a hobby had steadily increased.
The growth in interest in the gaming world was proportional to the growth in interest in Rewind.
New reviews for *Hellic* were being posted online daily.
The difference from usual was that these reviews were from users new to gaming, not just those who were already interested in consoles.
For one, there were quite a few users who couldn't understand the game at all.
Unfamiliar with gaming, they couldn't find the fun in it and would post their impressions directly to online communities, which grated on the creators’ pride.
『Justella: Why is Hellic supposed to be fun?
I don’t get it… Everyone said it was amazing, so I thought it was something special, but I don’t even know what to do first, and the game gives me motion sickness…
RetakingTheBar: Sounds like you just have 3D motion sickness?』
When a post like this appeared, a user with a mysterious anonymous nickname would usually pop up to defend the game.
『Anon: Isn’t Rewind a consistently good game company? Is it really that hard to get into?
The way they grind their employees is a bit much, but in terms of quality, how many games can beat them?
The title of GOTY hunter doesn’t come from nowhere.
Anon (2): fr lol
GiveMeHellic4Dessert: Are you an employee?
└ Anon: ?
TheFutureIsUnclear: Why should we worry about the employees lol As long as they make good games, who cares if they get ground into dust
└ Anon: That’s a bit much ;;; lol
└ OneStepFurtherKing: A bit much what lol Go get yourself some athlete’s foot~』
Of course, not everyone possessed the same insight, experience, and aggression as Seo-rim.
Seo-rim, who had weathered all sorts of hardships alongside the history of Korean online communities, could have launched a biochemical weapon in retaliation even if a nuclear bomb had been dropped. The employees, however, failed to hide their identities and were mauled by the wild dogs of the internet.
In fact, from another perspective, one could say that Seo-rim had finally succeeded in her ultimate technique, the ‘AI Dynamic Cloning,’ but since she herself was unaware of this, there was no cause for celebration.
The point was, this was the period when COVID was at its peak and people were adapting.
In other words, the era of industry expansion that Yeon-ho had been waiting for had arrived, and all that was left was to unveil the things he had prepared, one by one.
First and foremost, he needed to turn the public’s attention to *Hellic*.
There was a way.
『GiveMeHellic4Dessert: When is the DLC coming out…
I wish it would just appear without anyone knowing…
I wish I was the only one who knew about the Hellic 4 DLC…
I wish it was already out and no one knew, and I just happened to stumble upon it…』
The *Hellic 4* DLC.
He just needed to redirect the users’ eyes to the new content planned for this spring.
* * *
It was now early to mid-April.
Development was proceeding smoothly.
The DLC was turning out to be of excellent quality, as if the communication issues feared from remote work were no problem at all. Accordingly, I could afford to have slightly higher expectations for its post-launch performance.
Among them, the one I anticipated the most was, of course, the sales figures.
This time, the number held a particularly special meaning, both personally and publicly.
“10 million sales. It’s a viable target.”
10 million sales.
A dream figure.
It was also a sales number that every director yearned for, one that I, too, had dreamed of.
I always thought I could aim for it someday.
But due to the sheer impact of the number 10 million, I had continued to wait rather than make a realistic attempt.
Achieving such a figure requires more than just the game's practical quality and impact; it requires a stroke of luck.
It had been a long wait, and that wait was ending now.
Several preliminary measures had been set up to make *Hellic 4* a contender for 10 million sales.
Though it was a figure that would have been impossible to achieve in normal times, various situational and contextual factors had laid the groundwork.
First was the public opinion that formed when it was released as the successor to *End of Us 2*.
The strategy of reversing disappointment to create a larger positive spillover effect, as well as the attention drawn by various launch-day happenings and the release of in-game development stories, had been effective.
Thus, it achieved 5 million sales by the third quarter, and then brought in additional sales after winning GOTY, and then COVID happened.
As the console game market expanded, *Hellic 4*’s status as the latest GOTY winner served as a reliable propellant, just as I had predicted.
Now that it had broken 7.5 million sales, what more needed to be said?
From here on out was what mattered.
“We can capture a larger piece of the pie. The trend of new users just entering the console market and discovering the *Hellic* series is continuing to grow.”
The release of the GOTY Edition and the DLC, combined with the current buzz, was creating the perfect final stage to break the record.
Of course, I wasn't just going to toss it out there and hope the sales numbers filled themselves.
A record of 10 million sales within a year of release is not something you can achieve by sitting on your hands.
With the game in its final stages, the next step was clear, as it always had been.
“Let’s prepare the marketing.”
However, a marketing campaign focused solely on the DLC wouldn't be enough.
It had to be longer-term, linking the value of the Rewind brand to this sales figure, building long-term anticipation, and pushing it to a number worthy of being called a record.
“Let’s prepare a showcase.”
“A showcase…?”
When it comes to announcements, laying out a long-term plan to build anticipation is far more effective.
“Let’s organize the entire upcoming release lineup. We need to drop it all at once.”
The DLC, *Hellic 2 Remake*, *Demon’s Relic 2*, plus the announcement of an animation production and future schedules—I had quite a lot of ammunition prepared.
It is human nature that when a long-term plan is laid out, attention naturally gravitates towards the most immediate event.
This would ensure that focus on the DLC would be heightened.
“The schedule will be…”
Yes, with some information about the DLC already released and the launch only a month away, it was the perfect time to drop some key spoilers.
“…in 10 days, three weeks before the release.”
There was no time to stand still.
* * *
The release of the *Hellic 4* DLC was about four weeks away.
As with any game, a highly anticipated title generates the most buzz right after release and when the launch is just around the corner.
*Hellic 4* was no different.
『GiveMeHellic4Dessert: A whole month left?
Whywhywhywhywhy???』
The atmosphere was good.
Usually, at this point, debates would rage about whether the game would be trash or not, but this case was different.
As a DLC for a proven title, a minimum level of stability was guaranteed.
True, some viewed DLCs cynically, as a business tactic of selling a game in pieces, but whatever the case, a game just needs to be fun.
It wasn't as if *Hellic 4* had been unfaithful to its main story in order to sell parts of it later, and users were people who would gladly spend a few dozen dollars for the sake of fun.
Amidst this flow of anticipation, excitement, and yearning…
『PoppyLetsGoForAWalk: Oh, Rewind is doing a showcase.』
The news spread like wildfire.