Chapter 16. What Girl Can Compete With a Good Game?
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With a gloomy mood, Kiyoshi Yuuma walked back the way he came. After a while, he felt like something wasn't quite right.
When he reached a traffic light and saw a bunch of salarymen stumbling out of an izakaya, reeking of alcohol, he suddenly smacked his forehead.
Crap!
He'd left his briefcase in front of Tsuda's apartment!
He rushed back to the slope that had made him both happy and miserable just earlier, only to see two people huddled around his briefcase from a distance, whispering suspiciously.
"I told you, didn't I? Don't go after guys in suits. They're all broke."
"Ah… you're right. This guy's briefcase only has game cartridges inside, barely any cash," the other replied.
So they're thieves…
"Let's at least leave him something to eat."
With that, the two of them put the cartridges back in the briefcase and ran off.
Ah, this…
…
On June 11, the game was officially released.
But since Pokeni was still a completely unknown company and their previous title Heart of the Sword had sold miserably, only a handful of distributors had bought Onmyoji, mostly just to try their luck.
At this stage, fewer than 2,000 copies had been ordered.
And most of those were thanks to Tsuda's personal connections.
There were still nearly 10,000 unsold copies sitting in the company's inventory.
Kiyoshi Yuuma didn't seem particularly worried about it.
As HR Ayase Akane put it, "People tend to become oddly calm right before they die." Most of the employees were probably just waiting to see the final result and ready to jump ship at any time.
And really, who gave the President the confidence to print 10,000 copies right off the bat, plus another 100 collector's editions? If they didn't sell, the company would take a massive loss.
Yet this "emperor" showed no signs of panic at all.
It wasn't until Kiyoshi Yuuma saw Ayase Akane packing up her desk and loading stuff into a nearby suitcase that his eyelid finally twitched a little.
"What are you doing? I haven't assigned you a business trip. Why are you packing up so many things?"
"I…"
Ayase coughed awkwardly, showing that this was still slow. You haven't even noticed that the chief programmer, Akanishi-san, has been moving his personal belongings home little by little for over a week now.
Still, since she'd worked under Kiyoshi Yuuma for two or three years and was trusted by him, she didn't want to just say it outright.
So she tried to drop a subtle hint: "President, have you heard of Yang Xiu?"
"Hm?"
Kiyoshi Yuuma glanced up at her. "What are you talking about?"
Whoa, you're Japanese and you even know about the Three Kingdoms?
"I'm Yang Xiu," Ayase said.
"But I'm not Cao Cao. And besides, I'm not into married women." Kiyoshi Yuuma looked very innocent. "Relax. You're not as clever as Yang Xiu anyway. Even if you knew my secrets, I wouldn't kill you."
"Ugh…" Ayase blinked uncomfortably and took off her glasses, slipping them into her coat pocket.
"What I mean is: I'm Yang Xiu, and you're Cao Cao. You know the story about the chicken ribs, right?"
"Chicken ribs?"
Kiyoshi Yuuma vaguely remembered the Death of Yang Xiu from a textbook. Then it hit him. "Oh, you! Ayase Akane! After all I've done for you, you're really going to leave me?"
"Come on, President, we've got to eat too."
"We?" Kiyoshi Yuuma caught onto something. "Who else?"
"Ah, well…"
…
"Do you want to grab a drink later?"
"Count me in."
"Work is so tiring, of course, we definitely need to relax."
"What about you, Furukawa? Are you coming?"
"I'll pass. You all have fun."
"Ah~ Furukawa is always such a buzzkill."
"Forget it. He's probably itching to get home and play his porn games."
"It's not porn, it's RPG, Role-Playing Game," Furukawa emphasized.
"Eh, it's almost the same."
They're totally different, Furukawa thought.
"Ugh! Are pixel girls really more fun than real ones?"
"Let it go. He doesn't get the charm of real-life hot girls, and we'll never get Furukawa's tastes. See you, Furukawa!"
"Yeah, bye."
And with that, they all said their goodbyes at the office entrance.
Furukawa watched the group's carefree backs as they left and let out a small sigh of relief.
These normies—what do they know about the appeal of games?
…
Hirose Furukawa is just an ordinary office worker in Tokyo.
Well, maybe not that ordinary. He didn't get along well with others, and while his coworkers liked to drink after work, Furukawa's greatest joy in life was going home to play video games.
His house was piled with game cartridges, and a small corner was dedicated to displaying his collection of game figurines.
In a few years' time, Furukawa would be labeled a classic hardcore otaku.
"How can real girls be as fun as games?" Hirose Furukawa sighed.
Dating? Way too much trouble. Trying to guess a girl's thoughts and having to win her over—for him, it was harder than taking an exam.
Sure, games could be complicated too, but if you just think things through, there's always a way to beat them. But trying to "beat" a real-life girl—
So far, Hirose Furukawa hadn't succeeded even once.
He was practically getting PTSD from it.
Still, what Hayamikawa said earlier about porn games had awakened a little craving in him.
He'd played through all his cartridges at home; maybe it was time to see if there were any new releases?
Thinking this, he casually strolled toward a familiar game shop on the corner.
…
"Welcome!" The store clerk greeted him with hands folded in front of his chest and gave a slight bow. When he saw it was Furukawa, a smile formed on his face.
Furukawa is a regular, often stopping by to check out new releases.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms II is coming out soon," the clerk said, adjusting his glasses and smiling.
"Is it true?" Furukawa's eyes lit up.
"But not the Namco one—it's by Koei."
"Ugh!" Furukawa grimaced. "What's so great about that?"
Namco's Romance of the Three Kingdoms II is the one later known as the famous Overlord's Continent. And Koei's version is the "original" Romance of the Three Kingdoms II. Some said that if Namco had kept making the series, Koei might've been out of the picture entirely. That's how good Namco's version was.
"Feel free to look around. There haven't been many major releases lately," the clerk said with a sigh.
"Alright."
Furukawa wandered near the shelves with his briefcase in hand, scanning the displayed cartridges from top to bottom.
"But now that I think about it…" the clerk furrowed his brow, as if recalling something. "There was a new release recently… seemed pretty interesting. What was it called again?
Oh, right—Onmyoji."