"Team Leader Fuyukawa, here's the Survey Report on Male XP Preferences from 2000-2005."
"Alright, just leave it here."
The sound of the door closing echoed in his ears as Fuyukawa Tetsu picked up the Survey Report on Male XP Preferences from 2000-2005 from his desk.
"Today's young guys, huh... I'm really curious how their preferences even develop."
After skimming the report for a bit, he noticed terms like "widow," "timid wife," and "sister-in-law by the washing machine" peppered throughout. Speechless, he rubbed his temples, swiveled his chair, and gazed out the floor-to-ceiling window at the towering skyscrapers and the ant-like crowds below.
"It's already been a week since I crossed over, huh."
Fuyukawa Tetsu took a sip from his coffee cup.
It had been a week since he arrived in this parallel world's Tokyo.
His name now was Fuyukawa Tetsu.
A Tokyo native, graduated from the University of Tokyo.
Handsome, with a prestigious Tokyo residence permit and a well-off family background, he was a graduate of a top-tier domestic university. Right after graduation, he landed a job at NTsoft, a game company located in Akihabara, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.
This "Fuyukawa Tetsu" was, by all accounts, a textbook winner in life. But tragically, after losing his parents in a car accident, the original "Fuyukawa Tetsu" drowned his sorrows in alcohol, slipped, and fell into the Edogawa River. By the time his body was fished out, he—the new soul—had taken over.
A week into this world, he'd already gotten a decent grasp of things.
This was a parallel world where history, culture, and geography were mostly similar to Earth, but the entertainment industry had developed... oddly.
It's not that there wasn't an entertainment industry—it was actually thriving. But the classic works from his previous world were nowhere to be found.
"Did a dog take a bite out of this world or something?"
"Whatever. Doesn't matter as long as I can make some money."
Lost in his random thoughts, Fuyukawa Tetsu stared at the distant sky for a while longer. When his eyes started to feel strained and then relaxed, he swiveled his chair back and resumed flipping through the Survey Report on Male XP Preferences from 2000-2005.
Normally, as a proper 25-year-old man, he wouldn't care much about the preferences of students—especially male students.
But he had no choice. As the team leader of Hikari Bird Studio under NTsoft, he was already thinking about their next game.
NTsoft was a major game company, with various internal teams divided by genre. His Hikari Bird Studio focused on interactive narrative games.
Interactive narrative games weren't too different from movies, except they offered a ton of branching choices, letting players steer the protagonist's story based on their decisions.
"Whether I can hold onto this team leader position depends on this one."
Fuyukawa Tetsu downed the rest of his coffee, focusing his attention. Soon, an ice-blue virtual screen appeared before him.
[Consumption Point Store]
[Currently Available Section: Games]
[Interactive Narrative Game Section]
[Game 1: Detroit: Become Human Data Set, 120 million consumption points]
[Game 2: The Invisible Guardian Data Set, 110 million consumption points]
[Game 3: ...]
[Game 17: Love Is All Around Data Set, 500,000 consumption points] (Newcomer Event, 80% discount on consumption points)
[Consumption Point Balance: 245,014 yen / 500,000 yen] (Gain more favor to unlock higher limits)
"Just 200,000 yen short. I'll get my paycheck this afternoon."
Fuyukawa Tetsu blinked.
Consumption points, as the name implied, came from spending. For every yen he spent in the real world, his consumption points ticked up by one. Those points could then be used to redeem various items in the system's store.
Right now, he had his sights set on Love Is All Around, a live-action interactive narrative game. He just needed to spend another 200,000 yen in the real world to redeem it.
"I remember this game blew up back in my old world."
"A ton of people loved it, but a ton of people hated it too. Some folks—especially certain vocal groups and self-righteous guys—called it 'industrial poison.' But honestly, it's not that different from a K-drama. At its core, it caters to people who've given up on real-world romance as the environment gets harsher, fulfilling their emotional needs."
Fuyukawa Tetsu leaned back in his chair.
He found something amusing.
Back in the day, women obsessed over K-dramas, calling every male lead oppa, copying their fashion, and even comparing their boyfriends or husbands to K-drama characters. Yet nobody called K-dramas "industrial poison." A show like My Love from the Star took the world by storm—people with or without partners were shouting oppa, thinking it was trendy and fun.
So why was it that when a game catering to men's emotional needs came out, society was so quick to criticize?
Some guys even joined in, acting like moral crusaders, as if they'd never turned to certain colorful videos for comfort.
Fuyukawa Tetsu didn't get it, but it didn't matter.
He just wanted to make money.
In his view, the success of Love Is All Around boiled down to two things.
First, it was a live-action interactive narrative game, not too different from a Galgame, but the impact of real-world visuals was stronger than 2D animation. It's like how most people, once they're used to live-action content, rarely go back to anime.
The sense of immersion and realism from real-life beauties was just leagues above 2D.
Second, it fulfilled the romantic fantasies of a ton of male players. Those fantasies often stemmed from real-world pressures—phrases like "genuine love equals being a simp," "green tea girls run the show," or "no car, no house, no marriage" were all too common. This was pretty much the same across East Asia's "big three."
"Japan once had that 'three wallets' phenomenon, but now most young guys are just lying flat."
"It's different from back home, where people talk about lying flat but are still grinding hard. Even if they say they're done with love, the human yearning for beautiful romance never changes."
"Give them a kind, gorgeous girl from a good family who chases them, and they'll perk right up."
"And I can give them six at once."
"This project's success is mine for the taking."
Leaning back in his chair, deep in thought, his phone buzzed on the desk.
[Your account 9527 received a deposit of 682,427.14 yen on September 7 at 4:21 PM. Note: (Salary) {Sumitomo Bank}]
Payday had arrived.
Glancing at his phone screen, Fuyukawa Tetsu's lips curled into a slight smile.
Nearly 700,000 yen—not a fortune, but not chump change either.
In Tokyo, everyday items like vegetables, fruits, and meat were pricey. A pound of high-quality pork ribs could cost 1,500 yen, roughly 70 RMB.
Prices were steep, one of the main pains for Tokyo's average folks. But while daily necessities were expensive, big-ticket items like phones, cars, and houses weren't as bad. In RMB terms, a new iPhone here was about 10,000, a BMW X5 around 600,000, and Tokyo's average housing prices hovered around 60,000 per square meter.
Statistics showed that a salaried family in Tokyo needed to grind for ten years to afford a house. Social pressure was immense.
With salaries hitting accounts, cheerful chatter echoed from outside.
Payday had everyone in high spirits. Fuyukawa Tetsu stretched, opened the LINE app on his computer, found a bunny avatar, and sent a message.
L: Koyako, come in for a sec.
Soso: Be right there, boss!
Through the window, he saw a beautiful woman with a low ponytail near the door stand up with a clatter. She started to leave her desk but paused, nervously smoothing her skirt and collar, checking herself in a compact mirror before heading to the door.
"Team Leader, you needed me?"
The woman, Kawauchi Sayoko, swayed her hips as she pushed open the door and stood to Fuyukawa Tetsu's left.
She leaned forward slightly, just enough for him to catch a glimpse of the black lace at her skirt's edge.