Sometimes, all it takes to keep Hideo Kojima is a yukihira nabe.
After Kobayashi Tetsu gave him a Dave haircut, Hideo Kojima hurriedly promised that he would make the second Metal Gear as soon as possible.
Less than two weeks later, Hideo Kojima brought out a new proposal. Kobayashi Tetsu took a quick look, felt there were no problems, and gave Hideo Kojima the green light.
Time gradually arrived in May.
"Ahem... hmm!"
Early in the morning, Kobayashi Tetsu cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
"Let me formally introduce our new President's Assistant, Takamine Aika. From now on, please hand all administrative work or any matters you need to report to her. Don't underestimate this young lady; she's a graduate of Keio University."
According to usual practice, she should have been given a three-month vacation, and some money to travel abroad to ensure she wouldn't be poached by other companies.
However, Kobayashi Tetsu had already compensated for that in other ways.
Iwata Satoru looked up and let out a sigh of relief.
A significant portion of Atlas's paperwork was his responsibility; now, he could finally relax a bit.
"Additionally, there is one more thing."
Kobayashi Tetsu suddenly turned serious: "In the near future, I will readjust the operating structure of Atlas. Several department managers will receive a portion of equity, and all of you will also be able to obtain internal pre-IPO shares."
In other words.
"Within the next year, I will find a suitable opportunity to take Atlas public."
This IPO, it had to happen. He would take advantage of the fact that the Japanese had money right now to earn some from Japanese shareholders.
Beside him, Hideo Kojima suddenly looked up.
Had his persuasion worked!
Kobayashi Tetsu didn't even glance at Hideo Kojima.
The sun didn't rise because a rooster crowed; it just so happened that he was already considering changing Atlas's operating structure, and he encountered Hideo Kojima's matter this time. It was just a coincidence.
"Since everyone has no objections, the morning meeting ends here. Dismissed, everyone get back to work."
Kobayashi Tetsu raised his hand, arranged for Iwata Satoru to hand over the paperwork to Takamine Aika, and then ran off to Department 4 to handle the development work for Metal Slug.
Currently, Metal Slug's development was basically complete. The level design and numerical values had no major issues, only some adjustments still needed to be made to the boss battles and elite monsters.
Kobayashi Tetsu, that lazy bum, simply took a few bosses from his memory of Metal Slug 1 through 3 and used them for the design.
Over at Takamine Aika's side, after a quick handover with Iwata Satoru, she began to throw herself into her work.
Paperwork might seem like just following a script, but it actually has its requirements. It involves organizing matters into categories, reporting them to Kobayashi Tetsu based on necessity, and even skipping over some things at her own discretion.
However, this requires a certain level of skill and an understanding of Kobayashi Tetsu.
"Ah—it's an invitation to give a speech at a school," Aika Takamine said, flipping through the letters in her hand and looking at Satoru Iwata. "Mr. Iwata, how should this be handled?"
"Set it aside. Don't show it to the President; he basically doesn't attend such public speaking events. In fact, to put it bluntly, ordinary schools don't even have the standing to invite the President to give a speech."
Iwata Satoru was very direct: "Speeches like this are about mutual exposure, but looking at Atlas's situation, unless the other party is at the level of my alma mater, Tokyo Tech, or a school like your Keio University, invitations from ordinary schools are just one-sided attempts to ride on Atlas's coattails."
Aika Takamine nodded repeatedly, sorting the new letters away to be politely declined later.
As she was writing, Kobayashi Tetsu suddenly walked over.
"If it's a school with a decent reputation, we should still accept.
Since we've decided to take Atlas public, I need to make more public appearances. Otherwise, there's no way to give the shareholders confidence."
"If there are any schools of comparable status, let's accept those invitations. Since we have decided to proceed with Atlas's IPO, I need to make more public appearances; otherwise, it will be impossible to instill confidence in the shareholders."
Kobayashi Tetsu previously couldn't be bothered to attend, which was precisely due to the same reasons as Iwata Satoru.
But now, it was something he had to do. Making appearances in various public settings before an IPO was unavoidable.
Takamine Aika was lost in thought.
It seemed she needed to select schools with sufficient prestige. Schools that sounded impressive but were actually quite mediocre shouldn't be easily accepted.
Even if some schools had sufficient prestige, if the occasion for the lecture was too trivial, there would be no need to attend.
She quickly organized them, first separating what looked like invitations and letters, then identifying the lecture invitations, and finally, drawing on the education she had absorbed, she selected schools with sufficient prestige.
However, the letters from overseas gave her some trouble.
NTU.
What kind of rank did NTU have? This was truly difficult to gauge.
Kobayashi Tetsu, however, looked up.
He hadn't expected to have any connection with the Mysterious Island.
NTU was the top-ranked university on the Mysterious Island, so in terms of status, it was more than sufficient. The question was whether it was suitable to visit the Mysterious Island at this time.
Kobayashi Tetsu quickly filtered through the information in his mind.
1988, huh...
It seems I can go.
Nikola has just left by this time, and things over there have completely opened up. As long as it's just a speech and doesn't involve other political content, there shouldn't be any problems.
Kobayashi Tetsu confirmed once more: "What level of speech is it?"
"Department of Information Engineering," Takamine Aika looked down and repeated: "It's a freshman orientation speech issued in the name of the NTU Department of Information Engineering, scheduled for September, the time of freshman enrollment."
Kobayashi Tetsu breathed a sigh of relief.
He felt reassured then. This was the kind of speech that wouldn't involve politics; even if it did, he could brush it off.
Takamine Aika checked the schedule again and explained: "There are no schedule conflicts for now; the game release time marked here is October."
What Kobayashi Tetsu had marked was the release date of the MD, because Sonic 2, Metal Slug, and Ninja Gaiden would all be released on the MD. Among them, Sonic 2 and Metal Slug were launch titles, while Ninja Gaiden would be delayed for a while.
In that case, there was more than enough time.
Kobayashi Tetsu raised his hand.
"Reply to them and say I'll be there!"
Since May, Kobayashi Tetsu had been to many places.
Giving public speeches, participating in events, promoting games—he simply couldn't stop.
Previously, Kobayashi Tetsu had wanted to find a secretary to do the grunt work, but now it seemed he didn't have the time.
Consequently, his planned trip to North America also had to be shelved for the time being. He had originally wanted to go to North America to set up an Atlas office, but he really didn't have the time.
"When you're busy, you can't slack off—regularizing Atlas is indeed very necessary. At least this way, I won't have to handle everything myself!"
On the passenger ship heading to Taiwan, Kobayashi Tetsu closed his eyes to rest, a rare moment of respite.
Though, calling it a rest was a stretch; he barely had any time. Once he arrived in Taiwan, he would still have to leave his hotel number with Atlas, just in case they needed to reach him for anything urgent.
Gazing out at the sea through the porthole, Kobayashi suddenly recalled something.
"Come to think of it, Softstar should have been founded in 1988, right? 'Softstar in the North, Soft-World in the South,' they were famous!"
Softstar had quite a reputation among domestic gamers, with works including the Xuan-Yuan Sword series, Legend of Sword and Fairy series, Richman, and so on.
Of course, there was also Stardom.
However, at this time, Softstar didn't have such a rich portfolio or high ideals yet.
Like Koei, Softstar produced nothing but eroge in its early days, full of "dark history."
Kobayashi Tetsu clicked his tongue, feeling a bit regretful.
If only he had come earlier!
If he had come to Taiwan sooner and acquired Softstar early on, he wouldn't need to recruit Yao Zhuangpian later. Without Yao Zhuangpian, he could definitely save the Legend of Sword and Fairy series—and of course, he could avoid the split with Softstar Shanghai.
But for now...
Kobayashi Tetsu shook his head.
"Forget it, never mind Yao Zhuangpian. Besides, I'm just here to give a speech anyway!"
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