Chapter 50: The Future to Come [Vol. 1 End]
On a wonderful Monday morning, at Dusk Entertainment, the company that created Umbra Frontier Online.
The founding members of said gaming company are currently holding a board meeting to discuss the future of their game.
And by board meeting, they are currently lounging around on the couch in the room, eating popcorn while watching videos of their event's matches projecting on the screen in front of them. All to analyse what parts of their game they needed to fix.
Naturally, this means that the match they are mostly looking at is the night match that occurred on Day 1, Saturday; the match where Yoru partook in and wreaked havoc on every other player in the same map as her.
"Damn... She really went hard." Said one of the founding members, Suzuki, munching on popcorn.
"Yeah. The bugs aside, the combined usage of Multi-Casting and Delay-Casting the Explosion spell was stupidly overpowered. How come your team didn't code it so that those two skills wouldn't work together, Yuki?" Said another founding member, Rindou, to his friend sitting next to him.
"Oh you know why, Rindou. There's only so many things I could do before the release date of our game!" Yuki, another of the founding members, retorted as he continued to angrily eat his popcorn.
"Kinda have to agree with Yuki there. We need to hire more people." The fourth founding member in the room, Aki, then spoke up as well.
"But we don't have the funds to hire more people. Not unless the Fujimiya Corporation has decided to invest in us." Suzuki argued.
"Or one of us can take part of Yuki's responsibilities so that he can focus on other things." Aki suggested. "In which case, I nominate Suzuki to be the one to carry this burden."
"Seconded." Yuki agreed with the notion.
Suzuki, on the other hand, jumped in shock. "What!? Why the hell, man!?" He bellowed.
"Dude, what do you mean why? You sit at your desk all day barely doing any work, while Satou and the other admins we hired do them for you. If you've got plenty of time on your hands, you might as well help Yuki out, you bastard." Aki answered with his argument.
"Shit... You noticed?"
"Of course we did. Nobody laughs their ass off while working behind the computer." Aki then turned to the person next to him, as he asked them.
"What do you think, Monika? Do you agree with us or nah?"
Monika, the person sitting next to Aki and the fifth founding member of the company, however, did not answer the question at all as she simply continued to watch the video in silence while eating popcorn.
"Say... I wonder if we can make Yoru the face of our game?" She spoke her thoughts out loud, which were heard by the men on the couch with her.
"You want her to be the face of our game? Are you serious, Monika?" Rindou asked, looking at her as if she was crazy.
"Yes. I mean, for starters, after her victory in the night match on Saturday, there have been many clips and videos about her on Youtube and other social media platforms with thousands of views in just a single day." Monika explained her first point.
"Not to mention that her most notable achievement was defeating the number one player, Zanny, who was streaming live at the time, and that stream got her popularity boosted big time among players and non-players of our game." She then gave her second point.
"In addition, the UFO players have gotten to call her the Umbra Witch because of that fame, which also relates to the full name of our game, Umbra Frontier Online. Plus, her name also means 'night' in English, which is also kind of the theme surrounding our game." She finished off with her last two points and gave her conclusion.
"In my opinion, she's the perfect character to be the face of our game. What's more, she's hot and has big boobs. And you all know very well that tits sell in this industry."
After Monika presented all of her points to the men, they paused in silence for a moment as they took their time to consider her proposal.
"Monika's got a point. Yoru is hot. But..." Aki gave his counterpoint. "I think making her the face of our game this early isn't a good idea. It's not like sales for our game have skyrocketed or anything. It's only been a day after all. Plus, are we allowed to just use the face of our customer's in-game character and sell it without consulting them first? What's the legality for that, huh?"
"I don't know. I'm not a lawyer, I'm a degenerate— I mean, artist." said Rindou.
"Same thing, dude." Yuki remarked.
"It's probably best that we contact Yoru's player about it before doing anything, if we are going to make her the face of our game that is. Players have to register their accounts with their emails after all, so we can write them one when it comes to it." Monika commented. "But for now, I think we should focus on the current matter at hand. That being the bugs and exploits we need to patch because of Yoru... and Zanny too!"
"You're right, Monika. We can't forget about Zanny too. He's just as broken as Yoru is, and that's unfair to the other players of our game." Said Suzuki.
"Yeah... Also, Suzuki, I agree with Aki and Yuki. You need to help them out if you aren't going to do any work yourself." Monika suddenly remarked, siding with Aki and Yuki on Suzuki's lack of responsibilities.
"God dammit. You were listening after all!"
"Of course I was. How could I not when you boys were yelling at each other at that time? You're our boss for fuck's sake, Suzuki. Act like it!" She then gave the man a lecture.
"Come to think of it, why did we even vote Suzuki to be the boss? I forgot." Rindou asked.
"Why of course. It's because of my dashing face and irresistible charm—"
"Naaah. It's because if anything goes wrong in our company, we figured we could just push all of the blame onto Suzuki and let him sort it out. Since, you know... he's our boss and a good boss always takes responsibility for the mistakes of their subordinates." Said Yuki, interjecting Suzuki.
"Aaah, yes. Now I remember."
"What the hell, you guys!?" Suzuki bellowed in shock again.
But before another argument ensued, Aki intervened with a loud clap.
"Suzuki, Rindou, Yuki... You three can go settle your issue outside of the office later. Now, focus on what we need to do."
Suzuki, Rindou and Yuki then looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders after a few seconds. "Yeah, alright..." They said at the same time.
And finally, the team got to focus on discussing the things they needed to patch.
Starting with the Monster Tamer skill that gave Yoru her bug army...
"Not gonna lie, the bug army was terrifying but also cool at the same time. I'd say we limit how many monsters the skill can tame without removing the chance of creating an army altogether."Suzuki suggested.
"Yeah. I have to agree with Suzuki on this one. Let's not nerf the skill too much." Rindou said.
"Then let's shall put the limit to 69!" Yuki then shouted, garnering the looks of his friends who were tired of his shenanigans.
"Really...? Again, Yuki?"
"We left you to do the descriptions and you keep putting memes and references in them. And now this?"
"Oh shut up! You guys do realise that I'm the one who's going to do most of the work after this meeting, right!? At least let me have some fun with it then!"
"Sure. Whatever. Just don't go overboard with it. Anyways, next will be the—"
As the discussion was about to move onto the next issue, Suzuki's phone suddenly rang, interrupting the meeting.
"Dude... Seriously?"
"You couldn't put it on vibrate?"
"Shh! Everyone, quiet now! It's Yoruichi Fujimiya!"
The moment when Suzuki said that name, the others in the room held their breaths in anticipation while Suzuki answered the call.
"Hello. Good morning, sir. This is Suzuki..."
...
"Ah yes..."
...
"Yes..."
...
"Is that so?"
...
"Of course! Thank you very much, sir! We look forward to meeting your expectations!"
Then Suzuki ends the call. The look on his face pretty much told them how the conversation went. But they still asked anyway.
"Suzuki, could it be...?"
"Yes..." Suzuki replied, as he stood up and announced it out loud to his friends. "WE GOT MONEY, BABY!"
""Woooohoooooo~!!"" The team cheered with joy.
"Finally, we can hire more people!"
"And pay our employees better wages!"
"Thank you, Yoruichi Fujimiya's kid. You're the best!"
Their moment of joy and celebration lasted as long as it could. Namely, just a minute. But once that was over, the founding members of Dusk Entertainment got back to the topic at hand and finished their meeting as fast as they could within the next two hours. Having more important things to prioritise now that the future of their company was looking bright like the rising dawn.
🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫
Meanwhile, around the same time...
Yoruto was accompanying Sanae back to her house. They took the train and walked to her place, reaching there in no time as the couple stopped in front of the entrance to her family's house and restaurant.
"Well, this is where I'll leave now." Yoruto said, excusing himself now that he had escorted his girlfriend back to her home safely.
But Sanae stopped him for a second. "Are you sure, Yoruto? You don't want to come in for a cup of tea at least?" She asked him.
"It's alright." He kindly refused. "If I were to go in, I feel like I won't be able to leave until much later." He said, knowing full well that his boss, Sanae's father, Mr Yahiro, wouldn't let him go so easily and bombard him with questions about the weekend they have spent together.
"I see. Well then let me send you a little present before you go." Sanae said, taking her phone out.
She sent something as Yoruto received in his phone. Curious as to what it was, he phone his phone out to check and was profoundly shocked to see the "present" Sanae had sent.
"Hold on. Sanae, you..."
"I took it while you were in your game. Try not to look at it too much while you're in public, alright?"
"Like hell I would..." Yoruto sighed. "Anyways, bye Sanae. See you tomorrow."
"Bye bye, Yoruto. Be sure to invite me over to your place again, alright?"
"Sure."
And with that, Yoruto made his exit while Sanae went to the back door and entered her house.
"I'm back!" She announced her return.
"Oh! Welcome back, Sanae." Her father greeted her, before going back to doing his job as the chef.
Then her mother greeted her too once she was done waiting for a customer. "Welcome back, sweetie. How was your weekend with Yoruto? Your father and I were really curious about that."
"I'll tell you two about it later. More importantly, Mom, did a package for me arrive while I was at Yoruto's house?" Sanae asked her mother next.
"A package? Oh. Why yes, my dear." Her mother answered. "Your father took the liberty of opening it even though I told him not to." She added.
"I got curious. Sorry." Said Sanae's father, as he passed a hot bowl of katsudon to her mother to serve it to one of the customers.
"It's alright, Dad."
"Ok. So then, my daughter, Daddy's gotta ask: Why did you buy one of those Dive Gear thingys for? You even got some game with it."
"I'm surprised you know about the console, Dad."
"Don't you know where we live, girl? Advertisements of that gaming console can be seen everywhere on buildings around us. What's more, you got the more expensive version of the thing. For what?"
"Because it's portable." Sanae explained. "Also, before you speak any further, Dad, Yoruto has a Dive Gear of his own as well." She added.
"He has?"
"Yup. He and his little sister have one each with the same game that you saw in the package. I bought it so that I can play the game with them in the future. Yoruto did say that he had fun with the game they've played."
"Oh. Well why didn't you start with that then!?" Sanae's father immediately changed his mind. "And here I thought you've wasted your money for something stupid. So when will you be playing with them then? Tonight? Tomorrow?" He then asked his daughter.
"No. Not so early. I want to experience the game by myself first. See how fun it is. Also, I want to surprise Yoruto with it, so don't tell him when he comes to work tomorrow. Alright, Dad?"
"Gyahahahaha! You got it, sweetheart! Now... go and help your mother out."
"Yes sir~"