NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2
I am a game director.
At the same time, I am someone who enjoys subcultures, so-called an otaku.
That is to say, I am more familiar with popular media like games, comics, and novels, as well as subcultures, compared to others.
Given this from my perspective,
I think I might have regressed to the past.
“Ho-jin! It’s the weekend; how much longer do you plan to roll around in bed?”
It was one day living with my parents back in 2011.
That time when I was 29 years old.
I’ve gone back ten years, returning to the past.
***
Of course, I wasn’t calm about the situation.
Because in my last memory, I was definitely dead.
The lingering pain still haunting me faintly proves this wasn’t a dream.
Moreover, when I pulled out my smartphone to check the date, I could feel the bulkiness and weight that differed from the latest smartphone of the company A I used to enjoy before regressing.
“Did I really travel back to the past…?”
“Ho-jin! Hurry up and come out to eat!”
“I’m coming right away!”
I couldn’t help but smile at the long-missed nagging of my mother.
After living on my own, I hadn’t had the chance to hear my mother’s nagging.
Prompted by my mother’s urging, I got out of bed, ate, and when I returned, time had flown by.
As a bonus, after eating with my parents, I was able to somewhat come to terms with everything.
In short, it was all about setting one’s mind.
Why bother knowing the reason for this time-travel regression to the past?
I just needed to humbly accept the fact that I had regressed and make the most of it.
For that, my first step was… turning on the computer.
There were countless things from this point in the past I needed to check.
First, I had to confirm whether the events I recalled and the events in this moment in time matched.
If the events occurring in the future were to differ from those in my memory, the entire plan might collapse.
After spending about an hour browsing the internet to compare, fortunately, there seemed to be no significant differences.
If there were big discrepancies, I would have had to modify the entire plan from the beginning, so this was lucky.
Taking it further, I also checked the gaming news, but nothing was different from my memory.
The dominance of PC games seemed unwavering, reflecting the era of strong PC gaming as in my memories.
On the mobile gaming side, while there were a few news articles mentioning mini-games, it was still in its nascent stage.
With the smartphone performance being rudimentary, the games weren’t much different from those on feature phones.
Considering that Japan, the birthplace of subcultures, would begin flooding the market with mobile gacha games in 2014, two years from now,
there was no time to sit back and relax after regressing.
The first thing to do was to restore the proposal document.
Fortunately, I had regressed at a time when the proposal document was only recently completed; had it been any later, it would have been quite difficult.
*
After finishing the proposal by midday and uploading it to the cloud, I started a new word processing program.
“With the immediate fire put out, what’s next…?”
Although I had a vague idea of what to do after regressing, I lacked a detailed plan to execute it.
Let’s think this through.
The most pressing matter was to get approval for the proposal document and then find a company that can develop my game.
If this was the future, it might have been possible, but at this point in the past returning here,
this document was certainly challenging.
Of course, starting a business could be an option, but I ruled it out as my last resort.
Because I had nothing right now.
No capital to make the game.
No human resources to make the game with.
Even though pre-regression, it might have been possible for me to somehow start a small to medium game development company,
it was close to impossible for me now, having returned to my younger self.
So, the only options left are two:
Somehow get the document approved in my current company, NDSoft,
or switch to another company.
“How should I proceed…?”
Thinking rationally, switching jobs would be the obvious choice.
Because, from what I recall before the regression, the probability of the document being approved was next to zero.
But… it felt a bit regretful to just give up.
Whether to call it company loyalty.
Or because I didn’t leave on bad terms before regression, I wanted to challenge it one more time.
After spending the weekend like that, it’s been a week since returning to work.
I’ve ended up earning the nickname in the company as the “eccentric.”
***
I had anticipated it.
If it had been an easy task to persuade someone, I wouldn’t have struggled so much before the regression.
Still, I thought at least some points might go through if I had a direct talk with the Department Head…
But reality went completely against my expectations.
“Ho-jin, I understand what you’re saying, but this isn’t really feasible. Running a business isn’t like kids’ play.”
“Yeah, yeah. If smartphones become widespread, mobile gaming markets are bound to expand. I understand that much. However, the question is, why this genre among so many others?”
“Rather than spending a lot of development costs, we could go for RPGs that easily gather big players, or something minimal like that bird-throwing game demolishing buildings that recently became a hit.”
“No matter what, it won’t work. You also know that the Business Department won’t approve the project. Instead, when the organizational restructuring leads to the establishment of the Mobile Game Development Team, I’ll transfer you there. Got it?”
In the end, the half-an-hour meeting with the Department Head yielded nothing.
It would be a lie to say I felt no regret, but…
I was somewhat prepared, so I didn’t feel particularly upset.
I was only slightly disheartened by the need to finally take out the card of changing jobs that I’d been holding all along.
I moved from the Team Office to the Rest Room just to clear my head.
I didn’t have much to do at the office since the current project had ended, and right now, I didn’t feel like talking to anyone.
If anyone had been in the Rest Room, it would’ve been a pain, but fortunately, it was empty.
Of course, it’s expected to be empty in the middle of the morning work hours.
Just as I was enjoying the feeling of leisure, sinking into the reclining Sofa of the Rest Room,
the sound of the door opening caught my attention, and a familiar silhouette appeared in the Rest Room.
“Senior, you’re here.”
The Junior who entered the Rest Room glanced at me briefly and then sat on the chair next to me.
“Is something up? Did the Department Head send you to fetch me?”
“No?”
“Then how did you know I was here?”
At my question, the Junior replied with an expressionless face.
“Senior would probably mope around in obvious places like this Rest Room or the rooftop after getting scolded by the Department Head.”
“You talk as if…”
This cocky Junior’s name is Lee Yerin.
She is currently the Art Director but was a close Junior colleague when we worked together in the Art Designer team.
I first met Yerin around two years ago for a new project at this time.
Unexpectedly, our teamwork clicked, and she was talented, so we always participated in projects together since then.
There was also no particular formality between us as we spent long hours together working late nights.
“Before that, Senior, is something going on lately?”
“What makes you think so?”
“The Department Head mentioned you’ve been acting weird lately—how you used to make good games and never caused problems, yet suddenly changed.”
“Was it that noticeable?”
“Didn’t you notice?”
“Not really. To be honest, I kind of expected this but hearing it directly feels different.”
“So, why the sudden strange behavior?”
The Junior leaned in slightly and asked.
“Everyone’s curious why someone who never seemed to care about subcultures suddenly announces plans to develop a mobile game related to subcultures.”
Judging by the fact that this Junior who rarely talked about others was having this conversation, it seems there’ve been quite a lot of rumors about me the past week.
“To be honest, I traveled from the future. It was a future where so-called gacha games topped sales and the animated movie hit 4 million viewers.”
Since I knew she wouldn’t believe it anyway, I told her the truth as it was, and as expected, she looked perplexed.
“Stop lying… Just say you don’t want to talk about it.”
“But it’s the truth.”
“Fine. I was just worried.”
Looking at her pouted expression, I shrugged.
‘Now that I think about it, I should ask her to review this proposal.’
Personally, I didn’t think this proposal would receive bad evaluations,
but others might see things differently.
Moreover, considering what I remember from before the regression, Yerin’s judgment was dependable.
“Yerin, can I ask you a favor?”
“Favor? Sure, but…”
“I’ve written a proposal that I’ve never shown to anyone else yet. Can you take a look when you have a moment?”
“It hasn’t been long since the last project ended. Are you already preparing a new one?”
“Not a new one. It’s the one you’re curious about.”
“Huh… Oh.”
Yerin, who had been tilting her head at my story, seemed to immediately realize what I was talking about.
“Is it that thing that got severely criticized by the Department Head?”
“That’s the one.”
“I can look at it, but I’m not an expert in that field, so I might not be able to give much feedback.”
As she sipped the coffee she had gotten at some point while making some excuses, I had to admit inwardly how crafty she was.
Had I not regressed, or if I hadn’t listened to what she said before the regression, I might’ve been fooled easily.
Still…
“It’s okay. I already know.”
“Already? What do you know?”
“I know that you’re already familiar with this subculture.”
“What? That’s absurd.”
“What was the name of your doujin circle again… Nero’s Workshop, right?”
“Blimey!”
It seems she hadn’t anticipated me mentioning the doujin circle’s name because her face clearly showed her surprise.
“Ah… so you really know…”
“Your doujin circle name, Nero’s Workshop?”
“Ugh…!!”