March, the cherry blossoms start to bloom gradually from south to north in Japan, and during this time, government officials in various places will also promote the season for cherry blossom viewing, while some shops also begin to sell products related to cherry blossoms.
However, on this day, a new product seems somewhat out of place with the season.
The FC home entertainment computer.
A brand new special product.
Its function is simply for entertainment purposes.
At the entrance of the only sales venue, Ota's Arcade, there is already a long line.
Among them are many familiar faces.
They are all customers who have experienced electronic games at Ota's Arcade before.
This time, the majority of people queuing up are adults, but many of them are brought by their children. They say that if they are not allowed to buy it, they won't listen to their parents for the rest of the year.
Helplessly, seeing that the price of this thing is still acceptable, they come over to buy it for their children to keep them quiet completely.
"What's so fun about this thing? And why do we have to wait in such a long line? I say, child, I'll take you to buy the latest Transformers, which I heard are imported from the United States, much more fun than this, and even more expensive."
"I don't want that! I want this!"
"Alright."
Parents generally feel that the queue is too long and are a bit impatient.
But they can't resist their children's insistence.
This also makes them more curious about what's so fun about this thing.
They also noticed that there are several dozen tents at the entrance.
Obviously, these are the people who came to queue up several days in advance.
They all look very young, probably in their early twenties or even younger.
Is it necessary to make such crazy moves just to buy this thing?
It's still early spring, and the weather is a bit cold.
It's really hard to understand what these people are thinking. No wonder they say that today's young people in Japan are a lost generation.
They can actually be so crazy just to buy an entertainment product.
With a rustle, the rolling shutter slowly rises, and the people hiding in the tents immediately spring into action, coming out one after another.
"Wait, I'm the first one, please don't cut in line."
"Don't push, don't push!"
As the sign at the entrance changes to open, people immediately rush into the arcade.
The originally somewhat spacious arcade quickly fills up with people.
They wave their banknotes and shout to buy game consoles.
Especially the first few people in line, they directly want to buy more than ten game consoles, and they also want to purchase several games to go along with them, buying them as a package.
Airi Tsukino is still wrapped up tightly today, avoiding any close contact with anyone.
When she saw the huge size of the queue, she immediately became discouraged.
She had actually anticipated this.
Today, she's afraid she won't be able to buy the game console.
This made her feel a little regretful.
Seeing so many people lining up, she couldn't help but feel a sense of fear.
During this time, Airi Tsukino always comes over at midnight.
Because at that time, there are the fewest people, and she can occupy a game console by herself, with no one else around.
If only this shop could also sell game consoles at midnight.
Airi thought so.
She really wants to play these games immediately, but...
She looked at her hands, then glanced at the crowd.
She wanted to muster the courage to go over, but the feeling of fear quickly spread again.
Forget it, I won't go.
It's just a few games anyway, sooner or later, I'll be able to play them, at most... at most, I'll just stay up a few more days without sleeping.
These past few days, she hasn't slept well because there were no games to play.
She really wants to clear Dragon Quest.
In the past few days, she was about to turn the trial version of Dragon Quest into a speedrun game.
Right, why can't I make games myself?
But... how do I do it?
Being proficient in using computers, she has no idea how to make games.
In this world, there's no one to guide you on how to make games.
"There are a lot of people, right?"
Suddenly, a voice appeared next to Airi Tsukino.
"Ah!"
Airi Tsukino was suddenly startled, quickly jumped back, and looked at the person who spoke with fear.
"Sorry, I might have scared you."
Takayuki said in astonishment.
He didn't expect this girl who had been standing aside all along to react so strongly.
Normal people would just slightly retreat, but she jumped out so quickly, was he really that scary?
Today is the official release day of the game console.
No matter what, he will definitely come here to take a look.
Originally, he was planning to enter the store, and he even prepared his camera. On such a day, he must take more pictures to commemorate it.
But one person caught his attention.
That's Airi Tsukino.
She's wrapped up tightly as always, and looking at her from a distance, she doesn't seem like an ordinary passerby, she seems a bit strange.
So Takayuki walked over to chat with her.
"Please don't come near me, just stay where you are."
Airi Tsukino raised her hand to gesture to stop him, and looked at Takayuki vigilantly.
Takayuki suddenly felt puzzled, this person is getting weirder and weirder.
"You seem very eager to buy the game console, but why don't you queue up?"
Takayuki noticed several times before that Airi Tsukino seemed to have the impulse to walk over, but she would quickly stand still.
This does seem a bit abnormal.
"It's... it's too crowded here." Airi Tsukino said with her head tilted, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone.
"Many people... that's true, it does seem chaotic with so many people, and some people really won't like this kind of environment. Speaking of which, we really need to consider customers like you." Takayuki rubbed his chin in thought.
"What?" Airi Tsukino didn't react for a moment.
"Oh, it's like this, I'm also a sales staff, just a substitute. If you don't want to queue up, you can leave your address, and we'll deliver it to your doorstep by mail. You just need to pay on delivery, just like TV shopping."
At this moment, Takayuki suddenly remembered the delivery service from his previous life.
Sure enough, for electronic products with such a huge future sales volume, express delivery is necessary.
Simple store sales are a bit inefficient in terms of efficiency.
Airi Tsukino looked suspiciously at Takayuki.
No matter how she looked at him, he didn't seem like a sales staff member.
But he also didn't seem like a completely unrelated passerby.
"Alright, if you don't trust me, you can leave your address with the staff in the store. I'll arrange for one or two people to come out for registration later, and try to deliver it to your doorstep within three days."
After saying that, Takayuki walked into the store.
He suddenly thought of some ideas to speed up sales and planned to have a good talk with Ota.
There's no time to continue chatting with Airi Tsukino.
But the image of this strange girl stuck in Takayuki's mind.
Airi Tsukino looked at Takayuki entering the arcade, and then she felt that Takayuki's suggestion seemed indeed good, so she took out paper and pen from her pocket and wrote down her address and contact information.
Not long after, two store employees also walked out of the store, holding a huge sign that read 'Address Registration Office, customers in line behind can register their addresses here (limited to Tokyo area), delivery to your doorstep within three days.'
As soon as Airi Tsukino saw it, her eyes lit up immediately. She quickly walked up, handed her written address to the staff, and then left quickly without looking back.
Seeing the first person leave so quickly, like fleeing, the two store employees were a bit bewildered.
"Hey, wait a minute, I seem to remember this girl, she used to come over to play games at night."
"Ah, is that the weird girl who comes at night?"
"Why 'weird girl', that's so rude, why would she be called that?"
"Because that's what the customers say, they say that girl prohibits anyone from approaching her, not even allowed to watch her play games, she's a strange woman."
"Hmm... she does seem a bit strange."
At this moment, Airi Tsukino, who had left, was unaware of the discussion behind her. She was feeling quite pleased.
Three days for delivery to her doorstep, hmm, that's acceptable.
If she waits here, who knows how long it'll take to find a time when there's no one around to buy the game console.