"Hmm... how should I put it..."
Momoi who was holding her hands looked as if she were thinking seriously.
However, Midori beside her knew that when her sister was in deep thought, she usually came up with something amusing.
"Why did this adult named Dan Kuroto come to our activity room without saying anything?"
Dan Kuroto appeared more like the owner of the Game Development Department than Momoi and the others, He even cleaned up a spot and had already cleared a corner in the messy room.
He had even unceremoniously moved a computer aside, ignoring the aggrieved cry of "Give it back to me..." from the trembling cabinet next to him, and began talking to himself online.
"Aren't you looking for the most powerful game producer?" Dan Kuroto connected to the Millennium Science School network and happily began collecting information about this world. The Gamer Driver and Gashat had been digitized and stored in his own storage space.
Dan Kuroto pointed his thumb at his nose and declared, "That's me! I'm the ultimate game producer! If anyone can create the ultimate game, it's no one else but me!"
"Wow... You really don't blush when you brag about yourself," Momoi replied, her eyes rolling as if they were dead fish. "I believed your lies and brought you back— but speaking of that, return Yuzu-chan's computer to her! Look at her; she's been scared and can't speak!"
Midori sat silently nearby. "After all, he is a stranger and an adult at that."
Yuzu, the president of the Game Development Department, was shy and timid.
The moment Dan Kuroto entered the activity room, Yuzu had already shrunk into the innermost part of the cabinet as quickly as possible.
When Dan Kuroto forcibly took the computer with the Yuzu sticker on it for himself, she merely shrank back, shouting a few complaints in a voice no louder than a mosquito.
It was truly humble and pitiful.
Dan Kuroto operated the computer in front of him skillfully. The notebook in front of him was structurally no different from the one he had used before, and even the text was similar. Except for the unfamiliar operating system and various applications, everything else was easy for Dan Kuroto to undersDand.
"Well... on the surface, it's just an ordinary Academy City..."
Dan Kuroto's gaze moved away from the screen and landed on Momoi's head, which was looking at him curiously. The thing that had attracted his attention from the beginning was the halo.
"Hey," Dan Kuroto suddenly spoke.
Momoi was startled. "My name is not Hey! My name is Momoi Sabai!"
"Then Momoi Sabai," Dan Kuroto hummed, asking her, "What is this halo on your head?"
Momoi looked confused. "...It's a halo?"
"Mr. Dan should be an adult outside, so he doesn't have a halo, right?" Midori beside him shook her head. "We've had this halo since we were born. For us, it's just something we are born with, so if you're asking for about it specifically... there's nothing special about it."
Momoi raised her hand and answered loudly, "I know, I know! It goes out when you sleep, and it lights up when you wake up!"
"Hmm... that sounds weird."
Dan Kuroto was integrating all the information he had gathered so far. The curious child beside him, Alice—who had been picked up by Momoi and Midori—began exploring the room, reaching toward the cabinet where Yuzu was hiding.
Alice reached for the cabinet door handle, saying, "A suspicious creature is hiding. The search procedure is being executed..."
"Help, help, Momoi..."
Yuzu from within the cabinet reached out with tears in her eyes to pull the door shut, isolating her from the outside world.
Momoi and Midori reacted. They were about to pull Alice away, but Alice had already overpowered Yuzu, who had not exercised in a long time, and pulled the door open.
"Found the target!"
"Ah! Don't eat me!!"
Suddenly confronted by a stranger, Yuzu was so scared that her soul appeared to fly away, and her whole body began to tremble. It felt wrong to reach out or close the door.
Facing the gazes of Alice and Dan Kuroto, Yuzu chose to cover her head and pretend to be an ostrich. "Don't see me! Don't see me!"
"Is this a funny skit?" Dan Kuroto raised his eyebrows. "Who is this?"
"Ah... this is the president of our Game Development Department," Midori explained, acting as the introducer. She introduced Alice and Dan Kuroto to the red-haired girl who looked like a frightened deer: "This is Yuzu."
A light flashed in Alice's eyes. "The target's name has been changed."
"Why does Aris sound so strange..." Momoi complained. "By the way, is Aris a student at our school?"
"Aris who we found in the ruins doesn't seem to resemble any Millennium students..." Midori lamented. "But she also has a halo, so she should be... a student, right?"
As she said this, Momoi suddenly jumped up, as if she had thought of a brilliant idea. "Oh, right! Midori! Our club still needs to recruit a member! If no one else wants to join, let Aris join? That way, the club will have the minimum standard of four people!"
"Let Aris join?" Midori looked at Alice's face. Alice tilted her head slightly, saying, "Please express your needs in standard language."
"That's not how a normal person talks at all!" Midori complained. "No students at our school can imitate a robot's speech. Yuuka would definitely see we have a problem if she saw this!"
"Wow... that's true..."
Momoi sat down frustrated. At this time, Dan Kuroto clapped his hands, attracting the attention of the two.
"I said, aren't you going to make the most amazing ultimate game?" Dan Kuroto supported his face with one hand. "Now that you've found me, don't you have anything to ask?"
"Yes, yes!" Momoi remembered the purpose of their visit to the ruins which had left her looking so dirty. "Originally, I was going to find the data for the legendary game 'G.BIBLE,' but I didn't find 'G.BIBLE'—I just brought a strange adult back!"
"Speaking of which, the students I met nearby were very surprised," Midori recalled, remembering the looks of the students she had encountered on the way back. "After the Sensei of the General Student Council fell, it seemed like Mr. Dan Kuroto was one of the only two foreign adults in the entire Kivotos."
"Forget that; it's not important. Right now, our lives are at stake!" Momoi waved her hand. "To save the Game Development Department and prevent from being abolished, so we must show results at the Millennium Prize!"
"So, the Game Development Department's performance is based on coming up with new games?" Dan Kuroto smiled. "It's simple and straightforward."
Momoi came over excitedly and stretched out her hand impatiently. "Then come up with it quickly! The secret method to make the best game!"
"Wait a minute." Dan Kuroto stretched out his arm and pressed Momoi's face down. "My favor is not so easy to obtain. Aren't you the Game Development Department? Let me see your game."
"Our..." Momoi looked at Midori.
"Game..." Midori turned her head toward Yuzu, who was still pretending to be an ostrich on the ground.
The two pointed at Yuzu with a look that appear to say, "It's your turn to decide." "Yuzu! Bring out 'Tales Saga Chronicles'!"
"That, that..." Yuzu looked very unconfident. "But... a stranger..."
Yuzu knew what the outside world thought of her game.
"But that game was criticized a lot..."
Her implication was clear: unlike the fans who came to her and admitted they were fans of her game, this Dan Kuroto was an adult!
In this academy city full of students, Kivotos, adults are not common. All things are basically handled by the student unions of all sizes. From the General Student Council to the student unions of each academy autonomous region, almost all students handle their own affairs.
Not to mention that the various concepts are already very different from those of the students, "Tales Saga Chronicles" that Yuzu posted on the forum before was almost criticized. If it weren't for Momoi and Midori coming to her that day, Yuzu might have given up her dream of making games long ago.
"Hey, I'm talking to you," Dan Kuroto suddenly spoke.
"Really?!!"
Yuzu shuddered and subconsciously shrank back, trying to retreat into the small cabinet where she was hiding, but Dan Kuroto was faster, pulling out his Gashacon weapon from behind—the bird-shaped bow—and stabbing it straight into Yuzu's way back.
"The floor of the activity room!!"
Momoi's eyes turned into OvO, looking at the cracks on the floor with heartache, and Yuzu almost fainted: "Wow, wow, wow..."
"Since you think you are a game producer, you should be confident in your work!" Dan Kuroto crossed his legs without hesitation and raised his chin. "Is that how you treat your work? Do you think your game is just a random non-burnable garbage?"
"No..."
The voice was very weak.
Yuzu tightly pinched the hem of her clothes.
"No..."
"Yuzu..." Momoi stood up worriedly. "Kuroto-san, what did you say—"
"Hmm?" Dan Kuroto raised his eyebrows, and his eyes stopped on Yuzu's face. Although the child didn't look at him, Dan Kuroto saw her clenched hands and the hesitation and persistence in her eyes.
"--It's not garbage!"
"What did you say?" Dan Kuroto deliberately turned his ear to the side. "I can't hear!"
Yuzu felt her voice trembling, and her feet were also a little shaky. It was the first time she spoke to others in this voice and tone.
My, my... my game is not random garbage!"
"Very good, this is the mentality of a game producer!" Dan Kuroto clapped his hands. "So what are you waiting for?"
Dazed by this sudden change in attitude, Yuzu showed a confused expression. "Huh?"
"Hurry up and bring the game here!" Dan Kuroto ordered Yuzu to bring out the game in a domineering manner. "Let me see your level!"
"Yuzu, you've come to this point." Momoi grabbed Yuzu's hand and calmed her down. "Let him see it! The power of the bond of our Game Development Department!"
"Well, that's good..."
Finally, Yuzu turned around and rummaged through the cabinet where she was hiding. She found the USB flash drive containing "Tales Saga Chronicles" and handed it to Dan Kuroto. "Insert it into the computer and it will start directly..."
"Speaking of which, can Aris' tone of voice which sounds not like a human's be changed..." Momoi at the side seemed to have thought of something.
"If you let Aris play games, maybe she can learn to speak normally?"
Alice asked in confusion: "Games...?"
Midori's eyes lit up: "It seems possible to give it a try?"
"In this case, let Aris play high-quality games, and her way of speaking will also become better!" Momoi became excited. "Let me recommend a few to you! First, play 'Hero Mythology,' 'Final Fantasy,' 'Forever Aisu'..."
"What are you talking about! Aris-chan has just started playing games, so she must start with 'The Legend of Selna: Dream Island!'"
Speaking of the topic of recommending games, Yuzu who was a little timid just now, became bolder. Although she was still a little afraid of Dan Kuroto, who was sitting next to her, she also plucked up the courage to say: "Next, the next game is 'Romantic Legend'; I can't give in to this!"
The three girls here began to chatter about the game for Alice and naturally turned the topic away from Dan Kuroto.
However, Dan Kuroto was not a person who needed others' attention. He inserted the USB drive into the computer and clicked the mouse to open the only folder in the USB drive.
"Strategy, start!"
Time went from morning to noon and from noon to night. It should be explained in advance that Dan Kuroto was not a genius player who was good at strategizing games. He was a genius game developer, which was different from playing games. Although he got all the data of the entire game through the special physique of his data life form, in the end, Dan Kuroto still chose to play the entire game again.
Because he knew the game data in advance, even though the game "Tales Saga Chronicles" did not have cheat codes, it even had many common problems of old games—no map, save point restrictions, key items without foreshadowing and prompts, hidden intersections, hidden NPCs hidden in corners, special options and strategies that are impossible to know for the first time, etc. But with Dan Kuroto's "cheating strategy" of obtaining the data in advance, he easily skipped these pitfalls that he would have stepped on and only spent five hours to play the first playthrough.
"The perfect ending is in the second playthrough... Forget it, anyway, I have seen the ending of the second playthrough from the data, so there is no need."
Dan Kuroto put down the controller and turned his head. There were three girls with wide eyes around him.
Among them, Yuzu, as the author, was the most shocked. When she saw Dan Kuroto's strategy halfway through, her eyes could not help but be attracted by the game screen. When she wanted to give a bonus as a game author and remind Dan Kuroto that there was a special option when talking to the monster gatekeeper, she saw Dan Kuroto skillfully manipulate the character to move down two squares, breaking the rope on the wall next to him, and letting the gate fall and kill the monster gatekeeper.
"How... how is this possible? People who are playing for the first time can't know it at all!"
And the more she watched Dan Kuroto play, the more shocked Yuzu's expression became.
Midori and Momoi on the side were still instructing Alice to play the game at the beginning, but later, the two of them, who had completed "Tales Saga Chronicles," also came over.
"How could he know..."
"Even the hidden door?!"
"The key items were all found!"
"There are hidden NPCs that you can't possibly know in the first playthrough?!"
The three girls watched in amazement as Dan Kuroto played from beginning to end, the best route, the shortest time, all elements collected in the first playthrough, all teammates collected in the first playthrough, until the best ending of the first playthrough.
When Dan Kuroto put down the controller, the three girls realized that it was already late.
"I'm done." Dan Kuroto slapped the table. "Do I need to tell you what I think?"
"No! You must have played this game before, right?!"
Momoi slammed the table and stood up. "How can a pure novice see through all the traps and hidden elements in the first playthrough? You must have played it secretly!"
"Yeah... I can't accept it..." Midori was also full of disbelief. "This game is a super retro game without even cheat codes! You cleared the first playthrough in five hours; are you even human?!"
Yuzu's expression was complicated, with the joy of another person completing her game, the uneasiness of the evaluation, and the expectation of Dan Kuroto. The person in front of her seemed to have seen through her completely; all the confusing options and all hidden plot lines were completely seen through.
'Could it be that this person is my soulmate?'
In the music industry, there is a saying called soulmates; two people can communicate with each other and completely undersDand each other. And it's the same when it comes to game producers and players.
Just like the relationship between Miyazaki and old Souls players. There must be a big guy squatting in the corner waiting to steal someone's ass, and there must be a hateful little thief lurking near the white flash in the distance who can push you off a cliff.
Could it be that—
"Yuzu, you are the game producer, right? Come forward."
Dan Kuroto rubbed his eyes; he felt a little "tired."
That was a mentality that he had almost never felt since he became a Bugster; maybe only a little better than when he was developing the "Hyper Muteki" Gashat.
He really didn't expect that even if he had obtained all the data in advance, this game could still be so tiring.
"How. How is Tales Saga Chronicles?" Yuzu asked expectantly.
"It's simply—"
Midori opened her eyes wide. "A Masterpiece?"
"A piece of shit!!!"
A thunder crashed into the clear sky!!