Ch.23[Chapter 23] My Little…?

Super Deluxe might have been right.

Once they secured the three people to set as basic characters, the subsequent progress was going smoothly.

“Not too many. Let’s start with 3 floors.”

“Since the word ‘floor’ is already overused, let’s divide it by regions-“

The synergy of these passionate developers was amazing.

There were still minor arguments, but thanks to Hanus of Five Colored Winds trying to maintain balance, they quickly produced something that looked like a game prototype.

While the developers were this busy, what were the three people selected as basic characters doing?

“So, you’re saying you’re a combat support android developed in Black Group’s secret laboratory?”

“Code Back Zero was manufactured as a prototype and is currently undergoing improvement work. The final goal is to achieve cost-effectiveness at around thirty million Credits per unit.”

Sir Dominic was having a conversation with the new person… no, android.

Zero, an android with such impressive completion that outwardly it looked no different from a human.

If not for the subtly silver-glowing skin and traces of joints visible between that skin, anyone would mistake it for a human.

“Black Group. What on earth is that?”

“Black Group is one of the Big 3 that make up Gachaland. The Executive branch, System Industries, and Black Group. Among them, Black Group is an alliance of companies that trade literally everything needed in Gachaland, from all materials to daily necessities.”

Good heavens. The more you dug into Gachaland, the more things kept popping up.

Sir Dominic added Black Group to the System Industries and Executive branch he already knew about.

Three is a stable number. Sir Dominic nodded while thinking this trivial thought.

While Sir Dominic and Zero were conversing, what was Unryu Hime doing?

“…Eek.”

Unryu Hime was hiding behind a wall, peeking at Sir Dominic in his pirate outfit and flinching.

Though Hime’s misunderstanding about pirates had somewhat cleared thanks to the developers’ desperate persuasion, for someone who had created her own trauma about pirates strong enough for her body to remember, her mind might understand but her body wasn’t there yet.

Feeling sorry for how bewildered Sir Dominic must have been by her misunderstanding, Hime wanted to apologize, but the fear of pirates engraved in her body kept stopping her.

“Ugh-ughhh-“

But true to being a ninja with cold reason and amazing tenacity, Hime was painfully advancing one step at a time.

However, people appeared who shattered Hime’s efforts.

“Hey! Try these for the walls and floor. I brought something awesome!”

Don Castello of Greed came through the door carrying an armful of tiles and wallpaper that matched the research lab.

The developers turned their heads to look carefully at the tiles, and all smiled brightly.

“Wow, these tiles match the concept perfectly! Where did you get them?”

“I peeled some off from my father’s secret laboratory.”

Hanus of Five Colored Winds recalled that Don Castello was the son of the president of Black Bio, which was part of Black Group.

As one of the three successors directly under the president, the scale of Black Bio’s secret laboratory was beyond imagination.

It seemed he had taken pieces from an invisible corner.

“My father won’t even notice. Besides, if we digitize it and copy-paste, who would recognize it? They’ll just think it looks similar and move on.”

Don Castello smiled like a villain.

His triple chin wobbled.

“Now we can create the stages.”

Leonardo the vampire, who was paired with the android, smiled.

“The laboratory concept itself matches well with the android. Just this will really bring out the feel.”

Leonardo took some of the tiles and entered the development room.

“Miss Zero! We’re about to have a meeting, so please come in!”

“Recognition. Confirmation. Executing action.”

Zero stood up and headed to the development room.

Now only Sir Dominic adjusting his pirate hat and Hime standing awkwardly remained in the waiting room.

Sir Dominic mindlessly drank green tea from a paper cup.

The astringent taste was strong, but since tea in Feralant was either made from dried tree roots or by neutralizing the poison of inedible toxic herbs to make them edible, the sweet taste was rather unfamiliar.

Hime couldn’t take her eyes off Sir Dominic.

Her heart was pounding.

When a droplet of water running down his jawline fell onto his pirate hat with a plop, her breath stopped.

Every time she looked at the eye patch covering one side of his face, her heart raced again.

What is this feeling?

Some would call this feeling arrhythmia, and others would call it the suspension bridge effect.

And the most accurate answer was fear.

Hime thought she had resolved her trauma through the developers’ explanations, but how could a trauma that had been with her for almost half her life be resolved so easily?

However, having lived in a prestigious family all her life and received only ninja training, she wasn’t well-versed in such psychological knowledge.

She was confused about her feelings.

“Miss Hime? We’ve roughly created a map. I think you should come take a look for the details.”

“Ah! Yes!”

Hime was glad to hear Raphael the developer calling her.

Thinking that at least she wouldn’t be confused if Sir Dominic wasn’t nearby, she left her seat.

Now only Sir Dominic remained.

“Yes, this is Gacha-upji, the indie game club at Gachaland University. Who is this?”

The phone in the lobby rang.

Super Deluxe, who happened to be nearby, answered it.

“Yes. Ah, yes. This is Gacha-upji. Yes. Yes. …What?”

Super Deluxe’s expression changed moment by moment with each sound from the other end of the receiver.

“Mr. Epic Anderson? You mean that Star with 12 million GachaTube subscribers?”

Super Deluxe’s posture straightened.

Not satisfied with just fixing his posture, he now clasped his hands together as if praying.

“Yes. Of course. I definitely know you. I’m a fan. Yes. Yes. I understand. Well, we’re grateful.”

After responding to the phone with an excited voice for quite some time, Super Deluxe roughly put down the receiver as if the call had ended.

“Hey! Our music problem is solved! Mr. Epic Anderson said he’ll do it for us!”

At Super Deluxe’s commotion, people in the development room opened the door and peeked out.

And as soon as they understood Super Deluxe’s words, they cheered loudly.

Epic Anderson. It was a name he had heard somewhere.

It was definitely the name of the composer who had given him a generous score in 2-3.

The club lobby was now in a festive mood.

Meanwhile, Super Deluxe approached Sir Dominic, grabbed both his hands, and began shaking them vigorously.

“You lucky charm! As expected of my super fan’s specs! Thanks to you, we can collaborate with Mr. Epic Anderson!”

Super Deluxe continued explaining to Sir Dominic, who was still dazed with incomprehension.

“When you got your citizenship last time, he was keeping an eye on your potential! He happened to see on SNS that you were appearing in our game.”

“My goodness. Was he that kind of person?”

Donatello looked at Sir Dominic with surprised eyes.

Blaming himself for how stupid he had been to think of him as just an ordinary 1-tier character.

“This is no time for that. Mr. Epic Anderson said he’d send a sample right away, so we need to listen to it immediately. It’s only natural that we should work harder so as not to tarnish Epic Anderson’s reputation!”

Super Deluxe, still unable to calm his excitement, immediately took out his laptop.

Epic Anderson was a huge Star with a very famous music channel on GachaTube.

A celebrity of a completely different dimension from Super Deluxe, who was only famous on SNS!

Super Deluxe estimated that just posting about collaborating with Epic Anderson on his SNS would increase his followers by at least 100,000.

The music file was quite large. It seemed he had sent the original sound as is.

As Super Deluxe carefully opened the file, he could truly feel why Epic Anderson was Epic Anderson.

A magnificent orchestra.

The solemnity befitting a knight.

The cynicism befitting a one-eyed knight.

It was music that contained all of that.

Clearly, this music would be the character song for Sir Dominic.

“It would be nice to play this on the character selection screen.”

Donatello said.

“Compose it to match each character’s feel, so that anyone who hears it will think, ‘Ah, so this is what this character is like.'”

Donatello made an extremely developer-like statement.

But Super Deluxe, already immersed in the lingering impression of the music, couldn’t hear those words through the waves of emotion.

“Super fan.”

Super Deluxe called Sir Dominic.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were getting attention from someone like this? If you had, I wouldn’t be in this indie game club but in a real A-class development company!”

“What?”

Donatello was upset by Super Deluxe’s words, but thinking about it, he was right.

The project was becoming bigger than expected.