Ch.422[Episode 422] Heroes of Legend

Sir Dominic wondered why he had to come to the Black Group for motion capture.

The director, seeming to notice his question, began explaining the details to Sir Dominic.

“Chairman Morgana Black saw potential in Heroes of Legend and acquired the team. According to rumors, she acquired it because a high-ranking company official called Dr. Banshee likes this mode…”

Sir Dominic thought he had heard the name Dr. Banshee somewhere before, then realized the title belonged to his younger sister Remi.

Hmm. My sister likes this mode?

Sir Dominic felt himself growing a bit more fond of Heroes of Legend.

“This way.”

The director led Sir Dominic to stand in front of an elevator.

Then he pressed floors 17, 22, and 13, and waited for the doors to close.

“Why press three buttons?”

Sir Dominic was curious about why he pressed buttons for three different floors.

The director replied:

“Because we need to go to floor 172,213.”

Sir Dominic nodded at this explanation.

Anywhere else it might seem strange, but in Gachaland, it wasn’t unusual for elevators to operate this way.

Looking at the bigger picture, buildings in Tycoon City could easily reach thousands or tens of thousands of floors.

For the Black Group, which was the number one group in Gachaland, having hundreds of thousands of floors wouldn’t be strange at all.

The elevator was made of glass, allowing them to see outside.

Sir Dominic happened to look through the glass window.

There were clouds outside, but Sir Dominic was startled to suddenly see several people falling past.

The director, who glimpsed this scene from the corner of his eye, spoke as if it were nothing unusual.

“They’re probably people going to meet clients. It’s faster to fall to your death and revive than to take the elevator.”

“I used to do that often when leaving after editing here,” the director added.

Sir Dominic was surprised by the sudden sight of people jumping to their deaths, but then remembered that this was Gachaland.

As long as there was value, one could trade with death as much as they wanted, and life could be bought and sold freely.

Remembering this fact, Sir Dominic nodded.

“Here we are. This is the motion capture studio.”

While Sir Dominic was lost in thought, the elevator arrived at floor 172,213.

Sir Dominic looked at that number, thinking it was the kind of floor number that would only appear in a novel written by a child, as he stepped out of the elevator.

The motion capture studio was more… terrible than Sir Dominic remembered.

To be precise, with numerous cameras and motion sensors, plus the interior painted green to better capture motion, nothing about it was organized.

“Heroes of Legend is extremely popular, and since they basically update with a new character once a month, the motion capture studio never gets a break. That’s why it’s such a mess.”

The director said this as if defending the motion capture team.

“Oh, isn’t it the director? What brings you from the video department to our motion section? Do you need more CG with motion capture…?”

Just then, someone suddenly stood up from behind a box of motion sensors in the corner.

She was a panda beastkin with short hair and dark circles under her eyes, wearing a yellowed t-shirt with a stretched neck and frayed sweatpants.

“No, I’ve brought someone special this time.”

The director said this to the panda beastkin.

“Someone special? Who… Sir Dominic?”

The panda beastkin was rubbing her sleepy eyes while talking with the director when she seemed to finally notice Sir Dominic and opened her eyes wide.

“Wow, my goodness. Sir Dominic? I’m wide awake now.”

The panda beastkin covered her mouth with her hand, unable to hide her surprise.

“You know why I’ve come so suddenly, right?”

“Yes. Actually, I was planning to go home after finishing the motion capture scheduled for this morning, but I was just cursing because additional work suddenly came in.”

“Motion capture this morning?”

“Yes. My sister is in there now.”

“I just finished!”

As the panda beastkin finished speaking, another panda beastkin appeared from the opposite studio.

Unlike her sister, she had long hair.

“Wow, goodness. It really is Sir Dominic. I can’t believe this.”

The long-haired panda beastkin stared at Sir Dominic with tired eyes.

“Are, are you alright?”

“Oh my god. Sir Dominic is worried about me!”

“Lucky you. I should have skipped my power nap.”

Sir Dominic expressed concern looking at her eyes, but these panda sisters seemed to be fans of Sir Dominic and were only delighted.

“By the way, who was it that just finished?”

The director asked, restraining the sisters.

The atmosphere was getting too heated.

At this rate, Sir Dominic might have to go home without doing any motion capture.

Of course, that was a bit of an exaggeration.

“Come to think of it, it’s someone related to Sir Dominic?”

“Oh, that’s right.”

The panda sisters said this while grinning.

And the name that followed was one Sir Dominic knew well.

“It’s Code Back Zero.”

Android Zero.

Remi and Dr. Phantom’s android was doing motion capture here.

“It’s been a while, Sir Dominic.”

As if he had just finished inside, Android Zero came out from the studio.

“It has been a while, Zero.”

Sir Dominic greeted Zero with a slight nod.

“Have you been well?”

“Yes. I hear you did motion capture.”

“Are you also here for motion capture, Sir Dominic? What a coincidence. Surprise module activated.”

Zero couldn’t hide his surprise that his schedule overlapped with Sir Dominic’s.

Of course, there was no change in his expression.

“When you say you did motion capture, are you also appearing in Heroes of Legend?”

“Analyzing the word ‘also.’ Probability that Sir Dominic will also appear in Heroes of Legend: 99.7%.”

“That’s right.”

Sir Dominic nodded at Zero’s words.

“To think we’d meet like this, how interesting. Ha.Ha.Ha.”

Zero activated his laughter module after hearing Sir Dominic’s words.

Of course, only a very awkward, mechanical laugh came out.

“If Hime comes as well, it would be the three of us from Enchant appearing side by side. Interesting.”

Zero brought up something others hadn’t thought of.

“That’s not bad.”

The director nodded at Zero’s words.

“Unryu Hime, was it? I should make her an offer. I’ve been hearing complaints about the lack of Asian-style characters lately…”

The director said this while falling into thought.

Sir Dominic and Zero looked at the director for a moment, then looked at each other and finished their conversation.

“Dr. said it’s not polite to keep taking up time like this. I’ll be going now. The doctors are waiting for me anyway.”

“Ah, I see. It was good to see you after so long, Zero.”

“Likewise, Sir Dominic.”

With that, Zero passed by Sir Dominic and went down.

Of course, without jumping out, but by taking the elevator.

Sir Dominic silently watched Zero descend in the elevator, then, as if remembering something, asked the panda sisters a question.

“By the way, how long does motion capture take?”

“You mean time?”

“Yes.”

At this question, the panda sisters thought for a moment, then answered Sir Dominic’s query.

“Well, Code Back Zero didn’t have many motions, so it took about 3 hours.”

“It was fortunate that Zero is a robot who doesn’t sleep. Otherwise it would have taken at least 5 hours.”

“For regular people’s motions… well, about 6 hours?”

“That’s about right.”

“But Sir Dominic will take a bit longer.”

“We’re estimating between 10 and 20 hours.”

“…? Why is that?”

Sir Dominic was taken aback by the suddenly much larger number.

The panda sisters tilted their heads as if it were obvious and said:

“Well, because we’re fans of Sir Dominic.”

“When fans want to make their favorite person’s motions ‘perfect,’ is there any problem with that?”

“It’s not that it takes longer. While others might do two or three motions in a situation, Sir Dominic will do a dozen or so.”

“If Sir Dominic works without breaks, it’ll take 10 hours. If you take breaks, about 20 hours.”

“…Don’t you sleep?”

Sir Dominic asked this out of concern for the already tired-looking panda sisters.

“Sleep? We can sleep when we’re dead!”

“When you die and wake up again, your fatigue resets anyway.”

“It’s the best way to handle work! The problem is that this place is quite high up. It takes time to come back after dying, which is the only downside.”

Sir Dominic realized why the motion capture studio was on floor 172,213 after hearing the panda sisters’ explanation.

The pandas here were work addicts pretending not to be.

To make them rest, the only option was to keep them in the elevator for a long time.

Sir Dominic looked at the panda sisters with this realization.

“Now, Sir Dominic? Come this way.”

“Oh, sis? Start without me. You said you took a power nap earlier. I’ll jump out quickly and be right back.”

“Sure. We’ll switch when you come back. I need a break too.”

“Okay.”

Sir Dominic suddenly looked at the director.

The director shrugged as if familiar with this situation.

He knew that normal people among those working at the Black Group could be counted on one hand.

Of course, the director included himself in that category of normal people.

“Well then, shall we start with walking motions? Just walk casually. Yes. Or you could act confused, using your current emotions. The more motions we capture, the better.”

The older panda sister began making various requests to Sir Dominic, while the younger one broke the window and threw herself out.

Of course, she did so knowing she would revive…

On floor 172,213, madness began to sweep through.