The Beginning of Advancement (1)
“Ian, what in the world did you do?”
The day after my private audience with the emperor, the department head said that the moment he saw me, looking utterly astonished.
“His Majesty approved our business venture. He even said we could use personnel from the Magic Development Department. Of course, we will have to give a certain portion of the profits to the imperial household, but if we think of it as paying taxes, it is nothing much.”
Oh, right. There was that.
I hadn't dared ask the emperor whether we could use a game console made with the department's budget for a private business, but apparently, he'd granted permission on his own. He'd even generously allowed us to use the department's resources.
“His Majesty must have thought very highly of the game you made.”
“He certainly did.”
So much so that it had nearly gotten me into serious trouble.
“Anyway, all that remains now is to make money. I will provide you with a team, so make whatever you want to your heart's content. Leave the sales to me.”
The department head smiled brightly, apparently delighted at the thought of making money.
His obvious greed for money made me a little uneasy, but in a way, the fact that he displayed it so openly actually made him more trustworthy.
The bastards who claim they don't care about money are the least trustworthy people in the world.
“By the way, Department Head. Naturally, all the customers buying the artifacts… I mean, the products will be nobles, correct?”
“Hmm? Naturally. Is there some problem?”
“No, I wouldn't exactly call it a problem, but…….”
To be honest, there was a bit of a problem.
There wasn't enough time to make another game immediately, so the one we'd be selling to the nobles would also be ‘Civilization Development.’ The problem was that, like the emperor, the nobles might consider some of its contents irreverent or strange.
Still, I wasn't too worried about that part.
The emperor had already played it and let it pass without issue, so it would be difficult for the nobles to object. If anything, raising an objection might itself be considered disrespectful toward the emperor.
The bigger problem was something else.
“More than anything, I'm worried about production volume. There is a limit to how many I or the department personnel can make. If the number of customers grows, we'll have trouble keeping up with demand.”
“Hmm… That certainly is a problem.”
The game console I'd made this time was an artifact that I'd personally carved and enchanted entirely by hand.
To make more of the same product, I or other mages would have to craft each one ourselves. Since every mage had a different level of mastery, the production speed and number of people required would also vary.
In other words, the entire process was 100% manual, without any mechanization whatsoever, so production efficiency was extremely poor.
It wasn't as though this world had no mechanical processes at all, but they were still rudimentary. There wasn't even a steam engine yet.
If we could at least make a steam engine, things might improve somewhat… but for now, it was difficult to expect much.
“So, with that in mind, how about deliberately producing only a small quantity for the time being?”
“You want to make only a few on purpose? That game console will be extremely popular… There will surely be many people looking for one.”
“Which means we can sell them for even more. Of course, selling a large quantity would be better, but since mass production is difficult for now, I think it would be better to keep them scarce.”
“Hmm. You have a point.”
‘Civilization Development’ would surely be popular among the nobles as well.
People's tastes might vary, but in another world where there was little in the way of entertainment, it was more than enough to succeed.
Especially if we refused to sell it to just anyone. That would only make it command an even greater premium.
“Very well. I will take responsibility for selling them for as much as possible. You can focus entirely on making them.”
The department head, his greed for money practically overflowing, declared that confidently.
Trusting in that greed, I took the team members assigned to me and began production that very day.
Some time later, the prototypes we'd made were delivered to Count Terren.
And they became a smash hit.
***
Count Terren had confidently told Ian to leave everything to him, but in truth, there was no need for him to do anything particularly extraordinary.
“Word has already spread throughout high society about the toy that His Majesty is completely obsessed with. I only need to make proper use of that.”
Rumors traveled quickly through high society.
Everyone was already talking about the ‘game’ that had made even that workaholic emperor stay awake for several nights.
Count Terren merely fanned those vague rumors a little.
“His Majesty enjoyed it so much that he personally summoned its creator and bestowed a great reward upon him. He also happens to be one of my subordinates in the department.”
“Once you begin playing that game, you will not even realize how an entire day has passed. I have played it myself, so I stake my honor on that guarantee.”
“If you are curious, more prototypes should be ready soon… If you wish, I could give you a few as gifts. Ah, I will not take any money. Please consider them a token of my regard for you.”
He revealed none of the details and only heightened their anticipation.
Then, without taking so much as a coin, he gifted a tiny number of them to nobles holding high government offices or prestigious titles.
Some time later, the nobles who had received those gifts spent quite a while completely absorbed in the game before finally reappearing in high society and telling everyone about it.
“It was unbelievably entertaining. Just as Count Terren said, I completely lost track of time while playing.”
“It is a devil's game. Once you fall into it, it is so entertaining that you cannot escape.”
“There were a few somewhat irreverent parts… but that actually made it even more entertaining.”
Every single response was favorable.
No, they were rave reviews.
The nobles who had yet to obtain one of those ‘game consoles’ grew even more curious about it.
Just what was this game console that everyone found so entertaining?
Unable to contain their curiosity, they soon went to Count Terren and demanded game consoles of their own.
“My, I had no idea all of you would be so curious. I would gladly give you one, but… I am afraid that from now on, I will have to accept a modest payment. The truth is, they do cost more than a little to produce…….”
He called it a modest payment, but the actual price he named was far from trivial.
However, the nobles could not afford to appear miserly in high society, so they bought them without complaint.
And they reacted exactly the same as those who had obtained them first.
“My goodness! This is incredibly entertaining!”
“I spent the entire day yesterday absorbed in it and cleared Immortal Difficulty. Today, I intend to challenge Deity Difficulty.”
“The exhilaration of achieving a Conquest Victory!”
“Science Victory was entertaining as well. But what exactly is science?”
Rave reviews followed every console sold.
The more praise they received, the greater the curiosity of the nobles who had yet to buy one became, and the price of the game console continued to rise.
Thanks to that, Count Terren and Ian made a great deal of money despite selling relatively few game consoles.
Even after a portion of the proceeds went into the imperial treasury.
“Ha ha ha! Ian, we are rich now! It is all thanks to you!”
Count Terren laughed brightly as he gave Ian the share of the profits he had promised.
It was enough money to tempt someone into keeping it all for himself, but Count Terren was not foolish enough to cut open the belly of the goose that laid the golden eggs named Ian.
If leaving Ian alone brought him both money and honor, why would he ever do such a thing?
Ian had no intention of parting ways with Terren anytime soon, either.
If possible, he intended to maintain a good relationship with him going forward.
“Let us continue working together like this. Have you considered making any other games?”
“That… I'm still thinking about it.”
Ian answered as though putting the matter on hold for now, but he wanted to make more games too.
Making games was fun, and he liked having more things to enjoy himself.
And the fact that they also made him a great deal of money was like adding flowers to brocade.
The problem was deciding what to make.
Not because there was nothing he could make, but because there was far too much.
All he had to do was recreate the games he had played and known back when he was on Earth.
Strictly speaking, it was plagiarism and copyright infringement, but Ian casually justified it by deciding that if anyone had a complaint, they could reincarnate into this world themselves and come file a claim.
“For the next one, I'd like to raise the quality a bit.”
In truth, ‘Civilization Development’ wasn't an especially complicated game.
With the aid of magic, it was simple enough that he had been able to make it alone in a short period of time.
Normally, however, game development required a large staff and many different divisions of labor.
Programmers responsible for the game engine and coding, graphic designers, sound designers, QA testers, an overall manager, and so on.
Since they were using magic, the roles did not correspond one-to-one, but achieving higher quality would require a similar division of labor.
“Especially the story and authenticity… Those aren't things I can handle alone.”
Ian and the team members under him could somehow manage the technical aspects involving magic.
But the parts he was most concerned about were the story and authenticity.
Storytelling was completely outside the expertise of someone who had spent his life working with computers…
And authenticity was a bigger problem than expected.
Just as the emperor had played ‘Civilization Development’ and realized that it reflected Earth's technologies and institutions, they had to prevent users from feeling a similar sense of incongruity when playing future games.
“Come to think of it, did the nobles say anything about that part?”
Count Terren had never mentioned anything, so Ian had no way of knowing.
But in truth, there had been a bit of controversy.
“What exactly are all these technologies in this game? There are many I have never heard of before.”
“Riflemen are stronger than knights? Just what sort of weapon is this ‘gun’?”
“The game is entertaining, but it contains quite a few irreverent fantasies. Well, His Majesty has tolerated them, so it is not my place to argue.”
The nobles had not noticed as much as the emperor had, but quite a few of them felt a distinct sense of incongruity.
Most, however, simply dismissed it all as fantasy.
A small minority did not.
“Could these technologies and institutions… actually be possible?”
Some had arrived at exactly the same question as the emperor.
They were the scholars of the Imperial Academy.
“Even this thing called a gun is not theoretically impossible. In fact, there are blueprints for a prototype the Magic Development Department once produced.”
“The concept of heating water with coal and using the steam to drive machinery… is theoretically possible as well.”
“If this steam engine can be realized, then carriages that move without horses would become possible… and naturally, this ‘tank’ should be possible too.”
From relatively straightforward machinery and technologies—
“The Enlightenment, democracy, communism…? Denying social classes? These are far too dangerous as concepts!”
“Money makes money… This concept called capitalism is fascinating.”
—to institutional concepts that seemed both difficult for them to understand and dangerously radical.
To the scholars, all of them seemed far too rational and plausible to dismiss as mere fantasy.
“Just what sort of person created this?”
“I cannot say for certain, but anyone capable of conceiving ideas like these must be a genius. Is that not why His Majesty showed us this game as well?”
“If it is true, then he must be a once-in-an-era genius. I do not know whether we can reproduce the ideas of such a genius.”
They did not know whether they could do it.
But they wanted to try.
The scholars wanted to personally experiment with the concepts presented through the game's vast amount of text.
“First… let us begin with something simple.”
“Then shall we start with the gun His Majesty mentioned?”
“We already have blueprints for that, so can we not simply build it according to those? Rather than that… let us try this.”
The Director of the Imperial Academy pointed to one technology among the many.
“The steam engine. Let us try to realize that.”