Game Market 1983

Chapter 77

“Manager!” Alice, the blonde-haired beauty shouted, throwing her carrier aside before running towards me as soon as she saw me at the gates .

“Alice!! I . . wa . . wait . . !”

She suddenly attacked me in a tight hug before I could restrain her . Before I knew it, she has kissing me all over the cheeks .

“Jun-Hyuk . . so popular among the ladies, even at the tea shop last time!” Yuki exclaimed .

“She’s just going a little overboard with her greeting . . it’s been a while since we last saw each other . ”

“Hmph!” Yuki shot me a look and I felt as if my heart might stop .

“Jun-hyuk! Our wallet!” A familiar voice shouted . It was John, Michael, and Rob, whom I had met at the food court at MIT .

John and Michael hadn’t changed much, but Rob looked like he had gotten bigger . Even his beard looked bigger than that of Santa Claus .

Who would believe that he was three years younger than me?

“Rob, do you even shave? What is it with your beard?

“Don’t even talk about it . I was stuck in Hack’s club room until yesterday to make this . ” He held up a black bag and winked at me . “I didn’t even have time to shave . ”

Then Yuki, who had been standing awkwardly to the side spoke up in her broken English .

“Hi . I’m Jun-Hyuk’s girlfriend . Yuki Isakawa . ”

“Oh . My . Gosh! Mr . Kang, your girlfriend is a cutie!”

My fellow American factory boys seemed to finally let it sink in that they were finally in Japan once they saw Yuki’s short figure and round face .

I quickly led the noisy group out of the airport .

We got in the nine-person vehicle I had borrowed from Chandra in advance, and the car started moving once I stepped on the accelerator .

“Jun Hyuk, I’m hungry . Where are we going?”

Rob said, stroking his stomach even though it hadn’t been long since they had landed .

“I asked that we have our meal prepared . There’s someone I’d like to introduce you to before we go drop off your bags . ”

“Who’s that?”

“Remember I told you once back in the States about the crazy factory boy I work with that changed the coding for the Psychic Battle . ”

“Oh, are you talking about the Indian? We wanted to meet him too, but I was busy taking summer classes…”

“No one told you to fail classes . ”

“It’s all because of the GPU work you left me with . I stayed up all night doing it and missed a class . ”

“Oh, really? Sorry about that . I left you a lot of pay for it though”

“Thankfully I was able to pay for my classes without asking my parents’ help . ”

“That’s good, then . ”

“You’re annoying . ”

“You should make money too if you’re bitter about it . Haha . ”

Yuki and Alice, who were sitting at the back of the car were shaking their heads at the conversation concerning what had happened recently at MIT .

&

“Ey! It’s a river! We’re at a river!”

“Wait a minute pumila . We’re having guests too . ”

It was a day off at Lytex . As soon as I stepped into the factory, Chandra and the other factory workers came out to greet me .

“You just brought a crowd with you, didn’t you, Jun-Hyuk?”

“Is there enough food?” I asked, stealing a glance at Rob .

“I don’t know . I didn’t know someone like Pumila would end up coming among your guests . There might not be enough food . ”

“If we need more food, we can always order more . Let’s go in, shall we?”

Soon I introduced my Indian factory worker and my American factory worker to each other . Rob and Chandra, who were basically the representatives for both sides shook hands and we started the welcoming party with food and cans of beer .

Both foreign engineers who were awkward with each other at first soon became close . The GPU device that Rob had brought seemed interesting even to Chandra and Pumala .

It was a relief Chandra could speak English, so the two didn’t have a problem communicating .

“What do you think, Jun-Hyuk? Isn’t it great? It’s an arithmetic unit device that helps with 3D graphic cards!”

“Oh… really?”

“You don’t seem too hyped . ”

Rob was showing off a device that was the size of an arm of a grown adult . How were we supposed to use a graphic arithmetic unit device that wouldn’t even fit in a desktop?

I let out a sigh and held up several packages of cigarettes from the table next to the device for him to see .

“All right . You know the structure, right? Now this time, decrease it to the size of four cigarette boxes . ”

“What, are you crazy?”

“Think about it, Rob . Who would use a graphic device that doesn’t even fit in a desktop, huh?”

“Jun-Hyuk is right . If it were me, I would be able to make it into the size of two packs,” agreed Chandra, who had been watching me .

“What?”

Rob looked up and glared .

“What did this brat just say? Two packs of cigarettes? Then I’ll make it into the size of one pack . ”

“What? Then I’ll make it to the size of half a pack . ”

“Why you . . you Indian monkey!”

“You fat American pig!”

The friendly atmosphere where they were complimenting each other on their technical skills just a moment ago had completely changed .

I smiled, pleased with how fast I was able to bring about their reactions .

“Ehem . . would you guys stop and take a look at this for a moment?”

Chandra and Rob, who had been glaring at each other, turned to look at me .

I each gave them a piece of paper and started to explain .

“Why don’t you calm down and listen while you have some beer or something . I didn’t call you here so you can argue . I had you two meet so we can help each other .

“Kang Jun-Hyuk . Why are these Americans so rude?”

“Excuse me? Who was the one who started the fight?”

“Alright, alright . Stop it you two . If you really want to fight, do it with your skills, not your fists . ”

“Our skills?”

“These are the pieces that will be used for Mintendo’s Super Family . ” Chandra then looked at the piece of paper I had handed him and nodded .

“Oho! I see . But are you allowed to show this to us like this?”

“Mintendo got copyright law approved so if it’s not through a proper license, it will be illegal to copy games from Gameboys now . Also, the original cost for Gameboys are expensive so there’s no worry of there being a copy version like the Family . Rather than copy the Super Family, it would be better profit to copy the cartridge rather than the Super Family .

“Hmm . I see . But why are you showing this to us?”

“We’re going to make a new console prototype based on the parts written there . Then for the graphic touches, we’ll use the device Rob brought with him . Whether it’s the size of one or two cigarette packs, this graphic device must be included in the console . The term to develop the prototype is one year . The first team that succeeds will be given ten million yen as an award . ”

“A . . a hundred million yen????!!”