Nakayama Yūji never got to eat the pork cutlet bowl. By the time Kobayashi Tetsu returned, he had already clocked out and left.
With no other choice, Kobayashi Tetsu personally helped him eat the now-cold pork cutlet bowl, and only met him again the next day.
When the Contra melody played in front of Nakayama Yūji, and he saw the accompanying sheet music written on staff paper, his eyes behind the lenses lit up instantly.
"This is great! This is exactly it! Kobayashi-kun, this is the music I wanted! That kind of battlefield tension—absolutely perfect! And there's even a staff score! That makes the work so easy!"
If Nakayama Yūji had to describe the qualities of this soundtrack, then as someone who never finished high school, he only had one word for it:
"Badass!"
He didn't know any more sophisticated vocabulary.
The two people in Atlas Studio—one a high-school dropout, the other never even attended high school in Japan—were in this respect truly a pair of twin idiots.
But excitement was excitement. Holding the sheet music, Nakayama Yūji suddenly froze.
"This is… basically nothing."
"Huh?" Kobayashi Tetsu leaned over. "What do you mean nothing? Isn't this everything?"
Nakayama Yūji almost tore his hair out.
"No, I mean I basically didn't do anything! I can't accept that much pay for doing nothing!"
"Right." Kobayashi Tetsu nodded. "If you feel bad, how about doing the rest of the work too? Like the numerical settings, the four enemy types I planned for the game, the six items… I'll leave them to you, okay?"
Nakayama Yūji instantly bowed.
"Please rest assured! I'll give it my all!"
Kobayashi Tetsu was satisfied.
Now he could happily slack off! As long as the overall game framework was stable, once the content was filled in, there would be no issues at all.
He had already added all the necessary comments. The size of the source code and the size of the final game weren't the same anyway—after all, the output would be optimized and remove useless parts, including comments.
So he still had to write them. People working on the same project wouldn't understand without comments!
After arranging the work, Kobayashi Tetsu swaggered out of the garage.
Nakayama Yūji, after finishing the electronic synthesizer music, put on his headphones and enjoyed it for a while, feeling unbelievably refreshed.
BRO! This is real music!
He kicked off the floor with his foot, sliding in his rolling chair over to Kobayashi Tetsu's workstation, ready to take over his tasks.
"Ohhh! So this is the foundational framework Kobayashi-kun wrote… movement, basic rules, parameters…"
Nakayama Yūji suddenly inhaled sharply—like choking on pork cutlet rice.
This wasn't good.
It was way too clean. Like a piece of code that had already gone through countless iterations and optimizations—no need for any further work!
In Nakayama's understanding, no matter who wrote code, there were always problems. No one could get it right in a single go. But now Kobayashi Tetsu had produced something so perfect that just by glancing over it, he could see almost zero redundancy, nothing that needed rewriting.
Even adding an extra layer felt unnecessary!
"Perfect… it's way too perfect! This is practically a work of art!"
Nakayama Yūji rubbed his temples frantically.
Seeing code like this was enough to get a man high!
...
...
A famous Japanese entrepreneur, Kadokawa Haruki—head of Kadokawa Shoten—once said:
"If I'm busy every day, that means my subordinates aren't doing their jobs."
In Kadokawa's view, a good boss should be free enough to go out and play. If he still had to work every day, it only meant his subordinates were incompetent and unable to produce results.
Kobayashi Tetsu didn't fully agree with that statement, but since Nakayama Yūji enthusiastically volunteered for all the remaining work, he might as well enjoy a break.
And today was the weekend.
Hands in his pockets, baseball cap on, Kobayashi Tetsu strolled leisurely to Shimayori Game Shop. Whether by coincidence or fate, he immediately spotted Kobayakawa standing at an arcade cabinet, fiddling with it.
It was the recently released port—Dr. Mario.
Clearly, because Kobayakawa had received a month-long free play privilege, she was now happily trying out the newly introduced arcade machine.
"Oh? Not bad. Wearing casual clothes instead of your school uniform today."
A hoodie with a faintly student-ish vibe, with two fluffy strings dangling from the hood.
Kobayashi Tetsu tiptoed closer, suddenly grabbed her hood, pulled it up, and yanked the strings tight.
Kobayakawa first panicked, then blushed with irritation.
"Tetsu-kun… that's awful!"
"What Tetsu-kun? I don't know who that is." Kobayashi said. "Why are Japanese people so mean? Always bullying others."
Kobayakawa pulled off her hood and looked at him with a pitiful, resentful gaze.
"Besides Tetsu-kun, who else would act like a child?"
She puffed up her cheeks, repeating again and again, "Elementary schooler! Tetsu-kun is practically an elementary schooler! Here, I'm giving you this!"
Seeing her reach into her pocket, Kobayashi Tetsu thought she was pulling out some elementary-school math worksheet.
Unexpectedly, she extended her palm, revealing a shiny coin.
One hundred yen.
"What's this money for?"
"Registration fee."
He had forgotten.
He carried millions in cash and didn't care about a single hundred yen.
But now, looking at the one hundred yen in the girl's small hand, Kobayashi Tetsu felt a moment of silence.
He hadn't expected she cared this much about it.
"Then I'll take it."
Without hesitation, he took the coin from her.
He looked around, planning to play something, but didn't see Shimayori Yōsuke.
So he casually asked Kobayakawa, "Where's your uncle-uncle?"
"Someone bought a Dr. Kobayashi arcade machine earlier. The owner went to help with delivery."
Then she straightened up proudly.
"So right now, I'm temporarily helping watch the shop."
Kobayashi Tetsu responded immediately, "That's great. Because now I'm going to steal the most precious thing in here, and you're not allowed to tell your uncle-uncle."
Meeting his gaze, Kobayakawa suddenly felt uneasy. The most precious thing… could it be… was it… that thing?
But Kobayashi Tetsu pointed sharply.
"The most precious thing is obviously this! The 'Pong' machine! The world's first arcade game, produced by Atari in the 70s, Japan distribution by SEGA—a priceless treasure!"
Kobayakawa reached out, trying to pry off the joystick on the Dr. Kobayashi cabinet to smack him with it.
Just as they were about to start fooling around, a polite cough interrupted them.
Kobayashi Tetsu turned around.
The shop owner stood there, looking awkward.
Kobayashi said, "Oh, you're that guy… uh… Thousand-Mountains-and-Rivers?"
Chiyama Hayato shook his head.
"No, Chiyama Hayato."
He bowed deeply toward Kobayashi.
"To tell you the truth, I've had this thought for a while. You seem very skilled at electronic games. May I ask how familiar you are with Nintendo?"
"Not at all," Kobayashi answered.
Chiyama Hayato continued calmly, "Then I recommend you try it out—especially Donkey Kong, an absolute classic. Recently, we're planning to hold an FC exhibition match, and if possible, I'd like to invite you to participate."
Several question marks instantly appeared over Kobayashi's head.
He looked at Kobayakawa; she looked back.
Kobayashi scratched his head.
"Uh, Chiyama-kun… do you know who I am?"
"Of course," Chiyama said confidently.
"You're the champion of SEGA's last block-puzzle competition—the legendary 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon Crimson-Eyes Sealed Tetsu.'"
"…No."
Kobayashi clutched his head internally screaming.
He was the family member of a SEGA executive, president of Atlas Studio, producer of Kobayashi Puzzle and Dr. Kobayashi, a man who swore to challenge Nintendo head-on.
And now, the owner of a Nintendo specialty shop was inviting him to join a Nintendo exhibition match.
And on top of that—
He wasn't Blue-Eyes White Dragon!
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