After Frontier Legend's shareholder meeting, what appeared to be insignificant personnel changes took place within the company. However, anyone even slightly familiar with the company knew that after Mizuhara Raiko left, most of the Operations Department's core talent left together with her.
These people were the key reason 'Frontier Legend' had consistently maintained both a good reputation and strong profits.
A good game requires good operation management.
Just like 'Blade & Soul', the first game in his previous world to make widespread use of "beta test codes." Back then, those test codes had been sold at sky-high prices. Around 2013, a single beta account could be sold for over a thousand RMB, which clearly demonstrated Chinese players' anticipation for the game.
In reality, the game itself had not disappointed players. For that era, it possessed excellent graphics, unparalleled combat impact and skill combinations, as well as an eastern martial arts aesthetic that attracted massive numbers of players. After the official launch, players often had to queue for three or four hours just to log in.
However, that game also had perhaps the worst operations planning team imaginable. The operations team's endless self-destructive decisions caused the game's popularity to collapse like Waterloo. In less than three years, it devolved into an irredeemable disaster.
A game company's Operations Department was the core bridge between players and the company. If that mechanism malfunctioned, then no matter how good the game itself was, it would never win players' affection, much less retain them.
After Mizuhara Raiko left, Frontier Legend's president, Mizuhara Daigo, felt some regret.
But on one side were his close friends of many years, and on the other was his own daughter. He truly did not know how to choose.
Deep down, he comforted himself by believing Mizuhara Raiko would understand his situation.
Mizuhara Raiko naturally understood her father's situation.
And because of that, she became even more distant from and disdainful toward him.
Hypocritical kindness.
That was the most direct evaluation she held of her father.
To outsiders, Mizuhara Daigo was a good company president. He listened to employee opinions and understood their difficulties.
But she would never forget what her mother said before dying in the hospital:
"Try to understand your father more. Imagine how hard things are for him."
In an ordinary manga, this kind of development would probably lead to a heartwarming reconciliation between father and daughter.
However, Mizuhara Raiko did not think so.
Understand Mizuhara Daigo?
Then who would understand her?
Who would understand her mother, who waited in the hospital until her dying moments, hoping to see Mizuhara Daigo one last time?
During this shareholder meeting, despite possessing the final decision-making authority, Mizuhara Daigo had still failed to defend his daughter's opinion.
It was precisely because of this that Mizuhara Raiko resolved to leave Frontier Legend behind and seek her own path forward.
The effort she had devoted to Frontier Legend over the years was more than enough to repay this exchange of benefit.
After losing Mizuhara Raiko and part of the Operations Department's talent, 'Frontier Legend' appeared unchanged at first glance, perhaps even more lively than before. The various factions quickly absorbed and redistributed the department's authority.
But before long, the effects of those operational planning changes would truly emerge.
Expecting employees obsessed only with factional struggles to maintain Frontier Legends' enormous catalog of games was practically a joke.
Mizuhara Raiko arrived at an office building in a remote area of Tokyo.
The exterior of the building was dirty and chaotic. Tangled electrical wires intertwined overhead, and black marks—whether stains or scorch marks from electrical currents—could be seen on the walls.
As she looked up at the dilapidated office building, traces of relief and excitement appeared in her eyes.
This would become both her new workplace and her new beginning.
Although the 'Mirror Flower Water Moon' Game Studio was small, it possessed all the necessary internal departments. In its early days, it had survived by researching and developing games, but financial difficulties had eventually forced it to merge with Frontier Legend.
Even now, it still retains all the conditions necessary to operate an online game.
Mizuhara Raiko only needed to upload the server information copied from Kamiyā Yuu into the servers and expand the server scale before officially operating the game.
As for publicity, it had already been carried out before the shareholder meeting took place, so there was no fear of a lack of players after launch.
The moment Mizuhara Raiko stepped into the office building, Kamiki Yui—who was organizing documents—hurriedly stood up and bowed.
"Good morning, Director Rai… President."
Yokoyama Jirō, who had joined 'Mirror Flower Water Moon' Game Studio as a new member, also stood up and bowed deeply.
"Good morning, President Mizuhara!"
······
Naturally, the changes within Frontier Legend affected game publicity.
The massive official promotional campaign originally launched by 'Frontier Legend' suddenly disappeared, replaced by an announcement stating that the operation rights for 'Warship Girls Collection' had changed hands.
This immediately caused an uproar among the eagerly waiting players, who rushed to find out what had happened.
Very quickly, news spread that 'Frontier Legend' no longer supported operating 'Warship Girls Collection' and that Operations Department Director Mizuhara Raiko had left the company.
At that, the players of 'Warship Girls Collection' breathed sighs of relief.
Anyone familiar with 'Frontier Legend' knew who Mizuhara Raiko was.
She was the planner responsible for turning 'Frontier Myth' into Japan's national MMORPG and was deeply trusted by many core players.
As long as she remained responsible for operating 'Warship Girls Collection', players could feel at ease.
On the other hand, some players of Frontier Legend's existing games became dissatisfied.
What were they supposed to do now that Mizuhara Raiko had left?
The 'Frontier Myth' game forums were flooded with dissatisfied player demands, calling for Frontier Legend to restore Mizuhara Raiko to her position as Operations Director.
January 5th.
The official launch date of 'Warship Girls Collection'.
Without Frontier Legend's support, aside from adequate publicity, many of the basic tasks expected for launching a game onto the market had not been completed.
For example, no test accounts had been distributed to gaming media for review scores, nor had pre-registration campaigns been conducted.
Only at around two in the afternoon did the webpage previously used to log into 'Warship Girls Collection' suddenly display a registration icon and instructions.
"Registrations have reached ten thousand!"
"Sixty thousand!"
"One hundred ten thousand!"
"Breaking through two hundred thousand!"
"Director Mizuhara! This is bad! The web service ports are almost unable to handle this level of IP traffic!"
A member of the temporarily established technical department shouted anxiously from the other side of the office, directly reporting to Mizuhara Raiko.
"Use a queue system to limit player registrations. The priority is maintaining server stability! If player numbers become too high, all game entries must use queues to reduce server pressure."
Mizuhara Raiko issued instructions with practiced ease, though surprise lingered in her eyes as she watched the refreshing game data on her computer screen.
A mere browser game had surpassed two hundred thousand registrations in less than an hour.
That was double her conservative estimate of one hundred thousand players!
She had still underestimated the popularity this game had accumulated.