While all that was happening, it seems Drift-Cane had made its way overseas.
Obviously, we don’t have any overseas distribution channels. It’s unclear if there’s any point in bringing over a Japanese card game, but some eccentric person must have taken it as a souvenir…or so I casually thought, until this article appeared in a famous overseas magazine:
[Singularity Has Come and Gone]
Singularity refers to a technological singularity where artificial intelligence begins self-evolving.
[“Self-evolving, autonomously thinking AI has already been completed – we just failed to notice it. Because after all, the children’s card game being sold in Japan already has an extraordinarily advanced AI built into it, doesn’t it?”]
At the end of those blog posts that contained translated articles…there was a video clip attached of the 3D holographic image of our card game waving its hand towards the camera.
Yes, after starting sales, I realized that the cards for [Drift Cane] could clearly recognize the player. Not only did they follow commands to attack or defend, but they had a system built-in where they would appeal directly to the player or mimic their habits.
Of course, the cards didn’t have cameras or microphones attached. It was clear that some kind of incredible technology incomprehensible to humans was being used.
I was worried that “I might get scolded again for it being military technology and cause trouble for the company”…but surprisingly, domestically the only complaints were about insufficient measures against resellers, while from overseas I received love calls from scholars and wealthy people around the world.
It seems they accepted this card game as one of the boons from the dungeon. And when they learned that our company that so casually put out a card game with such outrageous technological capabilities was aiming for space development, they came to ask if they could cooperate on the project or confirm if we would accept funding. Either of those would have been very welcome offers for a normal space venture company, but for us it was just an unusual situation where we didn’t need either.
Of course, there was probably also the fact that it could be a foothold for acquiring things like hair growth potions or tooth growth potions by leaving the negotiations with foreign countries to the government, but oh well, that couldn’t be helped. In the end, we didn’t team up with any of them…but currently, Kawashima Asteroid has far more attention from overseas than domestically.
Needless to say, there were also apparently plenty of people trying to hack our information or infiltrate personnel from the shadows, but Hime blocked all of those attempts.
“I guess rich people just like new things and frontiers, huh?”
“Is that what this is about? I think the people who contacted us this time just like high-odds gambling.”
In the massive warehouse area that made up most of Kawashima headquarters, the heart of the former logistics center, Mars and I had that conversation while watching the assembly of the spaceship taking place after various modifications.
“Apparently the stocks of companies like the ones manufacturing the magic steel materials we use, our subcontractors and such, have been getting bought up too.”
“Does that mean when Hime bought stocks of that magic steel manufacturing company before, she foresaw the current situation?”
“Well, for someone like Hime, it’d be weird if she didn’t foresee things, right?”
Just as I was about to say “Well…”a small hand tugged at my pants from beside me. Looking over, Sierra in her human form was smiling and holding out the screen of a digital camera.
“Tonbo, how’s this?”
“Oh, not bad at all!”
I crouched down to look at the photo she seemed to have taken while joining the PR team. The small camera screen showed a clear, in-focus image with no blurring.
She seemed to really like the digital camera I gave her, as she occasionally wore clothes my mom and sister bought for her and went around the neighborhood taking pictures.
Word had gone out on the company chat about a PR photo shoot today…and although no one had asked her, she enthusiastically came over. While the photos weren’t for any particular publication, of course we didn’t let her take pictures of anywhere off-limits.
“Took them with everyone.”
“Nice photo.”
Our PR team’s backs were prominently featured, but these candid behind-the-scenes shots were fine too. The partially-completed spaceship visible in the background was starting to take recognizable shape.
Thanks to our various efforts, we had gathered magic steel materials far faster than expected, and construction was progressing slightly ahead of schedule. At this rate, the spaceship would supposedly be ready for launch by the end of the year. The blistering pace was dizzying, but according to Hime, it shouldn’t have been surprising since she brought back the blueprints for a completed mass-production model.
“Where go with this ship?”
“First the moon for practice, then we’ll go get an asteroid on the far side of Mars.”
“Tonbo go too?”
“I’m not going.”
Because I have an even better ship.
I did explain about the pirate ship Psychodragon to Sierra, but honestly, I’m not sure how much she understands.
As I reached out to stroke Sierra’s white hair, I remembered that would cause an incident since she was in human form, so I stopped myself.
Noticing my aborted gesture, she tilted her head quizzically before butting it against my side.
“What’s wrong, Tonbo?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
“If I pet Sierra looking like that, I might get arrested.”
“Ah, arrested, that’s no good.”
Sierra said that and took a step back from me, but that felt a bit lonely too.
Well, it’s better than getting reported as a lecherous CEO…With thoughts like that, I put my hands in my pockets and gazed at the spaceship’s outer hull taking shape.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
In addition to the materials needed to produce the magic steel coming together, there were quite a few other benefits for the company from its improved image.
First, we started getting applications from decent talented people.
While we had been inundated with applicants who were spy personnel that didn’t pass Hime’s filter before, the new applicants were legitimately ordinary people. Or rather, more than ordinary –
some had even left their previous space-related jobs to come work for us after seeing the construction progress of our spaceship posted on the company website. It seems putting something into physical form is important no matter what it is.
That said, apparently some of them still received shady contacts from other companies after being hired, so…unfortunately those companies ended up becoming subjects for Hime’s curses, and for some reason scandals at those companies started making the rounds.
The second benefit was that our original business partners…or rather, the adventurers who think of themselves that way, started to trust us more.
It seems Kawashima General Trading has earned the trust of adventurers through our improved image, and now the products we sell are treated with a kind of Kawashima brand recognition, according to what Yoshida-san told me when we met up recently.
Well, our company did originally do business aimed at adventurers, started by Mars and I who used to be adventurers ourselves by hiring the former adventurers Abukuma-san and Yoshikawa-san. It’s gratifying, to say the least. Most of our employees and part-timers are related to adventurers too, and with the recent improvement in the image of adventurers, there’s been a bit of a brighter atmosphere at the company lately.
And if I had to name one more positive thing, it would be that a bit of a space boom seems to have arisen in society.
At first, no matter how much we appealed the feasibility of our plans, no one took seriously the world’s first spacecraft with gravity control or our plans to use it to catch asteroids. But after our company’s image strategizing and the passionate love calls from overseas celebrities hit the news, the credibility of the entire plan seemed to increase considerably.
While we’re still being treated as space snake-oil salesmen in some quarters due to the sheer scale and blistering pace of the project, we’ve gotten additional interviews from various magazines and shows that ended up being aired on children’s programs or published in comics magazines.
Apparently our company was even covered in one elementary school’s lessons, with students sending us letters of support, perhaps as part of those lessons.
“It’s kinda wild how we got all this attention before even really doing anything,”
was Abukuma-san’s take, but someone who seemed far more moved was apparently a staff officer seconded from the Self-Defense Forces. If a big, rugged-looking guy was tearing up reading the kids’ letters, I guess you can’t judge people by appearances.
In any case, amid such tailwinds, the card game [Drift Cane] was adapted into a thick comic anthology with tiny print over the summer, followed about a month later by the release of Double Neck Corporation’s first card set.
Disregarding profitability, they produced a huge excess quantity of starter decks, but established an official limit of one pack per middle school student or younger per day for all other products…with mail orders only allowed through Kawashima’s site under Hime’s control.
“This lets us collaborate with your business too, and the first set’s theme is space, so let’s go with that!”
Double Neck’s Imagawa apparently proposed making space the theme. Obviously all the card illustrations were completely redone from our original version…but that’s the power of space technology for you.
As long as they provided us with 3D models for the characters, items and spells, Hime could have the software convert them into 3D holographic images that our space manufacturing equipment could then rapidly mass-produce and ship out. That let us release the first set at blistering speed just three months after our version. Imagawa’s philosophy was “Strike while the iron is hot.”
Our asteroid mining ship dubbed the [Kawashima One] appeared in the card game, greatly boosting the name recognition of our space business among children. And it was an unexpectedly person who approached me with a card game-related matter amid that situation.
“Tonbo-kun, sorry about this but…you got a minute right now?”
The one who showed up in the underground secret factory saying that was Abukuma-san from the Asteroid Department.
“Eh!? Abukuma-san? Wh-What’s up?…Oh, please have a seat on the sofa.”
“Ah sorry, just dropping in suddenly like this.”
It was still work hours with everyone busily occupied. In this air-conditioned room, where I had been casually playing a racing game with Sierra and Mars, I felt a bit awkward and offered her the sofa I had been sitting on.
“Tonbo, should we stop?”
“W-w-wait, turn off the TV… um, sorry, somehow…”
“No, that’s fine…”
She sat down on the sofa wearing a polo shirt embroidered with “Kawashima General Trading” on the chest, looking somewhat awkward for some reason.
“What… what’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“Well, actually, it’s about those cards…”
“You mean Dokken?”
“Yeah, that’s right, Dokken. About that… would it be possible to make them available for employees to buy?”
“Oh, if that’s the case, you could take a box or so…”
When I casually pointed to the card packs stuffed in the container, she shook her head.
“No, if it was just for me, I’d gratefully accept… but you see, the employees with kids and those from the Self-Defense Forces… they’re getting requests from their children and former colleagues.”
“I… I see?”
“You know how there’s been a lot of noise around Self-Defense Force matters lately? So, well, it would be nice if there was a proper system for employees to buy them…”
“In that case, we could just make it that way…”
While it would be troublesome if people took dozens of boxes, I thought it would be fine as a perk if it was just to make their children happy. But Abukuma san continued shaking her head.
“People are worried about getting called out from the outside if we do that. So, we all discussed this, including Iida, and came up with an idea. Could we add Dokken to the items in that point app?”
“Ah, I see. Since employees get points every month, and outsiders can buy them the same way, it would seem fair.”
“Right, right?”
Unlike when we first met, Abukuma san, whose dark circles under her eyes had almost disappeared, said this with a blooming smile… but considering she went through the trouble of coordinating with everyone before coming here, I couldn’t understand why she was being so formal about it.
“I mean, Abukuma san, you could have just told me this through the company chat…”
“Well, when those cards first came out, nobody except Kaneki-kun supported you, right? So, asking to make it an employee benefit just because they became popular felt kind of awkward…”
Ah, so that’s what it was…
“No, no, I deserved to be scolded for what I did then, so don’t worry about it.”
To be honest, I wasn’t concerned about that – I was more embarrassed about them finding out I was playing normally in the basement. I wonder if we could keep this from Ms. Iida…
“Anyway, I’ll report this to Ms. Iida and let the vice president know.”
“Yes, thank you, Tonbo-kun.”
I sent Abukuma san home with some cards as a gift after she came bearing such an awkward role, and then I sent a message through the company chat.
The fact that even the children of people close to us were enjoying it was something that made me happy… and in the end, I felt deeply glad that we had released those cards to the world.
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