Ding-dong~
The doorbell chimed.
"Food delivery is here."
12:15 PM.
Once again, right on time. I guess that means the restaurant is nearby, right?
A man in a crisp white uniform, a delivery driver, handed me a bowl of udon and yakigyoza (fried dumplings) from a wooden delivery box as I opened the door. He handed them to me with skillful hands and silently turned to leave.
No need for payment.
I've already paid for this month's orders at Pentagon Soft.
I placed the hot udon bowl on the table and unwrapped the plastic wrap covering it.
"Indeed, the udon here is the best."
Before I started on the udon, I took a bite of the crispy yakigyoza. Juicy goodness burst from the dumplings as I bit into them.
"Mmm... So hot!"
In my opinion, dumplings were on par with eggs when it came to perfect food. How did they manage to wrap meat inside such thin dough?
Dumplings were delicious whether they were fried or boiled, but among them, I believed yakigyoza (fried dumplings) reigned supreme. With their crispy texture and the hot, juicy filling, they reminded me of the days when I used to eat cup ramen in my tiny apartment.
Glancing at my room for a moment, I noticed how bright it was compared to before. Spring had passed, and now it felt like early summer outside. Thanks to the air conditioning, my room remained comfortably cool, just like late autumn.
Could it be that meeting Yuki at the street fair where I didn't belong was a stroke of luck?
Anyway, my life was incomparable to the past now.
Timely deliveries of food and a spacious, comfortable workspace.
Pentagon Soft also covered half of the rent for this place.
This one-bedroom apartment with a separate living room and kitchen, labeled as a 1LDK, was a paradise for a bachelor like me. Every week, new work arrived in packages. I carefully unpacked each one and started working on them. When all the work was done, I made a single call to headquarters, and a professional courier would come to pick up the figures I'd created. They would be carefully packaged and sent off, and the payment for my work would pile up in my bank account by the middle of each month.
Manager Kang Junhyuk at Pentagon Soft had revolutionized the distribution of figures. Customers had to make full payments and receive a reservation ticket after a limited period of promotion for premium figures. Once they received orders from customers, a professional figure sculptor sent me unpainted items. I would then make adjustments and paint them one by one. The time it took to complete one product was approximately 7 to 10 days. Yet, orders kept coming in, and the workload was piling up like a mountain.
Currently, I was focused on creating premium figures of the "The Empty Streets" heroines. Since the legal dispute with Mintendo and the creators had entered a settlement phase since last autumn, there were no legal restrictions to making premium figures.
The premium figures were displayed in the Pentagon Character Shop next to Tamago Shop. There was fierce competition among collectors since only 20 of each kind were made. Prices ranged from 60,000 to 150,000 yen per piece, and once production ended, the prices skyrocketed.
Certainly, the small-scale production was of such high quality that the unpainted basic figures were already impressive. It was as if there was no need for further modification.
As I finished my udon, I realized there was one yakigyoza left. I bit into it, the crispy texture and the hot juice from the meat filling brought back memories of when I used to live in a tiny apartment and survived on cup ramen.
After finishing my meal, I headed to my workspace. This area, typically used as a bedroom, was perfect for painting figures because it didn't get direct sunlight, which could cause figures to discolor.
"Phew... Shall I start working now that I've eaten?"
Manager Kang had offered to provide a separate workspace at the company, but I felt uncomfortable socializing with coworkers. So, I had requested to work from here, and he had readily agreed.
He seemed to care more about providing a comfortable environment for the staff to work in, no matter where it was located.
"This place is heaven compared to last summer."
Furthermore, there was excellent soundproofing in this apartment, so I didn't need to worry about disturbing the neighbors.
Sitting at the worktable, I arranged the parts of a 12-inch figure of Miyuki, which I had recently started painting. Just then, the doorbell rang again.
Ding-dong~
"Who could it be? Did the delivery person come to collect the dishes already? I haven't even done the dishes yet."
While ordering food for delivery was convenient, it was a bit of a hassle to wash the dishes and give them back. But who would come to pick them up so quickly?
Scratching my head in confusion, I opened the front door, and a familiar face greeted me.
"Miss Miyazaki?"
She held a black box that was about her size in both hands and smiled at me.
"Hello, Uchimura-san."
"Wait, why are you here?"
"Manager Kang Junhyuk asked me to do something special for you."
"For me?"
"May I come in for a moment?"
"Uh, sure."
I took the black box that Miyazaki was carrying and realized it was surprisingly heavy.
"What's in here? It's pretty heavy."
I didn't want to show any sign of struggling, but the weight had taken me by surprise. Nevertheless, being a guy, I couldn't let it get to me, so I casually placed the box on the coffee table in the living room.
Miyazaki followed me inside and looked at the dishes on the table.
"Do you usually order lunch?"
"I asked the company about it, and they said it's possible. I prepaid for a month at a nearby restaurant."
"A whole month's worth? Aren't you tired of it?"
"Making food and doing dishes are a bit of a hassle, so I prefer this to convenience store instant meals..."
"Well, I can see why."
"But what's this black box?"
"Oh, it's a figurine. Kang Junhyuk asked specially for it, Uchimura-san."
"Really? Why is it so heavy, though?"
"Well, I'm not entirely sure about the details, but I think it's called a diorama..."
"A diorama?"
"Do you know what a diorama is, Uchimura-san?"
Diorama was a term often used for miniature sets in movies, rather than in the context of gaming. It was commonly used in special effects films like "Godzilla" or "Ultraman," where people dressed in monster costumes would act in small-scale cityscapes to create scenes of giant monsters attacking cities.
I explained what I knew about dioramas to the curious Miyazaki, and she seemed to recall it from watching Ultraman episodes, as she nodded in agreement.
"If this is a diorama, what game could it be for? Could it possibly be for 'My Absent Street'? Or could it be 'Valentine's Day'...?"
I had played "Valentine's Day" after moving here, and while the gameplay was one thing, the twist at the end was remarkable. When the protagonist handed a box of chocolates and left school, I entered a classroom where I had never been before. In that classroom, I found a letter left by the heroine, who had just been in that spot with the chocolate box. The letter expressed her regrets about the unfortunate accident that happened in the science room, wishing the protagonist a better place.
"Does that mean I was a ghost?"
The expression of the protagonist when reading the letter was particularly memorable, showing a profound sense of sadness.
"The box looks common, and it's giving me a bad feeling. But I can't just leave it unopened. With Miyazaki-san here, I need to be prepared."
I carefully opened the large box, and both Miyazaki and I gasped in unison.
"Wow!"
"Wow... what is this?"
The contents of the diorama were not what I had expected. The box itself had an asphalt pattern as if it were a set floor.
When I removed the securing devices at the edges, the box unfolded into a cross, creating a crossroad. The box lid contained a framework for building structures around the four corners of the crossroad.
"Wow... what is this?"
I looked into the box's contents, which was still unpainted. It contained the wreckage of a broken motorcycle and a demolished car. There were half-collapsed buildings and various post-apocalyptic elements. Additionally, there were eight packages resembling human figurines.
"Wow... what is all this?"
"Saikik Force?"
This was a title I had never heard of. Could it be that Pentagon Soft was releasing a new game?
Miyazaki and I exchanged a look of surprise as we examined the contents further.
"So, what's inside here?"
The clinking sound from the buildings within the box drew Miyazaki's attention, and she asked me.
I passed the diorama figurines to Miyazaki, then inspected the bottom of the box.
I found something that looked like a lid that could be opened. Carefully, I opened it, revealing parchment paper made of cloth material.
It seemed like an illustration representing the final scene of the diorama.
On the parchment paper, there was a woman with short hair, wearing a leather jacket and a rider outfit. Her clothes were torn in various places, and she seemed to have fallen from a damaged motorcycle. In mid-air, she was propped up on the ground, pointing a gun towards the sky.
Above her, a peculiar figure, looking like a perverted creature, leaped from an exploding car towards her.
"Impressive."
In the illustrations on the parchment paper, there were eight characters, each with different perspectives on the same scene, showing them in a battle on the streets.
"Aha, this is Morita-senpai's work, isn't it?"
Morita-senpai seemed to be aiming for something. From what I could gather, he wanted all the components inside the box to be painted, creating an illustration.
"Ah, yes, I got it. This is a message from the president."
"A message?"
Miyazaki handed me an envelope with the letter inside, and I opened it.
To Uchimura-san -
I know it's a big request, but could you do me a favor until the launch of Laon? As a special request from Pentagon Soft, we are launching our first arcade-style combat action game.
We plan to promote it during Laon's launch. We're looking forward to your fantastic work.
"Saikik Force... It reminds me of something related to psychic battles in 'Family.' But the title also makes me think of 'Valentine's Day.' Maybe it's neither?"
The title reminded me of a scene from "Family" where the game involved psychic battles. Maybe it was something related to that concept.
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