Nagao Ame was someone who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
At the same time, he was also a very obsessive person.
The harder it was to find this mysterious game developer, the more he wanted to find them.
Just like how he had never been able to acquire Gamestar Electronic Entertainment—yet he still pestered them from time to time, hoping for a successful acquisition.
Over time, he realized that was unlikely to happen, so he shifted gears and began buying up as many game studios as possible. After all, he had the money, and he didn't want it to go to waste.
His platform's userbase was still growing, and as long as it kept growing, the Wall Street investors were willing to keep paying up.
Other internet portals were in a similar phase—rapid growth with a promising outlook.
Now, after running into a dead end with this mysterious game developer, his obsessive nature flared up again.
"You're just a tiny indie developer, probably with no team at all—completely alone—and I still can't get a hold of you? Then how the hell am I supposed to become a world-class internet giant?"
So even if hacking a platform was a bit illegal, he was still willing to give it a shot.
Following his employee's suggestion, he instructed his company's top network engineers to attempt an intrusion into Battlenet—the digital platform owned by Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
Targeting a rival's online platform like this was completely out of line, but he didn't care.
As long as they hid their tracks well and pretended afterward like nothing happened, it would be fine.
He'd been in the internet industry for years and hadn't seen any company with tech more advanced than his own. Gamestar was just a game company. Their internet services probably weren't all that developed, and likely didn't have much security.
Of course, you couldn't just do something like this in broad daylight, so the intrusion was planned for the middle of the night.
That was when security would likely be weakest.
And in fact, that seemed to be true.
Midnight in Japan wasn't much different from midnight in other big cities. At Gamestar's headquarters, a few night shift server maintenance staff were still on duty.
In most companies, employees hated working the night shift—unless the pay was really good.
Gamestar, fortunately, paid well. But that wasn't the only reason these employees didn't mind. Night shifts weren't boring. Some of them were single and didn't enjoy sitting at home, so they actually preferred hanging out at the office, playing games with colleagues. Most nights were quiet anyway, and it felt more like a casual hangout than work.
In one lit-up office, eight employees on night duty were gathered, playing games together.
It was a break room—with gym equipment, and of course, plenty of gaming consoles.
The place basically looked like a free arcade.
And because Takayuki didn't mind rival companies' products, there were all kinds of consoles and games from other companies here too.
Some of those companies had already gone under, but their consoles were still preserved here in perfect condition.
In fact, the place resembled more of a mini gaming museum.
Naturally, the most popular consoles were their own, since only those had the best games. Other consoles were just for occasional fun.
"Hey hey! Rathalos is almost dead! Quick—use the tranq bombs! …Ahh! You idiot, you killed it again! I told you, capturing gives better rewards!"
"Sorry, sorry! I just instinctively went for the kill. That Rathalos gave me so much trouble before, and seeing it this weak in front of me… I couldn't resist."
"Sigh, whatever. One more try, yeah?"
"Of course! We finally got a four-man squad—no way I'm missing this!"
Four of them were playing Monster Hunter together on GSL handheld consoles.
Even though the game had crushed many players with its difficulty, once you got into it, the pain turned into pleasure—like some twisted human instinct being activated.
At this point, Monster Hunter was very popular within a niche community—about 300,000 players globally.
That wasn't a huge number for a top-tier game, but it was enough to break even. From there, it was just about growing the playerbase. The foundation was solid, and the goal was to dominate the genre.
In Takayuki's original world, Monster Hunter had become the undisputed king of co-op action games. He hoped for the same status here.
Elsewhere in the room, two others were seated in front of an arcade-style gaming machine.
They had a large button controller setup—just like old-school arcade cabinets.
In fact, most arcade machines in this world were Takayuki's creations, and fighting games like Street Fighter were best played in this format. Takayuki believed it was the ideal showcase.
In Japan's entertainment venues, many such Street Fighter arcade machines existed and brought in steady income for store owners. They loved the game.
These two employees looked like they were fighting seriously, but on closer inspection…
"Hey, hey—attack me already."
"Sure. How do you want me to hit you?"
"Just use light punch. When you hit me, Mai Shiranui leans back—and you can see her deep V."
"Heh heh. I like that."
"Heh heh. Heheheh."
Their faces were suspiciously creepy. Anyone outside the company would probably mistake them for ex-cons and steer clear.
But here, they could be themselves—nobody cared.
Everyone here was basically the same.
In another corner, two others were doing light workouts and chatting.
"Hey, did you play the president's new Stardew Valley yet?"
"Of course I did. Man, I really admire the president—he always comes up with games in ways we'd never expect."