The news that gaming websites and magazines would be coming to interview Ichin spread throughout the company within a single morning.
After finishing a busy stretch of work that afternoon, Kō Yagami leaned back in her chair, stretched lazily, and smiled.
"Back when I was at Eagle Jump, you guys always dragged me along for interviews. Now I finally don't have to deal with that anymore. So... when Ichin gets interviewed tomorrow, should we go watch?"
Aoba glanced around nervously before whispering,
"Wouldn't that be a bad idea?"
Kō waved her hand dismissively.
"It's fine, it's fine! We're just watching him get interviewed. Ichin isn't that petty."
"Uh... that's not what I meant."
Aoba awkwardly scratched her cheek.
"I'm worried that if we go over there and he notices us... he'll drag us into the interview too."
The moment she said that, Kō immediately became alert.
"...That's actually very possible!"
They all knew Ichin's personality very well. If they stayed away, nothing would happen.
But if they went over just to watch and got caught...
There was a very high chance Ichin would pull them over and have them participate in the interview as well.
Kō also understood how these media outlets thought.
The more senior developers they could interview, the better. Any extra information they could gather was a bonus.
Umiko walked over at that moment with a smile.
"I'm telling you, you should all just stay away. Otherwise it'll turn out exactly like Aoba said."
"If Ichin drags you over there, it'll be too late to regret it."
Kō nodded repeatedly with lingering fear.
"Exactly!"
"I'd better not go."
"I'll just wait until the interview gets published."
"Anyway, let's talk about something more interesting!"
Afternoon tea would arrive in just a few minutes, so instead of returning to work, Kō immediately shifted the conversation to gossip.
"When I was playing online with Eriri yesterday, she told me Ichin went to Chiba with Haruno for a banquet on Saturday..."
"...and didn't come home all night."
"Whaaat?!"
Hajime Shinoda's eyes widened.
"Don't tell me..."
Kō covered her mouth and whispered,
"Hehe. When Ichin comes over for afternoon tea later, let's surround him and ask him properly."
Iijima Yun was equally excited by the gossip.
"I called it a long time ago!"
"The four of them were living together."
"Haruno getting won over was only a matter of time!"
Umiko, however, offered a different perspective.
"That part isn't surprising. What I've been wondering is..."
"...can Ichin's body actually handle it?"
"Huh?"
Everyone turned to look at her.
A second later, they all understood what she meant.
One after another, their faces turned bright red.
Umiko continued her analysis as though she were discussing a perfectly ordinary topic.
"Think about it. He already had Utaha and Yukino. That would've been manageable."
"But now Haruno's joined too. Forget whether his kidneys can take it. How are they even dividing up the nights?"
"I've read harem light novels before, but this is the first time I've ever seen something like this happen in real life."
At that moment, Hazuki walked over, Having overheard Umiko's analysis, she laughed.
"My thoughts are pretty much the same as yours. I'm actually very curious about how Utaha and the others are dividing Ichin's schedule."
"If we get the chance, we definitely need to ask."
"Hmm..."
"Why don't we ask them during afternoon tea?"
"Utaha and Yukino will both be there too."
As one of the biggest troublemakers in the company, and certainly one of the least afraid of causing trouble, Hazuki naturally preferred whatever sounded the most entertaining.
Especially since the matter also involved Haruno, someone she was quite close to.
That only made her even more curious.
Ten minutes later, the milk tea and desserts for afternoon tea arrived. Everyone temporarily set aside their work and enjoyed the company's short afternoon break.
At Utaha and Yukino's reminder, Ichin also snapped out of work mode.
After saving the portion of his proposal that he had finished writing, he left the office together with them.
The proposal he was currently working on was one he had been looking forward to writing for a long time.
Elden Ring.
He planned to personally lead the development team from beginning to end, something he hadn't done in quite a while.
Besides that proposal, he had already completed most of the planning documents and scenario for Tales of Arise.
At the same time, planning was also underway for two more games.
GARO 2 and a new Persona title.
The GARO proposal mainly involved writing the main storyline, which Ichin had entrusted to one of the new scriptwriters the company had recently trained.
As for the new Persona game, it was being developed based on the memories he had of Persona 4 Golden.
Once he had completed the overall framework and outlined the main plot, he handed the rest over to Utaha.
Having already written the previous Persona game's script, along with the tremendous growth she'd made as a writer over the past several years, the task was practically second nature to her.
Coincidentally, she still hadn't found a good direction for the movie screenplay she wanted to write. So she gladly accepted the job, deciding to finish the game's script first and see whether it might inspire her.
As for the two game concepts approved during the recent Creative Competition...
Ichin hadn't officially started development yet.
Instead, after several planning meetings, he asked Nene and the other proposal creators to recruit a few suitable teammates and continue refining the concepts privately.
Once the proposals matured, he could immediately assign staff and officially begin development.
The company's list of projects continued to grow. And every one of them was an exciting title. As a result, manpower was gradually becoming stretched thin.
While heading downstairs, Ichin said to Utaha,
"Utaha, after afternoon tea, could you arrange a meeting with Akane Kousaka?"
"I'd like to discuss a partnership with her."
Utaha looked at him curiously.
"A partnership? Are you thinking about outsourcing part of the game development?"
"Exactly."
Ichin nodded.
"Besides the projects we're already developing, we still have several more waiting to begin."
"Once Bloodborne and Phasmophobia are finished later this year, we'll reach the point where we have too many projects running simultaneously."
"So I plan to outsource part of the workload to companies we can trust."
"Akane is an excellent partner."
"On top of that, she's built up plenty of industry connections over the years."
"She can probably recommend one or two highly reliable outsourcing studios, allowing us to spread the workload around."
The company's internal teams would continue handling all the core development. Meanwhile, relatively straightforward and repetitive work would be outsourced. That was completely normal in both the game development industry and the anime production industry. Since rapidly expanding the company's workforce overnight simply wasn't realistic, this was by far the most practical solution.
As long as the outsourcing studios were skilled enough, they wouldn't negatively affect development quality.
That was precisely why Ichin had chosen to approach Akane Kousaka.
...
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