During the first few days after his transmigration, Yukihira Soma felt completely out of place in this unfamiliar environment. He had never imagined that something like transmigration could truly happen to him.
His behavior during that period was extremely strange.
If it weren't for the fact that the original body's parents were on a long vacation overseas, they would surely have noticed something abnormal about their son.
After about ten days of adjustment, Soma gradually accepted his new identity and began to familiarize himself with this world, absorbing all kinds of information.
He had arrived in Japan in the 1990s.
The original body's family was fairly wealthy, and by all accounts, he should have lived a happy life.
A car, a house, and parents who were still alive—this hardly fit the standard tragic protagonist template.
However, due to a failed romance, the original owner of the body, in a moment of despair, took an overdose of sleeping pills. It was then that the transmigrator, Yukihira Soma, arrived in this body, sharing the same name and appearance.
The only difference lay in the surname: the original owner's surname was Yukihira, while in his previous life, Soma's surname had simply been Soma.
After arriving in this world, Yukihira Soma began to notice several peculiarities.
First of all, this did not seem to be the Earth of the 1990s that he was familiar with.
In the 1990s of his original world, the internet was already widely popularized, and even early prototypes of smartphones had begun to take shape.
Yet in this world, television programs remained the most important form of entertainment.
It was unclear whether another transmigrator had arrived before him and altered the course of history, but the television entertainment industry here was absurdly powerful. It was so advanced that it had crushed nearly all other forms of entertainment, leaving them no room to survive.
Almost everyone had their favorite shows, a situation similar to the dominance of short videos in Soma's previous life. The difference was that, in this world, television held an absolutely dominant position.
At the same time, the overall technological level was roughly comparable to Earth after the year 2000—yet here, it was happening in the early 1990s.
Moreover, Soma had never heard of many famous people or events from this world.
All signs pointed to this being a parallel world similar to Earth: largely the same, but with noticeable differences in the details.
What shocked Yukihira Soma the most, however, was the state of the video game industry.
It wasn't that games didn't exist—they did—but their development was lukewarm at best.
Every game available on the market looked outdated and painfully boring.
There wasn't even Tetris. At most, there were simple games like Breakout.
People were almost completely captivated by television entertainment, something Soma found utterly absurd.
For someone who had been a homebody in his previous life and relied on video games as a daily hobby, this situation was completely unbearable.
That said, he had to admit that the television programs in this world were genuinely impressive—so advanced that even someone from the 2020s like him would occasionally feel amazed.
Yukihira Soma lived in a privileged environment. If he continued like this, his parents' wealth would be enough for him to squander for the rest of his life without ever needing to work. He could even earn some extra money by taking advantage of his knowledge as a transmigrator.
But the absence of video games was something he simply could not tolerate.
And so, an idea formed in his mind.
—Why not make them myself?
Even if people in this world didn't like them, at the very least, he could entertain himself.
With this "let's try and see what happens" mindset, Soma began attempting to create video games.
During this period, he started studying various fields related to electronics on his own.
Unfortunately, progress was slow.
Software programming wasn't too difficult—he had some experience with it in his previous life.
But electrical engineering was another matter entirely. There were too many technical barriers, and it wasn't something he could master in a short time.
In the end, he chose another path: finding someone who already understood these things.
The first people he approached thought Soma was a scammer.
And honestly, from their perspective, it made sense.
Living alone, with no proper office, working out of a residential house, maintaining a completely irregular lifestyle, and claiming he wanted to create a game console no one had ever heard of—it all sounded ridiculous.
Finding Airi Hayasawa, someone well-versed in both electronic manufacturing and electrical engineering, was nothing short of a stroke of luck.
He encountered her on the street by chance.
She looked dejected, clearly unable to find a job. Perhaps it was the empathy born from Soma's previous life that made him pay attention to her.
To his surprise, Airi Hayasawa was a graduate in electrical engineering.
Exactly what he needed.
Soma silently observed her job-hunting process for several days.
At first, he worried whether Airi would be willing to work with him.
What he didn't expect was that the moment she heard the daily wage—10,000 yen per day, paid in cash every night—she agreed without hesitation.
Perhaps she had been job-hunting for so long that she no longer had the luxury of suspicion. Or perhaps Airi Hayasawa herself was simply a bit careless.
What surprised him even more was how hard she worked after joining him.
If it weren't for Airi Hayasawa's seemingly endless energy, Soma might not have been able to keep up with her relentless pace.
After several weeks of combined effort, they finally produced the prototype of the first-generation game console.
At the same time, the first truly popular electronic game in this world was born.
Super Mario Bros. had arrived.
The familiar screen made Yukihira Soma's eyes sting with tears.
The sense of accomplishment—of creating something through continuous effort—was completely different from anything else.
Even though, in truth, it was the result of recreating the success of his predecessors.
In his heart, Soma silently recited the names of those legendary game producers, thanking them for the joy they had brought into his life.
—If you're not in this parallel world… then let me carry on your legacy and make video games flourish here!
—Is this what you said would change the world, Yukihira-san?
Behind him, Airi Hayasawa stared at the television screen without blinking.
She felt no interest whatsoever in the tiny characters moving around on the screen, which even made her start to wonder whether all this effort had any meaning.
Of course, Soma was extremely generous with money—10,000 yen in cash was handed to her every night.
Honestly, could there be a better job than this?
Faced with Airi's question, Soma replied without hesitation:
—Of course. It might not interest you, but it'll be different for others. Alright, let's move on to the next step.
—The next step? What is it?
After skillfully clearing the first level of Super Mario Bros., Soma unplugged the unsightly cables from the circuit board.
—Naturally, it's finding a place to start promoting our product.
Electronic games might be a completely unfamiliar concept to the people of this world.
But in Soma's view, that was only because they had never played truly fun games.
Super Mario Bros. was a historic title.
At a time when the gaming industry was stagnant, it was like a shot of adrenaline injected into the market, revitalizing it entirely and setting it on an unstoppable course.
Soma had reason to believe that even if this game couldn't achieve its ultimate effect in this world, at the very least, the mischievous children here would welcome it.
Unless every single child in this world devoted themselves wholeheartedly to studying and had no interest in entertainment at all.
However, judging by the children's passionate obsession with Ultraman and monster battle variety shows on television, that was clearly impossible.
Airi Hayasawa still couldn't understand Soma's strange way of thinking.
What was so interesting about controlling something that merely moved on a screen?
Couldn't home computers already achieve the same effect?
Why go through the trouble of making such an ugly device?
At that time, computers were already widely used and had decent performance. Online games even had early prototypes, yet they were just as boring and completely suppressed by television entertainment.
Airi didn't understand it—but that didn't stop her from continuing to work.
After all, Soma was the only employer who had offered her a job.
—By the way, Airi, would you be interested in wearing a mascot costume?
—A costume? What kind?
Airi didn't react immediately.
Soma pointed downstairs.
—Come on, I'll show you.
Soma carried the game console downstairs, with Airi following behind him in confusion.
When they reached the entrance, Airi noticed several large packages piled near the door.
Soma stepped forward and opened them one by one.
Inside were two sets of cartoon-style mascot costumes, similar to those worn by staff at amusement parks for taking photos and playing with children.
—Put this on. Then we'll go somewhere with lots of kids.
As Soma began putting on one of the costumes, Airi was still completely stunned.
—H-Hey! Yukihira-san! You never said my job included being a mascot!
—I'll add another five thousand yen for today.