Chaos

A notification appeared on the corner of the screen, announcing the request from Mr. Yutaka.

"Please gather at the meeting room within the next ten minutes."

Oh, they are finally going to introduce Jun to the rest of the team.

Kyōko asked, "Jun, did you get Mr. Yutaka's message?"

Jun pulled back one of the ear covers of his headphones.

"I didn't. What did he say?"

"We need to go to the meeting room in ten minutes." She pushed herself away from her desk to approach Jun again. "I forgot to add your credentials. Let me do it quickly."

"Sure."

I stopped looking at them when Jun glanced at me.

My mind wouldn't stop wandering off with useless, jealous thoughts that became more tiring than annoying. Instead of losing more time doing nothing, I headed to the bathroom before anyone else since a queue always formed before a meeting.

A headache gradually emerged in my forehead as I sat on the toilet.

Why am I even getting jealous of Kyōko? Why am I getting jealous at all? Am I really still interested in Jun? Or am I that desperate for… love?

A shiver went down my spine.

I got second-hand embarrassment just from thinking that.

The headache only worsened over the next ten minutes. My brain wouldn't listen to me and it made me forget about the meeting entirely. Luckily, I came back to reason before it was too late and sprinted to the meeting room, where the whole team was already sitting.

I stood at the entrance and bowed to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I hope I didn't make you wait."

"You're just in time," smiled Mr. Yutaka.

I stepped in with my head low and sat next to Kyōko. At the same time, Mr. Yoshihiko stood up in front of the seven of us and fixed his buttoned shirt before speaking.

"You must've seen a new face wandering around the office in the past few days. Before anything else, allow me to introduce you to the latest addition to the team: Jun Nishida, the new lead programmer."

What?!

My head snapped toward Jun on its own. Our eyes met for a second before he stood up from next to Kyōko. He walked past behind me to approach Mr. Yoshihiko at the front, while I was too dumbfounded to join the clapping. I never saw him smile so casually when doing a presentation in high school.

"Thank you, Mr. Yoshihiko," said Jun. "My name is Jun Nishida and I'm the new lead programmer, as Mr. Yoshihiko just said."

"Why don't you tell them a little about yourself?"

"Sure. I love games. I've been playing them all my life. I believe that's why most of us are here. However, I only started programming in high school. The person that got me into it is here, in fact. Rie. You could say she's the reason I'm here."

Why is he bringing this up?

"I also wanna thank both Ms. Watanabe and Ms. Katō for helping me since I arrived. As for the rest of the team, I hope we can get along soon."

"I bet you will," Mr. Yoshihiko grinned.

Mr. Yoshihiko then introduced the graphic designer and the 3D designers to Jun before asking him to take a seat.

Meanwhile, I didn't know how to feel. My brain tried to blame Jun for my cowardice, but he wasn't intimidated to dive into the unknown and took the opportunity I ran away from. I couldn't believe I got angry at him for a moment.

What is wrong with me?

Mr. Yutaka stood up next to Mr. Yoshihiko.

"It's time to talk business," said Mr. Yutaka. "I've heard complaints about the lack of communication and organization, and they are entirely reasonable. It's our fault and we'd like to apologize for that."

Both of them bowed in front of us. We, employees, exchanged glances with wide-open eyes as we couldn't believe what we were seeing.

They straightened back and Mr. Yutaka continued.

"We still are getting used to running a company. Please forgive our mistakes and don't hesitate to give us your feedback. This time, we'll make sure everyone is on the same page."

Mr. Yoshihiko turned around to pull a string near the wall to roll down a white, non-reflective cloth. Meanwhile, Mr. Yutaka used a remote controller to turn on the projector hanging from the ceiling. It showed a blue screen, indicating there was no signal.

"Katō, please turn the lights off," Mr. Yoshihiko asked Sachiko.

"Right away."

Although she was sitting, the light switch was just behind her.

Mr. Yutaka approached his seat and left the remote on the table to pick up his laptop. A presentation appeared on the screen a few seconds later. The background was completely black and the foreground had only two huge words in white.

Starworld Chaos…

"Starworld Chaos," smiled Mr. Yoshihiko. "We hadn't chosen a name for the game yet when we showed you the script. This is the name we've come up with. It fits both the story and our future plans for sequels."

Wow, they must have a lot of confidence if they already have sequels planned.

Mr. Yutaka continued, "Obviously, we'd like to keep this a secret. Plans this fresh are exceptionally prone to be changed or even canceled, and we don't want to disappoint people. It also would be a great surprise for them."

Mr. Yoshihiko nodded.

The presentation changed to another slide. It showed incredible artwork of a devastated landscape. Leafless trees, grassless soil, and monsters typical of the fantasy genre—goblins, orcs, ogres, giant worms, and so on. More importantly, the predominant colors were dark purple, dark red, dark pink, and several more dark colors. The atmosphere was great despite the drawing looking blurry in some spots and the creatures lacking details.

"Starworld Chaos' world will look like this in the beginning," said Mr. Yoshihiko, "and it'll be the player's job to de-corrupt it with the help of the few settlements that survived."

Mr. Yutaka added, "You read the script so you already know that the world is corrupted because of the doings of an evil entity, but just like the player, the townsfolk don't know this either. The player will have to travel around the world to find out what happened and how to fix it."

"They obviously have to survive while doing so," said Mr. Yoshihiko. "The player will be able to help the townsfolk collect resources and train other people to do their tasks. For example, the early version of the fishing system that was just finished is going to have a huge role in this."

For the first time since I had started working, my hopes were building up. I was even getting hyped for everything I was hearing.

"However, the player might not be alone necessarily," continued Mr. Yutaka. "Since they are going to be able to switch between two characters, a special item will exist that will allow another player to join the world to help as the second character, making the game co-op."

A sharp pain suddenly appeared in my forehead between my eyes. I tried my hardest not to show discomfort until the pain ceased.

Hold on a second. I remember reading about the protagonist having an alternate personality, but I didn't expect them to make both personalities different characters.

The pain returned. I didn't even try to hide it anymore and massaged the bridge of my nose.

Listening to keyboard events is easy, but should I do it from a single script instance that propagates the events for the rest of the systems? Or should I call the instance directly? The problem is gonna be making the characters switchable. And now there's gonna be a multiplayer option? I have never even seen the net code of a game…

"Minami," called Mr. Yutaka.

I raised my eyes to see everyone staring at me.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked.

"Yes, I was just thinking about how to code the features just mentioned."

"I'm glad you're eager to work, but please stay focused on the meeting."

I bowed in my chair.

"Yes, I'm very sorry."

I don't know if I'd call it eagerness….

"Good," he smiled. "I think that's enough talk about the game for today. We don't want to take more of your precious time because we're going to need it now that we have a publisher and a deadline."

A what now?

The slide of the presentation changed to show BoodieGames' logo next to an obscured silhouette behind a question mark.

Mr. Yoshihiko spoke, "You heard that right. We sent our project to a very famous publisher and they agreed to publish our game."

Kyōko started clapping, and then the rest of us joined her.

"We could tell you who they are, but they asked us to keep it a secret until they announce it, so it'll be best to keep it to ourselves until then. We're not asking you for a favor this time; you can't say a word about this. Got it?"

We all nodded.

"Thank you. About the deadline…"

He took a longer pause than usual.

"They were very… strict about it despite our… observations."

I don't like his tone.

"We agreed to launch the first version of the game before the end of the next fiscal year."

Everyone remained silent.

The next fiscal year? Isn't that…?

One of the two 3D designers raised his hand.

Mr. Yutaka pointed at him and said, "Yes?"

"When is the end of the next fiscal year?"

Mr. Yutaka laughed nervously before answering, "March thirty-first of next year."

I somehow managed not to hit the table and run away. The headache spread over my entire head and it became harder to catch my breath.

That's barely over a year! Are you fucking kidding me?!

I didn't care anymore and spoke up.

"Excuse me, sir, do you really think it is possible to create a world like the one you want in a year?"

"I know it doesn't sound good, that's why I specified it was the launch of the first version of the game. Then, we plan to release periodic updates over the span of a few years until it is completed."

Mr. Yoshihiko added, "It's technically an Early Access release, but we prefer not to call it that."

Saying that was probably supposed to calm me down, but it did the complete opposite. I hated Early Access games, and many other people did too. I wanted to receive a finished product after buying it since many developers had taken advantage of it by running away with the money and never finishing the game. I didn't even know if our game was going to be free-to-play, but I couldn't bring myself to ask.

Instead, I asked, "May I leave to get some fresh air?"

Both Mr. Yutaka's and Mr. Yoshihiko's eyes opened wide.

"Ah…, the meeting is over, so everyone can leave," answered Mr. Yutaka.

"Thank you."

I stood up and sprinted out of the meeting room and the office, not caring how bad it looked.

The wind hit my body once I stepped out of the building, but it wasn't fresh at all. I couldn't walk without my vision darkening out and losing track of where I was. I knew I needed to go to a smoking area, but I had to settle for a bench. I didn't dare smoke on the sidewalk and get a fine. I merely sat and stared down at the pavement while my legs wouldn't stop bouncing on it. The rest of my body didn't take long to join in the shaking. I didn't know what was happening to me, but I was sure I was going to die.

The ground and my feet moved abruptly. They kept moving sideway until I realized I was being pushed. I turned up to my side and saw Jun. His lips moved, yet the words took an eternity to reach my ears.

"Rie, are you alright?"

I stared at him but didn't reply. I slowly caught my breath. Although the headache returned and my body was shaking, I was still alive.

"Rie, please answer me."

"Yes, I am."

Out of nowhere, a lump suffocated my throat, and I had no other choice but to look down and cry it all out.

"No…."

I couldn't understand why, yet I couldn't stop. It had been so long since I had last cried.

Jun wrapped his arm around me, then gently pulled my head toward his shoulder. I didn't hesitate to hide my face in his shirt and cry even harder.

Tears wouldn't stop coming out. It took a while for my breath to calm down, making the lump disappear.

"Did something happen?" Jun worried.

I moved away from him and swept the tears away with my arm.

"No, nothing happened. That's the problem, I have no idea why I'm feeling like this. I have nothing to complain about. Other people have it way worse than me. I think the fact that we have just over a year to make the game was the drop that spilled the glass."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound good. So, a lot of shit pent up?"

"I guess so."

I took a deep breath before continuing.

"I also… got angry at you because you got the lead programmer position."

His eyes opened wide.

"You don't want me to be the lead programmer?"

"No, it's not that. I'm glad you are, but… I was offered the position first, and I rejected it because I was scared. I should've gotten angry at myself, but I don't know what's wrong with my brain."

He stared at me with an expression I couldn't read, then he looked away.

"Can I be a hypocrite and tell you something no one wants to hear?"

"I might get angry at you again and hit you, but go ahead."

He chuckled.

"You need to change, Rie. You're always scared to try new things. Weirdly enough, you were the one that wanted to…"

My gaze was enough to stop him.

"…Whatever. What I mean is that you need to step out of your comfort zone. I did it and it was for the better, don't you agree?"

"Do you still feel like yourself?"

"It was weird at first, and even scary, to force myself to talk to people. I had to, or people would've taken advantage of me or I would've lost many opportunities, but I always felt like myself. The difference is that I was alone. Now, you have your family, Kyōko, Sachiko, and me. Still, I'm sure you're strong and don't need our help."

I stared at him in silence.

"What?" he asked.

My fist swiftly punched his shoulder.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?"

"I got angry at you again, so I punched you…, but thank you."

He shook his head yet still smiled at me. We stared at each other until my brain processed what had just happened.

"Oh, fuck."

"What?"

"We just touched each other."

"Oh, right. Well, the sooner we swap bodies, the sooner we can swap back."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's take a nap here."

Although I didn't like the idea, it was for the better. I set an alarm on my phone and I told Jun to do the same. This time, I made sure to lean opposite to Jun to avoid what had happened last time and fell asleep within a few blinks.