Toyama Rin smiled as she patted Yagami Kō on the head.

"Kō may complain about how tiring it is, but she's super focused during class. Her notebook's completely packed with notes."

Called out like that, Kō blushed with embarrassment and loudly protested, "Of course I'm serious in class! Have you seen how expensive those lessons are?! And if I want a raise in the future, I've got to attend properly! Besides, I'm not the only one—everyone else is taking it seriously too, aren't they?"

She wasn't wrong. Including Hazuki, everyone attending the classes had been quite diligent. While their spoken Chinese was still shaky, they could already read most of the Pinyin.

They were all young, and as long as they weren't lazy, their language learning progress was clearly visible.

Ichin had taken note of their attitudes, naturally. As the boss who enrolled them in those lessons, he regularly received updates from the instructors.

Popping a preserved plum into his mouth, Ichin smiled and said, "I won't talk about the ones who didn't come today, but all of you here—including Aoba and Nene—once your Chinese is solid, there'll definitely be plenty of opportunities for you to go on business trips to China. My future plan is to set up one or two additional studios in China aside from the one in Shanghai, to work on games of various genres and scales. By then, I'll need people who can take charge. Besides the main development studio, we'll need support and guidance roles too. So yes, Kō—about that raise—you can definitely expect it."

"Business trips, huh…"

Aoba tilted her head and said, "I've never been on one before. I wonder what it's like. But taking charge of a whole project? That's definitely something Hazuki-san or Kō-san would be doing first, not me."

Ichin waved his finger. "Hazuki will continue working as a producer, developing the kinds of games she's great at. I'm thinking of something like the Fairies Stories-style JRPGs you all used to make. As for Kō, she may be needed to guide the art teams at new studios. And Umiko—since I plan to base the studio focused on design games in China—you'll probably be traveling quite a bit."

Hearing that her trips would be for design game development, Umiko had no complaints.

"Fine with me. I don't mind traveling, especially since you, Ichin, pay well and assign me work I actually enjoy."

Nene was curious about the new studios, even though she knew her turn for overseas travel would come a bit later.

"Ichin-kun, which cities are you thinking of for the new studios?"

"Well…"

Ichin crossed his arms. "I'll probably choose cities with a strong information tech presence—it makes hiring easier. The downside, of course, is that office rentals in such cities are expensive."

In the end, it all came down to money.

Right now, Ichin was managing two studios, and with his current funds and the pre-order income from Persona, things were fine. But long-term expansion would require more high-selling titles.

He had plenty of project ideas in mind, but opening a third studio this year wasn't realistic—it'd have to wait until next year.

Rubbing his chin, Ichin continued, "At the current Shanghai studio, there are a few people experienced with 3D shooters. I'll probably assign them to work on that genre. For the next new studio, I'm thinking of focusing on niche, high-quality games—something like Slay the Spire or Hollow Knight."

Something like Fall Guys would be a good example—it's not hard to develop, but it demands excellent level design, consistent updates, and strong anti-cheat systems once it's live.

Looking at Hazuki and Umiko, Ichin asked, "Hazuki, Umiko, do you know any companies or engineers skilled in anti-cheat systems?"

Persona was progressing steadily, so Ichin had the bandwidth to start planning future projects and laying down the groundwork.

"Anti-cheat, huh…"

Umiko rubbed her chin thoughtfully and nodded. "Yeah, I know a few people. Is this for an online multiplayer game?"

"Exactly. Multiplayer games, especially PvP ones, are always a hotbed for cheating—like Battlefield, for example. So no matter what kind of online game we make, we'll need strong anti-cheat from the start."

"Got it."

Umiko pulled out her phone and stood up. "I'll call one of my contacts. But we're not implementing it yet, right?"

"Right, I just want to understand what's available. We'll definitely need it later."

Umiko went to another room to make the call, while Ichin stretched and looked around at the group. "Feels like we suddenly shifted back to work mode again. Anyway, since everyone's here, wait a sec—I'll bring something down that I've been working on. It's about ready, and I want you to try it."

As Ichin left, Kō looked curiously at Utaha. "What's he working on now?"

Utaha smiled knowingly. "Something good. You'll see soon enough."

Everyone looked at each other, unsure what Ichin was up to.

Nene rested her chin in her hands, her round cheeks puffing up. "Could it be food? Hmm, no… doesn't sound like it."

Hifumi glanced around and cautiously raised her hand. "Um… could it be a game?"

"Most likely."

Kō chuckled. "That guy's a game developer at heart. I doubt he spends his time at home just studying or being lovey-dovey with Utaha. He's definitely tinkering with something new. We all do it. All of us artists sketch stuff on the side. And Nene—you've been messing with that game engine you built yourself, right?"

"My engine?"

Nene beamed with pride. "Hehe! With Umiko-san's help, I've cleaned up the messy early code and added some features. But because of how it was originally designed, it's not great for 3D games—only really usable for small-scale 2D games."

The engine still had its limitations, but Nene was quite satisfied with her progress.

*

Author's Note:

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