6. feel the pressure

I went to the cafeteria to relieve my stuffy mind, and came back with a huge bag.

-As a prospective project manager for Monster Eater, please attend the meeting with producer Takizawa.

Originally, in the case of Nexle, games that are already in service are overseen by the ‘Live Headquarters’.

However, there are a few exceptions.

It was a casual action RPG called ‘War Crying’, which is said to be responsible for about half of the mobile game sales of 600 billion won launched by Choi Jong-hak and Nepple game sales.

If the business team achieves this goal, Monster Eater Online will be the third exception.

Because it is a hit that boasts 1.9 million global users.

Kim Myung-wook said that if the publishing contract is concluded, there is a high possibility of intensive management with subsidiaries.

‘What should I do?’

It was already work time.

A handful of employees had already left work and were left alone in the studio.

‘I asked for time to think… … .’

I didn’t have much spare time.

It is because they are risking their lives in the business team of Play Funds, which is a competitor.

‘I have to decide quickly.’

In fact, the answer has already been decided.

I was just hesitating because it was obvious that the hardships would begin the moment I agreed. This does not increase the salary more, but if the formal service performance is good, a small reward is given as an incentive.

“PD Yoo didn’t get off work?”

Then Suna’s voice was heard.

She came up to me with an apologetic expression.

“I feel like you’re only burdening me because of me… … sorry.”

Taeyeon shook her head.

“It’s not Sunah’s fault. Team leader Kim Myung-wook mentioned the two directors. Asking Sunah was a kind of reference check.”

“ah… … .”

“So you don’t have to feel sorry for me. It’s my responsibility to be competent. It happened because I was too good.”

She smiled at Taeyeon’s sarcasm.

“If there is anything I can help with, please contact me.

He seemed to feel much lighter, and left with a slightly brighter face.

Taeyeon smiled and carried on with the rest of her work.

* * *

Taeyeon gave a definite answer to team leader Kim Myeong-wook the next morning.

“Let’s try it. Schedule a meeting and let me know.”

“thank you!”

“I really had a big heart. You know?”

“Oh, of course! Are you okay today? I’ll treat you to a good dish! ha ha ha!”

He must have been in a really good mood, he burst into laughter, not paying attention to the gazes around him. After a brief conversation, Taeyeon returned to her seat and adjusted her work schedule.

And I pondered for a while.

‘What should I do to convince producer Satoshi Takizawa?’

Taeyeon’s eyes grew deeper and deeper.

* * *

Unlike Seoul, Osaka was quite cool.

I arrived early in the morning, so I ate ramen, drank coffee, and prepared for the meeting, so lunch time passed quickly.

“Shall we go now?”

“yes. Let’s go.”

Taeyeon and Kim Myeong-guk entered a nearby building. That place was the headquarters of Crying Soft, the maker of Monster Eater.

Coincidentally, producer Satoshi Takizawa was in the middle of a meeting with another publisher in Korea.

While waiting in the empty conference room, Kim Myung-guk asked in a nervous voice.

“I bet you haven’t made up your mind already, have you?”

“We’ll have to wait and see.”

Although she pretended to be calm on the outside, Taeyeon was also feeling tension inside.

I came all the way here, but if things didn’t work out, I felt uncomfortable all the way back.

Even if it goes well, there will be hardships, but I wanted to return home with good results.

After a while, the door opened and a man in his mid-40s with braided hair entered.

A white T-shirt with the Monster Eater logo on jeans with a chain hanging from it.

“I am Satoshi Takizawa.”

“I am Taeyeon Yoo, a game developer.”

One of Japan’s leading star developers.

After exchanging business cards, Taeyeon sat down.

A little tired look.

“Are you tired? Eat this. It’s my favorite product, and the taste and effect are quite good.”

Kim Myeong-wook quickly handed over an expensive anti-fatigue medicine he brought from Korea.

Strangely, he was handed the bottle and drank it at once. He clenched his fists and said,

“The effect of the potion is considerable! HP is full!”

Taeyeon’s eyes sparkled at the sight and she quickly asked.

“Are you a Sword Master user?”

“uh? How did you know?”

“I recognized her at once by looking at her pose when drinking the potion.”

“Have you played Monster Eater?”

“I am a person who has owned all of the limited editions since the early days. The online version also started right when it was launched in Japan, and reached the highest level in 15 days.”

“Awesome!”

Taeyeon gave her soulful lip service to him who was genuinely admiring him.

“Actually, my dream was to do a raid with the producer, but if you don’t mind, can you please listen to my wish later? I really like PD’s game. Whatever the job, I thought I could meet the PD, so I put off work and came here.”

It definitely worked.

Impressed, he readily agreed.

“The future is possible, even now! Shall we play a game?”

“Good!”

“Oh, the full set of Dragon Slayer glory! Isn’t that a really tricky piece of gear to get?”

“The equipment of PD Takizawa is not easy. The weapon of the ancient bust, and even the ring is the blessing of the Behemoth. Surely you didn’t use the producer’s authority to cheat, right?”

“It can’t be. I put a lot of effort into getting this right. I took annual leave a few times to stay overnight.”

The two never stopped talking for a second throughout the game.

The first raid was finally over.

Satoshi Takizawa suggested it to Taeyeon, as if it was regrettable to end it like this.

“Shall we catch one more?”

“Good!”

Already, Kim Myung-wook was not on his mind.

The two were immersed in their own world.

Taeyeon made use of her play and reverse planning experience to point out the point that must be corrected, and Takizawa Satoshi took it seriously.

He spoke after playing for about an hour.

“Publishing, take care of it!”

‘I did it, I did it!’

At that moment, Kim Myung-wook had to struggle to suppress the urge to burst into cheers. Still, I couldn’t control the quivering corners of my lips.

Taeyeon’s happy heart is the same.

Without hiding her bright smile, she grabbed the hand that Takizawa reached out to her.

“Thank you for your trust. I will do my best not to disappoint you.”

* * *

Prior to recruiting, Taeyeon established three rules.

– Must have a good understanding of the Monster Eater series.

– The average of the status window’s abilities must be at least ‘medium’ or higher.

– Must be able to communicate smoothly.

Since it is not a hiring of universe studio developers, Taeyeon set the hiring standards generously.

‘You don’t have to be picky here either. Let’s finish the job as soon as possible.’

A month has passed since the publishing contract.

First of all, team leader Kim Myeong-wook became the CEO of ‘Neckple Plus’.

It was recognized for its success in publishing contracts for popular IP online games being developed by Crying Soft, including Monster Eater. The salary was at the level of the president, but it was a surprising promotion anyway.

Taeyeon, who became the head of Nexple Plus development headquarters, selected a total of 70 development and operation teams for localization work.

With the help of the status window, we were able to recruit high-quality human resources, and in particular, we raised the annual salary to the level of a developer that was appropriate for our years of service so that we could be more immersed in our work while directly training and managing operators.

It was because I thought there was nothing ugly and dirty like giving only a small amount of money and forcing only loyalty and passion.

This was agreed not only by CEO Kim Myung-wook, but also by the two directors who are the absolute power of Nexple.

We worked on localization, including translation and voice recording, and paid great attention to feedback with the local development team.

Taeyeon was able to talk easily and joke with Satoshi Takizawa, a star developer representing Japan, at any time.

Not long ago, he made Takizawa Satoshi, who visited Korea, stay at his house and served as a tour guide for 4 days and 3 nights. After that, Takizawa Satoshi trusted Taeyeon a lot.

“Please allow me to listen to texts and voice actors from other countries, such as Japanese and English, as well as Korean.”

“Well, it doesn’t sound like a difficult task, but… … Is that really necessary?”

“There are many people who want to enjoy world-class content as it was in the original. I thought Takizawa-san, the virtue of virtues, would understand better than anyone else.”

“Come to think of it, that makes sense. great. I will. And do you have any other requests?”

“There seems to be something that can be adjusted in the planning stage related to server stress, so I thought I would discuss it… … .”

Taeyeon perfectly fulfilled her role as the local project manager that Takizawa had hoped for.

Instead of just preparing for localization by receiving the source, he did not hesitate to present planning ideas or alternatives related to various issues that the development team wanted.

Although not as good as Tajikawa Satoshi, Taeyeon has also accumulated a lot of experience by devoting herself to game development for 10 years. At least when it comes to online services, Taeyeon’s skills and experience were much higher than those of the Monster Eater development team.

He showed his passion to solve it without hesitation, and sometimes go to the local area and even hold a development meeting with the Japanese development team.

Taeyeon’s idea was actively reflected in the global patch to be carried out later.

Kim Myung-wook, the team leader, made an extensive article about this fact, raising expectations for official Korean service, while bringing out a hidden talent named Yoo Tae-yeon, whom only those in the know knew.

* * *

The Pantheon development team has already reached 25 people.

The program team leader, who struggled the most, was easily resolved in an unexpected part. As the presence of Pantheon and Monster Eater emerged, developers from other studios at Nexle applied for transfer assignments, and among them, there were experienced people who successfully launched new works and were looking for other jobs.

Joo Hyun-young was a female programmer with 20 years of experience.

He was good at everything, server and client.

She’s not super talented, but she’s a nice woman in her mid-40s, a mother of two kids in school, and passionate about improving her skills as a game developer.

The reference check results were also very good.

Her personality was so good that she was called ‘Mom’ in the previous development team. If there was something I couldn’t solve, I had to stay up all night to get it done, and I got along well with other job groups, so I provided various ideas.

Taeyeon appointed her as the program team leader, and the program team was composed of people with good status and good personality, with her as the main focus.

“For now, this is enough.”

Now, we will make an alpha version with this number of people and conduct an in-house demonstration.

If the evaluation was good there, the goal was to go into a volume battle, hire more people, and speed up development to a total of 70 people.

As Taeyeon was organizing her schedule, someone approached and said cautiously.

“P.D. The students are waiting.”

It was a representative of Chosun-ah.

When she appeared, the old bachelors in the studio began to glance at each other, bewildered. Taeyeon stood up from her seat and asked.

“I forgot. Where did you say you were on a field trip today?”

“I am a student at the Department of Media Communication at Daegu University.”

“All university students across the country seem to see it at least once.”

After a while, dozens of college students were filling the meeting room.

Taeyeon grabbed the microphone first and smiled.

“hello. I am Taeyeon Yoo, a game developer. nice to meet you.”

* * *

“They’ve been doing great lately.”

Taeyeon was stiff.

It was because he was having a private meeting with Chairman Yoo Jin-seong.

Before work, Yoo Jin-seong suddenly called for dinner and took him to a high-class Japanese restaurant on the outskirts of Pangyo and poured him a drink.

Chairman Yoo Jin-seong said with a smile.

“Who said that? Yoo Tae-yeon, producer, will be the most talked about person among all gamers in Korea this month.”

Well, it was an interview or something, and there were tons of articles pouring in.

Even in Japan, producer Takizawa kept talking about Taeyeon while interviewing local media, and as it became known in Korea, she was slowly becoming a celebrity.

‘Why did they suddenly create this place?’

Is there something you wish for?

While Taeyeon was shaking her head nervously, President Jinsung Yoo suddenly said something.

“I heard that PD Yoo is almost exclusively in charge of field trips and external lecture events?”

“yes? yes. Dedicated… … It wasn’t until then, but somehow it happened.”

“I just wanted to say thank you. Actually, the event was planned by myself because I wanted to change the public perception of the Korean game industry.”

It was a story I had heard from Chosunah, so I already knew it. Taeyeon quietly listened to the words that followed.

“So I even organized a department dedicated to external events, called the talent management department, which is not found in other companies. However, when I opened the lid, the reaction was not cool… … So far, I’ve been feeling a bit like that.”

Sunah has said the same thing several times.

No matter how much they do their best, they say that they are weak because there is no developer to be the center.

Even after holding the event, he did not hear good things about it, so he said he wondered why he had to stay at this company.

“But after PD Yoo appeared, the atmosphere completely changed. The quality of the lectures is good, and the satisfaction level is high, so they say that inquiries are coming nonstop these days.

“I don’t think it’s because I’m good at it. I was just telling the story of the industry I know… … The person to be praised is Assistant Manager Chosun-ah. He is a very hard worker.”

“Yes. In fact, he’s a friend I’ve been paying attention to since before joining the company.”

I felt a bit puzzled by that statement, but it was quickly erased from my mind as President Jinseong Yoo poured me a drink.

After emptying the cup, President Jinsung Yoo continued.

“I wish you well in the future. The development of Pandeon, the role of general manager of Nexple Plus development, and the role of lecturer.”

“I will do my best.”

“I really like pure developers who are talented and passionate. I don’t see people like that these days… … Yoo PD looks different. At least in my eyes.”

It was a meaningful smile.

On the way to leave and return alone, Taeyeon pondered.

‘Pantheon must succeed.’

Even the president is showing interest.

First of all, I scored a lot of points for this and that, but… … If there is a problem in the process of developing Pantheon, or if the performance is not good after launching, this favorable impression will return as a double upset.

Building trust is hard, but it only takes a moment to blow it.

‘burden.’

Taeyeon took a heavy step.

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