A Real Dog

Angell's retreat lasted another half a month.

But Magic Gear's business did not stop because of it.

After all, Angell was a planner from the mobile game era. He was used to putting unfinished products on the market, then slowly adding content version by version.

So the customers discovered new "surprises" almost every day.

One day, stars that had been twinkling suddenly turned into snowflakes. You would not notice unless you looked carefully, but stepping on them caused different effects and made the game more difficult.

The players:

"—Don't step on it!"

"Ahhh, it exploded!"

"I was just about to warn you! Stars that turn into pale red snowflakes will explode!"

"This one seems to be changing too. It'll turn into a blue snowflake. Will it explode if I step on it too?"

"Huh? I haven't encountered that kind before! Want to step on it and see?"

"Hahaha, I'm frozen!"

"Want to try that golden snowflake next?"

One day, a Holy Spirit Fairy floated through the air. The Candy she dropped allowed the little reindeer to fly and hover on its own for a while without falling, making it easier for low-scoring Players to catch up with high-scoring ones.

The players:

"What was that flying through the sky just now? So pretty!"

"I saw the magic patterns on her skirt. She should be a Holy Spirit Fairy?"

"Does that mean I've been blessed by a holy spirit?"

"Where did you encounter her? I want to as well!"

"Seems like it depends on luck... Wait, don't kill yourself!"

One day, Game Tables loaded with reskinned games were placed in the shop.

The players:

"Finally, new Game Tables!"

"Wait, this doesn't seem to be the same game!"

"This is... a Dragon?"

"No way, it's way too fat!"

"It's definitely a Dragon! Look how cool it is. I think it looks far more imposing than a reindeer."

"It can't jump! It's falling again!"

"Hahaha, this is fun!"

As the first batch of Magic Rune Game Players on this Plane, they were highly receptive. They accepted every change and found enjoyment in experimenting with all sorts of things—usually getting themselves killed.

Mithril would sometimes collect this feedback and report it to Angell.

Angell was deeply moved.

"What perfect Players!"

Back in the mobile game era, he would have been cursed into depression long ago.

But Angell did not intend to abuse that trust.

He knew that early-game Players were always very tolerant—

On Blue Star, the original commercial Arcade Machine game, Pong, was merely a table tennis game made of two lines and a ball. Yet it was still immensely popular among Players, allowing Atari, its developer, to become the largest game company in North America. Later, however, that company relied on Players' desire for new games to release all kinds of shoddy, messy products, directly causing the collapse of the North American game market. In the end, Nintendo's Super Plumber saved the market, and from then on, Japanese game companies took a leading position in gaming history.

Angell did not want to repeat those mistakes.

He had intended to cultivate these Players' tastes and seize the territory that Electronic Games should have occupied before the Third Industrial Revolution arrived.

So after receiving positive feedback, Angell instead strove for perfection, wanting to give the reskinned games their own distinct characteristics.

By the time Angell was finally satisfied after who knew how many updates, nearly a month had passed. Even the tables for the Item Shop had all been delivered, and all Twelve Game Tables had entered service.

Angell carved the final Rune into the crystal.

"Once night comes, I just need to replace it with the final version!"

He checked it once with Mana, confirmed there were no bugs, then nodded in satisfaction and glanced at the clock.

Three in the afternoon.

It felt like there was still enough time to take a nap and catch up on sleep, but by the time Angell realized it, he had already habitually picked up an Energy Potion and chugged it down.

"Ah, I guess I didn't need to drink that."

Holding the empty bottle, Angell thought of it a beat too late.

He stretched and moved his stiff body, only then noticing that the shadow beneath him had turned into a giant cat head, staring at him with heterochromatic vertical pupils, one gold and one purple.

"Mithril, you'll scare someone to death doing that," Angell protested lazily.

The shadow turned into a Black Cat.

"You won't be scared to death," Mithril said coldly. "A Mage's Soul isn't that fragile."

Of course, death from overwork was impossible too.

A Mage's Soul was tempered again and again by Mana, making it sturdier than the body. This allowed them to drag their frail bodies through twenty hours of work every day and still live on stubbornly. It made them the most suitable profession for Corporate Slaves.

—So in this life, Angell had lost even the joy of dropping dead from overwork.

Only Little Enlise worried that the current owner of the Workshop might fall ill from exhaustion. The cold-blooded Assistant Cat merely scrutinized the medicine bottle in Angell's hand, concerned about the work schedule. "Didn't you say you could finish today? Why are you drinking Energy Potion again?"

"I drank it by mistake," Angell answered.

The Assistant Cat immediately revealed the ugly face unique to a capitalist. "So, does that mean you're not about to fall asleep for the time being and don't have anything else to do, meow? Want to deal with the recent Orders?"

"Don't want to." Angell rejected it outright.

He might be a workaholic, but even he could not endure such intense work.

Besides, Orders were not a technical issue. They involved complicated bookkeeping and haggling, the parts Angell hated most.

Angell only wanted to postpone it. "Didn't I tell you to inform the customers that, in order to guarantee product quality, the Game Tables needed testing, and that no preorders or sales would be considered during the testing period?"

"But quite a few people have expressed a strong desire to buy them."

"We'll talk about it later."

Angell was very firm.

But Mithril felt the matter could not be delayed any longer.

"If you insist on talking about it later, then you should at least speak with them. Otherwise, they've already privately divided up the Game Table shares among themselves."

"What?" Angell finally became serious.

*

Even so, Angell did not immediately go meet the customers interested in buying Game Tables.

He did not even show himself directly on the first floor. Instead, he stood at the fixed spot on the second-floor stairs overlooking the floor below and observed.

This was also the first time Angell had inspected his Workshop's storefront since all twelve Game Tables had been fully installed downstairs.

"This is looking pretty decent now!" Angell said.

Angell's standards were not high.

When he reclaimed this Workshop, everything even remotely valuable had already been sold off. The storefront in particular was completely empty and shockingly huge. No matter how he looked at it, it did not seem like a place that could do business. No wonder customers did not dare enter even after reaching the door.

Now, even with twelve Game Tables set up, they occupied only one-third of the first-floor shop. But at least it no longer looked so empty from the entrance, and at least it resembled a normal business.

After half a month of operation, the Magic Workshop's customer flow had also stabilized.

Even at three in the afternoon, when most people were still studying or working, not a single Game Table was empty. Several people crowded around every table, with no vacant spots anywhere.

Angell said strangely, "It doesn't look like there's any problem?"

"Look more carefully," said the Black Cat.

Angell stared blankly for quite a while longer, but still could not see anything.

Just as Mithril sighed and prepared to explain, a group of customers entered.

They wore matching, elegant Short Cloaks and Short Dresses as their uniform. The little girl leading them was about Enlise's age, with an exaggerated head of spiral-curled blonde hair. One look was enough to tell that she was a well-born Young Lady.

Yet this group clearly was not visiting the Workshop for the first time.

They headed straight for the window-side Game Tables. The people currently playing immediately moved aside respectfully and gave up their spots to the Noble Scions.

Only then did Angell notice that the "Players" at those two tables were dressed as Servants.

Mithril explained, "Those children are from Cecilia Public School. Nearly every one of them has expressed a desire to order Game Tables, but after being refused, they had their family Servants come occupy the spots."

"...How addicted do you have to be for that?" Angell did not even know how to comment.

Mithril, however, was unsurprised. "They're not the only ones."

It had already despaired of its master's observational skills. Sure enough, Low Emotional Intelligence and Low Observational Skills appeared together.

Mithril pointed them out one by one. "This group of customers only uses the two window-side Game Tables. The four tables by the entrance are mostly used by nearby residents during the day, while the children from the Charity School often use them at night. The middle tables are occupied by the Street Volunteer Committee. The tables in the back have more mobile customers, though different groups use them at different times—"

Angell's head hurt from listening. "I can see that our Workshop's business is really good." That should have been a good thing.

But while Mithril was speaking, another group of youths who did not look particularly kind entered the shop and headed straight for the two emptiest tables in the middle. Clearly, those were the spots they had claimed.

Angell summed it up. "So these customers are taking spots however they please and affecting the shop's business? Can't we forbid them from doing that? I remember the shop has a Defense Magic Array."

Moreover, that Defense Magic Array was said to have been created by Grand Mage Cecilia, who defeated an army of one hundred thousand from the Demon Race and founded Cecilia City. It could supposedly even defend against an Archmage.

Angell did not know whether that legend was true, but he at least could not break the Magic Circle himself.

Not even an Intermediate Mage could do it, much less anyone else.

That was also why Angell had been confident enough to use self-service and leave the storefront to One Cat and One Loli.

Why was anyone still causing trouble in the shop?

"It hasn't reached the point where they must be driven away," Mithril instead defended the customers holding spots. "Other than occupying places, they generally follow the rules. They pay to play while occupying spots, and sometimes they even put coins worth more than 100 cents into the slot as tips. They actually earn more than Game Tables operating normally."

"If they're paying, then there's no problem, right?" Angell immediately lost interest in handling it.

After all, Pay-to-Win Users were always right.

Mithril gave Angell a sidelong glance. "Aren't you afraid they'll get tired of playing and cancel their purchases? And occupying spots like this is very unfriendly to new customers. All the Game Tables are already claimed, so new customers cannot play. Your Orders will remain limited to the current crowd, which will affect future sales."

"..." Angell looked away.

"Or do you simply not want to sell them?" Mithril guessed.

At least, it felt that Angell did not seem very eager to sell them. Especially after discovering that Commoners could also accumulate Mana through the Game Tables, surely a Mage would be even less willing to let such things spread!

"We do need to sell them," Angell said. "But we need to conduct market research and discuss the sales model first."

The main issue was that Game Table production was too low. Since they could not be distributed widely, the Arcade Hall model was more profitable.

Angell had thought of a sales method, but it required trustworthy personnel, so he had to observe a while longer.

The Black Cat had only meant to remind him.

Seeing that its master had things under control, it did not press the matter. It only pointed out something he might have overlooked. "But if this continues, it will affect your Leaderboard rankings too, won't it?"

"Leaderboard?"

"Didn't you say that the first place on each Game Table's Leaderboard would receive a Membership Certificate? If only a fixed group plays each Game Table, then your Membership Certificates will also go to fixed people."

Angell did not think it mattered. "That's fine. If they want to spend money..." Then let them spend it! Spending money to climb the Leaderboard was perfectly normal.

Angell paused at that point.

At the mention of spending money, Angell suddenly realized that the rules for this event were not very reasonable.

Pay-to-Win Players were spending too little!

Each Game Table had a limit on how many games could be played in a day, so there was only so much money to be made.

Especially since Angell had adopted a low-profit, high-volume strategy to ensure even poor children could afford to play. The daily income looked quite substantial, but given the wealth gap in this world, to truly rich people, that amount was pocket change they could not even be bothered to pick up off the ground. Yet it let them reserve Membership Tokens that were originally issued in limited quantities.

In other words, Heavy Pay-to-Win Players only needed to spend as much as Light Pay-to-Win Players to steal rewards from Skilled Players and Grind Players.

And in Angell's experience, if an event could not distinguish among Heavy Pay-to-Win Players, Light Pay-to-Win Players, Skilled Players, Grind Players, and Clumsy Players, then that event was bound to have serious problems!

When that happened, both those who had spent money and those who had not would want to screw the dog planner together.

Angell did not want to be screwed.

"We have to stir up these people's enthusiasm for the game!" Angell said seriously. "They need to grind when they should grind and spend when they should spend. Only then can a normal game ecosystem form."

Fortunately, when it came to fleecing Players, Angell had ample experience.

Angell only thought for two seconds before finding a solution.

He looked at the Black Cat. "I remember there's a batch of Magic Projectors among the stockpiled goods in the warehouse?"

"? There is, but those consume an enormous amount of Mana..."

"Are we still worried about Mana consumption now?" Twelve Game Tables were continuously supplying Mana every day!

Angell revealed the standard smile of a Black Mage. "Besides, I'm not planning to film anything. I only need it to perform one very simple function."