Kaomoji

After Professor Jun Murai and his entourage left, an unusual sense of excitement permeated the entire Sega Headquarters.

The atmosphere in the Computer Software Development Team was extremely tense.

Team Leader Nohara placed Professor Muramasa's business card in the most prominent position on his desk, as if it were a talisman to suppress all doubts.

He vowed to produce a trial version within a month, a pledge he made to the "father of the Japan Internet." The entire team was mobilized, and the whiteboard was filled with densely packed technical paths and timelines. Everyone was like a wound-up clock, walking with a brisk pace.

Two days later, as Nohara was frowning and deep in thought while looking at a pile of technical documents, Nakayama Takuya's assistant knocked on the door and came in, handing him a thin document.

"Team Leader Nohara, this is a supplementary proposal for the instant messaging software from the executive director."

Nohara was a little puzzled. Wasn't the software framework already finalized? Why were they asking for supplementary details?

He took the document, his gaze falling on the cover.

<FaceWord Development Concept>.

Nohara Leader Nohara frowned. What was this? A word? The executive director's English name was always so strange.

He turned to the first page, and after seeing its contents, he froze completely.

The solution is very simple, with only one core function: allowing users to bring up a list by clicking a button or using a keyboard shortcut.

The list contained various emoticons made up of different characters, which users could select and insert directly into their chat. Nohara's gaze fell on the appendix table below the plan.

The table is divided into two columns: the left side contains the textual explanation of the emoticons, and the right side contains the corresponding character combinations.

"Smile-"

"Crying...-ToT"

"Helpless-----·hand(_)"

"Kneeling in worship.-. orz"

Nohara's finger slid down the table line by line. The list was far longer than he had imagined, with hundreds of densely packed characters, and some even consisting of complex patterns that required several lines of characters to form a single character.

He had never seen these things before, but looking at those simple and straightforward expressions, he couldn't help but admire them; it was simply a genius idea!

Team Leader Noichihara's brain started working at lightning speed.

He instantly grasped the key point.

Text is cold, especially in the context of "instant messaging". Plain text is rather monotonous and lacks the facial expressions and tone of voice that can be included in face-to-face communication.

These emoticons perfectly fill this gap!

Achieve the most intuitive expression of emotion using the simplest technology!

He could even imagine two colleagues from the United States branch, after discussing serious work, ending their conversation with a "(_)/

"Cheers!" The atmosphere instantly becomes so harmonious.

This thing is technically very simple, but the improvement in user experience it brings is revolutionary!

Nohara's gaze finally fell on the end of the plan, where there was a passage written by Nakayama Takuya:

"We will continue to discover, collect, and even create new 'emoticons,' including more complex multi-line content. We want to make it a unique software culture, an online trend. The ultimate goal is for all internet users to immediately think of Sega when they see 'emoticons.'"

Team Leader Nohara read the FaceWord Development Concept three times over before gently placing it on the table.

He stood up and paced back and forth in the office.

The development of the email client is at its most critical stage, and the entire team is on edge, fearing that they will embarrass Sega in front of Professor Jun Murai in a month. However, in the mind of Executive Nohara, those strange character combinations "", "ToT", and "orz" are staging a mini-drama.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this thing was simply a stroke of genius!

No, this is too important; you could even say it breathes life into instant messaging software!

He abruptly stopped, strode out of the office, and scanned the bustling development zone before finally settling on two of the youngest faces in a corner.

"Nishino, Mikazuki, you two come here for a moment."

The two young men whose names were called jumped up in surprise and hurriedly stood up.

They were interns who joined last year and have already signed contracts with Sega. They will officially join Sega after graduation.

They usually only handle minor tasks like data organization and code commenting, and the team leader had never spoken to them in such a serious tone before.

The two followed Nohara nervously into an empty small conference room, their hearts pounding. Had they been discovered to have made a mistake with the format of the annotations they wrote yesterday?

Nohara closed the door and, without uttering a single word, directly pushed the supplementary document towards them.

"A new, special assignment."

Nishino and Mikazuki exchanged a glance and nervously moved closer.

<FaceWord Development Concept>.

What's this?

The two looked down, their expressions growing increasingly strange.

From initial bewilderment to suppressing laughter, Nishino finally couldn't help but burst out laughing when he saw the utterly ridiculous "orz".

"Team leader, what is this?" Mikazuki asked cautiously, afraid that it was some kind of advanced technology he couldn't understand.

Nohara's face hardened. "This was personally conceived by the executive director; it's one of the core competitive advantages of our instant messaging software in the future!"

He pointed to a line in the document. "We want to make it a unique software culture, a trend on the internet." Do you understand? Culture! Trend!

The two young men were completely taken aback by him.

Seeing that they still seemed a bit annoyed, Nohara changed his approach. "The email client is for renowned scholars like Professor Jun Murai; it's about our 'face,' and time is tight, so we can't afford to make any mistakes. But this thing," he gestured to the documents on the table, "Is for ourselves, for all the young people who will use our software in the future. It has to be fun! Think about it, when you're texting, adding emoticons makes it much easier for the other person to understand your feelings when you type those words, even if they can't see you."

He took a deep breath, his tone becoming serious. "Our group doesn't have time to do this task right now, but I'll assign this part to you two. You can start working on it."

"Huh?" Nishino and Mikazuki exclaimed at the same time, thinking they had misheard.

"You can't get involved in the core code of the email client yet. But this doesn't require advanced technology; what you need is imagination!" Nohara's gaze swept across the two of them. "You've just graduated; your minds aren't yet filled with code and requirements documents. This is precisely when you have the most ideas."