Development Obstructed

Team Leader Nohara shoved the document in front of the two. "The executive director's requirements are simple: implement the functions on this list, and then expand it! All those weird slang terms you use when chatting with friends at school, all the slang circulating in clubs, you can spell them all out for me using characters! It has to be fun, interesting, and something that people will want to use at first glance!"

Nohara paused, then added, "There are no limits to this project, no restrictions on your thinking. If you do well, I'll personally write your internship evaluations!"

Nishino and Mikazuki immediately straightened up; this kind of task was perfect for them!

Instead of delving into those cryptic underlying protocols and writing tedious comments, we're making things that sound like child's play?

And it was arranged personally by the executive director!

"Team leader, don't worry!" Nishino grabbed the file, pointed to an emoticon on it, "I think this helpless emoticon (), can have an upgraded version, like this--"

As he spoke, he gestured wildly with his hands.

Mikazuki, who was standing nearby, also realized what was going on and blurted out, "And cats! What Japan doesn't like cats! We can design a cat-face expression! =~human~="

Seeing the two young people instantly get into the zone and start a heated discussion, Team Leader Nohara, whose face had been tense for days, finally showed a slight smile.

He raised his hand to stop the two from continuing, and sent them back to their workstations to figure it out.

Nakayama Takuya practically treated the Computer Software Development Team as his second office, showing up every two or three days without fail.

He arrived at an inopportune moment, just in time to see Nohara with huge dark circles under his eyes, scratching his head while staring at a line of code. The office was filled with a peculiar smell of espresso mixed with leftover pizza, and the whiteboard was covered with complex flowcharts marked with red crosses.

"Are you in trouble?" Takuya walked up behind him, looking at the error message scrolling across the screen.

"Executive!" Nohara, as if grasping at a straw, turning around abruptly and pointing at the screen. "You're here just in time! The email client's interface and local functions are mostly set up, but sending and receiving emails is the problem!"

He pulled up a chair and invited Takuya to sit down, while he himself, like an impatient teacher, pointed to the network structure diagram on the whiteboard.

Takuya stared at the drawing on the whiteboard, remaining silent for a moment.

Team leader Nohara, assuming the executive director was pondering technical details, quickly explained, "We've revised the send/receive program three times, but the server always rejects our connection requests during the third handshake."

"How long has this problem been going on?" Takuya interrupted his explanation.

Team Leader Nohara's voice trailed off. He glanced instinctively at the calendar on the table, stammering, "About three or four days. We think we can handle it ourselves—"

"Solve it yourself?" Takuya turned around, looking at him calmly. "Team Leader Nohara, I put you in charge of a team, not as a lone hero."

Nohara's face instantly turned red.

"We're a game company, not a professional network communications research institute." Takuya's voice remained calm, yet carried an undeniable pressure. "Our strength lies in user interfaces, in packaging existing functions into fun and easy-to-use products. Asking us game developers to delve into the underlying network protocols that university labs have been researching for years—do you think that's leveraging our strengths, or is it using our weaknesses to run into a brick wall?"

He walked up to Nohara and patted his stiff shoulder, which was stiff from staying up all night. "When you encounter a rock you can't get around, don't you know to call someone to help push it? Or do you think that losing face in front of Professor Jun Murai, whom you made a pledge to, is more serious than delaying the entire project?"

These words were like a bucket of cold water, completely waking Nohara from his technical rut.

He lowered his head in shame. "Executive Director, I—"

Takuya didn't look at him again, but took out his phone and dialed a number in front of everyone.

"Professor Yonezawa, good afternoon. I am Nakayama Takuya."

Professor Yonezawa's gentle voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Not at all, the project is progressing smoothly, just encountered a small problem." Takuya's tone was as relaxed as if he were chatting casually. "My team is excellent at designing software interfaces and functions, but we've run into some difficulties when integrating with the mail server."

"So I'd like to ask you for two reinforcements," Takuya continued. "Do you have any top students who are most familiar with network protocols? Could I borrow them for a few days? Consider it a collaboration between industry and academia."

He paused, then added with a smile, "Of course, we can't let your students help for nothing. We'll cover all their food, lodging, and transportation. In addition, I'll donate some research funds to your lab in Sega's name. What do you think?"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Professor Yonezawa's hearty laughter.

Takuya quickly hung up the phone and waved his phone at the dumbfounded Nohara team leader.

"All sorted out. Two top students from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Professor Yonezawa's star pupils, will be here first thing tomorrow morning." He put his phone back in his pocket. "What you need to do now is get a good night's sleep, and then clearly document all the problems you've encountered these past few days. Don't waste the experts' precious time, and don't let them laugh at Sega."

Nohara Leader Nohara stared blankly at Takuya. The Oyama technology that had been suffocating him just moments before had been effortlessly removed with a single phone call.

He opened his mouth, but a thousand words stuck in his throat, finally turning into a deep ninety-degree bow.

"I understand, Executive Officer! I'll go prepare right away!"

With a solution found for the development issues and other progress steadily advancing, Takuya, taking into account the time difference with the United States, made an overseas call to Tom Kalinske.

The call connected, and Tom's signature loud voice came from the other end, accompanied by some background noise.

"Hey, Takuya! I heard you're planning to connect the Tokyo headquarters to the network?"

"Yes." Takuya leaned back in his chair and said with a smile, "Ready to Wired live with Tokyo headquarters?"

"God, finally!" Tom's voice was filled with a sense of liberation. "We all got internet access last year, and you guys only just got it done?"

"There's nothing I can do, Tom, the situation is different in different countries." Takuya shrugged helplessly, though the other person couldn't see him. "You guys already have well-established ISPs over there. I had to pull strings with my alma mater and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to barely get a license."