Gift

"Defeat Nintendo"—those words struck most of the people present like a bolt of electricity.

The stagnant air was shattered completely. Some eyes that had originally held suspicion, indifference, even hostility, began to change. Shock flashed through some of them, as if they couldn't believe such blunt words would come from the company president's son; some mouths curled, as though they thought it was a fool's dream; but others—especially the young people who still hid fire deep in their eyes—clearly had some stirred emotion reflected in their pupils. Perhaps it was recognition long suppressed, perhaps a desire to challenge that had lain silent for too long, or perhaps it was simply that this blunt, arrogant, yet incomparably tempting sentence had ignited that little flame deep within them that refused to settle for mediocrity.

The Third Development Department, a place whose resources within the company were not top-tier and whose results were not outstanding, yet which had always been holding in a breath and wanting to prove itself, seemed not to have heard such an undisguised declaration of ambition in a very long time.

Takuya looked at those complicated reactions and understood. Good. The fire had been lit. Next, it depended on how fiercely it could burn.

Nakayama Hayao had been standing to the side the whole time, watching his son's performance, his face still expressionless. Only after Takuya's words fell did he give an almost imperceptible slight nod.

"All right, introductions are over." He broke the brief silence. "Takuya, come with me to the conference room."

He turned and once again led the way out, leaving behind an entire office of employees with different thoughts, and the complicated air, still not yet dispersed, mixed with shock and a certain kind of anticipation.

A small meeting prepared specially for Nakayama Takuya was about to begin.

Inside the spacious conference room, the long table was already full of people.

Aside from several team leaders and deputies from the development department, there were also managers from the marketing department, the legal department, and even the overseas business department.

Nakayama Hayao sat in the main seat, his gaze sweeping over the room.

"Takuya, begin."

Nakayama Takuya carefully placed the cardboard box he had taken from Ito Ryoji at one end of the conference table.

Under everyone's puzzled gazes, he opened the box and took out the rough-looking Electronika 60.

Then came the transformer and connecting cables.

After a somewhat clumsy series of operations, he pressed the power switch on the Soviet computer.

The fan began to hum in a low drone, the screen flickered, and finally stabilized, displaying green Cyrillic characters.

He inserted the floppy disk with the suspiciously "Tetris"-like writing on it and entered a command.

The floppy drive made a "clack-clack" sound.

A few seconds later, monochrome blocks began slowly falling on the screen.

An extremely crude interface, no background music, no sound effects, only the most basic movement, rotation, and clearing.

A slight commotion rose in the conference room, mixed with puzzled murmurs.

This was the "gift" the president's son had brought?

Something that looked even more primitive than an Atari game?

Nakayama Takuya spoke calmly, his voice carrying clearly throughout the conference room.

"What you are seeing is the prototype of this game."

"Its name is Tetris, and it comes from the Soviet Union."

He briefly introduced the game's origin, then started the computer and demonstrated the gameplay.

As one block after another fell, stacked, cleared, and the falling speed accelerated with the accumulated score, whispers gradually appeared in the conference room, and several people from the development department more or less showed interested expressions.

Then, under even more puzzled gazes, he shut off the Electronika 60.

Immediately afterward, Nakayama Takuya unplugged the connecting cables from the old Soviet computer and put them away with practiced movements. The humming stopped, the screen dimmed, as though it were the curtain falling on an era. The whispers in the conference room also quieted, and as everyone watched what he did next, their curiosity was once again lifted.

He turned and placed his own MS-DOS laptop on the table, connecting it skillfully to the projector. He pressed the power button, and the startup sound rang out.

Very soon, the projection screen lit up. This time, it was no longer monotonous green characters, but a game screen with relatively rich colors and a much more polished interface. The blocks had different colors, the background was no longer pitch-black, and some decorative patterns could be faintly seen.

"This is a version I made after carrying out some improvements and adding functions based on that prototype." Nakayama Takuya's voice remained calm, but there was an almost imperceptible gleam in his eyes.

He sat down, his fingers tapping the keyboard. On the screen, the monotonously falling blocks of the Soviet version had now been given vivid colors: red, blue, green, yellow... combined together, the visual impression far surpassed that monotonous patch of green from just now.

The colorful blocks began to fall, their speed clearly quite a bit faster than before. Even more pleasantly surprising was that a simple yet rhythmic electronic tune began to play. The melody was simple but exceptionally catchy—it was the 8-bit version of classic Russian pieces Takuya had added in reference to the Famicom version from his previous life, including Kalinka, Troika, and others.

"Tap tap tap..." He quickly moved and rotated the blocks.

"Clack!" A block landed.

"Whoosh—ding!" A row of blocks fit perfectly and disappeared in an instant, accompanied by a crisp, pleasant sound effect.

The smooth controls, vivid colors, dynamic music and sound effects instantly seized everyone's attention. Those who had still thought the Soviet prototype crude and dull just now could not help leaning forward at this moment. This looked... a little interesting. The people from the development department watched even more intently, and someone even unconsciously nodded along to the music.

This was already far more appealing than that primitive version from just now. Quite a few people began muttering in their hearts: this kid seemed to have some real skill? If he had made all of this himself, then whether in software or hardware, his fundamentals were pretty good.

But Nakayama Takuya was not satisfied with this. He paused the single-player demonstration, his gaze sweeping across the faces that had clearly become focused.

"These improvements are only the foundation. I added one core mode to it—versus."

He switched the game mode, and two game areas appeared side by side on the screen, with a dividing line in the middle and scores displayed above each.

"Versus?" someone couldn't help blurting out.

"Yes, versus," Nakayama Takuya explained. "In this mode, when one side clears two or more rows, a corresponding number of 'garbage rows' will rise from the bottom of the opponent's field, increasing the opponent's pressure. The more rows you clear, the more garbage rows you create for your opponent."

This design made the eyes of several people from the development department light up. A competitive element! This was far more exciting than simply stacking blocks!

"Does anyone want to try it?" Nakayama Takuya looked toward the development department.

Several people looked at one another, eager to have a go, yet also a little embarrassed to "play games" in front of the president and executives.

Nakayama Takuya directly named names. "You two, please come up and demonstrate for everyone."

The two who were called froze for a moment, then stood up and sat down on either side of the keyboard, their expressions somewhat nervous but also excited.

"The rules are simple. Whoever lasts until the end wins." Nakayama Takuya gave a brief explanation and pressed the start key.

Stirring battle music rang out!