Tokyo Sound

There was a strange look in the man's eyes, and then he held his forehead in pain.

Damn, Aze, is this what you feel? What on earth killed your imagination and romance?!

The man was in high spirits in the middle of the night, his eyes were clear, and he was typing at double the speed. Not a single stroke was wrong, not a single operation was wasted, and the undo key, a superstar player whose appearance rate was clearly at the T0 level, fell directly into the sewer on the spot, and he might not be able to complete even a few hundred strokes.

The agreement between the men is stable.

……

Yoshida Tomoki suddenly twitched and woke up immediately.

It's strange, I was still making a schedule in the dream, but suddenly I opened my eyes and returned to reality, feeling anxious and worried. After all, I was about to finish it, but I found out it was a dream. The plot is as bad as the power outage before the file was saved.

It took him several seconds to sort out his thoughts and come out of his frustrated mood.

All the lights in the company were turned off, and only the safety lights were still flickering, emitting tiny lights that flickered on and off like stars that were breathing weakly.

Yoshida Tomoki turned over, his head aching. He was still a little sleepy, but he couldn't fall asleep no matter what.

Ever since he accepted this project which was no different from gambling poker, it was like he had voluntarily put on a noose. As time went by, he found it increasingly difficult to breathe.

I don’t dare to imagine the future after failure.

For him personally, the fact that the old company suffered a heavy blow, his career was left with a conspicuous scar, and the industry added a textbook failure and anecdote was secondary - the most difficult thing to accept was that the "fantasy" passed down from generation to generation by his excellent predecessors was completely destroyed.

Yoshida Tomoki wanted to rest as soon as possible, but he couldn't get rid of the distracting thoughts in his mind. He finally got up from under the desk and sat on the chair. He silently woke up the dormant computer, and the display screen lit up, shining a pale light on his worried and tired face.

First I checked the time, it was 5 a.m. The sky outside the window was dark, just before dawn.

It’s not long before work starts, so I might as well not sleep.

Yoshida Tomoki folded up the bedding and blanket on the floor, went to the bathroom and tidied himself up. The cold tap water dispelled the last trace of his attachment to dreams.

After coming to this project team, he basically lost his personal life, sleeping less than four hours a day. When he closed his eyes, all he thought about were the unfinished tasks, the current progress of each member, and the promises they had made.

The last time I went home was two months ago. I said I was resting, but I just took a shower and stared at the TV for a long time.

Back near his workstation, in the dim light, he saw colleagues in the distance who had also chosen to spend the night in the company. Some leaned back on their chairs, some huddled under their desks, and some lay on their desks.

Tomoki Yoshida walked over and carefully covered a colleague with a fallen air-conditioning blanket. He glanced at the bottles of refreshing drinks on the table, enough to form a basketball team, and couldn't help but sigh.

He has always been reluctant to appear distressed and helpless in front of his team members. After all, even the leading general has half-raised the white flag, so what else is there to continue?

There's sadness in the air here.

These were once the best people, who had created the best fantasy stories and adventures. However, now they are all struggling in the abyss of failure, everyone is scolding and blaming them, the media is laughing at the farce they have created, players are leaving in disappointment, and their peers are paying attention and taking them as a warning.

Tomoki Yoshida slowly returned to his workstation and used a spoon to stir the cooling coffee in the cup meaninglessly.

We've reached the edge of the cliff.

Every day, the operation manager only thinks about different ways to apologize and how to bow to show his sincerity in admitting his mistakes.

Even all the team members have no confidence, and some even hope to announce the closure of the server as soon as possible, or resign, or move to more promising projects, just to put an end to this torture that has lasted for two years.

In such an environment, even he himself began to waver, his courage was decreasing, and his enthusiasm was fading.

So why would I accept this impossibility?

Yoshida Tomoki leaned back in his chair in silence, tilting his head slightly. It was late at night, and it was pitch black outside. But in his eyes, the darkness outside was not real darkness.

Every boy has some unrealistic dreams in his heart. Maybe they are so childish that he can hardly talk about them when he grows up, or maybe they are so fantastic that he will shake his head and sneer at them.

But, we have all desperately desired it.

Such a world always exists in Yoshida's heart.

There are boundless grasslands, warm skies and breezes, white deer feeding with their heads down, and huge ruins that have been bleak and mottled by the years. The wind that brushes the grass and leaves carries heavy epics, and the church covered with vines has poems echoing. There are dragons, princesses, and knights, travelers and fate, swords and magic.

There was a young man, holding a sword with a permanent smile, gazing at the distant horizon.

In fact, there should be many more, but they were all taken away by time as I grew up. Only this scene, that initial fantasy, is engraved in my heart for a long time.

If I have the chance, I would like to make it.

If possible, I don't want to disappoint

If possible, I would like to touch that line.

The spoon made a small, crisp sound when it hit the wall of the cup.

Chapter 138 Warrior of Light

Working days are rarely fulfilling and happy; most of them are dull.

Tomoki Yoshida seemed to be glued to his chair, sometimes thinking in front of the screen, sometimes concentrating on typing, and sometimes frowning and deleting the plan he had just written.

Often I sit like this for the whole day.

He poured a cup of warm coffee, but was so busy that it was already cold when he remembered to drink it. He worked so hard at the company that he forgot to eat and sleep until he saw a colleague wearing a short-sleeved shirt, and then he realized that it was already summer, and he was still wearing smelly thermal underwear.

In this space, the river of time seems to be poured into gel, becoming sluggish and dull, with only the sounds of air conditioners, keyboards and mice, and a small amount of low communication sounds existing.

The phone buzzed.

Yoshida Tomoki stretched his head to take a quick look, then perked up and answered the call.

"Teacher Yin?"

"Brother Yoshida, I hope I'm not disturbing you by calling you during working hours." A clear and pleasant voice came from the other end of the line.

"Usually, if I'm in a meeting, I turn off my phone. If I can get through, it means there's nothing important." Yoshida Tomoki smiled, then remembered the business and coughed a few times. "By the way, teacher, is it time to hand in the drawings today?"

"It should have been sent to your mailbox this morning, but the network is not good today, and the capacity is too large, so it is too difficult to transmit. I think this may not be as fast as physical delivery, so I just took the train. I am now near the AQUARE ENIX building, but I can't enter the building because I don't have an ID card. If it is convenient, would you please come down and get the USB drive?" Yin Ze said embarrassedly.

"Oh, why do you have to make a personal trip?" Yoshida Tomoki was stunned.

"It's okay. My home is not far from here anyway." Yin Ze smiled.

"Teacher, please wait a moment. I'll be down right away." Before leaving his workstation, Tomoki Yoshida habitually saved his progress and then walked away quickly.

……

By the way, Master Yin's happy little world is located in Kagurazaka, Shinjuku. Many great writers have lived here, including the beloved Soseki [Note: Natsume Soseki]. The stationery store where he bought manuscript paper when he was a child is still open. For some reason, there are quite a lot of leisurely and slow French people. The restaurant here is well developed, and he often buys long and hard baguettes in the bakery.

Unlike the bustling and ever-changing Shinjuku Station and Okubo, Kagurazaka is quiet and livable. He was very grateful to the enthusiastic and gentle lady at the real estate agency for being able to find a cheap and good-looking rental house here.

As a typical modern outdoor enthusiast, except for going to the film set and special outings, the man's daily life is basically in this area. This is also the main reason why barbecue is eaten here, video games are played here, and curry is eaten here and can be witnessed.

By the way, the performance of the new episode of Meng Mo Girl Radio is outrageous. After a few days of fermentation, it is already the best in history. There are also listeners on N Station who specially selected and carefully edited the dialogues that they "think are interesting", and the number of views can be regarded as popular in the radio category.

What's going on? I just wanted to find a backup player to avoid the penalty of quitting the game, but when I came back, I saw that the substitutes and the support were killing people and directly reaching the top of the ranking?

Then wouldn't it be quite embarrassing for me, the designated No. 1, to be in such a bad situation? Do I still want to save face as the host?

Driven by his dark desire to win, Yin Ze reviewed the show very rigorously many times. He listened to the sixth episode several times over, his mind full of laughter from his peers and younger seniors, but he couldn't find the key.

It was clearly a very standard performance and cooperation, and at the beginning, Sakura-san caused an accident, interrupting the rhythm of Hidaka-san reciting the brand-new opening poem he had sincerely composed the night before. In the reply to the letter, he did not analyze and answer from multiple angles such as humanities, philosophy, psychology, and social phenomena like him.

It's so hard to understand. Men have always been willing to use the most vulgar thoughts to speculate about the audience - is their victory just because they are just a cute girl group? !

sorrow!

You have no idea what voice actors look like behind the scenes when they take off their professional masks!

The man sitting by the flower bed took off his headphones with a sigh.

At this time, a young man came out of the main entrance of the office building that Yin Ze had been paying attention to. He had hair dyed light orange, wore a thick sweater that was not suitable for the season, and also wore many decorations such as pendants and rings.

This uncle, whose aesthetic taste is not very high and whose face resembles Mr. Yi who narrated the Three Kingdoms, is most likely the Mr. Party A, right?

Yin Ze straightened his clothes, put on a gentle smile, and walked forward.

Mr. Party A seemed to have noticed his abnormality and after a short pause, he came towards him.

As the distance between them gradually shortened, Yin Ze extended his right hand cordially, wanting to exchange some pleasantries - but unexpectedly, Mr. Party A brushed past him, walked to the front of the building, and stared around blankly with his hands on his hips.

"..."

Yin Ze simply turned around and patted the other person on the shoulder. After the other person turned back in confusion, he smiled and said, "This person should be Mr. Yoshida Tomoki who gave the contract to me, right?"

“…You are Teacher Yin?!” Mr. Party A seemed a little surprised.

"Yes, why are you so shocked?" Yin Ze didn't understand the other party's surprise.

"Well, I didn't expect you to be so young, and... so handsome." Yoshida Tomoki said hesitantly. To be honest, although his voice was pleasant, in his mind, Mr. Yin's conversation and skills should be in his thirties, with a light beard, a thermos cup, and a standard suit jacket for office workers.

This energetic college-looking guy was standing downstairs just now, with a formal business smile on his face. I thought he was just another internet celebrity model looking for street photos in high-rise buildings. Anyway, he had no connection with the mature and talented original artist at all.

"Oh, I see. You must think that for the sake of fairness, God must have cruelly confiscated all the talents and interesting souls of people like me to show fairness in the world." Yin Ze waved his hand to show his understanding. "But please believe that I am not the kind of person who is just for show. The outsourced content this time is all in the USB drive, and I'll give it to you here."

The matter is finally settled, just waiting for the final payment.

After delivering the goods, the man was about to leave, but Yoshida Tomoki stopped him and said, "Since you are here, why don't you come up with me? I plan to give the drawings to the chief artist in the group for review. If there are any changes to be made, we can make them clear in person, which also saves communication costs."

"I'm fine with that, but is it convenient for your project team?" Yin Ze asked after a pause, "It's not appropriate for a company in R&D to let outsiders in casually, right?"

"It's okay if you don't take photos or videos." Yoshida Tomoki smiled, "Besides, it's not even a tour, just a chat."

"Excuse me," Yin Ze agreed happily. This producer seemed to have none of the traditional Japanese factory employees' old-fashionedness.

The two of them entered the elevator together and soon arrived at the middle floor of the office building. Then they followed Yoshida through the corridor and arrived at a large flat filled with workstations.

The moment I came in, I felt an uncomfortable feeling as if I had suddenly entered a quiet Zen temple in the deep mountains and forests from a bustling city. A large number of employees basically wore headphones to block out distractions and remained silent while working except for necessary communication. Everyone was like a monk in meditation in front of the computer, and the endless keyboard sounds were the wooden fish they were hitting during their hard practice.

For some reason, the negative energy here is a bit heavy, and the atmosphere is very depressing. Although we are doing "interesting research and development", we are all being made difficult by the non-professional party A, resulting in only three days of work, and even the manager had a serious talk with us and asked us to reduce our salary, which made us feel depressed and hopeless.

Yin Ze couldn't help but follow the trend and slow down his movements and lower his noise.

It is rare for voice actors to have such an environment, as they have relatively free time at their workstations and on the set.

After truly experiencing the real Japanese workplace environment, the two went straight to a separate seat by the window. The person hiding behind the expensive wide-screen monitor was a middle-aged fat uncle wearing glasses, a plaid shirt, and a small belly, perfectly meeting the inherent image of a programmer.

Of course, he is not actually a coder. The picture book on the table and the character information on the screen prove that he is actually an artist.

"This was outsourced before, please take a look." Yoshida Tomoki went straight to the point and handed over a two-dimensional-style USB flash drive, which was one of the special gifts included in the Dream Tapir Girl collaboration package.

The fat main beauty pushed up her glasses and said nothing more, just put them on and watch.

Two characters, three sets of equipment.

Two of the characters are actually different variations of the same character. One is called Captain Madison, a boss in a novice dungeon [Note: FF14 level 15 Shastasha Cave dungeon]. He is a pirate leader who colluded with the barbarians to occupy the cave, so he was eliminated by righteous players. The captain will appear in subsequent dungeons [Note: FF14 Palace of the Dead], but his image is a demonized octopus face with an inhuman posture. Let's call him Squidward.

The layout of the design draft is quite refreshing. The concept illustrations displayed are semi-realistic. The number of blocky strokes is rare but the degree of completion is already very high. The collage of real materials has no sense of disobedience and is realistic. The three-view line draft is accurate and clear, and the masked and overlapped parts are also explained separately. Considering the needs of the modeler, detailed notes are made on the various materials of the clothes.

The three sets of equipment also inherit the above-mentioned degree of completion and quality. From physics to magic, they are all distinctive and very clear within the prescribed art style, and there is no ambiguity in the design.

There are no shortcomings and the standards can serve as a textbook for newcomers in the industry.

"How is it?" As a producer, Tomoki Yoshida naturally has the corresponding vision and qualities, but he still has to consider the evaluation of professionals.

"I have no opinion. You can hand it over to the 3D department directly." The chief artist paused. "How much did it cost?"

"The average market price." Yoshida Tomoki told the truth.

"Then we have made a profit." Zhu Mei laughed, and then sighed, "Alas, what a pity."

"What a pity?" Yoshida Tomoki wondered.

"It's just a minor role after all. With his level, he can definitely play more important roles. If we can outsource it at that price, we'll make a lot of money. We can also save a lot of effort and free up manpower." The lead artist asked solemnly, "Can you still make an appointment with him? Why not just give him the most time-consuming and labor-intensive ones?"

"I'm afraid we need to ask the opinions of the parties involved..." Yoshida Tomoki murmured.

"Let's give it a try. What if? If you succeed, the progress here will be at least two months faster." The fat lead artist turned around expectantly, and then saw the producer pretending to look at the scenery, with a strange young man standing next to him. He was immediately confused, "This young man looks unfamiliar, I don't think I've seen you before? Who are you?"

"I just got here." Yin Ze answered honestly.

"Newly recruited employees?" The lead artist looked at the producer with astonishment and shock. "For a project like ours with a bleak future and deep in the swamp, you can actually recruit new people to join?!"

The kind-hearted host hesitated to speak, and seemed to be struggling, but finally chose the light in his heart, "I'm not trying to undermine you, Yoshida. In fact, I still believe in you. But you have to explain our situation to everyone. It's really not suitable for us to recruit more people. People are so young, and adding a stain on their resume is not good for their future career development..."

"I'm not kidding, and I won't." Yoshida Tomoki was a little speechless. "This is not a new colleague. He is the outsourced original artist you just reviewed. His network is not good, so I came all the way to deliver the files in person. I just want you to communicate directly. If there are any changes, we can discuss it on the spot."

The embarrassment was successfully transferred from the producer to the main artist. The fat middle-aged man fell into silence for a long time, and finally said with emotion: "-Oh, look, this guy is really good value for money."

The situation remained calm and there was no relief.

A long and short window of time.

"This teacher's pen name is 'Yin Ze'." Yoshida Tomoki extended his hand to introduce and restarted the game.

"Hello, my name is Yoshimoto Mihiko [Note: Akihiko Yoshida, a well-known game illustrator, his works include illustrations for the NieR series, Final Fantasy 12 and 14 2.0 expansion packs, Royal Knights, Granblue Fantasy and other game works], and I'm the head of the 2D team." The portly middle-aged man stood up and said kindly.

"I am still young and do not deserve the honorifics from the two seniors." Yin Ze shook hands, very modestly.

"Please don't take what I just said to heart." said the middle-aged man.