Tokyo Sound

Chapter 34: Lonely Patients Pull Themselves Together

"Mr. Yoshida, your technological information is really too backward. The hand-made suit you are wearing is an outdated product on the auction board two weeks ago. And my suit, the Garond suit [Note: refers to the universal professional equipment of level 14 in FF50], is the latest product of West Germany last month, worth three thousand divine tome stones [Note: a special currency in FF14, which is only dropped in random dungeons on a daily basis]!"

"You said three thousand, so that's three thousand?!"

Limsa Lominsa [Note: FF14 2.0 main city/one of the novice birthplaces], the main city teleportation crystal.

In the city, buildings are connected by various iron bridges built on countless small islands and reefs, forming a unique street landscape. Against the backdrop of the sweet sea breeze and warm sunlight, a petite black magician of the Lalafil family, who is just over 1 meter tall, is trying to hold her head high and chat with a human swordsman.

As for the human swordsman, he crossed his arms, glanced sideways into the distance, with a bladeless sword Cortana slung across his waist, a sacred shield on his back, and the title of "Final Witness" on his head. He looked extremely majestic under the scorching sun, with an imposing manner and an extraordinary posture... if he wasn't covered in a furry doll costume from head to toe.

It turned out that the human swordsman had transformed his entire outfit into a poor upright pig, and even spent a lot of money to dye his clothes a bright green. In the vast sea of ​​people, he was definitely the most handsome guy in the Haidu Street Standing Group. His whole body was green, and the players who passed by would feel uncomfortable if they didn't look at him, but if they looked at him, they would feel uncomfortable all day.

The producer who was working far away at the company's workstation clicked on this guy's character information and looked at the data that almost dominated the version. He felt like his liver was crying.

"With such terrible progress, have you shared your account with other monks in the temple? Do you want to keep your account active even if you are on vacation?" Yoshida Tomoki said viciously, "Playing as a proxy? I can ban your account!"

"Stupid." The True Warrior of Light in a narrow sense said disdainfully, "I am worth a studio."

"Don't you sleep normally?" Tomoki Yoshida was speechless.

I, a great time traveler, have my own human feelings.

The overclocking mode of office animals is the blade of the heart. It can be used to meet the deadline or to be a hard worker. The extreme overwork and the extreme slacking are just a thought away.

"But since you've been playing the game so deeply, I might as well do a survey. As a hardcore person like you, what do you think are the shortcomings of the current version?" Yoshida Tomoki's professional habits came to the fore.

"Can you add a new set of Minotaur costumes with the same specifications as this Pochi? I can provide the design for free." The man was rarely generous.

"Let's take a long look at this."

"Then can you not go to the House of Sand [Minfilia: Please come to the House of Sand.jpg]? Or you can set up a teleportation crystal at the door?"

"No, the important thing is that you have to enjoy the process... Well, actually, it's mainly because the project department was not very experienced in designing the task flow at the beginning. I can only use a stupid method, which is to forcibly set the time required to complete each task to ensure the connection. Do you think I won't be tired if I run errands by myself?!"

"Then there's nothing to discuss. If there's nothing else, I'll go back to the Golden Disc Amusement Park. Today is the final battle at Akina Mountain. The server bird king competition will be held from 16 to 8. My Chocobo Santana is thirsty." The Green Pig Knight said, and then made a handprint on the spot. He showed no lingering feelings for Yoshida P, who was loved by everyone in the player community. With a powerful ether wave, he teleported away in an instant.

"Going to a bird race? Then I'll add one." The producer also became excited. The little black magician followed closely behind, and was also teleported to a place of extravagance and luxury that destroyed the adventurers' desire to move forward. The two short legs flew up, chasing the green pig knight who was shining brightly in front of him.

There is still some time before the Speedbird arrives, so the Pig Knight and the Young Mage choose to scratch the lottery ticket first.

"It's time to finalize the 2.0 Rebirth Gate version, right? The Bahamut Great Labyrinth has been released." Master Yin said slowly.

"Of course, after another minor update, we will officially enter 3.0. This stage will realize my dream of giant dragons and snowy castles." Yoshida Tomoki hummed, "At the same time, the project team has finally settled down. Both the dungeon design and the gameplay are becoming more mature. The next step is to officially realize the potential of Final Fantasy 14."

"That's it, that's it." Yin Ze shouted, "Before, you told me that the Extreme God-level [Note: referring to the high-difficulty Barbarian God dungeon in FF14] would definitely beat the True God-level, and that the difficulty of the Zero-level [Note: referring to the high-difficulty series of dungeons in FF14] would redefine teamwork and be the benchmark for screening high-end players. In the end, I cleared it all in one night. It doesn't live up to the reputation."

hateful!

As the chief director, Tomoki Yoshida had to endure the ridicule in silence.

Previously, the project team’s friends and relatives [Note: friends and relatives refer to the MMORPG dungeon strategy team] were working on the new dungeon. He, a dungeon designer, was killed by an unknown AOE within 4 minutes of entering the game.

The main reason is that I wrote too many mechanisms and I mixed them up.

But someone who had only read the simple internal text strategy did not die once, handled various situations perfectly, and in a situation where he was the only one alive, he used a set of damage reduction and drugs to calculate blood accurately, miraculously killed the BOSS, and became a god.

On that day, it was 9:53:24 pm real time.

The Green Pig Knight walked over to the corpse of the young female wizard, crossed his arms, and slowly removed his head decoration, revealing a cold face like in CG movies. Behind him was a blazing battlefield, with debris still falling from the sky. For a moment, even though he looked like a silly pig, he was still domineering and thrilling.

The main tank of our team is truly a god!

In the voice software, the high-end player spoke in a calm voice that was almost the same as the brave voice in the CG movie.

"I just don't understand, why do you always think about your damn black magic? Why can't you play an archer or a ninja, at least you can get buffs and do something."

Yoshida Tomoki's heart was pounding as he was being instructed in public in front of all the team leaders. He looked at the embodiment of his childhood fantasy, the designated hero of light, whose clothes and hair were dyed with a circle of light by the fluorescent light of war. He felt angry and blushing with shyness, and his mood was mixed for a while.

Handsome, yet infuriating, but handsome nonetheless!

The producer was very upset about this matter and had decided to let the person die suddenly. However, he did not expect that the other party's memory and calculation ability were extremely terrible, and the ordinary timeline mechanism could not do anything about it.

"It's just graduation from the current version. You are complacent with your small success. Little do you know that PVE content is as vast as the ocean, and the plans in my computer are even more numerous than the stars. What you have touched is just the tip of the iceberg of the high-difficulty world."

Yoshida Tomoki accidentally revealed the latest information.

"Bahamut is the one who caused the spiritual disaster, how could it be so easy? Above that, there is the hopeless desperate level. Even for you, you have to die seven or eight times before you can pass it. In our project team, there is a saying, if you don't pass the desperate level, don't wear the legendary, don't achieve the ultimate, you will end up being a bean sprout ant!"

“Haha, no matter how much stronger it is, in my opinion, the Dragon God is just a show-off, a dead bone in a tomb. I will capture it sooner or later.” The Green Pig Knight disagreed.

The producer excitedly opened the document.

He looked at the initial plan, gritted his teeth, and created a new document.

Since the same set of processes cannot effectively torture someone, I will design three more sets, which will be interspersed with each other and stuffed with a large number of disgusting random events, and then set up multiple violent points in succession. In short, the goal is to cause infighting among relatives and friends, and brothers will become alienated, leading to the tragic ending of the disbanding of the entire guild.

This time, the director wants the protagonist to die, and the protagonist has to die!

"...Now the memory of this battle is reproduced here with more vivid colors. Listen to the poem of despair played by a foreign poet and experience the desperate battle after being exaggerated to the level of madness!"

The more Yoshida Tomoki typed, the more his thoughts became open, the sound of the keyboard became louder, and the corners of his mouth twisted evilly.

"I have a question." The man who was interacting with the black stockings bunny girl NPC suddenly spoke up.

"Speak." Yoshida Tomoki said.

"Could the voice actor for Alice [Note: the real Japanese version is voiced by Murakawa Rie] be Ms. Sakura Ayane, who works at the same agency as me?" Yin Ze asked.

"Exactly. You only realized it after you completed the mission? Shouldn't you two be very familiar with each other?" Yoshida Tomoki said disdainfully.

"That's true." The man murmured, "but we've been in less contact recently."

"What happened?" The producer was stunned and couldn't help but ask.

"It's nothing, it's just that the interactions are not that frequent. I guess she is preparing for the college entrance examination." Yin Ze thought.

Sakura-san has suddenly become aloof recently and has not even appeared in the comment section of WeChat Moments.

In the past, even if there was nothing to do, they would still send emojis to each other on Line, having an internet sword fight.

Now the signatures and status updates are changing every day, but there is no more communication, just like the people in the elementary school classmates list of Penguin Software for adults.

"Is there a possibility?" Yoshida Tomoki frowned and thought from a mature person's perspective, "Others just think it's meaningless to be with you. After all, you two don't get along well."

"Why? Do you also know about astrology?" Yin Ze asked puzzledly.

"I only met her in person when I was in charge of recording the lines for the main storyline. I found that you two are actually completely opposite types," said Tomoki Yoshida.

"What's the opposite?"

"You are warm on the outside but cold on the inside, while she is cold on the outside but warm on the inside." Tomoki Yoshida said calmly.

"How do you explain this? I have a kind heart and a sincere mind, and heaven and earth can bear witness to that. I just lack a certificate of the United Nations' Best Youth Award as proof of my physical properties. How can you say that I am cold-hearted?" Yin Ze was confused.

"Because I have never seen your desire at all."

When Yoshida Tomoki said this, he stopped the torture he was doing and moved his gaze from the secondary screen to the main screen, looking at the man's virtual character in the windowed game.

The man was silent for a few breaths and repeated.

"desire?"

"Yes, desire, something that everyone has, but I have never truly felt it in you."

Yoshida Tomoki said quietly.

"There are big companies like Nintendo, Capcom, and Sony Games in China. AQUARE ENIX may not be the best, but it is also world-famous. You should also know how many young people have sent their resumes to our company. The recruitment process at the headquarters is even more complicated and lengthy. Every year, there are still more than a thousand people who pass the resume screening and written test. You can imagine the total number of applicants."

"You are only in your twenties, and it is the time for you to realize your ambitions. I have tried many times to promote you as the general manager, and even wanted to give you the vacant 2D art team leader position, but you politely declined."

Yoshida Tomoki sighed.

"When the previous team leader Yoshimoto Mihiko was your age, he was still doing unrelated graphic design to make a living and had never even entered a game company. I think you should also be very clear about the importance of being a front-line technical supervisor in a world-class IP R&D department. It is almost the technical end point of the career of game art. If you move up further, you can only be in the administrative field, or involve knowledge other than art, such as technical art that understands 3D and game engines."

"In 09, the average annual income of AQUARE employees reached 1700 million yen. Admittedly, the outdated data and the comprehensive annual average are not so convincing, but the treatment is evident. Those gathered here are all the elites of the industry. I don't mean to offend you, but this is much better than your current voice actor career, both in terms of the present and the future."

Yoshida Tomoki paused after he finished speaking.

"It was such a good opportunity, but you refused it more than once knowing it was going to happen... Yoshimoto told me that when you first came, he looked at you, the designs and paintings that were gradually formed under your hands, and he always felt that you were very strange. It's not that I haven't seen so-called geniuses before, but someone like you, with a blank resume, in your early twenties, with rounded edges and corners, a 30% and 70% split between self-expression and business obedience, and a thorough understanding of execution standards, is really weird. Such a young body should not have such a sophisticated soul and experience."

He is worthy of being in the first echelon, and he is an artist who has almost never left the high-pressure environment of the front line for decades. His sense of smell and intuition are so terrifying.

It was difficult to hide himself in the eyes of such a fellow man, and the man sighed with the complicated emotions that felt half seen through.

"Everyone has desire, which is the driving force behind behavior, but you don't. If I hadn't accidentally found you on the account pusher, if the situation of Final Fantasy 14 was not so terrible, I would have had no choice, and you might have been buried." said Tomoki Yoshida.

"In such a society, most people can only exchange high annual salaries for happiness, but I am lucky that I don't need to go with the crowd. This is a rare freedom in modern times of material expansion, so there is no need to do anything unnecessary." Yin Ze sighed.

"Very good. Then what do you think of 'friends'?" Yoshida Tomoki asked again.

"If we can get along, then we can get along. If not, then don't bother us." Yin Ze smiled. "Brother Yoshida, even though we are playing games whenever we want, one day, suddenly, we won't be in touch anymore. It could be because of the physical distance, or it could be because of the spiritual meaning we miss."

"Don't go and say hello again? Rekindle the friendship?" Yoshida Tomoki continued to ask.

"If it was a friendship, why did it break up before?" Yin Ze said he felt strange, "Everyone has their own way to go. After crossing this Chenghua Avenue, some go to Erxian Bridge, and some go home. It's normal to go by the same route for a while, but it's abnormal to go by the same route for a lifetime."

"So I think you are cold-hearted." Yoshida Tomoki said calmly, "You see the meaning of 'separation' too clearly now. When people get used to the sadness and unhappiness of leaving, they will just let the continuation of the relationship go, lacking the painstaking protection and nourishment. When people get used to thinking that it's okay to spend the rest of their lives alone, their desire for a companion will be as lukewarm as warm water, lacking the pursuit of love."

This time the man was silent for a little longer, and after a few seconds he spoke with a little resentment.

“I was forced to do it.”

"You are actually similar to Houtarou-kun only in appearance, not in spirit. At least the grayness in this character's heart will be filled with spring in the future. And there has already been spring in your heart, but now it is deserted." The producer suddenly gave an example.

"...Don't you always say that version updates are tiring? Are you still following anime?" The man was helpless.

"There's an old saying that goes 'too much wisdom leads to harm, too much love leads to a short life', and there's also a saying that goes 'a doctor can't heal himself.'" The producer said, "Sometimes, you'd better not be so smart."

“Unfortunately, the universe will also go out one day. Our ending will not be fire but ice. Just consider me a pessimist about the macro destiny.” The man thought of the past that was forcibly cut off by God. He did not have the Moonlight Box, and he could not summon a miracle even if he recited the Pineapple and Jackfruit ten thousand times. What could he do in the end? He could only give up.

Coming and going, helpless, life is mostly like this.

"Go contact her."

"?"

"You have just stepped over the threshold of fate. It is too early to feel the pessimism of life."

"...Brother, she was really just preparing for the exam, but you expanded on it and said so much, making it seem like the real thing."

But it was a perfect opportunity.

The cell phone dinged.

After more than ten days, a message came.

"Mature and stable adult: Do you want to watch the fireworks display?"

Chapter 35: Seeing Fireworks

Yin Ze stood next to the magazine rack in the convenience store. An orange cat walked around his feet. He picked up an outdated magazine to kill time and took the opportunity to enjoy the cool breeze from the ceiling fan in the store.

This place is far from the center of Tokyo and far from the hustle and bustle of the city. I originally wanted to ride the Blonde Pretty Girl, but I gave up. Although the black and gold Yamaha R6 is powerful enough, the Shinkansen is more majestic and convenient.

Through the clean glass, you can see the age-old railway, the ding-ding-ding of the safety bell, the regular and steady sound of the train passing over the rails. The towering electric poles, the crisscrossing cables, and the students riding bicycles all cast long, oblique, and thin shadows in the dusk.

The man suddenly remembered that he had never left Tokyo since he came here unexpectedly. He raised his head and cast a calm gaze towards this not-so-lively place.

Towns have always been a special place. The old stone bricks covered with moss are more likely to evoke people's memories of the past than the steel and concrete in big cities.

Japan is indeed a place that has gradually stagnated.

The young birds could not bear it any longer and flapped their wings to fly north, leaving behind only an empty echo. So although there are fewer peaks and ravines here, the sighs and sorrows of the old times make the yellow and moist breath no different from that in memory.

Looking at the walls and old calendars in the shop that have been eroded by time, I think of the old buildings with peeling walls that also stand on the mountain. Listening to the mechanical sound of ding-dong, I think of the spirited old man who walked the streets, hammering the iron pickaxe and selling sticky candies.

I also remember my grandmother's hunched back carrying a full sunset as she walked across the bridge, with a little boy in forked pants eating a 5-cent pudding ice cream following behind her.

He flipped through a few pages of the magazine in his hand carelessly.

"Hey, young man, could you please hand me the remote control over there?" The elderly man guarding the counter extended his hand and greeted him kindly.

Yin Ze put the publications neatly and took it.

"Thanks."

The old man took the remote control and turned up the volume of the small TV in the corner of the counter, and a gentle song immediately became clear.

What was unexpected was that the handsome young man in the store also started humming along.

"Oh, you can do it too?" The old store manager was a little surprised.

"Who hasn't secretly listened to this lascivious music? I also know the Chinese version."

Yin Ze smiled cheerfully, and his tone immediately changed, seamlessly following the chorus, with a tune that had a sense of time.