Video Game Tycoon in Tokyo

On a spring morning in 1993, in an ordinary residential house in Tokyo, a lamp in the attic had been lit for a long time.

Inside this attic, there was a person sitting in front of a desk lamp assembling some electronic device.

Beside him, various electronic circuit components were scattered around, along with some empty octopus ball packaging boxes.

In the dark corner of the room, a girl was sleeping soundly with her hands under her head. From the dark circles under her eyes, it was obvious that she had been staying up late for quite some time.

Yet the person sitting in front of the desk lamp, tirelessly assembling electronic components, seemed to be infatigable, continuing his work as if unaware of fatigue.

Next to him, the soldering iron emitted a faint heat, and from time to time, the person would pick it up to add various strange circuit components to the circuit board.

Finally, when the clock struck six, the person in front of the desk lamp let out a long breath.

"Finally, it's done!"

The man in front of the desk lamp couldn't contain his excitement.

The girl behind him was slightly awakened by the sound. Rubbing her eyes, she looked towards the man at the desk lamp.

"Takayuki, is it finally done?"

Takayuki, in front of the desk lamp, was startled for a moment, then he turned around holding the somewhat unsightly circuit board in his hand.

He proudly waved the roughly crafted circuit board, saying, "Yes, it's done! The world's first home video game console is born!"

The girl didn't understand what a home video game console was.

But she understood one thing.

The work was finally over!

She felt she shouldn't have accepted this job because it was simply inhumane!

Just over four weeks ago, Hazumi Azuka had just graduated from college.

After graduation, she didn't want to follow her parents' arrangements to find a man and get married to become a housewife.

She wanted to have her own life.

But reality was overwhelmingly discouraging.

In this economic downturn, jobs were becoming harder and harder to find, especially for a freshly graduated female college student like her, whose prospects were even more bleak.

Most importantly, in a fit of impulsiveness, she had studied a major in electronic engineering.

For a woman with such a major, finding a job in a place like Tokyo was even more unimaginable.

As far as she knew, all her female classmates in the same major had gotten married right after graduation. It seemed that women in electrical engineering were only suitable for becoming housewives right after graduation.

No company would ever hire a female electrical engineer.

It was at this time that Takayuki appeared in front of her.

The guy who had just been making video game consoles.

She still remembered that scene that day.

The man stood smiling in front of her just after she failed her job interview.

Then the first thing he said was, "Do you want to change the world?"

That sentence wasn't important, but what he said next was.

"Ten thousand yen per day, paid daily."

For a girl who had been unable to find a job, this was extremely tempting.

Of course, she was also wary of whether this guy was up to something illegal.

But when she cautiously followed Takayuki to his home, she found that he just wanted her to assist in making some strange device.

A device that could connect to a TV and control the characters on the screen with two strange-looking objects.

Now, after four weeks of working day and night, she and Takayuki finally made what Takayuki had envisioned.

What Takayuki held in his hand now was the result of their efforts over the past four weeks.

Looking at the not-so-attractive circuit board, Hazumi Azuka really wanted to criticize it. What on earth was this strange thing?

Fortunately, she hadn't neglected her studies during her school days, so she could at least help make such things.

Takayuki, on the other hand, seemed very excited.

He eagerly picked up the completed circuit board and ran towards the TV.

Even if he accidentally stepped on many electronic components that could hurt his feet, he didn't care at all.

Arriving in front of the TV, Takayuki began skillfully plugging in a video cable into the TV and the exposed socket on the circuit board.

Hazumi Azuka was now no longer sleepy.

Even though she wanted to sleep now, she was more eager to see how interesting this thing that had been hard at work for four weeks was.

During those four weeks, besides making this thing with Takayuki, Hazumi Azuka often listened to Zhuyouxing's interesting explanations about this thing.

"This game console can bring new and interesting things to the world. Of course, it can also bring a huge market."

"In the future, game consoles will also become an indispensable form of entertainment for humans. People of all ages and genders will be addicted to video games."

Hazumi Azuka had no concept of this, but since Takayuki described it like that, she also had some expectations.

"Okay, let's officially welcome the home video game console to this world."

At this moment, Takayuki closed his eyes gently, as if performing some kind of ritual, and his expression seemed to be sublimated.

This guy, actually looks pretty good.

That's what Hazumi Azuka thought at this moment.

Drip.

On that somewhat ugly circuit board, a red light representing power-on lit up.

At the same time, the screen of the TV was also lit up.

Hazumi Azuka moved closer out of curiosity.

And from Takayuki's perspective, the familiar music that he had once known so well slowly began to play.

Ding, ding, ding~ Ding!

It was an unforgettable memory of a beautiful moment in his memory.

Super Mario Bros.

Several words in English that Takayuki was extremely familiar with appeared on the TV screen.

"Oh, I remember this, this is something you made on the computer." Hazumi Azuka slightly widened her eyes and pointed to the screen of the TV.

Then, she saw Takayuki pick up the thing he named the game controller and began to manipulate the characters on the TV screen.

On the TV, a plumber with a big nose, short and stout, wearing overalls, jumped around on the screen following Takayuki's manipulation.

The height of this jump was like that of a rabbit.

Hazumi Azuka blinked.

If she knew modern slang, she would definitely say:

Is this it?

A device that remotely controls characters on a TV screen?

What's fun about this thing?

Hazumi Azuka couldn't imagine.

Video games.

This was something completely unfamiliar to this world.

However, for Takayuki, it was not unfamiliar.

Because before he crossed over, electronic games had long been one of the most important forms of entertainment for people in that world.

Takayuki was a traveler.

He was a native of China in 2020.

During the days before he crossed over, he was wandering around looking for a job in the scorching summer.

Every day, unable to find a job, the only consolation for him when he went home was these video games.

And then, one day, he suddenly fainted on the road and couldn't wake up.

When he woke up, he had crossed over to Tokyo in the 1990s, and at the same time, he had a brand new identity, a unemployed rich second generation named Takayuki.