High income

¥14,000.

This is the total income from this game machine today.

And, this is not even the highest income for this game machine.

Because children usually have to go home before sunset.

Some braver children insisted on staying until after eight in the evening, but dared not linger any longer.

If these children dared to play until midnight, or even until the early hours of the next day, the income would double again.

The shopkeeper was simply dumbfounded.

He originally thought that renting out a machine slot for ¥10,000 a day was a good deal.

But he didn't expect that he was the clown.

That young man only needed to leave this thing here, and then he could earn over ¥14,000 in income every day.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the bald-headed shopkeeper had been lingering around this game machine for half a day.

He didn't know at all what was so fun about this thing.

Why those children were so obsessed, and one after another.

On average, these children could play for about five minutes before exhausting their lives and ending the game.

And most of them were stuck in Level 4-3 unable to break through temporarily.

It seemed like there was a watershed there.

On average, twelve ¥100 coins would enter this game machine in an hour.

For a full twelve hours, these kids hadn't rested for a moment.

After one child finished the game, the next one would immediately take their place.

Even those children who couldn't afford to play were keen to gather behind the crowd and watch others play.

It seemed like watching others play was fun too.

This greatly puzzled the shopkeeper.

However, he had keenly sniffed out a business opportunity.

Until now, he once again remembered what Takayuki had told him yesterday.

If he was interested in this game machine, he could buy it directly, and they could discuss the specific price later.

"Good evening, shopkeeper, I'm here again."

At this moment, a slightly tired young man walked into the entertainment hall.

"Oh, good evening, you're here again? How was work today?"

The bald-headed shopkeeper raised his head, looking at the incoming person and greeted him warmly.

This young man was an employee of a nearby company.

Basically, every night this young man would come over to play casually.

Singing, or playing dance machines, or something.

Then, during the day, this guy would go back to the company and continue his day of wage-slave work.

Day in and day out, this young man had also become a regular here.

"Today's work is the same, my boss scolded me for over ten minutes because the design I modified didn't meet the requirements. Ah, I really want to resign." The young man sighed.

"Oh, I see, just play casually then. I'll give you a discount today to cheer you up."

The shopkeeper replied casually, then continued to scrutinize the magical game machine.

The young man also noticed the shopkeeper's gaze, so he curiously approached.

"Shopkeeper, is this some new product? Why have you been staring at this thing?"

"This? It's called an electronic TV game. I'm getting old and don't really understand these things, do you?"

"Electronic TV game?" The young man carefully recalled in his mind.

He worked in a media network company, mainly doing design work, which also allowed him to be exposed to many trendy things for the first time.

However, he had never heard of the term "electronic TV game" before.

"No, I've never heard of it. Is it also a game? How do you play it? Is it similar to the dance machine?"

"No, I don't really understand it now either, but if you want to play, you need to insert coins and then use this thing to play."

The shopkeeper picked up the controller that had been touched by a group of children all day and said.

"Huh? Such a strange control method, and it looks quite novel. I'll play with this today, is there a discount for this too?"

"This? This isn't something from my store, it's just a trial product that a young man said he wanted to temporarily leave here and rent out a small area from me."

"Oh, it's okay, I'll give it a try, it doesn't matter if there's no discount."

The young man fumbled in his pocket, and finally pulled out a ¥100 coin from the depths of his pocket.

This ¥100 coin had probably been in his pocket for more than ten days. If it weren't for this sudden appearance of a game machine, this coin would probably continue to survive in his pocket for another ten days, until it was lost in some corner.

Ding~

Accompanied by the crisp sound of the coin hitting, the TV screen, which had gradually dimmed, lit up again.

The familiar electronic melody rang out again.

The shopkeeper had been listening to this sound all day long, his ears almost calloused.

But at the same time, he was fascinated by this sound.

Because, once this sound rang out, it meant another ¥100 was nervously spent.

Damn it! That guy from yesterday actually made another ¥100.

Hopefully, this wage slave only plays once today.

Originally, the shopkeeper was planning to take a look at the game machine and then return to the office to consider sleeping there.

But now he was energized again. He wanted to take a good look at how this game machine harvested coins.

Playing Super Mario itself is not complicated.

Even if you've never touched a game console before, when you simply press the directional buttons and AB buttons on the controller, you basically understand how the whole game works.

"This doesn't seem like a big deal."

The wage slave young man was somewhat dismissive.

There are similar things on the computer, but they're not very interesting. It's like a side-scrolling walking simulator, which quickly becomes boring.

It's quite novel that this little person can jump high.

The young man started to explore seriously.

Soon, he bumped into the first mushroom monster head-on.

"Hey, be careful, you need to stomp on this one! Otherwise, you'll lose..."

Before the shopkeeper could finish, the wage slave young man ended the game amidst a series of failure sounds.

"Huh? It's over already?"

The young man was stunned, obviously not understanding what was going on.

The shopkeeper had been watching over here all day, and he had become quite familiar with the game mechanics, but he had never actually played.

He felt that he definitely couldn't put coins into this game machine, otherwise, it would be like giving away his own money to others on his own turf, which he felt was a loss.

"It's okay, you have three lives, you still have two left. Be careful next time, you need to eat a big mushroom, and you can stomp on the mushroom monsters when you encounter them."