Speed challenger

The plan to expand into the US market certainly cannot affect the expansion plan in Japan.

Time comes after Halloween, which is considered a small celebration in Japan.

In other countries, Halloween is usually a day for people to casually dress up as ghosts and monsters.

But in Japan, it has become a large-scale cosplay exhibition. Regardless of whether they're dressed as ghosts or not, everyone can showcase their costumes on this day.

And currently, the most popular cosplay character is the iconic superhero from the old-fashioned tokusatsu series, "Jiaziyuan Superman".

Then, the second to fifth hottest cosplay characters are all taken by characters from Gamestar Electronics Entertainment.

The first place goes to the Brave Lott, the second place is Mario, the third and fourth places are the two protagonists from Contra, and the fifth place is the very popular Ash from the Pokémon anime.

For one company to monopolize the second to fifth places in popularity is quite a feat.

This is a great opportunity for publicity, which Gamestar Electronics Entertainment naturally won't miss.

Taking advantage of Halloween, the price of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) once again saw a wave of price reductions, lowering it to 3000 yen.

This price can be considered slaughter-level.

Even people who aren't interested in video games would be willing to buy one just to fit in and because it's so cheap.

And the cost of the NES is also kept low, not exceeding 1000 yen including packaging and shipping. With each game console making a net profit of over 1000 yen, it's quite impressive.

With this low-price strategy, Suirei Electronics can't compete with them.

They may indeed attract players with low prices.

But they can't match Gamestar prices. After all, their game consoles are 16-bit, and the cost can't be lowered as much. Lowering it to around 6000 yen is already the limit.

At the same time, they don't have the strategy of selling machines at a loss and making money from software games like in later years.

Takayuki has long been making a profit with this strategy, and the cash flow has always been quite healthy.

At the same time, Takayuki also organized a Halloween limited-time event.

During Halloween, players who have Pokémon can exchange exclusive Pokémon at Pokémon restaurants by completing designated Halloween check-in tasks in the Tokyo area of Japan.

This is also a regular operation of Pokémon games, increasing the interaction among players. In fact, it's like the real-life version of holiday missions in later online games.

And for children, the allure of getting exclusive Pokémon is significant.

Some people even come from afar, from Hokkaido, just to get Pokémon. This shows how popular Pokémon is now.

Apart from these collection-type activities, there are also some new activities taking place in several initially authorized stores.

On the Friday morning of the first week after Halloween, several stores simultaneously set up several huge promotional posters in front of their doors.

On the posters are game screens of Mario, Tetris, and Metroid.

At the bottom of the pictures, it says, "Recruit the fastest challengers. The final winner will receive a seven-day family trip to Hawaii and a bonus of 10 million yen."

As soon as the promotional posters were set up, a group of people immediately gathered around, discussing curiously.

Before this, they only treated video games as entertainment.

Like watching TV dramas, they enjoyed the fun of video games.

But suddenly saying that we can get some real-life benefits from video games is quite surprising.

TV dramas require professional actors and professionals to do professional things.

Sports competitions require professional athletes.

What about video games?

"Hello, I'd like to ask, what does the challenger on this poster mean?"

The clerk who was receiving customers heard the question, glanced at the poster, and then said, "It's about who can clear these games in the shortest time. The fastest clear of each game in the competition can receive rewards."

People widened their eyes in disbelief and asked, "Just need to clear the game as quickly as possible? Are there no other requirements? Isn't this too simple?"

"How could it be so simple?" The clerk shook his head and said, "Only the first place can get the biggest prize. This is no different from athletes competing. But to be fair, everyone can participate, and all participants can at least receive a participation prize."

"What's the participation prize?"

"It's some prizes like keychains. Anyway, if you're interested, you can come over tomorrow to participate. This event will last for half a month. During this half-month period, everyone can challenge three times. Then when the half-month period is over, we will announce the strongest players of each game."

10 million yen is not a small amount even in today's Japan. Many people are now eager to try, even if they're not gamers, they'll be tempted by this prize and want to give it a try.

"Tomorrow? What time can we officially participate tomorrow?"

"Look here." The clerk pointed helplessly to the bottom of the promotional sentence on the poster.

Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, the Speed Challenge competition will officially begin.

As for the specific competition content, it needs to be explained more detailedly by the players themselves tomorrow.

If you explain everything here, then half of the people who come with curiosity tomorrow might decrease. This is a good opportunity for publicity, so it needs to be maximized.

Satisfied with the answers, people prepared to leave and come back tomorrow to see what's going on.

And some people who were still puzzled would stay a little longer, wanting to inquire about the specific details.

A young man in his early twenties was staring blankly at the contents of the poster at this moment.

A look of longing appeared in his eyes.

10 million yen, that's almost the annual salary of a mid-level employee in a big company, and a seven-day family trip to Hawaii. This is also a very tempting reward.

His name is Taiga Oono, a person commonly known as an otaku.

He used to be an optimistic person, but because of breaking up with his girlfriend of ten years, his willpower completely collapsed, and he couldn't muster interest in anything.

Fortunately, his family situation is okay, and his parents' savings can still ensure his basic needs, so he became even more decadent. Until he came into contact with video games, a long-lost feeling of joy began to swell in the process of playing video games.

In video games, he could find happiness that he rarely experienced elsewhere.

But he knew that this was not a long-term solution. Happiness could not last forever, and his family's savings were not infinite. Sometimes, when facing his parents' slightly disappointed eyes, he could only avoid them in shame, unable to do anything.

Now, he only feels happy when he plays games.

Apart from that, he has no interest in anything else.