I didn’t have the fondest of memories of the orphanage.
It wasn’t because I was neglected or because they mistreated me. That was the furthest thing from the truth.
In actuality, it was mainly because I was sick.
The medicine needed in order to keep me alive was rather expensive, and it ate up the orphanage’s funding. This resulted in fewer toys for the kids and also fewer trips.
Everyone was aware of this. Even the kids, and as a result, I was left shunned by most of the children there.
The only one who stuck with me was Kyle.
He was the only one who played with me when I was young, and why the two of us were so close.
He was the only reason why I didn’t completely hate my time in the orphanage.
’I still did end up getting ’kicked’ out by the time I reached eighteen, but it’s not like I can blame them.’
In fact, some children probably still resented me for hogging all of the funding.
“Haa.”
I exhaled slowly, letting the fresh air brush against my face. I felt like shit. Like utter shit at the moment, and it was all because of Kyle.
That bastard…
’You’re a star member. Why didn’t we use the private jet? Why did you end up using such a shitty plane?!’
I felt like puking.
But…
’It’s good to be back.’
In the distance, a small villa came into view, nestled in greenery. The grass stood at the height of my knees, bending under the strong wind that carried through the surroundings. Faint laughter drifted from afar, and the sound of children playing carried gently on the breeze.
The air felt cool, and as I looked up at the sky and saw the clouds turning gray, I knew it wouldn’t be long before the rain began.
“This brings back memories.” Kyle suddenly mumbled from beside me as I slowly turned my head to see him holding onto a trolley. With his other hand in the pocket of his gray Kashmir jacket, he looked rather stylish.
“…It does.”
I slowly nodded my head while looking back towards the orphanage.
Because of the sudden world change, the location of the orphanage was in an entirely different place than I knew. It sat on one of the minor islands orbiting Andora, the central island, just like Malovia.
Sire Island.
With a population of about three hundred thousand people, the island was a lot smaller than Malovia, with the general buildings and infrastructure a lot more rundown and developed.
In general, it looked like the countryside.
A lot of greenery and a small town. This was how Sire Island was.
“Wait here for a second.”
Pausing, Kyle held me by the shoulder and stopped me.
“….?”
“I’ve already said it before, but I’ll repeat it again. While we’re here to visit the children and the Matriarch, we’re also here on a mission. The others will join us later, but for now, it is just the two of us. The goal is to investigate the drawings and determine if the anomaly is a dangerous one, and which potential class it is. If things get too dangerous, immediately evacuate the orphanage. Is that clear?”
“…Yes.”
How many times have I heard the same words coming from him?
He had been at it during the entire three hours that we spent on the plane to get to this island. It wasn’t even the private jet, but some rundown plane that Kyle somehow knew how to fly.
Just thinking about it gave me chills.
Especially when the plane hovered over the dark mist.
Goosebumps.
All I felt were goosebumps.
“You’re not going to run off and do your own thing, right?”
Kyle’s eyes narrowed as he asked.
I was taken aback.
“What do you take me for? And where would I even run off?”
Besides the orphanage, there was not a single house in sight. The closest village was a one-hour walk from where we were.
“…I’m just asking. Lately, you’ve been acting rather weird.”
“Is that so?”
I pursed my lips. Well, he wasn’t wrong on this aspect. However, it wasn’t like this was something that I could control.
I was… just doing everything that I could possibly do in order to survive.
’Talking about survival, how is my game doing? Are the sales doing well?’
I hadn’t checked ever since waking up. The moment I got into the office, Kyle appeared, and he dragged me to the orphanage, which left me traumatized as I held onto dear life.
“I think I’ve said all I needed to say. Let’s head inside.”
Picking up his bags, Kyle started to head towards the orphanage, but I remained standing where I was.
“You go without me.”
“Hm?”
I showed him my phone.
“Work.”
“…Oh. Sure.”
With a look of understanding, Kyle didn’t say anything else and started heading towards the orphanage. I waited for him to enter the place before opening the Dock app and checking the stats page.
The moment I did, as though the air had suddenly been stripped away from my lungs, I forgot to breathe.
“No way…”
I had to blink a couple of times in order to make sure I wasn’t seeing things wrongly.
[Sales: 57,910]
But even as I blinked and saw that the stats remained the same, I felt as though my mind had suddenly exploded.
“Holy shit!”
Nearly sixty thousand sales? And all of it within half a day of the game release?!
What sort of numbers were these!?
It had to be noted that my first-ever game sold around thirty thousand copies. This was already almost double that!
“How did it sell so much? I don’t… understand.”
Was it because of the video that Jamie sent to me? Going back to our chat, I opened the link he sent me and went back to the video.
The moment I did, my eyes widened.
[Views: 501,887]
“…No wonder.”
With so many views, it was no wonder my game was doing so well. Not only that, but looking at the reviews on my game, which averaged to [Mixed], I felt a lot better. This was certainly a step up from my previous game.
“Okay, okay. I shouldn’t get too excited. This is because of the video. The sales might cool off later. In that case, I should quickly get the multiplayer function running. Get it out while the game is still hot.”
But did I even have enough time to do that?
“Ugh. I really want to get back to work.”
But…
Slowly lifting my head and staring at the distant orphanage, I could only sigh.
’Well, I’ll see what I can do. I’d like to pay someone to optimize multiplayer and just add the Mirror Voices software later, but I’m currently broke, so…’
With a resigned sigh, I prepared to put my phone away.
But right as I was about to, I received a sudden message.
Trrr—
“Hm?”
Thinking it was maybe from Jamie, I looked at it, but I was surprised to see it come from a completely unknown number.
Blinking slowly, I read the message, and when I did, I found myself unable to close my mouth.
[To : Seth Thorne]
[We from Nova Studio would like to extend our sincere congratulations and are pleased to offer you a position with our team.
We were thoroughly impressed by your skills, experience, and creative approach, and we believe that you will be a valuable addition to our growing studio.
This offer includes…]
This…
“A scouting offer?”