Meeting up with Kyle, I told him about the boy and the drawing. He didn’t look at all surprised when I reported my findings to him.
He took out a paper and showed it to me.
“I’ve also found out a similar drawing from one of the children, but it isn’t as detailed as the one you mentioned.”
Looking down at the paper, I saw a familiar doodle, but it was slightly different from the one I’d seen earlier.
It wasn’t as detailed. The clown’s clothes lacked the vibrant red dots, alongside its curly red hair. The buttons also seem to be missing.
“Yeah, it’s missing quite a few things from the drawing I saw. It’s a pity I couldn’t take it with me.”
The thought of taking the drawing did cross my mind, but I abandoned it rather quickly after I saw how focused the kid was.
If there was one thing that I had to point out that was the same, then it’d have to be the eyes.
The swirling lines of black that seemed to suck my eyes whenever I looked at them.
Plap!
Snapping me out of my thoughts, Kyle folded the paper with one hand and put it away.
“I’ll keep the drawing for now. I’ll send a picture to someone in the department to see if they notice anything strange with it. In the meantime, we should probably learn more about this Mr. Jingles. Although it’s strange…”
Thinking of something, Kyle took out a familiar file and started to skim through it.
“Hmm. It’s really odd.”
Noticing the frown that was slowly starting to form, I grew curious.
“What’s wrong?”
“Take a look for yourself.”
Kyle handed me the file. There were many pages, and I had already looked through them before. Giving it a quick skim, I didn’t notice anything strange with it. The drawings look the same, and the layout also looks the same.
In the midst of my confusion, Kyle pointed at the file.
“Where in the files is a Mr. Jingles mentioned?”
“….Hm?”
Taking a closer look at the file and skimming once again through all the writing, I found that Kyle was right.
Nowhere in the writing was there a single mention of ’Mr. Jingles’.
Not once.
“This…”
“The report was made not too long ago. About three days ago. That was the last time an agent was on the field and reported this. What does this mean?”
Kyle paused, and I swallowed my saliva.
What could it mean?
The answer was obvious.
“They’ve only recently learned about the name. Three days to be exact.”
“Exactly.”
The two of us slowly looked at each other, and my stomach started to rumble.
“…I might need the bathroom.”
“You already know where it is.”
“I know.”
“Then…?”
“I feel like I’d feel better if I threw up on you.”
Kyle’s eyes widened, and he took a step back.
“Don’t you dare!”
“It’s coming…”
“—!!”
He nearly screamed.
Clank—
“Please come this way. Kyle and Seth are both inside.”
Kyle and I stopped at the same time, slowly turning our heads to see two familiar faces. Leading them was the Matriarch, who stopped for a moment before smiling.
“Well, I guess nothing’s changed since the two of you left.”
My mouth twitched as I looked at Zoey and Myles. No, wait. Rat. Hm… Was it rat? Or snake? Maybe something else?
Shit, I had completely forgotten.
’Rat. Snake. It’s the same thing anyway.’
That also didn’t matter as I straightened my expression and greeted them.
“Hello.”
Kyle followed after as he scratched the back of his head.
“So you guys made it…”
Looking at his face, he was probably wondering whether they had seen him run away from me while I threatened him.
In hindsight, it did look like he was terrified of me.
The fact that it wasn’t even over my game but me…
’That somehow pisses me off.’
…And looking at how the two were staring at me, I could tell that they had probably misunderstood.
I couldn’t be bothered to correct the misunderstanding. It wasn’t anything big anyway.
“Anyways, it’s almost dinner time. Let me go and quickly whip out something for all of you.”
Cutting through the awkward silence was the Matriarch as she headed for the kitchen on the right.
Right as she was about to leave, she paused.
“Oh, while I’m at it.” Her gaze fell on Kyle and me.
“Show the two where they’ll be sleeping. I know you guys will be staying for a couple of nights. I’ve already set up everything.”
She disappeared right after that, leaving the four of us standing in the middle of the play area.
In the end, with a small cough, Kyle extended his hand towards the stairs that led to the second floor.
“Should I show you your rooms first, and then we can talk about the situation?”
“…Yeah.”
“That’s fine with me.”
With both the rat/snake/backstabbed or whatever his name was, agreeing, Kyle proceeded to lead them to the second floor.
I followed from behind.
***
At the same time.
Located on the outskirts of Andoria, Nova Studios was one of the more well-known game development studios in the region.
At the moment, in a small office, a man with a pot belly and a receding hairline leaned back in his chair, smoke curling through the air as he took a slow puff from his cigar.
“Hm. Not bad. So you’re projecting at least three hundred thousand sales with this game?”
“…Yes, that’s our estimate.”
A man with square glasses and neatly parted hair responded. He was the Chief Manager of Game Oversight, responsible for overseeing and coordinating the development of all games produced by the department.
At the moment, he was giving the CEO a general rundown of the projections for their newest game, Blade in the Dark.
It was a newly developed horror/action game created by their team, and based on the number of beta players and the overall feedback received, he had been able to put together a solid estimate of how the game was likely to perform.
Puff
Taking another drag from his cigar, CEO Malone tapped his fingers lightly across the desk, then broke into a satisfied smile.
“If we charge about 60$ for the game, then we’d be able to make a lot of money with the number of sales.”
Pulling out a calculator, the CEO punched in the numbers, then suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, the sound echoing through the small office.
“Good. Good. This will definitely earn me a good bonus from the board!”
His laughter was hearty, eyes nearly closed beneath heavy lids. After a moment, as if a thought struck him, the CEO suddenly paused.
“Right, Matthias. About the game developer you told me about. The one who recently released a game that might compete with ours. Did he accept the offer?”
“Ah, about that…”
Matthias’s expression darkened as he recalled the answer he received from the game developer.
He didn’t even bother filling in the CEO on it and just sent the reply to him.
“Check it for yourself.”
“Hm? It can’t be that bad. It—”
The CEO paused mid-sentence, his face darkening as he scrolled through his phone, reading through the message over and over again before his face turned completely dark.
“Is this serious…?”
“Yes.”
“Heh. He’s lucky I even decided to give him an offer. And yet, this is his answer…”
With a sudden laugh, the CEO’s eyes narrowed. “I extend an olive branch, and you try to take the whole tree.”
The CEO shook his head, taking another drag of the cigar.
The only reason he even considered hiring the game developer was because of the developer’s recent hit game. It was poised to compete directly with their own, and after reviewing the numbers, they decided to bring the developer on board and pull the game from the market to guarantee a smoother launch for theirs.
In order to do this, they offered him some of the best terms in the company.
But who would’ve thought he’d reject it? Not only that, but also give out such demands?
This guy…
“Fine.”
The CEO leaned back against his chair, turning his attention towards Matthias.
“Since he isn’t accepting our offer, go ahead and do the thing we usually do. Either way, we were supposed to do it from the start. You just insisted on trying to recruit him. Just make sure his game doesn’t bother with the launch of ours.”
“Understood.”
Matthias nodded, taking his files before quietly leaving.
As he did, he shook his head.
’Pity. What a pity…’
He was quite talented.