Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Professionalism is the greatest asset of any evaluation organization, and one must never sell one's professionalism for money. This is a sentence that Kazuo Murakami has always kept in mind.

It's a pity that the mysterious netizen disappeared completely from the internet not long after and never appeared again.

No matter how many messages he left for the mysterious netizen, there was no response.

Is the other person encountering some trouble? Are they still in good health?

He wanted to know all of these things, but no one could answer him.

Over time, he also felt that perhaps this mysterious benefactor would never appear again.

However, there's always been an empty office at his current game review company; 'Nintendo is just the office reserved for the world's leading honorary director.'

Now, Kazuo Murakami no longer has the contact information for this mysterious online friend, and even the address has long expired. So, he can only keep his promise and put every game he reviews in this office, hoping that one day this mysterious benefactor will reappear, and then he will properly show him his office.

Even if this benefactor doesn't want to come to his company, he will still keep this office for him and clean it regularly.

Kazuo Murakami's university life is now very leisurely.

After having his own company, he no longer had to worry about work, and his review media was thriving. His studies had become secondary; at most, he was just trying to get a diploma.

Kazuo Murakami, who was somewhat famous, also had some privileges. Even though he never went to school, the University of Tokyo was willing to give him a diploma. So, for the past year, Kazuo Murakami had been working at the company, where his job was to review all sorts of games.

Recently, following the advice of his second idol, Takeyusei, he has been preparing to hold another large-scale game awards program. Takeyusei has secured support from many well-known international game companies for Murakami Kazuo, who are willing to attend and participate in the game awards program. Murakami Kazuo cherishes this opportunity and hopes to build the program into a world-class game awards program, just like the Oscars in the film industry.

"Murakami-senpai, Murakami-senpai! Good news!"

Kazuo Murakami was preparing a new game review when an employee came into his office, looking rather pleased.

The atmosphere among employees and subordinates at Kazuo Murakami's new company is very good. Perhaps it is because Kazuo Murakami is a young man and he does not like the very traditional superior-subordinate relationship in Japan. This is also partly due to his learning from Yusei Electronic Entertainment.

Therefore, employees usually don't directly address Kazuo Murakami as "President" or similar titles, because Murakami only considers himself a simple game reviewer.

Murakami Kazuo smiled and said, "What's wrong, Miura-san? Is there some good news? Is it another game company that wants to participate in our game selection program?"

Miura shook his head: "No, it's not that. It's about the matter that you, Murakami-senpai, once asked us to help find someone online."

Looking for someone?

"That's our company's honorary director."

Murakami Kazuo was stunned for a moment, then immediately exclaimed excitedly, "You found his trail?!"

Miura nodded: "That's right, we found a user with this name on a platform, but I can't be sure if this is the person you're looking for, Murakami-senpai."

It must be him!

Kazuo Murakami was very certain.

Because he had only ever seen one other person in the world with this name, and it was almost impossible for anyone else to have it, as the name was simply too strange.

"Where did you see this? Tell me quickly!"

Kazuo Murakami couldn't hide his surprise at all.

He had been searching for this benefactor for a long time and really wanted to talk to him again.

"It's on the Battle.net platform, the game distribution platform on PC."

Kazuo Murakami certainly knew about the Battle.net platform, which was one of Yusei Electronics' businesses. However, compared to handheld and home console platforms, Battle.net on the PC platform was not so prominent.

To date, the most played games on this platform are still StarCraft and Doom users, and other games available on the Battle.net platform have struggled to achieve the same level of popularity as these two games.

"On the Battle.net platform? Are you a user here?"

Miura shook his head and said, "No, it was this honorary director who used this username to release a game called Stardew Valley."

game?

Kazuo Murakami was very surprised.

This was something he hadn't anticipated.

Chapter 528 Mature Crops

528

So this mysterious online benefactor also makes games?

No, perhaps I didn't know how to make games from the beginning, but over time I've learned some game-making skills.

Judging from the game's graphics, it must have been made by one person, because the graphics look very simple, even rudimentary.

In an era where game graphics are becoming increasingly sophisticated, such game graphics look very rudimentary.

Kazuo Murakami immediately tried to contact his online benefactor through Battle.net's internal communication system, leaving many messages, but received no reply.

He wasn't in a hurry about this. Not everyone can stay in front of a computer 24/7. In this respect, the internet is not as convenient as mobile phones. However, some companies are starting to explore the potential of mobile networks, and perhaps we will have the opportunity to see newer ways of communication in the future.

Since he couldn't contact the other party, Murakami Kazuo simply bought the game and tried it out to see what the content was like.

The game isn't expensive either, only 1,700 yen, a price that many people can afford—about the price of a regular steak.

However, the graphics of this game don't seem to be worth the price. For the same price, you can buy some classic games with comparable graphics that are also from first-party developers like Yuxing Electronic Entertainment.

However, the music is quite good, very relaxing, and makes you want to unwind.

Kazuo Murakami has successfully downloaded the game and entered its world.

He also had a special expectation for this game: his online benefactor, who had disappeared for a long time, had finally reappeared, so what kind of game would he be developing?

As a game review media outlet, playing games is naturally part of our job, especially since Kazuo Murakami took the initiative to play a game, and it wasn't even a game made by a very famous person, but a game made by someone we've always been both familiar with and unfamiliar with.

A mysterious netizen who has never revealed his true identity, yet whose legends circulate within the company.

Others in the company also became interested in the game created by this mysterious person. Although the graphics were indeed somewhat rudimentary, it could perhaps be seen as a light bowl of seaweed soup to cleanse the palate after indulging in a feast of delicacies.

Several people had already gathered around Murakami Kazuo, watching him start playing the game.

"Senior, this looks like it's going to be a turn-based adventure game, right? Stardew Valley, that's a pretty nice name."

"Huh? It's not a turn-based adventure game. It would have been the most logical thing to make it a turn-based game."

"Huh? Is this...using a hoe?"

On Kazuo Murakami's computer screen, the rudimentary character was swinging a hoe in a 360-degree motion, turning over a small patch of land on the farm, indicating that the soil in that small patch of land had been loosened.

Is this really just a farming game?

What's so fun about this?

Everyone raised questions, their minds probably filled with all sorts of questions.

Farming, mining, and chopping trees—these things all feel incredibly tedious and boring. How idle must one be to think of using these kinds of activities as the main gameplay?

Does anyone really enjoy this kind of boring and tedious gameplay?

Three or four of the people who had gathered behind the man in the village left immediately.

If this game had been developed by Yuxing Electronics Entertainment, perhaps they wouldn't have gone so far. But this game was developed by an unknown person, and it's a farming game at that. It's really hard to understand what's so fun about this kind of farming game.

Then let's just leave. Don't waste time here. They have their own game reviews to write, and they don't have time to waste on games with such boring gameplay.

Although three or four people left, the others patiently continued to watch Kazuo Murakami play the game.

Under Kazuo Murakami's control, the character has already plowed a small plot of land. Next, it's time to sow seeds and water the field, thus concluding the day's work.

With nothing to do, Kazuo Murakami controlled the character to wander around some parts of Pelican Town. Before long, it was late at night, and the character had to go home to rest and prepare for the next day.

This... is indeed a bit tedious and boring. If it's just about farming and sowing every day, I can't figure out what the appeal of this game is.

This left him slightly disappointed. It seemed that his mysterious benefactor had only made a game out of interest and hadn't actually created any truly outstanding game content.

He couldn't help but feel a little self-deprecating. Just now, he had naively imagined that this mysterious benefactor had the ability to do three things and six things, just like his second idol, Zhu Youxing, who was very powerful. But human abilities are ultimately limited, and it is impossible to be good at everything.

However, the game is quite complete, presenting the entire game very smoothly, and the operation is not laggy at all, which seems to be a very rare quality for someone who has never had game development experience.

More importantly, this game has almost no bugs, which is very rare.

It seems that this mysterious benefactor is working at a game company and is already very familiar with the game development process. This game is more like a reflection of the knowledge he has learned through his work.

The more Murakami Kazuo thought about it, the more certain he became.

However, he continued playing the game throughout this process.

By this time, two or three more people had left, leaving only one person standing behind Murakami Kazuo, staring intently at Murakami Kazuo's screen.

"Senior, senior, look! The plants in the field are ripe!"

As Murakami Kazuo was pondering and playing the game, his employee behind him suddenly excitedly shouted a reminder to him.

Murakami Kazuo snapped out of his daze and realized that several days had passed since he started controlling his character. During these days, the crops had grown to maturity and were ready for harvest.

Such a rapid growth rate? That doesn't seem to match reality.

Of course, this kind of game can't be 100% realistic. No one can wait for a bunch of crops for months, that would be even more boring. It seems that the mysterious benefactor understands this to some extent, so he shortened the ripening time of the crops.

Kazuo Murakami immediately moved his character to the farmland and began harvesting crops.

One by one, the ripe crops were placed into his backpack.

For some reason, when he saw the ripe crops being loaded into his backpack, Kazuo Murakami felt an involuntary sense of satisfaction.

This is a feeling that other games can't provide.

Chapter 529: Life in anticipation of June 627th

529

"Murakami-senpai, we're home."

"Okay, you guys go home first."

At Kazuo Murakami's company, employees were already preparing to go home after get off work.

At this moment, Murakami Kazuo seemed glued to his seat, staring intently at the rudimentary game screen.

The character on the screen still clumsily wields a hoe to dig the ground. After digging out a complete 10 by 10 grid, Murakami Kazuo is satisfied and sows his new crop seeds on the cultivated land. Then he starts watering the crops and then runs to the mine to start mining bit by bit with a pickaxe. He is very engrossed in his work.

Stardew Valley has a time system, with each day having a fixed time. However, for Kazuo Murakami, there is no difference between day and night; he simply wants to accomplish as much as possible within the given time of day.

However, fatigue limits his performance. After working for a period of time, the character will become increasingly tired and will have to take a forced rest. If you ignore it, the character will faint and be hospitalized, and you will have to pay medical expenses.

After going through this ordeal once or twice, Kazuo Murakami realized that he couldn't keep pushing himself so recklessly and that he needed to let the character rest properly.