Wednesday 3 March 2001.
Bill Gates is watching Zaboru's YouTube channel, specifically the video where Zaboru revealed his secret room while his wife recorded him from behind the cara. The video is absurd, strange, personal, and completely unlike a normal corporate promotion, yet that is exactly why it works. The view count has already reached nearly one million, which is an insane number for this era. It ans an enormous number of people have already seen Zaboru's collection room, his jokes, Ayumi's silent pressure, and the chaotic atmosphere that only he can create.
Unlike in Zaboru's previous world, where one million views would eventually beco common for popular internet videos, this world's YouTube is still in its early stage. The platform is growing quickly, but it is still young, and audience habits are still forming. For a single video to reach almost one million views this fast is not just impressive—it is terrifying from a business perspective. It proves that Zaboru himself has beco a dia weapon. He does not even need to announce a new ga or a new console to dominate attention. All he has to do is open a door, act smug, get scolded by his wife, and suddenly the entire gaming community is talking about him again.
For Bill Gates, that fact is both fascinating and irritating. Microsoft has just revealed the X-BOX, a major new console ant to shake the industry, yet Zaboru can casually pull public attention away with a recorded workshop tour. The worst part is that it does not look forced. It feels natural, funny, and intimate, which makes it even harder to compete against. A normal advertisent can be countered with another advertisent, but a personality like Zaboru is far more difficult to answer.
As Bill Gates watched the video with several of his engineers, he leaned back in his chair and remained silent for a while. The room around him was quiet except for the sound coming from the screen: Zaboru joking, the chat reacting, Ayumi silently pressuring him, and the entire video flowing like harmless entertainnt. Yet to Bill Gates, it was not harmless at all. He understood marketing too well to dismiss it as a random personal video.
"He's really smart…" Bill Gates finally said, his voice low. He sighed, rubbing his temple as the view count continued rising on the screen. "He knows how to attract an audience. He has reputation, personality, timing, and public trust. Now he is going to distract players—our potential players—so they don't just discuss or think about the X-BOX that will release this month."
One of the engineers glanced at the screen again, watching Zaboru smugly explain his collection room as if he had not just hijacked the gaming conversation for the entire week. Bill Gates narrowed his eyes slightly. "And worse, I don't think this is his ultimate distraction for us," he continued, thinking carefully. "This feels like the opening move. A light jab. Sothing casual to remind the public that ZAGE still controls attention whenever they want."
That thought irritated him more than he wanted to admit. Microsoft could prepare trailers, stage presentations, and spec sheets, but Zaboru could counter with personality, culture, and emotional attachnt. It was a different kind of battlefield. One Microsoft could not win through hardware alone.
One of his engineers finally spoke, adjusting the docunts in his hand before glancing at the others in the room. "We actually have so intelligence about AKAI," he said carefully. "They are one of ZAGE's subsidiaries and usually handle a lot of their electronics products. Music devices, peripherals, phones, display products… things like that. From what little we managed to gather, they may be preparing to release a new type of phone."
The mont those words entered the room, the atmosphere shifted slightly. The X-BOX was supposed to be Microsoft's main concern right now, but anything related to AKAI could not be ignored. AKAI had already proven itself as more than just a normal electronics brand. Their full-color affordable phones had shaken the mobile market, and their Z-Pods had changed how many young people listened to music. If they were preparing another phone, then it probably wasn't going to be sothing ordinary.
Bill Gates frowned, his fingers tapping lightly against the table. "A new type of phone… that's troubleso," he muttered. His mind imdiately began calculating possibilities. A better cara phone? A stronger music phone? The problem with Zaboru was that his ideas rarely stayed inside one category. A phone from AKAI could easily beco a communication device, music player, portable gaming accessory, or even a gateway into ZAGE's wider ecosystem. "Do you have any idea what kind of phone it is?"
The engineer shook his head with a frustrated expression. "Unfortunately, we don't have that much information, Boss. Their internal security has beco extrely difficult to penetrate. Sohow, it's much harder to get details from them these days. The security company they hired is no joke."
Another engineer added quietly, "Even our usual sources are becoming cautious. They say AKAI's internal projects are now compartntalized. People only know the parts they directly work on, and anything related to Zaboru's personal concept notes is almost impossible to access."
Bill Gates remained silent for a mont, his frown deepening. That was exactly what made ZAGE dangerous. Their products were not just built from corporate planning; many of them ca from Zaboru himself, from ideas that seed absurd at first and then sohow beca market-changing devices. If AKAI was moving again, then Microsoft could not afford to treat it as unrelated to the X-BOX launch. Everything ZAGE did, even outside gaming, had the potential to pull public attention away.
Bill Gates frowned, his fingers still tapping against the table. "Aoshidan security company, huh… troubleso." He already knew the na. Aoshidan had grown from the remnants of the Hamazou family's old influence into a legitimate security company, but from Microsoft's perspective, that only made them more annoying. They were disciplined, careful, and difficult to read. "Still, continue digging into what AKAI wants to make. It could be critical. We don't know the full extent of their innovation anymore. First, they released affordable full-color phones, then Z-Pods changed how young people listen to music. Their products always seem to arrive one step earlier than the market expects."
He leaned back slightly, eyes narrowing as Zaboru's face remained paused on the screen. "But all of this is definitely Zaboru's idea. Even when it cos through AKAI, the scent of his thinking is too obvious. He doesn't create products in isolation. He creates chains. A phone becos music. Music becos lifestyle. Lifestyle becos community. Community becos gas. Then everything leads back to ZAGE."
For a mont, Bill Gates said nothing. Then, despite his irritation, a small smile appeared on his face. "He really understands charisma," he admitted, almost unwillingly. "I actually enjoyed watching him showcase that secret room, even though the entire thing was foolish. That is the annoying part. It should have been nonsense, but it worked. He made people laugh, made them curious, made them jealous, and made them feel close to him."
He let out a quiet chuckle, though there was a hint of regret beneath it. "I should have tried harder to recruit him back then. Maybe I should have offered him ten billion dollars in 1992, when ZAGE had barely started." His smile turned more bitter for a second. "At the ti, that would have sounded insane. Now? Maybe that would have been cheap. That might be one of the biggest regrets I have ever had."
The engineers around him remained silent, unsure whether he was joking or being completely serious. With Zaboru, even Bill Gates could not help but feel that history had missed a strange opportunity. If Microsoft had managed to bring him in before ZAGE beca unstoppable, the entire industry might have looked different.
But that thought lasted only briefly. Bill Gates's expression beca serious again, his voice returning to business. "Prepare the next campaign. Apple will almost certainly increase their production speed after seeing our reveal, and Jobs will not stay quiet. He hates being second." Bill Gates smiled thinly. "So we wait for Apple to release their trailer, then we hit with our next one after that. We make sure the conversation does not belong to Apple, ZAGE, or anyone else for too long."
Then he chuckled, the rivalry with Steve Jobs clearly amusing him in its own bitter way. "Well, Steve Jobs needs to be 'niche' again." He laughed a little at his own jab, then turned back toward the docunts and continued working, already preparing Microsoft's next move in the console war.
anwhile, on ZAGE's side, Zaboru returned from the Hamazou household and went straight back to work, still carrying the strange warmth of that family visit in his chest. However, the mont he entered ZAGE's internal system and checked the latest reports, he found even better news waiting for him. The YouTube Ads update was coming earlier than expected. ZAGE's business team had already secured deals with multiple companies that wanted to place advertisents on ZAGE YouTube, and the negotiations had gone far more smoothly than anyone predicted especailly related of how money will flow. To Zaboru, this was not just another platform update. This was the mont ZAGE YouTube would begin turning from a popular video platform into a serious advertising machine.
Zaboru leaned back in his chair and laughed softly. "Hehehe… ti to show them. I already have the perfect trailer for this." His smile widened, carrying that familiar mischievous edge that always appeared whenever he was about to cause trouble for the industry. "Hehehe… try your best, Bill Gates. Let's see if you can keep up with our 'distraction.'" He said the word with amusent because he understood exactly what Microsoft was worried about. X-BOX had just been revealed, and Microsoft wanted the industry to talk about nothing else. Unfortunately for them, ZAGE had no intention of letting any rival monopolize public attention, especially not during a console launch window.
This would not be the last surprise. Zaboru already had more planned. Over the next two weeks, ZAGE would beco busy as usual, revealing trailers, platform updates, product teasers, and strange entertainnt pieces one after another. If players' minds remained focused on ZAGE's releases, features, and upcoming products, then Microsoft's X-BOX montum would naturally weaken. Yet strangely, Zaboru did not actually want Microsoft to fail completely. He wanted them to push harder. He wanted them to challenge ZAGE properly, to force competition, to make the industry more exciting. That was what amused him most. In his previous life, early 2001 had already been an interesting period for technology and gaming, but in this world, everything felt even more intense because the industry had grown faster, stranger, and more aggressive.
Zaboru also knew that advertising culture in 2001 was still different from the future he rembered. People were more willing to laugh at absurd comrcials, tolerate aggressive campaigns, and react loudly without imdiately turning everything into a moral battlefield. That made the audience response more unpredictable and, in Zaboru's opinion, far more entertaining. He could already imagine the chaos once ZAGE introduced proper YouTube Ads, especially if the launch trailer itself was ridiculous enough to beco a . The thought alone made him grin. Annoying Microsoft while also opening a new revenue stream was simply too delicious.
And the Microsoft engineer's suspicion was also correct. AKAI was preparing another phone. Not an ordinary one, not rely a better version of their previous full-color phones, but a device aid at a completely different group of users: office workers, executives, writers, journalists, and people who wanted to type ssages faster than normal phones allowed. Zaboru had already prepared the concept carefully. In other words, AKAI's next reveal would be the keyboard phone—BlackBerry.
For Zaboru, it was perfect timing. Microsoft wanted to introduce X-BOX as the future of connected entertainnt, but ZAGE and AKAI would remind the world that connection was not limited to consoles. Communication, music, video, gaming, advertising, and online culture were all moving toward the sa place, and Zaboru intended to sit at the center of that convergence. He chuckled again, already imagining Bill Gates's face when the next wave of announcents began. "Co on, Microsoft," he muttered with a grin. "Show how much you can endure."
To be continue
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