Over the course of seven full days, Ichin and everyone from the studio enjoyed a thorough tour of Sichuan under the guidance of their tour guide. They even visited the giant panda base—seeing both the big pandas and the little ones—and took tons of photos.
On the seventh day, the others boarded a return flight, while Ichin and Utaha took a different one headed for the Shanghai.
Ichin's father had already found a venue for the company. The size matched Ichin's requirents, and it wasn't in the city center, but located in a more remote tech park. The previous company that occupied the space had relocated, leaving the area vacant—just in ti.
After arriving in the Shanghai, the two of them went straight ho. After resting for a night, they headed to the tech park with Ichin's father the next day.
The venue was a bit smaller than their studio in Japan, but it was already more than enough. They wouldn't be able to recruit that many people at the start anyway.
In addition to the space, the previous company had also left behind a number of desks and chairs they no longer needed.
After checking the condition, Ichin had the park's administrator get in touch with the forr company. After negotiating a price, he bought all the furniture—saving so money in the process.
Once the lease agreent was signed, Ichin's father took Ichin and Utaha to register the new branch of the company. Ichin also appointed his dad as the acting manager—for now, at least. After all, he couldn't stay there permanently with his academic responsibilities still ongoing.
The whole process—legal procedures, purchasing office furniture and equipnt—ended up taking another week. Utaha even had to watch the first episode of The trono in Love from ho rather than with the others.
Stretching his body, Ichin glanced at the ti on his computer.
"Almost midnight already… I should get so rest. I've still got a lot to deal with tomorrow," Ichin said, rubbing his slightly sore eyes. "Even though Dad transferred a few people from his company to help , I still need to hire so experienced industry professionals to help manage things."
After finalizing the venue, Ichin had logged into his Bilibili account for the first ti in a while to post a job announcent. Over the past few days, he'd received quite a number of resus via email.
So were from fresh graduates, but there were also applications from actual professionals in the field—even so who had studied abroad and worked for major overseas companies.
After reviewing the submissions, Ichin sent out interview invitations to the candidates whose expertise matched—whether seasoned professionals or fresh grads. The first round of interviews was scheduled for tomorrow.
Just then, the bedroom door opened. Fresh out of the shower, Utaha stepped in and walked over to Ichin, still working at his desk. She ca up behind him and wrapped her arms around him.
"It's getting late. Go take a shower and get so sleep—you've been busy all day."
"Yeah, I'm just about done."
Closing the files on his computer, Ichin stood up and hugged Utaha in return, taking in the scent of her body wash with a smile. "You go get in bed first. I'll be done in a minute."
Twenty minutes later, Ichin returned from his shower, hair dried, and climbed into bed. He turned off the light and snuggled up to the soft, warm Utaha.
"Mm… I didn't feel it earlier, but now I'm really starting to feel the fatigue."
Utaha nuzzled against him and asked softly, "It's going to take a while before the company stabilizes, right?"
Ichin nodded. "Yeah. After the interviews over the next few days, we should be able to start operations. We can begin supporting so of the developnt for Persona. Cologne Ga Show is in two weeks… I'm not sure if we'll be done in ti."
Utaha did a quick ntal calculation. "If so of the hires have managent experience, it should take so of the pressure off. You might just make it."
"Forget it. I don't want to think about it anymore. Ti to sleep."
Leaning down to kiss Utaha, Ichin closed his eyes peacefully. "Goodnight, Utaha."
"Goodnight, Ichin."
Over the following few days, Ichin was busy conducting interviews. Along the way, he also recruited a few people for HR and accounting.
The newly added mbers—including several with previous experience at major companies—proved to be quite capable. Since they weren't expected to lead any projects themselves, basic daily managent was well within their grasp.
Five days later, Ichin stood in the eting room, smiling at the fifteen new mbers gathered there. "Alright, our team is officially ford now. I'm sure you're all excited to hear about the project we're working on."
With that, Ichin handed out printed docunts to everyone and turned on the projector.
As the team picked up the project plan, their eyes landed on the title on the cover:
"Persona"
Their curiosity piqued, they imdiately started flipping through the plan.
Compared to its original version, this proposal was far more polished. It not only included the portions of the ga already completed but also listed staff for music and voice acting.
Several mbers of the team were huge ani fans. When they saw the nas of the voice actors, their faces lit up with excitent.
"Oh!!! Aoi Yūki!"
"Nana Mizuki!"
"You guys are only looking at the won? Didn't you see Jun Fukuyama?"
"Hey now, does the team lead have no prestige or what?"
"Boss, the voice actors have already started recording? Got any photos?"
Now that they were all looking to him, Ichin nodded and pulled up a photo from his laptop, projecting it on the screen. It was one he'd taken earlier in the recording studio, showing the main voice actors in the middle of their dubbing session.
After displaying the photo, Ichin smiled and said, "If you guys work hard and perform well, I might be able to get you a few signed photos from the voice actors as a reward."
"Ohhh! Let's gooo!"
Seeing everyone so fired up, Ichin raised a hand to calm them down.
"The ga hasn't been publicly announced yet, but it will be soon. At the end of this month, we'll be appearing in Nintendo's showcase at Gascom, where we'll officially unveil it. For now, why don't we watch the promotional video we've already put together?"
He controlled the mouse and clicked open a video file. Instantly, everyone's attention snapped to the screen.
Although they had skimd through the project plan, they still didn't have a clear idea of what the ga would look like—after all, they'd joined the project mid-developnt.
The screen faded to black briefly, then lit up with the protagonist in full Phantom Thief gear—one of the character designs shown in the proposal.
This scene was from the ga's opening: the protagonist crashes through a window and lands on the ground, only to be surrounded by police. The screen cuts to black, a logo appears, and the opening animation begins.
For this PV, Ichin used an instruntal soundtrack without vocals. The animation wasn't the full version either—it only featured the protagonist, Ann Takamaki, Ryuji Sakamoto, and Morgana.
Interspersed between the animation were snippets of actual in-ga footage, showcasing both daily life scenes and battle sequences.
After a jaw-dropping All-Out Attack animation, the PV began to wind down. The screen displayed the title `Persona`, with a line beneath reading Releasing Sumr 2023. At the bottom were the logos for Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Epic Gas, indicating the platforms the ga would be released on.
As the PV ended, the eting room fell into a mont of silence.
About ten seconds later, the whole room erupted into enthusiastic discussion.
...
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