Akane Kosaka's phone call—and her intentions—caught Ichin completely off guard.
"You're saying Akane Kosaka wants to rent Nene's custom-built engine?"
In the office, Hazuki, whom Ichin had called over, looked at him in surprise. She hadn't expected Akane to take interest in that engine.
Beside her, Sakura Nene herself was stunned, still not processing what was going on.
Ichin nodded. "That's right. That's what she ans. I think she's realized this engine has potential. Sure, it's not suited for massive AAA-scale gas, but for small-to-mid projects—especially side-scrollers—it's very useful. Akane's a quick learner. After running into problems with her own open-world project, she's not stubbornly clinging to it. Clearly, she wants to learn from our approach. Not just chasing big gas, but also dabbling in smaller, gaplay-driven ones. Nene, what do you think? Since you're the one who developed it."
"Eh? ?"
Pointing at herself, Nene hesitated, then said nervously, "Um… I don't really mind. I an, I built the engine to make gas anyway. Doesn't matter who uses it. But… if we rent it out, how would we charge for it?"
Ichin explained: "Normally, engines like Unreal 4 are free to use. But once your revenue exceeds one million USD, you owe them a 5% royalty. For our engine, though, since it's not for huge titles, we don't need that million-dollar threshold. Let's say: after $200,000 in revenue, a 3% royalty. And from that, Nene, you as the developer get half, and the other half goes to the company for updates, maintenance, and online support."
Hazuki nodded approvingly. "That works. But if it's just Akane, it's not enough. Ichin, don't you think we should also build a proper company website? Brand the engine as one of our products, aid at indie developers?"
"Yeah, I was already thinking that too."
Ichin snapped his fingers with a smile. "Let's do it your way. We have people who can build a site, right?"
"Of course." Hazuki nodded. "Tsuba knows how, and a few of the programrs we hired also do web dev. We're not building a marketplace—just a corporate site with so ga overviews, like Capcom's. Easy stuff."
With that, Ichin asked Hazuki to call over Narumi Tsuba and a few others from the programming team.
Looking at the four of them, he said: "This'll be a side project. Right now, ga dev tasks are lighter, so shift so focus to the website. Once it's done, I'll give you bonuses."
"No problem!"
"Leave it to us, boss!"
Finishing tasks for the boss was already their job—getting bonuses on top was a great motivator. And with Ichin's generosity, everyone knew the reward would be worth the effort.
Once they were dismissed, Ichin picked up his phone and called Akane.
"Miss Kosaka, we've discussed it internally. We can rent the engine to your company."
"Oh? That's wonderful."
Akane's voice carried a smile. "And the fees?"
Ichin explained about the free trial and the later 3% cut. For a specialized, already-functional engine, the conditions were cheap—very cheap, in fact.
"No problem. I agree to the terms. How do we sign the contract?"
"If you're in a hurry, you can visit our office in the next few days to sign. We still need to add so online features to the engine and upload so free assets."
"Fine, then I'll co the day after tomorrow in the afternoon, and I'll bring a few developers along."
After agreeing on the ti, Akane hung up and imdiately called her own staff into a eting.
With their last project finished, her devs had plenty of creative ideas but no real direction. Since she'd been focused only on big projects, she hadn't given them an outlet. Now, with a suitable engine available, if it really worked well, they could branch out into multiple smaller gas.
It was clear to her: they needed to slow down a bit.
—
Soon, the appointed day ca. At two in the afternoon, Akane arrived with several team mbers.
"Long ti no see, Miss Kosaka."
Ichin, already waiting, shook her hand and led them to the conference room.
Not long after they sat down, Rin Toyama ca in with a tray of drinks, and Hazuki arrived with Sakura Nene.
Smiling, Hazuki greeted her: "It's been a while, Miss Kosaka. How's your company doing? Ichin told you're also working on a new project."
"Long ti no see, Miss Hazuki." ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
Akane returned the smile. "Things are going fairly smoothly. But as for the new project, I've decided to slow the pace. We're still not at the level of a truly qualified developnt company. Just yesterday I had a eting with our creative team—we agreed that blindly chasing large-scale gas isn't sustainable. We want to try shifting directions a little, and we've already got so ideas. Our team isn't small, so splitting resources isn't that difficult."
Hazuki nodded, then connected her laptop to the projector. Together with Nene, she began explaining the engine.
When Akane learned the engine had been developed entirely by Nene—while still a first-year university student—she was shocked. Her eyes widened as she looked at the petite girl.
"Nene, right? How about coming to work at my company instead? I'll make you head of the programming team and give you a top-tier salary."
"Eh?"
Nene froze, dumbfounded. Why was she suddenly trying to poach her?
But she quickly composed herself and answered firmly: "Sorry, Miss Kosaka. I'm very happy working here, and I don't plan on leaving."
Rejected, Akane didn't seem upset. Instead, she gave a regretful smile. "That's really a sha. My apologies, Ichin-kun, Miss Hazuki. When I see talent this outstanding, I can't help but want to recruit them."
Both Ichin and Hazuki knew that was just her style. Ichin shook his head, unconcerned, and let Nene continue the presentation.
*
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