BXBX NOVEL Chapter 201
Chapter 201
Anote:
A little bit about full-dive technology and stream, which I haven’t mentioned for a long time.
===*
“What’s wrong?”
“No… I was just reminiscing about the past.”
“Is that so? Alright then.”
I was immersed in nostalgic memories and Rin-chan asked me about it, then she operated the remote control without being particularly curious about what I was thinking.
“Well, 30 monitors should be enough to cram info into my brain in one day. Tomorrow, we will have a field trial with Touka and Suupaa, and the day after tomorrow, we should be ready for the tournament.”
“I’ll leave it up to Rin-chan to decide.”
As we speak, I turn my gaze toward the monitor.
I don’t know how the system works, but each time Rin-chan operates the buttons on the remote control at high speed, a different image appears on the monitor.
Some of it was a bird view often used in FPS and multiplayer game tournaments.
This function usually is used to change the view so the spectator can see the whole picture of the battle and enhance their enjoyment.
It had become a standard procedure, but then I had one question in my mind.
“Um, Rin-chan.”
“What?”
“I thought WLO was the first game to allow live streaming?”
“Yes, WLO or [WorldLive-ONLINE], was supposedly the world’s first VR game that could be live-streamed.”
However, if Rin-chan’s words are correct, then live viewpoint of this official stream tournament cannot be explained.
“What is the world’s first live-streamable VR game?”
… Rin-chan looked surprised at my question.
“I never thought Nana would realize such a thing.”
“Wait, you didn’t make fun of me, right?”
“Maybe a bit.”
“Gunnunu……!”
“I’m kidding. Well, it’s okay if you don’t know, but I’ll explain it to you.”
With that, Rin-chan operated the remote control to turned off almost all the monitors, leaving only one screen active.
“WLO is the world’s first full-dive VR game that allows general players to live-stream the game.”
“General player… is it means when someone doesn’t run a special event or something similar?”
“Yes. So, in a sense, WLO’s claim is both right and wrong at the same time. That’s why Nana’s question is not out of line by any means.”
*Yosh Yosh* Rin-chan pats me on the head, and I can’t help but sulk at her.
After stroking me for a while, Rin-chan regained her composure and continued her story.
“Let’s go back a bit. The full-dive technology that sends your consciousness into an online virtual space was originally developed by a company called [Harmonia]. Soon after its development, the technology has spread rapidly as it could be used by anyone who paid a patent fee.”
Why did I feel like I had heard that name? [Harmonia]
“I believe it was before I went to junior high school? That’s about the time when both Nana and I went out as testers. You see, after that, Touka encouraged us to train at a sports facility, right?”
“Ummm… yeah, I remember it vaguely.”
I do remember doing a full dive tester around that time, just as Rin-chan said.
I was stressed because it was hard for me to control my strength, but Rin-chan was so athletically challenged that she couldn’t do it properly, and Touka-chan, who was doing it dexterously, laughed at her to the fullest.
Perhaps frustrated by this, Rin-chan tried to train at a sports facility, but as usual, she was not very good at exercise, so it didn’t give any result.
I was happy to have a date with Rin-chan, though, so it was fun for me.
“As a matter of fact, Harmonia had been developing a game stream function shortly after the full dive into virtual space technology was established. And all of the games using Harmonia patent innately had that functionality. So, do you know why it wasn’t widely available?”
“Ummm… something about needing the latest equipment, and they couldn’t get their hands on it? “
“My my… that is almost right. What’s wrong, Nana? Did you eat something weird? I wonder if it’s going to snow.”
“Rin-chan, you meanie!”
“fufufufu.”
I was trying to be serious when I answered! As I puffed my cheeks, she poked and deflated them.
…
“Anyway, Nana was right. It cost a tremendous amount of money at the time to use this stream function. It will cost them a hundred million yen per unit to implement it.”
“100 MIL…!! I mean, can’t Rin-chan afford that much?”
Although one would be surprised to see gaming equipment costing over a hundred million dollars, to be frank, Rin-chan’s wealth should allow her to pay that much for it.
It was approximately the price of one room in this apartment.
“Yes, for some people, it’s a small price to pay, and I’m one of them. Since there are a lot of rich people in the world. There were people who could have bought equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars if they wanted to. But, you know, that equipment was never available to the public.”
“You mean you couldn’t buy it even if you could?”
“Correct. Harmonia only sold the equipment to companies that developed the games, and as a result, none of the games were streamed outside of official events. By the way, the recording equipment is sold to the general public, and this is quite popular.”
I see, so that’s the source of many videos you were trying to watch earlier.
Before coming to this room, Rin-chan said that there would be a video of replay and the official stream.
I guess the replay videos are recorded using so-called [General public recording equipment].
“I don’t know how the stream works, but wasn’t it used to be like if you could record it, you could distribute it?”
“I can only use an excuse like [that’s just how full-dive game works]. To be honest, the full-dive technology is quite over-engineered, and Harmonia is the only one who really understands how it works. Its black box contains too much mystery.” {isekai box!}
“I wonder if that’s that wonder of the technology is like.”
“I’ve never met the developer, but I’m pretty sure he’s crazy. Incidentally, he was also involved in the development of WLO, and it was Harmonia that created a new system that ordinary players could stream without any specialized equipment. I’m not sure if it was something that was done a long time ago and they just brought it up now, or if it was a new development.”
“Oh, wow.”
“Don’t just reply randomly because you’re tired of it.”
“E-hehehe uii~?”
Perhaps because of my blatant response, Rin-chan pulled my cheek and played with it.
Anyway, at least I knew that WLO was not lying about being the [World’s First]. That one was the only part I wanted to ask about, and I could look up the details on the Internet later.
“I’ve had my eye on Harmonia since it was a small company… they’ve been making a lot of money since back then.”
I was quite surprised at Rin-chan’s unusual talk about making money.
Since she had set up a system to increase her assets when she was a small child, Rin-chan-chan must have done very little work, except for game projects.
Of course, I cannot deny the possibility that she may have done more work during the six years I was away, but I can almost guarantee that this is not the case.
Rin-chan stopped actively earning money because she was doing it for the sake of the Takajou group, after all.
To put it simply, Toki was afraid of Rin-chan’s outstanding business maneuver, and Rin-chan was aware of it, so she stopped making money to reduce Toki’s worries.
In essence, it was the same as me stopping “touching things” to avoid hurting my parents. Rin stopped earning money because she didn’t want to cause friction between her and Toki.
And bluntly speaking, she had enough assets so she could spend the rest of her life to play to her heart’s content. She had no reason to gain any more money to begin with.
“Isn’t Rin-chan also amasses a ridiculous amount of money?”
“I do make enough money to make my game winnings look ridiculous; I’d say about 30 percent of my current assets are related to Harmonia.”
“That’s outrageous.”
Thirty percent of Rin-chan’s assets should probably be at least billions or tens of billions of yen.
This also means that [Harmonia] must have earned more than that. I am not that interested in money, but the amount of money involved was quite mind-blowing.
“Look, you’ll need to do this too.”
“Yes, ma’am. Oh, and you, Rin-chan?”
“Of course. I’ll be watching next to you, so if you have any questions, you can ask. I mean, Nana, the current you can see all those monitors, right?”
“I can. But I’d like you to pause the screen when I ask a question.”
“I understand. Let’s go with the half stream and half video for now, shall we?”
“Yes, sir.”
“…
…
Nana… there’s something you should know… I also use that sometimes, you know?”
With mysterious expression, Rin-chan operates the remote.
A click sound came not from the screen but from the ground, and suddenly a seven-colored glowing cushion {Zabuton} was ejected from a hole in the floor.
I picked it up and held it several times. It was quite soft for its appearance, and I wondered how it glowed.
“…. what’s this?”
“It’s a gaming cushion.”
“Why cushions?”
“We talked about whether it should be a chair, a sofa, or a cushion, and after an internal HEROES debate, we decided on the cushion.”
“There’s so much abnormal in HEROES, huh?”
“Nana, promise me you won’t ever say something like that.”
After being scolded so severely, I sit on the seven-colored glowing cushion while having this indescribable feeling.
The cushions were strangely comfortable, but I focused my attention on the screen where a video of the game was being played.
===*
Harmonia” provides WLO with stream technology, but another company runs the game.
Incidentally, full-dive technology is used in games and simulation, and since quite a few industries rely on it, if [Harmonia] had said [no], no one would have been able to do anything.
By the way, Rinne had made a lot of money thanks to Harmonia, which she invested in on a whim when she was a child. She did well.