Chapter 21: Beyond the Numbers

After Dad pointed to me and said, “This is the child who makes the games under the name YU,” no one said a word for a while.

The two GAME BASE staff members repeatedly looked back and forth between the materials laid out on the table and Dad and me, sitting next to Mom.

The materials covered four games: 《LITTLE FRONTIER》, 《FRONTIER SAGA》, 《Pettan Forest》, and 《CRAFT RUNNERS》.

They seemed to be trying to connect, in their minds, the developer they’d imagined creating those things with the image of a five-year-old whose feet still couldn’t reach the floor.

Dad put his hand to his forehead and smiled, a little troubled.

“Well, that’s how it is. Even I, his father, made a similar face at first.”

At those words, the male staff member finally snapped back to reality, but his gaze was still fixed on me.

“I apologize, but just to be clear, I have to confirm. This child is the person who’s active under the developer name “YU”…… Is that correct?”

“No doubt about it. I’m basically the one who makes 《LITTLE FRONTIER》, 《FRONTIER SAGA》, 《Pettan Forest》, and 《CRAFT RUNNERS》.”

The female staff member glanced at me once, then shifted her gaze to Dad.

“Isn’t it a form of joint production? For example, maybe you, his father, are in charge of the programming.”

“I can’t do programming.”

Dad answered with unusual confidence, so Mom chimed in from the side, looking exasperated.

“That’s not something to say so proudly, is it?”

“No, it’s better to make this clear. If they think Dad’s secretly making everything and only using Yuu’s name, that’d be a problem.”

“That’s true, but…”

The two staff members still didn’t seem fully convinced, so I thought for a moment before adding some details.

“We do use commercially available assets for things like sound and generic materials, at least. But the main game systems, the NPC environments, and core mechanics like the physics in 《CRAFT RUNNERS》, we create ourselves.”

The female staff member fell silent. I thought that was understandable.

Even if I were in their position, if a five-year-old had made four games and several of them had sold well, I’d probably think something was going on.

At the very least, believing it without checking anything would be riskier.

The male representative seemed to have reached the same conclusion, straightening his posture slightly and reopening the materials.

“I’m sorry. Forgive the rudeness, but could I ask a bit more about the technical aspects? It’s not that we’re suspicious; since our company plans to officially work with you going forward, we need an accurate understanding of your development setup.”

“It’s okay. I think I’d do the same.”

Perhaps feeling a bit relieved by that, the male staff member first opened the materials for 《FRONTIER SAGA》.

“Now, I’d like to ask about NPC decision-making. It’s quite different from a typical affection system, isn’t it? It didn’t seem like the NPCs’ evaluation of the player was managed with a single number.”

“We don’t make it a single value. It’s not just trust or caution toward individual players, but also their own interests, loyalty to their group, and what they truly value.”

The male staff member’s finger stopped on the document.

“For example, what form would that take?”

“Even if a guard trusts the player personally, opening the gate would mean disobeying orders, so they might refuse. However, if that guard values protecting the residents more than loyalty to orders, and they find refugees outside the gate, they might open it against orders even in the same situation.”

“Isn’t that just a fixed event that branches only when certain conditions are met?”

“No, that’s not it. What the NPC has experienced up to that point also affects the weighting.”

“So experience changes the very criteria for judgment?”

“Yes. If someone has lost a comrade because they broke the rules, they might come to dislike disobeying orders, or conversely, if someone couldn’t be saved because they followed the rules, they might prioritize protecting the residents next time. Even among guards in the same position, if their past experiences differ, the answer will change as well.”

Even the female staff member leaned forward.

“So, does that mean each NPC has its own personality model?”

“Storing everything in detail would be too heavy, so I’ve simplified it considerably. Rather than keeping all the experiences themselves, it’s lighter to just update how the weight of their values has changed because of those experiences.”

The male representative blinked several times.

“That…… You call that simplification?”

“We could make it more complicated, but the game doesn’t need all of it.”

After taking notes, the female representative asked from a slightly different angle.

“So even if a player is kind to an NPC, it doesn’t simply increase their affection, right?”

“It depends on what you did for whom. Sometimes helping a family member the NPC cherishes earns more trust than giving money to the NPC themselves, and conversely, helping someone they dislike can lower your standing with them.”

“In other words, what matters isn’t the player’s actions themselves, but how the NPC perceives those actions.”

“That’s about it.”

The male staff member was about to close the documents for a moment, but stopped as if he’d suddenly remembered something.

“There’s one more thing I really wanted to ask about 《FRONTIER SAGA》. It’s the conversation system.”

His voice was a little different from before.

Rather than asking questions to confirm things, he genuinely looked curious.

“This has become quite a topic within our company, but in this game, conversations where you pick from choices and ones with almost free input are mixed together. Especially when using the microphone, it didn’t look like the player’s words were being sent directly to the NPC.”

“I don’t send them as they are.”

“I see, so that’s how it is.”

The male staff member leaned forward.

“So, what exactly are you doing? Isn’t it just transcribing the audio and passing it to something like a large language model?”

“If that were all, then when players used modern expressions, the worldview would break, and only people who talk longer would gain an advantage, so we break down the meaning first.”

“Break down the meaning?”

“We take into account who the player is speaking to, what they want to do, what attitude they have, and what they’re trying to convey. For example, if you say, ‘I want to protect this village, so please lend me troops,’ the response will change depending on your relationship with the person you’re asking and what they know.”

“I understand that much. But what about the player’s actual words?”

“I rephrase them so they don’t feel unnatural coming from a character in the game. If the person speaks roughly, it comes out a bit rough, and if they’re polite, it’s polite too. But we stop it from adding proper nouns the player doesn’t know, or from mixing information the NPCs don’t know into the conversation.”

The female staff member looked clearly surprised.

“Wait. So, instead of simply passing the player’s input to text generation, you first extract the intent, then convert it into speech through the player character’s knowledge and character profile, and then the NPC responds based solely on their own knowledge?”

“Yes. That way, things are less likely to get strange.”

“That’s……”

The female staff member was at a loss for words.

The male representative flipped through the pages as if to confirm something.

“So, even if you ask the same question to the same NPC, does the answer change if that NPC has obtained different information?”

“It changes. Even NPCs with the same name have different experiences in each save, so they can’t answer about things they don’t know.”

“Do they lie?”

“It depends on their personality and purpose. However, the game itself doesn’t make them lie just to hide the answer—only if the person has a reason to lie.”

“Do they make mistakes?”

“They do. If they believe incorrect information, then to that person, it’s correct.”

“So, if the player tells an NPC something on the assumption that ‘the strategy info says this,’ won’t the NPC in that world understand?”

“Of course not. That happened in someone else’s save.”

The male staff member slowly leaned back into his chair.

“…… So that’s why the Wiki ended up like that.”

“The ‘list of confirmed possibilities’?”

“Yes. At first, our strategy team tried to compile the information, but even though they were writing about the same people in the same town, the reports didn’t match, so the person in charge gave up halfway through.”

“I think that’s to be expected.”

“If the developer himself says so, there’s no hope.”

A little laughter broke out.

The female staff member seemed more interested in the conversation system and asked further.

“Will what’s said during a conversation with an NPC be reflected in the next conversation?”

“It depends on its importance. Keeping everything is too heavy, so I only keep what’s important to that person for a long time. No one needs to remember talking about the weather yesterday for ten years, but things like being saved by a player, being lied to, or making promises about family tend to linger.”

“What if a player says something to the same person that contradicts what they said before?”

“If that NPC remembers the earlier statement, they’ll become suspicious.”

“…… Isn’t that more of a social simulation than a conversation system?”

“I made it with that intention too.”

This time, both of them fell silent.

The male representative looked at me for a while, then let out a dry laugh.

“At first, I was asking questions to confirm whether this kid really made it…… Now it feels like I’m doing a normal developer interview.”

Dad heard those words and looked at me.

“When it comes to games, you suddenly start talking like that, even with people outside the family.”

“It’s about games, so I’m just answering normally.”

“When I asked what you did at kindergarten, you could’ve told me in that much detail too.”

“I think it’s hard to explain digging a hole in the sandbox with the same density as NPC personality models or conversation processing.”

“Dad would listen, though.”

Mom laughed, and this time the two people in charge laughed along.

The initial atmosphere of ‘doubting a five-year-old’ had completely disappeared before anyone noticed.

The next thing the male staff member opened was the materials for 《CRAFT RUNNERS》.

“Please let me check this as well. Regarding the physics, you don’t calculate every part independently every frame, including the parts that have been damaged, right?”

“If everything were handled as separate parts, it’d be too heavy, so we build the connections from the current state. While it’s operating as a single structure, we treat it as a group of rigid bodies, and only re-examine the connection status when something is damaged.”

“So, when the connection graph breaks, do you reconstruct it as another object?”

“Only the necessary parts. There’s no need to remake everything every time.”

“Isn’t the damage check just a simple durability value?”

“We look at the forces applied to the joints. How much the materials and shapes can withstand varies depending on the contact area, and heat affects it too.”

“Even heat?”

“Because there are people who put lots of rockets on it.”

The female staff member finally burst out laughing.

“Yes, there are. There are a lot of them.”

“I’ve even watched videos with over a hundred attached.”

“Huh, that gets pretty heavy.”

“The game?”

“The computer.”

“Yeah……”

Even Dad laughed.

The male representative also gave a wry smile, then returned to a slightly serious expression.

“So, what do you think about the machines currently being used in Time Attack that accelerate while self-destructing? Even within our company, there are people asking, ‘Shouldn’t this be treated as a bug?'”

“It’s not a bug.”

“You answered that pretty quickly.”

“The conditions for breaking, the direction it flies at that moment, and the loss of parts making it lighter are all normal calculation results. If the physics calculations themselves were wrong, I’d fix them, but the way they run now is the result of running exactly as calculated.”

“As the developer, do you plan to change it so that way of playing doesn’t work?”

“Not at the moment.”

“May I ask why?”

“Because it’s interesting.”

The two staff members fell silent.

I kept going.

“I hadn’t thought of that way of running. But the player found it themselves using the rules within the game. I won’t delete it just because I didn’t imagine it; if it works properly, I want to preserve it as a way of playing that person discovered.”

After thinking for a moment, I added one more thing.

“If I couldn’t think of it, then that person wins.”

This silence was completely different from the first.

Both of them looked surprised, but they didn’t look like they were doubting, thinking, “Did this kid really make it?”

The male representative looked over the document for a while, then quietly closed it.

“…… My apologies. At first, I was really skeptical.”

“I think that’s normal. I’d check too, if I were you.”

“I appreciate you saying that.”

The person in charge bowed deeply, so I somewhat awkwardly bowed my head as well.

Then the male staff member’s expression changed, and he looked at Dad and Mom.

“There’s one more request from our company. Please handle this matter with the utmost care.”

Dad’s expression immediately tightened.

“This concerns the fact that YU is a preschooler. I don’t think that can be treated as just another item in his profile.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“I’m not sure ‘bad’ is the right word. However, if it were made public, the social impact would be too great. There’s a possibility that the label ‘five-year-old game developer’ alone would draw attention rather than the work itself, and there would likely be a flood of media interview requests. Even without malice, there’s a risk that people will try to identify the child’s home or the kindergarten he attends.”

“That would be a real problem.”

Mom said it clearly.

I agreed too. If strangers started coming to the kindergarten, I’d have no time to make games.

“Our company will treat all of YU’s real name, age, address, and photos as non-public information. We won’t share it internally with anyone other than those in charge, as necessary.”

“Please do.”

“Also, we can coordinate with the INDIE CRAFT FESTIVAL team as much as necessary. When exhibiting, it’s safer to arrange things so that the developer himself doesn’t have to speak or have his photo posted.”

I looked at Dad.

I’d been interested in the event itself for some time.

I wanted to see strangers actually play the games I made.

“In that case, I’d like to try it.”

“Are you really sure? This event will draw quite a lot of people.”

“I don’t have to go on stage as YU, right? If I’m just a regular visitor, that’s even better.”

“What is it you want to see so much?”

“Strangers playing. Not just numbers, but people actually playing it.”

That was the one thing I’d been curious about all along.

◇

Two weeks later.

We were at the venue of the INDIE CRAFT FESTIVAL.

The moment I entered the massive exhibition hall, the first thing I felt was how spacious it was.

The ceiling was so high you had to crane your neck to look up at it, and beneath it were rows of booths of various sizes. Game footage was playing on giant monitors, while from elsewhere the voices of commentators and the cheers of audiences could be heard, mixed in with the sound effects from the demo stands and the venue’s music.

“It’s much bigger than I imagined.”

“When Dad first came, he thought the same thing. Apparently, there are quite a lot of people today.”

My mother, who had been walking a little ahead, turned around and reached out her hand to me.

“Make sure to hold hands. If you get lost here, you’re a five-year-old before you’re YU.”

“I’m aware of that.”

I obediently took her hand.

No matter how many memories from my past life I had, if I got swept away by the crowd in this body, there’d be nothing I could do.

This time, instead of using the staff entrance or passes for related parties, all three of us had entered the venue as regular visitors.

Even on the management side, only a few people knew my true identity, and the only thing displayed at the booth was the developer name “YU.” My real name, age, and photo were nowhere to be found.

So, to most people in this venue, I was just a child.

“Apparently, YU’s booth is over here.”

Dad checked the venue guide as he headed further inside.

Along the way, there were huge booths from major companies, displays of student-made games, VR experiences, and stages for competitive games. Every time a comeback happened on the giant screens, the cheers were so loud that you could tell even from a distance.

I kept glancing at them as I moved forward, and eventually my father stopped in his tracks.

“There it is.”

I looked ahead too.

On a large white panel, only the name “YU” was written.

Below it were four games: 《LITTLE FRONTIER》, 《FRONTIER SAGA》, 《Pettan Forest》, and 《CRAFT RUNNERS》.

Even though I’d chosen the name myself, displayed on a huge panel above strangers, it strangely looked like someone else’s.

Moreover, far more people had gathered in front of the booth than I’d expected.

“Pettan, go over there!”

I heard a child’s joyful voice and looked over.

At the 《Pettan Forest》 test play station, a girl who looked about my age, or maybe a little younger, was holding a controller.

The mother sitting next to her was slowly teaching her while pointing at the screen.

“Why don’t you go over to that little one? If you get close, I think she’ll snuggle up to you.”

“This one?”

“Exactly. Just go ahead and see for yourself.”

The round, white protagonist approached a small creature in the forest and pressed up against it, and the girl’s face instantly brightened.

“We’re friends now! Mom, look!”

“I’m watching. So cute.”

“Next, I’ll go over there!”

She immediately headed toward another creature.

Just watching that scene made my chest feel a little warmer.

Right next door, at 《CRAFT RUNNERS》, completely different voices were being raised.

Two boys of about elementary school age were continuously adding rockets to a single vehicle.

“You’re still adding more? There’s no way it can turn anymore!”

“It doesn’t need to turn! As long as it’s fast, that’s enough!”

“You flipped over doing that earlier too!”

“This time both sides have the same number, so it’ll work!”

The rear of the vehicle was so crowded that the rockets were more noticeable than the main body.

“With this, it’s definitely going to fly!”

“It’s a car, though!?”

“It’s a flying car, so it’s fine. Go!”

At launch, the machine tilted sharply in less than a second, and under the rockets’ thrust, it was knocked sideways onto the ground with its rear lifted.

Even so, the acceleration didn’t stop.

The moment one front wheel came off and the car got caught on a step, this time it really did fly into the air.

“It flew!”

“Waaah! Not like that!”

Both of them were laughing, holding their stomachs.

I couldn’t help but laugh too.

“Sounds fun.”

Dad said next to me.

“Yeah. They didn’t reach the goal, but they seem satisfied.”

“Evaluating that so calmly is very developer-like.”

Right next to them, a man in his thirties was facing 《CRAFT RUNNERS》 with an expression as if he were playing a different game.

While staring at the screen, he slightly adjusted the position of the vehicle’s parts, moved the battery a few centimeters back, and fine-tuned the tire width before driving.

A few seconds later, he tilted his head and immediately returned to the design screen.

“The front is still heavy…… Should I move the battery a little further back? Or maybe it’s faster to remove the auxiliary wheels?”

The child next to him looked up at his father with a slightly bored expression.

“Dad, are you still going?”

“We’ve come this far, so just one more time.”

“You already said ‘just one more time.'”

“Next time, it’ll really be over. Probably.”

“Probably?”

Dad chuckled softly.

“That sounds like a conversation I’ve heard somewhere before.”

“No idea what you mean.”

“It’s you. When your hour on the computer is up, you usually make that kind of face.”

Children laughed with lots of rockets attached, while adults seriously adjusted the center of gravity by a few centimeters.

The way they played was completely different.

Even so, both of them were playing the same 《CRAFT RUNNERS》.

◇

In the afternoon, the official tournament began on an event stage set up near the 《CRAFT RUNNERS》 booth.

The tournament itself was organized by the INDIE CRAFT FESTIVAL team and my father, and although it was officially approved by YU, the developer himself didn’t appear as a speaker.

We blended into the crowd and decided to watch from the general viewing area a little farther away.

On the large screen on stage, the name ‘《CRAFT RUNNERS》 FESTIVAL CUP’ was displayed.

Using a dedicated course prepared by the event organizers, participants designed their machines on the spot within a time limit and competed for the fastest record.

All usable parts were the same for every participant, and designs completed in advance couldn’t be brought in.

Forty people participated in the qualifying round, and with thirty minutes of design time and unlimited test runs, they set their personal bests. From there, only the top eight advanced to the finals, where part of the course would reportedly be changed.

“They change the course halfway through?”

“They want to keep people from working out the optimal solution in advance. The management team really struggled with it.”

Dad explained it to me.

On the large screen, the participants’ design screens were displayed in turn.

Right after the start, most were regular four-wheeled vehicles, but after about ten minutes, the atmosphere in the venue began to change.

‘Oh, number twelve, you took off one of your front wheels! Is this weight reduction!?’

The commentator’s voice echoed throughout the venue.

‘But that makes it asymmetrical, right? Can it really turn?’

While the commentary staff were still confused, the machine started running.

Indeed, it didn’t run straight.

Turning slightly left while climbing the slope, it used that quirk to enter the curve.

Cheers erupted from the audience.

“I see. Since the course is mostly left turns, they made the machine veer left from the start and cut down on steering.”

As I muttered to myself, Dad glanced sideways at me.

“You can tell that just by looking?”

“If there are hardly any sections where you turn right, there’s no need for it to be symmetrical.”

“To Dad, it just looks like one tire is missing.”

“If it’s fast, that’s the right choice.”

Another participant had a huge wing attached to only one side.

‘Player number 27, are you really going with this!?’

The machine ran normally along the initial straight, but the moment it entered a slope, lift was generated on only one wing and it tipped heavily sideways.

Just as I thought it had failed, it tumbled over the guardrail and dropped onto another route below.

The venue shook with noise.

‘It’s a shortcut! Will this be allowed!?’

‘No off-course ruling issued! It landed in a drivable area!’

The audience laughed and applauded.

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Here we go again.”

“What is?”

“The thing that makes you say, ‘That’s interesting.'”

It was definitely fun.

Ways to use it that I hadn’t thought of while making the game kept popping up right before my eyes.

And not in a post on a bulletin board or in a video.

Hundreds of people right there were all amazed, laughing, and shouting together.

Toward the end of the qualifiers, there were even participants who were clearly time attack players.

The commentator cheerfully shouted at a machine that had a slim frame fitted with only the bare minimum of tires and rockets concentrated at the rear.

‘Number 38, this is obviously dangerous!’

‘It’s a game, so no one gets hurt! You can explode with peace of mind!’

Right after the start, the machine accelerated rapidly.

Just before the first curve, the front wheel came off, and the machine ran over the tire and jolted slightly.

Laughter and cheers erupted from the audience at the same time.

“You’re breaking it on purpose!”

“The people from the bulletin board came all the way to the event?”

I could hear voices like that from somewhere.

The machine spun in midair over obstacles and lost half of its rear frame upon landing.

Still, the remaining rockets kept pushing it, and with almost nothing left but the center section, it charged toward the goal.

Provisionally ranked first.

The loudest cheers of the day erupted from the venue.

“…… That’s amazing.”

It was completely different from watching the rankings at home.

The moment the record was broken, hundreds of people were amazed, laughed, and applauded all at once.

In the game I’d made, someone had found a way to run, and it had energized everyone present.

Eventually, the top eight from the preliminaries were decided, and the course for the finals was revealed.

In the center, a movable bridge had been added that went up and down at regular intervals, so simply taking the shortest route wouldn’t work without the right timing.

Audience members exclaimed things like, “That’s nasty,” and “Someone’s definitely going to jump over it.”

“That’s an interesting course.”

“The admins apparently tested it over and over until yesterday. Just making one course for your game got the person in charge stuck in a swamp.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“I don’t know if they see it that way, though.”

When the finals began, the participants started building even stranger machines than in the preliminaries.

Some tried to climb the side slope with huge tires instead of waiting for the bridge to come down, while others tried to jump over the bridge itself with wings and rockets.

One machine equipped with a large number of leg parts even tried to force its way onto the bridge just before it finished connecting.

The final runner was number 38, who had used a self-destructing machine in qualifying.

The machine built for the final had no wings.

Instead, it had a long, thin frame extending forward, with a single small tire attached at the tip.

“What’s that for?”

I didn’t understand right away either.

The machine started and ran normally through the first half.

The movable bridge began to rise, and just as it seemed too late to make it, only the small tire at the tip touched the bridge.

The long frame flexed significantly.

The next moment, the joint broke.

The main body, having lost its tip, used the power stored in the warped frame and the momentum of the collision to leap upward.

“So that’s it!?”

I couldn’t help but exclaim.

The machine jumped over the bridge just before it rose and landed on the opposite side.

Cheers bordering on screams rose from the stands.

From there, it ignited its rockets and shot straight to the goal, breaking the record.

It won the championship.

Applause broke out across the entire venue.

‘The winner is number thirty-eight! In the end, they used the bridge itself as a stepping stone! Or can we really say they used it as a stepping stone!?’

‘I don’t know! But I made it to the finish line!’

The audience laughed, and I laughed along with them.

I couldn’t have thought of using it that way myself.

But it actually worked with the physics in the game.

If that’s the case, then that’s fine.

The winner stepped onto the podium and received their prize.

On the stage screen, only the developer name “YU” was displayed.

‘Finally, please say a few words to YU, the creator of the game.’

When the commentator pointed the microphone at the winner, they thought for a moment before laughing.

‘Next time, please add parts that break even more easily.’

The audience burst into laughter.

“That’s not what they’re for.”

As I muttered involuntarily, Dad was shaking with laughter beside me.

“You were planning to add springs as the next new part, weren’t you?”

“…… If I give those to that person, they definitely won’t use them for anything sensible.”

“You only just realized that?”

Even Mom was laughing happily.

◇

After the tournament ended, we headed to the 《FRONTIER SAGA》 exhibit.

This place had a very different atmosphere from 《CRAFT RUNNERS》; not only the demo stands but also the large panels introducing world records and various players’ strategies were crowded with people.

In one corner, two strangers were talking.

“No, that’s why the northern fortress holds out as usual. In my save, it didn’t fall until the very end.”

“No way. Mine fell on the third day.”

“Did you help the refugees on the South Highway?”

“What’s that? There’s no event like that.”

“Then things were already different at that point. After I helped a group that was attacked on the South Highway, those people drifted into the fortress, and from there, even the supply lines changed.”

“Wait. In my world, after the fortress fell, the general was executed in the royal capital.”

“The general’s dead?”

“He’s still alive over there?”

“Not only was he alive, he was treated like a hero for a while…… Well, he died in battle after that.”

“So he dies in the end anyway?”

“In my world, sure.”

Then another man who had been listening next to them joined in.

“That general is still alive in mine. And he’s negotiating a ceasefire with the Demon King’s army.”

“What do you have to do to make that happen?”

“I did things like returning prisoners and stopping retaliations, and that’s how it turned out.”

“Isn’t that a cyroud?”

“Exactly. I like that route. Trying to deal with the war itself suited me best.”

“I couldn’t do it. I got lazy with the negotiations halfway through, so I ended up cutting everything down with my sword.”

“That’s classic in its own way.”

Before I knew it, more people had naturally started to join what began as a conversation between two people.

“If it’s the classic route, it has to be Eric. I cleared it that way at first, but I cried a little because of the innkeeper’s line at the end.”

“The one who ‘can’t swing a sword, but can fill your stomach’?”

“That’s right. I thought they were just some ordinary NPC, but I liked that they just kept running the inn normally until the end.”

“For me it’s Mia.”

“I get that.”

“Which Mia?”

“Mia from the village. What happened with yours?”

“We got married.”

“Huh?”

“No, not me, the protagonist.”

“I know!”

Laughter erupted from those around them.

The talk about Mia continued.

“My Mia left the village halfway through and became a merchant.”

“Is that even possible?”

“It is. After the village merchant died, I had her help out, so she learned the trade and eventually went off to the neighboring country.”

“Mine’s been in the village the whole time.”

“So your Mia and my Mia aren’t the same person anymore.”

“Same face and same name, but different lives. Hearing it again, it really is a weird game.”

This time, a young woman joined the conversation.

“I like Serena the most. She really disliked me at first, but after I kept helping the border village, she came to help me in the end.”

“Serena’s great. She hated me until the very end, though.”

“What did you do?”

“Burned the enemy’s supply routes.”

“That’ll get you disliked.”

“We won the war!”

“That’s not the issue, is it?”

Laughter broke out again.

Next to them, another group was discussing how they’d defeated the Demon King.

“I defeated the Demon King without ever meeting him.”

“Economy?”

“Economy. I kept supplies from reaching his military, piled up their debt, and in the end, their units collapsed on their own.”

“Can you call that defeating him?”

“The ending played, so it’s fine.”

“I got married!”

“Did another ‘Charming Nation Niki’ show up?”

“No! To the Demon King himself!”

“That’s way worse!”

“It took over five years! When I first confessed, I was rejected without a second thought!”

“Why did you keep trying after being rejected by the Demon King!”

“Because I loved him!”

A little distance away, I could also hear talk about the magic research route.

“I like Mel’s route. The one where she researches for thirteen years and, in the end, breaks only the Demon King’s magic core.”

“Thirteen years of nothing but research is too long.”

“That’s what I liked. Right beside a world at war, reading papers and experimenting nonstop, and finally turning everything upside down was the best.”

“Mine’s the one with the Artificial Sun.”

“Noah?”

“Exactly. After he was expelled from the academy, the lord took him in, and he thought he was researching heating, but it ended up like that—it’s terrifying.”

“I like how he burns the blueprints at the end.”

“‘I don’t need two.'”

“That part’s cool, isn’t it?”

Even though they were supposed to be exchanging strategy information, before anyone knew it, no one was talking about ‘which route is the most efficient.’

Everyone was talking about what they’d liked, not what they’d done.

I liked that NPC.

I can’t forget that choice.

This happened in my world.

I failed, but that was what made it interesting.

When someone talked like that, strangers replied, “I get that.”

The scenes I’d seen many times on the bulletin board were now voices right in front of me.

“You know, Freya dumped me, but that’s what made me fall for her instead.”

“What did you do there?”

“I said the same thing to other women.”

“That’s your fault.”

“But that line, ‘I don’t remember ever giving you the freedom to lie,’ isn’t that amazing?”

“That’s a good one. It stings, but it’s good.”

“Don’t say that to the guy who got stabbed by it.”

A little outside that circle, someone who seemed to be learning about 《FRONTIER SAGA》 for the first time looked confused.

“Everyone’s talking about the same game, right?”

“That’s right.”

“From what I’ve heard, it’s a war game, a romance game, an economy game, and a village-building game.”

“You can do all of it.”

“What do I need to do to clear it?”

“Defeat the Demon King.”

“That part’s suddenly easy to understand.”

“But you have to figure out how to defeat him yourself.”

“And suddenly I’m lost again.”

The people around them laughed.

I was listening to that conversation from a little distance away too.

When I made 《FRONTIER SAGA》, I’d thought it would be nice if a different world was created for each player.

There wasn’t just one correct answer; even if you went to the same place, different events would occur depending on your actions so far.

A person who was a hero to someone might become a criminal in another world, and someone who spent their whole life in a village in one person’s save might become a merchant traveling across continents in another’s.

That was the kind of game I’d wanted to make.

On the bulletin board, I’d read reports from different worlds many times.

I’d watched both the reviews and the videos.

Still, they had always remained on the other side of the screen.

Not now.

Right in front of me, strangers were talking to one another about something they loved.

They called out the NPC names I’d prepared, told stories of lives I’d never directly written, and laughed, saying, “This is how it was in my world.”

Hearing that, another person would recount the world they loved.

They weren’t only exchanging strategy information; they were also sharing the things they liked.

Watching that scene, the meaning of the numbers I’d seen when 《FRONTIER SAGA》 sold gradually changed.

When it passed 100,000 copies, both my father and mother were surprised, and I was happy too.

One hundred thousand people is a very large number.

However, perhaps I hadn’t truly understood its size.

Seeing the six-digit number displayed on the sales page, I’d just thought, ‘So many people played it.’

But now, I could see a few of the faces of the people inside that number.

A boy running past in front of me was stopped by his mother, and in front of 《Pettan Forest》, a girl was laughing as she snuggled up to a creature.

At 《CRAFT RUNNERS》, elementary school students sent machines loaded with rockets flying, while adults nearby adjusted the center of gravity with serious expressions.

At the tournament earlier, adults I didn’t know had created machines I hadn’t thought of, and hundreds of spectators had cheered for their runs.

And in front of 《FRONTIER SAGA》, people who seemed to have met for the first time today were happily talking about the people they’d fallen in love with in their own worlds and their unforgettable experiences.

Only then did I feel I could grasp a little of the meaning behind the number 100,000.

One hundred thousand people weren’t a single massive lump.

There was one person, and another who was different from that person, and each of them had things they liked and moments they couldn’t forget, and the accumulation of those had reached 100,000.

“Yuu?”

I looked up when my mother called me.

“What’s wrong? You’ve been zoning out this whole time. Are you tired?”

“I was just thinking about something for a bit. I’m okay.”

At that moment, a child’s voice came from nearby.

“Mom! Can you play this at home?”

A boy who looked a little older than me was holding a 《CRAFT RUNNERS》 pamphlet in both hands.

“You can. It’s a game you play on a computer, so let’s ask Dad when we get home.”

“Can I buy it?”

“Make sure to talk it over with him properly first.”

“Okay!”

Even though it wasn’t decided yet that he’d get it, he was acting as if it already was.

When the boy opened the pamphlet, only the developer name “YU” was written in it.

“The person who made this game is amazing! Even if you put lots of rockets on, it still flies properly!”

“Just now, you flipped over big time, didn’t you?”

“That’s not the game’s fault. I put too many rockets on it!”

Saying that, he walked off together with his mother.

I didn’t introduce myself.

There was no need to tell him I’d made it.

But I kept watching until his back disappeared into the crowd.

And finally, I understood it as a real feeling.

These were the people who had been on the other side of the numbers from the very beginning.

Some people bought my games, some actually played them, some laughed, and some found them so difficult they got angry. Some spent hundreds of hours conquering them, some broke their machines over and over, some found ways to play that I never thought of, and some wanted to talk even with strangers about the NPC they liked.

Beyond the 100,000 copies sold, the millions of video views, and the tens of thousands of reviews, there was a person behind each one of them.

When I was just looking at the numbers on the screen, I hadn’t thought much about it.

“I want to make another one.”

Before I knew it, the words were coming out of my mouth.

Dad looked at me from beside me.

“Your next game?”

“Yeah. I wanted to make one before too, but today it feels a little different. From now on, I think I’ll be able to make them while remembering the faces of the people playing.”

After looking a little surprised, Dad laughed, without making a joke of it.

“Then it was worth coming today.”

Somewhere else in the venue, another stage erupted in loud cheers.

◇

On the train home, I was so tired that I sank into a window seat.

No matter how active I could be in my previous life, my current body is that of a five-year-old. Walking around the huge event venue all day had made my legs heavy.

“Did you have fun today?”

When my mother asked, I nodded honestly.

“It was much more fun than I expected. I got to see people trying out the games, the tournament was fun, and the 《FRONTIER SAGA》 area was great too.”

“You were there a really long time. You were listening to strangers the whole time, weren’t you?”

“Everyone was talking about what they liked. It was completely different from reading the message board.”

“What’s different?”

“Maybe that you can see their faces. You can tell people are having fun from their writing, but when they’re really talking about what they love, their voices and expressions change.”

Mom smiled, looking a little happy.

“That’s what you wanted to see, right?”

“Probably.”

Dad took out his smartphone, and the moment he checked the screen, his smile stiffened a little.

“And there’s bad news. Because we exhibited at the event, inquiries have increased again.”

“How many?”

“I’ve decided not to count them today. For Dad’s mental health.”

“You’re escaping reality.”

“There are numbers adults are happier not seeing.”

Dad put his smartphone away, but after a moment, he looked at me with a serious expression.

“I think even more people will want to interview YU himself after seeing this event.”

“But you’re basically going to refuse as usual, right?”

“For now, that’s the plan. But if the games get bigger from here on, we might not be able to just keep quiet forever. There’ll probably be times when the developer himself should speak up, like for tournament rules, official announcements, or explanations of new titles.”

The problem was that I couldn’t just show myself as I was.

If I showed my face, people would immediately see my age, and just from my voice, they might realize I was a five-year-old. Even so, if I needed to speak to outsiders as YU in interviews, streams, events, or new releases, I needed a way to convey only my intentions while hiding my true identity.

As I gazed at the scenery flowing past the window, I remembered that in my previous life, this wouldn’t have been such a difficult problem.

In remote work or communication with hazardous areas, there was no need to send the user’s appearance as is. Technologies that reflected only the operator’s movements and expressions onto a different appearance, or converted the voice naturally, weren’t uncommon.

If nothing like that existed in today’s world, I could just make one myself.

What I needed was neither my real face nor my real voice.

It would be great if I could deliver what I thought to the outside world as YU himself.

Just as my thoughts got that far, I looked at my father.

“Then, why not make a different face?”

“…… A different face?”

“YU’s public form—the one who appears in my place. When I move, he moves the same way, and when I speak, he speaks in a different voice. That way, I can speak as myself without showing my face or revealing my age, right?”

Dad stared at my face for a while.

Then his face turned into the same one the GAME BASE representative had worn when he learned my true identity—the face of someone with a bad feeling.

“Yuu.”

“What?”

“What are you planning to make next? If possible, could you tell Dad before it’s finished?”

“I’m still thinking about it.”

“That answer is the scariest part……”

Dad pressed a hand to his forehead.

Until today, “YU” had only been a two-letter name displayed on sales pages.

However, if we were going to engage with the outside world, we needed a presence that conveyed there was someone beyond that name.

Just as I began to think about how to create a figure of ‘YU’ that could speak as me while still hiding my true self, the train quietly slid into the next station.