[Game] Chapter 413-414

### Chapter 413: Fall Guys Internal Test

As soon as Shizuka Hiratsuka entered the private room, only a few dishes had just been served. She immediately sat down on Haruno’s other side and lightly tapped her on the head.

“Well? What bad things were you saying about me behind my back this time?”

“Hehehe, how could I? My relationship with you, Shizuka, is the best!”

But having known Haruno for years, Shizuka would never believe her words. She turned straight to Ichin.

“Ichin, you tell me.”

Taking a sip of cola, Ichin placed some food into Utaha’s bowl and replied with a smile,

“Nothing much. We were just asking Haruno-nee about blind dates, and then she mentioned you, Hiratsuka-sensei.”

“As I thought. Nothing good ever comes out of your mouth.”

She shot Haruno a glare, but Shizuka couldn’t be bothered to argue further and focused on eating her food.

“Oh right, I haven’t asked—who’s paying for dinner tonight?”

Ichin raised his hand.

“Oh, it’s you? Then no problem.” Shizuka shook her head.

“I was thinking, if Haruno were the one paying, I’d have ordered two extra expensive dishes.”

Eriri grinned.

“Actually, Hiratsuka-sensei, you could still order if you want. This guy’s loaded.”

“I know, but there’s no need. I’m not exactly short on cash either. You’ve already ordered plenty. If it’s not enough, we can always add more later.”

Taking another sip of cola, Shizuka looked at Yukino and Eriri with a sigh.

“In the blink of an eye, even Yukino and Eriri have graduated. Time really does fly.”

Ichin nodded.

“It does. It’s already been three years since I started my studio. Speaking of which, maybe it’s about time I gave Kō and the other founding members a raise?”

Utaha agreed.

“They should, yes. Last year, aside from the bonus after Persona’s sales shot up, everyone only got a small salary increase across the board. But Kō and the other veterans deserve their own separate raise by now.”

With the projects at the company growing larger and larger, Ichin not only had to maintain the usual welfare, but giving Kō and the others a raise was well-deserved.

For him, raising a few salaries wasn’t a big deal anyway.

After thinking it through, Ichin decided he’d call them together tomorrow for a small meeting to bring it up.

“Though Umiko isn’t around right now, it doesn’t matter. The salaries all come out of my pocket anyway.”

The rest of the evening passed peacefully over dinner.

Eating and chatting, everyone happily spent over an hour together.

When it was over, they each went their own ways, with Ichin giving Eriri a ride home.

April’s school season slowly passed by. Yukino had completely adapted to life at Todai, her daily routine revolving around the classroom, the library, and the cafeteria.

After class, aside from occasionally dropping by the company, she usually went home to spend time with her cats—soothing herself by cuddling them and drawing energy from their presence.

Eriri’s situation was similar. But the coursework in the Fine Arts Department wasn’t difficult for a genius illustrator like her—at most, it just consumed more time.

At the company, after a month’s work, the first test version of Fall Guys was finally completed.

Of course, it only had two competition stages, and just a handful of costumes made, but it was enough to begin testing gameplay.

Since there were only two maps, a public test wasn’t possible, so they had to keep it internal. Fortunately, with so many people at the company, testing was easy.

Once everyone opened the program, they all joined the single available room—sixty people filled it instantly.

Ichin didn’t join in, instead sitting beside Utaha, watching her play.

Utaha picked a cat costume for her Fall Guy, setting it to a creamy white. Watching her silly, adorable character drop from the sky as the game loaded, she commented with interest,

“Just the art style alone should be enough to attract a lot of players.”

“You won’t be saying that after you actually play… though for now it should be fine.”

Since this was only an internal test, Ichin figured there wouldn’t be too many trolls—no one should be trying deliberate sabotage.

Utaha glanced at him suspiciously but didn’t press further, as the game was about to begin.

On the starting line, sixty colorful, oddly shaped Fall Guys crowded together, the sight itself already amusing.

Countdown—3, 2, 1—Go!

At the sound of the whistle, the characters dashed forward toward the first obstacle course.

It was a jumping stage: rows of spinning circular platforms ahead, each with a rotating bar sweeping across. One wrong move, and you’d get smacked clean off.

Utaha hadn’t made it into the front row, so she calmly stayed in the middle pack, waiting for her chance. Timing it carefully, she jumped onto the first disk.

Her rhythm was good—she cleared the first platform, dodged the sweeping bar, and hopped easily onto the second.

So far so smooth—until a Fall Guy ahead of her got whacked by the bar and bounced from the third platform all the way back to the second… landing directly on top of her!

“Ahhh!”

With a scream, Utaha’s Fall Guy lost balance and plummeted off the platform into the clouds, respawning back at the starting line.

Seeing the Fall Guy who had respawned beside her at the same time—and the ID floating over its head—Utaha’s face twisted in irritation.

“That Eriri! She did it on purpose, didn’t she?”

Ichin burst out laughing at the sight. It was just too funny—this was exactly the kind of chaotic entertainment the game was made for.

Even while laughing, he didn’t forget to coach Utaha on her first playthrough.

“You saw the controls earlier, right? Besides grabbing walls and props, the grab action can also grab other players.”

“Grab… players?!”

Utaha immediately understood. She tailed Eriri’s character closely, jumping just as Eriri leapt, and landed squarely behind her.

Eriri, who had been focused on catching up to the front, suddenly noticed Utaha closing in behind her. A bad feeling surged in her chest.

And sure enough, the next second Utaha’s Fall Guy stretched out its pudgy little arms and latched right onto Eriri’s back.

“Noooo!!!!”

Wham!

Both of them were swept off the platform together.

“KASUMIGAOKA UTAHA!”

Unfortunately, Utaha was in Ichin’s office at the time and couldn’t hear Eriri’s furious cry.

For the next half-minute, the two of them just kept sabotaging each other on the very first obstacle. By the time twenty players had cleared the round, the two of them still hadn’t even made it past the first section.

Even though she was eliminated, Utaha wasn’t the least bit disappointed. Instead, her face was lit up with joy.

“This game really does make people happy so easily, doesn’t it, Ichin!”

But the very next second, the office door was slammed open.

“Kasumigaoka Utaha! I challenge you to a duel!” Eriri shouted.

***

### Chapter 414: A “Side Quest” Released to the Whole Company

In the end, that so-called duel never happened. Eriri was persuaded by Ichin to calm down and join in for the second round of testing instead.

After Eriri left, Ichin turned to Utaha.

“So, what do you think? Want to keep going?”

“Of course. A game this fun—I definitely want to keep playing.”

Though she’d been eliminated in the first round, the match itself was still going. Utaha simply sat back and watched the second map being played.

The second map was the honeycomb stage Ichin had tested before. Several layers of hexagonal honeycomb tiles formed floating floors; each hex tile vanished the instant someone stepped on it.

Players had to keep moving, trying to stay as high up as possible. Fall too many layers, and you’d be eliminated. The last player standing would take the crown.

Compared to the first obstacle map, this stage had fewer mechanics. It tested patience and rhythm above all.

Of course, even here, trolling was possible—grabbing or cutting off other players’ paths. But if you overdid it and fell yourself, it was just shooting yourself in the foot.

Under Ichin and Utaha’s watchful eyes, the match played out. In the end, Rin Toyama held out the longest and won. Sakura Nene nearly claimed victory herself, but ran out of tiles around her.

After that match, they ran two more tests.

Even with only these two stages, everyone had a blast. The novelty of playing for the first time meant even repetition didn’t get old. With just a different approach each time, the fun felt completely fresh.

Overall, the test was a success. Even with sixty players on the same field, the frame rate held rock solid at 60 FPS, with no noticeable drops.

As for network stability, everyone was on the same company LAN, so nothing meaningful could be judged. The real test would come once public servers were up.

When the testing wrapped up, Ichin and Utaha left the office and called everyone together.

Facing the whole team, Ichin smiled.

“Looks like everyone enjoyed Fall Guys. So, I’ve got a small proposal. As you saw, we only have two stages built right now. That’s nowhere near enough. So I’d like everyone to brainstorm some fun obstacles and map concepts.

They don’t need to be fully modeled or beautifully drawn. As long as the idea is clear, with a simple sketch, that’s enough. If you think of something, write it down, hand it to your department lead, and they’ll collect everything to pass on to Hazuki. We’ll review them, and the ideas we adopt will come with bonuses.”

Bonuses!

That alone was enough to jolt everyone awake. And for a game like this, where imagination could run wild, the possibilities were endless.

With the whole company contributing ideas, who knew how many wacky, brilliant maps might be born—though some might also drive players to the brink of madness.

After planting the seed and sparking excitement, Ichin went back to his office to resume his work.

What he didn’t expect was that Utaha, who had followed him in, also started sketching ideas.

“Utaha, you want to design stages too?”

“Yeah. Isn’t it fun?”

Smiling brightly, pen and paper in hand, Utaha said,

“For other games, I probably wouldn’t be much help with stage design. But for something that’s all about fun and obstacles, I think I can give it a try.”

Since Utaha was genuinely interested, Ichin naturally wouldn’t oppose.

“Alright, give it a shot. Just don’t forget about your light novel work—otherwise Sonoko will be calling to scold you.”

“Relax, I won’t forget.”

Waving him off, Utaha returned her focus fully to designing new stages.

After releasing the “side quest” to everyone in the company, only a few days passed before Hazuki received over a dozen design reports.

Carrying a thick stack of printed submissions, Hazuki came over to Ichin’s office.

“Ichin-kun, someone turned in their assignment. Let’s take a look together.”

“Oh? That was fast.”

Glancing at the bundle of papers in her hands, Ichin chuckled.

“Not bad. Let’s see then. Hazuki, have you gone through them yet?”

“Not yet. I came straight here as soon as I got them.”

The reports had been printed in duplicate. Hazuki handed one set to Ichin, and the two sat on the sofa to begin reviewing.

The first two entries had decent concepts, but lacked entertainment value, and their difficulty was far too low—unsuitable for adoption.

Setting them aside, Hazuki commented,

“I heard Utaha’s working on a design too?”

“Yeah. She got interested in the game and insisted on trying. But even I don’t know what she’s come up with.”

On the secrecy front, Utaha had done an impeccable job—she hadn’t let Ichin see a single scrap of her work.

“Eh~~ so even you don’t know.” Hazuki smiled.

“Then it probably means she has something solid in mind and is focusing on it. Maybe she’s planning to surprise us.”

“I think so too.”

Ichin nodded in agreement—then suddenly came across a particularly interesting design.

It described a huge circular platform. As time passed, magma would gradually rise from the edges, while the center of the platform slowly elevated, forming a pyramid. By the final stage, only the very tip of the pyramid would remain—large enough for a single Fall Guy. Anyone who failed to secure the summit would be swallowed by lava.

This stage was perfectly suited as a final-round championship map. Though the concept was still a bit too simple, it could easily be enriched with more elements.

Checking the designer’s name, Ichin read: Ruri Gokou.

“Hazuki, I think this one’s good. Take a look.”

He showed Hazuki Ruri’s design. She examined it carefully, then praised,

“Very nice indeed. Should we approve it?”

“Yeah, let’s approve it.”

Ichin picked up a marker and drew a check mark across Ruri’s draft, officially accepting it.

After spending some time reviewing all the submissions, Ichin and Hazuki ended up approving six designs in total.

Compiling the six chosen entries, Ichin said,

“Hazuki, send out a company-wide email announcing these six designs have been selected. And make sure the agreed bonuses are included in their next month’s paychecks.”

“Alright, I’ll handle it now.”

Five minutes later, everyone in the company received the email.

***