"So...? What do you think?"
We stopped in front of a small room. Staring at the space that could barely fit a single desk and chair, I looked at Kyle.
"Is this your idea of an office space?"
"....."
Kyle's face twitched as he looked away before bringing his fist to his mouth and coughing.
"Well, I may be doing well recently, but this is the best I can do given that you're not officially part of the Guild. And it's not like this place is bad at all. Sure, it's small, but at least it's isolated, so you'll be able to work on your game without any distractions."
"...I guess."
I looked at the gray carpet beneath and the flickering light above, casting a dim light over the room. There was no window, and the wooden table looked a little worn out.
This felt more like a janitor's room than an office.
Then again, who was I to complain?
"This will do."
I sat down on the chair and retrieved my laptop from my bag.
Time waited for no one. I needed to get started with my project before it was too late.
I also recalled something.
"About what the—"
"Do you really not know?"
"What..?"
"...About what happened to Zoey?"
What happened to Zoey? Did something happen to her? Or was he talking about what happened before?
"Haa."
As if noticing my confusion, Kyle sighed.
"Knowing just how out of touch with reality you are sometimes, I can probably guess you didn't know."
"Didn't know what?"
What the hell was he talking about?
No, wait...
"Zoey..."
A thought suddenly crossed my mind.
"...Her parents are dead."
I felt the words get stripped out of my mouth the moment I heard Kyle's words. Whipping out my phone, I quickly searched for any related information. It didn't take long for me to find several related articles.
<8 News> — [Terlin Corporation Faces Collapse Amid Ongoing Crisis]
I closed my eyes after reading the first two headlines.
'Shit.'
I wasn't even surprised at this point. In fact, I should've seen this coming. There was nothing that said the character setting of those that entered this world was going to be the same as in the games.
"As expected, you really didn't know."
Pulling my attention away from my phone, I looked at Kyle, who sighed.
"I already told her that you probably didn't know, but it's best if you clear up the misunderstanding yourself."
"There's no way she—"
I cut myself off mid-sentence, just before saying, 'There's no way she'd take my apology seriously.'
"Eh? What did you say?"
"Ah, no, nothing. I'll try to do that when I have time."
"Alright."
Kyle nodded with visible relief.
"I'm not asking you to get along with her, but she's quite popular here. You won't have trouble with me here, but it's never good to get on her bad side."
"..Oh."
My lip twitched.
I already knew that.
I knew that better than anyone else. She was petty. Really petty. To the point where I found myself questioning some of the choices that the design team had made during the game production.
Nonetheless, it did seem like her personality was quite well-received by the audience. The real failure stemmed from the ending.
"Well, since it looks like you've got the message, I'll get going."
Kyle turned his wrist and checked the time.
"I have to leave since I still have some work to do. I'll see you later."
"Alright..."
Kyle turned around and made his way towards the door of the room. After a little thought, with his hand hovering over the doorknob, he turned around with a concerned look.
"Another thing."
"What is it?"
"....You need to get some sleep."
"Hm?"
Kyle opened the door and shook his head.
"You look like a walking corpse."
Clank—
The door closed right after as he left. I sat in silence, unsure of what he meant. That was until I stared at my reflection in the computer screen and saw the deep bags beneath my eyes.
'Oh, I guess he isn't wrong...'
"Shit!"
That also suddenly reminded me of the thing that I wanted to ask him.
It was regarding entities that entered the human world. He said it would take a week for them to adapt to the world. Was that the case for all of them?
"Whatever, I'll ask him about later."
I still had time left.
For now, my main priority was creating the game.
"Now then..."
Booting up the laptop, I leaned back against the chair and sighed.
"...How exactly am I going to go about this?"
***
The moment Kyle stepped out of the cramped 'office' where he had left Seth, he found himself in the corner of a spacious room bustling with activity. Dozens of people moved about, surrounded by cubicles, some hunched over desks as they scribbled away on reports.
As odd as this scene looked, this was the Field Agent Section.
In other words, it was the area where those who entered the Gates were found.
Because the nature of their job required heavy research and analysis, most of them actually spent more time investigating gates and reading reports than actually entering gates and dealing with anomalous entities or objects.
This was the primary reason why the place looked like a regular office space.
"Kyle."
Just then, a figure walked up to Kyle. He was a tall man with asian features, about the same height as Kyle, with his hair neatly trimmed, and a mole by the side of his chin.
Terrance Li had only neared Kyle when he stopped and stared at the small door next to Kyle. His brows raised.
"Is the guy you brought in there?"
"...He is."
When Terrance asked about Seth, Kyle tensed slightly. Though they got along well, both being part of the same unit, Delta Squad, the question made him a little alert.
Contrary to what Kyle believed, Terrance just laughed.
"I'm still surprised you managed to convince that stingy team leader to let you have that room. Then again, it was just a smoking room before, so I guess it makes sense."
"You make it sound easy."
Kyle gave Terrance a wry smile. He made it sound easy, but he really had fought hard to convince the team leader to give him that room.
Their team leader... How could a person be so greedy?
"Putting that aside, I'm hearing a lot of things about the guy you brought."
"You are?"
After the initial surprise, Kyle calmed down. By now, almost everyone should've heard of what Seth had done.
Kyle was almost sure everyone within the company already knew.
What Seth had achieved was nothing short of astonishing. Setting a new record in the beginner trial—doing so in a completely unprecedented way and without any powers—was bound to make waves. There was no way the news of it wouldn't spread.
"Of course I did. All the rookies were talking about him."
"Oh...?"
Kyle felt a little intrigued.
"What did they say about him?"
"....That he was lucky."
Kyle's face stiffened upon hearing Terrance's words.
"Lucky? What do y—"
"Come on, Kyle. Don't tell me you actually think it wasn't just dumb luck that got him through?"
Terrance gave Kyle a weird look as his gaze swept the door to Seth's office. Kyle could see from Terrance's eyes that he meant no malice, but even then...
"I don't."
He shook his head.
There was simply no way it was dumb luck. He had been present when he had heard Seth's explanation.
He—
"Seeing your face, it really does seem like you believe it wasn't luck."
That's because it wasn't...
Kyle forced a smile.
Seeing him act like this, Terrance shrugged his shoulders and changed the topic.
"That aside, I heard that he's some sort of game developer?"
"He is."
"...And he's here to study and research for his game?"
"Pretty much."
Kyle nodded, and Terrance's look turned even more peculiar. With his attention directed to Seth's door, he sighed and shook his head.
"I heard that he got offered a position by the Section Chief. He should've taken the offer."
Hearing his words, Kyle frowned.
"Why?"
"Why else?"
Terrance looked at Kyle with an expression that seemed to say, 'Are you seriously asking me the obvious?'
"...There's a reason why most horror games are failing these days. Nobody gets scared by them anymore. I mean, who the hell gets scared by that stuff anyway? We go through things that are far more scary than that nonsense."
"No, but..."
Kyle wanted to argue, but found himself unable to. Terrance made valuable points. Points that even he himself agreed deep down.
Nonetheless, he still believed in Seth. He definitely was capable of developing a good game.
"Your friend is setting himself up for failure. You should talk to him about taking the offer before it's too late."
"....."
Kyle but his lips, and was just about to shake his head when Terrance raised his hand to stop him.
"How about this?"
Terrance looked in the direction of Seth's room.
"Call me up when your friend finishes his game. I'll be the first beta tester."
"What, that's—"
"What? You don't believe in your friend?"
"I..."
Kyle didn't know how to reply then. It wasn't that he didn't believe in Seth, but it was just that Terrance had been in this industry for quite a while.
While Terrance's rank was lower than his, he was still quite reputable among their team.
If someone like him tested the game, then...
"Don't worry about it, Kyle."
Terrance patted Kyle on the shoulder with a laugh.
"...Think of it as me doing a favour for your friend."
"You just want the room, don't you?"
Terrance just smiled and let go of Kyle's shoulder.
"Just let me know when he's done. I can't wait to test out his game!"
And with that, he bid Kyle goodbye and left. Kyle could only watch as his back retreated before he closed his eyes and sighed with a complicated look.
"....Maybe this isn't a bad thing."