Estimated reading time: ~11 minutes
Chapter 40
Evening.
Isamu finishes his part-time job and leaves the store after saying goodbye to the unsociable high school student as usual.
Checking his smartphone, he notices the rare sight of one new email notification.
The sender is Kimura, and the subject line reads 「Long time no see」.
(Oh!)
Isamu excitedly opens the email right away.
It contains thanks for his participation in the inaugural event and a request to 「have the opportunity to speak via video call as there is something I would like to discuss.」
(Yes!)
After the inaugural event ended, Kimura had said 「I’ll be in touch again to discuss your participation in the second event.」
So Isamu is convinced this contact is an invitation to perform at the event, and he can’t help but pump his fist.
After carefully re-reading the email, he sends a reply with greetings and times he is available for a video call.
Then, Isamu hops on his beloved mama-chari bicycle and heads home in high spirits.
☆
After getting home.
As Isamu is having a simple dinner, his smartphone suddenly buzzes.
Checking it right away, he sees it’s a reply from Kimura.
Probably because Isamu had sent 「I’m free anytime from now on!」 earlier, it says 「Then let’s talk at 7:30.」
Isamu sends back a message of agreement and takes a bath.
After a relaxing soak and brushing his teeth, it’s almost the appointed time.
He sits in front of his laptop, accesses the URL he was sent, and Kimura’s face appears on screen.
「Ah, hello!」
「Oh, Mr. Taida! Long time no see. Sorry for the sudden contact.」
「No no! I was just lazing around so it’s totally fine!」
「Is that so? I’m glad to hear it! …So, I’d like to get right to the main topic, but before that, there’s one thing I wanted to check.」
「Yes, what is it?」
「I looked at the beta test survey responses, and it says your occupation is part-time worker, Mr. Taida. Is that still the case now?」
「…Huh?」
Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Isamu’s heart skips a beat.
Honestly, he’d rather not touch on the topic of his job.
After all, he’s a 35-year-old convenience store part-timer.
And it’s not like he’s intentionally working part-time to chase some dream or for any particular reason.
He simply failed to get re-employed and ended up reluctantly working part-time, which he has a strong complex about.
「…Um, uh, yes. That’s right…」
However, since he was asked directly, there’s no way to avoid it.
So despite his unease, Isamu answers honestly.
「I see! So are you working part-time to pursue a dream or something like that?」
「No, it’s not anything like that… To be honest, I’m ashamed to say I failed at finding re-employment…」
「Got it. So if you found a good opportunity, you’d be willing to take a full-time job, right?」
「Huh? …W-Well, yes, I suppose so.」
As Isamu says this while grimacing, Kimura’s face lights up with obvious delight.
Immediately after–
「I’m so glad to hear you say that! Which brings me to the main point – we’re actually thinking of hiring you, Tutorial Guy, to work for the game admins.」
Kimura drops an unbelievable bombshell.
「…What? …Um, what did you just say?」
Isamu reflexively asks him to repeat it, thinking he must have misheard.
「If it’s alright with you, Mr. Taida, we were hoping you could take on the player tutorials you’ve been doing as an official job.」
It wasn’t a mistake. He heard correctly.
But there are several things Isamu can’t comprehend.
「…Um, that’s an extremely generous offer, but why me?」
First, why do they want to hire him specifically? That’s the reason.
From Isamu’s perspective it’s an ideal proposition, but he can’t see any merit in it for the game admins.
「Well that’s… Ah, but before that, sorry, could I ask you to keep the rest of this conversation off the record? It involves some internal company matters.」
「Ah, yes. Of course. I promise.」
「Thank you! I mean, I know you’re trustworthy, Mr. Taida. So about why we want to hire you – first, are you aware that players can request refunds on the platform distributing this game?」
「Yes, I’m generally aware of that.」
Although Isamu has never used it himself, he knows such a system exists.
If he remembers correctly, players can get a refund for any reason within 72 hours of purchase.
「The thing is, Dream Fantasy has an extremely high rate of refund requests.」
「Oh, really?」
「Yes. And the cause of most of them is the tutorial.」
Hearing that, Isamu recalls something from when he was looking into the tutorial the other day.
(Come to think of it, there were scattered comments in the review section saying 「The tutorial is hard to understand.」 I see, so those people are requesting refunds.)
Coming to that realization, a new question arises in Isamu’s mind.
「Um, is the tutorial really that difficult to understand? I only know the one from the beta version, so…」
「Yes, unfortunately the quality is quite poor… Would you like to take a look?」
「Ah, yes! I’d love to see it if you’re willing to show me!」
「Alright, I’ll send it over by email now. Let’s see…」
Shortly after the sound of Kimura operating his computer comes through, an email arrives.
It’s from Kimura of course, with a compressed video file attached.
Isamu downloads and extracts the file labeled 「Tutorial Scene」.
「Thank you! Then I’ll just watch a little bit of it.」
「Ah, yes! Go ahead!」
With permission granted, he immediately starts playing it.
And the moment the video player opens, Isamu can’t believe his eyes.
(T-Thirty minutes…)
That’s the playback duration.
The tutorial alone is 30 minutes long.
This is certainly lengthy – excessively so.
Since he’s on a call with Kimura, Isamu can’t watch it carefully all the way through, so he decides to skim the video.
☆
(I see, this is…)
It starts with a needlessly long exposition of the world setting, then moves into explanations of how to walk, run and other actions that could be intuitively understood without needing to be told.
After that, it continues with how to open the menu window and goes through each menu page, outlines of levels and skills, how to equip weapons, how to move between areas, and so on.
All of this is explained in a slide show format with just images and text. It’s no wonder players get fed up.
Even if someone patiently read through it carefully from start to finish, there’s too much information to fully comprehend it all.
Having skimmed through, Isamu totally gets why the tutorial is unpopular.
It really has gotten much worse compared to the beta version. If this was the tutorial, he definitely would have skipped it himself.
(With this, it’s no surprise there are so many total beginners who don’t understand anything…)
Thinking that, Isamu speaks up to Kimura.
「Thank you, I took a look at it.」
「…What did you think?」
「Well, to be frank, it was even worse than I imagined…」
「Right? I agree.」
Those words surprise Isamu.
If Kimura also feels the same way, then why not remake it?
Voicing that doubt, Isamu addresses Kimura.
「Um, shouldn’t this be redone…?」
「We’d love to, but there are various circumstances… We can’t really touch the tutorial.」
「I- I see.」
「Yeah. So our company has to find another way to reduce refund requests while leaving the tutorial as is. And the solution we came up with is–」
「…Me, I take it?」
「Yes. On the community bulletin board, in the comment sections of online news articles and such, there are many players saying that your guidance helped them understand the game and stick with it rather than quitting. We thought that if Tutorial Guy was even more active, it might decrease the number of refund requests.」
Hearing that explanation, it clicks for Isamu.
In fact, he’s had multiple experiences of newbies telling him 「I would’ve quit this game if not for you, mister.」
However, he still doesn’t get how that leads to hiring him.
「I see. Sorry, um, if you were to hire me, I would basically be giving guidance to newbies, right…?」
「Yes. We’d like you to keep tutoring the beginners as you have been.」
「Right… Um, are you sure it’s okay to hire me for just that? I’m happy to do the tutoring as a volunteer since I enjoy it.」
「Honestly, that would be ideal for the company, but we were hoping to have you work longer hours, Mr. Taida. Specifically, we’d like to request 8 hours a day, 5 days a week if possible. Asking you to work that much, we can’t very well have it be unpaid.」
In other words, they want to restrain him for long periods in exchange for paying him.
Certainly if he’s paid, Isamu could quit his convenience store job and focus on being Tutorial Guy.
From his perspective, getting paid just to play a game is a dream come true, but he still hasn’t heard the crucial details.
「I see… If you don’t mind, could I ask about the terms then?」
「Ah, yes. The employment type would be full-time with 8 days off per month. The monthly salary would be 240,000 yen gross, around 200,000 yen take-home.」
Isamu’s eyes widen at Kimura’s words.
「F-Full-time?!」
「Yes. We thought that would allow you to work with peace of mind, Mr. Taida. Ah, of course, if you’d prefer part-time or contract employment–」
「No, full-time would be great! …But are you sure? Getting hired full-time at 200,000 yen a month just for tutoring seems…」
As Isamu inquires, Kimura makes a somewhat guilty-looking face.
Watching him curiously, Kimura eventually opens his mouth to speak.
「Actually, there’s a catch to this 200,000 yen… We’re hoping to have you continue appearing at events as a commentator going forward, Mr. Taida. But if you get hired, being an event commentator would become part of your job duties, so we wouldn’t be able to pay you a separate appearance fee. So to be fully honest, you’d get a higher hourly rate not being an employee and just showing up for events.」
(I see…)
Kimura is right that the hourly rate would be higher not being an employee and only doing events.
However, there’s no actual guarantee that Isamu would keep getting invited to events.
On the other hand, if he’s hired, he gains the title of full-time employee along with stable employment.
And at a top-tier company no less.
Already dissatisfied with his current part-time work, Isamu makes his decision without hesitation.
「…Mr. Kimura, thank you! I would love to accept this offer!」
「I had a feeling you’d say that! Thank you! But, sorry, since it would be hiring you as a full-time employee, could you come in for an interview? Well, it’s more of a meeting since the hiring is a given, but still.」
「Ah, yes! Understood!」
「Thank you! Then may I ask when would be a good time for you, Mr. Taida?」
「Yes, let’s see–」
After that, Isamu shares his available dates and they settle on holding the interview four days later.
They decide the detailed job description and any questions will be discussed in person at the interview, and Isamu ends the call.
「–Alright!!」
Immediately, Isamu voices his joy.
He might be able to go from a convenience store part-timer to a full-time employee at a top company.
There’s no way he wouldn’t be thrilled.
Afterwards, Isamu does a little happy dance around his room for a while, then promptly sits down at his computer and starts creating his resume and job history.
☆
Four days later.
On the day of the interview, Isamu wakes up early.
He takes his suit that he had dry cleaned the day before out of the closet and puts it on.
(To think the day would come when I’d wear this again…)
Isamu reminisces about the days five years ago, back when his real life was still fulfilling.
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