Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 120: Launch Party

"Give me a break! It's not like I can replicate the [Masteries] in real life, you know," his friend who is also wearing glasses but is wearing a plaid shirt that says, "You're just lucky I can make up for it with my dexterous writing hand!"

"How's that any different with any of your hands?"

Wow. Those three college boys seem to be having the time of their lives in this event. I'm surprised they got their VIP passes, though I wonder how and where they got them. We got them from Dad's dev friends and they didn't seem to have any public promotion of them beforehand.

"Hey, Hayate!" I gasp when I hear Kazuki nearby. "This booth has a [Wild Bear] punching bag contest! You might be able to win this one!"

Oh, right. Well, I should leave them alone to enjoy the event. It might be hypocritical of me if I start staring at them for too long.

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After a few booths, we are later called by one of the guards and he escorts us upstairs where the studios are located. We are then asked to wait by the door while he leaves to pick up our tour guide. It only takes us a few minutes before he returns with someone wearing a white dress shirt and blue necktie.

"You two must be Hayate and Kazuki Palmer, correct?"

We nod to the new face, who seems friendly so far.

"Yeah. You must be our tour guide for the Midnight Dragon Studios, correct?" I ask politely.

"That's right. My name is Miles Spears. I'm one of the AI programmers of <Isekai Online> and a developer in charge of the basic gameplay," the man introduces himself as he offers us a handshake, which we accept. "I'm also one of the few observers in charge of your interactions with the NPCs found there as AI testers."

"Observe?!" Both of us exclaim. Wait, is he saying...

"Don't worry. We didn't see everything during our observations. We mostly observed your interactions and the surprise events organized through the [Gaia Live] AI program, that's all," Miles explains. "I assure you. We still respect our players' privacy, so no public info has been seen or shared with the mods and developers. So please don't get too paranoid about your internet safety for the sake of your enjoyment of the game."

Well, I can't say that I'm overly cautious of the game's security. But if what he said was true, I guess I should rest easy for now. However, if what he said is true, then does that mean he saw everything from that [Test of Courage] incident?!

"Really? So does that mean you knew Dad before the game was launched?" Kazuki asks with his usual puppy dog eyes.

"You can say that. But the chatter can wait. You two want to see how <Isekai Online> is created, right?"

"Yeah! I can't wait to see how you guys brought <Volo> to life on our [VeilCons] and everything else!"

I chuckle as I watch Kazuki being his usual curious self. If there's one thing I can't stop is that he will do everything to satisfy his curiosity. Although I may need to keep him in line if he gets too crazy.

"Good! But keep in mind that there are some rooms we can't enter for the sake of the game's secrecy. There is some unreleased content we need to prepare and it would be bad if it gets leaked by accident. Speaking of which, I suggest you turn off your phones during the tour for the same reason. You don't want to ruin everyone's fun with leaks and spoilers, right?"

Good idea. As much as it's a pain we're not allowed to take photos or video, I understand why they're doing all of this. Leaks and datamines are common in this gaming community and if you're not careful, seeing them firsthand might ruin whatever surprise that the developers tried to plan for months now. Sure, it might disappoint Zac, but it's for the sake of the game after all.