Chapter 10: Project Reveal

As the official unveiling of Project GM approached, we became busier than ever.

Even during the PC game project, things were hectic, but with a mobile game, there were twice as many details to worry about.

"Yu-mi. The press release for the media and the official Twitter post are ready, right? What about the local marketing schedule?"

"Y-yes! It's all done! The publishing company said they'd send the marketing schedule in two days!"

"Ye-rin. Final check on the illustrations and teaser PV for the media kit?"

"We've triple-checked everything. Everyone's passed out now..."

"Myung-hoon. The official website launch prep is on track, right? And the bug fixes from QA's list?"

"The responsive website is ready to go... As for the bug list, we're about 60% through?"

"Seol. The story synopsis and setting guide for the website?"

"Y-yes! I've finished everything and sent it to the dev team..."

"Senior Chae-young... You're doing great. Just keep it up."

"You devil... You brought me on just to work me to the bone, didn't you? You bastard..."

The sight of Senior Chae-young, the last to enter the conference room, was far from pleasant—even as a white lie.

Among the director-level staff gathered, her workload was overwhelmingly the highest.

Unlike other tasks that could be somewhat divided, the OST and BGM composition had to go through Chae-young's hands no matter what.

With her messy ash-blue hair tied up haphazardly as she sprawled across the desk, she looked like my unemployed cousin from back in the day.

"But you're getting good overtime pay, and the company's giving you everything you want, right?"

"What good is money if I can't even...! I've barely been home on time since last month!"

"Come on, you have flexible hours..."

"When ideas keep flowing, how can I just leave them and go home...!"

I shrugged off Chae-young's complaints and looked around the conference room.

The team seemed to have gotten used to her antics, showing no reaction. Only Seol was trying to comfort her.

"Everyone's been working hard with all the overtime and extra hours... Remember, the schedule doesn't end with the reveal, so take care of yourselves. That's all."

As I finished speaking and bowed my head, applause erupted in the conference room.

One day left until the project reveal.

***

Otaku are always thirsty for new content.

New animations, new comics, new games...

But this characteristic only shines when interesting new works come out.

Recently, the subculture market has been in a slump.

New animations, comics, visual novels, and so on...

With barely any noteworthy new releases across the subculture spectrum, otaku were feeling starved.

In this situation, a post on a subculture community forum was enough to set the community ablaze.

[Username: ㅇㅇ]

[Title: Enson's new work, what's this about?]

【Illustration of a silver-haired animal-eared cute girl holding a sign that says "COMING SOON"】

Was there an Enson game with a character like this?

[All Comments][Chronological Order]

-Wut?

-Wow, but the illustration quality is insane

ㄴSeriously, it puts all the seasonal waifus this quarter to shame lol

-Wasn't Enson only developing PC games?

ㄴI checked their Twitter, and it's true

ㄴFor real. What's going on?

[Username: ㅁㅁ]

[Title: Looks like Enson is really going full weeb with their new work]

【Screenshot of Enson GT's official Twitter】

Weren't they not interested in the weeb side of things?

I wonder what wind blew to make them do this lololol

[All Comments][Chronological Order]

-They're pouring all the money they made from Maple Leaf and Dungeon Story into this lol

ㄴIsn't that Enson Korea?

ㄴCome to think of it, you're right? What's Enson GT?

ㄴI checked KingMooWiki, it says it's a subsidiary

ㄴReally?

-Wow, but when a big company puts in the effort, the quality is no joke

-So when does it launch?

[Username: InfoFairy]

[Title: Here's a clean summary of all the Project GM info]

They've been dropping info here and there for months, just not officially announcing it.

I'm baffled as to why no one noticed until now lololol

First, pay attention to the Twitter account.

【Screenshot of a Twitter account with the nickname Ho Jin-Ji】

The profile intro clearly shows they're a current Enson GT employee.

But I was curious about their exact position at Enson GT, so I did some digging and stumbled upon an ND Soft article.

【Screenshot of an article about ND Soft's Director Ji Ho-jin achieving a new concurrent user record for Blood Alliance 2】

Seems like they were the director of Blood Alliance 2, ND Soft's flagship title.

Apparently, they're known as a game-savvy director among the older gamers who play ND Soft games.

I thought it might be someone with the same name, so I searched for "Ji Ho-jin," but no other articles came up.

To sum up, unless there's some twist, the owner of that Twitter account is the director of Project GM.

I don't know why a director who used to make games for older players suddenly moved to Enson GT to make a weeb game...

Also, digging through their Twitter following list, I caught a big fish.

【Photo of the Ye-rin and Ye-na sisters signing autographs and making V signs at Comiket】

Ye-rin, part of a famous sister duo doujin circle. If you're not a total newbie, you probably heard about them on the art gallery boards until last year when they were still active.

【Illustration split into three parts showing only the silhouettes of girls】

I found this cryptic illustration posted on Ye-rin's Twitter about 3 weeks ago.

But look at the title of this image? It's "Project GM girls."

These seem to be the main characters, and judging by the hair silhouettes, the girl in the official teaser might be the second one?

It looks like this doujin artist has also joined Enson GT. Ye-rin was famous in the doujin scene for her insane art quality.

I wonder how much they've been preparing to build up the project with such a production lineup ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ

I'm gonna hold my breath and wait until the official launch.

[All Comments][Chronological Order]

-Finding this is even more chilling, you crazy bastard lololol

-Did you sell your soul to Bill Gates to have time to dig through Twitter following lists? lololol

-Checking Ye-rin's Pixiv, I'm actually getting excited

-So what platform is this coming out on? PC? Web?

ㄴNo clue

"Whoa..."

I couldn't help but marvel as I lurked on the community forum.

They really found it...

We had been preparing this for marketing purposes for months, and it got leaked on the day.

I was especially impressed by the tenacity of someone who dug through my following list of over 500 people to find a buried picture from months ago.

Well, the months of effort paid off, so I guess it doesn't matter too much...

Seeing Project GM mentioned across communities and SNS, I prayed.

Please let this momentum carry through to tomorrow's PV reveal...

***

[Username: ㅇㅇ]

[Title: Project GM PV is out!!!]

{Link to a video site with a red icon}

[Comments][Chronological Order]

-Let's go~Let's go~Let's go~

-Holy shiiiiiiiiiit

-How did you share this 0 seconds after upload?

-Going to watch it now

The countless community users who had been buzzing about Project GM all day yesterday followed the link to the teaser PV.

A video just over a minute long.

Disappointed by the shorter-than-expected runtime, they hit play, and the video began.

[SFLAG Corporation]

The logo of the Japanese publishing company appeared on a white background.

Then, as Project GM's main OST started playing, everyday scenes from "Ark," the academy city serving as the game's main setting, passed by in a slideshow format.

A neatly organized classroom befitting an academy city.

Guns lined up tidily in one corner of the classroom.

A news broadcast airship floating in the sky.

An empty player's office.

Finally, the World Tree rooted in the center of the academy city "Ark."

As the scenery faded, the OST reached its climax, and scenes of armed students' daily lives flowed by.

Residents of the autonomous district and students preparing for the day in front of the World Tree.

Students commuting to school by various means.

Students heading to their club rooms for after-school activities.

Students spending their holidays in their own ways.

After all these youthful, everyday scenes from the academy city passed, the outskirts of the city flashed by, hinting that the game wasn't all brightness and cheer.

Like a hallucination, zombies with glowing red eyes appeared briefly before the screen quickly faded to white, and text began to appear.

『What we had forgotten』

『What we must protect』

『Our story that's like a miracle』

As the text faded, the mascot character, Operator, approached the screen before it went dark.

Then,

『Girls Memorial』

The title, designed in harmonious blue and white, appeared, and the video ended.

The first comment posted right after the video ended:

『Awesome lol』

The content of this landmark first comment was a Japanese viewer's pure amazement.