Chapter 28
There's one post that consistently appears in the Girls Memorial community:
[Username: OperatorManagerWish]
[Title: Day 45 of Wishing for Operator Manager]
【Image of Operator making a hand heart with an expressionless face】
Honestly, I'm not asking for much here.
How can you not develop the game's flagship mascot?
I'm not even asking for manager status, just let me give relationship gifts to Oper-chan!!!!
[Comment Section][Sorted by: Newest]
- Oh great, the lolicon freak is at it again lolololol
- Please, just hold your breath for 3 minutes lololol
- But honestly, isn't this a valid point?
- She's always in the top ranks during popularity polls, kinda feel bad for her lolol
ㄴ For real
This was a post wishing for the promotion of the Operator, the game's mascot character, to manager status.
Even beyond these wishful posts, many Girls Memorial gamers hoped for the Operator to become a manager. Jae-hyun was one of those gamers longing for her promotion.
Truth be told, the Operator wasn't Jae-hyun's favorite character from the start.
Originally, he considered Karin, who had guided him to the booth during the Tokyo Game Show, as his favorite.
He had even prioritized rerolling for Karin at first.
However, the more he played the game, the more his heart gravitated not towards Karin, but the Operator.
Her striking appearance, with the mascot's signature platinum blonde hair and star-embedded white eyes.
The gap between her elementary school-like appearance and her emotionless personality perfectly hit Jae-hyun's sweet spot.
But even now, quite some time after the game's launch, there was still no news about the Operator.
As time passed without any updates, fans who favored the Operator were left suffering. Then suddenly,
A video was uploaded to the official Girls Memorial YouTube account.
[Username: ㅇㅇ]
[Title: What's this on YouTube? Operator Channel?]
【Screenshot of Girls Memorial's official YouTube channel】
[Link to video site with red icon]
Just looking at the thumbnail, it seems like a video related to the Operator?
I just grabbed this, so I'm heading to watch it now.
[Comment Section][Sorted by: Newest]
- Whoa, is the Operator finally getting promoted to manager? lolol
- The Operator boom has arrived lololol
- I'm gonna go watch it too, omg omg omg
- Where's that guy who kept posting Operator manager wish threads? lolol
ㄴ Probably died of happiness lolol
Jae-hyun, upon seeing this post, was also entranced and clicked the video link.
Instead of the usual Enson GT or SFLAG logo, the video began with the Girls Memorial world tree logo.
The administrator's office, which Girls Memorial users see first when logging in.
With gentle background music, the camera slowly panned around the office, zooming in as if discovering something.
What appeared on screen was the administrator's chair where they sit to work—
More precisely, it was the Operator, asleep and curled up in that chair.
At first, only the Operator's hair peeking out from the chair was visible, as she faced away from the camera.
As the camera slowly rotated towards the Operator, her figure gradually came into view.
Finally, when the camera stopped rotating, the sleeping Operator was fully captured on screen.
But perhaps due to the presence of the camera?
The sleeping Operator slowly woke up, looking around with half-opened eyes.
Upon noticing the camera, she rubbed her eyes and spoke:
"Connection confirmed. Good morning... Administrator."
The screen suddenly transitioned, showing the office with the administrator's chair back in place and a fully awake Operator.
"Were you surprised by my sudden appearance in the office, unlike usual?"
When there was no reaction, the Operator took a step closer to the screen and whispered quietly.
"You were surprised, weren't you?"
A selection window appeared on screen, and the "Surprised" option was automatically selected.
Of course, it was an automatic selection since this was a video, but it seemed to be a sufficient answer for the Operator.
"Satisfaction. Then, I, the Operator, will now begin transmitting the new project: Operator Channel."
As she finished speaking, the Operator set off fireworks with her trademark expressionless face.
"The reason for preparing this project is to directly boost the spirits of Administrators who find it insufficient to be merely assisted by me, the Operator. It's a 'continuous project program' designed for that purpose."
As the Operator's dialogue ended, the screen transitioned once again.
The Operator moved right up to the screen.
After grabbing the camera with both hands to stabilize it, she spoke:
"How is it, Administrator? Are you looking forward to it?"
Another selection window appeared.
When the "Looking forward to it" option was selected, a slight smile appeared on the Operator's expressionless face.
"I, too, am very much looking forward to the time we'll spend together from now on, Administrator."
With those words, the Operator gave a small bow.
"Today was just a greeting since it's the first day, but in the future, I plan to share various information and different sides of myself, the Operator. Please look forward to it."
As she finished speaking, the Operator raised both hands and waved.
"Then, I hope we can meet again next time. Administrator."
With the Operator's final line, the video ended.
Jae-hyun, having watched the video to the end, stared at the screen for a while, unable to form any thoughts.
Then, snapping back to reality, he immediately logged into the community.
He wanted to share the emotions he was feeling with everyone else.
The community he entered was filled with administrators who had similar experiences, all going wild with one heart and mind.
[Username: OperatorManagerWish]
[Title: I can die happy now...]
【Image of the Operator sleeping in the video】
If you could do this!!!! All along!!!!!
Why did you wait until now? lolol
I'm truly ascending to nirvana...
[Comment Section][Sorted by: Newest]
- This guy's finally reaching enlightenment lololololol
- Gotta admit, this guy deserves nirvana lolol
[Username: ㅇㅇ]
[Title: I work in video production, and after cooling my head, I realized the video quality is no joke]
【GIF of the Operator approaching the screen】
I was already impressed by the Operator's 3D model, which seemed to surpass the quality of the illustrations.
Usually, creating a 3D model from 2D original art is pretty intense work.
But as I watched, being in the video industry myself, I found my eyes drawn more to the motion than the modeling.
This level of naturalness suggests they didn't just create animation, but actually used motion capture...
If this is real, it confirms that Enson is making massive reinvestments.
[Link to motion capture studio video]
Typically, they use multiple cameras like this and attach various devices to a person, then capture their movements to create it.
Of course, producing it this way means the production costs are enormous, right?
Currently, I know it's mainly used in Hollywood for movie production, but I never imagined seeing motion capture in a game-related video.
[Comment Section][Sorted by: Newest]
- I don't really get it, but basically Enson is awesome, right?
ㄴ For real lol
[Username: ㅇㅇ]
[Title: Testing public opinion...jpg]
【Photo of Ji Ho-jin bowing in a suit】
Ji Ho-jin<<Upvote if you want him to be the Girls Memorial director for life lolol
[Comment Section][Sorted by: Newest]
- Upvote lolololololololol
- Don't try to induce upvotes
After seeing the community's reaction, Jae-hyun gave up thinking and surrendered himself to the madness.
It was a day in early November.
*
A month had passed since the successful completion of the Operator Channel project that had given us so much trouble.
During that time, four episodes of the Operator Channel had been uploaded, and with each new episode, the view count skyrocketed thanks to the enthusiastic support of the lolicon administrators.
It was so extreme that not only SFLAG, but even the planning team employee who proposed the idea and Seol-i were shocked.
The first episode of the Operator Channel even surpassed the view count of my apology video, becoming the most popular video on the official channel.
But did this mean the main game, Girls Memorial, was losing its popularity?
Not at all.
First, there was the successful launch of the Android version.
Following that, after the success of the first event and the Halloween event, it managed to maintain its position as the top-grossing app in both major markets' monthly rankings.
At this point, with the game on such a successful streak, what was I doing?
I was sitting in my private office, playing a game on my smartphone.
The game I was currently playing was Idol Fairy: Cinderella Lady, or CindeFeRe for short.
It was a social game that had become a massive hit by using the IP of a fundamental idol game from before my regression.
From my memories before the regression, I knew it was supposed to be officially released on mobile in about two years, but...
Perhaps sensing the honey pot aroma wafting through the mobile game market due to Girls Memorial's mega-hit status, they had moved up the release date.
It was a similar case to InMilAh, but... likewise, I wasn't particularly worried.
CindeFeRe was a game where most users were already on mobile, even though the official mobile version hadn't been released yet.
However, in terms of popularity and revenue statistics captured by the mobile market, Girls Memorial was superior to CindeFeRe in every aspect.
So, I didn't think much would change even with the official release of the mobile version.
As I was enjoying CindeFeRe without much concern,
The office door opened, and Ye-rin entered.
"Senior, you called for me?"
"Oh, yeah. You're here?"
"Yes, I came because you called... What are you doing?"
"This? A game. Want to try it?"
"What is it?"
At those words, I handed her the smartphone, still in the game's playing state.
"Oh, it's CindeFeRe. Were you a producer too, Senior?"
"No?"
"Then why...?"
"I heard the official mobile version was coming out, so I gave it a try. It's pretty fun, actually."
Ye-rin tapped the screen for a moment, then, seeming to lose interest, handed the smartphone back as she spoke.
"Anyway, you haven't told me yet... Why did you call me?"
"Ah, right. Ye-rin."
"Yes?"
"I hate to ask, but... would you be willing to cosplay one more time?"