"Did you find them? Who is this person?"
At the headquarters of YOO Corporation, Nagao A asked one of his subordinates with a stern face.
The subordinate was sweating profusely and replied cautiously, "I'm very sorry, President. We've done our best, but this person is extrely well-hidden—we couldn't dig up any information at all."
Stardew Valley had already started becoming a hot topic.
And because it rose to fa so quickly—while also essentially creating a new ga genre—players began referring to it as a "farming ga" or "crop-growing ga."
In this parallel world, Takayuki had already achieved the status of a "God of Gas." He was the one leading the entire industry from the top.
Most players were used to Gastar Electronic Entertainnt being the company to first release gas that set new trends.
But this mysterious ga developer had proven, all on their own, that Takayuki wasn't the only genius in the world.
There were still other truly remarkable people out there—people who could suddenly burst onto the scene and shock everyone.
For a ti, this developer called "Nintendo is the Damn Overlord of the World" was even considered by so to be on par with Takayuki.
Naturally, soone gaining this much attention so suddenly drew a lot of interest from others in the industry.
Several ga companies had already begun investigating this mysterious developer.
Unfortunately, this person had virtually no information available online.
The only recent activity was the release of Stardew Valley, and so short-lived activity on the now-defunct Ichinan Ga Web.
They also discovered that Kazuo Murakami's success seed to be loosely tied to this person, but even Murakami admitted that he knew very little—just that the person loved gas and had given him valuable guidance. Murakami even said he'd consider this person a ntor, though that sentint was never acknowledged by the other party.
While smaller ga companies were interested, larger studios also paid close attention to this independent developer.
YOO Corporation, which now had more than ten ga studios under its umbrella, was no exception.
Their CEO, Nagao A, had recently beco addicted to Stardew Valley himself.
Just a couple days earlier, he had spent the night playing it nonstop.
He had to admit—the ga was really addictive.
He wasn't even soone who loved gas that much, yet this one managed to move him.
Maybe it was because the journey from rags to riches reminded him of his own path to success—it resonated with him deeply.
Nagao realized that this mysterious ga creator was a major talent.
And judging by the current montum, if this developer made even one or two more gas on par with Stardew Valley, they could easily rise to the sa level as Takayuki in the eyes of fans.
If Nagao could recruit soone like that, it might give YOO Corporation the power to finally compete head-to-head with Gastar Electronic Entertainnt.
So, he was determined to find and recruit this "Nintendo is the Damn Overlord of the World."
He imdiately ordered his team to gather all available intel on the person.
But, just like other companies, they ran into the sa roadblock.
This developer had no traceable online presence.
It was baffling.
Even though the internet wasn't yet dominant in society, it was still a growing trend and fashionable among young people. Nowadays, there wasn't a single young adult who didn't use the internet.
Yet aside from that brief activity on Ichinan Ga Web and the release of Stardew Valley on Battlenet, there was nothing. No other trace.
Maybe this person had alt accounts?
Even so, IP addresses don't just change on their own—unless the person was intentionally and carefully hiding themselves.
Why go through all that effort to stay anonymous?
Could it be that they were a wanted criminal?
But even if they were, Nagao was confident he could get them out of any legal trouble.
With a scowl, Nagao said, "How do you earn your salary? Is this all you're capable of—failing to find a single person? What good are you, then?"
The employee standing before him kept his head down, not daring to speak, fearing he might anger Nagao further.
Japan had a very strict corporate hierarchy. Gastar's laid-back style was a rare exception and couldn't be used as a standard.
Even at a newer tech company like YOO, those traditional power dynamics were still in full force.
As angry as Nagao was, he understood this wasn't entirely the employees' fault. The person was just too well-hidden.
It was like they had appeared out of thin air.
"Does anyone here have a good idea on how to find this person? If you can, I'll give you 10 million yen—cash."
Nagao said it with confidence. His company had grown rapidly in recent years, and he had more money than he knew what to do with.
So employees lit up at the ntion of a cash reward, but they also knew just how difficult the task was.
The person was simply too well-hidden.
In reality, Takayuki had seen many of these attempts to contact him, but he ignored them all.
The offers didn't interest him—he was already a company president himself. He didn't need a higher salary from anyone else.
Even ssages from Kazuo Murakami went unanswered. Takayuki believed Murakami had found his own path now and no longer needed guidance from his anonymous ntor.
Just then, one employee raised his hand and said, "President Nagao, I think I have an idea."
"Speak!"
The man hesitated. "Well... this thod might be a little... illegal."
"Illegal? Don't worry about that. That's not your concern. Just say it."
"We could hack into the Battlenet platform and extract the submission data for Stardew Valley. That way, we'd be able to get the developer's personal information. Battlenet is bound to have it."
Nagao's eyes lit up.
That was actually a solid plan.
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