On another street in Tokyo, the presence of Gastar Electronic Entertainnt could also be seen. This was a street frequently traveled by office workers and white-collar employees.
After setting up a gaming area here, it quickly caught the attention of passersby from the working class.
Nowadays, most of these white-collar workers were in their twenties or thirties.
And that ant—they were part of the generation who had lived through Gastar Electronic Entertainnt's golden era.
As a relatively high-inco group, they were among the first to enjoy the pleasures of video gas early on.
But just like that father in the park, the realities of adult life had taken away much of their ti to play gas.
They were overwheld at work, trapped in a cycle of competition and long hours. After work, they still had to network with colleagues, eating and drinking until 11 PM, or even 2–4 in the morning—not uncommon at all.
At 9 PM, a white-collar worker walked out of his company building, visibly exhausted.
He really wanted to go ho, relax, and play so gas.
But he couldn't. There was still a company dinner with colleagues to attend.
Skipping it would risk being labeled an outsider—kicked out of the social circle.
If that happened, his future in the company would be bleak.
So no matter how unwilling or tired he was, he had no choice but to force himself to go.
At that mont, his phone rang.
He pulled it out. The lock screen featured Tifa from Final Fantasy, and just seeing her gave him a bit of comfort—made work seem a little more tolerable.
He saw it was a coworker calling. Probably urging him to hurry up and get to the dinner spot. He answered.
"Moshi moshi, sorry, I'm on my way. If you're starving, feel free to start without ."
"Oh, don't rush—we just decided to change locations."
"Change?!" he blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, turns out there's a free pop-up bar nearby! We figured we should definitely check it out. Here's the address—just et us there."
A free bar? Was that even real?
Sounded like it was all-you-can-drink too.
Could it be a scam?
But his coworkers had already gone there.
He checked the location they sent—it was at one of the busiest intersections in the area. Strange that a stand had suddenly popped up there.
Well, it was on the way. Might as well check it out.
He sighed. Man, I really just wanted to go ho and finish Bayonetta.
He had already bought so many gas.
But because of work, he barely had ti to play.
That's why he sotis passed the ti playing Candy Crush-type mobile gas.
He even shalessly spent money on those microtransactions—a sort of stress relief.
But even with all the money spent on casual mobile gas, what he really wanted was to play real gas.
If only he had the chance.
As he pondered, he arrived at the intersection his coworker ntioned.
And just as he reached it, a very familiar lody played.
It was the iconic Crystal Prelude from Final Fantasy—though each version of the ga had slight variations of it.
He instantly recognized this one.
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core!
He'd played it briefly last year—but only had ti to play a little, which had beco one of his biggest regrets.
Over ti, he had almost forgotten about the ga.
But now, hearing that familiar tune again, he was instantly drawn in, hurrying toward the source without even thinking.
It was a completely instinctive reaction.
He had to know what was happening. Why was that music playing in the middle of the street?
In Japan, music licensing is strict—even street vendors need to pay fees to play copyrighted tracks.
Places that offered alcohol rarely played copyrighted music out loud—it just wasn't worth the licensing costs.
He soon arrived at the source.
A small event space had been built with tal scaffolding.
Inside, it was packed with people.
A gaming arcade? he thought, blinking.
But this was a street! Why was sothing like this set up here?
Confused, he looked around—then noticed a huge banner.
Free ga trials. Free drinks and snacks. Co enjoy to your heart's content.
His eyes widened. This had to be a dream.
A video ga event? Right here?
He hadn't heard a word about this in advance. If he had known there'd be sothing like this along his commute ho, he would've run straight here without hesitation.
Screw the work dinner. This was heaven.
Just then, a few familiar faces erged from the crowd.
"Hey! Over here!"
He turned to see the coworkers who had called him earlier about the location change.
"You guys...?" he asked, surprised.
"Man, can you believe this? Free booze right here in the middle of the city. How could we not stop and check it out? They restock drinks every three minutes, so let's grab so in the next round!"
But the white-collar worker seed distracted—his attention entirely absorbed by the sounds of the surrounding gas.
"Hey, you okay?" a coworker asked.
He snapped out of it. "Oh, it's nothing... I just want to know why this gaming booth popped up all of a sudden."
"Oh that? No idea. Doesn't matter as long as the drinks are free. Hey—wait a second, are you into video gas?"
"Uh... yeah. I guess you could say I'm pretty interested."
"Well, then this is perfect! Our team leader's struggling to get past a level. Co on—I'll take you over to help him out!"
In his excitent, the coworker forgot all about chasing free drinks and dragged him toward another area.
Soon, they reached a cluster of coworkers gathered around a single screen.
Their team leader was completely engrossed in a ga he'd dread of playing for ages—
Bayonetta.
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