Free Web NovelChapter 231: Chapter 201: Zog’s Family Bucket (Part 2)
"Unless we get so far ahead that all the other Schools have no choice but to learn from us, it’ll be hard to unify them. Basic knowledge alone isn’t enough."
"True." Furin knew it wouldn’t be easy. If progress threatened the interests of a certain group, those people would rather choose not to progress.
"That’s why we really need to figure out what this garbled content is. You still have far too few online followers."
Furin was suddenly filled with a passion for work she hadn’t shown in a long time, wanting to shove the network onto everyone immediately.
"I found something useful."
"What?" Zog’s claws were a little numb from holding the egg, and he replied listlessly.
"It’s about Golem technology. During our last meeting, didn’t you say you wanted to use Golems as pets linked to game consoles? But you said their intelligence level was too low for them to be very interactive."
"Yeah."
When they had discussed the game console pet project before, they operated under the principle that anything from the Zog Group had to have a deluxe version. The top-tier version of a virtual pet would have to have a physical form to really rake it in from the rich; it couldn’t just be a bunch of pixels.
However, the level of interaction the Golems could offer was abysmal. They could only execute simple commands like "go," "wait," "attack," and "defend."
Barely more advanced than an arthropod.
And they showed absolutely no spontaneous behavior.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have needed a Mage to constantly control the snowman Golem when they were filming *Frozen*.
Of course, some hobbyists found raising insects interesting, but they were a minority.
Most people preferred interactive pets.
"The intelligence of Golem Magic is so poor because there must be a problem with its theoretical foundation. If the content here is viable, the Golems we make could at least reach the intelligence of a dog. No, they could probably be as smart as a cow."
Furin said excitedly.
"I’ll bring you a sample tomorrow!" With that, she dashed straight to her lab.
’A cow, huh? Not bad.’ Zog thought that if it weren’t for their size, cows would be the perfect pets.
Smart, gentle, and with a stable temperament.
"Wai—" Zog stretched out a claw, but before he could even get the word out, Furin had vanished from sight.
’Everyone’s busy. It’s good to be busy.’
Finally getting a moment of peace, Zog stored the egg inside the Treasure Chest Monster and decided to wash up and go to sleep. He’d taken in a little too much new information today.
’Besides, I have to continue the discussion on the Magic Elemental Pet project tomorrow.’
’Ah, forget it. I’ll just sleep without washing.’ Zog decided to fully embrace his laziness.
But sleep doesn’t come easily when you’re mentally exhausted. He, who hadn’t dreamed in years, unexpectedly had a strange dream.
In the dream, Zog was human again, back in school. The classroom was packed with dozens of students.
He could even smell that distinct odor produced by a crowd of teenagers.
At some random moment, the teacher suddenly called on him to go to the blackboard and solve a problem.
His classmates couldn’t stop laughing as he walked up, but he had no idea why.
He nervously solved the problem on the board—it was even a trigonometric function.
’Is this the legendary "what you think about by day, you dream of by night"?’
After he solved it, the students laughed even harder, and even the teacher joined in.
He finally couldn’t take it anymore and asked, "What are you all laughing at?"
Just then, he felt a sudden coolness on his thighs. He quickly looked down and realized he wasn’t wearing any pants.
"AH!"
That was terrifying!
Zog jolted awake.
He found himself still in the Dragon Nest.
’Those pants... wait, I’m a Dragon. Of course I’m not wearing pants.’
’No, but what kind of weird dream was that?’
’It couldn’t be that some god had critical information to share and chose to deliver it in a dream, right?’
’If so, that god has a seriously twisted sense of humor.’
’The question is, does Feilin offer dream interpretation services? Do Shamans handle that kind of business?’
Zog shook his head, trying to clear it.
He glanced at the time. It was already afternoon. He had slept for quite a while.
On his phone, Furin was frantically urging him to get to the meeting. The new Golem was ready.
Zog just set himself on fire for a moment, completing a quick cleaning.
’High-temperature cleaning is still cleaning. More effective than washing with water.’
When he arrived at the conference room, the personnel in charge of the game console pet project were already in place. Furin was there too, and next to her was a half-man-high object covered with a cloth.
"Is that the new Golem?" Zog asked.
"First, present your complete plan," Furin said mysteriously.
’Looks like she pulled an all-nighter. The ability to stay up all night really is an important talent for research.’
"Where did we leave off yesterday?" Zog tried to recall.
"Oh, right, making a portable digital pet device."
According to Zog’s vision, this virtual pet wouldn’t just be on the game console platform, but would link with all of the Zog Group’s products as much as possible.
This would create an ecosystem around all Zog Group products. Besides the functional data link, there needed to be a representative icon to provide the same emotional value.
The Magic Elemental Pet would be the core.
At its most basic, it could be raised, it would grow, have a daily life, and a battle system for fighting against other pet trainers.
The combat couldn’t be too complex; it shouldn’t rely on skillful execution. The goal was for it to be playable by all age groups.
A turn-based system would be perfect.
As for its appearance, of course, it had to be a Digital Monster.
’Game consoles are pretty similar to computers, after all.’
The main pet would be bound to the Digital Monster Machine and couldn’t be swapped out, but you could use a secondary pet in battles.
Then, by buying games on the console, players could get resources to raise their pet, or get limited-edition pets.
Getting all the achievements in a game on the console would unlock a special pet costume.
It was all about milking the nostalgia.
It would also be very easy to do crossovers with other games, and we could hold all sorts of events on social networks, like a "Show Off Your Pet" contest.
Participating in events could also earn resources or costumes.
Who wouldn’t want their pet to be cuter or cooler?
According to market feedback from the pet shops, people weren’t quite used to feeding their pets specialized food yet, but they were all on board with buying them various clothes and toys.
’It’s like when a Cat loves its cat tree, the owner gets a vicarious thrill.’
Since we’re bringing out Digital Monsters, we can’t just have the Digital Monster Machine.
The anime has to be released alongside it. It’s the same logic as releasing a manga to sell Yo-Yos. While it might not look like a traditional ad, it’s actually the most effective kind of advertising.
Who could watch *Digital Monster* and not want their own Agumon?
And then there’s Celestial Maiden Beast, who embodied so many wonderful childhood fantasies...
Zog’s idea was to only release the first two seasons of the anime. They would consider the rest later based on their performance.
This was mainly because he had only seen the first two seasons in their entirety. He’d seen bits and pieces of the later ones, and to be honest, he didn’t like them much.
’They just didn’t have the same vibe as the first two.’
Especially that remake of the first season. Zog unilaterally refused to acknowledge it as a remake of his childhood memories.
’It wasn’t even a fraction as good as the original.’
If you want to raise a pet, you buy a game console. Once you have a game console, you’ll definitely need a Magic Vision Device. Watching the Magic Vision Device, you discover the *Digital Monster* anime, which makes you want to raise a pet even more.
It creates a closed loop.
’The first step of Zog’s ’Family Bucket’ plan!’
"So, any questions now?" Zog had already filled an entire blackboard with his plan.
"In the sketches you provided, some of the evolution lines... they don’t really feel like evolutions. It’s more like they’re changing into a completely different species. It’s a bit illogical."
"Don’t worry about whether it’s logical. We can justify anything. The only question is, does it look cool?"
"Uh, I guess it’s pretty cool," the employee answered, a bit uncertainly. He had never seen this kind of creature design before. A lot of them looked ferocious, and he didn’t know if they would scare children, who would likely make up a large portion of the game console’s player base.
"As long as it’s cool."
"What about the battle portion? You said we should intentionally unbalance it a bit, making the harder-to-get pets stronger?"
"Of course. Why else would they be hard to get? Power gamers are an important source of... ahem, an important paying demographic."
After answering a few more questions one by one, no more hands were raised in the conference room.
"Excellent. Now, can we see what’s under that cloth?"
Furin whipped off the cloth.
It was a yellow, three-toed Golem in the shape of a Sub-Dragon, with a large head and a somewhat dazed expression.
"Agumon, use Tiny Flame!"
"ROAR!"
The Ancient Beast Golem spat out a small fireball—an Illusion with no actual damage, of course—and then struck a wobbly fighting pose.
"I think it’s worth at least a Hundred Gold Coins."
Furin smiled faintly. "Agumon, evolve!"
A flash of light burst forth, and Zog’s eyes widened.
"Okay, add a zero to that price. And also, I absolutely must have one of these things!"
