Kapitel 117: Chapter 117 Don’t Eat Glutinous Rice If You Have a Bad Stomach

"Well, let's continue with the topic we were talking about."

Shion didn't care too much about Ori's slightly rude behavior. She glanced at him and then turned her attention back to Nanaya, "If you were in my position, how would you develop Washimine?"

"Well... Actually, Miss Shion, you have done very well. Pan-entertainment is indeed a very good way out."

Nanaya's answer did not satisfy Shion. She pursed her lips and said, "Forget about such flattery. What I want to hear is more constructive advice."

"Ms. Shion, you've done a great job. It's the right choice to hand over the gaming department to Satoru. But we need to change the overall development strategy. It's not that the living room gaming culture is outdated, but we need to pay attention to the online gaming experience while pursuing the living room gaming culture."

Shion had a troubled expression on her face: "Online games? Do you mean the kind on the computer? But Washimine's main focus is console games..."

"It's not about asking Washimine to switch to online games, but adding online game functions to console games. For example, add an interface for connecting an Internet cable to the console, making the console part of the network terminal."

The development of the Internet is a trend that cannot be avoided by simply promoting living room gaming culture.

Apart from anything else, the advantage of being able to patch game bugs directly online is enough to make the console game industry bow down.

"Do you mean to make the host computer to access the Internet?"

"That's not the way to say it." Nanaya thought for a while and said, "It should be said that the Internet has become a part of the game. For example, in the "Super Plumber" series, in order to promote living room culture, didn't you Washimine launch a two-player mode? But your two-player mode must be played by two people locally, right? If you can connect to the Internet, you can play the two-player mode anytime and anywhere, right?"

"Interesting." Shion took out a notebook and wrote down what Nanaya said. "But if this is the case, I guess some R&D staff may not agree. After all, they might think it's a blasphemy to console games. And I think you know the network situation in Japan, Nanaya?"

"But this is not a reason not to develop network services." Nanaya said seriously, "Although Japan's network hardware conditions are average, Europe and the United States have already developed very advanced network technology. Although JGC's sales were a disastrous failure, its sales in Europe and the United States are three times that of Japan. Although it is a bit exaggerated to say this, the game market in Europe and the United States is no longer the same as it was when Atari collapsed in the 1980s. Washimine's work focus must change from the previous focus on Japan."

"But the R&D personnel..." Shion still showed a trace of difficulty on her face.

"If you can't accept it, just take the compensation and leave. There is no need for researchers who can't keep up with the trend to stay. The average age of all front-line R&D personnel should not exceed 35 years old. Some experienced old people should be retained, and the redundant ones should be gradually eliminated."

Nanaya's eyes showed a hint of cruelty. He knew that his actions violated Japan's traditional lifetime employment system. However, as a game company, Washimine must keep itself as young as possible.

The lifetime employment system, which means that employees work for life, is very famous in Japanese corporate culture. As long as the employee does not make a big mistake and the company itself does not go bankrupt, basically Japanese companies will hire an employee with a lifetime contract.

Of course, this refers to regular employees, and dispatched employees and temporary workers are not included.

This system brought great convenience to Japan's development at the beginning. Japanese people born in the Showa era generally had the characteristics of loving their jobs and being dedicated to their work under the education of the environment at that time. After obtaining a lifetime employment with a company, they would also regard the company as their home. Since the company has chosen them, they also need to dedicate their entire career to the company.

Thanks to this big family-like working atmosphere, the development of Japanese companies in the 1970s and 1980s could almost be described as rapid.

In this workplace atmosphere, companies firing employees without reason and employees voluntarily quitting are both very serious matters in the Japanese workplace. The former will make the company's reputation worse and no good employees will choose it anymore, while the latter can basically ruin one's career in Japan.

But this situation is changing. On the one hand, the US has been taking advantage of companies too much, which has led to poor performance in general. Large-scale layoffs have made the so-called corporate credit become empty talk. And the employees who remain in the company are not relaxed either, because of the reduction in positions and the seniority-based workplace atmosphere in Japan. This has led to the older generation of employees in the company being reluctant to give up their positions, while young new employees lack room for advancement in the company. Especially when they cannot resign on their own initiative, the lack of a path to advancement and the heavy workload have increased the pressure on Japanese employees.

Another problem is that the diligent and capable Showa men are out of stock, and are replaced by the Heisei wastes with declining quality. With the improvement of material life, these new generation of young people do not have the same urgent desire for work as their parents, and their work enthusiasm has declined sharply.

Of course, Nanaya couldn't let Washimine conduct a large-scale layoff, as this would make Washimine's reputation in society extremely bad. All Nanaya could do was to remind Shion that he could gradually replace the

"Shion, you can use the excuse of developing network functions to recruit technicians in Europe and the United States. This way you can avoid many of Washimine's bad habits in the Japanese workplace."

Of course, European and American employees also have problems of one kind or another, but they still have certain advantages over Japanese employees who are no longer diligent. At least they do not have the problem of lifetime employment that cannot be driven away.

As a traditional Japanese company that has been around since the 1960s, Washimine certainly has the same problems as other companies, and many of them are quite serious.

"I will discuss this matter carefully with my brother."

Of course, Shion couldn't agree to it right away. After all, such a big decision couldn't be made immediately. In other words, if Shion really made a decision so easily, Nanaya would think she had a problem.

"Ah-ow. Mmmmm... daifuku is still just as delicious."

The sound of Ori chewing daifuku interrupted the silence in the living room.

Seeing Ori stuffing another daifuku into her mouth, Nanaya quickly reminded her, "Don't eat too much, you still have to eat lunch later."

"I understand, I understand. What are we having for lunch?" Ori asked with interest.

"How should I know?" Nanaya snorted, and then he suggested to Shion, "Miss Shion, if you are not in a hurry, please stay for lunch later."

"Oh~ I didn't expect the master is still at home, and you, Nanaya, can make decisions for the master~"

Shion opened her folding fan with a snap, her eyes moving back and forth between Nanaya and Ori.

Nanaya was so angry at the provocative look that his teeth itched. He wanted to rush up and break the folding fan into two pieces.

After looking at him for a while, Shion leaned forward before Nanaya exploded and said, "Then I will obey your orders. Please prepare some lunch for me, Ryougi-san. I also want to talk to you about the promotion of Goblin Slayer."

[Ding-ling-ling————]

Suddenly, the cell phone in Nanaya's arms rang unexpectedly.

"Feel sorry."

Nanaya took out his cell phone and saw "Unknown Caller" on the screen. It was a number he had never seen before.

"Let's continue..."

Thinking it was a sales call, Nanaya hung up the phone, but it rang again in less than a second.

[Ding-ling-ling————]

Pop.

Nanaya immediately turned off the phone, but——

[Ding-ling-ling————]

Pop.

[Ding-ling-ling————]

Shion laughed awkwardly twice: "Nanaya, you should answer the phone. Maybe it's something urgent."

"Excuse me."

Nanaya sighed, he stood up and walked to the corridor with his cell phone.

"Hello, who is this? This is Nanaya Kiryu."

"Senior?!"

A voice that Nanaya was very familiar with came from the other end of the line.

"Ori?! Wait a minute, could it be..." Nanaya quickly turned back to look at the reception room, "Is that Shiki?"

"Ah! As expected, I knew it!"

Ori on the other end of the phone made a sound of sudden realization, and he anxiously said to Nanaya: "Senior, did my sister pretend to be me and go home?"

"Yes..." Nanaya nodded and admitted, "What happened? Why did you use this phone?"

"This is the phone my father lent me. I'm calling you from the bathroom in the ward."

Ori's voice was filled with a deep sense of helplessness, and Nanaya could even imagine the other party holding his forehead with his hands on the other end of the phone.

"What's going on?"

"In order to avoid being discovered by Mother, my sister and I exchanged identities in the hospital. I originally planned to switch back after Mother left, but I didn't expect my sister to run out of the hospital using my identity."

Nanaya asked curiously: "Why did she run out?"

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, she probably wanted to steal food." Ori said very embarrassingly. He felt ashamed to have such a greedy sister. "Anyway, senior, please keep an eye on my sister and don't let her eat anything casually! I just asked the doctor, my sister's stomach hasn't fully recovered yet, so she can't eat normally."

"Uh, it seems it's already late..."

Nanaya recalled the scene of Ryougi Shiki eating daifuku and drinking hot tea beside him, and cold sweat broke out on his face.

"Miss Shiki!"

Nanaya opened the door of the living room as quickly as possible, and what came into his sight was the scene of Ryougi Shiki kneeling on the ground with her hands covering her stomach, while Shion was supporting her with a worried look on her face.

Shion said in a panic: "Ryougi-san suddenly felt very uncomfortable just now, and then..."

"No need to explain, I understand."

In the end, Ryougi Shiki was admitted to the hospital because she suffered from indigestion due to eating too much glutinous rice.

In addition, Ori had to stay in the hospital temporarily to replace her sister, so the two children of the Ryougi family had to stay in the hospital to celebrate the New Year in 2002.