Video Game Tycoon in Tokyo-Chapter 814: Free Drinks, Free Play

On another street in Tokyo, the presence of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment 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 meant—they were part of the generation who had lived through Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's golden era.

As a relatively high-income group, they were among the first to enjoy the pleasures of video games early on.

But just like that father in the park, the realities of adult life had taken away much of their time to play games.

They were overwhelmed 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 home, relax, and play some games.

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 moment, 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 me."

"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 meet 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 home and finish Bayonetta.

He had already bought so many games.

But because of work, he barely had time to play.

That's why he sometimes passed the time playing Candy Crush-type mobile games.

He even shamelessly spent money on those microtransactions—a sort of stress relief.

But even with all the money spent on casual mobile games, what he really wanted was to play real games.

If only he had the chance.

As he pondered, he arrived at the intersection his coworker mentioned.

And just as he reached it, a very familiar melody played.

It was the iconic Crystal Prelude from Final Fantasy—though each version of the game 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 time to play a little, which had become one of his biggest regrets.

Over time, he had almost forgotten about the game.

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.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

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 metal scaffolding.

Inside, it was packed with people.

A gaming arcade? he thought, blinking.

But this was a street! Why was something like this set up here?

Confused, he looked around—then noticed a huge banner.

Free game trials. Free drinks and snacks. Come enjoy to your heart's content.

His eyes widened. This had to be a dream.

A video game event? Right here?

He hadn't heard a word about this in advance. If he had known there'd be something like this along his commute home, he would've run straight here without hesitation.

Screw the work dinner. This was heaven.

Just then, a few familiar faces emerged 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 some in the next round!"

But the white-collar worker seemed distracted—his attention entirely absorbed by the sounds of the surrounding games.

"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 games?"

"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. Come on—I'll take you over to help him out!"

In his excitement, 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 game he'd dreamed of playing for ages—

Bayonetta.