Video Game Tycoon in Tokyo-Chapter 920: Request

But he truly didn't know what to say.

——

Benedict was a professor at Stanford University.

Though he was actually more than ten years older than Ayano Tsukino, in terms of academic seniority, she was his senpai.

He had once been a promising PhD student in another field.

But then, by chance—or perhaps fate—he encountered video games.

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

Of course, video games weren't exactly rare. Anyone could play them. But for Benedict, they had an outsized impact.

Back when Mario, Contra, and Tetris were exploding in popularity in Japan, one of Benedict's classmates, who was Japanese, returned from summer break and brought some of these games with him. Benedict became one of the first Americans to experience them.

And he was hooked.

A magical new medium, where people could actually control on-screen characters, make decisions, interact... it felt like witnessing fire for the first time.

Perhaps that was a bit dramatic—but to Benedict, it was genuinely life-changing.

For the first time as a doctoral student, he felt the urge to throw himself into a completely new discipline.

He quickly learned the fundamentals behind video games, thanks to a PhD friend in Stanford's computer science department.

And in his thirties, he decided to pivot—studying programming, computer science, and the fundamentals of game development from scratch.

He was a theorist at heart.

His dream wasn't to make fun games.

He wanted to uncover the core of games—how streams of code transformed into magical entertainment.

Gifted as he was, he completed his studies in five or six years and earned a second doctorate in digital information systems.

Then, he stayed on as faculty.

After years of researching the fundamentals of video games, he started feeling bored again.

So, he set his sights on a new field: artificial intelligence.

He and his team were among the first to dive into AI research in this world.

Thanks to their head start, they produced several promising results early on.

Eventually, a new idea struck him:

Why not combine artificial intelligence with video games?

But he hadn't thought quite as deeply as Takayuki had.

His goal was to train an AI that could beat humans in competitive gaming—a dominant force that would become an unbeatable wall in esports, controlled by AI.

Of course, that kind of work was thankless. Results were slow, and even success wouldn't necessarily yield big impact.

If not for his decades of academic reputation and influence, Stanford likely would've cut off funding long ago.

But eventually, even Stanford's budget office ran out of patience. They began to suspect that Benedict was using research as an excuse to indulge his gaming passion. After all, everyone knew that's what pulled him into this field in the first place.

"Benedict, sounds like things haven't been going well for you. Hit a bottleneck in your research?" Ayano asked gently from the other end of the line.

"No, not a bottleneck... just, other issues. Never mind that. What made you suddenly call, senpai? Looking to borrow some students for another game project?"

In the past, Ayano had occasionally asked to borrow talented Stanford students to help develop game-related systems—always paying generously.

Benedict briefly thought, if she needed help again, even he might offer himself—if it meant earning a little for his struggling research.

"Actually, no. I'm not calling to borrow anyone this time. I wanted to ask about your progress in AI. How's it going?"

"Huh? Not borrowing people? You're asking about AI?"

Benedict was surprised.

"I remember you once told me that your StarCraft AI, the one meant to beat pro players, was almost finished. I'd like to see what you've accomplished."

"Oh... that. The results are mostly there, but there's still... one small gap."

"A gap? What kind?"

"It's... funding."

Benedict hesitated.

Ayano understood. "You're short on money? Didn't Stanford keep supporting you?"

"They think our progress is too slow. They're getting impatient and have paused funding for now. But this is the exact stage where we need more computing power and better equipment..."

"I'll sponsor you."

"Eh?"

"Oh, sorry—let me clarify. Gamestar Electronic Entertainment will sponsor your research. But before that, our president Takayuki has one request. Specifically, he wants your team to first..."

But Benedict couldn't hear the rest.

His mind was already stuck on a single phrase:

"Gamestar Electronic Entertainment will sponsor your research."

Just like that, all the gloom that had clouded his heart... was gone.