When I woke up, our boss had disappeared.

'Is this a dream?'

It wasn't a dream.

The director, who had been fighting with the fans for the past few days, had disappeared.

Obviously, he didn't resign. He just went back to where he was originally working.

As it turned out, it seemed that the director was about to flee with his portfolio.

According to what I heard from the working-level staff, he originally intended to leave after only one year.

In the middle of that, a dispute with the fans arose, so he discussed with the people above using that as an excuse and fled.

And of course, the collaboration between TeStar and the game that was included in the director's portfolio...

...It went on. the contract was already signed.

'Fuck.'

That said, I couldn't whine at the fans who liked me and sent the director away, and ask them to do something about this.

I accepted reality and started getting ready to go out.

Today was Friday when the meeting was scheduled.

* * *

"Hello~ I'm a big fan!"

"Hello!"

"Hello!"

The two people, a man and a woman, we met at the meeting gave a rather calm impression. It was to the point that I felt sorry for expecting them to look like scammers.

Besides, they seemed to be a bit dazed, as if the collaboration was sudden to them.

"Well... Should we start by explaining our game?"

"Yes, yes!"

"I'm all ears."

"Yes, then..."

What followed... sounded quite unique and fun.

That was also surprising.

'Hoo.'

"...So, the main story of the game is the story of the main character exploring Seoul, which was destroyed by a mysterious substance from a meteorite. It is a roguelike adventure game where you meet various factions in Seoul and your friends and abilities change depending on your choices."

"It sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Ah, thank you."

Kim Raebin was the first to applaud.

This... was a sign that everything would really be fine.

Did this mean that what the director of the headquarters threw at us may not be trash but high-quality beef?

Besides, these people were quite friendly. It wasn't that they were friendly with just their words, but that they had goodwill that can be used for work.

"To be honest... we didn't have enough time to investigate for this collaboration since we received it all of a sudden, but when we checked the fundamental information... the 'Magical Boy' that you created was really cool."

"Oh, thank you. We also want to check out the game soon. I think it will be really fun."

"Ah, then wait a minute... Would you like to try playing it?"

"What?"

"We're fixing some bugs but it's already playable! There will be no problems with the progress."

A smartphone device came out of the arms of the person sitting on the left. It was a large Android model.

The person who turned on the game screen by touching the smartphone handed it to Ryu Chungwoo.

"Ah..."

"Me! I'll do it!"

Ryu Chungwoo, who took it a little awkwardly, became puzzled by Cha Yujin's earnest request.

However, he thought that it would be better for someone who was good and fun to do it and soon handed over the smartphone with a request.

"Use it carefully."

"Yeah!!"

Cha Yujin quickly received it and started the game with his eyes shining. The rest of the members began to look at the screen curiously.

'...I think they're excited, too.'

I also looked into the screen while conscious of the two excited and nervous people looking at TeStar.

Perhaps because of the high degree of freedom and being on mobile, it was difficult to implement everything in detail, so the game proceeded with text, graphics, and illustrations alternately.

However, it was very sophisticated and conceptual.

Besides, it was fun. The composition of gathering allies and clearing the story chapter was quite good.

'This... is going to work.'

It was a quality that made me understand why T1 wanted to take it over.

'...But where can you put the idol promotions here?'

The mere thought of it made me speechless.

Anyway, Cha Yujin shouted excitedly after finishing chapter 1 in an instant.

"It's so much fun!"

"Ooh~"

"Thank you."

The two struggled to get the smartphone back from Cha Yujin, who was disappointed about it.

And they said with a smile on their face.

"How was it? Was there any part that made you think it would be nice to do the collaboration on this?"

"...Umm."

"I think we'll have to think about that from now on."

"...As expected, right? We will think about it too."

It was a situation that everyone expected, so there was nothing to be solemn about.

Still, it was a great harvest just because the game wasn't a failure.

"Thank you."

"See you next time."

The first meeting ended with an ambiguous conversation of 'Let's think about it individually.' However, the atmosphere was fine perhaps because the outlook was not bad in its own way.

"I think it would be nice to change the background music of the game and use it as the title song."

"...Isn't that an advertisement so it wouldn't be able to be aired on music shows?"

"Gasp."

Kim Raebin, who was drawing out a picture as if he had been inspired in his own way, was troubled by Lee Sejin's point.

And I was a little relieved.

'For now, our brand image won't be destroyed.'

The points may fall after being criticized for being unreasonable, but I didn't think it would be ridiculous enough that it would interfere with the release of the next album.

'The question now is what kind of collaboration we're doing.'

Discussions were held on this subject as soon as we entered the dorm.

First of all, Ryu Chungwoo delivered the suggestions he heard from working-level staff at the company.

"Wouldn't exchanging the B-side track and the game background music be the cleanest way? ...Is the current opinion."

"Well, that's easy."

There was no one like the director to interfere, so it was said that we should just make a collaboration with that pattern and finish it in moderation.

'I can feel the sorrow of office workers.'

But unexpectedly Keun Sejin laughed and shook his head.

"Eyy~ Then wouldn't we be the only ones who have to work too hard?"

"Oh...?"

"Both are related to music! It seems that only the AR team and us will suffer... Well, I think the other side should bring something here, too. "

That's right.

'It's not that there's no loss, it's that we've reached the point where we have to make a profit.'

Certainly, if we went ahead with it like that, the work would be added to us and only the game company would end up enjoy feasting on the profits. It was because the game could receive the promotional effects thanks to our popularity but TeStar collaborating with a game that has not been released yet would not benefit us even with the recognition gained through it.

'...It's rare for gamers to become a fan of idols because of the BGM.'

"Then what's your opinion?"

"I'm saying let's think about it from now on. If we have to work anyway, I'd also like to be the one to taste the reward."

"Hmm."

And just as people were about to sink into their thoughts, Lee Sejin opened his mouth with a quiet voice.

"...Let's just leave it to the people at the company. Isn't it strange that we're busy preparing an album, and they're even asking us to decide on how to collaborate?"

"Hyung, then the amount of work..."

"That's for the AR team to figure out. We just have to say we're going to record."

Lee Sejin just cut it off.

"In the first place... this situation is strange. Why are rookies like us making and deciding on things like this? It's not like the company doesn't have any money."

It was so true that I just wanted to agree with it.

Lee Sejin, who rarely talked this much, was breathing heavily. He probably poured out what he had been thinking all along.

Then Cha Yujin answered brightly.

"But I want to do something else! Doing BGM is not fun."

Lee Sejin stopped and closed his eyes.

'Oh, dear.'

But it was much better now that he didn't flee from here.

"Okay, then let's do a majority vote, right? Who wants to come up with a new collaboration theme, hands up!"

Surprisingly, everyone except Lee Sejin and me raised their hands.

'Annoying punks.'

Except for Keun Sejin, their reasons must be because 'I want to challenge myself' or because 'I want to create a great work' rather than making a profit.

Meanwhile, Keun Sejin pretended to be surprised.

"Oh my, Moondae doesn't want to do it?"

"No, I hold off. If a good opinion comes up then let's go with that or let's just make the BGM."

"Okay. Let's just proceed like that for now."

Ryu Chungwoo changed the subject again.

"Now, what are the advantages that our group can get from collaborating with the game?"

"...C-can you appear on the game?"

"Money? ...Is out of the question. The contract is already done."

"Yes, neither of them seems to be relevant this time. There's no way they can put us in the game when the launch is just around the corner."

Well, he's right.

Even if they had enough time, they wouldn't want to suddenly add a celebrity character right after the release of the game that seemed to have been painstakingly crafted with a vision in mind.

'...Wait a minute.'

...Can't you think of this in reverse?

"How about this?"

"Huh?"

"Let's not ask to include us as characters, but let's pick the character and use them."

"...?"

I pointed my finger at the smartphone.

"Why don't we pick out the game characters that resemble us the most and choose a sub-song with them?"

"...!"

"Since it's not the title song, it doesn't matter if it can't be aired on the broadcasts. We can just target WeTube which is a big deal by itself these days with the cable channels."

A well-made game IP, it just meant to suck it up with our vision.

* * *

"That... Are you asking for a list of associated characters?"

"Yes."

"Uh..."

The people at the game company we met again were taken aback by the sudden proposal.

They exchanged glances and answered in a slightly reluctant voice.

"Umm...we do have a character drawing system to generate revenue."

"Yes."

"Well, all the character elements are random..."

"...!!"

It meant picking randomly generated characters.

"But I saw an illustration."

"That was chosen through cartoon rendering... Well, anyway, you can see that it was also made randomly!"

"..."

I didn't expect to get stuck here.

Then, Kim Raebin raised his hand.

"...So the allies Cha Yujin used are not fixed, and the name changes every time?"

"...!!"

"We had to make the main character explore Seoul alone... Haha."

Those ones were the only fixed allies, and the people sitting in front were just laughing.

"I hate dying..."

Cha Yujin suddenly became depressed. He seemed to have grown attached.

Then I realized.

'...? Then can't we just use those ones?'

When I turned my head, everyone except Cha Yujin had the same thought on their faces.

'...There happen to be seven people.'

Thanks to the fact that this game had a party of 4 people, the number of tutorials was set to 8 people including the main character.

Ryu Chungwoo carefully brought it up.

"...Can we use some of those characters?"

"Uh, what?"

"Ah, so... we were going to take on the roles of the characters one by one and make a song and a performance."

"..."

'They might not like it.'

If they also received a call for the collaboration in a hurry, they might say that they didn't want the involvement to be this much.

'If so then calmly talk about the BGM...'

"Oh my god!"

"...?"

"We love it!"

"...!!"

"If we have enough time and budget then we would like to do a project like that!"

Following the excited woman, the man shouted with his fists clenched.

"Our children are going to come out as 3D...!"

"..."

I was glad we seemed to be on the same page.

Unexpectedly, the collaboration seemed to go smoothly.