Video Game Tycoon in Tokyo-Chapter 827: Slapping Myself in the Face

Black ultimately rejected Peter's request.

Even Peter's promise to try to lobby more votes for Black was useless.

Black clearly understood the stakes.

To Peter, this was just another excuse to make noise and gain some attention. But he clearly didn't realize just how tough Gamestar Electronic Entertainment could be with people like him.

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Nor did he seem to understand the true influence of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.

Before all this, he barely even knew anything about video games—just vaguely that there was a company called Gamestar making them.

In the end, Black casually suggested they play a round of golf sometime to keep up appearances and make sure Peter wouldn't immediately throw all his votes behind his opponent.

But Peter still went to Black's rival.

Since Black wouldn't act, Peter figured he could still use his votes as leverage to raise his organization's profile.

At this point, he also started to realize that Gamestar Electronic Entertainment wasn't a company to mess with lightly.

Which, in his mind, meant it was all the more important to deal with them seriously.

If he could take down a company of that size, it would skyrocket his organization's visibility.

After all, in the past, he'd already forced numerous mid-sized film and media companies to bow to public pressure, gaining him quite a bit of attention and boosting the reputation of his organization, attracting people to join and seek "safety in numbers."

So now he was planning to pull the same move again.

At first, Black's opponent was just as warm and enthusiastic.

But as soon as they found out the target was Gamestar Electronic Entertainment, they immediately declined—faster than Black had.

At least Black was polite about it. His opponent didn't even bother.

Peter was furious.

And worse was yet to come.

The article he had just published was blocked by Facebook within half a day, hidden from public view.

The reason given: the post was too controversial and sparked unnecessary flame wars.

And it wasn't because of Gamestar's influence over Facebook—it was simply because thousands of gamers had found the article almost immediately and flooded the comments with ridicule and rebuttals, reducing Peter's argument to dust.

"Where did this guy even come from? You clearly know nothing about games."

"We're just trying to unwind and enjoy ourselves. Just because we play a game like this doesn't mean we go around murdering people in real life."

"Funny thing, I do enjoy causing mayhem in the game—but in real life, I'm a judge. You think I'd really act that way outside of a video game?"

"You sound like you've got some obsessive disorder. Maybe go see a therapist. And don't even try to use insurance—it'd be too embarrassing if word got out."

By now, the gaming community had grown huge.

There were veteran gamers who had been playing for over a decade, and new players just discovering video games for the first time.

But they all shared one common trait: they loved video games.

If Peter had raised a valid point, maybe they would've heard him out.

But claiming that violent video games directly lead to real-world crime? That was absurd.

Some commenters even wrote thousand-word rebuttals, citing research and statistics about crime rates since the rise of video games—clearly showing that crime had actually gone down over the years.

That's because restless, bored people were now fully immersed in the captivating worlds of games.

In games, you could do whatever you wanted without worrying about jail time—why bother with crime in real life?

This might not stop true sociopaths, but it definitely drained the energy of troublemakers who were simply looking for something to do.

And it wasn't just in the U.S.

In the UK, where football hooliganism used to be rampant, many of those troublemakers switched to gaming once video games became popular.

Instead of rioting in the streets after their favorite team lost, they'd jump into a game and win it back virtually.

"See? Under my leadership, our team is the champion!" That kind of satisfaction made them far less likely to pick fights in real life—and public safety improved.

All these comments were now hidden from public view. Only Peter could see them.

Staring at his locked article and the thousands of angry comments beneath it, Peter's mood plummeted.

Initially, he just wanted to stir up a little attention by criticizing a single video game.

Well, he got attention—but it was all hate.

To make matters worse, he even recognized dozens of his own followers among the angry commenters—some of them members of his organization.

But as soon as he attacked Gamestar, they all turned on him, blasting him in the comments and saying they were quitting the group.

"If your organization attacks our favorite games, then it clearly has no taste. We're done here."

Reading that, Peter almost coughed up blood.

And yet—this was just a minor episode.

Not even worth Gamestar CEO Takayuki's time.

People like Peter? There were too many of them to keep track of. Wasting time on them would be pointless.

The best response was to slap them in the face with incredible games.

He'd done it before—with Bayonetta, NieR: Automata, and many others that left his critics speechless.

Now, he'd keep doing the same. Making money while earning prestige.

There were just too many people in this world with a double standard—talking about "doing the right thing" while still secretly loving pretty characters and stylish action.

If he ever followed their advice and started putting ugly characters as game protagonists, he wouldn't even be able to get past his own standards.

At this moment, Takayuki wasn't thinking about petty dramas—he had something new, and far more exciting on his mind.

VR.

After years of technological advancement, the world had finally developed its own native VR tech.

And some companies had already started promoting and researching it heavily.

Takayuki's interest was immediately piqued.