At six o'clock, Ichin clocked out with everyone and left work. He brought Utaha along and invited Kō Yagami and Rin Toyama to have dinner together.
After some back and forth, they finally settled on a lively family restaurant and ordered a variety of food.
Taking a bite of pizza, Ichin said, "Kō, you'll be handling interviews tomorrow too. Some artists are coming in."
"Ugh, interviews… I'm really not good at those," Kō said as she scratched her head. She had already reviewed the resumes—five applicants for three open positions. As the head of the art team, it was her job to help screen them.
Rin, seeing Kō's troubled expression, chuckled. "Don't worry, Kō. I'll be helping too. Besides reviewing their portfolios, we can have them draw something on the spot. That'll give us a clear picture of their skills."
"Oh, that works? Yeah, that sounds like the easiest and most straightforward way!"
Hearing Rin's suggestion, Kō perked up. She picked up her fork and happily dug into her pasta.
Utaha, who hadn't had the chance to look at the resumes because she'd been busy with the script, grew curious after listening to their conversation. She looked at Ichin and asked, "Ichin, are all the applicants female? Or are there guys too?"
"There are both," Ichin replied straightforwardly. "Now that our scale is bigger, I can't do things like back in Eagle Jump where we only hired women. That all-female team was something only Hazuki could pull off, and it took a long time to build. But when it comes to hiring, as long as someone's qualified, I don't care if the leads like Kō want to choose only women—I won't interfere."
Ichin's criteria were simple: he didn't want people with personality issues—no loners or hot-tempered types. For example, even though Hifumi was a bit socially anxious, she still tried her best to engage with others.
As for skills, once someone passed the personality check, their gender didn't matter. Ichin would even welcome a crossdresser if they were good at their job.
After all, there were already a few flamboyant personalities in the studio. Having a crossdresser around might even add some diversity to the mix.
---
Tuesday, 1:45 p.m.
Fifteen minutes before the 2:00 interviews. The applicants had already started arriving one by one.
Most were dressed in formal business attire. Only a few came in casual clothes, but they all looked calm and composed.
Slouched over a desk, Shinoda Hajime watched as the interviewees were led to the conference room by Rin. She turned to Yun Iijima beside her and asked, "Yun, what do you think of these candidates?"
"How would I know just by looking? I've never been in charge of interviews. But you—if someone applies for the motion design role later, you'll definitely have to help with interviews."
"Ah… that's true!"
Realizing that, Hajime glanced toward Rin emerging from the conference room and whispered, "Do you think I should sit in today to get some experience?"
Just then, Umiko walked by with a fresh cup of coffee and overheard her. "You can if you want. Just tell Rin. Worst case, you won't need to say anything during the interview."
"Hehe, in that case, I won't hold back!"
Grinning, Hajime stood up and ran over to Rin's side.
"She's really excited, even though it's not her team that's hiring." Yun Iijima shook her head, then turned to Umiko. "Umiko, have the programmer applicants arrived yet?"
"They have," Umiko nodded. "I saw two of them—both girls. One looks pretty ordinary. But the other… stands out."
"Stands out?"
"Yeah," Umiko said with a smile, giving Yun's outfit a once-over. "I think you two would get along quite well."
"Eh?"
—
2:10 p.m.
After finishing up the interview with the first female programmer in the finance room that had been temporarily repurposed, the next candidate knocked on the door and stepped inside.
Looking at the girl in front of her, dressed in a black long dress with meticulously styled princess curls, Umiko nodded and said,
"Miss Kuroneko Gokou, correct? Please have a seat."
"Thank you," Kuroneko replied, her face showing a hint of nervousness as she sat down in the chair, placing her hands neatly on her knees.
Noticing her posture, Umiko picked up the résumé beside her and said,
"No need to be so nervous. We're just going to have a simple chat first. Let me introduce myself—I'm Umiko Abogane, head of the programming team here at the studio. We actually have three other university students like you currently interning part-time with us, so don't worry too much about whether you'll be chosen. As long as you're capable, you have a chance. Let's see... Computer Science major, currently in your third year?"
"Yes, third year," Kuroneko said, relaxing a little.
"But I've already started self-studying the senior year courses. The academics aren't too challenging for me, so I can dedicate more time to work."
"Oh?"
Umiko glanced at the petite girl with a bit of surprise.
Could she be a genius like Sakura Nene?
If so, that would definitely be a good thing.
"I noticed on your résumé that you haven't interned or studied at any other companies. Why did you choose to apply to us directly? After all, there are plenty of game development companies in the industry that are much larger than ours."
"Because of the games."
Kuroneko answered without hesitation,
"I've played both of the games developed by your studio, and I love them—especially Hollow Knight. I've completed 100% runs three times already. And with the newest update, I'm currently ranked in the top ten on the leaderboard! Since I've been thinking about my future employment after graduation, I've been checking job postings in my free time. I happened to see the studio's recruitment notice, so I came!"
Top ten on the leaderboard?
Umiko looked at Kuroneko with wide eyes—was she seriously a top-tier gamer too?
After Hollow Knight's update, everyone at the studio had taken on the challenge, but the leaderboard was global, and there were far too many elite players worldwide. Even their top talents like Sakura Nene and Hajime Shinoda had only managed to reach the top 100 at best.
Top ten? Just how skilled was she?
Whoa, getting distracted—this was still an interview.
Shaking her head, Umiko looked back at Kuroneko and said,
"Understood. Thank you so much for your passion for our games. Now, let's move on to the next part of the interview."
She opened the laptop beside her and gestured for Kuroneko to come over.
"Come here and try to find and fix the bug in this piece of code. You've got ten minutes."
Whether she had the skills—they were about to find out.
...
✨✨✨
Support me on Patreon/RedX43 - Read up to 40+ Advanced Chapters There!
✨✨✨