Chapter 1392 1310 Zaboru Reason

Saturday, 14 December 2001.

Almost midnight.

Zaboru had only just returned to the Renkonan household after another long day of work. Tomorrow would be his birthday, and although a small celebration had already been prepared for him at the Hamazou headquarters, the house itself was quiet now. Zenshin and Arumi were already asleep, and most of the lights had been turned off.

Only Ayumi was still awake.

The moment Zaboru entered, he saw her waiting near the living room. Her pregnancy had become increasingly obvious now, especially with twins, and that immediately made him frown. He placed his belongings down and sighed. "Ayumi, you should be resting. Seriously, I can handle all of this myself."

Ayumi only chuckled as she walked toward him anyway. She helped take off his jacket, tidied a few of the things he had brought home, and then wrapped both arms around him. "I already slept for quite a while before you came back, Zabo. Don't worry." She rested against his chest for a moment before adding more softly, "I just missed you."

Zaboru immediately relaxed and gently caressed her hair. "You're unusually clingy tonight. Are you secretly trying to get development advice from me?"

Ayumi pulled back just enough to pout at him. "Hmph. I just said I missed you, fool."

Zaboru laughed. "Okay, okay."

Ayumi chuckled again before heading toward the kitchen. She had already prepared food for him earlier: a large tray of lasagna, fried fish, and mushroom soup. The smell reached Zaboru almost immediately, and his expression changed.

"Damn…"

Ayumi glanced back with amusement.

Zaboru rubbed his hands together and grinned. "I'm definitely destroying all of that."

"I assumed you would."

A few minutes later, Zaboru was already seated at the dining table and eating at the speed Ayumi had long since stopped finding unusual.

She sat beside him with one hand resting comfortably over her stomach and watched him for a while before finally asking, "Say, Zabo… why did you make that video about OssMON?"

Zaboru slowed slightly and looked toward her.

Ayumi continued, "It became really popular. Especially because people are comparing it with that Dark Guild situation. You refused to review Dark Guild, but then you suddenly reviewed a third-party ZGBA game and publicly defended it." She tilted her head and smiled faintly. "And you looked concerned in the video."

Zaboru paused with his fork halfway toward his mouth. "How do you know I looked concerned?"

Ayumi immediately laughed. "Zabo, I know your face."

"That sounds threatening."

"I'm your wife. Of course I know the expressions you make." She leaned slightly closer. "You had that look you get when something bothers you but you're trying to act casual."

Zaboru stared at her for a moment before sighing and setting his fork down. "Sigh… yeah. Fine. You got me."

Ayumi smiled triumphantly. "Hehehe."

Zaboru leaned back in his chair and became quieter.

The truth was complicated.

When he had read the angry Pokémon fan posts attacking WUGONG, something inside him immediately recognised the pattern. It reminded him too much of his previous life.

Zaboru had always loved Pokémon.

He had grown up with it, played the games, watched the anime, followed new generations, and spent countless hours collecting Pokémon like millions of other players. It had been one of the most important franchises of his old life.

But loving something had never meant pretending it was perfect.

By the later years of his previous life, Pokémon had become frustrating for him.

The franchise remained enormously successful, but some releases felt increasingly safe, technically weak, or unwilling to push far beyond the formula that had made Pokémon famous decades earlier.

Then Palworld appeared in early 2024.

Zaboru remembered playing it and immediately feeling something he had not felt from a monster-catching game in a long time.

Excitement.

It was ridiculous.

Creatures.

Guns.

Base building.

Survival systems.

Exploration.

Automation.

A sandbox structure.

Palworld was not trying to become Pokémon.

It borrowed obvious ideas from the monster-catching genre, but then threw those ideas into a completely different type of game.

Zaboru had loved that.

Unfortunately, he also remembered how aggressively parts of the Pokémon community reacted.

Some criticisms were reasonable. Certain creature designs genuinely looked suspiciously close to Pokémon, and discussions about artistic inspiration were fair.

But much of the reaction had gone far beyond that.

People acted as though Pokémon owned the entire idea of catching creatures.

Any similar mechanic became theft.

Any monster design with even slight similarities became proof of copying.

And some fans behaved with an arrogance Zaboru had always disliked—the idea that because Pokémon was the biggest franchise in the genre, everyone else needed permission to experiment within the same space.

That attitude bothered him deeply.

Now he was seeing the earliest version of that same mentality forming around OssMON.

The situation was different, but the seed looked familiar.

And Zaboru did not want that seed to grow.

He obviously could not tell Ayumi any of this.

Palworld did not exist yet.

The Pokémon games he remembered criticizing would not exist for decades.

And explaining why the OssMON controversy reminded him of something that happened in 2024 would create far more questions than he could answer.

So instead, Zaboru chose the truth he could safely explain.

He looked toward Ayumi and asked, "Ayumi… you know how much I love video games, right?"

Ayumi smiled immediately and nodded. "Obviously."

Zaboru raised an eyebrow. "That fast?"

Ayumi chuckled and replied, "Zabo, sometimes I think you treat video games like another child."

He laughed.

She continued warmly, "You want them to grow. You want more people creating them. You deliberately made ZAGE patent some mechanics just so other companies couldn't lock them away, and then you made those patents available so everyone could still use the ideas. You review obscure games nobody has heard about. You promote smaller developers when you think they deserve attention." Ayumi smiled. "So yes, I know."

Zaboru looked down at his food and chuckled quietly. "Yeah… I guess I'm not very subtle."

"No."

He leaned back again and became more thoughtful. "That's basically why I made the video."

Ayumi waited.

Zaboru slowly looked toward the dark window beside them before continuing. "I don't want games to stop evolving because one company becomes successful and then everyone becomes scared to touch the same ideas."

Ayumi's expression softened.

Zaboru explained, "Pokémon created something incredible. But that doesn't mean Pokémon should become the only game allowed to have monster collecting. If another developer sees Pokémon and thinks, 'I want to make my own version of this idea,' I want them to try." He smiled faintly. "Maybe they fail. Maybe they make garbage. Maybe they make something completely insane like old-man monsters with back pain."

Ayumi laughed.

"But maybe," Zaboru continued, "they create something nobody expected. And then another developer gets inspired by them. That's how games grow."

He picked up his fork again but did not continue eating yet.

"The thing that scares me isn't another company making something similar to ZAGE. I actually like that. Competition makes things interesting." Zaboru's voice became slightly more serious. "What scares me is when a community becomes so proud of one franchise that they start attacking everything around it. When fans stop asking whether something is fun and only ask whether it threatens the thing they already love."

Ayumi nodded slowly.

Zaboru smiled. "That's why I wanted to say something early. Not because WUGONG needed my permission. They don't. But because people listen to me, and if I can stop even a small part of that mentality from spreading, then I should."

For a few seconds, Ayumi said nothing.

Then she smiled.

"Zabo…"

"Hm?"

"You really do think about games differently."

Zaboru chuckled. "I'm a gamer."

"You're slightly more than that."

"Temporary occupation."

Ayumi raised an eyebrow.

Zaboru grinned and continued, "One day, I want to retire."

That caught her attention.

Ayumi stared at him. "You?"

"Yes."

"Retire?"

"Yes."

"Zaboru Renkonan?"

He laughed. "Why does everyone act like that's impossible?"

Ayumi smiled teasingly. "Because you create a new project whenever you become bored for five minutes."

"Fair."

She laughed softly.

Zaboru looked at her again and continued, "Seriously, though… I don't want to become some seventy-year-old billionaire still sitting inside ZAGE Tower because I can't let go. I don't want to spend my entire life asking what company I should create next, what game I need to design next, or what technology needs to exist next."

His expression became surprisingly peaceful.

"One day I want to become the ultimate version of myself again."

Ayumi tilted her head. "Ultimate version?"

"Zaboru the Gamer."

She smiled.

Zaboru pointed toward himself proudly. "No CEO meetings. No international calls. No console development problems. No headaches. Just me waking up and getting excited because some game I've never heard of releases tomorrow."

He laughed before continuing, "Maybe I'll spend an entire weekend playing it with Zenshin and Arumi. Or our twins. Or grandchildren someday."

Ayumi's smile became warmer.

Zaboru stared down at his plate again. "I want to reach a point where I don't always have to think about what I should create next. I want younger developers to surprise me."

That was perhaps one of the strongest reasons behind everything he had built.

Zaboru possessed Deep Memory Dive.

He remembered countless games from another world.

He could recreate masterpieces years or decades before they originally existed.

But eventually, that knowledge would run out.

And even beyond that, Zaboru did not want gaming forever dependent on memories from a dead man's previous world.

That would defeat the entire purpose.

He wanted this world's developers to eventually surpass him.

To create games he had never seen.

Mechanics he could not predict.

Stories he did not already know.

Zaboru smiled slightly and told Ayumi, "That's my dream, I guess. I want video games to become something that doesn't need me anymore."

Ayumi looked at him for several seconds.

Zaboru continued, "Greed shouldn't be the heart of the industry. Pride shouldn't be either. Companies obviously need money. Developers deserve to make good salaries. Successful games should make profits." He shrugged. "I'm a businessman. I'm not pretending money doesn't matter."

Ayumi nodded.

"But money should be what lets you make more games," Zaboru said. "It shouldn't become the reason you stop taking risks."

He smiled.

"And communities shouldn't become armies defending corporations like religions either. If Sonaya makes an amazing game, play it. If Microsoft creates something better than us, I want people to enjoy it. If a tiny studio with thirty employees creates some weird monster RPG that makes me laugh for four hours, I'll tell people it's good."

Ayumi chuckled. "Even if they copied ideas from Pokémon?"

"Inspiration is fine."

"What if they actually copy Pokémon completely?"

"Then I'll call them lazy and inferior."

Ayumi laughed.

Zaboru finally returned to eating his lasagna.

After another large bite, he smiled and added, "Maybe when I'm old, you and I can open a tiny game shop somewhere in the mountains."

Ayumi looked at him in surprise. "A game shop?"

"Yeah."

"You own ZAGE."

"Not when I'm retired."

"You would still own it."

"I'll hire someone competent."

Ayumi laughed again.

Zaboru became more animated as he imagined it. "Think about it. Small wooden shop. Mountains outside. Shelves full of old games. Maybe an arcade cabinet in the corner. Kids come in after school and ask the weird old man what game they should buy."

Ayumi smiled brightly. "And the weird old man gives them three-hour lectures."

"Absolutely."

"They'll stop coming."

Ayumi shook her head while laughing.

Zaboru continued, "You can sit behind the counter making tea."

Ayumi narrowed her eyes. "Why am I only making tea?"

"You can recommend visual novels."

"That's better."

"And whenever somebody buys something, I'll say—"

Ayumi immediately pointed at him. "Don't."

Zaboru grinned.

"Just Buy It, Okay."

Ayumi laughed and lightly hit his arm.

For a while, neither of them spoke.

The house remained quiet around them. Their children were sleeping upstairs, and the only sounds came from Zaboru continuing to eat and the faint movement of the night outside.

Ayumi watched her husband quietly.

Zaboru had created ZAGE.

He owned one of the largest entertainment and technology empires in the world.

He influenced games, animation, technology, music, sports, internet culture, and countless other industries.

Governments knew his name.

Companies watched his decisions.

Millions of people admired him.

And yet when Zaboru imagined his ideal future, it was not sitting inside some enormous mansion surrounded by servants.

He imagined himself old.

With her.

Running a tiny game store in the mountains and recommending games to children.

Ayumi felt something warm rise in her chest.

Even after all these years, he could still make her understand another side of him.

She smiled gently and said, "You know something, Zabo?"

Zaboru looked toward her while chewing. "Hm?"

"Now I understand why nobody will reach ZAGE in video games as long as you're there."

Zaboru swallowed and raised an eyebrow. "That sounds dramatic."

"I mean it." Ayumi rested one hand against his arm. "Other companies can have talented developers. They can have money, technology, and good executives. But I don't think many people love and respect games the way you do."

Zaboru chuckled and shook his head. "There are definitely people who love games as much as I do."

"Maybe."

"There are probably people who love them more."

Ayumi smiled. "Then what makes you different?"

Zaboru thought for a second before answering simply, "I guess I have the power to actually change things."

Ayumi looked at him.

Zaboru shrugged. "Most gamers can complain when the industry does something stupid. I'm lucky enough that when I complain, I can sometimes do something about it."

He smiled lightly. "So I should."

Ayumi's expression softened even more.

Then her eyes moved toward the clock.

11:59 PM.

She quietly watched the seconds pass.

Zaboru, completely unaware, had returned to attacking the remaining fried fish.

The minute changed.

12:00 AM.

Sunday, 15 December 2001.

Ayumi suddenly leaned toward him and whispered, "Happy birthday, Zabo."

Zaboru stopped.

Before he could answer, Ayumi gently kissed him.

For a moment, Zaboru simply stared at her.

Then he smiled.

"Thank you."

Ayumi remained close and rested her forehead lightly against his. "Twenty-seven years old."

Zaboru chuckled.

Twenty-seven.

At least physically.

Mentally, that number had become considerably more complicated a long time ago.

But he did not care.

Tomorrow—or technically later that day—there would be a small birthday celebration at Hamazou headquarters.

But right now, Zaboru did not need any of that.

His wife sat beside him.

His children were sleeping safely upstairs.

Ayumi had cooked for him.

And there was still lasagna left.

Zaboru picked up his fork again and smiled. "Best birthday already."

Ayumi laughed. "Because of me?"

Zaboru looked at her, then toward the food.

Ayumi narrowed her eyes.

Zaboru immediately corrected himself. "Because of you."

"Good answer."

He chuckled and continued eating while Ayumi rested comfortably against his shoulder and they enjoyed their midnight.

To be continued.

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