Hanging up the phone, he leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.
Then he picked up the internal line and dialed straight to the computer software development team.
The call was answered almost immediately.
"Section Chief Nohara," Takuya Nakayama said quietly, his voice carrying clearly through the receiver, "get ready. The final exam is coming."
"Exam?" Nohara still sounded slightly euphoric from the project's recent success. "Executive Director, don't worry! The servers are rock-solid! Do you mean—there's some new feature you want added last-minute? No problem! We'll get it done!"
Takuya's fingers tapped lightly on the desk.
"No new features," he cut him off calmly. "Professor Jun Murai and the WIDE Project team will be here tomorrow. They'll be monitoring the test in person."
The other end of the line went silent.
When Nohara finally spoke again, his voice was tight—like a bowstring drawn to its limit.
"E-Executive Director… you mean t-tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow."
"Yes, sir!" Nohara snapped to attention so suddenly it was audible. "Understood! I'll recheck all server logs, go through every cable connection, ensure everything is absolutely perfect! The software will not fail—not on my watch!"
"I'm confident in the server," Takuya said, then shifted topics. "The other matter—the email client I told your team to finish. How is it?"
At that, Nohara's voice filled with renewed confidence and pride.
"Reporting, sir! Everything's complete! The first test batch of one hundred floppy disks, along with the detailed user manual we stayed up several nights to write, has all been packed! Five boxes total—twenty sets per box. They're neatly stacked in the development department."
"Good." Takuya chuckled. "Now, take two of those treasured boxes and bring them out."
Nohara froze. "Bring them out? Sir, are we…?"
"One box goes to Professor Murai and the WIDE Project tomorrow. The other—send it to Tokyo Tech, to Professor Yonezawa and those two brilliant students who helped us so much."
"Of course! A small token of appreciation!" Nohara replied immediately.
"Appreciation, yes." Takuya's voice lowered, carrying an unquestionable weight. "Nohara—when you deliver them, tell Professor Murai, and make sure Professor Yonezawa hears this too: other than what they keep for their own use, the rest of the software can be given freely to their friends, colleagues, and peers."
"Eh?" Nohara was completely stunned. "Give them… away? Sir, but we worked so hard—"
"We've built the road," Takuya said with a soft laugh. "Now we need people to actually drive on it. Professor Murai's group are giants of the academic world. Professor Yonezawa's circle is filled with top engineers and scholars. If they hand out our 'car keys' to the people who best understand cars… Tell me, doesn't that PR effect beat spending tens of millions of yen on newspaper ads?"
On the other end of the line, Nohara's breath caught.
He finally understood.
The Executive Director had never cared about the tiny profit from selling a few hundred copies. From the start, his aim was to let the top of Japan's technological pyramid scatter SEGA's software like dandelion seeds—across the entire academic and engineering landscape.
This—this was recruiting Japan's elite as their users, without spending a single yen!
"I—I understand!" Nohara's voice trembled with excitement. "Sir, I'll take care of it! Personally!"
—
The next day, the atmosphere in SEGA's headquarters grew tense as Jun Murai and his group arrived.
Director Yoshikawa waited for them at the elevator himself.
Takuya guided Murai and the core WIDE Project experts straight into the International Logistics and Dispatch division.
No small talk. No greetings.
This was a surprise inspection.
The moment they stepped in, Murai halted mid-stride.
The chaotic scene he imagined—fax machines shrieking, staff hurrying with stacks of documents—was nowhere to be found.
Instead, the room was calm and efficient. Only the crisp clatter of keyboards and the soft clicks of mice filled the air.
Several veteran logistics employees sat at their computers, working smoothly within the now-familiar email client interface.
"Section Chief Higashijo," said a young bespectacled specialist behind Murai. Clearly prepared for this visit, he pointed at a file attachment on one worker's screen. "If such a large goods list gets corrupted… or the recipient claims they never got the attachment—how do you confirm? A fax at least leaves a physical record."
Higashijo, an almost twenty-year veteran and once the person least confident in the system, didn't panic at all.
Instead, he skillfully clicked the mouse and opened the email's "delivery details."
"Mr. Takahashi, look here." He pointed at a line of small text, unable to fully hide his pride. "A read receipt—accurate to the second. We know exactly when the U.S. side opened the email. As for the attachment, we agreed with them to generate an MD5 checksum before sending and include it in the message. They compare it on their end—it takes half a second to confirm whether the file is intact. Try to dispute that? Not a chance."
The young expert blinked, pushed up his glasses, and studied the timestamp and MD5 utility with a frown—until he had nothing left to say.
It was the newest file verification method this year. And extremely reliable.
Another WIDE team member approached a female staff worker who was rapidly checking order data sent from the U.S. using the client's built-in spreadsheet tool.
"H-how long… did this used to take you?"
"Before?" She didn't look up, fingers dancing over the keys. "Calculator and ruler, line by line. Fastest—one morning. Slow—an entire afternoon. But now—" She pressed the final Enter key. A green 'MATCHED' popped onto the screen. Only then did she glance up with a relaxed smile. "Five minutes."
"Five… minutes?!"
Everyone in the WIDE Project heard it. They turned their heads in shock.
Theoretical efficiency was one thing. Watching an ordinary staffer finish half a day's work in five minutes—that was far more convincing than any report.
Time ticked by. Before lunchtime, the logistics team had already finished processing the most important trans-Pacific documents of the morning. Some employees were preparing the physical inventory lists for afternoon checks. Others were quietly chatting in the break area, coffee in hand.
Murai's gaze swept across the office.
It finally settled on the clock on the wall.
11:25 a.m.
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