Time passed slowly after Ryan discovered the system. At first he had been extremely excited, but that excitement quickly faded whenever he saw the 50% progress on the system interface. No matter what he tried, the system did not respond further.
Life returned to its normal rhythm.
Ryan continued going to school every day while managing his company and the manga work in the background. During this time his relationship with Rachel also grew closer. At school they could often be seen walking together or holding hands while talking. Their friends had already noticed the change.
Of course, no one knew about the kiss that had happened on the bus that day.
Sometimes when Ryan's parents were not home Rachel would come to visit him. They spent time talking, watching movies and occasionally cuddling together. But they never crossed the line. They both knew they were still children, and Ryan's mental age was already over thirty from his previous life. He had no intention of doing anything irresponsible.
Because of the system Ryan also started taking his physical condition more seriously. If he was going to explore unknown worlds one day, his body could not remain weak. He began exercising regularly and even started basic martial arts training.
While all of this was happening, nearly two months passed.
During this period Ryan also realized he could not personally manage everything at Nova Tech anymore. Between school, the manga production and the handheld project, it had become impossible for him to supervise the company properly. After discussing it with his parents he decided to recruit a professional CEO.
The person they hired was Tim Drake. Tim had previously worked as a vice president in a technology company. The company was not very famous, but Tim had a strong reputation for management and product strategy. Due to internal conflicts he had left his previous job, and Nova Tech became his new opportunity.
Under Tim's management the company quickly became more organized.
Meanwhile Ryan had continued drawing manga at an incredible speed. By this point he had already completed over 500 chapters combined for Pokémon, Naruto and One Piece. However, less than a hundred chapters had actually been published so far. Because of this huge backlog Ryan temporarily stopped drawing new chapters.
The focus of Nova Tech had now shifted almost entirely to the Nova Handheld.
During the last two months the development team had completed several simple games for the device. Creating them had been relatively easy since the programmers had already gained experience while developing Pokémon Red.
The small game lineup now included a block puzzle game, a space shooter, a snake survival game, a simple platform adventure and a farming simulation called Farm Valley. At the same time the developers had begun working on new versions of Pokémon, including Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Yellow, while Pokémon Red was already finished.
The factory in Japan had also finished its renovation. Ryan's father had managed to acquire the struggling factory for only three hundred thousand dollars, and after upgrading the machines the total investment had reached roughly five hundred thousand dollars.
Production finally began.
The factory had two assembly lines dedicated to the Nova Handheld. Each line could produce around three thousand handhelds per day, meaning the total daily production was about six thousand devices.
Three additional lines were used for game cartridges. One line focused on Pokémon Red and produced about eight thousand cartridges per day, while the other two lines produced the smaller launch titles and future games, bringing the total cartridge production to around twenty thousand units daily.
Manufacturing costs were carefully calculated. Each handheld cost about 35 dollars to produce, while the cartridges ranged between 10 and 14 dollars depending on the game.
After long discussions the retail prices were decided.
The Nova Handheld would sell for 100 dollars, and the games would be priced between 25 and 30 dollars.
By the time the release date approached, Nova Tech had already produced nearly four hundred thousand Nova Handheld units.
The factory in Japan had also manufactured more than 1.3 million game cartridges, 400,000 handheld ,including over five hundred thousand copies of Pokémon Red.
For a small company like Nova Tech, this was an enormous production run.
The official release date was set for August 5, 1995.
As the date approached, Nova Tech began an aggressive publicity campaign. Advertisements appeared in manga magazines, gaming magazines and toy stores. Posters of Pokémon characters appeared across comic shops and arcades. Dawn Publishing used the popularity of the Pokémon manga to promote the upcoming game, while Hasbro began displaying Pokémon toys alongside advertisements for the Nova Handheld.
Demo booths were also set up in several stores where children could see early gameplay demonstrations. Small local tournaments were organized where players could try the game.
Because of these promotions, curiosity about Nova Tech's handheld device grew rapidly.
Eventually the day of the press conference arrived.
Although Nova Tech was still a relatively small company, the marketing campaign had attracted a surprising amount of attention. Journalists, gaming reporters and even representatives from major game companies attended the event.
Among them were representatives from Nintendo.
They were particularly interested in the Nova Handheld because its design resembled the Game Boy Pocket, and rumors had spread that Nova Tech was developing a monster-catching game similar to a concept discovered earlier in Japan.
However, that Japanese concept had never secured trademarks. Ryan had already registered all trademarks for Pokémon and its characters long ago when the manga began publication.
When the conference began, Tim Drake walked onto the stage under the bright lights.
He adjusted the microphone and looked at the audience before speaking.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. Nova Tech may be a young company, but we believe the future of gaming lies in portability and imagination. For too long players have been limited by hardware that cannot fully realize the ideas of developers."
He paused briefly.
"Today we are proud to introduce something new."
"The Nova Handheld."
Images of the device appeared on the screen behind him.
"With a compact design, long battery life and multiplayer connectivity, this device allows players to enjoy games anywhere."
"But great hardware means nothing without great games."
"And that is why we are launching with an adventure that has already captured the imagination of readers around the world."
The screen suddenly showed footage of Pokémon Red.
"A world where players explore, capture creatures and battle their friends."
"We believe this experience will redefine portable gaming."
The audience began clapping as the demonstration continued.
Soon the conference moved into the question-and-answer session.
A reporter asked, "Why should players choose Nova Handheld instead of existing portable consoles?"
Tim replied calmly, "Because we focus on gameplay innovation. Players will not only play alone, they will be able to connect devices, battle friends and trade Pokémon with each other."
Another journalist asked how many games would be available at launch.
Tim answered that six games would be available immediately and more titles were already under development.
A fan in the audience asked loudly whether multiplayer battles were possible.
Tim smiled.
"Yes. Using the link cable, players can battle and trade Pokémon directly between two Nova Handheld devices."
Excitement spread across the room.
When the conference finally ended, a representative from Nintendo approached Tim privately.
"We're interested in your technology," the man said.
"Nintendo would like to purchase the rights to your handheld and your game."
Tim shook his head politely.
"I'm afraid Nova Tech is not interested in selling."
The man frowned.
"You should reconsider. The handheld market is not easy for small companies."
Tim simply smiled.
"Thank you for your concern."
"But Nova Tech will manage just fine."
The Nintendo representative left without another word.
The real competition had just begun.