A few days had passed since the executive meeting. I realized that the boss had not assigned me a task but had essentially given me a sort of vacation.

‘Is it really okay to be this free?’

When she asked me to make  toys for the kids, my first worry was what to actually make. As I quickly figured out the day after I landed in this world, the sensibilities of children here were a complete 180 from those on Earth.

Just take the fact that our girl boss treasured a wind-up robot over all her other toys. It was quite telling.

If I couldn’t even guess what Earth kids liked, how on earth was I supposed to know the preferences of little ones in this completely different world? When I voiced this dilemma to the boss, she casually handed me an anime box.

“—Go have a look.”

“Sure thing.”

What she gave me was a Blu-ray box set of a hit anime from this world. It was the pinnacle of commercial  animation that captured the hearts of kids and drained their parents’ wallets.

Sure, the content leaned more towards the boss’s tastes, but the fact remained that it was a masterpiece. The boss said I could turn any of these into toys.

“No need to worry about copyright issues. Just buy it.”

I couldn’t help but question how this young boss knew the number one line scientists love to hear.

[Combine! It’s all about willpower!]

[Whoa-! Transformation!]

‘……Surprisingly entertaining.’

After all, just because the world was different didn’t mean the concept of fun was completely different. Unless the eras were vastly dissimilar, the time I lived in and this one were pretty similar. Sure, it felt like a bit of a step back, but…

Honestly, I should be grateful for this much. At least it was better than enduring the constant nagging under that professor who kept telling me what to do every second.

“Oh, I like that one.”

As I watched the anime, I found a character I liked and jotted down their traits. I then hopped onto the wiki to gather additional information and roughly sorted out how to build something in my head.

I would love to create a toy on par with that beam-shooting robot the boss had shown me on my first day here, but… that was simply impossible. That was territory for superpowers, not science. Didn’t it draw energy from a source called “crystal energy”?

‘If I tried to make a toy like that, it would start at an astronomical cost… Not that I’d say it wouldn’t sell, but it wouldn’t be classified as a child’s toy.’

Surely, there’s demand for such performance, but I couldn’t sell something like that calmly in a toy store. It strayed too far from the idea of creating a toy for kids.

The boss would throw a fit if I brought something like that. After all, she explicitly asked for a child’s toy, and here I come with a weapon for kids.

‘Gotta keep it reasonable. Toys don’t need too many features, anyway.’

At most, it would be about having a self-moving function, a voice feature, and limbs that could move freely.

It really wasn’t that difficult, so I quickly got to work on the prototype. In fact, it took much longer to decorate the exterior than to figure out the functions to include inside.

“—Done.”

After dedicating the entire day to making the robot, I finally created the prototype. Now all that was left was to show it to the boss for approval…

Well, I didn’t expect any issues.

This time, it was just an ordinary item.

*

“—This is the finished product?”

“Yes, boss.”

Regalia looked at the robot I had created. I was tasked with making  toys related to anime that we could immediately sell to kids, and what I came up with was an unpopular villain robot.

I could have just made a standard hero robot, but… Regalia thought this as she examined the robot, touching it here and there.

“Interesting choice to use a wind-up mechanism. Wouldn’t batteries be more convenient?”

“Well, in the original, it had a wind-up mechanism too. I aimed for original accuracy and an analog feel. Sure I could use batteries, but there aren’t really any special functions…”

“True. In the original, it was just an utterly unremarkable villain.”

Saying this, Regalia began to wind the key on the back of the robot. Once fully wound, the robot set off walking all on its own.

That was all it could do. It didn’t make sounds, run, or shoot beams from its eyes; it didn’t seem like it had any special abilities. Yet Regalia, through her experiences, was quite perceptive.

She looked at me with some hesitation.

“Sure you didn’t add any strange functions? Like suddenly blasting off with rockets and flying?”

“Oh, come on, boss. Do you have any idea how much that’d cost? I’d have to forfeit money to buy snacks for the kids just to fund that!”

“…So, that means you didn’t? You’re saying nothing weird will pop up later and surprise me?”

“Relax! Nothing like that exists.”

While I answered confidently, Regalia felt a bit uneasy. Picking up this scientist from the streets had been the best luck ever but was also the worst source of anxiety.

After all, what I was doing felt like walking on a tightrope with a box full of treasures. Sure, I might just snag the treasure, but I could also end up blown to bits.

It was quite nerve-wracking for Regalia to watch from the sidelines. The fact that I had no idea I was treading on a minefield only added to her anxiety.

“Well, if there’s nothing weird, then there’s no reason for me to stop it. Alright. Permission granted. Go ahead and launch it.”

“Yes. Should I send the designs to the company?”

“Do that.”

*

A new  toy was launched by Evil Corporation. It was a toy for children. Specifically, a villain robot that had appeared briefly in a famous anime.

Naturally, Evil Corp deemed it to be pretty basic with no standout functions, so they sold it at an extremely low price. It was a sort of bait product. Kids wouldn’t be satisfied with just a villain robot. This toy would nudge them to buy the more expensive robots, mainly the hero models.

Curiously enough, the robot, which Regalia thought wouldn’t be popular, unexpectedly gained a cult following among boys.

“Dad! Buy me that!”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t you know? It’s the Nemu Buster!”

The kid would definitely want it. It was affordable and could be bought with allowance. Before long, this new toy from Evil Company spread like wildfire across households.

And there were those who would buy something just because it was from Evil Corp.

“Oh, it’s from Evil Corp? Then I should buy one.”

“The toy is… $9.99? That’s cheap!”

It was an open secret that most people making those purchases were employees of Evil Corp or workers from its subsidiary companies.

Thanks to this, the new product became a cash cow in City E, where Evil Corp was located, while selling decently in other cities.

Until one day, a video appeared.

[Shushushush!]

A home video of a kid playing with the newly launched Nemu Buster from Evil Corp showed him winding it up and then attacking the Nemu Buster with another toy robot in hand.

The Nemu Buster, wobbling back and forth, toppled over after enduring a few hits. The kid laughed joyfully, not a care in the world.

Then, for a brief moment, a cat wandered by and knocked something over, causing a pile of items to crash down toward the kid. It could have ended dangerously.

─At that moment, the wind-up robot that was face down shot up and pushed the collapsing items away with its body.

[Ow-?]

The kid seemed puzzled and tilted his head, clearly not understanding what just happened. The video ended with the parents, who had rushed in after hearing the commotion, wrapping the kid in their arms.

A one-minute long SNS video.

This video brought a dramatic change to the sales of the Nemu Buster.

*

【Latest hype from Evil Corp’s new toy review!】
Views: 5.61 million

【Using the Nemu Buster to run D○○M!】
Views: 35k

【Better performance than the latest graphics cards!? Running the latest games with 100 Nemu Busters】
Views: 1.1 million

“……Didn’t they say it didn’t have anything special inside?”

Regalia let out a heavy sigh as she glanced at the video titles, their view counts, and the sales graph shown next to the toy.

“Um… I didn’t put anything odd in there.”

“Then what on earth did you put in there that allowed that wind-up robot to move on its own!?”

“No, just a simple circuit…”

“How does it move without batteries then?”

“Well, it’s powered by the wind-up mechanism….”

“How much power can a simple wind-up really have!?”

Regalia looked like she was going to explode, pounding her chest in frustration. But I had no retort. Honestly, I couldn’t even comprehend whether this was deserved criticism.

I seriously had no clue that adding even that level of circuitry was a no-go.

“Here I was asked to make a  toy, and I ended up with this thing!”

“It’s just a toy level thing…”

“Well, that may be your standard…!”

Seeing Regalia getting all worked up over something that seemed so minor, I was reminded of the robot I had stashed away in a corner of the lab. A robot I had completed using superpowers for semi-permanent power.

If Regalia found out I had made something like that too, I wondered how she’d react?

‘Thank goodness I kept it under wraps.’

I decided I would keep that secret safely hidden as I bowed my head towards Regalia.