GAME DEVELOPER SYSTEM

Chapter 4 04 - First Encounter

?Finally with the virtual reality headset on, Amoura started injecting Mana into it, starting the game.

That was the way to use these devices. Developers made games using Mana, and players had to inject Mana to play.

But while F Rank developers had an average of 30 Mana Units, F Rank Players only had 2 Mana Units, which for games where players consumed 1 Mana Unit per Hour, was just enough to play them for 2 hours before having to stop to rest for quite some time.

Amoura had connected the Headset to her computer to broadcast the vision she had in the game, so this would increase the amount of Mana she would spend by 10% to be able to play this while broadcasting, but with the extra money she received, Amoura felt it was worth it. It was a pity, after all, the game wouldn't be as good as the dollars that viewers donated, right?

With the Headset finally connected to the game's Seed, Amoura saw that her surroundings had changed from a completely black environment to something that was gradually lighting up.

Suddenly, next to a painting of a medieval castle painted only in black and white ink, a message was written on floating paper.

[Ethan's daughter Rose has been kidnapped. He now finds himself in a strange village.

After wandering around this strange village for a while, he meets an old lady.]

"Maybe in this game I'm Ethan? This is so interesting. It's a lot more interesting than a book!" Amoura said excitedly as she read the message.

[Damn, that looks cool. Maybe it took a lot of work for the developer to make this game.]

[That sure took some work. After all, there are only 7 days left for the contest to end and the game was only submitted today. Perhaps the developer spent several days just trying to set up this story.]

[But will the story be any good?]

[I think it won't be a big deal. After all, it's just a Developer Rank F game. Maybe this little story is just to give the player more immersion to be able to kill the monsters that are in that village, since the game only serves to train, right?]

[It was cool the idea of ??putting in a small story, I would feel much more motivated to kill the monsters since I would have to do it to save my daughter.]

[That is true!]

[Hopefully the monsters aren't weak. If the Developer spent more time making the story than developing the monsters, all of this would be useless in the end, the difficulty of making a monster is too great.]

Reading the comments from the livestream, Amoura nodded in agreement.

"That's true, I'm on the verge of becoming an E Rank Player, I've tried so many F Rank games that I find it difficult for the quality of battles and monsters to be interesting with the Developer putting so much emphasis on the story, but in the worst case it can be a good pastime."

When Amoura finished saying that, her surroundings changed.

"In life and in death, we proclaim glory…" The voice of an old woman startled Amoura.

As the surroundings became clearer, she saw that in front of her was a short, hunchbacked old woman. Her clothes were black, old and dirty, but what caught the most attention was the strange staff she was holding, which had several skulls adorning it.

[Holy shit, did she speak?]

[Woah, is the NPC in this Rank F game talking to the player?! Cool!]

[I think this old woman is just an illusion, an F Rank Developer would not have enough time to make a real human, it would be hard enough that this Developer would have to spend weeks just developing that person.]

Amoura didn't read the comments this time, and asked, confused. "Um, hi?" Amoura was surprised that the voice that came out of her mouth was male. "You shouldn't be here, this place looks dangerous."

The old woman just ignored Amoura, who approached the woman a little and nudged her arm, wanting to test whether this was an illusion or a real person.

When her finger finally touched the old woman's arm, Amoura felt the real touch, as if she were really touching someone else.

"I can touch her…" Amoura was about to continue talking, when the old woman turned to her. "Shit…" Amoura froze.

The old woman had a scary face. Her skin was full of wrinkles and dirt, her head had several accessories full of animal bones, and the woman's eyes were white, as if she was blind!

Without her noticing it, Amoura's heartbeat accelerated a lot.

"So it's you… the child's father." The old woman said while pointing her head towards Amoura, but with blind eyes looking in another direction.

[Crap, that old woman scared the shit out of me!]

[What an old motherfucker, I spit out the water I was drinking when I saw that scary face of hers!]

[Is it just me or did Amoura really touch the old lady?]

Hearing what the old woman said, Amoura was confused, until she remembered the message she had read. "Child? Are you talking about Rose? Is she here?"

But when Amoura spoke of Rose, the old woman went crazy.

"Rose, Rose, Rose! She is in grave danger! Ever since mother Miranda brought her to the village, darkness has dominated us!"

"Darkness?" Amour was confused. "Are you talking about the monsters?"

"The castle bell portends danger!" The old woman said as she walked to a gate beside Amoura. "They are coming!"

"Wait, where's Rose?" Amoura asked in concern as she watched the old woman leave. "Who's Mother Miranda?!"

"The bell rings for all of us! They're coming back again! Hahaha!" The old woman laughed as she closed the gate, leaving Amoura alone in that snowy village.

Looking around, Amoura only saw the strange abandoned village, with cold winds around, making this environment even more frightening.

"Guys, are you sure you want me to play this game? We can try Spear Training, that seemed more relaxed…" Amoura said a little unsure, not knowing what to do next.

[Continue! I want to see the monsters!]

[That old lady almost made me pee, keep playing Amoura pls!]

[The setting of this game is pretty realistic, huh?]

Seeing the last comment, Amoura looked around and had to admit, the graphics quality of this game was very good. The Developer must have spent a lot of Mana to develop this.

"Alright, let's continue for a bit…" Amoura said quietly as the avatar she was inhabiting put his hands in his pockets, looking for any clues.

Luckily she felt a pistol at her waist, with some ammo packs and a knife.

"Ok, at least the combat equipment is already here. With the pistol in hand I feel safer." Amoura said as she stroked the pistol and loaded the gun, making it ready to be used at any time.

Looking around, Amoura decided to enter the house next door, but when she saw a large pentagram with several candles around it, all the courage she had gathered to investigate this house disappeared, making her give up and continue walking in the village.

As this game was in Virtual Reality, Gabe had made the proportion of the village much more realistic, so there were more houses and the village was much bigger than the game he had played in his other life, all to give players even more immersion. But for Amoura, seeing a village like this completely empty was much scarier, since any noise she heard she thought could be a monster. This was mainly due to the fact that she was currently making her way through a cemetery, which made the situation even more frightening for her.

After wandering for a few minutes, Amoura finally found a church. There, she saw a stone on a pedestal with a faint magical aura that made it glow a little.

Amoura was confused to see this until she saw a letter beside it.

[If there is a calamity in the village, look for the crests. One is in the care of the church. The other is at Luiza's house.]

Looking at the strange stone that glowed with a magical aura, Amoura deduced that this must be the coat of arms and decided to keep it.

On the back of the letter stone there was a map that showed the way from the church to Luiza's house.

"Okay, let's follow that map for now." Amoura said, a little more relaxed this time, not having seen any monsters in this game yet.

"Although this game doesn't have any combat yet, the story seems interesting. I'm really curious to see what happens next," she commented.

[Yes, it looks very interesting!]

[It's like a book that you only need to spend Mana to experience, but with a better story!]

[Too bad a Seed might have been wasted to do this, as a Seed is much more valuable.]

[I hope the University doesn't penalize this Developer for wasting the Seed in this way.]

With a calmer heart and a more active instinct for adventure, Amoura began to explore the village with more courage.

Even the house she was scared to enter in the beginning had become less scary now that she wasn't afraid of monsters appearing, and she was able to enter and find a medicine glass.

Using the map she had gotten from the church, Amoura found her way to Luiza's house. Unfortunately, the way to Luiza's house was obstructed by a broken wagon, so Amoura only could enter through a wheat field to get there.

"Look! What a cool scarecrow! I've never seen one of these in person," Amoura said as she looked at a scarecrow.

[It would be funny if the scarecrow turned into a monster.]

[Yes, but I don't think the Developer could do that. He already spent too much time detailing the map and the old woman. Maybe he hasn't even made a monster yet.]

[Can he make a monster before the contest ends?]

[Are you crazy? Do you know how long it takes to make a monster? Maybe he could if he just made the monster a dog, or a simple animal.]

Amoura also had this thought. Even the pistol, which she had kept ready to fire all the time when she first started playing, was now down, just pointing at the ground and being held by a single hand.

But unlike the others watching Amoura's stream, Gabe was having to control his laughter and anticipation when he saw how she was acting, since he knew that now would be the first time the player would encounter a Zombie in the game.

*Step, step…*

Amoura heard footsteps coming towards her. By instinct, she gripped the pistol tighter, but thinking it must be another human she was about to see, she still kept her guard a little low.

RAAAAAAWWWWW

But to her shock, instead of a human, among the tall wheat of this plantation a monster came out! And it was not just an ordinary monster, but a Zombie - a zombie with its skin all destroyed, gray and dead, with eyes falling from the face and the lips torn, with only the remaining teeth exposed! It opened its mouth to scream!

Amoura: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!