15 15 - I see games as Art

Bang, Bang!

"Watch out, dogs are coming!" The team leader screamed in concern as he used his shield to hold off the other zombies' attacks. Luckily he was very agile with his shield and none of the zombies' attacks got through.

The shots that some of the people on the team were firing were very timely and whenever a zombie would break through his defense, a head would be blown off quickly.

"Thanks for that!" he squealed happily as he continued using the shield to protect himself.

Caitlyn was surprised that even though she was dealing with peak F-Rank zombies, she was still managing to kill these monsters more easily than she realized.

In other missions she had participated in, even though she was dealing with monsters of mid-Rank F strength, she still had a bit of a hard time hitting critical points and just aimed at more guaranteed locations that she could see, but who knew that now against more powerful monsters she would be managing better?

'What's happening to me?' Caitlyn wondered confusedly, trying to understand what was going on.

She hadn't even used Mana to strengthen her senses. She was just relying on her muscle memory to land those shots.

'Is this improvement because of Residual Devil?'

As she thought about this possibility, the more she felt it made sense, and she was excited, as she had never felt such an improvement, especially in such a short time. What she didn't know was that not only did she get better while shooting because of the improvement her emotions of fear caused when playing the game, but also because of the confidence she felt after killing monsters as scary as the Lycan zombies of Residual Devil. Since she had killed so many scary monsters in the game so easily after several hours of gameplay, why couldn't she achieve this in real life too?

So, without her noticing, the Mana from the monsters she was killing were slowly entering her body, accelerating the progress speed her Mana would need to reach a higher level than the other times she came to do quests.

Because of the heat, her forehead was sweating profusely, even more so with the hot breath caught inside her mask as she panted, which only made the situation worse, but Caitlyn just ignored this and kept shooting, focusing only on what was important in the current moment.

–

In Sandstone Bay, also because of the hot weather, a boy was wiping sweat from his forehead just like Caitlyn was having to in the abandoned city. That boy was Gabe Howard, who had been on his way to a café to meet the professor at the University who sent him a message, asking them to meet to talk about something related to his game.

Upon receiving Professor Brown's message, Gabe was a little concerned, as he noticed that his game was quite different from the other players' games and thought that perhaps this was attracting unwanted attention? He had already read about things like that in the other world and was worried about it. But remembering Professor Brown's classes and thinking about how friendly this man was to him, Gabe was a little less worried as he tried to think of excuses he could come up with if this was a bad thing.

As Gabe walked, a few people looked at him a little curiously. Not because of something strange he was wearing, or because he was recognized, but because of his appearance, which despite being a little dark due to malnutrition, after the haircut he had had a 180º change, transforming him from a skinny boy with possible health and social problems to a handsome, confident young man who walked with his back straight with pride.

What they didn't know was that the straight spine was just the habit he retained from life in another world and the confident expression was just him trying to encourage himself to keep up the lies he was making in case something bad happened.

If the old Gabe had known how great the change that cutting his hair would have made to his public image, he'd have probably cut it more often, but he was so focused on studying games that none of that ever crossed his mind. The current Gabe, however, was so distracted that he didn't even notice the attitude of other people.

Arriving at the café where Professor Brown had asked them to meet, Gabe kept his posture straight and walked in with a fair amount of confidence, which attracted a few stares… which he selectively ignored until he found the professor and walked over to him.

Seeing the handsome and confident young man coming towards him, Mr. Brown was a little confused, not understanding what this young man wanted, since the professor was here to see one of his students. But when he took a closer look at the young man's hair color and at his face in general, surprise overcame the middle-aged teacher.

"Howard, is that you?" Mr. Brown asked in amazement.

Gabe was confused by the teacher's question and replied with a furrowed brow, getting a little lost in the stories he was crafting to cover himself if this turned out to be an unpleasant meeting. "Yes?"

Realizing that he had flustered his student, Mr. Brown apologized with a smile as he waved Gabe down. "I'm sorry Howard. Your change of appearance caused me to lose myself for a few seconds. Have a seat."

Seeing Mr. Brown's demeanor, Gabe became a little less vigilant as he sat down.

"I'm sorry Mr. Brown, but I'm very curious as to why you invited me here today," Gabe inquired as soon as he sat down.

Seeing that that was the first thing Gabe had to say, Mr. Brown chuckled, mostly noticing the bit of insecurity lurking in this young man. "Don't worry kid, I actually called you here to tell you some good news."

Hearing this, Gabe became curious. "Good news? What is it?"

"Considering that your game is already at over 7,000 downloads, first of all, I have to congratulate you on breaking the record for the most downloaded game in Harrington University history. The last record was just 3,911 downloads, so I believe it will be difficult for future students to beat your record for years to come, haha."

Mr. Brown chuckled as he held his hand out to Gabe and shook it after he took it.

"For this, the school has a bonus of $50,000 for you and a private mentorship with a Rank C Developer for the creation of your future games. But considering how good your last game has been, I believe that this mentorship would be useless, as I can't even think of a single useful tip to help you."

Gabe was surprised. 'With $50,000 I won't have to worry about money for a long time! If I had known this scholarship was a possibility, I wouldn't have even created the game's monetization system…'

But despite the surprise, Gabe still cracked a big smile at the great news.

"Also, I think your position as top game in this year's University contest is already secured with the current amount of downloads you have, so the school decided it wouldn't be a problem to tell you this next bit of information in advance," Mr. Brown said, a little more seriously this time, "Usually students who win the collegiate tournament are given the right to publish a game of theirs in Oakwood Grave City for free as soon as the tournament is over, which is our nearest neighbor, but we noticed that your game is apparently not yet complete, as you intend to add more chapters to it in the future. So, we decided to let you know in advance so you can decide what you prefer to do, as the right to publish your game in another city is unique, so we can only publish it once."

Gabe was both surprised and confused by this. "Decide on what, Professor?"

"Would you rather we publish your game as soon as the tournament is over or would you rather we wait until all chapters of the game are released and publish it then?" Mr. Brown asked, quite interested in this young Developer's choice, wanting to know what development plan Howard had for such an innovative game.

Hearing this, Gabe soon understood what the situation was that the school was having. He could very well publish the game immediately, which would directly increase the amount of downloads and the amount of Mana he would receive continuously, or he could continue with the Mana rate he currently received from the game's downloads in Sandstone Bay and just release the full game when everything was ready, which would yield several times more Mana, but only in the future when the game was complete.

This was a very pertinent choice for Gabe, who had recently discovered that he would need at least 50,000 Mana Units to unlock Karl's power. If he chose to launch the game in both cities now, it could greatly reduce the amount of time he would need to wait to get strength. But thinking about the long term, it was much more worthwhile to wait now and release the game when everything was ready so he could get all the game powers he wanted with the huge influx of Mana that would come from the new players in the other city.

In the end, Gabe didn't think long before answering the only choice he found acceptable.

"I'd rather you wait, Mr. Brown. By the time the game has all 10 chapters done I believe it will be ready to go to other cities," Gabe answered confidently.

Hearing Gabe's response, Mr. Brown's curiosity was piqued, and he couldn't help but ask with a grin, "What gives you so much confidence that you keep developing this game, Howard? Wouldn't it be better to absorb the Mana you've already received and get closer to advancing to Developer Rank E?"

Gabe smiled even more confidently and answered, "Professor, I see games as an Art. As long as I can craft my art and there are people who appreciate it, I am more than satisfied."

Gabe's response caused Mr. Brown to smile even wider, feeling that every sentence from this boy made the appreciation he felt for him grow even more.

But Gabe continued, his eyes shining, "And the story of Residual Devil hasn't even started yet. I feel that when Chapter 02 is released, that's when players will finally understand the world I'm showing them!"

Seeing Gabe's confidence, David Brown's eyes lit up even more, especially remembering the words the director had spoken to him earlier. What he had just heard made him feel that she was more and more right about this kid!

//NunuNote//

Mass Release Target XD:

Based on weekly powerstone rankings!

Top30 = 1 Bonus Chapter

Top20 = 2 Bonus Chapter

Top10 = 3 Bonus Chapter

Top5 = ? Bonus Chapter

...

Bonus Chapters will be released on Sunday, based on preceding performance of the novel. Don't forget to vote for more chapters!

Current Rank: 9 (I'm surprised of how fast we reachet Top 9, I guess I'll have to write more chapters than I though :o)