After staring at his phone for a minute or two, Evans started laughing as he looked at me. “Brooks, your game isn't even showing up on the list, are you sure you published your game correctly?”

Hearing Evans' comments, the other students looked at him in confusion, then looked at me with a little sympathy, since if my game that was posted today wasn't on the last page, the only reason would be that I published the game incorrectly.

At this point everyone was expecting me to be surprised or worried about it, but I didn't even take my eyes off the menu as I answered.

“Look at the previous page, the last time I looked I was almost out of the last page, right now I should be one page up.” I said with disinterest.

Hearing this, doubt appeared in everyone's eyes.

Even those who weren't paying much attention to the discussion focused on what Evans was about to say, since if my game jumped from the last page to the next page on the first day of release, that would be surprising.

Uncertain, Evans looked at the screen of his cell phone doubtfully and clicked on the previous page.

Looking through the long explanatory titles of the other games and suddenly a game with just a name in the middle, he found my game with ease.

'Did his game really go up a page even though it was posted today? On that page, didn't the games have to have at least 50 players online to participate? Did he ask his friends to play the game and help him rank higher? ' Evans thought in doubt as he remained quiet, not wanting to give himself the satisfaction of proving him wrong.

But that wouldn't work, he had already attracted the attention of all the students at the table, some who were also on this page, others who were on the last page even though they had posted their games more than a week ago, hearing that it was possible that my game was doing well, they became curious.

“Hey Tyler, is his game really on that page? Or did he just post the wrong game and it's not showing up?” One of Evans' closest friends asked with interest.

This question made Evans look at him with a bad expression, but he answered. “I found his game, it's in the middle of the penultimate page, probably with 50 to 70 Players? Not bad Brooks, maybe you can get a few more pages up before the end of the test, who would have thought that the worst student in recent years would get a result that isn't the worst? Haha.”

Having chosen what I was going to eat, I finally took my eyes off the menu and picked up the tablet on the restaurant table to place my order.

As I placed my order, I finally looked at Evans with a mocking smile. “Really? 70 Players? That's good, when I left home only 90 Players had tried my game, if 70 Players are playing it means they really liked it, a 78% retention is very good, what's the retention of your game, Evans?”

Hearing my mocking reply, not only was Evans surprised, but the other students at the table also looked at me in shock.

They probably couldn't remember a single time Theo had responded to Evans in all five years of college.

Being confronted by someone he considered 'weaker' in front of all his classmates was not something Evans expected, so under the gaze of everyone waiting for an answer, he became visibly irritated and replied.

“You have high retention because you still have few Players, Brooks. When you have more than a thousand people trying out your game it will drop naturally, don't get cocky...”

Hearing his response, the other students also nodded, considering it reasonable, after all, pleasing 70 people can be luck, maybe I was just lucky to find the right audience, but that wouldn't necessarily continue after more Players tested the game.

But my smile remained plastered on my face, still looking at Evans mockingly as I shrugged. “Really? That's a good excuse to use on your pillow before you cry yourself to sleep.”

Hearing my mockery even clearer than before, some students even stood with their mouths open in shock, while Evans turned even redder, glaring at me angrily.

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“I know you're not used to succeeding in anything you do, Brooks, but don't let it go to your head, for someone so used to failing, you should see your place and not let pride cover your eyes.” Evans scoffed as he put his cell phone away and turned to talk to his friends.

“Tsk, so much talk for just that?” I scoffed in a slightly lower voice and went back to ordering my food.

I know that if I provoked him any further, Evans would probably get up from the table and try to attack me, and considering our difference in physique, it's very likely that I'd lose.

My body only began to evolve today when I started applying Neurological False Feedback to myself, so it would still take me a long time to catch up with him, not to mention that Evans was talented at fighting and using knives, no wonder his game was top of the college list.

Not to mention that I didn't want to get involved in a cliché young masters fight as soon as I came to another world, so I just ignored him, just like he did me, and started talking to the other students around me.

“Jeez, Theo, what did you do to make your game do so well? My game is struggling to maintain an average of 30 Players, everyone joins my game and only stays a short time before giving up...” Said the boy who defended me when I arrived.

Smiling at him, grateful that he had spoken up for me while Evans was talking garbage, I asked. “What's your game like?”

“My game is about practicing throwing spears at human enemies in the forest.” The boy explained.

After his explanation, I kept looking at him curiously, waiting for the rest of the explanation, but he stayed quiet too, just staring at me.

'????'

'That's the only explanation?! Where's the rest of the game?!

Seeing that he really had nothing else to explain to me, I understood where the problem with his “game” lay.

The “game” wasn't a real game, just a virtual training world with humanoid characters coming towards the Player.

Probably the greatest work he did, and the reason other people bothered to play the game, was because they could face humanoid enemies.

The problem with this is that the game had no sense of progression or achievement.

The Player had no reason to keep playing other than to repeat the same boring, monotonous training.

Knowing that when my game became popular other Game Creators would realize the advantages of making fun games and think of ways to make their games fun, I might as well give these people some tips and get their goodwill, you never know when networking will be important.

“How about making a progression system in your game? For example, with each enemy the player kills in your game, the spear they use gets prettier? This might encourage more people to keep playing to see all the spears available, or just to want to collect all the spears.” I suggested the most basic thing he could do.

Hearing this tip, not only was the boy shocked to think how simple it was, but how much more fun the game would be because of this small change, but all the other students at the table who heard my tip were shocked.

Everyone's games were very similar, so a change like this would easily fit into everyone's game.

Hearing this, everyone turned to look at me while the brave ones, or those with more affinity with the old Theo decided to ask me as well.

“Theo, what about my game? What do you think I can do to improve?” One girl asked shyly.

Remembering that she had helped the old Theo with some homework he had struggled with in the past, I too smiled politely at her and thought of some simple tips to make her game more fun and interesting for the audience.

These tips I gave would come naturally to people when they saw how successful my game would be, it's not like it would make them Runestone's competitors, so helping them wouldn't hurt.

Because of the monster invasions that began a few decades ago just as electronic games were beginning to emerge in my other world, and the deaths caused by these invasions, the people of that world completely ignored that games could be fun and placed extreme emphasis on how practical the game was and how much it increased people's survival.

This meant that deaths from monsters decreased a lot, but as a consequence people lost the chance to understand how much fun electronic games could be.

Games with magnificent stories that no movie could tell, games that were more competitive than traditional sports, all kinds of feelings that games could cause were completely unknown to these people.

At that point I felt as if I had traveled to a medieval world where people had all the ingredients to eat a delicious pizza, but because they didn't know about it they were still stuck eating only hard bread.

When they taste pizza for the first time their minds would be opened, causing many to try to figure out what other delicious foods they could make with the ingredients they have, but while they will be stuck in the process of trial and error to figure out what might be tasty, I already have a recipe book with the world's tastiest foods that I will be able to cook to forge my way to the top.

With the two tips I gave to the two colleagues, the other students were impressed that these tips could also help their games and approached me to ask how their game could be improved.

I helped with a few more questions until my food arrived, and when I started to eat they had the good sense to stop asking about it and let me eat, going back to chatting about the random things they were talking about before I arrived.

Every now and then I would also comment on something they were talking about, making everyone stop talking and listen to me, a completely different treatment to when they still thought I was just Theo who came last in all the tests.

The feeling of being appreciated was very nice, I wouldn't let it go to my head, but I wouldn't waste the opportunity either.

The one who wasn't at all pleased with me becoming the center of attention was Troy Evans, who stared at me as if he could shoot lasers out of his eyes.