The two notifications made Ethan sigh in relief. Instead of complete disappointment, he was met with a mix of half disappointment and half excitement.
His emotions were on both sides because if it said that it could be unlocked, then it meant that there’s still hope for the future, but for now, he had to deal with what he had.
“I always imagined that if I got a system, it would be like the Quantum Reality Enhancer or the Destiny Matrix. But no, I'm stuck with the Gamebiz System…” he sighed. “Sounds like a failed attempt at naming a board game for accountants,” he shook his head while trying to shrug off the fact that the system was actually called The Gamebiz System. “Very original,” he mocked his own thoughts.
“And-” His words of criticism were cut short by a robotic voice that had zero to no emotions and was as monotonous as a beeping cabbage.
[The Gamebiz system is dedicated to making your dream of creating games come true. It would help you reach the pinnacle of the world of gaming!]
“What? Making my dream come true? What can you even do?” His wavering voice questioned the system.
[It depends on what you can do. The system is in the demo phase right now. If you want to earn the complete system, you need to show that you deserve it.]
‘I need to show that I deserve it?’ Ethan scoffed at how even the system was questioning his abilities.
“....of course I don’t get a free pie falling from the sky. Right, what do I have to do?” He questioned once again.
[Simple, just create and launch your first game, and reach one thousand ‘legitimate’ downloads.]
“Haah!”
Ethan let out a long breath that he didn’t know he was holding, and chuckled loudly.
He was planning on doing exactly what the system was asking either way. And now that he thought about it, if he was going to get something out of it, he knew he wasn’t one to refuse.
For a moment, Ethan felt lucky—and it has been quite a few years since he last had this kind of a positive feeling.
“Alright, I’ll do it. I have been working on some projects for quite some time. I’ll start the work as soon as I leave these bandages,” he mumbled to the system while his thoughts ran astray.
When his project came to his mind, the first thing that came was a horrible flashback of a woman.
‘That’ woman, his ‘dream project’, the betrayal and the trauma which he’s still trying to recover from and fight his past, but soon his thoughts were disturbed by the ‘chime’ of the system.
[Alert: You need to develop the game that the system gives you. Not just any game.]
His eyebrows knitted together as he stared at the words written on the screen.
“Huh? What game?”
[Mini-Militia - A 2D multiplayer shooting game.]
“Mini-Militia…” the name of the game rolled out of his tongue. He could feel his curiosity bubbling up in his gut, with a slight feeling of excitement and nervousness.
[Yes, Mini-Militia.]
[Mini Militia as mentioned before falls under 2D multiplayer shooting game, accentuating fast-paced action and combat. You are to create this game from scratch.]
Ethan’s frown only deepened at the sound of the system.
“Let’s hear it, and I will consider it.”
Ding!
[Your demo quest has been issued!]
[Task: Develop Mini-Militia]
[Requirements:
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Make the 2D multiplayer shooting game as advised by the blueprint.
The completed project should not have any major bugs.
Only under 5 minor bugs are acceptable, the lesser the bugs, the greater your completion rewards will be on the initial completion of the game.
Reach over one thousand legitimate downloads worldwide for this game.]
[Quest item: Blueprint of Mini-Militia (Doodle Army) has been added to your inventory!]
[Quest rewards: Complete access to the first phase of the system. Additional rewards based on meeting hidden requirements!]
[Quest completion duration: 365 days.]
[Quest failure penalty: Removal of the system.]
Ethan stared at the ‘quest’ that appeared before him with his wavering crystalline blue eyes.
He knew that this was something extremely new to him. All he had to do was to abandon his ‘new project’ and pick up the game that the system was introducing him to.
He wasn’t particularly attached to his new project, because that was something that he had started making in order to forget about the betrayal that he went through, how his dream project was stolen from him, by the person he most trusted in the world at that.
Because after the big deception, Ethan had given up on his dream project and had started to develop something else—Quantum Quest, an action-adventure game that would not even reach 20% of the estimated popularity compared to his ‘dream project’.
But he started doing what he had to. With Quantum Quest, he moved on. Moved on from all the lies, backstabbing and things that kept him wide awake late at night for months.
The digital letters on the screen blinked, bringing him back to the present.
[Quest item | Blueprint of Mini-Militia (Doodle Army) | is in your inventory, please check your inventory to bring up the item!]
Instinctively, Ethan thought in his mind to open his ‘inventory’, imagining a box box-like, game inventory in his head. And another translucent blue screen popped up in his field of vision, just like he imagined. A box segmented, game-like inventory was in his view.
It was completely empty, apart from just a single small box filled with an animated rolled up paper, which Ethan assumed to be the blueprint that the system was on about.
He focused on it and it popped up in his vision.
[Blueprint of Mini-Militia (Doodle Army)]
[Type: Consumable]
[Details: Use to gain complete knowledge about the 2D multiplayer game Mini-Militia/Doodle Army.]
The details were vague, but he did what he was told, and thought of using the blueprint in his mind.
Instantly, his mind was getting swarmed with picturised knowledge of game he had never seen or played in his life. Soon after the information was completely ingrained in his brain, he suffered from a minor headache.
“Yeah, I am not imagining shit…” Ethan laughed bitterly as he scratched his head. Shocked and amazed at what had just happened. He’d have been shocked even further if he wasn’t an avid consumer of fan fictions and novels, where such events weren’t rare.
As the information in his brain finally settled in, Ethan marveled at just how precise the information was and how fun the game seemed, even if it was simple at a first glance.
He immediately wanted to make some notes and jot down some primary codes on his laptop, but a slight movement of his body sent him crying in pain.
“Guess that’ll have to wait, ouch!” Ethan said as he unintentionally flinched on his hospital bed again.
* * *
Two weeks later.
Ethan was finally discharged from the hospital after making substantial recovery in a short period of time, much to the shock of his doctors. As much as they wanted to investigate the cause of such abnormal speed of recovery, their hands were tied due to the last statements made by Peter Larson, and the hospital's chairman himself.
As Ethan came out of the front doors of his weeks-long home, he inhaled a large breath. His body still hurt here and there, but most of it was almost as good as new. He took out his mobile phone, a surprisingly older model considering his background.
It was already surprising that he survived such a bizarre incident, but it seemed like his old ePhone also survived the random truck-in-a-fucking-park incident, unscathed at that.
Since he was out of the hospital, and officially disowned by his father for the unforeseen future, he did what any sane person would do.
[Jake Harrington]
He saw the name of his ‘friend’ in his phonebook and dialed the number.
After five long rings, someone finally picked up the phone.
— Hello? Who’s this?
The voice coming from the phone was female, much to Ethan’s surprise.
“Hey, is this Jake Harrington's number?” Ethan asked cautiously.
— Yes, it is. He’s in the bathroom right now. Who am I talking to?
“Oh, well, can you let him know that Ethan from college called?”
— YOU MOTHERFUCKER WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW?!
An angry male voice cut off the woman’s voice. Ethan’s face twitched, his eyes shaking, his heart aching as he heard that voice. The voice of his once best friend. The friend that he himself had forsaken.
He couldn’t speak. Seconds passed but no words came to his dried up lips.
— Hey you fucker, are you there?
Another question followed, this time in a much less threatening tone than earlier. Yet still, Ethan’s lips betrayed him as he struggled to speak.
— *Sigh* What’s going on? Where are you? Are you alright?
Now the voice sounded soft, concerned even as it spoke. Nobody would believe Ethan was talking to the same person if they had seen his earlier outburst.
“I just got discharged from Emerald Hospital, in Queens.”
— Huh? Discharged? Fuck, what the fuck have you been up to? Never mind that, I am coming to pick you up. It’ll take some time before I reach you, wait for me in some nearby restaurant or something. Peter’s really done it this time, damn it!
Beep!
Jake cut off the phone after saying that, without waiting for a response from Ethan.
Ethan looked at this phone, Jake’s name still on it. He felt bitter inside for taking advantage of Jake’s kindness, again. But he knew Jake was the only person he could turn to at this time.
“Hah! If only I listened to you years ago…” Regret filled Ethan’s voice as he reminisced about a past he never wanted to recall.