Click. Click. Click.
The clicking of the keyboard was all I could hear. It was the only sound I had been hearing for the past week or so.
My fingers were beginning to ache, and the only thing keeping me going was the bitter bite of the coffee beside me.
“Ugh…”
Groaning, I ruffled my hair.
“I really need to find a way to hire a team.”
I paused to stretch my fingers and stared at the work in front of me. Over the past several weeks, I’d made solid progress, completing the 3D models, setting up the game’s structure, and locking in the core mechanics. Most of it was finally in place.
The game was still far from complete, but the hard part was done.
Furthermore, it was also playable to some extent.
Sure, there were no textures, and the storyline had yet to be added, but the character could move, and the physics was in place.
“I still need to render the game and work on optimization. As for the storyline… I have a rough idea, but I’ll need to dig deeper and do more research before it’s solid.”
In order for the game to fully click, I needed a proper storyline. This was the part that I left for last since I didn’t really know where to start in that regard.
“A good horror game needs a proper storyline to immerse the player in the game.”
If the storyline fell flat, it’d end up as nothing more than a cheap horror game packed with jump scares — a formula that might barely scrape a one-star rating, if the system was feeling generous.
The issue was that I wasn’t very creative in that regard.
I was merely a game developer, not a writer. Usually, games had their own writing department for that stuff.
I thought that by focusing on the game development, I’d eventually think of something for the storyline, but even as the weeks passed, my mind remained blank.
Besides the most basic storyline, I really didn’t have anything.
“Things can’t go on like this.”
Placing the cup of coffee down, I crossed my arms and leaned back on my chair.
The game I was designing was clearly inspired by the Twisted Man and everything I had gone through when experiencing the situation firsthand. The mechanics were also simple. All one had to do was keep their gaze away from the Twisted Man, and they wouldn’t be attacked by it.
I thought about adding a voice recording function, but that just felt a little too difficult to program.
I also added several features that forced someone to look around. That way, the game wouldn’t simply end with the player never touching their mouse in order to clear.
“…Now that I think about it, there really wasn’t too much information about the Twisted Man besides the weird poem, and some of its previous actions in the other islands. I wonder if the Twisted Man had some sort of history behind it.”
I felt like understanding the history behind it would help me create a proper background for the storyline and add depth to it.
Unfortunately, even the Guild was unsure, and there were no other cl—
Ding!
[Chain Quest Activated!]
• Difficulty: Second Order
• Reward: 10,000 SP + Lucky Wheel!
• Objective: Discover the origin of the Twisted Man!
• Location: Harmia Island
Description: To deepen your game’s storyline, you’ll need to uncover more about the Twisted Man. Head to the location where it was first seen. There, you might find clues about its origin and the truth behind its existence.
Time Limit: 4 days.
The sudden notification and the window that appeared out of nowhere in front of my vision left me momentarily shaken.
By the time I snapped out of it, I stood up abruptly.
“This—Uah! Shit!”
But the moment I did, I knocked the coffee on the table and spilled it all over my pants.
“Shit!”
Startled, I pushed back from the table and quickly patted my pants, grabbing a nearby tissue to wipe everything down.
‘Fuck, of all times it had to happen it had to be now…’
I really liked the pants too.
Nonetheless, after wiping my pants, I proceeded to look at the quest once more and frowned.
There were a couple of things that immediately caught my attention.
“Lucky Wheel? Harmia Island?”
I could more or less guess what each one was. The lucky wheel was probably some kind of reward spinner, where the prize depended on where the arrow landed, while Harmia Island seemed to be another island orbiting somewhere nearby.
Knowing just how bad my luck was, I wasn’t all that excited about the wheel.
The only thing that made the trip worthwhile was the 10,000 SP reward, and the fact that it was given to me to help me with my game development.
There also didn’t seem to be any penalty for failing the quest, which was a bonus.
‘In fact, thinking about it, none of the quests had any penalties, nor was I really forced to take them on.’
This made me feel much more at ease.
It meant that I had a choice of whether to take them or not, instead of being forced into taking them.
I could very well reject this quest if I wanted to.
Not that I planned to, since it was specifically made to help me.
Dabbing my pants with a few other tissues and cleaning up the table, I did a quick research on the island before closing down my laptop and placing it into my bag. Time was scarce, and there was no time to waste.
“There’s a flight that should head out for the island in a couple of hours. I should take that.”
Packing all of my essentials, I booked the train using my phone and got out of the office.
Unlike before, the place was completely deserted, with no one in sight.
‘A pity. I wanted to tell Kyle that I’m leaving, but I guess I’ll just send him a message. Either way, I’m not going to be away for long.’
*
Getting from one island to another wasn’t too difficult.
Each island had its own airport, and so, all one had to do was book a flight and go to the nearest airport before flying to said island.
The distance between Malovia Island and Harmia Island was about a four-hour journey.
It was neither too long nor too small.
During the flight, I spent most of the time researching the island. From what I managed to gather, the population of the place was a lot smaller than Malovia’s, but it could still be considered quite big.
There were no King Grade Guilds on the island, but several Rook Grade ones and a single Queen Grade. The island’s architecture had an older, Gothic style, with the weather being a fair bit colder than Malovia.
It was a pity that I found out about the weather a little late.
‘It also says that it rains a lot there. I might be screwed… I didn’t bring much with me.’
Just a bit of spare clothes.
“Whatever, I can just buy some clothes when I get there.”
I could at least afford that much.
It wasn’t like I had converted all my money into SP. I kept some just in case of an emergency.
‘Good thing I did that.’
I’d really be screwed otherwise.
‘Oh, while I’m at it… I’ll see if there’s some sort of market I can buy fragments on the island.’
That would be of considerable help.
Thinking thus far, I grew a little restless as I couldn’t wait for the flight to finally arrive.