“…..”
“…..”
I stood in silence, staring at Kyle who turned his attention towards me, his face awkward as he scratched the side of his face.
“…Is this it?”
I opened my mouth. Is this it? Is… this it? I really felt like lunging at him and beating him to a pulp, but then looking at the monitor right before Kyle, and the glaring [Game Cleared] that appeared on it, I pursed my lips and felt my shoulders deflate.
’He… didn’t even flinch.’
The entire time, he cleared the game without so much as a change in expression. He did mumble things like, ’Oh, I like this. Not bad. Kind of cool…’ but that was about it.
He still cleared the game effortlessly.
I had felt so confident in the game, and yet…
’Damn it, at least show me something!’
While I did expect Kyle to clear the game to some extent, I was still confident in what I had created. I was hoping he’d show some sort of reaction, but the fact that he showed nothing made me grow extremely worried.
’Did I overestimate the game? It can be just because it’s Kyle… I mean Rowan did show some sort of reaction. No, it was a great reaction, but will it be effective for other people? To what extent?’
I felt like ripping my own hair out in frustration.
“Err…”
As if sensing my inner turmoil, Kyle looked at me.
“You know… I can just try again. Maybe next time I might get a little scared? I mean I can tell that the game is definitely better than the previous one. It’s quite good actually. Unique even.”
The more Kyle praised the game, the shittier I felt.
This also felt a lot like Deja vu.
’Ah, right. He did say the same thing in the past when the first game didn’t scare him.’
I clicked my tongue.
This bastard…
“So? Should I…?”
“Do whatever you want.”
I waved him off absentmindedly, my mind busy searching for any item I could buy from the shop to enhance the game. Whatever it took, I was going to make him react!
However, regardless of how much I thought about it, I couldn’t think of anything.
Blank.
My thoughts were completely blank.
’…Maybe things would be different if the recording was more effective, but this is its limit.’
The recording was after all just a recording. It was the key piece required in most of my games in order to lower the guard of anyone playing the game. Things would be different if I had put a direct piece from the conductor, but right now, the conductor was the last thing I wanted to think about.
Although there was still a little bit of time until my meeting with the conductor, it wasn’t a lot of time.
’I think its just about a month and a half.’
I really needed to think about how to assess that situation.
’Ah, fuck. So many annoying things!’
***
’Maybe I should raise the mouse a little bit? Just enough to make me see the weird monster? That might make me a little bit more scared?’
Kyle was currently facing a predicament. Following the exchange with Rowan and the exchange members, he learned about Seth’s new game and how it was supposedly scary.
Thinking about Seth’s previous game and how unscary it was, Kyle grew curious.
Perhaps he had learned from then and improved his game. Maybe it could also now scare him.
The thought made Kyle happy. If Seth managed to create a game that could scare him, then he was sure it was going to be a hit.
Kyle wished nothing but success for Seth.
But still, Seth’s path was quite a difficult one.
The demand for horror games was low because they rarely scared anyone. But low demand didn’t mean they all flopped. In fact, a few horror games did succeed on a global scale, earning their developers a significant amount of money.
’It’s just a pity that all those games are created using Virtual Technology.’
There was a limit to how immersive a PC and mouse game was.
In order to reach the top, Seth would need to eventually start developing his own VR games. Only that way would he be able to truly create an immersive experience and tell the story that he wanted to tell.
But…
That path was anything but easy. He’d be competing against gigantic corporations that could afford a team of developers, actors, and marketing funds.
Kyle didn’t see how Seth would be able to reach that point.
In Kyle’s eyes, the best-case scenario would be Seth getting scouted by one of those companies.
By then he would get a good salary and do the thing he liked.
Still, Seth was a long way from that goal. To reach it, he needed to create a game good enough to catch the attention of those companies.
It was just unfortunate that he was still far off from that goal.
“What are you doing?”
Just then, Kyle heard a sudden voice and turned to see several familiar figures leaning into his cubicle.
“Are you playing a game?”
Zoey looked in particularly interested as she leaned close to check the game.
“Oh, it looks like you just started.”
Zeoy’s eyes lit up the moment she saw the interface. But after a quick glance at the graphics and overall tone, her expression shifted. She seemed to understand something, and her interest quickly faded.
“This is… err.”
Kyle paused and turned to check on Seth, but stopped when he saw him standing a little farther away, hands tangled in his hair. Was he trying to rip them?
’Never mind.’
“It’s a horror game. I tried it, and I ended up clearing it.”
“Wait, I recognize that game..”
Just then, Rowan stepped in, eyes wide as he stared at the monitor before glancing over at Kyle.
“Wait, so you managed to clear it?!”
“…Ah, yes.”
Kyle scratched the back of his head. Well, it wasn’t that difficult. In fact, It was quite easy.
He just didn’t say it out loud in case Seth heard.
“It was a bit challenging, but I still managed to clear it. I was quite lucky.”
“You got lucky?”
Rowan stared at Kyle with a complicated look. He was all too familiar with the game. Having played it himself, he knew just how scary it was.
Kyle was just being humble, afraid of offending Seth or hurting his pride.
…And that made things the weirder for Rowan who got scared by the very same game.
’Is he just different? How did he not get scared?’
Wait, if Kyle didn’t get scared then would the exchange members get scared?
Rowan suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, feeling Kaelen’s rejection back then to be a god-sent gift.
“Hm? What’s this?”
Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the approaching footsteps until it was too late. A group appeared behind them, led by an all too familiar figure, whose gaze briefly locked onto Kyle and the game on his screen.
“I was just coming back to check up on something, but you’re playing games?”
“Oh, this…”
Kyle was just about to reply and tell them he was just trying Seth’s game when he paused, his expression conflicting before he closed down the laptop.
“I was. Needed to relax a bit.”
“You guys sure have fun here, don’t you?”
Kaelen’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Kyle. To be playing games in the middle of work… How low could this department get?
Shaking his head, Kaelen was about to leave when his gaze fell on Rowan. Noticing Rowan suddenly look away, Kaelen raised an eyebrow.
’Hm?’
Curious, Kaelen tried to get their eyes to meet, but Rowan kept his gaze away, staring in a completely different direction.
’How strange. He was so arrogant before. Where did his arrogance g—’
Right then, Kaelen paused, and his gaze hovered towards Kyle’s laptop and then Rowan.
He alternated his gaze between the two until realization dawned on him and his lips pulled into a smile.
’So that’s how it is…’