“Haaa.”
Returning to my office, I released a slow, quiet breath and pressed a hand over my face. I had done my best to keep up appearances, but the dull throb in my head refused to fade.
I could hardly think straight, but it wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t function.
…And I also felt a lot better after thinking about the bet.
’Fifteen fragments. This is definitely a good haul.’
I was sure that Kyle would question me about the fragments. About why I would need them, but I already had an answer for that.
Money.
I’d just tell him I planned to sell the fragments for money.
Money I could use to invest in building an even better game. It was a solid excuse, even if it couldn’t be further from the truth. At the very least, it might get Kyle off my back.
“I also planned on going to a black market to purchase more, but I never really ended up finding one. I should ask Kyle when he gives me the fragments. He might know something.”
I wasn’t worried about the purity of the fragments.
With the fax machine, I planned on just mass-converting the fragments into pure ones.
’The only issue would be the type of fragment. While the purity isn’t important, the type is.’
The Dreamwalker required ’Conceptualization’ fragments. Preferably, I would want to get those. However, it wasn’t a ’must’.
The most important thing was getting to the Third Order.
’On a different note, I wonder what sort of fragment Mirelle needs in order for me to evolve her.’
Turning my attention towards the painting in front of me, I tilted my head slightly.
Not even a second later, a head popped out.
“Did you bring them? Did you? You promised you would. You have to. Give them to me.”
“…I do. Relax.”
I reached into the drawer, pulled out a bag of crisps, and tossed it toward Mirelle. She caught it with a clumsy grab, then immediately tore it open and began devouring it without hesitation.
Crunch! Crunch!
“Don’t eat too fast. It’s not good for you.”
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
My words were completely ignored as I shook my head. What was I even going to do with her?
“Oh, right. Mirelle.”
“….Hm?”
Pausing, Mirelle’s large, crystal eyes settled on me as her eyes squinted and she brought the chips closer to her. However, as though she felt bad, she took out one chip and stared at it and then at me.
Her small brows furrowed, and after a lot of contemplation, she brought the chip to her mouth.
Crunch!
“….”
…Really?
’Whatever.’
“What type of decree do you follow?”
“Decree?”
Mirelle tilted her head, seemingly clueless to my words. I scratched the side of my face.
“Power?”
“Hm?”
She looked even more confused. In the end, she resumed eating her chips, and I felt the headache I was experiencing growing even more pronounced.
’I guess I’ll find out through trial and error.’
I was just about to receive fifteen fragments anyway.
I was bound to figure it out sooner or later.
’Onto more important things…’
I turned my attention towards my laptop and booted it on. Now that I was sure that the game worked, it was time for me to add a few more changes before officially launching it on Dock.
“I’ll first launch it without multiplayer, and add that feature later.”
The only reason why I was able to add multiplayer in the first place was because of all the corners that I cut. However, if I wanted to really add multiplayer, then it would take me at least two weeks.
“Since I’ve already gotten all the testing that I wanted, and I know that it works, all I have to do is launch the game and—”
Trr! Trrr—
A sudden vibration brought me out of my thoughts.
Curious, I retrieved my phone and I saw a simple message appear on the screen.
“A link?”
Looking at the name of the sender and seeing that it was Jamie, I decided to click on the link as it loaded me towards a certain video.
It took a couple of seconds for the video to load, and when it did, the first thing that caught my attention was the title.
[A shitty game that makes you scared!]
“Wait, what sort of title is that?”
I wasn’t stupid. I knew it was referring directly to my game. A shitty game? The hell?
And as the video loaded better, my brows jumped up in surprise.
[Views: 231,507]
“Holy shit!”
I scrolled through the comments.
—LMAO. Look at how scared you were! That doesn’t look scary at all.
—Is this a paid promotion? How the fuck can a seasoned containment expert get scared? This must be a paid promotion.
—Yeah, I’d believe it if he played Amnesia, but this? Bullshit.
—Lol, how much did they pay you, Idris?
—Could you have been lying about your prior experience?
The comments were numerous, but each comment pretty much said the same thing.’How much did you get paid?’, and ’That game doesn’t look scary at all’. Nobody believed that my game could scare someone who claimed to have been an expert in the containment department or was a gate diver.
I didn’t blame them. Had I been in their position, I’d also feel the same.
Trrr—
It was as I was scrolling through the messages that I felt another vibration.
When I looked down, I saw that it came from Jamie as it said; [There’s no better time to launch the game now. Give me the link as soon as possible, and I’ll send it to Idris. Expect a bunch of sales coming soon.]
“…”
I sat there dazed for a moment, staring at the message and then the link over and over.
I sat like that for what felt like forever, until—
“Shit!”
I immediately jumped up and got to work.
***
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The hurried, impatient tapping of fingers drummed across the table, echoing through the otherwise silent room, where empty beer cans lay scattered in careless disarray.
“What’s the holdup? Why isn’t he replying?”
Idris stared impatiently at his phone and then the monitor in front of him.
It had been a couple of hours since the release of his new video, and the views had skyrocketed by quite a bit. This video was performing far better than he had ever expected.
But at the same time…
—You should retire. You’re getting old.
—Old thing. I didn’t know you were that desperate for money. Here, I’ll send you a dollar.
“These motherfuckers!”
Idris felt his blood pressure rise.
Just a single look at the comments was enough to make him want to smash his phone.
“Damn it! Why isn’t he replying? My name is at stake!”
Idris hurriedly typed a message to Jamie.
He desperately wanted to have his viewers try the game so that his name would be cleared. But there was only one issue. The game was nowhere to be found!
He also didn’t have the name of the game.
Right now, everyone was pointing fingers at him, saying how he had sold out and all that nonsense.
“What bullshit!”
The more he thought about it, the more his blood pressure rose, and as he looked down at his phone again, his brows jumped up when he saw a message come from Jamie.
Trr!
He immediately tapped on the notification and stared at the link sent to him by Jamie.
“Yes, finally!”
He clicked the link, which opened a specific Dock page, and the moment the game title appeared on screen, his eyes fixed on it, and he froze.
With a complicated expression, he muttered,
“…Somehow, it fits.”
Then, without wasting a single second, he copied the link and pasted it into his video.
[To whoever says that I sold out, here’s the game. Try it yourself!]
Idris let out a satisfied grin, feeling a massive wave of relief.
’Bastards… I can’t wait for all of you to feel the same sense of despair that I felt.’
On that day, a new game was released.
It was called…
’A Twisted Game’.