This dog-shit plot was concocted by Caelan in five minutes. The final line, "Control your hero, eliminate evil!" was a display of Caelan's personal bad taste, being extremely chuuni.
Seeing the two richly dressed youths completely absorbed in the game, Caelan continued to organize the items in the shop.
After easily selling all those runestone tablets yesterday, Caelan had the idea of opening his own shop, but he didn't plan to turn it into an arcade.
After all, a twenty-square-meter space couldn't accommodate many people. His plan was to temporarily make it a game experience hall, where customers could play his self-made games for free in the shop.
If they liked it, they could buy the runestone tablet for that game to play at home. Of course, to prevent freeloaders from staying in the shop,
Caelan also stipulated that each person could play for free for a maximum of half an hour per day, unless there were few people and ample space, in which case they could continue playing.
Additionally, children (under twelve years old) were prohibited from entering.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to earn coin and easily improve his strength this way?
After organizing all the miscellaneous items, discarding what should be discarded and keeping what should be kept, Caelan hung a wooden board in a prominent position above the counter. It read:
Chess: One silver mark
Elemental Contra: Five silver marks
Super Mario: Five silver marks
Tank Battle: Five silver marks
That's right, Super Mario and Tank Battle were also released today. These were games Caelan only started making last night.
Besides changes to the graphics and some character/monster designs, everything else was copied from his previous life.
Anyway, memories in his mind palace could be accessed at any time, so he just needed to manifest them.
After the basic framework of the game was manifested, he had the stick figure testers help him thoroughly test for bugs.
In short, after a night of "hard" work, the two games were created and engraved onto runestone tablets.
He then served two more customers who entered the shop.
They also appeared to be students. After manifesting the game introductions and gameplay methods from the board for them, one chose Super Mario, and the other chose Elemental Contra
. Caelan took out two runestone tablets, instructed them on how to use them, and then prepared to sit at the counter to think about what game to make next.
"Victor, why did you suddenly jump backward? You got me killed!" an angry voice rang out.
"That rock was about to hit me; how could I not dodge?" another voice said sheepishly.
"Couldn't you have jumped up? And don't think I don't know, you've used up all five of your lives. Don't steal my lives anymore!"
"Ah, how did you find out?"
"You've stolen several times; even an idiot would notice! And you boasted in front of me that you were a master at playing this.
A master of stealing lives?"
"It's my first time playing. I saw that kid Raylan playing it before, and I thought it was very simple... No, just give me more time to get familiar with it, and I can definitely clear it."
Caelan looked over and realized the two were in the third level of Contra.
The one named Victor had caused the other youth's death by dodging a falling rock and had also been constantly stealing the other's lives, leading to the argument.
Hmm? Their arguing over this game also seems to increase his mana.
After a while, the youth who had been constantly getting screwed over finally couldn't take it anymore. He stood up and walked to Caelan, saying,
"Boss, please give me a separate runestone tablet."
Victor, in the distance, pouted and said nothing.
"Alright!" Caelan handed him the new runestone tablet. The youth took it but didn't leave, instead asking,
"My friend said that the one you use at the academy allows you to choose the difficulty. Why didn't my friend and I see that option?"
"Oh, this is the trial version, specifically placed in the shop for you to try for free. The ones with difficulty selection are the full versions,"
Caelan explained, then pointed to the wooden board above the counter: "Student, would you like to consider buying a full version? You can take it home to play."
The youth looked up at the words on the wooden board and said, "So cheap? Give me one of everything—no, make it three of each."
Damn rich people, Caelan grumbled inwardly, but his hands were quick. He took out the runestone tablets the customer wanted from the counter and handed them over, also including a smallest size 1 runestone as a gift.
"Size 2 runestone is chess. The size 6 runestone has a label with the game name. This size 1 runestone contains the gameplay and instructions for these four games. A total of 48 silver marks."
The youth handed over a shiny gold crown. Caelan gave him the change, and then the youth stuffed the change and a dozen runestone tablets into the ring on his finger.
Storage ring! Damn rich people!
After buying the games, the youth continued to hold the runestone tablet Caelan gave him, sat next to Victor, and began to play the game seriously.
Since there were no new customers entering the shop at the moment, Caelan sat in the distance and watched.
This youth's gaming talent seemed quite good; after only trying it for a short while, he could already reach the fifth level with one life.
Setting the difficulty was a completely wise move.
More customers arrived. After guiding these academy-student-looking customers on how to operate the games, Caelan felt he should hire someone to help manage the shop and collect coin.
He found another wooden board, wrote: "Hiring, female required, age between 18 and 35," and then placed the board outside the door.
After a while, he realized he hadn't written the salary. Comparing it to the average salary of ordinary shop assistants nearby,
which was generally between 150 and 180 silver marks, Caelan pondered for a moment, then ran outside again and added "Monthly salary 180 silver marks" to the wooden board.
The morning passed quickly. Caelan had already learned from others' conversations that the youth was named Cassius, and with the youth named Victor,
he was a first-year student at Crimson Academy, just like himself. However, both were from Class Zero, the elite class. Their actual combat strength was estimated to be close to or already at Fourth Circle,
completely beyond the scope of people he could have associated with before.
Cassius could already barely reach the eighth level with five lives, while Victor still hadn't passed the fourth level; his skill was comparable to Caelan's own without cheating... Seeing that it was almost time, Cassius called out to the still reluctant Victor and walked over to Caelan, saying,
"You're Caelan from class eight, right? I'm Cassius from Class Zero, and he's Victor. Your so-called illusion games are indeed very interesting. I hope your other games are just as interesting."
Caelan said, "The other ones have different styles than Elemental Contra. You'll know the specific gameplay if you read the instructions."
Cassius nodded and was about to leave, but Victor said to Caelan, "Student, give me three sets of these on the board too."
Cassius said to Victor, "Didn't I already buy them for you? Why are you buying so many?"
Victor pointed towards Crimson Academy, "I'm going to give some away later, and I can also teach them how to play."
"With your skill..." Cassius was speechless: "Never mind, let's go. The banquet is about to start."
"Oh, you still remember Aunt's birthday banquet?" Victor handed over a gold crown.
Caelan was naturally happy to have someone take care of his business...
Income increased again.
Besides these two wealthy individuals, Caelan also sold ten copies of Elemental Contra and three copies of Super Mario that morning.
Tank Battle, perhaps because no one knew what a tank was, hadn't sold a single copy yet. However,
chess, possibly because it was cheap, sold dozens of copies, and he even ran out of stock, so Caelan quickly temporarily engraved some more.
Having earned coin, Caelan naturally wanted to treat himself well. Once all the customers in the shop left for lunch, Caelan locked the door, hung a "Closed for Lunch" sign, and then stood at the entrance, looking left and right.
First, he went to the street next door and bought a pound of braised Coiled Dragon meat, then picked up a flatbread along the way. Finally,
he returned to the shop opposite and had a delicious meal with Cloud Boar stew, feeling incredibly full.
After eating, feeling that the weather wasn't too hot, Caelan leisurely strolled for a while before gracefully walking back to the shop.
Fuel the story with Powerstones.