"You're open for business. Why won't you let us in?"
Caelan pointed at the sign outside, where the words "No children under twelve allowed" were prominently displayed.
"Kids your age should study hard," Caelan said. "Don't waste time playing around. Understand?"
"What's with that country bumpkin accent? I can't even understand what you're saying. Call your boss out here. I want to see him!" The kid's face was red with anger.
"I am the boss."
The kid blinked, looked Caelan up and down, and narrowed his eyes. "You're the boss? Are you discriminating against children?"
"Of course not," Caelan said flatly. "I was a kid once too. But like I said—kids your age shouldn't be wasting time on games. You should study hard and improve yourselves every day. Got it?"
"Do you know who my brother is? I know you go to Crimson Academy. You better watch out—I'll tell my brother to beat you up!"
Caelan rolled his eyes, picked some earwax out with his pinky, and flicked it off to the side where nobody was standing.
The other kid, seeing Caelan's firm stance, tried a different approach. His eyes gleamed. "We got our ages wrong earlier. We're actually thirteen."
"Even if you told me you were twenty-three, I still wouldn't let either of you in."
"Fine! Then we won't go inside. But we can still buy your runestone tablets, right? Look, we brought money." The kid pulled out a gold crown.
Damn, more rich people. Wait—he was going to be rich soon too. No point being jealous.
Caelan grabbed a size 2 chess tablet. "Kids can only buy chess. It helps improve intelligence."
The two boys glared at him for a solid minute. Finally, they huffed, bought the chess set, and stomped off.
After seeing off the two somewhat reasonable children, Caelan spotted Ella patiently guiding a customer through Salamander. Once she'd finished, he walked over.
"Did you try all the games yesterday?"
She nodded. "I played them all."
Yesterday, Caelan had given Ella a copy of every game to take home and test out, so she could better guide customers. He'd also bought some extra food for her family, calling it "overtime pay."
"Which one did you like most?"
Ella thought for a moment. "Super Mario, I think."
Caelan nodded. He remembered his older sister and cousin back on Earth had loved Super Mario too. They'd called it "picking mushrooms." Played it on a Subor console.
His favorite had been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 and 3. He'd played the modded versions with thirty lives. Cleared both of them.
TMNT 3 in particular—he'd loved playing as the one with the trident. Raphael, that was the name. His AB skill combo—known in certain circles as the "Poison Dragon Drill"—had insane range and barely any recovery frames. You could keep a boss stunlocked forever if you played it right. As long as you didn't get hit, that last sliver of health could carry you through entire levels with infinite AB spam. His second favorite was the dual-sword guy. Then the staff user. The one he hated most was the nunchaku fighter—Michelangelo, maybe? His AB skill was completely useless except for fighting those two flying machines over the ocean.
Maybe the next game could be based on TMNT 3. He'd need to change some things, of course. Buff the nunchaku user, for one. And this time, he wanted to put more effort into the story. Back on Earth, he'd been obsessed with single-player games and loved reading through all the lore.
Caelan retreated to the back room and sank into his mind palace, searching through memory fragments related to TMNT 3.
He began piecing everything together.
Relevant memories compiled. Beginning game construction.
Every time Caelan started building a game, he felt this indescribable rush. It was like the first time he'd opened the Warcraft 3 map editor and realized he could be a creator—except the thrill now was a thousand times greater. Because now, if he wanted to modify game values and data, all it took was a thought.
In the mind palace, I am my own system. I am the creator.
The game came together quickly. Thanks to his enhanced mana, even though TMNT had a much larger file size, Caelan easily engraved it onto a size 6 runestone tablet. Not only that—he could clearly feel there was still plenty of space remaining. Stronger mana meant better compression, basically.
A thought struck him. Since there was space left over, he could add more content. Not just copy it wholesale—actually expand on it.
Currently, excluding the newly released Salamander, Chinese chess sold the most because it was cheap. Elemental Contra came next, approaching a hundred copies sold. Super Mario was mainly popular with girls—over twenty copies. Tank Battle had the fewest sales at under ten.
But here was the interesting part: a single copy of Elemental Contra provided the highest mana feedback of any game. Four to five times more than the others.
That had puzzled Caelan for days now.
Was it because Contra had been heavily modified into Elemental Contra? If so, was the higher feedback due to better immersion from the modifications making it feel more familiar to this world? Or was it because of his original additions being recognized by the Weave's rules?
Caelan felt the latter was more likely. Which meant he should modify this TMNT game extensively. How else could he test the theory without making changes?
First question: did the protagonists have to be green-haired turtles? Did they need to be Japanese ninjas?
So how should he change it?
The last day of the week's holiday was spent entirely on modifications.
A new week began. The enchanted crystal receiver updated with fresh news.
Caelan turned it on while washing his face that morning:
"The Xiba Kingdom claimed last month that the 'Ice Peak Water Dragon Sword Art' compiled by our nation's three water-element generals was actually written by their deceased water-element Sword Saint, 'Callahan of House Blueriver,' and shamelessly petitioned the Warrior's Guild to change the authorship attribution. The Warrior's Guild ignored their request. Our foreign minister has sent a letter to the Holy See on Sacred Light Isle in the Lion Kingdom, hoping they can control their dogs..."
"The Phoenix Empire's two Archmages—Caroline of House Burstflame and Joyce of House Bluehawk—are fighting again! Last time, they were competing over a male favorite. According to reliable sources, this time they're fighting over a young girl. Joyce accused Caroline of kidnapping and forcing her new apprentice to sleep with her, so she blew up Caroline's castle in Phoenix City. Tsk tsk tsk, who knows if the girl really is just her apprentice or something else entirely..."
"Baisayer of Clan Icebear, Young Chieftain of the Ice Bear Horde in the Frostpeak Empire, has recently made a high-profile pursuit of the fourth daughter of the Dragonspire Empire's House Mountaindrake, and threatened to—quote—'squeeze off' the manhood of all his competitors and stuff it back in their mouths. These words have obviously angered many young talents of the Dragonspire Empire. It's reported that 'Auston of House Crashfist,' who won the fourth-year championship at Mountain Academy last year, is leading several friends in pursuit of Baisayer through the White Deer Mountains..."
"The otherworld guest elder of the White Shaluo Kingdom—Grand Archmage 'Vasasaluque of House Dustsea'—has announced he's found his original plane of existence. However, because the time coordinates are set eleven years before his arrival in this world, to avoid two versions of himself existing in the same spacetime and causing temporal chaos, Vasasaluque's true body can only transmigrate eleven years from now. But he stated that when the time comes, he will definitely increase cross-realm exchanges and work hard to develop the White Shaluo Kingdom..."
"The Headmaster of our nation's Crimson Academy has recently been promoting a board game called ' chess,' claiming this board game will surpass all current games in the world. He revealed that this game was created by a student at Crimson Academy..."
"..."
Caelan spat out his mouthwash, genuinely shocked.
In just a few days, chess had already made the news?
Plz Throw Powerstones.