For advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/Ritesh_Jadhav0869
"These melodies are unlike anything I've ever heard before. They're not particularly pleasant, mind you, but they're special. Very special. Do you understand what I mean? No? Well then, Caelan—can you tell me what kind of inspiration led you to create these tunes?"
Caelan had barely stepped through the gates of Crimson Academy, hadn't even made it to the classroom yet, when one of the music instructors cornered him. The gist was: the teacher wanted to discuss the music in those games. Why were the tunes so peculiar? How did a few simple notes manage to feel so lighthearted?
Caelan knew absolutely nothing about music. He could hum, sure. Could carry a tune. Back on Earth, he'd been the guy who could dominate karaoke for a solid fifteen minutes straight. Sang well, actually, but his voice would give out after three songs. Still, he couldn't even recite do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do backwards without stumbling, so how the hell was he supposed to discuss music theory with anyone?
"Professor Lysander, listen—those tunes weren't created by me. They were created by a friend of mine. I personally don't understand music at all."
"Making up imaginary friends now, are we?" The music teacher squinted at him.
This was Professor Lysander of House Thunderorb, from a Lightning family. His own talent was seven-star Wind—his highest affinity—yet he was obsessed with studying music. His combat strength was only Fifth Circle, but his musical accomplishments were apparently quite impressive. Otherwise Crimson Academy wouldn't have hired him as an instructor.
"No, really. A friend made them. Do I look like someone who understands music?" Caelan said helplessly.
Lysander looked him up and down, then nodded. "With that terrible sense of fashion, you really don't."
You've got taste, Caelan thought sourly. A grown man wearing a thick layer of powder on his face. That's real classy.
"Then introduce me to this friend of yours," Lysander said.
"My friend has social anxiety. He's reclusive. Doesn't like meeting people." Caelan didn't even blink.
Lysander stared at him in silence for a long moment. Caelan, thick-skinned as ever, stared right back.
"Fine. Go to class." Maybe it was the time constraint. Or maybe it was all the students passing by, pointing and whispering. Either way, Professor Lysander finally let him go.
When Caelan arrived at the classroom, his classmates greeted him one after another.
"Oh look, the celebrity's here!"
"Caelan, you made the news!"
"The Headmaster praised you in front of the entire nation!"
Caelan responded with a strained smile. Class was about to start, so at least nobody asked him to manifest a game.
First period was literature. The lesson focused on a poem describing a desolate, beautiful love story. Caelan had read about this in some book somewhere. The story was about a male noble from the Lion race who fell in love with a Divine race woman without knowing her true identity. Later, the Divine race opposed the relationship.
Caelan had heard at least eight or ten variations of this story back on Earth. Wasn't it just an otherworld version of some celestial romance? The only difference was the ending wasn't happy—the two were separated forever, never to meet again.
The poem described the despair in the man's heart when he faced his beloved for the last time, knowing he'd never see her again.
Caelan found it uninspiring.
Though... what if he changed the plot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to be about several badass warriors helping this noble lord storm the Divine Realm to reclaim his beloved? Would they get beaten to death by some overpowered divine guardian?
It was just a passing thought. Caelan would never actually make such a radical change. Besides, he'd already mostly finished modifying the game yesterday. The plot was already slapped together. He wasn't about to waste time reworking it.
Second period was an elective. Caelan's chosen specialization—"Fire and Sword"—was scheduled for this session. Fire and Sword meant fusing fire element magic with sword combat techniques.
When he arrived at the classroom, he found Cassius of House Everflame and Victor of House Vastflame from Class Zero were also there. They'd always been in this class, actually, but back then Caelan had never interacted with them, so he hadn't known them. Now, as his first and second customers, he considered them acquaintances.
"Hey, your name's Caelan, right?" Victor seemed super friendly. "That Tank Battle game is really fun. I heard you also made a similar game called... 'Shoot 'Em Up'?"
Caelan blinked.
Cassius cut in. "It's called Salamander. You control a plane—well, a fighter jet. And yes, you also shoot down planes."
"Oh, oh. Close enough." Victor waved it off. "Caelan, did you bring the runestone? Sell me one later."
"I did. After class."
"Cool."
After the session ended, Caelan handed Victor the Salamander runestone.
Victor passed over five silver marks. "Caelan, are there any secret codes for Tank Battle? Like the thirty lives in Elemental Contra?"
Caelan paused, suddenly struck by a thought. The version of Tank Battle he'd played as a kid had thirty-five levels—he could see that clearly in his mind palace memories. But nobody he knew back then had ever mentioned secret codes, and they weren't recorded in his memories. So if a game had originally had a secret code, but he didn't know about it, would that code still exist when he replicated the game from his mind palace? Could players accidentally discover it themselves?
Whatever. He wouldn't overthink it. Whether the original codes existed or not was meaningless anyway. If he wanted a code, he could just program one in himself.
While mulling over the question, he didn't forget to answer Victor. "Currently, I've only programmed codes into Elemental Contra. And they only work on the first two difficulty modes."
Victor looked curious. "Why's that?"
Caelan answered honestly. "Because I didn't think of it."
Seeing Victor's speechless expression, Caelan quickly changed the subject. "How've you been doing with Elemental Contra these past few days? What level can you reach?"
"Level six."
"That's not bad."
Cassius suddenly chimed in. "Even with thirty lives, he can only get to level six. This guy's obsessed with designing terrain in Tank Battle. I genuinely can't understand what he finds fun about that."
Victor said nothing.
Caelan said nothing. He also couldn't understand that particular hobby.
Through their conversation, Caelan learned that Cassius could already clear Normal difficulty with five lives—no codes. For that, Caelan could only give him a thumbs up. "Respect."
They headed to the mana gathering array, absorbed fire element for their daily training, then everyone returned to their respective classrooms.
Even though the mana feedback from people playing his games had massively accelerated his growth, Caelan still didn't skip his daily absorption routine. The two didn't conflict, and every bit helped.
Back in the classroom, Caelan didn't manifest games for his classmates like he had last week. Instead, he told everyone he'd opened a shop called "Game City" on Mare Street in Charger's Alley, and they could all play for free there after lunch.
Everyone cheered. Many had specifically brought extra coin today because they wanted to buy copies of Elemental Contra to play at home. Now that they'd heard about the shop, they all wanted to check it out.
Caelan headed back to the shop first. On the way, he bought food for himself and Ella, then walked inside. A few people were already playing games. Ella was standing behind two players, watching while holding a small cup of water.
Caelan called out to her, waving the food.
Yesterday—the last day of the holiday—Caelan had realized the lunch break wasn't very realistic. When people got deep into serious gameplay, reaching certain stages, it felt wrong to ask them to shut off the game mid-session. Caelan was a gamer himself. He understood perfectly well how disappointing it would be if the power suddenly cut out when you were completely immersed.
So starting yesterday, he'd had Ella work an extra hour each day. Her salary increased to 220 silver marks. She'd been incredibly happy about it. Thanked him countless times.
PLz Throw Powerstones.