《Game Creator System [LitRPG]》


 01 – Game Creator

    I was completely confused...


    After waking up I looked around and had the feeling that I was in my room, but at the same time I was sure that I wasn''t in my room...


    It only took a few seconds for my head to start hurting and for a huge influx of memories to flood my mind.


    Memories of two lives!


    The Theo of the first life was just an ordinary man, he lived a normal life until he was 26, worked a normal job, had normal friends and spent his entire salary buying games to decorate his Steam account.


    In that life I enjoyed every game I played.


    Although I had a good talent for gaming, always getting around the Master Rank in all competitive games, I wasn''t good enough to make a living out of it, so I just contented myself with playing the best games and platinuming as many as possible.


    That life had nothing very important to say beyond that.


    The second life was completely different.


    Even though he had an ordinary start as an ordinary student at an ordinary school, everything changed when the school tested the students'' talents and it was discovered that the Theo of this world had the talent to be a Game Creator.


    For a world that was constantly invaded by other races, humanity had to find ways to become more powerful in order to defend itself against these other races.


    So governments began to explore how they could make the population stronger.


    It took a while for people to understand the seriousness of the invasions, until an invasion happened in London and surprisingly people with wands appeared and dealt with the invasion using spells.


    A few days later an invasion took place in China and people flying on swords appeared to defend the population.


    From then on, each country showed that it too had the ability to control supernatural means, and it became public knowledge that magic existed in the world and each culture knew how to take advantage of it in a different way.


    In order not to be left behind, the US, which didn''t have such a deep culture involving magic, had to find another way of dealing with it.


    The government hired supernaturalists from all over the world for high salaries to study the different styles of magic and invent a new platform where the user''s magic could be used together with technology.


    With trillions of dollars invested and decades of work by geniuses and Supernaturals, a way to develop or access virtual worlds with magic finally emerged.


    People with low magical potential could only become Players and access virtual worlds to become stronger.


    People with high magical potential could choose to be Players or Game Creators, developing the virtual worlds and becoming stronger by making the Players stronger.


    Luckily, Theo from this world was tested at school and found to have a low talent for being a Game Creator, which made a place available for him at a University to develop this talent.


    The problem was that because he had little creativity and little mana, he never managed to excel at anything, always coming last in the university tests.


    Theo often considered giving up being a Game Creator and becoming a Player, taking advantage of the fact that he had more magical potential than normal Players to stand out there.


    This was the most common way out for failed Game Creators.


    From the memories I received, Theo was planning to quit the Game Creator course today, but now with the memories I had of the two worlds in my mind, I realized that I didn''t need to quit anymore.


    With the memories of a Theo with decades of experience in playing and re-playing the best games in a peaceful world, and also a Theo with years of experience in magically developing games, even failed games, my potential was too great to waste.


    In a world where the focus of games was only to make Players more powerful, games were extremely boring, tedious and repetitive.


    Many Players had to force themselves to play the games in order to get stronger because the games weren''t any fun.


    It was as if Players had to train for 6 hours a day in the gym. Even if there were people who enjoyed the process, the vast majority would die of boredom having to do it.


    If I used the knowledge of the best otherworldly games to make fun games for people to get stronger, wouldn''t I stand out?


    Why would I need to give up being a Game Creator if I could make games that thousands of people wanted to play?


    With each passing second I felt as if the two sets of memories were integrating in my mind even more.


    The fusion of the two memories was somehow making me feel even better.


    Closing my eyes for a few minutes, I just sat and analyzed each memory from both my lives.


    Sad memories, happy memories, dreams fulfilled, dreams dashed.


    All the feelings of the two Theos came together in me.


    When I felt that the memories had finally merged with me, I opened my eyes and felt like a new person.


    Having understood my mind, the first thing I did was analyze my surroundings.


    I was in a place that looked like a 20-square-meter mini-house with space for just a bed, a desk with a computer, a small kitchen and a bathroom.


    This place was my dormitory at Nova Forge Academy, Game Creator''s development academy.


    Because it was a newly built university, the criteria that students had to meet were lower, which is why the old Theo was still able to continue studying here even though his results were so poor.


    Studying at a new university had its advantages, for example, even though my dormitory was small, I didn''t have to share it with anyone and all the equipment was new.


    Looking at the computer turned on, I became curious and began to analyze the technology.


    Years of absolute focus on technological development meant that this world was decades ahead of my other life.


    Unfortunately, looking at the list of games already open on the screen, I had to sigh.


    [Knife Throwing Training in the Dark!]


    [Ice Shield Defense Training!]


    [Training...]


    The "Games" of this world were basically training methods disguised as games.


    Knife Throwing Training in the Dark!] for example, was just a virtual world in a dark forest where Players had a limited supply of knives and had to kill small birds that flew above the trees in exchange for points.


    The more birds the Player killed, the more points he earned.


    That was the "game".


    Just looking at it, I could think of several ways to make this game more interesting, for example, making the player earn coins for killing birds, then unlocking prettier knife appearances that could be bought for coins.


    Buying machines that throw knives by themselves so that the player can earn even more coins, making tougher enemies that need more powerful knives and can only be killed by powerful knives. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    As much as this made it seem like the game would lose its practical meaning, in the end the Player could still continue throwing knives, but now he would have an objective for throwing the knives, getting coins and having more beautiful knives.


    Unfortunately, the Game Creator who made this game didn''t think of any of this.


    And looking at the comments I realized that I was the only one complaining about it.


    .


    Reading the more than 80 comments praising Game Creator, I was shocked.


    This game was so boring and people in this world actually thought it was good?


    Sure, I have to admit that the game did fulfill the role of training, but for people to feel that a points system is enough to turn training into a game surprised me.


    Thinking about the game Theo made, my mind quickly remembered where the Game Core was.


    Behind the bed was a safe, typing in the safe''s password I opened the door and saw a small device the size of a Pendrive from another world.


    Picking it up carefully, I sat back down in the computer chair and analyzed the device.


    Under intense investment by the US government, this little device was the result of a blend of Magic and Technology.


    Called the Game Core, as long as Mana was injected into it the Game Creator could send his consciousness into it and use the Mana itself to shape a game from scratch.


    The game created depended solely on how much Mana the Game Creator had available and how creative he was, having enough creativity and Mana, it was said that even a perfect replica of our planet could exist in a Game Core.


    Sure, it''s not known whether this news is true or just something to give humanity hope, but even so, this little device was groundbreaking.


    There are different Game Core Tiers, ranging from the lowest Rank, Rank F, to the highest Rank, Rank S.


    The lower the Rank, the less storage capacity the Game Core has, consequently the higher the Rank of the Game Core, the more storage capacity it has.


    Another factor to consider is that a Game Core Rank F requires 1 Mana Point from Players per hour to use, while a Rank E requires more Mana, with this cost rising to a maximum at Rank S.


    Players are also classified by Rank and usually only play games of their Rank, meaning that a Rank F Player will probably only play Rank F games, and Rank E Players will hardly ever play Rank F games again, opting to play Rank E games that provide a greater improvement for them.


    But there was no rule preventing Rank E Players or even Rank S Players from playing Rank F games, they just didn''t want to.


    Why train for 2 hours in a Rank F game if they could get the same result by training for 1 hour in a Rank E game?


    That was the Players'' perspective, as a Game Creator I thought differently.


    With that in mind, I was even more interested in seeing what the game that Theo had developed was like, even if he didn''t have the talent, it''s not possible that the game would be so much worse than those games that the other Players had developed, right?


    The only thing I needed was to control a small part of the Mana in my body to enter the Game Core, something that with my memories wasn''t difficult at all, and what I saw in the Game Core...


    ...


    Looking at the contents of the Game Core, I didn''t even know how to react.


    It''s not possible that the old Theo thought this was something useful, right?


    I even started going through my memories to understand his thought process to find out why he did something like that, but there was nothing.


    It was as if he was just doing something for no reason.


    In front of me was a table.


    A wooden table.


    Why on earth did he only create a wooden table?


    Of all the ideas he could have had, why would he need a wooden table?


    And looking at this wooden table, seeing how detailed and beautiful it is, he must have spent at least 50 Mana Points on it.


    My total Mana is only 68 Mana Points, why on earth spend so much Mana on a single table?!


    I had to try to calm down.


    With a calmer head, I just ignored the table as if it didn''t exist and started testing with my Mana.


    Fortunately, the Mana recovered, so even though he had spent 50 MP on this table, my Mana had already recovered and I had 68 MP available to develop again.


    Sure, I didn''t have any plans to develop now, but I still wanted to test what it was like to control Mana in Game Core.


    Opening my hand, I controlled my Mana to leave my body and form the first small object that came to mind, a playing card.


    What first appeared was just a blank card, but the more Mana I poured into it, the more detailed the card became, gaining the drawings and numbers the card had, even allowing me to make different drawings on the back of the card.


    Best of all, I only needed 1 MP to do this test!


    Looking at the simple card in my hand, I decided to test it out a bit and erase the drawing of the numbers and symbols on the card, which cost me a fraction of a Mana Point.


    Despite playing a lot of games in my other life, I wasn''t a good artist, so I wanted to see if I could make beautiful art on the card or if I needed talent for that too.


    As a basis for this card I was thinking of a drawing of an imposing blue dragon.


    This card came from an online card game I played a lot in my previous world, Runestone, where the cards had abilities, attack, defense, there were spell cards, and Players had to put together their own Decks to battle other Players.


    Strangely, when I tried to draw the card, I felt as if my Mana was building up on the tip of my finger and not coming out.


    Confused, I insisted on it even more and used 1 more MP to try to draw on the card but it was still just accumulating on my fingertip.


    This time I just kept using MP and tried to figure out what was going on.


    When the total cost reached 5 MP my finger finally stopped absorbing the Mana and a window appeared in front of me.


    [5 Mana Points Stored, do you want to model a Saphire Drake Card?]


    ''What?'' I was shocked.


    Searching through all the memories in this world, I couldn''t find anything related to this screen that appeared in front of me, even more so because the name that appeared on the screen was exactly the original name of the card in Runestone!


    The strangest thing was that while my memories in this world knew nothing about this screen, my memories in the other world had a vague idea of what it might be...


    It could be a system!


    "Yes." I replied.


    As soon as I said that, the screen disappeared and the Mana stored in my fingertip began to flow out, being molded perfectly into the appearance of Runestone''s Saphire Drake Card!


    Even the shape of the card was identical, as there was also a Mana crystal in the top right corner of the card, showing the cost of summoning this card, as well as attack and defense statistics that this card had and an effect that the card exerted when summoned!


    To test this even better, this time I decided to try spending 5 MP to make another card, but this time I used my Mana directly, without letting the "System" control it, and the result was catastrophic...


    My otherworldly artistic talent also came with my memories, making the card look like it had been made by a child!


    Come to think of it, Theo from this world also had a terrible talent for art.


    '' I thought excitedly, even more so after thinking about how modeling worked in Game Core.


    Thinking about the possibilities I had with this System for the future, I got quite excited.


    Now what I had to do was decide the most important thing for my career as a Game Creator: what would my first game be?


    This question was extremely important, because if the game I made didn''t show any potential, my career as a Game Creator would be over.


    I had to make a great game with the few resources I had... but which game to make?


    Looking at the card in my hand and the table that, despite being useless, was beautiful, an idea began to form in my mind.

 02 – False Neurological Feedback

    Although making games in this world was simpler than in the other world, games in this world had to be useful.


    Even if I wanted to make a really fun game, knowing that this would make me stand out from the other games, I still had to think of some way to make the players stronger while playing, since the games were the Players'' way of training so as not to die in battle against monsters.


    To deal with this in an easy way, I could just take the games that are already successful in this world and improve on them, making them fun while allowing players to improve as they play.


    But as good as that sounds, this strategy could easily be copied by other Game Creators of higher ranks, taking away all my advantage of having realized that games need to be fun.


    What I want to do is invent a completely new game for this world, a game that even if other Game Creators copy me, not only will they not understand the game completely, but the Players will know that the game was copied from someone else.


    So looking at the card in my hand, I knew I had a great way to start my career as a Game Creator.


    I just had to study a bit more and understand how I could turn these cards into something useful for the Players.


    Fortunately, I still had three more weeks to finish my game, so that was enough time for me to finish.


    - S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Taking my mind off Game Core, the first thing I did was turn my gaze to the computer and start researching Game Creating.


    When the US was determined to create a way to make humans more powerful by mixing magic and technology, other countries just laughed at them and didn''t offer any substantial support.


    After the Game Cores were created, several countries tried to replicate this technology but were unsuccessful.


    Seeing that there would be no way to copy it so quickly, countries tried to buy Game Cores from the US, which although sold, was sold in smaller quantities and for extremely high prices, making the use of Game Cores practically a monopoly for Americans.


    The problem is that the number of people who have the talent to be Game Creators is extremely low, and with only one country freely training these few talented people, the studies on Game Cores were not as in-depth as I needed them to be.


    Instead of the vast amount of information available on the internet that I could always find for any subject I was looking for, when it came to Game Cores the information was very scarce.


    Turning my attention to the books at the University, I knew that these books were my only option for finding the answers I needed, so I sorted out the books that might be useful and started a study session.


    Surprisingly, while I was reading the college books I realized that my reading speed and ease of understanding the content was higher than the average before the two memories merged.


    What I used to struggle to understand, having to spend several minutes on each concept, now it was as if my computing capacity had increased, making me learn concepts at the same level much more easily.


    Without realizing it, hours passed and it wasn''t until 3 p.m. that I found an article in a book that explained a way to make my idea work.


    The article explained in detail a way that high-ranking Game Creators used called ''False Neurological Feedback''.


    This False Neurological Feedback basically consists of using part of the Mana that the Player spends in the game that would go to the Game Creator so that the effort made in the game is reflected directly in the Player''s brain, improving cognitive and motor skills and even muscle development and improving the Mana core.


    Sure, this kind of knowledge is as complicated as it sounds, something I wasn''t even close to achieving, but perhaps with the System''s help it wouldn''t be impossible.


    This tactic was usually used by high-ranking Game Creators developing games for high-ranking Players because not only was the knowledge required to carry it out extremely demanding, but the Player''s improvement is proportional to the amount of Mana they use in the game.


    Rank F players use 1 MP per hour of play, which provides a small improvement, but one that would not be ignored by prolonged use.


    Despite the great hunger I was feeling from having studied for so long, my desire to test this idea was much greater than that and I quickly grabbed the Game Core and injected my consciousness into it.


    Looking at the small Saphire Drake card, which was a ''Creature'', my plan was to make it so that when this type of card was placed on the board the Player would receive a small increase in physical stats such as strength, ''Spell'' cards would give the Player a small increase in magic stats, and ''Weapon'' cards would give the Player stats in agility.


    Sure, it wasn''t something on the level that a Player would play 30 cards in a game, receive 30 stat boosts and in two days have the strength of an S Rank Player.


    The idea is that if a Rank F Player spends 1 MP per hour, each game lasts an average of 6 minutes and the Player uses an average of 20 cards per game, each card would only give a boost of 0.5% proportional to the boost that 1 MP would give.


    And even if there were malicious Players who wanted to make decks to play as many cards as possible, the game would also have a boost limit equivalent to 1 MP per hour.


    All these calculations would only be useful if my next test worked, so looking at the card in my hand I took a deep breath and wished that my Mana would be used to change the effect of this card so that it would work in a Runestone-style card game from my memories, that the effect of the card would work exactly as it was written and that the Neurological False Feedback system I had just learned would work on it.


    After imagining all this I controlled my Mana to go out through my body and do what I had imagined and the Mana was stuck to my fingertip again!


    That probably meant it worked!


    Taking a deep breath, I continued injecting Mana...


    4 MP...


    5 MP...


    6 MP...


    7 MP...


    8 MP...


    9 MP...


    10 MP...


    12 MP...


    15 MP...


    The accumulated Mana is full!


    [15 Mana Points Stored, do you want to remodel the "Saphire Drake Card" into a "Special Saphire Drake Card"].


    "Yes!" I replied excitedly.


    As soon as I said that, the Mana stored in the tip of my finger began to flow out, shaping itself in a completely different way than it had the first time I made this card.


    Even without fully understanding what was happening, I was able to identify small traces of the Neurological False Feedback that I had seen in the books being formed on the card.


    '' I thought excitedly.


    Looking at the beautiful Saphire Drake card in my hand, a huge smile appeared on my face.


    With this tactic I could make a game where the Players just played the cards randomly and won the stat points? Yep, but the Players would have to spend an hour doing nothing in the game, dying of boredom, so why not make it fun and make the Players want to play my game?


    '' I was startled to think of that figure.


    If I had time to spare, I might even consider making all 240 cards, but that''s completely unfeasible, I realized that I needed to cut out the vast majority of cards.


    With my 68 MP base, even if I rest and meditate at midday I would only have a total of 136 MP to use per day, I still need to take into account the cost of developing the rest of the game, which could account for a third of the MP spent per day to develop the rest of the game, leaving me with only 90 MP per day to use for card development, 6 cards per day, 90 cards at the end of the 15 days.


    90 cards isn''t much, but at least it would serve as an initial Early Access model of the game.


    Why 15 days to develop the game if I still had 21 days available before the end of the university test?


    Because the number of players playing was a very important point in evaluating the game.


    Even if I made the best game, if no one played it and I came last, I would still receive a low score from the university, so I would have to make the game available to players for at least 7 days.


    With such a good game, I''m confident that in 7 days I''ll be competing for the top spots.


    So with all that decided, I started sorting out the essential cards to make up the first 90 cards of the game.


    As there would be few cards, I also had to reduce the number of heroes, leaving only the Warrior and the Wizard.


    In the future I''ll add the other heroes along with the other cards in the game, but for now I''ll just focus on these two.


    For the Warrior I''d leave good cards that synergize well with ''Creature'' and ''Weapon'' decks and for the Mage I''d leave cards with good synergy for ''Creature'' and ''Spell'' decks.


    This way I could cover the basics of the game and give Players freedom to play as they wish.


    To avoid Players using only spell cards to gain maximum and boost magic, I came up with a good idea.

 03 – Pleasant surprise!

    To prevent Players from only using ''Spell'' cards or ''Weapon'' cards, I decided to implement something that may cause them a lot of anger, but which will further increase the competitiveness and how addictive the game is.


    The game will have a Casual and Competitive mode, just like the original Runestone, but the amount of stat boosts Players will receive will be based on how high the Player''s Rank is.


    With the ranks being Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Master.


    Players in Bronze and Silver will still receive an ''Ok'' amount of stats, Players in Gold and Platinum will receive the fair amount of stats and for Players in Diamond and Master I''ll use the part that Bronze and Silver players miss out on to give them a little more stats than they should receive.


    Considering that the Players'' Rank will look like a Gaussian Curve, the amount of Bronze and Silver Players will be only slightly higher than the amount of Diamond and Master Players, making it all fair.


    I know how addictive competitive games were in my previous world, these being the games where Players spent most of their day and spent most of their money, even though they were Free To Play games, so I knew that developing this area would be lucrative.


    Especially since there are no games like that in this world. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Here, players just compete for who has the most points, rather than battling each other to take the other''s point, two completely different concepts.


    With that decided, I turned my attention to planning the game''s development.


    Following the idea of the original Runestone, the game would take place in a player-only tavern. When an opponent was found, the players would be facing each other and would be able to talk and interact freely during the game.


    At the end of the game, the two players would return to their own tavern where they could edit their decks, study the cards, open card packs or whatever they wanted to do.


    Regarding the card packs, as the games were free, the card packs would be bought using an in-game currency that players would receive at the end of each game based on their performance, wins granting more coins and losses granting fewer coins.


    One doubt I had was that if the games are free, how do the Game Creators earn money?


    Simple, in order to play the games, the Players had to pay a monthly fee to the government, which then paid the Game Creators based on the time spent by the Players in the game.


    The old Theo didn''t pay much attention to the amount of this fee, but I know that the biggest Game Creators are multi-millionaires, so I doubt that this fee is low.


    With all this decided and planned, all that remained was to develop the game.


    -


    Fortunately, my memory was almost perfect after the merging of the two minds, so I could clearly remember all the cards in the game.


    The process of making each of the cards, programming the cards'' restrictions and everything they could do was easier than I had imagined.


    Once I got used to doing it, I could make all 3 cards in the morning in just a few minutes, then use the remaining 23 MP to set up the smaller, more detailed parts of the game in a couple of hours, have my lunch, rest for two hours, then go back to Game Core, make the 3 cards in the afternoon, use the remaining 23 MP in the afternoon and go back to the real world to study.


    My studying wasn''t very complex, I''d just pick up the college books that the old Theo had given up studying and study that again.


    After repeating this routine for three days, I realized something very good!


    I was ready to make my first card of the day when I started accumulating Mana at my fingertips as usual.


    1 MP...


    5 MP...


    10 MP...


    12 MP...


    14 MP...


    And the Mana has stopped accumulating!


    [14 Mana Points Stored, do you want to model a ¡°Special Reeroy Lenkins Card¡±?]


    I asked shocked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± I replied a little doubtfully.


    Within seconds the card was shaped in front of me using my mana.


    As I had studied a lot about Game Core and Game Creating, as well as observing so many advanced cards being shaped with my Mana, I was able to understand a little more about the process of shaping the card this time.


    Looking at the card and seeing that it was as perfect as the others, I was a little confused, but an idea came to mind.


    To test this idea I decided to make the next card.


    1 MP...


    5 MP...


    10 MP...


    12 MP...


    14 MP...


    And the Mana stopped accumulating again at 14 MP!


    [14 Mana Points Stored, do you want to model a ¡°Special Lava Giant Card¡±?]


    This was an even more powerful and iconic card than Saphire Drake, but it had its cost reduced by 1 MP!


    To be sure, I ran the test with another card and the result was the same, the cost had dropped to 14 MP!


    '' I deduced excitedly.


    I wasn''t even learning out of obligation, with my new level of understanding, learning had become satisfying.


    Opening the book with so many new and interesting concepts that I only needed to read a few times to understand was fascinating!


    I had started studying the content taught in the first year, which was simpler, so this was even easier to learn.


    Who knew that relearning this kind of thing would save me MP when using the System?!


    Not only had the MP cost of using the System gone down, but the cost of doing everything else in the game had also gone down.


    Some things only decreased by fractions of a MP, while others decreased by just over 1 MP, which at the end of the day gave me an average saving of 9 MP compared to the previous day when I had done the same things for 9 MP more.


    After another 6 days of study, the cost of using the System dropped again, reducing the cost of making the card by another 1 MP.


    At this point I had made 4 more cards than I should have because of the MP savings my knowledge had generated, and with the cards costing only 13 MP over the next 6 days I was able to make 8 more cards in addition to the 4 extra I had made and the 90 cards I had originally intended to make, increasing the total amount of cards available in the game to 102 cards!


    These 12 extra cards that the game received would make a big difference to Players'' decks, making the game even more fun than it was originally going to be.


    Being now only 7 days away from the end of the test with the game completed I decided to launch the game on the University''s website and try out the game as a Player, without any Game Creator benefits just out of curiosity.


    I had already tried the cards, tried the classes and even tested the False Neurological Feedback and surprisingly it worked on me too!


    Ever since I discovered it I''ve had to control myself not to spend my Mana activating False Neurological Feedback on myself to improve my body, since I still needed that Mana, but now that the game was finished I could leave it activated all the time improving my body constantly!


    The improvement it gave me was low, low to the point that if I didn''t know it was active I probably wouldn''t even notice the difference, but knowing it was active and analyzing the changes it was making to my body I started to see a difference!


    As I was the Game Creator I didn''t even have to depend on the cards, I just chose which statistic I wanted to improve and every hour my body would improve in proportion to the 1 MP it improved.


    Unfortunately I wasn''t able to increase how much it improved, probably because the Game Core was only Rank F, limiting my gains to those relative to a Rank F, but I wasn''t dissatisfied, I could go all day without doing anything and my body would improve as if I''d worked out in a gym for a few hours.


    The game was released under the name Runestone, in homage to the original game in my previous world.


    The artwork for the game page on the university website was made using screenshots from the game, since I wasn''t good enough at artwork and could use the System to make whatever artwork I imagined, which made the game page look much nicer than the pages for other games.


    Unfortunately releasing the game with only a week to go until the test ended meant that I was one of the last games to be released, sending me straight to the bottom of the games list, but I was confident that the smell of a good wine wouldn''t be hidden by a dark alley.


    And I was right, as I was assembling my Deck using the starter cards the game made available, I felt an MP being spent in the game indicating that a Player had connected.


    I was curious to know how this Player would react to logging in for the first time, but instead of logging in as Admin and going snooping around, I decided to just continue setting up my Deck and join the game queue, ready to be this Player''s opponent when he decided he was ready to play.

 04 – First Player

    - Natalie POV -


    '' I thought in frustration as I looked at page 3 of the list of games developed by the Game Creators at Nova Forge Academy.


    I know that the NFA isn''t one of the best Game Creator colleges, but all the games are practically copies of the most successful games of recent years.


    And I can''t even blame the Game Creators for that... it''s not like they have enough knowledge and mana to make more complex games...


    I sighed at the thought.


    Looking at the fifth game where the objective is to stand in a forest swinging a different weapon in different climates, I was about to give up, until I saw that the list was already running out and decided to give the games below a try.


    Even though I knew that the likelihood of these games being good was practically minimal, what cost would it be to look at a few more games before I went looking for games on other colleges'' pages?


    [Desert Arrow Blocking Training!]


    [Labyrinth Trap Evasion Training!]


    [Magic Resistance Training under Lava!]


    [Runestone]


    Looking at that strange game with a name that said nothing about it, I was confused.


    I had never seen a game page like this before, so, curious, I clicked on the page to see a better explanation of what the game was and what the focus of the training was.


    Opening the game page, instead of showing a picture of someone somewhere training something, what the game was showing was two people smiling while holding strange cards.


    Even though I felt it didn''t make sense, I kept looking at the images of the game showing how it worked and noticed that each card had a different effect that, when played, would do something different.


    The more I looked at it, the more interested I became in this game, even though it didn''t show any real advancement in the Players'' skill power.


    As the images were interesting, I shifted my gaze to the explanatory text about the game.


    -


    ? RUNESTONE ?


    Welcome to Runestone, the strategic card game that combines real-world progress with fun! Who says training has to be boring?


    Runestone takes the concept of card battles to a whole new level, using the revolutionary technology: False Neurological Feedback! Who said that only games with a high Rank can provide False Neurological Feedback to Players?!


    ? WHAT IS RUNESTONE?


    Runestone is more than a card game; it''s an experience that not only entertains you but also improves your Rank as a Player. Choose a hero, build your deck and go into combat against other Players. But what really sets Runestone apart is that, unlike other games where training is extremely tedious, in Runestone you''ll have fun all the time!


    ...


    -


    The more I read about the game''s description, the more I felt my blood boil.


    Wasn''t that exactly what I was looking for? A way to become stronger that wasn''t as boring as other games were?


    But reading about this ''False Neurological Feedback'', I began to think it sounded too good to be true.


    Everywhere I looked about it, the only thing I found was scientific articles by big Game Creators talking about how difficult it is to make it work and how only the biggest Game Creators managed to implement it in their games.


    Now a Rank F Game Creator was hinting that he had replicated this strange technology in his Rank F game?


    I thought, a little disappointed.


    But despite my disappointment, I still clicked to download while continuing to read the game page. When the game finished downloading completely, I instantly clicked play, curious to see how it would work.


    Everything the game page was saying seemed very unreal.


    When I clicked pay to play and injected my Mana into the Game Linker, I felt my consciousness leaving my body and traveling to the virtual world of this game.


    Unlike other virtual worlds in other games that tried to be scary or oppressive, to push the training to the limit of what our mind and body could take, this game took me to a strange wooden tavern with warm, cozy lighting.


    In this tavern there were several empty tables and behind the counter there was no one, but to my amazement, a strange, funny and charismatic voice startled me as it spoke.


    [Welcome to the Runestone, Player! Take a seat at the table with a Runestone tray].


    Looking around and seeing no one, I figured that this voice had probably been pre-recorded by the Game Creator to help beginner Players understand the game.


    Following the voice''s suggestion, I slowly approached the table with a box on top and sat down in the surprisingly comfortable wooden chair.


    As soon as I sat down, the box began to glow and opened for me, showing two images, a large, muscular green-skinned man holding a large axe or a beautiful white-haired woman with a scholarly aura holding a golden staff.


    [To begin, select your hero. Each hero has unique abilities that can change the course of the match, and your real-life stat gain based on False Neurological Feedback depends on which style of card you use. Mages have more access to magic cards, increasing the amount of magic you receive at the end of the game, warriors have more creature and weapon cards, increasing their strength and agility at the end of games].


    Looking at the two drawings and seeing how beautiful and delicate the woman was, even if she was a rogue I would still choose her, but her being a mage made me even more excited since I could improve my magic by playing with her!


    After clicking on the mage, the design of my board changed slightly to represent the appearance of a magic workshop, which I found adorable.


    [You have selected Grand Magus Lyna Proudstone!]


    ''I''m enjoying this more and more!''


    [In a dueling card game, you should ideally put together your own deck, but if you don''t want to, Lyna Proudstone''s basic deck is available for you to use at any time].


    Curious, I started looking at the cards in Maga''s basic deck and I was pleased with what I saw, but out of curiosity I also looked at the other cards available for me to choose from and I realized that I understood too little about the game to customize anything, so I just stuck with the basic deck.


    [Now that you have a Deck, you can play your first battle, good luck Great Mage!] S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Hearing the game call me Great Mage made a Great Smile appear on my face as I shifted my gaze to the menu in front of me.


    Even though the board was made of wood with rustic elements all over the place, whenever the game menu changed the board made mechanical sounds as if it had actually changed in a realistic way.


    In front of me were two buttons, [Casual Match] and [Ranked Match].


    Reading the description of both I wanted to click on Ranked Match, but the button wasn''t available until I had completed 10 battles.


    Resigning myself to my fate, I clicked on [Casual Match] and a roulette wheel started spinning, apparently deciding my opponent.


    I was surprised by this.


    [Worthy Opponent!]


    That was the title of the opponent the game chose for me, which pleased me.


    Within seconds the board began to change, splitting in half with my half of the board having the appearance of a magic laboratory while the other half had the appearance of a warrior training camp.


    On the other side of the table, the body of a person began to materialize.


    This person was a young man who looked about my age, with straight black hair down to his eyes, eyes that were a shade of green so light they looked golden, delicate features and a thin, almost malnourished build.


    I thought as I analyzed the boy.


    Just as I was analyzing him, he also looked at me curiously and gave me a polite smile.


    ¡°Hello, I hope we have a good game.¡± He held out his hand as he kept smiling at me.


    Surprised by his politeness I was momentarily stunned and it took me a few seconds to recover, reaching out to shake his hand a little embarrassed.


    ¡°Thank you, I''m looking forward to it too.¡± I said, not knowing what else to say.


    After we greeted each other, a coin appeared in the center of the board and then I received a warning that I would play first.


    As soon as this notice appeared, magically the cards from my deck that were next to the board flew into my hand, leaving me slightly surprised.


    Embarrassed by how I was acting, I glanced covertly at the boy on the other side of the board and realized that he just ignored how I was acting and looked at the cards in his hand seriously, making me sigh with relief and look at my cards again.


    At this point I didn''t even remember that I was in a game where the focus was on training and getting stronger, the only thing I was thinking about was how much fun this whole new experience was being.

 05 – Celebration!

    ¡°How...?!¡± I asked confused as I saw his side of the board with a bunch of creatures while my side only had two weak goblins!


    Smiling at me, he calmly explained. ¡°You see, the key to controlling the game isn''t just playing the most powerful cards. The trick is in the strategy of how you use your resources.¡±


    He looked at the cards remaining on my side of the board and, with a slight nod, continued:


    ¡°In a game like this, what really matters is how you handle your Mana. You need to plan your moves carefully, save your strongest cards for decisive moments and know when it''s the best time to attack or defend. I, for example, used some simpler cards at the start to build up Mana and ensure that, when the time was right, I had everything I needed to take control of the game.¡±


    He paused and looked at me, as if waiting for me to absorb the information.


    ¡°Also, don''t underestimate the little cards. They may not seem like much at first, but used in the right way, they can become the deciding factor in a match.¡±


    Listening to his explanation I was a little stunned, but remembering how the game seemed to be balanced and suddenly he completely dominated the board I think I began to understand the game.


    He was just discarding weaker cards at the beginning to keep the game going, even if he took a bit of damage, but he was keeping the right cards that matched each other in his hand, waiting for the right moment to play those cards.


    The only way I could reverse this would be to beat him before he could use his good cards, or to have a plan in my deck to counterattack at the same level.


    ...'' I thought excitedly, not letting myself get too down about the defeat.


    After the game was over, my opponent waved to me as his body disappeared from the table and I went back to being alone in my tavern.


    Having learned from my mistakes, the first thing I did was look at my Deck and learn the effects of all the cards.


    I had to know how my cards could be used and how to combine these cards to know the best time to use the cards.


    After preparing for 20 minutes, I clicked play again and to my surprise, my opponent was someone else!


    Smiling politely at him, I held out my hand and said. ¡°Hello, I hope we have a good game.¡±


    He was surprised by my attitude and also smiled as he extended his hand to me, acting a little nervous.


    '' I asked myself excitedly.


    Unlike the game I had against my first opponent, in this game I was completely dominant, combining cards, taking advantage of his carelessness, and every mistake he made, summoning cards without purpose, I was able to penalize him.


    That game ended quickly, and soon afterwards I looked for another opponent to play another game.


    Without realizing it, I was playing for more than 6 hours, a much longer time than I normally spent training in other games. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    I even unlocked [Ranked Match] and managed to move up from a Bronze 4 player to Bronze 2! When I played again tomorrow I could become a Silver player!


    When I disconnected from the game and went back to my room, the first thing I did was try to feel the changes in my body.


    At first I didn''t notice any changes, which left me a little disappointed, thinking that this game might be a waste of time, but after taking a good look at my Mana core I realized that my total Mana had increased!


    [Levitare!]


    Using a simple levitation spell I realized that not only had the total amount of Mana increased, but my control over my Mana had also increased a little!


    The total amount of this increase wasn''t something extreme, but it''s as if I had spent these 6 hours practicing my magic and my body non-stop!


    '' I thought excitedly.


    Training for 6 hours and getting that result is natural, but having fun for 6 hours and getting the same result as 6 hours of training is incredible!


    Sure, I''d still need to dedicate some of my time to actual combat training, but muscle training and magical development could be left completely to Runestone!


    Looking at my belly that was a little round, as long as I used enough creatures in Runestone I wouldn''t be able to slim back down to the perfect body I had when I was a teenager without having to go to a gym?!


    Thinking about the game''s explanation that Gold Rank players received an even bigger boost, and that Diamond Rank players received the biggest possible boost in the game, I was excited to find out how much that boost would be.


    Turning my gaze to the computer screen and seeing the NFA''s request for me to review their student''s game, I didn''t think twice about writing a good review!


    - Theo POV -


    I didn''t know the reactions that everyone was having outside of the game, but I could tell that people were enjoying playing Runestone when I logged out of the game as a Player and accessed my Game Creator Back-end to analyze the Players'' statistics and saw the data.


    thought '' I thought excitedly.


    The games in the site''s Top 10 had an average of 500 active Players and thousands of players who had already tested their games in total.


    These numbers are very good, even more so considering that the government pays Game Creators an average of $6.00 per hour for every 1,000 hours that Players play a F Rank Game, that means having 500 Players online at all times in a F Rank Game represents $72 per day, or $2,160 per month just for creating the game!


    Of course, whether these generic games would maintain the average of 500 Players online is another story, but it was still a good incentive for Game Creators.


    This amount of popularity that these games accumulated was over the course of one to two weeks, the time that these games had been released.


    Runestone, on the other hand, despite not having such large numbers in terms of total players who tested the game, was doing very well when it came to retaining Players!


    Of the 92 Players who downloaded and tested the game, 74 were still online in the game, with the 16 players who disconnected having played for at least 2 hours and only 2 players who played a single game and disconnected.


    I know it''s impossible to please everyone, so I wasn''t surprised to see people who hadn''t played for so long, or players who didn''t like the strategic vision the game demanded.


    The data collected by the game today is still not entirely reliable, for me to know how the game was really doing I would need at least 3 days, so I would know if Players were coming back to play because the game is good, or if they only played for so long because they wanted to try the game.


    Looking at the $2.88 available from the time the Players played my game, a smile broke out on my face.


    Even though I knew it wasn''t a lot of money, I wanted to celebrate and decided that I would treat myself well today.


    I hadn''t left my room once in the last 15 days, now that the game was done and going well it was my time to bask in my glory.


    Taking a nice warm shower and putting on nice, comfortable clothes, I left my dorm and looked around curiously.


    Following memories of the old Theo, I left the dormitory and walked across the university campus to the exit, where there was a small restaurant full of students chatting excitedly.


    The freshmen were chatting animatedly about the things they were learning, about university life, girls, drinks, games, and the like.


    On the other side of the restaurant was a group of seniors, classmates of Theo''s former class who had also recently released their games for the college test and were apparently chatting about their games.


    I intended to just look away and look for an empty table to sit at, but just as I was looking for a suitable seat, a loud voice caught my attention.


    ¡°Brooks, come here! There''s a place for you to sit here with us!¡± A male voice came from the group of veterans.


    Looking at the person who spoke, it was a blond, tall, athletic young man with blue eyes and a big fake smile on his face.


    If he were a normal person, he would hardly notice that the smile was fake, but with Theo having been the worst student for all five years of his studies at college, he had learned to identify when this boy''s smile was genuine or fake, since he had often used this fake smile to ridicule him before.


    At first I ignored the boy, still looking around to see if there was anywhere else to sit, but realizing that the restaurant was completely full, I shrugged and went to the other seniors'' table.


    Although this boy was a jerk to the old Theo, the other students weren''t bad. Even though Theo was the worst student, many were still polite and helped him when he had the courage to ask any questions he had.


    ¡°You finally showed up, Brooks! Did you finally get your game on?¡± Tyler Evans, the blond boy who always mocked Theo asked with derision.


    ¡°Yes, my game was released today.¡± I replied good-naturedly as I sat down at the table, nodding with a polite smile to the other classmates, ignoring Evans.


    ¡°Really?! At least you managed to finish your game before the test ran out of time haha, how are you, did you manage to get out of the bottom rank of the test?¡± He asked mockingly.


    ¡°Yep.¡± I replied minimally as I looked at the menu, choosing what I was going to eat.


    ¡°Really? What''s the name of your game, I''m curious to see how good it is!¡± Evans laughed out loud as he picked up his cell phone, ready to search for the game.


    ¡°Come on Evans, leave Brooks alone, he''s just here to eat.¡± One boy in the group was uncomfortable with Evans'' clear mockery and suggested he stop.


    ¡°Nah, Brooks must be confident in his game if he''s out celebrating today, come on Brooks, name your game.¡± He asked looking at his cell phone.


    ¡°Runestone.¡± I replied as I finally found a nice plate of barbecue on the menu and decided to eat it.


    ¡°Runestone, right? Let''s see how your game is going...¡± Evans commented as he opened College Rank and searched for my game, jumping straight to the last page.

 06 – Valuable Tips

    After staring at his phone for a minute or two, Evans started laughing as he looked at me. ¡°Brooks, your game isn''t even showing up on the list, are you sure you published your game correctly?¡±


    Hearing Evans'' comments, the other students looked at him in confusion, then looked at me with a little sympathy, since if my game that was posted today wasn''t on the last page, the only reason would be that I published the game incorrectly.


    At this point everyone was expecting me to be surprised or worried about it, but I didn''t even take my eyes off the menu as I answered.


    ¡°Look at the previous page, the last time I looked I was almost out of the last page, right now I should be one page up.¡± I said with disinterest.


    Hearing this, doubt appeared in everyone''s eyes.


    Even those who weren''t paying much attention to the discussion focused on what Evans was about to say, since if my game jumped from the last page to the next page on the first day of release, that would be surprising.


    Uncertain, Evans looked at the screen of his cell phone doubtfully and clicked on the previous page.


    Looking through the long explanatory titles of the other games and suddenly a game with just a name in the middle, he found my game with ease.


    '' Evans thought in doubt as he remained quiet, not wanting to give himself the satisfaction of proving him wrong.


    But that wouldn''t work, he had already attracted the attention of all the students at the table, some who were also on this page, others who were on the last page even though they had posted their games more than a week ago, hearing that it was possible that my game was doing well, they became curious.


    ¡°Hey Tyler, is his game really on that page? Or did he just post the wrong game and it''s not showing up?¡± One of Evans'' closest friends asked with interest.


    This question made Evans look at him with a bad expression, but he answered. ¡°I found his game, it''s in the middle of the penultimate page, probably with 50 to 70 Players? Not bad Brooks, maybe you can get a few more pages up before the end of the test, who would have thought that the worst student in recent years would get a result that isn''t the worst? Haha.¡±


    Having chosen what I was going to eat, I finally took my eyes off the menu and picked up the tablet on the restaurant table to place my order.


    As I placed my order, I finally looked at Evans with a mocking smile. ¡°Really? 70 Players? That''s good, when I left home only 90 Players had tried my game, if 70 Players are playing it means they really liked it, a 78% retention is very good, what''s the retention of your game, Evans?¡± S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Hearing my mocking reply, not only was Evans surprised, but the other students at the table also looked at me in shock.


    They probably couldn''t remember a single time Theo had responded to Evans in all five years of college.


    Being confronted by someone he considered ''weaker'' in front of all his classmates was not something Evans expected, so under the gaze of everyone waiting for an answer, he became visibly irritated and replied.


    ¡°You have high retention because you still have few Players, Brooks. When you have more than a thousand people trying out your game it will drop naturally, don''t get cocky...¡±


    Hearing his response, the other students also nodded, considering it reasonable, after all, pleasing 70 people can be luck, maybe I was just lucky to find the right audience, but that wouldn''t necessarily continue after more Players tested the game.


    But my smile remained plastered on my face, still looking at Evans mockingly as I shrugged. ¡°Really? That''s a good excuse to use on your pillow before you cry yourself to sleep.¡±


    Hearing my mockery even clearer than before, some students even stood with their mouths open in shock, while Evans turned even redder, glaring at me angrily.


    ¡°I know you''re not used to succeeding in anything you do, Brooks, but don''t let it go to your head, for someone so used to failing, you should see your place and not let pride cover your eyes.¡± Evans scoffed as he put his cell phone away and turned to talk to his friends.


    ¡°Tsk, so much talk for just that?¡± I scoffed in a slightly lower voice and went back to ordering my food.


    I know that if I provoked him any further, Evans would probably get up from the table and try to attack me, and considering our difference in physique, it''s very likely that I''d lose.


    My body only began to evolve today when I started applying Neurological False Feedback to myself, so it would still take me a long time to catch up with him, not to mention that Evans was talented at fighting and using knives, no wonder his game was top of the college list.


    Not to mention that I didn''t want to get involved in a clich¨¦ young masters fight as soon as I came to another world, so I just ignored him, just like he did me, and started talking to the other students around me.


    ¡°Jeez, Theo, what did you do to make your game do so well? My game is struggling to maintain an average of 30 Players, everyone joins my game and only stays a short time before giving up...¡± Said the boy who defended me when I arrived.


    Smiling at him, grateful that he had spoken up for me while Evans was talking garbage, I asked. ¡°What''s your game like?¡±


    ¡°My game is about practicing throwing spears at human enemies in the forest.¡± The boy explained.


    After his explanation, I kept looking at him curiously, waiting for the rest of the explanation, but he stayed quiet too, just staring at me.


    Seeing that he really had nothing else to explain to me, I understood where the problem with his ¡°game¡± lay.


    The ¡°game¡± wasn''t a real game, just a virtual training world with humanoid characters coming towards the Player.


    Probably the greatest work he did, and the reason other people bothered to play the game, was because they could face humanoid enemies.


    The problem with this is that the game had no sense of progression or achievement.


    The Player had no reason to keep playing other than to repeat the same boring, monotonous training.


    Knowing that when my game became popular other Game Creators would realize the advantages of making fun games and think of ways to make their games fun, I might as well give these people some tips and get their goodwill, you never know when networking will be important.


    ¡°How about making a progression system in your game? For example, with each enemy the player kills in your game, the spear they use gets prettier? This might encourage more people to keep playing to see all the spears available, or just to want to collect all the spears.¡± I suggested the most basic thing he could do.


    Hearing this tip, not only was the boy shocked to think how simple it was, but how much more fun the game would be because of this small change, but all the other students at the table who heard my tip were shocked.


    Everyone''s games were very similar, so a change like this would easily fit into everyone''s game.


    Hearing this, everyone turned to look at me while the brave ones, or those with more affinity with the old Theo decided to ask me as well.


    ¡°Theo, what about my game? What do you think I can do to improve?¡± One girl asked shyly.


    Remembering that she had helped the old Theo with some homework he had struggled with in the past, I too smiled politely at her and thought of some simple tips to make her game more fun and interesting for the audience.


    These tips I gave would come naturally to people when they saw how successful my game would be, it''s not like it would make them Runestone''s competitors, so helping them wouldn''t hurt.


    Because of the monster invasions that began a few decades ago just as electronic games were beginning to emerge in my other world, and the deaths caused by these invasions, the people of that world completely ignored that games could be fun and placed extreme emphasis on how practical the game was and how much it increased people''s survival.


    This meant that deaths from monsters decreased a lot, but as a consequence people lost the chance to understand how much fun electronic games could be.


    Games with magnificent stories that no movie could tell, games that were more competitive than traditional sports, all kinds of feelings that games could cause were completely unknown to these people.


    At that point I felt as if I had traveled to a medieval world where people had all the ingredients to eat a delicious pizza, but because they didn''t know about it they were still stuck eating only hard bread.


    When they taste pizza for the first time their minds would be opened, causing many to try to figure out what other delicious foods they could make with the ingredients they have, but while they will be stuck in the process of trial and error to figure out what might be tasty, I already have a recipe book with the world''s tastiest foods that I will be able to cook to forge my way to the top.


    With the two tips I gave to the two colleagues, the other students were impressed that these tips could also help their games and approached me to ask how their game could be improved.


    I helped with a few more questions until my food arrived, and when I started to eat they had the good sense to stop asking about it and let me eat, going back to chatting about the random things they were talking about before I arrived.


    Every now and then I would also comment on something they were talking about, making everyone stop talking and listen to me, a completely different treatment to when they still thought I was just Theo who came last in all the tests.


    The feeling of being appreciated was very nice, I wouldn''t let it go to my head, but I wouldn''t waste the opportunity either.


    The one who wasn''t at all pleased with me becoming the center of attention was Troy Evans, who stared at me as if he could shoot lasers out of his eyes.

 07 – New Feature!

    When I went back to my dorm on a full stomach and saw what a mess the place was, I took advantage of the fact that I had nothing very important to do and started tidying up.


    I would only live here for another week before I had to move out.


    When Game Creators graduate from college they can keep the Game Core that the college gave them to take the final test at no cost, which for Game Creators with good games, represented a stable source of monthly income.


    Game Creators with good results could receive offers from large Guilds with even higher salaries to develop exclusive games for them or even large companies wanting to buy the rights to the games, since as the Game Creators system was developed by the government, all games developed were the right of the Game Creator who made that game, like a very well protected patent.


    Game Creators couldn''t just copy other people''s games, they had to have their own changes and originality to develop it.


    Sure, F-rank Game Creators didn''t even have enough Mana to develop more elaborate games, so they stuck to the basic, bland training that everyone was entitled to do.


    As the Game Creators rose in rank and had more Mana available to use in their games, the games started to become more detailed, with better-made battle missions, specialized training with virtual instructors, and technologies like the False Neurological Feedback that I copied.


    It''s not because the games weren''t fun that they were badly made, quite the opposite, the realism of the higher rank games was the main focus of these games, making the greatest games in the world masterpieces of combat training.


    Thinking about my future, I had no doubt about what to do after graduating.


    Joining a Guild or a big company was out of the question, I didn''t want to be controlled by people who didn''t have a vision like mine.


    Even if I lived in a small apartment for a few years while slowly developing my games, I would go my own way and do things my own way.


    Looking at the clean and tidy dormitory, a proud smile appeared on my face and I sat down at my computer to check the game''s statistics.


    It seemed that the game was going very well.


    In the two hours I''d been away from home, the game had risen from 70 Players online to 87 Players.


    Retention was still as high as ever, making a big smile appear on my face.


    The only thing stopping my game from growing more was promotion, people didn''t know about the game, so there was no way for them to play.


    But that''s a problem that I don''t think would stop me for long.


    '' I thought excitedly.


    This tactic had always worked in my other life, with me being responsible for getting several of my friends to download the games I liked just so I could get the reward for inviting them.


    I stood up and began to walk around thoughtfully


    I hadn''t yet developed skins for the backs of cards like in Runestone, so this could be a good incentive to do so.


    When you invite a friend and they unlock Ranked Matches, the Player you invited will receive a card back skin, and the more friends that Player calls, the more that card back skin will evolve, until it reaches its final appearance after 10 invited friends!


    Even if only a minority of Players were to make the effort to invite friends, even more so when the majority of Players might not even have 10 Player friends to call, the Players who called just one person to play would already be helping me a lot!


    Having decided that I would do this, the first thing I did when I entered Runestone''s Game Core was to look at how much Mana the game had accumulated.


    To play this style of game, Players had to spend Mana for every hour they played.


    Rank F games required 1 Mana per Hour and the higher the Rank of the game, the more Mana the game required.


    This Mana didn''t go directly to the Game Creator, 99% of it was only used to create the virtual world that the Player would connect to and to maintain it during the 60 minutes.


    The remaining 1% was sent to the Game Core and stored there, making it available for the Game Creator to use in any way he wanted, either to enhance the game itself or to convert it into permanent mana to rank up as a Game Creator.


    The use of this mana to improve the game was unrestricted.


    If there were 1,000 MP available, the Game Creator could use all 1,000 MP to create and improve his game.


    Usually Game Creators used only a small part of the Mana generated by the game to improve the gameplay and realism of the game while absorbing the rest.


    However, the part absorbed by the Game Creator was not unrestricted.


    Game Cores were extremely expensive resources, so to prevent the Game Core from being damaged, every Game Core came with a Mana conversion limitation and the limit for Game Core Rank F was 1 MP every 12 hours.


    When I found out that the limit was only 2 MP per day I thought that such a low number was an exaggeration, but surprisingly most Game Creators couldn''t even reach that limit.


    Not because none of them could accumulate 2 MP in the game, but because converting MP available in the game to real MP was expensive.


    100 MP stored in the game needed to be converted into 1 MP to increase the Game Creator''s base Mana.


    In other words, in order to store what was needed to reach the 200 MP daily limit in the Game Core, the game would need to keep an average of 834 Players online during the day.


    This didn''t mean that the game had to have a peak of 834 Players, but that the 24-hour average was 834 Players, which is why, to make it easier for students to calculate, college professors taught that only games with more than 1,000 Players online used 100% of the Game Core''s potential.


    As my game used False Neurological Feedback, half of the Mana that would be stored in the Game Core was used as fuel for this tool.


    That''s one of the reasons this tool wasn''t used as much by Game Creators, as it reduced the profit the games received.


    But I needed this tool to make the game I wanted, so it was a necessary cost.


    Looking at the measly 2.5 MP available for use in Game Core, I laughed.


    I began to laugh at my innocence S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    But it''s not as if I couldn''t do something like that with my Mana base.


    My 68 MP might not be much compared to other Rank F Game Creators, but that was still a lot of Mana.


    Without the urgent need to develop cards for the game as I had over the last few days, I would now be able to use all that Mana to develop the game, so putting my mind to work I began to use my creativity and my Mana to develop the system I had planned.


    Using my memory of how this system worked in games, with a screen where the Player could see his own code, another place where he could type in his friend''s code, and a screen where he could track his friend''s progress and how much was left before he received the reward, I began to control my Mana and within a few seconds Mana was accumulating on my finger.


    The more complex a game system was, the more Mana it required, and this with the help of the System, if I were just a normal Game Creator I would need to spend at least 10 times more Mana on this just by trial and error.


    So to deal with this problem I divided up the work.


    Now I was just designing the interface that the Players would see, using as a base the interface I''d already made for the game and modeling it all following the same aesthetic the cost of this dropped to just 44 MP.


    Feeling my measly 24 MP available I knew that this was nowhere near enough for the rest of what I wanted to develop, so I left the Game Core and continued planning how I would develop it while my Mana recovered.


    With nothing very important to do, I just kept writing down the important things in my notebook, which parts I would divide up, which part I would do first, and how long it would take to do, just like I did with the rest of the game.


    Developing an Online game wasn''t easy, among Rank F games mine must be one of the only ones, as the study for it was very complex, but with the help of the System I managed it, so I was confident that the new system, which was slightly simpler than developing the Online mode of the game, would be developed without any problems.


    While I was concentrating on planning my game, the few players who knew Runestone were going crazy while playing, with fights even breaking out in Ranked Matches because they couldn''t accept defeat.


    Involved in one of these fights was Natalie, the first Player to download and play Runestone...

 08 – Fierce Battle

    - Natalie POV -


    After really understanding how the game worked and realizing how much fun it was to set up decks and battle other Players with the deck you made, I couldn''t resist and as soon as my Mana recovered I logged back into Runestone.


    If I could play this game without having to spend Mana I''m sure I''d spend the whole day playing it!


    Even more so when I found out that every game I played gave me some gold coins that could be spent on card packs, so I wanted to play it non-stop!


    Every time I thought my deck was getting perfect, I''d get enough gold coins to open a card pack, which would give me new cards and send me back to the planning table, trying to optimize my deck with the new good cards I got.


    This made the game a really fun cycle.


    I would make a deck, test it for a few games, gain more cards, make another deck, test the new deck for a few games, gain more cards, a cycle that had me completely hooked. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    During my first game session there were hardly any Players online, preventing me from finding enough [Ranked Matches].


    In my second game session, the one I returned to after recovering my Mana, I tried to play [Ranked Matches] again and surprisingly I found matches!


    The players in this type of game were much more experienced than the players in [Casual Matches].


    While in [Casual Matches] I often found Players who just used basic decks blindly and were still learning how to play, in [Ranked Matches] Players had already edited their decks and knew how to use their advantages to win games.


    Having competitive matches with Players at my level was already a lot of fun, but earning Ranked Points at the end of each victory was even more satisfying than the victory itself!


    Seeing the photo frame of Lyna Proudstone, my character in the game, change from a simple Bronze outline to an exquisite Silver outline made my pride rise in my chest.


    Unlike other games where I needed weeks to notice any kind of improvement, in Runestone I could feel my Mana increasing after just one training session, however little, as well as seeing my progress as a player!


    Now that I was a Silver Rank Player in Runestone, I was only one Rank away from reaching Gold and receiving an even bigger boost after each training session.


    Unfortunately, I never played against that black-haired boy I met in my first game.


    Even with experienced Players who had been playing all day, until now I hadn''t met anyone who understood the game as well as he did. The way he talked about the game, the calmness, confidence and experience he passed on as he spoke made me believe that this Player wasn''t just a Player.


    He was probably the Game Creator of Runestone and according to what I asked other Players, only a few people were lucky enough to play against him too.


    The tips he gave other Players were different from the ones he gave me, but just as useful!


    Thinking about the potential this game was showing, not only with the very beautiful and detailed graphics, technologies as advanced as False Neurological Feedback, as well as such a creative idea, I''m sure this Game Creator will become famous in no time.


    Even though he doesn''t belong to any of the big colleges, with a mind like this it will only be a matter of time before he stands out, and being the first Player of his game I started to feel a little proud.


    Getting back to the game, one problem that bothered me was that the more I won Ranked Matches and climbed the ranks, the longer it took to find opponents at my level, and the game started pitting me against the same people frequently.


    A blonde girl and a dark-skinned boy were the Players I met most often in Silver Rank matches, and they were both very good...


    Especially the boy, he was very clever in every action he took in the game, but the girl? What she lacked in talent she made up for in language...


    Whenever she realized that she was at a disadvantage, she would start talking non-stop to try to distract me, and unfortunately it worked.


    At that moment I was in a game against her.


    ¡°Is this the kind of strategy they teach Bronzes? Because it looks like I''m playing a Casual Match...¡± The girl said dismissively as she looked at the board, disguising her nervousness.


    I didn''t sit still and responded with mockery. ¡°Ohh, how did you become a Player without being able to see? Can''t you see that the border around my profile is silver?¡±


    Since the first time I played against her I was still Bronze 1 and she was already Silver 4, even though the difference in rank was only one, she began to use this to destabilize me, and it worked.


    Knowing that she managed to get Silver Rank before me made me frustrated.


    I had 9 MP in total, but I stopped playing after spending 6 MP, keeping the rest available for practice in the real world. The problem was that I was so eager to keep playing that I only recovered 1 MP in the real world and went back willing to spend the remaining 4 MP I had.


    But while I was out of the game undecided whether to continue playing, this girl didn''t hesitate and continued playing non-stop.


    And as if that wasn''t enough, she also uses ''Lyna Proudstone'', the Great Mage in the game, with a deck very similar to mine.


    The only difference between our two decks are some exclusive cards that we got from different card packs.


    ¡°Ohh, that''s right, you''ve risen to the Silver Rank! Whoever gave you those Ranked Points must be pretty bad...¡± The girl said her final words in a low voice as if she were talking to herself, but loud enough for me to hear, making me even angrier.


    Even though my head was hot, I still tried to take a deep breath and keep my focus on the game, she could talk all she wanted as long as I was the victor in the end.


    Seeing me stay quiet, the girl continued talking even more, trying to add fuel to the fire, but I took a deep breath and kept playing.


    This was one of the longest games I''ve ever played, going from 15 minutes to nearly 20 minutes.


    Each of us took advantage of the 75 seconds the game gave us to think each round, the only problem being that while I was trying to think, I had to filter out the girl''s annoying voice from my mind.


    At 22 minutes something I''ve never witnessed happened... my deck had run out.


    ¡°Hohoho, looks like you''ve run out of cards... I wonder what''s going to happen to you now?¡± The girl''s eyes lit up as she looked at me with derision.


    Even though I was out of cards, I was still confident that I could win the game.


    Using ''Ice Blast'' I froze all the minions on her field, ensuring that she couldn''t attack me next turn, then I used ''Fire Tornado'', the last card I had in my hand directly on her, reducing her life to 7 points and ending my turn.


    As I was obliged to draw a card and there was no card available for me to draw, I received 1 damage this round, leaving me with just 1 life point.


    The girl drew another card while smiling at me, but as all her monsters were frozen she couldn''t attack me using monsters, only spells.


    ¡°You''re lucky I don''t have any spells to attack you directly, otherwise you''d be dead... oops, you''ll already be dead after your turn.¡± She said before starting to laugh.


    She was right, as soon as I tried to draw a card my remaining life would run out, causing me to die, but I wouldn''t have to wait until the end of my turn to end this game!


    Smiling at her, I returned the mockery. ¡°Really? Because I think this game is going to end now...¡±


    Hearing me say that, the girl looked at me suspiciously, but didn''t say anything verbally.


    Not waiting for her, I quickly activated my trap card and started laughing.


    ¡°You know, girl, didn''t you wonder for a moment what my trap was set to do?¡± I said, laughing. I said laughing. ¡°By activating my trap that I won in a Card Pack before this game, I can choose any spell used in the previous round and repeat its effect.¡±


    Listening to my explanation, I saw the color fade from the girl''s face. This made me laugh even more, feeling the satisfaction of victory approaching.


    ¡°Yes, I''m going to repeat the effect of my ''Fire Tornado'' spell, and since you didn''t cast any creatures with ''Provoke'' on the field, my target will be you, reducing your life from 7 points to 1 point, as well as mine...¡±


    Listening to my explanation, the girl realized what I wanted to do and tried to stop me. ¡°If you use Lyna Proudstone''s spell ''Frost Arrow'' you''ll be forced to draw a card and you''ll lose before you can attack me.¡±


    I shook my head at her. ¡°No no no, actually the card is only drawn after the spell hits the enemy, that is...¡±


    Using my character''s ability, an ice arrow was conjured on the field and flew straight into the girl''s Lyna Proudstone, reducing her life points from 1 to 0.


    Looking at her character exploding in defeat and her body disappearing from in front of me as she made her way back to her tavern, an even bigger smile came to my face.


    ¡°Hahaha, how I love this new card of mine!¡± I looked at the trap that had won me the game with my eyes shining.


    Looking at the time and seeing that I still had another hour and fifteen minutes of Mana available to have fun... or rather, train, I quickly got back in line and went to read my deck again while the game looked for an opponent.


    I''m sure the girl won''t go back to the queue instantly, afraid of losing to me again, so I have to take the opportunity to earn as many coins as possible and update my deck until I play her again!

 09 – A Bunch of Stats

    After spending all my Mana doing a part of the friend invitation system yesterday, I ran out of things to do and logged back into the game as a Player to have some fun.


    Although this world has an interesting entertainment industry, with good movies, good music and good TV dramas, this kind of content has never been my focus.


    Even more so after discovering that when an invasion of monsters broke out in Japan and the Supernatural population couldn''t defend themselves because they were so short of people, the country was so devastated that it hasn''t been able to recover to this day.


    This meant that anime wasn''t a thing in this world, leaving me without games and anime, the two things I enjoyed most in the other world, so the only thing I could do to entertain myself at home was play my game.


    For a while I was playing against newcomers in Casual Matches and giving them tips on how the game worked, what they should do to be more successful in battles and things like that.


    Fortunately, the influx of new players into the game was surprisingly constant, but after a while I got bored and went to have fun in Ranked Matches, playing for real for the first time.


    The level of the Players in Rank Bronze 4, which was the lowest Rank, was only slightly higher than that of the Players in Casual Matches, so the games lasted no more than 5 minutes.


    Within an hour I was already at Bronze 1, getting closer to the Silver Rank.


    Even though the Rank was very low, I knew that at this point I was probably in the top 0.5% of Players, since the queues to play were taking longer than before.


    This gave me the idea of making a Top 500 Rank in the game, as was very popular in several games in my past life, but thinking that the game didn''t even have 500 Players, if I did that all the Players in the game would already be in the Top 500...


    I thought excitedly.


    Seeing that the queues were getting longer and longer, I just gave up playing for the time being and went to sleep.


    One advantage of being a Game Admin was that I could configure the Game Core to continue providing me with the False Neurological Feedback buff even if I didn''t have my consciousness in the game, I just needed to be in contact with the Game Core at all times.


    As the Game Core was as small as a USB stick, I decided to tie a string to it and turn the little device into a necklace.


    With the Game Core turned into a necklace and kept under my blouse while I slept, it would always be in contact with me.


    As long as I injected Mana into it, the game would continue to provide me with the stat boost, and since I had more than enough Mana for this as a Game Creator, I just injected 10 MP before bed and left the game running at night.


    When I woke up the next day, the first thing I felt was that it wasn''t so comfortable to sleep with the Game Core running around in my head.


    Several hours during the night I woke up scared thinking that something was carrying heavy objects while I slept, or that I was in danger and urgently needed to use magic to protect myself, only to get out of bed and realize that this was just the effect of Neurological False Feedback...


    Even though it sucked, I still tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but after waking up for the fourth time in one night I just gave up, turned it off and went back to sleep, having the most pleasant sleep in weeks.


    Because of these sleep problems I needed to sleep late to really get some rest, so when I picked up my cell phone to see how the game was going I was surprised!


    [Runestone - 161 Players Online]


    Just overnight and this morning the game had doubled the number of players from yesterday!


    I hadn''t even launched the friend invitation system yet and the game was already growing by leaps and bounds, climbing from the penultimate page to the bottom of the third page!


    Brushing my teeth quickly, I went into the kitchen and made myself some toast as quickly as possible before returning to the PC and starting to analyze the sales data and Players'' reaction to the game.


    I was excited to see how the players were feeling about the game.


    The way the program displayed the game''s data was a mess with a lot of useless data for my current self, so I just extracted the most relevant data for me and made my own table with the most relevant ones for me now.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |----------------------------------------- S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    | Total Players: 215


    | Players Online: 161


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Time per Session: 3.2 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 4.7 units


    | Estimated Daily Mana Yield: 8 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 104 (Common, Rare, Epic)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    Of all the data, what caught my attention the most was the average time per session.


    At first I was confused about this:


    Digging deeper I found a section with a graph of Players'' activity in the game and there was the reason for such a low average.


    When I saw the reason, I started laughing.


    The reason the average is so low is because part of the Players got to know the game late last night, so they had to stop playing to go to sleep, while another part of the Players got to know the game this morning, so they were just starting to play, not giving enough time for the average playing time to go up.


    I wiped a non-existent bead of sweat from my forehead as I began to look at another set of game data.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Casual Matches (Average per Player): 15


    | Percentage of Players with access to Ranked: 88% (189 Players)


    | Total Ranked Matches Played: 545


    | Average Ranked Matches per Player: 2.9


    | Average Ranked Points Earned per Win: 25


    | Average Ranked Points Lost per Loss: 22


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Current Player Rank:


    | Bronze 4: 40% (86 players)


    | Bronze 3: 25% (54 players)


    | Bronze 2: 15% (32 players)


    | Bronze 1: 12% (26 players)


    | Silver 4: 8% (10 players)


    | Silver 3: 3% (6 players)


    | Silver 2: 2% (4 players)


    | Silver 1: 0% (0 players)


    |-----------------------------------------


    Looking at this data, it''s clear to see how interested players are in climbing the ranks, and this came as no surprise to me - after all, how effective a person''s training is is based on how high their rank is in the game.


    Even Players who don''t have competitive personalities would try to play Ranked Matches to improve the effectiveness of their training.


    Unfortunately the total number of Players is still very low, so no one has reached Silver 1, let alone Gold 4, where the Boost really increases.


    For these Players, reaching the Gold Rank will be a great achievement, but little do they know that the game has been programmed to keep 60% of Players between Gold and Platinum, 20% between Bronze and Silver and 20% between Diamond and Master.


    The way I decided to control this is that in the Bronze and Silver Ranks Players receive more Ranked Points per win and lose less in defeat, in Gold and Platinum this value is equal in defeat and victory, while in Diamond and Master Players lose more points than they gain, forcing these Players to have a high winrate to stay in those ranks.


    As only Ranked Matches give Players the improved boost, there is no risk of Players reaching Diamond and playing only Casual Matches for fear of dropping in Rank.


    Another important fact I noticed was that Players who were lucky enough to get legendary cards and used these cards in their decks had higher winrates than Players who didn''t have these cards.


    All Players had at least 3 epic cards, but only half of the Players had a legendary card.


    This was very interesting, as it showed that luck was also an important factor in deciding who had the highest Rank.


    What''s more, since the game didn''t accept outside investment, there were no conditions for a Player to become Pay To Win. The best way for a Player to get more cards was to play the game for longer, which would earn me more money and keep the game fair.


    After looking at this data, I sent my conscience to Game Core and went back to developing the feature of inviting friends to the game.


    I think I''ll still need around 80 to 90 MP to finish this, so my plan was to spend all my MP developing what I could now, rest for a few hours before returning to the game and spend the remaining MP to finish it today.


    The sooner I finished this function, the more popular the game would become in less time, so I had no time to waste.


    With only 6 days left until the end of the test, I had to make the most of every minute to climb as high as possible in the test rankings.


    Even if I didn''t want to join a Guild or a big company after graduating, the publicity that the college test site gave me was too valuable to waste, not to mention the fact that being able to put a high test Rank on the game page in the future would help my credibility to win over more Players.

 10 – Stream?

    - Nathan POV -


    ¡°Okay guys, I think today we''ve made enough money for the whole week, so we can take these days to rest at home and next Monday we''ll meet again to deal with another Dungeon E Rank.¡± The team captain said with a cute smile on her face as she looked at each of us and nodded.


    Thinking about how lucky we were today and how much money we won made the smile on my face even bigger.


    After saying goodbye to our group I got on my bike and rode back to my apartment.


    As a Player E Rank, Monday, Wednesday and Friday are usually the days my group and I meet up to raid dungeons.


    Today was supposed to be just another normal day, we were going to raid a Hobgoblin forest dungeon that we had chosen from the list of available dungeons, we were going to kill all the monsters to destroy the dungeon and prevent them from invading Earth, then we would sell the loot we got and go home.


    An E Rank dungeon paid an average of $2,500, which divided into a group of five meant $500 each.


    We raided dungeons 3x a week, which earned me around $1,500 a week.


    It wasn''t enough money to get rich, but it was enough to live a comfortable life.


    When I became a D Rank Player I could think about getting rich, since each D Rank dungeon paid $10,000 for the group, or $2,000 for each person in our case.


    But today was not a normal day.


    While we were killing hobgoblins, our group''s scout spotted a hobgoblin running with a large wooden chest on his back.


    Shouting to warn us, we all knew what was in that chest, causing us to change our focus to catching that little monster on the run.


    It was exhausting, we ran for 40 minutes after that little monster, but it was worth it.


    Inside the chest were several gold coins!


    No one knew where these gold coins came from, speculation said that they probably came from another world that the hobgoblins had plundered, but we did know one thing, the government bought these gold coins at a high price!


    With the chest safe, we killed the rest of the hobgoblins and left the dungeon with the large chest.


    Taking the chest to the federation agent, he smiled as he paid us $15,000 after counting how many coins were in there.


    After dividing the amount, each member of the group received $3,000!


    So to celebrate we decided to take a week off and return to raiding dungeons only next week.


    Parking my motorcycle in my parking space, I put my backpack with my combat gear on my back and used the elevator to get home.


    ¡°Thank you for letting me come home safe for another day...¡± It was the phrase I said every time I came back from a dungeon while looking at a cross hanging above the door.


    Putting away my equipment and taking a shower, I decided to take advantage of today''s loot and ordered a large mozzarella pizza while turning on my computer.


    Honestly, considering this week as my rest week, I wasn''t planning on practicing, maybe I could train for real on Saturday and Sunday, but for now I just wanted to relax, so the first thing I did was open the video site and look for something interesting to watch.


    An hour passed and nothing interesting appeared for me, I had already tried watching more than 10 videos but they all seemed so boring...


    So I took another bite of my pizza and decided to text my younger brother.


    He had just turned 18 and decided to pursue a career as a Player like me after he was tested at school and they discovered that he had talent as a Player.


    As he was still only an F Rank Player, he lived with my parents and looked for other ways to make money on the side, as F Rank dungeons pay very little.


    Seeing as he hadn''t even received the message I''d sent him, I was sure he''d turned off his cell phone and was trying to livestream again.


    '' I thought confusedly, but having nothing better to do I decided to support my brother and watch his Livestream.


    Just as I''d imagined, when I opened his stream site he was doing a Game Core Rank F Stream.


    Surprisingly there were 12 people watching him, considering that normally the number of viewers was only 1 or 2 people, the 12 people watching him could now be considered a crowd.


    Not only were these people watching, but they were also chatting a lot.


    From the moment I entered the link to his stream, a few messages had already appeared and apparently people were chatting non-stop.


    Curious, I started reading the messages.


    Reading these messages I was confused.


    I was as shocked as that confused Viewer who had just arrived.


    Looking at the stream again, my brother was holding a deck with several different cards while staring intently at a board in front of him and thinking hard.


    Since I opened the stream my brother hadn''t said a word, and the boy in front of him was acting the same way, both of them silent as they thought about which card they should play.


    Without realizing it, I was so caught up in the game that 10 minutes passed and the game was over - my brother won!


    ¡°Good boy! I knew you were clever!¡± I celebrated excitedly as I grabbed another piece of pizza.


    When the game was over, my brother and the other boy shook hands and the boy disappeared from where they were.


    On the screen, my brother finally sighed and began to speak.


    ¡°Jeez, guys, with every rank I climb, the game seems to get more complicated. It wasn''t enough with those two monstrous girls, the one who talks a lot and the very serious girl, now there''s this Player who also plays very well... it''s going to be hard to stay in the Top 1...¡± My brother sighed, but the smile on his face showed that he wasn''t feeling bad.


    I asked myself in surprise.


    A Viewer asked.


    Reading the message, my brother smiled and replied a little embarrassed. ¡°I think so, there''s no way of confirming this, since there''s no points ranking table like the other games, but so far I''ve only seen two other Silver 2 Players apart from me, or rather three Players, those two girls and that boy I just duelled, and after looking at their profiles after each game I realized that I was the one with the most Ranked Points, so I guess I''m Top 1 in the game?¡±


    Listening to his explanation I was surprised, who would have thought that my brother would be Top 1 in a game? He''d never shown much talent for anything, never won a tournament of anything, now he was Top 1 in this game?


    Curious, I started searching for the name of the game and saw that there were more than 200 people online in this game, not counting the people who weren''t online right now, being the best of more than 200 people is already something incredible.


    What surprised me was that there were only 200 people playing such an interesting game.


    Wanting to see more, I quickly went back to my brother''s stream and continued watching while eating the last slice of pizza.


    After another two hours of playing the stream had received more viewers, rising from 12 people to 25!


    Unfortunately, when the stream was at its peak, my brother''s mana ran out, so he had to stop playing and do something else, which alienated a large part of the new audience.


    As he wanted to play more, instead of just sitting back and letting time pass, my brother wrote down all the cards he had and started studying the best way to play with his deck.


    ...'' I thought proudly.


    Finding his planning boring, I also left his stream and looked at the browser tab that had the game page open.


    Read  on my Patreon! S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 11 – Feature Release

    '' I thought excitedly as I tested all the functions of it.


    Flashy Battle Pass-style interface to encourage Players to invite 10 friends...


    Simple, accessible menus that any person with minimal knowledge of technology can use...


    Automatic code generator that links the accounts of both Players...


    And finally, 10 different evolutions of the same card background skin...


    '' I thought excitedly.


    Leaving the Game Core and looking at the clock, I saw that it was already almost 08:00 pm and I was surprised.


    Looking at the number of Players online, a smile appeared on my face.


    From the 161 Players online in the game when I woke up, now that it was evening, the time when most Players had already returned from the dungeons, the number of Players had almost doubled!


    | Active Players: 307


    Seeing that there were so many players playing now, I quickly went to look at the college''s website and saw that my game had risen from the bottom of the third page to the middle of the second page!


    Looking at the last place on the first page I saw that it had only 415 Players online, the chance of me passing it tomorrow was very high!


    Not only has the number of active players gone up, but obviously the number of total players in the game has also increased a lot.


    | Total Players: 215 -> 405


    In just over 24 hours since the game''s launch, more than 400 people had downloaded and played the game, even if only for a short time.


    Player retention was very high!


    Compared to the games on the front page, most of them had more than 3,000 total players.


    With that amount of Players and my conversion rate from people just testing the game to active players, my game would have at least 1,500 Players, a number totally off the charts.


    Looking at first place, Tyler Evans'' game, I realized that it wouldn''t be impossible to pass him.


    Even more so with the new invite-a-friend system I was about to launch, the chances were even greater.


    [Knife Throwing Training in the Dark!] - 1,890 Players Online


    1,890 Players online was an absurd number, second place had only 1,200 Players, while third place didn''t even have four digits, but I was confident that in the next few days I would be able to pass him.


    The problem I had to solve now was... how do I launch this new feature?


    '' I thought, reclining my chair back and staring at the ceiling. ''


    The only thing I could think of was announcing it on a social media page, but I didn''t have any social media accounts, and the Players didn''t even know who I was...


    Having decided this, I quickly turned my attention to Game Core and prepared to release the new function as a new icon in the corner of the board, but then I realized another problem...


    Not only did the game not have a friends list system so Players could play with friends, it didn''t even have a Username system!


    As the game didn''t require an account to log in, since the Player already had a Federation account for paying the monthly fee to play Game Creators games, I didn''t remember that the game needed something like that!


    I thought to myself.


    Thinking about the buddy list system and remembering how empty the taverns were in the game, it wouldn''t be a problem to make it so that Players could create groups in the game and share the tavern with friends, so it wouldn''t be so lonely to be in a place like that alone.


    But that was something I would have to develop in the future, now I had to recover my mana and get back to the game as soon as possible to update these features.


    Could I launch the invite friends system before these other things? Yes, but remembering how I was treated as a Player in the other world by companies that only thought about making money and didn''t care about the user experience, I decided to prioritize quality over profit.


    As long as my game is good, Players will come endlessly, so why rush things?


    Going to my bed, I closed my eyes and began to meditate.


    My current Mana wasn''t enough to do all this right now, but if I regained some Mana I could try to start developing the system today and finish it tomorrow morning, losing only 12 hours of running time.


    Looking at the number of players online in Runestone, a smile appeared on my face.


    From the moment I left home to raid dungeons until now, when I got home, the only thing I could think about was how I would change my deck, what cards I could win, how much fun it was to rank up...


    So many thoughts about this game almost made me make a mistake in the dungeon, luckily I''m only the Mage of the group, so I was in a safe position to make a mistake without the chance of having a limb severed by a monster.


    When I finally got home and saw that the game had over 300 Players online, my smile got big and I quickly connected to Game Core.


    Unfortunately I only had 2 MP left over from today''s dungeon, so I would only be able to play for two hours, but luckily tomorrow I won''t be working, so I''ll be able to spend the whole day playing!


    Before entering the game, I opened my bedroom door a little and shouted, ¡°I''m going to train, Mom! Good night, sleep well!¡±


    ¡°Good night Natt, sleep well my love, I love you!¡± My mother shouted from the living room, where she was watching an oriental drama.


    Hearing her reply, I quickly closed the bedroom door and went into Runestone.


    Unlike yesterday when I had to wait several minutes to find opponents to play Ranked Matches against me, perhaps many people had risen in Rank while I was working and now I was only waiting in line for a few seconds until the game found a Player of my level.


    Without having to waste so much time in the queue, I managed to climb from Silver 2 to Silver 1 in just 40 minutes.


    Moving up to Silver 1, the queue got a little longer, but it was still faster than yesterday, which meant I was able to move up to Gold 4 before my two hours of MP ran out.


    Being kicked out of the game shortly after climbing to Gold Rank 4, I didn''t even have the chance to experience the level of improvement that was the Gold Rank stat boost, but I was excited.


    Wrapping myself in a cozy blanket, I tried to get to sleep as quickly as possible, because tomorrow as soon as I woke up, the first thing I would do would be to play Runestone and see how much my stats had improved.


    -


    The next morning, as soon as I woke up, feeling that my Mana was charged to the max, I quickly grabbed Player Core and logged into Runestone without even looking at how many people were playing.


    Entering the tavern, I quickly went to the table where the Runestone board was and sat down.


    Strangely, instead of the standard screen asking me which character I would like to choose, what appeared was a strange question box.


    [Enter the Username you wish to use in Runestone: ]


    Seeing this got me excited.


    Before, I only had to call the other two Players who played against me in the Silver Rank the boring blonde-haired girl and the dark-skinned genius boy, now I could see their names and call them something other than just physical characteristics!


    Thinking for a few seconds, an idea came to mind.


    [Natt Proudstone]


    That was the name I chose, thinking about how beautiful the art of Grand Magus Lyna Proudstone was, I thought that name would suit me and confirmed my choice after the game confirmed that there was no one using that name.


    With my game name chosen, the game finally took me to the game mode selection screen.


    But a blinking red dot drew my attention to the corner of the board.


    It was an icon of two people, which, like the social networks I used, represented the game''s friends list.


    By clicking on the bright red dot, an empty list appeared.


    In the corner of this list was a letter icon and a heart flashing red.


    Curious, I clicked on it and a completely new window popped up.


    In this window there was a text explaining what friend invitations were and showing how to invite or use a friend''s invitation, as well as the most eye-catching, a row of rewards that users would receive for inviting friends.


    And to my amazement, these rewards changed the design of the backs of the cards in your deck!


    '' I thought excitedly as I looked at the designs, the more friends I called, the more beautiful my cards would look!


    Unlike the standard white and gold design of the cards, which were already very beautiful, the reward for this event had a red background with a small golden bird.


    With each friend you called, the bird got bigger and bigger and some special effects flashed on the back of the card, until on the last reward, granted only to Players who invited 10 friends, the bird turned into a phoenix and particles of fire moved constantly across the card!


    That was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about how much I wanted these cards.


    Unbeknownst to me, this wasn''t just happening to me, but also to almost everyone online in the game now!


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD


    S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 12 – Unexpected Visit

    - ??? POV -


    ¡°Are you sure this was developed by a student?¡± I asked confusedly as I looked at the file with all the data summarizing a particular game by one of the college''s students.


    Even if the NFA wasn''t one of the biggest Game Creators development colleges, getting the training certificate for this type of professional was already a demonstration that the college had powerful backers.


    The strange thing is that in all my years working in NFA management, something like this had never happened.


    Looking at the teacher in front of me, I had to ask again to clear up my doubts. ¡°Have you confirmed all this information?¡±


    Slightly nervous, the teacher in front of me nodded and explained. ¡°Yes, principal. As the teacher in charge of class 5A, I dedicate a small part of every day to trying out the games developed by my students, and this game was the last one I tried out personally.¡±


    Turning my gaze back to the paper in my hand, although the data on the number of Players or retention of Players wasn''t shocking, it was still surprising, even more so when it came from the student with the worst grades throughout the course...


    But what was really shocking about this data was confirmation that the boy had somehow managed to fit ''False Neurological Feedback'', a new technology with extremely limited uses, into a Rank F game.


    If this spreads, in less than 24 hours this boy''s name will be on the desk of many influential people...


    ...'' I thought as I sighed.


    ¡°Professor Pine, would you please invite young Theo Brooks to my office?¡± I asked the professor in front of me.


    Nodding his head quickly, he said goodbye and left the office.


    Looking again at the papers and analyzing all this more carefully, I believe I noticed a point that Professor Pine had overlooked...


    '' I thought excitedly


    After seeing everything I''ve seen, from the creation of Game Core to the formation of the greatest Rank S Players, this boy''s innovative mind to come up with such a unique game is something special...''


    While the teacher went to the boy''s dorm to invite him to my office, I looked at my Player Core and decided to take advantage of this time to try out the boy''s game myself.


    ...


    - Theo POV -


    I was tired... creating this friendship system in Runestone last night until bedtime, then waking up today and going to create it again without resting at all took its toll on me.


    The use of Mana by Players and Game Creators is not without cost.


    While physical fatigue is the most determining factor for Players, mental fatigue is more noticeable for Game Creators.


    My continuous use of Mana non-stop for so many days already exhausted me a little, but as long as I got enough rest between uses, it didn''t affect me so much.


    The problem is that I got so carried away developing this yesterday and today that I forgot why rest was so important...


    Seeing that the number of players online was rising steadily from 307 yesterday to 364 today, a smile appeared on my face.


    I thought excitedly.


    Despite my excitement, I wasn''t in the mood to watch the numbers go up all day, right now I needed a break, something I could do to turn my mind off and leave my body pretty much on autopilot.


    Looking at my bed and thinking how inviting the idea of just lying down to get some more sleep was, I started to give in to that temptation and walked towards it, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door.


    That knock left me confused.


    I wonder '' I asked myself as I looked through the peephole and recognized the teacher in charge of my class.


    Opening the door, I looked at him doubtfully, but still greeted him politely. ¡°Hello Professor Pine.¡±


    As soon as he looked at me I realized that he had noticed my tired state, and with an apologetic tone he greeted me. ¡°Hello Brooks, I seem to have come at a bad time?¡±


    Smiling a little embarrassed, I didn''t deny it. ¡°I''ve just developed a new feature for the game, Professor, so I''m a little tired. But what''s the visit about?¡±


    Knowing that it would be disrespectful to talk outside the room, I opened the door and invited him in.


    Although the dormitory was small, I had a small two-seater table that I used to eat my meals, so at least there was a comfortable place to welcome him.


    Looking around the room curiously and nodding for some reason, the Professor looked at me again and said. ¡°I''m not going to sit down, don''t worry, I''ve actually come at Principal Prescott''s request.¡±


    Hearing the name of the college principal made me curious. ¡°What does the principal want?¡±


    With a slightly proud expression, Professor Pine smiled. ¡°You know, I noticed your use of Neurological False Feedback in Runestone and I was so surprised by it that I went to tell the principal. Hearing my explanation of your game, he was also surprised and asked me to call you in for a chat.¡±


    I wasn''t that surprised.


    I had already imagined that my game would attract attention, especially when it was being used as an assessment method.


    At some point, someone from the college would need to test my game to evaluate me, then they would find out about my use of Neurological False Feedback and it would soon spread, I just didn''t imagine it would happen on the third day.


    Nodding my head, I smiled politely. ¡°Thanks for the recognition, professor, if it weren''t for your teachings I wouldn''t be able to do something like this.¡±


    Hearing my polite flattery, Professor Pine started to refuse, but I could see the pride in him as he puffed out his chest slightly when he spoke. ¡°You don''t have to say that, even I as a Rank C Game Creator don''t know how to use Neurological False Feedback, there''s no way I could teach you something like that.¡±


    Flattering a teacher may be pointless in ordinary colleges, but when it comes to a teacher educating Game Creators, one can never underestimate the influence and power these teachers have in the outside world.


    It''s not as if saying polite words like that is going to do me any harm, so why not?


    ¡°But considering how eye-catching this is for other Game Creators, your genius in achieving something like this while you''re still a Rank F Game Creator will open many doors for you, young man.¡± He said excitedly. ¡°I believe the director has called you into his office to discuss how to make the best use of this genius, so let''s go?¡±


    Although I didn''t share his excitement about my name becoming so well known to influential people, I still maintained a fa?ade of excitement and followed him to the principal''s office. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    On the way, the teacher asked me a few questions about my game. Some questions about why I had taken certain steps in development, how I had managed to make certain mechanics, questions that I answered in the same way as my conversation with the other students in the restaurant that day.


    My tips really pleased Professor Pine.


    ¡°I can''t believe it, how come I''ve never noticed this hidden talent of yours over the last few years? With a mind like that you shouldn''t have come last in the tests, something was wrong!¡± He said a little nonplussed as we made our way to the principal''s office.


    I didn''t have much to say about that, it''s not like I could say that the Theo of a month ago really wasn''t as talented as they thought, right?


    ¡°Principal Prescott, here''s young Brooks, I''m going back to my office to continue evaluating the other games!¡± Professor Pine said in an excited way before leaving, leaving me facing the old man behind the desk.


    I''ve only seen Principal Prescott five times since I entered this college. All five times were at the welcome speeches at the beginning of each academic year.


    The only things I knew about him were rumors I heard.


    Some rumors say that he became principal after a scandal involving a secret research project. Prescott supposedly chose academic life to escape prosecution.


    Others say he became principal to honor the memory of a mentor who saved him in his youth, promising to make a difference in education.


    Another rumor is that he only accepted the position because he wanted to avoid frequent contact with the public, choosing an environment where he could control his time.


    But the one thing everyone agrees on, although I don''t know why, is that even though he''s a wizard who studied magic in London during his youth, he knows more about Game Creating than all the professors at the college.


    Looking at the man with slightly messy white hair, a beard that went down to his chest while wearing a brown suit bigger than he should be, a normal person would just think he''s a funny old man.


    But anyone with enough magical sensitivity would be able to sense the monster lurking beneath that funny appearance.


    A sea of mana so big that any magical move he makes could destroy half this building.


    Facing this man made me feel what real power means in this new world...

 13 – Conversation with a Monster

    Apparently in the same way that I was analyzing the man in front of me, he was also staring at me curiously and studying me.


    The difference was that I''m sure he could find out almost anything he wanted to about me, while I was in complete darkness facing him.


    We sat in silence for at least three minutes until I decided to break the deadlock.


    ¡°Hello Headmaster, Professor Pine said you wanted to talk to me about something?¡± I asked.


    Blinking in apparent surprise, the principal quickly recovered as he smiled at me and nodded to the chair in front of his desk. ¡°I''m sorry young Brooks, looking at you reminded me of some confusing things from an old man''s mind... I didn''t mean to sound rude, have a seat.¡±


    Nodding my head and ignoring the drivel he''d probably made up, I just sat back in my chair and looked at him curiously.


    ¡°Professor Pine was very complimentary of Runestone to me, describing his exploits in managing to replicate False Neurological Feedback in an F Rank game, something very commendable kid.¡± He said while adopting a kindly grandfatherly attitude, the same one he used during the speeches he gave at the beginning of each year. ¡°Would you like the college to help you spread the news? That would be a great way to get a good job when you graduate.¡±


    Hearing his proposal, I didn''t even have to think twice before politely declining. ¡°Thank you very much for the opportunity, Director, but I''m not interested.¡±


    At my reply, he became interested, leaning a little closer to the table, looking at me with interest but not surprise. ¡°Really? Can you tell me why?¡±


    ¡°I feel that by becoming an employee of a Guild or some big company I would be limiting my creativity, being forced to just make games the way they want, to please the Players they want, and that''s not what I''m looking for when developing games.¡± I explained.


    With the smile widening a little more on his face, the director asked me. ¡°And what are you looking for?¡±


    This question caught me off guard.


    Ever since I woke up with an otherworldly consciousness, I''d just carried on with the college task of developing a good F Rank game.


    With that assignment I just acted like a good RPG player from the other world and kept going for bigger numbers.


    More Players, more Mana, more money, more engagement, more everything.


    But if I think about it now, I never planned any of this, it all just came naturally to me.


    I know so many fun games that are light years ahead of the games in this world, I know so many possibilities for Players to get stronger while having fun.


    Seeing so many methodical and tedious trainings being called ¡°games¡± made me a little angry, for someone who knew Games that were considered masterpieces, everything that this world called ¡°games¡± seemed like an insult to me.


    Thinking about it, I think I know what I want... S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    ¡°I want to show people what real games are.¡± I let it slip out loud.


    As soon as I said it, I realized that what I''d said could be considered a great offense to the Director.


    What did a mere Rank F Game Creator know about games to be able to judge works made by Game Creators with much higher Ranks than me?


    Could a Rank F Game Creator even remotely understand the complexity of a Rank A game?


    This made me look worriedly at the old director, who despite what I said, had an even bigger smile on his face.


    ¡°Ohh, do you think the other games aren''t real?¡± He asked me as his bright blue eyes analyzed me intensely.


    ¡°That''s not what I meant...¡± I tried to defuse what I said, afraid that it would escalate and become a big problem.


    But before I could finish explaining myself, he interrupted me.


    ¡°No need to deny what you said, just explain your point of view kid, I won''t penalize you for thinking.¡± He laughed.


    Confirming that he really seemed to mean it, instead of answering directly, I put a question back to him.


    ¡°Principal Prescott, is Black Jack considered a game?¡± I asked.


    My question made his eyes shine even brighter, but he answered with a nostalgic expression. ¡°Yes, Black Jack is one of the games I played the most when I was your age, many students brought hidden decks to the magic school to play during class breaks.¡±


    Hearing his reply, my head nodded in agreement. ¡°You took hidden decks to school, not because you wanted to get stronger, but because it was fun, right?¡±


    Seeing where this was going, he nodded. ¡°Yes, the only purpose of the deck was for fun.¡±


    ¡°If in your day you had another game available, a game called [Knife Throwing Training in the Dark], would you still try to take a Player Core to school to have fun during lessons playing that ''game''?¡± I asked.


    ¡°No, I''d probably still take Black Jack to school.¡± He answered honestly.


    ¡°Why is that? Aren''t they both games? Why does one have to be fun and the other not?¡± I asked.


    ¡°But Black Jack wouldn''t make me stronger.¡± The director offered a counterpoint that it was clear not even he believed.


    ¡°But Runestone makes you stronger, and it''s just as fun, if not even more fun than Black Jack.¡± I finally came to the conclusion. ¡°The way I see it, a game can be a game even if it doesn''t make you stronger, but training that makes you stronger can never be a game if it''s not fun.¡±


    As soon as I had finished speaking, the old Director stood up from his chair while clapping his hands at me, bringing me back to reality and realizing who I was arguing with.


    ¡°Very well young man, as soon as I saw Runestone I realized that your worldview was completely different from that of the other Game Creators. I didn''t call you to talk because of your use of False Neurological Feedback in a Rank F game, even though you''re the only one who''s done it in a low Rank game, that doesn''t make you very special compared to the geniuses who invented this technology. The reason I called you was because of your mind!¡± He said, surprising me.


    The perception I always had of old people was that they were stubborn, hard-headed and hated change. So I never imagined that the old principal would actually be the complete opposite of that!


    Noticing my surprise, he laughed even more before asking me another question.


    ¡°Tell me, young man, what are your thoughts on the fighting Supernaturals invading dungeons around the world?¡± He asked me expectantly.


    This was another point that I had never given much thought to.


    In my other world I didn''t even know if magic existed, while in this world, as an orphan, the only access to the supernatural world I had was from television stories or social media posts, which never caught my attention.


    I only delved into this world after college, which didn''t give me much access to it either.


    ¡°Honestly? I don''t have any opinion about them...¡± I said honestly, before explaining my points.


    Hearing this, the old principal raised his eyebrows in surprise and sighed in disappointment.


    ¡°I believe that some things need to change in college teaching...¡± He said quietly, more to himself than to me. ¡°As a Game Creator, your game is currently responsible for helping hundreds of Players not to die in dungeons every day, the more popular you get, this responsibility will rise to thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people who depend on your games not to die...¡±


    Listening to his explanation, a weight came down on my chest.


    I really only thought of the game as something fun that would make me grow in the future, never considering the Players'' lives as my responsibility...


    But even if I heard that now, it was still hard to change my perception, and apparently the director realized it too, but changed the subject.


    ¡°How about it, young Brooks, since you don''t intend to get involved with Guilds or companies after you graduate, do you want to develop as an independent Game Creator and open your own company in the future?¡±


    Thinking about this question, I nodded.


    Working for people with limited thoughts about games was out of the question unless it was my last chance, but as long as I had other opportunities, I would prioritize my own freedom.


    With my nod, he continued. ¡°How about it, this old man has some apartments near the city center. Some of these apartments are empty, I can rent you one of these apartments for a cheaper price to help you with your future development.¡±


    Hearing this, I was confused. ¡°But why?¡±


    Shaking his head as he sighed, he explained. ¡°My granddaughter got into a fight with my son and ran away from home after my son tried to stop her from becoming a Player. Today she lives in one of my apartments...¡±


    Understanding where this was going, I asked. ¡°Do you want me to help convince her to come home?¡±


    ¡°No, no, it''s actually the opposite. This old man traveled alone to London in his youth to learn magic at a school that claimed to be the safest in the world but was invaded by a different enemy every week...¡± He laughed. ¡°Since you don''t have an opinion on Players, the payment for the discount I''m going to give you on the apartment rent is that you help her, giving her the support she needs to develop as a Player and follow her dream.¡±


    Listening to this explanation, I was even more confused: ¡°And how am I supposed to do that? Go to dungeons with her?¡±


    If he wanted me to go to dungeons, I would readily deny it.


    Why risk my life in exchange for a few dollars off the rent?


    Fortunately, he shook his head in denial. ¡°No, you won''t need to enter any dungeons. As she lives alone in the building and only accepts visits from her mother from time to time, I only ask that you be available if she needs help, but you won''t be obliged to help with anything you don''t feel like.¡±


    Thinking that I wouldn''t be obliged to do anything, this idea began to seem more acceptable in my mind, so I accepted this agreement.

 14 – Level 10 Skin

    After discussing this, the director kept me in his office talking for another hour.


    At least the subject changed from my personal life to Game Creating overviews.


    As I had already given my colleagues tips involving a few small points in their games, I had no problem talking it over with the old man, just being careful to stick to more basic tips.


    Even though these tips seemed very basic to me, to the people of this world they weren''t, so he was satisfied with the tips I gave.


    When I finally got back to my room, my phone had a new contact by the name of ''Director Samuel Prescott''.


    He asked me to add him and when I graduated, to call him so we could sort out the rent for the apartment.


    Having agreed to the proposal, I just added him and went back to my dorm.


    Looking at the clock and seeing that it had been almost two hours since the update had been released, I was curious to know how Runestone was growing.


    ''When I finished updating, Runestone had 364 Players online, has it gone up to 400 Players with the new update?''


    Opening my game''s back-end program, I was shocked.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 477 -> 658


    | Online Players: 364 -> 488


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 4 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 23 units


    | Estimated Daily Mana Yield: 22 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 104 (Common, Rare, Epic)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    The number of Players online has risen from 364 to 488! An increase of more than 100 Players online!


    Considering that Players couldn''t stay online all day like in my other world, being restricted by the amount of Mana they had, raising the average number of Players online so much was very good!


    Looking at the amount of total Players going up by 181 just in the two hours since I released the update showed that my idea worked!


    Excited, my tiredness even disappeared as I quickly entered my conscience into Game Core to see how many people had come via the friend links.


    Unfortunately, this information could only be accessed through Game Core, as the back-end system was not developed by me.


    The first thing I looked at was how many of those 181 new Players came via friend links...


    | Players with Registered Friend Links: 144


    Boy... adding this feature really was a great idea, just by handing out a nice invitation skin to the Players they''ll be promoting the game for me completely free of charge!


    After seeing this data, I was curious to see a statistic on the percentage of Players'' invite Battle Pass level...


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Invite Levels:


    | Level 1: 55 players


    | Level 2: 35 players


    | Level 3: 21 players


    | Level 4: 13 players


    | Level 5: 8 players


    | Level 6: 5 players


    | Level 7: 3 players


    | Level 8: 2 players


    | Level 9: 1 player


    | Level 10: 1 player


    |-----------------------------------------


    . I wonderI was curious.


    Using my Game Creator permissions I quickly found his in-game Profile and his Federation Player Profile.


    Surprisingly, I had searched for this Player''s profile before!


    [OwenOwns]


    What caught my attention about him was not his funny name, but that he is currently the Player with the highest Rank in the game!


    The only Player with Platinum Rank, with an astonishing winrate of 79%.


    I was just curious how he managed to invite so many Players so quickly...


    '' I thought as I shrugged.


    After checking the numbers and the excitement of so many new Players joining the game wore off, the tiredness I had built up returned, making me rush to my bed to finally get a good night''s sleep.


    I knew I had a lot to do, whether it was improving the system of friends being able to visit friends'' taverns, or even developing the remaining cards among the game''s original cards.


    That was work I could only do when I was rested.


    ...


    - Natalie POV -


    I was angry, very angry.


    My friend invitation card was at level 9, the nine people I''d invited to the game had quickly accepted to test it out too, the problem was that I had no one else to invite so that my card would rise to level 10!


    Inviting nine people was already extremely laborious since the population with magical talent is only a minority.


    Even if I wanted to invite my friends from school, it wouldn''t do any good, as they don''t have the mana to play Runestone.


    The nine people I invited were just my dungeon raiding group mates and their friends who raided dungeons with us from time to time.


    After inviting these people, my list of possible guests went to zero...


    ¡°Damn, I need something sweet to calm me down!¡± I said in frustration as I disconnected from Runestone and went to the kitchen to find something sweet to eat.


    Arriving in the kitchen, my mother, who was preparing a pot of tea, looked at me in surprise.


    ¡°Tired of training, Natt?¡± she asked me with a calm smile.


    ¡°No... I just got a bit frustrated, do you have anything sweet to eat?¡± I asked as I looked around.


    Although this was technically ''my house'', I hadn''t been used to living alone for a long time and the habit of asking my mother if there was anything to eat hadn''t gone away yet.


    She noticed this but didn''t comment on it, just smiling and opening one of the cupboards as she took out a packet of cookies filled with morando. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Smiling at the sight of my favorite cookies, I felt my frustration subside and I gave her a hug.


    I didn''t buy this packet of cookies, so the only person who could have bought it is her.


    ¡°Thanks mom, that''s why I love you!¡± I laughed after the hug and started eating the cookies with her in the kitchen.


    ¡°I knew you''d want something sweet at some point.¡± She laughed.


    ¡°What about you? Tired of watching your Korean dramas?¡± I asked with my mouth full of cookies.


    ¡°Don''t talk with your mouth full...¡± She argued with me as she raised her hand jokingly. ¡°But yeah... I guess I got tired, I''ve watched all the dramas I''m interested in, since I have nothing to do and your dad''s coming back from a trip in two days, so I thought I''d leave tomorrow.¡±


    I felt bad hearing that... but there was nothing I could do about it.


    It''s not as if I could ask her to move in with me and leave my dad alone at home.


    Thinking about how much fun I was having at Runestone while she sat alone in the living room bored, I started to feel guilty.


    ¡°Thanks for coming to stay with me these days, Mom.¡±


    She smiled at that and replied. ¡°Silly girl, of course I''d stay with you.¡±


    Thinking it was my responsibility that she was so bored, I tried to find something more fun for her to do.


    Then I remembered something.


    ¡°Mom, you also have Mana inside you, right?¡±


    A person''s magical potential is usually passed down from parent to child.


    My father has great magical potential, so much so that he was taught by my grandfather from an early age, but he was never very interested in magic, abandoning it after he became an adult.


    Confused by my question, my mother looked at me suspiciously for a few seconds.


    ¡°You''re not thinking of convincing me to become a Player and go with you to dungeons, right?¡±


    Surprised by her reasoning, I quickly denied it. ¡°No mom, I don''t want you to go to dungeons, I only asked because I thought you might be interested in playing the game I''m playing now, it''s a lot of fun!¡±


    Hearing what I said, she looked at me confused and skeptical. ¡°Fun? Natt, I don''t find swinging swords or any kind of weapons fun...¡±


    Shaking my head to deny her idea, I gave up trying to explain and pulled her into my room.


    ¡°Come with me, it''s easier if I show you.¡±


    Surprised, my mother tried to stop but couldn''t.


    ¡°Natt, my tea''s on the counter!¡±


    I just ignored it and kept pulling her into my room. ¡°You can drink that tea later, Mom.¡±


    The Runestone page was still open, so I didn''t have much work to do.


    ¡°Look, Mom, this game is different from other games I''ve played. It''s not just about getting stronger, it''s about having fun while getting stronger.¡± I said as I showed the images. ¡°In this game you can choose between two characters, Mage or Warrior, each with a set of cards and a unique style of play, you have several...¡±


    When I started explaining, my mother was still skeptical, but the more I explained about the game and how fun the gameplay was, I noticed that she gradually let her guard down and became interested.


    I knew that piquing her interest was the first step to getting her to try the game, and to make sure she would want to try the game, I used my trump card.


    ¡°You know, Mom, this game uses a technology called Neurological False Feedback, which means that every card you use tricks your brain into thinking you''re practicing it, which means that playing a warrior class and playing creatures on the board can help you lose weight...¡±


    Before I could finish using my trump card, my mother grabbed my wrist while looking at me with shining eyes.


    ¡°How do I play?!¡±


    Seeing how she reacted, I had to stop myself from laughing.

 15 – Social Media

    As I woke up, I began to feel my head hurting.


    This confused me.


    Looking around, everything was still dark, completely dark...


    Picking up my cell phone to check, the time read 04:00 am...


    At least I was sure that I was completely rested, my body was light, my mind, despite the headache, was still working nimbly.


    Putting that aside, knowing that I wasn''t sleepy enough to keep sleeping, I got up and went to the bathroom to take a hot shower.


    Although it was summer, at four in the morning the weather was still a bit chilly.


    The hot water hitting my head was relaxing, and when I got out of the shower my headache completely disappeared, leaving me feeling energized and ready to do anything.


    Curious to know how much the game had grown since I went to sleep, I turned on the computer and looked at the stats screen.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 658 -> 1,098


    | Online Players: 588 -> 511


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 709


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 5 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 23 units -> 47 units


    | Estimated Daily Mana Yield: 24 -> 42 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 104 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    This made me curious about the college''s rankings.


    Normally having 500 Players online during the day would mean that my game would be halfway down the first page, but considering the current time I was curious about my position in the Rankings.


    Opening the college''s website that I had already bookmarked in my browser, I didn''t even have to scroll down to see my game!


    1st - 983 Players Online [Knife Throwing Training in the Dark!]


    2nd - 777 Players Online [Ice Shield Defense Training!]


    3rd - 566 Players Online [Moving Archery Training!]


    4th - 511 Players Online [ Runestone]


    5th - 489 Players Online [Footwork Training for Spears]


    ...


    Coming in fourth place with four days since the game''s release was incredible!


    Considering that today was Wednesday and the day hadn''t even started yet while the test would only end on Saturday at 23:59, I still had four more full days to get more Players and pass first place.


    Thinking from this point of view, the development of my game was going very well, although first place was practically guaranteed, I wasn''t going to relax and take the risk of not finishing in first place.


    Not having much to do and not wanting to go and develop the game straight after waking up, I made myself a simple breakfast while creating social media pages for my company.


    Frankly, because I''m terrible with names, it was becoming more complicated than it should have been.


    In this world there were a lot of Game Creators who just posted games under their own names, earning a lot of fame, fortune, glamor, and everything that comes with the popularity of millions of people following you.


    But I didn''t want something like that.


    Would it be interesting to be famous and have people trying to please you all the time? Of course, but that''s a path of no return... once you become famous there''s no button to lose the fame.


    The only way out of fame is to become irrelevant, but with the games I had in my mind from the other world I''m sure I wouldn''t fall into irrelevance, so I''d have to deal with increasing fame over time.


    Sure, even if I created a studio and released games under the company name, at some point my name would become known to the point where I would become famous, but that fame would still be much less than if I used my own name.


    So the decision to use a company name to develop the game was essential.


    I didn''t just want a generic name, I wanted something that would spark something in the players whenever it was said.


    To that end, I started jotting down some name ideas.


    Reviewing the ideas I''d jotted down, there was one I liked the most...


    Thinking about how the current gaming scene was frozen, with Game Creators just developing the same things, Players playing games just to practice without feeling any fun in it, and in my view this should be the main point in a game, my games should be like Haven safe for them.


    I liked that name! To confirm that it was the name I wanted, I said it out loud.


    ¡°FrostHaven Studios...?¡±


    When I said it out loud, the name sounded weak, weaker than I had imagined... it was as if something was missing.


    I think what bothered me most about Studios was that it felt like a limiter.


    ¡°Since my focus is going to be on entertaining people, it''s best to change FrostHaven Studios to FrostHaven Entertainment! Yes, that''s an imposing name!¡± I said out loud, excited as I walked around the dormitory.


    Looking again at the list of names I''d made, none of them captivated me as much as FrostHaven Entertainment, so that was the name I was going to use!


    Sure, I still had to check something out before I could be sure... if there wasn''t already another company with that name.


    Searching through social media and the search engine, I only found companies that used Frost or Haven in their names, but none that were the combination of these names, so it was decided.


    After sending a message to an accountant to help me set up a company with this name and asking how much he would charge, I started to create the social media profiles.


    For the image of the company logo, I logged into Game Core and used some Mana, my imagination and the help of System to put what I envisioned on paper.


    Looking at the image of a frozen mountain, snow covering everywhere, but a beautiful path of snow-free green grass leading to a cozy wooden hut illuminated by golden lights with ''FrostHaven'' written above it, a smile came over my face.


    This was exactly what I envisioned for the future of the company, a frozen world where only my company with my games were the warm and cozy place where Players could enjoy this beautiful landscape.


    I know that if I only posted boring things or things about myself, no one would be interested, since they''re only interested in the games, so what could I post about the games that would interest them?


    ''I think posting about future updates and a teaser of what''s new for the game could be interesting, fans love it when the company shows something that''s coming in the future, especially considering that in this world Game Creators don''t usually add many things after the game is ready, posting something like this could be very positive for my image and for players to understand that the game will last a long time!''


    Thinking about it, I''ve already started to formulate a vision in my mind.


    The normal card packs that players opened to get new cards for their decks in the game were just simple brown leather packages.


    By slightly changing the design on the leather and adding a few different colored lines, I stacked a bunch of these card packs on a table and took a picture in Game Core.


    Using this image, I smiled as I wrote the message I was going to post with it.


    ...


    - Nathan POV -


    I never believed that I would wake up at 7 a.m. to play a game...


    Thinking about how much fun Runestone was, I began to envy the F Rank players for being able to get stronger with a game like this while I would have to play E Rank games in order not to waste my potential on something only half as efficient...


    As my Mana total was already around 20 units, I was taking advantage of my week off by playing Runestone every day from 7 in the morning until midnight, totaling 17 hours of play!


    The advantage of playing for so long is that even though F Rank games only give me half the improvement that E Rank games do, I was still able to get a significant improvement after 17 hours of this training.


    Honestly, if my body didn''t need at least 6 hours of sleep, I''d probably try to use my 20 MP to play the game for 20 hours every day.


    With 17 hours of gameplay a day, I had already raised my Rank from the initial Bronze 4 to the current Gold 2! S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    In today''s 17 hours of play I''m sure I could reach Platinum, or maybe even Diamond!


    I knew that my brother was the current Rank 1 in the game, even with less daily playing time than other Players AND Ranks who knew the game, but with his mind he was holding his own.


    I laughed as I picked up my Player Core and entered Runestone.


    Surprisingly, when I entered the game, instead of going directly to the Tavern where the Players stayed, what I saw was an image of a snowy mountain with a cozy wooden hut and the name ''FrostHaven'' in the sky.


    ''Has any company hired this Game Creator yet?!'' I asked myself in surprise. ''Or is this a company he created?


    Thinking about how quick this company had been to hire him, or how quick he had been to make a company, I was finally able to enter the tavern after three seconds.


    But when I reached the board there was a notification flashing red.


    Reminding myself that this could mean a new feature, I quickly clicked on it and a window appeared in front of me.


    [FrostHaven posted a spoiler on Whisper about new features that might be coming to the game, would you like the link to that post to open on your computer?]


    Seeing this made me curious.


    Thinking about BlackJack, which always had the same number of cards without any rule changes or anything like that, I assumed that Runestone would also be like that, so I was curious.


    [Yes]


    I clicked Yes and quickly disconnected from Player Core, rushing to the PC, curious to know what this post was about.


    [Hello Heroes, while our pretty waitress was cleaning the tavern, a strange packet of cards was found hidden away. Although these packets are very similar to normal packets, some small details have led us to believe that the cards in these packets are completely different from traditional packets... so we''re wondering if we should sell these cards for gold coins as well...]


    Below the message was an image of a stack of card packets.


    These packs were exactly as the message said, very similar to the packs that were already available in the game, but after opening so many packs in the game, I quickly noticed the differences and got excited.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 16 – Evolve?

    The Players'' reaction to the post on the Whisper social network was a success.


    Notifications of the likes, comments and shares that the post was receiving, as well as new followers on FrostHaven Entertainment''s account, kept pouring in!


    Within an hour of posting, it already had more than 300 likes, with numbers rising steadily.


    One thing I didn''t expect was that when the Players saw the post, they were so excited that they reposted it for their followers to see too!


    Although no one famous had reposted it, when dozens of ordinary people reposted it, the reach wouldn''t have been much different from someone famous having reposted it, so that the reach of the post had already passed 5,000 people.


    Sure, I know that this reach of 5,000 people doesn''t mean that 5,000 people read the post, just that it appeared in their feed.


    But still, this was a new form of advertising that I didn''t expect to happen so soon.


    My idea with the social network for now was just to keep the Players engaged and excited about the game so that when I needed to promote a new game, the page would already have so many followers that the new game would already have an initial audience.


    But who would have thought that their reaction to this post would be so intense?


    Curious, I started reading the comments, trying to understand why there was such a huge response.


    Reading the comments, I began to understand why players reacted this way to the post.


    Apparently other Game Creators also released updates to their games, but unlike my update which added a lot of new content to the game, since I could produce several new cards with ease using the help of the System, the other Game Creators didn''t have this facility.


    Considering that most games involved combat, the amount of Mana they spent on developing a kind of enemy that was wise enough to battle, move, dodge, attack or the like, was very large.


    Not to mention that the development wasn''t guaranteed like the one I did with the help of the System.


    To make a new enemy, Game Creators had to work by trial and error, spending hundreds of MP to develop a new kind of monster.


    Considering how exhausting this was for a return that would take months to pay off, usually Game Creators would rather spend that Mana developing a new game and profiting from that new game, even at the expense of the previous game''s loss of popularity, than trying to invest in maintaining the current game.


    Of course, there were exceptions to this.


    Just as the comment said, there were Game Creators who had very successful games and preferred to invest their Mana in trying to maintain the current game rather than start another one from scratch, spend hundreds or thousands of Mana Points developing it and the game not doing well.


    Since our body''s Mana regenerated every day, it wasn''t all that bad to update games, but considering that the updates they made to the games didn''t add much, it didn''t do much to maintain a game''s popularity for long.


    What''s the point of spending 500 - 900 MP to add a goblin to your game if the game is going to remain as boring as it was before just to keep earning a few MP a day for a few more months?


    In the view of independent Game Creators, it was better to have 3 games earning 1 MP per day than to keep a popular game earning 2 MP per day.


    And they''re not wrong about that, after all, at the end of the month the first case would receive a total of 90 MP while the second, which focused solely on making a good game, would receive 60 MP.


    Probably with the example of my game, as time goes by the Game Creators will also start adding updates of fun things for the Players, trying to increase the amount of daily Players to reach the game''s 2 MP limit, but I don''t know if they would go out of their way to get even more Players.


    In college we were taught that having 3,000 or 30,000 Players playing a game was completely irrelevant to the Game Creator, which is why Guilds hired Game Creators.


    When the Guild had control over the Game Creator, they could pay him to make exclusive games for their Players, focused on training exactly what they wanted, and the Game Creator would have to keep investing MP in the game to improve it as much as possible, even though he wouldn''t get back the MP spent on it.


    It was common knowledge that the best games out there were not available to the public, but were exclusively for internal use by the Guilds.


    No one thought this was wrong, who would turn down a 6-figure or 7-figure annual salary just to create games for a Guild?


    Even if the Game Creator took longer to climb the ranks because of this, he would have a great life with so much money.


    ...'' I laughed to myself.


    But I didn''t regret my choice.


    After talking to the old director, I had made up my mind that this was the path I wanted to follow, not to mention that the more Players I had, the more money I would get too, right? So why bother?


    I would focus on developing the best games, with the best experiences and only when the game was in a stable state would I start developing another game.


    Runestone for example, I could imagine so much room for development in that game that wasn''t even taken advantage of by the original game in my previous world.


    Not taking advantage of all that would be a big waste in my view.


    Not to mention that there was something little talked about among Game Creators, since it was something very difficult and unprofitable, but which Players loved.


    As long as a game accumulated enough Mana, it was possible to make a game evolve!


    When a game evolved, it was possible to develop a second version of the game for a higher Rank, allowing both Ranks of Players to play the game and earn money accordingly.


    These evolved games were the trump cards of all the Guilds, with each Guild having at least one evolved game, or for the large Guilds, several such games.


    The difficulty of evolving a game is that in order to evolve it, the Game Creator must store at least hundreds of thousands of MP accumulated by Players in the Game Core.


    When the amount of Mana passes a certain threshold, the Game Core will begin to absorb this Mana and evolve naturally.


    While this sounds very promising as an investment for Guilds, for unsupported Game Creators this is a disaster, after all they will have to stop improving their own Mana, slowing down their future growth, so that Players benefit from it.


    Sure, if a game had tens of thousands of Players, both the Game Creator would receive Mana and the Game Core could accumulate Mana to evolve.


    But the Game Creator''s Mana investment to keep a game popular for so long would be much better spent developing other F Rank games and profiting from variety.


    But while for other Game Creators this might be a problem, for me as a System owner it might not be such a problem.


    Not only is my cost of developing games much lower because of the help of the System, but the game ideas I use are so creative that I''ll find it much easier to accumulate tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Players in my games!


    Looking down my shirt, seeing how much my muscles had evolved in the last few days that I had left the False Neurological Feedback activated whenever I was awake, I began to imagine how big this improvement would be if my game went up to Rank E, or even Rank D and this thought excited me.


    I laughed as I rubbed my hands together and thought about how I could speed up Runestone''s development even more.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD


    S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 17 – The Mystery of Magic

    My body has changed a lot over the last few days.


    The fat covering my belly was starting to disappear, my arms, which had been thin, were slowly becoming thicker with the appearance of muscles, my legs were also becoming more toned and stronger, even my posture was getting better.


    But my body wasn''t the only thing that had changed about me.


    I wasn''t foolish enough to use Neurological False Feedback just to develop my body, after all I didn''t even know how to fight properly.


    The use of it on my body was only to keep me healthy and to satisfy a vain desire I had in the other world to have a beautiful body.


    If at some point I needed to engage in combat, the best way to do it would be to use magic.


    Not only because I had an extremely high amount of Mana compared to Players of my Rank, but also because I could boost my Mana even further by using my game. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    If I dedicated 100% of my game''s boost to my body, every 1 hour I would receive the result of 1 hour of gym, if I used 100% of it for my magic, every 1 hour I would receive the result of 1 hour of meditation.


    Just like training in a gym, meditation is also slow and the results take time to appear.


    Even if I meditated for 10 hours, my Mana would only increase by 0.1 units.


    If it were that easy to increase the amount of Mana, the number of Players trying to become Game Creators would be much higher than it is today.


    But despite the slow growth, the last few days with the game increasing my Mana have started to pay off.


    By dividing the Neurological False Feedback into 50% for my body and 50% for my Mana during all the hours of the day that I was awake, my Mana rose from the original 68 MP to 68.2 MP.


    It was a small improvement, but the higher the game climbed in rank, the bigger this improvement would become!


    At this point the game already had 50 MP stored, when another 50 MP accumulated I could convert this into 1 MP more for my total amount of Mana, and considering the speed this was accumulating now that I had more Players, it''s likely that tomorrow I''ll already be able to convert my first MP from my game!


    The more the game grows, the faster the Game Core will accumulate MP, until when there are around 2,000 average Players per day I''ll finally get 2 MP per day.


    From then on, the time I would spend making improvements to the game would decrease even more!


    But not only would the game''s development improve, but I could also practice magic without a guilty conscience!


    Since I came to this world, in order to make the best use of my time and not delay my future development, I''ve only focused my MP on developing Runestone.


    Now that the game was stable and the number of players online was rising steadily, I knew that as long as I saved 65 MP to develop 5 cards a day, the rest of the Mana I would have available after recovering at noon would be free for me to spend on whatever I wanted.


    And I couldn''t wait to experiment with magic!


    Before the fusion of the two memories, my talent for learning magic was terrible, to the point that after confirming that I couldn''t learn magic from books, I gave up everything apart from meditation, which would help me with Game Creating.


    Now with the otherworldly memory, a Theo who never had the chance to experience magic in real life, being limited to experiencing this kind of thing only through games, anime, movies or other media, I was itching to try it again.


    Sure, before starting I did my duty of developing the 5 cards of the next Patch in the Runestone, rested and meditated to recover the Mana I spent doing that, had lunch and only at 3pm was I free to practice.


    What gave me the confidence to try it again was realizing that after merging the two memories, my talent for learning Game Creating had improved by leaps and bounds.


    I was still studying it on a daily basis and although the content was getting more and more difficult, I was still managing to follow the book''s teachings and learn everything that was available to me.


    Looking at the large book in my hand with the title  I let out a laugh as I imagined the appearance of the author who decided on that name.


    Opening the first page, the feeling I felt when trying to learn Game Creating after the merger returned!


    Reading carefully, my mind began to absorb the book''s explanation like a sponge.


    Some of this knowledge I already knew because of my memories of this world that tried to study magic in the past, but most of it I didn''t remember, so I just read and learned as if it was the first time I''d come into contact with it.


    The more I read about magic, the more fascinated I became.


    Instead of ethereal knowledge with confusing explanations written by someone without a methodology, the way this book taught magic was as didactic as any other subject I had studied in the past.


    Feeling Mana and controlling it internally is something I already knew how to do, after all the exercise to practice it is meditation, something I use very often.


    The only thing I had yet to learn was how to control Mana outside the body.


    This was the point that seemed so difficult for me before the fusion that I gave up.


    But this time I wouldn''t give up.


    My goal was to read the book up to the part where it explained how external Mana control worked and try to learn even better every explanation the book provided.


    Although I had to re-read things I already knew to get to this point, I didn''t skip any paragraphs and read the book with total attention, picking up on details I had missed when I first learned about it.


    I''m sure that just from what I learned by reading it I could improve my meditation by at least 15%!


    When I finally got to the part about out-of-body Mana control, night had come and the dormitory was already getting dark, making me turn on the light to continue reading.


    Reading this part that I hadn''t mastered was more difficult than what I already knew, but as I read I began to notice small mistakes that I made when trying to control Mana outside the body, for example:


    Reading carefully I noticed a small part talking about how my breathing influenced the flow of Mana.


    Before, I thought that my Mana dispersed for no reason when I tried to shape it outside the body, but I realized that it was because of my body''s irregular breathing that deregulated the flow of Mana.


    When a mage made his Mana leave his body, the flow of Mana had to be synchronized with his breathing.


    Another thing I noticed was the lack of focus when trying to imagine complex forms for the Mana, my mind would become so scattered that when I managed to get the Mana out, it would get out of control.


    To make sure, I kept reading the book until I was sure the subject had changed, even learning a basic spell to create a sphere of light.


    So, placing the book next to me, I stretched out my hand and began to feel the Mana in my body.


    Following all the steps taught in the book, I began to control the Mana inside my body.


    Making sure I was doing everything exactly as taught, I finally controlled the Mana to pass through my outstretched hand.


    Surprisingly, the sensation was very similar to controlling Mana in Game Core to create games.


    Within seconds a small sphere of light blue Mana was floating in my palm.


    If I stopped using Mana it would fall apart in a few seconds, but as long as I kept my control over the Mana, the longer it would last.


    According to the book, this was a good way for beginners to learn to control Mana outside the body. The longer the Mana remained outside the body and the more complex the form the Mana took, the more fruitful the training would be.


    At first I just kept it in sphere form, which was the simplest, as my two-world excitement was exploding at finally being able to do real magic.


    After the excitement died down, I started playing around with different shapes until I felt comfortable enough to stop and try a real spell.


    Remembering the book''s explanation of how to do the ''Luminis'' spell, I started controlling my Mana to try and replicate it.


    Strangely, my Mana wasn''t responding in the way I was controlling it.


    Just as I was about to give up on this attempt to try again in another way, I realized something.


    My Mana was getting stuck on the tip of my finger, just like when I played cards in Game Core...


    Read 20 on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 18 – What a Surprise!

    Realizing that my Mana was reacting in the same way as it did when the System withheld my Mana to do what I was imagining in the Game Core, my heart started racing and I sped up my Mana production along with it.


    As I was practicing, I was doing everything slowly, spending only 0.1 MP per second to understand the structure of the magic and not make any mistakes.


    Now that I realized that the System had taken control of my Mana, I was curious and immediately poured a full 1 MP, which strangely wasn''t enough, causing me to pour a little more and a familiar message to appear in front of me.


    [1.5 Mana Point Stored, do you wish to perform the ''Luminis'' spell?]


    Feeling my heart race, I replied mentally.


    With my answer, the Mana began to flow out of my finger and while this was happening I focused completely on understanding the movement the Mana was making as it left my finger.


    Unfortunately, the spell was completed very quickly.


    In less than a second, the Mana was converted into a bright sphere of light that floated above my hand.


    '' I asked myself confusedly.


    Looking at the book again, I confirmed that it was describing the light as a little dimmer than what I was seeing.


    Deciding to test it out, I repeated the spell while mentally thinking that I didn''t want the System''s help, a trick I''d discovered while I wanted to have fun doing Runestone and controlled my Mana manually.


    Having read the book a few times and personally experienced the feeling of Mana leaving my body and shaping itself to do the spell, I managed to do it on the first try!


    The problem is that the luminosity of the sphere is much lower than the sphere I made using System''s help...


    I was shocked by this possibility.


    Not because I could live in a very well-lit house, but because if System has made a spell like this, which is originally so simple, into such a perfect form that it''s apparently even better than the book author''s spell, couldn''t System also do that with the more complicated spells?


    I could simply try to imagine a spell, just as I imagined the Runestone cards, and the System would create it somehow!


    Sure, I couldn''t invent something out of thin air, I tested it in Game Core and only things that I could imagine working were possible to develop, but with that possibility I thought of something. S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Holding out my hand and keeping a clear image of something, I began to use mana.


    ''Mana is getting stuck to my fingertip! This is working!'' I thought excitedly as I continued to supply Mana.


    1 MP...


    2 MP...


    5 MP...


    10 MP...


    20 MP...


    40 MP...


    45 MP...


    50 MP!


    [50 Mana Points Stored, do you want to model a ¡°Saphire Drake Card¡±?]


    Exactly the same first message that System showed me when I came to this world, but at a cost 10x higher than making this card in Game Core...


    I was shocked.


    As soon as I answered that, the 50 MP started leaking out of my hand, quickly shaping a card identical to the first card I made in Game Core.


    This card had no effect, it was just a simple card with good quality paper and pretty drawings, but being able to hold this card in my fingers opened up great possibilities for the future.


    Although this world has a way for Players to obtain items in Game Cores and convert them to the real world, the information on how this works is confidential and only Federation officials and leaders of the major Guilds know.


    By how securely this information is kept you can see how valuable it is, and now I''ve discovered that I can do it because of the System!


    After so many revelations I had to stop momentarily and adjust my thoughts.


    Firstly, it is possible to let the System do the spells for me in case of combat, but the time it takes for the System to accumulate my Mana until the window appears, I answer the question and the spell finally comes out of my finger is longer than the time it takes to do the spell directly, making it difficult to use it in combat.


    But using the System as a teacher so that I can learn the best way to do a spell is completely feasible.


    As the System uses my Mana, it''s much easier to learn with it controlling my Mana than reading about it or watching someone else do it.


    But books aren''t useless, just like when I tried to use Neurological False Feedback in Runestone, the System bases the MP cost on the knowledge I have of what I want to do.


    Probably if I knew a spell to create objects out of thin air, the cost of making the card would drop several times.


    But nothing would stop me from learning how to do the spells from the System itself and trying to reduce the cost, right?


    To confirm this theory, I used another 1.5 MP to let the System do the ''Luminis'' spell again and watched the whole process slowly with great attention.


    The spell was just as perfect as the first.


    Now on my turn, I tried to replicate everything I saw System use my Mana to do and to my surprise my spell actually got brighter!


    Repeating this process again, after watching System and repeating the process manually, my spell got even brighter!


    '' I thought excitedly.


    Now for the last point I had to think about, the point that dealt with how the System could recreate the things I imagined in the real world, I decided to be extremely cautious about this.


    I thought.


    But thinking about the power and influence that high-ranking Game Creators had in the world, I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I had to deal with it.


    Deciding not to get too deep into this area now, I just contented myself with continuing to study magic.


    After spending so much MP I was almost running dry, so I just held on to the magic book and focused on learning the spells it taught.


    This book was focused on the study of magic based on English teachings, I was curious to know other styles of applying magic, but thinking about how bad US relations were with some of the countries with the most interesting ways of magic, I figured it would be difficult to get this knowledge nationally.


    Although some of the knowledge had spread worldwide, only the shallowest part of it was available to the public, with the later and more important parts being guarded by governments and powerful individuals around the world.


    I started to think about it, until I realized that I was setting another trap for the government to take an interest in me.


    My life in this world never gave much thought to how the government worked, but my life in the other world had a very negative impression of any kind of government, regardless of whether it was my country''s or foreigners'', and this antipathy stayed with me.


    The magic I had available to learn was enough for a while, I''d better not be greedy and just keep studying diligently...


    -


    Waking up the next day, while I was eating a simple breakfast that I had prepared, I took out my cell phone and started looking at the notifications that popped up.


    Most of the notifications were from FrostHaven Entertainment''s social networks.


    The post I''d made yesterday already had 1,400 likes and over 30,000 impressions, a very good number of likes for that amount of impressions.


    The page had almost reached a thousand followers and what interested me most were the comments from users.


    Surprisingly, comments from normal people complaining about not being able to play Runestone were appearing frequently, unfortunately I didn''t know any way of turning the game into something that could be played on the computer.


    Although I liked games in my past life, I didn''t even know how to program...


    But I was curious about how people were figuring out how Runestone worked and to my surprise, [OnerOwns], Runestone''s Top 1 Player was also a streamer!


    And not only a streamer, he also had a very good audience, with almost 200 people watching his stream.


    '' I thought excitedly as I clicked on his stream, interested to see how he played and what his audience''s reaction was.


    Read 22 on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 19 – Passion for Gaming

    - Owen POV -


    When I decided to follow in my older brother''s footsteps and become a gamer, my parents weren''t very happy.


    Although they acted this way with me and didn''t act this way with my brother, I can understand their side, after all Nathan has come home with serious injuries several times, and unlike him, my grades at school have always been good.


    If I really wanted to, I could easily get into college, but a few years ago I knew it wasn''t for me.


    Something inside me always felt that studying was boring, a waste of time, that even if I had a lot of money following this path, I wouldn''t be truly happy.


    When Nathan became a Player a door opened for me!


    Seeing him get stronger after playing for hours, seeing him come home with money and lots of interesting stories to tell made me realize that this was what I wanted for myself.


    Not because of the money, but because of those interesting stories! I wanted a thrill for my life that I''m sure no traditional college could give me.


    So despite my parents being against it, the choice I made was to become a Player.


    Although training was very boring, boring to the point of making me reconsider following this path, I still kept improving myself until I felt I was ready to enter my first Dungeon.


    The experience almost ended in tragedy, but fortunately our Tank was experienced and managed to control the situation well, so that no one died.


    I was one of the players who almost died in this dungeon, but the thrill and adrenaline of the battle was incredible.


    Too bad that afterwards I had to stay at home for two weeks to treat my injuries if I didn''t want to pay a fortune for a healer.


    Two weeks just training non-stop was exhausting...


    To distract myself I decided to try streaming during this time.


    Livestreaming games was something that came about recently. Apparently an entrepreneur figured out how to copy the visual information that the Player Core sends to the Player and play it back on the computer.


    After finding a way to send this to the computer, recording videos became natural, and with streams already popular on social media, unlocking a function to stream games wasn''t too difficult either.


    As I had nothing to do while recovering, my first week of recovery was spent entirely on playing games and streaming them, but that wasn''t working out very well.


    As boring as it was to play, watching someone else play, doing the same things over and over again just for a few points was just as boring.


    Every now and then a normal person would show up, curious to see what games the Players were playing to get stronger, but after watching for a few minutes, everyone left disappointed.


    The most people watching me that I managed to accumulate was 3, all of whom were friends or relatives that I told I was streaming and came to support me.


    Seeing that no one was really interested, I was about to stop, until R-Day happened.


    On Sunday, 7 days after I got injured in the first dungeon I raided, while I was looking for different games on the websites of various colleges, thinking that at least new graduates might have enough creativity to do something new, I was completely disappointed.


    Every game I saw and tested was practically the same.


    Until on the last page of the list of games for this year''s graduates of Nova Forge Academy there was a different game, with only 3 Players online and a completely different name from the others.


    Curious, I started reading the game''s page and everything I saw really interested me.


    Downloading the game and understanding how it worked got me more and more excited, until I decided to play a game against another Player, which I thought was really cool.


    I had to wait a few minutes to find an opponent, but when I did find a [Worthy Opponent], it was a boy about my brother''s age with black hair, green eyes and a confident calm.


    Unlike me, who didn''t understand the game at all, my opponent was very helpful, explaining how the game worked, giving me tips on how to combine cards to get more powerful effects and how to take advantage of my Warrior Hero.


    The more he showed me the complexity of the game, the more interested I became.


    It was obvious that I suffered a crushing defeat at his hands, but even at my current level, being Runestone''s first Diamond Player, I still couldn''t beat him, which only made me more certain that he was Runestone''s Game Creator!


    ''How brilliant does someone''s mind have to be to think of every little detail and form a game as interesting as this?'' I thought in awe.


    Unlike my streams of other games that nobody wanted to watch, the more I played Runestone, the more people flocked to see me play.


    My first day playing it gathered a maximum of 20 viewers, the second day raised that number to 80, on the third day the number jumped to 150, and even though it was the fourth day, the number had already passed 200 viewers, climbing steadily!


    I had so much fun doing these streams that I would wake up, open the Stream while planning my deck, get into the game and play for 5 hours, then go out to eat and plan changes to my deck with the cards I''d won in that time, meditate a bit, play for another 5 hours and go to sleep.


    Surprisingly, I was even making money doing this! sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    To encourage me to play more, or even to ask me questions about their decks, the spectators would give me money! Not to mention that even the advertisements they passed on to these viewers earned me a few cents!


    Yesterday, with an average of 150 viewers, I received a total of $30!


    It''s not like that amount was going to make me rich, but since I wasn''t healed enough to raid another dungeon yet, it was nice to get some money.


    -


    ¡°Guys... after analyzing the earnings I received at different Ranks in the Runestone, I think I understand a bit how much each Rank earns.¡± I began to explain to the viewers one of the Players'' biggest doubts.


    ¡°Using the Gold Rank as a basis, if when I was in the Gold Rank I received a 100% boost, the earnings when I was in the Bronze Rank were only 80%, while now that I''ve become Diamond the boost has gone up to 120%!¡±


    Reading the comments, I felt a bit bad for the people without an affinity for Mana.


    After the knowledge of Mana became popular in the world, many people thought they could become Supernatural, only to be disappointed later to discover that they had no affinity for it.


    It''s no wonder that the supernatural wasn''t public to the world before the dungeons, only a small part of the population had an affinity with Mana.


    According to research carried out around the world, only 10% of the population had a low affinity with Mana.


    These people were those with between 2 and 10 MP at the age of 18, which was the case for me and the other players.


    If it had been before the dungeons appeared, we would just have been ignored by the Supernatural world and died without knowing we had Mana.


    Those who would attract the attention of the supernatural world were those who today in our country were recognized as potential Game Creators, limited to just 1% of the population.


    These people had between 50 and 100 MP at the age of 18, with the more MP a person had at that age, the greater their talent.


    The development of Game Cores meant that people with high talents, the Game Creators, created ways for even people with low talents, the Players, to become strong enough to fight monsters.


    This possibility of using a 10x larger population to fight the monsters while keeping the truly talented safe was what created the envy of other countries and played out in an international negotiation to try to get us to sell our technology.


    So the only thing I could feel about the people who didn''t have Mana was pity, not pity because they didn''t have Mana and couldn''t get stronger, since the life of a person without Mana was no worse than that of a Player, but pity because they couldn''t play Runestone...


    Politely ignoring the whining of ordinary people in the comments, since I couldn''t do anything about it, I focused on the comments of valid questions about the game and continued the stream.


    The information I gave was very important in getting players even more excited about playing Ranked Games, and that was good for me, since the more people who played, the more fun the game became!


    Not to mention that now I no longer had to wait several minutes to find opponents!


    What I didn''t know was that my dedication and passion for the game surprised a very special person, my first opponent in Runestone, the creator of the game!


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 20 – New idea!

    I watched the stream for over an hour and was amazed at the knowledge Owen was showing.


    Although I realized that he didn''t have much practice in how to interact with the audience, sometimes getting lost when reading too much of the chat, or completely forgetting that the chat existed, I could understand why he had so many viewers.


    Compared to the other Players I saw, he was a level above.


    Thinking about it, an idea came to mind.


    Other companies usually appeared in the streams of people who were playing their game, donated something and then left.


    Although this was a simple thing for the companies, for the Players it was very nice.


    Deciding to do this, as I was already logged into the account I had made for FrostHaven two days ago, I went to the donation options and decided to donate 10 Gifted Subs to him.


    I didn''t have much money now, since I was an orphan in this world, I only lived on a small stipend that the government sent me every month for having managed to get accepted into a Game Creators university.


    Spending $50 to donate to Owen would leave me with only $32 left in my wallet, but I wasn''t too worried about that.


    Runestone was making more and more money now.


    With a payout of $6 for every 1,000 hours played in the game, with the average of 700 Players I had two days ago, the game earned me an incredible $100! Not to mention how much money I had already earned in the previous days.


    My bank account only had $32 in it because I hadn''t asked to withdraw the money from the game, but seeing how much money I had left now I started to consider withdrawing it.


    Putting that aside, I turned my attention to the stream and made the $50 payment in Subs to the streamer.


    A mechanical warning sounded first, startling Owen and making him drop his cards into the game to confirm that he''d heard that right.


    ¡°OMG, the FrostHaven company donated 10 Gifted Subs to me?!¡± He asked himself incredulously, not knowing exactly how to react to this.


    Meanwhile his chat was going crazy.


    Seeing people''s messages I laughed a little while reading this, but one message caught my eye.


    I was surprised.


    This wasn''t the first time I''d seen this kind of comment.


    The other time I saw it was in the post I made on Whisper announcing the new card pack, but I thought it was just something small.


    But come to think of it, it''s not that surprising that normal people are also interested in the game, after all, in my other world the game wasn''t made for normal people?!


    I thought, a little disappointed.


    It would be interesting to make a normal computer game, but making $100 a day like I do now is still a long way off.


    Thinking about the money I made two days ago, I wondered what the average number of players the game had yesterday.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 1.098 -> 1.833


    | Online Players: 588 -> 1.122


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 709 -> 1.184


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 5 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 118 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 71 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 104 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    The first thing my eye saw as soon as the game stats screen appeared was the average number of players online!


    Seeing that the average went up from 709 Players to 1,184 in just one day made my heart race with excitement.


    An increase of 475 Players on average in just one day!


    Seeing that the total number of Players went up by 735 in a single day made me even more excited.


    I thought excitedly.


    Even though I knew the game was very good, I knew that the main factors responsible for such a huge increase in Total Players were the system for inviting friends and the creation of FrostHaven''s social media account.


    Without this, the number would hardly have risen so much, especially the invite-a-friend system.


    While the social networks helped with an initial boom when the post was publicized by Players, the invite system is a snowball. After all, a Player invites some friends, those friends get into the game and see that they can win a skin by inviting friends, so they also invite friends and so the snowball keeps rolling and getting bigger.


    Thinking about how much the average number of Players has risen, I was curious to know how much money I had already accumulated on the site, since according to my calculations, this average has earned me at least $170 in the last 24 hours!


    | Stored Money: $455


    '' I thought in surprise.


    Thinking back to the $200 I received in government subsidies to get by for a month at college and I already thought that was a lot of money, now I was starting to get a lot of money!


    '' I realized, shocked.


    Thinking about the apartment the director wanted to rent me, something I had been worried about the value of, now that worry started to disappear.


    Considering that my average earnings are only going to increase every day with new Players coming in every day, I was more confident of being able to pay the rent on his apartment, even if it was more expensive than I was initially planning to pay if I was going to look for a place to live.


    Turning my eyes to the data the screen was showing me, there was another number that surprised me. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    I was excited to realize that the Game Core had already stored more than 100 Mana Units!


    Seeing as the Game Core has received 71 MP in the last 24 hours, it''s likely that during today it will accumulate over 100 MP, giving me another maximum MP to add tomorrow!


    Excited to do this soon, I quickly grabbed the Game Core and sent my consciousness there, starting the process of transferring MP to me immediately.


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 118 -> 18 Units


    I didn''t care about this value going down, the only thing I cared about was my current Mana going up!


    Every second I felt my Mana increasing... 68.4... 68.6... 68.8... 69... 69.2... 69.4!


    My new Mana total was 69.4 Units!


    That 0.4 MP came from the False Neurological Feedback I left by practicing my Mana constantly. Even though it was a small amount, every chicken has its fill, so I wouldn''t complain!


    Feeling the progress, my smile didn''t want to leave my face.


    Too bad I started to feel something hot almost burning my hand, making me snap out of my Game Core fright.


    Looking at the reason for this, it was the Game Core itself!


    ''Well, they say the limit on this is 1 MP every 12 hours... maybe that 12 hours is how long it takes to cool down?'' I asked myself as I touched the hot Game Core with curiosity.


    This temperature wasn''t something that would really burn me, but it was still a bit uncomfortable to hold directly.


    Thinking about how I could continue using the Game Core without holding it directly, an idea came to mind.


    ''Can''t I control my Mana remotely now? Why not try using my Mana on the Game Core without touching it?''


    So I reached out a few centimeters away from the Game Core and controlled a thin thread of Mana to connect with it.


    Within a second my consciousness was being pulled into it again, leaving me satisfied.


    ''My Magic training is starting to show results!''


    With an extra 1 MP of Mana, as long as I meditated and recovered my Mana once a day, I would have an extra 60 MP to use as I pleased every month!


    Not counting the Mana I''ll continue to receive over the next few days, at this rate I could finish the game''s new cards even faster, or even improve my mastery of magic even more!


    Excited to get to work, I remembered the cards I was going to make today and quickly used the System to start developing them.


    Thinking about how much fun it was to play the game when a new update came out because of the changes the game had, I started to think about what I could change so that the game would have something remarkable for Players...


    That was a great idea! I could choose a class from the most popular classes that players used to raid dungeons and release a version of that class in the game!


    ''Before I decide that, I''ll have to do some more research into what the Players'' structure is like when raiding a dungeon and try to find data that shows the most popular classes that Players develop.'' I thought resolutely.


    It sounded like a lot of work, but I liked it. When you do something you enjoy, even if it''s hard work you''ll have fun!


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 21 – The Veil and the Arrow

    I''d been living in this world for two and a half weeks and although that''s quite a long time, considering that most of my time I spent solely focused on developing my game, when I needed knowledge about other areas I had to research them more thoroughly.


    Even my memories of Theo living in that world were quite outdated, after all, ¡°I¡± had given up on myself 3 or 4 years ago, just living as a robot with no desire for anything when ¡°I¡± realized that ¡°I¡± had no talent.


    So after I''d finished developing today''s cards for the game, in order to bring myself up to date with current knowledge, I started researching on the internet.


    First of all, dungeons in this world were only portrayed as small worlds where Players could enter, kill all the monsters inside and leave quickly so as not to get stuck there.


    To me, that seemed a bit strange.


    I don''t know if this strangeness I felt was because of the name they use here compared to the definition of dungeons in my previous world...


    In role-playing games I''ve played, books I''ve read or movies I''ve watched that used the term Dungeons, it was always used to mean a closed structure, almost always underground, where monsters lived and protected something, or someone.


    In that world they classified any kind of invasion from another world as a Dungeon.


    Looking only with a superfluous eye, the description did indeed sound like a dungeon.


    Portals would appear around the world destroying all the surrounding structures, Players would enter these portals, encounter lots of monsters, kill these monsters and return to the real world afterwards with rewards.


    The problem was that when I started researching this in more depth, the more I realized that something wasn''t adding up.


    Many of these dungeons weren''t even closed, with portals transporting players to open deserts, forests, or even monster villages.


    Most of the time, the monsters didn''t even expect to be attacked... if these monsters were invading our world as the government claimed, why wouldn''t they know that the portal was open and that they could invade us?


    Not to mention that goblins or the low-level monsters that Rank F humans used to train were nowhere near intelligent enough to plan something like this...


    Something about this story didn''t add up.


    Even more so when I thought about how the government actively bought any loot the Players brought back from the dungeons, my mental alert that something was wrong kept beeping...


    Unfortunately, I couldn''t find anything more on this subject, and considering how paranoid my previous world had made me about human governments, I didn''t have the heart to continue delving into it and risk triggering an alert in someone I shouldn''t have.


    Returning my focus to the Supernaturals, the Player classes were based on how cultures around the world used Mana.


    Warriors and Wizards were based on medieval England''s way of applying Mana, which extended to the present day, using Arthur Pendragon and Merlin as examples of paths to follow.


    China used a mixture of the two paths, blending magic with the use of swords to develop Cultivators.


    Unlike the English paths which, despite sometimes extending life itself, there are stories that the most powerful Chinese Supernaturals have lived for millennia, with even ancient emperors thousands of years old sometimes being sighted.


    The downside of this path is that while it guarantees longevity to those who practice it, users have to spend that longevity just practicing, meditating and cultivating for years on end just to climb a small realm, making the process of their evolution extremely slow, but very rewarding for those who succeed.


    North America also has its own path, basing the use of Mana on dances to activate powerful totems.


    This path had a great advantage in terms of the variety of powers, since each totem could have a different effect that the user could use without much knowledge or practice. The shortcoming of this path is that there is no increase in longevity like the other paths, and all the power gained is only granted because of the goodwill of natural spirits.


    The same problem would occur with South America''s way of using magic, since their magic is also based on worshipping spirits and using the blessings that these spirits grant.


    Africa mixes a bit of each point, worshipping some spirits but using ancestry to absorb some of the power of the ancestors to become stronger or acquire powerful characteristics for battle.


    Eastern Europe has an interesting path, performing sacrifices and blood rituals to absorb characteristics from powerful creatures such as Bears, Wolves or Bats, practically changing the species of the practitioners of these arts to Vampires, Werewolves or various other species, of course, also acquiring the disadvantages of these new species.


    The Indians also had their own way, calling Mana ''Prana'' and ''Chakra'', channeling this energy into the body using different postures to achieve different effects.


    There were still several other cultures with unique ways of using magic, but considering that Game Cores were only popular in the US for the time being, my focus had to remain on what was the most popular way of using magic here.


    In addition to Warriors and Mages, my research showed that other sub-classes were developed based on these two.


    For example, unlike European Mages who tried to become good at all aspects of magic before specializing in something.


    In order to achieve notable feats more quickly, Players decided to dedicate themselves to one aspect of magic from the start, creating a differentiation between Mages and Healers.


    Mages focused on learning combat spells exclusively, while Healers focused only on healing spells.


    In this way, each would have a disadvantage in one area, but when they grouped together, one would cover the other''s deficiencies and the group would be able to go much further than they could by dividing their attention.


    Not only were Healers sub-classes of mages, but there were also illusionists, evocators, necromancers...


    The same thing happened with Warriors, with sub-classes of rogues, paladins, archers...


    Seeing this large number of sub-classes made me realize just how deep the Supernaturals were in this world.


    I realized.


    Looking at the list of subclasses and searching for which ones were most popular, I came up with two choices for the next Runestone Heroes.


    The first choice would be a Healer!


    To develop a Healer hero I would use the Priest from the original Runestone as a base, only changing his gender to female, since in this world 80% of Healers are women.


    Their cards would be focused on healing spells with a gameplay style focused on control and sustain, specializing in healing, removing enemy minions and manipulating the field.


    Such a new style of play would certainly get players excited about facing different opponents.


    Not to mention that I was getting excited to see a Healer''s reaction to seeing a style of play that so closely matched how they battled in the real world being able to defeat Mages and Warriors.


    I started laughing just imagining it.


    The other hero chosen would be the Archer!


    To develop the Archer hero, I would have to use the Hunter from the original game as a base, with a more aggressive style of play focused on causing direct damage to the opponent, with less emphasis on prolonged control.


    While the other classes have a greater need to clear the opponent''s minions to win the game, Hunters will have cards focused on ignoring minions and dealing damage directly to the enemy hero, adding even more variety to the game.


    I''ve noticed warriors making decks focused only on putting as many creatures as possible on the board and winning by quantity, letting Hunters deal with them will be a lot of fun.


    Sure, I knew I''d have to pay close attention to how one card would interact with another so that one Hero wouldn''t be much more powerful than another.


    There wouldn''t be a problem and a slight difference in strength, since Players would be unlikely to play with something that isn''t their real-world class, since False Neurological Feedback gives bonuses based on the cards used, and each class will focus on their area of spatialization.


    For example, Warriors are focused on developing brute strength and Mages are focused on maximum Mana.


    Healers will focus on boosting spirit, which would intensify the power of their healing, but also be able to use spell cards that increase maximum Mana.


    Hunters will be focused on cards that increase agility-related muscles, thus directing their growth towards something even better for the future.


    With this specialized growth, I''m sure they won''t want to switch classes constantly.


    Maybe they''ll try other heroes out of curiosity or fun, but most of the time they''ll use their real-life class, or as close to it as possible.


    Fortunately my idea and adding another hero to the new update won''t cost me much more MP than I originally intended.


    Heroes were just cosmetic, apart from their base skill and the unique cards they could use, nothing changed.


    So I only had to develop the artwork for the two heroes and their exclusive spells. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Thinking of getting the Players even more excited, a smile appeared on my face and I opened FrostHaven''s Whisper account and made a post.


    As soon as this post on FrostHaven''s profile was made, a notification was sent to each Player''s Runestone, as well as the Whisper accounts of those who followed the page.


    As I imagined, in just a few minutes the comments on this post were buzzing with curious and excited people


    With some very interesting comments!


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 22 – New Spell!

    The Players'' reactions to the post were more interesting and exaggerated than I had imagined.


    At some point the comments turned into a discussion zone.


    People were fighting over whether Healers would be useful heroes in Runestone, whether Healers were useful in real life, or even whether Healers deserved an equal share with other Players in Dungeons for not putting themselves in as much danger as others.


    Seeing that this was going in a completely different direction, I just laughed and closed the page.


    I thought as I shrugged.


    Opening the fridge in my dorm, I realized that I was almost out of food.


    I would still be living here for a few more days until the testing time was over and the teachers finished evaluating the Players, so I needed enough groceries to last me for at least another week. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Looking at the money I''d earned from the game, I was satisfied and went to the market in front of the campus to buy some groceries.


    Normally I only bought the cheapest and worst quality groceries possible.


    If I wanted to buy everything of the highest quality, my money wouldn''t be enough to pay for anything else until the end of the month, depending only on government assistance payments.


    But now that I had a fat wallet, I was going to buy everything of the highest quality.


    In my other world I didn''t even know how to fry an egg, relying solely on takeaways to get by, or instant noodles, but in this world I didn''t have the luxury of buying restaurant food every day.


    Plus, living in an orphanage, I had to help out in the kitchen from time to time, which taught me basic cooking skills.


    My skills weren''t great, just enough to keep me from starving.


    But since the two memories merged in my mind, my talent for learning to cook has also increased.


    I didn''t become a culinary anime protagonist, but I could think of different types of spices to try and make food taste better.


    Sometimes I destroyed the food, but the times I really improved the taste were greater than the times it went wrong.


    Feeling the flavor of the food improve under my control was a lot of fun, so since I came to this world I''ve been cooking almost all my meals while slowly improving myself.


    Arriving at the grocery store where I used to buy groceries before the two memories merged, I started to pick up the things I normally bought to eat, but with better brands and qualities, as well as letting my creativity pick up a few other things that made me curious too.


    ...'' I thought as I looked at a bottle of seasoning.


    After paying for my groceries and leaving the market, a different group was walking down the street.


    ¡°Dude, I told you I didn''t do this on purpose, please help me fix it!¡± A boy of 18 or 19 wearing metal armor was walking alongside a boy in a cloth tunic while handing him a round wooden shield.


    Sighing, the boy in the mage''s robe spoke as he took the shield. ¡°Bro, I told you I''m still learning this magic, it''s more profitable to pay a real repairman than to let me try to fix it and ruin your shield.¡±


    ¡°I don''t have the money to pay a real repairman...¡± The boy in the armor said embarrassed.


    Surprised, the boy in the mage''s robe asked. ¡°We''ve just come out of a dungeon and won $100 each, where did you spend that money that I didn''t see?!¡±


    Even more embarrassed, the boy in armor scratched the back of his head as he answered. ¡°My credit card bill this month came to over 2k... I''ll need that $100 to pay off the bill, otherwise the interest will eat me alive.¡±


    ¡°You spent almost 2k on your credit card? Are you crazy?¡± The boy in the robe sighed as he looked at the shield and began to control his own mana to repair it.


    To keep their concentration, they both stopped walking, and coincidentally this was right next to me.


    With curiosity I looked at the boy using the magic on the shield and slowly the splinters of damaged wood on the shield were appearing again, so that within 20 seconds the shield had returned to its original appearance.


    ¡°Thanks a lot bro!¡± The boy in the armor said excitedly while looking at the shield in amazement.


    The boy in the mage''s robe was very pale now, looking frustrated at his friend. ¡°Idiot, if you ruin your shield again, at least save the damaged parts, at least I''ll spend less Mana next time.¡±


    But despite being angry, the boy wizard didn''t complain about anything else and the two of them continued talking until they entered a building near where I was standing.


    Seeing such an interesting way of applying magic in the everyday world, I was surprised to realize that this world could have many things different from the other world.


    As magic was known to everyone now, Mages could repair objects with magic, Healers could heal people, Shamans could attract rain to crops... there was that boy talking about a ''Repair Mage'' and it made me realize there were so many business opportunities that didn''t involve raiding dungeons directly.


    Just as Game Creators could give up on getting ahead quickly by taking jobs for Guilds, Players could give up on getting stronger quickly and open businesses in the normal world by selling their service with magic to ordinary people.


    As I walked home, I thought about various things along these lines, until I realized another point.


    '' I thought in surprise.


    I had already thought about the possibility of using the System to teach me advanced spells, but I hadn''t stopped to test the possibility yet.


    Now could be a perfect moment.


    From what the boy wizard said, as long as the original parts of the broken object were still present, the Mana cost to repair it would be reduced.


    After putting away my groceries in my small kitchen, I started looking around my dorm room and found a small, dusty action-figure.


    This was something I''d kept since I was a child, one of the few toys that was exclusively mine at the orphanage, so I''d always kept it as a nice souvenir.


    But because it was one of the only toys I had, it was the toy I had played with the most during my life, so the doll was no longer in perfect condition, or rather, the doll was now completely destroyed.


    The most broken part of the doll was that one of its legs was loose, preventing the doll from standing up.


    Holding the doll and its leg in the palm of my left hand, I placed my right hand on the doll and began to imagine myself using the spell that the boy magician had used on the shield.


    As soon as I started using Mana, my Mana began to accumulate at the tip of my finger, indicating that the spell was working!


    1 MP...


    3 MP...


    5 MP...


    7 MP...


    9 MP!


    [9 Mana Points Stored, do you want to use the Novus Reparus spell].


    '' I replied mentally.


    As soon as I agreed, my Mana started leaking through my fingers and I watched every detail of the process as the doll''s leg returned to its original place and the small piece of plastic that was broken began to regenerate again!


    After a few seconds, the doll in my hand was completely fixed!


    Or rather, the things that I had imagined the spell would fix were fixed, but the parts that were missing paint, or scratches that the doll had suffered while I was playing, remained.


    I didn''t want to fix it, and it was a great way to understand how the spell worked.


    The only bad thing was that the spell was very expensive.


    I think that because I didn''t understand the structure of the spell, the System consumed a lot more Mana than it should have to repair something as small as that piece of plastic.


    I doubt that boy mage had 9 MP available after coming out of a dungeon, not to mention that if the cost of repairing a shield of that size was the same as repairing that piece of plastic, then that boy wouldn''t have enough Mana for that anyway, since I believe that by his age he is still an F Rank Player.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 23 – Invitation

    The spell practice was very fruitful. Although I hadn''t yet learned any combat spells, practicing ''Luminis'' and ''New Reparus'' was helping me a lot to practice my Mana control.


    Improving my Mana control helped me to cast spells more and more accurately, which increased both the quality of each spell, bringing me closer and closer to the perfect execution that the System did, and also helped me to reduce the amount of Mana I spent on spells.


    By being able to control my Mana better, I wasted less Mana every time I did the spell.


    And the best thing was that not only was I saving Mana and getting better at performing these spells, but it would also be useful even for the spells I was yet to learn.


    Getting out of bed the next day and seeing that it was Friday on my cell phone screen, I was curious to see how the game was going, considering that tomorrow would be the last day of the college test.


    It''s not as if I was nervous about whether my game would stand out or not, now it was more a question of ego because I didn''t want my game to be worse than Evans'' game.


    Always opening the college rankings and seeing that my game was below his left a bad taste in my mouth.


    If it had been anyone else I wouldn''t have felt that way, but with the way he always treated me, he was the only one I didn''t want to lose.


    Opening the college rankings I was a little disappointed, still seeing Runestone below his game.


    While Runestone was currently at 1.4k Players online, his game was at 1.7k, a number still slightly distant from mine.


    Considering that it wasn''t even peak time right now.


    The clock showed that it was still 7:13 a.m. When the majority of players logged on, the gap between our two games would widen even further.


    ''I still think Runestone will play his game before tomorrow night. I thought confidently.


    A notification popped up on my cell phone.


    Curious, I saw that it was a message from one of the boys who had been most intimate with me before the merger.


    Although we weren''t considered friends, from time to time we would talk about a movie or something that was interesting to us.


    He wasn''t one of the most talented students either, with his game being among the last pages when I released Runestone.


    I wasn''t expecting this invitation.


    After spending so many days alone, only interacting with Runestone Players, FrostHaven Entertainment followers, or watching streams of Players from my game, I started to get used to being alone.


    And realizing this made me a little worried.


    I''ve heard stories of people who got so used to living alone that they lost the will to interact with other people, isolating themselves at home until they died.


    ...'' I thought worriedly.


    Understanding that I couldn''t let this go on, I quickly typed a reply confirming my presence.


    After finishing the conversation I followed my normal morning routine, putting on the False Neurological Feedback to train my body, making breakfast with a recipe I learned on the internet, reading some of the Players'' comments on social media.


    The portion of breakfast I had to make was getting bigger and bigger, to sustain my body''s development.


    Until I finally sat down in the computer chair and looked at the statistics of how my game had improved from yesterday to today.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |----------------------------------------- S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    | Total Players: 1,833 -> 2,824


    | Online Players: 1.445


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 1.184 -> 1.776


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 5 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 124 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 106 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 104 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Money Stored: $405 -> 660


    Seeing that my stored Mana had passed 100 units I quickly pulled out the Game Core to convert this into more maximum MP for me, increasing my total Mana to 70.5 MP!


    I was pleased with the increase in the number of Total Players and the average number of Players, which had gone up a lot the previous day, but what really surprised me was the money the game made me from yesterday to today.


    In just one day, Players played a little over 42.6k hours of Runestone, which calculating on the basis of $6 per thousand hours, the game earned me $255 in one day!


    One day for the game to spend the amount I received in a month of government aid!


    ¡° I thought excitedly.


    I didn''t even have anything to spend so much money on, but for someone from a poor background, seeing the numbers rise was very satisfying.


    My routine for the rest of the day was also normal, developing the cards in Runestone and taking advantage of the remaining Mana to add a few more small details to the game.


    After sorting out my duties as Game Creator and having a hearty lunch, I meditated and refrained from practicing my magic.


    That''s what I thought to decide.


    Then I went to take a shower.


    When I took off my clothes, out of curiosity I took a closer look in the mirror.


    My appearance in both worlds was the same, so I wasn''t surprised to see my naked body, after all this is the body I''ve had since I was born in both lives.


    Or rather, the body I was looking at was on the way to the body I had always wanted in both lives...


    Leaving the Neurological False Feedback running the whole time I was awake meant that my body was constantly thinking I needed more strength, stimulating my muscles to develop non-stop, completely burning off any fat I had and making a colossal hunger arise.


    All my meals had to double in size, even with me increasing the meat I ate a little more and adding some eggs to my diet, as protein was the best fuel for muscle development.


    And this increase in diet was paying off.


    The stimulus during the 16 hours I was awake made my muscles develop extremely quickly, even if half of that stimulus was spent on my Mana.


    ...'' I thought in surprise as I shifted position to get a better look.


    Fortunately, I could control how my body would develop through Neurological False Feedback.


    Not wanting a body focused exclusively on strength and natural growth, my body wasn''t becoming the gigantic shape of bodybuilders, but adopting a more compact and agile form of swimmers, which in my opinion is the aesthetic I was looking for.


    Although it seemed that I was getting very strong, this was only in comparison with normal people, Supernaturals were actually superior in terms of strength.


    Peak F Rank players already had strength above the human limit, with E Rank players completely passing that limit and reaching a truly Supernatural level of strength.


    I was still far from the power level of a Peak F Rank, but compared to normal people I was already getting above average.


    ''Mana really is magic...''


    Taking a shower and putting on a nice outfit, I withdrew an extra $200 to spend tonight, on top of the $50 I had withdrawn to do the house shopping yesterday.


    I have no idea how much things cost in the nightclubs of this world, but even if it is very expensive, I didn''t intend to spend more than $200.


    I was already prepared to spend the total amount of aid I received in a month on one night, which was already a lot, I didn''t need to go overboard and spend more than I could afford.


    My black hair was a little longer than when I came to this world, with my fringe slightly covering my eye.


    With the experience of two worlds in how to fix this hair, in a few minutes I had it done, using a black bandana with green to lift my fringe just a few centimeters, I grabbed my sweatshirt and left the house in the direction of the location Jake had sent me.


    Fortunately, the place was close enough to walk to and from, so I wouldn''t even have to spend money on a taxi!


    Walking calmly through the night, I was curious what the interactions with people would be like.


    As I didn''t look at the rank below my game, I really had no idea how their games were going.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 24 – Gossip

    Arriving at the Club, the place wasn''t very busy yet.


    Looking at the clock and seeing that it was still 7:40 p.m., that made sense; from what I knew of the other world, this kind of place got more crowded the later it got.


    Arriving at the door, I paid the $10 entrance fee and started looking for the college staff.


    With the Club emptier, it wasn''t difficult to find the large group with faces I recognized.


    Searching a little, I managed to find Jake, who was standing a little away from the main group while talking to another boy.


    Going over to them, even though they looked at me for a few seconds, it took them a while to recognize me, and it was only when I got next to them that they were sure who I was.


    ¡°Theo? Theo Brooks?¡± Jake asked shocked as he looked me up and down.


    ¡°Bro, is that you?!¡± Another boy in the group, Josh also asked in shock.


    While Jake was very thin and tall, Josh was short and fat, making the two the opposite of each other.


    ¡°Yeah, don''t you recognize me?¡± I asked with a slightly proud smile.


    Even as I asked, I knew why they didn''t recognize me.


    Not only did the old me never dress up for anything, dressing poorly everywhere he went and with messy hair, whereas I was now wearing new clothes, which, although they weren''t designer clothes, were still much better than the clothes I''d worn before.


    As with the clothes I was wearing, you could see the muscles forming on my body, which greatly improved my aesthetics.


    ¡°Bro, how did you get... like that?¡± Josh asked without knowing how to refer to my change.


    Before I could answer, Jake, who knew his friend, knew exactly what he was talking about.


    Josh''s weight had always been an insecurity of his, and seeing me with muscles that had developed so much since we last saw each other was proof that I had found a way to achieve it quickly!


    ¡°Don''t you remember why his game became popular?¡± Jake asked with a laugh. ¡°I just didn''t know that using Neurological False Feedback to develop physically could cause such a huge boost aesthetically...¡±


    ¡°Oh my God, were those muscles developed just by playing your game? Without the effort of physical exercises and gymnastics?!¡± Josh asked in shock, almost shouting.


    Smiling, I nodded. ¡°Yeah, since the people who used False Neurological Feedback before my game were only very high-ranking Players, Players who already had muscular bodies, the improvement they received because of this technology wasn''t very noticeable aesthetically, but for those of us who didn''t have a lot of strength in our bodies, it can work wonders with enough time.¡±


    Hearing my explanation, Josh''s eyes began to shine.


    '' I laughed mentally, imagining that this was very possible.


    Even Jake was looking at me with interest. Considering how skinny he was, any muscle development would do his aesthetics a lot of good.


    Stepping closer to me and speaking in a low voice, Josh asked me a slightly embarrassed question. ¡°Do you think that if I played your game I could lose weight?¡±


    I didn''t even have to think before answering. ¡°Sure, by my calculations, an hour playing Runestone with the Warrior Hero is the same as an hour training in a gym, given enough time it''s impossible for you not to lose weight.¡±


    At my confirmation, Josh smiled excitedly as he brushed a hand over my shoulder and spoke out loud. ¡°Okay, playing Warrior Hero, I''ll remember that! Tonight, your first drink will be on me, Theo!¡±


    I was surprised by this, but I didn''t deny it. If he was so pleased about it, why not just enjoy it and let him treat me?


    Hearing Josh talking loudly, other students looked in his direction and saw us.


    Unlike Theo and Josh, who only took a few seconds to recognize me, since they had more contact with me in college, the other students had an even harder time, with some not even recognizing me.


    Surprisingly, the only student who recognized me instantly was Tyler Evans, who, as soon as he saw me, had a grim expression on his face.


    '' I thought, finding the situation funny.


    Fortunately, he stayed with his group of friends while I stayed with Jake and Josh occasionally interacted with other students.


    When the drink Josh had offered to buy me arrived, I slowly took a sip of it and felt my throat burning.


    '' I realized the problem.


    In my other world I was already very resistant to alcohol, often going to parties with friends, or even drinking whiskey alone while playing a game, which was therapeutic after a day''s work, which slowly increased my resistance to the point where I needed a lot of alcohol to actually get drunk.


    Everything I drank went down like a very sweet juice, but in this world, feeling the burning in my throat and remembering that I had never had a drop of alcohol, I knew it would be dangerous to drink like I was used to.


    ...'' I thought, a little disappointed.


    But I had to do it, it was out of the question to drink enough to lose control of myself.


    If I was at home it wouldn''t be a problem, but doing it in a place with so many people is looking for trouble.


    Thinking about the $200 I''d brought to spend and realizing that I wouldn''t have much to spend it on, I decided to get a menu and look at what snacks they served here.


    I thought as I shrugged and looked at the menu.


    While I was choosing my food, an interesting song started playing and Jake looked at a girl he was interested in, plucking up the courage to ask her to dance.


    Luckily for him, the group of girls she was with started coming towards us.


    I was still focused on the menu looking for something to eat, when a female voice came from beside me.


    ¡°Hey Brooks, you''ve changed huh, is that the power of making a successful game?¡±


    Lifting my eyes from the menu I saw one of the girls who had asked me for tips on her game last week, Regina Gill, better known as Gina.


    She was a pretty girl, blonde, tall, blue-eyed, well-developed body, too bad I didn''t have much interest in romance.


    I think being alone for so many years, rather than making me desperate for a woman, made me realize how self-sufficient I was without them.


    But I still knew how to enjoy good-looking company, it''s not like I was a misogynist.


    ¡°I guess so? Maybe the combo of everything, making a successful game, realizing the potential within me, improving my appearance, all of that together has to change you somehow.¡± I replied, smiling as I shrugged at her.


    Gina was surprised for a few seconds by me openly admitting this, before laughing.


    ¡°Really? It seems your self-confidence has increased more than I imagined.¡± She commented as she came a little closer to me to look at the menu with me. ¡°Are you looking for something to drink?¡±


    ¡°Not really, I don''t have much resistance to drink, so I''m looking for something to eat to make up for the fact that I''m not going to drink much.¡± I laughed as I pointed to the snacks I intended to choose.


    She was surprised again at me openly admitting this. ¡°Really? But you won''t think it''s bad to keep up with us having only had one drink?¡±


    ¡°My stamina is so low that it''s likely that this one glass I''m going to drink will drive me crazier than five glasses you''re going to drink, so really I''m just being economical.¡± I shook my head in denial.


    ¡°That makes sense... but who told you that I''m 5x tougher than you?¡± she asked, feigning suspicion.


    ¡°Ohh, although I know you often go out to places like that with the rest of the gang, that comment wasn''t meant to say that you''re used to drinking a lot, but to show how weak my resistance to drink is.¡± I said in a soothing way, but still maintaining confidence.


    Regina was pretty and pleasant to talk to, which obviously led to her becoming the most popular girl in our class, and this combined with the fact that we lived alone and she was over 21 only led to the result that she was always invited to any kind of party that anyone in our class went to.


    Hearing my answer, Regina looked at me suspiciously for a few seconds before letting it go and changing the subject.


    ¡°Since you don''t want to drink, there''s nothing I can do about it, but I also want to thank you for the tips you gave me for my game last week. I was averaging 130 Players and falling, until I implemented some of the tips you gave, including the fact that the more monsters the Players killed, the more their weapons would evolve, and that worked wonders for my game, now I have a total of 250 Players online on average per day!¡± She said proudly.


    Hearing that, I was pleasantly surprised. ¡°Really?! Congratulations! Do you know if the others also used the tips I gave them? I just followed how my game was going, not paying much attention to other people''s games.¡±


    Gina thought about my question for a moment before answering quietly. ¡°Some colleagues adopted your tips on the first day and their games started to grow rapidly, like mine, while others were still skeptical about what you said, acting arrogant because they were above you in the college rankings, but after your game passed them by, everyone quickly went to look up which of the tips they could apply to their games, with some even shamelessly forgetting the tips and coming to ask me which tips I remembered.¡±


    After saying this, Gina rolled her eyes and nodded to a group of students standing a little away from us.


    Following her gaze, I noticed a group of several guys around Tyler, making me understand the reason for their arrogance.


    And Tyler, who had only been frowning before, was now staring at me as if he was going to attack me at any moment when he saw Gina talking to me in such close proximity.


    And to make matters worse, Gina came even closer to speak in a low voice. ¡°And from what I heard, seeing your game getting so close to his, Tyler also asked around about the tips you gave him and finished implementing them today, trying to get as many Players as possible so as not to lose first place to you.¡±


    Hearing this I found the situation even more interesting.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day ! sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 25 – Deadly Look

    Although I didn''t drink as much as the other students, I still managed to have a lot of fun as the party went on.


    While Jake was trying to win over the girl he liked, Josh and I stood around watching and commenting on how Jake was acting, joking about it a lot.


    The more everyone drank, the looser they became.


    Not only did Jake pluck up the courage to talk to the girl he liked, but other dudes were brave enough to try dancing with the girls they were into.


    Some were successful, others not so much.


    Gina chatted with me for a while before going back to her group of friends, but occasionally she would break away from the large group of girls to come and chat with Josh and me.


    He was surprised that Gina was spending so much time with us, even with some of her friends coming over from time to time and talking to us.


    Even I was a little surprised by this, after all, although I wasn''t a social outcast in my previous world, hooking up with a few girls whenever I felt like it, I was also never the guy who drew so much attention that girls orbited around me.


    But come to think of it, in this world I was giving them reason to.


    Not only was I much better looking than I had ever been in my other world, but now I was much more confident than when I was younger in the other world, having enough confidence to treat a girl as an equal, instead of just putting them on pedestals like the other dudes, plus the biggest card I had, success.


    Despite my good looks, I was never very successful at anything in my other world, whereas in this world I was showing great potential in the highest-potential career the world currently had.


    Being a Game Creator in this world was the equivalent of being a Football or Basketball player in the other world, so my rapid rise through the school ranks showed everyone that I had the potential to be a ''star''.


    Sure, I wasn''t going to deny this attention, but I wasn''t going to let it go to my head either.


    After two hours at the club, the dance floor was getting crowded and the DJ who was playing had a really good playlist, so even though I was away from the dance floor, I was still moving around to the beat of the music.


    I noticed that by showing this interest I attracted the attention of a few girls, who looked at me as if to show that they were available for me to ask them to dance.


    But despite moving from side to side to the beat of the music, that was the limit of my dancing talent...


    At least for dancing to electronic music.


    I always found videos of people who could dance to this kind of music, doing all those cool dance moves, amazing, but when I tried to repeat something like that in the other world it was a complete disaster, making me realize that I should just keep moving from side to side.


    Staring at the empty glass in my hand and realizing that I was already getting drunk, I wondered whether to buy another drink or opt for a non-alcoholic option this time, when a voice interrupted my thoughts.


    ¡°Hey Theo, are you just going to stay here on your own instead of going to the dance floor to enjoy the music?¡± Gina came up, pointing to the dance floor where Jake was dancing with the girl he called and Josh was doing some weird dance moves while everyone laughed around.


    Seeing Josh''s dance moves made me want to go to the dance floor slightly, but the music that was playing was really good.


    ¡°I don''t know, I''m a disaster at dancing...¡± I admitted as I scratched the back of my head.


    Laughing, Gina said nothing more and took my hand, dragging me onto the dance floor.


    Considering my larger body and the recent strength I''ve developed, if neither of us used Mana I could resist if I wanted to, but I guess I was also in the mood to dance, so I let her drag me onto the dance floor. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Once there, Gina began to dance slowly and gradually picked up the pace, as if she wanted to show me how to do it.


    Watching her intently, I began to try to imitate the movements she was making.


    At first this was quite difficult, but perhaps because of the training my body was receiving from False Neurological Feedback I was managing to repeat it better than I had imagined.


    Watching me slowly reach the level she was showing, Gina continued to increase the level of her dancing, posing a bit of a challenge for me, but as time went by it became easier and my body adapted.


    '' I tried to find an answer as to why my dancing talent was so much better than in the other world.


    I didn''t become the next MJ, but at least I wasn''t embarrassing myself like in the other world.


    The music was so loud that you couldn''t talk on the dance floor, so I just focused on dancing, copying Gina''s dance moves and enjoying the moment.


    I have to admit, at times I found myself looking more than I should have at certain parts of Gina''s body as I learned to dance with her, and from the smile on her face and her dancing becoming even more provocative as time went on, I think she noticed it too.


    When the music changed to something slower, Gina came closer to me while I put my hand around her waist and at some point our lips touched.


    A few more kisses took place while we danced, but after the music changed back to something more upbeat, we went back to dancing as before until I got tired and left the dance floor.


    Jake and Josh were no longer dancing either and were sitting in the place we had reserved, ¡°talking¡±.


    There was no real conversation going on there, as it was just Josh chattering about how great he''d been dancing and Jake staring endlessly at where the girl he''d been dancing with was.


    Fortunately she was also looking at him a little shyly, which was a good sign for him.


    Sitting down next to them, Josh was the first to notice me.


    ¡°Hey Theo, who knew you could win Gina over?! I even saw you kissing bro!¡± He said excitedly.


    Laughing at that, I just shrugged as I replied. ¡°I don''t know, it just happened.¡±


    ¡°Are you guys going to date?¡± Josh asked as he looked at Gina who had rejoined her group of friends, glancing from time to time at where we were.


    ¡°Nah, we practically met today and I don''t even know how many guys she''s kissed on dance floors, I only kissed her because I felt like it, but I don''t intend anything to happen beyond that.¡± I replied calmly.


    Josh was shocked to hear me say that I didn''t want anything more than the kisses that happened, as if it was absurd that I didn''t want to share a bed with Gina, or even try to tie her to me.


    But that was natural for me.


    I''ve kissed a lot of girls in the other world, but few of them were the ones I shared my bed with.


    For me, this kind of act was exclusive to someone I felt some kind of real connection with, something I clearly didn''t feel for Gina after talking to her only a few times.


    Maybe if we were closer and had more contact that would change, but we wouldn''t even have that opportunity since tomorrow will be our last official day as university students.


    ¡°Even if you don''t want to do anything other than what you''ve already done with Gina today, someone wasn''t very happy with what they saw on the dance floor...¡± Josh said as he pointed in a direction with a slight nod.


    Looking in the direction he pointed I saw Tyler staring at me like eyes could kill.


    ¡°Does he like Gina?¡± I asked curiously.


    Not knowing much of the gossip and relationships that happened in college before my merger, I was curious.


    ¡°Does he like Gina? He''s done everything for her and she''s never paid much attention to him... as far as I know, Gina only likes older guys, which is why seeing her kiss you was such a surprise to everyone.¡± Josh explained.


    Hearing this I felt it made a bit of sense, adding up my two lives and the accumulated experience I''ve had, my current maturity is probably greater than that of all the dudes my age, so for someone who likes older men, I must fit Gina''s taste.


    But looking at Tyler and seeing how angry he was, I felt that this night wasn''t going to be as simple as just drinking and walking away happy.


    ''Considering that Tyler was physically and magically gifted, while I, despite having improved my physique, am still smaller than Tyler, and everyone knew how little magically gifted I was, it''s quite likely that Tyler would try to take advantage of this to get revenge...''


    To deal with this I would have to take advantage of my hidden ''talent''...


    Picking up my cell phone and researching magical battle tactics, ways for mages to deal with enemies on their own, Rank F and Rank E spells, I started trying to understand as much as possible.


    If I were a normal person trying to do this, it would just be a waste of time.


    It''s impossible for an ordinary supernatural to learn something just by searching for a few minutes on the internet for a cell phone, even more so without being able to practice these things, but I''m not an ordinary supernatural...


    As long as I see the spell, I''ll be able to replicate it with perfect precision.


    My concentration on understanding these spells is because I wanted to try and reduce the Mana cost as much as possible.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 26 – Confrontation

    While searching for simple spells that didn''t consume too much mana, I found a mana spell that could work perfectly for me.


    As a guarantee, I found other spells that could be useful as a last resort, but the main idea already satisfied me.


    After confirming that I had learned it and tested the new magic on a small scale in a secluded corner of the nightclub, I rejoined the group and continued partying, but this time without drinking another drop of alcohol.


    Knowing that something could happen, it would be stupid to keep drinking.


    From time to time I looked at Evans and confirmed that he was still drinking, but he still glared at me from time to time.


    Realizing that he wouldn''t do anything inside the club, I went back to dancing and partying with my colleagues.


    Other people approached me after a while, some boys wanting to chat, some girls wanting to dance.


    It wasn''t until 2:40 in the morning that I felt I''d had enough fun and said goodbye to the people closest to me before leaving.


    ¡°Do you want... me to go with you?¡± Jake asked completely drunk as he nodded not a little subtly in the direction where Evans was with his friends.


    I thought as I shook my head at him with a smile.


    ¡°Don''t worry, I''ll be fine.¡± I said as I left.


    Josh was already passed out on one of the sofas in the area we were in. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    When I said goodbye to Gina she gave me one last kiss before winking at me with one eye and trying to convince me not to leave, but I just returned the kiss before walking away under her frustrated gaze.


    When I paid the bill for my consumption, I was surprised to spend $130 just on the snacks I ordered and the juices and soft drinks I had.


    I shook my head, realizing how expensive nightlife was in this city.


    When I left the bar, the first thing I did was look around and find a place with adequate lighting.


    The place couldn''t be too dark or too bright for what I was intending to do.


    As soon as I found a suitable spot, I heard the loud music from the nightclub increase, meaning that someone had opened the door, and the door stayed open longer than necessary for just one person to leave.


    Without looking back, I continued walking to the place I had found. I began to hear footsteps coming towards me, footsteps that were speeding up, as if they were trying to catch up with me.


    I also accelerated a little and got into the ideal position I needed.


    At that moment I was in an alley in front of the parking lot. One of the light bulbs that was supposed to illuminate the alley was burnt out and the one that worked had fallen to the ground, causing the light to come from below.


    Normally I would avoid a place like this, but now this was the place for me.


    Looking back, I saw exactly who I was expecting to meet.


    Tyler and his three minions walking quickly towards me.


    When they saw that I had stopped and turned towards them, they slowed down and looked at me cautiously.


    ¡°Hey Brooks, did you have fun tonight? We... didn''t even get to talk properly.¡± Evans said with a fake smile as he lost his breath in mid-speech from having to walk fast towards me and from how much he''d had to drink.


    ¡°Ohh, you wanted to talk to me, Evans? It didn''t look that way to me with you staring at me with that ass face the whole party.¡± I replied fearlessly.


    Hearing what I said, Evans changed his smile from something that feigned sympathy to an evil grin.


    ¡°Too bad Brooks, if you knew how to act I could ease up on what I intend to do to you, but since you can''t keep your dick out of your ass, I''m going to have to help you get it out...¡± He said as he slowly began to approach me.


    Still unafraid, I let out a slight laugh and asked, ¡°And you''re counting on your three minions to help you in the fight?¡±


    This made the other three boys even angrier with me, but Evans didn''t notice and replied. ¡°I don''t need them to deal with you. Don''t think that just because you''ve gained some muscles now you''re somebody, Brooks, to me you''re still the same fragile kid I knew.¡±


    Hearing Evans agree with me calling them minions, the three boys looked at Evans a little angrily, but did nothing to contradict him.


    ¡°Ohh, and you think I''m going to fight you alone?¡± I asked with a mocking smile and stood in a defiant position, both hands behind my back as if I expected him to do something to me.


    As soon as I said this, the sound of footsteps began to emerge from the alley behind me, and several shadows also appeared.


    Some carrying swords, others carrying sticks, but the one that stood out the most was one that seemed to be holding a pistol.


    Evans was surprised to see this, not having imagined this turn of events.


    Seeing that he didn''t know how to react, I added fuel to the fire. ¡°You know I came from an orphanage, right? And at the orphanage we had no way of getting money, so some older boys formed a gang to protect the younger ones and get some money for the older ones.¡±


    Looking him up and down, I asked a question. ¡°You said you were very strong and all that, but is your skin already so tough that knife, sword or bullet cuts can''t hurt you?¡±


    Hearing this question and looking at the approaching shadows, Evans swallowed dryly as he mentally cursed me.


    ¡°Shit, he''s even got a bandana on his head dude, this fucker must really be part of a gang!¡± One of Evans'' minions said.


    This kid was one of the rich kids from college, having never gone near anything so dangerous or illegal, he made the dumbest assumption I could imagine anyone would make, but I didn''t deny it and just smiled at him.


    When he saw my smile in his direction, with the help of all the alcohol he''d drunk and how scary those shadows looked, he didn''t think twice and turned and ran.


    Seeing the first minion running away, the other two who were already a little angry with Evans also turned and ran away screaming.


    ¡°Fuck, I''m not taking part in this shit!¡±


    Evans saw that he was alone and didn''t think twice before turning and running away too.


    I just looked at them running away and sighed as I brought my right hand from behind my back to in front of my face.


    Looking at my fingertips glowing blue for a few moments, I quickly stopped the supply of Mana and the shadows disappeared like magic.


    That was the spell I found on the internet, shadow-based illusions.


    Very useful in dark places but completely useless in bright environments.


    I thought as I shrugged and headed home.


    On the way I passed the 24-hour grocery store where I did my shopping and paid $30 for a bottle of Jack Daniels before heading home.


    Seeing Evans and his minions running around in fear was worth a celebration.


    After arriving home and taking the first sip I felt the intoxication hit almost immediately.


    Thinking about how satisfying the night had been, dancing with a beautiful girl, talking to cool dudes and enjoying good music, I realized that I had to change my lifestyle in this world.


    Not that I was going to become a nightclub freak, but I at least had to enjoy my life more.


    Use the money the games earned me to live in a nice house, buy the sports cars I''ve always liked, travel.


    I thought as I took another sip of the whiskey.


    Just that one glass was enough to make me dizzy, so after finishing it I went to sleep.


    Thinking that Evans had tried some drastic measures to try and stop me from passing him in the College Rankings, I started to think of ideas I could implement in the game to prevent him from succeeding.


    If he thinks the tactics he''s learned from me will be useful in trying to stop me passing him, I''ll show him what really useful tactics other games constantly use in the other world to compete with competitors on important dates.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 27 – Limited Event!

    When I woke up, I was glad that I didn''t have a hangover.


    '' I thought excitedly as I realized this truth.


    If this were only based on the strength limits of normal people, this statement might not be true, but when the body passes the limit of normal human beings, the limitations of normal humans are also left behind, and fortunately hangovers are one of them.


    '' I thought as I wondered how many new Players had sent out invitations to friends.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 3,671


    | Players Online: 1,878


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 2,308


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 5 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 162 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 138 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 104 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    Looking at the statistics, a big smile appeared on my face.


    I thought excitedly.


    Curious, I also opened the college rankings to see how the games were doing.


    While Runestone was doing very well, with great growth, I think Evans has already applied the updates to his game to try to beat me, since his average Players today is much higher than yesterday.


    The numbers showed Runestone with 1,878 players online in second place on the list, which if it had been yesterday, would have been enough to pass Evans'' game which had only 1.7k at that time, but today his game had an incredible 2k Players online...


    For normal Game Creators that number was already more than enough to earn the maximum 2 MP that an F Rank game could grant, but as we were in a competition, he was doing more than he normally would so I wouldn''t take first place from him.


    But I wouldn''t leave it at that.


    Even though I believed that Runestone''s natural growth during the day might be enough to increase my number of Players enough to pass his game, I preferred not to risk it.


    So I had an idea to implement in the game today and convince people to stay in Runestone as long as possible.


    Since some Runestone Players were also Players who used Evans'' game to train their knife-throwing skills, I decided to use something to get Players to leave his game and come to Runestone.


    A weapon so powerful in the other world that Players began to hate it when they found out how it worked.


    FOMO...


    Or better described as Fear Of Missing Out, an unscrupulous tactic but one that if used correctly would be a powerful weapon for me in this Rank.


    And my way of using FOMO in the game would be an event where only today''s Players could get exclusive cards in the game.


    Of course, to make this event work and be the most immersive and fun for the Players, I would need to think of a story for it.


    As well as spending a lot of mana to make some exclusive cards for the event.


    Considering the cost of the cards at 13 MP each, I could make a maximum of 15 cards today if I gave up absorbing 100 MP from the Game Core to increase my maximum MP.


    The Game Core currently had 162 MP stored and I would need all of that, plus my 70 MP to develop the cards and program the way the event will work. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Even if I had to give up on increasing my maximum MP today, the publicity and prestige that Runestone would get from coming first as the work of a University graduate was very important, so I didn''t hesitate and entered Game Core with my conscience.


    The first thing I did was develop 15 cards with an ancient magic theme for the game.


    Just to develop these cards, 195 MP were quickly spent, leaving me with only 37 MP to develop the rest.


    '' I was relieved.


    Using the aesthetics of a Battle Pass, I spread out the 15 cards I had developed as the basic prizes for this, with the last prize being a small decoration for the Player to place on their board.


    This decoration could be seen by other Players and unlike the cards that could be won again in the future, this decoration was limited to those who completed this event today.


    As the decoration was small, the MP cost of it was so low that it didn''t affect me developing the rest of the event.


    A portion of the MP also had to be spent on developing artwork to use both in-game and for promotion outside the game, after all, my tactic was to notify my Players who were in Evans'' game and convince them to come to Runestone.


    I started developing all of this at 07:20 in the morning, and by dedicating myself as much as possible to getting the most out of my System, all of these systems, even down to the user interface, were ready by 09:00!


    One hour and forty minutes of development, 230 MP spent and a lot of reuse of resources to save MP, the event was finally ready.


    Without wasting any more time, since time was of the essence today, I quickly put the Live event into the game and went to Whisper and FrostHaven Entertainment''s other social networks to spread the word.


    The company''s accounts were reaching 1k followers, so enough players could receive notifications about it.


    After writing and publishing this announcement, I remembered something and opened the streaming site, looking for Owen''s stream.


    Seeing that he wasn''t online, I sent him a message with the FrostHaven Entertainment account asking for his cooperation in publicizing today''s event and offering him a promise of a future reward.


    I still had no idea what this future reward might be, but with time and calm I could think of something prestigious and satisfying to give him in-game that wouldn''t cost me too much.


    When I finished all this preparation and looked at the game''s rankings, curious to see how it was going, I saw that the numbers had already started to rise.


    The speed wasn''t blazing, since a lot of people were probably asleep or working right now, but the amount of Players online in Runestone was slowly catching up with Evans'' game, and that was a good sign for me.


    - Natalie POV -


    I had stayed up late last night playing Runestone after I got back from the dungeon I raided, so as today was Saturday, my plans for it were to just sleep late without worrying about the time.


    But my plans were thwarted when my mother rudely opened my bedroom door to call me.


    ¡°Natt, wake up!¡± She said excitedly.


    Startled by the sudden noise, I quickly stood up and pointed my hand forward ready to cast a spell.


    Seeing that my target was my mother, I was confused and stared at her for a few seconds.


    She was also surprised by my reaction and the two of us just stared at each other for a moment.


    ¡°What''s going on?¡± I asked, annoyed at having my sleep interrupted.


    A little embarrassed by what she had done, my mother laughed as she disguised her shame and explained.


    ¡°Natt, FrostHaven just posted on Whisper that a group of magical ruins explorers have just arrived at the Runestone tavern and that they''ve put up a quest board for other explorers to help them find ancient letters!¡± My mother said as she got more and more excited.


    Listening to what she said, I could understand every word that came out of her mouth, but for some reason the combination of these words wasn''t making any sense to me...


    Seeing my confusion, my mother gave up trying to explain and just handed me her cell phone.


    It''s worth mentioning that my mother''s plans to go back to her house were postponed after she started using my Player Core to play Runestone and especially after she started noticing the physical improvements she was getting from spending Mana there.


    She said she wanted to stay to look after me, but I knew her goal was to stay to share my Player Core with her.


    As I only played for an average of 6 to 8 hours a day, since I didn''t have that much Mana available, I let her play as much as she wanted beyond that time.


    She only had 4 MP to use for the day, so it was only 4 hours a day, but she loved it.


    Picking up her cell phone and looking at FrostHaven''s post with curiosity, I was surprised by what I was reading.


    Reading this notice, my eyes widened.


    I''d never seen an event like this before...


    Until now, the only way we''d guessed that the game would add cards would be in the next major update, but who would have thought that an event like this would come along?!


    The post had an image of the 15 cards we could redeem as a reward, but no details of the effects of these cards, apart from an image of the beautiful artifact we would receive!


    As soon as I saw this, my collector aspect started to bubble up and I quickly looked at my excited mother.


    ¡°Let''s play!¡± I said as I got out of bed, completely forgetting how sleepy I was feeling.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 28 – Eager to Play!

    - Nathan POV -


    '' I thought as I looked at Whisper and saw people posting screenshots of the new cards they were getting in Runestone at the event that started today.


    In the week that the group took off after our fat harvest on Monday, I spent my days entirely playing Runestone.


    From the Monday after I got back from the dungeon until yesterday, Friday, the only thing I did apart from eat and sleep was play.


    Yesterday my team leader sent a message to everyone inviting us to have lunch together at a restaurant she knew.


    As I had nothing to do and could play Runestone when I got home, I didn''t see a problem with it and accepted the invitation.


    The rest of the group also accepted the invitation to come along, but while I looked like a crackhead with withdrawal from the game after seeing FrostHaven Entertainment''s publication on Whisper, my companions looked like normal people.


    I thought in frustration.


    ¡°So when my dad saw the money in my account, the first thing he did was hand me the electricity bill to pay...¡± One of my companions said in frustration, making the rest of the group laugh at his story.


    So that I wouldn''t look weird, I laughed lightly too, but my mind was still in the game...


    Being as perceptive as she was, the captain noticed something strange about me right from the start.


    I even tried to cover it up, but apparently my laughter was all it took for her to ask curiously.


    ¡°Nathan, did something happen? You''ve seemed nervous ever since you received a message... if you need any help, you can count on us.¡± She said gently.


    That''s why she became our captain.


    Being as perceptive and kind as everyone else in the group, no one objected to letting her lead us through the dungeons, as she always took everyone''s point of view, not letting anyone get ahead of themselves or have an advantage over someone else.


    ¡°It''s nothing...¡± I explained, not wanting to worry anyone. ¡°Nothing bad happened, don''t worry.¡±


    But hearing my explanation only made them more worried or curious.


    ¡°Really? You seem worried about something, Nathan, even if you don''t want to tell us, know that if you need anything you can count on us, okay?¡± She reaffirmed with the same gentle smile.


    Seeing her so worried like that made me feel bad, I didn''t want her to worry about me for nothing, but I also felt ashamed to be like that just because of a game.


    The problem was that I was too excited to try and use the new cards that had been released in the game...


    Deciding that honesty was the best option, I explained.


    ¡°It''s true that nothing bad has happened, in fact what''s happening is something good, and I''m so excited to try it out that I can''t get it out of my mind.¡± I admitted.


    Hearing that it was something good that was happening, their concern changed to curiosity.


    ¡°What could be so good that you''re acting like this? Are you going to change bikes?¡± One of the companions laughed, prompting laughter from the others.


    Everyone knows how much I like motorcycles, so it''s understandable that they think that might be it.


    Laughing, I shook my head in denial and continued to explain. ¡°This week that we took off I found a really fun game. Somehow the Game Creator made an evolved poker game that''s a lot of fun to play and uses False Neurological Feedback to enhance your body as you play, just like those high-ranking games.¡±


    Listening to my explanation, everyone was shocked.


    ¡°So you spent the whole week off training? Gee Nathan, I''m surprised at you!¡±


    ¡°And you''re acting like this because you want to go home and train even more?! What kind of dedication is that? Why haven''t you told us about such a good game so far? If there''s a fun game to get stronger, I''d love to play it.¡± The captain said gently, acting as if she was hurt.


    Hearing that, I quickly denied it. ¡°The game''s improvement isn''t that great, after all the game is only F Rank, I started playing it just for fun, but I''m playing this game so much that it''s having the same effect as playing E Rank games on my training... That''s why I didn''t tell you before.¡±


    This made them doubt. ¡°If you''re getting the same result as training in E Rank games while playing an F Rank game... are you playing it for more than 14 hours a day?¡±


    ¡°I''m playing 16 hours a day to be precise...¡± I said embarrassed.


    This surprised everyone.


    ¡°If you''ve been playing this game for so long, even I''m curious to try it out, why don''t you send us the link?¡± She suggested.


    Another member commented. ¡°Yes, I also want to see what this game looks like now.¡±


    Someone else also said. ¡°Me too, I wish I had the will to play for 16 hours a day... just having to train my daily quota of 6 hours exhausts me...¡±


    Seeing their curiosity, I nodded and sent the link to everyone on my cell phone. ¡°This is the game, I''m going to send you my friend invitation code, when the game asks if you have a code, please enter my code, it will reward me for inviting you.¡±


    Hearing that the game had such unique mechanics piqued their interest even more.


    From that point on, the meeting revolved around the game, with them looking at their cell phones to see videos of the game, images of it, while I explained what I knew and gave them tips for when they were going to play.


    Having understood how the game worked, everyone was so curious to try it out that we soon said goodbye and went home.


    I sped up my bike like never before, parking it in the garage of my apartment and rushing home.


    When I finally got home I opened my safe and took out my Player Core, and immediately connected to the Runestone.


    As soon as my consciousness was in the in-game tavern, I looked around and saw that there really was a quest board for the game!


    Each mission was related to something that could be done during a game, which gave the game an objective beyond defeating the opponent, making me even more excited to play.


    Looking below the missions, there was a progress line showing the rewards I could redeem with the points.


    If it had been when I had just started playing, I might still have been a little confused about how this worked, but seeing how similar this progress line was to how the rewards for inviting friends worked, it was easy to understand.


    ...'' I thought as I looked at the board.


    Unfortunately, the cards I could receive as rewards were dark with a ¡°?¡± icon in front of them, indicating that I couldn''t know which card I''d get until I actually won it, but I remembered some cards I''d seen in Whisper and knew more or less what the first cards I''d receive would be.


    Seeing these cards I realized a problem: ''Boy, are the players in the Ranked Matches already using the new cards! I can''t fall behind, I have to get these cards too so I don''t get weaker than them and fall down the rankings!''


    With that in mind, I quickly went to the table with the game board and set the game to search for a Ranked Match.


    This time I didn''t even have to wait for the game to find an opponent for a few seconds, as it usually did, because the game found an opponent instantly!


    '' I thought curiously.


    I didn''t even look at the number of players in the game before I joined, making me curious.


    When the game started, everything was going as normal, until my opponent used a card I''d never seen before!


    The drawing on the card was of an adventurer wearing an enchanted cloak, holding a magical compass that glowed in his hand, walking through ancient ruins surrounded by luminescent crystals.


    '' I thought excitedly, shifting my gaze to the card''s effect with curiosity.


    [Name: Magical Explorer


    Type: Creature


    Cost: 3 Mana


    Attack: 2


    Life: 4


    Rarity: Rare


    Ability:


    Discover a spell card from your deck and reduce its cost by 1 Mana.


    Description Flavor:


    ¡°For true explorers, every ruin contains secrets that magic longs to reveal."]


    Reading the card''s description I was surprised!


    I thought excitedly.


    Seeing that my opponent in Ranked already had a card from the event and that he got an advantage by using it made me even more excited to play and get all the cards to have an advantage like that too!


    At this point, the number of Online Players in the Runestone was skyrocketing, causing a certain Game Creator to crack a huge smile and another to begin to despair with rage.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 29 – Proposals

    - Tyler POV -


    I thought angrily as I looked at the game rankings and saw my game in second place.


    Ever since I posted my game, the first place on that list was mine.


    All the teachers have always seen me as the most promising Game Creator of this year''s college graduates, I''ve even signed a contract with a big Company so that my development will be even smoother in the coming years, only for my perfect record to be tarnished by a fair second place in the test that matters most?!


    And looking at the Rank numbers that updated every 5 minutes, the difference in the number of Players for our two games was only increasing with each new update!


    1st 2.589 Players - [Runestone]


    2nd 2.201 Players - [Knife Throwing Training in the Dark]


    3rd 1.614 Players - [Training...]


    4th...


    I was sure that with the changes I''d made to the game I''d be able to win over even more Players and get them to train for longer while playing my game today.


    And it was really working in the morning!


    I woke up with a bit of a hangover because of how much I drank the night before, but after meditating for a few minutes the hangover passed and I was perfectly awake.


    When I looked at the Rank with expectation, my game was 400 Players higher than Runestone, but since 09:00 in the morning the number of Players in Runestone started to increase and my Players started to decrease!


    At that point Runestone was the one with almost 400 more Players than my game.


    Curious about this, I tried to search the internet to find out why, finding a Whisper page from an account called FrostHaven Entertainment, apparently the company that Theo Brooks was hired by, or that he created, warning Players of an event that was happening in the game and that they could win free cards today only.


    I thought frustratedly, trying to find a solution to this, but the frustration of seeing how easy it was for Brooks to think of such innovative things irritated me more and more.


    ''Wasn''t he the least talented student in the class?! Where did he get enough talent to replicate something like Neurological False Feedback in an F Rank game if even I can''t do something like that?!'' I thought even more frustrated.


    When I saw the other students commenting that he had done it, I also thought that I could implement something like that in my game, increasing my Players'' gains for physical training and muscle improvement development, as well as improving the Players'' bodies, which would surely guarantee first place for me.


    As I began to study this, I kept mocking Brooks for being an idiot and playing a stupid game of cards, wasting the opportunity to double the effectiveness of the Players'' training.


    But when I realized that there was almost no information available about False Neurological Feedback on the internet and that I would have to try to replicate such an abstract concept as tricking the Players'' brains with Mana for the development of specific muscles in the body through practically trial and error, I gave up.


    Even if I didn''t want to, I knew I had to give up...


    There was no way I could learn something that complicated, test it tirelessly and apply it to a game when I didn''t have more than 90 MP available to develop the game.


    So I put that idea aside and just focused on improving my game.


    As much as it pains me to admit it, the ideas that Brooks suggested to the other students were very useful, although they wouldn''t increase the quality of the Players'' training in any way, they would make training much more tolerable for them, encouraging them to spend more time playing my game and giving up playing other games to play my game.


    Imagining how much I would earn just by putting this in and increasing the amount of Players in my game, I was confident that maybe I could develop this game to the point where Game Core would evolve after a few years!


    But all my confidence in that started to crumble when I saw that the ideas Brooks suggested weren''t even the tip of the iceberg.


    The things he suggested for us were very simple compared to what he was applying to his game...


    Although my pride didn''t want me to play his game, I knew I had to get into it and try to understand what was making so many players play it.


    In addition to the tips he gave us, I began to identify several other small tactics he was using to keep Players playing as much as possible, such as encouraging competition through Ranked points, giving Players coins for each game they played, encouraging Players to invite friends in exchange for card skins, and several other things.


    The list of things he used to keep the Players playing was so long that compared to the few ideas he suggested to the other students, it was like comparing a Ferrari to a bicycle, and unfortunately my game was the bicycle...


    Seeing this big difference in our games put me off.


    All the confidence I''d built up in my years as a Game Creator was starting to crumble and I couldn''t find anything that I was better at than Brooks now...


    '' I asked myself almost desperately.


    But then something popped into my head!


    Realizing this point, I realized that even if I couldn''t pass Brooks'' game now, couldn''t I take advantage of my game''s ability to let Players train muscle memory in my game and add these features that amuse Players from Brooks'' game?


    Even if my game doesn''t pass his game for now, as long as I copy the things that make his game fun, won''t I pass it over time?!


    I thought excitedly. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Realizing this point, I stopped worrying about the outcome of this test, even though I was disappointed, and started writing down all the interesting things in Brooks'' game to implement in my own.


    When the Players see how much better my game is at using his ideas, his game will surely go bust!


    - Theo POV -


    Looking at the number of Players going up non-stop, I was very happy.


    Today''s event is being a great success, pushing the previous peak of Players forward by a large margin, with dozens of new people downloading the game every few minutes, bringing the total number of Players who have already played the game to a very high number.


    Not only was the game''s popularity among Players growing, but normal people were excitedly watching Players play the game and enjoying the event.


    Owen''s stream, which when I met him was averaging 200 viewers, was now at 993 viewers, almost passing the four-digit mark!


    And other players, noticing Owen''s success, also started streaming this game, gaining viewers with different styles of streams, with some focusing on comedy, others on different styles of decks... and the list went on and on.


    Seeing this large number of people interested in the game and the downloads going up and up, I felt that the 162 MP accumulated in Game Core that I had spent was worth it.


    With the increase in Players in the game, this number would recover quickly, to the point where perhaps from now on I could increase my MP by 2 units every day!


    The growth rate of Players in the game was going so well that my estimates were that it would rise from the 2.3k average the game had yesterday to perhaps over 3k today!


    As today was the last day of college testing, not only were Players on the lookout to discover the best games to play, but I also started receiving messages from Guilds and large companies interested in investing in me!


    That was a bit strange, I''d never received any kind of message like that, and the amounts they were offering me weren''t low...


    The two offers, although not from large guilds or companies, were still quite tempting considering how much money even these small groups turned over.


    If it were any of my other colleagues from college, they''d be jumping for joy at receiving offers like these.


    Just the prospect of a $200k a year salary was way out of the realm of reality for many Game Creators, since they needed at least one game with 4k average online players a day for a year to accumulate a figure like that, or several smaller games.


    Accepting an offer like that would skip several steps for these Game Creators, but for me it was irrelevant.


    I had already decided that I wouldn''t accept anything like that, and I would continue on my path.


    With the success of Runestone, I would soon have the money to buy another Game Core from the Federation, allowing me to create another game any way I wanted, without needing anyone''s opinion, so why accept?


    I would still need to accumulate a good amount of money and optimize Runestone as much as possible before starting a new project, since the focus would be on quality, but thinking about what new games I could make in the future got me excited...


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 30 – Skins?!

    When the clock struck 00:00 I looked at the Rank and saw Runestone far ahead of Evan''s game.


    1st 3.707 Players - [Runestone]


    2nd 2.208 Players - [Knife Throwing Training in the Dark]


    3rd 1.485 Players - [Training...]


    4th...


    The difference in the number of Players was absurd, to the point that when the night came I wasn''t even worried that he might pass me.


    And this large number of Players also caused the amount of Mana and money that the game earned me that day to skyrocket!


    In order not to affect the average and mess up the data, I left it until 24 hours after I looked at it this morning to calculate my earnings, which in this case wouldn''t be until tomorrow morning.


    When the time was up, the Rank froze and the numbers on the screen stopped changing.


    Surprisingly Jake sent me a message congratulating me on first place and joked about being available if I needed a helper in the future.


    The second person to send me a message was Gina, who also congratulated me and chatted about other matters.


    Josh was the third, followed by several other colleagues from our class who were also looking at the rankings.


    I answered each one politely and went to sleep.


    The next day, when it was finally 24 hours since I had last looked at the game''s stats, I quickly opened the menu and looked at the game''s growth.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 3.671 -> 4.966


    | Online Players: 1.878 -> 2.315


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 2.308 -> 3.387


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 6 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 203 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 203 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 104 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Stored Cash: $660 -> $1,147


    Looking at the data the game generated yesterday, I had a huge smile on my face.


    The $487 alone was a big reason for me to smile considering that I was planning to develop another game, so the more money I made, the faster I could buy another Game Core and develop my second game.


    But what really got me excited was that yesterday was the first day that the game earned more than 200 MP!


    This means that as long as the game maintains an average number of Players like yesterday''s, I''ll have 2 MP more every day to increase my MP total, which means I''ll be able to develop more and more engaging features for the game in less and less time, which is great!


    Without thinking twice, the first thing I did was set Game Core to convert this stored Mana directly into my Mana Core.


    I could only add 1 MP every 12 hours, so my current maximum MP has only increased to 71.6 now, but I was happy.


    Looking at the other game data, I was completely satisfied.


    The event developed was a complete success.


    Even FrostHaven Entertainment''s Whisper account received a few hundred followers, finally reaching 4 digits of followers, and receiving a lot of praise from Players and ordinary people.


    Of course, there were still people complaining, and they weren''t wrong to complain.


    Most of the complaints were from people who didn''t find out about the event until it was too late, failing to win all the event cards or the board decorations.


    For these people, I made a post on Whisper to appease them.


    With this text I believe that some of their frustration will be appeased.


    Despite coming first in the Rankings, the teachers were still to finish testing all the games and give marks for each aspect of the games to define the positions of each Game Creator in this test.


    Even if a Game Creator ranked low, that Game Creator might receive a grade good enough to graduate from college, while on the other hand, even a popular game might not receive a grade good enough to graduate if a professor felt that game had a major flaw.


    Runestone fell into this category, since the only way for the Player who played the game to improve was through False Neurological Feedback, so anything could still go wrong.


    Sure, I wasn''t that worried about it because False Neurological Feedback itself is such a complex technology that even teachers don''t know how to apply it to their games, which I believe would compensate for the game''s failure.


    But even if the teachers didn''t give me an A and my grade wasn''t the highest among the students, it wouldn''t affect me, since that grade wasn''t public.


    What really mattered for my career was the rank my game ended in and whether I passed or not, the passing grade was irrelevant.


    So I didn''t let worrying about this matter tire me out and I entered Game Core with my conscience.


    Even though it was Sunday, I didn''t intend to take the day off to rest.


    From now on my path as an Independent Game Creator was going to be increasingly difficult and any result I got would be 100% based on the effort I put into my games, so I didn''t want to waste it and started spending my Mana on the game.


    What I developed right away were the 5 daily cards that I made for the game, just as I did throughout the last week, which added up to the 15 cards I made yesterday, making a total of 40 cards ready!


    With my card production speed of 5 cards a day it would still take me 12 days to finish this, but with the increase of 2 MP a day I would be able to finish it in less time.


    As well as developing the cards, I''d also have to develop the two new heroes coming in this collection, as well as an idea I had to keep players more involved in the game.


    At yesterday''s event I realized the power that a Battle Pass has in retaining and engaging Players.


    Normally, Players who play the game well have a lot of fun climbing the ranks, but those Players with average or low skills were more frustrated while playing Rankeds than they were having fun, which meant that this type of queue wasn''t a big draw for them.


    To deal with this problem, I thought I''d develop a Battle Pass for the next update.


    A goal for Players to dedicate themselves to playing the game beyond ranking up and avoid going to other games to train.


    As well as collecting coins to buy more card packs, I would also add a Battle Pass for players to collect points and exchange them for rewards.


    These rewards would be card packs, decorations for their boards, or skins for the backs of their cards.


    As the Battle Pass was not Skill-based, even the worst Players could feel the satisfaction of progressing while receiving glamorous rewards to boast about to other Players.


    I thought excitedly.


    I started to remember the original Runestone from my other world.


    The more I thought about it, the more excited I got.


    The Players'' collecting always amazed me in the other world, so I could use that to my advantage in this world.


    I could make the Battle Pass with a specific theme and make all the decorations follow that theme, just like I did with the mini battle pass from yesterday''s event.


    The ideal would be to use the hero I chose as the basis for this theme, and to ensure success it would be even better to choose the hero most played by the Players.


    Opening up the game data, I was surprised to realize that 63% of the players were playing the Mage!


    '' I wondered curiously.


    Unfortunately, there was no way for me to find out the Players'' intention in choosing this in the game, but I could just ask!


    Creating a quick poll for the Online Players to answer cost me 1 MP, but within a few minutes I had the answer. sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Basically, even some Players with physical classes in the real world occasionally used the Mage Hero to increase their maximum amount of Mana, as it was easier to increase this in Runestone than by practicing in a boring way in the real world!


    Muscles could also be developed, but while there were dedicated machines and gyms for developing these, Mana was much more ethereal and difficult to develop.


    Understanding this, I decided to make the game''s first hero skin for Lyna Proudstone!


    Now all I had to do was develop the concept for this new line of skins for Lyna and the back of the card.


    I needed to think of ideas for what theme to use for this line of skins...


    But while I was thinking about that, I came back to the real world and started writing down my plans for the game.


    According to my calculations, in two weeks I''d be able to finish everything I was planning and finally launch this new update, which got me excited!


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 31 – New Spells

    Now that I had plenty of money and my first place in the college rankings was guaranteed, I decided to go out and treat myself.


    Even though I was learning to cook well and my food was getting tastier as the days went by, I still wanted to eat something different.


    ...'' I thought as I imagined a beautiful piece of meat being roasted on the grill.


    In the other world I also loved to eat barbecue, but unfortunately I didn''t earn a high enough salary to support myself and be able to buy good meat to roast constantly, so I limited myself to eating barbecue only on special occasions.


    Maybe that''s why the thought of barbecue came to my mind now, unconsciously thinking that this is a special moment that deserves barbecue.


    Not denying my desire, I left college in search of a good barbecue restaurant.


    As the college was very close to the commercial center of the city, all these exits were easy to make on foot, but considering that I would be moving this week, it wouldn''t be a bad idea to buy a car or a motorcycle so that I could leave the house more comfortably and conveniently.


    Finding a nice-looking restaurant serving all you can eat, I was surprised to notice that there was a sign saying that all you can eat for normal people cost $50, but for Supernaturals the price went up to $100.


    Curious about this, I called the waitress over.


    ¡°Excuse me, why is there a price difference between the all you can eat for normal people and for Supernaturals?¡± I asked curiously.


    Smiling, she answered politely. ¡°As Supernaturals are stronger and their bodies need more food to sustain themselves, normally the amount they eat is at least double that of ordinary people, so the price has also been adjusted accordingly.¡±


    That made sense, it wouldn''t be fair to demand a unified price if Supernaturals had an advantage or normal people had to pay more than they ate.


    But another doubt arose in me hearing this. ¡°And how do you know if someone is supernatural or not?¡±


    The waitress kept her polite attitude and replied. ¡°Our restaurant has hired a Sensor Magician to find out if the customer is supernatural or normal before bringing the bill, so if the customer identifies as supernatural it will be ignored. Are you a Player?¡±


    Smiling politely at her, I shook my head in denial. ¡°No, I''m a Game Creator.¡±


    Hearing that I was a Game Creator, although it surprised her slightly due to the rarity of my profession, given how close the restaurant was to the college that trained Game Creators, she didn''t have that big a reaction, but she still added. ¡°That''s great, is there anything else I can do?¡±


    I just nodded and she said goodbye before leaving.


    Looking around and seeing that there were still people wearing clothes from the dungeons they had raided today, even though it was Sunday, I realized more details of the differences between this world and my previous one.


    Although the two worlds were very similar, there were big differences between the two.


    One thing I noticed was that the sports in this world were very different, with Supernatural sports standing out a lot in terms of popularity compared to normal people''s sports.


    As the games industry has never been very well used in this world for entertainment, it''s understandable that they would have developed other areas to supply this demand for the public.


    Seeing these differences between the two worlds was fun.


    While I was eating I was thinking about other differences the world had, before turning my thoughts to planning the next Battle Pass even better. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Since I was going to make the first Battle Pass based on Lyna Proudstone, I was thinking about all the games I''d played and which line of skins she might fit into best.


    With every piece of meat I ate, I felt like my mind was opening up to more possibilities.


    ...'' I laughed mentally.


    Among all the possibilities I thought of, there was one theme that I think would please the Players the most.


    Although there weren''t as many demon-themed games as in my old world, in this world there were a lot of demon-themed series and movies, making this topic very popular with people.


    I thought excitedly as I took out my small notepad and wrote down what I had thought. ''


    With that decided, I quickly drew a sketch of the design I envisioned for the back of the card too, following the same demonic theme.


    ''The ornament for the board could be a small version of the green fire skull that the skin would attack on the enemy!''


    By the time I''d finished deciding all this, I''d had enough to eat, so I paid the bill and went home.


    I could even meditate and recover the rest of the Mana to develop more cards and speed up the time to post this update, but the meeting I had with the college class on Friday showed me the importance of magic.


    Even if I didn''t plan on raiding a dungeon, at least I needed magical knowledge to protect myself.


    The possible confrontation I would have with Evans showed me the importance of being able to defend myself.


    Although the world is in a peaceful era without wars and major conflicts, being able to protect myself, those I care about and the things I have is my priority.


    So, after meditating and recovering my Mana, I opened my college magic book and started looking for all the spells it would teach.


    Instead of just blindly following what the book teaches as I was doing before, now I would first find the spells I wanted to learn, then focus on learning only the spells that would be useful to protect me.


    Cleaning spells might be useful in everyday life at home, but I couldn''t threaten the bandit with a spell like that, right?


    ''Don''t attack me, otherwise I''ll make you as clean as someone who''s just got out of the shower...?!''


    Impossible.


    So I looked at the offensive spells I could make, both in the book and on the internet like I did with Shadow Illusion.


    As I''m a Game Creator, my Mana is much higher than that of a Player of the same Rank as me, allowing me to learn both F Rank and E Rank spells.


    Although F Rank has some useful and versatile spells, it was only at E Rank that the spells started to get really powerful.


    The Shadow Illusion spell I learned to deal with Evans was an E Rank spell.


    And among the spells the book taught, there were also some spells that suited my needs.


    The first spell that interested me was called ¡°Web of Containment¡±, which basically made a sticky golden web that, if it hit the target, would stick to it and everything around it, trapping it in place.


    Another spell that interested me was ¡°Shadow Camouflage¡±, a spell that controls shadows to surround my body and camouflage me with the environment, reducing the noise I make and making it harder for enemies to identify me.


    And as a spell for direct combat, I was interested in ¡°Ghost Blade¡±, a spell that creates a sharp blade that flies to the target I aim at.


    The disadvantage of Ghost Blade is that the blade only lasts for one attack and wouldn''t be able to penetrate armor or the skins of tougher monsters with the normal amount of Mana used, but in compensation, the attack speed of this spell is very high and extremely lethal against humans.


    Ghost Blade and Dark Camouflage were spells that fell under the group of spells that used the Darkness element as a base, and it was no coincidence that I chose these spells.


    This was a tactic used by many players.


    If you learn how to make a fireball, learning another fire spell will be easier for you in the future, since you already understand the basics of this element, and the same concept applied to other elements.


    While the Darkness element isn''t very useful against resistant monsters, the use of this element for sneak attacks or assassinations was many.


    As I wasn''t worried about dealing with monsters but with confrontations I would have with other humans in the city, this element was ideal for me.


    Adding this to the fact that I had already found a Shadow Illusion spell that was also based on the Darkness element, I would already have three spells in the same element, which would help me learn all of this faster.


    Sure, a normal person wouldn''t be able to choose spells like me by looking at videos on the internet and reading information about them in books.


    For others, learning a spell required a master to teach it, or buying guides on the internet detailing how to use that spell, and practicing for weeks just to be able to perform it.


    With the help of System, I could perform System on my first try just by seeing someone using it on the internet and I could reverse engineer it to learn it much faster.


    With a list of useful spells for me to learn, I''d have something useful to do besides developing cards for Runestone for the next few days until my college results came out.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 32 – Results

    Learning magic is a lot of fun... especially when it''s more practical than theoretical.


    For the last three days, all I''ve done is stay in my dorm room, develop cards and some features for the Runestone update in the morning, watch the game grow every day and spend the rest of the afternoon studying magic and Game Creating.


    Although magic was much more fun than studying Game Creating, since in magic I practiced while I studied, I still remembered how nice it was to reduce the cost of making a Runestone card from 15 MP to 13 MP, so I didn''t give up on that either.


    During those three days, I made great progress in my use of magic.


    Of the four spells I learned, I was already able to use 3 of them without needing help from the system.


    Sure, the quality of the spells made with my magic alone was still crap, especially as learning them without a clear explanation proved to be more complicated than I had imagined.


    Without a real explanation of the spells and how the spell structure worked, I was still confused about what I was doing wrong and why what I was doing was wrong.


    The only spell I still haven''t learned to do without the help of the System was [Web of Containment], since it wasn''t a Darkness spell.


    As I was practicing three spells of the same element, practicing one spell indirectly contributed to practicing the other two, an advantage that [Web of Containment] couldn''t take advantage of.


    Too bad the Darkness element''s spells were almost completely focused on attack or illusion, with the defensive or control spells of this element of Rank E or below being much weaker than those of the other elements.


    But going out into the street with the [Dark Camouflage] spell active and no one noticing me was very interesting.


    The sensation of having my body covered in shadows was a little suffocating the first time I tried it, but I gradually got used to it and liked the chill the shadows created.


    My illusions created with [Shadow Illusion] lacked the liveliness that System illusions had.


    For comparison, it was as if my illusions were portrayed on an old television that played videos in 480p 20 FPS while the illusions made using the System came in 4k 240 FPS.


    The illusions made with the help of the System were so real that it would be impossible to discern them from reality without the use of some kind of supernatural ability, but the cost was just as high. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    And the difference in my level of use of [Ghost Blade] with the System is also as great as the difference in [Shadow Illusion].


    My blade was as small as the tip of a scalpel thrown by my hands, while the blade made with the System was as powerful as a dagger thrown by a professional.


    But even if the spells I made weren''t anywhere near the quality of the System''s, I was still satisfied with them.


    I thought determinedly.


    Another big development in the last few days has been Runestone.


    Now that the college rank is over, the college has helped me submit my game to the official gaming site of my state''s Federation.


    Unlike the other world where any game could be posted worldwide at any time, in this world where games and Players represented the strength of the country, these games were extremely regulated and supervised.


    Since Players had to send their consciousness to the game made by a Game Creator when they played it, as well as using Mana to absorb part of the influence that the Game Creator decided the game would have, this made the influence of games on Players very great, giving Game Creators the power to influence a group of people who were extremely important for national security.


    If a Game Creator''s spy game was released to Players with some kind of functionality that would cause them harm, it would be a disaster for the country, and regulations would have to be put in place to control this.


    So for a Game Creator to create games, they had to enroll in a Game Creator college, like the NFA I studied at, so that after a 5-year review while the Game Creators were studying, a profile would be drawn up on the students and sent to the Federation as a security measure.


    Our evaluation exam received some attention because the Players who tested our games lived in our state and were trying out the games that would soon be on the official market.


    It was like readers from my old world who liked to read new stories. They knew there were great stories they could read, but the curiosity for something new and to see what would come in the future was great for some.


    Sure, the number of players interested in trying out this type of game was very low compared to the total number of players, which is why so few people played Runestone even though the game showed so much innovation.


    But now that the game would be available on the official gaming website of my state''s Federation, the game would be in a much bigger showcase, no longer just a test game made by inexperienced Game Creators, but a product approved by a university and voted the best game of this generation of FNA graduates.


    The prestige that being the college''s best game gave would make the game known to Players around the state who are used to only playing the best games, making an impression on them and increasing the likelihood that they would decide to try out the game.


    My game was developed in just one month, something that could hardly compare with a game that had been online for years receiving small updates constantly or the games they had access to from the Guilds they participated in.


    Why should they trade a game they already know is good for a game made by a kid who is still learning to be a Game Creator?


    With the prestige of being the best game at the NFA this year, this might arouse the curiosity of some Players to try out my game.


    If Runestone were a normal game, it''s likely that in a few months I''d get 10,000 total Players, maybe even reaching 15 or 20,000 total Players by the end of the year, but I was confident that Runestone would be different from normal games.


    With the systems I''ve developed, especially the invite system, I''m sure the game will grow very quickly!


    This differentiated growth was already showing with the constant number of new Players downloading my game, even though it was still only available on the college''s games website.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 4,966 -> 6,704


    | Online Players: 4,389


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 2.308 -> 4.572


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 5 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 250 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 274 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 104 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    The data that the game screen showed made a smile break out on my face every time I looked at it.


    The average number of players online had almost doubled since last Sunday, and the game''s total players were rising steadily, even if this growth had slowed down a little.


    If it weren''t for the invitation system I developed for the game, it''s likely that I''d be struggling to get more than 300 new Players a day, since the amount of Players looking at the college game rankings was limited.


    Fortunately I was bringing in Players from other big games on the Federation website and this was keeping the game growing steadily.


    The growth in Players in the game also increased the amount of daily Mana the game generated.


    I was now able to increase my total Mana Pool by 2 MP per day and still have MP left over in the Game Core.


    This MP was accumulating in the game, with me controlling myself not to use it up too soon and make new cards, but thinking about how much this stored MP helped me the last time I had an emergency I decided to just keep it there.


    The money I received from the game also skyrocketed, passing $600 in daily income.


    Even if the game remained at its current number of players, I would still receive a monthly salary of $18,000!


    A figure I never dared dream of receiving every month in either world!


    With this money I was receiving, and knowing that this money would only increase with the more Players there were in the game, I could even consider developing a version of Runestone for computers, a version that normal people could play too!


    Just as my mind was getting ready to ramble on about this and think about the possibilities it would give me, a knock came from my door.


    Curious, I went to the door and found Professor Pine looking at me as if he were looking at a precious diamond.


    ¡°Hello Professor, would you like to come in?¡±


    Smiling at me, the professor just shook his head and said. ¡°As much as I''d like to have a good chat with you to understand what''s going on in your creative head, I''m here at the principal''s request. The assessment results are out.¡±


    Hearing that, I was surprised.


    ''Finally the results are ready, maybe I can move in tomorrow!''


    Nodding my head, I quickly left the dormitory and began to follow Professor Pine.


    ¡°Although I can''t talk to you in private, I still want to take this opportunity to ask you a few questions about your game if you don''t mind, Brooks.¡± The professor asked me curiously.


    Nodding my head, I had no problem with that.


    ¡°Brooks, can you explain how you managed to integrate the...¡±


    He took the opportunity all along the way to ask me questions, all of which I answered enthusiastically, but which apparently weren''t enough when we arrived at the principal''s office based on the look of disappointment on the teacher''s face.


    ¡°Principal Prescott, I''m here with Theo Brooks...¡± He said after knocking on the office door.


    Looking at that door and knowing that these would probably be my last moments as a college student, I was a little nervous and excited about what would be decided next.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 33 – Beautiful Place

    ¡°I guess by now you''re wondering what your grade is in the school''s evaluation, were there any deficiencies in your game that you identified?¡± Old Principal Prescott asked me after Professor Pine left the office.


    Looking at the man, I didn''t even have to think long before giving my explanation.


    ¡°In terms of developing Players'' skills, although Runestone does a good job of letting Players improve their stats with False Neurological Feedback, I know that my game doesn''t do any work on improving Players'' skills with weapons or combat, which still requires them to play other games to train in that area.¡± I said calmly.


    Nodding his head at my explanation, the old man gave me a satisfied smile.


    ¡°Yes, and how do you intend to deal with that?¡± He asked me as he interlaced the fingers of his hands above the table and looked at me with interest.


    Thinking for a moment, I answered honestly. ¡°Initially I had an idea of just developing this game further with some area for Players to train combat, but after realizing that this would probably limit me in the future I decided to just save money for a while and buy a new Game Core to make a game that compensates for these deficiencies, leaving Runestone to focus exclusively on the best with False Neurological Feedback.¡±


    Listening to my explanation, the old man asked again. ¡°Your two approaches make sense, do you intend to evolve Runestone''s Game Core?¡±


    I nodded.


    Then he continued. ¡°That''s a long way off... accumulating 100,000 MP in a Game Core F Rank is no easy task, even more so for someone who uses such expensive technology as False Neurological Feedback in the game. You''d probably need 40 million hours spent in total on your game, whether that''s an average of 5,000 Players over 360 days, or 10,000 Players over 180 days, are you confident of achieving that? Not to mention that this time is without considering the 200 MP you would consume daily to increase your maximum MP.¡±


    I thought.


    ¡°It''s not like I''m going to lose anything by doing this, even if I used very little Mana in the game update every day the game would still hold up very well, probably even growing over time even without my intervention.¡± I explained, although I had no intention of stopping updating the game.


    The director agreed. ¡°Yes, compared to other new games that have difficulty maintaining a Player Base of thousands of Players, your game is showing a path of consolidation that is unlikely to fall, making the evolution of the Game Core only a question of ''when'' and not ''if'', but since you commented that your new game will make up for Runestone''s deficiency in improving Players'' practice, will you give up the use of False Neurological Feedback in this new game?¡±


    That was a good question, something I had to admit I wasn''t sure about. ¡°I don''t know yet. Using False Neurological Feedback on cards is the simplest and cheapest use I had available, but trying to use it on something more complex will probably increase the Mana cost by such a high rate that the game might not even make me a profit in MP...¡±


    The old man laughed when he heard this. ¡°Stop talking like you''re suffering from it, kid, you''re the only Game Creator below B Rank who''s managed to apply this technology, going even more extreme and applying something like this to an F Rank game haha!¡±


    I just shook my head and didn''t pay much attention to it, but my attitude made the director indignant and he said something I didn''t expect.


    ¡°Kid, I don''t think you realize the level of your achievement... this week alone I''ve already received 3 emails from the Federation wanting to analyze your game and trying to convince me to get a detailed explanation from you on how to apply this technology to low Rank games, the headache it was to turn down those greedy politicians is all your fault.¡± He complained while frowning.


    Hearing that surprised me. Since this kind of thing didn''t reach me, I really had no idea how impressive the use of it in my game had been in the eyes of the people of this world... maybe I''ll have to be careful not to attract so much attention in the future.


    Seeing my caution emerging, the old man was pleased. ¡°Very well, that''s what I expected from you. Your idea of making a new game without using False Neurological Feedback is a good one, keep at it. You''re still just a Game Creator F Rank, a nobody among the Federation, make the most of this time of growth and try to speed it up. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    I''m sure that Runestone will become a success on the Federation''s website, needing very little time to rise in Rank, which will raise your Mana level very quickly and earn you a lot of money, don''t waste that money and save it for another Game Core to accelerate your growth even more, it''s no wonder that each Game Creator accumulates several games to rise in Rank.¡±


    Listening to his explanation, I nodded.


    Although Game Cores were very expensive, the Federation gave discounts to low Rank Game Creators.


    The first Game Core a Game Creator bought cost just $20,000, with the next one going up to $40,000 and the price doubling until it reached the original price of a few million.


    Because of this discount alone, the Federation lost billions of dollars every year, so no Game Creator complained about them taking part of the money spent by Players to play the games, or that they took a share of Players'' profits from each dungeon.


    Seeing that I had understood his point of view, the old director didn''t ask any more about Game Creating and changed the subject.


    ¡°Are you still interested in the apartment I offered you that day?¡± He asked curiously.


    I only had one question about it. ¡°What will the rent be?¡±


    The old man thought for a moment and answered. ¡°If I were to rent this apartment to anyone else at the market price, the price would probably be around $7,000 to $9,000 a month, but since I''ve offered you to live there with some conditions, half of that is okay with me, so it would be around $4,000 a month.¡±


    Hearing that price, I choked in surprise. ¡°What?! Four thousand dollars for rent?! I''m going to live in a castle, old man?!¡±


    As soon as I said that, I realized that because of the surprise I''d gone a little overboard and prepared to apologize, only to see the director start to burst out laughing.


    ¡°Hahahaha, of course not kid, are you surprised to pay $4,000 in rent? Don''t tell me your monthly salary with Runestone won''t reach $20,000 in the next few days? Not to mention when the game goes on the Federation''s website, that income will increase even more, or when you create another game, your profit will increase even more...¡± He laughed as he spoke. He laughed as he spoke. ¡°In today''s world, no one makes more money on average than Players and Game Creators, with Players needing to climb several ranks before they start getting rich and Game Creators already starting to get rich from the F Rank.¡±


    Hearing this, I had to admit that it''s true.


    But shaking my head not to let that fool me, I still looked at the old man with a frown. ¡°Although I''ll really make that kind of money in the future, right now I don''t have that kind of money...¡±


    The director just shook his head at this and said. ¡°Don''t worry, as I''ve invited you to live there to help my granddaughter, the first month''s rent will be free, you''ll just need to pay me the rent from the second month onwards.¡±


    Hearing that made me see this proposal as much more acceptable.


    If I could receive Runestone''s income for one month, I''d already have at least $20,000 accumulated in my account, or maybe even more than that depending on how much the game brought in.


    ¡°But be aware that the apartment is empty, you''ll have to buy the furniture with your own money.¡± The old man said something that made me feel as if the money in my wallet would fly away.


    ¡°You''re kidding, right?¡± I wanted to confirm.


    ¡°Seriously, the apartment doesn''t have any furniture, so you''ll have to buy everything you''re going to use... of course, if you want to move somewhere else, everything you''ve bought is yours.¡± He explained, making me nod.


    Even if I had to buy things myself, at least I''d be living in a nice house, something I''ve never lived in, in either of my two lives.


    In this life I only lived in an orphanage and the college dormitory, which I already felt was a great place for me, while in the other life I also lived a simple life all the time.


    I thought excitedly.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 34 – New Home

    ¡°I take it back, it''s not going to be any fun living in this place...¡± I said in despair as I looked at the building in front of me.


    The place was completely different from anything I had ever experienced before.


    In front of the building there were several men in suits looking around, probably security guards.


    Across the street was the beach... the apartment the director was renting me faced the fucking beach!


    Seeing this I even began to doubt whether the market price for the apartment was really only $8,000...


    Entering the building''s reception area, I was looking around like a country bumpkin getting to know the city for the first time.


    The floor of the place was made of a beautiful, reflective white polished marble, making me imagine how much work it must have been to polish it and leave it so clean considering it was used for us to walk on!


    Arriving at reception, a woman a little older than me with a pleasant appearance looked at me in surprise.


    Her gaze roamed over my face, then my ordinary clothes, the worn rucksack on my back and my stunned expression as she looked around curiously, but she didn''t show any expression of disdain or anything like that before asking. ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    Nodding my head, I took out my cell phone and looked up the address that Principal Prescott had sent me and spoke to her.


    ¡°Is this the Moonlight Tower?¡± I asked, confirming.


    ¡°Yes, sir. This is the only Moonlight Tower in the area.¡± She smiled.


    Sighing as I realized this, I continued. ¡°Well, I rented apartment 1102 and the owner of the apartment said that the keys were stored at the concierge.¡±


    Hearing what I said, the receptionist looked surprised, her eyes widening as she stared at me even more intently. ¡°Ohh, I''ll just call him to confirm that first, okay?¡±


    I just nodded at her and started looking around.


    I knew that her doubt was because of how I was dressing.


    Compared to the standard of living that people who lived here must have, I must really just be a country bumpkin.


    For her to think that I''m some kind of scammer who has somehow found out that the key to the apartment is at reception and is trying his luck to get that key to live here is not difficult.


    After a few minutes the woman ended the call and called me over with a key on the counter.


    ¡°Welcome to Moonlight Tower, Mr. Brooks.¡± She said with an even friendlier smile. ¡°Mr. Prescott has confirmed that everything is fine and the keys to the apartment are here. The only warning we have is that when you bring the furniture to use in the apartment, just make sure it happens during business hours, as after that any kind of change is forbidden.¡±


    Nodding to her, I took the keys and went to the elevator.


    Even the building''s elevator was gigantic and luxurious...


    Arriving on the 11th floor, I looked around and realized that there were only two doors in the corridor, another bad sign for me.


    One door faced the other, with the door to apartment 1101 having a cute pink bow decoration and the door to 1102 having nothing.


    Using the keys to open 1102''s door, the sight I saw left me frozen.


    Honestly, the place was beautiful.


    The door from the hallway led into the living room of the apartment, a gigantic place with external walls made entirely of glass, giving an incredible view of the sea and the beach that lay in front of the building.


    Connected to the living room was a modern kitchen, which at least had very elegant gray cabinets with an island counter in the middle.


    The whole place looked like it had just come out of a romantic comedy movie where the CEO of a large company lived in a very beautiful and gigantic apartment.


    What worried me about the place was that I would be responsible for furnishing it...


    I thought worriedly, looking around.


    While I was absent-mindedly looking through the door of the place, a noise behind me caught my attention, causing me to turn and see a beautiful woman in her 30s looking at me in surprise.


    ¡°Hello?¡± she asked uncertainly when she saw me looking at the apartment with the door open.


    ¡± I asked myself in surprise.


    ¡°Hi, I''m the new resident of 1102, I hope we can get along well.¡± I nodded at her with a polite smile.


    My statement seemed to surprise her even more. ¡°You''re going to live there? Did Samuel rent this apartment?¡±


    ¡° I asked myself confused, but not wanting to judge their relationship, I nodded. ¡°Yes, I just graduated from the NFA and he offered me to rent this apartment.¡±


    Hearing my explanation, the woman was even more surprised, looking at me with interest and curiosity, as if trying to understand why the director had offered one of his apartments to a student.


    But that only lasted a moment, before she cracked a smile and waved at me. ¡°Nice to meet you, I''m Victoria Prescott, welcome.¡±


    Out of curiosity I looked at her apartment and saw that everything was completely decorated, making my chest ache as I imagined how much must have been spent decorating the whole place.


    Following my gaze, she looked at her apartment and then at mine, seeing the difference in the places and the expression on my face, and let out a laugh.


    ¡°I don''t suppose you have anything to eat there, right? I made some lunch, I''ll prepare some for you as a welcome gift.¡± She laughed before heading back into the apartment.


    Looking at my apartment and seeing that it didn''t even have a fridge, I sighed, accepting that I would have to buy furniture urgently.


    At least the place already had a stove built into the island in the center of the kitchen, so as long as I bought a fridge and ingredients I could start cooking for myself.


    A minute later, Victoria returned with a pink glass pot and a set of cutlery for me.


    ¡°Here, this is just what''s left, but I hope you like it.¡± She said with a polite smile as she handed me the pot.


    Smiling back at her I nodded and thanked her."Thank you very much, when I can I''ll make something for you too.¡±


    She smiled at my offer and didn''t deny it.


    ¡°Then I''ll take you up on it, but now I have to leave, I''ll see you later...¡±


    ¡°Theo, Theo Brooks.¡± I introduced myself embarrassed, realizing that I still hadn''t told her my name.


    ¡°See you later, Theo.¡± She waved at me and went to the elevator.


    Holding the pink pot, I entered the apartment and closed the door behind me as I looked around the place.


    This apartment was really big, with a huge living room that surprisingly had a door leading to an outside balcony with a jacuzzi and barbecue, four bedrooms, one of which was a master suite with a large bathroom and three smaller suites, a guest bathroom and a toilet in the living room, as well as a kitchen with a laundry room.


    I was pleased as I took off the plastic that protected the mattress from dust and lay down on the bed.


    As I lay in bed, I took out my cell phone and looked at my bank account.


    | Money Stored: $1,147 -> 2,723


    I had earned over $1,500 in the last 3 days, making me feel like I had infinite money, but looking at the large apartment I would have to decorate to live comfortably, I knew that this money was far from enough.


    '' I thought disappointedly.


    The first thing I decided to buy was a computer, spending $2,000 on an average configuration so I could get by for a few months and see the game''s statistics.


    When Runestone was doing better I could buy a better computer, but for now this computer would suffice.


    With the remaining $723 I spent $500 to buy a simple fridge for the house and left $223 to buy groceries so I could eat. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    With how much I earn I could eat out every meal, but I prefer to cook at home, as I''m too lazy to go out to eat every time.


    ''Better to have a fridge and eat what I want when I want.


    Fortunately, the delivery system was fast, according to the website, these things would be home by the evening.


    With a bed, a computer, a fridge and a stove, I could start to get by living here.


    Looking out of the window and seeing the beautiful view of the beach in front of the building, I began to like it here a little more.


    Apart from the problem of having to furnish everything, when I have the place ready I''ll have a perfect home to live in, without having to worry about looking for a better place for years.


    A house that''s more comfortable than any place I''ve ever lived, and best of all, a place where I''ll be able to relax and act however I want, whenever I want, without having to worry about the boring rules of the NFA dormitory or the orphanage.


    ...'' I thought skeptically as I looked at the place and its location.


    Picking up the pink glass pot containing the food Victoria had given me, I smiled and sat down on the floor, eating my first meal in my new home.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 35 – First Master

    The new environment did wonders to give me ideas and motivate me to develop Runestone.


    As for the card development, that was normal, since all the ideas for the cards were already ready and I just had to use my mana on it.


    The difference is that since yesterday I''ve had an upgrade in card development.


    As I''ve managed to increase my maximum Mana by 2 MP every day since the end of the test, my Mana has now reached a total of 80 MP!


    So instead of just making 5 cards every day as I had been doing previously, my current Mana would allow me to make 6 cards in a day and still have 2 MP left over to apply to something else.


    With 6 cards being made every day and my Mana still increasing by a maximum of 2 MP every day, instead of finishing producing all the cards on Saturday of next week, I could finish it on Friday, or even next Thursday, leaving 2 days to spare for developing other things.


    Of course, I didn''t intend to rely solely on those 2 days to develop the other features that I would be launching in the game in addition to the Battle Pass.


    I would stop practicing my magic for a few days to use that extra Mana to develop other features.


    One of the days I decided to give up practicing my magic was today.


    Since I used the internet to research magic and the Darkness element, I usually used the computer in my dorm room at college.


    Studying it on my cell phone would be terrible, so I''d just leave it for another day and use the 80 MP from magic practice to invest in Runestone.


    The layout of the Battle Pass that would come in the next update would be easy to make, just using the base of the other Battle Passes I''ve already made, saving me a lot of time.


    What I wanted to use that time to develop was the social part of Runestone.


    This was an idea that I thought of during my college test, but due to lack of time and mana I hadn''t put it into practice yet.


    Currently the only thing Players could do with friends was invite them to the game.


    To make it more fun, I was going to add an option that should already be in the game, that of friends being able to duel each other, as well as the option of several Players being able to form a group and share the same tavern.


    Of course, so that it wouldn''t become a mess or that there would be cheating during games, Players would only be able to see each other and communicate in the tavern when they weren''t in a game.


    If I didn''t put this limitation in place I''m sure Players would ask friends who play well to help them win games and raise their ranks.


    What I wanted was just a more fun social environment to encourage Players to spend even more time in the game, not to give them ways to cheat in the game.


    Sure, duels between friends wouldn''t be worth in-game currency or Ranked Points, so friends who were also in the same lobby would be able to see the two Players who were playing and give their opinions on the games, helping their friends with training and making them better.


    As the part about Players being able to meet virtually already existed in the game, adding the permission for Players to share the tavern wasn''t that expensive in terms of MP, what really wasted MP was adding the restrictions I''d envisioned while still making these lobbies work the way I wanted.


    Fortunately the 80 MP was enough to set it all up.


    I thought.


    Just as I''d finished making these features for the game and was testing it to make sure no bugs had been made with the conditions I''d made for it to work, the apartment intercom rang.


    Leaving Game Core and looking out of the large living room windows, I saw that the sun was setting and the sky was getting dark.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I asked as I answered the intercom.


    ¡°Hi Mr. Brooks, a delivery company has arrived with two packages for you, may I allow them to come up to your apartment to deliver them? They said the larger package is a refrigerator.¡± The receptionist said on the other end of the line. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    ¡°Sure, no problem.¡± I replied excitedly.


    '' I thought excitedly.


    The installation of this equipment was very quick and efficient, I still had to leave the fridge off for a few hours because of the movement of the engine gas, but the computer was already fully functional.


    Fortunately, the level of this computer was the same as that of my college computer, which I was already used to.


    Taking advantage of the fact that it wasn''t time for me to sleep yet, I decided to go to the market.


    The receptionist said that there was a market a five-minute walk away along the beachfront, so I just put on my headphones and listened to music while I walked and enjoyed the view.


    ...'' I thought as I compared the route I was taking to the market to the route I used to take when I was at college.


    Things in this market were more expensive than in the market near the college, but that''s understandable, one of the disadvantages of living in a more expensive neighborhood is that the cost of living is also higher.


    But with my money I had enough to buy enough groceries to get by for a few weeks and make a present for Victoria who helped me with my first meal.


    The next day, waking up in a new house left me momentarily lost, but when I began to recognize the place I was in, a smile appeared on my face.


    It wouldn''t make any sense to say something like that.


    I thought as I shrugged.


    After eating my breakfast, instead of going to develop new cards for Runestone, I had an idea of something I could do to amuse myself and get the Players excited for the next season I was going to release.


    Opening the game streams website, I looked at the list of streams and wasn''t surprised to see that Owen was currently the biggest Runestone streamer, already online and with 800 viewers watching him.


    Among those viewers, from what I saw in the chat, most were normal people, and among the Players, most were people who also played Runestone.


    Taking advantage of the fact that there were so many people online, I logged into Game Core as a Player and used my Game Creator commands to do something interesting.


    - Owen POV -


    Since last Saturday''s event, Runestone''s popularity had been growing more and more, and I was noticing that there were Players catching up with me in the game''s Rankings.


    If they were just normal, very good Players catching up with me, I wouldn''t have felt too strongly about it, but seeing the level of these Players I realized that they weren''t catching up with me in Rank because of their skill, but because they were playing a lot more than me!


    While I was only playing 7 or 8 hours a day, adding up the time I spent meditating to recover MP, there were Players who were playing 12, 15 or even 17 hours a day.


    And how did I discover this? Because recently while I was playing, one of the Players I had to face in the Diamond Rank was my older brother Nathan!


    When he explained to me that he wasn''t the only E Rank Player taking advantage of their extra Mana to play Runestone for much longer, I couldn''t believe it.


    ''How unfair... they have their E Rank games to play and they''re coming to our F Rank games to rank up and take the Diamond or Master spots for themselves!'' I was frustrated to discover this, but there was nothing I could do.


    It''s not like the Game Creator was going to stop these Players from playing with them by contributing so much Mana to him every day.


    Fortunately Nathan was no longer playing as long as he did last week, since this week he and his group were back to raiding dungeons, but there were still some Diamond Rank E Players.


    I was currently in Diamond Rank 1, just one win short of moving up to Master Rank.


    My opponent was also at Diamond Rank 1, and is one of the Players I believe to be E Rank Players outside the game.


    Even if these Players weren''t as good as me, because they played a lot more than me they also improved considerably, and in a game where luck also influenced the outcome, even if I was a better Player, I still often lost games.


    Sure, my win rate was very high, otherwise I wouldn''t be Top 1 in the game, but I also lost games if I wasn''t careful.


    And this was one of the games where the duel was very close.


    My hero was Grand Mage Lyna Proudstone, while my opponent was using Chief Warrior Shogar.


    During the game I managed to damage him and destroy several of his creatures using my spells and traps, but the price I paid was that my HP was now extremely low.


    ''If I stay on the defensive, I''ll probably lose next turn...'' I thought as I watched my opponent play his turn.


    ''Please deck, if you listen to me, give me a good card to deal with this situation...'' I practically prayed for luck.


    My opponent quickly ended his turn, summoning a powerful Lava Giant with 8 attack and 10 life before ending his turn.


    If I couldn''t deal with this giant, I''d really lose in the next round...


    Picking up a card at the start of my turn, as soon as I saw the card I had received a huge smile appeared on my face.


    The legendary card given as a reward for last Saturday''s event!


    A spell card that costs 8 mana to play, but has the effect of randomly ''finding'' the guardian among any of the cards on the board.


    If the chosen card is mine, my card will receive the ''provoke'' effect and 2 more HP points to protect me, but the real legendary effect of this card is that if the chosen guardian is a card of my opponent, that card becomes mine and comes to my side of the board.


    ''Please choose that card...'' I practically prayed again as I stared at the Relic flying over the board until a light finally fell on the Lava Giant!


    ¡°Yes!¡± I shouted excitedly.


    At the same time, my opponent sighed when he saw where this was heading and didn''t even wait for his giant to move to my side of the board, pressing ''surrender'' and giving up the game completely.


    With this victory I finally left Diamond and became a Master Rank Player!


    This message didn''t just appear for me, but for all Runestone Players at that moment.


    Not just the Online Players, but even a post on FrostHaven''s Whisper with an image of a leaderboard.


    Looking at this table that the game unlocked, I saw that there were 199 empty spaces and only one filled one, the first place, with my name written there!


    '' I thought excitedly, feeling an honor and glory that I''d never felt with anything else before.


    Even when I studied for exams at school and got the best grade in the class, I didn''t feel as great an honor as I was feeling now... after all, I wasn''t competing with just 50 people in my class, but more than 5,000 people who play the game every day!


    As I rose in rank, the border of my profile also changed from the beautiful bright blue that was Diamond, to a mystical and noble purple that represented a Master.


    Looking at the stream chat, the viewers were celebrating more than me, emotes being sent non-stop by them, causing a big smile to appear on my face.


    After celebrating for a few minutes, I decided to play another game to see how far I could get and see if it would be possible to rank up again after the Master Rank.


    I was expecting the game to take at least three minutes to find an opponent for me, the average time I had expected before, but this time my opponent was found instantly!


    To my surprise, my opponent''s profile had no Rank border, as if he had never played a Ranked game in his life.


    ''What''s going on, did I make a bug happen in the system?'' I asked myself shocked.


    The opposing player''s name was just two letters, [FH], which confused me even more.


    But when the game started and I saw what my opponent looked like, I was shocked.


    I knew him!


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 36 – FH

    Even though I didn''t specifically know my opponent''s name from the last time I met him, since back then the game didn''t even have the option for Players to choose names, I still recognized that striking appearance!


    Straight black hair, bright green eyes, a striking black bandana on his forehead below his hair, the same black sweatshirt he wore the last time we played, and a confident smile.


    This was my first opponent in Runestone, the Player who I believed was not just a Player, but actually the Game Creator of this game!


    ¡°Congratulations on reaching the Master Rank, Owen, you did it faster than I thought.¡± He said politely.


    While I was shocked by his presence, the viewers in the chat were completely confused.


    I didn''t even pay attention to the chat messages and finally came back to reality. ¡°Thanks, if it hadn''t been for your tips when I first started playing, it would have taken me a lot longer to get the hang of the game.¡±


    ¡°Don''t say that, I''ve followed your talent and dedication and I can tell you that even without my help you''d still be the first Master player in the game.¡± He laughed as he shook his head.


    Curious as to why he was here, I asked, ¡°Did you come to play against me to see my skill level and congratulate me on reaching the Master Rank?¡±


    Hearing that, he neither denied nor confirmed it. ¡°I guess both, but I also have another reason. You see, I have some new cards to test and I thought it would be more interesting to test them against the best player in the game, no?¡±


    ¡°New cards?!¡± I asked excitedly, feeling my chest quicken.


    ¡°Yes, some cards that were found in the Runestone tavern. These cards haven''t been tested in the game yet and I have to decide if they''re ready to be packed into card packs so that Players can try and buy them.¡± He said as the game started and pulled out his starting cards.


    As soon as he did, I realized that the skin design on the back of his cards was unlike any I''d ever seen in the game.


    An ice blue back with a drawing of a wooden hut in the center of it.


    The quality seemed normal, without any flashy visual effects, but what that drawing represented only confirmed my doubts.


    This, coupled with his nickname being [FH], the obvious abbreviation for something we had to see every time the game opened, further confirmed for me that he was the creator of this game!


    Now the viewers in the chat also started to notice something strange.


    [Hey, what''s with the skin on his cards?]


    [I''ve never seen a player wearing that...]


    [A log cabin in a blizzard... doesn''t that look like the FrostHaven Entertainment logo?!]


    [Yoo, and this Player''s nickname looks like an abbreviation for FrostHaven...] sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Couple that with the fact that Owen said this dude taught him how to play the game, who could teach the best Runestone player other than the game''s creator?]


    [Broo, he said he''s going to test new cards, aren''t those the cards that are going to come in the next update of the game?!]


    [Damn, I have to call my friends to see this!]


    [Shit, my friends are in a dungeon right now, they''re going to die of rage when they find out they''ve missed something like this!]


    [Owen, for fuck''s sake, don''t delete the VOD from this stream, I need to be able to watch it again later!]


    As the Players realized this, they started inviting friends over while FH and I chatted, causing the number of viewers to rise rapidly every few seconds.


    800 viewers... 850 viewers... 900 viewers... 950 viewers... 1,050 viewers...


    Looking at my cards, I quickly made my choice and played a simple ''Little Arcane Golem'', one of the most common basic cards in Wizard decks, and ended my turn.


    When FH played his card, I was already surprised to see a completely new card with mechanics I''ve never seen in the game!


    [Name:


    Type: Creature


    Mana Cost: 2


    Attack/Defense: 1/4


    Ability:Blessed by Light - Whenever this card is healed, deal 1 damage to a random enemy.


    Flavor Description:


    ]


    This card... I''m sure this card doesn''t exist in Runestone yet!


    What makes me more certain of this is that I''ve never seen any card or spell that allowed the Player to heal a card or heal himself!


    Curious, I looked at his profile and saw that instead of showing an image of the Magician Lyna or the Warrior Shogar, his profile only had a ¡°?¡±, without showing anyone''s image.


    Trying to see the name of that hero, the only thing that came up was ¡°???¡±.


    Curious, I asked, ¡°Which hero are you using?¡±


    Hearing my question, he looked up from the cards in his hand and smiled at me. ¡°I''m not using Lyna or Shogar.¡±


    I rolled my eyes when I heard this, since I had already realized it, but the viewers in the chat were shocked by this revelation.


    ¡°Is this hero you''re using one of the two heroes mentioned in Whisper''s post?¡± I asked curiously, trying to understand this better.


    To my question, he just nodded, without saying anything else.


    Out of curiosity I looked at his skill to see if I could find any more information, and to my surprise his skill really was different from the two current skills in the game!


    [Hero Skill: Restorative Healing


    Mana Cost: 2


    Description: Heal 2 life points from any target.


    Flavor Description:


    ]


    This description of the skill shocked me even more.


    ¡°This healing skill is the complete opposite of Lyna''s skill?!¡± I said in surprise, drawing the viewers'' attention to it as well.


    FrostHaven just smirked in front of me but didn''t say anything about my comment.


    Seeing these new cards, new skills and thinking about the new possibilities of combos I could make or face made me very excited.


    My mind quickly started thinking about which cards would be the best to deal with Healers and before I knew it, the game was flying by.


    During the rounds, FH was using both old cards and some new cards that I had never seen before.


    Even though I don''t have all the cards, I believe I''ve seen all the cards in the game being played by my opponents, so I''m sure these new cards that FH is using are all new cards that will be coming next season.


    Not only were the cards exclusive to Healers, but there were also cards that would synergize very well with my Mage Deck, or even cards that would be very useful to use against a Warrior Deck!


    At the end of the game I just looked at the field and realized that despite being the best Player among the regular Players, my knowledge and experience of Runestone still didn''t compare with the creator of the game.


    Even more so when he had cards at his disposal that I didn''t even know about.


    But it was a very fun game.


    Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, even though I lost the game, when the game ended I didn''t lose any RP, but gained +1, leaving me with a total of 2 Ranked Points!


    Turning my attention to the stream now that FH was no longer here, I realized that my viewer count had risen from 800 people initially to 2,780 people!


    The chat was completely crazy with players playing Runestone excited about what they had just seen, players who wanted to play Runestone but couldn''t because they lived in another state, and ordinary people excited and envious wanting to play the game too.


    Since there was nothing I could do to appease them and I didn''t want to miss the opportunity to win over this new audience, I started explaining to them how it was the first time I played against FrostHaven, when I didn''t even know he was the creator of the game.


    A few hundred people left the live stream as soon as the game was over, but many still stayed to hear my story.


    While I was talking to the audience on the stream, clips of what had just happened began to spread across the internet, gaining a lot of attention for the game and for the next update that was to come.


    And not to miss out on the hype, a new post appeared on FrostHaven Entertainment''s Whipser.


    I have to say that when I saw this publication on stream, everyone was shocked.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 37 – Plans

    - Theo POV -


    The comments on FrostHaven Entertainment''s post were buzzing.


    Reading the comments, a smile appeared on my face.


    This reaction from the Players was exactly what I was hoping for.


    I knew that although other games updated regularly, the Game Creators didn''t focus as much on the game and on improving the Players'' enjoyment as I was doing, so their surprise at so many new things in the game was a lot of fun.


    Suddenly a notification popped up on my cell phone.


    [Congratulations Game Creator Theo Brooks, your entry to the California Game Federation has been approved and your game ''Runestone'' will be available on our website within 4 hours].


    That was great news!


    Runestone''s growth over the last few days, although still satisfactory, was dropping considerably.


    During the game''s boom there were days when the average number of players online rose by more than a thousand, but today that number is much lower.


    Curious, using my new computer I accessed Runestone''s backend and started analyzing the game''s data.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 4,966 -> 8,044


    | Online Players: 4.389 -> 5.266


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 4.572 -> 5.486


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 5 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 490 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 329 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 119 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    Just as I imagined, even though I didn''t check the game data yesterday and let it accumulate for 2 days, the average number of Players online only increased by 914, an average of 457 more Players on the day.


    That''s definitely not a bad number and I''m very happy about it, but considering the potential I know this game has and considering that in California alone there are 3.9 Million Supernaturals, with a large part of that number being F Rank Players, I knew the game had a lot of room to develop, but that it was being limited because of the platform this had been posted on.


    The vast majority of Players weren''t even looking for new games, just focusing on the games they already knew and knew were good for their development.


    And the part of the Players who were looking for new games, the vast majority of them only looked on the California Federation''s website.


    The reason I''m generating so much hype for Season 01 of Runestone is that I want the game to become popular, popular to the point that even those Players who aren''t looking for new games will hear about Runestone and try to play it.


    Just with an average playerbase of 5.4k Players the game is already racking up 329 MP per day, imagine how that would look when the game had 10x as many Players?


    It would only be a matter of months before my game evolved from F Rank to E Rank!


    Not to mention the money it would bring in.


    With the average 5.4k Players a day I''ve already received over $700 in the last 24 hours, if the average Players went up by 10x I''d be receiving so much money that paying developers to make a version of my game for ordinary people wouldn''t be impossible either!


    | Stored Cash: $31 +$789 -> $820


    Even though I spent almost $200 buying groceries and food for home yesterday, because of the game''s high turnover I already had enough money not to worry about it for a while again.


    Seeing that figure rise daily was very satisfying.


    Looking around my new home, I was in a bit of a quandary.


    ''Should I just cope with this lifestyle, living like this for a few more weeks using only the basics in order to raise the money for a new Game Core as quickly as possible, or first improve my comfort with this money and only once I''m comfortable do I buy the Game Core?''


    I was very uncertain about this.


    On the one hand, the new Game Core would speed up my development as a Game Creator, helping me climb to the E Rank faster.


    An F Rank Game Creator had from 20 MP to 500 MP, after the 500 MP threshold was crossed, the Mana Core inside our body would evolve, making us reach the E Rank.


    Going up to E Rank meant a great qualitative improvement in our Mana.


    A Game Creator F Rank would use 100 MP to develop something, while a Game Creator E Rank would only need 50 MP to develop the same thing.


    Adding this to the even greater volume of Mana they have, from this point alone you can see that Game Creators E Rank games are at a much higher level than F Ranks like me.


    The problem is that accumulating 500 MP while only receiving 2 MP a day from Runestone, with the 82 MP I already have, would mean waiting another 209 days to rank up, a long time indeed...


    During those 209 days, Runestone''s Game Creator would surely evolve, unlocking the option for the game to receive E Rank Players, charge them 2 MP more per hour and receive an even greater profit, but which I wouldn''t be able to touch until I also became an E Rank Game Creator...


    Thinking along these lines, I looked at my completely empty new apartment and sighed, accepting the reality that I would be living.


    '' I thought as I motivated myself to follow this path.


    Even though I was living in a much bigger, more luxurious and well-located place than the college dormitory I was living in, I would have to live here with less luxury and comfort than I did before, which is very ironic.


    I thought contentedly as I looked at my fridge full of tasty food that I could prepare.


    I laughed at the thought.


    Not letting it get me down, I started to do my routine.


    Using 78 MP to develop the day''s 6 cards, then using the remaining 4 MP to develop small details for the next game update.


    After this update session, I picked up my books on Magic and Game Crating and started my study session.


    Without a decent desk, I had to use the kitchen counter to study, which is also where I put my computer.


    When I got tired of studying here, I would take my books and go to bed and study there for a few more hours.


    Even though my focus on studying was intense, I still scheduled a few breaks in the day to read player comments, see how the game was reacting and cook myself something to eat.


    When I got bored, I''d watch some show on my computer or cell phone, or go down from my apartment to walk on the beach.


    As we were now in summer, the sea water was very pleasant, serving very well as a fun distraction so that my head didn''t fry from just thinking about Game Creating.


    Having so much time alone and my mind free to think made me miss my otherworldly family. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Although we weren''t as close as I would have liked, it was still fun to have family events to go to, such as weekend barbecues at my uncle''s house, or family lunches at my grandmother''s house.


    Remembering that there was a barbecue on the balcony of my apartment, I thought I''d buy some meat and have a barbecue tonight to thank Victoria for the pot of food she gave me when I arrived.


    Sure, I wouldn''t have the guts to invite her over to eat when my place didn''t even have comfortable chairs, but I could still separate some of the meat and give it to her in the pink pot she''d lent me.


    Having decided that, I quickly went to the market to buy some meat and started roasting it as soon as I got home.


    Using some spices I''d learned from my uncle, I was confident it would be delicious.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 38 – Power of Music

    Being able to make my own barbecue at home was more fun than I imagined.


    I was the master of the grill, the meat would be done to my liking, there was no one to complain about how I was doing it, if I made a mistake there would be no one to make fun of it. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was a new and interesting experience.


    While I roasted the meat, I took out my bottle of whiskey and made myself a very small glass, not wanting to get drunk, and put on some fun music.


    The music of this world followed a different development path from the other world.


    While rock was a sensation in the 60s in my other world, in this world rock was never a big thing, with pop dominating the classics.


    That was funny, but the songs weren''t bad.


    As a big rock fan, I missed some of the songs in that style that I loved so much, but there was nothing I could do about it, right?


    It''s not like I could use my job as Game Creator to bring the songs I loved so much from my other world into this one... right?


    The more I thought about it, the more I began to doubt my own assertion.


    ...'' I began to think, taking this idea more and more seriously.


    Out of curiosity, I started researching music and rhythm games in this world and realized that there was nothing like that.


    As games in this world followed the path of practicality and repetitive training, music was never considered in games.


    Even I ignored this in the development of Runestone, realizing that I had made the mistake of making the game''s tavern completely silent.


    '' I realized in shock.


    Since only Game Creators could develop games, music could only be played in games if it was done by Game Creators, and importing an mp3 file into the game didn''t work, since the game wasn''t a digital program like in my other world.


    There were several very interesting music games there.


    Games where the Player had to dance to the beat of the music, or where the Player took part in a band and used instrument-shaped controls to play the songs they liked, games where the Player needed incredible control and precision to click on circles that appeared on the screen synchronized with the beat of the music.


    And not only were games where music was the main focus, but when it came to Game Design, the music in the games was one of the most important parts of the Player''s experience.


    There were games with soundtracks so good that they won awards in competition with movies and series.


    Imagine what the original games would have been like without such immersive music?


    So a priority I would give to Season 01 would be to develop music for Runestone.


    I thought curiously.


    I thought even more excitedly.


    Runestone''s biggest shortcoming was that the game had no way for Players to practice their combat, only serving to increase the stats of those who played.


    Because of this, most of my Players still played other games to improve their combat skills, even if the other games weren''t fun.


    But if I could make a game like this fun, I could at least convince the Runestone Players to play, which would already guarantee me at least 200 MP a day to increase my maximum MP, by convincing them to play the other boring games they play.


    '' I thought as I took a piece of meat off the grill.


    ¡°I think the meat should be perfect by now.¡± I thought as I turned the knife in my hand and cut the meat on the board.


    By coincidence, as soon as I hit the meat with the knife, the beat of the music synchronized perfectly with the movement of the knife, making a very satisfying sensation happen.


    When I realized this, I froze.


    ¡° I started to get excited.


    To improve the quality of the training, I could replace the colored boxes that the Players had to attack with an opponent that they had to defend against.


    This opponent could use different styles of weapons, but would always move to the beat of the music to attack the Players.


    In order to deal with the opponent, and earn points, the Players would have to attack at the bright weak spots on the opponent''s body or defend themselves from their attacks at the right moments.


    As long as I synchronized these movements with the rhythm of the music I used, I would make for an extremely fun and very effective training session for the Players to practice!


    Thinking about how satisfying it was to cut up that piece of meat to the beat of the music, having the Players face off against opponents for the duration of a song while battling to the exact beat of it would certainly have great appeal for the Players!


    I thought.


    Developing a game with the scope I envisioned would be extremely expensive in terms of MP.


    The enemies couldn''t have an Artificial Intelligence, only defending and attacking with movements synchronized with the music, which would reduce the MP cost of developing this, but for the game to be interesting I would have to make several songs available, which would have to work with several weapons for the enemies and for the Players, creating a huge amount of variations for each song.


    '' I thought as I put that concern aside.


    The use of False Neurological Feedback in Runestone also made that game extremely expensive for me, costing 1.4k MP just to develop the game''s initial 104 cards, not to mention everything else.


    Even if the next game was too expensive, I''d just need more time to develop it.


    Imagining the Players'' reaction to playing the new game for the first time gave me a lot of motivation, so I stopped worrying about how much it would cost.


    As I continued to make the barbecue, I started trying to cut the meat to the rhythm of the music, just for fun, and this made the barbecuing process even more fun.


    Separating the best bits of the meat I''d just cut, I put it all in the pink pot Victoria had lent me and went to the door of her apartment.


    I rang the bell.


    In a few seconds the door opened, with Victoria looking at me in surprise.


    ¡°Theo? What''s wrong? Do you need help?¡± She asked.


    Smiling as I nodded, I held out my hand and handed her the pink pot she''d lent me. ¡°I told you I''d return your pot with something I''d prepared, so here it is. Today I felt like having a barbecue to try out the grill on the balcony and I decided to give you back the pot filled with some meat I''ve prepared.¡±


    Hearing this, Victoria was surprised as she opened the pot and saw several pieces of freshly roasted meat.


    ¡°Oh my God Theo, you didn''t have to do that, but thank you so much! My daughter was crazy about barbecue, when she stops playing I''m going to call her to eat this barbecue with me.¡± She smiled as she spoke.


    But I was surprised to hear it.


    ¡° I was confused.


    ''Ohh, you live with your daughter? I thought it was just you, so I just sorted out this amount of meat, I''ll go back home and prepare some more so you can share.¡± I said.


    Hearing this, Victoria was surprised and quickly tried to deny it. ¡°No need Theo, we eat very little, that''s enough.¡±


    But I didn''t accept that and gave another explanation. ¡°Your daughter is a Player, right? She''ll need to develop her muscles to deal with the monsters in the dungeons, and there''s nothing better than protein to develop muscles, so don''t refuse, the meat is already ready on the barbecue, I''ll just need to cut it up.¡±


    Listening to my explanation and realizing that it really made sense for her daughter''s development, Victoria sighed and accepted my logic.


    ¡°Okay, but let me get another pot, just a moment.¡± She said as she ran into the kitchen.


    Looking at Victoria leaving, I couldn''t help but be surprised at how young she looked.


    To have a daughter of Player age, her daughter had to be at least 18, which meant that Victoria should have been around 40, but she only looked 30.


    Looking at her apartment again, I realized what a stark difference it was from mine.


    The living room of her apartment was fully decorated with lots of beautiful, planned furniture, giving the place a cozy, homey feel, whereas my apartment looked more like an abandoned shed...


    I thought, not very confident in my interior design skills.


    Victoria quickly returned with a new pot and handed it to me, prompting me to go back to my apartment and cut up some more meat and hand it to her.


    ¡°Thanks a lot Theo, when I make something tasty I''ll send it to you too.¡± She said after we said goodbye and I went back to my apartment.


    Now alone, I spent the rest of the evening just thinking about how I could develop the new game in the best possible way, both for the Players and for me.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 39 – Update Day!

    It''s been 8 days since the first barbecue I had in my new house.


    In those 8 days many things have happened.


    The first thing that had a big effect on me was that my Mana went up from the original 82 MP to the current 99 MP!


    An increase of 17 units of Mana, with 16 MP coming from the game''s Mana conversion and 1 MP from False Neurological Feedback because I left the game generating Mana for me the whole time I was awake.


    Not only did my Mana develop a lot these days, but my body was getting better and better.


    Even though I didn''t do any physical training, my body was developing a lot.


    I didn''t have a muscular body, and that wasn''t even my goal, but my muscle density was getting very good, to the point that I found myself admiring myself in the mirror more and more often, proud of what I was seeing.


    With my body developing in this way, I was gradually becoming comfortable going to the beach and going shirtless to dive into the sea, or to get a tan.


    Although there were Supernaturals in this world and they had much more developed bodies than normal people, Supernaturals were still in the minority, so an aesthetically pleasing body still stood out from the crowd.


    Yesterday when I was leaving the sea and going to my things on the sand, I could hear two girls talking nicely about me in a low voice while looking at me discreetly.


    Because of my Mana-enhanced body, I could hear a little better than normal people, so I listened and looked at them to make sure I''d heard right, causing them to laugh even more and look away in embarrassment.


    It was the first time anything like this had happened to me in my two lives, also making me embarrassed and making me hurry home.


    While the ''me'' of this world was a complete virgin, the ''me'' of the other world had had a few experiences with girls, but I had to win them over much more because of my lip than because of my looks.


    I wasn''t ugly, since the basic appearance of the two bodies was the same, but I was much fatter in the other world.


    Receiving female attention so easily showed me that when you look good, everything really does become easier for you, making me regret not having trained my body in the other world.


    But stopping to talk about me, another thing that changed in these eight days was that Runestone finally became available on the California Federation''s website yesterday, causing the game that had been gaining fewer and fewer new players per day, to start growing again at a high rate, slightly surpassing the previous growth of that!


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 8,044 -> 12,870


    | Online Players: 5.266 -> 9.513


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 5.486 -> 8.777


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Average Session Time: 5 hours


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 490 -> 2,185 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 329 -> 526 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 119 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    Looking at the growth of the game on a regular basis, this didn''t seem so big, but now looking at the comparison of the total growth of the last 8 days I was surprised.


    It was an increase of more or less 60% on the previous figure!


    Not only was the amount of total Mana the game yielded now large enough for me to be able to accumulate a lot of Mana to evolve my Game Core, but the growth in Players was also very satisfying!


    Another big change that happened was in my wallet, where I was able to go from being a broke man to having 4 digits in my wallet again, and I''m very close to breaking the 5-digit barrier!


    | Stored Cash: $820 + $8,208 -> $9,028


    From the average of $789 I received on the day I had the barbecue to the $1,263 I received today.


    Even if the game didn''t grow and just maintained the current number of Players, my monthly salary would already have risen to $37,890, and as much as I wanted to keep being excited about it, I was even more excited to know that this amount would only grow more and more.


    ...'' I thought as I looked at the projected income that Runestone would have.


    Sure, the development of the game would be long-term, since there were no game engines focused on game development like in my other world, which would slow down the development of the game a lot, increasing the amount I would have to spend on salaries before the game would pay off.


    So when I went to open the game studio for normal people at FrostHaven Entertainment, I would need a lot of money saved up.


    With that decided, I stopped focusing on this increase in statistics and turned my attention to Game Core.


    In Game Core I had access to everything I had developed over the last few days.


    The first and most expensive was 121 new cards for the game, which would increase the total number of cards available in the game to 240.


    Another new development was the default skins for the two new heroes released in the game.


    A beautiful girl with blonde hair, blue eyes and an innocent smile, dressed in a white and gold cloak with a delicate veil on her head.


    Faith Sunwhisper, the Veil of Redemption.


    The other hero was a man with dark gray skin, pointed ears, white hair, red eyes, pointing a bow at the camera while looking at the Player with a cold expression like a hunter looking at his prey.


    Ashen Darkbow, the Dark Arrow.


    The aesthetics of these two characters were extremely beautiful, to the point that I even looked at Lyna and Shogar''s original designs and had to rework their art to match the more beautiful and refined style of the two new heroes.


    But when I looked at the end result and saw how beautiful these 4 new artworks looked together, I had a big proud smile on my face.


    Sure, I didn''t have the skills to develop such beautiful art, it was all done with the help of the System.


    Even though I had to spend MP to compensate for my lack of art skills, the cost wasn''t too high, as it was relatively simple to do.


    The skin for Lyna was also completed.


    The Great Demon Mage, Lyna Evilstone.


    Unlike Lyna''s standard skin where she was dressed in an elegant and refined mage''s cloak, in this skin she was wearing more revealing and sexy clothes, showing more of her skin, but not to the point where it became pornographic.


    Demonic features were also present on her body, such as the sclera of her eye turning black, horns appearing on her head, and most obviously of all, a pair of bat wings and a pointed tail on her back were also complementing the look.


    To make this skin stand out even more, I even added some effects that kept moving in the image, like a Gif, which would make Players'' desire to get it even greater, even for Players who didn''t play with Lyna in the game.


    Why wouldn''t they try to get something so nice and cool in the game they liked to play? Even if they don''t play now, what''s to stop them from trying to play with her a few times to show off the beautiful skin they got?


    Even more so since I made it explicit that everything earned in this Battle Pass would be limited and only those who got the rewards by the end of Season 01 would be able to get it, with no chance of earning it in the future, I''m sure that even Players who only played Warriors would dedicate themselves to getting it, that''s how the human mind worked.


    The Fear of Missing Out is that powerful.


    Another feature of the update that I added that spent more mana than I thought it would was adding the function for Players to invite friends to their tavern and share that tavern permanently.


    To make this easier to organize, I made a Clan system in the game, where Players could create clans for free and invite friends to join, thus creating a clan tavern that Players could enter whenever they wanted, or automatically when the game was started.


    Online Player interaction features were still too expensive for a Rank F game, so even if Players could meet and chat in the tavern, the way they did in the games, they wouldn''t have physical contact or anything like that, only being able to see each other and chat as realistic holograms.


    This may seem a bit limiting now, but when Game Core evolves I could improve it.


    Another thing I added was music for the tavern.


    All the songs I added were based on the medieval theme that the tavern used, but there was scope for new songs to be added in the future, creating opportunities for collabs between Runestone and my next game.


    For the music, I just copied the music from the original Runestone from my previous world, not trying to change any of it, since I didn''t have much knowledge of music and knew that any changes I made could make the music worse rather than better.


    I thought contentedly as I listened to the music I''d made.


    With these songs playing, Players will be much more immersed in the game and perhaps increase their average playing time even more because of it. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Seeing the changes I''d made, I was curious to see how Players would react to the game.


    So I looked at the clock, set the time for the update to go online and disconnected from the game, opening the stream and Owen to see how the Players would react to the changes in Season 01!


    Read  on my Patreon!


    This novel has  being released every day !


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 40 – She’s so beautiful…

    - Natalie POV -


    While I was eating breakfast, every 30 seconds my gaze moved to the screen of my cell phone, looking at the clock and hoping that the time would pass more quickly.


    ¡°Natt, you''ve got to calm down, I know the game update is going to be fun, but looking at the clock isn''t going to make the time go any faster.¡± My mother said as she laughed a little.


    Looking at my mother, I sighed.


    I knew she was right.


    And I couldn''t even say that she didn''t understand how I was feeling because she had also become as addicted to Runestone as I had.


    Unfortunately she only had 4 MP, so she could only play Runestone for 3-4 hours a day.


    But looking at her body, I had to admit, those 3 to 4 hours of daily play over the last two weeks were already showing results.


    She was never fat, but the little fat she had left on her body was drying up fast.


    If someone looked at her now, chances are they''d think she was just my older sister instead of my mother.


    But I was happy about that.


    Because she liked Runestone so much, her plans to leave were canceled, making her stay, which was only supposed to last two weeks, now increase to a month with no deadline.


    As my father was opening some branches of the company in other countries, he spent so little time at home that it made no difference whether my mother stayed here with me or alone at their house, so she only stayed here with me when my father was traveling and I intended to stay with him at their house when he returned.


    ¡°I know, Mom. I''ll try to distract myself a bit until it''s time for the game update...¡± I said as I turned my cell phone screen down and tried to get the game out of my head.


    It was 40 minutes until the update was released and I couldn''t stop thinking about it.


    Hearing what I said, my mother laughed even harder, making me roll my eyes.


    ¡°You know, I find it strange that you decided to live alone to become a Player, but you haven''t gone out to raid a dungeon once this week... are you giving up on that idea?¡± She asked me with a small smile at the corner of her mouth.


    I was embarrassed by her pointing this out, since I hadn''t actually been out raiding a dungeon this week, but I had an excuse.


    ¡°So, Mom, it''s because I''m at a critical point in my Mana advancement... if I play Runestone more today and tomorrow my Mana will rise to a full 7 Mana Units, which will make me feel safer in the dungeons, which is why I told my group that I''d be off training for a week.¡± I said, trying to sound serious.


    She just looked at me laughing, and didn''t say anything else.


    After that we chatted about other things, family gossip, what we were expecting for the Runestone update, some stories about a neighbor, new dishes she was learning to make, and random things.


    Before I knew it, my cell phone beeped with a new notification. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Looking at the screen, I was shocked by what I saw.


    I didn''t even finish reading this notification and quickly ran to my room and entered my conscience into Player Core to connect to the game.


    After the FrostHaven logo disappeared from the screen, I was in the Runestone tavern.


    What surprised me was that unlike when I connected to the game before, where I found myself in the calm and quiet tavern, this time I started to hear some very interesting music!


    '' I realized and found it very amusing.


    Unbeknownst to me, this music alone made me even more excited to see what would come next in the game.


    Looking around quickly, the appearance of the tavern hadn''t changed, but there was a new notice board on the wall.


    '' I thought excitedly.


    Walking quickly over to it, I looked at the quests and saw that this was very similar to the quests that the event had, but with some quests that updated daily that weren''t in the event, since it only lasted one day.


    Turning my gaze to the rewards, I was shocked at how many there were!


    The most basic rewards were packs of cards!


    From what I''d seen in the quests, as long as I played a few games a day I could get a card pack reward to open every day without spending any gold coins!


    '' I thought excitedly, until I remembered FrostHaven''s post warning that 140 new cards would be added in this update.


    After the card packs, the first different reward was a cute little red ball decoration with horns for me to decorate my board with!


    '' I thought excitedly.


    Looking at the next different reward, I saw a card back skin!


    The skin was very pretty, with black and red details as if it had come straight from hell!


    Compared to the Phoenix Skin I got for inviting 10 people, this skin was a bit poor... but when I looked at the next pages and saw that this skin was evolving in the next rewards, receiving fire particles that floated on the back of it, even a small pair of holographic wings and a tail that stayed on the back of it, I took that back and was impressed by the beauty of it.


    In some ways this skin was even better than the skin I got for inviting 10 people, but in other ways my current skin was better, making me excited about the new skin, but not wanting to completely abandon the skin I already had.


    I thought happily.


    The next reward that caught my eye made my heart stop for a second.


    ...'' I thought in shock, quickly taking a picture of it to save it on my computer and use this artwork as my profile picture and background on my cell phone.


    My eyes were glued to the screen as I admired the beautiful demon version of Lyna that FrostHaven had made.


    Lyna looked completely different, and in a way that was impossible not to love.


    ...'' I thought as I realized that this was simply perfect.


    Lyna was already very beautiful in the game before, but with this new skin, and seeing that just like the card back skin, this Lyna skin could evolve the further I progressed in the Battle Pass, I was shocked to see her final form.


    Her beautiful wings flapping slightly, her tail swaying slowly and seductively from side to side as she looked at me with beautiful pink eyes... it made me want to stare at her forever.


    When I finally came back to reality, I looked at the list of missions again, but now much more focused on it, trying to memorize and understand which would be the easiest missions for me to complete in order to unlock Lyna''s skin as quickly as possible.


    Having memorized the simplest missions that I could complete first, I went to my board and prepared to play, until I froze again, seeing that in addition to the option of Lyna and Shogar there were two more options for me to choose from!


    I thought excitedly, shocked by how beautiful the two new heroes were, and interested to see what the cards these two new heroes had would look like.


    Their unique cards were very interesting, perfectly matching the different playstyles they could have, which even made me want to play Faith Sunwhipser, the game''s new Healer.


    I used to think that if a Healer hero came into the game it would be pointless, but after seeing the effects of her cards I had to change my mind, if this was played well, dealing with Faith would be a major headache.


    Returning to the selection screen, I admired Faith and Ashen''s artwork for a few more seconds, especially Ashen, who is very handsome... until I turned my gaze to Lyna, wanting to choose her to play, but I was surprised to notice that something was different.


    Confused, I also looked at Shogar and realized that he was slightly different too...


    Looking quickly, I didn''t notice that anything was different, but paying attention to both of them, I felt that something had changed.


    I had to look for a good 15 seconds before I noticed some differences between Lyna''s current artwork and the original.


    ¡° I thought in surprise.


    Finally clicking on Lyna and deciding to play a Casual Match, I wasn''t surprised to realize that my first opponent would be a boy a little younger than me using the new hero, Ashen.


    Unfortunately, although they were both archers, the boy had none of the aura that Ashen had, leaving me disappointed.


    Thinking about the archer in my group in real life, I realized that he didn''t have Ashen''s aura either, which made me realize that perhaps I had too many expectations after seeing this character.


    Putting these thoughts aside, I turned my attention to the game, excited to see how this Player would use Ashen''s new cards and skills in battle.


    Just like me, thousands of other Players were now online, excited to see all the changes to the game, causing Runestone''s popularity to skyrocket to an all-time high, exploding in popularity even among normal people, who at that moment were watching various streams to find out what was new in this very interesting game.


    Read  on my Patreon!


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 41 – New Rank

    Honestly, I thought this update would serve more to bring the attention and focus of Players who have already played Runestone back to the game, but I was surprised by how many new Players were downloading and trying Runestone.


    In the evening I got curious about this and went online to find some comments to find out why.


    Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The Players'' reaction to the Battle Pass engagement method was exactly what I imagined would happen.


    I laughed as I read the comments.


    The doubts that Players were having about the growth that each new class would have was the kind of silly question that happened in every game.


    Even though it was explicitly explained in the patchnotes I released with the update, obviously many players wouldn''t read it and would go online and ask, hoping for an easy answer from someone who had taken the trouble to read it.


    That''s why I didn''t even bother answering that kind of question and left it to other Players to answer.


    Another new feature that came with the update that was being used a lot was the group system!


    The groups in Runestone could fit up to 15 people, which led to several group taverns springing up, some already full with 15 people, others being divided by just 2 people, but everyone was extremely happy with this update.


    With my Admin rights I was able to snoop around these taverns and see how the Players were reacting to it, and everything was going very well.


    Most of the Players were just chatting and having fun with friends.


    Strange was when I went into a tavern where there were only two people and realized that the two people were having a good time, but the way they were having a good time was not the way taverns were intended to be.


    Apparently these two Players were dating long-distance, living in different cities, so they took advantage of Runestone being able to see each other in person in a realistic way and took the opportunity to have more... intense conversations.


    ...'' I thought relieved.


    The limitation of this being just a game was that the game copied the clothes the Player was wearing in the real world as long as the clothes covered a certain percentage of the Player''s skin, and if the clothes worn in the real world were more revealing than allowed, the Player''s clothes would automatically be changed to the game''s default clothes.


    I had to do this when developing the game to prevent exhibitionist freaks from playing naked and trying to find an audience for their fetishes in my game.


    And since Runestone didn''t convey the sensation of touch, there was no way for Players to cross physical boundaries in their actions.


    Sure, every Player was of age, so if they wanted to be like this couple who met in a private tavern to talk about the hottest things, I wouldn''t stop them, after all it was just words.


    I just didn''t want to allow physical actions like that to happen in the game to avoid future complications.


    After spying on a couple''s tavern in the middle of such an intimate conversation, I felt a bit bad about what I might find and didn''t try to see what was going on in other taverns anymore.


    I thought as I wiped an imaginary bead of sweat from my forehead.


    Putting that aside, I returned to the real world and looked at the game stats on the computer screen with satisfaction.


    The growth of the game was very good, with almost all the Players who had already downloaded the game coming online to try out the changes in the update.


    Looking at the money that so many online Players were generating for me every hour, I was getting excited.


    ...'' I realized as I calculated how much money I had now and how much I would probably earn over the next few days.


    As I limited my use of my money to the maximum, I was only living on the minimum, sure, still buying quality food, but limiting any kind of spending on luxury goods that I would have.


    Even though I was earning a lot of money, my cell phone still wasn''t the latest cell phone on the market, my computer was satisfactory but also not the most powerful on the market, my house had nothing but a bed, a fridge, a stove, a shower, a computer and a barbecue grill.


    I had a lot of empty space where I lived, something that was constantly preventing me from considering this new house as my ''home''.


    As I intended to live here for a long time, as soon as I bought the new Game Core my priority would change from just saving money to starting to spend my money decorating my house and making it more cozy.


    -


    The next day, after waking up and washing up, I rushed to the computer on the kitchen worktop and looked at the game stats.


    I wanted to see how impactful the update was on the game compared to the development of it in the previous days.


    '' I thought excitedly.


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 12,870 -> 18,018


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 8,777 -> 11,410


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 2,185 -> 2,669 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 526 -> 684 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available Cards: 240 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    '' I was shocked to look at the increase in numbers.


    Previously, the proportion of average Players and total Players grew in parallel, because the Players who played the game previously were mostly more experienced F Rank Players who had enough Mana to spend a lot of time in the game.


    Now that the game was public on the Federation''s website, among the new Players, a large proportion were people who had little Mana and could only play a few hours a day, which meant that the time they could play per day wasn''t very high and that the average number of Players online didn''t grow as much as the total number of Players.


    But that was still satisfactory.


    Even if the average number of Players only grew by 2% a day, over time that figure would still be monstrous, let alone while it''s still so high that it grows by 30% in a single day!


    With so much Mana accumulated in the Game Core, I was getting confident that it might actually evolve faster than I had imagined?


    With how fast the game was developing, I was curious to see how it ranked on the Federation''s website.


    The Federation Website had several different ranks, a general Stats Rank of all the F Rank games on the site, smaller Ranks dividing games by training categories, Ranks based on some other criteria, or the Rank I was currently in, the Rank for New Games.


    The New Games Rank was nowhere near as popular as the site''s main Rank, but it was already more popular than my college''s Rank.


    When Runestone was approved for the site two days ago, my game was in the Top 10 of the New Games F Rank.


    The other games were all games by big Game Creators F Ranks, or even games by higher Rank Game Creators trying to make a game to evolve the Game Core.


    Being in the top 10 most popular New F Rank Games released recently was a great achievement.


    But with the game''s update and the huge increase in the number of Players the game has had recently, I was confident that I had moved up a few Ranks.


    1st - [Arrow Rain Dodge Training!]


    2nd - [Sandstorm Swordfighting Training!]


    3rd - [Precision Aim Training with Moving Magic!]


    4th - [Reflex Training in Illusory Labyrinth!]


    5th - [Training for Quick Blocking against Explosive Blows!]


    6th - [Training for Surprise Attacks in Enchanted Forest!]


    7th - [Runestone]


    8th - [Freezing Field Quick Defense Training!]


    9th - [Training...]


    Just from the titles of the games in this Rank you could see the difference in the quality and investment of the Game Creators when making these games.


    While the games in the college competition were just simple workouts with no big draw, not only were the workouts proposed in these current games more complex and creative, but Game Creators used other ways to attract Players.


    For example, the Rank 1 game must have spent a few thousand MP to develop a training that simulated a rain of arrows and did it in a productive way so that Players would actually get better at dealing with it.


    The Rank 2 game must have used thousands of MP to develop a realistic desert and a well-made sandstorm to attract Players to train in this environment.


    The Top 4 and Top 6, on the other hand, invested a lot of MP to develop the setting for a Labyrinth full of illusions or an enchanted forest with various traps and beautiful scenery.


    Even if they didn''t focus on the Players'' enjoyment directly, these Game Creators still knew how to attract Players with beautiful visuals and interesting things to keep them playing as long as possible.


    I was thrilled to see that.


    Moving up 3 places in just 3 days was already great! The higher my rank, the more visibility Runestone would get and the more it would grow.


    The Rank 1 game had over 30,000 Players online playing it now, which may seem like a very large and challenging number for me who was competing with a Game Creator who was promoting this game of his on several other games he had published, I was confident that I would be able to pass this game of his in no time.


    The problem was that while I was thrilled to see my game climbing the rankings so quickly, there were people who weren''t so pleased to see it...


    Read  on my Patreon!


    Patreon.com/NunuXD

 42 – Copies…

    Ever since the Runestone update was released, the FrostHaven account had become quite popular, with dozens, if not hundreds of new messages reaching me every day.


    Among these messages, some were from Players thanking me for the game, others were from Players giving me ideas on how the game could be improved, others were from Players asking for other classes to be added to the game.


    There were even some news sites wanting to set up interviews with me, but because I didn''t feel the need at the moment, I just ignored them for the time being and focused on continuing to develop some new ideas I had for the next update of the game.


    Two days after the release of Season 01, I received a strange message in the DM of my Whisper account.


    Reading this message, I was surprised.


    '' I wondered.


    Curious, I searched for this game on the Federation Rank and saw that this game was not small, having been in development for three years and having a total of 18,000 Players online, which for an ordinary training game, was a great number.


    But on the game''s initial sales page, what was most striking was that instead of the game advertising the mechanics it had for Players'' training development, as it usually did, the focus of this page was to advertise their Battle Pass!


    [Venture into [Sword Training against Gigantic Monsters] and unlock epic rewards!


    Get ready for an incredible experience with daily challenges, exclusive rewards and lots of unlockable content. The Battle Pass is here to make your journey through the game even more exciting.


    What is the Battle Pass?


    The Battle Pass brings you special missions and unique rewards that you can unlock as you play. With each level, you get exclusive weapon skins and awesome decorations to make you look even cooler as you slay the Giant Monsters!]


    It was only after these three paragraphs above the game description that Game Creator began to advertise the game and explain what it was really about.


    Downloading the game and trying to understand how it worked, I was shocked to realize that this Game Creator even copied the quest board I used in Runestone, even if it didn''t quite fit with getting stuck in a tree!


    As the day went on, more and more messages from Players warning me about copies like this were arriving on my Whisper account.


    But these messages weren''t just about this game, but about several different games!


    And the worst thing about it was that some messages from Players in other states were arriving too, which meant that other Game Creators in other states were keeping an eye on Runestone and were ready to copy whatever was making the game work.


    And since I couldn''t post the game in their states yet, they would practically be the inventors of it...


    Runestone''s growth over the last two days has been monstrous, increasing the average number of players online by 35%, and the total number of players who have tried the game by an even greater amount.


    For a world where the vast majority of games took years to reach this number of Players, or where only recent games endorsed by big companies managed to reach this level, my game was being a dark horse skyrocketing in popularity without depending on anyone.


    Apparently the other Game Creators also realized this and tried to start copying me to achieve the same result...


    '' I asked myself thoughtfully.


    I didn''t want to let it go without doing anything, so I needed to take action that would either affect them, or benefit me greatly.


    Copyright in this world was very strict, but after researching how it worked, I understood why so many games in my other world used this game mechanic.


    Because a game mechanic like the Battle Pass, while innovative overall, was just a different way of interpreting missions that Players could complete in order to receive rewards.


    That in itself wasn''t unique to the Battle Pass and couldn''t be patented.


    ...'' I sighed as I looked at the list of games that were copying me non-stop.


    For the time being, these other games were just starting to copy the game, without the Players knowing very well how it worked and where it came from, so I had to be quick.


    Opening my DM box again, I started looking for all the news sites that had tried to contact me and accepted interviews from the biggest sites.


    While the vast majority of the sites weren''t very big, there were some relatively large sites with a national reach that could be useful in helping me spread the image I wanted to other states.


    I thought.


    As the interviews would be online, I managed to organize all the interviews for tomorrow afternoon.


    For the rest of the day I just kept observing the development of the games that were copying my Battle Pass and realized that despite a much slower growth rate than Runestone, these games were constantly growing.


    .


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Game Status: Runestone


    |-----------------------------------------


    | Total Players: 18,018 -> 24,783


    | Average Players Online (24 hours): 11.410 -> 15.061


    | Game Rank: Rank F


    | Mana per Hour (Players): 1 unit


    | Mana Stored in Game Core: 2,669 -> 3,951 units


    | Mana Yield (24 hours): 684 -> 902 units


    | Conversion Rate: 80% (New players who become regulars)


    |------------------------


    | Available cards: 240 (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary)


    | Cards Used per Match (Average): 17


    |-----------------------------------------


    The growth of the game was great, with the amount of daily Mana the game yielded almost reaching 1k.


    With such rapid growth, it would only be a matter of days before Runestone''s Game Core evolved into a Game Core E Rank!


    The money the game has made in the last two days has also been very good, increasing my total money saved to over $14k, bringing me very close to being able to buy another Game Core.


    Normally other Game Creators would only buy three or four F Rank Game Creators before moving up to E Rank and starting to buy E Rank Game Creators.


    Considering how difficult it was to make popular F Rank games and how much more profitable E Rank games were, it was better for them to buy higher Rank Game Cores and accelerate their own growth than to waste time making lower Rank games.


    But that was a problem I wasn''t worried about dealing with.


    With innovative game ideas from another world, I was confident of making the F Rank games I developed popular to the point where Game Cores would evolve.


    -


    The next day, as soon as I woke up, the first thing I did was put on a tracksuit and go for a run on the beach.


    As my house was still empty and I had nothing to do, I decided to start exercising by the beach to clear my mind and not get bored at home.


    It''s not even as if my body needed this exercise, I was just doing it to pass the time and clear my mind a little from the amount of things I had to think about and plan for my games.


    At the end of each training session I would jump into the sea and enjoy the cold water to cool off by myself for a few minutes before heading home. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Then I''d make my breakfast, organize the mess I''d made the day before at home, and start my day with a tidy house.


    It was easy to tidy up when I didn''t have much to mess up in the first place, but setting this routine now would make it easier for when I had more furniture and things to mess up at home hehe.


    At 11am my first interview would start.


    Surprisingly, the interviewer asked me if the interview could be done through Runestone.


    Despite my surprise at this strange request, I accepted and we logged into the game and joined a temporary group, which meant that we both shared the same tavern.


    Wearing the same clothes I had worn to go out with the college group to the nightclub, I was more dressed up than I normally was on a day-to-day basis, but as the clothes were cheap, I didn''t look overdressed either.


    The difference was that as it had been a few weeks since I last wore this outfit, my body had developed more muscle in that time, which made the shirt I was wearing a little tight.


    Before long, the interviewer logged on to the group and showed up at the tavern where I was waiting for her.


    When she saw me, her eyes lit up as she exclaimed.


    ¡°I knew it!¡±


    Read  on my Patreon!


    Patreon.com/NunuXD