Chapter 1: An Alternate Reality
"I'm never drinking again. This headache is killing me."
Alex Chen complained, rubbing his temple as he sat up in bed. He rubbed his still-gummy eyelids, opening them to find himself completely stunned. The surroundings were entirely unfamiliar.
"Wait..."
Before Alex could process what had happened, a torrent of memories flooded his mind.
It took him nearly an hour to assimilate them. The truth was clear. In his previous life, he was just a simple game designer. Now, not only had he transmigrated, but he had landed in an alternate reality.
According to these new memories, he didn't know at what exact point the history of this world had diverged, but it was completely different from the one Alex knew. Technological advancements had profoundly transformed every industry. Alex couldn't even begin to grasp the magnitude of the change, but it was the video game and entertainment industry that truly took his breath away.
Peace had come to the world after a war, and with the meteoric advance of technology, problems like hunger and poor healthcare from his previous life were practically a thing of the past. Economic recovery was astonishingly fast. With people no longer worried about survival and with money in their pockets, the entertainment industry naturally became the main focus of development.
And the video game industry was one of its pillars. In his previous life, video games were long considered a plague, a convenient scapegoat. This was true all over the world. 'Why are school shootings so frequent?' Because video games promote violence! So supermarkets couldn't remove guns from their shelves; the solution was to eliminate the real source of the problem: video games!
But in this world, things were different. Excellent games were considered true works of art, and the best game designers enjoyed the same social status as literary giants.
However, there was another crucial difference from Alex's previous life. Companies like Ubisoft and EA had disappeared, replaced by others Alex had never heard of. As for the renowned game developers from his world, not a single one existed here. Hidetaka Miyazaki, pioneer of the Souls series; Masahiro Sakurai, creator of the legendary Nintendo series; Sid Meier, the man who defined 4X games; Hironobu Sakaguchi, father of the Final Fantasy series; the Hauser brothers, who brought the concept of the 3D open world to its peak; Hideo Kojima, pioneer of stealth and cinematic narrative; and the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto. All these producers, who left an indelible mark on the history of video games, had vanished in this reality.
The Alex of this world, on the other hand, was a random recent graduate, less than six months out of college and determined to make a name for himself in the comic book industry.
'This world... is a true paradise for creatives.'
As he reviewed his memories and searched for information on his computer, Alex couldn't help but sigh. The strict intellectual property laws and copyright protection for cultural products were simply unimaginable in his previous life.
"Illustrations?"
After catching up on the basic information through his memory and the internet, Alex saw a sketchbook on the desk. It contained some of his original illustrations. Before the transmigration, his original self had always dreamed of being a comic book artist. Unfortunately, despite sending numerous drafts, none had managed to get an editor's approval. He had also published some comics online, but the results were abysmal.
In addition to the meager earnings from his online comics, he had to make a living by doing character illustrations for novel authors and concept art for video game companies. He wasn't well-known and his drawing skills weren't exceptional, so he had to adapt to the client's needs. Generally, he only received about $200 per drawing, and he often had to make countless revisions when the client was difficult.
'Comics? I don't know anything about that!', Alex thought, pursing his lips.
Although his original self's memories had given him a solid foundation in various drawing techniques, they weren't of much use to him. After all, his original self was already barely getting by as a freelance illustrator. As for the comics from his previous life, Alex knew many by name: The Sandman, Saga, Invincible, The Walking Dead... But reading them was one thing, and drawing them was a completely different beast. He had only seen the adaptations into series or movies. 'How on earth am I supposed to draw those popular comics?'
"Looking at it this way, I feel like it's a sign to go back to my video game roots. And the efficiency of development in this world is incredible!" Alex exclaimed, amazed by what he discovered.
Unlike his time, where large companies developed their own engines from scratch, here in the United States, the landscape was dominated by OmniCorp's "Nexus Engine," an official AI-powered platform. As everyone knows, creating a video game covers many aspects: system design, art, scripting, level design, and, of course, the code. However, the most crucial and fundamental aspect is always the code. It directly influences the game's performance; it's its backbone. No matter how excellent the gameplay and graphics are, poorly optimized code can guarantee a game's failure.
But in this world, thanks to advancing technology, artificial intelligence had become a reality and was applied in all industries, with video games being the most impacted. Mechanics and the rest of the code were implemented in the Nexus Engine through AI. This completely eliminated the old joke of "sacrificing a programmer to the code gods." If anyone had to be sacrificed now, it was generally the designers.
Although it was convenient, not all designers could use it unlimitedly. After all, using AI to generate code required enormous processing power. Therefore, each designer, according to their status, was allocated fixed monthly resources. Of course, it was also possible to set up your own servers for independent computing, simply by paying a license to OmniCorp. However, the cost of setting up and maintaining a server was not cheap at all.
To officially become a game designer, there were three paths. One was to join a game company, work there for two or three years, and then apply for the position through company channels to be officially recognized. Another was to pass the certification exam of the "Game Developers Guild" (GDG), which was held every summer. The last option, the most meritocratic, was to create a successful indie game. This offered a path for enthusiasts and self-taught geniuses. Selling 150,000 copies or accumulating 5,000 reviews with an average rating of 8.5 or higher was enough. As for inflating sales or reviews, it was practically impossible. It was considered a federal crime with serious consequences.
'It seems like a fair system, and getting the designer title shouldn't be difficult for me,' Alex told himself, stroking his chin as he reviewed the information. After all, he wasn't alone; he had countless legends from the history of video games from his world backing him up.
Alex wasn't considering creating large-scale games for now. He lacked the capacity, resources, and funding. However, he was quite confident in small indie games. He knew the formula for countless indie gems from his previous life perfectly. With the information he had obtained about this world, his own skills were more than enough to recreate them.
"Wait, what's this?"
Alex, who was considering his next move, suddenly noticed something.
He had a spherical, translucent blue mark on the back of his hand, like a birthmark. He rubbed it with his thumb, and suddenly, a transparent user interface appeared in front of him.
'A system?'
Those two words came to his mind instantly.
Thinking about it, after transmigrating to an alternate reality, having a cheat system didn't seem so far-fetched, right?
'But what is it called?'
[Emotion Collection System]
Looking at the golden interface, which looked like it was taken from one of those dubious, microtransaction-filled mobile games, Alex fell silent. It looked so tacky that it didn't seem like a very serious system.
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