As soon as I picked up the new Game Core and injected Mana into it for the first time, a feeling of nostalgia came over me.
Even though it had only been almost two months since I started developing Runestone on my first Game Core, which wasn't that long, that was the first feeling of excitement about the future that I had in this world due to the fusion of my two memories.
So injecting Mana into a blank Game Core was a great feeling.
The infinite possibilities I would have to develop this new game...
So I didn't waste any time with it.
I had already decided on the path the game would take to balance training with fun for the Players, the only thing I needed to do now was to start with the game development itself.
In a rhythm game, the main point was the music that the game's rhythm should follow.
And I had already selected 10 initial songs that the game would have.
In order to cover as many musical styles as possible, I avoided repeating the same style in the songs, wanting every player who played to find at least one song they liked.
And in order to avoid copyright problems in this world, all the songs I chose were confirmed as not existing in this world.
To begin with, I obviously had to take one of the great guitar rhythm classics, and particularly my favorite song to play using a video game guitar in my other world.
[Through the Fire and Flames - Dragonforce.]
As the band Dragonforce didn't exist in this world, it was no problem for me to copy this song and turn it into a battle.
Imagine the scene of a Player battling a monster in a sword fight to the beat of this song, and my blood would boil.
Sure, the speed of attacks and defenses that this music demanded was not something an F Rank Player could achieve, considering how frenetic this music was, not even E Rank Players could battle a monster at that intensity.
But I didn't worry.
With System by my side, I was confident that I could make it work.
First I started to imagine the music I wanted and use Mana to create that music in Game Core.
Creating the music itself was very easy, costing me only 5 MP, since there was nothing to it.
The tricky part was what I was going to do next.
Instead of making an enemy for the Players to battle that battled in the style of all the songs, to save Mana I was going to make a monster for each song, or rather, a monster for each song difficulty.
That's because in theory, each piece of knowledge I added to the monster's mind would increase the MP cost exponentially.
But if I split this up into several different monsters, instead of the cost of each one multiplying, it would just add to each other, keeping the cost low enough for me to be able to do all 10 songs in the game and not take so long to do so.
So to start with I went with the simplest.
'I first need to imagine a goblin, a realistic goblin with a small rusty metal sword and a worn wooden shield, this goblin will have the song [Through the Fire and Flames] in his mind and all the attacks and defenses he will make will be based on the rhythm of the song. Its attacks should always happen in the slightly less satisfying moments of the music, while in the more satisfying moments of the music the monster should show small openings for the Player to hit attacks that F Rank Players can take advantage of.' I thought of the command for the System.
If the Player didn't attack at the right moments in the song, the Goblin would defend with his little wooden shield, if the Player took advantage of the rhythm of the song and attacked the openings that the Goblin showed at the right moment, the Goblin would take damage.
The game points system I devised was based on how much life the monster had left at the end of the song.
If at the end of the song the monster had 50% or less life left, the grade would be F, 40% was an E grade, 30% was a D grade, 20% was a C grade, 10% was a B grade, 5% was an A grade and 0% was an S grade.
With the structure of the Goblin set up in my mind, I began to supply Mana and it began to accumulate on my fingertip, indicating that the System was working.
1 MP...
2 MP...
5 MP...
10 MP...
20 MP...
40 MP...
80 MP...
100 MP...
Seeing that I had already spent 100 MP I began to worry that I still didn't have enough MP to make the monster I had envisioned, so during the creation of the Goblin I quickly changed the command so that the Goblin would only follow the concept of the difficulty F Rank Easy was in his mind.
As soon as I changed this, my finger stopped accumulating Mana and the Goblin began to take shape in front of me.
"Whew..." I breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, I had already planned out the difficulty concepts for the monsters in my mind.
Easy difficulty slowed down the speed of attacks and increased the frequency with which the monster showed openings for the Player to attack, making combat easier for only 30% of the song's total potential for that Rank.
Medium difficulty represented 60% of the song's total potential for the given Rank.
And Hard difficulty represented 100% of the song's total potential for a given Rank.
For example, [Through the Fire and Flames] on Hard difficulty was so difficult that only the best F Rank Players could achieve an S grade.
Of course, other F Rank Players would also be able to complete the song, but their score would hardly reach S without a lot of training, and that was the point of the game, to train the Players!
Having spent 100 MP to make the Goblin and 5 MP to make the music, I had nothing else to do with my remaining 2 MP now, so I decided to try out my own game.
Creating a copy of the Goblin's sword and shield for myself, just as temporary equipment, since this was already ready and wouldn't need much MP to recreate, I played the music and began my battle with the Goblin.
As someone who has never trained in combat, either in this life or in my previous life, it was good to have a weaker opponent.
[NunuNote: I recommend listening to Through the Fire and Flames while reading this part of the story ;)]
As soon as the music started playing, the Goblin and I stared at each other and slowly approached.
As soon as the first chords of "Through the Fire and Flames" echoed, the Goblin moved. His small wooden shield rose to a defensive position while the rusty sword trembled in his hand.
Then, at the first explosive riff of the guitar, the Goblin lunged forward!
Clang!
My sword met his at the first impact, just as the notes accelerated.
The clash of the swords made my arm tremble slightly, but my strength enhanced by the Neurological False Feedback helped me deal with the little monster's strength and show my dominance.
Seeing the Goblin's next attack coming and knowing how the game I'm developing worked, I started to pay more attention to the music and focus my attacks and defenses on the rhythm the music was showing.
When the notes sped up, the Goblin showed fatigue and showed more openings, openings that I took advantage of to attack as much as I could.
When the music slowed down, the Goblin became more aggressive and I had to focus more on defending myself while only attacking from time to time.
Listening to the beats of the music, I began to anticipate his attacks.
'Right, left, down... defense! ' My makeshift shield blocked a blow just in time as my mind practically read every move he might make next, and then, as a new section of ground accelerated, the Goblin hesitated.
This was my chance!
Following the melody, I attacked at the moments when the rhythm of the guitar picked up, my blades cutting through the exact space that the Goblin left exposed.
At the end of the main solo, I managed to land a perfect sequence of three blows in a row.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
The Goblin staggered backwards. The song was approaching its climax, and I knew I had to take advantage of this to score as many points as possible.
The song was long, so as time went by I began to tire, but my eyes were on every opening the Goblin showed as I took the best opportunities to reduce his life as much as possible while defending myself against his attacks.
Each attack he hit me with recovered a little of his life, diminishing some of the progress I had made in the battle.
At the exact moment when the last chorus broke out, I moved with all my might.
I ducked to avoid a desperate attack from the Goblin and, taking advantage of the acceleration of the rhythm, I landed a direct blow to his chest, a clean, precise blow, in perfect rhythm with the music, making my blood boil even more.
Crack!
The Goblin screamed, and with desperation, tried to continue fighting, while I alternated between attack and defense, until the music finally ended.
Looking at the remaining 4% of the Goblin's HP, the game screen appeared in front of me.
Result: A Rank
I smiled.
"That... was amazing!"