The office was dead quiet except for the clack-clack of Roland's mechanical keyboard.
His screen glowed pale against the dark room, illuminating the half-finished ramen cup and the ashtray that hadn't been emptied in weeks.
He leaned closer, his eyes narrowed at the code window.
There it was, the damn line that kept breaking the spell system.
"Fireball," he muttered, his lips dry.
"Why won't you just work…"
His fingers flew, rewriting, testing, rewriting again.
Fireball, radius six meters… damage output one-forty.
On screen, the simulation window sparked alive: a glowing orb of flame formed, then fizzled out like a dying candle.
Roland sighed. His back ached, his wrist was sore, but he couldn't stop. Not yet.
He pressed another command, added a line, deleted three more. The fireball bloomed again, this time brighter, crackling with little embers. He almost smiled. Almost. Until the game log flashed ERROR: Overflow.
"Damn it!"
He rubbed his eyes, took a sip of lukewarm coffee, grimaced, then typed again. And again. And again. He couldn't remember how many hours had passed, five? ten?
"Ugh."
He leaned back, and groaned.
Roland wasn't the star game developer who made flashy trailers or pitched new worlds to investors. His job was smaller, buried under spreadsheets and formulas: to make magic spells work.
Which meant adjusting numbers, again and again, until players didn't complain too much.
Fireball too weak? Buff it.
Healing too strong? Nerf it
Some kid on the forums found a way to one-shot bosses with a lightning spell? Guess who stayed late to fix that.
But tonight… He can't let bugs beat him. Not this time.
When the fireball finally burst across the screen, he laughed.
He pushed the finished spell into the database. Fireball bug was done. Tomorrow he would tackle AOE spell, maybe rework the AI pathfinding. Tomorrow, if he made it.
He leaned back in his chair.
His body felt heavier than usual, shoulders sinking deep into the fabric.
The monitor blurred at the edges.
The clacking keyboard fell silent.
Roland's head tilted to one side, his breath caught in his throat. For a moment, he thought he had just dozed off. The kind of nap that steals hours without permission.
But there was no waking from this one.
That was how he was reborn.