Not only had the development of Residual Devil Chapter 3 find faster than Gabe imagined, but the speed at which the game was getting new players was climbing more than he could have imagined either.
[Residual Devil: Village]
[Downloads: 12.653]
[Average Play Time: 3.7 Hours.]
[Accumulated Mana: 46,816]
[Available for withdrawal: $14,777]
[Available Mana: 18,180] (28,636 Mana Spent)
In just two days since Gabe's encounter with Mr. Brown and Director Selena, the game had already received over 2,000 downloads and generated Gabe over 8,000 Mana Units. Even though the download speed of the game had slowed down, as the amount of F Rank Players who hadn't downloaded the game yet in the city was very small, Gabe was surprised to discover E Rank Players and even some D Rank Players who were downloading the game to experience it. And unlike Rank F Players who could play the game for a maximum of 2 hours a day, these Rank E and Rank D players could play the whole day if they wanted, as the game consumed only 1 Mana Unit per hour.
So at the moment, Gabe was looking at the amount of Mana in the game, and he was wondering if he should absorb this Mana from the game and increase his maximum Mana Pool up to 400 Mana Units or if he should just save it and get one of the skills in the game for himself.
"I think I can wait a little longer and decide in the future. For now I don't have that much need for either one. The game already gives me a very good amount of Mana daily while my safety is relatively guaranteed..." Gabe said while looking through the options, and so he decided to leave that decision for later.
The day before, Mr. Brown had already sent Gabe the contract with SBT about the TV show, and they agreed to all the conditions that Gabe proposed. They were currently looking for an actor to film the role of Ethan while asking Gabe for some insight into what Ethan's personality would be like if he wasn't a gamer, as well as some personality traits or knowledge that Ethan should have in order for the series to exhibit more logic.
Gabe sent everything they needed. Most of the information had no importance for the development of the game, but it contributed a lot to Ethan's personality, which would make the series more realistic and interesting.
Ring, Ring, Ring!
Hearing his phone ring, Gabe was mildly surprised by it, but he already figured it might be Mr. Brown.
Just as he imagined, on the phone screen was written [Mr. Brown].
"Hello?" Gabe asked.
"Hello Howard, I received confirmation from the city government about their proposed exclusive deal with you," Mr. Brown explained over the phone.
"Ohh, what was their response?" Gabe asked, interested.
"Governor Wilson was a little taken aback by the news that you wouldn't accept a full exclusivity deal, but he was pleased with the proposal to offer exclusivity to the city a few weeks in advance, but he would prefer a month in advance here of launch of the game elsewhere," Mr. Brown said.
"Hmm..." Gabe started to think.
That maybe wouldn't be a problem - just a month delay for the release of the games in other cities - but considering that the city could help promote the games in other cities in the future it wouldn't be a problem.
"What are the benefits they offer?"
"If it's a full exclusivity contract, they plan to offer you a $1,000,000 annual salary, plus security and various allowances to make your life easier in Sandstone Bay in the future. When you become a Rank E Developer, that allowance will also go up proportionally," Mr. Brown patiently explained.
"I have no interest in this deal. What about the benefits of partial exclusivity?" Gabe asked.
"Since you only intend to give Sandstone Bay exclusivity a month ahead of other cities, the government intends to send you only $200,000 in aid annually, but will still keep security and quality of life allowances, such as a government-provided mansion, housekeepers to take care of your comfort, among other things," Mr. Brown explained.
Hearing about these benefits, Gabe was very interested. If he could have bodyguards with him, at least in Sandstone Bay he could keep himself safe from most problems, and with that he could delay unlocking in-game skills that wouldn't be as powerful and focus on the metal control skill, which would cost 50k Units of Mana, and use that not only to increase the total amount of his Mana Pool but also to speed up game development. With the speed he was gaining Mana on a daily basis, Gabe was confident of practically finishing the game in less than 20 days, and that was even with him still doing other difficulties and increasing the size of the map.
"Are there other requirements for this second option? I'm very interested in that," Gabe inquired.
"The Governor only gave two conditions: The first condition is that your Residual Devil game must continue as an F Rank game. Even though they have identified that you intend to evolve the Seed into an E Rank Seed, the Government intends to send you an E Rank Seed for free when you become a Rank E Developer as compensation, as Residual Devil is extremely important for training new Rank F Players from Sandstone Bay," Mr. Brown explained.
Hearing this condition, Gabe was a little surprised. He had in mind the plan to develop Residual Devil and evolve his Seed to Rank E, as this would save him a lot of Mana without having to develop another game, as well as a lot of money to buy a Rank E Seed. The problem with the government's proposal was that in order to make another game, a large part of the Mana the game would receive would have to be spent developing another world, something Gabe felt was too wasteful on a Seed, especially if the government wanted him to make another copy of Residual Devil, but this time Rank E.
"Professor, isn't it possible that I can evolve my Residual Devil Seed to Rank E, and still continue to accept Rank F Players?" Gabe asked, a little frustrated.
It was a common fact that Rank E games could only be accessed by Rank E players, mainly because Rank F players couldn't deal with Rank E monsters, in addition to the mana cost of Rank E games being too high for Rank F players.
Hearing Gabe's question, Mr. Brown was thoughtful. "Hmm... Boy, if you had asked me that question during classes at the University, I would probably have told you that it's impossible."
Noting the tone of Mr. Brown, Gabe was excited. "So that means if I ask you now, maybe there's a way now to do it?!"
Sensing Gabe's excitement, Mr. Brown sighed a dry laugh. "Howard, it really is possible, but you're going to have a lot more work than when you had to do other difficulties for the game."
"Hmm, what do you mean, professor?" Gabe asked.
"Everyone involved in the Game Development and Players industry for some time now knows that the greatest difficulty for a low Rank Player to play a higher Rank game than where they are is not only the difficulty of the monsters, but also the Mana consumption that this entails for the small Mana Pool of these Players.
"But you've already solved a big part of the problem this has, which is to say, somehow your monstrous talent makes it much easier and more economical for you to make monsters with different difficulties and strength levels than almost any other Developer out there. I noticed that the common monsters in your game on Insane difficulty have strength at Peak Rank F, and I believe that to make the most powerful monsters in your game in the future you will probably reach a strength extremely close to Rank E. Am I right?" Mr. Brown asked.
Gabe quickly explained. "Yes, in order to keep the strength level of all monsters at Rank F, I had to decrease the strength of some monsters for some traits and increase those traits in others and still keep the monster at a strength level that the Seed would accept without breaking. For example, some monsters may have a higher agility than a Rank F monster should have, but for that same monster another characteristic would have a big flaw that would make the average advantages of that monster go down."
That was one of the things where the simulation system had helped him tremendously, since he just needed to mentally define a monster's strength, put a special trait on the monster, and the system would run enough simulations to create the monster that was closer to what he imagined and that would perfectly fit the Seed's level.
If Gabe made a Rank E monster with very high stats, the Seed would likely not hold up and would be destroyed due to the excess Mana that monster consumed. It was a very rare problem, but it had happened to some very greedy students who had tried doing that.
Rather than focusing on making a monster of their level, the students of Harrington University who were taking the graduation exam like Gabe decided to invest all of their Mana for the entire 30 days of the contest into trying to make an E Rank monster in order to try to impress their professors because of how amazing they were at making such a powerful monster while still only an F Rank Developer. But their attempts caused the complete opposite of what they expected would happen, as the Seed couldn't handle the monster's Mana consumption and ended up being destroyed.
"Exactly, kid. Look at the way you're handling this problem. Instead of just accepting that it would be impossible to make an E-Rank monster in your game, you've managed to put traits from E-Rank monsters onto F-Rank monsters in a rather ingenious way," Mr. Brown said excitedly, "So I think with your thought process, you can find a way to make that happen, and maybe I can hint at a way to do that."
"Oh?" Gabe asked, also excited.
"Considering you managed to make the game with different difficulties, where the player could select whatever he would want, it might also be possible to do this for different Ranks, i.e. the player can choose if he wants to continue playing with the difficulty at Rank F or switch up to Rank E difficulty. Of course, this idea itself is pretty vague, but I have an idea that might help you define a path to this.
"The Mana cost it will take will be quite high, but I believe that with the amount of Mana your game is receiving, and the potential Mana this could get for you in the future, you won't need to worry about losing money!
"...But of course, there is a catch. I believe Rank E will be the limit. Even if your Seed reaches the maximum possible Mana at Rank E, it will be impossible to evolve it to Rank D. But of course, at that point you will already be able to buy an Rank E Seed and evolve it to Rank D in the future, being much more economical and profitable.
"This will likely be a path that only you can follow. It will be much more tiring than creating other Seeds from scratch, but the amount of Mana you will save and the fame you will receive with each Seed will be much greater than other Developers of the same Rank can dream of!" Mr. Brown said excitedly.
Gabe heard that and felt his blood boil as he imagined that future.
"Professor, tell me, how can I do this?!"
//NunuNote//
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