"WARNING! The space invaders will arrive within a month; please remove the threat before the deadline or its game over!"
The group's eyebrows all simultaneously shot upwards as they looked at the frozen invaders.
"Hey don't you think it's weird?" Queenie, who seemed to be among the most perceptive of the group, was getting weird vibes from this game and wanted to point it out.
"What's weird," Ran looked back with his head tilted. He was trying to figure out a way to beat this so-called threat and Queenie's sudden inquiry stopped his train of thought.
"Well, everything really. After the cutscenes at the beginning, which were absolutely stunning if I must say, everything else has been fairly… bland."
"Bland?" Ran, and even the rest too, took her words into consideration, but they weren't really getting the point she was trying to make.
"Yeah, like they haven't really shown us anything more than a bunch of text afterwards. We haven't really done much anyways, so this is just a thought of mine, but I just find it a bit strange."
She just kept staring at the screen as she spoke, like she wasn't looking at a screen but rather a person.
"Plus, I don't really like these 'space invaders' either. Don't they just look too… fake? Compared to everything else I mean."
She broke "eye contact" with the screen as she looked at everyone again, but mostly at Ran.
"Well sure, but I don't really get the point. Are you suggesting… They're keeping stuff from us?" Ann looked back at Queenie, surprised. Obviously, she was trying to entail that something serious was going on behind the scenes, but just didn't know what.
Now, obviously, if any one of these people knew what game trailers were like, then all of this wouldn't be a surprise.
Queenie, on the other hand, merely nodded. "Yep. I just think they're not showing us what's exactly happening."
Hmm, Freudian slip anyone? But… she was right. It was indeed strange, but whether or not it was more than that remains to be seen. And so, they all kind of kept it in mind as they resumed playing. And as if the game was keeping track of their conversation, it only sprung up again after they stopped talking.
A ding was heard and upon looking at the screen, it was noted that a certain symbol was being highlighted.
Specifically, on the bottom bar, the third symbol was no longer grayed out and was instead encircled with blue light. The symbol itself was that of a… tower.
They saw the symbol, but saw nothing familiar about it, so they just ignored it and continued. Once they pressed the symbol, vicariously through Ran, a notification popped up.
Ding!
"Due to the sudden reappearance of space invaders, you have taken up the mantle of protecting all of your inhabitants until the master's return. Although you have not further researched into runes yet, you use what you have and have created a rudimentary weapons system. Please pick one to construct."
Now, as the author, I can tell you straight up that this shit was a lie. The first part to be exact. Basically, this had nothing to do with responsibility or the master that the game invoked, but it did have everything to do with resources. It was fairly obvious, in fact. We've already seen how meticulous the game was when categorizing the different races based on their energy production.
Yep, just like the inevitable future you and I will face, this world is becoming increasingly "cost-effective". Rather than let its suppliers of energy handle the threat, it would rather automate new means of efficient attacks to save on energy almost exponentially in the future.
Now, was this bad? Well, of course not, this saved the lives of the people (and their children) many times over.
However, no one thought of this, which is and will be important, and I had to mention it. I didn't want to force it on them like earlier in the chapter, though that was indeed more in line with Queenie's perceptual acuity.
And yet, all of that was off-topic.
So, yet again, after clicking okay, another screen popped up. At the top was "rudimentary weapon systems" in a thick and flashy font. Under it was a list consisting of three options, complete with a name, image, and description.
The first one was called "Laser cannon", ordinarily enough. It was a tower with a hexagonal monolith floating at the top; that was it. It looked quite plain, honestly speaking, but that was kind of the point. It was called "rudimentary" for a reason after all.
It's description read:
"Range: high. Black lasers that can strike the enemy all the way back to their starting point. It has high attack power, high energy demands, low rate of fire, and moderate miss-rate."
Below it was the specifics.
The second option was called "kinetic projectile cannon". Contrary to the first one, this one was actually a satellite which would be stationed in space (orbiting the planet). Though it still resembled the first option, just without the monolith and being considerably longer.
It's description read:
"Range: moderate. Black projectiles that shoot towards the enemy at a high rate of fire with low energy demands. it has low attack power and high miss-rate."
Below it was its specifics.
The last option was called "remote-controlled projectile cannon (missiles)". This one was also a satellite and was a bit different from the rest, the difference being it had multiple cannons, or barrels, stacked on top of each other as the main part.
It's description read:
"Range: low. Remote-controlled projectiles that shoot towards the enemy at moderate rate of fire with moderate energy demands. It has moderate attack power and no miss-rate."
Below it was its specifics.
Once they finished reading, they couldn't come to a consensus as to which weapon system to choose. Ann wanted lasers, because of course she would; Ran wanted the normal projectiles because of the energy it conserves relative to the rest; Queenie wanted to have missiles because of how balanced they were; Shirley… wasn't really part of the conversation.
Okay fine, she'll be in it too. Let's just say… she wanted lasers too cause she liked the little finger beam Ann did earlier. There, happy now? Well, too bad so sad, I don't care; I'll stick to talking to imaginary readers, thank you very much (please help me).
On the other hand, Fluffy wanted… fish to eat; she was looking at Shirley recently, just letting you know in case somebody suddenly yelps and finds half their ass missing. And of course my boy Bob over here silent the whole time. He was merely listening to the heated discussion, but as time passed on, he realized something was off.
It felt like something was missing, like they were all talking around the subject, but passed by an important part without even realizing it.
So, some more time passed by and Bob was just petting Fluffy while thinking, when she suddenly bit his hand because she felt like it. The pain brought forth immense… pain, before clarity rushed through his mind.
He looked at Fluffy and it all became obvious. What was Fluffy? A cheetah. What were cheetahs good at? Being speedy. And what was the one thing that wasn't talked about that also wasn't mentioned in the game? Speed!
More specifically attack speed!
Bob, upon realizing this crucial element to the game, had to mention it and realization came upon the entire group.
Since this was essentially the first level and they were under equipped to handle the space invaders, they practically had to choose the one with the highest attack speed. The rationale was that the quicker the attacks reached the enemy, the more of them they could kill before they reached the planet, thus giving them more chances for victory.
Now, range is probably just as important early-game like attack speed, but this was covered as well.
Obviously, this led to the eventual choice of picking the laser cannon, since for the most part light is going to be faster than any projectile.