"Ah, much better." Jack exhaled as steam curled around him, the tension melting from his shoulders. Water trailed down his frame as he stepped out of the shower, his reflection in the mirror looking foreign—calm, for the first time in weeks.
As steam curled around him, Jack felt a rare calm wash over him. For weeks, he'd been unraveling—and now, standing here, he almost felt reborn. Almost.
His skin that was previously covered in sweat and gunk was still soft and hydrated. Even his hands that had been nonstop programming for the last several years were as soft as a baby's butt. And his fingers moved quickly and blurred as if they had no bones.
Shifting his attention from admiring his body, Jack checked out the scar at the back of his head. By now it had shrunk in size again and was nearly healed.
"It's healing too fast." Jack muttered.
"In a few hours the scar should be gone but my natural healing factor shouldn't be this good even after the upgrades. The system must have accelerated the healing process just for this one scar. Not wanting to leave behind any evidence."
Jack's eyes glowed as he decided that for now he would leave it alone. He had more pressing matters to attend to.
Like how he was going to get enough money to escape the death sentence that was mandatory military service. He had to get more than 60,000 dollars by the end of the month.
The chances of that happening were close to zero but there was a chance if he could create a good enough game.
"Steam has a ranking list for new games so if I can get on it. I might be able to squeeze out just barely enough money from the revenue."
"Unfortunately, I lost the System's game development software. With the AI tools it covered basically everything I needed. The AI software was nearly out of this world. It could create cinema level graphics with only a simple picture I provided."
It wasn't like there was no other game development software that he could use to make up for it. This world's game development was far beyond his timeline's progress. But those that could get close to the System's cost money.
And lots of it to use.
"Sigh, while I get ready I should put something on." Jack picked up his phone and by habit clicked on Omega.
This world's largest streaming platform. In this world, streaming was still growing rapidly. The competition was far more fierce.
Twitch was no longer the big dog.
On his feed, Jack noticed that one of his dedicated fans and most famous was about to start his daily stream.
On the east side of Timber Wood, 19-year-old Alice Baldwin adjusted his full body VR setup with practiced ease.
It wasn't like the basic models.
It was advanced and could run even Military Grade games without a problem or lag. Of course, Alice wasn't dumb enough to actually play them.
Known to his fans as "Gecko," the aspiring streamer had come a long way since high school. After four years of grinding, he'd finally hit his stride, thanks to Ranked Survival.
The RPG MMO, developed by the small but passionate Starry Cloud Studio, had been an accidental find six months ago. Since then, his streams had exploded—from a few hundred viewers to a loyal crowd of five thousand tuning in every night. Alice loved everything about the game: its mechanics, its world, and the thrill of competing against others. His audience felt the same.
With his setup completed, Alice felt his senses tingle before returning to normal as he found himself in a simulated streaming room. It was nearly empty except for the bed at the corner, the computer set up, and the background behind the computer.
Oh and how could he forget the dozens of floating cameras around the entire room allowing for a complete three-sixty experience.
"Alright, let's do this!" Alice clapped his hands, activating the cameras. Red dots blinked to life as his viewer count ticked upward.
A satisfying click sound played in the room with every new viewer making Alice's face brighten up like a sunflower. Being famous, even if it was a little bit, was addictive.
{1,000}
{3,000}
{5,000}
"Hey everyone, this is Gecko! Today's stream is packed—we're aiming for the top 100 leaderboard in Ranked Survival. Mods, start a poll: will I make it, or will RNGods curse me again?" Alice grinned, scrolling through the chat.
TwitchGambler69: Took you long enough. I want to gamble to see if you can reach the top 100 or not. I'm putting in six million points!
"Gambling already? Gambler68 you have a gambling problem. You are already the richest in the community, you still want to risk it all." Alice said aspiration as he put his hand on his face.
"A bug? What's going on?" Alice asked with curiosity.
This was the first time he had heard that Ranked Survival had a bug. Starry Cloud Studio was incredibly good at not having bugs in their games.
Alice's brows furrowed as he read Speedy_Licker's messages. A longtime moderator, Speedy rarely exaggerated—and if he said something was wrong, it usually was
Alice couldn't help but feel worried that something must have happened. If this doesn't get resolved soon, what was he going to play?
This was the most popular game on his channel. Trying out other games always leads to a reduction in viewership.
"Alright, everyone, let me give it a go. I haven't updated my game, so hopefully, I can still log in." Alice said with a cheeky smile.
Even though he was concerned, he wasn't going to let it ruin his stream.
Alice flicked his finger upwards, summoning various buttons in midair. They each had their own symbols that hinted to their use.
With great familiarity, Alice clicked on the button that had a small robot dragon. The sensation of the button was transmitted to his brain making him feel the warmth and inscriptions carved into it. It felt real.
This was all thanks to the advanced VR system he had gotten from his parents as a birthday present. It was a few years old now but it still worked great and much better than the current base models.
After getting into his game selection screen, he quickly pulled up the ranked survival icon, which took on the form of a small leaderboard. With a simple press of his finger, the familiar feeling of being transported to another world rose in his stomach.
He felt his body becoming lighter as if he was about to fly. The virtual world around himself rapidly dimmed and faded away as it began to send him to the game server.
Before suddenly abruptly stopping. Alice's body felt heavy as if he was suddenly under higher gravity leaving Alice a bit queasy. The bright red error flashing in front of him didn't help either.
[Warning! Warning! Warning!]
[Error code: 190638ewav. Failure to find a server! Exiting immediately!!!]
"I can't connect either. Ranked Survival must have been removed from the App Store." Alice was dumbfounded as felt his nerves rising. What was he going to play now?
Water_Puppy: It's true! All of Starry Cloud Studio's games have been removed!
Fireworks_Glory: Shit! I was in the middle of a mission when the game was pulled.
Secret_Pineapple: What's Ranked Survival?
Alice stared at the error message, his fingers twitching involuntarily. The chat exploded with chaos, the usual weirdness amplified by a shared panic.
He felt the urge to ban Secret_Pineapple right then and there.
Luckily the other chatters also agreed with him.
Fireworks_Glory: Bruh @Secret_Pineapple, have you been living under a rock?
BigBossBanana: RIP Gecko's career if Ranked Survival's gone. Time to stream Cooking Mama.
"..."
BigBossBanana has been temporarily banned for sixty seconds.
Chat messages on Alice's stream went berserk. Hundreds of messages discussing all kinds of conspiracy theories on the disappearance took over everything.
"If Ranked Survival doesn't back up I'm going to have to get the number 1 ranking in real life." Alice joked before turning to his chat.
As Alice talked with his chat and messaged other Ranked Survival streamers, he couldn't help but feel that there was some conspiracy going on. Not only were all of Starry Cloud Studio's games gone, but no one was able to contact them.
Their business email no longer existed, and what was even more odd was that many players found that they had been refunded the money they spent on Starry Cloud Studio's games.
Some of the refunds from whales even reached thousands of dollars.
"What the hell is going on with Starry Cloud Studio? Even if Steam removed their games, why would they refund every player?" Alice asked as his nose scrunched up from frustration. His good mood was destroyed as he felt empty and concerned that something was amiss.
Just then, another one of Alice's moderators sent him an urgent message.
"Steam responded on their Twitter account!" Alice said with shock.
He quickly pulled open Steam's latest tweet and showed it to everyone in his stream.
Regarding recent concerns about Ranked Survival, Fates Against Heaven, and Smashing Simulator, we want to assure our community that these titles have not been removed.
We take player concerns seriously and have initiated an investigation into Starry Cloud Studio's compliance with our terms of service regarding the removal of their titles without prior approval.
In the interim, Ranked Survival, Fates Against Heaven, and Smashing Simulator have been reinstated and are available for play. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
"Steam didn't remove them. What's going on?" Alice was speechless.
Nothing was making sense today.
"Damn, I was exposed so fast." Jack said as his mouth twitched.
He had clicked on Alice's Steam in hopes to see how people were reacting. It wasn't good.
"Steam's on my ass already?" Jack muttered, half amused, half annoyed. "They're a game company, not the FBI. What can they really do?"
"But for them to be able to reinstate the system's games means that it was running on their servers. The System isn't so magical after all." Jack felt his lips curl into an uncontrollable grin on his face.
It was relieving that he didn't have to face off against a mythical enemy that didn't abide by any logic or rules.
Even so, this revelation chilled him. The System, for all its miraculous capabilities, wasn't infallible. If a corporate entity like Steam could trace its absence, how long until government agents connected the dots? He had to act—fast.
Jack's eyes glowed as he decided to temporarily halt his plan to make money and set up an alibi for himself.
Even as he drafted his alibi, a faint chill crept up his spine. Something in the air felt… off, as though unseen eyes were closing in.
Amidst the clamor of Jack's fans and Jack's worries, a sleek black sedan silently glided to a halt outside his apartment.
From its depths emerged a commanding figure, tall and imposing, exuding an aura of calculated menace. His sharp, obsidian eyes surveyed the surroundings, his body adorned with intricate feathered serpent tattoos, each whispering tales of power and danger.
Beside him stood a woman, young yet possessing an air of seasoned confidence. Her jet-black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, accentuating her focused demeanor.
Still compared to her partner, who could have played a supervillain in a movie, she was much more approachable.
Clad in the unmistakable attire of law enforcement, they were agents on a mission, investigating a troubling anomaly within the banking system. All seemingly originating from a small, not well-known gaming studio.
"Is this the place?" The middle-aged man asked.
"This is it. We're looking for apartment 201, rented by a dude named Hester Bunny," the woman replied.
"And boy, is his bank account a mess! Dude's in debt for nearly two million bucks," she added, clicking her tongue in disbelief.
"Let's move. The sooner we sort this mess, the sooner I can eat something decent." The middle-aged man chimed in, trying to break the ice with some corny flirting.
The woman just rolled her eyes. "I'm going to run your pockets clean then."
The man froze as he lightly touched his thin wallet and coughed. "Actually, I need to skip this dinner. I have a date with a baddie tomorrow and my paycheck doesn't come in until Friday."
"So does mine."
"Is your date that religious girl you've been talking about? She wants to join the Sisters of Abraham, right?" The girl asked with curiosity.
The man nodded with a pleased smile before sighing with grief. He didn't want to talk about anymore and shifted their focus back to work.
"This Hester Bunny guy must have joined the wrong crowd and got rug pulled. Let's hope that he didn't hang himself already so we can find the culprit."