Definitely NOT postponing the Marrow-Cleansing pills due to the slight trauma the previous host left behind as memories, Michael re-entered the virtual space.
[Welcome back, sir.](Mildred)
"Thank you, Mildred. It will be a shorter session today, as I have a date with suffering later this night, so let's get to it."
[What's on the menu today, sir?](Mildred)
"Items."
Opening the Shop with the chaotically thrown item icons completely out of place compared to what he remembered, Michael took a deep breath and tried to clear his thoughts.
"First, let's separate the Shop into two different interfaces. The first one will hold the 'Basic' items, while the second one will hold the 'Upgrades.'"
[Processing... please confirm which items fall under which category.](Mildred)
After fifteen minutes of sifting through the virtual icons, the panels he remembered resurfaced.
"Great! Next, let's start with the Basic items. We'll further separate them into five brackets: consumables, attribute enhancers, equipment, miscellaneous, and secret."
[Please define the traits of the five brackets.](Mildred)
"Sure. Let's start with the first one. Consumables are pretty self-explanatory. Items you can buy from the Shop and are one use. There is one exception, but even that comes with certain restrictions.
For example, the Healing Potion. You can buy it cheaply with only 110 gold coins, but once used, it disappears from the player's Spatial Pouch for good. Likewise, the Qi Recovery Potion functions under the same conditions, but we should make it cheaper. Maybe around 65 gold coins..."
[Understood. What about the others, sir.](Mildred)
"Ugh... I was about to go on a tangent again, huh? *Cough* Next, the attributes. Also self-explanatory, these are items that, once placed in one of the eight active slots, grant the player a fixed amount of attributes.
For example, the World Tree Branches add a +1 to all attributes. Their cost is also on the lower end."
[Sir, wouldn't it make a mess of the game balance if they are cheap? If the users can buy eight of them, they can start with 24 more attributes than a regular 1st-level Qi Gathering cultivator.](Mildred)
"That's up to them to decide, as the promotional trailer said. If we set the cost at, say, 70 gold coins, the player will lose 560 gold coins from the initial 650 we give them as a starting allowance.
How do you think they'll do in the laning phase against the enemy hero who brought regeneration items AND attribute items? It's all about knowing how to manage your resources.
Furthermore, depending on the hero, the lane they play in, their role, the skills they plan to pick... there are countless scenarios they can take into consideration and make the decision based on that."
[Do you plan to leverage the oddity of this project as an advantage against our competitors, sir?](Mildred)
Smiling, Michael nodded in appreciation to this incredibly smart A.I. and continued.
"Exactly! What is the current Secret Realm market like? From a single glance at the reviews the users leave, it's boring, repetitive, and dogmatic. To describe it in two words, it would be 'stagnating water.'
However, what do we offer? Incredible complexity. 124 different options to play as against the remaining 123 possible heroes.
Different items you can equip your hero with, based on the circumstances.
Not a 'stagnating' character without any improvement, but rather one that continuously evolves, even above the player's actual cultivation realm.
In other words, we offer 'possibilities.' This is our 'game-changer,' what sets us apart and what will make our Secret Realm sell."
Somewhat drunk at the possibility of a bright future, the harsh reality of months, if not years, until he finishes this project brought him back to his senses.
"Ahem! Back to the topic, the next bracket is the equipment. Unlike the previous type, items that fall in this bracket offer everything BUT attributes. Attack speed, piercing damage, armor, armor reduction, magic damage reduction, debuff inflictors... the possibilities are endless. Oh, obviously, there will also be items that give extra damage.
Next, the miscellaneous items. As the name implies, this is a bit of a mix of what's left. Items that give HP or Qi regeneration, or maybe an actual Hit Points or movement speed increase. If not, items that have active skills and fall under the 'utility' description.
Finally, there are the secret items. While their icons and descriptions are available in the regular Shop, players can only buy them if they find the Secret Shop. As for the person selling them, it will obviously be the Merchant from the promotional video.
We'll set it so that the Merchant visits random areas on the island at fixed intervals on both the Dire and Radiant sides.
Then, the players must make their way to that spot quickly, or else miss the chance and have to wait until he returns next time."
[And why is this Secret Shop relevant, sir? Why should it exist in the first place instead of having all the items in the regular one?](Mildred)
"For one, excitement. We'll add an island-wide announcement about the place and time the Merchant appears next. Then, for example, the Dire can annoy their opponents and make them miss the timing.
As a result, the Radiant will have to enter Dire's territory if they want to buy items next time, putting themselves in danger.
If the items are worth the hassle, we can just make sure it's the case. As long as the mid to late-game items require at least one component to be bought from the Secret Shop, our purpose has been achieved."
Next followed the Upgraded items. Here, Michael again separated them into six brackets.
The accessories were, more or less, early-game items. Using the cheap 'ingredients' bought from the Basic items page, you could upgrade to a better item, which gave you more than the sum of the two, three, or more Basic items combined.
Next were the support items. In this bracket fell all items that, after being upgraded, granted an aura to allies or suppressed the enemies in one way or another.
These were the items that the players choosing the Support role would hate buying the most.
Third were the magical items. It was hard to describe them in a few words, but these upgrades would focus more on the Intelligence heroes.
Each one of them had either amazing active skills or provided incredible passive abilities.
Fourth, armor. As the name implies, these are items that provide some sort of 'resistance' against something. Be it magical damage, physical damage, items that decrease your enemy's armor, items that push your enemy away from you, items that push you away from your enemy, items that can generate Qi based on the amount of damage you take, and even items that can reflect incoming abilities aimed at you, back to your opponent.
Fifth, weapons. Self-explanatory. All heroes can use them, but the Agility and Strength-based heroes would prefer these items more. Aside from the impressive abilities these items can grant the player, they all have one thing in common: the damage increase they give to the one buying them.
Finally, artifacts. These items are unique among the upgrades due to their peculiar abilities.
Not only are these items strong, but they also have a stronger Concept, as their lore is more detailed compared to other items.
This doesn't make them better by any means, just more... suited to the occasion.
Unfortunately, that was all Michael could do that day. After separating the items, he had no time to assign them actual values and detail what abilities each possessed.
'It's already 9 p.m., and according to the online instructions, the Marrow-Cleansing pills take around two hours to work their magic. Let's get to it.'
Taking off his clothes and stripping to his underwear, Michael walked into the bathroom, where he took off the final piece of clothing as well and then popped the pill in his mouth.
Sitting on his back in the cold bathtub, he could only praise its vast dimensions as the pill melted and the pain began.
A muffled scream followed as his 32-year-old mentality collapsed in an instant. He once thought that toothaches and getting hit in the balls were the epitome of pain.
But he was wrong. Very wrong...
"What... in the everloving name... of fuck... is this!?"
It felt as if something literally pushed their hands under his skin and toward the bones, wrecking every possible nerve on their way.
He was never 'properly' electrocuted, but from the way his body was spasming, he thought this should be fairly similar.
The 'hands' continued to scrape his skin, muscles, bones, and organs, pushing the impurities toward the surface. This process wasn't pleasant at all, as the energy of the Marrow-Cleansing pill didn't look for 'established pathways' but just... pushed things aside.
If one thing utterly shocked him, it was his ability to endure the pain without crying like a 2nd grader, a quality he wasn't aware he possessed.
Furthermore, trying his best to restrain the spasms as his strength as a 4th-level cultivator was more than enough to smash the bathtub into pieces, he could only try to distract his mind from the pain with the only thing he knew: more game design.
'Tomorrow.. Urgh... I'll focus on the Concept for the items. It should take me around... FUCK... two to three days to set the values and their introduction. I should make a checklist for what's left to do before the game can be released to the public.'
Between curses, he found out his mind felt clearer than ever. Yes, the pain was terrifying, but his thought process was faster and 'louder' than before.
All the background noise and chaotic thoughts slowly faded away in the distance, leaving only his game come into focus.
Time moved slowly, yet fast at the same time. In his mind, he was able to cover most of the ideas for the overall development of the Secret Realm, helping him complete the checklist.
[ Checklist
1. Heroes - Concept and Intent (about 15 to 20% done)
2. Items - Concept and Intent (about 10 to 15% done)
3. Island - Concept and Intent (about 65 to 75% done)
3. Neutral Creeps - Concept and Intent (about 5% done)
4. Regular Creeps (A.K.A. soldiers) - Concept and Intent (about 55 to 60% done)
5. Neutral Items - Concept and Intent (about 10% done)
6. Leveling Mechanics - Concept and Intent (about 15 to 20% done)
7. Combat Mechanics - Concept and Intent (about 35 to 40% done)
8. NPC Interactions - Concept and Intent (not yet started)
9. Skill Mechanics - Concept and Intent (about 15 to 20% done)
10. Cosmetics and Monetization - Concept and Intent (not yet started) ]
The list wasn't very long, and some of the percentages reached close to 50%. However, the remaining 50% would be much more time-challenging compared to the first half.
Not only that, but the amount of resources needed to be spent in the next stage of development should be even higher than the initial 10,000 to 15,000 spirit stones estimation.
Just like that, two hours passed before Michael noticed it.
Ignoring the soreness of his body, he felt surprisingly... good. It was hard to quantify, but it was akin to finally being able to breathe properly after having a stuffy nose for months. Or after losing that ringing in your ears every time you change altitudes.
'Fuck me sideways! The novels didn't lie about the smell. It stinks to High Heavens!'
Gagging while turning on the showerhead, he quickly washed away the gunk, only to find it too much and too solid to be washed away in the bathtub's sinkhole.
With only one option left, he grabbed the disgusting ball in his hands and tried to punt it into the toilet bowl.
Unfortunately, he forgot about the soreness of his body after enduring that punishment and threw weaker than a malnourished child in a 3rd-world country.
Seeing the ball of impurities plop on the ground with a sloshing sound, the pizza returned with a vengeance, making an utter mess of the bathroom.
Spending an extra ten minutes cleaning the bathroom before being able to clean himself, Michael finally succeeded and began showering as if it was the first time he'd done it in a decade.
After about half an hour of intense scrubbing, he finally got out of the bathtub and stood in front of the mirror.
Even if this body's age was only 18, his physique was similar to that of a well-developed 25-year-old man.
While it would be an exaggeration to say he was bodybuilding material, his streamlined muscles gave him a lean and agile look.
'A pair of brown eyes, dark hair, and almost zero facial hair. *Sigh* Where's my Super Sayan spiky blue hair? As a transmigration, how can I have no outstanding 'visual' qualities to separate me from the crowd?'
Laughing while exiting the bathroom and putting back on the pair of shorts and T-shirt, he went into the meditation room to try and see what changed after using the first Marrow-Cleansing pill.
After all, maybe he got lucky and out of the disgusting impurities discharge, maybe he successfully expelled some of the gunk plaguing his spiritual roots.