By the time he returned home, Jack sighed with relief as the cozy heat of his apartment soaked into his cold bones and stiff muscles. After relaxing for a few minutes to regain the nimble movements of his fingers, Jack sat down at his computer.
"Let's start working on updating the game. I have two objectives. First, let's work on the gambling feature before working on the main storyline." Jack muttered to himself and cracked his knuckles.
Although he had gone through a lot today, Jack's mind felt like it had become a whirlpool after it all. Inspiration kept entering his mind as he felt as if he was going through enlightenment.
Unfortunately, with limited time and resources, he couldn't work on everything he wanted. He could only force himself to hold back and focus his inspiration on the gambling feature.
"My initial plan to have the gambling feature be tied to a research facility is great. I can even use it to help provide materials to help the players create their own research facility."
"As for the link between the players and the research facility, it can be the player's older sister. It's a good way to repay Betty for investing." Jack muttered to himself as he didn't stop for a second while coding.
Just then, Jack suddenly noticed a minor bug that would have affected how the game would run on consoles.
"That's annoying. That portion of code causing the problem is related to the zombie walking speeds. On consoles, the zombies will walk slightly faster than the other platforms, affecting the players' preparation time every round." Jack analyzed and located the problem.
The difference was minor now, but it could spiral into something worse later if he didn't fix it. Not to mention, solving it after he made a lot of progress would only make finding the solution much harder.
He needed to deal with it now.
Jack saved the current development of the program and made sure there were no errors before creating a branch of the program to test his solutions.
After figuring out the right solution after half an hour, Jack sighed with relief and opened a virtual machine to test Windor's Siege on various consoles.
Once everything worked as it should and nothing else seemed broken, Jack merged the branch to the main game file before moving on.
"I'm almost done with the prototype of the gambling feature. All that's left is to run some tests and balance the mechanics."
"I can't wait for the moment when players are desperate and decide to risk it to gamble on getting the plant card or material they need to save the day. That should keep them hooked." Jack muttered with energetic eyes.
"I wonder if Sarah and Betty have a gambling addiction?" Jack shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
"As long as I balance the gambling mechanics just right if they don't have a gambling addiction right now, then they will get one after playing. This timeline's gambling laws shouldn't be too different from my previous one—I should check Steam's rules just in case."Jack muttered to himself.
Although he didn't think this new game feature of his would break any rules, since he had just about completed the prototype, this was the best time to make sure he covered his ass from any legal issues. Plus, his gambling feature only dealt with in-game currency; it should be perfectly legal.
Probably.
After completing his research, he was satisfied with the answer. Now, he could continue to work without any worry.
…
"Another good day of work!" Jack said happily as he stretched his back.
He grabbed his last can of Sprite and guzzled it down with his legs kicked up. He had worked all night and felt exhausted. His eyes started to burn from strain at some point, but his fingers kept typing as if possessed throughout the night, and even now, his brain was still firing off numerous ideas on improving his game.
Some ideas were brilliant, others not, and some were better left to other projects. Sorting through them all was a job by itself. Even the ideas that Jack finally wanted to add at one point could only be left to the side for now. There were too many, and he didn't have enough time. He could only focus on a few at a time.
He made sure to save twice before running the final tests, which passed without any issues.
"It's finally time for me to rest." Jack thought to himself and got up from his desk.
"These bandages are killing me. Why are they so itchy?" Jack said as he sighed.
He wanted to scratch every single inch of his arm but resisted. He didn't want to reopen the wounds accidentally.
Luckily, it wasn't a problem for him to fall asleep with the help of his Better Sleep skill.
Honestly, this skill was a life saver. His sleep had never been better since acquiring this skill.
He regretted not investing in this skill earlier. How good would his Sleep be if it was Rank B?
Would he be able to sleep in the middle of a volcano? Or would he be able to Lucid Dream on command?
"That would be awesome," Jack said out loud and yawned.
He wrapped himself in his thick, comfy blanket and closed his eyes before controlling his breathing and thinking of random things. Before he knew it, he fell asleep, only to wake up to his phone buzzing.
"Uh," Jack groaned as he wanted to sleep more and almost ignored the call.
Still, he resisted his urges and picked up his phone.
"Sarah? Why is she calling me so early?" Jack wondered and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Hester! I did it!"
"I reached round twenty. Hahaha, I told you it wasn't hard!" Sarah said excitedly over the phone.
Jack could imagine that she must have been jumping all over the walls because of how excited she sounded.
"Congrats, I'll send you the updated version with the real-time market prices," Jack said slowly.
Sarah immediately fell silent as her depression radiated through the phone. Then Betty's voice came through as she hastily said, "Don't I haven't reached round twenty yet. Wait for me."
"Hehehe, I'm just messing with you. I haven't worked on that feature yet."
"But I do have an updated version that developed the main storyline and has a new feature," Jack said, smiling across his tired face.
Sarah and Betty sighed with relief.
"Does the update get rid of our progress?" Sarah asked with worry.
"No, all the progress will be saved. However, you might be bombarded with in-game letters and newspapers that tell the story. You can skip them, though."
"That's good. All right, that's all I wanted to say. See ya." Sarah said before hanging up the call.
Jack shook his head and placed his phone down before returning to sleep.