He woke up again at one in the afternoon and felt refreshed. His mind was clear, and his body felt light.
Even the itching from his arms faded significantly, which was a pleasing discovery.
"I don't think I can shower with these things on. So I guess I have to skip today." Jack muttered to himself and went to wash his face and brush his teeth.
He sat on his soft leather couch and felt safe. Leaning his head back, Jack felt as if he was sinking into the couch. As if it was giving him a big, warm hug.
There wasn't a single strange thing going on.
Jack felt a wave of unease hit him as he felt an inch to work. To do something productive.
Ever since he arrived in this alternative universe, he hadn't gotten a single day where he could rest properly. When the System was around, it worked him to the bone.
Even on his 'rest' days, he brainstormed updates, strategized for the System, or analyzed competitors for inspiration.
He felt tired.
Jack shook his head and woke himself from his daze.
"I need a break," Jack muttered.
"Yeah, that…sounds nice."
"I'll send Sarah and Betty the updated version of Windor's Siege before relaxing." Jack felt silent before sighing.
He needed a break from game development, or he would burn out. Once he burned out, trying to escape the rut would take ten times the effort.
It simply wasn't worth it to push himself to the limit every day.
"A break day is a must. I'll only work on the character designs today…and send the drafts of the plant designs to Sarah and Betty to get their thoughts." Jack said with a relaxed smile and breathed a soft sigh of relaxation.
He already felt his mind and body becoming less tense.
After sitting on the couch in silence for several minutes, Jack grabbed his tablet and began sketching the plant models' typical design style and sending them to his investors.
A few back and forth later, they eventually settled on a design that Plants vs Zombies heavily inspired.
"Now that I have the general look down for a few plants, it's time to hire a professional designer and animator. Hopefully, it's the same person to save costs and time." Jack thought to himself as he bit into an apple.
He pulled up Fiver and searched for designers and animators. He was cost-sensitive but needed someone who worked fast and was pretty decent.
He knew that he probably had to pay more than he wanted to.
As Jack scrolled down, his face lit up.
"This person is perfect. Her rates are good, she has a short turnaround time of a week, and she has great reviews. A hundred five-stars is incredible."
"I wonder why her rates aren't higher? Hmmm, the reviews seem to be from a few years ago. But her profile says she started taking requests just today."
"She probably hasn't taken any work for a while and is just getting back into it, which is why she reduced her prices," Jack muttered.
"Should I go for it? She must be rusty, so she might be a little slower than she says or a little worse." Jack rubbed his chin while pondering.
It almost felt too good to be true, but he didn't have the luxury of doubt, even if it was.
Jack hesitated for a second—then committed. He wasn't in an environment to be picky. If he could get a professional for cheap, he had to take it before her rates spiked.
Jack hastily sent Golden_Pookie_Agent a request with his requirements, references, and hopeful time range of delivery.
What surprised him was that he got a response almost right away.
[Golden_Pookie_Agent]: Can do. Please send a refundable deposit of fifty dollars, and I'll send you my drafts tomorrow morning."
"Wow, she sure works quick. No wonder everyone has given her five stars. It seems I was worried over nothing." Jack said with a smile.
He didn't think he would find a person with his exact needs so quickly. He was prepared to spend all day searching for the perfect one.
Looks like that wasn't needed.
Jack responded and sent over the fifty dollars before asking her if she had received it.
After getting confirmation, Jack closed Fiver and decided to treat himself for working so hard.
"I deserve it. I'll watch a stream. I wonder if Alice is streaming today." Jack wondered as he pulled up Omega.
He saw all his favorite streamers and focused on a young man wearing a thick black robe. He was walking in a desert as he carried a massive anti-tank gun on his back. Underneath the stream thumbnail was the stream title and the game category.
Road to One Hundred!!!!
Ranked Survival
"It's nice that my former games haven't died off. Although the System thought they weren't good enough, at least my fans do." Jack said with a smile.
He clicked on the stream and read the chat.
Boy_of _thunder: Rise, men! Rise ladies! Rise to defeat the tyrants of the Starry Cloud Studio!
ChampoThree: Alice, continue on! Don't let the corrupt game devs slow your pace to the top one hundred!
StickyGecko: Death to Starry Cloud Studio!
"Oh, come on. Where are the mods? You can't be wishing death to anyone." Jack said as he shook his head.
Jack's lips twitched as he checked his back to see that he wouldn't get assassinated.
"That's enough Omega for today. I guess I'll stick with YouTube." Jack said and closed the tab.
"There should be some good stuff on YouTube waiting for me to explore," Jack said with hope.
The moment he opened YouTube, he was greeted with five YouTube videos about the investigation into Starry Cloud Studio. One of them came out yesterday with an update.
"Damn, it's been four days. Can't we move on?" Jack groaned.
His homepage was a lost cause, so Jack directly searched his reliable favorite YouTube to watch their latest videos.
He spent the rest of the day relaxing and texting Sarah about her feedback on the update. He had overestimated how much stuff would fill their mailbox.
They weren't very far into the game at all.
"Thinking about it, even reaching the end of the main storyline will require reaching round one hundred. And I plan on adding additional three branching storylines from there."
"Sarah and Betty are still very far away from the end. Still at the learning stage." Jack muttered as he rubbed his chin.
He might really need to adjust how he approached the storyline. He needed to place more bits and pieces of the story in every round.
Even the background, characters, music, and buildings will not be safe from his hands once he has enough money. Everything should be helpful to let the players understand the general story.
The more detailed parts will only be faintly touched upon for people to chew on and fill in the gaps.
As for the gambling feature of the game, Sarah and Betty refused to test it out until they felt they were good enough to get to round twenty by themselves consistently.
This means he still had no clue how good the gambling feature was or if there were some hidden quirks. Although their refusal to test it out was disappointing, Jack didn't push them to do it.
They were his investors, not his beta testers. Their enjoyment of the game was more important.
"I wonder how Sarah is doing? The last thing I heard was that she was going to a party. The life of an ambitious man is filled with loneliness. Sigh." Jack muttered and looked at the time.
It was ten o'clock.
"It's ten already. I would be asleep by now if I were still in my previous life," Jack muttered.
He remembered coming home exhausted, carrying piles upon piles of research papers, notes, and pictures of random ancient objects found in ancient cities.
Although he was dead tired, he would always force himself to stay up a little bit longer to read one more paragraph. Even then, he fell asleep in the middle of his work more often than not.
"I guess I was a workaholic in my previous life too." Jack chuckled and stood up.
Maybe a nightly jog would clear his mind, a chance to outrun the ghost of his old life—and the weight of his new one.