章 18: 18 - 25,000 Units of Mana Spent in One Day!
With Residual Devil going viral, not only were players surprised by how interesting it was, but people from the army and city government had their eyes on this new game. Initially the government only found out about this game made by a student at Harrington University when some worried mothers started calling, wanting the government to help their children, but they had only communicated their intention to talk to the University to solve this problem, and the University had already made a solution and implemented it! They didn't even have time to talk about how to resolve the issue and the issue had been resolved!
Now, getting the calls from mothers grateful for the change in attitude their children had, the people in government didn't even know how to respond. Saying something like "you're welcome" would have been too shameless, as they hadn't done anything, but saying they didn't do anything would also demonstrate their incompetence, which they definitely wouldn't want, so the only answer they could give was that they would forward their thanks to those responsible, although they had no idea who was responsible, only having a vague idea that it was the University.
Not only did people answering the calls of worried mothers learn about this game, but people in the city administration also found out about it.
"So since this game was released, the success rate of missions is going up considerably?" Tyler Wilson, the current manager of Sandstone Bay asked with a raised eyebrow as he watched a girl playing Residual Devil on television.
Wilson's secretary, who was off to the side with a tablet in her hand, responded, "Yes, Mr. Wilson. Apparently this game was made by a Developer at Harrington University with the pseudonym Electronic Arts, or EA for short. This Developer named EA developed this game a week ago and it has already been played by around 70% of Rank F Players in the city, making it one of the biggest practice games in Sandstone Bay, although even Rank E Players are trying this game out and playing it for fun."
Wilson listened to the entire report and looked at the scene where Chris killed the player's spouse in the livestream before leaving the house with the player's daughter in his arms and raised his eyebrow. "Even the story of this game sounds interesting. Has anyone else shown interest in this game?"
Ashley, Wilson's secretary, responded quickly. "Yes sir. Sandstone Television reached out to us to try to get in contact with Harrington University so that they could broadcast this game as a television show with Actors who are also Players, playing in the shoes of a player as if it were a movie, as According to them, the story of this game is more interesting than any series they've ever done."
This made Wilson raise his eyebrow even more, feeling that this was more surprising than the game being able to garner so many players. "Anybody else?"
Ashley was quick to continue. "Yes, even the army is already using Residual Devil as a training model for soldiers, especially for Rank F Player soldiers who use guns and knives as their method of battle."
Wilson was quite pleased with this report. Despite Harrington University being the best university of Developers among neighboring cities, the amount of truly talented Developers that emerged each year was very low, and it was known that a talented Developer was capable of turning a small town into a large mid-sized city from the background just with the improvement that players would get from experiencing the games a Developer like that made.
But Sandstone Bay wasn't able to produce a genius like that a few decades ago, and the last genius they had produced was stolen by another city, which caused them to be ridiculed by several other neighboring cities.
This time, hearing that such a powerful genius had arisen in Sandstone Bay, Wilson, who was the City Manager, would not let the same misfortune happen again. Of course, he couldn't force the Developer to stay in town, but he was certain that if he showed enough sincerity and plenty of resources, this Developer would hardly leave town.
"Ashley, try to find out the identity of this Developer. I want to know every detail about him, especially if he has a civil origin, as maybe with that it would be easier to seduce him with enough resources," Wilson ordered.
"Yes sir." Ashley understood the seriousness of this and quickly left the office, leaving Wilson alone as he watched the livestream thoughtfully.
Wilson was thinking about what kind of benefits he could offer to this Developer, since if he managed to convince this EA to remain a Sandstone Bay Developer, he would surely be praised by the superiors. Wilson was not the only person interested in this mysterious EA, who had appeared in such a short time and had already become one of the main Developers in the city, as officials from other cities who were in Sandstone Bay had reported news of them back to their cities so that their cities could also try to convince this promising young man to become their own Developer. Especially considering that Sandstone Bay in the past let a genius Developer be stolen by another small town, and that town was already a medium-sized city today, it was undeniable that a large part of the reason for that city's success was the games that that genius Developer had made for them.
Meanwhile, as the rulers of several cities became aware of him, Gabe had just finished developing Residual Devil Chapter 02 and scheduled the release of that chapter for the agreed time for players.
Just as he had imagined, he spent a total of 6,000 Mana Units to develop Chapter 02, both due to the relevant characters that appeared in it, as well as having to tackle other difficulties presented by these characters that he created. He was again able to offset some of the cost due to the simulation system he had, so instead of having to try and make a powerful character like Karl Heisenberg by trial and error, spending thousands of Mana Units in the process as other Developers normally would do, Gabe only needed to spend the amount of Mana needed to simulate them and the character was ready in just one try!
But while he spent more Mana Units this time to develop this chapter's enemies, the time to make the chapter didn't necessarily increase all that much, only taking another 3-4 hours than the previous ones to complete everything.
In those hours Residual Devil received even more downloads and the average playing time went up even more.
[Residual Devil: Village]
[Downloads: 9.019]
[Average Play Time: 3.3 Hours.]
[Accumulated Mana: 29,762]
[Available for withdrawal: $5,095]
Mana Available: 21,126 [8,636 Units of Mana Spent]
Looking at the amount of available Mana that had dropped by so little despite him spending 6,000 Mana Units, Gabe was quite proud.
"With that amount of Mana available, I can spend 20,000 Mana Units without much worry and absorb them all completely!" Gabe said excitedly as he sat down in a comfortable position on his bed. "If I absorb 20,000 Mana Units, there will still be 1,126 left in the game so I can still do any updates in case I need to after Chapter 02 is released."
With his mind at ease, Gabe began to think about the knowledge he received at the University and remembered how the professor taught them how to absorb Mana from a Seed.
'First I have to transform the game's Mana into an ethereal form, like a smoke cloud of Mana inside the Seed. Then, I must control this Mana to enter my body, as an inverse the feeling I have when I use my own Mana to learn the skills of the game… So for every 100 units of Mana I extract from the game, I can get 1 unit of Mana in my body as Total Mana…' Gabe thought about the explanation the professor had given and started to carry out this process slowly, without any hurry.
As it was his first time doing this, Gabe was a little confused as to how he should do it, and the process was quite slow, but as time went on, Gabe got more and more used to it to the point that he only needed 1 minute to absorb 100 Units of Mana from the game.
So, in just over 3 hours Gabe had achieved it! The 20,000 Mana Units in the game converted to 200 Total Mana Units in his body, increasing the personal Mana he controlled to an amazing 300 Mana Units!
"I already have 300 Mana Units…" Gabe said excitedly as he felt the power course through his body, which, for the time being, didn't have much use other than learning skills from the games he developed. But that would soon change when he learned the first one containing magical power.
If other Developers found out that Gabe had spent a total of 25,000 Mana Units just today, something that would be around 25% of the total required to become a Rank E Developer, they would probably have puked blood in rage. While other students were posting in group forums that they were happy to absorb a few hundred Mana Units that their game yielded, Gabe was already being extravagant and absorbing 25,000 Mana Units!
But even though that Mana in his body wasn't of much use right now, Gabe felt that his body was reacting in a very abnormal way.
"So what were the health benefits to Mana that the professor talked about, again?" Gabe wondered in surprise.
------
During classes, his teacher, who was a Rank D Developer, answered a question that a female student had asked.
"Professor, why do the high Rank Developers have bodies as beautiful as Professor Parker's?" the girl asked curiously, "All the high ranking Developers have such beautiful bodies, and even old professors like you have such fit bodies!"
Initially the teacher was quite proud that this 20 year old girl was praising his body, but when he heard her saying that he was old, the teacher felt an arrow penetrating his chest. On the tip of the arrow there was the word "old" hanging by a thread.
But pretending that her words didn't affect him, the professor answered, "This is because of Mana nourishment. While E Rank Players have a minimum of 2 Mana Units and a maximum of 10 Mana Units, that Mana doesn't have as much effect on their body. For that reason it's not as noticeable. But for us Developers, we have a much higher amount of Mana than the Players. The Mana in our body is so high that it starts to nourish our muscles, making the muscles work even harder, thus consuming much of the useless fat and leaving only the good fat in our body so that the Mana can circulate in a more efficient way.
When you absorb Mana from a game you develop, you will also feel this change in your body. If you become an even higher ranked Developer, maybe you'll reach a level where your body doesn't even need food - just the Mana you have will be enough to sustain you for days, or even months!"
"Woah!" The students were shocked to hear this explanation, including former Gabe.
-------
Remembering that explanation, Gabe understood that this was actually the Mana nourishment that the professor spoke of, where the mana in Gabe's body was nourishing the muscles and stimulating their development.
"So does that mean I won't need to exercise for my muscles to develop in the future?! That's awesome, haha!" Gabe chuckled to himself, pleased that he had decided to increase his total mana.
//NunuNote//
Mass Release Target XD:
Based on weekly powerstone rankings!
Top30 = 1 Bonus Chapter
Top20 = 2 Bonus Chapter
Top10 = 3 Bonus Chapter
Top5 = ? Bonus Chapter
...
Bonus Chapters will be released on Sunday, based on preceding performance of the novel. Don't forget to vote for more chapters!
Current Rank: 7!!
(OMG, we are so close of Top5!!)
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