Felix slept peacefully.
He woke up in the afternoon to grab a makeshift coffee that he homemade and a nutritional paste.
His mind was too foggy to cook.
He scrolled through the Holonet, which was a combination of Facebook and Twitter. He was checking if there was a new unique game he could play, and something caught his attention.
He thought at first it was the same kind of game he was used to by now, but it caught his attention.
A promo video showed details about a shooting game where you run endlessly while shooting aliens. And that's it. Felix wondered if this game was inspired by Subway Surfer, since after Temple Run, lots of endless runner games had started to show up bit by bit
He saw the title was "Shoot the Alien". The game designer was from SolSphere Entertainment.
The comments were praising it for being a unique concept.
[ I've always thought about shooting while playing Subway Surfer, thinking it could've been better if it had shooting mechanics while endlessly running. Now that this kind of game is out, I'll definitely try it! ]
[ Same!! ]
Felix saw the comments comparing it to Subway Surfer.
He agreed with them.
They weren't wrong.
The games that most designers produced were basically the same thing over and over again, just with different toppings. If the cream and cake are always the same, people get tired of eating it every day.
It's the same for interstellar players
Felix read that the game would be released soon, on the same date as his own game's launch.
He felt a flicker of curiosity.
It had been a long time since he last played any new games in the holographic interface, aside from constantly playtesting his own creations until the repetition wore him down.
He missed the feeling of being a player, not just a developer.
The anticipation of discovering something new, of reacting instead of building.
A sharp beam of light cut through the window, flashing against his face and dragging him out of his thoughts.
The sunlight reflected off the metallic edges of his desk, casting long shadows across the room.
It reminded him that he hadn't moved his body all day.
His legs were stiff, his shoulders hunched from hours of hunching over the holographic pad.
He groaned quietly, pushing himself up from the chair.
The glass screen still shimmered in front of him, but his muscles ached for motion.
He stretched slowly, every joint cracking like old furniture.
The air in the room was still, faintly warm from the afternoon sun.
He sighed.
It was time to exercise.
Two hours later…
After exercising, Felix went to the location of his old apartment.
He was now in the old apartment complex that his grandparents had given him when he graduated from college.
The original Felix was happy when he found out that this old building was near the beach, but when he realized it was also close to the Mycoxar species, he became so disappointed that he forgot about the apartment building altogether.
Fia now resided in Felix's body and had his full memory, like watching a drama movie all at once.
She remembered the old building when she accessed Felix's memories, and now that Felix had the building, it worked in his favor.
Felix didn't know exactly what the Mycoxar were; he only knew they were interstellar citizens most people preferred to avoid.
They rarely appeared in the news, which mostly regulated negative reports, but when they did, it was always as space pirates.
Felix didn't think much about the Mycoxar and didn't notice the occasional news about them, which was why he didn't care if they were nearby.
This would be the place where his company would start.
Felix scans his fingerprints, face, and eyes to unlock the door. As it slides open, he steps inside and looks around.
It was… decent? The space wasn't luxurious by any means, but it was functional.
The only real issue was the dust and grime caked on nearly every surface. Still, he didn't understand why the original Felix avoided this place like the plague.
All it needed was a proper cleaning and some renovation.
The original Felix had a stable income from streaming, and now he had a stable income too.
The Subway Surfer players, especially the whales, were buying gems like there was no tomorrow to unlock characters and skins.
Hacking in the game was difficult.
Only elite-tier hackers could break into it, and even then, only a few had managed it.
GameStar had built one of the strongest systems in the galaxy, with layers of security that made unauthorized access nearly impossible.
No one would dare to hack the system just to cheat in games.
Felix decided to create free games for his players.
He looks around and sees that the lights are still on, but the atmosphere feels off, like a gloomy abandoned house.
"Is this the reason why he was scared to be here?" Felix scratches his head.
He doesn't understand the original Felix at all.
After checking every corner of the apartment building, he found that all the units were vacant.
While inspecting each apartment, he recorded videos and drew a map of the entire layout so he could send it to the renovation team and begin work tomorrow.
It was already getting close to nightfall.
He decided to get food outside if he could find a decent place to eat.
He gave one of the cleaner robots a quick pat before stepping outside. As he looked up, his eyes widened.
"Woah, it really looks good," he said under his breath.
The night sky stretched endlessly above him, filled with stars that shimmered like scattered diamonds, glowing in soft shades of blue, purple, and silver.
It was breathtaking.
In his previous world, the sky had always been clouded by pollution, hiding the stars from view. But here, every night felt like standing under a living painting.
He was about to take a picture when he froze. A sudden chill swept over his body, and every part of him screamed with alarm.
On his camera screen, he saw it clearly skeletal limbs twisted and mismatched, stripped of flesh. Its hair was made of living fungus, shifting and pulsing as if breathing.
Felix's mind short-circuited.
He wanted to run, but his legs refused to move. He thought there weren't supposed to be any ghosts here.
In front of him stood a tall, grotesque shape, staring from afar.
Wasn't this place abandoned? He clearly knew there should be no one around. Then this thing is…
Felix remembered the horror movies he had scorned in the past, even from his time as a woman in his previous life.
He had more tolerance for horror, since his first horror game had been Five Nights at Freddy's.
He had been the weird kid in class. But that didn't mean he could stay calm when facing a real threat up close.
What was happening now terrified him.
For the first time in his life, he was frozen like a statue. Even his expressionless face betrayed him drained of color, bitten lips stained with blood.
Memories of horror from his past life surged back.
His breath grew shaky and fast.
Then, a soft voice broke through the silence.
"…A-are you okay?"
Still trapped in his own panic, Felix kept staring at the screen.
The fungus twitched.
The skeletal figure was slowly moving toward him.
Then he was finally able to see the ghost clearly from afar.
It was… kind of cute? The skeletal figure had a large mushroom growing on its head, and its limbs swayed like tree branches in the wind.
"Damn, what kind of character design is this?" he muttered, staring at it in disbelief.
Thinking of his own appearance, he suddenly wondered if he was even considered handsome anymore.
After seeing so many attractive people in the interstellar worlds, he had started to grow tired of them.
Was this one of the species he had never encountered? He had been too busy to research species in this world.
At this point, he wasn't even sure what he was himself.
The mushroom covered creature tilted its head and asked in confusion, "Character design..?" It clearly had no idea what he was talking about.
It had only approached him because it knew a nice spot nearby to take a picture.
Regaining his senses, Felix was calm again when he heard that soft voice, "Nevermind that… Is there something you need?"
The mushroom tree creature stood frozen for a moment.
Just moments ago, the person in front of it had been terrified of its appearance, but now he was staring with stars in his eyes.
It didn't fully understand what was happening, but one thing it did know was that it had never had a humanoid friend before.
It had always wanted one.
It had even researched half-human species to avoid offending them.
It tried hard to act politely, to make sure it didn't scare anyone.
But whenever it tried to start a conversation with its classmates, they would always run away.
It had felt downcast for an entire month.
Now, seeing a half-human with eyes full of curiosity and wonder, it couldn't help but think.
..Maybe this time, it had a real chance to make a friend!
Bracing itself, it tried not to get too excited or let its pores get out of control.
Its parents had taught it how to manage its pores since it was young, but because it was naturally emotional, it still struggled to keep them in check.
Felix stood there, stunned.
Seeing a non-humanoid species taller than himself for the first time amazed him.
Despite its towering height, it actually seemed shy.
Based on the soft, slightly high-pitched voice he had heard earlier, Felix guessed it might be female.
If this female was already this tall, then what about the males?
Felix shook his head, relying on his kindergarten-level knowledge about the species of this world.
Some species didn't have genders at all.
He was curious about how they reproduced, but the Holonet blocked that kind of search whenever he asked.
Even though he had once been a girl, it didn't mean he wasn't curious about new things.
Humans tended to be curious about everything like children, though adults often restrained their curiosity, or their lives became too dull to notice it.
He used to be the latter when he worked in corporate life, but now he played as he liked and built games whenever he had the time.
Sometimes he even felt guilty on the system about how little he worked, knowing that he spent overtime even without a boss pushing him.
The non-humanoid didn't understand why the human's eyes kept getting brighter, but it knew it had to speak up or it would miss the chance.
With its tall frame slightly hunched, it nervously fidgeted with its clothing.
"Uhmm… I-I saw you earlier taking a.. p-picture. It's not like I was stalking you or a-anything! I just, um… k-know a spot with better scenery…"
As it finally got the words out, the top of its head lit up in bright, vibrant colors like a festival.
It was proud of itself.
After years of trying, this was the first time it had managed to talk to someone who's half-human!
Felix waited patiently, watching as the top of its head lit up and its spores shifted into colorful variations.
It reminded him of fireworks during New Year's celebrations.
Damn… he suddenly remembered how he used to get money so easily every New Year. But unlike Chinese people who got lucky money twice a year, he only received it once.
He used to wish, when he was younger, that he were Chinese or that one of his grandparents was Chinese, even though he was Southeast Asian.
Can you blame him? Watching short videos of Chinese people getting red envelopes twice a year, can you really blame him?
Those were the days he missed the most.
Seeing Felix remain silent, it braced itself for rejection.
Then Felix smiled at the mushroom tree in front of him and said, "Sure, I won't mind."
It was surprised and happy. It nodded repeatedly, and its spores floated into the air. Some even landed on Felix, but when he tried to brush them off, they vanished. They reminded him of firecrackers, but more advanced.
The way it nodded made him think of his old light-up yoyo from when he was younger, the one that spun with bright, colorful lights.