While they walked toward the good spot, Felix asked all sorts of questions, his curiosity bubbling over. Sian answered each one patiently, their voice soft but steady.
Felix learned that their name was Sian.
They came from the deep Mycelial, a mysterious region of uncharted space.
Their family had moved to the Federation after discovering the planet's strong academic reputation.
Sian's parents wanted them to grow up smart and successful, which reminded Felix of many Asian families he had known back on Earth.
Even though Sian was quiet and shy, they were an excellent student.
They rarely argued, always followed instructions, and did their best.
Because of this, their parents and siblings cherished them deeply.
What surprised Felix the most was Sian's age.
Looking at their bright eyes and gentle personality, he had assumed they were in high school.
In reality, Sian was already 44 years old.
Felix's eyes widened in shock, but Sian just laughed softly and explained that by the standards of their species, 44 was still the equivalent of a young adult just barely out of adolescence.
The two quickly hit it off.
They even added each other on StarNet and GameStar, planning to play together whenever they had free time.
Since Sian had upcoming college exams, they didn't want to be disturbed while studying.
Felix discovered that although Sian was shy in social situations, they took studying very seriously.
Their dedication was so intense that Felix thought they might as well marry their books.
Sian then showed Felix the spot they had mentioned earlier, a place with a stunning view.
It was a beautiful blend of sci-fi and nature, filled with floating rocks and patches of glowing greenery.
Felix stood there, momentarily stunned by the surreal beauty of it.
It had been a long time since Felix had seen a place this beautiful.
The colors of the landscape matched the sky perfectly, and though he couldn't tell what kind of animals were making the soft background sounds, it all blended into something peaceful and soothing.
Click. Click. Click.
There was no real shutter sound since his photos were being taken through his holoscreen, but in his head, imagining the old-fashioned clicking made it feel more satisfying.
When it was finally time to part ways, Felix was reluctant to leave.
He noticed that Sian's spores had turned blue, unlike the white they were when they first met.
He remembered what Sian had told him earlier, that their emotions were expressed through the color of their spores.
Seeing the soft blue drifting in the air, Felix realized that this kid was probably crying.
"Don't worry, fam! I'll be back… and we can still see each other in GameStar!"
Sian nodded, smiling through the tears.
Then, they went their separate ways.
Even though it was his first time making friends here, Felix still needed to create games.
After all, he had been getting bored in his spare time lately.
Even while traveling here and there, building games along the way, the momentary excitement of being in a new place had already faded.
Now, boredom had finally caught up with him.
Felix stretched his body and immediately got to work.
Cecily also knew about the game Shoot the Aliens from SolSphere Entertainment. And she knew exactly who the creator was.
It was Rafi, a well-known new game designer who had a remarkably strong start.
He quickly rose to fame when one of his games made it into the global top 10 charts, despite him being a newcomer in the industry.
His company, SolSphere Entertainment, was one of the major giants in the gaming world.
The name SolSphere came from the company's founder and original CEO, Sol, who began everything from scratch.
Back when SolSphere was still small, Sol himself was a game designer.
He created his own games, gained widespread recognition, and eventually built a legacy that would reach across the interstellar market.
His name lived on through the company, and the reputation of SolSphere carried the story of his humble beginnings and ambition.
Rafi was seen as a new generation genius, someone who could potentially follow in Sol's footsteps.
His current manager, Oni, was now one of the main administrators within the company.
SolSphere held Rafi tightly, offering him respect, resources, and creative freedom.
The company valued his talent so much that they provided everything he needed, from cutting-edge technology to personal development support.
Rafi became a core figure of their brand, often used in interviews and promotional materials to represent the face of innovation.
Both she and her viewers were discussing it.
[Rafi, my beloved!!]
[Who is Rafi?]
[Did you live under the sea!? Rafi is known across the Galaxian systems! He's a new game designer and already ranked in the top 10 among all Galaxy game designers!]
[Agreed with the one above, they're probably an aquatic species LOL]
[Let's not be racist now, alright?]
[Everyone knows aquatic species are slow to catch up with news]
Aquatic species are generally known to have slightly weaker signal reception, or in most cases, they simply do not care much about who designs the games.
They just enjoy playing if the game is fun, whether the creator is famous or not.
That is why many new game designers especially appreciate aquatic players for their honesty and lack of bias.
[You tree-dwellers are even worse, all of you are short ass*s anyway]
Aquatic species are known for their sharp tongues, which is why other species love arguing with them and even take notes on their comebacks.
[!!]
If Felix saw how aquatic species responded, it would have reminded him of his old life, where people used to curse at each other online like their life depends on it.
Before the fight could escalate any further, Cecilia quickly changed the subject.
She did not know why the chat kept arguing among themselves. It was entertaining, sure, but she was the one streaming and she needed to take responsibility.
Cecilia was curious too about the game the new designer had developed, but she was not expecting much.
She had already played his previous games and felt they were similar to many others on the market.
The only real difference was that his games had far more detail than most, which made sense considering his mental energy level was ranked A+.
There was even a rumor that he might reach S-level mental power soon.
Eagerly, Cecilia bought the new game Shoot the Aliens. Just as she did, a special notification pinged — the kind she had personally set to be different from the rest.
She clicked it immediately and was shocked to see breaking news from Tierra Entertainment a new game was launching, and it was completely free, just like Subway Surfer.
Cecilia looked at the preview images and was stunned by the setting.
It was a place she had never seen before.
[ Oh, is that Tierra!! ]
[ New game?? Did they finally add the shooting mechanism?? ]
The creature chasing the player wasn't shown in the preview images, but the theme looked… dark?
Her viewers were just as confused.
Cecilia quickly checked the genre of the game and froze.
Right beside "endless running" was a niche label horror.
"There's no way Tierra would risk ruining their reputation with a horror game… right?"
It wasn't that she didn't trust Tierra Entertainment's ability to make good games.
It was just that horror games had become so niche in the industry that most developers avoided them completely.
It was widely known among game designers that horror simply didn't sell like it used to.
And yet, Tierra entertainment had done it.
Cecilia remembered that Subway Surfer had been made by just one person. And now, barely a month and a week later, they already had a new game out.
[ Horror?? He made the game that fast? Didn't he create his games all by himself? Isn't that the kind of thing that usually gets scrapped? ]
[ That niche genre?? ]
[ No one dares to touch horror anymore. Why would they release one now? Did they get arrogant because of sudden popularity? ]
[ It's possible, the Tierra game's immediately hit into top ten but look at our Rafii~ he is still humble even he was famous globally now!]
[ This Rafi fans…]
[ Don't jump to conclusions. Look, it's free. How about playing it first before judging it? (Rolleyes.Emoji) ]
[ How did you get that emoji?? ]
It was an emoji from Subway Surfers, showing Tagbot, the gray robot with green eyes and a red and white cap, rolling its eyes.
Players could unlock special stickers and items through achievements.
[ It's from Tierra. They gave it out as a free sticker. ]
[ Thankiesss! ]
Cecilia wasn't sure if the new horror game had been in development for a while, since the preview images showed surprisingly polished detail.
There was no way someone could make a game that refined in just a month, unless they had an A+ or even S-grade mental power level.
"He probably already assembled his own company..?" She looked up how many people were in Tierra Entertainment. It was four.
"Oh! Then they probably helped him make this. That's why it was finished so fast." Cecilia immediately hit the play button.
The screen turned black, then slowly faded into a menu.
A low hum and soft tribal drums echoed in the background, mixed with faint rattles and distant howls. The sound felt ancient and mysterious, like the atmosphere of a hidden jungle temple.
It built a quiet tension in the air.
Hearing that strange melody, something she had never heard before Cecilia couldn't help but exclaim in awe.
In the menu, a giant open cave appeared. It looked like the gaping mouth of a creature, with sharp teeth hanging from the top and a dark, eerie tone surrounding it.
The background music matched the scene, low and haunting, adding to the unsettling atmosphere.
There were several options displayed in a line of glowing text: 「Objective」 「Stats」 「Store」 「Leaderboard」. Compared to Subway Surfer's cartoonish art style, this game leaned more into realism, even though it was still in 3D.
[ Wowww the theme looks so different from before ]
[ Yeah, judging by the background, the game feels really realistic. We've never seen anything like this! ]
[ But… it's still horror though ]
Yes, it was still horror.
One of the most niche genres.
As soon as players saw the horror tag, most of them lost interest.
Even if Tierra introduced brand new gameplay mechanics, that wouldn't be enough to change the way people felt about the genre.
Cecilia was too fascinated by the menu to notice any of the comments.
In her opinion, you couldn't judge a game unless you played it.
Many lower-tier game designers actually made good content, and she didn't dare to look down on them.
Even top-tier designers were capable of releasing bad games, after all.
Even if this was a horror game made by Tierra, did it really matter? It was free. She had nothing to lose. Maybe just her time, but at least she would have tried it before forming an opinion.
She glanced at the chat again and saw the intense debate continuing.
Viewers were saying that horror had become such a niche genre that nobody wanted to play it anymore.
They kept insisting she switch to another game.
But others argued she should give it a chance and let them watch how it turned out before they decided whether to download it.
Cecilia said, "Alright! Let's play it!" Of course she would listen to her viewers in the end, but she was also curious herself.
She wanted to see how Tierra's game designer would approach a horror game.
Who knew — maybe the game she was about to play would go down in history.
She tapped the 「Play」 button. Since it was listed under the endless running genre, she assumed it would be similar to Subway Surfer.
She skipped the tutorial altogether, already familiar with the basic mechanics and the shop lobby.