The slaughter was efficient. In the center of the town square, Grognak the Bone-Crusher swung his massive club.
[Player 'SwordKing' died.]
[Player 'HealerPlz' died.]
[Player 'NoobSlayer_v2' died.]
[Despair Harvest: +150 Creation Coins.]
Fang watched the coins flow in, but his eyes were fixed on a different metric. A metric that made his stomach tighten.
[Retention Rate: Dropping...]
[Current Rage-Quit Count: 12 Players.]
The Global Chat was flaming red.
[User992: This is impossible! You can't spawn a Level 10 Boss in the starter town!]
[GamerDad: I have 3 kids, I don't have time to die instantly. Unsubscribing.]
[ProGamerX: Trash balance. Dev is a troll. Uninstalling.]
Fang stood up abruptly. "Stop."
He wanted their suffering, yes. He wanted their money. But if they deleted the game, he lost his livestock. There was a fine line between a 'Hardcore Challenge' and 'Broken Garbage'. Grognak had crossed it.
"System!" Fang barked. "Despawn Entity: Grognak. Immediately!"
[Command Accepted.]
Down in the square, just as Grognak raised his club to crush TankTop into paste, the ground trembled. A dark rift opened behind the goblin boss.
[System Event: The Goblin King grows bored of your weakness.]
Grognak sneered, lowered his club, and stepped backward into the rift. The portal snapped shut, leaving forty terrified Level 1 players standing in the dust, alive but shaken.
[Global Chat]
[TankTop: He... he left? We survived?]
[GamerDad: Oh... okay. I thought I was dead. Phew. My heart is pounding.]
Fang exhaled. He had spun a game-breaking bug into a lore event. The players didn't feel cheated.. they felt lucky.
"Close call," Fang muttered.
He looked at his funds. The brief massacre had been lucrative.
[Current Funds: 2,800 Creation Coins.]
"System," Fang said, sitting back down at the terminal. "I can't micro-manage every goblin while designing new zones. Purchase [Basic AI Automation Suite]."
[Cost: 2,000 Creation Coins.]
[Confirm?]
"Confirm."
[Ding!]
[Upgrade Installed: Basic AI Core.]
[Server Capacity Expanded: 50 -> 300 Simultaneous Connections.]
[NPC Autonomy: Enabled.]
A wave of blue energy pulsed through the terminal. Fang felt a weight lift off his mind. He no longer had to manually command the goblins in the Crying Caves to attack. The AI took over, using the aggressive tactics Fang had taught it.
"Now the game runs itself," Fang smirked. "I can focus on expansion."
Four Hours Later..
[Active Players: 89]
[Peak Concurrent: 92]
The town of Shadow's Rest was bustling. Players were shouting in the square, trading goblin teeth for potions. The Blacksmith, Gorn, was getting rich repairing broken armor.
But a new problem had emerged.
TankTop, DarkElf_Waifu, GlassCannon, and about seven others had reached Level 5. They were wearing full sets of Goblin Leather armor. They had farmed the Crying Caves dry.
Fang zoomed in on them near the edge of the floating island. They were staring out into the empty grey void.
[Local Chat]
[TankTop: Is this it? Is there no more content?]
[GlassCannon: I have maxed out my Ember Bolt. I need a new spell book. The shop doesn't have anything.]
[DarkElf_Waifu: If there's no update soon, I'm gonna go play that Farming Sim. I'm bored.]
"Boredom," Fang whispered, his eyes cold. " The killer of Tycoons."
He checked his balance. The steady stream of respawn fees and shop taxes from 89 players had refilled his coffers.
[Current Funds: 1,500 Creation Coins.]
"Time for Zone 2," Fang cracked his knuckles. "And a new way to play."
He opened the [World Editor].
He selected the empty void beyond the Crying Caves.
[Select Biome Theme:]
[1. Volcanic Ridge]
[2. Frozen Wasteland]
[3. The Drowned Graveyard]
Fang chose option 3.
"Manual Design Mode: Engaged."
[Cost: 1,000 Coins (Assets + Weather Engine)]
Fang began to paint the world. He raised the terrain, creating jagged, slippery cliffs. He placed hundreds of tilted, moss-covered tombstones.
Then, he touched the [Weather] tab.
"Rain," Fang ordered. "Heavy. Cold."
[Ding!]
[Weather Effect Applied: Eternal Downpour.]
[Debuff: 'Wet' - Reduces Movement Speed by 10%. Increases Lightning Damage taken by 20%.]
He grinned. "GlassCannon is going to love that lightning weakness."
But a new zone wasn't enough to create hype. He needed something that would make the new players jealous and the old players grind harder.
"System, open [Race Creator]."
The prompt for "New Race" hovered.
Currently, everyone was a 'Human'.
Fang wanted to introduce a 'Premium' race. Something that cost resources to unlock, forcing players to play more.
[Race Name: Vampire (Blood Kin)]
[Base Stats: Agility ++, Strength +]
[Passive: Life Steal (Heal for 5% of damage dealt).]
[Weakness: Sunlight (Stats reduced by 50% during the day).]
"Perfect," Fang nodded. "High risk, high reward. And since my new zone is dark and rainy, Vampires will thrive there."
He set the unlock requirement: [Item: Vial of Ancient Blood] (Drop rate 1% from the new Zone Boss).
He opened the [Item Designer].
[Item: Rainwalker Boots]
[Rank: Uncommon]
[Effect: Negates 'Wet' movement penalty.]
[Item: Thunder-Caller Dagger]
[Rank: Rare]
[Effect: 10% chance to shock wet targets.]
[Item: Hood of the Grave]
[Rank: Rare]
[Effect: +10 Stealth in dark areas.]
He scattered these items into the loot tables of the new monsters: Rotting Zombies and Drowned Spirits.
"Done," Fang said, slamming the Enter key.
[Ding!]
[Server Update 1.2: The Drowned Dead.]
[New Zone Unlocked: The Weeping Graveyard.]
[New Race Available: Vampire.]
[Level Cap Increased to 10.]
A massive crack of thunder shook the entire game world.
In Shadow's Rest, the players stopped their trading. They looked toward the edge of the island. The grey mist parted.
A rickety, suspended wooden bridge extended out over the void, connecting the town to a new, massive landmass. The new island was shrouded in dark blue fog, and rain could be seen lashing down in sheets. Lightning flashed, illuminating crumbling mausoleums.
[Global Notification: The path to the Weeping Graveyard is open.]
"NEW ZONE!" TankTop screamed. "GO GO GO!"
The mob of 89 players surged forward.
As soon as TankTop stepped onto the wooden bridge, the rain hit him.
[Status: Wet.]
[Movement Speed -10%.]
"Ugh, I'm slow!" TankTop complained. "And it's hard to see!"
"My fire magic is weak here!" GlassCannon yelled, casting a fireball that sizzled and shrank in the rain. "Damage reduced by 50% due to rain?! Are you kidding me?!"
Fang chuckled. "Adapt or die."
From the mud of the graveyard, hands shot up. Not skeletons this time. Bloated, water-logged zombies.
[Monster: Drowned Walker (Level 6)]
They were slow, but they were tanky. And there were hundreds of them.
"Attack!" DarkElf_Waifu shouted, loosing an arrow.
The battle began. It was messy. The mud made players slide. The rain weakened fire magic. The zombies absorbed hit after hit.
But then, a notification popped up in the chat.
[Player 'RogueOne' has looted: 'Thunder-Caller Dagger'!]
RogueOne equipped the jagged blue blade immediately. He slashed a wet zombie.
ZZZT!
Blue electricity arced through the water on the zombie's skin.
[Critical Hit! Shock Damage!]
The zombie convulsed and died instantly.
"Lightning!" RogueOne shouted. "Use lightning weapons! The water conducts it!"
"Genius!" TankTop yelled. "Farm the daggers! Everyone farm the daggers!"
Fang smiled. He loved it when they figured out the puzzle. It gave them hope.
He checked the [Race Change] altar he had placed at the entrance of the graveyard.
[Requirement: Vial of Ancient Blood.]
The players saw the new race option.
"Vampire?" GlassCannon read the description. "Life Steal? I want it!"
"It drops from the boss," DarkElf_Waifu said, pointing to a massive crypt at the top of the graveyard hill. "We have to clear the zone."
The motivation was set. The greed was ignited.
[Active Players: 95]
...
[Active Players: 102]
New players were trickling in, attracted by the "Update" notification on the System Hub. A game that updated fast was a game worth playing.
Fang leaned back. He had crossed the 100-player mark. He was halfway to his goal. But he knew the hardest part was coming. 100 to 200 required something more than just a new zone.
"System," Fang said softly. "Show me the status of the [Guild Hall]."
[Guilds Created: 3]
[1. The Iron Legion (Leader: TankTop)]
[2. Void Wizards (Leader: GlassCannon)]
[3. Waifu Protection Squad (Leader: SimpLord)]
"Good," Fang nodded. "Tribalism."
He opened the [Event Planner].
"Let's make them fight each other."
[Ding!]
[Upcoming Event: The First Guild War.]
[Prize: Ownership of the Weeping Graveyard (Tax Collection Rights).]