----
"What do you mean I'm fired?!"
Aiden Blake stood frozen in front of his boss—an intimidating, red-haired woman in sharp business attire. Her piercing blue eyes radiated annoyance, and she crossed her arms like she'd been waiting for this moment.
"You're not contributing much to the company," she said, voice cold. "And you've been taking leave after leave. We can't keep carrying dead weight."
"B-but I was injured!" Aiden argued. "I had a car accident! You saw the hospital reports—"
"Then go work a regular 9-to-5 or something," she cut in, brushing him off like old code. "What did you expect me to say? 'Please stay'? You're not indispensable."
And just like that… he was out.
---
I'm Aiden Blake. Game developer—or, well… former game developer.
Up until five minutes ago, I was working at ST Games, one of the biggest companies in the world making capsule games. You know the type—ultra-realistic, full-immersion, fantasy or FPS, total sensory sync. The stuff that makes your grandma scream when she walks past the screen.
Anyway, I just got fired. And not because I was bad at my job, but because apparently surviving a car crash isn't a good enough excuse for missing work.
Awesome.
---
[Ding... Host Detected.]
[System Initialization in Progress...]
[0%...20%...50%...100%]
[Initialisation complete.]
...
What the hell?
Was I hallucinating? Hearing voices in my head?
Yep. Definitely going insane. Losing your job will do that to you.
But then—just as I was debating whether I needed therapy or sleep—a translucent blue screen flickered to life in front of me. Floating. Glowing. Just like in a game.
[System Window]
Welcome, Host, to the Game Dev System. Here, you may create any game you desire.
...
Okay, now I'm really losing it.
"This... this is like one of those systems from novels, isn't it?" I muttered.
[Affirmative. I am a Game Dev System]
"Right. Totally normal. Not a mental breakdown at all." I rubbed my eyes. The screen didn't disappear. "So… what can you do exactly?"
[I allow you to create capsule games of any genre. Fantasy, FPS, horror, strategy — you name it. However, each creation requires Dev Tokens.]
"Dev Tokens?"
[A system exclusive currency. You earn them by achieving milestones related to your games: popularity, player satisfaction, feature success, and more.]
I nodded slowly, still trying to wrap my head around it. "So... I can make a game right now?"
[Upon system initialization, you have been granted 500,000 Dev Tokens.]
"Wait—FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND?!"
This had to be a dream. Or maybe a prank show. Hidden cameras? Some kind of deep-fake augmented reality?
But the screen didn't vanish. The data felt real. The interface reacted to my thoughts.
And I had half a million tokens just sitting there.
"...So I really can make anything?"
[Affirmative. Begin your first Capsule Games when you are Ready.]
I took a long breath.
Fired? Yes. Broke? Technically.
But right now…?
I had the power to build worlds.
And I was about to make ST Games wish they never let me go.
---
Author's Note:
Aiden Blake just got hit with a double whammy: unemployment and a literal cheat-code life system. Stick around—he's about to cook up his first capsule game, and let's just say it won't be your average dungeon crawler.