Honestly, I'm considering a rebrand from UnrelatableAuthor to UnreliableAuthor. Thoughts? Jokes aside, here's another chapter. Recently found some motivation to keep going ahead with this fic.
I also updated the first chapter.
Enjoy!
-+=[MHAGC]=+-
Just over a billion Gamer Coins. That's how much the serum cost. An insane number and thankfully the 100% coupon works on it. The pain is concerning but the advantages far outweigh how painful the experience would be.
Multiple new organs, enhanced strength, speed, durability, and so on. The Space Marines especially Primaris Space Marines are far beyond human. Their stature alone should tell you that.
Before he buys it though, he goes into his inventory and takes out a glowing white core. It was his Game Creator AI Assistant.
[AI Game Creator Assistant]
Description: An artificial lifeform that will help and assist the host in all matters of game creation. Hold up to your forehead to activate.
Megumi didn't hesitate and followed the instruction. The core disappeared and he felt some kind of presence in his head that was hard to explain. He didn't need to pull up his status before he heard a voice.
[AI Game Creator Assistant is at your service, Watanabe Megumi. If you need assistant regarding game creation, please let me know. If you wish to change how I sound or my designation, again, please let me know.]
An androgynous voice sounded through his head and that got him thinking. Obviously he won't be calling the AI "AI Game Creator Assistant" every time he needed something. What should he do though?
It didn't take long before he had a fun idea.
'I'll call you Jarvis from now on.' Megumi spoke in his head.
[Directive received. Designation changed from "AI Game Creator Assistant" to "Jarvis".]
Megumi's lip twitched at the robotic command-like speech. 'Any chance you can tone down the AI-talk and speak more naturally?'
There was a bit of a pause.
[Yes, how is this?]
'Perfect.' Megumi smiled to himself and called up the Gaming Store once again. 'Jarvis, can you tell me if I'll get everything from the Serum?' He wasn't sure if the assistant could help him here, but he was hoping.
[Apart from infertility, everything that a Primaris Space Marine has, you will have.]
So he could have children one day? Well, that's something. The organ that lets him eat people and gain their memories is pretty insane, but everything else is awesome. Acid spit is cool too.
He takes out the coupon and inputs it on the screen and he grabs the vial. It was much like his eyes, a mix of every color you could think of.
Megumi takes a deep breath, but he suddenly remembers that he'd probably be hungry as hell once the transformation is over. How much do Space Marines eat again? Wasn't it like 50,000 calories or even more? Luckily he had some money.
What wasn't lucky was that he had no phone or computer.
Could he have gone out and gotten one? Sure, but this world was filled with people with super powers. He wasn't going to take his chances.
So he used 3 Gamer Coins to buy a phone from like 5-6 generations ago, but perfectly serviceable to his current needs.
This system-generated phone came with his bank app already installed, so the first thing he did was order a debit card to his address and then searched on the internet for high-caloric foods. The world was different and science was all over the place, so maybe some new advancements were made.
Luckily he struck gold.
All Might Calorie Bars.
They were meant as meal-replacements and quirks that demand a lot of energy. There were multiple kinds, but the maximum was 5,000 calories per bar.
7,000 Yen for a pack of 15 bars. This was about 45 USD per pack.
With his current capital, this was pretty light, so he may have gone overboard and bought 20 packs of various flavors that amounted to 150,000 Yen. It was a bit more as usual since some flavors cost more than others, but he was satisfied. He got same day delivery and that it's estimated to be here in a few hours.
Now there was only the vial to consume.
Megumi took a deep breath and steeled himself.
'This is going to suck..'
He took off the cap and drank it in one go.
The system wasn't lying.
His mind felt as if it shut down as the information overload was beyond overwhelming, it was true horror. Every single part of his body was being reforged into something greater, beyond human. New organs, bones and muscles shifting and growing stronger.
How he was even awake was a miracle. The process of gaining 22 organs took several hours of pure pain and incredible growth.
He, unfortunately didn't plan enough as his clothes were completely shredded apart as his body expanded. Bones stronger and sturdier, Muscles that could make even the most devoted bodybuilders envious of, and height that would make even All Might look small.
By the time his body decided to stop tormenting him, he was naked and muscles still slightly spasming from what he endured. He took several deep breaths feeling completely reborn.
Just breathing felt different and filled his body with unimaginable power.
As he sat up on the couch, everything felt smaller, even the phone he previously had, now felt like a mini toy. He could still make it work, but he'd probably have to use a pinky to actually use it properly.
Suddenly, he felt intense hunger, and realized his delivery must be here considering how many hours he was lying in pain.
He was also carefully and noticed that if he stood all the way up, his head would go through the ceiling so he crouched low and opened the door.
It was a large box which he lifted with ease in one hand. Luckily, he lived on the sixth and most-top floor of his apartment building, so he wasn't worried about flashing anyone.
Closing the door and tearing apart the box, he opened the chocolate flavored bars and consumed them. It was a pain to open each bar one by one, but what could he do.
Megumi is sure that he could probably eat the wrapper with zero issue given his new body, but he wasn't going to suddenly act uncivilized.
While he was eating, he needed new clothes and spent another 3 Gamer Coins for three sets of clothing for his new stature.
He put them on and left the two other sets of clothes in his inventory while he finished eating.
As one could guess, he ate an entire pack until he finally felt satiated. It was probably a one-off thing considering it was an all-in-one operation which would be extremely taxing on the body.
About 10 bars per day would probably be more accurate.
Now, he wanted some stats on his body, so he asked his trusty assistant.
'Jarvis, could you tell me what my current height and weight are?' He asked.
[You are currently 9 foot 2 inches or 279.4 centimeters and 825 pounds or 374.2 kilograms.]
Damn, he has a few hundred pounds on All Might, but he likely would get destroyed by him. Luckily he's just a humble game creator.
His height is also pretty insane, so outside the absolute pinnacle of the world, he's confident in handling whoever he comes across.
The most important thing to do now is to actually create a game, but what should he do? This is a world of heroes and villains, so what would appeal to them? The guide was clear that important characters would give more coins than just some random civilian, but civilians would also be the bulk of his player base with billions of them.
How does he hook everyone? Minecraft? A deep-dive VR experience of Minecraft could hardly go wrong, but that's a pretty basic game. Absolutely perfect for casual gamers, but he wants something with some edge, stakes, and heart-pumping gameplay. Outlast Trials? He loved the game and it was pretty fun, but it might be a bit extreme for his first game.
Sea of Thieves. That's the game he's going to do. Exploration, tension, pirate on pirate battles. Maybe even a bit more. He played the game quite a bit and while it could get pretty boring at times, but he had ways to spice things up, especially if it's deep-dive VR tech. There's quite a bit he could do.
He opens his status and Games tab. Megumi is transported to his sea of energy and begins building along with helpful advice and tips from his AI.
The scale is going to be much grander than the original game. He expanded the area by ten fold with 1,000 islands and 50 crews per server which would be at most 200 people per server.
Adding more outposts, expanding the Devil's Roar, and a few more Reaper hideouts so PvPers won't get jumped by the whole lobby if there's only 1 island for them.
Megumi then had a pretty insane idea.
'Let's add Haki and Devil Fruits to the mix.' He wanted a bit more of a layered combat experience. Typically, you had your sniper and blunderbuss and whoever has better management of their resources is who wins. The fights can be pretty long if they have similar skill and resources but can be very repetitive, so adding Haki and Devil Fruits would spice things up.
On that note, he added more concepts from One Piece like Meito weapons and the main mode of new players. In the original game, there was the High Seas which put you in a lobby with other people or Calm Seas which is just you and your crew at diminished rewards and XP.
His were The Four Blues, Paradise, and New World. As for something like Calm Seas? He added East Blue for just those who don't want to play with others, but there are level caps, can't awaken Haki, or no Devil Fruits, so it's more about practice and getting used to the game.
'Wait, seriously?' Megumi just learned from Jarvis that his players can increase their physicality and quirk strength from his games. 'I should've asked more questions.' He groaned in regret, but nothing he could do about it. This will also be pretty great as all kinds of people will want to play, especially heroes and villains to increase their strength.
Once you reach Level 50 in any Trading Company you get access to the Grand Line Seas which have two sections of Paradise and New World. Only Pirate Legends can sail in the New World.
Each sea has it's own rewards and risks. The New World would have more Devil Fruits found on average and stronger enemies than can make awakening and strengthening Haki far easier than in the Four Blues, but death is very punishing.
Unlike in the original, one death would be it. You lose your Devil Fruit if you ate one, and all your Haki, but you at least wouldn't have to reawaken it. Naturally, you'd lose all your treasure on your boat. Once all the players on a crew die, then their ship would glow and disintegrate causing all the treasure to float on the sea.
Naturally, he added a bunch of cosmetics to be bought with gold and he did not add any microtransactions to the game considering he's planning to release is for 60 USD and the VR headset for 500. It would be about 87,000 Yen for both.
A fun thing he added was a Hub for pirates to find and gather crew members based on a few factors. What Trading Company people want to do quests from and strength. This hub is based off Loguetown from One Piece. Naturally, East Blue, Four Blues, Paradise, and New World have their own hubs.
He also added a leaderboard system based off a few factors like gold plundered, most levels, strength, etc. This is for those who like to flex. This is a chaotic sea so bounties won't really exist in the same way that One Piece has it, but those in the top 100 would have bounties you can cash in at the Reaper's hideout.
Megumi, as you can tell, is quite the One Piece fan, so for Tall Tales, he added Luffy's journey through East Blue where you become Luffy and go through the East Blue Arc. Of course, he made sure to add checkpoints where players could go back and finish it as it would otherwise be way too long to reasonable finish for the average person.
Finally, he created a trailer for the game.
This process took a week of minimal sleep and lots of calorie bars. He was down a third of his bars already considering the mental toll of creating a gigantic game and 20 hours of work every day.
He was done.
All that was left was his strategy of getting it to the masses.
Megumi knew what to do.