Late that night, Blake lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as his consciousness drifted into the System store.
The interface stretched out before him like an infinite library — countless familiar game icons arranged in neat, glowing rows. Groundbreaking masterpieces. Quirky indie gems. Genre-defining titans. Everything imaginable, all within reach... for a price.
Minecraft. GTA. Red Dead Redemption 2.
Games that had defined eras. Multiple eras, in some cases. Worlds that had consumed millions of hours of human attention, sparked entire subcultures, changed what people thought interactive entertainment could be.
Their price tags were... intimidating. Long strings of zeros that made his stomach clench. Points measured in hundreds of thousands. Millions.
The top-tier AAA titles — Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong — generally sat in the several-hundred-thousand to million-point range. The kind of numbers that felt more like phone numbers than price tags.
By comparison, Delta Force's original price of 114,514 points probably placed it in the upper-middle tier. A solid blockbuster. A genuine hit. But not quite the pinnacle. Not yet a legend.
Long road ahead, Blake thought with an internal sigh, the weight of the journey settling on his chest.
His remaining 1,000 points looked absolutely pathetic next to these behemoths. A grain of sand on a beach.
At current rates, he could afford... what? Minesweeper? Tetris? Maybe Snake if he was lucky?
But there was no point exchanging for simple puzzle games. The code and design concepts weren't complex — Blake could develop those himself with enough time and effort. Games at the Minesweeper level only needed someone to propose the concept. Once the idea existed, replication was trivial for any competent programmer.
Besides, while this world's gaming industry was barren, basic programming logic was universal. Simple puzzle games with similar mechanics already existed here — crude and unpolished, but functional.
What Blake possessed was something far more valuable: gameplay concepts that transcended the entire era. Revolutionary ideas that hadn't been invented yet. Plus the System's complete resource library — assets, code, documentation. Everything needed to bring those visions to life.
Points had to be spent wisely. Reserved for masterpieces that genuinely required massive resources and years of technological accumulation to create. Things he couldn't build alone.
He closed the System interface with a thought, put down his phone, and forced himself to sleep.
Tomorrow was Delta Force's debut. He needed to be sharp. Alert. Ready.
The anticipation humming through his veins made rest difficult, but eventually, exhaustion won.
Noon the next day. Blake arrived at Crane Interactive early, the midday sun warm on his back.
Outside the building, several well-dressed security guards in dark suits were already positioned at key points, maintaining order with professional efficiency. Scattered clusters of players and content creators who'd caught wind of the event gathered beyond the security cordon, phones and cameras raised toward the entrance like paparazzi at a movie premiere.
They were all politely but firmly kept outside. No exceptions.
"Mr. Weiss, Ms. Harper left instructions — please head directly to the second floor."
A guard who appeared to be the team leader recognized Blake immediately and stepped aside with a respectful nod, gesturing toward the entrance.
Blake nodded his thanks and stepped inside, the air conditioning hitting him like a wall of cool relief.
The elevator deposited him on the second floor with a soft chime.
Even with mental preparation, his jaw dropped. His feet actually stopped moving for a moment.
"What the hell?"
He'd expected mid-to-upper-tier hardware at best. Maybe some decent gaming rigs. A few RTX 4090s if Ivy was feeling generous. Standard office chairs. Serviceable monitors.
Instead, the entire floor had been transformed into something out of a professional esports championship.
Hundreds of brand-new, top-spec gaming PCs sat in neat rows like soldiers at attention. Through the tempered glass side panels, he could see the glow of flagship components — RTX 5090s. Every. Single. One. The monitors were all high-refresh-rate esports displays with response times measured in fractions of milliseconds. Not a budget panel in sight. The chairs were ergonomic monsters that probably cost more than his first car.
And the acoustics — the walls and ceiling had been fitted with professional sound-dampening panels, the kind you'd see in recording studios or tournament venues. Someone had actually thought about the noise generated by a hundred people gaming simultaneously. Someone had cared.
The attention to detail was absolutely insane.
This level of investment wasn't something a startup founded days ago could casually afford. Hardware costs alone were astronomical — he was looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment. Let alone the rapid renovation work, the installation, the logistics of getting all this delivered and set up in less than a week.
A system notification flickered in the corner of his vision:
[Notice: Crane Interactive's valuation has increased by approximately $2.8 million due to significant hardware asset acquisition and potential value reassessment.]
[Updated Valuation: Approximately $7 million.]
Blake's eye twitched.
Delta Force hadn't even launched yet. A few promotional videos — just two trailers — had nearly doubled the company's worth?
He shook his head slowly, still processing. That kind of premium seemed excessive. Unlikely to hold once the hype cooled.
But then again... the company was only days old. And Ivy's peculiar way of operating — the masked meetings, the shell-company vibes, the casual millions in hardware purchases like she was ordering coffee...
Her background is probably deeper than I realized.
Good news for him, honestly. Stronger backing meant more resources. Faster empire-building. Whatever her deal was, it was working in his favor.
As for the specifics? He wasn't in a rush to investigate. He and Ivy weren't close enough for that kind of personal inquiry. Mutual benefit was the foundation of their partnership. Questions could wait. Results couldn't.
Blake pushed the thoughts aside and got to work, cracking his knuckles with a satisfying pop.
Using admin privileges, he distributed the Delta Force: Zero Dam demo client across the internal network. Installation. Debugging. System checks. Performance benchmarks. The hours blurred together in a rhythm of clicking keys and scrolling logs.
Around 2:30 PM, test players started arriving.
They came in waves — nervous, excited, barely containing their energy. Security and staff guided them through check-in, ID verification, and NDA signing with practiced efficiency. Everything ran smoothly, like a well-oiled machine.
What surprised Blake was that by 2:50 PM — a full ten minutes early — all one hundred testers had shown up.
Not a single no-show. Not one.
Did the System filter the lottery by location and availability?
Made sense, actually. Not everyone had the time or money to travel across the country for a three-hour game test. Random selection alone would've guaranteed some dropouts. The System was smarter than that.
In the crowd, Blake immediately spotted Vinny — hard to miss, really. The streamer was holding court near the entrance, chatting animatedly with some early arrivals, phone in hand, clearly doing some pre-test warm-up content for his audience. His voice carried across the room, bright and enthusiastic.
Most of the other players looked equally hyped, eyes wide as they swept across the ridiculous hardware setup. Some were already sizing up their future squadmates. Others were practically vibrating with anticipation, bouncing on their heels.
A slight commotion near the stairwell drew his attention.
Blake looked up.
Right on time — Ivy had arrived.
She was still wearing her signature hat and mask, but had switched to a more casual outfit. Something athletic, streamlined, like she was ready to actually play rather than just observe. And in her eyes, visible above the mask, there was a hint of... curiosity? Anticipation? Something she was trying very hard to hide and failing at.
"Blake." She approached him with measured steps, voice low enough that only he could hear. "Everything ready?"
Her gaze swept across the fully-occupied testing floor, utterly unsurprised by the extravagant setup — as if she'd expected nothing less. Because of course she had. She'd paid for it.
"All set," Blake nodded, a confident smile playing at his lips. "Ivy — you ready to see what a real game looks like?"
She glanced at him. Her expression was unreadable behind the mask, but her eyes held a glint of challenge.
"Mm. I'm looking forward to it."
More than you know, she didn't say. I'm looking forward to watching this game fail spectacularly.
Blake turned to the room and clapped his hands twice, sharp and loud. The sound cut through the buzz of conversation, drawing a hundred pairs of eyes to him.
"Alright, pioneers — welcome to Crane Interactive, and welcome to the world of Delta Force!"
His voice carried easily across the space, amplified by the room's acoustics.
"I'm the producer, Blake Weiss."
"No speeches. No corporate BS. No PowerPoints or marketing fluff."
He gestured at the rows of gleaming machines.
"Hardware's ready. Client's installed. Zero Dam is loaded and waiting."
"For the next three hours, this place is yours."
A grin spread across his face — genuine, excited, the expression of someone about to watch their creation come alive.
"Now log in, load up, and let's do this—"
He raised his voice for the tagline, and to his surprise, half the room shouted it with him:
"Get in. Loot up. Get out."
"OHHHH!!!"
A hundred voices roared in unison, the sound crashing against the walls like a wave. Even with the professional sound-dampening panels, the sheer volume made the floor vibrate beneath Blake's feet. The energy in the room was electric, almost tangible.
Players scrambled for their stations like kids on Christmas morning, headphones on, fingers already dancing across keyboards, eyes locked on screens as they dove headfirst into the unknown dangers of Zero Dam.
Blake and Ivy exchanged a glance.
His said: Let's see what they think.
Hers said: Let's see if this is worth my money.
Then they walked toward two reserved PCs at the back of the room, side by side, their footsteps lost in the symphony of clicking keys and excited chatter.
Time to play.
PLZ THROW POWERSTONES.