The next morning, Ethan discovered a problem.
Actually, he discovered several.
The first was that he had absolutely no idea how he was going to build Genesis on a computer from the year 2000.
He stared at the monitor.
The monitor stared back.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Ethan slowly placed both hands on his desk.
"Okay."
He took a deep breath.
"Let's see what we're working with."
He opened the system specifications.
Processor: 800 MHz
RAM: 128 MB
Storage: 20 GB
Graphics: Integrated
Ethan stared.
Then stared some more.
"...128 megabytes?"
He checked again.
128 MB.
Ethan leaned backward.
"In my previous life, I complained when my computer only had 16 gigabytes of RAM."
He rubbed his forehead.
"This is going to hurt."
He opened his development software.
Or at least, what passed for development software in 2000.
The interface loaded.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
Ethan watched the loading bar move.
10%.
15%.
20%.
He waited.
30%.
He waited some more.
45%.
"...Come on."
60%.
He tapped the desk.
75%.
90%.
99%.
The computer froze.
Ethan's expression went blank.
"..."
He waited.
Nothing.
He pressed a key.
Nothing.
Another key.
Nothing.
He moved the mouse.
The cursor didn't move.
Ethan stared at the frozen screen.
Then he calmly reached toward the power button.
"Don't."
He paused.
"Don't you dare."
The computer remained frozen.
Ethan pressed the button.
The machine shut down.
He leaned back.
"This is going to take longer than fourteen months."
Three Hours Later
The computer had finally restarted.
Ethan opened a blank project.
He wanted to create a simple test environment.
Nothing complicated.
A flat map.
A few buildings.
Some roads.
A basic economy.
Maybe a handful of NPCs.
He started writing.
Code appeared line by line.
For a few minutes, everything went smoothly.
Then he tried compiling.
Compiling...
The progress bar appeared.
10%.
20%.
30%.
...
The system slowed.
The fan became louder.
Ethan waited.
40%.
50%.
60%.
His excitement disappeared.
70%.
The entire computer began lagging.
80%.
Ethan looked at the memory usage.
It was almost completely full.
90%.
He frowned.
95%.
"You're kidding."
99%.
The screen froze.
Again.
Ethan closed his eyes.
"Okay."
He slowly leaned back.
"This isn't a software problem."
He looked at the computer.
"It's hardware."
That was when Ethan finally understood the scale of the problem.
In his previous life, developers had become spoiled.
Powerful CPUs.
Dedicated graphics cards.
Gigabytes of RAM.
Fast storage.
Modern development environments.
Sophisticated engines.
Tools that automated tasks that once took entire teams.
But in 2000?
Everything was limited.
Extremely limited.
If he wanted Genesis to become the game he envisioned, he couldn't simply recreate his old development process.
He needed technology.
Better technology.
Ethan opened the system interface.
The blue holographic window appeared.
[GAME DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM]
Host: Ethan Cole
System Points: 0
Current Project: Genesis
Development Progress: 0.37%
Project Quality: ★★☆☆☆
Estimated Completion: 16 months
Ethan frowned.
"Sixteen months?"
He had only been working for a day.
The system had increased the estimated development time.
Apparently, it wasn't impressed.
He opened the Technology Store again.
TECHNOLOGY STORE
Basic 2D Engine
Cost: 100 SP
Advanced 2D Engine
Cost: 500 SP
3D Rendering Engine
Cost: 2,000 SP
Advanced Physics Engine
Cost: 3,000 SP
Modern AI Framework
Cost: 5,000 SP
Advanced NPC Behavior System
Cost: 8,000 SP
Online Multiplayer Architecture
Cost: 10,000 SP
Ethan scrolled down.
There were hundreds of technologies.
Some were familiar.
Some were things he had never even heard of.
And some were completely ridiculous.
Neural Rendering Architecture
Photorealistic Real-Time Lighting
Advanced Procedural World Generation
Universal Multiplayer Infrastructure
Adaptive Artificial Intelligence
Ethan stopped scrolling.
He wasn't interested in those yet.
He needed something simpler.
Something that would solve his immediate problem.
He looked at the first option.
Basic 2D Engine — 100 SP
He frowned.
"Only a hundred?"
That seemed suspiciously cheap.
He selected it.
A description appeared.
[Basic 2D Engine]
A development engine designed for low-resource hardware.
Features:
Sprite rendering
Tile maps
Basic animation
Collision detection
Simple scripting
Asset management
Optimized memory usage
Compatibility: Excellent
Recommended Hardware: 1995–2001
Ethan's eyes widened.
"That's exactly what I need."
But there was one problem.
System Points: 0
He couldn't buy it.
Ethan looked at the achievement list.
ACHIEVEMENTS
First Game Created — 100 SP
First Game Sold — 250 SP
First 1,000 Players — 500 SP
First 10,000 Players — 1,000 SP
First 100,000 Players — 5,000 SP
First Million Players — 25,000 SP
"So I need to finish something first."
Ethan sighed.
He looked at Genesis.
Then at the ancient computer.
"Fine."
He needed to build a prototype.
Not the full game.
Just enough to satisfy the system.
Seven Days Later
Ethan hadn't left his room much.
His desk had become a disaster.
Empty cups.
Papers.
Sketches.
Code.
Game design documents.
He had spent the last week building the smallest possible version of Genesis.
The prototype wasn't impressive.
It had a tiny map.
A handful of buildings.
Three resources.
A basic population system.
And a primitive economy.
But it worked.
Mostly.
Ethan clicked Run.
The screen flickered.
A small city appeared.
Rows of tiny houses surrounded a central road.
A few pixelated citizens walked around.
Ethan stared at it.
A smile slowly appeared on his face.
"It works."
He moved the cursor.
He placed a house.
The population increased.
He built a farm.
Food production increased.
He built a market.
The economy changed.
Ethan leaned forward.
This wasn't Genesis.
Not yet.
But it was the foundation.
He opened the system.
[PROJECT MILESTONE REACHED]
Genesis Prototype completed.
Prototype Quality: 61%
Innovation: High
Technical Quality: Low
Host Achievement Unlocked!
[First Game Created]
Reward: 100 System Points
Ethan froze.
Then grinned.
"Yes."
The system updated.
System Points: 100
Ethan immediately opened the Technology Store.
He selected:
Basic 2D Engine.
A confirmation window appeared.
[Basic 2D Engine]
Cost: 100 SP
Purchase?
YES / NO
Ethan clicked YES.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—
DING!
[Purchase Successful]
Basic 2D Engine has been added to Inventory.
System Points Remaining: 0
Ethan looked at the screen.
Then at his computer.
Then back at the screen.
"So..."
He swallowed.
"How do I install something that doesn't exist?"
The system answered immediately.
[System technology cannot be transferred directly into external devices.]
[Host may access the technology through the Development Interface.]
Ethan opened the interface.
A new program appeared.
Nova Engine — Basic
He stared at the name.
"Nova Engine?"
The system apparently didn't care that he had named his company NovaForge.
Ethan clicked it.
The program opened.
His eyes widened.
The interface was nothing like the primitive tools he'd been using.
It was clean.
Fast.
Organized.
And most importantly—
It actually worked.
Ethan created a new project.
The engine automatically generated folders.
Assets.
Scripts.
Maps.
Audio.
UI.
Configuration.
He clicked Compile.
The project built almost instantly.
Ethan stared at the result.
"...No crash."
He compiled again.
Still worked.
He loaded the prototype.
The game ran.
Smoothly.
He opened the performance monitor.
Memory usage was dramatically lower.
CPU usage was manageable.
Ethan's eyes widened.
"This is insane."
He could work with this.
He could actually work with this.
The First Secret
Ethan suddenly stopped smiling.
He looked at the engine.
Then at the computer.
Then at the system.
Nobody could know.
If someone discovered that a twenty-year-old developer had created technology far beyond what was available in 2000, there would be questions.
A lot of questions.
Where did the engine come from?
Who made it?
How did he create it?
Why was it so advanced?
Ethan wasn't ready to answer any of them.
So he created a folder.
C:\NovaForge\Internal\Tools
Inside it, he placed the engine.
He renamed it.
NF-Core
He encrypted the folder.
Then created another copy.
Then another.
He wasn't taking chances.
From now on, NF-Core would never leave his control.
It wouldn't be sold.
It wouldn't be shown publicly.
It was his secret weapon.
Ethan looked at the screen.
"Nobody gets to know about you."
He opened Genesis.
The difference was immediate.
What had previously taken minutes now happened almost instantly.
The map loaded faster.
The simulation ran smoothly.
The tools were better.
Development became easier.
Ethan started rebuilding his prototype.
He added roads.
Buildings.
Population movement.
Resource production.
Taxes.
Trade.
Supply and demand.
He even began working on an AI system for the citizens.
The citizens weren't intelligent yet.
But they followed routines.
Workers went to work.
Families went home.
Shoppers visited markets.
Farmers produced food.
The city started feeling alive.
Ethan watched the tiny pixel citizens move around.
He smiled.
"This..."
He whispered.
"This is what I wanted."
2:13 AM
Ethan finally stopped.
He looked at the clock.
He had been working for nearly twenty hours.
His eyes were tired.
His stomach was empty.
But he couldn't stop smiling.
On the screen was a small digital city.
It wasn't impressive by modern standards.
But Ethan knew what it could become.
He saved the project.
Genesis_Prototype_02
Then the system appeared.
[Development Milestone]
Project Genesis
Completion: 2.81%
Technical Quality: 82%
Gameplay Quality: 67%
Innovation: 91%
Market Potential: Extremely High
Projected Development Time: 9 months
Ethan blinked.
"Nine months?"
He laughed.
"Much better."
Another notification appeared.
[System Recommendation]
The current hardware remains a major development limitation.
Recommended upgrades:
CPU
RAM
Graphics Processing
Storage
Ethan looked at his computer.
"Yeah."
He nodded.
"We're going shopping tomorrow."
He closed the system.
But just before he went to sleep, Ethan looked at one final thing.
The Technology Store.
There were thousands of technologies waiting for him.
The basic engine was only the beginning.
He hadn't even spent his first 100 points on something truly revolutionary.
And somewhere near the bottom of the store was a technology Ethan had noticed earlier.
One that had caught his attention.
Advanced 3D Engine
Cost: 2,000 SP
He smiled.
"Someday."
He shut off the monitor.
The room became dark.
But Ethan didn't know that his actions had already triggered another hidden system notification.
[Hidden Achievement Progress Updated]
Technology Pioneer
Requirement: Introduce technology at least 5 years ahead of the current era.
Progress: 1/5
Reward: ???
And beneath it, another message appeared.
[Main Quest Updated]
Build the Future
Objective 1: Create your first commercial game.
Progress: 15%
Objective 2: Establish NovaForge Interactive.
Progress: 5%
Objective 3: Earn your first $100,000.
Progress: 0%
Objective 4: Develop technology ahead of its time.
Progress: 20%
Objective 5: Become the world's most influential game developer.
Progress: 0%
Ethan was already asleep.
He didn't see any of it.
But when morning came, he would begin the next stage.
Because building a game was one thing.
Building a company was something else entirely.
And Ethan had no intention of staying a one-man operation forever.