Lucifer woke up the next day with a headache.
’How long did I sleep for?’
It was the first time he didn’t have anyone to disturb him so he’d slept for longer than he usually did but without a clock to tell the time of the day.
He didn’t really know how long it had been since he was knocked out.
After all, the light outside was still about just as bright as it was yesterday and Lucifer didn’t know if the dungeon had day and night cycles.
Seeing no one was around, Lucifer wondered what he should do and then remembered that he still had the system with him.
’I never looked at this thing properly... I wonder what it does.’
’Video Game Developer System... pfft... seriously... it’s definitely something else... I definitely misread it before.’
Lucifer willed his system to become visible and it did.
And to his absolute horror the words of the last notification still hadn’t changed.
[The System Welcomes the Host to The Video Game Developer System!]
’God damn it!’
Lucifer hated it.
’What am I going to do with a video game developer system in this world? Make game cartridges to wipe my ass?’
’Wait a second... this world doesn’t have video games! Does it? Or did no one in the prison just ever play them?’
Lucifer had never heard anyone talk about video games in his time during the prison, no favourite video games, no favourite video game companies.
No Lawyer Abuse Company, no Winter Chill, no ItJustWorks.exe, etc.
There weren’t even any indie game studios that he’d heard about. Not even any retro game consoles like that one that caused the games crash in his world in the nineteen eighties.
’So there are no games in this world, period?’
’Is it because at the exact time video games were being developed in my world, this world faced the invasion of the demon king in the nineteen eighties!?’
’Wait a second... So if I make games that existed in my world and never existed here!? Profit!?’
’Once I get money, I can buy as many mana crystals as I want to improve my mana core and become as powerful as I want!!!’
’It’s free money!!!’
’It’s free power!!!’
’It’s finally freedom!!!’
Lucifer couldn’t help but dream of such things. Suddenly another interesting idea arose in his head.
’And maybe the system also has the option for me to purchase the abilities from my games to make them into my own powers or something? Making me even more powerful?!’
’Wait, wait, wait, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet... let’s see what this system is about first.’
Lucifer finally focused on the system screen that was still stuck on the welcome message. Although this message had been quite irritating when it first appeared, now it felt a little more pleasant to him.
So he mentally accepted the message and suddenly a new screen showed up.
The screen was divided into two sections.
The top bar had three tabs on it on the left hand side like a web browser, while the right hand side had a simple counter that was currently sitting comfortably at zero with the words E.V written to its side.
’E.V? What’s E.V?’
Curious, Lucifer clicked on the counter and a popup opened up explaining the E.V to him. It meant Emotional Value.
It counted the amount of emotion generated by the players when they played the games made by him.
’Is this the currency of the system?’
’I see... that’s easy to understand...’
Lucifer then looked at the content area of the first selected tab which was ’Store’. He was rather excited to see what kind of products would be available in the store, perhaps there would be something to make him over powered immediately.
But Lucifer was extremely disappointed.
’What is this garbage?’
’Five emotional points for a burger that improves concentration temporarily?’
’Five emotional points for a juice box that improves typing speed temporarily?’
’Fifty emotional points for a sandwich that improves art skills temporarily?’
’Who will buy all this garbage?’
Lucifer was about to look at the other tabs of the system when suddenly he heard the sea shells curtains rattle.
"Oh! You’re finally awake!" Enrique entered the house again while pushing aside the sea shells curtain and smiled as he looked at Lucifer.
"You’re a heavy sleeper... you slept for about twenty four hours straight... even after Anna tried to wake you up in the morning."
Lucifer blushed, he did vaguely remember someone trying to wake him up, but he’d been too deeply asleep to even understand what was happening.
He didn’t know how he’d reacted then so he was even more embarrassed wondering if he’d done something stupid.
"Fear not! I won’t tell a single soul that you tried to suck your thumb as you slept!" Enrique said boldly, enough that Lucifer wondered if the whole village hadn’t already heard all of it.
"I definitely didn’t do that! Look, my thumb is perfectly dry!" Lucifer exclaimed.
It was at this moment that Annabeth entered the house and looked at Lucifer in surprise, "Oh! Look at you!! You’re as good as new! My baby!!!"
Annabeth gave Lucifer a long hug and he didn’t feel any pain this time so he enjoyed the hug even more.
But when Annabeth tried to smooch him, Lucifer immediately blocked her, "Not right now Ma..." he whispered.
"Oh my baby!!! Don’t be shy!!! It’s all family here!!!" And Annabeth did it anyway causing Enrique to chuckle softly.
In the end after a barrage of smooches when Lucifer was finally free he asked Enrique a simple question.
"Did I delay you guys from leaving the Dungeon? You should’ve woken me up earlier by simply pouring a bucket of cold water over me..."
Enrique laughed softly and shook his head.
"Ha! No don’t worry, you’ve not made us late at all. In fact a few preparations are still pending like armour and weapon checks, we’ll be leaving soon, you’re not the last one that needs to get ready."
Lucifer just nodded.
"Well then, get a quick shower and a change of clothes." Enrique said and quickly took off to his smithing station, built a little farther from the house presumably to keep the noise low.
Annabeth showed Lucifer the bathroom, a glorified shed, before handing him a mana crystal and speaking up.
"Just pour your mana into this crystal and it’ll give you water. You can use that for just cleaning yourself or even drinking it."
"How...? Did you guys find a water mana crystal inside the dungeon?"
Lucifer did not believe that was what happened, after all elemental mana crystal veins were only found in dungeons dominated by that particular element, or so he’d heard.
"No, we didn’t find it in the dungeon. Enrique made it himself. Apparently a high level Light bearer can create items out of light... so he made this and the several other things necessary for our survival here."
Lucifer was suddenly amazed by the potential his property held and he became excited.
’Forget the system!!’
’If I find ways to get a mana crystal to absorb and level up to unlock all my property variables! Then I’ll be really over powered too!’
’I’ll always get to make a bouquet of Lilies for Ma... since she likes them so much!’