Chapter 3: Digital Dirt and Pixelated Trees
Ran took a deep breath, the kind you take before diving into ice-cold water or telling your formidable Great Aunt Mildreth her prize-winning bonsai looks like a diseased twig. The blue text still hovered patiently in his vision.
Okay, System. Let's dance. Access World Creation.
[Accessing Genesis Void... Cost: 500 SEU. Confirm? Y/N/Maybe Later When You're Feeling Braver?]
Ran mentally jabbed the 'Y'. No time like the present. Bravery is overrated when mediocrity is the alternative.
[Deducting 500 SEU. Remaining SEU: 500.]
[Initializing Genesis Void Interface... Please keep hands and existential crises inside the void at all times.]
The world didn't so much fade as it was abruptly replaced. One moment he was in his familiar, slightly depressing bedroom, the next he was floating in… emptiness. Not a dark, scary emptiness, but a bright, sterile, white void stretching infinitely in all directions. Directly in front of him floated a simple, blocky control panel with glowing buttons and sliders. It looked suspiciously like the user interface for some ancient, pre-historic graphic design program he'd once seen depicted in a history scroll.
Seriously? This is the crucible of creation? It looks like MS Paint threw up in a minimalist art gallery. Ran felt a twinge of disappointment. He'd half expected swirling nebulas and cosmic background music.
[Welcome to the Genesis Void! 500 SEU converted to 1000 Creation Units (CU). CU is required for all world assets and modifications. Budget wisely, Host.]
A simple toolbar appeared beside the panel, showing basic terrain tools (Brush, Smooth, Raise, Lower) and asset libraries (Trees, Rocks, Structures, NPCs - most greyed out or marked 'Expensive').
1000 CU. Right. Let's see what that buys me. Probably not a mountain range guarded by sentient laser dragons.
Ran experimented, clicking the 'Brush' tool and selecting 'Dirt'. A circle appeared on the 'canvas' of the void below him. He 'painted' a rough square.
[Placing Generic Dirt Terrain Tile: 0.1 CU.]
He kept painting, laying down a rudimentary landscape. A small patch of forest (Whisperwood – sounds mysterious, right?), a little pond (Mirror Pond – because descriptive names are hard), and a cluster of basic wooden huts (Beginner's Rest village – nailed it). He tried to make it look vaguely appealing, but function was the priority. Players needed a place to spawn, grab a quest, and maybe whack a low-level pixelated bunny.
Okay, need some trees for the 'Whisperwood'. Let's see… Generic Deciduous Tree - 1 CU. Generic Pine Tree - 1 CU. Slightly Crooked Generic Tree - 1.5 CU? Seriously? Is the crookedness a feature? Fine, give me twenty generic pines.
[Placing 20 x Generic Pine Tree Asset: 20 CU deducted.]
He populated the area sparsely. A few rocks here, a patch of oddly uniform grass there. Every click drained his CU. He added a few basic animal spawn points near the woods – rabbits and maybe some low-threat 'Dire Squirrels'. Dire Squirrels sounded suitably pathetic for a starting zone.
[Placing Dire Squirrel Spawn Point (Low Aggro): 5 CU.]
Next, NPCs. The core of the early 'gameplay' loop. He needed someone to give the first quest and someone to teach the basic skills he'd decided on. He pulled up the NPC creator. It was depressingly limited. Basic villager models, a few sliders for height and 'Grumbliness'.
Right, Quest Giver. Make him look… old. And wise-ish. He fiddled with the sliders, creating a generic-looking old man with a grey beard. Name: Elder Rui. Quest: Gather 5 'Sunpetal Herbs' from the edge of Whisperwood. Reward: 5 Copper Coins and a pat on the back. (The system didn't have a 'pat on the back' reward, so he settled for minimal currency).
[Creating Basic NPC (Elder Rui) + Basic Fetch Quest Logic: 50 CU.]
Now for the skills teacher. Another generic villager model, slightly younger, perhaps looking vaguely martial. Name: Hao. Function: Teach Techniques. He linked the three basic cultivation techniques he'd conceptualized:
Qi Circulation: The absolute baseline for moving energy.
Spirit Palm: A simple Qi-infused palm strike. Weak, but better than harsh language.
Fleetfoot Step: A minor burst of speed for running away. Crucial skill.
[Creating Basic NPC (Hao) + Technique Teaching Function (3 Basic Techniques): 75 CU.]
He looked at his remaining CU: [CU: 73.9]. He'd spent almost everything just creating a tiny, one-square-kilometer starter zone that looked like it was rendered on a potato. It was functional, though. Barely. Players could spawn, get a task, learn how to not die immediately, and maybe fight a squirrel. That should be enough to generate some Dividends. Right?
Keep the change, System. He decided to leave the small buffer, just in case. No point blowing everything on digital shrubbery.
He designated this bare-bones creation "Beginning World v0.1".
[Saving World State: Beginning World v0.1. Configuration Locked. Exit Genesis Void? Y/N]
Ran mentally hit 'Y'. The white void dissolved, snapping him back to his bedroom. He felt utterly drained, like he'd just run a marathon while simultaneously taking the most boring exam imaginable. His head throbbed. Creating even this tiny slice of digital reality had taken a surprising toll.
But beneath the exhaustion, a spark of fierce satisfaction flickered. He'd done it. He'd laid the first brick – or pixelated dirt tile – on his path to power. Now, he just needed players. Lots and lots of unwitting players to water his little power-farm.