Chapter 3: Can Spending Change Fate?

After finishing his meal, Alex Parker was sipping milk tea while angrily rummaging through his laptop, his chest heaving as he breathed heavily.

He was furious.

Just moments ago, Alex nearly choked on a pearl in his milk tea due to anger.

Why was he angry?

Initially, when Alex opened his laptop and confirmed the state of the gaming industry in this world, he became increasingly excited.

VR games dominated the market.

PC games were in a dismal state, primarily used for office work.

Mobile games were mainly casual entertainment, with no heavy games, primarily created by C-level and D-level game designers for practice, and very few were actually profitable.

There were no web games or console games.

It was evident that game companies were all focused on developing VR games, with no interest in PC games, let alone consoles.

Initially, Alex was thrilled, feeling that it was his time to shine.

But when he checked his personal account, he nearly exploded with anger and almost choked on a pearl in his milk tea.

The editor Alex was using was called "Fantasy World Editor," developed domestically. The foreign equivalent was the "REALITY Editor," which had a slight edge in VR game development.

However, domestic game designers used the Fantasy World Editor for sharing resources and uploading games, and all designer information was stored there, so Alex used it too.

When he opened the editor, various data appeared before him.

[Alex Parker: Game Designer (Entry-Level)]

[Creativity: 7]

[System: 8]

[Values: 3]

[Levels: 4]

[Story: 10]

[Original Art: 7]

[3D Art: 1]

[Monthly Used Resource Quota: 294MB/300MB]

The personal account data were a comprehensive assessment given by the system based on the games Alex had previously made.

The story attribute was the highest, probably because Alex had majored in literature at university.

As for the dismal 3D art score, it was because Alex had never developed any 3D games.

Oh, and the scores were out of 100.

What made Alex furious was not the pitiful data but the "Monthly Used Resource Quota" at the bottom.

This meant that every designer could use some public resources for free to design games, and the amount depended on their level.

For an entry-level designer like Alex, 300MB was quite a lot, but the problem was he had already used 294MB, leaving only 6MB!

It was only mid-month, and waiting until next month was unrealistic because the game design competition's final submission was in two days!

He felt doomed.

Alex angrily took a sip of his milk tea and opened the saved game project in the editor.

"Let's see if I can salvage this game project..."

A minute and forty-three seconds later.

Alex silently closed the project.

It was unwatchable.

The project was a 2D martial arts game with basic combat, simple moves, and a few lines of simple story dialogue.

As for why it used so many resources... probably because there were ten scenes and seven or eight bosses...

From Alex's current perspective, the game had no chance of success.

Gameplay, combat, visuals, story—there was nothing worth saving.

But starting over?

What game can you make with 6MB of resources? Minesweeper?

It could be done, but a 6MB game would never win a game design competition!

Frustrated! Extremely frustrated!

Alex felt like he had swallowed a huge lump of ice, not only uncomfortable but also chilling his heart.

He slammed his laptop screen shut.

Despair!

Then he noticed something strange about the bracelet on his left wrist.

The bracelet was bought by the original owner and functioned similarly to bracelets in his previous life, monitoring heart rate, sleep quality, etc. Alex hadn't noticed it before, but now he found it odd.

He touched the bracelet, and a virtual screen popped up.

"What the...?"

Alex was startled. He thought it was some kind of black technology in this world, but after searching his memories, he found that the bracelet shouldn't have this function.

He looked at the virtual screen, which showed two pieces of information: a series of numbers and a virtual roulette wheel.

The series of numbers: 597340.

Almost 600,000 points.

The virtual roulette wheel had three sections: the green section labelled "Designer Skill Book," the blue section labelled "Rare Skill Book," and the purple section labelled "Special Item."

The green section was the largest, and the purple section was the smallest.

The center of the wheel had a large button labelled "Draw."

Below "Draw," there was a line of small text: 100,000/each.

Looking at the numbers, Alex pondered.

After some simple reasoning, Alex understood that this must be his golden finger as a traveller.

It seemed to be a golden finger that obtained items through a lottery.

But... what did the number 597340 mean? Why was it so specific?

After racking his brain, Alex remembered all the numbers he had come across and finally slapped his forehead.

This number, divided by ten, was the amount he spent on games in his previous life, about 60,000 yuan.

It included the money spent on RPG game cards, original disks of AAA games, and cash for items in domestic games. In retrospect, Alex indeed spent quite a bit on games.

"...Damn, if I had known, I would have spent more!"

Alex regretted it a bit. If he had known the money spent in his previous life could be used, he would have spent all his savings on games.

But seeing the 100,000/each below, Alex felt a bit hurt.

It was expensive, equivalent to 10,000 yuan each!

But considering it could only be used for a lottery, not withdrawn, Alex decided to try it.

"According to typical plots, I should get a special item now and gain extra resources to develop a new game, right?"

Muttering, Alex pressed the "Draw" button.

Swish, swish, swish...

The wheel spun rapidly.

"Special item! Special item! Special item!" Alex shouted in his mind.

Although Alex didn't know which reward was the best, it was clear that the particular item was the rarest reward, being purple and occupying the most minor section.

"Click," the wheel stopped, and the pointer landed on the green section: "Designer Skill Book."

"Well, it's unlikely to get the purple reward on the first try. This is all part of the plot. Stay calm, stay calm..."

Alex saw a book appear on the virtual screen with a prompt: "Designer Skill Book: Values +1."

Alex tried touching it with his finger, and the book turned into starlight, merging into Alex's fingertip.