It hurt. It hurt so much!
William clutched his head as information flooded into his mind. His name was William, a young man from a remote mountain area, now chasing his dreams in a bustling city
Same name, similar background, but a completely different environment.
Unlike Earth, where countless industries flourished and competed, this world placed an unusual amount of value on the arts and humanities.
Starting from the last century, global ideological systems centered around culture began to take shape. By the beginning of this century, the planet had been divided into six cultural zones.
William now lived in the largest one, the Greater Central Cultural Zone — which geographically covered almost all of Asia.
As the cultural zones became more defined and complete, modern warfare driven by firearms faded from public view. What took its place was a smoke-free war of art.
When these cultural zones clashed, the resulting artworks attracted people from other zones. Even those born inside a zone could feel drawn toward others.
This loss of people and economic power was immeasurable, and it might one day spark a new nuclear war.
But before that happens, the best way to describe the current way of life — safe, peaceful, and with no worries about food or shelter — is one word: utopia.
Still, no matter how perfect the world seems, tragedy never disappears.
And William in this world was the perfect example.
He could've stayed in the mountains, lived without worry, and achieved nothing.
But once he stepped out, the real world was full of chaos and heartbreak.
He was pushed to a dead end — no money for rent, no money for food, his phone bill overdue. The mental pressure kept him awake for a full day and night. In the end, he didn't even live to see the sunrise.
You could say he was unlucky — but at least he had choices. Unlike the William from Earth, whose life was locked into a path shaped by society.
A 996 job, house and car loans — he was never going to break free from that.
If we're talking about dreams, maybe only the child version of him truly understood what they meant. These days, the word "dream" was just something he had while sleeping.
So what? Was he given a second chance at life just so he could chase a dream again?
But he had just inherited someone else's life, and that person's experience proved one thing — chasing dreams was brutal in any world.
And to make matters worse, he had no real interest in the traditional arts. As a programmer, he longed for something different.
[Gene scan… criteria met!]
[IQ test… criteria met!]
[Mental state… criteria met!]
[System is activating…]
[Activation complete!]
[Game Development System installed.]
A voice rang out in his head, answering the question that had been bothering him: "Why am I here?"
To make games.
From the perspective of someone from Earth, this world was practically untouched in the gaming market. It was the perfect place to show the system's worth.
In the memories of this life, William had never touched a game growing up. It was only after moving to the city that he occasionally saw people on the subway doing something on their phones other than reading novels or watching dramas. That's when he realized they were playing games.
Thinking back to the games he saw on the subway, it felt like stepping into Earth's early 2000s.
Back then, people only had simple games like Snake or Bounce on their phones — and that was already the peak of gaming in this world.
It was hard to believe how far behind this world was in terms of game development. But that wasn't William's biggest concern right now.
'Nice to meet you.'
'The Game Development System will provide you with valuable resources and do everything it can to help. We hope you'll use your vision — beyond your time — to lead this world forward.'
The system's voice was forceful, leaving no room for argument, and echoed directly in William's mind.
[Now assessing your abilities…]
[Programming Lv14]
[Design Lv1]
[Music Lv3]
[Writing Lv2]
[Note: Ability values are based on the world's average standard]
William felt a little disappointed after reading it.
"That low, huh?"
'Actually, your real stats are even lower than that.'
"Oh?"
'Because the system's minimum level is Level 1, and your design skills don't even meet the standard for Level 1.'
The hope that had just started to rise in William's heart was instantly crushed.
"You've got a sense of humor, I'll give you that."
'Thanks for the compliment.'
William could tell this system wasn't the chatty type, so he got straight to the point: "So where do we start?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he found himself in a different space.
Everything around him was white, no borders in sight. In front of him was a desk and an ergonomic chair, with a computer placed on the desk.
It looked familiar — the same scene he saw every night after getting home from work.
'This is your personal development space. You can focus on your work here.'
"A private world?" William wasn't that surprised. He had read plenty of fantasy novels. He only had one question: "Does time pass the same here as it does outside?"
'Yes, it's the same.'
"You know that I can't make a full game all by myself if I want to build a real business, right?"
If time moved 100 times faster in here, he might have been willing to grind it out — one hour outside would equal 100 hours of work.
But making a big game takes thousands of man-hours. Even with a time boost, it would still take a long time to finish, and more importantly, the effort required would be insane.
Dear reader, this chapter isn't over yet. Click next to keep reading — it gets even better!
'This is just your personal workspace. It doesn't affect anything outside.'
That one sentence carried a lot of meaning, and it was enough to answer William's question.
"Alright then."
Even without further guidance, William didn't need instructions. Facing the setup with just a computer, he naturally walked toward it and sat down.
While waiting for the computer to boot up, something else crossed William's mind.
"What's happening to my body in the real world right now?"
'Take a look.'
As the system spoke, a hologram-like screen appeared in front of him, showing his new body.
A face shaped by hardship, tough and sharp like a sculpture. A sun-kissed tan, lightly defined muscles — every part of him gave off a youthful, energetic vibe. The only downside was that he looked a bit too skinny.
William could see about 70% of his old self in that face. He used to be full of life too, before society beat it out of him. Now, with this brand-new body, he was going to start over.
After learning that his real body would stay in a meditative state while he was inside this workspace, William felt at ease.
'The computer has been pre-installed with the basic software needed for game development.'
As the system explained, the screen lit up and showed the programs it had mentioned.
Photoshop and Audition from Adobe, Maya from Autodesk, and Visual Studio from Microsoft.
With these three tools, you could already make a decent start. But one key thing was still missing — a game engine.
[Basic Development Starter Pack Acquired]
The system always knew when to show up.
William saw a new piece of software appear right before his eyes: Cocos2dx, a game engine focused on mobile games. Alongside it, there was a document titled Introduction to Game Engine Technology on the desktop.
'Since the hardware and software between the two worlds are highly compatible, you won't need to worry about compatibility issues during development.'
Thanks to that thoughtful explanation, William's eyes shifted to the only app unrelated to game dev — the browser.
When he opened it, the domain names looked a bit different from what he was used to.
'You are currently connected to the internet of both worlds. You can switch freely between them to search for whatever information you need.'
If William had any doubts before about whether he could truly lead a new era the way the system expected him to, all of that was gone now. What replaced it was pure excitement and passion.
Let's use games to completely shake up the art world!