He woke up with the sunlight hitting his face, so warm that made him want to stay in bed, but so bright that it forced him to be awake.
He set on the bed, still a bit groggy when something fell off.
Confused, he looked down, only to discover that his orange hair was on his shoulder and his white hair from his poliosis was on his face, which made no sense since his hair didn't have the chance to grow that much.
He then noticed his hands, well, hand actually.
He had only one frail and bony arm, which made no sence, he had two last night!
And don't take him wrong, he never had the chance to do exercises, but he wasn't that scrawny.
Surprised, he planned to go to the bathroom and take a look at himself.
"Argh!"
Well, that was his plan until he fell to his knees with a sharp pain in his head and memories that weren't his started to pour on his haad relentlessly.
He didn't know how long it took for the memories to stop or for the pain to subside, but when it did, he found himself sprawled on the ground with a heavy breath, but a knew knowledge was now his.
He was Akilah Sage, that was his name in this world, and he was now a student in his last year of studies to be a Game Developer.
In this world, earth has long been lost, their planet has been invaded and humanity has been turned into slaves from galactic races.
But, as much as it was an unfortunate era, it also granted humans a new evolutionary jump and now humanity could use mana and fight back.
But things weren't easy, it entered a species with thousands of years of practice against them, who just had a few who developed mana and had no way to know how to use it.
It was then that the Seeds were discovered.
Extracted from the soil from their new home, other places and even moons, Seeds were like pen drives that store mana and use it to create a mini world of its own.
Humanity discovered an awaken could create a training space inse it that could be more efficient and cost effective than training in real life, even better was the fact that by just using a crystal core from the monsters in the space, one could bring the things inside the Seed to the real world, even living creatures is the crystal cores were enough.
It was then that Game Developers were born, humans that didn't have a good mana control to fight, but could use it to make training grounds inside the seeds.
Well, that was five thousand years ago, nowadays, where the war was not occurring anymore and humans only had to worry about fighting monsters that invaded their territories, now the Seeds were used for games disguised as training.
But one thing was sure, the content level didn't go up even though this world was extremely technologically advanced and magically filled.
He got up and walked to his desk, where a few crystal clear and colorful, but transparent, like glass pen drive sized crystals were waiting for him, he picked a spring green one and looked at it through the light.
It was truly a pity, both to society and the Seeds.
Seeds can be somewhat alive, some have a continuous of themselves, some develop one after being filled with content.
That created two categories for them, Dead Seed and Living Seed.
Dead Seeds were like a barren field, empty and silent, Content Creators could create whatever they liked on it, while Living Seeds had opinions of themselves.
Most people prefer using Dead Seeds since Living Seeds could be quite picky with what they want.
You can also subdue it with your mana to do what you want, but that will make the Content hard to manipulate since the Seed will fight your authority for every step.
He had in his room six Seeds, five Living and one Dead.
The old owner of this body, who had a considerably high amount of mana for his age (50 MP when the average amount for Game Developers was 10~25 MP), was an F Rank Content Creator with an equally considerably high pride.
He had a test in two weeks that would define wener he would pass or not and chose various F Rank Seeds to test it out and make a game out of a Living Seed.
But, alas, none of his ideas pleased the Living Seeds and he wasn't able to make anything with the Dead Seed that he bought out of desperation after the other seeds he bought also rejected his ideas.
Now there was only two weeks left from the month and a half that he had until the end of the test.
Akilah frowned as he looked at the green Seed on his hand, the one who gave the old owner of this body the worst time, it was a Seed of multitude, and a rather great one at that.
Basically, it had many consciences on it, making it even more picky than the rest, it was even the one everyone was avoiding in the back at the store, even though it was the cheapest one.
He didn't know why the old Akilah decided to pick this one, maybe he overestimated himself, or maybe he bought it because it was cheap, but that wasn't important right now.
He put it down and took a look at a dark blue Seed and a pinkish red seed, the two he knew were the least troublesome of the group, then sat on a chair and started to think what he could do for it.
He might have just arrived in this world, but he couldn't stay idle when the biggest opportunity of his new life was right in front of him.
But it was hard to think when one has too many things to consider, so he pulled a notebook and started to draft.
All Living Seeds were connected in some way, always aware of each other and sometimes conversing among themselves, so, by seeing what each other had to show or hearing what their players had to say, one could develop a taste.
These two in front of him were the easiest to talk to, but their tastes were quite… unique… for this world's Game Developers.
He took a deep breath, put both seeds in the device used to access multiple of them at the same time and went to his gaming development cabin, closing his eyes for a second before opening them and finding himself in another place.
The space around him twisted like turve water, dark blue that reminded him of the deep ocean refused to mix with the love potion pink that glowed stubbornly around.
The first thing that noticed there was that he had his arm back while still in this place.
He was admiring this when someone screamed.
"HELLO!"
He jumped as a pinkish red figure with bright pink eyes jumped at him by the side, he would have fallen if not for a second figure, a dark blue one with baby blue eyes, had it not catched him.
"You're back" The dark blue one said with no emotion in its voice.
"He definitely is!" The pinkish one cheered.
The dark blue one helped him stand while also keeping the pinkish one, who was excitedly trying to jump on him again, distant.
"I believe you are here to try to tame us again"
It wasn't a question, but a statement.
The old Akilah had tried taming the seeds, but failed every time.
But the new Akilah had other plans.
"Not really" He said "I had an epiphany and need your help"
Both paused and the air around them all became different.
"What kind of help?" The dark blue one asked.
"I might be able to come up with a game for both of you" He said "But I'll need to make some questions to clear up what you two want"
He turned around, completely missing the look exchange among the Seeds, and used his mana to create two blackboards and some chalk, dividing the blackboard before turning back to them, who gave him strange looks.
"You're going to make something for us?" The pinkish one asked.
"I need you two to tell me what you actually want" He said "Then I'll see if I can make something"
They both hesitated, but nodded.
"That sounds… fair" The dark blue one said.
"At least now we can give you opinions" The pinkish one agreed with a nod.
He smiled, satisfied, then looked at the dark blue one.
"Let's start with you" He said "What kind of game do you want? What kind of environment? With or without monsters?"
The figure's eyes shone brightly with the questions he made.
"I want something big" It said "Vast and grand, a survival experience, I don't mind if it has monsters, but the game can't be just about them, and the monster can't be these simple ones in most games, about the environment…"
It looked up, at the squirming mass of dark blue and pink.
"Can you make it into the sea?" It asked, a hint of hope in its emotionless voice "Not just a seaside beach where you can hunt fish, but on the sea? I want a game about the vast and deep sea, about its unknown dark secrets and dangers"
He gave it a curious look, surprised by its deep interest in the sea as he wrote it all down on the figure's side of the blackboard and added some sketches of his own.
"A have something like that" He said "An action-adventure horror survival game, it's called Subnautica, it's about an alien planet covered by water, it's an endless sea with many creatures, some friendly and some hostile, but, more importantly"
He finished the Sea Emperor Leviathan and its eggs sketch, also adding 'Kharaa Bacterium' and 'Enzyme 42' close to it, then stepped aside from the blackboard.
"It have its own story" He said "A dying world that depends on the player, a dying creature and its unborn children to be saved"
These two Seeds were considered unique because of their demand for a story.
They didn't want just a game with their unique tastes, but also for a reason for that to be happening.
Good thing he has played many games with stories.
"What do you think?" He asked.
The dark figure approached the black boar, its eyes had a warm light as it touched the board, hand close to the Sea Emperor Leviathan.
"I love it" It said while turning to him "When do we start?"
He chuckled at that.
Honestly? He wanted to start the moment it said that it liked the game, but there was still something more to do.
"When I find something for our friend here" He said while looking at the pinkish one.
Said figure seemed to be pouting on the side, but when he mentioned it, its head shot up.
"I thought you had forgotten me!" It shouted while turning its head.
"As if" He said, amused "But now it's your turn, so, what do you want?"
Its eyes gleamed, he could practically see a smile on its face as it spoke.
"I want something cute!"
Well, wasn't that a surprise?
"Cute?" He said with a raised brow.
"Yeah!" The seed said cheerfully "Not these ugly monsters that you kill all the time, something cute for me to hug!"
That… was complicated.
A cute game?
He looked up on his memories and, yep, this world has no concept of cute games, casual games and Slice-of-life games, which was a pity.
But that made him wonder, who did this Seed develop the taste for cute things?
Well, not like he don't have option, but they were too many.
He looked at the bubbly figure then sighed.
"What about this?" He said "What type of story do you want?"
That made the figure go completely still, eyes narrowing.
"What about a ranch?" It suggested "Rising cute monsters in a calm environment?"
That immediately gave him an idea.
"What about Slime Rancher?" He said.
He immediately started to make some sketches of the Pink Slimes and plorts, along with the chickadoo and vacpack.
"It's a farm life sim" He said "Not really focused on compact, but it does have aggressive monsters"
He made a drawing of the tarr.
"The game is about a woman called Beatrix" He said "She just started her ranch, a place where she will rise slimes that produce plorts, the main source of general resources of the world"
He turned to the pinkish figure, who was visibly vibrating in place, it was completely in silence as it shook its arms up and down.
Quite the sight to see.
"She like it"
The dark blue one was the one who explained the situation to him.
"She does that when she's excited" It said.
But that confused Akilah.
"She? I thought Seeds didn't care for gender differentiation"
"We usually don't" It said "But this one likes it very much"
He nodded, but also raised a brow.
"Do you have anything that you prefer too?"
It hesitated, then tilted its head.
"I don't care about gender differentiation" It said "But I could go for a name"
Oh, names, that would be good.
Calling them for their colors was strange to him.
"Then what about Deniz for you and Amy for her?" He suggested.
The dark blue one, Deniz, nodded, seemingly satisfied, while the pinkish one, Amy, started to audibly vibrate.
Well, seems like things are going to be interesting.