Chapter 6
Chapter 6
So what he came up with was a position-based turn-based combat system commonly seen in mobile games from the era of his previous life, where characters were arranged across a 3×3 tile formation divided into front, middle, and rear rows.
To Insu, it was a system so familiar it had become cliché, but by the standards of this era, it would be considered incredibly innovative.
This approach reduced the tedium of movement while still preserving concepts like distance and attack range, allowing for plenty of strategic depth. Removing weaknesses while retaining strengths was never easy.
Tap tap tap tap!
Insu’s short fingers rapidly pounded against the keyboard.
Another advantage of this combat style was how familiar it was to him, which sped up development considerably. It was not especially easy to implement, but because it was so common in mobile games, he had recreated similar systems several times while studying game development.
Still, a plain 3×3 setup feels too simple, doesn’t it?
Even within that structure, it was possible to include concepts like range and distance. But because Insu wanted to create an entirely new world through his future MMORPG, he also wanted to include a wide variety of magic and skills while expanding the strategic possibilities even further.
Let’s just add one more row in the back.
That way, he could distinguish attacks that were truly long-range instead of merely ranged, and it would also allow for much more varied area-of-effect mechanics.
If he got even greedier, he could theoretically implement a system where characters moved freely within the formation itself, allowing strategies and responses to change dynamically depending on the situation.
But that’s probably too much for now.
It was not impossible to implement. But doing so would dramatically increase player flexibility.
And unless enemy AI became extremely sophisticated, skilled players would eventually trivialize the difficulty once they mastered the system.
One major strength of this kind of position-based turn-based combat, compared to grid-based systems where units freely moved around large maps, was the smaller number of variables. Because of that, even relatively simple AI could still respond to players reasonably well.
Well, players can still rearrange formations outside of combat anyway.
In his previous life, he often grew sick of coding. But perhaps because the environment had changed, or because this was his game, he became so immersed that he completely lost track of time.
By the time he came back to his senses, more than four hours had already passed, and it was nearly dinner time.
Oh...
Insu found himself impressed with his own progress. He did not seem to have become the coding genius he had half-jokingly hoped for, but because he stayed fully immersed and kept typing steadily despite fumbling along, his progress had been surprisingly fast.
At this rate, I could probably make a decent-looking combat demo in about ten days.
Of course, that was nowhere near enough to complete the entire game.
He still had no real sense of how long that would take. It could easily require several months, or even years. But creating a convincing combat system simply to prove that he was capable of making games only required implementing the bare minimum of features, so even at his current level, he could roughly estimate the scope.
Hyein had come over to call him for dinner, but instead she quietly observed Insu still sitting in front of the computer.
It doesn’t look like he’s playing games, though.
One of her friends had once complained that her son was overly addicted to video games, so she had initially been cautious. But the screen was filled only with strange English words, and her son did not seem to be playing around. On top of that, he kept referring to a thick book while working, making it feel closer to studying.
That made her feel pleased, though calling it “studying” still felt strange considering Insu was only five years old.
Is he really trying to make a game?
She had brushed it off casually before, but because it came from her adorable only son, she remembered it clearly. Her son seemed more serious and intelligent than she had originally thought.
Even so, she still did not truly believe Insu could create a real game yet. At most, she thought she should not interfere with a child earnestly trying to accomplish something.
And so, without even realizing it himself, Insu had already achieved one of his goals and continued immersing himself in development.
Still, even if she supported him, that did not mean she intended to fully indulge him.
“Insu, it’s time for kindergarten.”
“Ah?”
The next morning, Insu was once again absorbed in coding after breakfast when his mother’s words made him glance at the clock and sigh.
Well, I should just think of it as taking a break.
If he kept coding nonstop, he would wreck his neck, eyes, and wrists. Of course, he was still only five years old, but precisely because he was still growing, he might need to be even more careful.
Insu saved his work in the editor and shut down the computer. Then he stuffed the C language book and his notebook into his kindergarten bag.
Over the past few days, he felt as though his C skills had improved dramatically, but there were still plenty of things he needed to look up. Thinking about it now, he had already grown fairly accustomed to using books instead of the internet.
Getting stuck while implementing systems and frantically flipping through books for solutions had practically become his daily routine.
Honestly, in his previous life, he could have solved most things with a quick search, and AI often handled entire sections of coding automatically, so part of him felt unfairly deprived. Still, he comforted himself by thinking that this would improve his actual abilities.
And honestly, it really does feel like I’m improving fast.
Back in his previous life, he often spent more time searching for solutions than actually coding. But now there were many cases where he could solve problems himself.
Technically, only a few days had passed, but children truly developed at incredible speed.
“Hi!”
“Yeah. Hi.”
By now, the faces of his kindergarten classmates had become familiar enough that Insu naturally returned their greetings warmly. Still, the greetings felt more like automatic habits they had been taught rather than genuine attempts to get close to him.
Perhaps children instinctively sensed that Insu was different from them.
If he had truly been an ordinary child, he might have felt isolated. Instead, he felt relieved. It was not that communication with them was impossible, but children still lacked accumulated experiences and spoke in a far more instinctive way.
He settled down near the bookshelf again, a spot that had practically become his personal seat. After glancing around, he suddenly seemed to remember something and approached the shelves. Normally, he would have immediately pulled out the C language book, but because he had decided to treat today as a break before coming to kindergarten, his thoughts drifted back to the history of this world, which he kept forgetting to investigate.
Traditional fairy tales, comic biographies...
Naturally, most of the books were for children. They reminded him of the manga versions of Thousand Character Classic and Greek-Roman mythology books he had read in his previous life, though seeing unfamiliar titles made him slightly curious.
...Maybe memories are best left as memories after all.
But after actually pulling one out and opening it, it simply felt like a children’s book. Insu immediately put it back and searched for what he originally wanted.
<Korean History Through Comics>
“Oh!”
There it is.
He had expected to find something like this. Opening the stiff, thick cover, he was first greeted by the familiar story of the bear and tiger eating garlic and mugwort.
It felt somewhat cliché, but at the same time, it reassured him slightly. This world did not seem completely different after all.
He skimmed through quickly. He did not know history perfectly by heart, but most of the names that appeared still felt familiar.
King Gwanggaeto, Kim Yushin, Genghis Khan, Yi Seonggye, King Sejong...
He even saw Heungseon Daewongun and Emperor Gojong. The history of Japan colonizing Korea was also exactly the same.
But things began changing around the point of independence.
Instead of being divided under Soviet and American occupation, Korea had simply gained independence cleanly.
What?
Thinking he might have missed something, he flipped back several pages and examined them carefully until he found several clues.
East China? West China?
Since this was a children’s book, it lacked detailed explanations, so he could not be certain. But judging from the names and terminology mentioned, it seemed China had not fallen entirely to the Communist Party and had instead split in two.
So China got divided instead of Korea.
And the more he read, the more he realized it was not only China. Hokkaido had apparently separated from Japan and become a communist state as well. At that point, saying China had replaced Korea was not entirely accurate. Japan might have been the closer equivalent.
Judging by the name “People’s Something,” it’s definitely communist.
Reading all this made the reality of this place being a parallel universe feel startlingly vivid again. A chill ran down his spine.
The later sections covered modern history, and despite becoming an independent unified nation, the story was far from entirely hopeful.
There had even been a civil war, not the Korean War from his previous life, but still a civil conflict. According to the book, leftist forces had risen up due to Soviet manipulation, but because the explanation was shallow and mostly illustrated with sinister communist imagery, it was impossible to know the exact circumstances.
At least the country doesn’t seem to have split apart.
In any case, his curiosity had mostly been satisfied. But now another question emerged: how had these historical changes affected the modern world?
For now, Korea still seemed aligned with the United States, and American troops still appeared to be stationed there. But understanding the political and economic impacts was difficult.
At least it doesn’t seem dirt poor or anything.
Since Insu was still young, there were limits to what he could personally observe. Television offered some clues, but the information remained limited.
And comparison itself was difficult because the Insu from his previous life had never actually lived through 1988. At best, he only knew what the era had vaguely felt like through the internet and other media, so all he could do was make uncertain comparisons.
This was not merely personal curiosity either. As a future game developer, it was an important issue. After all, once he made games, he needed to sell them.
Well, no matter what, I’m still making them.
He had already been considering English versions for the global market, but now it seemed he might need to prepare even more seriously. In fact, considering East China, he might even need a Chinese version as well.
“Okay~ Today we’re going to learn what animal friends are called in English~”
Apparently, class had started while he was reading. Determined once again to create a playable demo as quickly as possible, Insu pulled out his C language book.
Class was noisy as usual. He mostly tuned it out, though one thing did stick in his memory: when one child asked why they needed to learn animal names in English, the teacher replied that animals living overseas did not understand Korean.
“Then shall we stop here for today~”
Ah. It’s over already.
He had become so focused on the book that he completely lost track of time, yet somehow he instinctively heard the words signaling the end of class. Insu immediately packed his bag. At first, he had genuinely hated coming to kindergarten, but now that he had adjusted, it was not all that bad.
It was probably because kindergarten itself was so relaxed.
Even so, dismissal time still felt exhilarating. Without realizing it, Insu slung his bag over his shoulder just like the other kindergarteners and ran out of the building with an excited expression as he headed home.
Now that he was familiar with the route, he spent the walk thinking about development. Other children probably thought about playing or snacks instead.
But I really need to start implementing graphics soon.
It was not as though he had avoided graphics entirely until now.
He had represented coordinates as text like a1, a2, and a3, but without visual representation, things became too confusing. So using a tool called Luxury Paint that was installed on the computer, he crudely drew fields and placed simple circle-and-square characters resembling chubby stick figures.
But now that it was time to implement actual combat effects and simple animations, he needed to develop the graphics more concretely.
At least the effects, if nothing else.