Guns, Magic, Sanctuary (2)
“Club... assemble!”
The outsourcing request came in right after I hit 3-circle. The client? None other than the Emperor of the Empire himself.
No way could I handle a project this massive alone. Excluding those who had to be away, all nine of us had gathered—including Wiki, that made ten.
For a moment, I thought we looked pretty cool sitting around the round table in a meeting like this, but that wasn't the point.
“It's not a question of whether to make it—it's how to make it.”
Riana Ishinkiore was the first to speak up. As the daughter of a ducal house, she knew exactly how massive the Emperor's “consideration” would pay off. With her as the core pillar and investor in this game dev club, she figured her merchant guild could snag even more rights and profits.
Word was, her brutal family feud with her brothers had settled down for now, but the “competition” wasn't totally gone.
“Military supplies aren't usually our guild's domain. But if this mana rifle gets adopted as the Imperial Army's standard issue, we could steal a bit of my third brother's turf.”
A purely personal motive, but hey, that's investors for you.
“A game just for testing mana rifles? Then couldn't we just have an instructor character pop up like in the early Dead Wizard's City and walk them through it?”
Eaton Charleston, the adventurer guild's chief instructor, chimed in. He'd been keen on mana rifles' anti-monster utility for a while now. As he said, they were simpler to operate than bows or crossbows, and training was a breeze. No black powder musket smoke obscuring vision like in the line infantry era, and reloading wasn't a nightmare either.
“Training games are easy. Just set up some targets, teach the handling for each model, and done.”
Hinkel, the old modeler and Riana Merchant Guild's shape-memory branch artisan, seemed to agree with Eaton. For basic training, it wouldn't need much volume. We could even run it on the existing Gaming Cubes, no need for the upgraded “Gaming Cube Model 2” still in progress.
If plain target shooting in a training ground felt boring, we could spice it up with varied battlefields and toss in some monsters.
“Nah, I'm against it.”
But Jacob raised his hand.
“Eaton, you've been out there—you know it's not that simple. The battlefield against the demonkin is a total shitshow, right?”
He'd once been a seasoned mercenary captain, fighting in a northern expedition for another nation, not the Empire.
“Agreed.”
“I think so too. It can't be too basic. This isn't for capital guards who just cause trouble in taverns—it's for elite troops heading into real expeditions.”
Jacob wasn't alone. Mikrel the polar route pioneer and Richmond the explorer—who handled sensory extraction and application—voiced opposition too.
“It's a land united only by malice toward humans. You can't even step foot there with half-assed training and resolve.”
“Honestly, how successful the expedition is doesn't matter to my business... but we need to prepare for danger proactively.”
In the end, it was my call. What mattered most in firearms training?
As a proud Republic of Korea Army private who'd served out his full term, I'd say realism. Endless range time? Useless. You get comfy with the gun, sure, but only static positions—sitting, prone, cover, barricade. Then toss you into KCTC? Zero kills, two deaths, heroic sacrifice—like me.
I'd whined like hell about not wanting to go, but once I did, I got pretty immersed. Even flipped off an enemy squad sergeant mid-fight.
Yeah. With the palace backing us, I didn't want to half-ass it.
“Hanna, rough timeline on this?”
“The expedition's slated for October. About three months left.”
“So, crunching hard for training and deployment, we need to launch at least a month before.”
No time for a full new game. Modeling from scratch? Forget it.
“How about... we do it as an 'expansion pack' like you mentioned last time?”
Dante Otter du Bua, who'd been listening quietly, spoke up.
“Expansion pack? Like DLC?”
“Dev time's too tight, and I'm swamped with external scriptwork lately.”
Even with games taking off, Dante hadn't ditched his day job. August and September were packed with social seasons in the capital before the expedition.
He was just a paid “club member,” after all—couldn't neglect his main gig. Cassian said the palace would provide manpower, but training them? That was a headache. Time was short; hiring extras might not even break even.
Most seemed to share Dante's view.
“Makes sense. If mastering mana rifles is the goal, basing a new game on Dead Wizard's City lets us reuse assets.”
“But Sanctuary's already destroyed in the story. Go with a whole new city, or the legion HQ just mentioned in lore?”
Prequel? True sequel? Parallel world?
As I pondered this game planner's dilemma, Wiki sidled up mentally.
'Master Eugene, Master Arkisiya just said the server prototype is complete. It's limited, but it can connect up to ten people at once.'
'Oh, faster than I thought?'
'The artifact Lady Riana brought was a huge help.'
Music to my ears.
Wiki and I were handling Cube upgrades, while Master Arkisiya focused on the “server” linking the Cube worlds organically. All the soul power we'd gathered so far came from interactions with artificially generated characters inside the Cubes—pure but low-yield energy from soul-to-soul contact.
But connect people from different Cubes for real interaction? Master figured that'd be more efficient, harvesting stronger emotions.
I'd introduced her to the concept of “online games.”
'Might as well apply it to the next game since it's done.'
No point holding back. We needed to test if the server worked, and debug live if issues popped.
“Jacob, how do expeditions usually go? Demonkin ecology?”
Jacob stroked his goatee, sifting through memories.
“Forms vary. Some look human, others mimic humans but aren't, and some are straight-up alien. No one knows how they reproduce—they dissipate like mirages when killed. Magic doesn't work, so capture's impossible.”
Demonkin weren't monsters. Sometimes goblins or ogres got corrupted by demonic energy and turned, but they were classified separately. Demonkin remained utterly inscrutable.
“They're not one big horde—more like individuals spread wide across regions. No frontlines or battles for them. They charge and kill on sight. So we split into small units and knights, deploy to occupied zones, and 'purge' them.”
He added this prevented “swarms”—what every nation on the continent dreaded. Magic-immune hordes overwhelming plains? Terrifying.
“Eugene, know the expedition site?”
“Around the old Vulcanian Grand Duchy.”
“Urban combat then. It was one of the continent's most prosperous nations once. Ruined now, though.”
Hmm...
This had solid game potential. But the constraints were brutal: rifle-focused content, tight dev time, small team, potato server for ~10 players, Dead Wizard's City reinterpretation or extension.
“...”
Then it hit me—a game from my past life I'd binged hard. Guns, betrayal, ruined city. Hostile forces and grotesque monsters holed up inside.
'This fits—and we can test the server.'
Pieces clicked. The sequel's shape emerged.