Chapter 2: The World with a Crooked Technology Tree

Imperial Capital.

Alex Parker woke up.

"I feel like I'm about to die suddenly..."

"No way, I must go to bed early tomorrow..."

Alex clutched his head, which was throbbing with pain, and sat up from the bed.

"Recently, staying up late has caused hallucinations. Daydreaming is one thing, but how can I even dream at night? It really affects my sleep quality, you know?"

Alex was still complaining about his poor sleep quality from the previous night, but the next second, he froze, unable to come to his senses for a long time.

"Damn, where am I? Did I time travel?!"

Alex looked around.

At the moment, he was in an unfamiliar room that looked like a standard hotel room. However, this room was obviously not very high-end. Besides being barely clean and tidy, nothing was commendable about it.

There was a large suitcase next to the desk in the room, and on the desk was a rather unique laptop, as thick as a brick with a large screen. It looked heavy but was finely crafted.

Alex had never seen such a laptop in his previous life, but he could imagine it would be pretty expensive.

After washing his face in the bathroom and looking in the mirror, Alex found that his appearance hadn't changed much, except he seemed younger, as if he had returned to four or five years ago when he just graduated from university.

Slowly, Alex began to acquire memories of the parallel world.

This world was about 90% similar to the one Alex was familiar with, except the game industry, which Alex knew best, was very different.

The root cause of all this was the difference in technological levels.

In this world, a series of technological explosions occurred for some unknown reason. Maybe it was aliens causing trouble, or perhaps it was some other time traveler like Alex. The speed of computer technology development was incredible; it changed rapidly, faster than a rocket.

Before personal computers were even widely used, top researchers had already developed supercomputers capable of performing over a trillion calculations per second; halfway through computer technology innovation, VR technology made a significant breakthrough, making the dream of entering a virtual world through a personal game cabin a reality.

The technological journey that Alex's previous world took seventy or eighty years to travel, only took three to five years in this world.

While technological explosions were good, they directly led to a disruption in the game industry in this world.

Even before PC games were developed, the world had already entered the VR era. Game companies focused on researching VR games.

This resulted in a lack of experience in PC games. Although these companies had VR game technology, their game design concepts were still in the Stone Age.

However, one positive aspect was that this world greatly emphasized the gaming industry.

Games were not seen as a scourge or electronic opium-like in Alex's previous world. Instead, they were praised as the ninth art, even receiving strong support from the state.

Game designers were no longer seen as IT laborers like in the previous world but were respected professionals akin to doctors, lawyers, and artists, requiring strong professional skills.

As for Alex, he was just an ordinary student who had graduated less than a year ago and was preparing to enter the gaming industry.

Interestingly, the way to enter the gaming industry in this world was vastly different from that in Alex's previous world.

...

Alex dried his face with a towel and walked to the window, pulling open the curtains.

It was broad daylight, and the sun was shining brightly.

August in the Imperial Capital was indeed hot. Alex, sitting in the air conditioning and looking out the window, felt like the sun was melting the pedestrians outside.

Alex had the feeling that these pedestrians would turn into puddles of candy men and slowly evaporate as they walked.

Alex walked to the desk.

The brick-thick laptop on the desk was a high-end PC in this world, starting at 2,700 USD.

Why would a poor student like Alex, who had just graduated and wasn't a rich second-generation, save up for half a year to buy such a high-end computer?

Because he needed this computer to design games.

Yes, that was another difference in this world. In this world, game designers did not need programmers to realize their designs.

So, who wrote the code?

The answer was that no one needed to write code. This world had the most comprehensive game editor, where designers could organize their game design documents and use the editor according to specific rules to create the games they envisioned.

From small casual games of tens of megabytes to large VR games of tens of terabytes, the super editor could handle them all. Of course, the resources and time required would vary.

Unlike the assembly line workers of the previous world, game designers in this world were highly charismatic, almost equivalent to artists in status.

These designers weren't divided into different roles like in the previous world, where some focused on systems, others on plots, etc. They had to be all-rounders—a designer who only understood systems but not plots would be despised by their peers.

Some game designers were even top-notch novelists and painters, akin to Renaissance geniuses like Michelangelo, who were sculptors, painters, architects, and poets all in one.

Of course, chief designers would also have assistants for some super-large VR games, but they still held absolute authority, deciding every detail of the game. These assistants were more like apprentices than colleagues.

As mentioned earlier, Alex was a young man aspiring to enter the gaming industry.

However, entering the gaming industry didn't involve applying for a job at a game company; it involved going through another route.

In this world, the game editor was fully open, but its openness and permissions varied according to the designer's identity. To enter the gaming industry, one had to design a complete game using the editor and pass a review by a panel of experts.

In Alex's previous life, he had already earned the qualification of an entry-level game designer. As long as he designed a basic casual game, he would automatically become a D-level game designer.

As for why Alex was staying in a hotel, it was because he had signed up for a game design competition in the Imperial Capital and needed a quiet environment to complete his design over the next few days.

Unfortunately, possibly due to too much pressure or staying up too late, he suddenly died.

Alex was speechless: "So young, and I died after just two all-nighters? My body must be frail."

It wasn't surprising that Alex was under a lot of pressure. Even in this world, becoming a game designer wasn't easy.

Alex had been graduated for almost a year but hadn't found the right path. The games he made hadn't passed the evaluation. Although he had the basic skills, he still hadn't become a D-level game designer.

If this continued, he would run out of money. He had three choices: starve, return home to live off his parents, or change careers.

So Alex gave it his all, hoping to get a good ranking in this game design competition, but before he could finish his work, he died.

After mourning the other Alex for three and a half seconds, Alex quickly calmed down.

Isn't it just designing games? This is my specialty. Considering the game design concepts of this era, if I don't turn the entire gaming industry upside down, then I've genuinely wasted my experience with domestic free games.

Alex turned on the laptop.

But before that, he decided to order some takeout.

His stomach was growling, and to avoid being the first person to die suddenly and then starve to death after traveling, Alex picked up the phone on the desk.

Sure enough, the apps were similar. Alex noticed that the smartphones in this parallel world were also identical to those in his previous life, just with higher configurations.

After ordering a rice bowl and milk tea on a takeout platform called "What to Eat," Alex calmed himself down and opened the game editor on the laptop.