Kennath

Ken Shimizu had always lived a quiet life. He wasn’t a genius or a failure—just a regular guy with a decent job in an indie game studio, an obsession with ramen, and a library of half-finished Steam games. At 32, he could code, write basic dialogue, and pixel art his way through most things. Nothing spectacular. But he loved games—not just playing them, but imagining what they could be.

Then, he died.

Not in a blaze of glory. Not even in a tragic accident. Just a poorly timed heart attack while stress-testing a buggy horror VR build at 3 a.m.

He blinked.

And opened his eyes to a new world.

Game Developer System In A Games Stagnated World

The viewer count climbed higher—60,000… 75,000… then it broke 100,000 live viewers.

I had never streamed before, never imagined being in front of this many people. But there I was, speaking live as VeggieKen, the mysterious creator behind Lethal Company. My voice buzzed through thousands of headsets and speakers across the world.

"Hey everyone. I'm VeggieKen. Thanks for playing my game."

[Chat]"THE LEGEND HIMSELF."

"DUDE YOU SAVED HORROR GAMES."

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE AN MYTH."

I laughed. It was a weird, nervous laugh. The good kind.

"I wanted to hop on tonight and—first off—say thank you. Lethal Company was just something I started building alone. Every model, line of code, and sound design… it's all me."

The chat lit up again. Praise, memes, heart emojis, theories, mod ideas, all flying faster than I could read.

"And now, over 57 million people have downloaded the game…" I shook my head, still not believing it. "This is insane. I'm overwhelmed—in the best way possible."

Then I pulled up a panel on the stream, and said, "So here's what I've got planned."

🔮 WHAT'S NEXT:

And two secret ones in development which will be released in later updates

Dynamic Environments:

Blizzards, acid rain, and lightning storms

Outdoor monsters that react to weather

Facility Upgrades:

Server rooms, quarantine wings, and malfunctioning labs

Performance Updates:

"BUTLER GIVES ME THE CREEPS ALREADY 😭"

"This man is solo-deving like it's the 90s."

I read a few of their reactions and smiled. "Thanks, for real. You're making this so much more fun. I didn't expect to be here tonight with you guys. But since we're all together now…"

I leaned forward, hesitating for a moment.

"I've got a question for all of you."

The chat paused—just a split-second—before erupting like a volcano.

[Chat]"YES YES YES YES YES"

"LET US MAKE OUR OWN MONSTERS PLEASE"

"CUSTOM MAPS. CUSTOM MAPS. CUSTOM MAPS."

"I'll code my own nightmare into this game if you give me the chance.""This would be the Skyrim of horror games."

I grinned wide. "Alright. That's what I figured."

I flipped to a new overlay labeled Potential Modding Support and explained:

"I'm thinking full-on support for mod packs. Let people create their own monsters, animations, map layouts, and possibly even voice-acted logs. If I build a good enough framework, you could share your packs right through the Workshop or a custom browser."

[Chat]"Dude I already have ideas."

"I'm gonna make a DLC called SCREAMING WALLS."

"Bro I swear I'll build a moon made entirely of mirrors."

"Alright, alright," I said laughing, "Don't scare me now."

The stream continued to buzz with energy. Questions poured in, followed by wild theories, mod concept art, sound ideas, and full game systems that people were already brainstorming in real time.

I glanced at another tab. A message had just come in from Twitch's partnerships team.

"VeggieKen, we're loving the traffic. You've just been placed on the homepage."

The notification made me stop cold for a second. I looked up at the camera again. "So uh… apparently we're on the Twitch front page now."

[Chat]"OH MY GOD FRONT PAGE KING"

"WE'RE GONNA BREAK THE PLATFORM"

"LETHAL COMPANY WORLD DOMINATION ARC"

It was insane. This was no longer just a game. It was a movement.

"I'll start working on the modding SDK," I promised. "No timeline yet, but I'll do it right."

The chat filled with excitement, and the viewer count kept climbing.

And I realized—this wasn't the peak.

Chapter 16: A Glimpse Into the Future