Isekai Online Game Developer

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Pak pak pak pak—

Riana was diligently swinging her pickaxe, mining ore.

Her pickaxe was made of wood.

After several days of trial and error, she had discovered the recipe and crafted it herself.

“Phew…”

She wiped her forehead with her arm as if to dry sweat.

Although she didn’t actually sweat in the game, doing so felt refreshing.

“That’s enough for today.”

Riana stored her gathered items in the large wooden box that served as her house.

To be honest, it was more like a huge wooden chest than a home.

But Riana, who had built her little place herself, was quite fond of it.

Having satisfactorily wrapped up her time in ‘Minecraft’, Riana logged off.

“Hmm…”

As the illusion faded, she returned to her senses in reality.

With the refreshing air of the World Tree forest surrounding her, she stood up.

“Has it already gotten this late…”

It didn’t feel like she had been playing for long, yet time had flown by.

She felt that ‘Minecraft’ seemed to absorb her more than ‘Maple Leaf Story’.

Although she had tried COL, she preferred this one.

After all, Riana loved adventures and stories like those in ‘Maple Leaf Story’.

While ‘Minecraft’ might lack the thrill of action, she enjoyed how easily she could create her own world and adventures.

However, it seemed that ‘Minecraft’ wasn’t quite as explosively popular as ‘Maple Leaf Story’ or COL.

That was probably because it was a simpler game that didn’t offer much in flashy pleasures.

Nonetheless, Riana believed ‘Minecraft’ would gain enough popularity in its own way.

Other elves, like Riana, were also enjoying it thoroughly.

“Ugh… Ahhhhhhh! Sekeunna… Sekeunna, what is that…!!”

Of course, not all elves felt the same.

Even if there were common traits among their kind, individual personalities differed.

Riana approached the queen, who was mumbling with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Your Majesty, have you been playing COL again?”

“Ugh, ah. Riana, hero of the elves. That’s correct.”

“It seems like you had a hard time in a game. Enjoying it is great, but shouldn’t you be careful not to get too worked up? Given COL’s nature, conflicts are frequent.”

“Of course, Riana. I always strive to create a pure gaming culture.”

The queen smiled gently as if to ask when she had ever done that.

In fact, she was well-known in the game.

With the nickname ‘Elf Queen’, she remained unfazed by toxic chat and always spoke politely.

She would report toxic users after providing a lengthy explanation once the game was over.

Recently, she had been mumbling to herself more often in reality.

Anyway, she maintained the noble appearance of an elven queen even while playing COL.

“But who is that Sekeunna?”

There was one user who disturbed the queen.

That user’s nickname was ‘The World Tree is Just a Big Tree’.

Famous for his cunning toxic chat, he did not hesitate to insult the World Tree and elves.

“The user ‘The World Tree is Just a Big Tree’ has outright insulted my mother via chat. During the game, I even asked for his address, but he merely laughed and refused to tell me.”

“What…! That nickname is genuinely malicious from the start!”

“Exactly…! This matter is intolerable as an elf. However, figuring out the identity of that user seems nearly impossible…”

“Ahh…”

After listening to the queen’s grievance for a moment, Riana encouraged her to find some healing in ‘Minecraft’ and headed off to the World Tree for her own work.

“Riana. You play ‘Minecraft’ too, don’t you?”

As they pruned the branches of the World Tree, the elves chatted merrily.

Unlike their usual quiet nature, they had been chattering non-stop since the release of the Illusion Tower game.

“Of course! I’ve already built my house and made quite a bit of stuff out of wood. I even mined with my pickaxe today.”

“Isn’t it a fascinating game? The tasks that usually require a lot of effort and labor in reality can be done with a swoosh! Because of that, we can do many things alone, from gathering to building a house. Surviving in ‘Minecraft’ is fun, and every little advancement feels remarkable. I wonder if this is how humans felt when they discovered fire.”

“After all, our history has unfolded under our mother’s grace.”

‘Minecraft’ closely resembles reality, yet it’s more intuitive.

For elves, who typically spent their entire lives in Elyum, this experience was invaluable.

“However, have you tried creative mode?”

“Creative mode? I’ve seen it but haven’t tried it yet.”

“I gave it a brief go, and there, you could use almost any material in unlimited quantities. Plus, you could fly in the sky!”

“Flying must be such an incredible experience. But if you had everything at hand, wouldn’t that take away the joy of earning it?”

“I think so too, but some users say they create something amazing in creative mode. Just hearing about it doesn’t give me a grasp of it, so I plan to explore other users’ worlds today.”

‘Minecraft’ consists mainly of two systems.

Survival mode, which involves starting from scratch and surviving in the world.

And creative mode, where all blocks can be used freely without limitations.

If users set their worlds to public, other users could visit.

Depending on the settings, others could either interact with the world or just observe it.

“Hmm… creative mode.”

Riana continued to prune branches, lost in thought about creative mode.

To her, it didn’t quite make sense.

Elves were a race that transformed small sprouts into tall trees.

She felt that if there were no value in painstakingly cultivating one by one, it seemed meaningless.

“Still… there sure are quite a few users…”

That night, Riana logged into ‘Minecraft’ and took a look at the list of public user maps.

Next to the name of each user’s world was a number like 2/50.

That seemed to indicate the maximum number of users that could enter that world and how many were currently inside.

Additionally, there was information about whether one could interact with the world or only observe it.

As she browsed the list, one public map caught Riana’s eye.

Its name was ‘The World Tree is Just a Big Tree’s World1’.

It was a nickname she couldn’t possibly ignore.

But,

“100/100? Is it full with a hundred players?”

Other public maps rarely had more than one or two players, yet for some reason, this one was packed to its limit.

In a fleeting moment, the number dropped to 99, and Riana was lucky enough to connect to ‘The World Tree is Just a Big Tree’s world.

As her perspective changed, she found herself in his world.

“Uh… oh… what…?!”

Upon seeing ‘The World Tree is Just a Big Tree’s world, Riana’s expression turned to one of shock.

Magnificent structures completely different from her own.

It was hard to believe that they were in the same game, as there were immense buildings creating an entire world.

“This is like… a continent from the past…”

Looking around, she realized that the world’s structure resembled that of a continent.

However, it was slightly different from now.

To Riana’s recollection, it looked like how the continent had appeared several hundred years ago.

Back then, the Dark Elves had constructed most of the notable architecture.

“Wow… this is astonishing.”

“No way, did someone really create this alone? No architect could accomplish this.”

“Can anyone even think of something like this? Nowadays, magic handles everything…”

“The city placement seems similar to the continent…”

Other users, equally amazed, were exploring the world.

It seemed that the user had already gained a considerable amount of fame among those who knew him.

“Hey, did you see over there? A gigantic forest?”

“Looking at its structure, it resembles Elyum, but the World Tree…”

“I actually thought that was cooler. If Elyum fell, wouldn’t it look like that?”

“An elf would be furious to see that. Hehe.”

Riana overheard the conversations of the passing users.

She promptly headed towards the spot they were pointing at.

As she had heard, she could fly in creative mode.

Soaring freely through the sky felt undeniably refreshing.

An experience she could never have in reality.

But that feeling didn’t last long.

As Riana got closer to the giant forest the users directed her to, her brows furrowed.

A truly massive tree, rising high into the sky like the World Tree.

And around it sprawled a vast forest.

While its structure resembled Elyum, it felt different.

“What…!”

That giant tree was half-tipped over as if it had been struck by lightning.

The forest was composed solely of barren black trees, as if tainted by magic, devoid of any branches.

“Who on earth created such a world…”

It appeared as a blatant insult to Elyum.

Riana, gazing at the landscape that made it seem as if Elyum had fallen, lingered in the air for quite some time, unable to close her mouth.

***

It had been a while since the thought of creating ‘Minecraft’ had crossed my mind.

It was a simple yet fun game where one could craft a life.

And furthermore, the variety of modes created by users would offer endless entertainment.

Personally, I believed the timing of ‘Minecraft’s release was perfect.

After all, it was released after the game COL.

I felt that a bit of calming was necessary.

“It’s not selling as fast as ‘Maple Leaf Story’ or COL.”

However, the response to ‘Minecraft’ wasn’t as explosive as I had expected.

Sure, many people were buying it.

But it wasn’t on the same scale as the explosive successes of previous games.

I believed that as time passed and more information about the world of ‘Minecraft’ accumulated, its popularity would increase.

“It’s fine. Over time, it’s a fun game. Many diverse users will emerge. It’s truly a game created by its users.”

“Really? Then that’s a relief, but compared to the previous games, it feels somewhat bland.”

“Actually, that type of game is needed right now. And later, it won’t feel bland at all.”

Rain showed a somewhat concerned expression.

That was because a lot of money had been poured into ‘Minecraft’.

But I still believed. Right now was the timing for this game.

Honestly, previous games had created quite a few problems too.

Just recently, there was news that the Emperor had been scammed in a trade within ‘Maple Leaf Story’.

Having been busy with development lately, I hadn’t kept up with the details of the incident.

In the end, I heard that the perpetrator had died. I should check it out later.

Anyway, in such circumstances, a game like ‘Minecraft’ seemed necessary.

Just as I had predicted, the popularity of ‘Minecraft’ gradually began to rise day by day.

Yet amidst it all, a piece of news caught my attention.

“‘Minecraft’ architect [The World Tree is Just a Big Tree] rising in popularity… Elves outraged?”

It was news relating to the first architect of ‘Minecraft’.