Developer in the immortal World !

Of course, just because Jin had now accepted, quite easily, he proudly thought, his new lot in life… Had decided that it was best to continue on the path that he'd been gifted, that of an illusion Room creator. Even if he was now willing to create an illusion Room, or in other words, a game…

That didn't necessarily mean that doing so was easy, or that he could start immediately.

After all, while Jin would call himself experienced in terms of video games, at least the playing aspect, and his photographic memory would assist him in recreating the scenes he'd witnessed in his past life… Well, illusion Room's weren't really games, were they?

Rather, they were specific scenarios.

A cultivator of the Illusion Room Sect would either receive a contract from another sect to model a specific problem, or would try to identify a gap in the current market, a need, and create an illusion Room to fill that gap.

The difference between a game and a scenario was that while every game was composed of several scenarios, not every scenario was a game. What was missing was the narrative.

Jin quickly identified the reason for the difference. In his past world games had been created for pleasure only, they were meant to be fun. Here, in this cursed land of cultivators and sects, illusion Rooms were only created and sold and bought because they were useful. Sure, maybe some rich people could commission an illusion Room of a harem, however, cultivators were mostly concerned with practicality. They commissioned and bought games that would make them come closer to a specific goal, which usually happened through familiarising them with a particular enemy or skill.

If Jin tried to remake Tetris, or Pacman, the most popular games from his past life, then he'd probably get confused looks and a swift boot up the ass, straight off the mountain. This was due to two reasons, firstly, because neither of those games, as fun as they were, taught a valuable skill, or acclimated the 'player' to a dangerous scenario. The second reason was because if a game was only there to help acclimatise someone to a specific scenario or to teach them a skill, third-person games became useless. Cultivators were only interested in using their own bodies and skills to confront an illusion Room. The role of the protagonist who was a separate person one could control became obsolete. All illusion Rooms had to use the player as a template for the protagonist, otherwise the immersion would be broken.

This eliminated most games Jin had played.

One could wonder at this point, why he didn't simply consider creating an original scenario, as he should, considering that not plagiarising was one of the main requirements of the exam at hand. Well, that and not destroying the Room, and making something at least remotely useful from a conceptual level.

The reason for that was simple. Most cultivation techniques taught at the illusion Room sect were focused on better processing information, retaining it, and refining it. This was because random sect member A would not want to have to go out and find a nesting wyvern every time he had to make a game for a scenario involving such a creature, to properly model the scenario. No, the sect paid warriors to bring them memory slips of monsters, places, and skills, which the illusion Room sect members were specifically trained to absorb, refine, adapt and insert into the scenarios they were creating.

To create an illusion Room, a designer needed to be able to vividly create in his mind the separate pieces of the scenario, before fittingly infusing them into the empty Room to create a coherent whole. Their mind was a game engine, essentially.

So, the sect had a library of various monsters, demons, fighting styles and environments. Generally, outer disciples accessed the outer disciple version of this library which held lower-tiered information that their mind and cultivation could actually process.

Jin's problem, and the reason why he had to rely on a game from his previous life was simple. The person who'd he'd inherited this body from had never planned on passing the exam and had thus not actually studied any of the information he would need. Now, with only a week left before the end of the exam, it would be impossible to get anything useful.

First, to find something one could use, and then secondly, to fragment the information of the memory slip and reconstruct it in one's mind to use it as a scenario for a Room.

The process took a while. Longer than a week. This meant that Jin needed to use the information already stored in his mind about the video games of Earth. But how could he justify creating something so different?

A knock suddenly resounded on the door, causing Jin to look up from his thoughts from where he was lying on the floor. "Come in," the disciple said calmly while his thoughts raced.

The wooden door opened inwards and a distinguished-looking older gentleman in fanciful sakura petal robes and a well-kept moustache and beard entered but remained close to the door as he looked around, until his eyes locked onto the Room which had very obviously not been used.

It was Elder Qin, the man responsible for the upkeep and the lecturing of the outer disciples. The post, from how Jin understood it, wasn't particularly prestigious. It was usually held by those who didn't have many prospects and upper mobility left. Elder Qin didn't seem to care, always stern, but helpful to those in his care. Gossip said that a rival had sabotaged him the moment he formed his nascent soul, preventing him from pushing further.

"Disciple Jin, I see that you have not yet started inserting any illusions into the Room," the man stated, with no particular judgment in his tone.

"I've been working on it," Jin muttered from his position on the floor.

"Sources told me you have not been seen in the library since the start of the assignment." Was the retort.

An answer suddenly came to Jin, a way to explain why he hadn't been to the library, while still showing critical thinking and innovativity. "No, I haven't," Jin answered serenely. "And that's not because I've given up either." He looked at the Elder, who simply raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I do wonder why a student so strong in theory and cultivation has been neglecting the obvious path forward to becoming an inner disciple."

Jin narrowed his eyes. "It's been bothering me. We create scenarios and tests for monsters and challenges people expect to face," he started. "Things they know they will face. Our customers, collaborators, whatever you want to call it… They gain experience in fighting a very specific enemy, and not much else. Couldn't illusion Rooms be used to train more general skills, rather than specific scenarios?"

"What is an ability to handle a specific situation, but a very specific skill. And what is it that one requires to solve a scenario if not a skill?" the Elder asked rhetorically with a small smile.

"A specific skill is only useful in a specific situation, and can only be planned for when one knows the enemy. This is the case for hunting heavenly beasts and monsters, but the demons spilling forth from the dark half of the world are constantly shifting, changing and are never the same."

"And that is the fundamental issue," Elder Qin interjected. "How do you prepare for the unknown? You cannot. You do not know what it is."

"I reject the simplicity of that answer. I've refrained from going to the library for a very simple reason," Jin said in a quiet voice, knowing that the Elder likely had ears sharp enough to hear even his heartbeat. "To avoid intertextuality as much as possible. The inevitable condition of creativity is that everything we make is influenced, consciously or subconsciously by something the creator has already read about or seen before. All texts are just remixes of the dictionary and all discoveries rest on work done previously."

The Elder hummed. "The question remains, how do you prepare for the unknown?"

"By creating something never seen before. The only way to become adaptable is to practise fighting enemies one has never even thought of."

Something impossible to do generally… But for a transmigrator?

"The issue of course is that sects are not interested in buying something completely unknown. After all, they would profit more if they practised against something specific they expect to come up against."

"Thankfully I'm not trying to sell a product, but impress a panel of judges who are less short-sighted than the average warrior," Jin retorted and got for his quip a rare treasure.

Elder Qin gave a short chuckle.