Isekai Online Game Developer

“Then I’ll do that.”

“Okay. I’ll head down when the workday ends. The selection will be equal for everyone.”

“Yes.”

Electra and the Electricity Tower also began preparations for the Arcane War, just like the other towers.

However, since they couldn’t just play games all day, they decided to research during the day and practice in the evening.

Electra started her research with a satisfied expression, feeling surprisingly cheerful about the idea of doing COL soon.

It wasn’t an easy task to convince all the towers to hold the Arcane War.

Let alone now that it was just a game and not the magic war of old.

At first, some tower masters were angry.

But together with the Illusion Tower Master, they eventually succeeded in persuading them.

In fact, it was less about persuasion and more about provocation.

By exploiting the rivalry between the attributes, they got riled up and all agreed to participate.

“Fufufu…”

Electra chuckled, stopping her magic incantation.

Then, she suddenly hardened her expression.

It had been a long time since Electra displayed such emotions.

It seemed like it was due to the long, boring time she spent as a tower master.

Was it dopamine, perhaps?

As a tower master, achieving something required immense effort, so she easily responded to activities that gave quick dopamine.

It was the same for other tower masters leading monotonous lives.

Thus, the Arcane War was decided.

The Electricity Tower, like the other towers, practiced for COL after work.

For the first week, everyone struggled to adapt and didn’t find it particularly interesting.

But by the end of the first week, they began to enjoy it little by little.

Electra found herself enjoying the gradually increasing COL skills of her disciples.

Of course, she still wore a serious expression.

And then, on the second week.

Now they fully understood the fun and all the electricity mages raised their voices while playing.

By the end of the second week, they began to think about strategies, like vision, movement, and roams.

Thanks to the excellent intelligence of the mages, their level of play rose sharply.

Then one day during the third week.

Electra felt fatigue while researching and closed her magic book.

“Huuh…”

At the same time, the plasma filling the room subsided.

Only then could the red sunset light enter her room.

“…It’s still early.”

Since the sun hadn’t set yet, it seemed the tower’s workday wasn’t over.

But with the sunset, it wouldn’t be long before it ended.

“Shall I head down a bit early? It’s about time I checked on the research.”

Seizing the chance, Electra left her room after closing her magic book.

Normally, she didn’t get involved in her disciples’ schedules.

But today, since she came out early, she thought she would give some magical advice after a long time.

As she went downstairs…

“…It’s quiet.”

Strangely enough, the downstairs was silent.

As if everyone were asleep.

Usually, when doing magic research or creating artifacts, noise inevitably follows.

No matter how close it was to the end of the workday, it shouldn’t be this quiet.

Sensing something odd, Electra opened the door of one nearby disciple.

And inside, a somewhat shocking scene awaited her.

The disciple was lying in bed, fainted as if dead.

“…What.”

To be precise, they weren’t fainted.

They had activated an illusion magic artifact and were trapped in an illusionary world.

In other words, they were gaming.

“Even though the workday hasn’t ended yet…”

Opening another door, it was the same everywhere.

Every single one of them was doing COL, not even engaging in magic research.

Electra thought about striking them with lightning to wake them up, but she held back.

She was a cultured tower master, and she knew that getting interrupted during a game would irritate them.

As the sun set, one by one, her disciples began to emerge.

The disciples were startled to see Electra, who was down earlier than usual.

“H-Haha! Tower Master, you came down early today! I didn’t notice while immersed in research! Can you believe I was so focused I didn’t even make a sound while breathing?!”

“Haha! Likewise! Research has been going so well lately?”

“Hahahaha! Hahaha… Hah…”

The disciples sensed something was off about Electra’s atmosphere.

They thought, Oh no, we messed up.

“So I told you all to take it easy…”

“What are you saying? You were the most excited to play…”

“Exactly, it’s not like we’re supposed to play during work…”

Electra was known for not getting involved in her disciples’ schedules at all.

And the disciples knew this, which is why they went ahead and played during work time.

It had been so much more fun playing COL for the past two weeks that they couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Looks like everyone’s doing COL, even during work hours.”

The disciples hung their heads in guilt, silent as if they were criminals.

“Since when?”

“Uh, since after lunch. We said we would play just one game during lunch, but then…”

“Haa…”

That meant they had been gaming for over four hours.

Sparks began to fly from Electra’s body.

The disciples trembled.

They all knew well what happened when she got angry.

“How dare…”

“Uugh… S-sorry, Tower Master!”

“Please, just forgive us this once!”

“Everyone, activate the barrier quickly!”

The disciples activated the electricity magic defensive barrier artifacts.

If Electra’s explosion was released outside the tower, it could paralyze Trinity City.

“Take care of yourselves! She won’t kill you, right?!”

“You might not die, but you could have a heart attack!”

“Isn’t that the same thing?!”

The disciples unfolded their barriers like preparing for a disaster.

Once Electra got angry, there was no stopping her.

They needed to survive at least if they were going to get scolded.

“Here it comes—!”

“Uuuuuaaaahhh!”

Electra’s electric magic began to explode.

Of course, as a supreme tower master, she controlled her strength even when angry.

So it wouldn’t be enough to seriously injure her disciples, nor destroy the tower’s protective barrier.

However, that did not mean her magic was light.

Crackle—!

Massive plasma began to spread in all directions.

Low-level mages couldn’t withstand it and were getting electrocuted, bodies shaking.

“How dare…”

“I’m sorry, Tower Master!”

“How dare you all play without me—!”

“Y-Yes?!”

“Was it you?!”

The disciples panicked even more at Electra’s unexpected rage point.

“Huuh…”

And thus, after the disaster passed.

“I’ll let this slide just this once. Given the situation with the Arcane War. With only about two weeks left, you’ll focus on preparing for the Arcane War from now on.”

In the end, during the remaining period, the Electricity Tower decided to play games only.

*

“The tower masters are truly incomprehensible.”

Tower masters were beings that perplexed others.

In their own distinct ways.

Honestly, when I first heard Electra’s plan, I thought the chances were low.

But I followed along with a mindset to do something, anything.

Yet truly, as Electra said, the Arcane War involving thirty-one towers was confirmed.

“Most ordinary humans and mages are transcended beings. Except for a few young tower masters, most have been in their positions since Trinity was established. Though back then, it was an academy rather than a tower.”

Shaking my head while making the matchups, Rain spoke to me.

“Since before Trinity was established, then their ages must be…”

“They’re probably much, much older than they look.”

“What about you, Rain?”

“Not me! I’m not on the same level as someone like Rai! I heard you have to be at least A rank to be such a being. I’m not too sure about the details either.”

When a mage transcends their level, does their aging slow down? Like elves.

Come to think of it, Hina looked the same as when I first saw her.

“So our tower master has been around since Trinity was established?”

“I heard that’s not true. There was originally a different tower master. The current tower master is the second one. But the current tower master probably belonged to the academy prior to Trinity’s establishment.”

In any case, it means Hina was a mage since before Trinity.

Thinking about Hina being around since Trinity was established felt oddly distant.

Was it the original tower master who did something, leading Hina to become the tower master?

Unlike other towers that had several elder mages, we only had Hina as our elder.

The rest were still youthful.

“R-Rai! Come in quickly! Everyone, come inside!”

Just then, Hina came running with a COL tablet.

First, since the Illusion Tower had to participate in the Arcane War, we practiced every day.

And in the final week, we would select five representatives.

“U-Um, Tower Master, have you done my request?”

“Eh, eh? Well, that is…”

“You just finished discussing ‘Maple Leaf Story’ and now want to play COL? Shouldn’t you be focusing on research all day?”

“B-but I’m the tower master…! L-listen to me…!”

Hina was resisting surprisingly well.

Had she become violent due to playing too much?

Indeed, Hina had also gotten immersed in COL.

However, she could only play during the evening gathering, as COL couldn’t be played alone.

Meanwhile, while waiting, Hina would engage in ‘Maple Leaf Story’ during other mages’ work hours.

Isn’t it more accurate to call her a gaming addict rather than a tower master now?

“Everyone, come in—”

Pofopofopop—

Hina was pummeling my back with her fluffy fists.

I had no choice but to gather the people.

We all promised to practice COL together after work.

Everyone seemed similarly eager, gathering with excited expressions and their artifacts.

“Now, everyone, make your rooms, and remember we’ll avoid fighting each other as a team, right?”

-Yes!

The people from the tower replied in unison like innocent children.

But I knew they would change quickly once we got started.

In a normal game, you’d usually say not to provoke your opponents, but in COL, you have to remind them not to fight within the same team!

“Seriously, don’t fight! Everyone, let’s not get upset again. Now, let’s connect.”

We all activated our artifacts and entered the world of COL.

At first, I vowed to create a clean COL culture in this world.

I even set up periodic reminders to respect team members during the game, and gave artifacts to the mages, asking them repeatedly not to fight among teams.

But perhaps it was the very essence of COL that we could not escape.

With our lack of skills now, there were always one or two people arguing in every game.

Should I be thankful that we hadn’t had to send messages to our parents yet?

The notion of creating a clean game culture had long since been abandoned.

Humans are…

“I-I won’t be on the same team as Rai…!”

“What? Why?”

“Because Rai can’t play…!”

“……”

Hina switched to the other team.

Even though I made it, I still wasn’t good at the game.

I was useless in my past life too.

But I had always watched COL champions, so at least I had the theory down.

“We’re definitely going to win this time.”

Still, I couldn’t afford to lose after being openly ignored like this.

I made a room and we began the ban-pick phase.

The COL I created proceeded in virtual reality, so we also needed to implement the pre-game situations.

All users become Summoners when they log in.

Once the game starts, the summoner moves to the Summoner’s Rift.

At this moment, the Summoner’s Rift is about the size of a palm.

Picking champions amidst the miniature Summoner’s Rift and making selections for bans and plays.

Once everything is done, the consciousness switches to whichever champion is chosen, entering the rift to play the game.

(Team)IsekaiGM(Leeshim): Everyone, follow me, their jungle Amumu is coming so we’ll invade.

(Team)CloneMaster(Darius): Huh? But I need to push the lane early? I told you what happened when I followed Rai’s orders before.

(Team)IsekaiGM(Leeshim): Just use your Teleport, okay? Just follow me. We have to invade for sure.

(Team)CloneMaster(Darius): But I’m a Jayce…

In the chatting system, I set it so that any words spoken would be heard regardless of distance.

By default, it would only be heard by team members.

We placed elements like the minimap and vision aside, making them adjustable based on settings.

Initially, it was a bit confusing, but everyone adjusted quickly.

(Team)VirginGhostLover(LeBlanc): What? There’s no one here?

(Team)IllusionMagicTrash(Caitlyn): Wasn’t their jungle starting at Red?

(Team)IsekaiGM(Leeshim): Absolutely not. We definitely need a bottom leash with Amumu!

As the game started, we dashed into their jungle.

No one was at their blue, and we hid in the enemy jungle bush.

(Team)IsekaiGM(Leeshim): They’re coming soon, just wait…

As I was talking, a sound of machinery moving was heard from somewhere.

(Team)IllusionMagicTrash(Caitlyn): Aaaah!?

Caught by a yellow palm, our team’s Caitlyn was dragged into the wall.

(Team)VirginGhostLover(LeBlanc): Oh… so there was vision here!

(Team)IsekaiGM(Leeshim): Wait, did they place a ward this early?!

It turned out the enemy team had already placed a ward in the bush.

They had seen us coming all along.

First Blood!

(Team)IllusionMagicTrash(Caitlyn): Aaaah! Rai ruined everything! I’m quitting!

(Team)VirginGhostLover(LeBlanc): Ugh, the mid lane is wrecked!

(Team)CloneMaster(Darius): I told you, I’m not going down… I absolutely refuse ㅋㅋㅋ.

The invade ended in complete ruin.

As the jungler, I endured all the blame while not even receiving a leash and had to grind red alone.

But seriously, how did they get there so fast to place a ward?

How long had it been since we started? How could they make such a play? Is this a smurf?

Sighing, I jungled alone.

Though I knew smurfing was impossible, I had to think that way to keep my mental state intact.

[Chat Blocked]

I blocked all team chat, and the voices coming through disappeared.

For five minutes, my teammates had been muttering insults about me non-stop, threatening to drive me insane.

Of course, I had spent those five minutes just jungling.

Meanwhile, the enemy team had secured a kill on top.

And that’s how the game flowed.

Our team lost.

“No Rai! What were you doing?!”

“Because the jungle difference is insane! I’m quitting! I’m quitting Rai!”

“Honestly, it all started when you suggested we invade!!”

As soon as the game ended and I emerged, my teammates immediately bombarded me with curses.

Ah. It would be great if there were a chat block function in reality.

Of course, it’s better to play League anonymously.

I had begun to understand the hearts of the trolls I had met in the past.

Thus, the day to decide the matchups for the Arcane War arrived.

Each tower gathered their representatives to set the matchups.

And I did not become the representative of the Illusion Tower.

“Rai, you should just nerf Darius.”

“Just develop Rai! Don’t play the game.”

“…Yes.”

Then the draw for the Arcane War matchups began.