Locking In With My Life System

For the first few minutes, the gang simply stared at the screen as Aiden’s finger moved across the keyboard.

As they watched the familiar in-game sprite move about what seemed like a poor, barebones rendition of little, shitty apartment with what they could only assume to be three red plant pots in the corner, their eyes slowly began to widen.

Then they watched as the playable character planted a seed in it, poured some fertilizer over it and then proceeded to grab a watering can to water it.

After that, they watched in even deeper shock as Aiden casually pulled up the Nimbus Engine console, typed a line of code, hit enter and voila, the game sped up tremendously.

A moment after, the coal-haired youth inputted another code and the speed returned to normal. By now, the seeds his playable character had previously watered had grown into full-fledged plants.

Without flourish, Aiden controlled the playable character to begin snipping off the flower buds, to which a notification suddenly popped up reading; Weed Harvested +1!

Demonstrating it a couple more times after that, Aiden soon clasped his palms together, a thin smile on his lips as he said;

”And... that’s about it, I guess.”

”So, what’d you guys think?” he gestured to all five with open palms.

Considering he’d been seated on the carpet while they had huddled up around him by seating on or standing around the sofa, it didn’t take long for all five to slowly turn their heads in his direction.

The looks of stunned awe, mixed with genuine disbelief remained plastered on their features for a while.

A moment after, Theo broke the silence.

”Aiden... how did you--” he tried to ask... only to suddenly let out with gestured arms as he couldn’t hold his genuine excitement any longer;

”This is amazing! This... this is that, management sim idea you were talking about, right?! It’s just... wow! That’s a fully working mini-game of it right there!”

”I know, right?!” Aiden reciprocated the enthusiasm and then answered his initial question;

”I picked up a couple coding classes a week after we had a discussion about it. Turns out, I just might have the knack for it.”

”I mean, you were always a fan of mathematical jargons and calculus so I wouldn’t put it past you to have a bit of flair for coding but even then...” Casper on the other hand remarked as he leaned forwards slightly, his expression every bit as impressed as it was perplexed.

”Which sorta crack are you on man! Give me some of that shit!” the blonde-haired youth suddenly grinned, his palms slapping Aiden’s shoulder in pride as he laughed!

Almost instantaneously though, his sky-blue irises seemed to flicker in thought, his expression contemplative as he slowly looked to the ceiling, his foot tapping the ground rhythmically.

”At this point, I’m starting to think you just might be him.” Larry on the other hand said, his expression still one of puzzled astonishment as he looked between the screen and his buddy a couple times.

”I’ve always been him.” Aiden declared smugly, arms folded across his chest.

”Yeah, right!” Benjamin laughed, though the awe in his tone was unmistakable.

”Says the guy who canonically got his heart broken before he even got the chance to confess.” Clyde casually roasted him despite a similar gaze of baffled pride on his features.

”Hey! That’s a canon event and you know it!” Aiden whipped his head in Clyde’s direction and chastised him with a pointed finger.

All five burst into laughter upon hearing that.

Once their mirth had settled, Aiden then said as he pointed towards the screen;

”So, I was thinking,”

”Why not have this incorporated into the game, but bigger?” he gestured to the gang.

”I don’t see why not,” Theo was already on-board, his expression thoughtful as he added;

”I mean, it’s pretty much a working framework. As long as we can build on it, we should be able to make something really fun and immersive.”

To that, the other four nodded to which, Theo then spoke again;

”If this is going to be the case though, then we’ll need to add a new game mechanic instead of simply centering things around the time-limit to get from point A to point B with the car,”

”We’ll need to introduce a currency system to even things out too. That’s the only way we can either buy a better space or upgrade the apartment into something bigger and grow the drugs faster,” he placed a finger on his chin.

”Come to think of it, we’ll also need a taxi-like delivery system,” Theo snapped his fingers in realization, his brain already cooking up a storm at full-throttle just like Aiden had expected.

”Residents of Sin City will want to buy these drugs so that opens up room for a new game mechanic depending on how fast you can deliver their drugs to them--”

Theo abruptly paused upon realizing that everyone in the room was already staring at him in amusement.

”First off, it’s not too much,” Aiden assured the curly-haired youth before he even managed to ask it.

”Secondly, I was just about to say all that so it really helps that you’ve essentially picked up on it.” Aiden gave the youth a thumbs up, the rest of the gang equally doing the same or nodding in acknowledgement.

This time, Theo found himself smiling in appreciation, clearly glad to be in a space where he could fully express himself without worries of being labelled as a weirdo.

’If only he knew that trait of his was pretty endearing though,’ Aiden inwardly mused, a light smile on his lips.

”Guess, we’ve got our work cut out for us.” Clyde casually stretched and said as he moved over to the middle of the living room and plopped down whilst unzipping his bag.

”Yep.” Larry nodded as he proceeded to retrieve his laptop from his bag.

”That we do.” Benjamin equally remarked as he did the same.

Yet again, Aiden was glad that he didn’t need to fill the boys in on what they needed to do.

If before they’d sorted out most the BGMs and sound effects for the game’s vehicles, world, pedestrians and cars, now they had to create new ones for the sim that Aiden was building.

Just like that, the trio had gotten down to work, same as Theo whom had already taken out his laptop from the duffel bag and had made himself comfortable in a corner of the living room.

As for Casper...

”I’ve got it,” he suddenly declared as he snapped a finger!

”Hahaha! Writer’s block my ass! With this, I don’t even have to worry anymore!” he pumped his fists into the air.

Before the other four could ask what had triggered his lightbulb, Casper was already rummaging through his laptop bag and pulling out a notebook, his ink-stained fingers jotting rapidly.

”If I make it such that what progresses this arc is having the playable character drive a bomb-fitted vehicle with a timer from a rival faction, into the parking lot of his former faction’s weed factory and blow the whole place up, he can have two rival factions tear each other apart...” the blonde-haired youth began muttering audibly.

”Then, when they meet up to call a truce, he can swoop in, run the two gang leaders over in a single mission structure, and gain control of their resources. Kill two birds with one stone and gain more notoriety that places him right in the line of the sight of the bigshots.” he kept mumbling to himself.

As Aiden watched it play out, his smile turned deeper.

Though he knew solving writer’s block was often dependent on the author’s brain deciding it was finally ready to pump ideas out again, there were moments where all the author really needed was an injection of a new element into a story that was quickly growing bland to them.

An idea their brain could toy with and would ultimately give them that initial sense of excitement they had for the story. One that just so happened to fit perfectly into the story without any loose ends.

And in the case of the plot for [Crashout: Sin City], a game where pre-conditioned mechanics were already bottlenecking the capabilities of Casper’s mind, a new mechanic in the form of the weed business would do wonders.

That exactly was what Aiden had been hoping for when Casper had informed him about his predicament.

It just so happened that it had also been a perfect way for him to kill two birds with one stone in his own right.

With everyone’s hands now on deck, Aiden equally made himself comfortable where he was seated and began working on the other parts of the sim mechanics he’d been planning to improve upon.

For the next couple hours following that, the gang simply immersed themselves in the game they were building.

Save for the occasional moments where they either had to eat or use the bathroom, and a break they took in the afternoon by watching an interesting documentary on Greek civilization, they mostly spent the day working.

However, when night came, that was when they finally put aside their work and their sleepover hijinks truly began.