GameDev Reincarnated into His Own Creation

Prologue, Part I: Setup

[Welcome, and thanks for giving this a shot.
Before you dive in, just a quick heads-up for newcomers:

"The Prologue offers a glimpse of Giri's old life. If you'd rather dive straight into the reincarnation, you can begin at Chapter 2. But the Prologue adds context and emotional weight that will echo through the story."

Either way, I hope you enjoy the journey. :) ]

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Wind howled through the trees. A thunderclap lit the dark forest, revealing a child's body stumbling through the downpour rain.

He forced his short legs uphill toward the old oak—his safest spot, his favorite place to see everything.

Branch by branch, he climbed higher. In the distance, the village wall flickered in the darkness, the shaman's fire still burning despite the rain. Maybe they could see him too.

A howl rose from the forest—low, guttural, hungry. Another answered from the opposite direction. The creatures that had nearly killed him were still hunting, closing in.

What's happening?

Lightning split the sky—too many strikes, too fast to count. Each jagged line stabbing down in rapid succession. Each boom rattled through his bones.

He clutched his ears, trembling.

Then a flash—blinding white, so close it lit the rain into silver needles around him.

The branch snapped. He watched the canopy blur past as his body slowly descended—

>>Error. Line 472. NullPointerException.

Giri jerked awake, the error message flaring accusingly at him. He'd dozed off waiting for the compile to finish. Again.

He rubbed his face and reached for his coffee cup. Empty. Of course.

He should be in bed, wrapped in comfortable sleep like any normal person at this hour. But the Awakened update for Aeonalus Primordials had a deadline breathing down his neck. Ever since SolarTech took over, he no longer had the freedom to work whenever he wanted. Their timeline was everything now.

Giri grabbed the empty cup and stood up, stretching muscles stiff from hunching over his keyboard. He shuffled toward the kitchen for a refill.

As he waited for the coffee maker to brew, his mind wandered to yesterday's conversation at that izakaya, the weight of Moriya's words still fresh...

---

"You're late," Giri said under the amber light of the izakaya booth.

Moriya slid into the seat across from him, signaling the waitress for his usual. "Thanks for noticing. Client meeting ran over."

He loosened his tie with a tired grin. "Though it can't be worse than whatever's eating at you. You look like you've been debugging the same function for three days straight."

Giri let out a bitter laugh. "Try three weeks. The VR integration is driving me insane. And don't get me started on the suits. If I hear 'synergistic market integration' one more time, I might start talking in ones and zeroes."

Moriya chuckled as his beer arrived. "Still pushing those buzzwords, huh?"

"You have no idea. Everything has to address" —he made air quotes with his fingers— "'pain points' and 'support revenue goals' now. They shot down my dynamic weather system because it wouldn't help monetization." Giri's frustration bubbled over. "They don't want a game, they want a machine that prints money."