Chapter 7: Game of Gods (1)

—

That day after Rogue left, Enrique Nova managed to turn a whole family of three into believers of Mut.

Mr. Jones, your everyday civilian, took a loan from a small gang. Their interest rate was unbelievably high so three months into the contract, the loan of $3,000 had become $30,000. Mister Jones had the money to pay back his initial loan, but obviously the interest money was too much. So today the gang kidnapped their 11-year-old daughter while throwing threats to ruin her innocence and then selling her organs if Mr. Jones didn't give them their money in a week.

Enrique was familiar with this troupe as he was friends with many big and small gang leaders in his previous life, who liked to do these things. But he personally had no history with them. But technically, it was truly Mr Jones' fault for taking a loan from a clearly suspicious bunch. However, heroism was favoured towards the poor and Enrique saw this as an opportunity to pull Mr. Jones, his wife, and daughter, all three of them into Mut's religion.

So, he nicely beat the gang up and made them accept Mr. Jones' $3,000 before telling them to close the deal. Enrique doubted they'd try anything later since he was pretty nice when he beat them up.

Mister Jones was very grateful since to a father his daughter's chastity is more important than his own wife's, so he had converted religions in no time. His wife and daughter were the same, and according to Mut, the daughter's faith was actually the strongest of the three. She was a child after all.

After informing the family of the same- [Ways how to Pray to Mut], Enrique made his way back to the gang's hideout and beat them up. He did so while formulating his super-suit to take the form of tight golden spandex that covered his face as well. So even though the criminals might recognise him, they would have no photo to prove that "Pharaoh" was a villain who beat up criminals and stole their money. Because that's exactly what Enrique did next.

After raiding the gang off all their money, Enrique was disappointed to only reap $7,450 from them. In any case, he took the money and went to an IT Shop later on to buy components for a beast PC. He bought a TV too, different types of furniture, a fridge and everything else he needed, and hired a truck to take them to his home. He considered changing houses too but decided against it. He should save money for now and just buy a house later on.

Because if things went according to his plans, buying houses will not be hard in the upcoming few weeks.

["Just what are you planning?"] He heard Mut speak in his mind as he placed his PC under his table. His pieces of furniture were already laid around the apartment nicely, and his PC was in his bedroom, under a table. ["I am very satisfied with your job, but I smell something interesting being cooked. Do you plan to share?"]

She hadn't inquired about his failure to keep Rogue to himself. Maybe thinking it would hurt his pride or whatever, but she did seem interested in his current actions.

Enrique connected the PC with its monitor and turned it on. He watched as the neon lights lit up and the PC came to life. He sat in front of the Monitor, in a comfy chair, and smiled at the air.

"I plan to make a game." He said. "From the place I came from, I was actually a pretty decent programmer." And by 'decent', he meant world-class. That's how a nobody like him managed to rise in the rankings of billionaires, to begin with, by being insanely talented with computers. "Not that great compared to some people here, like Stark, but I got my fair share of medals. Anyway, as I was saying, I plan to make a game. A game where people will worship and pray to you, my Goddess."

["Smooth, but…"] Mut's sceptical voice sounded out in his head. ["Will that work though? They wouldn't actually be praying to me, there shouldn't be any faith to it."]

"That's what we're gonna test out first." Enrique said. "That's also why I am going to make a very small game for now. If players pray to you, they'd get a [Restart] in-game. Of course, the process of praying will need to be sneaky enough for the other pantheons to not notice. In any case, if that works, we can finally move to big Gacha Games."

["And what are gacha games?"]

Enrique smiled. "You have no idea."

Mut sighed in his head. ["Alright, fine. You have already proven how capable you are, I should at least let you try this out. You have one week, you don't have to earn more believers for this week. Just focus on what you are doing. I am looking forward to it."]

"This will not be a failure, don't worry. Just that the rate of success depends." Enrique said. "Because even if it fails to gather faith points for you, it will at least bring me cash. I can't just sneakily keep stealing money, that wouldn't do for long. I need a stable income source, and a game company would suffice with me." He then focused on his PC. "In any case, please stay quiet for a bit. I need to focus and I hate distraction while working."

["You almost sounded like the boss for a moment. But alright, as you wish."] He heard a soft amused giggle that he ignored.

It was 2011, the start of the era when smartphones would get more popular than ever. So rather than making big, time-consuming games, he decided to take a shot on mobile games. Games such as Clash of Clans would have been great since he could incorporate a Goddess in that game's lore quite neatly. But that game would need months to make and also a server and many employees. So that project has to stay in his head for now.

For now, he was going to make a game that he can make by himself but can still get very very popular.

Say, for example, Subway Surfers.

—-

Three days.

It's been three days of continuous work, eating cup noodles, and sleeping for 3 hours. That, along with going out to make a bank account and also deal with Lawyers to be done with all the paperwork, finally, the game was here and ready to launch.

"This is neat," Enrique yawned. It would have taken him at least a week back in his previous world, with a better computer than this, yet it was already done now. Heightened focus really was helpful. He could type faster, think better, and multitask easily. 

The game was actually mostly done on the 2nd day, but he had to order a bunch of different models of phones and check if the game played well on those devices or not. However, doing all that, alone on his own, Enrique was mentally drained. More so, not all of the paperwork was done yet, at minimum it would take at least two more months.

He needed to sleep. He didn’t get tired while fighting, but he needed sleep.

He had tried testing if the game could actually collect Faith too, but it seemed he himself couldn't try that on his own. Since he was the Goddess' Avatar, his Faith was technically already at max points, and since at most the Game would only produce very few faith points, the Goddess couldn't sense the insignificant amount from him. He needed someone else to test it out.

If Rogue was here he could have tested it out with her, but she wasn't here yet. She did call him twice though. Her first day and second day, but there was no call yesterday and today.

Enrique decided to test it out later on, he first made a patent for his game and released it. It would take 12 hours for it to get approved, and he went to sleep for that 12 twelve hours.

—-

When he woke up, the game was already up in PlayStore, AppStore, and the other game stores that he could access internationally.

The downloads, however, were miserable. A massive Zero in all sites. He needed to promote it but he didn't have enough money because of all the things he bought. It was also the fifth day since he started this, so two more days before he needed to continue hooking up believers. He needed to work fast, he needed to somehow promote his game faster than the usual way.

Enrique washed his face and cooked himself something other than cup noodles. He relished the different tastes of food while watching TV.

-"The rumour about the appearance of another superhero in New York, supposedly clad in a flashy white businessman suit that changes into an even flashier Super Suit, is yet to be confirmed."- the TV reporter was talking about him. It was amusing to see people guessing his identity. -"On the other hand, the recent superhero, Spiderman, has yet again saved the day."-

Enrique stopped eating as he looked at the clip the TV showed, the clip where a guy wearing a red hoodie and goggles swung by the skyscrapers of New York.

"That's right." He put down his plate of food, gulping water. "I have the perfect guy to promote my game."

Enrique couldn’t do his own promotion because that image wouldn't go well with that of a prophet. Not yet, anyway. So, he would let Spidey keep him occupied until Rogue returned.

**

**

**

If you want to read the next 15+ chapters ahead or support me, go to: patreon.com/Master4thWall