After hearing Notch's words, Rookie scratched his head and looked Notch up and down. Then after thinking for a moment, he finally spoke a name.
"Bald… Strong?"
Notch really asked the wrong person. Inside Rookie's world, he tends to simplify a lot of things.
Earlier, when Notch and Rookie were developing Divine Realm Contest together, they had spent a long time working side by side.
Notch's impression of Rookie boiled down to a few words: boss, bald, very strong.
Now that Notch was asking Rookie to name something, he could only grab from these few words to cobble something together.
And so it became "Bald Strong"…
You could say Notch really asked the wrong person, Rookie was truly a hardcore failure when it came to naming things.
But in a way, this could be considered Rookie's affirmation of Notch in a name.
Even though this name happens to overlap with a certain cartoon character, Rookie's real intention was to highlight the word "Strong."
This showed that Notch's "strong" left a very deep impression on him.
If you had asked him to name Entity 303 instead, he probably would've come up with something like "Likes Slacking Off," "Hates Salted Fish," "Single for 25 Years," or "Got Fired"…
Hearing this name, Notch couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Enough, I'll name myself."
In front of Rookie, Notch didn't really act like a boss. They had worked together for a while before, and Notch had felt that he really clicked with Rookie. Notch could be considered the person in the company who understood Rookie the best, aside from Old Wu.
Their way of thinking was on the same wavelength. You could think of Notch as Rookie Plus or Rookie 2.0. This was also the reason why Notch and Rookie got along so well.
Notch was about to lie down in the game pod and think about a name once inside the game.
Across from him, Rookie hadn't given up. Seeing that Notch didn't like the name, he was still trying hard to come up with another one.
As he pondered, another new word associated with Notch popped into his head, "Escape."
Thinking of that, Rookie seemed to recall something and asked Notch, "Weren't you always afraid to go into the game? How come you suddenly want to try going into it now?"
Earlier, when Notch and Rookie were working together on Divine Realm Contest, Notch was only in charge of creating instance samples, and implementing those into the actual game, Rookie handled all that.
After Divine Realm Contest was implemented into the game, the final inspection phase was also done by Rookie. Rookie could clearly feel how much Notch valued Divine Realm Contest. He also sensed that Notch really wanted to do all these things personally.
Several times, Notch had prepared to log in himself and inspect things, but at the very last moment, he always gave up. It was as if he was scared, or avoiding something.
He seemed to be afraid of entering this game he had personally created. That was something Rookie had always found odd. So now, Notch suddenly wanting to enter the game seemed rather out of the ordinary.
And Rookie wasn't the kind of person to beat around the bush, he just said what he thought. So he directly poked through the window paper and asked bluntly.
Hearing Rookie's words, Notch looked a little surprised. He thought he'd hidden it pretty well, he didn't expect Rookie to see right through him.
Thinking of that, Notch suddenly smiled in relief. Since he'd been found out already, there was no need to keep hiding it.
Saying it out loud actually made him feel lighter. And Rookie was a great person to confide in. "I've been avoiding it all this time."
"When I was developing this game, a lot of things happened that I couldn't explain…"
Saying that, Notch rubbed his shiny bald head and chuckled, "That's how this early-onset baldness of mine came about."
Hearing Notch say that, Rookie suddenly fell into deep thought. He raised a hand and kept rubbing his chin, as if pondering something. After a while, he looked seriously at Notch and said, "You're not a youth anymore."
Hearing Rookie say that with such a dead-serious face, Notch burst out laughing in frustration.
From Rookie's expression just now, Notch thought he was seriously thinking about the mysterious stuff Notch had mentioned. Turns out his brain had totally gone off track and focused on the wrong point.
"Is that the freaking point?!!"
Notch looked at Rookie across from him with a helpless smile on his face. Still, he had to admit, Rookie really was a great person to confide in.
Even though his brain worked in strange ways, Notch was certain he had been listening attentively the whole time. You could tell just from how he noticed Notch was avoiding going into the game.
Thinking that, Notch sat down at his desk and motioned for Rookie to sit too. Once Rookie sat down, Notch took a sip of tea and began telling Rookie about that long-buried story he'd never wanted to talk about.
About half an hour later, Notch's teacup was empty. The story was finally finished.
He felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders. After letting out a long sigh, he looked at Rookie and said, "Even though I can now control my own mind, the events from back then still left a big shadow on me."
"Later, all kinds of unexplainable things started happening in the game. HIM, Entity 303, and all those monsters and villagers with their own consciousness…"
"All of this proves that this game world, the world I created, isn't as simple as it seems…"
Saying that, Notch gave a helpless laugh and said, "Lately I've been reading a lot of player feedback and comments. Even though the in-game experience isn't perfect, none of the players have chosen to leave."
"But I, the creator, have been running away from this game that I personally built, and that became my most successful creation, just because of a shadow from years ago…" When he said this, Notch's face was full of guilt. Deep down, he had always been struggling. He didn't want to experience that pain again.
But he couldn't let go of this game. Most importantly, he couldn't let go of his original intent. His original intent in creating the game was to make it into a little world for players.
A place where players could see it as a safe haven, a home. A world where they could relax and do what they wanted. But now, the way this world had developed wasn't as perfect as he'd imagined.
Even so, the players never gave up on it. So what reason did he, the creator, have to give up or run away?
That's why he had to go deep into the game, to understand its world. To do everything he could to bring back his original vision. To do his best to protect this world and the players.
Thinking that, Notch said with a determined face, "I think… I won't run away anymore."
After pouring his heart out, Notch felt much lighter. He was now fully prepared. Even if he had to go through what happened before all over again, he wouldn't be afraid. Because now, he believed, he was no longer alone.
Even if the same things happened again, Rookie would definitely help him.
Notch had talked for a long time, and Rookie had never interrupted him. Nor did he speak, he just focused on listening to everything Notch said.
After Notch finished, Rookie nodded seriously.
"Mm…"
"I still think Bald Strong suits you best!"
Hearing Rookie's response, Notch instantly had the urge to strangle him.
He had poured his heart out for so long, and Rookie's takeaway was still whether "Bald Strong" suited Notch or not.
If it were someone else, this would feel like talking to a brick wall.
But Notch knew how Rookie's brain worked, he knew Rookie had actually taken in everything he said. It was just that his processor hadn't had time to digest the rest, it was still stuck processing the name thing.
But all that stuff had already made its way into his subconscious.
And Notch was sure, when the time came, Rookie would definitely step forward. Thinking that, Notch waved him off.
"All right, all right, go now. I'm playing the game!"
Hearing that, Rookie said "Oh," turned around, and was just about to leave, when Notch called out to him again.
"Right, why'd you come looking for me?"
Realizing Rookie was about to leave, Notch suddenly remembered that he probably came here for a reason.
And Rookie also remembered, just now, if Notch hadn't asked, he'd completely forgotten that he came to call Notch to a meeting.
After Rookie explained, Notch thought for a moment and replied, "Let's do Divine Realm Contest once a week."
"There only needs to be one Blade of the War God. From now on, the god-tier items from Divine Realm Contest are your responsibility."
The reason Notch made this decision was because the Blade of the War God really couldn't be replicated. He had tried duplicating it, but failed every time.
The Blade of the War God was his flash of brilliance, it was one of a kind and couldn't be copied. Just having this one god-tier weapon in the game was enough.
After Notch finished speaking, Rookie obediently went off to report the information.
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