Chapter 65 - #65: ’A Good Man...’

Chapter 65: Chapter #65: ’A Good Man...’

Perhaps moved by Yor’s broadcast, or simply swept up in the raw emotional catharsis of the game itself, players began pouring their hearts out in the replies beneath her post.

[

Aidanas: My grandma used to say, "Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between stubbornness and determination, isn’t it?"

DJenkins: Why climb a mountain? Because the mountain is there. Madeline is climbing her mountain, so why aren’t we climbing ours? Every death is just part of the learning process. The moment you finally reach the summit, you realize every single agonizing step was completely worth it.

FanficEnthusiast: My Madeline died so many times the system literally asked if I wanted to leave a positive review.

ModernAlchemist: The A-Sides are for the beautiful plot. The B-Sides are for the hardcore gameplay. The C-Sides are just pure psychological torture.

crazy_Gamma: 10/10 game. A brilliant precision platformer that completely forgot to include the platforms.

Syl: Maybe the meaning of life is just like this game. Brutal, isolating, and exhausting. But the struggle itself is what gives it meaning.

Logan67: I’m logging off for a bit. It’s time to start climbing my own Celeste Mountain in the real world.

]

At first, the global gaming community was absolutely convinced that Nova only designed games to emotionally traumatize them.

But this time, he had somehow managed to deeply heal their hearts while simultaneously torturing their hands.

"Nova, the numbers are insane! Absolutely insane!" Ivan yelled enthusiastically over the phone.

Celeste’s sales were climbing at a terrifying vertical trajectory, and the indie masterpiece was directly driving another massive wave of XBox console hardware sales.

"But seriously, be honest with me. Do you have feelings for that girl?" Ivan’s tone suddenly shifted, growing more serious. "Listen, I know some world-class specialists in reconstructive medicine. I’ve already consulted with them on your behalf. They said her scars can absolutely be treated, it will just take a bit of time."

"I just don’t want to see my closest friend suffer," Ethan replied softly, shaking his head. "I really appreciate you going out of your way to do that, Ivan. I’ll arrange for her to travel for the treatments."

In his previous life on Earth, Ethan was already too late when he found out Yor’s situation.

He was too focused on himself, his future, not looking back at his past, his roots.

When he found out what happened to Yor, the sheer, suffocating helplessness of being unable to save someone he cared about had haunted him for years.

Seeing Yor now, alive, and hoping for a better future, gave him great relief, he was relieved that he wasn’t too late this time.

This second life, this second chance, he will definitely not waste it.

"You really are... a good person, Ethan," Ivan said earnestly. "You literally developed a game from scratch just to save a friend’s life. You’re the only CEO out there genuinely creating happiness with all your heart. Don’t worry about the medical contacts, I’ll shoulder the logistics. You just focus on making games."

Ethan sat in silence for a long time after the call ended.

Facing Ivan’s profound misunderstanding of his actual, system-driven motives, Ethan could only remain quiet.

"Thanks for the help, Ivan," he finally said, letting out a helpless sigh.

Ivan wasn’t the only one aggressively over-analyzing Ethan’s sudden pivot to emotional storytelling.

The global player base was practically writing essays trying to deconstruct the developer’s true nature.

A massive poll had gone viral on the community forums: What kind of person do you genuinely think Nova is?

A staggering eighty percent of the community voted for the option: A Good Man.

[

GamerDad88: Look, the sadist might be a good person, but that doesn’t change the fact that his gams are straight-up evil!

Revan4Ever: it must be so incredibly nice to be friends with him IRL

Morris: honestly, being a fan of his is great too. this is easily the best year of gaming I’ve ever experienced.

kindred: Idk what the future holds, but when I have kids, I’m definitely making them play Celeste. I want them to play all of Nova’s games. I want to show them that THIS is the medium. This is true art!

KyubiUzu: bro if you catch your kid dating too early, just make him play Overcooked with his girlfriend. That relationship will be dead in an hour LMAO

]

When Ethan informed Yor about the medical consultations Ivan had arranged, she just stared at him in a daze for several seconds before nodding in sheer astonishment.

"Okay. I’ll go."

"You don’t need to view the medical costs as a personal burden, either," Ethan added smoothly.

"Starting today, Sprout Studio is implementing a new employee benefit. A separate account is being set up using a percentage of the revenue generated by Celeste. If any employee faces a sudden medical emergency or an unbearable financial crisis, they can draw from this fund."

"I know," Yor nodded softly.

She had already seen the official internal memo circulating on the company servers that morning.

She looked at Ethan, pursing her lips into a warm smile. "You really are exactly as the players say you are."

Ethan immediately turned on his heel and walked away without saying another word.

Having someone say something that overwhelmingly earnest to his face made him profoundly uncomfortable.

His skin literally crawled with secondhand embarrassment, goosebumps erupting down his arms.

’Why is everyone doing this? How can they say such incredibly sappy things with a straight face?!’ he thought, internally cringing.

Watching their boss practically flee back to the safety of his private office, the rest of the studio staff burst into genuine, ringing laughter.

Back at his desk, Ethan rubbed his temples, staring at the community forums with a massive headache.

He was perfectly happy when the players cursed his name and called his mechanics sadistic.

He genuinely could not adapt to an entire internet’s worth of people calling him a ’A Good Man.’

[

jsHall: Nova’s definitely sitting in his office right now being super shy and uncomfortable. BUT WE’RE JUST SPEAKING THE TRUTH!

NicoGab: I get it now. Some devs thrive on toxicity. If we want to break his mental defenses, we just have to aggressively compliment him. Right, you gentle sadist?

Nighthawkj: wait did we just find the boss’s weak point??

Lukas: Local sadist logs on to read hate mail, gets hit with 100,000 wholesome comments for critical damage LMAO

]

But right as the internet was busy memeing Ethan’s supposed gentleness into oblivion, a brand new broadcast channel suddenly went live on the streaming platform under the Sprout Studio banner.

It had the official verified checkmark, but the stream title boldly declared: [Not Nova Broadcasting].

The webcam feed was still disabled, but the pre-stream chat was already moving at a terrifying speed.

[

kindred: Wait whose stream is this?? Did the sadist make a personal channel?

xX_Sniper_Xx: Nova what are you plotting now?

Momamia: Does he want us to praise him live on air??

LoreMaster: What exactly is the purpose of this broadcast?

]

While the chat wildly speculated, the broadcast screen suddenly flared to life, displaying a painfully basic, default computer desktop.

"Ahem... my word, there are a lot of people in here," a rough, gravelly voice muttered in genuine astonishment.

"You can all just call me DaddyHunt. I’m going to be streaming today to show you a brand-new game currently in development at Sprout Studio." The man’s voice carried the distinct, weathered tone of someone who had lived a long, hard life.

On the screen, a mouse cursor was slowly dragged over to a new desktop shortcut and double-clicked.

theHunter: Call of the Wild.

[

NoRest: ??? A NEW GAME ALREADY??

JordanK: If it’s done just drop it on the store! Why the tease?!

Vasyl: A playtest? Nova’s games never have bugs anyway, just release it already!

ExquisitePieceOfBacon: DaddyHunt how long until the official launch??

]

The chat was moving so incredibly fast that it was practically a blur.

Thomas Vale leaned in, squinting at the monitor, and picked out a few random questions to answer.

"He just told me to play it. He didn’t mention an official release date," Thomas explained, adjusting his headset.

"As for why I’m streaming... I didn’t want to do this at first. I’m an old man, what business do I have broadcasting myself on the internet? But that boy told me that if I’m going to play it anyway, I might as well turn the camera on."

"He specifically told me that watching me play was going to piss all of you off. HOHOHAHAHA" Thomas couldn’t help but let out a hearty, booming laugh as he threw his own son under the bus.

His son was the CEO of a massively successful game studio, yet he was still acting as petty as a high schooler.

Shouldn’t a developer treat their player base with professional respect? How could he brazenly say something like that?

Before going live, Thomas had tried to lecture Ethan on proper public relations, but Ethan had just waved him off.

He had flatly stated that it didn’t matter—the entire point of this broadcast was to mentally damage the community.

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My bad for the late upload. Also, I can’t believe no one hasn’t figured out the date of my birthday is, y’all are so close!

Here’s another clue: the date has something to do with a building.

Now, let’s see if anyone can figure it out now. ??

Also, let’s get crazy. 600+ Stones within a week, let’s see if we can do it!

You can support me at patreon.com/Chaos_King and read 25! Yes, 25 advanced Chapters.