Parallel World Game Developer

Chapter 31: Chapter #31: The Interview

"Boss, the team over at First Game News wants to do an exclusive interview with you. Should we accept?" Secretary Sebastian knocked lightly on the glass door before stepping into Ethan Vale’s private office.

First Game News was the undisputed, authoritative voice in mainstream gaming journalism.

Their editorial team was famous for delivering razor-sharp critiques, never pulling their punches, and earning the absolute respect of the global player base.

This time, Sprout Studio’s unprecedented recognition by the Global Anti-War Coalition had finally drawn the media giant’s attention.

The journalists were incredibly curious to unmask the dark horse developer who had taken the entire industry by storm in just a few short months.

"Reach out and schedule them for tomorrow morning. Do they have any specific requirements for the location?" Ethan asked, casually glancing at his digital itinerary on his monitor.

"They specifically requested to come here to the studio. They want to shoot some B-roll of our working environment," Sebastian replied quickly, having already ironed out the preliminary logistics with their production coordinator.

"That works for me. We’ll host them here," Ethan nodded.

"They did have one other major request. If you’re comfortable with it, they want to broadcast the interview completely live. Obviously, if you’d prefer to tightly control the PR, we can force them into a traditional, pre-recorded format," Sebastian said.

As he spoke, Sebastian couldn’t help but look at his boss with a profound sense of awe.

Sitting behind the desk, Ethan still possessed the distinct, youthful energy of a college student.

With his sharp features, bright eyes, and a plain, comfortable T-shirt, he looked like the absolute antithesis of a hardcore game developer.

In the eyes of the general public, the stereotype of a genius programmer or lead designer was a hunched, exhausted man wearing a faded flannel shirt, thick glasses, and sporting a aggressively receding hairline.

If this interview went out live, the gaming community was going to suffer a collective brain-aneurysm.

What?

The sadistic psychopath who has been psychologically torturing us for months is actually just a handsome, college-aged kid?! Just thinking about the inevitable internet meltdown made Sebastian’s heart race with excitement.

"Let’s do it live. I don’t mind at all," Ethan agreed easily. He wasn’t a faceless internet troll hiding behind an avatar; he had absolutely no reason to hide his identity from the cameras.

Accepting a live interview was a highly calculated, beneficial move. No matter how much viral popularity his games had achieved, Sprout Studio was still technically a small, independent outfit.

Back on Earth, before a major AAA studio released a flagship title, they would subject the market to months of agonizingly expensive promotional cycles, CGI trailers, and massive marketing campaigns.

Right now, Ethan simply didn’t have the liquid capital to burn on that level of corporate packaging. He had been relying entirely on the raw, undeniable quality of his games to generate word-of-mouth virality.

But organic marketing was notoriously fragile. Before the Global Anti-War Coalition officially endorsed This War of Mine, the sales had been strong, but they hadn’t been generating the explosive, culture-shifting numbers they were seeing now.

Ethan’s ultimate goal was to build sprawling, multi-million-dollar AAA masterpieces, and that required a staggering amount of capital.

Because he absolutely refused to take on outside venture capital that would inevitably try to control Sprout Studio, he needed to maximize his organic reach.

Continuous, high-profile media exposure was the most efficient way to keep the studio squarely in the public’s field of vision.

Sebastian nodded, stepping out of Ethan’s office and pulling the door shut behind him.

The moment the door clicked, the entire bullpen of developers looked up from their workstations, staring at Sebastian with eager, burning curiosity.

Sebastian took a deep breath, patted his chest to calm his own racing heart, and gave the team a vigorous nod.

The announcement that First Game News would be broadcasting live from Sprout Studio at 9:00 AM the next day was instantly pushed to social media.

"Alright chat, clear your schedules! We are tuning into that live broadcast tomorrow morning!" Silver yelled, genuinely hyped as he read the format details on his stream.

He pulled up the official press release from First Game News on his second monitor. The lead anchor assigned to the interview was Irina Jelavic, a journalist notoriously famous for her ruthless, deeply confrontational interview style. Whenever she reviewed a controversial game, she would relentlessly corner the lead designers on live television, using brutal community feedback to demand why they were ignoring their own player base.

Thinking about that dynamic, Silver couldn’t help but pause.

Honestly, Ethan’s games didn’t actually have any objective mechanical flaws or game-breaking bugs.

The only thing the community ever complained about was the sheer, suffocating difficulty—which wasn’t a bug, but a deliberate, malicious feature.

Silver was incredibly curious to see what kind of targeted, aggressive angle Irina was going to take to try and crack the developer.

"Oh, it’s going to be a bloodbath tomorrow, guys," Silver said, rubbing his hands together with a vicious, expectant grin. "That sadistic bastard! He spends all his time torturing us with his games, and now it’s finally his turn to get tortured on live TV!"

At exactly 8:30 the next morning, Irina Jelavic and her production crew arrived at the sleek tech park housing Sprout Studio.

It was the peak of the morning rush hour.

Outside the glass-paneled office building, a sea of tech workers and corporate employees hurried toward the entrance, their faces locked in the standard, expressionless mask of the morning grind.

Irina stood just outside the revolving doors, her cameraman already balancing the heavy broadcast rig on his shoulder.

"Good morning, everyone! I’m Irina Jelavic, lead correspondent for First Game News. Today, we have secured an exclusive, live interview with the gaming industry’s most notorious rising star: the lead designer known as Nova," Irina announced to the camera, seamlessly sliding into her professional broadcasting persona.

Hundreds of thousands of gamers were already flooding into the live broadcast feed.

On screen, Irina looked immaculate. She had sharp, styled short hair, a flawless complexion, and wore a perfectly tailored, black-and-white professional blazer.

"We are heading upstairs right now to finally unmask the man that countless players have been desperately trying to understand," she smiled, her eyes narrowing playfully as she gestured toward the corporate lobby behind her.

Because they had been setting up equipment outside, it was currently 8:40 AM. The initial wave of the commuter rush had died down, leaving the elevator banks relatively uncrowded.

Sprout Studio was located on the seventh floor. The high-speed elevator cleared the distance in a matter of seconds. Because they had coordinated the arrival time perfectly, Sebastian was already standing by the elevator doors, waiting to greet the production crew.

Irina followed Sebastian through the glass double doors and stepped onto the main floor of Sprout Studio. The moment she entered, dozens of developers subtly glanced up from their monitors to look at her, before quickly returning to their code.

To respect the studio’s strict NDAs and protect unannounced assets, the cameraman kept the lens focused tightly on Irina, ensuring no proprietary code or concept art leaked onto the live feed.

"Our boss is waiting for you inside," Sebastian said, knocking twice on the heavy wooden door of the executive suite before opening it for Irina.

The cameraman followed closely behind, tracking Irina as she stepped past the threshold and into the spacious private office.

"Hello. I’m Sprout Studio’s lead designer, Ethan Vale," a voice called out.

As the camera panned around the corner, it framed a young man standing near his desk, offering a polite, somewhat shy smile. He was dressed in a sharp, incredibly well-fitting suit that seemed entirely at odds with his youthful face.

The cameraman stepped back slightly, finding the perfect wide angle to keep both Ethan and Irina in the frame. Because of his vantage point behind the lens, the cameraman perfectly captured the absolute malfunction occurring on Irina’s face.

"You’re... you’re the sadist?" Irina blurted out, her professional composure completely shattering. The polite, handsome young man standing in front of her violently clashed with the demonic, twisted image the internet had painted of him.

"Please, have a seat. Sebastian, could you grab us some coffee?" Ethan smiled, casually gesturing toward the plush leather sofas in the center of the room.

The cameraman quietly set up his tripod in the corner, locking the shot in place while occasionally peeking out from behind the rig to stare at Ethan in disbelief.

"Ahem. Well, if you’re ready, we can dive right into the interview," Irina said, forcing a warm, professional smile back onto her face as she sat down across from him.

Ethan sat up straight and nodded confidently. This was his first major media appearance in this world, and he fully intended to leave a flawless impression on the global audience.

"I’ll start by asking the one question that absolutely everyone in the community is dying to know," Irina said, staring directly at Ethan. The moment she had locked eyes with him, every single hard-hitting, aggressive question she had prepared completely evaporated from her mind.

"Why didn’t you hire a female secretary?"

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