Parallel World Game Developer

Chapter 32: Chapter #32: Let Him Overcooked!

Right as the question left Irina’s mouth, Secretary Sebastian, who was carefully setting a cup of coffee down next to the cameraman, violently flinched.

His wrist jerked, splashing hot coffee over the rim of the mug.

’Why am I getting dragged into this?!’ Sebastian thought, his face turning bright red as he quickly wiped up the spill.

Watching the live broadcast, Silver actually choked on his energy drink, spitting a fine mist over his monitor.

The chat lost their minds. Was this the legendary, hard-hitting journalism of First Game News?

But truthfully, it was the exact question everyone in the community had been wondering. When the camera panned past the lobby, everyone saw Sebastian.

The second they realized the ’sadist’ developer was actually young, highly successful, and incredibly wealthy, the question naturally arose.

Why didn’t he hire a stunning female assistant to sit at the front desk?

Ethan took a slow, deep breath. Even through the soundproofed walls of his office, he could faintly hear his developers laughing in the bullpen. He knew for a fact his entire team had stopped working to watch the live feed.

"Because workplace romance only lowers my typing speed," Ethan replied, staring at Irina with a completely deadpan expression. "Without any distractions clouding my mind, my coding speed is god-tier. Have my games not proven that already?"

The stream chat, which had been spamming laughing emotes a second earlier, came to a screeching, traumatic halt.

[GamerDad88: wait... is that why the games are so brutally hard?]

[xX_Sniper_Xx: bro is taking his lack of romance out on us]

[LoreMaster: the pure, unfiltered incel energy fueling the difficulty curve 💀]

[Salty_Tears: women slow down his coding, but his code stops my heart]

"That’s... understandable... next," Irina nodded slowly, a thoughtful expression on her face.

People with absolutely zero external distractions could indeed channel all their terrifying energy into their craft.

"We all know that Sprout Studio has released three consecutive titles, all of which have achieved massive critical and commercial success. What the community really wants to know is, can your studio continue to push out high-quality work?" Irina asked, her eyes sparkling with journalistic intensity.

"Since you asked, I don’t mind giving you a preview of our long-term roadmap," Ethan said, looking directly into the camera lens.

"Currently, our target market is the premium 2D side-scrolling space. But these titles are just foundational stepping stones for our ultimate goal: a massive AAA masterpiece," Ethan nodded thoughtfully. "If our scaling projections hold, we plan to release our first AAA title by the middle of next year."

Irina stared at him, completely blanking. What?

She wasn’t a programmer, but as a top-tier gaming journalist, she intimately understood the industry’s production pipelines.

She had thoroughly reviewed Sprout Studio’s portfolio before walking into this building.

She had been terrified of asking a naive question that would get her roasted by hardcore gamers online.

It was currently mid-July. Releasing a sprawling, multi-million-dollar AAA blockbuster by the middle of next year meant a development cycle of less than twelve months.

How could a supposedly genius lead designer sound more like an ignorant amateur than she did?

Every follow-up question she had prepared evaporated. Irina’s mind was buzzing with static.

"We are already deep into the architecture of our next immediate project," Ethan continued, completely ignoring her stunned silence. "It will feature a massive, interconnected Metroidvania-style map. Players will unlock new traversal abilities, discover hidden shortcuts, and organically generate new routes through a sprawling subterranean world."

"Furthermore, the game will feature an incredibly high difficulty ceiling. This includes, but is not limited to, severe death penalties, agonizingly complex boss battles, and terrifying enemies perfectly synchronized with hazardous terrain."

Irina just stared at him. ...What?

Across the city, Daniel Fenn was watching the live broadcast from his executive suite at Nexus headquarters. His thoughts were a tangled, suffocating mess.

His memory drifted back just a few short months. He remembered sitting in this exact chair, dismissing Ethan Vale as a naive, arrogant college kid who had no idea how to monetize a video game.

He had blacklisted the kid’s game, authorized a corporate clone, and packed it full of aggressive pay-to-win microtransactions.

The blatant cash-grab mechanics had caused his clone to get review-bombed into oblivion, flashing hot and dying out almost instantly.

Meanwhile, his target had abandoned Nexus, migrated to a rival platform, and refused to implement a single microtransaction.

Fenn had assumed Ethan’s strict moral principles would bankrupt him. Instead, the kid was making infinitely more money than Nexus’s internal studios.

Right after the Global Anti-War Coalition had officially endorsed Sprout Studio, Fenn had personally drafted an executive email to Ethan.

He had offered an astronomical, eight-figure annual salary to absorb Ethan and his entire team into the Nexus corporate umbrella, promising them top-tier executive benefits.

What young developer in their right mind would turn down an eight-figure guaranteed salary?

When Fenn hit send, he never even considered the possibility of rejection. But the reality was brutally dramatic.

Barely sixty seconds after the email was sent, Fenn received a reply.

’I apologize, but I am not considering joining any corporate publisher at this time.’

Fenn stared at the broadcast, his hands clenching into fists. When exactly did that naive, manipulatable college kid transform into an untouchable titan?

"That’s our current pipeline," Ethan said, taking a casual sip from his water glass. "Did you have any other questions?"

Irina took a deep breath, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "You speak about game development with such effortless confidence. It almost sounds like you don’t find the process challenging at all."

"Valentine’s Day is coming up next month. It’s a massive event in the gaming community, and almost every major publisher releases a themed update or a special co-op game to celebrate the holiday," Irina said, a sharp, testing smile forming on her lips.

"If development is so simple for you, surely it wouldn’t be too difficult for Sprout Studio to whip up a special Valentine’s Day game for the community?"

Watching the stream, Silver furrowed his brow. "Isn’t she pushing the envelope a bit too far with that condition?"

If Ethan accepted the challenge and failed to deliver, the massive reputation and goodwill he had just accumulated would take a severe hit. Valentine’s Day was exactly one month away.

Building an entirely new, holiday-themed game from scratch in thirty days was an impossibly tight deadline.

The moment the words left her mouth, Irina realized she had overstepped. But this was live television; she couldn’t edit the question out.

"Of course, I know that’s an incredibly demanding request. I was just using it as a hypothetical analogy," Irina quickly added, trying to offer him an out.

"No, it’s perfectly fine. I actually already have a solid concept for a Valentine’s Day co-op game," Ethan replied seamlessly.

The moment she had mentioned a couples’ holiday, a specific title had flashed into Ethan’s mind.

Overcooked.

The legendary friendship-ruining, relationship-testing kitchen simulator.

It was a cooperative cooking management game that required flawless division of labor and high-stress communication to complete customer orders.

But did couples really think a cute co-op game would be a relaxing date night? Sure, they might agree on a strategy beforehand.

They might make promises to stay calm. But no vow of eternal love could withstand the blistering, chaotic pressure of a burning digital kitchen.

The further players progressed, the more the game demanded flawless, unspoken synergy. It was a game perfectly engineered to induce panic, shouting matches, and genuine, controller-throwing rage.

But in a twisted way, it was the ultimate relationship test. It forced couples to truly understand each other under pressure. Don’t listen to what your partner says; watch how they react when the soup is on fire.

A sinister, subtle smile hooked the corner of Ethan’s mouth. "We’ll just crunch a little bit and push some overtime. We’ll strive to deliver a special game to everyone right before Valentine’s Day."

Seeing the dark, unmistakable glint in Ethan’s eyes, Irina suddenly felt a freezing chill run down her spine.

"May all the lovers in the world eventually find their happily ever after," Ethan nodded, his voice dripping with deadly sincerity.

"Then... I wish you the best of luck in the upcoming Valentine’s Day festival," Irina said, swallowing hard.

"I appreciate it," Ethan nodded confidently.

Overcooked was going to teach the world a very valuable lesson. Love wasn’t just spoken; it was forged in the fires of a burning kitchen!

— — — — —

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