Lone Cultivator In Another World

"Hey there, everyone! My name is Michael North, welcome to North Academy. The topic today is quadratic equations. This is what they normally look like…"

"ax2 + bx+ c. Notice that letters a, b and c are actually numbers…"

"The quadratic formula allows us to solve the equation for x. The formula is like this…"

Michael finished looking through the video and sat back, content with his work. North Academy was on its way to launch, as were two other channels. The first videos covered the earliest topics of the school year. Michael put in double the effort in math because that was always the most troublesome subject for students.

Math required knowledge of formulas and strategies of solving standardized problems. Those were easy to remember but harder to understand. Michael tried to both explain how to solve the problems and – later in the video – why that solution actually worked. On other subjects, he mostly retold the material found in textbooks with flair and humor mixed in. Michael often put his explanations in perspective, hopefully addressing the potential questions in his viewers' minds before they even formed.

He spent a whole week on recording videos for North Academy. That channel needed more work than the other two combined but could become far more popular as well. Then, North Fitness and North Gaming would follow on its coattails and rake the views in bulk.

One thing that made Michael stumble was that he only had a PC provided by the school. While it was a good, solid model, there were no game consoles in the apartment. Limited in his choice of games to play, Michael decided to go with the classic, Mass Effect, that had been out for three months.

With so much to do, the man turned boy barely had any time for cultivation. Unhappy with the possibility of slowing down before he got any real results, Michael bought Mind Lullaby for 20 glory points. Now that he was able to fall asleep and wake up effortlessly, his days were a constant flow of recording, cultivating and napping. Michael's will was always strong, and it showed. In five days he managed to record and edit over 70 hours of video.

Irritated by the constant lack of time, he stopped sleeping at night, only taking short 15-20-minute naps every three or four hours. To his surprise, he felt no mental strain and was able to function well through the week.

"Yes, mom, I'm fine, promise… No, it's all right. They don't want to let you go, I understand… You don't need to apologize to me. If you have to work for two more weeks, then just do it. Otherwise, they might refuse to pay you for the last two months. Just make sure they don't owe you anything and then come here… Yes, I received the package, it came yesterday. I really am fine, mom. Classes start tomorrow and I'll move in the dorms anyway… Love you too, bye. Bye!"

It was Sunday morning. After he finished his last video on Chemistry, Michael turned off the computer for the first time in a week. His mother wouldn't return for another half a month and he wasn't in the mood to play Mass Effect just yet. Stretching his arms, he looked over the apartment silently gathering dust. Oh, Michael was an a.d.u.l.t, but he was the perfect bachelor. He could cook and clean but was used to thinking of such things as hard work because of LZD1.

The last day before the school year, EIS organized a get-together for the students to meet each other. For every grade, there were fewer transfer students accepted with each passing year. From 5th to 12th grade, the number of new students per year decreased from around 20 to a possible one. That was implemented to encourage children to constantly meet new people and form new friendsh.i.p.s. Michael's 7th grade had eight newcomers, adding up to a whopping 38 people.

Fortunately, their homeroom 302 was spacious enough to fit them all. When Michael entered the door, he was hit with nostalgia. Except for Marco, there were no unfamiliar faces. Each and every one of these thirty-something children would grow up into a person capable of changing the world. When Michael saw Anna, who was sitting by the window and looking around cautiously, their eyes met, and the girl's face lit up in a smile. Unconsciously, Michael mirrored her expression and made his way towards her.

Anna had already saved him a seat. With her loyalty, he expected nothing else, and it wasn't like she would make friends with anyone on such a day. The girl's upbringing taught her to never stand out and not to raise her head high. Only her fascination with biology could serve as an ice-breaker and nobody other than Michael knew that.

After greeting Anna and congratulating her on enrolling, Michael turned his head to see if he could introduce himself to anyone. With glee, he realized that his good friend Dimitri, who helped him a lot in the past, was sitting right behind him.

In a skillful turn, Michael rotated his whole body, lifted his leg over the seat without standing up, and suddenly he was hugging the chair's back, facing Dimitri with a grin. Anna attentively followed his movement and took in their neighbor's appearance.

Dimitri was a thin olive-skinned boy with black hair falling from his shoulders in curls. He would look more handsome than Michael if not for the hideous heavy-framed glasses. The boy was so immersed in something on his phone; he didn't notice two of his new classmates staring at him. Which is why, when Michael boldly exclaimed "Hello!", he was so startled he almost hit his own face with the phone.

"Eh?" he realized someone was watching him, "What's up?"

"I'm Michael. This is Anna, she's shy but really great. What about you?"

"Dimitri Sarantos."

"What's that on your phone?"

"Nothing much."

"Come on, what game is that? I've never seen it before."

Dimitri sat a tad straighter and replied, "I made it myself."

"Really? Can I see?" asked Anna unexpectedly.

Dimitri turned the screen towards the girl. Michael caught a glimpse of simple contours and shapes. There were no colors, just black shapes on a white background. "What does it do?" he asked. He knew Dimitri wrote code whenever he wasn't reading books on how to do it better, but the two weren't close during Michael's early years at EIS.

"See, this is like a cannon. The mass of shapes on the right is a castle. You just tap and pull on the cannon to aim it and then let go to shoot," he made a movement with one finger; the cannon turned slightly and shot a cannonball at the mass of shapes on the right side of the screen. They tumbled down like the simple blocks they were.

"Isn't that just like…" Michael stopped. What year did Angry Birds come out? Was it 2007? Michael's phone was too old to have access to the Internet, so he asked Dimitri to use his. A quick search showed no results for Rovio Entertainment or the game itself. Of course, if Michael was in a parallel world, the game could've already been developed by some Iorvo company with hot dogs being launched at hungry customers, or something along those lines.

"You guys, do you know a game similar to this one but a real one, that you can download?"

Dimitri and Anna exchanged a glance, both confused.

"No," started he, "I made this game for fiddling with physics. I came up with the idea myself."

"I don't get to play games much, but I've never heard of one like this. I really don't know," blushed Anna.

"I have an idea. What do you say we take Dimitri's game and run with it, make something people will pay for?"

"You mean, breaking castles with a cannon, like this?"

"Oh no. It will be colorful, with different objects to destroy. But yeah, physics, shooting, crumbling – just like here," Michael eyed Dimitri's face with anticipation. Perhaps, his excitement was contagious because young programmer seemed hopeful.

"Can we earn real money with it?" he asked.

"Of course! All three of us are from common families, right?" without waiting for his friends to nod, Michael continued, "Imagine if just a thousand people download and play, and the game costs like $3, we get a thousand each. If a million people download…"

"Wow," Anna whispered.

"Don't be offended," spoke up Dimitri, "But do I even need you two? I already have a working model and can just go from there."

Michael glimpsed at Anna. The girl's eyes were slightly glazed, her shoulders humped. He clenched his fists, telling himself, 'It's all right. He's a good guy, he doesn't know her circ.u.mstances. It's true we're using him a little.'

"No!" Michael exclaimed quickly, "You can't make a game on your own, you need a team. You're a programmer, right? Can you draw? You need an artist. Can you create levels that will interest players? You need a designer. There is also plot writing, testing, administrative work, taking care of money. Oh, sounds and music too."

Dimitri's eyes widened, and he stammered, "Sorry. I had no idea."

"That's why you need us, to take care of everything else. You program, I'll be the designer. I can also market and sell the game and manage the whole thing. Anna here is a biologist… since she's unfamiliar with games, she can test and give us comments from a newbie's perspective…"

"I can play the piano," the girl interrupted, "I have a good ear for music. I can be useful."

"No one doubts that," Michael smiled at her and touched her shoulder, "Can you draw as well?"

Anna shook her head in disappointment. Dimitri followed her example and shook his head too.

"We need to find an artist then."

Their chat was broken by a sudden call to sit down. Their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Richardson, welcomed everyone to school. She was visibly pregnant to Michael's eyes but perhaps not everyone could see that. After a short speech she invited eight new students to stand in front of the class and encouraged old students to welcome them.

There they were, Michael and Anna, weird twins Jack and Jerry, happy as a clam Marco and stylish Carina, Donald, who was absent during trial classes and bubbly Sofia.

Anna was uncomfortable in a crowd as always, so she retired to a corner after making sure Michael was following her. Right next to them was Sofia, the friendliest and most energetic person Michael had ever known. As he remembered something, he c.o.c.ked his head and whispered, "Sofia?"

"Hi!" she smiled, showing white teeth.

"Anna and I are planning to develop a game with Dimitri, that guy," Michael pointed at the programmer discreetly, "and we are looking for someone who can draw. What do you say?"

It was a testament to how positively Sofia saw the world when it only took her a second to nod enthusiastically. The smile never left her face.