Chapter 9: The brilliant game designer and her foster father 7

As soon as Ernesta finished speaking, 001 blurted out,

“Master, what are you doing? You can't harm the female lead! That’s what antagonists do, and antagonists in novels never have a good ending. If this goes wrong, our mission will fail!” Its voice was still flat and robotic, but it was talking way faster than usual.

Ernesta shot back,

“Take a good look. Who’s really trying to hurt who here? And besides, this isn’t just some novel anymore. This is a real, complete world.”

001 didn’t know how to respond. The female lead was supposed to be the good guy, but if that were true, why was she falsely accusing its master of stealing her work? It felt completely lost, maybe it needed a system update to process all of this.

Ernesta ignored 001’s internal crisis and got back into character.

“I can prove I made this game. Are you still sticking with that story?” she asked Fiona.

Fiona suddenly felt uneasy, but she was already in too deep, there was no backing out now. She just had to go with it and hope Ernesta was bluffing, that she didn’t actually have any solid proof.

“Oh yeah? And how exactly are you gonna prove that when I’m the one who wrote everything?” Fiona shot back.

Ernesta didn’t answer right away. Instead, she asked again, just to be sure,

“So if you’re saying you made this game, that means you know it inside and out, right?”

“Of course!” Fiona replied, sounding confident. But deep down, she was anything but.

Ernesta’s eyes sharpened as she asked,

“Alright, then tell me this, when the green rectangle reaches the third turn, if you don’t press the turn button and just crash straight into the obstacle, what happens?”

Fiona hesitated for a split second but quickly answered,

“Obviously, you lose a life and have to restart.”

One of the programmers in the room restarted the game and followed Ernesta’s instructions. But when the green rectangle slammed into the obstacle at the third turn…

“Wait… why didn’t it die?” he blurted out in confusion.

Fiona quickly tried to play it off.

“Oh, that’s probably just a bug. I only sketched this game out on paper for you, I never actually tested it on a computer, so a few glitches are normal. But hey, you just started learning and you’re already spotting coding errors. That’s actually pretty impressive!”

That sounded reasonable enough, and everyone nodded in agreement.

But Ernesta didn’t even acknowledge it. She just kept going.

“Alright then, at that exact spot, take one step back, one step forward, one step right, one step left, then move forward and crash into the obstacle. What happens?”

Fiona had no idea, because this wasn’t her game.

She stayed silent for too long, and people started to get suspicious.

That’s when Ernesta calmly answered her own question.

“That’s actually a hidden treasure wall. If you follow those steps exactly, a secret message pops up: ‘Congratulations, Ernie! You’ve unlocked the hidden treasure and earned 20 gold coins.’”

The programmer at the computer followed her instructions: step back, step forward, step right, step left, then move forward and crash.

Immediately, fireworks burst across the screen. When they faded, a message appeared:

“Congratulations, Ernie! You’ve unlocked the hidden treasure and earned 10 gold coins.”

The animation was simple, nothing fancy, but it was enough to prove Ernesta was telling the truth.

Everyone slowly turned to Fiona, waiting for her to explain herself.

Ernesta didn’t give Fiona a chance to argue and fired off another question.

“At the fifth turn, if you crash into the straight-line obstacle five times in a row, what happens?”

Fiona’s face went pale. She stammered,

“W-What happens? Is it… a hidden treasure?”

She was so rattled that she didn’t even realize how badly she had just exposed herself.

Ernesta didn’t miss a beat.

“I was gonna let it slide, but you just wouldn’t quit. So stubborn! Minus ten gold coins!”

The programmer followed her instructions. Sure enough, after crashing into the obstacle five times, the screen suddenly went dark. A giant sword icon appeared, followed by the message:

“I was gonna let it slide, but you just wouldn’t quit. So stubborn! Minus ten gold coins!”

Before anyone could even catch their breath, Ernesta revealed five more hidden mechanics, each with its own trigger and effect. And every single time, Fiona was completely clueless.

These hidden details were the extra 20% Ernesta had purposely added to the game last night, just for this moment. She never bought into the ridiculous claim from the novel that she “stole her sister’s game.” This body's owner was more than capable of coding a simple mini-game on her own.

This backup plan? It was Ernesta’s way of paying back those who tried to frame her.

The way everyone in the design room looked at Fiona was getting more and more complicated. Ernesta clearly knew this game inside and out, while Fiona didn’t seem to know a thing. And it wasn’t even some advanced project, just a simple little game. Claiming credit for it wouldn’t bring Fiona any real benefit, so why would she do it?

Ernesta rubbed the corners of her eyes, making them look even redder. Then, with a sad expression, she said,

“I started learning programming because I wanted something in common with you, so we could talk more. You were always so eager to recommend books to me, so I thought that if I learned faster, it would make you happy. But I guess I was wrong. You don’t want me to learn programming, and you definitely don’t want me making games. If that’s how you feel, then I won’t touch any of this again. Just… please don’t treat me like this anymore. It really hurts.”

Everyone in the room thought it was ridiculous for Ernesta to give up her talent like that and immediately tried to stop her.

“Ernesta, you’re too talented to waste it. You have to keep coding!”

“Yeah! Didn’t you say you love programming? You shouldn’t give up on something you love just because of someone else.”

One by one, they spoke up, as if Ernesta was a lost deer heading the wrong way and needed to be guided back. Meanwhile, Fiona had been completely sidelined.

But Ernesta wasn’t about to let her fade into the background. She pulled Fiona right back into the conversation.

“But you guys don’t understand, Fiona has a weak heart. If I do something she doesn’t like, it’ll upset her and affect her health. It took us so long to finally reunite, and I don’t want to do anything that might make her feel bad.”

The game development team couldn’t help but admire Ernesta for being such a loyal, considerate friend. At the same time, they couldn’t help but see Fiona as nothing more than a petty, jealous person.

***

Author: The destructive power of a fake nice girl is immense. Ernesta learned this skill from her foster sister, Kiera, and now, let’s see how she will apply it to this mission!