God Simulator

Chapter 1 : The Peculiar Little Game

After a long day at work, Luke drags his exhausted body back to his rented apartment. In his small company of about a dozen people, more than half are just passing time and are related to the boss. Aside from the boss and partners, there are only three people actually working. Just three months into the job, Luke already feels like each day drags on endlessly. However, without another job lined up, he doesn't dare to quit. With the economy not doing well, he needs to survive first before thinking about his next steps.

It's only at this time each day that Luke finds a little space to relax. He switches his mood, pushing the day's frustrations to the back of his mind. Now it's time for gaming! He boots up his old computer, slowly moving the mouse across the screen. What to play today? A round of League of Legends? Counter-Strike? Or continue building his unfinished house in Minecraft?

An inconspicuous icon catches Luke's attention. Located at the bottom right of the screen, its logo is a green pixelated island blending into the green grassy wallpaper of his desktop, hardly noticeable. "God Simulator"? What game is this? It looks similar to Minecraft. Luke doesn't remember ever downloading or buying it.

He checks the file properties. The source file is 20MB, just a small game. Judging by the size, it seems to be a very old game. Luke's computer isn't high-end; he's been using the same machine since college, reluctant to buy a new one. Even playing games like LoL and Dota requires the lowest graphics settings, and he can only dream about playing major titles, usually resorting to watching others play online. Most of the time, Luke finds himself playing a variety of classic games.

He tentatively opens "God Simulator." The screen slowly fades to black. Accompanied by the soothing sound of retro 8-bit electronic music, a series of white characters gradually appear against the dark background, a classic pixel game style. This day, the world finally welcomes a great deity.

[Your arrival brings new meaning to the world. Your power will create a brand new civilization.] Then the darkness fades away, replaced by little figures building various structures, others tilling the land, and some raising their arms in cheer. The pixelated visuals feel fresh yet nostalgic, making Luke momentarily forget his surroundings and presenting him with three white options: [New Game], [Continue Game], and [Exit].

Luke clicks [New Game]. The screen turns pitch black again, then gradually fills with uniform green pixels, like paint being spread across a blackboard. [Capturing World.....] After about five seconds, the screen is filled with green. [World Positioning Complete, Welcome, Great Deity.] The pixelated background changes again. The screen shows a flat green land surrounded by forests, rivers, mountains, and deserts. In the center, there's a building resembling a white dome temple. Text appears in the center: This is your temple, what will you name it? After a brief thought, Luke types in a name. "Luke's Temple," and the name appears above the temple. Then, the screen freezes in a peculiar stillness.

Luke clicks on the temple, but nothing happens. What's going on? Which company made this old game that doesn't even have a basic tutorial or guide? As he ponders, two bare-chested, barefoot figures appear in a corner of the screen, moving towards the temple and circling it. One of them pops up with an exclamation mark, followed by a dialogue box. "What a beautifully grand house, surely the work of a deity." The other raises his hands, "The deity, the deity!" "This must be a revelation from the deity, this place is blessed, we need to bring more people here."

"Land of the Deity's Favor! Land of the Deity's Favor!" Both figures now have smiley faces above their heads. They run off the screen and, within seconds, return with five more figures. Altogether, seven figures start worshipping around the temple. They build a small thatched hut next to the temple and transplant some berry bushes from off-screen, starting a life beside the temple.

A prompt appears on the screen. [You've gained the first followers in this world, the power of faith is your tool to perform miracles, please collect more faith.] Luke notices an icon of a small human head in the top right corner, indicating the population, and next to it, a palace icon indicating faith. Both the population and faith are at 7. It seems each follower provides one point of faith.

Luke tries clicking on the population icon to no avail. He clicks on the faith icon, and this time a foggy icon appears. Below are a series of options, each with a simple drawing. All miracles are grayed out, indicating none are available yet. Each miracle requires consuming faith points, and even the least costly Rainfall requires 10 points. That means he needs 10 followers to perform even a single miracle. Increasing the population becomes the primary issue.

Unlike other simulation games, God Simulator doesn't allow direct construction of houses or production of residents. He must wait for the pixelated people to reproduce or gather on their own. For now, the only option available is [Miracles]. Luke watches the pixel people farm, constantly exploring the screen with his mouse, his stomach growling. He heats up some leftovers for lunch. When he returns to his computer, he notices the people around the temple are displaying an unusual state. They have sad expressions above their heads, all worshipping around the temple.

Dialogue boxes continually pop up above the people's heads. "Great deity, we beseech your presence!" "Please bless us, great deity!" "The forest tribe thinks we worship an evil god, they want to tear down the temple, please show us a miracle!" As Luke takes a bite of his food, he thinks, this seems to be the first crisis. But currently, with only 7 points of faith, he can't even make it rain, let alone use the miracle tab. Luke continues to explore, eventually clicking on the temple and bringing up a new interface. In the center of the screen is a stone hedge, in front of it a seated gray figure, its features indistinct, perhaps the pixel people's imagined image of a deity. In front of the statue is a long table with two differently shaped slots. The larger slot on the left is labeled [Sacrifice], and the smaller one on the right is [Blessing].

Both slots are empty. Sacrifices are understandable, naturally being what the followers offer to their deity. Correspondingly, blessings should be the power or items the temple bestows upon its followers. Is this what they seek as a miracle? Luke searches but finds no items he can drag and drop. He's a bit stuck, facing his first problem. Suddenly, something strange catches his eye. The long table in front of the statue, why does it look so familiar? Isn't it just like his computer desk?

The two slots, the sacrifice slot is the exact shape of a keyboard, the blessing slot is oval, like a mouse? On closer inspection, the deity figure depicted seems to be sitting in front of a long table, just like he is in front of his computer. The idea startles Luke. Impossible, it must be a coincidence. Then, a bold idea emerges. He carefully places a garlic clove on his mouse, full of anticipation. Two seconds later, the clove rolls off his hand. "Just a coincidence," Luke mutters to himself, feeling a tinge of disappointment. But just then, the garlic clove vanishes into thin air. Luke instinctively looks at the computer screen. In the temple's [Blessing] slot, there's now a pixelated icon of a garlic clove. [Garlic]: A special provision and herb, a blessing from the deity. A line of text appears on the screen.

—"Do you wish to bestow the [Garlic] upon your followers?" [Yes] [No] Luke's hand trembles slightly on the mouse. He contemplates his next move.