Game Making: Start By Healing the Player
Chapter 36

As the game continued to progress, Dong Zhen began to feel more and more uncomfortable, as if dreading what was to come.

But the two doctors, Eva and Neil, were determined to see their task through. They were still seeking to fulfill their contractual obligations and have Johnny end up on the moon at some point.

As the memory hops continued, the two ended up replaceing out why Johnny wanted to woo River in the first place.

It is because Johnny sees River as a special existence, because she stands out from the crowd and can be considered unique.

This was obviously not something one wanted to hear from a significant other. And even Nicholas voiced his disapproval after Johnny revealed this to him.

• [ I feel sorry for River ]

• [ Johnny has suddenly become annoying ]

• [ +1 selfish devil for sale ]

• [ But something still feels off, maybe there’s more to it? ]

The chat began fervently discussing, but Dong Zhen’s attention was still enraptured by the game.

Johnny here was indeed being very selfish, he could even say it was annoying. But Dong Zhen still couldn’t help but feel like something was missing.

According to the previous segments, Johnny eventually confessed this information to River, but it still didn’t explain the origami rabbits.

You could say this was River’s way of retaliation to Johnny, but that seemed far-fetched. After all, they ended up being truly in love.

More memory hops, and the two made it to see a much younger Johnny.

He was leaving for school, and just like at his wedding, his mother does not call him Johnny, but Joey.

Later, Eva and Neil used a football as a medium to continue hopping. But this time it was different.

Dong Zhen, who was now wrapped up in a thick blanket and comfortably reclining, leaned forward in surprise.

What awaited the two doctors was a vast expanse of white nothingness. And at the same time, the two could smell the heavy stench of roadkill.

There seems to be a problem with Johnny’s childhood memories.

Seeing no way forward, Eva and Neil decided to work with what they already gathered. And proceed with the process of implanting Johnny with the dream of becoming an astronaut.

However, players would be unhappy with what the two were doing. How could they choose to skip over such an interesting mystery?

How did Johnny’s memories get damaged? What secrets would those memories hold? You can’t just ignore this!

Dong Zhen was also unhappy. He was much more interested in this mystery than in going to the moon.

Based on how the game is playing out, he had a hunch that all the previous secrets would be explained and revealed in Johnny’s childhood.

But these two doctors with their huge brains were very persistent, stopping at nothing to achieve their goals.

What followed was a very humorous compilation of the two trying desperately to instill the wish.

They added astronomy lessons to his school days, they gave inspirational speeches, they even changed the films in his memories to be space related.

They went into nearly every single significant memory to place hints about being an astronaut, but the results were beyond their expectations.

None of these caused any amount of change in the latest memories. And in many of the subconscious memories, Johnny expressed having no interest in space travel. He had never even thought of going to the moon.

But then how do you explain his last wish? Why did such a person even want to go to the moon? What is it about the moon that has attracted his attention?

Time was running out, Johnny’s body could not take much more.

So if his wish was to be fulfilled, his incomplete childhood memories may be the key.

The two agreed to take a break and exit the memories.

Neil went to make a few calls to HQ to see if they could help in any way. While Eva took a seat near the lighthouse to organize her thoughts on the matter.

If there is truly nothing wrong with the machine, then going to the moon is obviously a secondary wish, related to something greater or more important.

So there was something else fueling this desire, another condition that would change his wish.

She thought back to River, and the role she played in Johnny’s life. They’d been together for a long time, so she obviously must have influenced this desire.

While Eva was deep in her thoughts, Neil had successfully gathered some extra information from his calls.

Apparently, Johnny was administered a large dose of enhanced beta-blockers as a child. These medications can cause memory issues by interfering with chemical messengers in the brain.

But this doesn’t mean the memories are completely erased, they are simply hidden and subconsciously ignored.

So in order for the machine to access these hidden memories, they will need something to trigger the subconscious.

At this point, Dong Zhen began to connect the dots.

“The smell of roadkill… Didn’t Neil run over that squirrel in the beginning? And Eva was complaining about the strong smell earlier too. We’ll use the dead squirrel to trigger the memories!”

Wow, so this was all set up from the beginning of the game. It was all planned, that’s pretty cool.

“I see, so this squirrel was fated to die! It was the will of the heavens! Chat, come thank the squirrel for its outstanding contribution.”

• [ Squirrel : No problem, thank you ]

• [ Best worst character award : The squirrel ]

• [ RIP ]

• [ o7 o7 o7 o7 o7 o7 o7 ]

Apart from a few troublemakers, most of the viewers were just like Dong Zhen. Ready and eager to see what Johnny’s childhood memories contain.

Soon the scent of roadkill was collected from the squirrel and brought to Johnny, triggering a chaotic reaction.

It was a very confusing segment, where different points of time seemed to overlap. The two doctors saw more than one little Johnny playing on the street.

Among them, Dong Zhen notices that one of them is playing with a football, just like the football memento that first brought them here.

After searching high and low but replaceing nothing, Eva seemed to realize something and led the rush back to the place where they first hopped in.

At the same time, Johnny’s mother had just finished her visit with some neighbors. She got in the car and got ready to leave.

No one noticed little Johnny chasing his football to the back of the car.

There was a loud bang, and the sound of something wet being dropped on the pavement.

What’s this? Johnny had a car accident? Is this why he lost his memories? But what about the beta-blockers?

There were lingering doubts, but like Neil, Dong Zhen also believed that it was Johnny who was hit by the car.

But in the next moment, the real Johnny appears.

The doubts were answered, he had a twin!