I take a breath. “She’s ButterBoi69. The reviewer who gave me 2 out of 5 stars.”
Silence.
“Holy shit!” Troy says finally.
“Yeah. And that 2 brought my beta average down to a B-minus. In my best class. The one that’s supposed to carry my mediocre grades.”
“Wait,” Alfie turns from the computer. “The beta feedback is only twenty percent of your final grade?”
“Yeah, but?—”
“So the showcase and final submission are worth eighty percent?”
I pause. “Yeah...”
“Then stop being a drama queen,” Troy says bluntly. “You can still get an A if you nail the rest.”
“But the beta scores are locked in?—”
“So we make sure your final build is perfect,” Alfie interrupts. “We’ll all test it tomorrow, help you polish every detail before showcase.”
“You’d do that?”
“Of course,” Freddie says. “Bros before grades. Or something.”
“That’s not the saying,” Troy points out.
“Whatever, you know what I mean.”
I slump in my chair. They’re right. I’ve been so focused on feeling betrayed that I forgot the beta was just one part of the grade.
“Let me see the actual review,” Alfie says, pulling upDiscord. He reads in silence, then looks at me. “Dude, this is incredible feedback.”
“She destroyed my ending!”
“She said it didn’t feel earned. Was she wrong?”
I open my mouth to argue, then close it. Because no, she wasn’t wrong. The ending did come out of nowhere.
“Look at the rest,” Alfie continues. “‘Best character development in a student game.’ ‘Addictive gameplay loop.’ ‘Made me cry at the second act break.’ This isn’t someone who hated your game, Ethan. This is someone who loved it enough to be honest about the one thing that didn’t work.”
“I’m an idiot,” I say.
“Yep,” they chorus.
“A fixable idiot though,” Alfie adds, turning back to the code. “Let’s implement this heartbeat thing properly...”
By 6 AM, we’ve done it.
The tower falls in violet flame, just like before. But now, as the destruction settles, text appears on screen?—
The staff lies shattered. Your power fades. What remains?
Three options shimmer into existence?—
a) Try to repair what was broken
b) Accept the loss and forge something new
