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As for engine, Unity if you know C#, Unreal if you prefer C. Unity if you like documentation, Unreal if the lack of documentation doesn't deter you. Unreal has a better networking stack.
Or you could do it just for portfolio building.
Why not just work on it as a side project. Like is there a hard deadline where you have to meet that requires this rush to release?
B. Cashflow coming in immediately is super rare. However you distribute or make a deal, it easily takes 1 month to actually see the real, usable money. I've had a lot of deals that were "ready to go" and still took about 2 to 3 months to finalize.
C. Your mental health is your most prized, valuable possession. Avoid burnout. Sleep regularly and well. Stay to a schedule. Eat healthy. Exercise. Do not work more than 10 hours a day, no matter how badly you want to. That 18 hour sprint means you'll work 40% efficiency the next day. Plus you risk burnout. One day off a week minimum devoted 100% to fun and/or relaxing.
D. Organize and learn you will be juggling short, mid and long term goals. Dont sacrifice one too much for the others. Find balance.
E. Dont bite off more than you can chew or be too ambitious. Yes, ambition is good, but you're juggling high risk. If you make an easier game 1 to do that extends your dev time by another year in cash flow, game 2 could be grander than your current vision. Plus you have experience to help you. You might be better off build 2 to 4 smaller games that help you build cash flow and experience that all give you the skills to tackle your dream project with precision.
F. Theres a lot of shitty advice on the internet. In the end, trust your hard earned experiences over someone else's "never did it" bullshit.
Good luck.
You also don't seem to have any game dev experience. You could easily spend the entire 18 months just learning how to write games. The transition from CRUD apps to games is brutal.
Try working on the game 20 hours a week while keeping your job. If you truly love the concept and love working on it while still working full time, that'd be a good sign to potentially scale it up with your full 60-80 hours you'll be spending.
If you become even a mediocre game developer-promoter in 10 months I'd say you are really gifted or got really lucky and got all the opportunities to learn fast. When you start running out of money and only have three or four more months or runway you will need like rock-solid mental and physical health to not go crazy.
The biggest mistake that people make is waiting too long before showing people what they are doing, and after they put in months of effort they are disappointed that nobody seems to care about their stuff.
If you can't find someone who will play your really rough first proof of concept, then you probably won't find people who will play the finished game either.
(Also, just because someone will try one version of the game, doesn't mean they'll be your beta tester for ever. You'll need to find new people to try your game all the time. If your game is good it should get easier.)