Chapter 638 - Liar” (1/2)
A melody started playing.
The background music was neither joyful nor melancholic. One could only say that it was smooth—as smooth as the protagonist’s narration and flashing of scenes in the camera.
“My father was a philanthropist and the founder of a luxury brand. He used to be a high-spirited man, and he often starred in television and magazines because of his handsome appearance.
“That was until the hostage situation before I was born.
“After that, my parents became very low-profile. I was also very well-protected by them and rarely mentioned by the media. Our daily lives came under wraps.
“Not long after I was born, my mother quit her job to take care of me full-time. No matter how busy my father was, he always made time for me as well.
“My father once spotted a good kindergarten, but it was far away from my house. The journey there or back took 45 minutes. My father could have chosen to hire a chauffeur, but he still chose to send and fetch me twice a week. He endured that for three years, all the way until I made it to elementary school.
“After work, my father would tell me bedtime stories, help me with my homework, take part in family events with me at school, and organize family meals…
“That’s why I don’t really understand when my friends say that their parents don’t have time to spend with them.
“Could anyone be busier than the CEO of a company?”
As the male protagonist narrated this, images began to flash across the screen.
There was a scene of the protagonist being born in a luxurious delivery room.
The space was huge. There were a long couch and other furniture, and it looked just like a hotel suite. The senior nurse, nutritionist, and nurses were walking back and forth. The table was filled with nutritious food, making it look like a feast.
The protagonist’s father looked at his baby, smiling blissfully.
There was also a scene of the protagonist as an infant.
In a villa with a private beach and pier, several workers walked back and forth to take care of the protagonist, who was still a baby. His own mother smiled as she accompanied him.
There was a scene at the kindergarten.
The protagonist’s father drove his luxury car as the view of the prosperous city zoomed past their windows. In the high-end private kindergarten, the protagonist learned all sorts of things, including languages, mathematics, science, art, and so on.
The teacher’s classes were novel and interesting. The kids could witness eggs being incubated and hatching into chicks and caterpillars turning into butterflies.
There, professional teachers taught art to the students. Each month, one particular artist would come into focus, and the kids would learn more about his or her works. Furthermore, they would imitate the motions of painting to copy the works. Whether they turned out ugly or beautiful, their works would still be praised and hung up onto the walls.
Even the toys that they played with during their rest time looked very expensive.
“While I was in kindergarten, my father taught me the concept of time. We started class at 7:30 AM. If I was ten minutes late, the school gate would close. I would be fined, and my results would be penalized.
“My father made sure that I was never late. He always told me that few things in the world could not be bought with money, and time was one of them. That was why I had to cherish every second. This concept of time was etched deep in my heart.
“My father doesn’t allow me to have fast food or to wear a battery-operated watch. I only got a cell phone when I was fifteen, and my time on it was limited. I couldn’t play on the computer for more than forty minutes, but on the weekends, this was increased to an hour.
“I tried asking my mother to plead with my father on my behalf, but to no avail. Still, he would always make time to read with me.”
After the string of starting scenes that explained the protagonist’s childhood, He An found that he could finally control the protagonist and start the game.
This was the protagonist when he was still a child. He An still had an over-the-shoulder view of the game, and the first scene was of the protagonist playing and living in the huge villa with his parents.
Soon, He An realized that this was a standard interactive game.
All the human models inside were very detailed. All the main characters had expressions as they spoke, and their actions were obviously motion-captured. The exquisite drawing made everything look very realistic.
At the same time, the UI in the game had either been hidden in the background or blended in the foreground. The game’s immersiveness was not disrupted by the instructions to gamers.
Moreover, the transitions between the scenes were very well done. The techniques used were often only seen in movies.
The only strange point was that all the characters looked very exaggerated. For example, the faces of the rich man and his parents looked ridiculous. All of them looked like celebrities.
On the other hand, the maids, the butler, and the chauffeur looked stereotypical.
That made He An feel out of place at first, but since all the characters were of the same style, he quickly got used to it.
Few operations were available for interactive, movie-like games. One could mainly walk or select special options upon trigger events. In other words, this was a slightly better version of quick-timer events.
For instance, while in the villa, players could play the young protagonist and experience a lot of content:
In a room specially set aside for art, the protagonist could draw under the instruction of a private teacher.
The protagonist could learn instruments like the piano or the violin.
The protagonist could go to his private racecourse and ride horses.
The protagonist could do archery or play with the dog in their private field.
The protagonist could attend play dates at other rich people’s houses. At the dinners, he could play in bouncy castles with other kids of his age, make ice cream with his ice cream machine, ride on wooden horses, and play with train models…
He could take a private jet to Africa’s wildlife zoo with the other kids to celebrate a birthday. He also received high-end presents that piled up into a mountain…
In every scene, the gamer was allowed to control the protagonist and interact with various backgrounds. He could ride horses, play the piano, play with trains, and the like.
Apart from those mini-games, there were other details in the scenes as well. For example, there were chatter between other characters, books and newspapers, wrapped gifts, and the like.
Different transition methods were used to switch from one scene to another as well, and they were similar to those used in movies. For example, once the protagonist finished taking a certain group photo, that photograph would appear at the top of the protagonist’s bed, thus introducing a new scene.
In the spaces between scenes where the gaps were extra big, there would also be narrations by the adult protagonist recalling his childhood.
Once the scenes of his childhood were over, he entered his teenage years. The protagonist entered high school and then university, but it was not like the movies. There were no lax education or alcohol parties. Instead, his daily life was planned to the minute.
Not only did he have to do well in the SATs, but he also could not relax for a single test in his four years of high school. He took part in Olympic competitions, debates, community service…
People would rush to do anything that could help them get into Ivy League schools and then compete in it.
The protagonist heard news of a classmate committing suicide and learned of the phrase ‘Stanford Duck Syndrome’. Everyone acted relaxed and perfect on the surface, but underneath the surface, they were kicking for their lives, without regard for anything else in the world.
When one saw calm ducks around them everywhere they looked, they were bound to think that they were the only imperfect ones.
There were also the ‘four’s—four hours of sleep, four huge cups of coffee, and a Grade Point Average of 4.0.