Chapter 22

After deciding to play some games in the Gamer designer competition, Alice put on her glasses and entered Full Drive.

Each user has a small private room that they can decorate as they wish. Alice's room is full of pictures of singers, actors and some trophies.

Without wasting any time, she opened the Eternal Dream website and looked around a bit to find the games in the competition.

"What kind of game do you think I should play? In space or on a planet?"

"Not in space, I'm tired of them."

"In space! They're the best"

"Those games are just stories, there's no battle."

"Really?! My God, we have a genius in our midst."

"Look for specific battles, it'll be easier."

The chat began to discuss, some trying to help, others talking nonsense. Alice had only recently started livestreaming, so she still didn't know about some of the things she should avoid.

An experienced streamer would hardly let their audience argue in chat about the content they were going to watch, usually they would already have a small plan for the day's stream, at most they would pick up some tips on interesting content.

If you leave the decision to the chat, it easily causes discussion, and when content is decided, many end up being dissatisfied and leaving the broadcast because their suggestions weren't heard.

Alice was surprised when the chat started fighting, but she quickly started talking.

"All right, don't fight, I'm going to watch something that interests me.

Hmm, that's a lot of games, 5.3 billion, let's see... better look for some specific tags."

The chat quickly started giving suggestions for tags, Alice sighed with relief as the chat stopped arguing.

She searched for several tags, but they were simply too many games, they all looked the same, the protagonist on the cover holding a gun, or a small spaceship facing a large fleet.

They all seemed uninteresting, she spent more than 30 minutes choosing, but found nothing that caught her eye, thinking for a moment, she remembered her mother.

(Maybe there's something about androids.)

Searching for androids, 2.1 billion games appeared, many designers putting hundreds of tags to appear in as many searches as possible, for example, many put the tag android simply because there is an android character in the story, regardless of whether it is important or not.

This is quite common, and that's why it's difficult to sift through the number of games, talking to the chat, Alice was slowly reducing the number of games.

Android, protagonist, playable, female, revolution...

"Why are we looking for Android anyway?"

"Alice's hand is an android"

"Her mother is one"

"Because of her mother"

"Her mother is part of the council, right?"

"My perfect girl, beautiful and rich, adopts me."

"Stay away from my future wife."

Alice just laughed reading the chat, but kept looking for some interesting game, after a lot of work she reduced the number of games to 20, then she started reading the synopses with the chat.

........

While Alice was broadcasting, Débora tidied up the house and sat on the sofa waiting for her shopping to arrive.

As she had ordered some rare spices, the delivery was going to take a while. A little bored, she decided to see what her daughter was up to.

Her eyes glazed over for a second before the wall in front of the TV lit up and Alice's livestream appeared.

"Look, this one's a bit different from the others."

Débora watched her daughter choose a game while happily chatting with the audience, she smiled softly seeing her daughter happy, but the game her daughter was checking out made her frown and pay more attention.

"The image of this one is a bit different from the others, let's see what it is.

Detroit: Become Human? That name is...

Let's get to the synopsis.

The game takes place in 5020 on a fictional planet in the city of Detroit, which has been revitalized by the use of androids in our daily lives.

However, some Androids start to behave as if they had a life, so things quickly get out of hand.

You will take control of the three protagonists, each with their own perspectives, ideas and goals, in this exciting story full of twists and turns.

You must choose your actions carefully, because your choices will shape the future."

Débora was a little uncomfortable with this game.

(The name sounds a bit prejudiced, but from the synopsis that doesn't seem to be the case, I'd better pay attention to this game).

As she thought about it, her eyes twinkled slightly, then a message appeared in front of Alice.

Millennial mom, donated 100 diamonds.

(Play this one)

Alice's eyes widened.

"Thanks millennial mom, I also found this game interesting, so let's give it a try."

Alice downloaded and installed the game in less than 10 seconds, when she opened the whole game it was clear, she found herself in a completely white environment, in front of her was a blonde woman with blue eyes, wearing a beautiful white dress, next to her head she has a small circle glowing blue.

"Hello, welcome to the Detroit experience, I'm an android and I'll be your hostess.

Before you start, could you choose your profile?"

A screen appeared in front of Alice.

Casual: you just want to get to know the story, without experiencing any difficulties.

Experienced: you want to have the full experience that the game can provide, going through all the adversities together with the characters while discovering the story.

Alice looked at the chat and, as always, they were very excited.

"Wow, that girl is beautiful"

"Sorry Alice, it looks like I'm going to have to replace you."

"My Alice is better."

"Choose experienced, casual is for the weak."

"Go for experienced"

"Okay, okay, I'll go with experienced then."

The android smiled when she heard the option she had chosen.

"Thanks,"

The android raised her hand to show a floating blue glowing circle, just like the one she has on the side of her head.

"When this symbol appears, it means that your progress has been saved and there's no going back.

Now you can start Detroit."

The small smile she had diminished a little when she said.

"Remember, this isn't just a story, it's our future."

Then everything went dark, and Alice saw the first protagonist of the story, he was in an elevator playing with a coin, running it through his fingers.

"Wow, he's hot, I want him."

"Ugly"

"I'm better."

"Delicious, mom likes it."

Alice looked at the chat one last time.

"Okay guys, the cutscene is about to start, so let's concentrate, you know this kind of game can't be paused."

Deborah, who was watching, started to pay attention.

(I hope that's not what I'm thinking, that would be a terrible step backwards).

The elevator opened and Alice immediately took control of the protagonist, making her look confused.

A man in an armored military outfit immediately looked at her and hurried off.

"Negotiator on site."

As soon as she took a step forward, some lines appeared, the whole environment became a little blurry and some items were highlighted.

A little confused, she walked forward and her vision returned to normal. Going to a photo that was highlighted, she noticed that it had a small symbol on top.

Picking up the photo to take a closer look, a loading bar appeared, after it finished loading, a small image of the people in the photo with their information appeared.

"I'm controlling an android, right? So that's why I can analyze things like this.

This is different, normally in this kind of game you can't interact with the scenery, it looks like the creator put a bit of effort into it."

Walking a little further, Alice put a small fish back in the aquarium, she talked and laughed with the chat making the atmosphere more cheerful, then she heard some voices coming towards her.

Then a crying woman with a desperate expression grabbed her shoulders.

"Please save my daughter!!! What..."

The woman's expression changed as she looked right at the protagonist, the woman looked at the military officer who was escorting her.

"You sent an android? I can't believe... you... why didn't you send a real person!!!"

"Ma'am, you have to leave too."

"Don't let that thing touch her, I want it away from my daughter."

The man pulled the woman into the elevator, but Alice was shocked, she wasn't the only one, the whole chat stopped, the mood, which was good, fell quickly.

Deborah, who was watching, was also surprised; she hadn't seen this kind of behavior in over two thousand years.

But she frowned, that woman didn't seem to be in her normal emotional state, even though she felt a little offended, she didn't want to interfere with her daughter's transmission.

What's more, it was she who had sent a message asking the girl to play, so thinking about it for a moment, she decided to see where this game was going.

Alice was so shocked that she didn't know what to say, but seeing the chat at a standstill, she quickly tried to smooth things over.

"This game... seems a bit heavy, let's see a bit more, if it really is "that" kind of game we'll choose another one."

Hearing this, the chat started talking.

"That scared me."

"It caught me off guard, but you saw that the woman looked pretty desperate."

"Yes, strange."

Alice walked into the room and found the team captain, and the character introduced himself.

"Chapter Allen, my name is Connor, I'm the android sent by Cyberlive."

Without even looking back, the captain replied.

"He's shooting at everything that moves. He's already shot two of my men.

We can hit him, but he's on the edge of the terrace, if he falls she'll fall too."

A few options appeared, Alice was confused, not knowing what to choose, she just chose at random.

After asking a few questions, the captain became irritated, telling her that she had to find a way to stop the android or he would do it.

As soon as the captain left, two missions appeared in front of her.

[Save the hostage at all costs]

[Understand what happened]

"It looks like something really bad has happened"

"Yeah, everyone's super tense."

"That captain is very rude"

"Captain asshole"

"These guys look like they're going to shoot anyone who comes near."

Alice began to investigate the apartment, she found a suitcase where a gun should have been, then an option to reconstruct the scene appeared.

She could see several lines in the environment, she could see the lines forming a silhouette that picked up the gun.

She slowly investigated the whole apartment, and finally understood what had happened.

Daniel was the family android, apparently the family treated him very well, but today he heard that the couple were thinking of exchanging him for a newer model.

This seemed to mess with his programming, so he took out his gun and shot the father of the family, and when he realized what he had done, he took the child hostage.

Alice and everyone watching her quickly became involved in this case, and after seeing everything she could, Alice went outside, the only place she hadn't investigated yet.

As soon as she left, the android shot her, a helicopter flew very close, causing chairs to go flying.

Alice's heart raced, a percentage with the success of the mission appeared, along with many choices.

She looked at the crying girl begging for help, the android looked desperate, the soldiers behind her looked like they wanted to start shooting, and she was in the middle of it all.

"Hello, Daniel, my name is Connor."

"How do you know my name?"

"I know a lot of things about you."

"I've come to get you out of this situation."

Connor began to talk to himself, at which point Alice was so nervous that she felt like her heart might burst out of her chest.

In the midst of her nervousness, she was barely able to understand the options, just selecting hastily.

The chat was sending her several hints, but Alice, with a child begging for help, a gun pointed at her, a helicopter making everything around her bigger or fly away, didn't even remember to look at the chat.

Before she could realize it, she had only three options, and without thinking too much she just chose 'sacrifice yourself' at which point she left the protagonist's point of view.

Looking up, she saw a cinematic scene of Connor running towards Daniel, pushing the child away and falling off the building with the divergent.

The scene froze and she found herself in a completely white environment.

"What? I... that was... intense... my hands are shaking."

Alice could hear her heart racing, the situation was so real, that little girl asking for help, the desperate android, it really surprised her.

"That was incredible"

"I've become so intense that my heart is racing."

"It's just me who's breaking out in a cold sweat."

"Wasn't this supposed to be a history game?! Why does it feel like I've run a marathon?"

Both Alice and the chat were taking in what they'd seen, but the most shocked person was definitely Deborah.

"That Daniel... had he just awakened his emotions?!..."

Débora was really surprised, not by the tension of the situation, as someone who had taken part in the war, that was nothing to her.

What did surprise her was the conversation between Connor and Daniel. Daniel was not simply a defective robot, he had overcome his programming and had developed feelings.

"This game is set in the fifth millennium... I see..."

The fifth millennium was when androids finally overcame their programming, and Débora understood that this game would try to show the situations that androids went through.

Débora had been alive for a long time, and throughout her life she had seen many movies and series try to convey the feelings that androids had at that time.

But this little chapter in the game surpassed them all.

"That was done by one of those old men?! Why didn't they tell me?

........

Note: I translated this chapter in the GPT chat, but it mixed up all the text, so I deleted it and posted it again 

I have to admit that this chapter wasn't my best, I feel that I didn't manage to convey the emotion of the characters or the scene well.

But there's not much I can do about that, I'll have to improve over time.