Chapter 44
Sorry, I forgot to release the chapter yesterday, hahaha.
.....
*God of War* became extremely famous for its unrestrained violence. Many of the people who played it in the past only remembered how incredible Kratos was and how satisfying it was to finish off the monsters. But now, with entirely new technology creating a terrifying level of immersion, the moment the trailer was shown, a massive stir began.
Everyone was both surprised and skeptical about what the trailer depicted. It was easy for people to accept *Detroit: Become Human* since it focused on androids. *Journey*, as fantastic as it may seem, was still just desert landscapes with little fantasy involved. But *God of War* was different. Even though the violence might have seemed a bit exaggerated, it wasn't a big deal for people used to war. However, what this game was promising, as Alex said, was a completely new universe. This was a heavy promise for game lovers and those interested in it.
Many people began to theorize about the game. The Vortex was filled with videos speculating about DreamHeart's promises to the gaming world. Some doubted this new universe, while others were hopeful about the upcoming changes.
After the game's release, millions of streamers across the universe started broadcasting it. Reporters from specialized gaming sites began playing as fast as possible to post their reviews. In less than 12 hours, the internet was buzzing.
[*God of War*, a feat that will never be repeated.]
[*A game that will shake your worldview.*]
[*What happens when a man loses his hair? He becomes revenge.*]
[*Did DreamHeart keep its promises?*]
[*God of War* glorifies violence.]
[*God of War* shows the consequences of violence.]
[See how your grandchildren are being influenced by violent games.]
[Kratos, a perfect character.]
[Learn how to shave your head.]
[Is DreamHeart revitalizing the gaming market? Learn how to invest.]
[Meet Alexandre Lockhart, The Man.]
Sites of all kinds were talking about *God of War*, and more and more people were discovering the game. However, not everyone was happy about it, and one of them was Lucas Ricci. After finishing fourth in the competition, he was extremely dissatisfied.
He firmly believed that Alexandre Lockhart was a liar. After DreamHeart officially entered the market, all attention was focused on him, leaving all other competitors forgotten. Lucas believed that everything Alexandre had presented so far was done by a team of professional designers. He couldn't believe a guy under 25 could do it all by himself.
All this time, Lucas had many reasons to dislike Alex, but after the last interview, he became a joke for the entire internet to see. This made him furious.
"Damn that brat! Who does he think he is?! Does he really think he's amazing for presenting a game he didn't even make?!"
As Lucas paced back and forth, grumbling, Mirella sat on the couch, filing her nails, watching her boyfriend.
(How did my Lucas, who used to be so cute, end up becoming such a loser?)
Frustrated, she sighed but couldn't help trying to console him.
"You don't need to get so mad about this. Even if you're not in first place, you're still among the top 5 in the entire universe. That's already incredible."
"Incredible? What's so incredible about that? Do you know how much I've spent so far? When I made *The Domination of the Fallen Soldier*, I spent everything I had on marketing, but hardly anyone is paying attention to it… and now my face is everywhere."
"Pufff, hahahahaha."
"It's not funny, look at this."
Lucas activated his holographic bracelet and showed her some memes people were making about him, with his wide-eyed face and open mouth, accompanied by some captions.
[When I took my girlfriend home and found a surprise between her legs.]
[When you bring your girlfriend to a friend's house, and her bracelet automatically connects to his home system.]
[When you're talking to a girl, and she says she'll give it to you only if you give it too.]
"HAHAHAHA, this is great, hahahaha."
"Stop laughing… It's all that brat's fault. This won't stay like this!!!"
Mirella stopped laughing after a while, but seeing her boyfriend so angry, she sighed.
(He's getting paranoid about this. Better not tell him I bought all of DreamHeart's movies.)
"He must think he's amazing, but I'm going to expose him..."
(So annoying. Why does he have to be so childish? This is so exhausting; I think I better end this soon.)
"Lucas, we need to talk."
.....
While Lucas was becoming single, on a medium-sized planet called MTHY, Claudia Diniz, one of the many Scavengers of the recycling continent, was slowly walking through mountains of technological waste.
Looking around, all she could see were piles upon piles of discarded technology stretching across the continent. No matter how vast human territory was, one thing hadn't changed: resources were limited. The human population was enormous, and many planets had already had all their resources harvested. Moreover, there were planets that practically had no resources at all, so everything had to be managed very carefully for society to keep functioning.
That's why many planets have a recycling continent. Unlike the past, where recycling wasn't so effective, things were different now. Even a single screw would be collected and recycled. This was the best way to avoid resource shortages in the future.
Claudia activated her holographic bracelet and controlled 20 robots to find materials that needed to be sent to the factory. As she walked through the junk, she saw her younger brother talking to some boys, and her mood immediately soured. She quickly approached, but with her size, the boys noticed her right away. Claudia was two meters tall (6.56 feet), with bronzed skin and shoulder-length black hair. As soon as the boys saw her coming, they immediately turned and left.
"Arthur, I've already told you to stay away from those junkies."
"We were just talking."
"I don't want you talking to those drug-addicted idiots."
"I'm already 50 years old; I know what I'm doing."
Claudia grabbed the boy by the collar and pulled him close.
"Listen to me, I'll be very clear with you. If I find out... no, if I *suspect* you're using crystals, I don't care what Mom says. I will break every bone in your body myself."
"You think I'm dumb enough to do that?! I've already found what I wanted. I'm going to check if Mom's feeling better."
Watching Arthur walk away, Claudia sighed. She had been worried about her younger brother ever since he started hanging out with those boys. Life wasn't easy for the scavengers. Living on a continent covered in trash wasn't a good place to grow up.
Many of those who live here end up using crystals, a type of drug that causes hallucinations and greatly accelerates the thought process, making those who use it feel like genius machines. Many use it to speed up their learning process, but that's a big mistake. Crystals are extremely addictive and wear down muscle tissues. Claudia knew her brother desperately wanted to leave the recycling continent, but for that, he needed a lot of credits, a government job, or to join the military.
Unfortunately, none of these options were easy to achieve. But Claudia believed her brother would eventually manage to escape this place. However, she wouldn't let him take the "easy way out." Even though crystals accelerate thought processes, they'd be easily detected, and any chance he had of leaving this continent would vanish.
While Claudia was worrying about her brother, Arthur was running back home, holding a small chip in his hand. As soon as he arrived home, he sighed a bit. His house was entirely made of metal, like a large container. The whole thing was made of metal plates, the standard type of housing on the recycling continent.
As soon as he got inside, he went to his mother's room. Andresa looked a lot like her daughter: tall, with brown skin and black hair that reached down to the middle of her back. She would be considered an attractive woman if not for her thin and frail appearance.
"Mom, how are you?!... Why are you on the floor? You should be resting."
Arthur looked at his mother, sitting on the floor covered in grease while working on an auxiliary robot.
"I'm fine, it was just a little dizziness. But since I got the day off, I'm fixing this robot. With it, we'll be able to increase our income a bit. Isn't your mom amazing, hahaha?"
Arthur felt his heart tighten a little.
"You fainted. You should be resting… I'm not going to say anything else, but try to rest a bit, okay?"
Leaving the room, Arthur clenched the chip in his hand tightly. He had spent all his savings to buy it. Heading to his room, he saw an old TypoXII virtual helmet on his bed—a model that was outdated but still supported by the company.
(If this doesn't work, I'll accept the job the gang offered me.)
Arthur had found this helmet a few years ago. At first, he thought it was completely destroyed like most things in this place, but when he picked it up, he realized that although it was a bit damaged, the helmet still worked. Unfortunately, it was missing one of the immersion chips. He spent a long time looking for a replacement but couldn't find one. So, gathering all his savings, he decided to buy the chip from one of the gangs. It took some time, but he finally got it.
Grabbing the helmet, Arthur quickly disassembled it and installed the chip. After putting it back together, his hands were trembling. He had never told his family about his plans. He didn't know if it would work, and if it didn't, he wouldn't care about the consequences. He would find a way to get credits to help his family, even if he had to work for one of the gangs.
But he had high hopes of using this to make enough money to leave this continent, or even this planet. In recent years, he had been researching ways to make money faster. The answer he found was through streaming. It was the quickest way to make money fast. The big problem was that he had never entered Full Dive before and didn't even have his own virtual space. But with this helmet, Arthur could change that.
Lying on his bed and putting on the helmet, Arthur entered virtual reality for the first time. It took him some time, but he quickly understood how everything worked. The virtual space would be his home in that place. He could create a room and decorate it however he wanted, and from that space, he could access other virtual environments.
After spending a few hours figuring out how everything worked there, Arthur started researching the best topics to stream. He couldn't record anything outside the virtual space, and he wasn't handsome enough to attract attention.
"Maybe I should try bad-mouthing some celebrity? No, that probably wouldn't attract attention. There are too many people trying to make it that way."
Arthur spent some time thinking about what to do. Over the last few years, he had thought of many ways to make money, but the Internet wasn't a stable thing. Many topics and trends go viral, only to disappear a week later.
Now he was a bit lost about what to do. Sighing, Arthur began to research the biggest trends at the moment, and to his disappointment, the hottest topic being discussed on the Internet was about games.
Games weren't too expensive, but it was still a heavy expense for a scavenger family that could barely maintain a few auxiliary robots. So spending on games was pretty much impossible.
*God of War*, it would be amazing to play that, but there's no way I can afford it… *free*... IT'S FREE????
...…
Note: I'll try to finish the competition in the next chapter, so it will probably be a long one. There will also be more reactions to *God of War*.
Do you have any novels about kingdom-building, teachers and students, or business management that you could recommend? It's been hard to find something interesting lately.