A melodious melody started playing.
This background music was neither cheerful nor sad. It could only be said that it was very smooth, as smooth as the male protagonist's narration and the many scenes that flashed across the screen.
"My father was a philanthropist and the founder of a luxury brand. He used to be a high-spirited person and often appeared on television. He was also often featured in fashion magazines because of his handsome appearance.
"That was until the hijacking incident before I was born.
"After that, my parents kept a low profile and I was well protected by them. I was rarely mentioned by the media. No one knew about our daily lives.
"Not long after I was born, my mother quit her job to take better care of me. No matter how busy my father was, he would take time to accompany me.
"My father once had his eyes on a kindergarten, but it was very far from home. It would take a 45-minute drive to pick me up. My father could choose to have a chauffeur drive me, but he still picked me up twice a week for three years, until I entered primary school.
"My father would tell me bedtime stories after work, help me with homework, participate in parent-child activities at school, organize regular family gatherings …
"So, I actually don't quite understand what some of my friends said: Their parents are too busy, so they never have time to spend with them.
"Can they be busier than the CEO of a company?"
Accompanied by the male protagonist's narration, scenes flashed across the screen.
There was a scene where the male protagonist was born in a luxurious delivery room.
The entire space was very spacious, with a long sofa and furniture. It looked like a hotel suite. Caregivers, nutritionists, and nurses walked around. The table was filled with all kinds of nutritious meals, like a sumptuous dinner.
The male protagonist's parents hugged the baby, a happy smile on their faces.
There was also a scene of the male protagonist's life as a baby.
In a mansion with a beach and a private dock, several servants walked around to take care of the baby protagonist's daily needs. The male protagonist's mother also accompanied him with a smile.
There was also a scene when he went to kindergarten.
The male protagonist's father drove a luxurious car, and the bustling city flashed by. In a high-end private kindergarten, the male protagonist was studying all kinds of language, mathematics, science, art, and so on.
The teacher's teaching course was rich and interesting. He would put eggs in an incubator to hatch chicks, and he could also witness the whole process of a caterpillar turning into a beautiful butterfly.
Here, there were special teachers who taught all the children how to draw. Every month, the art theme would be to learn about some artists, and the children would use their immature drawing skills to imitate these paintings. Whether they were beautiful or ugly, they would be praised and hung on the wall.
Even the building blocks he played with during his break looked very expensive.
"When I was in kindergarten, my father established a clear concept of time for me. Class starts at 7: 30 in the morning. If you're ten minutes late, the school gates will close. If you're late, you'll be fined and your score will be calculated. "
"My father would never let me be late. He always told me that there were only a few things in the world that money couldn't buy, and time was one of them. Therefore, I must cherish every second of myself. I will always remember this concept of time. "
"My father didn't allow me to eat fast food or wear an electronic watch. He didn't allow me to use a mobile phone until I was 15 years old, and there was a limit to how long I could use it every day. You can't play computer games for more than 40 minutes. You can increase it to an hour on weekends. "
"I tried to get my mother to plead with him, but to no avail. However, he would take all of his time to read with me. "
After the series of scenes at the beginning explained the rich protagonist's childhood background, He An realized that he could finally control the protagonist to play the game.
This was the protagonist's childhood. It was still the same over-the-shoulder perspective as in the prelude. The first scene of the game was about playing and living in his parents' mansion.
He An quickly realized that this was a standard interactive movie game.
All the character models were very detailed. All the characters' dialogue, expressions, and body movements were obviously motion captured. The exquisite graphics made everything look very real.
At the same time, all the game's UI was hidden in the scene or integrated with the scene. It guided the player's actions without destroying the immersion of the game.
At the same time, the game's camera transitions were very particular, using many techniques that would only be used in movies.
The only strange thing was that all the characters seemed to have some facial features. For example, the rich man and his rich father and rich mother looked ridiculously good-looking. The whole family looked like celebrities.
The servants, housekeepers, and chauffeurs in the family were completely in line with the stereotype.
This was a little awkward, but since all the characters had such a style, they quickly got used to it.
As an interactive movie game, there were not many operations that could be done. The main thing was to walk and press specific cases when certain options were triggered. In other words, there were some advanced QTEs.
For example, in the mansion, the player could play the role of the young rich protagonist and experience a lot of content:
In a special studio, the player could learn how to paint under the guidance of a private teacher;
Learn piano, violin, and various other musical instruments;
Go to a private horse farm to ride horses;
Shoot arrows on their own lawn and play with the dog;
Participate in children's parties organized by other rich families and play inflatable castles, ice-cream machines, merry-go-rounds, and mini-trains with other people of the same age in the banquet hall;
Take a private plane with other children to a safari park in Africa to celebrate a birthday, and receive a mountain of gifts from high-end shopping malls …
In each scene, the player could control the protagonist to experience various interactive scenes. They could ride horses, play the piano, play mini-trains, and so on.
In addition to these mini-games, there were many more detailed elements in the scenes, such as talking to various characters, reading the surrounding books, newspapers, and news, opening small gifts, and so on.
When changing scenes, there were also many different ways to change scenes. It was somewhat similar to changing scenes in a movie. For example, after the protagonist took a photo, the photo would be taken, and the photo would be moved to the protagonist's bedside. At the same time, the next scene would start.
In the middle of some of the bigger scenes, the protagonist would add a narration, which was the protagonist's memories of his childhood after he became an adult.
After the end of childhood, it was time for the protagonist to enter high school and college. However, there were no loose education or alcohol parties like in the TV series. Instead, every minute was packed.
Not only did they have to do well in the SAT, but they also had to not slack off in any of the four years of high school. There was also the Olympic Games, sports, debates, and social services … Any activity that could help them get into the Ivy League would have people flocking to it. It was full of competition.
The protagonist heard the news of a classmate's suicide and came to know a term: "Stanford Duck Syndrome." Everyone pretended to be super relaxed and perfect on the surface, but underneath the surface, they were desperately kicking their legs. When all you saw were calm ducks, you would feel that you were the only imperfect person.
There was also the so-called "4": 4 hours of sleep, 4 large cups of coffee, and 4.0 GPA.
At different stages of the game, He An had to make a lot of choices.
In his childhood, although the protagonist's daily schedule was strictly arranged, he could choose different entertainment activities during his rest time. He could choose different interests and hobbies, such as painting or music. He could also choose different modes of entertainment during each holiday.
These choices seemed to affect his later experiences as a teenager.
For example, if the protagonist learned horsemanship from a young age, his father would give the protagonist a private horse farm that was worth tens of millions of dollars when he grew up. Participating in horsemanship competitions could earn him a lot of money, and at the same time, it would affect his future progress.
This game had a concept of money. Some specific options could only be chosen with a certain amount of money. However, for a rich protagonist, this restriction did not exist. No matter how much money was spent, it would be immediately replenished.
…
One by one, the scenes passed by quickly.
While He An was immersed in the game, he also sighed at the waste of scenes and materials in the game.
Most scenes were used once and never appeared again. For example, the scene in the African Safari Zoo. The protagonist went there to watch all kinds of rare animals, learned a lot of knowledge, and received gifts. However, after that, the scene in the zoo never appeared again.
Some large-scale scenes would be reused, such as the protagonist's mansion and the horse farm. As the plot progressed, the things that could be done in the mansion and the horse farm would gradually be unlocked. Every once in a while, new content would be experienced.
However, even so, it was quite extravagant to achieve such a cinematic effect.
He An could realize that Boss Pei had obviously made a trade-off in this extravagant approach: the entire game time was compressed because of the low reuse rate of the scenes and the high degree of detail.
Generally speaking, domestic AAA games would be completed in eight to ten hours if the plot was purely based on the plot. Of course, some games with particularly rich side lines or open-world games would be especially long.
The rich version of Struggle was only about three hours, and the poor version should be about the same.
It was like a movie, piecing together many scattered fragments of scenes and piecing together the whole picture of the protagonist's life through these representative scenes.
Of course, if he were to choose all the options at once, the time would be doubled.
In the game, one could jump back to the previous scene according to the progress line at any time and play repeatedly. Similar games would have such a function.
After graduating from university, the protagonist could choose to fall in love with different girls and marry them. He could choose to work in his father's company, become an artist, musician, or equestrian coach according to his own hobbies, start his own business, and so on.
When he got married, his father booked an island in Italy for him and spent five million US dollars to charter two Boeing planes to transport the guests. All the guests were booked into five-star hotels and rented 50 special cars to transport the guests. Several batches of flowers were flown in from the Netherlands. Finally, the wedding was chosen on a rock in the sea, and an entire international team of chefs were hired. Even the wedding dress cost six hundred thousand US dollars …
At the wedding, players could control the protagonist to chat with the guests. Everyone would give sincere blessings and experience the entire wedding process in person.
Of course, it was impossible to create the entire island in the game. It only gave a bird's eye view like a movie. The main scenes were concentrated in a small area of the wedding venue.
However, the meticulous details were still enough to make one's jaw drop.
After the protagonist got married and had children, his career went smoothly. No matter which company he applied to, he was immediately hired and promoted step by step in his work.
His parents retired and enjoyed their old age.
During school, the protagonist met some poor friends and realized that his lifestyle was completely different. These poor friends seemed to be unmotivated, idle, and did not cherish their time.
Therefore, after the protagonist achieved great success in his career, he tried to help others as much as possible.
"Like I said, my father thinks that the world is full of the law of the jungle. We are high and mighty people, but there are also countless people watching us and waiting for us to fall.
"He said that the poor are lazy, selfish, and unreasonable. Never believe that you can be friends with those poor people.
"He said that we should stay away from them, or we will get into trouble.
"I still don't agree with his view.
"I know that my father's view originated from the hijacking incident before I was born, but I still think that that madman does not represent the poor. I will not hate all poor people just because I almost died in the hands of a poor person.
"I met some poor friends. In my opinion, they are no different from me. Perhaps the reason they are poor is because they lack a little motivation and a little fighting spirit. However, I did not have these things from the beginning.
"Therefore, I went to university to give speeches and wrote a book, 'Struggle and Get Rich'. I hope that my lifestyle and views on wealth will have some positive impact on them.
"I want to tell them that money will not fall from the sky. Only hard work can change their fate. Only by not being satisfied with the status quo and not giving up any opportunities can life change for the better.
"I told them that I've been studying hard day after day. I never dared to slack off or waste any time."
"I told them that I never wear luxury clothes, even if it's my father's luxury brand. I don't buy luxury cars or throw meaningless parties. I want to spend every second I have on something meaningful."
"There is no doubt that my views have attracted a lot of ridicule on the Internet. Many people think that I am not qualified to talk about 'struggle' because I was born in a rich family and have never understood what 'struggle' means to the poor.
"However, many people also expressed their gratitude to me. My decades of self-discipline moved them. They said that it was my father's hard work that gave me a better environment to grow up in. They also hope that they can give these things to their children through their struggles.
"I am very happy. This means that everything I do is meaningful."
The final scene was the protagonist coming to a bookstore in the slums to sign books.
People lined up and came to him one by one. They handed over the books they had bought, got autographs, and then expressed their gratitude to the protagonist.
There were many people signing autographs. Every time he signed, He An had to slide the mouse and repeat the process mechanically. However, everyone's smile and gratitude were different, making people feel that it was meaningful.
A man in tattered clothes who looked like a homeless man came to the protagonist. His hands were empty.
The protagonist lowered his head to sign but found that the other party did not hand over the book. He was a little surprised.
When he looked up, he realized that the homeless man's expression was ferocious and repressed, as if it was filled with deep-rooted hatred.
He An was stunned for a moment because the homeless man's face was very different from the poor man who kidnapped the protagonist's mother at the beginning. However, the expression on his face was very familiar.
The homeless man's figure seemed to block the light. He numbly and emotionlessly took out a sharp knife from his wide pocket and stabbed it into the protagonist's chest!
Screams rang out, and the scene was in chaos. However, these voices quickly left the protagonist, and the scene spun and quickly blurred.
With a thud, the blood-stained book fell and covered the protagonist's face. The words' Struggle and Get Rich 'on the cover looked inexplicably ironic.
Before the scene turned black, the protagonist heard the homeless man say very softly but very clearly.
"Liar."
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