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Just then, Jenny walked into the living room, yawning.
Last night after she built the Seamoth, the whole vibe had completely shifted. After that she had just gone all out racing the sub, pulling hairpin turns, 360-degree spins on the spot, all kinds of flashy maneuvers, driving like a maniac.
She got so into it that she completely forgot to push the story forward.
The two of them sat down together again to eat breakfast.
"Lucien, I really think you're a genius. How did you even make this game? It's insane!!!"
Jenny chewed on her steamed bun while giving Lucien a heartfelt compliment.
She had already thought Lucien was amazing before, but after playing yesterday she realized she had still underestimated her little brother.
Lucien just smiled faintly and tapped his temple. "Sorry, ordinary people can't understand the wisdom of a genius."
"Tch!" Jenny rolled her eyes, then suddenly remembered something. "Hey, Luc, how many Leviathans are there in this game anyway? And where are they all located?"
"You ran into a Leviathan?" Lucien asked back.
"Yeah." Jenny nodded. "I met the Island Leviathan! Wow, that thing is seriously huge. I even played around on its back for a while."
"Oh, the reefback fish. That should be the most common Leviathan-type in the game." Lucien laughed. "There are quite a few Leviathans in this game. As for where they're distributed... it's completely random."
"Random, huh." Jenny immediately frowned. That made things tricky. You could run into one out of nowhere with no way to prepare.
"So how many of those Leviathans are ferocious meat-eaters?" Jenny asked nervously.
Lucien smiled and held up one finger.
"Only one kind?" Jenny's eyes lit up.
"Everything except the reefback fish." Lucien answered.
Jenny: "..."
"I see you really do want the players to die." She muttered in a low voice.
"Die? What's there to die about? If you're chasing thrills, you have to go all the way!" Lucien spread his hands.
"You're so damn cheeky!!!" Jenny, who was very familiar with him, shot back immediately.
The two of them chatted while eating breakfast. Jenny also pulled out her phone to browse X and Instagram discovered that a ton of people were tagging her in the background.
She had already gotten used to this kind of tagging behavior ever since she became the spokesperson for New World Studio.
She was about to ignore it when she suddenly noticed a few special people among them with millions of followers.
[Sis, could you please ask New World Studio whether the woman from Pod No. 2 can actually be saved? I've restarted the game several times just to save her and I still can't. Is it my problem or a game design issue? I'm so done!]
Attached was a screenshot from inside the game showing the player in a patch of seaweed vines. Escape Pod No. 2 lay at the very bottom, with a ferocious sea crocodile right beside it.
The X post had been made by a user called Nicolas Cage, someone everyone knew as Ghost Rider.
The comments under the post were buzzing:
Keanu Reeves: [Cage, I tried to save that woman a few times too. Feels impossible!]
Megan Fox: [Feels like the devs malice. She can't be saved. It's just to make players feel guilty. Also, can this game do multiplayer? Playing alone is too scary, but the alien planet scenery is too beautiful and I don't want to quit!]
Zendaya: [Judging from the developer's style in the previous game Silent Hill, there's no way they'll let you play multiplayer. They just want to scare you!]
Besides these popular liked comments, there were tens of thousands more people replies. A huge bunch of people who were both Hollywood Stars and Subnautica players were all posting about their experience.
"Lucien, Lucien! Nicolas Cage is tagging me asking about the game!!!" Seeing the post, Jenny shouted. "And there are comments from Megan Fox and Keanu Reeves too!"
"Wait, just how many celebrities are playing Subnautica?"
Jenny quickly searched using celebrity names plus Subnautica as keywords.
After searching, she was shocked to find that quite a lot of them were playing!
Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Hemsworth, Jason Statham, Hugh Jackman, and others had all posted screenshots of themselves playing the game and were hyping Subnautica like crazy.
"Oh my god, are there really this many celebrities?" Jenny murmured to herself. She truly hadn't expected it.
"Stay calm." Lucien remained completely unfazed. "Celebrities are people too. Is it strange that they play games?"
The game Lucien had developed could already be considered next-gen. Both the visuals and the interactivity far surpassed other games, so attracting celebrities was no surprise at all.
After all, who the hell wouldn't want to go to an alien planet and have a blast!
Speaking of celebrities, though, a cheeky idea suddenly popped into Lucien's head.
If he applied his current game engine to TV shows and movies, it would actually work really well.
There were so many green-screen dramas these days with fake-looking special effects.
With his Unreal Engine, none of that would happen. Actors could perform freely in front of green screens while everything else (backgrounds, props) could be added in post-production. The audience would never be able to tell.
The whole point would be realism.
Of course, it was just an idea for now. Lucien still wanted to focus on games.
"So Lucien, about Nicolas Cage tagging me, should I reply?" Jenny asked again. "I think I should. A lot of people are leaving the same question under my X because of him."
Lucien nodded. "Then reply."
"How?"
"Just say she can be saved."
"Got it!" Jenny was about to start typing when she suddenly froze. "Wait, Lucien, you're saying the woman from Pod No. 2 really can be saved?!"
Lucien nodded.
"Why didn't you say so earlier!" Jenny slapped her thigh hard. "If I'd known she could be saved, I would've started a new file and gone to save her too!"
The death of the woman from Pod No. 2 had always been a thorn in Jenny's heart. She had thought it was just game design, something Lucien had deliberately set up to torture the players.
After all, Lucien had always loved toying with players' emotions like that.
She never expected her little brother to have a hidden backup plan.
"Don't get your hopes up. Saving that woman is extremely difficult." Lucien answered with a smile. "Starting a new file would be a waste of time. You won't succeed."
"Oh, alright then." Hearing Lucien say that, Jenny finally felt a little better inside.
Before long, Jenny posted a X update.
[Ahem. I just talked with New World Studio. The woman from Pod No. 2 can indeed be saved, but the difficulty is extremely high. I advise all players who want to save her to give up on that idea.]
The moment the post went live, the comments exploded.
[HAHAHAHA, so all those people saying the game was designed so the Pod No. 2 woman had to die just got slapped in the face! She can be saved!]
[Sigh, she really can be saved?]
[But the time is so tight, I don't see how anyone could save her.]
[They already said the difficulty is huge!]
[Is it because our swimming skills aren't good enough?]
[Ahem, could Jenny ask New World Studio to reveal how to save her?]
Lucien just smiled at these comments. Revealing anything was out of the question. The woman from Pod No. 2 was actually an Easter egg he had set up. Parsing out that Easter egg was never going to be easy!
After breakfast, Jenny was wondering whether he should go back to his room for a quick nap when his phone rang. It was the bank calling.
Today wasn't just an exciting day for the players. It was also an exciting day for a certain central bank in Los Angeles.
That morning, the branch president had just arrived at the bank when the vice president burst into his office with an excited look and delivered a bombshell.
Starting at eight o'clock last night, a normal account they had opened suddenly received a massive influx of funds.
And the money kept pouring in like waves, one surge after another without stopping. It had already exceeded $58 million of dollars.
This wasn't some rich-young-master novel plot where a few tens of millions would already be shocking.
This was still a personal account under the name Lucien Sinclaire with no company attached. Checking his past transaction history showed everything had stayed under a hundred thousand. Nothing this extreme had ever happened before.
Suddenly receiving such a huge sum made them both surprised and delighted.
Delighted because the bank's performance this year would probably skyrocket. Surprised because they were worried it might be dirty money their bank couldn't keep.
After all, it was completely illogical. Corporate and personal accounts were handled very differently, even the interest rates varied greatly. Who would deposit so much money into a personal account?
Just who was this mysterious big shot?!
A single personal account holding this much money!
The president immediately got nervous and personally checked the source of the funds.
When he discovered that every incoming transfer came from the domestic Steam platform, the president instantly understood!
Having reached the position of branch president, he naturally had broad experience.
What global news had been the hottest these past few days? New World Studio's Subnautica had launched!
Even his own son had played the game all night yesterday.
Thinking of this, he quickly pulled out his phone and searched. Subnautica had gone live at eight o'clock last night, exactly matching the time of the first deposit into this account.
"So that's it. I knew it had to be someone impressive! It's the famous New World Studio!!!"
The president had a sudden realization.
New World Studio was currently the leader in the gaming industry. Their games had dominated X trending searches for days.
It was said that both Valves and Ubisoft had been trying to track down any trace of this studio but had found nothing.
Tsk tsk. He never expected to be the one who found them.
This was a super VIP client!
He had to hold on to them tight.
With that thought, he personally dialed Lucien's number.
"Hello, is this Mr. Lucien Sinclair?"
"Yes." The other side gave a short, firm reply. The voice was clear and young.
"This is from Bank of America. I am the branch president, Raul A. Anaya. May I ask where you are currently living? We would like to visit you in person and inquire about the funds in your account."
Raul had decided to visit Lucien personally and bring some gifts to this big client to keep the money in the bank.
"No need." Lucien refused outright. "I know what you mean. You just want me to keep the money in your bank and not move it elsewhere, right? Don't worry, I have no plans to do that for now."
"Thank you so much!!!" Raul Anaya face lit up with a huge smile. "To show our bank's sincerity..."
"Stop right there!" His words were cut off again by Lucien. "You don't need to send me any gifts. My only request is that you do not disclose my identity to any person or any company. Understood?"
"Understood, understood! I guarantee I won't tell anyone." Raul agreed immediately. He knew very well that Lucien was talking about New World Studio.
"OK, that's it." With that, Lucien hung up first.
Listening to the busy tone on the line, Raul was stunned. Were all big clients this willful nowadays?
Still, he was quite happy inside. It looked like this big client would be staying for now.
As for Lucien's request, it was such a small thing. Compared to the several million in the bank, it was nothing!
He could definitely do it!
Even if his own father came asking, he wouldn't say a word.