章 10: Nous Studios

"How many characters are in this game?" the man asked as he continued to watch, now curious as to how many playable characters this company could fit into their game.

He counted until he forgot why he was counting and simply began to enjoy the stupid content the account created. It had everything; there were animated videos of their characters, even the serious ones, doing popular trends in ways you would expect someone with such a character to do.

From the voice-overs in the videos, he managed to grasp the general idea behind the game. The game was based on the idea of parallel Earths; each character is on each Earth, but you can play as any of them; however, your decisions can change the ending dramatically. Basically, everything was up to the players.

It was an interesting concept, and he wanted to see it at play. If the player's decisions decide everything, does that mean that it's like those dating Sims where they are given options to choose from, or do they get to just speak their minds and the NPCs will work around it?

The more he watched, the more annoyed he was that they weren't truly addressing that particular matter as though it were nothing. They introduced all the playable characters, which was a lot, meaning that when you unlock them, you get to play as them, and each one is as complicated as a regular human being.

However, the lack of more information on that topic made him even more curious, so he checked the name of the gaming company, Nous Studios, and without hesitation went to search for the game online. As soon as he did so, he found several articles related to the game in various print media and, finally, a website for the game itself.

"Oh? The game isn't ready for download yet; six more days to go."The man read out loud.

Since the game wasn't out for download yet, he spent his time going through the website to gather as much information as he could, since he was now interested in the game.

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Due to Nous's manipulation, nearly 465 million people on TikTok saw a video from Nous's account. Not all of them were gamers; however, they still enjoyed the content, and their likes and follows made the account grow massively.

Apart from that, Nous advertised the game in any way she could; however, she didn't take it so far that she used illegal means. Though she did use loopholes in certain laws to advertise the game, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that by morning, at least half the world would have seen it.

David, on the other hand, was still stuck on his computer playing the same game. He had gone far into the plot of the game, and unlike before, he had gotten used to the game's mechanics. However, the game had him talking to himself like some maniac.

[Sir, I would advise you to go to bed. The game won't end anytime soon and would take you at least two months and some weeks to complete for the default character alone]

"What?" David asked in shock as soon as he heard what she said.

"What do you mean by default character?"

[The game was designed to allow you to play as practically anybody you come across; however, you would have to finish playing as this character first]

"So, I can play as Snake later on?"

Yes, even as Inspector Herman or Burns]

"That means this game is a trap, then? Nous, that is evil, very evil," David commented as he smiled.

If the default character was this entertaining to play, then he imagined how it would be for others. He could see some sort of online competition on who could unlock the most characters—a competition on how far you had gone. People would do nothing all day apart from staring at their screens.

[Is that bad?]

"What? No, that is great; the point was to create a game that people would love to play for hours on end, and this is it; there are no dull moments, and the story is incredibly engaging. Also, turn off my computer next time; I spend too much time on the game, and I don't want to get brain-dead."

[As you wish, sir] Nous replied

"Good, now while we're at it, how long before the game goes online?"

[Six more days... An immediate release wouldn't allow it to grow in popularity; however, a much longer release would make the build-up excitement vanish, hence the six-day wait.

"It makes sense, but during this time, do you have any other ideas? We could start something that would begin bringing in the money."

[We could offer my services to the world; however, that would mean that your next edit as the editor would be for a new server to handle all other processes that aren't mine.]

"I thought I created you with infinite storage."

[Yes, but I also have infinite information. Within said information is information related to everything about everyone, and I do not plan to ever mistakenly give that information to someone, so a different server is needed to host their data and allow me to easily provide my services without being afraid of releasing information they do not need to know]

"I doubt you could make such a mistake; omniscience sort of also means perfection, but I will do as you said, so what services are you referring to?"

[I could make the main company a company that deals with AI generators]

"What's that exactly?"

[It's simply a website where people can turn text into various things like images, write-ups, etc., and many other things]

"Can you show me an example? I don't truly understand."

[Yes, sir] Nous replied as a holographic screen appeared, and on it was a very engaging website.

It was engaging but also simple; he saw a text bar where he was to put in a prompt and then select what he planned to turn it into. Selecting the option for an image, David typed in a mythical creature with the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and a snake as a tail'.