Hello everyone, first chapter for this week
Turned out this webnovel was making things difficult for non contracted book appeared in the power ranking and I only realized it this morning.
Keep supporting me and happy reading for everyone, level one of 2021 will be finished, there's 11 more,
Good luck!!
~~~
The ear-splitting sound of the jet-engine could be heard closely even though he was miles away from the runway.
Today was the day where Vi would arrive in Los Angeles from her home in London.
He was there, waiting along with the crowd on the Arrival Gate of Los Angeles Airport and holding a sign with her name written on it.
He still wondered about the intention of her sudden arrival here. Maybe she brought him the bad news about his audition, or maybe something else.
She didn't say anything about her parents coming with her, but knowing Vi's rebellious personality, he knew she would come alone.
"Al!!" He heard a familiar voice calling his name and saw Vi was dragging her suitcase, wearing thick winter clothing, and running in his direction.
'Will she doing that movie hug' He thought, (Slam) 'Yep, I'm so damn right.'
Vi suddenly jumped into him when their distance was just a breath away.
He decided to play along with her by lifting her off and spin her around a little. He heard her giggling and somehow felt a sense of accomplishment doing so.
He dropped her to the ground but Vi turned her vision to his surroundings.
He saw a discomfort appeared on her face, so he turned his head to see a lot of couples doing twirl hugs like them but took it in more extreme ways by doing French kissing.
He secretly laughed in his heart, "Californian, Vi, that's what Californian couples sometimes will do openly."
When Vi wanted to argue, he shushed her, "Before making any comments, how about you take off that winter clothing first, it's damn 100°, we do not accept an alien very well here." He joked.
She gave Al a stink eye, but then she smiled again. Both of them started to walk towards the pickup zone where John Mick was already waiting for them.
When Al offered his assistance to carry her luggage, he turned in her direction in shock.
This suitcase could put the weight-lifting athlete to shame, he could feel this suitcase was at least weigh more than 30 kgs, and Vi seemed to have no problem carrying it.
As they walked, she told him some of her experiences after they parted ways in Paris. He also told him some of his experiences here, from the Live Aid Concert to the shooting of his new film.
But she didn't mention anything about doing any business or vacation over LA.
He started to get suspicious about her arrival, so when they got on to the car, he decided to go straight to the point, "Vi, please be truthful to me, why are you coming here?"
Her face tensed like a child who was caught stealing from a cookie jar at midnight. She tried to say something but the air was the only thing that came out of her mouth.
She began to divert the topic by asking him how his condition is but left unanswered by him.
He just kept staring menacingly at her.
Finally, she gave up and told him the reason she came here. But first of all, she gave bad news to him.
Her father decided to choose another person to star as Private Joker.
Her father said Al was a great actor, but he was too young to play as a soldier, so he chose another person.
The news made him sighed. If only Stanley Kubrick knew that he got another matured man's soul fused with him. However, he would carry that secret to his grave without telling a soul.
As for Vi, she was so mad at her father that Al did not get any roles in his film and started to throw a tantrum at him.
Stanley Kubrick, known as the iron director, of course still held into his decision. Even his dearest daughter cannot change it.
So she ran away from home and escaped to the USA. She also swore to her father that she won't use any of his facilities until Al starred in his movie, and so here she is, in LA like a lost kid.
"Al, can I stay in your orphanage?" Vivian suddenly asked an earth-splitting question.
"Vi, be serious with me, why are you doing this? If this is about me for not getting a role, please don't do this, your father must be worried about you." He paused.
Saw her did not argue, he continued, "If it's not, I don't want to tell you what you should do, but I'm always here for you. I will always listen to your problem. But you can't be childish anymore."
Vi seemed offended by what he said, but quickly she realized he was right.
She didn't want to let him down. Al was the first person she enjoyed being close with, unlike anyone who wanted to get close to her because of her dad.
She admitted, half the reason she ran away from home was because of him, and the other half, also about him. More likely that her father didn't listen to her and fulfill her wish.
She as Kubrick's favorite daughter always got anything she wanted, after hearing her father didn't do as she requested made her furious.
He didn't know whether he should be mad or laugh. This was not the first time he encountered such a spoiled girl, but also the first time he saw such an outdated spoiled girl.
Sometimes when people were faced with such spoiled brats, they need to be harsh but also tender.
He agreed to let her stay in the orphanage but she must follow his rules, report to her father, and be nice to everyone, or else, she leaves.
She was of course tried to retort him, but when he told her that he would leave her in the street and go to another place, she reluctantly agreed to his arrangement.
But first, before they go home, he had some arrangement in Playa Vista, concerning the handled console games.
~~~
They arrived in one of the two-story building at the office complex in Playa Vista. It was not too big nor too small, he would say its decent size.
He wanted to make all of his offices looked like Google office in the future, but knowing they were just at the beginning of their step and also he lacked the funds to do it.
This office was located only a few blocks away from Muspelheim Films. Although this place not as big as Muspelheim Films, it was quite large for start-up companies.
At the entrance, there was a signboard written with Niflheim Entertainment blue fonts and snow marks in most of the words.
When he saw this design again, he felt like he was ripping off the Blizzard logo, the company that made Warcraft.
Well, he just shrugged it off, first come first serve was his motto when plagiarizing.
"This is your company Al?" Vi spoke beside him. She became a bit cold towards him, and also a little bit afraid after she saw a strict version of him.
She didn't know why but she liked him more when he was strict with her, especially those menacing gaze excites her.
"Technically, I own 60% and Steven 30%, the rest for future use." He explained without turning his head to her.
Surprise painted on her face, "Uncle Steven also owned it? I thought my dad was just joking when Uncle Steven played games like a kid."
"That old man is a kid inside, but don't say it in front of his face. He is fragile, said those words and he will start to scream and throw temper." He joked and made Vi laughed.
When he entered the office, the scenery turned 180° from outside of the building.
There were a lot of machine and computer parts scattered on the floor, rack, and cupboard.
Some of the walls also dirtied stains, whether it was from computer parts or coffee, he didn't know.
The dust was also visible from his naked eyes. One of his eyes twitched, he knew he should've hired a maid to take care of these computer engineers.
He thought maybe he should make male to female ratio balanced, to keep the office clean.
One of the employees, who he knew from the time he bought Atari hardware divisions saw him coming, immediately screamed, calling the CEO who happened to be tinkering with computer parts.
"Boss! Finally, you come to visit us." Al saw the CEO of Niflheim Entertainment approached him.
He was wearing a yellow shirt with an orange tie, with a thick African-American accent, yep his CEO, Jerry Lawson, the father of modern gaming.
He came with someone hiding behind his back, who was at least 10 years old.
"Jerry! I told you to call me Al, and who is this little one?" Al bent over to reach the kid's level.
"Come on kid, introduce yourself." His father tapped his shoulder to encourage him.
"Hello Mr. Brandt, my name is Marc. I'm your fan and really like your movies. You're my hero." That made him smiled brightly.
Having a hero as a kid was also had the same effect as the person who was treated like a hero by that kid.
"Well, Marc, your father is also my hero. Do you know what your father did? He let us play every cool game with one single machine, and this thing your father build with me will be the dream for every child in the world."
Marc's eyes glittered with admiration to his father and him, "Whoa, you are so cool, dad."
Jerry patted Marc's head, "Please, I can't do this without your help boss. You want to see the product boss?"
They went to the isolated room where they placed few bodyguards in here. This 16-bit handled console game was the first of the kind in the world, of course, they would guard the secret carefully.
Jerry then gave him the console handled game, it's shape and size was the same as Gameboy Advance in the parallel world.
The size approximately 6.2 inches with a weight of at least 150 grams.
With a 16-bit processor, with a screen resolution of 160x144 pixels and a fully colored display, this handled game console was ahead of their times, maybe 10 years or more.
He saw it had a mono speaker and audio jack, so he was sure it was just like the design that both of them made before.
The battery still used 4x AA batteries, shame, the lithium-ion battery has not been yet popularized and widely used, but Jerry said it could still be played for at least 10 hours.
Overall, he was amazed by what Jerry and his team from the ex-Atari Hardware Division could make.
"How? I thought when you said it was done, I imagined not this perfect. Jerry, you are damn genius!" He marveled at this handled game console.
"Thanks for your investment of course. Wait until you played it," He went over to one of the racks and tried to search for something.
"Found it! Here, I just simplify the Space Invaders to this small cartridge." He gave Al a small cartridge with size not bigger than his fingers.
Al inputted the cartridge to the console socket and he was made amazed again. This little thing could play this game smoothly.
Not only that, the colors and sounds quality was even better than when he played in his old Atari console.
Vi who was beside him also stunned to see this little thing could do. Her eyes gazed at Al who was playing this video game in a serious face.
After he completed some level, he stopped playing and offered Vi if she wanted to play it, which she gladly took it and ended up intrigued by it.
Al said his gratitude to Jerry and hugged him, "It was damn amazing, thank you, Jerry. Can it mass-produced? What do you think about the price? Can it be done before Christmas?"
Jerry was stunned by his boss' excitement, he thought a little before answering all of his questions.
"I knew some factories who used to produced hardware for Atari, now they were on a verge of bankruptcy, they will glad when we came to them. As for mass producing, I think 10,000 units can be done in a week for a single factory, I estimate the hardware only costs about $60 to $70."
He then told him there was a good factory in Sunnyvale, California, that used to be producing Atari's Arcade.
"I will sell it for $149.99 for a piece, nope, before you said anything, listen to my explanation." Seeing him want to complain about the price.
Al then told him about the production & distribution cost, taxation, and some legitimate means to make the process easier.
After Jerry heard how complicated it was, he sighed. Luckily it was not him who managed all of it, he was just happy to work in the research development of the new console.
If handled game console succeeded, he would get a green light to develop a 32-bit game console.
"What do you want to call this console?" Jerry asked.
Al fell silent for a while and finally made his decision for the name of their console.
"Hmm, how about, N.O.T.E. Portable, Niflheim Original Transformation of Entertainment, how were that sounds?"
"Sound forced but, I don't know, rhymed enough." Jerry chuckled.
After finishing his business in Niflheim Entertainment, he left the place with Vi. He brought 2 samples of NOTE Portable, one for him and one for Steven.
The funny thing is, his NOTE was still held by Vi, who was busy playing with Space Invaders from the moment they left the Niflheim Entertainment office.
Al thought he made another victim of game addiction, he just hoped that she was not as crazy as Steven.
Al also got news about the Pokémon game who has been completed its development. He planned to release it on Christmas as a bundled game for NOTE Portable.
This first Pokémon game was named
Although the Pokédex database showed 151 Pokemons, the actual numbers could be caught was only 130.
As for the rest Pokémon left could be traded from a different version of this game which he would release next year.
This two version he named it
Why he released a different version? For-profit purposes of course, they could get 3 times profit from making one game.
They also made King's Quest game in portable version, this couple seemed so quick in making their games, he was really impressed by them.
Maybe it's time for Al to gave them the concept for the Legend of Zelda game.
"Wanna have lunch first Vi?" She nodded at his offer, but what made her face turned ugly was where he took her.
"Usually, men brought women to French or Italian restaurant for their first date, not McDonald's." She complained.
"This is not a date Vi, and I'm still upset with you. Stanley will kill me if he knew you live in the orphanage with me."
His words did actually make her feel bad, "I'm sorry, I'll do everything to make up for it. Please?"
He chuckled after seeing her became so cute all of sudden, "Okay, you girls someday will be a death of me."
Hearing him saying "girls" made her suspicious of him, "Are you still with that girl name Sandy?" Then out of nowhere, she asked him.
He raised one of his eyebrows at her interrogative question, so he decided to tease her, "No, I didn't see her since Cannes, wonder where she was, I will call her tonight, thanks for reminding me, Vi."
"Humph. Stupid." She whispered.
To Be Continued...
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Produced by:
JJTS
Emmanuel Sawoka (Striker)
Directed by:
Jarvis