**POV Third Person**
Three years passed in the blink of an eye. Now 21 years old, Alex looked in the mirror and couldn't help but smile.
"My appearance is finally changing."
Now, Alex looked like a 14 or 15-year-old boy. He started losing his chubby cheeks, and his height was finally beginning to increase. After staring at his reflection for a while, Alex left his room and saw Melissa waiting for him by the door.
"Good morning, Meli."
"Good morning, brother. Today, I want you to help me with my training, okay?"
"Yes, after I finish my training, I'll help you."
Alex smiled at the girl's usual morning enthusiasm. Like Alex, Melissa was also starting to grow. Her hair, which had always been short and barely reached her shoulders, now almost reached the middle of her back.
Her face was losing its childish features and was beginning to take on more feminine traits. Her body was slowly gaining curves, and the small freckles she had on her cheeks and below her eyes had almost completely disappeared, leaving only faint marks below her eyes that highlighted her bright green eyes even more.
Her breasts and hips were also starting to develop. Alex, patting her head, saw the girl happily smile and run ahead to the training room. He then sighed like an old man worried about his granddaughter.
"This modeling job is attracting more and more attention from the boys."
Muttering under his breath, Alex also headed to the training room. Melissa had become a bit popular after her first modeling job. Initially, she just wanted to have fun and earn some credits, but after some time, several modeling agencies started calling, trying to sign a contract with her.
At first, Catharina and Mark turned them all down, but after asking some friends to research these agencies, they found one that, as Mark put it, was 'clean,' so they signed a contract with it.
But like Alex, Melissa had to follow some rules to be able to work, but she didn't mind. Now, she had been working as a model for two years, and during that time, she had become somewhat famous in the galaxy, especially among young people, which didn't please Alex or Mark at all.
Arriving at the training room, Alex quickly began his exercises. Now, Alex could easily do over 15,000 push-ups, 15,000 squats, and 15,000 sit-ups, and it barely made him sweat. The supplements he had been taking since childhood had made his body much stronger and more resilient.
"I think if I met Captain America, I could beat him with one hand."
"Who is Captain America?"
"No one, just thinking out loud."
Melissa looked at Alex strangely. He often got lost in thought or started talking and laughing to himself. When she asked what he was talking about, he would just say it was nothing or an inside joke. Rolling her eyes, she walked away, pouting.
Shortly after, Catharina entered the room, smiling.
"Good morning, kids. Have you finished your exercises? Then let's start the training."
Without wasting time, Catharina began the training. In less than two hours, the siblings were lying next to each other, groaning in pain and exhaustion.
"This is so relaxing. I really love starting the day like this. Alex, your interview is this afternoon, right?"
"...y, y, yes... even talking hurts. I think I broke my jaw."
"Hmmm... and I think I broke a few ribs."
"Stop complaining about every little pain. I didn't hit hard enough to break anything. Now I'm off to work, but I'll be home this afternoon to watch the interview. Don't forget to drink your supplements, and take a shower—you both stink. Bye, Mom loves you."
"If she keeps loving me like this, I think I'm going to die someday."
"Hahaha, Ouch, don't make me laugh. My whole body hurts. Brother, let's postpone my model training... So, are you ready for the interview?"
Alex stood up and grabbed the supplements, handing one to Melissa.
"Yes, I've been ready for this since the competition started, yes I..."
Alex started muttering and complaining under his breath. Melissa just rolled her eyes at her brother's weirdness. After finishing her supplement, she went to take a shower. Noticing Melissa leaving, Alex also went to wash up.
A week ago, the first stage of the competition ended. Unlike what Alex expected, there was nothing special about it; the top 100 most played games moved on to the second stage—simple as that.
*(I don't know what I expected. There are billions of participants; obviously, there wouldn't be a big event.)*
Detroit had remained in first place for three consecutive years, but even so, Alex only received a message congratulating him for moving on to the next phase of the competition. But that wasn't the important part. What Alex really cared about was that the top ten participants would be interviewed live. They would all meet in a virtual space to do the interview together, and friends and family could also join.
Alex was excited to finally vent some frustrations. He had already invited Jade and the boys to go with him, and they were all thrilled about it, but they had no idea what Alex was planning to do.
After a shower, Alex sat at his desk and started checking if everything was in order. *God of War 1* was already finished. Since all the games take place in the same world, Alex had already started on the second and third ones. In fact, they were also very advanced. If Alex had pushed himself to finish, he could have made all three games into one.
But after some thought, he decided not to do that. *God of War 1* would be enough for him to win this competition. Besides, he wouldn't earn a single credit from the game, so it was better to wait for the competition to end and then release the sequels. Even though he wasn't doing this just for the money, that didn't mean he would give away everything he worked hard on for free.
After organizing the games, Alex looked at *Undertale*. It was also finished. In the last three years, Alex hadn't let anyone play it, not even Ed and Fred, who helped with the production. Alex had a plan for this game, and he didn't want any spoilers or rumors spreading around. Even though he trusted the boys, this was an important step for his future plans, so he wasn't going to take any risks.
"Luna, how's the website?"
"Everything is set; we shouldn't have any problems with a large amount of traffic."
"Great. And how about the platform?"
"Everything is also set. Alex, I know you're a little nervous, but we've done everything we could; everything will be fine."
Sigh
"I know, I'm not nervous, just a bit anxious. I want to make sure everything goes well."
Since Alex decided to create his own platform, he has been studying programming a lot. Additionally, he made several films during this time to raise money and buy new upgrades for Luna.
(Note: After the competition, if you want, I can show some reactions to the films.)
The gaming platform for the holographic bracelet is in beta version and still needs many improvements, but it's enough for Undertale. After the release, he will have a lot more money, so with the players' feedback, he will be able to improve the platform gradually.
Alex checked everything slowly and carefully. Journey had been ready for a long time; more recently, he replaced the music and used the ones made by the orchestra. God of War was also finished—he even added many Easter eggs. The platform was functioning correctly, and Luna had conducted several tests without finding any flaws.
Undertale was perfect and ready for release. After checking everything multiple times, Alex logged into the website he created with Luna. The first thing that appeared was a large DreamHeart logo—a heart with a starry sky background, with DreamHeart written in front and some gears. Alex was inspired by the Kingdom Hearts franchise logo.
The website was working perfectly, showcasing all of Alex's works, including all the films and animated series he had made, along with various details about the games. Not only that, but Alex also posted various artworks he had drawn, from anime to manga and comics. His plan is to slowly prepare the public for the works he will produce in the future.
After the first films Alex made, Luna learned most of the traits of 2D animations, so the production of animations and films became very fast. Luna can do almost everything on her own, and Alex only needs to manually fix the errors.
At this moment, Alex can produce an animated film far superior to old Disney productions in three or four days. So, in recent years, he has created a small library of exclusive animated series for the site—animations like Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, and many others, even some Marvel series.
All of this was to draw as much attention as possible to the company. With these animations, many people who already follow his work will visit the site and buy these animations. Even though there isn't much content yet, he will produce more and more.
The plan is to make the DreamHeart brand as popular as possible. Only by having a certain influence in the market will he be able to make a significant change in the industry.
"This interview will help me in many ways. I can't wait."
Afternoon
Soon, the afternoon arrived. The boys arrived early, and shortly after, Jade showed up and greeted Alex cheerfully.
"So, have you thought about what you're going to say? If you get nervous and forget what to say, just thank me and say how I inspired you to do everything."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I'm just kidding. I don't want you to get nervous and start stuttering, and I have to record it and post it for all our friends to see, hahaha."
"Tsk, I'm not nervous, and you can record everything. Don't worry, hehe."
"What are you planning?"
"What do you mean by planning? I'm not planning anything."
눈_눈
"... Sure… Just don't do anything stupid."
"Alright, it's time; let's go."
Everyone entered the virtual area, where a team was already waiting. They quickly guided everyone to an area where the audience would be, and they led Alex to join the other designers.
Alex looked around; they were in what seemed like a normal building—not as impressive as he had expected. Entering a room, he saw the other participants: four girls and six boys, including him.
The moment Alex entered, everyone looked at him, with various curious and assessing gazes. Alex wasn't bothered; to him, it was no different than a group of children watching an adult pass by.
Sitting on a couch, he waited to assess everyone there. No one tried to talk. He noticed that everyone was very nervous; the oldest seemed to be a girl no older than 70, lightly tapping her foot.
Seeing this, Alex sighed. He had played their games, and none had particularly caught his attention—not because they were bad, but because they were generic. It felt like playing all the Assassin's Creed games with RPG elements back to back—not bad, but not something an average person would want to do.
(Note: You can criticize me; I don't like the new Assassin's Creed games—they're all too generic and copies of each other.)
Even though he didn't find anything he liked, Alex still found many good things. Maybe he would try to recruit some of them in the future. While he was thinking, someone entered the room.
"Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you all. The broadcast has already started, and you'll be called shortly. There's no need to be nervous; just relax and answer the questions calmly. You can talk about your games and the subjects you're knowledgeable about. Don't worry about anything, okay?"
Ten minutes later, everyone received a message calling them to the stage. A yes or no option appeared, and when everyone accepted, the room they were in started to spin, and everything went dark. Bright lights shone down on them, and several explosions occurred.
"Here they are, the future of the gaming world. Come, kids, and let's chat."
After calming down, the host seemed to be someone well-known, judging by the reaction of some of the competitors. Everyone looked around and realized they were on top of a planet in space, with thousands of spaceships serving as a backdrop. The environment definitely impressed those watching.
After getting used to the place, everyone sat down, and the interview began. It was more of a group conversation; the host would ask some questions and jokes, and everyone would respond as best they could.
This lasted for more than four hours. Many questions and jokes were made, and everyone was relaxed and very comfortable with the situation. The number of viewers was a bit low, less than ten billion, but that's normal since most people would only watch the highlights, which would feature the best parts.
The interview finally came to an end, and each participant had their turn to speak. They had a few minutes to attract attention to their upcoming games or maybe gain some fans. Alex promptly volunteered to go last.
The host found this a bit strange. Since Alex was in first place, she tried asking him several questions, but he only gave superficial answers each time. Everyone just assumed he was a bit embarrassed by the attention, so they didn't think much of it.
But it was different for those who knew him. Melissa was the first to notice something strange about Alex.
"I think my brother is going to do something bad."
Hearing this, Catharina just smiled but said nothing. Mark only sighed; he knew Alex could be anything but a shy and embarrassed child.
Soon, all the participants began giving their 'speeches.' They had obviously rehearsed their lines and were playing it safe. They talked about how they loved games, admired the great designers who inspired them, and wanted to create wonderful games for everyone. Listening to these scripted speeches, the old Alex really got annoyed.
Alex always believed there was nothing wrong with making money from hard work. If you can live doing what you love, that would be a dream. But looking at these people, who were obviously more concerned with their own appearance than with the games, he sighed softly. Soon the host called his name.
"Alexandre, would you like to say a few words before we finish?"
Alex, who had been sitting, stood up with a heavy sigh, looking like a tired old man. He walked a bit forward and looked around.
"I've been sitting here listening to all these scripted speeches and thinking… What a load of crap."
Everyone immediately fell silent. The competitors widened their eyes, and even those watching the broadcast were surprised. Fred and Ed put their hands on their heads, completely shocked. Even Jade was surprised. Melissa and Catharina laughed out loud, and Mark just sighed. The host wanted to say something, but after receiving a message, she just let Alex continue.
"You come here talking about how you admire the great designers… ridiculous. What exactly do you admire? These generic games that seem to be entirely made by AI? Or maybe the fact that they've kept the gaming market stagnant for hundreds of years? Or the fact that they charge insanely high prices for recycled games?
When I first discovered games, I fell in love with them. I played for days on end, enjoying myself with classic games. But the more I learned about the industry, the more disappointed I became. It became obvious to me that the industry was rotting.
Repetitive games, all portraying the same wars, using the same generals as main characters—nothing new, nothing exciting. Then I saw the game designer competition… my heart raced. I thought this was the answer to the problems the industry was facing.
I thought this was the opportunity for new designers to showcase their unique ideas so that new talents could emerge. This thought grew stronger, especially when those responsible for the competition said the theme would be innovation.
But what did I find? Just a bunch of uninspired, soulless crap—just a bunch of copies of the big companies' games. Is this what you call innovation? Hahaha.
I can't even hold back the laughter at such a joke. You don't want to do anything new. That's fine, then I will.
From today, my company DreamHeart will lead the way in innovation. Games, films, animations—no matter what I do in the future, I will definitely not be behind anyone. Today, I'm launching the company's website, where all my works are available, including a game unlike anything you know—a game for holographic bracelets. You can say what you want, but I'm declaring this today.
I, Alexandre Lockhart, will become the number one designer in the universe."
......
Note: This chapter turned out long, but I still feel it was a bit rushed. I hope it turned out well.
I made a time skip. I want to finish the competition and start the next arc. For those curious, the next arc will be Found Talents. There will be a few chapters of the protagonist studying, creating small games for holographic bracelets, and several small time skips, but mainly he will be trying to find people to train for the company.
My friends and I were talking about the best RPGs, and one of them told me his favorite is Fallout 4. I was a bit surprised—Fallout 4 has always been the weakest of them all for me.
I'm not saying Fallout 4 is bad… Just that I put it alongside Dark Souls 2. Are they bad? Definitely not!!! But when you compare them to their siblings, they are very weak.
To me, Fallout 4 was a disappointment. I expected a big change, but what I got was the same old game engine, a meh story, and all the choices you had in the other games disappeared… Anyway, everyone has their own tastes.
Now I have a question for you all: What's your favorite RPG?