Chapter 905: Chapter 902 · "No matter how bitter, don’t let it be bitter for the children." (Thanks to "Silverepic" Alliance Hierarch)
Su Ming’an immediately skimmed past those exorbitantly priced courses, looking at some courses priced more affordably.
"Elementary Dance Course," "Elementary Music Course," "Elementary Drawing Skill Course" are priced at 5 Kel per semester, which is an acceptable price. "Elementary Literature Course," "Elementary Engineering Course," these knowledge-oriented courses are slightly more expensive, with a price of 20 Kel per semester. The cheaper ones are skill-oriented courses like "Elementary Cooking Course," "Elementary Tailoring Course," "Elementary Forging Course," priced between 2 to 5 Kel per semester.
The reason is simple—different faculty strength. For instance, "Elementary Military Course," children need to attend the military school in the Royal City, where teachers are retired think tanks from the military. Whereas for "Elementary Cooking Course," attending classes at the cafeteria across the block is enough, where the chef aunt can be the teacher.
Because the schools and teachers are different, the course prices vary accordingly.
Su Ming’an studied a bit and found that players’ decision-making is very important. Even "Elementary Cooking Course" divides into "Royal Cooking Course" and "Cafeteria Cooking Course" etc. If you spend more money, you can have your child learn from royal chefs, significantly enhancing attributes. If you spend less, your child can only learn from the cafeteria aunt, with relatively fewer attribute enhancements.
"It’s really... realistic," Su Ming’an thought. This is somewhat similar to Zhai Xing’s situation. Children from wealthy families have easier access to better education, even if they don’t pay attention in class usually. Numerous tutoring sessions are piled upon them, and as long as they are willing to learn a bit, their grades can improve. For children from ordinary families, if they don’t study desperately, they truly have no opportunity.
Thus, this shows that balancing your money with your child’s attributes is the big dilemma of this game. The game’s difficulty lies not in fighting monsters to level up but in the decision-making of nurturing.
"Girl: Detective sir..."
It seems Su Ming’an’s troubled expression was noticed, and the girl on the sofa, Alice, spoke up.
"Girl: I can self-study, as long as you bring some books home from time to time, I can read them myself."
"Detective: That would delay you. I will find a way for you to attend school."
"Girl (confused): I don’t understand why you treat me so well."
"Detective: Don’t think of me as a great kind person, I just have other motives."
"Girl: I once heard a saying, ’Judge actions, not intentions.’ No matter what motives you have towards me, you did indeed save me. If it weren’t for you, I might have frozen to death in the back alley tonight, and the 39 Kel you left did indeed help my companions. You have changed our destiny away from death, haven’t you? I am willing to entrust my future to you, my life was saved by you, you are a good person in my eyes."
"Detective: ..."
...
Su Ming’an silently continued reading.
He suddenly found many job columns under these courses. For instance, "Hospital Odd Jobs," "Home Tutor," "Street Vendor," "Street News Vendor," "Construction Site Bricklayer," "Church Volunteer," "Backstreet Brawler," etc.
After all, this arranges the children’s "schedule," whether it’s study, work, or leisure life, it’s all part of the schedule. Apart from studying, children can work to help players earn money, preventing players’ money from only going out without coming in.
Additionally, there are holiday options like "City Tour," "Beach Vacation," "World Tour," each requiring lots of money, probably exclusive to wealthy families.
Seeing these schedule options, Su Ming’an once again felt the pain brought by the scarcity of money. Before the final war arrives, players have limited time to nurture their children. If you always make the child work, the child would hardly have time to enhance attributes through study and would only face death in the war. But without working, the child has no money for school, leading to death.
This is unlike ordinary nurturing games; the nurturing here feels real and cruel. There’s always a Damocles sword hanging over the player and child’s heads, both will die if nurturing is not adequate.
At this moment, even if the background music around sounded relaxed and warm, Su Ming’an didn’t feel this game was healing at all. The urgency brought by the lack of funds pressed heavily upon him.
He looked at the girl on the sofa drying her hair.
——She is the child named personally by the Eye of the Old Days.
——She’s the training object of the First Dream Patrol Family.
If she isn’t strong enough in the end, a catastrophic outcome awaits, Su Ming’an cannot nurture a leisurely artist like Su Luoluo. This girl will definitely be involved in extremely important matters in the end.
Su Ming’an recalls, at the beginning of the game, the game once hinted at this, suggesting the existence of a main storyline, and the girl might have a lot of connections with this main storyline.
Only by being strong enough can she survive in the end.
...
"Detective: ...By the way."
"Detective: System. Can I work myself?"
...
Under Su Ming’an’s inquiry, the game’s hint text emerged:
"Players can earn money through their own efforts. But please note, you are not a bystander in this game, you are part of the game. If you obtain money through illegal ways, you might be captured by guards. If you deal with too many dangerous matters, you might suffer a mental collapse, please be cautious."
...
The background of this game is not simple. There are "anomalies," "instant death rules," "Black Mist Disease." And there’s no revival, if players die, they completely lose the qualification to play the game.
"Detective: Alice, I’m going out for a bit, to find some money."
"Girl: It’s late at night, you should rest for tonight. No matter where you want to go, it’s already past 3 a.m., nothing will be open."
...
Su Ming’an initially intended to head straight to the Royal City to talk with the highest ruler here. But after looking at the night outside the window, heavy snow falling, it’s indeed not an appropriate time to go out.
He glanced through the books at home, the Royal City’s guest reception time is generally at noon, so it seems he must wait until daytime.
"Detective: Then I’ll just exit the game... Hm?"
...
Su Ming’an was about to exit the game when the game’s prompt popped out:
"Due to this game being a nurturing game with a large time span. Please arrange your child’s schedule for the next semester before exiting the game each time."
"Please note: Every midnight and noon are the time nodes for crossing ’one semester.’
...
Su Ming’an understood—it’s now 3 a.m., by noon 12, the game’s time will suddenly leap forward a semester, just like the time jump of the Kaius Tower once was. When players go offline during Catastrophe Year 32, coming online might already be Catastrophe Year 42.
Nurturing games are generally like this, once the player has arranged the child’s schedule, the time will automatically push forward.
In "Girl Dream Project," the time advancement period is fixed—"every twelve hours, instantaneously advancing ’one semester.’
"Detective: This seems... As the real-world passes half a day, this game will pass half a year. As the real-world passes a whole day, this game will pass a whole year. And so forth."
"Detective: Which means, I have to arrange Alice’s schedule for the next semester because if I go online after noon 12, time in this world has already passed half a year."
...
Su Ming’an looked at Alice. She had already finished drying her hair, and her slightly damp eyes were staring straight at him.
Looking at Alice’s timid appearance, the original words of the Eye of the Old Days echoed in Su Ming’an’s mind: [Detective, as long as you raise her to adulthood, all your glory and wealth will be because of her.]
Raise her to adulthood?
Su Ming’an pondered.
What counts as raising someone to adulthood?
Is it a failure to raise a child who remains hungry but has a spiritually rich world as an artist? Or is it considered a success as a parent to raise a child to become a money-driven social machine, recognized as a successful person by societal standards?
These questions might have significance in times of resource abundance, but in an era where war is imminent, Su Ming’an hoped more for Alice to become stronger so that she could survive in the future.
[Detective: Alice. I want you to become stronger. As for dancing, drawing, and playing musical instruments, you might never have the chance to encounter them again, is that okay?]
[Girl: Detective Sir, you supporting my survival is already a great kindness to me. If you can afford to send me to school, I should be even more grateful. No matter what you want me to learn, I will accept it.]
[Detective: You are twelve and a half years old; I just checked, children must be thirteen to attend school, so for the first semester, tell me whatever you want to do. Once the second semester arrives, you’ll be old enough to go to school.]
[Girl: Detective Sir. I... I’m a little interested in medicine, can you let me be a helper at Aunt Jenny’s nurse station next door?]
...
Su Ming’an checked the work column in the [Schedule], and indeed there was a [Nurse Station Helper] that provided 10 Kel income per semester, a rather ordinary job. The job description was: [Let the child be a helper at the nurse station on the next street, doing some miscellaneous tasks like transporting medical supplies and bookkeeping.]
Game hints appear:
[As the child’s attributes continuously improve, work types will increase, unlocking more high-level jobs!]
[When the child interacts with more people and triggers more events in the future, the child will unlock jobs that cannot be accessed through normal channels, such as [Priest], [King City Light Knight], [Demon King], etc. Stay tuned!]
...
...What kind of ghost is the Demon King! Is this considered a job?
Su Ming’an noticed that the story background of this game is not a simple Steam Age. Many things seem like icebergs submerged under the deep sea, yet to be discovered by players.
Currently, the jobs that Alice can do are very limited, such as [Vendor Assistant], [Street Peddler], [Construction Site Bricklayer], jobs like what ordinary people can do, considering she is only thirteen, these jobs might be even difficult for her.
Su Ming’an did not know what her future would become like.
He glanced at the hundreds of courses and hundreds of work categories, along with thousands of unexplored courses and jobs—he suddenly found that perhaps she had infinite possibilities.
[Detective: The job as a Nurse Station Helper is too tiring for your age. You can choose to stay home and rest for half a year without needing to go out and work.]
[Girl: It’s alright. Aunt Jenny from the nurse station is someone I know, she’s a kind-hearted person, sometimes helping street kids like us. If I can work there, she will teach me medical knowledge, and for that alone, I am quite satisfied. Please, grant me this, Sir.]
...
Seeing this, Su Ming’an chose the [Nurse Station Helper] option. The next moment, a line of text appears in the [Schedule]:
[First Semester: Nurse Station Helper].
When this line of text emerged, all other courses and jobs dimmed, indicating that only one activity could be arranged for the child each semester.
[Detective: Alice, I have already arranged your schedule. I will leave for a moment.]
[Girl: Okay, Detective Sir.]
...
Su Ming’an exited the game to test something, and he found that upon exiting the game, the detective in the game also disappeared, leaving only Alice in the room.
Considering the possibility of Alice being unsafe alone, Su Ming’an decided to sleep in the game tonight and temporarily not exit the game.
[Girl: Detective Sir, why have you returned?]
[Detective: I’m not leaving, you go take a hot shower and get an early sleep.]
...
The room only had one bed, Su Ming’an planned to buy some furniture during the day—of course, the premise of everything is money, he needed to find a way to get money.
Su Ming’an slept on the bed. Alice slept on the sofa not far from the bed. The two were separated by a short distance, the room was very quiet, only occasionally hearing the sounds of the fireplace.
Su Ming’an lay on the not-so-soft bed, his back was painfully hard, once again feeling the distress of poverty.
"...Detective Sir." The girl’s slight voice came from there.
"..." Su Ming’an’s breathing was even.
"...Thank you, Detective Sir." The girl said.
Su Ming’an did not respond.
"...I thought my entire life would be just lingering in the back alley, then growing up to be easily bullied by others like the sisters in the slums... I had no expectations for myself." The girl said:
"—But because of you, I began to look forward to the future."
Su Ming’an turned over.
"Sleep." He said with his eyes closed.
The girl’s side remained silent.
Outside the window, the snow drifted lightly, brushing against the blurry window glass like pure white goose feathers, like the touch of angel wings.
Su Ming’an fell into deep sleep amidst the crackling sound of the fire. Warm firelight danced on his face, enveloping his closed eyelids in a layer of warmth.
After Su Ming’an fell asleep, the girl’s voice lightly floated up.
"...Detective Sir, today’s snow is so beautiful."
"Good night."