Su Ming’an imdiately skimd past those exorbitantly priced courses, looking at so courses priced more affordably.
"Elentary Dance Course," "Elentary Music Course," "Elentary Drawing Skill Course" are priced at 5 Kel per sester, which is an acceptable price. "Elentary Literature Course," "Elentary Engineering Course," these knowledge-oriented courses are slightly more expensive, with a price of 20 Kel per sester. The cheaper ones are skill-oriented courses like "Elentary Cooking Course," "Elentary Tailoring Course," "Elentary Forging Course," priced between 2 to 5 Kel per sester.
The reason is simple—different faculty strength. For instance, "Elentary Military Course," children need to attend the military school in the Royal City, where teachers are retired think tanks from the military. Whereas for "Elentary 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 "Elentary 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 enhancents.
"It’s really... realistic," Su Ming’an thought. This is sowhat 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. Nurous 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 ga. The ga’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 so books ho from ti to ti, 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 so well."
"Detective: Don’t think of 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 , you did indeed save . 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," "Ho 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 ti to nurture their children. If you always make the child work, the child would hardly have ti 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 gas; 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 mont, even if the background music around sounded relaxed and warm, Su Ming’an didn’t feel this ga 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 nad 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 outco awaits, Su Ming’an cannot nurture a leisurely artist like Su Luoluo. This girl will definitely be involved in extrely important matters in the end.
Su Ming’an recalls, at the beginning of the ga, the ga 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 ga’s hint text erged:
"Players can earn money through their own efforts. But please note, you are not a bystander in this ga, you are part of the ga. 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 ntal collapse, please be cautious."
...
The background of this ga 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 ga.
"Detective: Alice, I’m going out for a bit, to find so 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 ti to go out.
He glanced through the books at ho, the Royal City’s guest reception ti is generally at noon, so it seems he must wait until dayti.
"Detective: Then I’ll just exit the ga... Hm?"
...
Su Ming’an was about to exit the ga when the ga’s prompt popped out:
"Due to this ga being a nurturing ga with a large ti span. Please arrange your child’s schedule for the next sester before exiting the ga each ti."
"Please note: Every midnight and noon are the ti nodes for crossing ’one sester.’
...
Su Ming’an understood—it’s now 3 a.m., by noon 12, the ga’s ti will suddenly leap forward a sester, just like the ti jump of the Kaius Tower once was. When players go offline during Catastrophe Year 32, coming online might already be Catastrophe Year 42.
Nurturing gas are generally like this, once the player has arranged the child’s schedule, the ti will automatically push forward.
In "Girl Dream Project," the ti advancent period is fixed—"every twelve hours, instantaneously advancing ’one sester.’
"Detective: This seems... As the real-world passes half a day, this ga will pass half a year. As the real-world passes a whole day, this ga will pass a whole year. And so forth."
"Detective: Which ans, I have to arrange Alice’s schedule for the next sester because if I go online after noon 12, ti 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 soone 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 beco a money-driven social machine, recognized as a successful person by societal standards?
These questions might have significance in tis of resource abundance, but in an era where war is imminent, Su Ming’an hoped more for Alice to beco stronger so that she could survive in the future.
[Detective: Alice. I want you to beco stronger. As for dancing, drawing, and playing musical instrunts, 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 . If you can afford to send to school, I should be even more grateful. No matter what you want 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 sester, tell whatever you want to do. Once the second sester arrives, you’ll be old enough to go to school.]
[Girl: Detective Sir. I... I’m a little interested in dicine, can you let 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 inco per sester, a rather ordinary job. The job description was: [Let the child be a helper at the nurse station on the next street, doing so miscellaneous tasks like transporting dical supplies and bookkeeping.]
Ga 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 ga is not a simple Steam Age. Many things seem like icebergs subrged 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 beco 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 ho and rest for half a year without needing to go out and work.]
[Girl: It’s alright. Aunt Jenny from the nurse station is soone I know, she’s a kind-hearted person, sotis helping street kids like us. If I can work there, she will teach dical knowledge, and for that alone, I am quite satisfied. Please, grant this, Sir.]
...
Seeing this, Su Ming’an chose the [Nurse Station Helper] option. The next mont, a line of text appears in the [Schedule]:
[First Sester: Nurse Station Helper].
When this line of text erged, all other courses and jobs dimd, indicating that only one activity could be arranged for the child each sester.
[Detective: Alice, I have already arranged your schedule. I will leave for a mont.]
[Girl: Okay, Detective Sir.]
...
Su Ming’an exited the ga to test sothing, and he found that upon exiting the ga, the detective in the ga also disappeared, leaving only Alice in the room.
Considering the possibility of Alice being unsafe alone, Su Ming’an decided to sleep in the ga tonight and temporarily not exit the ga.
[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 so 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 ca 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."
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