Chapter 1003: A Panoramic Display of Capitalist Decadence
The next part of the story should be called "The Struggling Life of Franklin, a Black Guy from the Lighthouse Country." Although Zou Zhuo couldn't really relate to this black guy, in the first-person perspective, he couldn't see his own face anyway.
After earning the "Employee of the Month" award, Franklin and Lamar went to retrieve a lime-green motorcycle. They ended up in gang territory, and before anyone could say a word, a gunfight broke out. Just to steal a motorcycle, Franklin and Lamar massacred the entire street.
Zou Zhuo was stunned: "Are the young people in the Lighthouse Country really this fierce? They wipe out entire families over nothing? Don't the cops do anything about it?"
On the road, Zou Zhuo also ran into a shootout between a gang and the police. A police car and a gang vehicle crashed into each other, and both sides exchanged heavy fire, causing a traffic jam. Zou Zhuo initially wanted to detour around it, but then he watched helplessly as two bundles of cash fell from a guy who got shot dead...
Zou Zhuo carefully crept over, and these idiot NPCs treated him like air, as if he were just a passerby. Zou Zhuo happily picked up a few hundred dollars.
"This is truly the simple folk of Los Santos—no one picks up lost items! So much money lying on the ground, and no one takes it. I guess I'll have to do the honors," Zou Zhuo said smugly.
Next mission: Franklin and Lamar took their dog, Chop, to get revenge on a gang member. The guy ran fast during the chase, so Chop came in handy.
"Go, Chop, find that idiot!"
As Franklin gave the command, Zou Zhuo saw his camera zoom in rapidly toward Chop, and then... his perspective shifted to a tiny, low-angle view.
Zou Zhuo looked around in panic and realized his height was only as tall as a train wheel.
"I... I've turned into a dog?! Holy crap!"
Zou Zhuo was speechless. Was there really a plot like this?
But honestly, the feeling was kind of unique...
With all four paws on the ground, he felt like he was running as fast as the wind. Experiencing movements that a human could never replicate, Zou Zhuo suddenly understood why some people say they're "tired as a dog"—it's totally unreasonable, because dogs aren't tired at all!
Earlier, when he was controlling Franklin to run this same distance, he was already panting and exhausted. But Chop ran like he was flying, effortlessly...
And Zou Zhuo's entire field of vision had changed. Dogs aren't strictly colorblind, but they are color-weak—they can't distinguish yellow, green, or red, but they can tell apart different shades of blue, purple, and gray. To Zou Zhuo, it felt like a filter had been applied to everything in front of him. The bright colors became very dull, but it didn't hinder his movement.
With his four dog paws stepping on the gravel of the railway bed through their pads, Zou Zhuo suddenly had the illusion that being a dog wasn't so bad... At least this running sensation was way more comfortable than being human.
The only downside was having to keep his tongue out, constantly worried about drool flying everywhere.
A faint smell lingered in the air—neither fragrant nor foul. As long as he followed that scent, he could track down the guy's location.
But as he ran, Zou Zhuo suddenly felt Chop's body go out of control. The dog turned and ran toward the other side of the tracks.
"What's going on? You shouldn't be going this way, Chop?"
Zou Zhuo's perspective switched back to Franklin, who chased after him. He saw Chop run up to a yellow dog by the roadside, sniff its butt, then climb on top and start doing some... indescribable movements...
Franklin complained, "Damn it, Chop, that's a male dog! You horny mutt, you're not picky at all, huh?!"
The bullet comments exploded. This game really knew how to mess with people!
Not only did it let players experience a dog's first-person perspective, but it also deliberately included a scene of a dog humping another dog?
Zou Zhuo was at a loss for words: "I really have been screwed by a dog!"
The bullet comments all chimed in: "You really did get screwed by a dog, no mistake! That's a literal dog screw!"
Now Zou Zhuo understood why Chen Mo said this game had absolutely no content suitable for children. He was completely right.
Look at the protagonist's daily routine: stealing cars, fighting and killing with gangs, watching gang members do drugs and hire prostitutes in alleys, stalking celebrities with paparazzi... Even a pure dog gets corrupted by the decadent, money-driven capitalism and happily hooks up with another male dog.
These missions were scattered all over the city. Although the current plot was mostly in the same district, the mission locations were still a bit apart. While speeding or driving to the next spot, Franklin and Lamar would keep chatting, filling the boring drive time.
The dialogue was pretty interesting, full of complaints and jokes.
As for the content of the chats... hmm...
At first, Zou Zhuo wondered why the game didn't have a Chinese voiceover, but looking at the dialogue, it was clear that a Chinese dub would be nearly impossible.
On one hand, each character had their own accent. For example, Franklin and Lamar, as black guys, naturally had a rap-like rhythm in their speech, while the accents of car shop owner Simeon, Michael, and Trevor all had subtle differences. If dubbed in Chinese, these distinctions would be almost impossible to replicate—how could a domestic voice actor mimic that unique black vibe?
On the other hand, translation added another layer of separation. For instance, Lamar often used the N-word. Translated into Chinese, it would be "black ghost," but when Lamar said it, he always drew out the pronunciation and added a very distinctive trill at the end. These small details would be nearly impossible to convey in a Chinese dub.
In other words, a Chinese voiceover would likely severely diminish the game's unique flavor, and the authentic cultural nuances would be somewhat ruined.
Additionally, with so much profanity, a Chinese dub would be too awkward and could cause unnecessary trouble domestically.
After all, this was a story set in the Lighthouse Country. If the black guy Franklin constantly cursed with phrases like "grass mud horse" or "your mother's paralysis," it would sound weird and risk being seen as "teaching people to swear." But using English audio created a buffer, avoiding a lot of headaches.
Even the viewers in Little Fatty's livestream were dumbfounded. It felt like Chen Mo had really let himself go...
Was this plot meant to fully showcase the evils of capitalism? But honestly, it did make the people of the Lighthouse Country seem like they were living in a world of suffering!
Prostitution and robbery were everywhere on the streets, and a simple disagreement could lead to a police-gang shootout. Forget about home invasions and hit-and-runs—those were just basic operations.
But you had to admit, GTA had a very unique quality. Chen Mo had made many games that were hard to pass censorship before, like "Outlast" and "Prototype," but those mainly relied on visual presentation—gory, violent, and terrifying.
GTA was different. It depicted real-life scenes, without all the splattering blood, terrifying monsters, or superpowers that could kill everything in sight. Yet this sense of realism brought players an unprecedented thrill, even more adrenaline-pumping than all that flying gore.