Chapter 71: Copycat

Monday morning, Wayne Enterprises.

Vivian, wearing a thick, dark-colored tunic and a small cap to warm her ears, frowned at her boss.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wayne, but I don't understand. Is it a camera capable of taking motion pictures?"

Why did that idea sound strange but familiar at the same time?

Harvey Wayne laughed amusedly and shook his head, "More or less. It's a camera that captures a sequence of movements.

"Think of it like this: it takes photos so fast that you get a scene when you put them all together."

Smiling, he patted the camera at his side and took some photos he had prepared.

They were of an apple, showing the sequence of how it was moving across a table. Her boss showed them individually, showing her the slow progress in each photo.

Once she had seen them all, the man put them in a pile in order, cut them in half, and quickly flipped them in front of her. The sequence of the moving apple was shown, and the woman couldn't help but look at him in surprise.

"That's impressive, I must admit." Vivian frowned, "but for that to work, shouldn't the camera be able to take a certain number of photos per second? Is that even possible?"

As far as she knew, the most advanced camera could barely take five photos per minute. The rate was nowhere near enough for the man's idea.

"That's right, that can be a problem, but what is a human if not a being that overcomes any challenge put in front of them?" Harvey smiled and moved the photos of the apple away.

"Think about it. It's not that it can't be done. It's just that it hasn't been tried yet." Laughing a little, her boss shook his head.

"But it would take years to get to that point, so we'll use something simpler but with many more possibilities."

"And what could that be, Mr. Wayne?" Vivian would be lying if this conversation wasn't fascinating.

Smiling, the man took a piece of paper and held it up before her. On it was a drawing of a strange but cute animal with big black ears and wearing white gloves.

"Is that... a cat?"

"A mouse, actually; we'll get to the cat in a moment." Smiling, the man tapped the drawing with one finger.

"Miss Vivian... Let me introduce you to the world's first cartoon..." Pausing for added drama, he continued after 3 seconds.

"I give you... Mickey Mouse!"

A strange sensation ran through her body as she heard the name, but the woman ignored it.

She blinked a little, lost.

"Dar.. cartoon?" Thinking about it for a few seconds, enlightenment shone in her eyes, "Is that something like the last pages of newspapers where they have horrible jokes with little pictures?"

"Close, but no." Harvey shook his head, "This is much better.

"Although the ability to take moving pictures is years away. The ability to see what could be is already here.

"All we have to do is capitalize and take it."

"I don't think I understand ..." Vivian held her head in confusion. This was already far beyond her area of expertise.

Harvey Wayne sighed and, after a moment, explained himself better.

"Think about the photo of the apple I showed you a moment ago. Now, instead of using something 'real,' let's use a drawing."

The Barbarian replaced the real thing with a hand-drawn image, as requested. She then imagined the same sequence of page-turning that she had been shown.

Her brow furrowed for a moment, and the woman repeated the scene several times before something clicked in her mind.

"By drawing it, the sequence of movements would be much easier to create! Brilliant!"

'So this is what a Wise Owl is... I would never have thought of doing that...' Vivian thought, amazed. After a moment, a problem presented itself.

How would they even show it?

It was really small, so they would need a giant drawing to show it to a medium-sized group of people.

She expressed her doubt to the man who, with a smile, took a flashlight from his desk.

With a wave of his hands, his white-haired guard, Abigail, closed the curtains.

The office fell into complete darkness...

Click!

With the press of a button, a beam of light shot out of the flashlight, hitting the thin paper of the drawing and passing through it.

Vivian watched in amazement as the same mouse, several times larger, was illuminated on the clean office wall. Its childlike but fun design stood out even more.

"Wow... is this... a cartoon?"

"It still needs the scene, but yes, that would be all." With a snap of his fingers, the office lamps lit up in orange flames, illuminating everything.

Turning off the flashlight and putting it away, Adryan put the drawing in his tunic and calmly looked at Barbarian.

"To bring these cartoons to life, I need you to help me do three things.

"First, I need a team of mechanical professionals to help me make the projector. I'll leave it to you to find them and ensure their trustworthiness. This is Waynes Enterprises's first project, so it's a secret.

"In the Technium district, there should be many of those kinds, although I feel you know some people with the skills I need." Smiling and ignoring how uncomfortable Vivian had suddenly become, the man continued.

"The second. I need artists, lots of them. Although being 'animated' makes the 'moving picture' theme possible. I will still need multiple drawings per scene; I need at least 10 skilled artists willing to work together. The same with musicians, I will need as many as you can get.

"The Artelia district will be full of artists desperate to find an opportunity to leave their names in history; grab them from there."

"Finally, the third one would be that once we have everything we need, we will patent everything.

"The projector, the cartoon idea, the Mickey Mouse character, the music, everything! I want everything to have the Wayne brand on it."

Laughing a little, Harvey leaned his cheeks against his knuckles and smiled mischievously.

"Once we have all that, the entertainment industry will be ours. You could say we will be remembered as the company that killed the theater!"

"Isn't calling your idea the 'Theater Killer' a bit of an exaggeration?" Vivian, although fascinated by what she was hearing, found the very idea of damaging an industry hundreds and even thousands of years old completely ridiculous.

"Times change, Miss Vivian, as do people. Something that might be considered classic and untouchable one day can become ancient and obsolete history the next." Harvey looked deeply into the woman's eyes and added.

"Never underestimate the growth of the human being."

"Ah... I... Okay..." Vivian paused a little in her words but still nodded somewhat tensely.

Those words were something she expected more from her grandfather, not from someone who didn't even seem half his age.

'Is this why he wanted me to join his company?'

Frowning slightly at the thought, the woman wrote down everything the man requested in a small notebook and hid it in her tunic.

"I'll see what I can do with your request. I'll try to give you an answer this Saturday or by Wednesday of next week at the latest. I'll have to talk to a few people."

Smiling, Adryan nodded. "Take your time, Miss Vivian. We're making history now. There's no hurry."

Vivian nodded slightly, and with a simple curtsy, she left the office, leaving the duo alone...

Making sure they were alone, Flora turned to look at her partner with a raised eyebrow.

"Although your idea seems like it will bring in good profits, are you really sure it will kill the theater?"

In her 200 years of life, many things had risen up trying to take on the theater and each and every one failed, none could stand up to one of the oldest attractions on the planet.

"Oh, my dear Abigail. I'm sorry you don't see the potential of this." Adryan winked at his partner.

"Firstly, although theater is deeply rooted in people's culture and customs, it still has many problems.

"One of them, and the biggest, is that a single mistake in the performance can completely ruin the act.

"That problem won't exist with my cartoons. If a drawing comes out wrong or a scene looks bad, we can just cut it out and redo it without wasting resources or ruining the performance.

"Not to mention that once we have a cartoon made, all we have to do is copy it, and we could project it in different theaters at the same time!

"There would be no need to wait for the performance to reach the country or to prepare the stage for the next act.

"You would only need a large white sheet, a projector, and the film reel. With those three elements, you could reproduce the cartoon from start to finish without interruption!"

Flora looked at her companion in amazement. This side of him was something she had not seen before. "I didn't know you had a talent for inventing..."

'Or rather copying. But that's what every transmigrator has.' Adryan said nothing; he just smiled.

The Biggest Copycat of All Time, or as the rest of the world knew him, the Great Emperor Roselle Gustav had taken credit for 'inventing' many things.

The guy invented so much that he left almost nothing for those who came after him; he took all the credit.

Luckily, even the great Emperor left out some things, such as the bicycle.

Although, what surprised Adryan most was that man hadn't invented cartoons.

'I understand he tried to create comics, but they failed miserably. Surely, this failure made him give up on animation and focus on other things.' Adryan thought for a while and was grateful that the man had given up so quickly.

Entertainment was undoubtedly one of the most valuable industries, if not the most valuable.

Whether it be video games, films, series, television programs... Nothing compared to the money that this industry generated.

An industry that, in this world, was extremely undervalued and underutilized. It was practically a gold mine—no, a diamond mine!

A mine of virgin diamonds waiting to be excavated!

And, oh, Adryan planned to dig very deep~

This here would be one of the bases for his company's growth.

Something so new and advanced would undoubtedly bring a lot of attention and stares, with that, money.

'Thank you for giving me a unique opportunity, Dear Huang Tao. I promise to make the most of it with lots of love~' Laughing with great pleasure, the dark-haired man relaxed in his seat.

Amid his inner thoughts, the sudden voice of his companion brought him back to reality.

"Hey..."

"Mmm?" Opening one eye, he looked curiously at the fair-haired girl with the tips of her ears red.

"... That... Mickey Mouse..."

"..."

"You... didn't base him on me, did you?"

"..."

"..."

"Pff-" Covering his mouth and barely holding back his laughter, the dark-haired man began to shake violently.

For a moment, Flora thought the answer to her question was yes and was about to complain when she saw the man's incredulous expression.

"Wait... You didn't?" Genuinely surprised, the woman looked with open eyes at her companion.

Such clear surprise was too much for the man, who banged his head against his desk and began to laugh out loud. "HAHAHA!"

...

Several hours later. 3:00 p.m.

Above the Gray Fog, in the palace of the giants, several crimson flashes, together with a crimson flare, surrounded a moldy bronze table.

Audrey Hall was already preparing to give her usual greeting when she noticed a new figure at the bottom of the table.

'A new member?!' Somewhat surprised, her movements paused for a moment.

This caught the attention of the Hanged Man, the Sun and the Magician, who also looked to the bottom of the table towards the new figure.

'Well, hello there~' Smiling mischievously at the man next to him, Adryan couldn't help but chuckle internally.

"This here is our new member: Mr World." The Fool Klein said calmly, with a small smile as he introduced his smurf account.