Chapter 28

Gradually, Catherine realized that this party was not as simple as it seemed.

It was probably just a meeting of the mafia under the pretext of Jenny's birthday, or perhaps a social gathering of some sort.

But one thing was certain: Jenny's grandfather, Old White, was likely a high-ranking member of the mafia.

At the very least, those few big shots chatting and laughing didn't seem to be there just to celebrate someone's birthday.

The party was even worse than Catherine had imagined, and she didn't even encounter the kind of flirtatious men found in novels.

Oh, and there was Jeffrey, but he seemed a bit far from being a "rich brat."

The entire party was rather dull, as everyone was engaged in conversation.

It seemed that the atmosphere wouldn't liven up until dinner time.

"Too bad, if only my package had arrived."

Catherine sounded a bit regretful.

"What?"

"A birthday gift~"

Catherine gave a mysterious smile but didn't say anything more.

But her luck seemed to be good today. As she was speaking, a servant walked up to Jenny and told her that the package had arrived.

"Maybe we should go see Kate's gift first?" Lily said with a smile.

Lily seemed to be the one among the friends who could liven up the atmosphere. Although the scene felt a bit cold, as long as she was there, the little princesses wouldn't feel lonely.

"Let's go~"

Lisa also urged from the side.

So, the five of them quietly slipped away.

When they arrived at Jenny's room, they saw a large box wrapped in paper placed in the middle of the room.

"What's this?"

Jenny was very curious.

"GameTV. I made it myself!"

Catherine smiled.

Although it took time to get familiar with the process, it still took Catherine a lot of time to make these things.

Of course, this time the product was much better than the last one.

Over the past few months, Catherine had been busy designing the appearance of GameTV, and now it was finally completed.

Everyone opened the cardboard box, and a television set was revealed. It was a color TV.

However, unlike ordinary TVs, this color TV had two controllers on either side. These weren't the miscellaneous controllers from the 1970s and 1980s but modern controllers with cross keys, which were also patented.

It's worth noting that the history of controllers went through a long period of "evolution" before people in the 21st century could enjoy a good "feel."

As for people in the 1970s to 1990s, not only were the controllers' feel different, but the standards for controllers were also inconsistent.

Catherine spent half a month refining the controllers to be similar to those of the future. Although they only had six buttons—up, down, left, right, A, and B—they looked quite good.

Catherine also designed the TV's casing. In those days, TVs were large wooden boxes, and some screens weren't even in the center!

Catherine's choice, although just a CRT TV from a few decades in the future, was already quite good-looking for this era.

At least, that's how it looked to Catherine.

After plugging in the power, the five of them turned on the TV.

Since there was no remote control, Catherine integrated the TV's remote functions into the controllers. In the middle of the controller, there were two switches: one to set the TV to cable mode and the other to game mode. The button below was for controlling the games. On the left was "Tetris" (now renamed "Emma Blocks"), and on the right was "Pong."

A few years later, pinball arcades would become popular in the United States, and "Pong" would also have its moment in the spotlight.

Moreover, "Pong" was one of the earliest games in the world, originally appearing on oscilloscopes. But now, the copyrights for these games belonged to Catherine.

And they were all cash cows.

Catherine first demonstrated "Emma Blocks" to everyone.

This was a purely electronic game, one that could only be played on an electronic device and couldn't be simulated in real life.

Catherine specially set up a two-player mode and changed the original black-and-white display to color, though this increased the storage capacity several times. Storage costs were quite high back then.

They were immediately captivated by the game.

"Really interesting."

How could it not be? This was a classic game that had stood the test of time for decades!

"Catherine, did you really make this yourself?"

Lily suddenly remembered what Catherine had said before.

"Yep, even the controllers were crafted by me, one by one~"

Catherine smiled.

"You crafted them yourself?!"

Lily looked at Catherine in disbelief, but she just nodded.

"Let me see."

Lily suddenly lifted Catherine's hand.

There was a layer of calluses on it, something Catherine hadn't noticed before, but now she did.

"Good heavens, you made your hands so rough?!"

When did Americans care about this?

Oh... the others were British (immigrants).

"This isn't a big deal, right?" Catherine still thought it was a bit of an overreaction.

"Hand care is very important!"

Ada, who seemed to care a lot about "nourishment," came over.

"I never use chemical products!" Catherine shook her head.

After all, women who regularly used skincare products had a shorter average lifespan...

"You don't need to use chemical products, and it's purely a waste of money. Just pay attention to it normally." Ada didn't seem to use much makeup either.

"Maybe you can teach her?" Lily looked at Ada and then back at Catherine.

She rolled her eyes.

Perhaps because she had once been a man, she had never paid much attention to these things, and the habits she had formed back then hadn't changed.

"By the way, Kate, you should also pay attention to your walking posture!" Lisa suddenly walked over.

"Huh?"

When did this gift-giving turn into a critique session?

"Right, Kate, you need to be careful. When you wear a skirt, you shouldn't stand with your legs apart like that!"

Lisa's words reminded Lily of Catherine's usual movements.

"Really interesting..."

On the side, Jenny had already cleared the second level of Tetris.

As Catherine had expected, as dusk approached, the big shots' conversations had ended.

Dinner time came quickly, but the five of them still hadn't appeared in the hall.

...

Sorry, it's a bit late. I'll continue. And please vote for me~