abcnovels
Chapter 33.1: Players Inner Circle
Chapter 33.1: Players Inner Circle
Chapter 33.1: Players' Inner Circle
That very same evening, the ten helmets that should still have been in transit at the logistics center arrived in the hands of the task force that had personally traveled to G Province.
When forcibly dismantling a helmet, they were surprised to discover that the contact area between the helmet and the back of the head would turn into powder once pried opened. Thus, the task force halted this wasteful behavior and proceeded with the experiment on equipping comatose patients with helmets.
Comatose patients were unable to connect to the official website or fill in their own IDs, so the scientists decided to randomly assign an ID and equip the patients with the login helmet.
At the same time, to check if the consciousness of comatose patients would appear "in-game," Lu Yiyun took a helmet for herself and filled in her own real name as the ID in order to accompany the comatose patients in "logging in" to the game.
Soon, a skeleton with the name "Lu Yiyun" displayed above its head appeared at Exile Town's spawn point.
Lu Yiyun surveyed her surroundings in amazement. The place didn't seem like a virtual game, but rather, a physical and real world.
In the spirit of scientific investigation, Director Lu tried taking a deep breath. She noticed that although she was controlling a skeletal frame and could feel the airflow rushing into her mouth during the "breathing" motion, the airflow stopped once it reached the mouth and couldn't actually be inhaled.
She then moved her "body" and discovered that it was incredibly agile. There was no stiffness when she moved, and due to the skeleton frame weighing 60% less than a normal human body, Director Lu found that she could easily jump up and down as if she was twenty years of age, even though she was over forty in the real world.
While Director Lu stood around curiously exploring the spawn point, several players clad in T-shirts and shorts with green names above their heads passed by and stared at her in shock.
"Is that a new player?? Have new closed beta accounts been released?!"
"I did see on the forum in the afternoon that they were issuing new accounts, but there wasn't any official announcement regarding how the accounts would be distributed!"
"Whoa, did those unscrupulous developers release new accounts? That's some shady business!"
"Quick, let's log out and check the forum!"
The few players rushed onto the spawn point's platform in a hurry.
Lu Yiyun watched with wide eyes as these skeleton players sank into the ground, mouth agape in disbelief as she approached the spot where they disappeared.
Before she could make any sense of what she had witnessed, the players who had just sunk down began to reemerge from the ground in succession.
"They distributed the accounts without any official announcement! Those damn developers truly pulled off some dirty tricks!"
"Damn it, I was just about to help my mom apply for an account. She's been bedridden for months after a leg injury."
These players started complaining the moment they logged in. One player noticed Lu Yiyun was still around at the spawn point and boldly approached her. "Dude, how did you get your account? Did you trade with the developers or have some connections?"
"Um…" was all Lu Yiyun could say.
"Ah, it's a girl. Sorry about that," the player quickly corrected himself and spoke more sincerely, "Could you tell me how you got the new account? I want to get one for my mom too."
Being in her forties, Lu Yiyun felt incredibly awkward at being addressed as a girl by this clueless player. She hesitated and replied, "Well… I'm sorry, young man, but I can't provide specific details. In any case, it's not what you guys are thinking."
That player quickly realized that the person he had mistaken for a young girl was probably not around the same age as his mother. Feeling slightly intimidated, he said sheepishly, "Sorry to bother you, Auntie."
As those players walked away, Lu Yiyun could still hear them muttering stuff like, "Told you not to just call anyone a girl," and "How was I supposed to know?"
Lu Yiyun shook her head and stood at the spawn point, waiting.
After about 10 minutes, her heart sank when she still didn't see anyone come "online."
She logged out of the game, and the faces of people in the room grew dim as they saw her expression.
Lu Yiyun took a deep breath. "Next patient, please."
The helmet that was on Patient 1's head was now transferred to Patient 2.
After 10 minutes, it was changed to Patient 3.
After three consecutive tries, the scientists in the task force had to accept the reality.
"After the helmet is put on a patient, there is a brief fluctuation in their brain waves and magnetic resonance imaging, though it isn't as clear as that of a normal person's brain wave imaging," sighed one of the experts in the neuroscience field. "This does confirm our speculation that the helmet operates by reading brain wave signals. However, the brain wave activity generated by the interaction of the patients' neurons is too weak, and likely the reason for the failure of this experiment."
Lu Yiyun nodded solemnly and let out a long sigh.
Neural electrical signals discovered and verified by Earth's scientists had similarities to the theory of mental energy fluctuations in the magic plane.
The mental imprints embedded in the helmets by Yang Qiu had already been greatly watered down to adapt to the average mental strength of a person from Earth. However, regardless of how weakened it was, activating the mental imprints and entering the matrix still required mental energy within the standard range, which meant the brain wave activity of a normal person.
Of course, the scientists would not give up so easily. Even though the patients' consciousness could not awaken in the "game," the brief activity in their brain wave imaging while the helmet was equipped still had research value.
As the scientific team discussed how to use the helmets to provide "massage" and stimulation therapy for patients in vegetative states, one of the helmets, under Professor Yin Zhengliang's instructions, was sent to a military hospital in G Province.
Saturday, October 12, 11 a.m. Earth time.
A special new player came online at Exile Town's spawn point.
Unlike ordinary players who curiously surveyed the surroundings in awe when they logged in, being curious about this world that felt so realistic and unlike a game, this new player… seemed more curious about himself.
From the moment he entered the game, the player kept his head down, looking at his own two feet. Then, he carefully lifted one foot up, seemingly cherishing the moment, before lowering it. Then he lifted it again, then lowered it, repeating the steps over and over.
The sensation of being grounded seemed to deeply resonate with the new player. He slowly squatted down and gently caressed the bony feet with his hands, fully focused on his actions.
Several seconds later, the new player suddenly stood up and began sprinting down the streets like a madman.
"What the hell! Watch where you are going!" A group of players heading to log out at the spawn point were nearly knocked into and shouted out.
"Sorry about that!" the new player turned around and apologized, but didn't stop running and continued on ahead.
"Wait a minute. Ji Tang? I haven't seen that ID before, and he's not wearing any clothes. A new player?!" The player who narrowly avoided a collision watched in shock as the naked skeleton ran off into the distance. "Damn, so what they said on the forum was true! The development team issued new accounts?!"
"Yeah, even if they aren't issued out, it's not easy to get an account now. Helmets that aren't bound to any account are sold for five-figure prices," one of the player's friends remarked. "Come on, let's log out for a quick meal. After lunch, we can join Boss Vanilla and the others to explore the Spider Cave."
Another of their friends shook his head. "You guys go ahead and grind later. I don't feel like going to feed and will head back to clear some quests till I reach level 1 and change jobs."
"Come on, Lao San. Lost your motivation after just a few wipes yesterday?"
"It's different, bro. Being wiped in other games means being able to retry right away. But, in this game, you are kicked offline and have to wait for half an hour. It's just too frustrating…"
"What's the difference? If we get team wiped during a Neferian raid, we still have gotta waste half an hour." [TL note: World of Warcraft reference]
"Haa, too difficult. This game is just too difficult."
Not long after this group logged out, other groups of laboring players also rushed to the spawn point to log out in groups of twos and threes to have meals since the advanced NPCs had gotten off work.