Virtual Reality: Against the Flow Chapter 1

Chapter 1:  My DIY ability is practically out of this world

One afternoon in the summer of the year 21XX, a wave of jarring clattering noises constantly rang out from the 24th floor of a regular residential building in China’s XS city. During this quiet afternoon it was especially noisy and upsetting.

Room 2402, inside of a hundred square meter room, a black haired youth was raising a hammer with one hand and holding onto an iron bracket with another. He was vigorously striking the foot of the bracket. Due to the size of the bracket appearing to not be appropriate, it cannot fit very well. The youth was in the middle of trying hard to force the bracket into an appropriate shape.

With a “Bang”, following the youth’s heavy hammer, the entire bracket suddenly got stuck into a place that it originally couldn’t enter, the entire object was also basically completed. At first glance, this is something a bit like a large ma.s.sage chair. The size is a bit bigger than a ma.s.sage chair, but there is a semicircular “cover” at the head of the chair. It feels like that machine in barbershops for perms, but the top of the cover is densely filled with all kinds of wires. Of course, these wire are simply too messy, it’s clearly the homemade path. In the current 22nd century, it’s simply impossible for this kind of bare wire “electric appliance” to leave the factory.

Beside the “ma.s.sage chair” there is also a regular home computer. Of course, because the pc and screen of computers nowadays have already been integrated together, there is only a display screen. On the screen there is black text on a white background, filled with a bunch of dense rows of english and arabic numbers. Even a professional computer scientist might not be able to to understand what it is.

“Complete!” Following a bracket afterwards being set in place, the youth slightly wiped his sweat and then revealed a grin: “My DIY ability is practically out of this world, just 3 days time and I completed the game capsule. Sky Corporation thought I couldn’t play this game just because I have a record in the public security bureau. I can make my own game capsule in just 3 days, let me see how you guys stop me from playing.  Lets do some slight debugging on the code and test if I can connect to Sky’s network.”

The youth just picked up the wireless keyboard by his hand and wanted to type when the sound of knocking travelled over from the door. At the same time a female voice yelled loudly: “Open the door! Li Huailin, open the door!”

“Uh…” Li Huailin did happen to recognize the voice at the door. He rubbed his nose a bit helplessly by still walked over and opened the door.

“I say Big Sis Juan, is there a need to yell so loudly, one would think that I owe you something.” Li Huailin opened the door. A mature woman who looked to be less than 30 years old was looking at him with an angry face. This woman may not be young, but her eyes are big and her chin is pointed. She has a perfect face emanating with charm, adding her killer body she is simply the drop dead gorgeous type. But right now this beauty is staring at Li Huailin with a face of anger. Although besides anger, she also has an expression of fatigue on her face.

“Do you know what time it is right now?” Seeing Li Huailin, the beauty immediately asked with glaring eyes.

Li Huailin looked at the digital watch on his wrist: “I know, it’s 2:14 in the afternoon. I say Bis Si Juan, is there a need to knock so loudly to ask for the time.”

“Don’t you know what time I go to work? Don’t you know that I need to catch up on sleep in the afternoon?!” Bis Sis Juan looked at Li Huailin who was acting dumb and grew even angrier: “It’s already been three days, what are you doing with all that banging. Chainsaw sounds one moment, hammering sounds another. How am I supposed to catch up on sleep, how am I supposed to go to work at night?”

The beauty’s name is Chen Juan, she lives in room 2401 of this building. Simply put she is Li Huailin’s neighbor. And her so called “work” is actually just going to some nightclub or bar every night and then catching a rich idiot. If she’s lucky she’ll have her living expenses for a few months or a year. Chen Juan doesn’t have a fixed job, usually she just relies on her good looks to find a man for a living. Sometimes she also does part-time jobs, being a temporary model or walking the runway for a living. Her “work” time starts from five at night. The afternoon and morning are all her sleeping time. For these past three days starting from 8 in the morning Li Huailin already started to hammer around, causing her to be unable to sleep well for three days already. Thus she’s been complaining continuously for three days. Speaking of it, even though Li Huailin knows that he has this neighbor, due to their timetables being too different they’ve never really talked much. The amount of words spoken these past three days is even more than the amount of words spoken between the two since he moved here until now.

“Today really is the last day, I really am done.” Li Huailin smiled helplessly. Even though he is indeed a bit noisy, but he is working during the day. It’s not like he’s causing a disturbance at night. But encountering this kind of person who has turned night into day and is also a woman, how do you reason with her.

“I haven’t slept well for three days already, look at these dark rings under my eyes.” Chen Juan used her finger pointing at her eyes and said still mad: “How do I go to work like this, if there isn’t a guy will you take care of me.”

“Don’t joke around, one of your bags is worth my living expenses for one year.” Li Huailin smiled: “More like you take care of me.”

“Hm?” Hearing this line, Chen Juan put away her anger for some reason. Her eyes looked Li Huailin up and down and she then revealed an evil grin: “That works too you little cutie, how’s about big sis take care of you from now on.”

“Hehe.” Li Huailin helplessly shook his head, “I have a bit more trust in my left hand. Big Sis Juan, it’s not early anymore, how’s about you go back and sleep. Don’t you still have to work at night, this time I really won’t be noisy, absolutely not.”

“Don’t be like that, bis sis’ left hand is also very formidable.” While speaking, Chen Juan also used her left hand and made an up and down motion. At the same time her body softened and a strong seductive charm flooded out.

“I sell my skills but not my body, no force can bend me, obscenity cannot move me.” Li Huailing raised his head high and said straight-faced.

“Humph.” Chen Juan tossed her head, “You’d better really not bother me anymore, or else bis sis will really push you down you virgin boy.”

“That’s not pushing me down, that’s plain rape.” Li Huailin corrected.

“That’s right, what can do with me.” Chen Juan grinned saying.

“Please spare me oh mighty hero…” Li Huailin said a bit speechlessly.

“Humph, keep your eyes more open in the future, don’t mess with someone you can’t afford to.” Chen Juan stuck out that pair of white rabbits that not even her clothes can cover and said cheekily: “I’ll forgive you this time. We have a deal, bis sis is going to sleep right now, you’d better not bother me again.”

“You are as forgiving as the sea your Excellency.” Li Huailin brought his fists together and bowed to her.

“Heehee.” This action made Chen Juan laugh. She covered her mouth and once again used a provocative expression to look Li Huailin up and down and then left.

Sending away Chen Juan, Li Huailin was finally able to go back and complete his work. Picking up the keyboard in his hands, the look in Li Huailin’s eyes changed and his two hands then suddenly started to madly type. If a regular person were to see this , they would think that he’s just randomly typing, because his speed is honestly too fast. Even typing isn’t this fast, not to mention he is coding.

“Should be okay.” Looking at the white words that appeared on the display screen, Li Huailin muttered to himself, “Speaking of it, Sky Corporation is really f.u.c.king black-hearted. One game capsule is 599998 yuan. The cost for a set of materials for this self-made version of mine is just a little over 20 thousand. It’s just the processor that’s a bit expensive, everything else doesn’t even cost much…”

Thinking of what happened three days ago, Li Huailin was still a bit angry even now. Three days ago, he saw an advertis.e.m.e.nt saying Sky Corporation teamed up with the government and developed a game that transcends the era. Its name is 《Heart of Glory》. Supposedly it’s a virtual reality game with 98% realism. Not only in China, there are also servers in other countries. Moreover they say that not too far from now there will be a new version update and there will be cross-server combat, that is cross-server wars between countries.

《Heart of Glory》 had yet to go into service but their advertis.e.m.e.nts were already all over the place. It was hard for Li Huailin to not know. In the 22nd century, playing online games has also become an occupation that the public can accept, it’s already very normal. Although this time it’s a bit strange, because the government is actually openly supporting 《Heart of Glory》. Moreover they’re encourage people without jobs to also partic.i.p.ate in the online game. As long as their time online reaches 90 hours every month, they can obtain a 2000 yuan grant from the government.

In the 22nd century after productivity rapidly developed, the need for human manpower is becoming increasingly lower. For farming there are large-scale farming machines, for raising livestock there are large-scale factory farms. Computers and the internet have replaced the majority of manual labour work. A large company with originally tens of thousands of people, now just a couple hundred people are enough. Adding that the global population is becoming greater and greater, ten years ago it already surpa.s.sed 10 billion, thus the number of unemployed people is becoming greater and greater. To reduce stress, this time the government teamed up with Sky Corporation as an experiment and pushed out 《Heart of Glory》.

Being able to play a game and there’s also money to get, this is an extremely comfortable thing. Li Huailin also thought about playing it after seeing this promotion, but right when he went to go buy the helmet he encountered trouble. It’s not that he couldn’t afford it. One game capsule is indeed 599998, but for the majority of poor people there is also a cheap version of the virtual reality helmet that is only 19998. It’s not expensive, the problem that Li Huailin encountered is that he can’t buy it.

“Sorry sir, based on records you have a criminal record, so you do not have the qualification to buy a game helmet.” A support staff said with a smile to Li Huailin.

“There’s such a thing, why didn’t you say in your promotion that those with a criminal record can’t buy it. I ran all the way here from so far away and you’re telling me now that I can’t buy it?” Li Huailin lined up for half a day before knowing that he couldn’t buy it, of course he’s not in a good mood.

“This…This is the policy…” The support staff could only explain calmly, “Look at the bottom right corner of the flyer, it actually is written.”

Li Huailin looked at the flyer again. At the bottom right corner position he really did discover that line of words.

Thus Li Huailin came back.

Just like this Li Huailin who became more upset the more he thought about it started to go astray, “This helmet is just made from some brainwave harvesting devices and imagers, why don’t I just make one myself? With just this bit of low-tech, I should also be able to make one too. And then I’ll write a code to connect to Sky’s network and I’ll be able to play.”

Trying like this for three days, Li Huailin basically completed this self-made game capsule. Even though from the appearance it is entirely incomparable to the game capsule made by the big manufacturing company, it has all of the basic functions and equipment.

“Let’s hurry up and test this and see if it can connect to the official network.” Recalling his memories, Li Hualin sat on this self-made game capsule a bit impatiently. The head cover above his head came down and with a press of his finger, he very soon entered into the connection state.

Li Huailin felt a wave of darkness. Waiting for 10 seconds, right when he thought it was no good, the logo for Sky Corporation suddenly popped out in front of his eyes. Afterwards it was another wave of darkness and 10 seconds later, the opening animation started to play.

Li Huailin already saw this opening animation before on the official website so he didn’t really care about it. But after just playing for two seconds, the picture suddenly stutteringfor a moment. Afterwards the scene of an old battlefield with a myriad of races engaging in hot-blooded combat suddenly had a whole bunch of wrong images stutter in. Originally tens of thousands of people were fighting on a plain and suddenly the ground stuttered into the ocean, just like that tens of thousands of people were fighting while “standing” on the ocean. Originally the city in the distance was still fuming with smoke and on fire, suddenly it stuttered into a forest with limitless forest fluttering everywhere.

“Huh huh? What the h.e.l.l, an error?” Li Huailin stared baffled at the scene in front of his eyes. Not waiting for him to figure out what was going on, the animation on this side had already finished playing. Li Huailin felt his body become light and then a white palace appeared before his eyes.

“The character creation interface… This place is more normal, what was that just now, is it a problem with my black technology?” Li Huailin didn’t figure things out but he didn’t care either.

“《Heart of Glory》welcomes you, please create your character.” Suddenly a very hoa.r.s.e voice travelled over from behind Li Huailin. The voice was honestly very strange. Not only is it raspy, it also feels like the dragging sound emitted when the radio dies.

Lifting his head and taking a look, Li Huailin instantly jumped in fright. In front of him is a female wearing white clothes. It’s probably a female because Li Huailin can only see her body, and her face is dragging two long black bars that cut her face into three pieces. Don’t mention whether or not he can tell if it’s a female, he can’t even tell if it’s a human.

“Wh… What demon art thou?”

“I am the novice attendant in 《Heart of Glory》responsible for character creation.” This censored figure responded using a super raspy and terrifying voice.

“Whoa-whoa, are you guys really not afraid of scaring little kids, coming up with such a terrifying character to be the novice receptionist?” Li Huailin wiped his face.

“Please create your character.” The novice receptionist is just a computer program. Without the mention of keywords she can only repeat the standard answer.

“Okay okay, even though it’s a bit scary lets make my character…” Li Huailin accepted this terrifying face and started creating his character.

“Character name.” The novice attendant started the procedural questioning.

“Xiong Huai Ruo Lin.” Actually this name is a name that Li Huailin’s dad saw from a book when he was naming him, afterwards Li Huailin has always used this as his username. (TL: Name means “heart as big as the forest”)

“Name is not taken.” The novice attendant still used a hoa.r.s.e, unpleasant voice saying, “Confirm?”

“Confirm.”

“Please choose your race.” After the novice attendant just finished speaking, a virtual panel appeared in front of Li Huailin. On it there are the descriptions and racial traits of the six races (Human, Dwarf, Demon, Elf, Demon, Beast, Undead).

Li Huailin has actually already read the descriptions of these races on the official website. Taking a glance right now, he still feels that the human’s racial gift knowledge (Intelligence + 10%) and diplomacy (Besides main human cities, reputation with the main cities of all races + 10) are more suitable for himself. Afterall his goal is to train a mage. Of the six races there’s also only humans who add intelligence, and intelligence can increase magic damage. So a human mage is more reliable. As for the diplomacy gift, it’s just an extra gift, it’s better than nothing. Li Huailin didn’t really attach any importance to it either, after all it’s just 10 points of reputation. It’s the level of buying items in main cities for 5% cheaper. If he wants to increase it more he still has to do quests, there isn’t a big use.

As for picking his cla.s.s, he has to wait until after LV10 and leaving the novice village and then finding the cla.s.s trainers in the main city before being able to change cla.s.s. So after choosing your race you just enter straight into the game.

“Human selected, confirm?”

“Confirm.”

“I wish you have a good time playing.”

Even though the novice attendant’s words are not bad, this voice is too… Although not waiting for Li Huailin to wrinkle his brow for a moment, his vision went black and the next time he opened his eyes again, Li Huailin had already appeared in a small village.

Li Huailin slightly blanked, because the surrounding scenery is honestly too realistic. Even though he’s also played some virtual reality online games before, he could still see some unreal looks. But with this time’s 《Heart of Glory》, it truly did shock Li Huailin.

Simple and real houses, a beautiful and peaceful environment. Li Huailin inhaled a shallow breath and discovered that even the air was like it was real. Looking at the surrounding players who ran by in small groups, Li Huailin involuntarily raised his right hand and slightly clenched his fist feeling his body.

“It truly is freaking awesome.  To think that this online game really does have a 98% degree of realism. It’s worth it for me to come and play.” While speaking Li Huailin also smiled in self-satisfaction, “To think that my self-made game capsule really does work. Sky Corporation is just this level.”

Finishing speaking, Li Huailin used his experience from past online games and whispered, “Character”, an interface popped out.

Name: Xiong Huai Ruo Lin

Cla.s.s: None (Yet to change cla.s.s)

Support Cla.s.s: None

Level: 1

Experience: 0/50

Stats

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

Attack: 4-7

Defense: 2-4

Magic Attack: 4-7

Magic Defense: 2-2

Strength: 7 (Affects physical attack. The scope of influence is related to the cla.s.s, in other words, physical cla.s.ses adding strength will get a higher increase in attack than magic cla.s.ses)

Dexterity: 9 (Affects attack speed, movement speed, minorly increases defense)

Const.i.tution: 5 (Affects HP, greatly increases defense)

Intelligence: 7 (Affects magic attack and magic critical, scope of influence is related to the cla.s.s)

Wisdom: 5 (Increases MP, mana recovery speed, magic defense)

Luck: 5 (Mysterious attribute, increases critical rate, drop rate, quest triggering conditions, etc)

Fame: 0

Skills: “Smash (LV1: 0/200): A fierce attack, adds 5 points of attack. Active, Mana Consumption: 5, Cooldown Time: 15 seconds. Can be upgraded.

Racial Gift:

Knowledge: Intelligence-10%

Diplomacy: Besides main human cities, reputation with the main cities of all races-10

“Holy s.h.i.t, what the f.u.c.k?” Looking at the character stats Li Huailin was shocked.