Qin Hong quickly woke up thanks to his powerful soul. He immediately went on alert and surveyed his directions.
He was surrounded by bast jungle all around him. Clouds were in the sky and the sun hanged in the middle. A little ahead of him was an abandoned temple made of stone. The temple had plenty of cracks and erosion on it's surface while being covered in vines and trees.
The temple looked like it had been abandoned for hundreds of years.
Qin moved his body and it felt like normal. His divine sense was normal, and he scanned the area around him to find it no different than reality.
Suddenly, a blue hovering interface appeared in front of him.
[Welcome back Wei Chen!]
[Username:_________]
[Password:__________]
[Background Settings]
Upon realizing that this was virtual reality, he relaxed his body and retracted his divine sense. If it wasn't for the interface and Chen's memories, he would have thought that he had entered another world. It was so realistic that it was no different than reality.
Instead of inserting his username and password, he reached out and pressed [Background Settings].
The interface switched over from the login screen to a wallpaper screen. The current wallpaper was at the top, which was the abandoned temple in the jungle. Below was many other different wallpapers available for use.
Curious, he clicked on a random one and the surroundings immediately turned pitch black for a second before being replaced by vast desert. The dry, cracked ground stretched to the horizon and in the distance was a single desert hill. The heat was so bad that you could see the air rippling near the ground.
Qin Hong walked away from the interface and decided to see how far he could walk.
Upon walking away, the searing heat of the desert immediately rolled upon him as the glaring sun from above added more heat into the mix. There was no clouds at all and it seemed as though he was actually in a desert.
It didn't even take a minute before sweat rolled off his forehead, and his clothes were drenched.
Qin Hong was immediately reminded of the few deserts in the outer regions of the cultivation realm. He had been to most of them in the past, but was indifferent towards them because of his cultivation, which made him immune to heats that could kill mortals in minutes. Feeling such heat was a new experience to him.
If it wasn't for his willpower, he might've already retreated back to the interface.
Fortunately, he hit a barrier 1 kilometer away which prevented him from going further. Tired of the heat, he ran back at full speed, letting the searing heat blast him.
Fortunately, endurance isn't modeled here, or he might have been gasping for breathe.
Upon standing in front of the interface, the heat immediately vanished and was replaced with normal room temperature. The sweat on his body quickly vanished and his drenched clothes turned back to normal.
With a sign of relief, he want back to scrolling down the wallpapers until he found one that suited his taste.
The desert environment vanished and was replaced with a vast mountainous landscape that stretched to the horizon.
The mountains were high enough that the pine trees covered in snow vanished at a certain point, and replaced with barren rock covered in snow. The mountains continued until they were high enough that the clouds moved around and up the snow-capped mountains.
Qin Hong was atop the highest mountain, and could see the mountains in all directions.
Upon walking away from the interface, the freezing fast winds blasted across his face, sending chills down his spine. The atmosphere was thin enough that his ears popped and he felt short of breathe. His shoes sunk into the icy snow that blanketed the top.
Luckily, the clothes of the user are adjusted to each environment, or he'd be shivering to death.
Taking a breathe of the freezing air, his mind cooled down and he felt relaxed. The hot air in his lungs escaped his mouth and turned into fog before being blown away.
'I feel like I'm at the top of the world...'
After some time passed, he calmed down his complicated feelings and went back to the interface, where the winds and cold air vanished. He immediately selected this wallpaper to replace the other one.
Inputting his username and password, the interface vanished into thin air before another one appeared.
[Please select which Virtual Reality you wish to visit: Virtual Realm. Education Reality. Gaming Reality. Story Reality.]
If he wanted to, he could select [Virtual Realm] and enter virtual civilization, which is no different than reality.
Or, he could enter [Education Reality], which is the world of education for the majority of schools, colleges, and universities nowadays. Schools in reality are only for those who can't afford VR which is rare nowadays.
Or, he could enter [Story Reality], and enter the world of stories like books, novels, or movies. However, he felt like trying out [Gaming Reality] first, so he clicked that option.
The space in front of him trembled before a door-type portal appeared.
There was pitch black on the other side, but Qin Hong cautiously stepped inside the portal.
His senses felt dizzy for a second before returning to normal.
What appeared in front of him was a huge corridor stretching far into the distance, with the walls being a half a kilometer away. The ceiling was so high up that it could fit a skyscraper quite literally.
Portal-like doors neatly lined the walls in sections as they approached the ceiling. The names of each were above each door.
Countless amounts of people were everywhere, whether they were on the ground or in the air, with the majority being in the air. It was difficult to tell of their race as there was so many. In fact, some were humanoid androids or monster-like androids. Their username and level were above their head.
This gallery is available to the majority of people, even if they are poor. The only exceptions are generally homeless people.
Qin Hong couldn't help but gulp at everything around him. This was his first time in such a place, and he felt lost.
Thankfully, an interface appeared in front of him.
[Welcome to Gaming Reality!]
[Name: Wei Chen]
[Username: XxXfossil_slayer234XxX]
[Current level: 28]
[Current EXP: 280,154]
[Requirement for Level 29: 290,000 EXP]
Recalling Chen's memories, this is the level up system for players in main lobbies.
You get basic points for playing a game per hour regardless of the game, but you generally get more per hour the greater the difficulty of the game. You also get bonus points if you actively involve yourself, but you also get reductions in points if you are a coward and hide yourself.
The difficulty system is ranked from 1-Star to 10-Stars with the max level being 100. Per 10 levels, you get access to a higher star difficulty game. For a newbie to go from 1-Star to 2-Star, they have to reach level 11 before being granted access.
This is mostly only applicable to games that involve action, adventure, horror, xianxia, wuxia, etc. and are sandbox and/or campaign type games.
Back then, there was reports of newbies being traumatized for entering high difficulty games that involved gore, horror, and action as a result, so they implemented this in to prevent lawsuits.
This allows the player to get used to the difficulty and give them motivation to level up. Of course, if you have the money, you can purchase experience points as long as you sign a virtual disclaimer.
As for other genres, they are completely open and separate from the leveling system.
The UF government made this a double-edged sword unintentionally as well. Being as realistic as reality, is the same as giving civilians combat experience/training when involving the action/adventure/xianxia/wuxia genres.
While it allows the military to quickly pull in new recruits, it also makes it difficult to defeat most civilians.
This is also why the United Federation has stayed as one giant government above humanity since it first formed rather than splitting or falling apart for over 2 million years.
Allowing civilians to experience the negative results of human desires such as greed, hate, anger, racism, war, death, destruction, loss of loved ones, and depression in VR games has acted as a glue keeping humanity unified.
The government knows this, which is why they take no action against removing them despite some games being very traumatizing.