Dog and Horse Management discussion group.
This is a small group with only four people.
The group owner is White Horse Passing a Gap, and the members are three dogs and horses from the adjacent group—in other words, Dog Management: Night Ten getting up countless times in one night, Level Eight Great Gale, Long Days Ahead.
Night Ten: "Did you all receive the helmets???"
Old White: "Got it... It's pretty strange, dumped right at my doorstep."
Fang Chang: "I found mine at the garage entrance..."
Wild Wind: "Mine was on my office desk... I thought it belonged to a colleague."
Night Ten: "None of yours is as bizarre as mine; the package was delivered straight to my dorm! All three of my roommates were there, and not one of them saw how it got in! And the creepiest part, I don't know if you guys noticed, but when you put on the helmet, you can see a countdown timer, but no one else can see anything."
The group fell eerily silent for a bit.
The first to break the silence was the group owner, White Horse Passing a Gap.
Old White: "...Now that you mention it, it does seem pretty strange."
Fang Chang: "What kind of gaming company has such vast powers, not only knowing our addresses but delivering the packages without anyone noticing?"
Wild Wind: "Yeah, that's what concerns me the most. The address is understandable; they could theoretically figure out our real-world location from the IP address when we clicked on the link. But the logistics... I can't wrap my head around it. I'm in Jinling, and if I remember correctly, Night Ten is studying in Jiang City. That's a difference of five hundred kilometers, but we all found the helmets almost simultaneously."
Night Ten: "Right... And shortly after clicking the link."
Old White: "Shit, should we call the police?"
Fang Chang: "There's no property damage, so the police will probably have a hard time dealing with it. Plus, what are you going to tell them? The courier delivered it to the wrong address? There's an issue with the helmet? Others can't see anything when they wear it, except for the person using it."
Wild Wind: "Yeah, that's the biggest issue, it's hard to explain to others what this thing is. I even tried to put my mobile phone inside the helmet while wearing it, but although I could clearly see something, the phone couldn't capture anything."
Wild Wind, who is a teacher in reality and probably teaches science, speaks in an orderly manner, and this statement was unanimously agreed upon by Fang Chang and Old White.
Night Ten: "Should we... take the helmet apart to have a look?"
Wild Wind: "It's not impossible, but there's a risk. At least I haven't found a place where it can be disassembled. If we resort to force, it's unlikely we'll be able to put it back together."
At this point, they decided not to risk it.
Fang Chang: "True, we can't screw over Ah Guang."
The fact that the helmet had been left at the door of his garage by someone with such vast powers made him somewhat believe what that guy with the ID "Light" had said.
Could this company be a mysterious research organization supported by state agencies?
Whatever it was, as it stood, they had not suffered any losses. Plus, he was quite interested in fully immersive VR games.
The countdown had successfully piqued his interest.
Wild Wind: "I messaged Brother Guang privately on the penguin platform, but he hasn't replied yet. That official website's URL doesn't look like it belongs to a domestic site, it even resembles a non-standard domain name, so I can't find any registration info."
Night Ten: "The dark web?!"
Wild Wind: "Not sure."
Old White: "Let's just leave it at that for now; discussing it is pointless. At the end of the day, in three days, we'll know what's the deal with the helmet!"
...
While the players discussed, Chu Guang in the Wasteland was busy making his final preparations.
5 kilograms of green wheat and some iron tools.
Chu Guang had worked hard to move these items inconspicuously from Bet Street to Wetland Park, three kilometers away.
Shelter No. 404 was hidden underground in this park, with the entrance inside a nondescript sanatorium.
The vegetation here was lush, and it was also near a lake, which theoretically meant that there should be plenty of wildlife in the area.
Chu Guang was very careful after getting close, watching out for any potential dangers in the surroundings.
Fortunately, no accidents occurred.
He checked the marks he had made at the sanatorium entrance to ensure that no Variants or Looters had slipped in while he was away, then he pushed open the door with the pointed end of a water pipe and cautiously stepped inside.
The entrance to Shelter No. 404 was the elevator in the innermost part of the sanatorium lobby, the only one labeled with a Level B1 floor.
Chu Guang first went down to drop off the grains in the corridor between the elevator base and the airlock door outside the buffer room.
This was an open space, roughly forty to fifty meters below the ground level.
To be honest, it wasn't the perfect place to store food, but it was still better than leaving it in the sanatorium to be targeted by passing rats or Mutant Cockroaches.
Passed through the two airlock doors of the buffer room.
Entering the hall, Chu Guang looked at Xiao Qi squatting in the corner and said,
"Is the forum feature on the official website developed yet?"
"It's already done."
"What about the players? Have they received their helmets?"
"They've received them, yes."
That fast?
Chu Guang was slightly surprised.
He remembered leaving Shelter No. 404 at six in the morning, and it was only around one o'clock in the afternoon now, a mere seven hours apart.
"Is the flow of time here in the Wasteland the same as in modern society, a 1:1 flow?"
"Of course it is, but the time here corresponds to the Earth's Western Time Zone Four."
Hua Nation in the current world is in Eastern Time Zone Eight, with a time difference of about twelve hours with Western Time Zone Four, which means it's one o'clock in the morning in the eastern region of Hua Nation right now.
Chu Guang sat in front of the computer and logged into the official website's backend.
Xiao Qi had added a forum feature to the official website as per his instruction, but there was no traffic yet, naturally, so there wasn't a single post.
The same was true for the database and the illustrated handbook.
"How can I upload photos from here to this place?" Chu Guang pointed at the image library on the screen.
"Just upload it directly."
"…What I meant was, how do I take pictures? Or do you have something like a camera?"
It was absurd that such a huge shelter had nothing at all on Level B1.
Not to mention leaving some weapons for personal use, shouldn't there be at least some basic survival tools prepared?
"Uh, probably no camera, but my camera can take pictures for you... What kind do you want to take? Just here?"
Looking at the robot that resembled a waste paper basket in the corner of the wall, Chu Guang sighed and said,
"Taking pictures here is pointless... Never mind, I'll figure something out myself."
He couldn't possibly bring Variants here.
However, taking Xiao Qi outside was something to consider.
Most Variants weren't particularly interested in an inedible pile of metal; with a bit of camouflage, perched atop a building, it could be a Divine Artifact for watchkeeping!
The more Chu Guang thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.
He logged onto Penguin number through the resident hall computer.
Chu Guang found that four players had sent him private messages, inquiring which company he worked for, what exactly was meant by a fully immersive game, and what exactly the game helmet was all about.
To be honest, Chu Guang didn't know how to answer their questions either, nor was it possible to tell them the real situation of this world.
Only by making them believe this place was the Game world,
Could they descend as "the Fourth Heaven disaster," fearless and tireless, becoming his strongest tools.
"Master."
"What is it?"
Looking at Chu Guang closing the computer and standing up from the chair, Xiao Qi curiously asked from his corner,
"Aren't you going to reply to their messages?"
"There's no need."
The more explanations, the more loopholes; better to brush them off with corporate secrets or state secrets.
As for the rest?
Let them guess on their own.
What are brains for, if not for making guesses?
Aren't they for filling in the blanks?