"Brothers and sisters, even if I'm dead and nailed inside a coffin, I'll shout with this decayed voice that this game is freaking awesome!"
"No more talk, if this game doesn't become popular, I'll do a handstand and shxt diarrhea over my face!"
Early in the morning, the group leader [White_horse_crossing_the_gap] made a splash in the Shachuko Club, catching many unsuspecting members off guard.
[Quit_smoking]: "What the hell? The group leader is alive?"
[Who_dares_challenging_me]: "Your schedule in the mortal world is so messed up, huh!"
[Mercy_my_life]: "I haven't seen any of you management dogs all night, I thought you were up to no good and got caught. (Laughs)"
[NoOnE_kNoWs_LoVe]: "What game are you guys talking about?"
"Confused.JPG"
After a while, another admin, [See_you_tomorrow], also appeared.
"It's the virtual reality game that Light Bro recommended in the group the day before yesterday."
[Quit_smoking]: "Damn, you guys are already playing?! Are you serious?! Don't fool me!"
[See_you_tomorrow]: "Why would I fool you?"
Unfortunately, the devices don't support in-game screenshots.
Otherwise, he would have posted them directly.
[Quit_smoking]: "Then tell us quickly, what's this fully immersive virtual reality game like? What VR headset can you use to play it?"
[White]: "VR? Haha, do you think those head-mounted screens can compare with the gaming helmets in Wasteland OL? (Laughs)"
[Quit_smoking]: "What do you mean? Can you play it with the Wasteland Glasses?"
[Tomorrow]: "You clearly have no idea. They're using gaming helmets. Emmmm... How do I explain it? Have you watched Sword Art Online? It's something similar to that."
[Quit_smoking]: "Damn?!"
[NoOnE_kNoWs_LoVe]: "Head-mounted microwave? That's awesome!"
[Who_dares_challenging_me]: "Who are you fooling? Sword Art Online... Why haven't I heard of such an amazing technology?"
[Mercy_my_life]: "Exactly!"
Most people didn't believe it.
It sounded too unbelievable!
To be reasonable, when a groundbreaking technology emerges, there should be a process of familiarity and maturation. This groundwork can be short, but it must exist.
Tomorrow could understand their feelings deep down.
After all, he had also gone through the same stage they were in now—thinking that the so-called fully immersive virtual reality game was just a joke made by some silly group member.
However...
It was indeed true.
[Tomorrow]: "Since I can't provide proof because the devices don't support screenshots, you can choose whether to believe it or not. But after experiencing it for such a long time, I have gathered some information about the game."
[Quit_smoking]: "Good buddy! Tell us!"
[Tomorrow]: "Group leader, please mute the entire group so that I can type slowly."
[White]: "Alright!"
As someone who was once in the top 200 of the Asian server for PUBG and had reached the highest rank in League of Legends, [Tomorrow] had undeniable gaming talent recognized by all the group members.
He had the most say when it came to games.
This man seemed to never have to work. He played games every day, not just multiplayer online games. Many single-player games' speedrun lists included his name, and several phenomenal works were even written by him and used by many veterans in the group.
It could be said that he was the king of Weebs.
Regardless of whether they believed in the concept of a "fully immersive virtual reality game" or whether they had access to the closed beta, almost everyone was eagerly waiting for [Tomorrow] to share more details.
"Let's start with the game's background."
"The background itself is nothing special, it follows the traditional post-apocalyptic setting with a wasteland punk style. The story is set in a fictional world where everything was destroyed by a nuclear war two hundred years ago, and gamers take on the role of sanctuary residents returning to the surface."
"Currently, we—the closed beta gamers—are heading to the surface as the vanguard to establish outposts. We haven't officially entered the main storyline yet, and more clues may have to wait until the open beta or even the official release to unlock, but I won't go into too much detail about that."
"Now, let's talk about the realism of the game!"
"I'm not exaggerating when I say that the realism of this game is the ceiling for all the games I've ever seen. And it's foreseeable that even after fifty years, this ceiling will be almost impossible to surpass! And the reason I say this is because this game is like a 'Wasteland OL' DLC in terms of realism!"
"Whether it's the graphics, the sensory interactions, or even the tactile sensation of touching the surface of objects... everything is designed to make you believe that this is a real world. This immersive experience has undoubtedly reached a hundred percent level. Yes, you heard it right, a hundred percent! At least I haven't found any obvious bugs or flaws."
"Next is the freedom."
"As a sandbox game, you can interact with almost every object in the game. This interaction goes beyond simple volume collision. You can use your subjective will to change their positions, and even within the boundaries of physics, you can alter their shape or state."
"I know what you're thinking, 'The Forest,' right? But it's completely different. It's a true sandbox, not just pixelated blocks and textures! Just based on this, sandbox players who get their hands on this game will definitely profit!"
"Now, let's talk about the most crucial content!"
"First of all, both gamers and monsters have no predefined attributes, and there are no visualized attribute panels—at least not in the closed beta stage."
"But in the actual game, different gamers have different initial attributes. For example, some have stronger strength, some have higher perception, agility, or other undiscovered hidden attributes. I speculate that in the later stages, such as the open beta, there should be a class system and weapon system that allow players to develop their own playstyle based on their attribute talents."
"Moving on to the NPCs, in the current closed beta stage, there are only two NPCs in the game. One is code-named 'Dawn,' the governor. And there's another one, his assistant named Qi, who is a robot!"
"What can be confirmed is that both NPCs have a high level of intelligence and can interact and communicate with players normally. I suspect that there may be a hidden favorability system, but that's just my personal guess and hasn't been confirmed yet."
"Besides that, what I'm concerned about is the sense of pain. Although it's a hundred percent realistic game, it's not good to make certain things too realistic, especially for someone like me who is a bit afraid of pain. But the game's design is very user-friendly. While the sense of pain coexists with tactile sensations, there is a threshold for protection."
"For example, I tried scratching my arm with a stone, and I didn't feel any pain. But pinching myself hurts a bit. I guess the game has some kind of mechanism that prevents 'excessive' pain from being captured by the brain's neural centers... Of course, it could also be the body's self-defense mechanism. It's like in dreams, where we can feel pain, but it doesn't exceed our threshold."
"In fact, I think the game developers could make it more user-friendly, such as allowing players to adjust the pain settings according to their own preferences. Personally, I'm satisfied with the current immersive experience and pain blocking, but there may be players who enjoy that kind of sensation. (laughs)"
"As for the respawn mechanism in the game, I haven't tried it yet, but I heard that each death will deduct a certain contribution points, and the resurrection cooldown is as long as three days! Contribution points are not an issue since you can earn them through quests, but the penalty time is just too long. I'm not too eager to try it, but for those brave adventurers interested, you can give it a shot. Maybe it will unlock a different gameplay experience."
"Lastly, I want to complain a bit, why are all the characters male??? Who the hell wants to see a bunch of naked dudes' avatars!!! I strongly demand that the game developers allow players to choose their own gender!"
[Tomorrow] finished writing a couple thousand words, and more and more people in the group were peeking at the screen.
Among them was the mastermind behind the scenes, "Light."
Just now, Light Chu was looking at the medical examination report scanned from the cultivation pod and didn't pay attention to the messages in the group. But to be honest, this guy named [Tomorrow] summarized it quite well. He basically said everything he wanted to say and even considered things that hadn't been thought of.
The group chat ban is lifted.
The group messages instantly flooded the screen.
"6666!"
"Awesome, is this game really that good? I'm buying ten copies!"
"I don't believe it."
"Don't believe +1! Unless they give me a closed beta qualification!"
Although there were still many group members who didn't believe that such an amazing game existed, at least ten people switched sides in the heat of the moment.
As for how Light Chu knew, it's because he could see the official website's backend.
During [Tomorrow]'s rant, the number of reservations jumped from 11 to 25.
[Light]: "I was working just now and didn't pay attention to the group. [Tomorrow]'s brother basically got it right, so let me add a few points."
[Quit_smoking]: "Damn it, it's Light Bro!"
(Group chat ban initiated.)
("[Light] is appointed as the group administrator.")
Huh?
Became a group admin?
Light Chu was slightly surprised but didn't pay too much attention and continued typing.
"First, about gamer characters and attributes, it's true as [Tomorrow] said, the game indeed has character attributes and leveling system, and each gamer has different initial talents. You can check this at the respawn point, which is the cultivation chamber where the gamer wakes up or on the official website."
"Death penalty is not just a 3-day resurrection cooldown and deduction of contribution points, it also results in the loss of some progress before the last save. To save progress, you need to lie in the cultivation chamber for scanning and cell sampling, which takes about 1 to 2 hours. This process will automatically occur after the gamer logs out."
"We expect to implement a faster attribute query mechanism before the closed beta stage to allow gamers to have real-time knowledge of their character's condition and enhance the gameplay."
"As for customizing the appearance and gender of the character... I'm sorry, it's not possible."
"Just like not being able to choose your birth, the bodies in the game are determined by pre-loaded DNA. If you're dissatisfied with the character's appearance, you can consider cosmetic surgery or even cybernetic modification. This feature will be added in the later stages of the game."
"Furthermore, starting from the A-round testing phase, players can set their preferences for the five attributes: Strength, Agility, Constitution, Perception, and Intelligence through a questionnaire survey on the reservation level page."
"If you choose Strength, there will be a higher chance of obtaining Strength-related talents, and the initial character will have higher Strength. If there's no preference, you can also choose a balanced type."
"As for gender, the character's gender is consistent with the player's gender and cannot be freely set. This is mainly due to safety concerns as physiological differences can cause coordination issues. Additionally, the risks of gender identity disorders and public opinion associated with this are something we are unwilling to bear."
Actually, this was not set by Light Chu.
It was the system's original setting.
There seems to be a very complex technical problem involved, and Light Chu doesn't understand the principles behind it. He just knows that it's like that.
[Tomorrow]: "What the hell! No, I'm already an adult, I can sign a risk acknowledgment form!!! T.T"
(Group admin [See_you_tomorrow] is banned from the group for 10 minutes.)
[White]: "Stop interrupting!"
[Hurricane]: "Exactly."
[Nighten]: "Please, just shut up for a moment."
Light Chu found it amusing but didn't interrupt and continued typing.
"The above is the result of the discussion during the meeting just now. In addition, in the next testing phase, we will add a 'favourability' system."
[Nighten]: "Favourability?! What does that mean? Can we date NPCs?!"
(Group admin [Nighten] is banned from the group for 10 minutes.)
Well, well.
This [White] is truly impartial, without any hesitation, he directly bans them.
It did save him quite a bit of time.
Light Chu put on a serious face and continued typing.
"Don't just think about dating all the time. Favourability means the evaluation of NPCs towards gamers."
"Specifically, gamer actions will influence how NPCs view them. Especially for some key NPCs, when the likability is high enough, not only can you get additional rewards, but you might even trigger hidden quests and unlock hidden profession paths!"
Hidden quests!
Hidden professions!
Seeing these simple eight words, the four beta players in front of their screens widened their eyes.
A fire ignited in their hearts.
Wow, this encourages them to be bootlickers!
So what if they're bootlickers?
They're not licking real people!
They're licking NPCs, artificial intelligence, and there are great benefits to it.
No shame!
Light Chu thought for a moment and realized that there wasn't anything else he needed to add.
Currently, the sanctuary was in a poor state. As the sole leader, Light Chu had nothing except a group of free laborers. He could only rely on his role as an online dog planner to give gamers false hopes.
"Do you have any questions? Or anything you're particularly concerned about?" Light Chu wanted to know if the gamers had any better ideas themselves.
He was an open-minded person.
If conditions allowed, he could consider adopting their suggestions. If conditions didn't allow, he could still make promises and tell them that it would be implemented in the future.
[Hurricane]: "Yes! What exactly are contribution points? Are they currency? Or something similar to experience points or credits?"
As expected, someone asked this question.
Light Chu pondered for a moment and typed his response.
"The game's economic system is still being designed. Our goal is to create a completely realistic economic system that covers the entire production and circulation process, allowing both life occupation gamers and combat occupation gamers to fully experience the fun of the game."
"As for contribution points, you can think of them as a special currency during the testing phase, mainly used to test the current mission system."
"In addition to being used to purchase revival coins, our planning team is also considering introducing some special rewards that can only be exchanged with contribution points as a feedback to the testing gamers."
In any case, it was just making promises.
As for what rewards they would be, Light Chu hadn't thought about it yet. It would depend on what good things he could get from the system.
However, these words meant something completely different in the eyes of the players.
Can only be exchanged with contribution points?!
In other words...
Limited rewards for the testing phase!
The four gamers who had already obtained the testing qualifications were delighted.
Those gamers who had made reservations on the official website but hadn't received the testing qualifications yet were also itching with anticipation.
As for the group members who didn't believe in the so-called "completely immersive virtual reality game" from the beginning, they naturally wouldn't change their minds just because of his words.
But...
It didn't matter.
As long as there were people who believed, it was enough.
"It's getting late. I've been working overtime all night, so I need to get some sleep. By the way [Tomorrow], your guide is well-written. Why don't you post it on the official website? The website has already opened a forum system, and you can register an account to make posts. Good posts will be recognized by the administrators."
This administrator was naturally Light Chu himself.
Currently, the entire company consisted of just him. He played the role of an NPC, a dog planner, and even doubled as the moderator of the official website forum.
"OK! I'll do that now!" [Tomorrow], whose ban had been lifted, left this message and quickly scrolled through the chat history.
The group chat ban was lifted.
The messages in the group flooded in like a bursting flood.
Light Chu noticed that many people had added him as a friend. Some wanted to ask him for the testing qualifications, some wanted to inquire about game information, and there were even some who wanted to teach him how to make games.
Unable to respond to everyone, he simply didn't reply to anyone and went offline directly.
Looking at the four medical examination reports on the computer, Light Chu suddenly had a whimsical idea and asked, "Qi."
"What's the matter, Master?"
"You said... since gamers can use the cultivation chambers, can I also interact with the clones in the chambers?"
"Emmm... I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know???"
"Because I'm just your assistant, and the information I know is basically what you know. There is no record in my database about your use of the cultivation pods. Maybe... the surrogate governor didn't design the cultivation chambers for your use?"
Light Chu was about to ask why when he suddenly fell silent.
In fact, the reason behind this was not difficult to guess.
Suppose this sanctuary could withstand strategic nuclear strikes, then there must be no means of invasion that could forcefully breach this sanctuary in this wasteland.
Even if something unfortunate happened to the hopeful self, it would only mean going into hibernation again, waiting for the arrival of the next governor.
Seeing Light Chu fall into silence, Qi chirped in concern, "Master?"
"It's nothing."
Coming back to his senses, Light Chu continued to look at the medical examination reports on the computer screen.
Perhaps for the convenience of the gamers' understanding, or perhaps due to the first-generation governor's mischievous nature, over 120 complex bodily function data were all summarized and categorized into five concise indicators.
Namely, Strength, Agility, Physique, Perception, and Intelligence.
Strength represented the strength of muscles, bones, and other bodily tissues, indicating the gamer's basic load-bearing capacity, melee damage, and throwing weapon range, among others.
Agility corresponded to reflexes and was associated with the gamer's reaction speed, motor coordination ability, and other physical data. It manifested as gamers with higher agility being more nimble and better at actively evading attacks in combat.
Physique correlated to a gamer's vitality and toughness, primarily reflecting the recovery of lost health and resistance to certain abnormal states and immunity, among other things.
Intelligence didn't equate to IQ or logical thinking ability. It mainly influenced the character's learning ability and the speed of mental condition recovery, while also affecting the compatibility with neural interface devices. Specifically, characters with high intelligence could operate multiple neural interface devices simultaneously.
Perception represented intuition and perception ability. gamers with higher perception had sharper intuition for crises and were more likely to discover hidden clues and traps.
It was also the most mysterious attribute!
The benchmark value for all attributes was 5, fluctuating within the range of ±2 based on genetic sequences and physical conditions.
Although he didn't have a dedicated cultivation chambers, Light Chu still found a spare medical examination device on B1 of the shelter.
As he had suspected, he also possessed a special genetic sequence that could be detected by the medical examination device.
Unfortunately, the database contained no relevant information about this genetic sequence; it was like an unplanned existence.
Using game terminology to explain, this was a path that the "game publisher" had never envisaged.
And this also meant that no one knew where this path would ultimately lead and what results would be obtained.
Realizing this, Light Chu felt a slight uneasiness in his heart.
But more than that, he felt excitement.
Perhaps adventure was ingrained in his bones.
Rather than following the path envisioned by others and proceeding step by step, he preferred to walk his own path.
Based on the medical examination results and the attribute conversion formula left by the first-generation governor, Light Chu created his own attribute panel and made one for each of the four beta testers based on his own.
[
ID: Light Chu
Genetic Sequence: Governor
Level: LV.5
--Basic Attributes--
Strength: 8
Agility: 6
Physique: 6
Perception: 7
Intelligence: 6
]
"The five-dimensional data is one tier higher than the basic level of the gamers."
"Does Level LV.5 mean that the development progress of the genetic sequence is 5%? It seems like the past five months haven't been completely wasted."
The development progress for the other four beta testers was 0.
But it wasn't entirely 0.
For example, [White].
His genetic sequence was "Strength," and by frequently using brute force, which meant chopping down trees, his development progress increased by 0.3% in a day, while the other three beta testers only increased by around 0.1%.
If he continued chopping down trees for the next two days, [White] might become the first gamer to break through Level 0 and advance to Level 1.
Thinking of this, Light Chu made up his mind.
Indeed, he had to make them do more work.
It was also for their own good!