The Bull and Horse Management Discussion Group
This is a small group of only four people.
The group owner, Bai Ju Guo Xi, and the three members are from the neighboring group, the "bulls and horses"—in other words, "dog management": Shoujo Public Enemy Ye Shici, Level 8 Gale, and Lai Ri Fang Chang.
Ye Shici: "Did you all receive the helmets???"
Old Bai: "Received… it's pretty creepy, this thing, they just threw it at my doorstep."
Fang Chang: "I found it at the garage door…"
Gale: "I found it on my desk... I thought it was one of my colleagues'."
Ye Shici: "None of you are as creepy as I am, the package was directly delivered to my dorm! My three roommates were all there, and none of them saw how it got there! And the creepiest thing, I don't know if you guys noticed, when I put on the helmet, I saw a countdown, but no one else could see anything."
The group fell eerily silent for a moment.
The first to break the silence was the group owner, Bai Ju Guo Xi.
Old Bai: "…Now that you mention it, it does sound a bit creepy."
Fang Chang: "What kind of game company could have such power, knowing our addresses and managing to deliver the package right to our hands without us noticing?"
Gale: "Hmm, that's what bothers me too. The address is one thing. If they used the IP address from the link we clicked, they could theoretically track our locations. But the logistics... I can't figure it out. I'm in Jinling, Ye Shici, I remember you're studying in Jiangcheng, that's a 500 km difference, yet we both received the helmets almost at the same time."
Ye Shici: "Yeah… and it was shortly after clicking the link."
Old Bai: "Damn, should we call the police?"
Fang Chang: "There's no property loss, so the police would probably have a hard time doing anything. Plus, what do we even tell them? 'The package was delivered wrong'? 'The helmet is broken'? But no one can see anything except the person wearing it."
Gale: "Yeah, that's the biggest problem. It's hard to explain what this thing is. I even tried, I put my phone in while wearing the helmet, but what I could see, the phone couldn't capture anything."
Gale was a teacher in real life, probably teaching a science subject, and spoke very logically. This statement was met with unanimous agreement from Fang Chang and Old Bai.
Ye Shici: "How about... we try opening the helmet and see what's inside?"
Gale: "We could do that, but it's risky. I haven't found a place that's easy to disassemble. If we force it open, it's hard to guarantee we can put it back together."
Fang Chang: "True, we can't screw over Brother Guang."
Someone who could mysteriously place the helmet at his garage door had already made Fang Chang somewhat believe what that ID called Guang said.
Who knows, maybe this company was some mysterious research institute supported by government agencies?
Whatever it was, so far, they hadn't suffered any losses. Besides, Fang Chang was pretty interested in fully immersive VR games.
The countdown had successfully piqued his curiosity.
Gale: "I privately messaged Guang on QQ, but he hasn't replied yet. The official website's URL doesn't seem like a domestic website, and it doesn't even seem like a normal domain name. I couldn't find any registration information."
Ye Shici: "The Dark Web?!"
Gale: "Not sure."
Old Bai: "Let's just leave it for now. There's no point in discussing it further. Anyway, we'll be able to figure out what this helmet is in three days!"
...
While the players were discussing, Chu Guang, who was in the wasteland, was still busy with the final preparations.
5 kilograms of green wheat and some iron tools.
Chu Guang spent quite some time moving these things from Bet Street to the Wetland Park, 3 kilometers away, without drawing attention.
Shelter 404 was hidden underground in this park, with the entrance in a nondescript sanatorium.
There was abundant vegetation here, and it was near a lake, which theoretically meant there should be a lot of wildlife in the area.
After getting closer, Chu Guang was extremely cautious, keeping an eye out for any potential dangers.
Fortunately, no incidents occurred.
After checking the marks he had made at the sanatorium entrance, ensuring that no mutants or raiders had slipped inside while he was away, Chu Guang used the sharp end of the water pipe to nudge open the door and carefully walked inside.
The entrance to Shelter 404 was in the innermost part of the sanatorium's hall, at a lift, and only that lift's display had the B1 floor indicator.
Chu Guang first went down, threw the food onto the corridor between the lift base and the airlock, and then walked into the lobby.
This was an empty space, about 40 to 50 meters below the surface.
To be honest, this wasn't the best place to store food, but it was better than in the sanatorium, where rats or mutant cockroaches might get to it.
After passing through two airlock doors, Chu Guang entered the lobby and saw Xiao Qi, who was crouching in the corner.
"Has the forum function on the official website been developed?"
"It's done."
"The players? Have they received their helmets?"
"They've received them."
So fast?
Chu Guang was slightly surprised. He remembered leaving the shelter at 6 a.m. and now it was only around 1 p.m., just seven hours had passed.
"Does time flow in the wasteland the same as in modern society?"
"Of course, but the time here is equivalent to Earth's UTC-4 timezone."
The real-world Huaguo is in the UTC+8 timezone, so the time difference with UTC-4 is about twelve hours. That meant it was 1 a.m. in the eastern part of Huaguo.
Chu Guang sat down at the computer and logged into the official website's backend.
Xiao Qi had added the forum function as per his instructions, but since there was no traffic yet, there were naturally no posts.
The database and the gallery were the same.
"How do I upload photos from here?" Chu Guang pointed to the gallery on the screen.
"You can upload directly."
"…What I mean is, how do I take the photos? Do you have a camera or something?"
It was ridiculous that a huge shelter like this had no basic survival tools, not even a camera.
"Uh, probably no camera, but my camera can help take pictures… what kind do you want? Right here?"
Looking at the trash can-like robot in the corner, Chu Guang sighed.
"Taking pictures here is pointless… never mind, I'll think of something."
He couldn't catch mutants and bring them here.
But getting Xiao Qi outside could be a consideration.
Most mutants weren't interested in iron junk that couldn't be eaten. A little disguise, putting it on the roof, and it would be a great guard!
The more Chu Guang thought about it, the more it seemed feasible.
He logged into QQ via the lobby's computer.
Chu Guang found private messages from all four players, asking about which company he worked for, what fully immersive games meant, and what the helmet was all about.
Honestly, Chu Guang didn't know how to answer these questions, and he couldn't reveal the true situation of this world to them.
He could only make them believe this was a game world.
Only then could they come as "players" in the "Fourth Disaster," fearless and ready to work, becoming his most powerful tools.
"Master."
"What's up?"
Looking at Chu Guang standing up from his chair, Xiao Qi, who was crouching in the corner, curiously asked.
"Don't you need to reply to their messages?"
"No need."
The more explanations, the more flaws. Better to just brush it off as company or state secrets.
As for the rest?
Let them guess.
Isn't that what their heads are for?
They're meant for imagination, after all.