Chapter 383: Oasis VR

Another quiet afternoon, his phone vibrated with a WeChat message from Han Letian: "Online? If you're my bro, come join the sand war."

Li Cheng, who was screwing bolts inside a 3D warehouse, scratched his head and typed: "Why sand war? Can't we play something more in line with a Gao Zhongsheng's vibe, like Yuan or Wa?"

"You mean the 2014 Larian PC game 'Divinity: Original Sin,' and the 1994 Nintendo GB game 'Wario Land'?"

Han Letian replied with a nose-picking emoji; thanks to his hardcore otaku parents, he'd been exposed to countless games since childhood.

Games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11, Red Alert, and Diablo 2 were already considered new; before that, his family had a whole collection of consoles—PSV, PSP, GBC, GBA, NDS.

For this, they kept five fire extinguishers in the house to protect the couple's decades-long hoard of consoles, figurines, toys, and BD discs.

"Stop dawdling, come quick. We're all waiting for you."

Han Letian sent a location. Li Cheng sighed, slid out from under the tank chassis, removed his greasy gloves, and walked out of the warehouse.

Since becoming a player, he'd been busy killing, burning, and screwing bolts.

Reversing time to screw bolts.

Saving the world to screw bolts.

It really had been a long time since he'd hung out with his buddies.

He rode his bike all the way to the large mall, where Han Letian, Mu Yulu, and Shao Wangshu were already waiting at the designated spot on the first floor.

It was a store named "Oasis," a subsidiary of Prometheus.

Decorated in a futuristic sci-fi minimalist style, the entrance was packed with influencers, gaming streamers, and self-media creators lined up in long queues.

What they were waiting in line for, of course, was the latest flagship VR system—still unreleased, displayed only for demonstration inside the Oasis store.

"Omnidirectional treadmill + full-coverage helmet + haptic bodysuit + local server—four subsystems forming the VR system, requiring an entire living room to fit. Supposedly, the immersion far surpasses any previous game, approaching 'Ready Player One.'"

A streaming influencer's eyes sparkled as he chatted to his camera, then suddenly spotted Shao Wangshu and the others striding past the queue.

They walked straight to the back of the store, where a vacant VR unit stood, and began testing it.

Seeing this, the influencer shouted to the store manager: "Hey hey hey, someone's cutting the line!"

The manager glanced at him, said nothing, and returned to calibrating the equipment.

"Aren't you going to do anything about someone cutting the line?" the influencer yelled, acting out outrage for his camera: "Is this mall hers or something?"

The manager, already briefed by mall management, shrugged: "You're actually right—this entire mall belongs to her."

Meanwhile, Han Letian had already pulled Li Cheng into the omnidirectional treadmill and fitted him with the full-coverage helmet.

Lüjie already had highly mature true brain-interface technology and a wide array of hallucination and dream-experience services, so Li Cheng didn't find this VR game particularly special.

But when the full-coverage helmet powered on, Li Cheng raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"This effect is pretty good."

Peach blossoms, willow greens, birdsong, floral fragrance—the visuals were so crisp, the naked eye could barely detect any artificiality. The helmet's scent emitter also released just the right aroma of flowers and grass.

This was even without the haptic bodysuit; if he wore it, he could even feel the wind brushing against his skin.

Thud-thud-thud!

Han Letian, Mu Yulu, and Shao Wangshu materialized, falling from nowhere onto an open field, their avatars classic warrior, mage, and priest.

Once all four stood steady, a tutorial appeared floating in the air.

It was just… too familiar.

【Current team: four players. Choose one of the following missions to execute.】

【Mission Name: Zombieland Revelation】

【Mission Objective: Play as a special zombie, escape the city while evading pursuit from the U. S. military, bio-weapons corporation, survivors, and mercenaries.】

【Reward: One random item, quality determined by mission rating, bound to personal beta account.】

————

【Mission Name: Break In】

【Mission Objective: Play as a SWAT team, storm a secret underground religious base and rescue as many normal survivors as possible. Note: The base likely contains supernatural entities.】

【Reward: One random skill scroll.】

————

【Mission Name: Evil Spirits Must Die】

【Mission Objective: Play as monk, Daoist Priest, priest, or shaman; in expert panel format, kill, exorcise, or purify the evil spirit haunting the Midnight Tower.】

【Reward: One random item, one random skill scroll.】

Uh.

Li Cheng scanned the mission list, its déjà vu overwhelming, and rolled his eyes under the helmet.

Damn, these are all player missions from the killing fields.

Prometheus is way too lazy—they just bought the rights to players' forum guides and first-person walkthrough videos on Feiwang, then copied them straight into the VR.

What's the difference between this and a game company stealing free fan mods and selling them as paid DLC?

The most crucial thing is—

【Mission Name: Curse of the Dead】

【Mission Objective: Play as a TV journalist, investigate supernatural events in Shuijing City.】

??? How did they upload my own mission? You're asking for it, huh? Ever seen the Black Hand?

Wait—I did agree to Duizhan Qibing's proposal back then, selling the copyright of my first-person walkthrough video for that Curse mission. Made a hundred or two hundred game coins.

Never mind then.

Shao Wangshu and the others had never played such a high-fidelity game—they screamed with excitement. Li Cheng restrained his operational instincts, dedicating only one-twentieth of his focus to playing with his buddies.

The rest of his mind drifted lazily.

Lüjie's brain-interface technology was already highly mature; several hurdles remained before full-scale rollout (cultivators could use it freely, but ordinary people risked brain overload—or even brain death—using it for virtual games).

This entire VR system cost at least 500,000 to produce; Prometheus sold it for 505,000—practically selling at a loss.

It's probably not about making money, but about promoting VR as soon as possible and sparking a craze for VR gaming internet cafes,

then selecting promising talents by assigning ordinary people difficult tasks at player level, and finally recruiting them.

Even more darkly, on the surface letting ordinary people play games, while secretly building humanoid robots,

making players remotely control these robots without their knowledge to carry out gray-area missions in the real world.

Then it would be:

"Hello customer service, why is your game so realistic?"

"Hello customer service, why are there NPCs kneeling on the ground begging me for mercy?"

"Hello customer service, why did someone send me U. S. dollars?"

"Hello customer service, what does it mean that Blackwater International Private Security Company wants to award me a medal?"

Li Cheng wandered aimlessly in thought when suddenly his friend panel vibrated with a message from Changsun Yao: "I've got a job—interested?"

(End of Chapter)