Chapter 434: A completely real game, you can even play games in the game

  Chapter 434 A completely real game, you can even play games in the game

  The slowly setting sun is blending into the horizon of Luoxia Province, but Ideal City at this moment has long been shrouded in the curtain of night.

  On the translucent viewing elevator.

  Fang Chang glanced at the business card in his hand, and then cast his eyes on the holographic screen on the viewing window.

  Behind the jumping floor numbers are colorful neon lights, and if you look down, you can’t see the bottom of the abyss.

  The building under his feet is called Yunjian University.

  Although it sounds a bit outrageous to integrate the entire university into an office building, making it seem as if the students here are all employees who punch in to work, it is surprisingly not out of place in a place like Ideal City.

  After all, the people living here are nominally employees of this “huge and indescribable” enterprise.

  Most of the students who graduate from here will become engineers and enter various departments of the company, as well as subsidiaries with specific functions.

  If the title of the university is replaced with “Onboarding Training Section of the Human Resources Department”, it will be much easier to understand.

  But to be honest, although this university is named after the province, the feeling of taking the elevator through the clouds does have a bit of the flavor of being in the clouds…

  The number is fixed at 227.

  With a ding, the alloy door behind Fang Chang slid to both sides and opened like a subway that had arrived at the station.

  Retracting his sight from the layers of neon lights outside the French window, Fang Chang turned and left here, looking for the address on the business card, and continued to move forward along the corridor without stopping.

  Soon, he came to a silver door.

  As soon as his hand was on the doorbell button, the door in front of him opened with a bang, and a smiling face full of enthusiasm appeared behind the door.

  ”Welcome! Dear friend, you are the Fang Chang who is famous all over the world, right? Haha, please come in! I don’t know what makes you, a big celebrity, interested in me, or are you interested in my research field?”

  Fang Chang was slightly stunned, looking at the man in front of him with a warm and exaggerated smile, and then looked at the business card in his hand, and his expression couldn’t help but show a strange expression.

  [Ai Chen, male, 55 years old, professor of neural algorithms and bionics at Yunjian University, technical consultant of the product development department of Kangmao Group, his main research direction is the simulation of fuzzy algorithms for logical operations and mind uploading, etc.]

  It is undoubtedly him, and he has not found the wrong person.

  If he does not have a twin brother…

  ”I am sorry to bother you at this time. I hope my visit does not disturb your rest.”

  ”How can I be so presumptuous! What can be more pleasant than the fact that ‘the heroes of the League are interested in my research direction’?”

  Ai Chen smiled happily and invited Fang Chang into his office and continued.

  ”And you came at the right time. If you came an hour earlier, I would still be in the laboratory.”

  The office is very spacious, with simple but stylish decoration, but Fang Chang’s attention is not on the room in front of him, but on the man in front of him.

  Unlike those unkempt scholars and professors in his impression, he is very delicately dressed. Although he is in his 50s, he looks only about 30 years old.

  The appearance of a suit and leather shoes and the big back hair combed behind his head make him look not like a professor, but like a lawyer or a banker or financial practitioner.

  Since arriving in Ideal City, Fang Chang has been cooperating with Ambassador Shu Yu to attend various occasions to attract investment and sponsorship for the alliance.

  In addition, he has not forgotten another purpose of coming here – to find a way to upload thoughts to the circuit board.

  Players have countless lives, but NPCs only have one. Although this sounds a bit whimsical, he thinks that since the background of the game is set in the future world, there should be a way to preserve people’s consciousness forever.

  Just like the game with a fantasy background, there are props similar to the Horcrux that store the soul.

  Fortunately, his identity as a war hero helped him a lot, and the popular videos on the endpoint cloud made him a star or “Internet celebrity” in Ideal City.

  When he learned that he was interested in his research direction, the professor immediately made an appointment with him.

  The two sat on the sofa.

  Fang Chang met his request for a photo, and after a simple greeting, he told his purpose.

  ”…I would like to ask you if there is a way to upload thoughts to the cloud or a hard drive.”

  Perhaps because he talked about his professional field, the middle-aged professor put away his exaggerated smile and showed a thoughtful expression on his face.

  But it didn’t seem like he was thinking about academics itself, but more like thinking about how to start.

  After about 5 minutes, he sighed softly and spoke.

  ”Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  Fang Chang was slightly stunned.

  His intuition told him that the expression did not seem like he was going to say something optimistic.

  ”No… Just give me a glass of water, thank you.”

  ”A cup of coffee and a glass of lemonade.” Ai Chen gestured to the bionic assistant beside him.

  The assistant nodded slightly, turned and went to the next room, and soon came back with a tray, respectfully placing the silver teacup in front of the two.

  ”Please enjoy, sir.”

  After leaving this sentence, it turned aside and stood quietly by the wall.

  In order to avoid the uncanny valley effect, most bionic people either make their facial features exactly like humans and install an almost realistic transmission system, or simply omit the facial features or make them look very exaggerated.

  This bionic person belongs to the former. Not only does it look like a real person, but it is also very beautiful.

  ”I’m sorry about your problem. I know what you’re thinking, but… that’s not something science can do.”

  Ai Chen picked up the cup, took a sip of coffee to moisten his throat, and his eyes stopped on the beautiful bionic assistant not far away. After admiring her for a moment, he suddenly continued.

  ”My wife passed away three years ago.”

  Fang Chang paused and hesitated.

  ”Even the medical conditions in Ideal City can’t cure it?”

  The bionic technology here can even replace a full set of body parts. He really can’t imagine what disease can’t be cured.

  Professor Ai Chen coughed lightly in embarrassment.

  ”When I said gone, I meant left… She ran away with the merchants outside to seek the adventure and excitement of her dreams.”

  ”… Sorry.”

  ”Don’t be sorry, it’s nothing, and it’s all in the past. People have the right to choose how to live, and it’s her freedom to go wherever she wants. It’s me who is obsessed with her and a little petty, haha.”

  After gently placing the coffee cup on the tray, Ai Chen smiled and nodded to the bionic man beside him, signaling him to take the cup away.

  His eyes stayed on the back of the bionic man, and his voice seemed to be trapped in a long-lasting memory.

  ”In fact, I once thought about making it look like her, not just the appearance, but also her memory and thoughts… copy it together.”

  Sharply catching the key words in this sentence, Fang Chang held his breath for a moment, and subconsciously grasped his knees with both hands.

  It seemed that he was grasping hope.

  ”What happened later?”

  Ai Chen smiled faintly.

  ”Later, of course, I succeeded.”

  Fang Chang looked at the bionic man in surprise, and then glanced at the professor sitting opposite.

  ”So it is now…”

  ”Now it is just an ordinary bionic assistant. Because later… I deleted its data again.”

  Fang Chang was stunned.

  After a long time, he opened his mouth to continue.

  ”…Why?”

  ”I have already told you the reason, because that is not something that science can do.”

  Before Fang Chang could speak, Professor Ai Chen continued.

  ”The person I love is gentle and kind, beautiful, generous and passionate… But in fact, that is just my imagination. There is no perfect person in this world. Bravery is inevitably reckless, caution is inevitably hesitant, smart people are often arrogant, and arrogant people cannot see their feet. She has never been perfect, but love has added a filter to her.”

  ”So when I tried to write her into an algorithm based on my memory, I soon realized that the fictional personality I created was not her at all… Do you understand what I mean?”

  Fang Chang nodded in silence, but soon shook his head.

  ”I know what you mean… But I don’t quite understand it. Can’t you just add those shortcomings?”

  Ai Chen said with a faint smile.

  ”Because this is the problem, are you sure you know a person completely? Even if it’s yourself.”

  This sentence made Fang Chang speechless for a while.

  Looking at the young man who fell into silence, Professor Ai Chen leaned back on the sofa, slowed down his speech, and gave him enough time to think.

  ”It is not impossible to upload thoughts to the cloud. As long as a person is not isolated from society, there will always be several brains that back up his memories. Convert these third-person memories into first-person ones, and then compile these collected memory fragments into intelligent algorithms, and you can get a person who is almost exactly like her… Even if they are not the same person objectively, she can roughly meet your imagination of her.”

  ”However, the replica is not the real person after all, but just a doll that is eloquent and happens to look alike. If you want that kind of thing, of course I can help you, as long as you fill out a long form. But based on your description, I have to ask you again, is that what you want?”

  Looking at the middle-aged man leaning on the sofa, Fang Chang was silent for a long time, and his thoughts in his mind became a mess.

  If it were in reality, there would be nothing wrong with saying this, but in the game it sounds like something serious. How

  can a piece of data copied from one hard drive to another not be the same piece of data?

  And doesn’t Shelter 101 have a successful precedent? Not only did they reduce the dimension of consciousness to the virtual world, they even reproduced in the eternal virtual world!

  This is something that can be done!

  Fang Chang felt that his request was not excessive at all. He just wanted to leave a backup for Dolly’s data. As a result, the operator reminded him through the NPC, “Even if you use the backup data to create a new NPC, it is not the same NPC as the original one.”

  Then what am I? !

  A completely realistic virtual reality game, even such redundant details have to simulate reality…

  Fang Chang felt a dull pain in his forehead.

  He suddenly regretted why he didn’t choose the intelligence department.

  ”I just want to reserve a chance to revive for important people, please, even once…”

  There was a hint of pleading in the voice.

  This sentence was not for the NPC in front of him. It was for A Guang

  , who was nowhere to be found but was always watching them.

  Professor Ai Chen stared at the young man in front of him for a while, and his sight suddenly moved slowly, drifting towards the colorful neon outside the window. The

  gorgeous light and shadow make people indulge in it, and all people’s thoughts can be satisfied in the prosperity visible to the naked eye.

  It seems that there is everything here.

  But there is also nothing.

  It was like a holographic image of that era, so real that it was impeccable, but it was not.

  He touched the bridge of his nose with his hand and sighed softly. He rarely followed

  the trend and imitated the young people. “… Many people have said this to me, but few people realize that life is precious because it only happens once.”

  ”If that person is really important to you, then treat her well in the remaining time you have. Don’t let her leave you, don’t let her get hurt, don’t regret it when things are irreversible… Don’t try to find comfort in memories like I did.”

  ”This is the right thing to do.”

  …

  The expectations were dashed.

  There is another sad person in Ideal City tonight.

  However, Fang Chang’s loss is just an exception. The vast majority of people in this city are still very happy, especially at this time when the nightlife begins.

  An office building on the edge of Ideal City.

  In a small and lightless studio, there are simply a few cheap sofas, tables and chairs and simple office supplies.

  Bathed in the light of cheap incandescent lamps, a certain mole and several employees of the newly established [Skull Studio] are dancing with excitement at this moment.

  ”Oh my god… this game is so damn fun!”

  After taking off the virtual reality glasses, the mole’s face was full of excitement and excitement.

  Some time ago, everyone on the forum joked that they were going to make games in Ideal City, but only he took action and really made the game.

  The studio directly used the logo of the Skeleton Corps, and the name of the game is “Battle Royale”. The gameplay is not very similar to eating chicken, but it can only be said to be almost exactly the same.

  It’s just switched to a virtual reality platform.

  Although it’s not as immersive as “Wasteland OL”, the degree of completion is already very high!

  If it’s not popular, he’ll treat Fang Chang to shit!

  After all, he was a man who had seen the world. Xue Hongliang, the technical director and CEO he hired, did not react so strongly. After taking off his glasses, he simply sighed.

  ”…The only pity is that you only have one life. If you die, you’re gone.”

  Just in the previous game.

  Not long after he landed, he was taken away by the bot he designed.

  Mole laughed and said.

  ”You don’t understand this. The essence of this game is here! Although the equipment will be searched in vain if you die, think about it from another angle. Wouldn’t the person you killed also have a mentality explosion?”

  The employees sitting in the room looked at each other, exchanged glances, and thought that it seemed to make sense.

  Mole paused for a while and continued slowly.

  ”Especially when you kill all the way to the finals, hiding in the bushes waiting for the final decisive battle, when you think that half an hour of hard work will be gone with just a small mistake, your adrenaline will soar, and you will be so nervous that your hands will sweat! And if you succeed in eating chicken, all these hormones will be transformed into happy dopamine in an instant-”

  ”Wait a minute, there is a question.” The employee in charge of programming raised his hand.

  Although he was very upset about being interrupted, the mole still generously gave him the opportunity to speak.

  ”Speak.”

  The programmer said seriously.

  ”The virtual reality system will block the excessive stimulation that may cause health risks. Adrenaline surges and sweaty hands are impossible…”

  The mole rolled his eyes.

  ”I’m just making a metaphor! Don’t be so rigid. There will always be a feeling of tension, right?”

  The programmer scratched the back of his head.

  ”Well, that’s true…”

  The mole glanced around at the dozen or so employees present and continued to cheer them up.

  ”In short, this is the selling point of this game!”

  ”You only have one life and one chance! Whether our studio can occupy a place in the ideal city depends on this release!”

  After a week of development, the trial version of “Battle Royale” has been completed, and it has just been logged into the game platform on the endpoint cloud, open to users for free download and trial. After the trial time exceeds two hours, a 20Cr buyout fee will be charged.

  In the future, there will be updates on functions such as selling boxes and drawing out-of-print skins. The mole not only copied the game itself, but also copied the means of cutting leeks.

  Since there are ready-made development tools available, there are also ready-made virtual models available for purchase on the endpoint cloud, and those that cannot be purchased can be outsourced, so the development difficulty is not very great.

  As for the rent of the company’s site, it is 1200Cr per month, which is not very expensive. Labor is a little expensive. It is impossible for employees who understand technology to offer the minimum hourly wage of 1Cr. 8000~10,000Cr per month must be paid.

  The bulk of the expenditure is not rent or labor, but the purchase of the right to use development tools, the purchase of technical services and virtual models, and the cost of leasing endpoint cloud computing power.

  A series of expenses are calculated, up to 1 million Cr!

  This money is enough to buy a “Hellhound” unmanned vehicle plus an airborne missile!

  As for where this money comes from?

  Of course, it is exchanged for silver coins.

  A few days ago, with the efforts of managers and ambassador Shuyu, the alliance and the company reached two key and important agreements.

  One of them is the currency swap agreement.

  According to the agreement, the two sides exchanged currencies with a total value of 300 million Cr at a fixed exchange rate of 3:1.

  That is, 1Cr is exchanged for 3 silver coins.

  Since there is no fixed and stable market, it is difficult to convert purchasing power directly. After all, the price of the same commodity in the River Valley Province and the Cloud Province may be very different.

  This exchange rate actually includes a part of the subsidy, and the subsidy is the “technical added value” provided by the enterprise to the alliance.

  In addition, currency swaps alone are obviously not enough. In addition, the two sides also agreed on how to use the money.

  This involves the second trade agreement.

  In principle, only residents of Ideal City can register companies and trade equity, so residents of the Alliance cannot work in companies or run industries.

  But there is room for flexibility.

  And this newly signed trade agreement is one of the flexible ways.

  As a permanent partner of the enterprise, companies registered in the Alliance and endorsed by the Alliance can also enter the white list of the enterprise.

  After entering the white list, you can set up a branch in Ideal City and invest in non-core industries other than electricity, transportation, energy, etc.

  Because the alliance’s credit is used as an endorsement, if you want to enter the alliance’s whitelist, you need to go through approval.

  However, the approval process is not complicated.

  Companies that have made outstanding contributions to the alliance or are collectively controlled by the shelter can be quickly approved and obtain exchange quotas and tickets to invest in the ideal city.

  The former include Goblin Technology, Lister Factory, etc., and the latter include Niuma Brick Factory, Factory No. 81, Bachi Aluminum Factory, etc.

  1 million Cr, converted at a fixed exchange rate, is 3 million silver coins.

  Mole himself definitely does not have so much money.

  Moreover, this is only the initial investment, and the actual funds required must be far more than this.

  However, after all, he is the “second smartest” boss on the server. After thinking hard, he quickly thought of a solution.

  According to the rules of the alpha version, he took out all his belongings and raised 1.5 million silver coins with his good brothers to register a company called Skull Group.

  Then he successfully raised 12 million silver coins in start-up capital with a beautiful business plan and sacrificed 80% of his shares.

  4 million Cr.

  It should be enough for a while.

  He shared the remaining 20% ​​of the shares with Irena, Elf King Fugui and other investors.

  Although the Sanctuary took the lion’s share, the shares they could get were not small.

  For example, he took 8%. As long as the game sold for 100 million, that would be 8 million!

  After deducting the cost and tax, he would get at least 6 or 7 million Cr!

  If it were converted into silver coins…

  Mole didn’t dare to think about it anymore.

  After just a while of YY, he couldn’t help drooling. He was worried that he would get too excited if he continued to imagine.

  In short, he took everyone’s hard-earned money and shouldered everyone’s expectations to open the Skeleton Studio, which was wholly owned by the Skeleton Group.

  Under his unremitting urging, everyone finally restored this virtual reality version of the skydiving chicken-eating masterpiece in “Wasteland OL”.

  I have to praise A Guang.

  ”Wasteland OL” can not only play games in the game, but also make games in the game.

  This idea is simply amazing!

  Although the trial version of “Battle Royale” is only the area of ​​​​an island, it is a little smaller than those “super A-level” masterpieces that are popular in Ideal City and restore a world at any time, but he believes that gameplay and fun are the core of a game.

  This market, which is still a blue ocean, is destined to have a place for him!

  However,

  the ruthless reality soon gave him a heavy blow. The

  newly launched “Battle Royale” did not become popular on the entire network as soon as it was uploaded as he expected, and it was even as unknown as a piece of dust falling into a pond, without even a little wave.

  So far, the only few visits to the server are still contributed by the employees in the studio.

  Looking at the unmoving download volume, the mole who was excited and dancing with joy a few minutes ago is now sweating with anxiety.

  The only thing that brought him some comfort was that the lack of big sales seemed to have nothing to do with the game itself, but just insufficient exposure.

  Maybe when the exposure is increased,

  it might suddenly become popular…

  Standing next to the boss, staring at the data on the screen, several employees of the studio also had regretful expressions on their faces.

  ”What a pity… Such a fun game is not popular at all.”

  ”Yeah… It’s obviously quite fun.”

  ”We’d better not delay it too long… No matter how delicious the soup is, it will go bad if it is left for too long.”

  The development tools on the endpoint cloud are very mature, and the working hours required to develop a game are not long. However, it is precisely because of this that the highly involutionary environment has caused most games to not only be highly homogenized, but also have a shortened lifespan.

  Except for those open world games that focus on the development of virtual communities and have huge and non-repetitive content, the lifespan of most games is only one month, and the average game time of players is often no more than 24 hours.

  Xue Hongliang, the CEO and technical director of the studio, frowned and said after thinking for a moment.

  ”We should increase our investment in marketing and promotion.”

  ”There is a very popular game promotion program on Endpoint Cloud recently. Although the cost is a bit high, I think we can give it a try.”

  When he heard that the cost was a bit high, Mole’s eyebrows twitched.

  ”How much?”

  ”About 1.2 million Cr?”

  When he heard this number, he almost vomited blood.

  1.2 million? !

  It can buy six missiles!

  ”Our development costs are less than 1 million… Isn’t this price too expensive?” Mole couldn’t help but complain.

  Xue Hongliang was stunned.

  ”Isn’t it common sense that the publicity and promotion costs are higher than the development costs?”

  Mole was also stunned.

  However, seeing that the other employees around him also had an expression of agreement, it didn’t seem like they were bullying him for not knowing the business.

  After taking a deep breath, Mole controlled his emotions and spoke.

  ”Anyway… let me see what the program looks like first.”

  Xue Hongliang nodded, walked to another desk, and turned on the holographic TV placed there.

  Light blue light and shadow appeared, and the current channel was playing news.

  He was about to switch channels, but his boss suddenly called him.

  ”Wait… I’ll finish reading this news.”

  Xue Hongliang was stunned for a moment, retracted his index finger and stepped aside.

  The picture in the holographic image continued to play, and the news being broadcast seemed to be an interview and report on the situation on the Western Front.

  ”… In order to reverse the decline on the front battlefield, the Legion is deploying nuclear weapons with a yield of one million tons to Luoxia Province.”

  ”The Minister of the General Management Department Yue Qian emphasized that nuclear weapons above 100,000 tons should be strictly restricted. If those alien species continue to mutate and the fragile ecosystem continues to evolve in an extreme direction, this planet will become uninhabitable in the future!”

  ”The managers of the alliance also spoke in public speeches, strongly condemning the Legion’s deployment of nuclear weapons on the battlefield, and stated that the residents of the alliance will not succumb to nuclear threats.”

  ”The Supreme Council meeting is currently being held to discuss more specific response plans. According to informed sources, if the situation is true, the Supreme Council of the enterprise will approve the use of sealed weapons stocks…”

  In the holographic image.

  The representative of the Council, surrounded by interview drones, said firmly.

  ”…There is no doubt that those weapons are prepared for this moment!”

  Looking at the news in the holographic image, the employees in the studio looked at each other, and when they came back to their senses, they all took a breath of cold air.

  ”Hiss… a million tons of nuclear bombs!”

  an employee asked curiously.

  ”What does that mean?”

  Another employee thought for a while and answered.

  ”If it is an ideal city, each person in this city can get an average of 100 kilograms or 10 kilograms of equivalent. And if it is an alliance with a population of about 100,000, everyone can get about 10 tons.”

  The sound of “hiss” was loud.

  The cool air in the whole room was sucked away.

  Everyone couldn’t help but secretly glance at their boss.

  They knew that the man who spoke in a halting manner and whose name was Mole was from the alliance in the south of the Valley Province.

  However, to their surprise, they did not see fear on the man’s face.

  That expression seemed to be pure surprise.

  And the fact is indeed so. The Mole stared at the holographic image with a blank look in his eyes.

  He had seen on the official website that the Legion was deploying nuclear weapons to Luoxia Province, and the announcement even clearly mentioned that the Legion intended to use it in the City of Plenty in the Lion Kingdom.

  However, looking at the serious wording and tone of the administrator in the news…

  it felt like the nuclear bomb was going to be dropped on the Alliance’s head.

  Is it fake?

  Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Mole coughed lightly and said in a serious voice.

  ”Your boss’s house is on fire… I’ll probably have to go back in a couple of days to check it out.”

  If the news was true, the mobilization order would probably come down soon. As the head of the Skeleton Corps, he certainly couldn’t just stay behind and let his brothers take his place.

  Xue Hongliang was stunned.

  ”You…are going to the front line?”

  Oh my goodness.

  They were playing PUBG in the game.

  I didn’t expect their boss to play PUBG in real life on the front line.

  No wonder he could come up with such interesting ideas, it turned out to be real experiences!

  ”Of course! In fact, to be honest, driving a tank is your boss’s main job, and running a company is just a side job.”

  The Mole smiled embarrassedly, coughed and continued.

  ”But don’t worry about me, working hard is the greatest support for me! In fact, I have never told you that most of the revenue from this game will become the military expenses of the alliance against the Legion. For every 10,000 copies of the game you sell, there will be one more missile fired at the Legion.”

  ”When this battle is over, I will come back to fight alongside you!”

  After hearing this speech, almost all the employees in the office looked at him with admiration.

  Xue Hongliang walked up excitedly and held his right hand tightly.

  ”Boss, go ahead and leave the company to me… We will definitely not let you down! We will make your dream of selling millions of units come true!”

  Mole smiled and patted his right hand.

  ”Okay! I feel relieved when you say that!”

  　My stomach problem comes back… Sorry for keeping you waiting. The emotions in the second half are a bit under-depicted, so I’ll continue writing later.

  　　
  　

  (End of this chapter)