This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 294 Players Outside the Game

Chapter 294: Chapter 294 Players Outside the Game

"800 silver coins equals 40,000 yuan, 8,000 silver coins equals 400,000 yuan, 80,000 silver coins equals 4 million yuan... 4 million yuan..."

Alright.

That calculation actually has a big problem.

You don’t need a groundbreaking immersive virtual reality RPG game; anyone who has played a couple of phenomenon-level MMORPGs would understand what "G price" really means.

By the time he can casually put up hundreds of thousands of silver coins for sale on the forum, silver coins would have probably lost their value long ago.

But—

If others reach level 20 while he manages to get to level 30 or even level 40, if others wear power armor while he pilots an interstellar battleship and drops power armor from above, what does it matter if silver coins have lost their value?

When others have ten thousand silver coins in their pockets, he might have billions in his.

As long as he stays in the top tier, always ahead of the version, even if silver coins drop to one yuan for 50, he still might not make less than when it was 50 yuan for one silver coin.

If a new version launches, new equipment is released, or a large number of players join the game, the price of silver coins might actually increase.

Currently, Wasteland OL has only 1,600 beta testers, but the number of preregistered users has already surpassed a million. People, relying on exciting game screenshots and CGI videos, have driven the price of silver coins sky-high amidst unscientific cries.

How did we even get here?

Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, everyone will own a helmet and merely closing their eyes will open a second world, pushing human civilization into a new era.

By then, regardless of the price of silver coins, his returns would be far more than just 40,000 yuan, possibly even over 400 million yuan...

This is just the beginning!

Ye Wei felt his heart racing.

This was the first time he’d ever considered going professional.

On the way back from the computer room to his dorm, Ye Wei, loaded with a hefty sum, felt as if he were floating, only remembering at the doorstep that he had forgotten to eat lunch.

"Ah Weh, missing your girl?"

"Get lost."

Ye Wei looked up at his roommate lying on the bed.

That short guy, Sun Gan, was very close to him. They used to play duo matches in games frequently, but he had quit some time ago.

Ordinary games no longer satisfied him.

"Coming to eat?"

His roommate replied with a cheeky grin.

"Yeah, if someone’s treating, I’m there."

"I’m treating."

His friend’s eyes widened in an instant.

"What the heck? For real?"

He was just joking around.

He hadn’t planned on getting out of bed.

Hearing that there was a free meal, the other dorm leader and Brother Liu joined in the fun, cheering him on.

"Ah Weh is the boss!"

"Ye Wei is awesome!"

Ye Wei rolled his eyes.

"Quit your blabbering, get up fast."

The four of them hadn’t eaten yet, so they went to the snack street together.

They found a well-rated lakeside fish grill, and Ye Wei casually marked a few items on the menu, which turned out to cost only 200 yuan.

He usually grudged spending 20 yuan on takeout, but now even this seemed cheap.

After all, 200 yuan was only 4 silver coins...

Calm down.

You can’t think like that.

Ye Wei took a deep breath, trying to persuade himself to calm down.

Because just then, he suddenly realized that a few hours ago, he had eaten a bowl of noodles that cost 6 silver coins.

That was probably the most expensive bowl he had ever eaten in his life.

Seeing their good buddy alternating between deep breaths and silly grins, the three roommates exchanged looks.

"Feels like Ah Weh is off today; did something go wrong at home?"

"Bro, great minds think alike! I also think Ye Wei probably got dumped!"

"That makes sense, the kid seemed a bit spaced out when he entered; he might really have been dumped."

After a confusing exchange, the dorm leader’s gaze gradually firmed, looking at Ye Wei counting fish bones, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Ye Wei looked up, bewildered.

"What?"

The dorm leader spoke seriously.

"Life is long, there’s no hurdle that can’t be overcome, no person you can’t let go. Look on the bright side, brother. If you really want to cry, Brother Liu can lend you a shoulder."

Ye Wei almost choked on a fish bone, and Brother Liu, sitting opposite him, exaggeratedly almost spat out a mouthful of tea.

"Get lost! Lend it yourself! One meal wants me to sell my body... unless it’s two meals."

"You jerk! What about the bond of sharing a bed for over a year? Our Ah Weh is struggling, and you can’t even help him?"

"Is that really helping?"

"Ugh, ugh, ugh."

Ye Wei watched them in confusion.

"What the hell?"

The dorm leader forced a laugh and said.

"Nothing, we just thought you seemed a bit off, and we were a bit worried about you."

Ye Wei couldn’t help but laugh and said.

"No, no, you’re mistaken, I just... encountered something good, got a bit carried away, just give me some time to adjust, I’ll be alright."

Sun Gan curiously asked.

"What good thing?"

Brother Liu also excitedly pressed.

"Tell us, what’s got you so agitated?"

"..."

Ye Wei didn’t know how to start.

They had already talked about this topic many times in their dorm, but even if he showed them the official website, none of them believed it.

Show them his bank account balance?

His EQ wasn’t that low.

"Imagine, just imagine... if there was an absolutely realistic virtual reality RPG game, how popular would it be?"

The three roommates looked at each other.

"Ye Wei..."

"What?"

"Just imagining, I’m just saying..." Sun Gan weakly said, "If one day you go crazy—oh no, achieve great mastery, could you spare Liu and the dorm leader first when you start killing?"

Liu: "Damn! How malicious!"

"Ah, forget it," knowing it would turn out like this, Ye Wei helplessly shook his head and took a swig of beer, "pretend your dad farted."

In the afternoon, around two.

The group returned to their dorm.

People get sleepy after eating, and when sleepy, don’t feel like studying; they decided to play a couple of games before getting to their studies, and even called out to Ye Wei.

Though knowing he was probably not interested, they called out anyway because calling or not is another matter.

Standing on the balcony, Ye Wei pondered back and forth, and ultimately decided to play it safe by first transferring 6000 yuan to his mother’s bank card.

Before he could send a WeChat message to explain, his mother’s call came through.

"Weiwei, what’s with the six thousand yuan?"

Hearing the concerned voice on the other end of the phone, Ye Wei felt a warmth in his heart.

"Mom, recently... I found a part-time job. I paid this semester’s tuition with my salary, so I thought I’d send you the tuition you transferred to me."

Ye Wei eventually didn’t have the heart to say he earned the money by playing games; he could only find a temporary excuse and explain little by little later.

"Part-time job? What part-time job? Why did you suddenly start working part-time?"

"Electronics tester... Basically, it’s just helping to test some new devices," Ye Wei said, his face turning red.

There was a hesitation in the voice from the other end of the phone.

"Testing new devices... Isn’t that like being a guinea pig?"

"It’s fine, it’s very safe, and it’s at night... I mean, it doesn’t conflict with class times, it won’t affect my studies."

That was close!

Almost slipped up!

Ye Wei felt that if he mentioned working at night, his mom would definitely misunderstand something.

The other end of the phone fell silent for a while.

"...Don’t overwork yourself. You’re at the university to learn more, and our family can easily afford your education."

"Don’t worry, mom, part-time work is also a learning experience. I’ve learned a lot from friends I test with, and besides, I wanted to help lighten the family’s load. Jiujiu is taking the college entrance exams in June, and she’s studying painting. There’ll be a lot to pay for then, like tuition, living expenses, buying paints..."

"That’s right, that’s right, you don’t need to give me living expenses anymore, I have enough money on me..."

After a long explanation,

He finally managed to deal with his mom.

Putting down his mobile phone, Ye Wei took a deep breath, thought for a while, then opened JD.com, picked out a phone around four thousand yuan, and sent the link to his sister.

Jiuju loves pineapple: "?"

Wei: "Do you like it?"

Jiuju loves pineapple: "What are you trying to do? Just to be clear, I only have a little pocket money, okay? I can lend you some if you can’t afford meals, but a phone is out of the question. (alert.jpg)"

Wei: "Roll roll roll. Do you think your brother is the type to mooch off others? Forget it, I was going to give it to you directly, but I thought it might distract you from your studies. Let’s wait until you get into Huamei."

Jiuju loves pineapple: "NO! Big brother!! I was wrong! QAQ"

Watching his sister’s barrage of emojis, the corners of Ye Wei’s mouth unwittingly curled up.

How to spend money after making a fortune?

He really hadn’t thought much about that.

Though he was a dominant T0 player in "Wasteland OL," given the slow testing progress of "Wasteland OL," he had never expected to make a living off it.

But now, his previous efforts had paid off.

While having fun with his friends, he could now take care of the family’s worries and provide them with a better life.

Damn!

This damn operator is playing their sugary tricks again!

Turning off his phone, Ye Wei looked back at his dorm room.

His roommates were playing a three-man team on PUBG, the screen filled with fierce gunfights, continuously shouting "line up your shots," "smoke out."

But to him, those rough graphics from the "second-dimensional era" were no longer attractive.

Looking at the dark helmet on the table, Ye Wei suddenly felt a slight warmth in his heart.

"Thanks, bro."

...

The same world.

Across the distant ocean.

In a dark room in Virginia, only a computer light remained on.

This was the only laptop that wasn’t connected to the internet.

The flickering screen displayed only a string of lightly inscribed characters.

"Do not try to be clever."

"Do not think that your rules can solve other people’s problems."

"You have your own problems to solve, better mind your own business."

"This is a warning."

It was their only progress in the last six months.

With his left hand, a man with curly hair, looking utterly defeated, was shaking the mouse.

"It’s no use... this computer is beyond saving too."

Here was the CIA’s special operations office, codenamed "Wasteland," and their target was a "non-existent" yet "accessibly normal" website.

Initially, they discovered this website in a gaming community.

At first, no one took it seriously; they just thought it was a joke among Chinese-speaking netizens.

Until more and more CG graphics were released, a senior agent named Phillip, out of curiosity, tried to find a backdoor to the website and slowly began to realize the severity of the situation.

The website didn’t exist.

But it was still accessible.

This abnormal situation made him think he had discovered aliens.

Initially, the Federation did not pay much attention to such trivial issues—after all, managing such things would exhaust their lower-level staff.

However, considering the anomaly was indeed unusual, after several reports up the hierarchy, the CIA finally established a team specifically to handle this case.

For Phillip, who was in charge of the team, this was an excellent opportunity. If he could successfully complete the task, he would definitely gain the minister’s appreciation.

Thus, they worked day and night in this dim room for half a year, even taking up the Chinese language, but unfortunately, made no progress.

The opponent’s server security was watertight, with not a single flaw, causing headaches for the network security experts Phillip had brought in.

However, the situation finally turned a corner recently.

The opponent had opened up the Game Currency trading in "Beta0.2 version update."

It is well-known that when a system is newly developed, it often contains the most bugs. Weren’t the previous version announcements always about fixing bugs?

Phillip had reason to believe that this newly launched "Silver Coin Trading Platform" could be a breakthrough in penetrating the Trojan city wall!

For the success of this operation, Phillip gathered the strongest IT team he could find, asking them to hack into the website’s server at any cost and locate the anonymous company.

If possible, it was best to obtain the relevant data from the "Dream System," which would be the key to his success!

They had to try, whether it could be successful or not.

After all, the opponent had always been indifferent, with no response to their frequent probes, possibly because they didn’t dare offend the powerful America.

However, what Phillip did not expect was that his attempt, at the cost of one Bitcoin, resulted in the total collapse of the system.

Not only did the opponent wipe out their server, but they also deleted all the data in their servers.

Looking at the room filled with paralyzed computers, Phillip could only feel his heart bleeding, his scalp tingling, and his limbs turning ice cold.

He could almost foresee the furious tirade from his boss.

"147 servers wiped out... it’s over."

With hands completely off the keyboard, another IT specialist sitting in front of the computer also gave up the struggle.

"Our opponent is a monster; the frustrating part is not how clever their methods are, but that their technology is beyond my understanding."

"Do you know what I just experienced? I felt like a primitive man defending a city with a stone spear while facing a giant sent by Odin. I’m not even sure if I angered it, but it still reached out for me..." he said, showing the pinky finger of his right hand and babbled incomprehensibly.

"...At most its little pinky, not more than that. And that was already beyond our servers’ limits."

Phillip swallowed hard.

"Don’t scare yourself..."

He admitted, there might be a gap in the field of information technology between them, but it was only to the extent of a T64 compared to a Leopard 2, not so bad as to be utterly hopeless.

However—

A lack of confidence made him end his sentence with a hint of uncertainty.

Information technology experts shook their heads.

"It’s not about scaring ourselves... forget it, you wouldn’t understand even if I explained. Frankly, this is an asymmetric confrontation, their victory is inglorious, and my defeat isn’t shameful."

With that, he leaned back on the chair, exhausted.

His expression, to some extent, betrayed a sense of resignation.

"Just now I wanted to ask, who turned off the lights."

Glancing at the extinguished light above and then at the extinguished charging indicator on the laptop, he suddenly furrowed his brows.

"Is the power out?"

Now, a power outage seemed trivial.

Phillip took out his mobile phone to check it, no signal.

Just then, his subordinate hurried in from outside, his face a mix of disbelief and horror.

"It’s stopped, not just here, but the whole state is out! Damn it, the base station has no signal, and switching to the backup generator takes time. Now the entire department is in chaos. I don’t want to connect two things together, but it just happened seconds ago."

Looking at the man who walked in from outside, the room fell dead silent.

A power outage...

And for the entire state.

Compared to the economic losses caused by the statewide power outage, the destruction of over a hundred servers seemed insignificant...

Phillip swallowed hard. Although it was still March weather, the room felt stifling hot.

His mind was a mess.

Even more incomprehensible.

Before, every time the opponent had attacked their network, they seemed "obsequious" and "dare not retaliate." How had they suddenly fought back this time?

Now he realized that previously, the other party wasn’t too afraid to offend; they simply couldn’t be bothered. This time, not only had they made a move, but they also launched an unrestricted counterattack, pulling the entire state’s electrical switches.

Wasn’t this too excessive?

The curly-haired man sitting in front of the computer pounded the table in anger.

"This is a terrorist attack!"

Phillip glanced at him hurriedly and coughed lightly.

"Do you have evidence? If not... it’s best not to link these two things together."

If they linked these incidents, they would have to issue a formal response. And once they responded formally, as the person in charge, he would be responsible for the losses caused by this failure.

Why bother?

No one had claimed responsibility for this anyways.

The generator restarted, communication was restored, and the room brightened again.

However, the atmosphere in the room was still oppressive.

One agent, pinching the bridge of his nose, spoke with a headache,

"What kind of company is this?"

Phillip wanted to say the same thing.

They have such godly technology, and they use it... to make games?

What’s the difference from being reborn and deciding to play DOTA?

Helmets...

It would be great if they could get a hold of one.

A thought crossed Phillip’s mind.

If they could trace the Bitcoin wallet that received the transaction, they could at least identify a player’s identity. Even if he was across the ocean, and direct contact wasn’t feasible, there were too many indirect methods of influencing a citizen from a third-world country—

Wait.

A drop of cold sweat trickled down Phillip’s forehead.

Just then, he realized that he might be planning something extremely dangerous.

Getting a helmet wasn’t difficult.

But just getting the helmet wouldn’t solve any problem.

The cost was an unknown factor.

Those madmen had the capability to paralyze a state’s power system within seconds, and his side couldn’t even locate the problem, let alone have evidence linking them to the incident.

Perhaps...

He should seriously consider the true meaning of that "warning" and the risk of "dangers" spreading from the federal power system to other systems.

Rethinking his approach, Phillip took a deep breath and looked around at his colleagues in the room.

"Our approach to hacking the server is flawed... I don’t doubt our ability to break into their servers, but we don’t need to take this risk."

"The level of technological power displayed by the opponent isn’t known to be possessed by any organization or agency in our intelligence network, otherwise, they would have used it by now."

"It’s also clear that we don’t actually have a direct conflict of interests... perhaps a gentler approach would make them see our sincerity."

Although everyone’s expressions were somewhat peculiar, no one objected.

"I’m glad we’re in agreement."

Phillip breathed a sigh of relief, nodded, and continued in a softened tone.

"My previous expression might have been somewhat diplomatic, what I mean is..."

"Why don’t we fill out a form first?"

...

The same situation was unfolding elsewhere.

Across the ocean.

An unknown location.

The spacious and bright room was very quiet, with documents piled high on the table and the trash can stuffed with cigarette butts, a few of which had fallen to the ground.

About a dozen people were quietly busy, their dark circles indicating they had been diligently working overtime for several days.

But they should be able to take a day off tomorrow.

Probably fatigued from their consecutive days of labor, only one computer hadn’t crashed.

Let’s leave it at that.

In fact, rather than figuring out what that "non-existent website" was all about, they were more curious about how those "helmets that shouldn’t exist" had appeared in players’ hands.

This was far more serious than economic issues.

"Can you find that person?"

"We can, but also can’t."

The older officer furrowed his brows.

"What does that mean?"

The younger officer sighed and explained,

"Any information before last April has vanished, without any trace of deletion, but as if it never existed. It’s like he emerged out of thin air, like a ghost. Our only clue is that QQ number and a few chat logs up till last April. He has nothing to hide, or rather, he simply doesn’t care to."

Another colleague frowned and added,

"He must have his own social connections, right? What about his friends in the account? What about the registered mobile number?"

Compared to "Xiao Qi," who didn’t even have a social account, "Ah Guang," the planner, might be their only lead.

The young man paused for a while,

"The strangest part is here."

"We know a lot, but cannot find any workplace of his, nor his parents. We’ve searched through the archives of Jiangcheng University and the local job market without any record of him; either those records are forged, or they’ve been tampered with... He has disappeared, never even appearing before us, as if a UFO flew down from the sky and whisked him away along with all traces of his existence."

Yet, in contrast to this eerie phenomenon,

Identifying those players was quite easy.

The website itself was a black curtain, but monitoring group chats always revealed some threads.

Their team was high-level, and the case they were handling was extremely special.

Usually, sensitive matters required procedures for personnel to investigate, but they could directly obtain the necessary information.

"Besides the chat logs, there are also bank transfer details. Although we can’t lock down information within the website, we can identify all transfers of the same amount during the same period and conduct vetting. Buying game props isn’t illegal, but we can have them cooperate with our investigation... do we need to contact them?"

The silent elderly man suddenly spoke.

"When you mentioned the bank, I was thinking, what if there’s a problem with the banking system?"

The young man was slightly stunned and said nervously.

"Bank, the bank? Surely not..."

The old man pondered for a moment before saying, "It’s just a hypothesis, our work might unnecessarily burden the comrades at the banking system."

The man with a square face, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up.

"It’s actually unnecessary."

Seeing that everyone turned to look at him.

He continued in an unhurried manner.

"First of all, we have to admit that the opponent’s information technology surpasses ours."

The middle-aged man sitting in front of the computer with glasses showed a trace of embarrassment on his face.

"Sorry..."

The square-faced man shook his head.

"It’s not your fault. They possess technology we have never heard of, capable of interfering with dreams—using such technology to steal secrets seems almost trivial."

"I even thought about whether it might be aliens trying to understand our civilization level and thinking patterns and then decide whether or not to..."

While saying this, the square-faced man gestured around his neck.

Everyone in the office looked at each other.

But they quickly realized he was joking.

The elder man coughed to lighten the mood.

"No matter what, aliens are just..."

Too far-fetched.

Even if that might be the closest guess to the truth.

"It’s just a hypothesis, just a moment ago my colleague informed me that a massive power outage happened on the other side of the ocean in Virginia... and not just in one area, but across the entire state. Their power grid was out for a whole hour, just across the Tomack River from Washington. Their external explanation was that aging circuits caused a system malfunction at the power company, which has been repaired and is now back to normal. But whether that’s the whole truth is known only to them."

The square-faced man thought for a moment, then continued.

"They know where we are, even showed their hand. Leaving aside that ’cognitive perception’-based dream system, their achievements in the field of information technology might be at least half a century ahead of us... maybe even more."

"I still maintain the speculation that the operator of this game might be aliens—or should I say an extraterrestrial civilization. This technology does not originate from Earth, and it’s not just my view."

No technology can emerge from nowhere without theoretical foundations, yet the existence of that website surpasses their understanding.

Laypeople might not see any difference from a normal website, but to those who really understand, that thing is like a lone singularity.

They are not even in the same dimension.

And that is the crux of the problem.

The veteran detective coughed lightly.

"It seems we need to bring in a comrade from the aerospace system."

Someone at the side made a joke to ease the atmosphere.

"And perhaps increase the budget for the Southern Heavenly Gate project?"

The middle-aged man with glasses sitting at the computer still felt somewhat reluctant.

"This technology could change the world, if we could—"

The square-faced man gave a soft cough.

"Back to the earlier topic, I think intervening proactively is the least wise choice. Others have already stumbled for us; we don’t need to fall with them into the river again."

The elderly man furrowed his brow.

"So, we just let it go?"

The square-faced man continued.

"We’re unsure of their motive for running this game, unclear on the underlying principles, and even unsure...whether they are even Earthlings."

"However, they clearly understood us and, just a few months after the planner codenamed ’Ah Guang’ disappeared, they swiftly launched Wasteland OL, an MMORPG."

"And in group chats, he explained to other netizens that he had changed jobs."

"We assume they come from beyond the Solar System, and this would be our first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. We represent not just our own civilization, and I prefer a cautious approach over the potential consequences of arrogance."

"Why not observe for a longer period?"

"The other side has already shown us the sincerity of their civilization, and we should reciprocate with sincerity while remaining vigilant."

"Regardless of their purpose, the game has just started its B round; perhaps those from the distant worlds are trying to convey some message or metaphor to us through ’Game’—a form of culture we can understand."

"At least for now, this does not signify hostility. And if it means assistance, we might greatly benefit from it."

The elderly man pondered for a long time and nodded.

"It’s indeed rude to interrupt someone halfway through speaking; at least let them finish."

The person beside him nodded.

"That’s what I think too."

The young person raised his hand.

"I disagree. I worry that external forces might target those players; at the very least, we should protect those ’players’."

The square-faced man did not speak; the elder smiled and shook his head.

"You think too little of our adversaries."

Destroy it if unable to get it?

What kind of third-rate romance TV drama is this?

If the opponents were that foolish, they’d have won already.

As for controlling the players...

There’s even less necessity.

The number of reservations had exceeded a million and was still increasing. With the current technologies, we could only tell who had forwarded that link. We had no idea who had visited that website or when, and we certainly had no way of knowing who would receive the helmet next.

There lay a black hole of information absorption, more mysterious than worlds outside the Solar System.

They chose them.

They could choose others too.

The young person sighed.

"It would be great if we could get a helmet."

The square-faced man chuckled and said,

"That thing isn’t very useful. I had it analyzed. Its structure is so simple it’s puzzling, and we haven’t even grasped the fundamental principles, let alone reverse-engineer it. It’s better just taken as a joke."

The elder looked at him in surprise.

"Where did you get a helmet?"

The square-faced man sheepishly smiled.

"It’s quite a coincidence, I probably found out about it early. Just... filling out a form normally, including age, profession, skills, games played, and some multiple-choice questions that might interest young people, then pressed the YES button."

Honestly, he hadn’t played many games, mostly just antique internet games from the old days; he had never imagined he’d actually get in.

The other side seemed not to care at all.

The helmet was simply left at his doorstep.

In fact, he had been playing for a while now.

And this was why the superiors had him join this group from the start.

The elder hesitated.

"You filled out that form?"

"Does it make any difference whether I filled it or not? Unless my record is completely deleted from the system, to them it’s just graffiti on a wall."

After a pause, the square-faced man looked at the flickering computer screen.

"I even have a feeling."

"We’re having this closed-door meeting here today, and the audience is far more than just us."

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