Probably Lin Tuo's attitude was too calm, which was in great contrast with the surrounding environment. The owner of the Internet cafe waited for a few seconds before finally reacting, and looked at him curiously.
He smiled and said, "Congratulations."
According to the rules, since Lin Tuo was the first to pass the level, the Challenger League had a champion.
Well, as for the second and third places, they still need to continue to compete, and there are rewards, but that's not what he cares about.
After a while of commotion, under the shouts of the owner of the Internet cafe, the rest returned to their seats, and Lin Tuo was led up to the second floor to receive the prize.
It was only then that he saw clearly the situation on the second floor...
Individual compartments, with cables hanging from the roof.
There is no screen, and there are some people standing in the compartment at this moment, wearing helmet-like brain machines, with sensor equipment fixed on their bodies, closing their eyes and making various weird movements...
Walking in place, slashing, rolling and so on... When Lin Tuo entered the door, he saw a player sitting on the ground rolling one by one, with his ass pouted and yelling for the hero to spare his life...
It looks like a sand sculpture...
"This is the newly opened virtual game area," the owner of the Internet cafe said with a smile, "Our side is still too far away, otherwise the machine would have been equipped long ago.
This time, if "The Third Continent" hadn't been too popular, it wouldn't have been renovated so quickly. "
The third continent... This was the nth time he heard this name, and it was also the first stop he planned to investigate.
Lin Tuo looked around with great interest, and tentatively asked:
"I saw an advertisement saying that tens of millions of people are online for this game..."
"Hey, how can there be so many people... Well, but I really can't tell in the past two days," the owner of the Internet cafe smacked his lips, "I heard that the game has become more and more popular in the past two days.
Anyone who can afford the basic equipment has at least registered.
Especially this game is very sticky, almost people who have played it can't live without it... "
"Internet addiction?"
"That's not enough. Don't listen to the nonsense on the news. How can you feel unwell if you don't go online? If this game has such magic power, the government would have shut it down long ago."
After some excuses, the middle-aged man pointed to No. 1 in the VIP area on the second floor, took out a card from his pocket, and said with a smile:
"This is the only one. It's very expensive to use the card to get on the machine. I'm willing to buy one. It's much better than the ones outside. You can just lie down."
"Okay." Lin Tuo took it and exchanged some greetings. He opened the door of the box only after the owner of the Internet cafe came downstairs.
…
The lights turned on automatically, and there was only a sofa-shaped game cabin inside, with instructions on how to use it on the wall next to it.
Lin Tuo didn't hesitate, and immediately lay down on it, closing all parts, not to mention, lying down was very comfortable.
At this time, he couldn't help being a little more curious about the so-called "virtual space".
He closed his eyes, fumbled for the switch, pressed it, and the green light turned on. In the next second, a slight ether fluctuation emerged, and Lin Tuo only felt a line of small words suddenly light up in the consciousness space:
"The device is starting..."
"The biological body is sensed, it has been automatically connected, and the connection is complete."
Immediately, a system interface suddenly appeared in his vision.
Very crude.
Only the Internet cafe system and a "browser" are installed.
Ignoring the former, Lin Tuo skillfully opened the "Browser" icon with his mind, and an input box popped up:
"Please enter the link address."
When looking up materials in the library before, Lin Tuo focused on understanding that the so-called "virtual space" is not a real virtual world.
The technology of this era has not yet developed to that level.
But a small space.
Each space has an independent "address" that can be accessed through a browser.
For example, some large companies will rent servers, open a separate virtual meeting room, and then inform employees of the address and password to allow them to access.
This makes for a pleasant after-hours meeting…
Similar applications are widespread.
The game "The Third Continent" is also built on a similar principle, but it goes one level deeper, and players need to log in to the "main city" space first.
Then based on the teleportation array distributed in the "main city", enter other small dungeon spaces, do tasks, fight monsters to clear levels, player pk, etc., to earn experience and game coins.
While thinking, Lin Tuo has already entered a line of "URL" through his thoughts, and clicked to confirm.
"Signing in..."
"sign in suceesfully!"
As the words appeared, Lin Tuo saw a ball of light suddenly emerge from the darkness, and then flooded his entire consciousness.
After a few seconds, the light slowly dissipated, and Lin Tuo found himself in a blank world full of floating clouds.
Well, it feels similar to "Phantom Space".
As he entered, an interface similar to a "virtual panel" suddenly appeared in front of him, as well as a mess of activity advertisement pages, and the login interface was on the right.
I chose to create a new account... There is no such thing as real-name verification here. It took two minutes to complete a series of steps and skip the animation.
I didn't bother to adjust the character image, so I directly chose "Original Appearance", and I didn't even bother to take the nickname, so I clicked on the system generated... Anyway, he just came in to take a look.
Finally, I chose a new area that has not yet been "full".
In the next second, the cloud and mist rolled up, and a small door appeared in front of it.
Follow the prompts and walk over, hold the doorknob, slowly push it open, and walk in.
Suddenly, Lin Tuo appeared in a bustling city.
…
…
"Huh~"
The breeze blows over the face, and everything around becomes clear. This is a slightly magical city, full of exaggerated and brilliant buildings.
At the foot is a landing entrance that looks like a magic circle.
At this moment, when I turned my head and looked around, I could see people in different clothes appearing out of thin air, and then they were busy walking towards the distance.
There are also some "new players" like myself who are wearing novice outfits and are looking around blankly. In the sky, a colorful airship flies by.
There are also strangely dressed NPCs playing the violin by the nearby pool, and the sound of the piano is melodious.
"It's online, I just got off work."
"Hey, hey, I'm here, go to the big statue in the main city to meet up, and gather all the materials for whatever you say today."
"I forgot to claim my level gift bag!"
Around, some players wearing all kinds of equipment, carrying big swords or carrying staffs walked and talked into the air. They should be talking to their teammates through microphones.
I didn't see any health bars or magic power bars... It's probably hidden by default in the main city, after all, fighting is forbidden here.
As a whiteboard account, Lin Tuo is still level zero, and only has a set of whiteboard clothes and a novice sword on his body: "Familiarize yourself with the environment first? Why haven't I seen a novice guide or something..."
Although it was preliminarily determined that the "crisis" might be related to this game, Lin Tuo had no idea to investigate when he first came here.
Looking away, he was wondering, when he suddenly heard a familiar yet unfamiliar voice behind him:
"Dear player 'codeword is too difficult'... welcome to the third continent, I am your exclusive consultant 'Anne Hathaway', very happy to serve you."
Lin Tuo suddenly turned around, only to see a female figure floating behind him:
She has the typical features of the Northern Continent, wearing a dark red robe and a crown of pure white flowers... holding a delicate staff in her hand, and a magical halo around her body.
At this moment, he was staring at it with eyes full of smiles.
Almost the same as the Dean of Winton back then... except... the body is only the size of a palm, two pairs of round wings are struggling to flap on the back, and the face and figure are obviously cute...
"Uh..." Lin Tuo was silent for a while.
Only then did he finally look at the bloody Hathaway with weird eyes, feeling at a loss in his heart:
"What's happening here?"
…
…
It was just a little earlier when Lin Tuo entered the game.
shelter.
In the inner ring, to be precise, in a certain area where the second ring is located, a huge building full of design aesthetics shines brightly under the virtual sun.
As the headquarters building of the game developer of "The Third Continent", it can always enjoy the best light during the full 12 hours of daylight.
So that internal employees are always kept in a state of excitement.
However, at this moment, the building was filled with a dignified atmosphere.
On the tenth floor, in a large conference room.
On both sides of the long table, almost all the leaders of various departments of the "Third Continent" project were present, and the same document was displayed on the screen in front of everyone.
It was a notice from the Central Committee requesting that the game operation must be shut down by this evening, and the scarlet seal on it was particularly dazzling.
"... Is there really no other way
Our game has just broken through the peak number of online users, and the daily turnover is the highest ever...
The publicity funds have been withdrawn, but the game development costs have not been smoothed out. At this time, the loss of shutting down will be immeasurable... "
One said with a pale face.
But he was forced back by the murderous eyes of the boss of the company:
"You think I'm willing to see this result
What can I do
What can I do if you can't solve the problems you created yourself? !
At the beginning of the problem, I asked you to check it yourself, and the result? How did you tell me? Later, it became a big trouble and alarmed the Central Committee. I tried to talk about it and fought for two weeks. What happened
Has the problem been solved
'Internet addiction' in the end is how it happened
What else can you say other than 'technical issues'? Two weeks have passed, the situation is getting worse and worse, and the number of people unable to leave the virtual network is increasing!
All the clues point to the "Third Continent", why don't we wait for the government to arrest people? ! "
The middle-aged man sitting at the top roared almost like a roar.
The voice echoed in the conference room, but no one dared to look at each other.
Everyone understands that things are irreversible.
The number of people affected by "Internet addiction" is increasing, and all patients point to the hottest game in the company's entire shelter history.
At first, it could be explained by "Internet addiction", but later, the situation became more and more wrong. The technical department worked overtime and tried various methods to detect, but they still couldn't find the problem.
As public opinion gradually spread, the company finally couldn't stand the pressure. Even if it faced a huge loss, even if the efforts of thousands of people in the entire department were wasted, it could only choose to shut down the server.
In the silent atmosphere, the middle-aged man leaned against the seat dejectedly, sighed, and said:
"Go ahead, there are still a few hours before the deadline, so hurry up."
As the most popular game in the entire shelter, the currency, equipment, accounts, etc. in it are not worthless, and a sudden shutdown will definitely cause a big mess.
It is necessary to do a good job of data backup and preservation, and to deal with subsequent wrangling.
"… yes."
In the silence, a department leader got up and left with a heavy heart. After a while, only middle-aged people remained in the entire office.
Sitting quietly in a chair, looking at the bright sun outside the window.
…
five minutes later.
In the development center of the building, the engineers who received the final order also returned to their workstations with a heavy heart, and began to follow the plan that had already been made.
Open the backend for data migration and saving.
And a "mail" that has already been drawn up will be sent to each player's mailbox through the system background.
It was due to technical problems maintenance, and the announcement of the offline time was notified in advance.
However, what no one knows is that when a large number of online players in the game open their mailboxes and click on the "little red dot", they only see a blank space.
…
…
At the same time, in the new area, in the main city.
When Lin Tuo closed the blank email in doubt, and looked at "Hathaway" who was following him again, he found a momentary freeze on the chubby face of this cute "consultant" .
"What's wrong?" Lin Tuo asked.
"It's nothing, ah, do you need me to continue explaining the game content to you?"
(end of this chapter)