Under Guidance’s explanation, Wei Shan gained a detailed understanding of the city’s situation and understood why the city appeared so decayed.
Next, he decided to search for agents within this city.
...
The rain in Neon Port always carries a tallic taste, or rather, ever since the End of Dharma Clan’s rampant destruction, the rain all over the world has been tinged with rust.
Lex wiped the mist on the glass with his sleeve and watched as pedestrians hurried by with umbrellas, the holographic ads reflected on their surfaces shattering into a sea of light in the rain.
The "Phantom Dream" virtual experience venue he managed was located in the city’s new district.
Half a year ago, this was a hot spot in the city, and at that ti, the virtual network technology was highly advanced. People could wear a neural connection device and experience various realistic joys in the Virtual World.
But the invasion by the End of Dharma Clan severed the communication networks between cities completely.
The global servers collapsed, and all large virtual projects that required networking were completely paralyzed.
Including one of the most popular gas at the ti, "Civilization War."
Neon Port was relatively lucky, not affected by the invasion wars, but the network mode changed from global connectivity to local area network.
The gas of the past are unusable now due to data loss and other issues.
Currently, the most popular in Neon Port are so short, quick virtual experiences, with scene realism generally around 39%.
For example, a dungeon he previously built, "Starry Night Tale," simulated an unpolluted night sky, lying on a virtual lawn counting the stars above.
But with the change in societal trends, people now prefer to experience more stimulating content.
The most popular are those doomsday revelry thes filled with violence and emotional release.
To keep up with the tis, he created scenarios where players could wantonly destroy in virtual scenes, blow up buildings, seize vehicles, and confront law enforcent teams.
These scenes are more thrilling than "Starry Night Tale."
But the current ga content still can’t compare to the virtual gas popular at the ti.
The current virtual scene experience can only rely on local servers, the content pitifully barren.
The young people of Neon Port now prefer the pursuit of simple and crude thrills.
Drugs, alcohol, underground fights, few are willing to pay to play outdated and obsolete virtual scene experiences.
This resulted in fewer custors at his venue, yet the monthly energy and equipnt maintenance costs were like a mountain.
This morning, he had already received a notice to pay overdue rent, the red "overdue" stamp made him feel utterly helpless.
Lex slumped at the counter, swiping the smart device’s screen to bring up the backend data.
Today, there was only one custor all day, and the inco wasn’t enough to cover even the electricity bill fraction.
He glanced at a promotional poster still hanging on the wall, which read: Virtual World, encompasses all beauty.
But now, he could barely encompass himself.
Back when it opened, he anticipated greatly, and now he’s just as disappointed.
"If it really can’t work... maybe I’ll put it up for sale tomorrow." he muttered to himself.
Although his heart was reluctant, he knew this might be the most correct choice.
If it continues like this, he will eventually be dragged down by this venue.
Jingle!
Just then, the front door of the experience hall was suddenly pushed open.
Lex imdiately looked up, instinctively got up, and out of professional habit, squeezed out a smile:
"May I ask what project you would like to experience, we have doomsday destruction and...."
Before he could finish his words, Lex found there was no one ahead.
The smile froze on his face instantly, and the doorbell was still shaking, the crisp sound of tal collision was particularly abrupt in the silent venue.
He frowned, leaning forward to look out of the door, the sensor light outside was on, yet there wasn’t a single shadow.
"Was it the wind?"
He mumbled as he sat back at the counter.
At that mont, the control box on the counter suddenly emitted a sharp static noise, and the screen instantly went black.
Lex’s heart tightened.
This device, although an old model, had never malfunctioned before.
He reached out to press the power button on the box, and as soon as his fingertip touched the casing, the screen suddenly lit up.
The eerie blue light made his pupils shrink abruptly.
The screen didn’t show the familiar operating system interface, only a line of flowing purple code, cascading down like a waterfall, finally freezing into a line of neat black font.
[Detected Adaptation Body, activate: Nightmare System?]
Lex’s heart pounded fiercely.
This line of text was definitely not from any of his installed programs, and the font seed like it was directly engraved into the screen.
He glanced around instinctively; the experience cabins in the venue were quiet, only the air circulation system in the corner was emitting a low hum.
"Who?"
He tentatively spoke, his voice echoing in the empty venue.
"Which bastard is remotely hacking my equipnt?"
Still no response at all.
The text on the screen remained lit.
[Yes/No] options were flickering slightly under the cursor, like a pair of eyes scrutinizing him.
Lex took a deep breath, reaching to pull the battery from the chassis.
His fingers clamped sharply onto the battery compartnt latch and tugged hard.
Click.
The power cord was disconnected instantly, yet the screen before him remained lit.
The text on it even beca more vivid, the [Yes/No] options began to rotate slowly, like two doors leading to an unknown world.
Lex’s back was instantly drenched in cold sweat; he realized he was in trouble.
A situation like this had never happened before.
He could hear the sound of his intense heartbeat explode against his eardrums, his temples throbbing fiercely.
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