Based on the income and tax of each country, the virtual reality experience price differed. The internet cafe in Hua was priced at 6 RMB an hour, in UA it was 2 USD, in Europe, it was 2 Euros. Half went to the internet cafe while the other half went to Future Technology. Two months later, the internet cafe could purchase the helmet at 2000 USD without the need to share their profits with Future Technology.
All the players’ accounts were being connected to their iris scan and could be linked to their Future 1.0 account.
To ensure everyone could play the game, Future Technology limited the experience of time per person. Every person could experience the game for a maximum of 2 hours every 72 hours. The frequency would increase following the increase in vacant helmets.
But that would never happen.
Within 24 hours, after introducing the virtual reality experience project to 21 major internet cafes in Wanghai, the internet exploded with passion. A lot of forums, BBS, and Weibo were flooded by the word “Phantom.” Players who were fortunate enough to experience the game all expressed their astonishment.
“It’s immersive virtual reality helmet! The rumor before was true! I did experience it in my life!”
“That’s unbelievable. It’s hard to imagine, my body didn’t move… It’s hard to describe the feeling. It felt as if I traveled to another world!”
“Selling HoloLens purchased, only played for two days, selling at half price, please contact here…”
“…”
Words alone could not describe the excitement of the players.
Not only players, but even the scientific field was also stunned by Future Technology.
The Nobel Prize Committee sent emails to Future Technology, inquiring about the individual that made the breakthrough of exchanging information between the neural network and electric signals as they wished to name them as a candidate for the next Nobel Prize.
But when Xia Shiyu asked Jiang Chen about the name of the person, Jiang Chen painfully rejected the Nobel Prize right at his doorstep. Even if he said he invented it himself, no one would believe him. With his personal resume and life, it nowhere resembled a sophisticated scientist.
This technology was destined to be left out of the Nobel Prize.
Disregarding how astonished the players and the scientific field was.
In the hopes of the players waiting to experience virtual reality, Future Technology finally opened the tip of the iceberg to Godly Land – Arena Experience Project.
Although it was just an experience project, it could be defined as internal testing.
All the players were arranged to be part of the testing server. Although they could not experience the content of the full game, they could experience the arena function that the internal test players have yet to experience and its dueling function.
In the arena, the player level was set to ten with all classes available. When the game started, the player could use gold from the system to purchase equipment from the arena merchant, then join the battle in the arena.
Duel or team. Twelve different terrains to choose from.
Everyone was a beginner without any need to consider advantages and disadvantages. But when they just enter the game, there was a tutorial. In some element, the data from the arena would affect the class balancing in the official release.
On the other side, the arena would allow the players to unleash their desire to throw fireballs. On the official release, the prepared players would not all choose the mage class.
What was funny was that a lot of pacifist players chose to make an agreement with the opponent not to fight, but rather to stroll around the map, turning the arena into a tourist spot.
A lot of mages who had fun with the fireballs began to dig mud with their canes. As to the players that purposely chose to be a different gender, they wanted to see if they had the parts of the opposite gender… based on the country’s law, the sensitive content would be removed. If they wanted to play the adult game, once the helmet was officially released, following the tutorial on the internet, they could use Xin’s VPN to play.
But strictly speaking, the “Phantom” helmet didn’t provide audio and video footage. All the footage was played at the brain level. Similar to the idea of “daydreaming”. So it was debatable whether virtual reality content would fit in the boundary of the current regulation on electronic publications. It would be unreasonable to use the law to prevent people from daydreaming.
Of course, the primary theme of the arena was the battle.
Other than that, what also shocked the players was the real-time translation functionality in the game.
All the players in the world were in the same testing server, but they could freely communicate. The functionality allowed the players to speak in the common twelve languages.
With so many advanced functionalities, Future Technology once again became the center of the public’s and media’s discussion.
In a UA talk show, the host had a discussion with Gates on Future Technology.
“There is virtual reality equipment called ‘Phantom’ that has been recently introduced, Gates, did you play it?”
“Of course, I was at a internet cafe the day it was available, mhmm… and finally managed to play it yesterday.” Gates had a helpless expression on his face as laughter came from the crowd that shared the same sentiment.
The host also laughed along and continued to ask.
“if this equipment is officially released one day and you purchase it on the second day, are you not afraid that the scene in the movie would happen? For example, locked into the virtual world and unable to come back?”
“That’s a great question. My answer is…” Gates purposely lowered his voice to build up the suspense before he burst out laughing, “I’ll play even if I can’t come back.”
The host was shocked.
“As the founder of Microsoft… Is it good that you view a competitor’s product so highly?”
“I view virtual reality highly. I have to admit, after experiencing ‘Phantom’, the realistic feeling left me stunned. But I want to say that the HoloLens introduced by Microsoft also has its uniqueness. Our philosophy is to promote user interaction in the real world with virtual items, and not further stray away from reality.”
“So you’re saying, Microsoft and Future Technology have two different emphases?”
“You could interpret it this way.” Gates crossed his legs and said while leaning on the chair.
“Then which one do you think will become the new trend?” The host asked a tough question.
The crowd was attentive to the discussion, but Gates certainly felt awkward about the question.
His expression changed for a few seconds. Then he coughed and used a voice with certainty, but gave an ambiguous answer.
“… I can only say that there are advantages on both sides.”
Just as Gates was still troubled by the host’s tricky question, a research institute was trouble by Phantom.
In a national research institute.
Director Qian with a stern expression looked at the researcher walking toward him.
“Little Wu, did you figure something out?”
The research called Little Wu let out a sigh and shook his head.
“X-ray is unable to scan it. Future Technology sneakily built a lead insulation layer in the helmet.”
“What about taking it apart?”
Little Wu’s smile was even more bitter.
“Just as we were taking it apart to see what was inside, it immediately triggered the protection mechanism. All the circuits were fried. The only thing we are certain about is that the material they used is the rumored graphene chip. Because when it was taken apart, everything burned into carbon dioxide. As to the critical neural connection, it was even more of a disaster. The molybdenum melted into a ball…”
“Is there no way of replicating it?” While pained by the idea, Director Qian asked.
Little Wu shook his head.
“Damage is too great.”
Whenever Director Qian thought about the person called Wang in Wanghai, he was furious. Although he was not as powerful as that guy, it still didn’t stop his contempt.
“So wasteful.” He cursed out and shook his head before heading out the door, sighing.
He needed to request to his superior to see if they could contact Future Group. If they could cooperate in virtual reality, it would be best.
Though he knew that it would be a difficult process.