Chapter 3: Is this guy playing for real?

Okay.

Things turn out to be a misunderstanding.

There are "five" rewards from the blind boxes.

The system did not "swallow" his reward by bugs, and there was no such thing called "Thank you for participating...".

Only the fifth reward was hidden below the other four.

Things in front of Light Chu, are one vacuum-sealed, 100g compressed biscuits (net weight), and three 25g lollipops————each with the flavour of apple, banana, and mango, respectively.

And, a piece of note.

The package of the compressed biscuits is intact, with no swelling, although its expiry and production dates are both mysteries, it probably won't kill you if eating it.

It's good stuff.

Nutrition content states it has 500 calories, it can surely fill up your belly no matter if it is consumed directly or cooked.

As for lollipops, calories are not low, though; they cannot provide satiety.

However, they are really decent enough for Light Chu, who is so poor that he almost ends up chewing on the tree bark.

So stingy this system is, is it worrying about Light Chu for eating too much or what? Just this little?

Standing by the opening of the shipping bin, Light Chu puts the food inside his backpack, picks up that piece of note coming out with the prizes, unwraps and reads it.

There is a line of words, written in the language of this world.

"...Are there any better Shachiko Chives in the world other than the gamers?

They not only have vigorous curiosity but are full of enthusiasm, they challenge difficulties, never feel despair when facing any ugly condition. Of course, the most, the most, the most critical thing is, that they can even be self-promoted to think from the perspective of the game operators, and then help the game operators reap benefits from themselves!

I'm really a genius, for sugarcoating this device into a game!

————First Governor of Sanctuary 404; (Please leave this note inside the fifth beginner blind box, this is the Easter Egg to my successor!)"

Light Chu: "..."

TBH, he is not surprised by the Easter Egg at all but is a little speechless.

However...

What did he mean by the "device"?

"Qi."

"What, master?"

"Do you know the first governor?"

"No, my primary program was just activated by the time you entered the sanctuary. According to the data from the sanctuary's databank, the time when the first governor transferred his authority, was about a century ago."

Light Chu keeps asking.

"To be more specific, which year?"

Qi answered.

"January 1st of the Year 2157."

The war ended in the Year 2129, announcing that human civilization had entered the era of wastelands. The Year 2157 is the Year 28 of the Wasteland Era.

Time from now is...

183 years!

Light Chu was sensitive to the number since he was a kid, especially to critical information, that he would never forget easily once remembering it.

"Which means, the first governor from 183 years ago, invented this device that is able to project human consciousness from a parallel universe onto clones in this world, and he sugarcoated it into a game, but had never used it for some kind of reason?"

Maybe it was because of the nuclear winter.

Or something else, that caused the sanctuary unable to meet the activation requirements.

No matter what, a person from a hundred years ago, should have already passed away.

Qi said.

"probably."

"What's his name? That first governor's?"

Suddenly Light Chu became a little curious about his identity.

The one who came out with such a bad-tasted setting might not be an actual genius, but the one who could invent such incredible black tech all by himself, after the civilization collapsed, definitely deserves a title even weighted more than a single "genius".

Projecting human consciousness from a parallel universe onto the present universe, and transferring it inside the clones.

Light Chu cannot imagine how did they accomplish this.

Technology that is beyond human cognition, is no different than magic to him.

"I don't know either, there is no detailed information about him in the identified databank, would it be deleted?"

"Forget about it...Asking you is like asking in vain."

Light Chu feels a little disappointed, but he chooses not to give up.

Right now only the B1 level of the sanctuary is accessible.

As the missions proceed, eventually, the secret lies within this sanctuary will expose its true and complete form to him.

As he puts the note inside the drawer of the computer desk, Light Chu tightens his backpack.

Noticing his action, Qi at the corner asked.

"Master, are you leaving?"

That voice without any noticeable pitch, here, it sounds pity.

"En, gamers will be logged in after three days, after all, it's meaningless to stay here at all time, better prepare something."

Said to be a sanctuary, but not even any water or food is found in this fricking place.

Light Chu only has half of a flat cake whose size is equivalent to his palm, plus a half bottle of water, as well as the compressed biscuits and lollipops that he just traded with reward points.

He cannot last three days with such limited supplies.

Light Chu has a shabby little nest at the nearby survivor camp, inside he left some useful tools and supplies.

He plans to pack them up and move everything he can to the sanctuary.

From then on, this place is his new base.

"Oh, Qi."

"What, master?"

"I need you to give me a little hand."

Pauses shortly, Light Chu says.

"Our official site is vile, I need you to give it a forum and a wiki, can you do that?"

Simply saying, he wants to have the gamers know this "game" better.

It's hard to lure people to become his gamers only by saying, he has to do at least some rough polishing.

"Of course, you have the authorization of editing the contents on the official site, apart from the reservation page, you can create or modify new and existing pages."

"Very good, it's your job now."

"I will handle it!"

Qi seems to be really happy about the task given by its master, even its speaker's voice has increased by half a pitch.

Or maybe is just an illusion.

"When will you be back, master?"

Light Chu thinks and says.

"To the most, three days."

"If everything goes well, then probably before tomorrow night."

...

Shachiku Club group chat.

That [Light] bro just threw the website link and disappeared, didn't know if he went offline or was still peeping into their chats.

At first, they almost forgot the topic of the "full-immersion virtual reality game", but after someone kinkily created a separate room a minute ago, that original topic was thrown back again in the main chatroom.

[Quit_smoking]: "Dear Lord, this gut is playing for real?"

This [Quit_smoking] guy is also an active member, although he is not an administrator.

[White_horse_crossing_the_gap]: "Think so, after you click the reservation button, he created a separate room and invited us, administrators, inside. (scratching head)"

[White_horse] is the group master, so he was in that separate room, too.

After hearing this, group members became viral.

"Fxxk! It's corruption!"

"Do you guys know what is the company that [Light} works for? I'm going to report him for engaging in nasty kinky trades! (funny)"

"Stop the nonsense, a company? There was one VR company last year on the stock market, then even its boss ended up in jail after big losses! VR is not a hot investment outlet anymore nowadays!"

"Shush, lower your voice, maybe [Light]-Kun is peeping right now. (funny)"

"What's his purpose? Just want to make a joke?"

"Who knows, probably he wants to lure you bois to his gambling website, then reap the chives when there is a lot of you!"

"I don't think he is clean, just kick him!"

The chat slowly becomes weird.

Even personal attacks appear.

Ye Wei frowned when looking at it, just the moment he wanted to say something, the group master finally pressed on the brake.

(Mute the entire group)

[White_horse_crossing_the_gap]: "Let's not be that, new members may not know [Light]-Kun, he is still a good person, though; he might be a blind gamer in PUBG, might be kind suck at shooting, and might really be a noob, but everything else is fine."

[See_you_tomorrow]: "Indeed, I believe [Light]_Kun is not misled into some kind of gambling. We are just not sure if his account has been stolen. If it is, we administrators will take care of that. I will revoke all chats after, let's change a topic ha. (Smile)"

(Mute cancelled)

Seeing that the group master and administrators spoke, the rest then creased fire and direct the topic to FIFA.

Ye Wei is not a fan of "balls", at least not a fan of the soccer game.

The time on the bottom right screen indicated it was 18:00 right now, almost dinner time.

Uploaded his unfinished project to the cloud, Ye Wei moved the chair and stood up, headed for the cafeteria downstairs and ordered a bowl of fried rice with chilli chicken, finishing it pleasantly.

As he wandered back to his room leisurely, seeing a big paper box on his desk, he was stunned for a moment.

Express delivery?

"Wei, what did you buy? It's big!"

A roommate came by and asked, another two animals also paid attention to the box.

They are guys with good qualities.

Before Ye Wei was not back yet, it was not good to touch his stuff. Now he was back, then whatever.

They were so curious, what did that guy buy?

"I didn't buy anything...Who delivered this?"

His three roommates stared at each other.

"I didn't pay attention..."

"Me either..."

"Didn't know, I went to pick up my food."

Oh-hoy.

That's strange.

Normally deliveries are picked up by the courier station downstairs, but today this one was exactly delivered to his desk.

More strangely, Ye Wei thought he never ever wrote about his desk location at any online shopping address.

Woah, these couriers are really niubi.

Unbox it, inside lies a helmet.

It looks very similar to a motorbike helmet, both inner and outer sides are blackened, does not appear to be special.

The only special aspect is that it does not expose the face, it can cover the entire head without letting you see anything.

At first glance, Ye Wei thought this thing is a cooking pot.

"What is this thing?"

The boi next desk picked up the helmet and gave it a try, putting it on his head, then off again, returning it to Ye Wei with a head of questions.

"You ask me, who shall I ask?"

Could it be really a pot?

Ye Wei also tried putting it on his head, confusedly.

The sight is completely dark.

But when he was about to take it off, a stream of light blue pierced through the darkness and flashed on his retina.

[Waiting for activation: 71 hours and 19 minutes]

This...

Could it be that gaming helmet?!

OMG.

Delivered that instantly?

Ye Wei was totally stunned.

"Haven't you seen it?"

Took off the helmet, Ye Wei turned to his roommate who also put on the helmet.

"See what?"

Ye Wei said with a rush: "That countdown! It says waiting for activation!"

"Wat? Could this thing be a gaming console?"

"Move aside, Brother Liu has bad eyes, let me see it."

Another roommate put on the helmet, but after a while, just like that guy before, he took it off confusedly.

"No anything."

"Let me try."

Okay, now three roommates all tried, but did not see anything.

They looked at each other, then all lay eyes on Ye Wei, with a bit of weird expression.

"Bro."

Ye Wei: "...Wat?"

"How about...visiting a hospital?"

"Fxxk off!"

Ye Wei cursed and grabbed the helmet back, putting it on again with disbelief.

The light blue words were there as expected.

[Waiting for activation: 71 hours and 17 minutes]

The countdown forwarded about 2 minutes.

Not only that...

This time, he suddenly discovered, that no matter how he turned the helmet, that countdown would always appear right in the centre of his sight.

Even if he closed his eyes.

Ye Wei took off the helmet, with a surprised expression as if he met a ghost or an alien.

OMG?

It is an alien!