VCRMM: Chapter 207

More than six days had passed in the game, but more than a month had passed in reality.

The sale of one million gaming helmets, which was originally expected to be completed within one month, was ultimately postponed for half a month due to various reasons.

This half a month was only a bit more than two days in the game. For such an earth-shaking disaster, even millions of new players wouldn’t play a big role.

Still, this didn’t prevent players from scolding the game group.

After the failure to defend the city, players who had nothing to do temporarily chose to go offline and vent their anger toward the game group on the forum.

No matter what, it was right to scold the dog planners!

The game group was really wronged this time because the problem was with the production line. This didn’t stop them from taking the blame.

In any case, they were used to being scolded.

How could the players and planners live in harmony?

The promotion of the Starry Sky Age experience store had been vigorously carried out for a week.

Since the one million game helmets were successfully sold, the Xu Group’s liquidity gradually returned and they had enough room to carry out publicity.

—Although, there didn’t seem to be a need for vigorous publicity based on the current popularity of Starry Sky Age.

This morning, there was already a long queue outside the door before the experience stores officially opened. Many people even waited all night.

The grand event was posted on various video platforms by Internet celebrities who joined in on the fun, attracting another wave of attention.

Once they officially opened at 8 o’clock in the morning, all 100 Starry Sky Age experience stores across the country were full in just half an hour.

Moreover, there were still countless customers waiting in line.

Each experience store was only equipped with 200 game helmets. This number was already considered a lot for a physical store, but it couldn’t meet the needs of the large number of players.

Lu Shi, a graduating student of H University, was also an avid fan of Starry Sky Age.

It was a pity that he couldn’t grab the game helmet. The game cabin was also too expensive. He couldn’t buy it.

The moment he found out that there was a store opening near his school, he went to the door the night before it opened to wait.

Obviously, there were quite a few people who thought the same way as him. There were already more than a dozen people waiting in front of him when he arrived.

He had to say, ‘What a bunch of animals!’

Fortunately, he grabbed one of the first batch of places.

Different from what Lu Shi expected, the experience store only provided the game helmet services. He had long heard that the experience from game helmets was very reduced and couldn’t be compared with game cabins.

As for the game cabin… Judging from the expression of the front desk staff, it was probably unlikely that it would happen anytime soon.

This was also understandable.

After all, a game cabin cost 100,000 yuan. It was said that the demand exceeded the supply. How could it be used at a loss in an experience store under such circumstances?

The price of the experience store wasn’t expensive. It was only 5 yuan per hour. This was the same or even cheaper than an Internet cafe.

The decor of the store was very high-end, clean and bright. The fresh air made people feel very comfortable. There were many areas on the first floor filled with various character figures from Starry Sky Age.

There were also huge posters on the wall of the lobby, all of which depicted popular characters from Starry Sky Age.

The moment he saw His Majesty Snow and Si Sheng, Lu Shi couldn’t help taking out his phone to take photos. He posted on WeChat to show off before walking to the second floor.

The moment he walked up to the second floor, he put away his phone and looked up. He was shocked by the neat rows of cubicles.

There were around seven or eight rows. Each row had ten compartments.

They were all enclosed and the partitions were transparent. It could be seen that the seats inside were similar to massage chairs.

Next to the seat was a small cabinet with a game helmet being charged in it.

Lu Shi glanced at the card in his hand.

This card was given to him by the front desk. It had the artistic words ‘Starry Sky Age’ on the front. The back had his favorite Marshal Si Sheng, who was making a gesture of reaching out to grab thunder.

There was a number written on the blue thunder and lightning.

Lu Shi came to the designated compartment according to the number. He swiped the card according to the instructions to enter. The compartment might be enclosed, but the ventilation was good. He didn’t feel stuffy after entering.

He sat down in his seat. Then a gentle female voice was heard. It was obviously a pre-recorded guidance voice.

“Hello, dear guest. Welcome to the Starry Sky Age experience store.”

“When you use the game helmet to enter the game, your body will enter a deep sleep state. Please make sure the compartment door is closed to prevent a loss of property while playing the game…”

The service of this experience store was quite thoughtful.

Lu Shi looked at the transparent compartment, which was much more reassuring than an Internet cafe.

Next, Lu Shi followed the instructions and took the helmet from the charger. This helmet was very light to the touch and it felt very textured. There was no discomfort after wearing it.

The moment he put on the helmet, a light screen appeared in front of his eyes after the darkness had passed. Words were written on it.

[Duration of this experience: 2 hours.]

Lu Shi also wanted to experience it for a while. Unfortunately, he could only play for a maximum of two hours at a time, and he was only allowed one renewal. This meant he could only play for four hours a day.

It felt a bit short, but he should be satisfied. After all, there were many cities across the country that didn’t have experience stores.

He heard that Starry Sky Age was popular abroad but the game company currently had no idea of exploring overseas markets. The foreign players could only watch and sigh.

Lu Shi thought of this and felt some balance in his heart.

At the same time, the buyers who received the helmets read the instructions and fumbled their way into the game.

It was also on this day that the time flow rate inside and outside of Starry Sky Age was restored to 1:1 again.

This meant that the players spent more time in the game at night, and missed out on content during the day.

Fortunately, after the defense of the City of the Braves fell, there were no urgent tasks for the time being. Newcomers who just entered the game also needed time to explore and improve their strength.

Lu Shi followed the guidance and confirmed that he had entered the game.

After using the game helmet to enter the game, the opening animation was no different from the game cabin, but the sensory experience wasn’t that shocking.

If the realism of the game cabin was 99.9% then the realism of the game helmet was only around 70%.

However, for players who hadn’t used a game cabin before, the experience was still novel and fun.

Lu Shi chose random facial features. In any case, the faces of the system were very good-looking. Then he chose a name, talents, etc. He couldn’t wait to start.

The result…

The number of people ahead of him in the queue: 61,502.

Lu Shi, “???”

Due to the addition of one million braves, the average number of people distributed among the five cities was 200,000. This number exceeded the load of the spawn point summoning circle, so subsequent players needed to queue up to enter.

Lu Shi could understand that the new server was crowded. The problem was that there were still 60,000 people in front of him. This was a bit too much, right?

Then quit? This obviously wasn’t possible.

In the end, he was forced to wait in the guidance space.

One of the things that made Starry Sky Age humane was that there were a variety of functions in the guidance space. This was convenient for entertainment while waiting.

For example, he could open the Starry Sky Forum to browse, and he could buy things in the system mall. In addition to these two, there was also a bookshelf filled with books related to Starry Sky Age and even…

There were also materials related to learning.

Lu Shi accidentally clicked on something. A new interface popped up. What was written on it was a set of simulation papers?

There were even practice books for some certificate exams for elementary, middle and high schools.

“This is too perverted…”

Lu Shi was confused when he saw these learning materials. Why would such a thing appear in an online game? This could only be called irrelevant!

“But if it is used to prevent addiction, the effect might be very good,” he remarked casually.

He never thought that what he said was indeed reality.

Experience stores were prohibited from providing services to minors, but among the one million users of the game helmet, there were many minors.

Since the game account needed to be bound with a person’s ID card and the game helmet had a detection function, it couldn’t be faked at all. There were no cases of minors using adult accounts to enter the game.

Minors under the age of 12 were temporarily unable to enter the game. For minors between the ages of 12 and 17, they entered the game and would first face—

Test questions.

The difficulty of the test questions corresponded to the user’s grade. Only those with a score of 80 or above could play the game.

Once this restriction came out, children who played secretly behind their parents’ backs or begged their parents to buy the helmets were dumbfounded.

They were here to play the game. Why did they have to take a test?

What they didn’t know yet was that—

Even if they passed the test, it wasn’t a one time thing. The system would conduct random checks. Once their score fell below 80 points, they would be forced offline.

So children wanted to play Starry Sky Age?

Then study hard!

On the other side, Lu Shi closed the learning interface and chose to open the forum to browse it.

Just kidding, he came here to play games and relax, not to abuse himself.

After the time flow rate was adjusted back to 1:1, players could use the forum in the game again. The popularity of the live broadcasts also started to recover.

Now on the homepage of the forum, in addition to the various questions and reports posted by new players, there were also posts complaining that the experience stores were opened in too few cities. There weren’t enough locations and there were long queues.

Of course, the check-in feedback from major experience stores was also indispensable.

It was also from posts like this that Lu Shi learned that there were 100 experience stores across the country. Each one had different decorations.

The second floor and above were basically the same, but the figures and posters on the first floor were different. There were even one-to-one life-sized models of Snow and Si Sheng in the main store!

[These figures are so cute. Can I buy them?]

[It seems to be available to be booked.]

[Yes. I asked the front desk. The experience store also accepts customization services. You can even make your game character into a figure!]

[Wow wow wow. Then can we customize fanfic books of His Majesty Snow and Si Sheng?]

[Ahhhh, I want it too!]

Looking at these discussions, Lu Shi couldn’t help touching his chin. Was Starry Sky Age starting to launch various merchandise products?

It was a pity that he was poor or he would definitely order one!

There were many people who had the same idea as Lu Shi, especially the customers waiting in line on the first floor of the experience store. Many people directly placed orders.

It could be said that the turnover of the Starry Sky Age merchandise was much more than the money earned from the game helmet experience.

After around 30 minutes, Lu Shi finished lining up and truly entered the game.

Fortunately, the 30 minutes didn’t take up his experience time. At this point, he was quite satisfied and had nothing to complain about.

The moment he entered the game, his first impression was that there were so many people.

There was a huge crowd of people all around him. All he could see was moving people. After squeezing for a long time, he finally left the teleportation hall. Then he was guided by the NPC to get on the floating car in a daze.

Finally, he and the players in the same car were sent to Donglin Town.

“Huh? Why not Doha Town or Mercenary Town?”

Lu Shi’s birthplace was Imperial City. The most famous maps of Imperial City on the forum were Doha Town and Mercenary Town. Even the inner city was inferior.

Then where did the extra Donglin Town come from?

Donglin Town was located on the west side of Doha Town. It was the fourth Lv 2 urban area developed by Imperial City. It was still under construction.

It was only after all these four urban areas were upgraded to Lv 4 that Imperial City could continue to be upgraded. The importance of Donglin Town was self-evident.

At this time, new players were added. Most of them were guided to Donglin Town to help with construction and upgrades.

As for resisting the beast wave, it would only come into play after these players reached Lv 5 and successfully became an elementalist.

Lu Shi quickly devoted himself to the daily missions. He did a lot of homework and naturally knew how important the daily missions of Starry Sky Age were.

It could be said that they could selectively complete all missions except the daily missions.

In the process of doing the daily missions, he also quickly became acquainted with the game world.

He could feel the barrier between himself and this world was like an invisible film, but it was easy to ignore if he didn’t think about it carefully.

As he passed by the central square, he watched the real-time TV broadcast in Starry Sky Age for the first time.

He saw the figure of a silver-haired young man on the huge screen. He wore a crown and a gorgeous cloak embroidered with the Roland coat of arms. He walked toward the throne step by step.

Lu Shi couldn’t help stopping to watch.

“Today is a day of great celebration for the whole nation,” the silver-haired emperor spoke to the camera.

Was it due to the new arrival of the braves?

Lu Shi couldn’t help thinking so.

Then he heard His Majesty Snow announce the return of three members of the Roland imperial family.

The return of Princess Val, Prince Xenos, and Princess Silin!

The moment his words finished, Lu Shi heard the cheers of the surrounding NPCs.

“God bless. It is His Highness, the eldest prince! He is still alive!”

“In addition, Princess Silin! Oh, our prince and princess, they are back? Oh my god, they really came back alive from the beast wave!”

“Now they should be called His and Her Highness.”

“That’s great! That’s great!”

Lu Shi looked at the NPCs around him who were crying with joy and hugging each other. He could completely feel their love for the imperial family from their demeanor, tone and movements.

This emotion was pure, moving and infectious.

Seeing this, he almost couldn’t help cheering along.

It was just that after the cheers, the light screen shifted and the silver-haired young man appeared again.

He said with a serious face, “However, our celebration might be postponed.”

The excited expressions on the faces of the people around them subsided. It was probably because they had a premonition of something. The women hugged the noisy children, the men stopped cheering, and everyone looked at the light screen in a worried manner.

Then images of the interstellar beasts appeared on the light screen.

At this moment, the faces of countless people watching the live broadcast lost almost all color in an instant. Panic spread among everyone.

A beast wave…

Was this a beast wave? The beast wave was coming again?

“That’s right. As you guessed, the beast wave happened again. This time, we finally know… everything is the conspiracy of the Bewatt Empire against us!”

The moment Xu Sili’s words came out, the image on the screen changed. It was the image of a lizardman arranging a device.

“These disgusting bugs have installed instruments on a large scale on Escher Star that can cause the interstellar beasts to riot. This triggered the beast wave four years ago!”

“This time, they are trying to do it again!”

The face of the silver-haired young man showed anger and grief.

At this moment, almost everyone in Roland stopped what they were doing. They gathered in front of large and small screens, staring at the ruler they loved and admired.

“Four years ago, we lost countless homes and relatives in the beast wave. The Bewatt Empire did all of this!”

“The interstellar beasts are a problem we need to solve, and the Bewatt Empire is Roland’s enemy!”

“I swear in the name of Roland’s imperial family, Roland will definitely make the Bewatt Empire pay the due price!”

Everyone was agitated.

Their fear of the beast wave turned into anger and hatred toward the Bewatt Empire.

“A blood debt and blood payment!”

“Make them pay!”

The beast wave was everyone’s nightmare.

The nightmare of four years ago was a pain that every Rolander didn’t want to talk about. They had really lost too much in that disaster.

Now they finally knew the truth!

Lu Shi fully believed that if a lizardman of the Bewatt Empire appeared here now, they would be torn to pieces by NPC civilians in an instant.

He had just entered the game but he already established a preliminary impression of the Bewatt Empire.

This was Roland’s hostile camp. It was the type where reconciliation wasn’t possible!

On the screen, the young emperor quickly spoke again.

“Until then, we are going to stop the beast wave.”

He said, “This time, we have plenty of time to prepare thanks to the braves, who held their ground at the border and bought us seven days!”

“Roland will always remember the contribution of the braves to us!”

“Therefore, once this beast wave is over, I will erect a stone monument in the central square of Imperial City. It will have the names of the one hundred braves who have made outstanding contributions in this war for future generations to admire!”

Proofreader: Purichan