Chapter 1: The New World 2
Walking out of the company, Zhang Shan was a little lost. He was a little reluctant to part with the place. After all, it was a place where he had worked for several years.
Zhang Shan had lost his job and become temporarily unemployed.
The reason for his resignation was pretty simple. There was no hope, and there was no money. He wanted to change. As he grew older, there would be no chance for him if he did not change. 2
In this era of desire for wealth and material possessions, not having money was an original sin. Not to say being filthy rich, but just earning a living was obviously not good enough. And he was not even qualified to find a partner. Let alone having a car and a house, at least he must have the ability to support his family. 2
Zhang Shan knew that he did not have the ability at the moment. He could only support himself now. So every time the blind date was not successful, he would not complain. If he did not do well, it was his problem. Even he looked down on himself, let alone others. 8
Therefore, Zhang Shan resigned. He wanted to change his job and lifestyle. Even if he was jumping from one pit to another, he had to try. If he did not try, and if he did not change, he would forever be caught in the same situation. 4
Walking on the bustling city streets, looking at the workers in a hurry, Zhang Shan suddenly stopped and looked up at the electronic advertising screen on a building.
‘Two days before the launch of New World.’ The video was playing a passionate battle scene. The gorgeous character design and the large-scale scene made people’s blood boil. 4
Looking at the advertising video, Zhang Shan was full of boundless expectations for the future.
Yes, this was Zhang Shan’s plan. He wanted to make a living by playing games for his future job and lifestyle. 5
Speaking of which, making a living by playing games in this era was nothing new. A large number of people made a living by doing so.
For example, there were game companies, game live streamings, professional gamers, game studios, professional treasure hunting teams, virtual gaming merchants, and so on. There were also a huge group of professionals.
Zhang Shan also wanted to enter this industry to give it a try. 4
However, Zhang Shan did not want to work for people anymore. He wanted to be an individual professional player. He wanted to work freely and live freely. While playing games, he would farm game coins, equipment, and in-game items and trade them. This was also a way many game players make money. 1
‘New World’ was different from any previous games. It did not have a recharge channel, and it only had a trading channel. In other words, the game operator did not sell game coins, nor did it sell any in-game items. If the bigshots wanted to recharge, they could only use blue coins to buy from other players. The game official had opened a dedicated channel for trading to support the players. 6
The reason for the appearance of such a charity-like game was pretty simple. It was a game developed and operated by the Blue Star Alliance government. It did not mean to make money, or rather, it was not as simple as merely making money. 3
‘New World’ was a bold attempt by the government to solve a series of social problems that appeared in the new era. It was to increase people’s entertainment life, expand people’s living space, and enrich people’s spiritual world, even if it was virtual. 8
It was due to the background of the game that Zhang Shan had decided to resign. He was prepared to take a gamble in the game. He might be able to fight for a bright future. People needed to have dreams. What was the difference between a person without dreams and a sluggish person? He had been a sluggish person for so many years and he couldn’t continue to be sluggish for the rest of his life, right? 8
Returning to his lodging, Zhang Shan immediately took out his phone and went online to order a game helmet specifically for ‘New World’. It was not cheap to spend 10,000 blue coins. It was almost equivalent to his previous salary for two months. His heart was aching.
Fortunately, although the company’s salary was low, he had worked for so many years after all. By saving a little every month, he had managed to save about 100,000. With this little money, he could not do anything big, but it was not a problem to buy a helmet to play games for a while. 4
‘New World’ was known as fully immersive virtual reality. Only special in-game items could be used to log in to the game. One of them was the game helmet that Zhang Shan had just ordered. The other type of high-end product was a game cabin similar to a space travel device.
If the game cabin was filled with nutrient fluid, it was said that it could allow a person to stay in the game for more than 10 days continuously without any problems. It would not cause harm to the human body, but it would be beneficial instead.
Of course, this kind of high-end product was not meant for Zhang Shan. Not to mention the starting price of the game cabin was a few million, he couldn’t even afford the nutrient fluid alone. It was said that the nutrient fluid was a mix of various high-grade health care drugs, and was specially concocted. Zhang Shan did not know much about it. Anyway, to him it was just a word, ‘expensive’. 4
Zhang Shan could not afford it, but it did not mean that others also could not afford it. According to the official website’s statistics, so far, more than 50,000 game cabins had been sold. The spending power of the people of the alliance was shocking. Among the tens of billions of people in the alliance, there had never been a lack of rich people. 3
The sales of the gaming helmets were even more. The statistics showed that more than 20 million gaming helmets had been sold. This also showed the popularity of the game. Before it was officially released, countless people had been ready to join in.
He used his phone to check the progress of the order. It was still about half an hour before the helmet would be delivered. The speed of the express delivery was becoming more and more satisfactory. 4
As there was nothing to do while waiting for the delivery, Zhang Shan looked for ‘Boss Wu’ in his phone contact list
Of course, this ‘Boss Wu’ was not really a boss. He was his best friend who shared a cigarette with him in university, Wu Qinglin. 1
When they had just graduated, they had gone to Shenzhen to explore. At a gathering, Wu Qinglin joked, “I hope we will all be big bosses in the future. I will put our names in the contact list as Boss so-and-so.”
The passion during their younger days was amusing. One couldn’t help but laugh when thinking about it. The memories were so beautiful. 2
The phone was picked up and a chaotic sound came from the other side. Wu Qinglin should have just finished work.
“Boss Zhang, what are your instructions?”
“What bullsh*t instructions, I’m unemployed.”
“Are you? Why? Aren’t you doing fine? Did you flirt with girls in the company and was fired by your boss?”
“Nonsense. It’s not that you don’t know there are no younger women in our company. There are only older women. It’s me who doesn’t want to work anymore. After working for so long, I felt that it was meaningless, so I left.”
“Your boss agreed to let you leave? After you leave, who is going to do your work?”
“My boss has wanted an old fox like me to leave as soon as possible. In the words of our boss, my job can be done by anyone who has hands. I can leave as I wish. Even the handover of work can be done in minutes. I can notify on the same day I leave.”
“You’re right. Your job is boring. You’ve been working for so many years and your salary hasn’t increased much. If you continue to stay, you might not even be able to earn enough for your meals. What do you plan to do in the future? Do you have a plan? Do you want me to help you find out which company is recruiting?”
“No, thanks. I plan to join the game army and see if I can earn a living by playing games.”
“Are you sure? Is that possible? Wait, you’re not talking about ‘New World’, are you? If so, it’s possible. I can tell from the introduction that this game is different. It’s not like the games we used to play, which were with all kinds of pitfalls.” 2
“What about you? Do you plan to play as well, as entertainment after work?”
“Where do I find the money? A helmet costs 10,000 yuan. I still have to keep the money to buy milk powder for my baby.”
Wu Qinglin got married the year before last. The child was more than a year old. It made sense. Raising a child was a lot of pressure for ordinary people now. Even someone as carefree as him had to keep the money for his child’s milk powder. He didn’t even dare to spend money to buy a helmet. The pressure was indeed great.
“Alright, I’ll enter ‘New World’ in two days to test the waters. Let’s see how this game is like. I’ll work for half a year first. If I can’t make it, then I’ll work hard to find a job.”
“Hmm, you can try it first. You’re single anyway. Feel free to come over when you’re free.”
“Okay, I’ll play for a while first to see how this game is like. When I’m free, I’ll go over to your place to see Little Mengmeng.” Little Mengmeng was his child’s nickname. She was a very cute little girl. 1
The two of them chatted for a while more before ending the call.
Thinking back to the younger time when he was in high spirits, he sighed.
Putting down his phone and looking at the messy room, Zhang Shan planned to tidy it up first. After tidying up his clothes, he threw all sorts of useless things into a carton box. He picked up a mop and started cleaning up. After some cleaning, the room now looked fit for a person to stay. 1
“Ding dong ding dong, 1102. Shun Meng Express delivery.”
Zhang Shan opened the door and saw a delivery boy holding a delivery box outside the door.
“Hello, Sir. Please check the delivery receipt.”
Looking at the delivery boy with a smile, he signed for the delivery.
“Thank you”
...
After he closed the door, he quickly opened the delivery box and took out the nicely packaged game helmet. Zhang Shan was excited. He opened the package, followed the instructions, connected the power source, and put it on.
The scene in front of him slowly unfolded. A pleasant voice rang in his ears. “Welcome to the New World. Identity verification, please wait...”
“Beep beep beep, identity verification completed. Alliance citizen Zhang Shan, user information has been bound to the game equipment. The New World will officially open at 8 a.m. on August 18, 2058. Please look forward to it. You can go to the official website and official forum of the New World to learn more about this game.” 11
When he heard this, Zhang Shan remembered that the game theory had been released today. As for the official website, he had already looked at it carefully. How should he put it? There was very little information about the game. It was better to go to the official forum to see the understanding of the big boss of the forum about the game. 2
In the upper right corner of the screen, he could see the words ‘game forum’. Zhang Shan looked at the upper right corner, thinking of entering the forum. The entire screen immediately changed. The forum in the upper right corner quickly enlarged and floated above the game screen. It had occupied about a third of the entire screen.
The brainwave connection was a bit like mind control. Technology was so advanced. It seemed that in the future, he could also farm monsters while looking at the forum. To be honest, Zhang Shan had not been playing games for many years. He had never even experienced a game helmet before. He felt it was very sci-fi and magical.