The new house Riva bought wasn't a villa on Xu Dan's scale, but a luxurious suite instead.
She purchased it fully finished, sparing herself the trouble of renovation.
By the time all the furniture had been installed, it was already four or five in the afternoon.
Looking at the company's few junior employees—now utterly exhausted—Xu Dan nodded in satisfaction."Good work. You'll all get a paid day off tomorrow, and today's effort will be counted toward your bonuses."
Just that single sentence sent them into rapture, instantly making them forget all the fatigue from earlier.
After thanking him profusely, they hugged one another and left, clearly heading off to celebrate.
After moving into a new place, it was customary to throw a housewarming party.
But Riva invited only two people—her two comrades.
Once again, a three-way battle of yin and yang unfolded in Riva's new home…
The next morning, surrounded by octopus limbs, Xu Dan struggled awake.
After letting out a heavy breath, he got up, packed himself together, and went out.
Others could rest as much as they wanted, but for him, even a single day off was a luxury. Time held different value for people of different status.
He drove straight to Brooklyn.
Over the past few months, Banner's research had been his greatest concern.
After verifying his credentials and entering the laboratory, he found that Banner was still conducting experiments.
Xu Dan saw him insert a slender wire into the small head of a mouse. The other end was connected to a helmet, which in turn was linked to a monitor. On the screen was a three-dimensional model of a guinea pig.
"What are you doing?" Xu Dan asked.
Seeing that it was Xu Dan, Banner explained,"According to my plan, the virtual game helmet should already be in its preliminary stage. I'm running experiments now to see whether the connection can be established successfully…"
Hearing this, Xu Dan lowered his gaze to the unfortunate guinea pig.
What kind of thoughts could that thing possibly have?
Had Banner really run out of experimental materials and resorted to using guinea pigs instead?
Shouldn't a shady research institute like theirs have already 'borrowed' one or two living humans for experimentation?
"Ahem. Is experimenting on mice really reliable? Or…" Xu Dan coughed lightly and asked.
Banner stared at him for three seconds with a look of pure horror.
"Please, brother. The experiments those guys below did last time almost got us shut down. You were in on it, weren't you? Impressive—really impressive!"
Xu Dan raised his hands helplessly and replied casually,"This can't be researched, that can't be researched—then how is humanity supposed to progress? Talk our way forward?"
Banner was rendered speechless. He pointed at the guinea pig model on the screen and said,"Actually, this experiment is very simple. I'm using a wired connection right now—it's more stable. The guinea pig represents the player, the helmet acts as a relay, and the guinea pig in the computer is the in-game character. As long as the real mouse doesn't move, but the one on the screen does, the experiment is a success."
Xu Dan nodded after hearing the explanation.
It might look complicated, but the principle was simple: intercept neural instructions and project them into a virtual world.
Once the helmet was perfected, those wires would be compressed into a properly designed helmet.
The physical connection to the computer would also be eliminated and replaced with a wireless link to the server.
At that moment, Banner suddenly exclaimed,"Don't move—don't move!"
The two of them immediately turned their attention to the monitor.
The real guinea pig had stopped moving. Now all they had to do was wait for the virtual one to move…
One second passed. Nothing happened.
Two seconds…
Four seconds…
"Shit, did something go wrong?"
"See? Experimenting on mice isn't brilliant. You should find someone to test it."
"Absolutely not." Banner suddenly turned serious."I don't object to anything else, but not this. The equipment is still in the experimental phase, and until we're 100% sure it's safe, I will never agree to testing neural connections on humans."
Looking at his righteous expression, Xu Dan smiled and shook his head."I'm kidding. Don't take it so seriously… It moved! Damn it, it moved!"
Banner looked at the screen in shock.
Sure enough, the guinea pig model on the monitor had moved.
And it was moving exactly the same way the real mouse had struggled earlier!
This meant they had successfully linked the real world and the virtual world through neural connections.
However, the joy was short-lived.
As the virtual guinea pig twitched, the heart-rate monitor connected to the other end emitted a shrill alarm.
Beep—
That sharp sound announced the mouse's death.
Sure enough, this experiment was dangerous.
The mouse had only managed to move for a few seconds before dying.
Fortunately, it was just a guinea pig. If they had really listened to Xu Dan's nonsense and used a human subject instead, causing a death—what then?
"…Sigh. Failed," Banner said.
"It can't be said to be a total failure. At least the mouse struggled a few times, right?" Xu Dan replied.
Banner still looked dispirited."I've already adjusted the energy input to the minimum, but it still failed. Looks like I'll need more time to study it."
Xu Dan patted Banner on the shoulder.
Developing something like this carried immense psychological pressure.
After all, it was unprecedented research. There was no reference, no blueprint—everything depended on his own ability.
Every step forward relied entirely on his own creativity.
It wasn't easy for Banner to have persisted this long.
If not for the daily high-nutrition meals, he probably would have gone bald already.
Xu Dan silently drove away from the biotechnology company and headed toward the Antarctic Game Building.
He now had a clearer understanding of the progress on the virtual gaming helmet, so it was time to approach the project from another angle.
Virtual gaming helmets were the key to virtual games. If humans couldn't connect to them, everything else was meaningless.
And now it was proven that connection was possible—just not stable enough.
So while Banner continued making adjustments, Xu Dan would begin working on the actual content of the virtual game itself.
From the moment virtual gaming was put on the agenda to the creation of the helmet prototype, the game itself hadn't officially begun development. Yet its framework had been taking shape in Xu Dan's mind every single day, growing richer and more complete.
Virtual games were no child's play. Opening a new era wasn't an exaggeration.
And precisely because of that, the core playability of the game could not be ignored.
-----------------------
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