Chapter 31 Black Box
"With the continuous development of science and technology, humans have endowed machines with more and more abilities and emotions in a god-like manner, but have you noticed that humans' own emotions are constantly being lost?"
Huang Ying wore virtual reality glasses and strolled with Han Fei in the ancient alleys of the old city. There were children playing around, with the most innocent smiles on their faces.
"Take what I have seen and experienced as an example. Most people living in this smart city look bright and beautiful on the surface, always smiling, but in fact they are busy with various business occasions all day and are under great pressure. The so-called social gatherings are just a show. Everyone looks warm and hospitable, but in fact they are cold and calm inside."
"Our genes are constantly being cracked, our information is being collected and summarized, and each of our extraordinary behaviors is recorded in the citizen system. Gradually, our lives, emotions, and life tend to be formatted. We don't seem to be living our own lives, but more like repeating the same day until death."
After an in-depth discussion, Han Fei discovered that Huang Ying was a very capable person. At least, the words he said made him sound very capable.
“Humans evolved from animals, but their hearts have gradually become like machines. This is a very scary thing. And it is precisely because of this that I like this cross-era game, Perfect Life, so much.”
Walking on the bluestone slabs, looking at the moss on the roadside, and smelling the faint fragrance after the rain, Huang Ying opened his arms: "This game is helping us find the missing emotions and heal the pain of our souls. Here we can re-experience the beautiful memories we have forgotten, and here we can clearly feel our own existence."
"Really?" Han Fei thought about how he looked when he was playing games, and tears almost fell.
"Yes." Huang Ying said with certainty.
"This trial version feels extraordinary. I wonder how great the official version will be." Han Fei took off his virtual reality glasses, and the drizzle in the ancient alley disappeared. He was standing in a box with Huang Ying.
"The official version will definitely exceed your imagination. This is a game that makes dreams come true. This game is really like its name, it will give you a perfect life!" Huang Ying said with emotion.
"From your tone, I feel like you've played the official version?" Han Fei looked a little surprised.
"You figured it out. I'm actually a specially invited tester for the sixth internal beta test of Perfect Life."
Han Fei recalled the information he had found online. The internal test players of the game Perfect Life can be roughly divided into four categories: the first is the internal staff of the game. During each test, they will first enter the game for an in-depth experience.
The second is the supervisory personnel from relevant government departments. As a cross-era, deeply immersive game that integrates the most cutting-edge science and technology and countless crazy ideas, "Perfect Life" also attaches great importance to the government.
The third is specially invited testers like Huang Ying, who are often professionals in a certain industry or field. They will play the game from their own professional perspective and put forward their own modification suggestions to make the game more realistic and interesting.
The fourth category is mass players, who obtain internal testing qualifications through various channels.
Some of these people are hardcore gamers who simply want to experience the game, while others are studios that make money from games and want to obtain first-hand information in preparation for the public beta.
"If you can become a specially invited tester, then you must be a big shot in real life!" Han Fei is now certain that the Huang Ying in front of him is the Huang Ying he met last night, and his previous guess was correct.
"I don't dare to be a big boss, I'm just famous in the industry." Huang Ying is very humble and has no airs at all. He patiently took Han Fei to visit the game exhibition area and kept bragging about the game Perfect Life. He seemed more dedicated than the salesmen of the game company.
"You said that Perfect Life can make everyone's dreams come true. So if I'm an ultimate horror movie fan, can I experience the horror movie experience in the game?" After determining the character, Han Fei began to test the waters.
"Of course you can. There is a special night amusement park in the game, which is prepared for horror fans. It has various exciting facilities and drama movie reenactments. You can even choose to work in the night amusement park and try to trigger the life of becoming the owner of the park." Huang Ying began to make suggestions very seriously: "But you have to pay attention to one thing. There is a mental threshold setting in the game. Once it exceeds ten, you will be judged by the system as being strongly stimulated and forced to disconnect."
"Will the connection be forced to disconnect if the value exceeds ten?" Han Fei's eyelids twitched. His mental threshold in the game was set to 100, the same as his health!
"If you disconnect too many times, your game character may die. In the game Perfect Life, life is very fragile, and you only have one life. After death, all data will be reset to zero, and everything will start from scratch." Huang Ying said with deep feeling: "Death is very painful, so you must cherish your life."
"I've watched a lot of horror movies, but I don't feel anything about the plots. Instead, some bizarre events related to hauntings in real life make me feel creepy." Han Fei approached the question he wanted to ask step by step: "Do you think there will be any supernatural stories in Perfect Life?"
"There should have been some before the second test. I heard that there weren't too many restrictions at that time. There was no punishment for players attacking NPCs. One tester even massacred an entire neighborhood. He was eventually locked up for insanity."
“Is it that crazy?”
"What do you think? When human nature loses its restraint, people will turn into the most terrible beasts." Huang Ying seemed to remember some rumors at the time: "Because of the tester's incident, Perfect Life added a lot of restrictions and cut nearly one-third of the plot. Until the sixth internal test, basically all the plots that could easily cause moral and ethical issues had been removed, and even the Easter eggs in the will of the deceased founder were deleted."
"The Easter egg left in the founder's will?"
"Don't you know? This is well-known in the gaming community." Huang Ying lowered his voice. "The chairman of Yongsheng Pharmaceutical died of illness after the first internal test of Perfect Life. In his will, he told his children to find a black box. He said that the box was filled with regrets, resentment, hatred, misfortune, and malice in the world. He also gave three hints, saying that the box was in the deepest part of the world, the deepest part of the mind, and the deepest part of the human heart."
"Did anyone find the box later?" Han Fei wiped the cold sweat from his forehead imperceptibly.
"No, everyone interpreted it in various ways, and finally suspected that the box was actually an Easter egg in the game, which should contain the old man's obsession. The testers at the time searched for the Easter egg in the game like crazy, but no one found it. Until the third test, for some reason, all the plots that the old man originally participated in designing were deleted, and the Easter egg will never be found." Huang Ying's tone revealed a trace of regret: "In my lifetime, I really want to know what that Easter egg is."
"Yeah, I want to know too." Han Fei touched the back of his head with a very calm expression.
