Chapter 48: The Forty-Eighth Day of Being a Salted Fish

“Virtual Mecha, huh…” Lu Yuan thought for a moment. “It’s fun, but it certainly feels very virtual.”

“Yeah, Zhu Rong said the same thing.” Goudan had already clicked into the entry. As soon as he entered, he saw a video.

The video description stated that it was an interview with [Zhurong], and it included a quote from her: [Zhurong: Too different from real mecha operation].

Goudan clicked the video and turned the tablet sideways so Lu Yuan could watch along.

The protagonist in the video was a female character with a default face.

The voiceover of what seemed to be a host asked, “You won first place in the challenge, aren’t you excited? Do you have any thoughts you’d like to share with everyone?”

The girl spoke coldly, her voice also the default synthesized tone. “None. It was too easy. It’s too different from real mecha operation.”

“…” Goudan gave an awkward laugh. “That really is Zhu Rong’s style, isn’t it?”

“Mm,” Lu Yuan nodded. “She’s just stating facts.”

He knew about the game Virtual Mecha and had played it before.

The game had been around for over a decade and was one of the few long-standing popular titles in the Empire that hadn’t been left behind by the times.

But for Lu Yuan… and even for people like Zhu Rong, the game was too simple.

The operational difficulty didn’t even match the mecha game console Lu Yuan had built.

A mecha had dozens of movable joints. To precisely control these joints through keyboard commands was not something everyone could do. Especially since, at any given moment, one often needed to control several joints simultaneously.

Furthermore, this type of control was difficult to simplify. Over the years, countless people had tried to simplify mechanical mecha control, but none had succeeded. Either they added an optical computer processing system, which cost time, or they reduced the number of joints, which cost flexibility and precision.

The game console Lu Yuan made had only ten keys, but every key could sense the pressure applied, allowing the mecha to perform varying degrees of movement. Moreover, pressing two, three, or more keys at once resulted in different combination functions. Only then could the basic control of a mecha be barely achieved.

A game like that was already beyond the reach of ordinary people. And real mechas were likely even more difficult to operate.

Therefore, if one were to perfectly replicate the real operation of a mecha, it would be hard to make it “game-like” or enjoyable for everyone.

The game developers were clever, so they performed…

A very severe simplification.

By utilizing the brainwave sensing function of the optical computer, the game could assume that every player could use a Mental Power control system, regardless of whether they actually possessed Mental Power. This drastically lowered the difficulty of operation.

On the other hand, since it wasn’t true Mental Power control, it also eliminated the burden on the brain that occurred when using Mental Power to control a mecha.

Simply put, this thing was… fun for all ages.

It provided the thrill of having one’s physical attributes enhanced several-fold, easily performing high-difficulty technical maneuvers, and using high-intensity weapons at will.

However, for mecha training, it was useless.

In fact, this system could technically be used to control real mechas. But the problem was that such a system was too easy to be hacked by Mental Power, and there was also the issue of time lag.

When operating a mecha mechanically, the transition from a key press to the mecha’s reaction required no computer processing, so the action was almost instantaneous.

But relying on a computer to read brainwaves to operate a mecha meant that even if the computer’s calculation speed was fast, the input and output of commands took time… Before the processing was even finished, a shell from a mechanically operated cannon would have already hit. You simply couldn’t fight a war like that.

In fact, when mechas were first designed, there had been a period of an extremely prosperous golden age. Back then, everyone could operate a mecha, and the competition on the battlefield was no longer about physical strength, but pure intelligence.

But then things became too competitive.

These delayed mechas were gradually phased out, and human warfare returned to the clash of martial prowess using primitive mechanical tools.

“Tell Zhu Rong,” Lu Yuan said after a moment of thought, “there’s a game called 80% Mecha Combat. It’s very old and looks quite ragged, but the realism is much higher… it reaches about eighty percent of the real thing.”

“…What a plain name.” Goudan immediately understood the origin of the game’s name.

“I was speechless when I played it too.” Lu Yuan smiled. “I don’t know if anyone still plays it… there were very few people back then. Oh, and remind her to say she found it herself. Don’t mention that someone told her the name.”

“So where did you dig up such an obscure game?” Goudan asked curiously while sending a message to Siming.

“Back when I was in school,” Lu Yuan thought back. “I was too bored and played a lot of games. Once, I was curious about what kind of weird games existed, so I selected the mecha keyword and searched from the bottom of the rankings upward. I thought the name sounded funny, so I went in to take a look.”

“What was school like?” Goudan asked.

“It was…” Lu Yuan pondered before saying, “Nothing special, I guess? It was quite relaxed, actually similar to my life now… spacing out every day, learning a tiny bit of new stuff, then playing games and reading books…”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Lu Yuan finished his meal and set down his chopsticks. “If you’re interested, when winter comes, we can open a school and everyone can attend together. I’ll download the online courses and textbooks for you.”

–

Sea Eagle Pirates.

Zhu Rong pushed open the door to Ying Xun’s room, and a wave of alcohol fumes hit her. She was already used to it.

Walking forward, she saw Ying Xun slumped on the bed, looking at a video on his optical computer. A bottle of liquor and fried peanuts were by his side; he looked quite comfortable.

“Boss,” Zhu Rong called out.

Ying Xun’s drunken eyes slowly drifted over. After a moment of processing, he finally seemed to realize who was standing before him and gave a response. “Zhu Rong, something up?”

“I want to register an account in another game.” Zhu Rong showed him the optical computer in her hand. The game on the screen was exactly the one Lu Yuan had mentioned, 80% Mecha Combat.

This optical computer, and especially the StarNet account inside, didn’t belong to Zhu Rong. She was still an unregistered citizen.

This item was something Ying Xun had found for her after she joined the Star Pirate Syndicate.

The syndicate often had some ownerless StarNet accounts.

As for the source of these accounts…

Pirates didn’t do good deeds. Most of the time they robbed for money, but occasionally they accidentally took lives. Killing wasn’t common, and the pirates usually didn’t do it on purpose, but if someone did end up dead… they were dead. The pirates didn’t really care.

However, they certainly wouldn’t report it to the police. The victim’s optical computer would naturally be confiscated.

Normally, a person couldn’t log into a StarNet account that didn’t belong to them – the thing was linked to DNA sequences.

But as pirates, they had some unusual methods. The fact that Zhu Rong could play Virtual Mecha was thanks to these unusual methods.

However, Zhu Rong didn’t know how to use these methods herself. If she wanted to play a new game, she still had to come to Ying Xun.

Ying Xun glanced at it and said in surprise, “Whoa, an antique. So obscure. This thing only has ten downloads a year… where did you dig this up, kid?”

This game was far older and more obscure than Virtual Mecha. To this day, the number of people playing it was pitifully small. Even Zhu Rong didn’t know why Lu Yuan wanted her to download this game… were there really still people playing it?

“Fine, leave it with me for now,” Ying Xun said. “Come back for it tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Zhu Rong nodded and backed out.