Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Male dorms, room 201.

Li Mo entered the room with his backpack on, and he spoke before he even put down his bag.

“You guys won’t believe what happened today!”

Duan Siqi put down his pen and looked back. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and said, “… What?”

Li Mo: “Professor Perelman! The legend that left the mathematics world! He joined our research project!”

Wu Di was playing Dota Auto Chess. Without turning his eyes away from his screen, he said, “… I don’t know what you’re talking about, who is he?”

“Professor Perelman! The German mathematician that solved the Poincaré conjecture!” Li Mo said with excitement. He didn’t care if the others understood him, he continued, “Faltings and Schultz were also there! This is nutty, the entire Bourbaki Group is at our university!”

Yang Shuang was the only one bored enough to pay attention to him. Everyone else was obviously not interested.

Unlike the other roommates, Duan Siqi was a genius student, so he knew who Perelman and Faltings were, but he wasn’t as excited.

After all, he was only a freshman; they had only just begun their journey into the world of mathematics.

Maybe when they became a senior or a graduate student and actually did research, they would understand the significance behind these names.

But for now, Duan Siqi felt like Perelman and Faltings were nowhere near as impressive as the person that developed virtual reality technology—God Lu.

Speaking of which, Duan Siqi felt like he was quite jealous of Li Mo.

Li Mo had the ability to focus on himself and no one else.

This was something Duan Siqi couldn’t do.

Maybe this was why Li Mo was able to excel in the world of pure mathematics.

Yang Shuang, who was listening to Li Mo brag, suddenly noticed a textbook on the desk. After taking a closer look, he spoke.

“… Mathematical analysis assignment? Wow, nutty, we haven’t even learned the content year, and you already finished the textbook?”

“Yeah.” Duan Siqi pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose and said, “I’m busy this weekend, so I finished it ahead of time.”

Wu Di, who was playing video games, was intrigued. He looked back and spoke with a smile on his face.

“Oh, this weekend? Tell us, is it a date?”

Duan Siqi looked at his roommate’s mischievous smile and spoke.

“What are you on? It has nothing to do with girls.”

He hadn’t told anyone about the closed beta yet. He was an introverted guy and did not want to be the center of attention. It was easier to keep it a secret.

However, that was only for his real life, his online presence was different.

He thought about his tens of thousands of Weibo followers and felt wonderful.

He was able to attract so much attention with two Weibo posts alone. People were so enthusiastic about this technology that they even followed a no-name like him. Every day, he would get messages asking about the phantom system.

These messages had become the motivation for him to look forward to the next closed beta.

However, aside from the fans that were asking him for details on the closed beta test, he was more interested in the test itself.

Apparently, this time would be different.

The Jinling Institute for Advanced Study did not disclose any information to the closed beta testers yet.

He was looking forward to it.

…

The weekends.

The second closed beta test was about to begin.

Just like the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study had said, this test was unusual.

The group of people stood in a barren forest, looking around confusingly.

Beside them was the wreckage of an airplane, which was broken into two large pieces.

A staff member wearing a white coat was standing in front of the crowd. He smiled and began explaining the situation.

“Thank you, players, for participating in our second closed beta, we’re glad to see you again.

“Basically, this is a large-scaled sociological simulation experiment. You guys are survivors of a plane crash, and your only goal is to survive for 72 hours until the rescue team arrives.

“There are days and nights, but the day time is only 6 hours, and the night time is only 2 hours, so you will feel like time is passing by faster. Your information panel displays your health status. If you go below the red line, you will be exited from the experiment.

“I’m obligated to say that anything can happen during the experiment, but everything is limited to the virtual world. Therefore, before the experiment begins, if anyone feels uncomfortable, you can withdraw.”

Of course, no one was going to withdraw.

They were the lucky ones who were selected for beta testing. Even if they weren’t interested in surviving in a forest, they would want to experience the virtual world.

The staff member looked around, and no one raised their hand. He smiled and spoke.

“Then, I wish you all good luck.”

Suddenly, a tall, lanky man spoke with a calm expression.

“Wait a second, can I ask a question?”

The worker nodded and said, “Go ahead.”

“Does common sense apply here? Like using friction to make fire, cutting down trees to make tools, etc.”

“Of course it applies.” The staff member smiled and said, “We are testing vulnerabilities in the physics engine, so we want this to be as realistic as possible.”

The man nodded.

“… I understand.”

Seeing how no one had any more questions, the staff member disappeared.

The clock in the virtual world began to turn, and this large-scaled sociological experiment had officially begun.

The lanky guy that asked the question immediately walked toward the wreckage, trying to find anything that could be useful.

A well-built man next to him looked around the players walking around and shouted.

“We only have six hours of daylight time, we can’t do much for the first day. Let’s search the wreckage of the plane first; there should be supplies inside.”

The crowd looked at each other. Some were confused, while others only wanted to play this “game” on their own volition; they did not want to be commanded.

The well-built man began walking toward the plane.

Duan Siqi felt a little weird.

Am I seeing things?

Why do I feel like…

Those two people are weirdly calm. It’s almost like they’ve played this game before, or they have participated in the closed beta before.

As time passed, players took action. Some of them walked toward the depth of the forest, some walked toward the plane, and others gathered in small groups and chatted with one another.

A woman in her mid-twenties, dressed in office-attire, looked around and couldn’t help but speak.

“This should be a travel simulator, look at how real the trees look, I’ll be able to travel to the Maldives in the comfort of my own home.”

A man in a flannel spoke.

“This reminds me of a game.”

The white-collar woman asked, “What game?”

“The forest, it’s a survival game. It’s not only about survival, but there are also monsters.”

“Monsters?” The well-dressed female player said, “Sounds scary.”

“Don’t worry, if there are monsters, you can hide behind me,” a man jokingly said. “I’m pretty much a smurf.”

Duan Siqi couldn’t help but cringe. He knew if anything was to happen, the man would run away as fast as he could.

Of course, he was in no position to judge others.

Even though he played basketball and did well in physical education, he was too weak to fight monsters…

He did not want to stand around and do nothing, so he walked toward the plane wreckage.

He first flipped through a few suitcases, but there was nothing useful aside from clothes.

The only valuable thing he found was a packet of biscuits. He stuffed it in his pocket and walked up to the man who told everyone to search the plane. This man was searching through a suitcase. Duan Siqi hesitated for a bit before saying, “I plan on finding a river.”

“Good idea, be careful,” the man said. He handed him a switchblade and said, “Also, take this.”

Is he being serious?

Duan Siqi looked at how stern the man looked and felt like the man was role-playing too seriously.

“That’s useless, if I run into a monster, I would get eaten anyway.”

“It’s not for you to fight monsters,” the man said with a fierce look on his face. “Having a tool in your hand will deter monsters.”

Duan Siqi said, “You seem like you’re good at survival? Are you a camper? Bear Grylls fan?”

The man seemed like he did not want to answer the question. He hesitated for a bit and said, “I was in the army.”

Even though the guy was taking this game too seriously, he reminded Duan Siqi of his roommate, so Duan Siqi smiled and reached out his hand.

“I’m Duan Siqi, and you are?”

The man didn’t seem like he wanted to talk. He frowned and reached out his hand.

“Li Gaoliang.”

Duan Siqi nodded and made a note to remember this weird-sounding name. He then turned around and began walking toward the depths of the forest.

Even though he had no previous experience of surviving in the wild, he was a high-achieving student who got admitted into Jin University. He was quite a smart fellow.

He walked as he made markings on trees with his switchblade, preventing him from getting lost, as well as making sure he was not walking in circles.

He walked for two hours until he finally heard the sounds of waves.

He walked forward and saw a sandy beach.

“This is the sea… We’re on an island?”

He noted the approximate location of the coast and began walking back the same path.

He needed to use his markings to find the way back, so it took a little longer.

When he saw the plane wreckage and the players again, the sun already began to set.

The golden sunshine passed through the leaves, projecting onto the ground; it was an unbelievable sight.

As expected, like the staff member had said, there was only six hours of day time.

Therefore, it should be night time in a few minutes.

If it wasn’t for the information panel, reminding players to eat, it was easy to forget that they were in a virtual reality world, on a planet that had an eight-hour rotation around a star.

Duan Siqi walked next to Li Gaoliang, the man that claimed to be in the army.

Li Gaoliang looked at the campfire he built with wooden sticks and stones. He noticed the young man approaching him. He spoke in a good mood.

“How did it go?”

Duan Siqi: “A kilometer west is a beach. The terrain is flat, and there aren’t any hills or rivers.”

“There shouldn’t be any large animals nearby then.” Li Gaoliang looked around and said, “But this also means our food source will be a problem.”

Is this game that realistic? Do we need to eat?

Duan Siqi spoke.

“There’s none in the plane?”

“There are, but not much.” Li Gaoliang shook his head and looked at the setting sun. “We should start the fire before the night arrives.”

Duan Siqi nodded and took a bite out of the biscuit in his pocket.

Compared to the last beta test, the Phantom virtual reality system was becoming more and more realistic. He could even feel the hunger in his stomach.

Unfortunately, the food here had no taste, and everything tasted like cardboard.

Not to mention he had to eat once every two hours and go number two right after.

The fire began to burn.

As the sky darkened, everyone began to gather around.

The group of people sat around the campfire, eating tasteless cans of food as they chatted.

“What do you think this experiment is about? There’s nothing to do.”

“If they tell you the purpose of the experiment, the experiment won’t work.”

“Speaking of which, the rescue team is going to take 72 hours to arrive, does this mean we have to spend 72 hours in the virtual reality world?”

“Definitely not, the game will probably save and we’ll exit after a day so that people can take care of their real-life physical needs.”

The group of people chatted with one another while Duan Siqi played with the campfire. He thought about what he should write on his Weibo post after the experiment was over.

Honestly, other than the initial excitement, this round of closed beta testing was more strange than it was interesting.

The forest seemed to contain endless amounts of secrets, while there was no clear objective. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of a clue. Most people had no idea what to do during the six-hour day time.

The campfire crackled softly.

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the forest.

Li Gaoliang looked up, and he squinted at the dark forest.

The well-dressed female player noticed this, and she curiously asked him, “What?”

Li Gaoliang spoke as he quietly grabbed the knife on his waist.

“There’s something there.”

The female player said, “I’m easily scared. Please don’t try to scare me.”

Li Gaoliang frowned and ignored her.

Duan Siqi shook his head. He thought Li Gaoliang was making a big deal out of nothing.

He was just about to tell Li Gaoliang to calm down when he suddenly felt chills down his spine.

He looked at the forest and saw something running toward them.

Duan Siqi frowned and tried to look at the dark object.

The outline of the object gradually became clear.

As a thing with a rotten face emerged from the woods, someone shouted, “Quick! Run into the plane cabin!”

The guys shouted as the girls screamed. Duan Siqi wanted to move. He tried to take out his switchblade, but his body was frozen.

This is too realistic…

Speaking of which, which dumbass said there are no monsters?

The rotten face became closer and closer.

Before he could do anything, a rotten hand grabbed his chest.

Then, his consciousness exited the virtual world. He was the first heroic victim of this gory experiment…