I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Chapter 672 From Ocean to Land

Under the Weibo topic, various opinions emerged in a short period of time.

[Lu Ban thinks he can enter the gaming industry with VR? I think he's overestimating himself. Ultimately, VR is a false need; with current technology, it's purely a concept, and he can't pull it off.]

Lu Ban may think his special effects technology is amazing, so he wants to rely on technology to attract players, but in the end, a game still needs to be fun, and no matter how amazing the technology is, it cannot make up for the lack of gameplay.

[To be honest, wouldn't it be better for him to just stick to being a director? His movies aren't bad at all. Why does he have to meddle in the gaming industry, especially with VR, which is already dead in the water? I suspect he's been fooled by someone.]

Do you think Lu Ban might actually pull out some incredibly awesome VR device, like in those movies?

"How could that be? Do you know how difficult that technology is? Besides, if such technology really existed, it would definitely be used for military purposes first. By the time it's used for civilian purposes, Lu Ban would be long gone."

[You guys, don't be so sure of yourself. If things turn out differently, I'll tag you all and drag you out one by one to be whipped!]

I think you guys shouldn't open the champagne halfway through. In the past, when everyone thought Lu Ban was no good, he always managed to surprise people. This time might be no exception.

[While I believe in Lu Ban, I don't believe in VR. I work in image recognition myself, and the current technology is simply insufficient to support the demands of VR games. No matter how capable Lu Ban is, it's impossible for him to overcome the technological barriers in just a few months, right?]

During this period, the vast majority of people were not optimistic about Lu Ban's new equipment.

There's nothing else to it, because VR, virtual reality, these technologies aren't anything brand new or groundbreaking; they're things that other manufacturers have already experimented with.

Besides the visual experience, there are also operational issues, venue limitations, and various technical constraints that keep this technology largely untapped.

Lu Ban's creation of this helmet has made many people uneasy.

"really?"

Old Eggplant looked at his friend in front of him and repeatedly confirmed.

“Really, I told them that you are a big content creator with millions of followers, which has a good promotional effect. Also, I am familiar with Da Shi over there, so I can let you have a priority to experience it.”

The friend said, and then handed Old Eggplant a media pass, telling him to go and queue up.

Silent Media's booth has a total of ten devices.

One of them was reserved for priority media testing, with a dedicated media channel.

Anyone with a media pass can queue up here for priority access to try out [Morning Star].

However, there were many reporters and media present at the exhibition today, which caused the media lane to be crowded, so I had to wait in line.

He watched eagerly as the people being tested went into the small dark room one by one. Soon, the first batch of testers came out.

Old Eggplant craned his neck to look at their expressions, and then realized something was wrong.

Each of these people had an expression of intoxication, daze, as if they had just woken up.

This expression is like someone who's taken drugs, going from being incredibly high to feeling sluggish.

What exactly did they see?

The "black room demo" is a type of demo at game shows, usually used to provide demos for games that haven't had much information released yet. Visitors can only enter the black room one by one, and they are not allowed to take photos or videos. After leaving, they can only describe the game from their memory.

"So mysterious!"

Old Eggplant muttered.

He doesn't envy these people at all!

He watched as those people, even after leaving the small dark room, did not engage in any discussion, but instead remained in a dazed state, which he found incredible.

Normally, when you play an exciting game, shouldn't you be eager to share it with the people around you?

What's going on with this seemingly post-coital state?

Even if Lu Ban's equipment and the game were absolutely terrible, he should have cursed loudly and demanded a refund after the game ended.

This silence made Old Eggplant instinctively sense that something was wrong.

He recalled that when some of Lu Ban's movies were released, the audience members left the theater in a similar state, and of course, they also showed knowing smiles.

Does Lu Ban's work really possess such magic?

Old Eggplant is getting more and more excited to go into the "little black room" for a trial run.

After waiting in line for a while, it was finally his turn.

Old Eggplant walked into the small dark room. At first, he was curious about how to use Lu Ban's VR equipment, but in the small dark room, apart from a staff member in charge of guiding, there was only a soft sofa chair and a helmet connected to a power source.

Following the staff's instructions, Old Eggplant sat down in the chair.

He put on the helmet, which was a suitable size, but his entire field of vision was quickly obscured.

Under the guidance of the staff, Old Eggplant read out the command to start the equipment with a lot of doubt.

"Link, begin."

The next instant, Old Eggplant felt as if he had been pushed backward by something; the soft sofa chair, the slightly heavy helmet, everything disappeared.

He just kept falling backward, falling, as if he had fallen into a bottomless abyss.

Then, amidst the iridescent black, a light appeared.

……

Old Eggplant has forgotten how he got out of the dark room.

He looked blankly at the crowd queuing up, at the expectant expressions on their faces, and felt his steps falter, like a drowning person who had just climbed out of the water.

Old Eggplant saw the people who were trying out the game together. They looked different and were of different genders, but looking at these people, Old Eggplant knew exactly what kind of expression he should have on his face.

He found a place to sit down, trying to calm himself down.

Old Eggplant felt a sense of unease.

He took out his phone, wanting to post a Weibo or status update to describe his current feelings, but after thinking for a long time, he felt that he was starting to change, and he didn't know what he had done wrong that God was punishing him like this.

Old Eggplant has reviewed many games, and he can describe most of them as either "fun" or "not fun," and the same goes for gaming devices.

But right now, he has no way of evaluating Lu Ban's [Morning Star].

He felt that the equipment, and what Lu Ban showed them, was not something he could evaluate.

The video game expo also has many booths, and the TVs in those booths are playing all sorts of fancy game trailers. Many booths also have corresponding game demos.

This should have been something to look forward to, something that Old Eggplant, as a gamer, would most like to try.

But now, Old Eggplant knows.

When our ancestors first set foot on land from the ocean, leaving their own footprints on that vast world, they could never go back.

Chapter 673 Performs a handstand keyboard-eating act

Surprisingly, Lu Ban's new device, [Morning Star], has received very few reviews.

The topics on Weibo are still chaotic, but they are mostly being discussed by armchair gamers who didn't attend the video game expo.

But none of those who actually tried it out spoke up.

This seems very strange.

If LuBan's equipment were top-notch and the games were really fun, it would have been raved about by everyone long ago.

If it were the other way around, then there would definitely be people criticizing Lu Ban.

This silence is unsettling.

It was like a sky full of dark clouds, as if a violent storm was about to strike, but there was never any lightning or thunder.

No one knows whether Lu Ban succeeded or failed this time.

However, some people noticed something amiss.

For example, Zheng Li noticed that Lao Qiezi, a gaming content creator he followed, seemed to act a bit strange after attending the Yannan Electronic Games Expo.

Aside from those two vlogs from the exhibition, Lao Qiezi hasn't updated any other videos. Although it's common for content creators to be late, Lao Qiezi did participate in Lu Ban's [Morning Star] demo. Such a big thing, and he didn't even mention it?

Moreover, Zheng Li had watched Lao Qiezi's live streams. He usually streamed himself playing some recently released games, but since he returned from the Yannan Electronic Games Expo, he hadn't played any games during his streams. Most of his streams were just chatting and other filler content.

Was it because Lu Ban's games were too outrageous that Lao Qiezi lost faith in the gaming industry?

Or will it be like Lu Ban's previous movie, which brought an ultimate shock, causing them to forget how to act as humans now?

Zheng Li carefully searched online for reviews of Lu Ban's [Morning Star]. Most of the players who participated in the "black room" test did not express any opinions, but there were exceptions.

Zheng Li then found a comment from a netizen named "Melancholy Blues".

This netizen first posted their ticket to the Yannan Electronic Games Expo, photos of the queueing room, etc., to show that they did not participate in RPGs, but had indeed been to the game expo and participated in the demos.

Up to this point in the article, everything is normal.

Further down, Zheng Li couldn't quite understand it.

"...The moment I put on the helmet and uttered the activation command, the whole world changed."

“I felt like I was in the universe, surrounded by colorful stars. The feeling was so real that I forgot I was in an exhibition hall.”

"Then, under the guidance of the staff, I tried one of the projects. By the way, there were three applications to choose from for this experience: forest, ocean, and snowfield. I chose ocean."

"After choosing the sea, I immediately heard the sound of waves, followed by a cool touch. I looked down and saw the seawater with white foam engulfing my feet. The soft, damp sand was under my feet. I looked ahead and saw the blue sea and the blue sky. I was actually standing on the beach."

"This feeling is indescribable. I bent down and reached out to touch the sand. I could even see small crabs in the sand. The rough texture of the sand slid through my fingertips. I scooped up some seawater. It was icy cold. I even took a sip. The seawater with its strong salty taste flowed down my throat."

"It's amazing. I feel like I'm really in this world, on the beach."

"After a ten-minute experience, I took off the helmet, and everything seemed so unreal, like I had just had a dream."

"In just a few seconds, I went from the bright sunshine back to the exhibition hall, from illusion back to reality. For the first time, I felt that the real world was so small, closed off, and dull."

"I stepped out of the dark room and looked at the people outside. For the first time, I realized the limitations of this world."

"But what I feel more is sadness, the sadness of being a gamer."

"Why did I have to encounter this kind of equipment at this time? I could have been killing time playing those mass-produced games, waiting for a great masterpiece that only comes out every few years, and searching for exquisite indie games to have fun. But now, after experiencing [Morning Star], the world is different for me."

"Before the official release of [Morning Star], I had already lost interest in all games. Why is that? If I have committed a crime, please let God punish me instead of letting me play [Morning Star] ahead of time."

After reading this comment, Zheng Li had only one thought in his mind.

"Isn't this a bit too much?"

He looked down at the comments and found that they were indeed similar to his own thoughts.