Chapter 5: Your Playtime has reached the Limit
Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations
After Fang Qi accepted the crystals, the notification on the screen that was prompting Wang Tai to pay immediately disappeared.
While Wang Tai was enjoying himself, a young man in a green robe and a fierce-looking man walked in after curiously looking up at the sign.
Upon entering through the glass doors, the young man glanced at the people inside and asked, “Who is the owner of this shop?”
“Can I help you?” Fang Qi casually greeted them.
“Origins?” The young man looked at Fang Qi with disdain and pointed at the sign outside, “So now anyone can just name their shops like this? What does your shop do?”
Fang Qi didn’t explain; instead, he pointed at the game that Wang Tai was playing and said, “See for yourselves.”
That young man walked up behind Wang Tai and glanced at the computer screen. The scene displayed on the screen looked incredibly realistic, shocking the young man.
He asked, “What’s this? What’s the fat guy doing?”
“He’s controlling the person on the screen,” Fang Qi explained.
The young man in green didn’t believe him. “The person on the screen is moving by himself. How can you say that the fat guy is the one controlling him?”
Fang Qi sneered at this young man and thought, Those who have never seen computers before will definitely be shocked.
Although he really didn’t want to waste his time with these two people, he thought about the task the system gave him: To fill his internet cafe up with people.
Therefore, he patted Wang Tai’s shoulder and said, “Exit the game and show him.”
At the time, Wang Tai was completely absorbed in his game. However, he had no choice but to exit the game upon hearing Fang Qi’s request.
He turned around to ask, “What’s up?”
As expected, the person on the screen froze immediately.
The young man in green was flabbergasted. Was this fat boy really controlling the person inside?
He pointed at the screen with slight suspicion in his tone and asked, “Were you really controlling that person just now? How did it feel?”
“It’s super awesome! I get to go on adventures in another world, and I can start over when I die! It’s even better than the monster hunts that those noblemen go on!”
After all, Wang Tai didn’t know a lot of fun things, so he could only use monster hunts as an example.
While he talked, Wang Tai waved his hands in the air with excitement. However, he quickly remembered that time was precious, so he promptly shook his hands and said, “If you’re interested, play for yourself. I’m going back to the game now.”
Upon seeing this, the young man was intrigued.
What does this fat boy mean when he said ‘go on adventures in another world’? Can I enter a world like this as well? If that’s true, then it would be awesome!
Therefore, he immediately asked Fang Qi, “I want to try, how can I play?”
Fang Qi pointed at his blackboard and said, “The prices are all written on there.”
“Seven crystals?” The young man’s face darkened as he sneered, “Do you take me for a fool? Ordinary spiritual artifacts cost no more than five or six crystals, and your game cost seven crystals an hour?”
“There’s a five crystal charge to activate the game for the first time. Afterward, it’s just two crystals an hour,” Fang Qi explained nonchalantly.
“How do I know that the two of you aren’t working together to trick me?” Seven crystals weren’t a lot to the young man, but he didn’t want to throw them away just like that.
Over the past two days, Fang Qi had met plenty of customers like him; they were all interested but thought the game was too expensive.
“My shop is right here, and I won’t be able to run away anyways. Why would I trick you?” Fang Qi shrugged and said, “It’s fine if you don’t believe me. I’m going back to my game now.”
“F*ck!” The young man was surprised; ordinary shop owners would bow down to him with respect upon seeing a customer of his status come in.
What is this owner of a god-knows-what shop so pretentious about?
He glared at Fang Qi, trying to detect any hints of deception on his face. Unfortunately, he didn’t see any!
Moreover, this owner really ignored him and went back to playing his game!
“Fine!” the young man said as his expression turned icier than ever, “I’d like to see what’s so amazing that costs seven crystals an hour!”
“Man, pay him!” (TL Note: ‘Man’ is the actual name of this guy’s servant)
“I’m here, Young Master!” The grey-clothed man immediately bowed before the young man. Then, he suggested, “Would you like me to try it out first?”
“No! I’ll try it out myself!” He waved his hand and glared at Fang Qi arrogantly, saying, “If your game isn’t worth the money, I swear I will smash everything in here into pieces!”
Upon hearing this, Fang Qi laughed, “Try all you want. If you don’t think it is worthy enough, you can do whatever you want to this shop.”
“Good, remember you said that!”
The young man smirked and said, “Don’t beg me to go easy on you by then!”
“Whatever makes you happy.”
After clicking on the ‘Resident Evil’ icon, the young man put on his virtual machine and quickly entered the game.
Is there actually another world in here? The young man’s face was filled with disbelief upon seeing the realistic animations before him.
Can I really control another person in another world? Those two really aren’t trying to trick me, right?
“Bizarre murder cases have recently occurred in Raccoon City.” The screen locked onto Alpha Team, that was flying in their helicopter as the background information was introduced. “There are outlandish reports of families being attacked by groups of about ten people. Victims were apparently eaten.”
“Bravo Team was sent to investigate, but they soon disappeared!”
The introduction of Resident Evil One was extremely simple; yet, the limited number of words left so many questions unanswered that the player would immediately get a feeling of how difficult and complex the game was!
After all, the system’s black technology was even better than the VR technology in the world he used to live in. Therefore, people in this world, who had never seen computers before, would immediately be dumbstruck by the scene in front of their eyes.
“Is this really a game?” the young man asked in shock; everything in the game, from the people to the surroundings, seemed so real! He felt like he had opened the door to another world!
“What else do you think it is?” Fang Qi said, “You can control your character with the keyboard and mouse as well.”
Then, he taught the young man how to use them.
“If you use a keyboard and mouse, you won’t have as much freedom to move around. Only by using the VR machine will you feel like you are actually in the game. It’s your choice.”
The young man was completely flabbergasted!
He then glanced over at Wang Tai’s and Fang Qi’s screens; their screens showed the same scene and people as if they were in the same world, but none of them could meet each other! It felt like there were identical yet completely separate worlds behind the screens!
How is that possible? This is amazing! How can something this amazing exist in this world?
He finally began believing in this game; seven crystals really weren’t that much, considering the experience he just had. This was an experience even 70 crystals couldn’t buy!
He then pointed at the screen and asked, “Are there side effects to playing this game?”
“If being scared by monsters counts, then yes…”
Upon hearing what Fang Qi said, this young man couldn’t wait any longer and went back to playing the game.
As the search began, he was profoundly impressed by each character and object, from the mysterious world to unkillable zombies to the zombie-filled mansion.
The life-like scenes and battles gave him a pleasure he never felt before!
A thought suddenly popped into his head, Oh! Doesn’t this kind of intricate plot only exist in novels?
At this thought, he remembered something else, Does this mean these people… are equivalent to the main characters in a novel?
Novels can only be read, and words alone can never satisfy my craving for action. In addition, the endings of the novels are controlled by the authors. However, this shop has a game that allows me to be one of the main characters? So I can control the fate of these characters? In a sense, I have the opportunity to write my own novel?
No wonder the shop owner called this a ‘game’! It is indeed a game! Not only that, it is a unique game that I never would’ve imagined existed in this world!
As a person in this era, there was nothing much to do aside from gambling, frequenting brothels, and hunting.
This game was much more different than the traditional games he was used to!
Who designed something like this?
His hands trembled in excitement; there were countless novels, but their qualities varied, and none of their plots were as imaginative as this one.
After he experienced life-like combat where each punch was satisfying on its own, he was completely hooked onto the exciting plot. With his fists clenched, he declared, “If I’m the main character, then I, Song Qingfeng, will reveal the conspiracy in this world, and I shall save my teammates and escape together!”
Every man in this world wanted to go on an adventure so stimulating that their blood would boil in exhilaration!
He had a feeling that defeating the monsters would be easy as pie if he were to use his special weapon. Now, all that was left was to give it a try.
Suddenly, a notification popped up on his desktop. “Your playtime period has ended.”