Gamers Are Fierce

"After putting on this Golden Hoop, you are no longer a mortal. Worldly desires can never touch you again. If you are tempted, this Golden Hoop will tighten around your head, causing unbearable pain..."

"What are you talking about?" The female investigator frowned and asked Li Ang, who was holding the fourth-generation brain-machine interface helmet and muttering to himself.

"Nothing." Li Ang shook his head and, following Brown Murphy's memory, began to activate the start button on the right side of the brain-machine interface one by one.

"By the way."

While adjusting the brain-machine interface, he calmly told the agents in suits from the Social Security Agency: "Entering another world requires full mental engagement without any disturbance.

If someone is next to me, I'll feel quite awkward,

you'd better all stay outside the bedroom."

"Hmph."

The female investigator snorted coldly, raised her hand to signal the agents to retreat to the living room outside the bedroom.

"Including you," Li Ang added upon seeing this.

"..."

The female investigator pursed her lips slightly, her mouth corners dropping as she gave Li Ang a threatening look, stepped back two steps, and leaned against the door frame to stand, "You should know we've obtained your IP address and can monitor your every move on a data level, right?

Remember our agreement, no tricks."

"Rest assured, I know what I'm doing."

Li Ang slowly put on the helmet, sighed deeply, closed his eyes, and lay back.

The expensive ergonomic chair automatically supported his back, arms, and legs, its soft surface making him feel like floating among the clouds.

To enter another dimension, one must reach a state of self-forgetfulness, weakening or even isolating the body's perception of the outside world, achieving an effect similar to "Zen" in mysticism.

Many wizards use auxiliary means to help themselves better enter this state,

such as small amounts of muscle anesthetic or semi-enclosed water tanks that deprive the five senses.

However, Li Ang does not need any external aids. One of the introductory methods for practicing Spiritual Energy is actively depriving oneself of the five senses to experience prolonged self-isolation.

Consciousness gradually floats upward,

slowly drifting out of this suburban dwelling, overlooking the city waking from dawn from mid-air,

then, following a sense of familiarity in the dark, swiftly zipping along the fiber optic cables, circling the Earth several times in less than half a minute,

and jumping back and forth at the transit stations of various multinational network service providers, completely erasing the physical address traces of the initial IP,

finally arriving at a data space purchased with an anonymous account, uniquely his own.

This space, provided and constructed by a near-Earth orbit communications company satellite, serves as each wizard's Mage Tower, where wizards complete the construct of their form and truly enter another dimension.

The sensation is very wondrous,

Li Ang floats in mid-air, looks at himself—enormous fragments of data surge in from all directions, attaching to the surface of the translucent humanoid, rapidly forming the Mirage Dragon Red Mane Coat and Dragon Head White Lab Coat.

"Lemon-flavored air freshener..."

As Li Ang's form constructs, the data space gradually becomes clear,

turning from entirely green to a clean and bright bank vault.

The surrounding scenario sharpens, the tactile feel of the walls and floors extremely real, and the lemon air freshener in the air is just like the ones bought from the supermarket.

Li Ang withdrew his hand pressing against the wall,

this room doesn't truly exist nor is it constructed from massive data; it is merely a simple and unpretentious snippet of code—

The essence of the brain-machine interface lies in maximizing the brain's potential,

prompting imaginative response from the brain based on the data signals.

For example, upon receiving data labeled [fresh soil-scented lawn post-rain], the brain automatically imagines a vivid post-rain lawn.

The entire process does not generate massive data nor requires extensive bandwidth—otherwise, all Grand Wizards would be swiftly discovered by authorities.

In layman's terms, it's like holding a graphics card in your mouth and imagining the pictures yourself.

Of course, adaptation is not manipulation, storytelling is not fabrication,

arbitrarily interpreting data signals (like trying to interpret water as fire) can cause brain disorder, hence the wizard is bounced back to the Mage Tower or the real world.

In the data world, death doesn't exist; the closest concept is being banished back to the real world—if the consciousness form is destroyed,

the brain would undergo an awful nightmares that proves hard to calm, rendering it difficult to reconnect to the virtual dimension short-term.

"...So that's how it is."

Li Ang nodded thoughtfully; indeed, the current mission script sealed all equipment items except for exemption tickets,

yet in the virtual world, he could still call upon data, achieving extraordinary power-like effects.

This doesn't mean he can do as he pleases and be omnipotent in the data world.

The perception from the world can be likened to signal input,

while the wizard's extraordinary power corresponds to signal output,

His ability limit still subject to his own will, brain computing power, data control, and total processor amount restrictions.

"Just like the real world."

Li Ang strode towards the door, muttering to himself: "A wizard's data manipulation power automatically converts into my extraordinary power,

I can expend energy to manipulate data and simulate effects of equipment, items, and even skills,

additionally, due to habitual thinking in the brain, the cooldowns and restrictions of skills and equipment are simultaneously simulated..."

His palm pressed against the vault door, the heavy and sturdy coded door unlocks and silently slides open to both sides.

The logout point is situated on a desolate plain, with a giant hollow pipeline extending beyond the horizon for countless kilometers,

its surface composed of glass,

through which one can see the dense stream of flowing light speeding inside—data flowing through fiber optic networks.

Massive and rugged pipelines criss-cross, spanning the entire wilderness.

Servers providing computing and application services form bustling cities;

Local networks form forts and private estates of various scales (some estates surrounded by a slew of AI guards);

Looking up, one sees mountains, towers, clouds, and stars suspended mid-air,

these are near-Earth orbit satellites, 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

some belonging to network providers, freely accessible for visits and logout,

while some dimly glowing red stars are reachable only by traversing extremely covert and dangerous paths—these stars usually represent military institutions or official departments with higher secrecy levels.

Li Ang stood in place, appreciating the vast scenery akin to a stream-of-consciousness oil painting, suddenly feeling something extra on his shoulder.

Looking down, it's a green cricket.

The cricket's mouth emitted the female investigator's voice, "It's me."