ALL NOVEL 033. Holographic Helmet
The crowd held their breath; the host paused for a while before finally saying: “In the holographic version, Demon God will fully develop its competitive platform, and will be encouraging players to set up their own forces and form a team. The best team will receive a high bonuses earned from team battles which will be organized regularly by the game officials. Starting from eight o’clock tomorrow night, Demon God will open the Team Battle registration channel. And on Sunday, February xx, which is in two months, Demon God officials will bring you the first game competition in the holographic mode, let’s wait and see! … This news will be released in two hours at the official Demon God News Network, thank you to all the audiences and Demon God Player’s support. Also thank you for all the guests present today: Fire Ruthless, Read Water, Copen…”
After this news came out, the whole Demon God world was boiling! After all, the current Demon God was only an online game. Even if the game had an official cross-service arena, and there were players like Fire Ruthless who did live broadcasts with Flying Tour Network, that was something that could only be done by a few “special” players; however, once the regular competition by the officials started, the nature of Demon God would undergo a change: it would no longer be a mere game, but would also open up new career paths for many game enthusiasts!
For a long while, all online forums were filled with countless players of Demon God discussing about this. Two hours later, the game’s official website also released the news regarding this, and unexpectedly, the bonus for the first team battles reached as high as 500,000!
In this era filled of popular online games, 500,000 event bonuses might not seem much, but for students like He Jin who had no income, 500,000 is astronomical!
However, whether it is astronomical or not, He Jin felt that this tournament had nothing to do with him.
When he was online that night, He Jin chatted with Fire about the interview: “Have you seen that interview video?”
Xiao Xian-Jin: “I have, seems like the changes will be very large in the holographic version… By the way, will you be joining the competition?”
Fire Ruthless: “Yes. The game officials sent me the invitation. They did this interview mainly to release the news, and they invited us as an advertisement to Demon God’s holographic version.”
He Jin also thought so; Demon God with tens of millions of players, the appeal of being one of the Great Gods in the ranking list must be extraordinary.
Xiao Xian-Jin: “Come on!”
Fire Ruthless: “You have to keep up your spirit too.”
He Jin was confused, what does it mean?
Fire seemed to know his confused state, and explained directly: “I want to form a team, you will also participate in it.”
He Jin was so scared he jumped, before hurriedly replying: “I can’t! How long do you think I have been playing? ”
During this half month, every time he came online, Fire would bring him to practice, and even if He Jin wasn’t online, Fire would still take time to help him practice. He Jin’s Spirit Pet was already at level nine, but his actual combat experience was almost zero. Even when they did the dungeon before, he could only follow around as a rice weevil. He would only be a drag.
The most crucial point, he couldn’t afford to buy a holographic helmet now!
At the interview before, the game official also released the price of holographic helmet. The current price on the official website is 8880 yuan, and it would become 10880 yuan once the holographic version is released.
Prices have increased over the past decade. He Jin in Hua University spent almost two thousand or three thousand yuan a month, in addition to that, each month he had to report his spending to his mother. His total balance right now was only about 1000 yuan… and the job resume He Jin applied before, was of course rejected. Even if his results were good, his performance points high, there was no way he could match someone with the real desired (business) major, and it would be difficult for him to find a job suitable with his own major before graduating.
He Jin did not want to talk about his real-life condition with Fire, and quickly found an excuse: “I’m playing as a spirit pet ah, what can I do?”
Fire Ruthless: “I learned of the competition details from an internal source, they said there will be a place for spirit pets in the competition, because one of the battles will be between spiritual pet and master pairs, two vs two.”
He Jin: “…” What’s the purpose of this game? (= _ =)
Fire continued softly: “I hope you can accompany me to participate.”
He Jin: “…” suddenly he found it hard to refuse orz.
Fire then sighed, and said forlornly: “You don’t have to rush to refuse ah, think about it first, the registration won’t begin until the end of next month.”
Helmet Helmet Helmet, Money Money!
After they went offline, He Jin shrunk back into his blanket, and thought depressedly: Why didn’t he save a little more money before?
He remembered during freshman year, He Jin became an English tutor for some junior high school students, and earned up to four or five thousand after half a year. However, he foolishly reported all this to his mother; his tuition fee was only 2000 yuan, so at that time he felt incredibly proud for being able to earn it on his own. He then told his mother he wanted to continue doing this, which was of course completely refused!
He was thinking, if only he did not hand over the money he earned from tutoring to his mother, he might still be tutoring secretly now.
Now this feeling grew more and more vivid inside him. He woudn’t even bother to call and ask his mother for money, He Jin knew she certainly would not agree—If his economy condition still wasn’t independent, he could never get real freedom.
He Jin thought about his money problem for a few days, and then, while he was feeling completely helpless, he received a strange call just one day before the release of the holographic version.
“Hello, I am a member of Demon God’s game company, are you Mr. He Jin?” Came a polite male voice.
He Jin was surprised: “I am.”
Staff: “Did you fill out the lottery information for Demon God’s holographic helmet one month ago?”
He Jin: “Yes…”
At this point, He Jin’s muddled mind had already begun to run freely, echoing words like “No way” and “My luck won’t be this good,”; however, he actually heard the staff say: “Congratulations on being one of the lucky ones to win a holographic helmet. You will receive a free version of the holographic game helmet from Demon God collection. Please check your filled information and mailing address once again…”
He Jin’s whole body had turned as frozen as wood, the shock he felt right now was comparable to when he received the news of his admittance to Hua University two and a half years ago!
Even after checking the information, He Jin had yet to return to reality completely, still feeling like he was dreaming – how did he win the helmet!
Fire had to do a live broadcast that night, so He Jin also did not come online. The next day, a courier arrived and made him sign for a package. Then, he took the football-sized package with him, and weighed it in his hand; He Jin’s feeling of doubt slowly began to dissipate—replaced by the joy of receiving this jackpot!
He Jin hurriedly ran back to the dormitory, and shoved the package in Hou Dongyan’s face: “Monkey, look at this!”
Hou Dongyan’s reaction was more exaggerated than him, he held the helmet in his arms and growled: “Aw ~ ow ~ Oh, what the hell have you done to receive this ah?”
He Jin: “…”
The two of them carefully removed the soft-shelled packaging, revealing a silver-titanium colored surface which was so dazzling it could have blinded people’s eyes. There were two fancy characters printed above- Demon God; while on the lower right corner also written the words “Holographic Helmet Collection Version” in small print… Hou Dongyan once again began to howl, couldn’t help feeling jelous of He Jin.
He Jin caressed the helmet and put it on. It was light, and designed the same as the exterior appearance; also, He Jin didn’t know what kind of materials were used to make it, but the helmet actually could be adjusted according to the head type of the users to make them feel most comfortable. On the forehead part, there were a lot of button-sized metal patches lined on the soft leather, which felt slightly cold to the touch, but He Jin quickly adapted to it,
Hou Dongyan was curious: “How is it?”
“Quite comfortable, like wearing a hat,” He Jin curiously held his head and touched all over it, before asking Hou Dongyan, “Then I have to connect this to the computer?”
Hou Dongyan: “No, this helmet is a small computer, the game software has been installed inside. You don’t need to connect it anywhere, it is said to already have an automatic network transmitter, by wearing a helmet you can directly enter Demon God world…” It’s simply black technology![1]
“It’s amazing, I’ll try it first.” He Jin sat down, touched the helmet’s hood, and clicked on it until it slided down, completely covering his line of sight. For a moment, He Jin only felt a mini-hot current go into his skull; although his eyes were closed, He Jin felt like he was watching a 3D movie, because in his sight appeared an extremely magnificent scene!
Misty atmosphere and distant mountains near the water slowly surfaced, followed by two golden characters, “Demon God”, flying from his left and right direction before “clang”, they clashed and collapsed like stones and burst into dust.
The clashing sound even left a vibration in his mind!
As the game’s name slowly stabilizes, a translucent login box appeared–
Please think of your game login name: __________ (firendly tips: the holographic game will delete all characters other than symbols, you now have a chance to change your name)
He Jin thought: So magical, I only have to think about it?
He saw white mist around him began to fluctuate, and following He Jin’s imagination, they atomized into a white font, and drifted into the input box–
Please think of your game login name: So magical, I only have to think…
He Jin: “Black, black technology!”
Please think of your game login name: Black technology
He Jin: “……..”
He Jin: Not right, delete it!
Those fonts instantly melt into mist ..
Please think of your game login name: __________
He Jin repeatedly tried several times, before he was finally able to enter the game name into the login box successfully.
Important note: Holographic game adopted a one helmet for one person rule. A helmet can only be bound to one real person, so if you want to change player, you will have to return to the factory to clear the previous data. All players only need to login at the initial setting, and then no longer have to log in.
Your game login name is: Ah Jin?
He Jin hesitated for a second: Confirm
The translucent login box then turned into a solid color, before vanishing completely, and replaced by a short welcoming line.
–Dear Xiao Xian-Jin, welcome back to the Demon God world-
Proof-read by: EileenKH123
T/N:
[1] Black technology (黑科技): means magical and amazing technical products that violated the nature of the world nor could be explained by the human knowledge.