Waiting For You Online

036. Helmet Out of Control

After reading the discussion forum with Hou Dongyan, He Jin checked some information on the Internet about holographic helmet’s working principle and the likes.

Demon God wasn’t the world’s first holographic game. Before this, foreign countries had already released Beast Soul and Magic Tower as two holographic game’s precedent. However, their mode of operation was not by using “helmet”, but “holographic capsule” instead. Holographic capsule required the players to lay their entire body down in a capsule-shaped “game cabin” to enter the entire game world.

But because the production cost of holographic capsules was far higher than “helmet”, they can only be produced in a small batch; it was difficult for them to achieve universal popularity. So, although holographic games already existed previously, there were only few domestic players who had the chance to play it.

However, the operating principle of the holographic helmet and the holographic capsule should be similar. The making of Demon God’s helmet was also learned from foreigner’s technology to some extent, using them as the basis of production, simplification and improvement. Therefore, He Jin was currently looking for feedback from players who had experiences with “holographic capsule”. Most of the search results were from foreign websites. There were a lot of English posts, but since his English was not bad, it shouldn’t be hard for him to understand.

One of the veteran players wrote an article analyzing the full holographic simulation of the game. Just as mentioned in the discussion forum, it was written that players need to have strong focus, and that distraction would cause the player to be either confused or disconnected from the capsule.

In addition, the game did not require players to have sports ability, but they had to have excellent physique balance instead. It was because the game process often included many elements comparable with extreme sports, such as high altitude fall, dive into the deep sea, and so on. If one were to have height phobia, deep-sea phobia, or carsick, seasickness, it would be hard for them to adapt.

He Jin thought, he feared neither height nor sea, and he also did not have any adverse reactions to those things mentioned, so he felt a lot more at ease,

He continued browsing for two hours, completely forgetting his original intention of contacting Fire. He only stopped when Hou Dongyan pulled him to go eat.

On the road, the two of them were chatting excitedly about holographic game related things when Hou Dongyan suddenly said: “Jin Ge, I think recently you have changed a little.”

He Jin: “Eh?” ”

“You’ve never played a game before and you won’t discuss these things with me either…” Hou Dongyan scratched his head, feeling a bit hesitant.

He Jin: “Was your impression of me that bad?”

Hou Dongyan: “No no no, I think you are very good, anyway don’t blame me for bringing you to this bad side ah.”

He Jin wondered: “What do you mean,”bringing me to the bad side”?”

Hou Dongyan: “isn’t there a saying, ‘one who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black’, I’m afraid that my habit of playing games has affected you.”

He Jin laughed: “When did you become so poetic? Don’t worry, I’m also feeling really happy playing games right now.”

Hearing this, Hou Dongyan became much more relaxed: “Hey, I also think that you are more interesting than before!”

He Jin: “…” was I a dull man before? (=_=)

After dinner, they went back to the dormitory. He Jin looked at the time, seven o’clock, Fire must be online now. He couldn’t restrain his excitement. He hurriedly drank his tea, went to the toilet, and then said to Hou Dongyan: “I want to play the game ah, do not disturb me!”

Hou Dongyan: “…”

Everything was ready, He Jin sat down and put on the helmet. He did not see the landing interface this time; He Jin stayed in the initial fog for a few seconds until he heard a “Welcome back to the world of Demon God” system voice, and then he landed directly on the floating island.

He hurriedly opened his Friend List and checked on Fire’s name, it’s golden!

…… Wait, Fire changed his name? From “Fire Ruthless” to simply “Fire”?

While He Jin was still staring at this name, Fire suddenly fell from the sky and appeared in front of him…

It was totally different than seeing him falling from the sky on his computer’s screen, this time it was immersive. It was as if he appeared in front of He Jin himself in the real world! Like magic ah…He Jin was so scared he retreated two steps!

Fire’s appearance did not change, he was still wearing the same red-as-fire robe, and his facial features also did not undergo any adjustment; however, as he stood there, the momentum radiating from his body was so big it felt like it could swallow a person!

Fire stared at him in surprise, calling: “Ah Jin?”

He Jin suddenly thought of his adjusted appearance and voice, and instantly felt his palms sweating. He subconsciously took a few nervous steps back.

He didn’t know whether Fire recognized his present appearance or not. He hoped that Fire would be able to guess his identity as a man, but at the same time he also did not want him to guess. He was afraid that once Fire realized his identity, he would be disappointed, and He Jin would lose him. There were also other feelings, but He Jin didn’t know how to describe them, maybe it was fear of being hated, of being alienated.

He looked at Fire, his heart thumping crazily. They looked at each other for a while; Fire’s expression, in addition to surprise, also showed some sign of interest. The more he was stared at, the more scared He Jin felt; he couldn’t help but want to turn and flee! He was about to do so, but stopped when Fire suddenly took two steps forward, squatted down, and hugged him!

He Jin: “…” o_o

Although it was only a game, their characters’ actions were associated with their feeling in real life via brainwaves. Their perceptions in the game were half of those in reality, so He Jin actually felt like he was really being embraced!

Then, then, more than that, while Fire was still holding him, he also kissed his face directly!

The action of kissing was a bit stiff. No matter how advanced the system technology was, it still had limits, they couldn’t make body contact between players become too realistic. But He Jin still felt his face being rubbed by something!

He Jin’s three views had completely collapsed…

A muffled laughter escaped from Fire, he was looking at He Jin’s character’s expression. Because of the previous interaction, his face had long turned red, both his eyes were watery and appeared glistening under the light- he looked like some poor, bullied child!

Fire finally let go of him, he looked down at He Jin, smiled and asked: “Why did you change to this?”

He Jin’s reason for choosing this image was not only because he did not feel accustomed playing as Tsing Yi Maiden, but also because he was thinking of Fire. When he played this game with Fire all those years ago, he mainly used this image, so now, after so many years had passed, he thought this image would be something Fire hoped to see the most.

Because He Jin thought of this, before he could construct a more reserved answer, his character already blurted out, “I thought you’d like it.”

…… Ah, why did I suddenly say this! Is the helmet out of control?

Hearing his voice, Fire was once again surprised, but still teased him: “Do you want the whole world to mistaken me as someone with a child-fetish?”

He Jin hurriedly denied: “No…”

Fire: Although, I also quite like you like this.”

He Jin felt relieved and blurted out again: “Great!” (← This sentencewas only my inner thought ah! Why would you say it in such a cheerful tone! ）

Fire smiled and asked: “Did you buy a helmet?”

He Jin couldn’t conceal his delight as he answered, “Right! I just found out I won the lottery yesterday, very lucky ah! I actually wanted to tell you first, but then I felt it would be better to wear the helmet and tell you directly… I came in this afternoon, but you were not here…”

He Jin babbled, couldn’t stop even if he wanted to, totally different from his usual quiet appearance!

Fire listened patiently while also laughing at the same time as he saw the other guy’s twisted expression, it looked really strange!

Finished speaking, the teenager look-alike crouched down and collapsed on the ground. He covered his face, shrinking shoulders shaking and shaking as he said in a very wronged voice: “I do not want to talk so much ah, I don’t want to become a chatterbox ah…”

Fire solemnly replied: “I don’t mind even if you become a chatterbox. Since you want to say something, then just say say it, why should you hide it?”

Xiao Zhengtai^[1] continued in a fit: “When I was online this afternoon, it wasn’t like this ah! I thought it has good control. Is there a problem with the helmet? ”

The startled Fire answered: “It is said that for the first few times, when holographic players feel frightened in the game, it will make the helmet become out of control for a period of time, this is a normal phenomenon… Did you feel scared of me?”

Xiao Zhengtai felt too wronged and stammered: “I, I … A little …” (← Shut up!) “Why did you suddenly hug and kiss me…” (← Shut up!!!)

Fire put his fist to his lip, finally couldn’t hold back his laughter.

Meanwhile He Jin, who was on the verge of collapse, tried to quell his up and down mood in the fastest speed so that his out of control “self” would stop acting broken, lest he lost anymore face in front of Fire!

T/N:

[1] Xiao Zhengtai = Little Cute Boy or Little Shota, I don’t want to use “shota” and little cute boy seems too long for a nick name, so I’ll be using Xiao Zhengtai instead.

So people, say goodbye to Tsing Yi Maiden, and say hello to Xiao Zhengtai!