Chapter 1 – Virtual Dream Device
At 5:49 p.m., there was silence in the large office.
Chen Xu leaned his back against the chair, a signature pen under his nose, his eyes staring at the computer screen, seemingly thinking about some difficult problem.
In fact, he is in a daze, soon to be off work, he was thinking about where to go to dinner later.
Sitting behind him, Mr. Tang came over and whispered, “Mr. Wang said he would invite a new colleagues to dinner, don’t forget that.”
Another dinner?
Chen Xu had a headache, hesitated for a second, but said, “Got it.”
Mr. Wang is their supervisor, everything about this was good, except one thing, he likes to get together at every chance he get, at least two or three times a month.
He basically avoided it if he could. But this time is to welcome new colleagues, it is not good not to go.
Moreover, he did not go to last two dinners by making some excuses, if he did not go this time too he if afraid Mr. Wang would probably write his name in a record book or something.
The thought of two hours after work, all to be wasted in a boring dinner, he felt a little depressed. It’s not that he has anything against his colleagues, it’s just that after work, he prefers to be by himself. Most importantly, after sending money home last week, he had little money left to live on, and everyone would be paying separately at these dinners……
He couldn’t help but sigh in his heart, going to work is hard enough, after work, time is not at his disposal. He really had enough of this kind of life.
When can I leave these trivial matters behind and live the life I want to live?
“Tic–“
“Language calibration complete, virtual dream device activated, start verifying identity-“
Chen Xu heard a sudden sound in his ears and was startled, his hand shook and the pen fell to the ground.
What was that sound?
In an instant, many thoughts passed through his head, taking the time to bend down and pick up the pen, he looked sideways at a few colleagues next to him and could not see anything strange.
It did not seem that his colleagues pulled a prank.
Could it be that it was an illusion?
Then, the voice rang out once again.
“Verification failed, switching to guest mode.”
“Welcome to experience this product, this product is manufactured by the Starwood Virtual Equipment Manufacturing Group, which enables you to experience a 100% virtual and realistic dream world, with many scenes for you to choose from, giving you a wonderful dream life.”
Chen Xu instantly felt that his mouth was dry, in addition to the sound, in front of his eyes, an interface appeared with an icon right in the middle. It was like a virtual computer desktop.
To verify it, he closed his eyes, and reopened them after a few seconds.
The interface was still there, with that high-definition color icon in the middle, so conspicuous.
His heart pounded wildly.
………………
Not long after, it was time to leave work, Chen Xu was still immersed in shock, and only when Old Tang tapped him did he snap back to his senses.
“After work, what are you still standing there for?” Old Tang asked strangely.
“Nothing.” He lifted his head and looked around. Seeing that all his colleagues had left, he quickly packed his stuff and said “Let’s go.”
The department had a dinner party this time and chose a nearby restaurant.
The marketing department has a total of eleven people, after arriving at the restaurant, they sat together at a table.
The new colleague was a girl. Everyone was very enthusiastic, not because the girl is beautiful, but soon it’d be the end of the year and the marketing department will soon become very busy. One more person to share the work, they were naturally happy.
Most of the people present were young people, and the atmosphere soon became warm.
The only one that didn’t fit was Chen Xu. He didn’t say much and looked distracted.
The others did not care, when the previous dinner, Chen Xu did not talk much, they were used to it.
After dinner, everyone dispersed, they still had to work next day. They couldn’t hang out too late, so as not to affect the work.
After the party, Chen Xu took Mr. Tang’s car back.
When he got into the car, Mr. Tang suddenly asked, “Chen Xu, are you okay? Chen Xu, Chen Xu ……”
He called several times in a row, Chen Xu, who was dazed, come to and responded, “Hmm?”
Mr. Tang was even more worried and asked, “After work, you’ve been preoccupied, did something happen?”
“Nothing, just thinking about some stuff.”
Chen Xu gently knocked his forehead, put down the window a little, blowing the wind outside to clear his head a little.
From the end of the day until now, he has been studying that “Virtual Dream Device”, which is why he seems distracted.
Old Tang looked at him and said, “Is there any difficulty at home, I still have 20,000 yuan of private money here, you can take it.”
“No, that’s not it……” Chen Xu quickly explained, “Not that, I’m thinking about something else.”
“Hmm.” Old Tang nodded and said, “If you are really in trouble, just say so, don’t hesitate.”
Chen Xu’s heart warmed and said, “Thank you.”
Old Tang did not say anything else and started the car.
Chen Xu felt lucky to have a friend like Mr. Tang. Mr. Tang graduated from the same university as him, five years senior than him. The two only got to know each other after he joined the company.
It is because of this kind of relationship, Mr. Tang usually takes good care of him.
He was grateful for Mr. Tang, but even if it was difficult, he didn’t want to ask Mr. Tang for money.
Mr. Tang only got married not long ago, and he has to pay off his mortgage and car loan every month, which was not much less stressful than him.
…………
After more than half an hour, Chen Xu’s rental house arrived. The location is relatively remote, and it takes ten minutes to walk to the nearest bus stop.
He rented a single room, about 20 square meters. There is only one single bed and one computer desk. It’s a bit small, but there is a separate bathroom, which is enough for one person.
The point is that it’s cheap. The cost of living in this city is quite high and rent is often the biggest expense. and it’s not easy to find a place close to the company where the rent is cheap. He was lucky to find this place.
He put down his briefcase, lay down on the bed, took his mobile phone, and looked at the bank balance of 499.32 Yuan in the text message. He had a headache. He still had more than half a month to get his salary. There is only such a little money left. It seems that he can only tighten his belt to live.
Then, he remembered the “virtual dream device”, some hesitation in his heart, should I try it?
It’s a mystery. It’s like black technology or a system. He’s been rummaging around for hours without a single manual.
Usually, this device doesn’t show up on his retina. Only after he “calls” it, will it appear, with an icon on it that says, “Enter dream ‘Doomsday Survival’ ?”
When he focuses on this line, he gets a short prompt to choose an item or a companion to enter the dream world. A number of items and character templates were provided on it.
Moreover, he was attentive enough to find a hidden option to not choose the item provided by the dream world, but to copy an item from reality, or a character into the dream world.
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