"Mr. Jomoya, rest assured. With this three million in funding, we can absolutely complete all our plans within six months!"
"By then, we won't just have the first virtual game ready—we'll even be able to build the first R-type login device."
Although his patron was acting generous and enthusiastic, the lessons from the past were still fresh.
To prevent this playboy from changing his mind again, Yu Dongcheng made a solemn vow.
Chen Qi was quite pleased by his employee's diligence.
'Even if the entire investment went down the drain, just learning the truth about what happened eighteen years ago would have made this trip worthwhile.'
'And if Yu Dongcheng could actually build an R-type login device capable of reading deep memories, that would be even better.'
'Then, I could witness a 'great player reshuffle' firsthand and obtain a massive amount of intelligence.'
'More importantly, I could find the murderer and get revenge for my parents and all the other victims on the train.'
'Unfortunately, even after scouring my memories, all I could recall was being knocked unconscious by a powerful impact. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital.'
'Now, with this lead from Yu Dongcheng, I wouldn't hesitate to spend thirty million.'
Despite this "unexpected windfall," Chen Qi hadn't forgotten his original purpose for being here.
So, he continued to question Yu Dongcheng about the history of Virtual Technology and the reasons various nations had banned virtual games.
"Mr. Jomoya, Virtual Reality technology is without a doubt humanity's greatest invention."
"It's a shame so many countries ban virtual games. Otherwise, humanity could have established a unified virtual nation."
"The biggest mistake small nations like the Lanyu Kingdom made was refusing to join the Second World Project!"
As the conversation turned to his area of expertise and the ban on virtual games, Yu Dongcheng became animated once more.
In fact, it was more like he was the one actively seeking to vent!
Chen Qi guessed that in the Lanyu Kingdom, there was probably no one with whom he could discuss these topics.
It was as if Chen Qi had delivered himself right to his doorstep.
"Virtual Reality technology first appeared seven hundred years ago. But it wasn't developed by a country—it was created by the Six-dimensional Sect!"
"The Six-dimensional Sect is a secretive sect. Rumor has it that it was originally a very famous foundation for the wealthy!"
"Their doctrine divides the world—or rather, the world as perceived by humans—into six dimensions."
"The world perceived through smell, the world experienced through touch, the world observed through sight, the world heard through sound, and the world savored through taste."
"Beyond those five, there is one more dimension: Spiritual Sense, the world perceived by the Soul!"
"Legend says they have a miraculous ritual that can trigger the Collapsing Five Senses, which make up our five-dimensional world. This allows for a leap in Spiritual Sense, enabling communication with a non-existent, ethereal dimension."
"In that dimension, causality can be reversed, time can flow backward, and one can even predict the future!"
"Of course, that's all just gibberish made up by charlatans to preach and swindle money."
"The truth is that the Six-dimensional Sect gathered a large group of scientists and archaeologists. They excavated and deciphered the ruins of an ancient human civilization and obtained a technology called Brain Escape."
"This technology allows humans to break through the brain's natural barriers and receive all sorts of information they aren't supposed to!"
"Immersive virtual reality technology was developed from that!"
"The reason many countries ban virtual games is that the technology involved includes writing to and reading information from the brain's memory, and even commandeering the brain's processing power."
"Although it only involves surface-level memories and poses no real harm to humans, it's enough to make certain people deeply wary."
Yu Dongcheng spoke with great enthusiasm, seemingly unaware of how shocking his words were—at least, in a closed-off nation like the Lanyu Kingdom.
'This isn't virtual reality technology; it's straight-up brain-hacking. Now I understand why the Lanyu Kingdom banned virtual games. The King's Game has run smoothly for so many years precisely because it relies on altering the citizens' perceptions. If virtual games were allowed to flood the market, boring countless holes into people's brains, who knew what kind of chain reaction that would set off? The virtual games currently on the market might only have 60% realism and only access shallow memories, but that's already a violation of human privacy. It actually seems perfectly reasonable for many countries to ban them. As for an R-type login device with 90% realism that could access deep memories... a level of realism like that could actually 'kill' someone. It'd be a miracle if something like that wasn't heavily monitored!'
'It seems Yu Dongcheng's so-called 'recreation' is probably just a plan to cobble together a defective prototype. I don't believe for a second that this guy can produce something so high-tech with just a few million. Who would've thought? This honest-looking guy has also learned how to spin a fantasy for his investors. But it doesn't matter. The 'knowledge' he just shared was already worth the price of admission.'
······
"Can you take a look at this for me? Think you can crack it?"
He had already gained a lot, but Chen Qi greedily took out the Blood-colored Chip. What if Yu Dongcheng could actually decipher it?
"Is this a chip from the Black Blood Federation?"
Yu Dongcheng recognized the large logo on the chip at a glance. Instead of answering Chen Qi directly, he took the chip and began a meticulous inspection.
After confirming the chip had no physical damage, he inserted it into a massive machine and began the read process.
"Strange... Judging by the model number, this should be a chip made exclusively for the Black Blood Federation's military."
"But it isn't encrypted, and it has no self-destruct mechanism for protection!"
"Could it be that this chip was never finalized for production? Maybe it came straight from a lab?"
Yu Dongcheng muttered to himself. In that moment, Chen Qi felt that this guy was actually quite capable after all.
'The chip had just been developed when the Black Blood Federation descended into civil war. It was a genuine lab prototype.'
"The Source Code actually uses some kind of ancient script. Unfortunately, I can't read it, so I can't help you decipher it!"
"However, since it uses an ancient script, the chip must be quite valuable. It's possibly some kind of top-tier military technology."
Virtual Reality development also required the use of ancient scripts. The textbooks said that ancient scripts possessed special properties that could form a unique connection with the human mind.
The script used in Virtual Technology was a type called Cloud Pattern. It was a pictographic script, with characters resembling floating clouds in the sky.
The reason Yu Dongcheng had gotten the opportunity to study abroad was precisely because he had a great talent for learning Cloud Pattern.
"This is Doumu's Spiral," Chen Qi said. "It's an incredibly difficult ancient script to learn."
As a "veteran scholar" who had already mastered eight ancient scripts and was still diligently studying more, Chen Qi recognized the script used in the code at a glance.
Doumu's Spiral was drawn with a single, continuous line, its characters shaped like human fingerprints.
To the average person, they looked like a series of circles. Staring at them for too long could even cause dizziness and blurred vision.
In the *Comprehensive Guide to Ancient Civilization Basics*, it was ranked as the most difficult to learn among all fifteen ancient scripts.
Even Chen Qi could only recognize a handful of characters and had not yet added it to his study schedule.