On Earth, in front of a high-end apartment, an old woman was incessantly ringing the doorbell.
Ye Xing stumbled over and opened the door.
Now, for him, the real world seemed even more unreal.
Standing outside the door was a neighborhood committee auntie.
"Xiao Yang, are you alright? Your livestream followers said you didn't move at all after lying down last night. Worried something happened, they contacted our neighborhood committee and asked us to come check on you as soon as possible."
Ah, this...
Ye Xing looked bewildered.
Last night, facing the audience in his livestream, he put on the Xing Hai dedicated gaming equipment and lay down on the bed.
He originally just wanted to see if this game was real or fake, and then log off.
But after getting hooked, he forgot everything.
His livestream was still on. Through the camera, the sight of him lying flat on the bed for 14 consecutive hours was truly a bit eerie, making it hard not to overthink.
"Oh, no, no problem! I was just a bit tired and fell asleep during the livestream. Sorry for the trouble!"
Rushing back to his computer, the first thing Ye Xing thought of was naturally to tell his followers the big news.
Fully immersive games exist!
Before logging off, he had already uploaded the footage recorded by the tactical helmet to a cloud drive. After a simple edit, he posted it on a certain bullet-comment website.
"【Exclusive Closed Beta Experience】Possibly the Greatest Game of All Time!!!"
Because he had a follower base and the title was explosive, the video quickly gained a lot of views.
However, no one bought it.
"Looks like CG at first glance... Where's the so-called trial content?"
"No, it shouldn't even be CG, but a live-action promotional video, right? The kind shot with a green screen."
"Not necessarily, some FPS games are very realistic now."
"The kind you're talking about must be small indoor scenes, and it has to be cloudy to look realistic. An open outdoor scene like this under harsh sunlight will definitely reveal flaws."
The last netizen seemed to know a lot, listing several "giveaway points."
"At two minutes and ten seconds, the handful of sand picked up, every single grain of sand is clearly visible. It's impossible for every grain of sand to be modeled in a real gameplay demo."
"Starting from five minutes, the two people fired dozens of shots in total, and the shape of the muzzle smoke was different every time. No game company would create so many textures and animations for muzzle smoke."
"Then there are the character movements, they don't repeat, so it can only be live-action capture."
"Overall, there's no actual gameplay content, purely clickbait."
"Although attracting traffic through promotion is common now, a developer with such intentions probably can't make a good game."
Sigh...
Ye Xing pinched his brow.
He really had no way to refute these points, and was too lazy to. So he typed:
"Next, I will livestream this game, including various gameplay modes like exploration, collection, combat, and building. Wait for me tonight, see you then!"
The comments section reacted enthusiastically.
"It's just a sponsored post, no need to go this far."
"When you stream it, it'll probably be a completely different game, right?"
"Need to guess? Isn't it obvious?"
"The streamer used to have good character, why is he suddenly doing this?"
"Because they gave way too much!"
Ye Xing ignored them and glanced at his follower group chat.
At this time, most people were either at school or work, but a few old followers had already seen the video and were earnestly advising him to be cautious about accepting sponsored content, and to avoid developers who only brag without substance.
He wanted to type a reply, but his hand just lifted and then went back down.
Now, Ye Xing was in a state of being completely lost in thought. Besides logging into Xing Hai early, he had no other thoughts.
Finally, after a long 7 hours, his in-game character had gotten enough sleep and could log in again!
Li Star local time, twelve noon.
After greeting the Executive Officer, Ye Xing couldn't wait to go out alone and collect debris fragments relatively close to the crash site.
After working through last night and today, all fragments within a one-kilometer radius large enough to be identified by the drone had been recovered, totaling a little over three hundred kilograms.
Two hours later, Jubian and Caoyuan also logged in successively.
Jubian immediately discovered that there was an extra machine in the spaceplane's cargo bay.
"This is..."
"Our smart chip lithography machine, with a process node of 1.2 nanometers," Lu Yuan said as he walked up.
"Good afternoon, Executive Officer!" Jubian greeted.
He glanced at the lithography machine and thought, so the setting that 3D printers couldn't be used to make chips was the game design team's mercy, a deliberate effort to lower the difficulty for players.
This way, when producing chips in the future, they wouldn't need to occupy the valuable capacity of the 3D printer.
Great!
Moreover, the 1.2-nanometer process node is already close to the physical limit of silicon-based chips. At this stage, it can handle the smart chips for all equipment.
"Oh, right, Scholar, I have a special task for you today."
Lu Yuan beckoned and called Jubian aside.
"I need you to produce more combat suits for me. In terms of design, you can follow the current type, or you can incorporate your own innovations and improvements."
Jubian was startled upon hearing this.
"Could it be... more closed beta players, I mean, more Future Technology employees are joining us?"
Lu Yuan nodded.
"Precisely."
5 minutes later, Jubian found Ye Xing, who was organizing equipment with Caoyuan, preparing to go out.
"Brother, I have a task for you."
Ye Xing looked up at him.
"According to the game's setting, we seem to be colleagues of the same rank, right? Why should I accept a task from you..."
Jubian, with a hint of refined perversion in his demeanor, smiled faintly.
"Because strictly speaking, this is a task from the Executive Officer for both of us."
He brought the Pad in front of Ye Xing and pointed to a few pictures he had found online.
"Later, when you and Brother Caoyuan enter the underground cave, pay attention to whether there are these kinds of ores. If there are, bring back more."
"What are these colorful things? Gems?"
"These are fluorite, a mineral containing fluorine, which can be used to make HFC refrigerants."
Although Li Star is not Earth, because the environment is generally similar to Earth, some minerals found on Earth should also be able to form naturally here.
"Refrigeration... This is for producing more combat suits and expanding the number of closed beta players?"
"Congratulations, you guessed correctly."
Ye Xing suddenly felt a slight pressure, wanting to quickly establish a level advantage and always stay in the first tier of players.
He wanted to become the top streamer for the Xing Hai game!
He thought for a moment and said to Jubian.
"That's fine, but you have to do me a favor too."
"No problem, say it."
"Could you find some time to fix our communication system first? I told my followers I'd be livestreaming this game today."
"Hmm..." Jubian pondered for a second or two. "With the lithography machine, fixing it is easy, but making communication antennas requires two elements, germanium and gallium, which you'll need to collect."
"Aren't there any in the camp?"
"Yes, but they are all in the various electronic devices in the cockpit. Unless it's a last resort, it's better not to do this kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul."
"Alright..."
Ye Xing opened his iPad and wrote down the three elements that needed to be prioritized for collection: fluorine, germanium, and gallium.
The first stage profession name for his 【Investigator】 sequence, levels 1-10, is 【Scavenger】.
Now he finally knew why it was called that.
It really is just picking up junk!
Calling Caoyuan, the two carefully crossed the Desert along the path Lu Yuan had taken them, and entered the underground cave.
Yesterday's Mechanical Desert Spider was lying on the ground with its four legs splayed, having long been killed by high-explosive grenades.
Hooray!
Ye Xing excitedly went up, scanned it thoroughly with his scanner, and successfully obtained the blueprint.
At the same time, he was pleasantly surprised to find that this thing contained various rare metallic and non-metallic elements, including the urgently needed germanium and gallium, and they were all concentrated within a few components, making them easy to collect.
Furthermore, inside the Mechanical Desert Spider, there was an intact pressurized container filled with liquid methane.
This was its energy reserve, a high-quality fuel that could be used without any processing!
Calling Caoyuan, the two pulled out their entrenching tool and dagger, and with considerable effort, removed the fuel tank and the parts rich in rare elements.
Ye Xing looked towards the deeper part of the cave passage.
Subconsciously, he felt there was something even more valuable there. This feeling was very strong, yet difficult to describe specifically.
Moreover, there seemed to be a faint sound in the darkness.
"Did you hear anything?" he turned and asked Caoyuan.
Caoyuan listened carefully for a moment.
"No, it's very quiet."
"Is that so..."
Ye Xing lowered his head and thought for a moment, roughly understanding what was going on.
Caoyuan's and Jubian's initial 【Perception】 attributes were both no more than 5, while his was 8.
This difference should be due to these 3 attribute points.
Characters with high perception have more sensitive senses than those with low perception, and are better at detecting danger and opportunities.
And this usually means a better drop rate for equipment and treasures.
It's a good attribute for getting rich!
"Shall we go deeper into the dungeon? Maybe we can collect more supplies."
Ye Xing, holding the "Striker" rifle, suggested.
Caoyuan pondered steadily for a moment.
After seeing the Mechanical Desert Spider's corpse, he already had a clear understanding of this elite monster's armor thickness, including its defense against explosives.
It was a strong enemy, but by no means unbeatable.
"Let's go, I've got your back!"
Today, he and Ye Xing brought 20 grenades, more than enough!
............
On the other side, inside the camp.
The yellowish-white sun was about to set.
Looking at the neatly arranged 20 solar panels in the sand, Lu Yuan was filled with a sense of accomplishment.
Facts proved that Brother Jubian was still not optimistic enough.
With someone constantly fine-tuning the direction and always facing the sun, one solar panel could generate 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day. 20 panels would be 80 kilowatt-hours, leaving a surplus of 43 kilowatt-hours per day, which could be used to produce more battery panels.
Lu Yuan did a simple calculation. At this rate of expanded production, after two weeks, they could accumulate 160 solar batteries, while also reaching the theoretical maximum daily production capacity of 24 panels.
After a month, there would be a 420 square meter solar power plant, capable of generating 1700 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, enough for a small industrial settlement.
However, a month was still a bit too long. It would be great if it could be faster.
While calculating, Lu Yuan saw a moving object in the distance.
An all-terrain vehicle! Its wasteland style looked very similar to the one Caoyuan described earlier!
Accompanied by the sound of the engine, it swooped down from the top of the dune and drove towards the camp.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan immediately returned to the spaceplane, locked the hatch, and patted Jubian on the shoulder.
At this moment, Jubian was still immersed in the design of new weapons.
"Go get your gun, strangers are coming."