Lu Wu and Bei Li exchanged smiles after they left the artifact.
Needless to say, they made a huge return this time.
They had found a very talented young successor.
The 258-level puzzle was set up by Bei Li a few months ago.
The purpose was to search for a person with excellent IQ and talent for their unified army strategy in Battle Online.
Even though the current number of players using Battle Online was massive, there was a huge flaw. They needed a talented military leader.
Although Liu Chai, Wu Guoyi, and the others had the ability to command, they were still lacking in skills for a large-scale war.
Now that Lu Wu was preparing for Beiqi to start the expansion conquest, he had become more desperate for such a talent.
Although he was able to discover many strong players from the forum, they were still far from what he sought.
Lu Wu had been rather distressed. However, to his pleasant surprise, Bei Li informed him that someone managed to solve the puzzle that she posted three months ago and entered the final stage.
That last stage of the tough puzzle required Bei Li herself to go into action. Thus, she changed her appearance using artifacts and transformed into a white-haired old man to face Yin Xiaoqi, who came to solve the puzzle.
After all, her existence could not be revealed.
Truthfully, Yin Xiaoqi failed as she was unable to explain the assumptions made by Bei Li.
However, that was not what Bei Li was looking for. Instead, she wanted to know Yin Xiaoqi’s flow of thoughts when bombarded with questions like these.
Even though Yin Xiaoqi could not prove her points in the end, Bei Li lauded her adamant persistence on her viewpoint.
Therefore, Bei Li chose to be lenient on Yin Xiaoqi and let her pass the test when she brought out the line from Descartes’ idealism.
After all, Yin Xiaoqi had already proven her talent as well as fulfilled both Bei Li and Lu Wu’s expectations.
The 258 puzzles ranged from astronomy and geography to various unified army strategies, which then extended to different types of knowledge and research.
Although Yin Xiaoqi did rely on the convenience of the modern Internet in this cyber era and had sought plenty of answers from it, she had still proven her talent.
She may not have any experience in commanding, but Lu Wu was only seeking her intellect. Her skills in commanding could be nurtured from the game later.
Hence, Lu Wu jotted her name down in his small list of gifted players.
The next step would be getting her into Battle Online.
…
The virtual interface in front of her emerged slowly…
Yin Xiaoqi took down her virtual reality headset without any hesitation, as her expression was marred with fear.
What happened was too real. It even made her think that she was really just a lump of brains.
Reality? Illusion?
Yin Xiaoqi touched her cheeks and fell into a state of suspicion, questioning everything that had been in her life.
Other than how such a real virtual scene was created with just a link, how did he control my virtual device and confuse my brain?
If it was a hacking technique, Yin Xiaoqi would have definitely sniffed it out because she was one of the world’s top hackers. However, that was impossible.
Perhaps it is a technique beyond the current technological development?
Supernatural powers?
Alien technology?
Yin Xiaoqi’s mind was in complete disarray.
However, the person who called himself Bei Li left too few clues, so she could not uncover any traces.
Suddenly, she remembered the last sentence that Bei Li uttered before she left that unusual world.
“I too cannot confirm whether you are real or not because it is just my personal guess!”
“Ah, stop thinking! I’m going crazy!” Yin Xiaoqi threw the virtual reality headset away angrily and turned around to look at the screen.
Let me see what exactly is the final reward!
An envelope engulfed in purple flames was displayed on the screen.
Yin Xiaoqi moved the cursor to the envelope with a conflicted expression.
She had to admit that she was traumatized by what she just experienced. She feared that the treasure within this letter would be something that would make her question her life again.
To open or not to open?
After struggling for some time, Yin Xiaoqi clenched her teeth and clicked on the envelope.
The flames looked like it was about to spew out from the screen at any moment. The envelope opened slowly as the flames continued crackling.
[Congratulations on passing all the stages successfully! The reward is in the link below…
Enter the world to retrieve your reward!
P.S.: There is no need to doubt nor verify anything, like what you experienced in the final stage. What is reality? What is virtual? It is what you think it is!]
Yin Xiaoqi was stunned as she read the content of the envelope.
Why does it sound exactly like spam?
Yin Xiaoqi hesitated and clicked on the link anyway to check it out.
Before that, she took off her virtual suit and kicked the virtual reality headset away to prevent herself from falling into a trap again.
After all, the experience she just had made her lose all her trust. She was afraid that this link would also be a trap.
However, Yin Xiaoqi became even more dumbfounded after clicking the link.
Smash!
She slammed her keyboard with force as her face was flushed with anger.
She felt like she was fooled again.
After wasting a few months of effort, the treasure turned out to just be this.
To her dismay, the screen displayed the download link for Battle Online.
There was also a line of text below the game.
[This game has been developed for ten years to reach the simulation of almost 100 percent reality. Also, we hereby declare that there is no top-up path for the game.]
If possible, Yin Xiaoqi would like to meet that awful old man who called himself Bei Li again to give him a set of tormenting attacks – choking him, stabbing his eyes, and scissors kicks!
I have been working so hard for an advertisement promoting a game?
Millions of consolation fees would be fine! This reward is just too perfunctory and out of line!
Yin Xiaoqi was so mad that her teeth hurt, but she had nowhere to vent. Her weak, little heart felt greatly provoked.
“Ding! The download is complete!”
Then, her computer’s notification system rang. Yin Xiaoqi raised her head and noticed that her computer had downloaded the game automatically.
Is this a virus? That was Yin Xiaoqi’s first thought.
She quickly proceeded to clean up her computer files to find the hidden virus.
However, no matter how thorough she searched, she couldn’t locate any computer virus.
In the end, Yin Xiaoqi had no other choice than to format her entire computer.
However, Yin Xiaoqi was again stunned to see the game icon sitting on her computer desktop after restarting.
Is this caused by another unusual technique?
After a long silence, Yin Xiaoqi laid her eyes on the Battle Online icon on her computer desktop.
She never liked video games and had never really cared about the gaming industry.
However, she had to admit that the game had suddenly piqued her curiosity now.
“Do you see me, Yin Xiaoqi, as a coward?”
Baring her canine tooth slightly, Yin Xiaoqi hastily stood up. She picked up her virtual suit and virtual reality headset from the floor.
After putting them on, Yin Xiaoqi clicked into the interface, clicked on Battle Online, and started the game.
A sense of weightlessness transmitted over her. A character selection interface appeared in front of Yin Xiaoqi as the display became clear. However, the scene changed again before she could see anything clearly.
She then realized that she was in an unfamiliar world.
Blood-colored rain was drizzling as a gust of cool breeze brushed against her. Meanwhile, there were some pedestrians strolling on the street…
Everything felt so real. It was similar to what she just experienced.
Am I thrown into a new paradox world again?
Damn it! Bei Li, you awful old man!
