The sound isolation effect was pretty nice, and the helmet came with active noise cancellation.
The second Wang Lihui put on the helmet, he could feel the noise around him dissipating. He heard a female voice in his ears.
“Please set your password phrase.”
Wang Lihui didn’t realize what was going on, and he said automatically, “What?”
“Password phrase successfully set; the password is ‘what’. If necessary, you can modify the password phrase in the personalized setting options. Begin graphical interface.”
Wang Lihui had a baffled look on his face.
Looks like I should have read the manual.
But now is not the time to care about those trivial things.
He leaned back on his seat and waited.
Soon after, he felt the sensation of an ant biting the back of his neck. He saw a white glow coming toward him. After the blackness disappeared, he was standing on a beach.
The golden sandy beach was glowing under the sun. The sunlight shined through the coconut trees. He could smell the salty sea in the air.
“Welcome, you are now inside the Phantom system startup scene. There are currently four free startup scenes to choose from. These can be accessed in your settings.
“If this is your first time using the Phantom system, you can follow the navigation guidance and learn the basic operations of the system.
“We hope you have a happy experience in the virtual world…”
The sound of the system prompt echoed in Wang Lihui’s ears. However, Wang Lihui completely ignored the voice. His eyes were wide open, staring at the beach in front of him.
The only word he could describe what he was seeing was incredible. Everything completely exceeded his expectations of VR technology; he almost began to wonder if he were dreaming!
He was also shocked about something else…
He was a director, and he had directed many action movies.
He had always agonized over how to accurately convey his creative ideas to the audience through a screen. But now, he already had countless ideas about using virtual reality technology as a creative medium.
Rather than letting the audience sit behind a screen, it would be better for them to directly participate as a character or an observer. The audience could even switch between the two characters during the movie!
Wang Lihui was ecstatic, he felt his heartbeat increase.
He knew better than anyone else that if this technology was used in the entertainment industry, it would change the entire industry! This was going to revolutionize the film industry!
…
In fact, virtual reality technology was going to affect more than just the entertainment industry.
From e-commerce to business, almost everything connected to the Internet could be integrated with VR technology.
Wang Lihui wasn’t the only one who was excited; many people nearby began to sense a strong business opportunity from this technology.
The conference was in chaos.
Even though everyone was sitting quietly on their chairs, judging by the mood index sensor, it was obvious how excited they were.
Medical staff members were already waiting next to people with abnormal mood swings.
Even though the Phantom system had a safety trigger mechanism and that there was no direct clinical evidence that excessive emotional stimulation could cause any harm, they would rather be safe than sorry.
A foreigner took off his helmet and spoke to the nearby staff member in shock.
“This is amazing! The moment you put on the helmet, you’re suddenly on another planet. When do you plan on selling this to the United Arab Emirates?”
The person that was speaking was a prince in the UAE. Because he often came to China for business trips, his Chinese was pretty good. He even appeared in some Chinese TV shows.
He had to fly thousands of miles to come to this conference, and he even used diplomatic channels to get his hands on a special conference ticket.
Huawei obviously wanted business from this Middle Eastern man.
After getting a taste of the immersive virtual reality Phantom system, this prince was immediately fascinated by the technology. He couldn’t wait to import this helmet to his own country.
The staff member smiled and said, “That depends on our company’s and Star Sky Technology’s business plan. In theory, the virtual reality network needs to connect to the cloud computing server, whereas the cloud computing server requires a certain threshold of network speed. 5G technology is widespread in China, so we are focusing on the domestic release, but for the UAE…”
“Hurry up and build a 5G network in my country. I will convince my father! If you guys need funding, I can ask our bank to give you a loan, one billion dollars is no problem, my friend.”
When the staff member heard the billion dollars, his hands began to shake as he spoke.
“Um… I’m just a worker. I can ask our chairman. Do you have an email or phone number? We will give you a reply before the end of the day.”
The prince waved his hand and spoke.
“Okay, okay, I’m buying this helmet.”
The worker awkwardly spoke.
“But sir, you can’t use it in your country…”
The prince said casually, “No worries, I’ll buy a house here and take the family plane here when I need to.”
Worker: “…”
Buying a house for a helmet…
Who is this guy?!
…
The conference was in chaos.
So was the exhibition hall.
As soon as the sales went on, people rushed to the booths. The queues and lines disappeared, turning into a giant, messy crowd.
The security guards had to maintain order. They quickly controlled the crowd flow into the venue; this was to avoid any accidents.
On the other hand, the people near the booths began arguing with one another.
“I’ll take ten!” a wealthy man said. He placed his credit card on the counter and said, “Swipe the card, hurry up.”
The employees looked at the golden rings on his fingers; they were astounded. They politely said, “I’m sorry, sir, but we have a two-unit per customer policy.”
The man who thought he could make a fortune reselling these was baffled.
“What? Only two? You’ve got to be kidding me! I have more than enough money to buy ten!”
“Sorry, sir, there are only 100,000 helmets sold in person. In order to satisfy as many customers as possible, we have to impose purchasing limits. This was written on our official website.”
“What kind of sales tactic is this? It’s not like I don’t have the money to pay for it!”
“Sorry, sir, this is company policy.”
Normally, the people around him would begin gloating at this simpleton, but they wanted to buy a unit as well. They began to harass him.
“For f*ck sake, you only have one brain, is two not enough?”
“Ten… Are you opening a virtual reality Internet cafe?”
“This guy looks like a reseller! He’s going to make tens of thousands just off one helmet. What a scumbag!”
The man’s anger was placed on the employees behind the sales booth.
“I don’t care! You guys are discriminating against me! I’m going to report you to the police!”
“Sir, if you are going to act this way, I’m afraid I’ll have to call security and put you on a blacklist, banning you from all purchases.”
When the man heard this, he finally calmed down.
He wasn’t scared of the security guards; he was scared of being placed on a blacklist.
Seeing how the people behind him were getting annoyed at him, the man bought two helmets and left.
The lines and crowd inside the hall began to move slowly.
People were let inside the hall in small groups at a time. However, people standing outside were getting impatient.
Outside the International Convention and Exhibition Center, across the street at the Samsung Experience store, several employees stood in front of the store with their arms folded. They looked at the crowd outside the International Convention and Exhibition Center.
One of the men, who seemed to be the store manager, spoke with a jealous look in his eyes.
“Jesus, how many people do you think are inside?”
A worker nearby spoke.
“Apparently, it’s in the tens of thousands.”
“That’s crazy.”
“I heard you can make 20,000 yuan reselling it… I’ve already seen someone putting up an offer online.”
The store manager’s eyes were wide open.
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
The worker replied cautiously, “You didn’t ask us… And we weren’t allowed to take a day off.”
The manager clenched his teeth and made a decision.
“Go!”
“Go?”
“There’s no one here anyway! Close the shop and go line up with me!”
The store manager took off his uniform and was about to walk over. The worker stopped him and said, “Hey! If we go there now, we might not even get to buy one!”
But it’s 20,000 yuan!
20,000 yuan of resell profit!
The manager hesitated for a while before he said, “It doesn’t hurt to try! Come line up with me! All of you!”
It was total chaos…
