Chapter 2 - Resident Evil One: Virtual Reality Remake
Fang Qi gently pulled his sleeves up and glanced at him, his tone a little unfriendly. “Do you have a problem with it?”
Wang Tai asked, “Do you still remember that Lingyun Academy is holding its entrance examinations tomorrow? Time’s almost up; have you signed up?”
Fang Qi shook his hands. “I’m not going to go. I need to tend to this shop.”
“Tend to this shop?” Wang Tai froze for a second as he carefully looked Fang Qi up and down. “Did you give up?”
Then, he chuckled and pulled up a bench to sit on. “It’s good that you gave up though. This might not be your cup of tea, but something will be. In my opinion, you don’t have to put all your eggs in one basket.”
He then stuck out his carrot-sized fingers and made a cross with them. “I think learning martial arts is no better than farming these days. My dad already saw through that. He said if I still don’t get in this year, he’s going to send me to a school so I can study and become a scholar.”
Wang Tai blabbed on and on, his saliva flying everywhere. Fang Qi, however, laughed nonchalantly as he got up from his chair. “I didn’t give up. I… never wanted to go in the first place.”
“What do you mean?” Wang Tai was immediately confused by what he said; he remembered clearly that Fang Qi once swore he was going to get into Lingyun Academy and make something of himself.
Has he really changed?
Fang Qi sat back down and pointed at the computer in front of them. “Take a look at this.”
Wang Tai scratched his head. “I didn’t get to ask you yet, but what does your new shop do? This? What’s this?”
“This is called a computer,” Fang Qi said. “Consider it a spiritual artifact. But, you can’t do a lot on it yet. There’s only one game called Resident Evil.”
“Game?” Wang Tai thought back to the games he used to play as a child and laughed. “Aren’t we too old now to still play games?”
“Why don’t you try it out yourself?” Fang Qi couldn’t explain himself clearly, so he pointed at the blackboard. “Of course, you will have to pay first.”
“It’s just money, how much are we talking?” Wang Tai glanced over at the blackboard and burst out in laughter. “Seven crystals an hour? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Although people here mainly used the Earthly Branches to calculate time, Wang Tai still knew what the word ‘hour’ meant.
(TL: Earthly Branches is just another way to determine the time, one branch is equal to approximately two hours.)
His family was considerably wealthy since they owned a restaurant in a big city like this. However, seven crystals were still a big number, especially for a young man who didn’t even have a source of income!
“I’m not kidding; that’s how much it costs,” Fang Qi said in all seriousness.
Upon seeing Fang Qi’s expression, Wang Tai’s face fell. “Qi, seriously? I came to support you, and you’re really going to rip me off like this?”
Fang Qi completely anticipated this reaction, so he explained, “Why would I rip you off? If you trust me, just pay up and try. If you’re not satisfied afterward, I’ll refund you your money. What do you say?”
Upon hearing this, Wang Tai’s expression softened a little. “Really?”
He glanced at Fang Qi suspiciously before pulling up a chair and sitting down.
Since he could get a refund, why not try out the game?
He took out seven shiny crystals and placed them onto the computer desk. “Let me make things clear; I don’t care what this is. At the end of the day, it’s just a game that will only give me momentary happiness. I will not easily give up seven crystals for this if it’s not worth it!”
He was going to use this money to bribe the proctors at the exam tomorrow. However, Wang Tai was fine with leaving it on the desk for now. Fang Qi’s figure was so weak that he would almost immediately break in half from a warrior’s slap. Their combat skills were not on the same level at all!
Truth be told, he didn’t think any game could be worth this much money. All he wanted to do was find out what Fang Qi was up to.
Fang Qi didn’t get angry at what he said. Instead, he laughed, “Sure, I promise you that in the future, I’ll refund you your money even if you are just a little bit unsatisfied.”
“Hey-yo!” Wang Tai immediately burst out in laughter. Then, he glanced at the black ‘spiritual artifact’ on the desk before looking back at Fang Qi.
He said, “I, Wang Tai, will now find out what it is about this game that gave you such confidence!”
He stood up and picked up the chair he was sitting on. It wasn’t that heavy, so he couldn’t help but ask, “This thing won’t fall apart, right? Oh, it’s also a little small.”
“Small?” Fang Qi asked. With his skinny torso, he picked up another chair with ease, as if he were picking up a small chicken. Then, he put the chairs together and removed the handles in the middle, immediately transforming the two into a giant chair that was a meter wide.
Wang Tai grinned. “That’s much better.”
After letting himself fall into the chair, Wang Tai noticed that although the chair seemed light, it was actually very sturdy! It didn’t even shake when he sat down!
The chairs, desks, and even the sign outside were all provided by the system. No wonder people said that systems always provided the best of the best! These chairs and desks were so sturdy, it seemed like even an earthquake wouldn’t be able to shake them loose.
People in this world had no idea what computers were and how games were played, not to mention virtual machines.
Since Fang Qi had just opened this internet café, he decided to teach Wang Tai how to use all this stuff.
Soon, with his help, Wang Tai clicked open the Resident Evil Icon and put on his virtual machine.
[Resident Evil!]
Along with the game’s opening animations and music, Wang Tai immediately felt a heavy and creepy sensation climbing up his spine.
Then, Fang Qi helped him load the options, and the game quickly began.
The opening animation was incredibly clear. Wang Tai felt like he wasn’t observing through a computer screen; rather, he was actually there in the game, seeing the plot unfold with his own eyes!
Although the game was originally in English, everything was translated into the players’ native languages. Therefore, Wang Tai could understand everything that was happening.
Resident Evil One took place in a mansion overrun by zombies, which was the beginning of this entire biohazard epidemic.
The ‘mansion’ was a nursing home established by the Umbrella Corporation in Raccoon City with secret biochemical labs in the basement.
The first scene was Alpha Team heading over to the mansion in a helicopter, in search of the members of Bravo Team.
“What’s this? A new flying spiritual artifact?” Wang Tai marveled at the helicopters in the air with curiosity. “Is this a new spiritual artifact a cultivator created?”
However, he was thinking of something else, Did this dude find himself a powerful sugar-daddy cultivator to rely on? This thing looks super real! Even so, I’m never going to hand over seven crystals to him willingly!
As soon as the game began, a voice sounded in his ears, “Would you like to enter virtual reality mode?”
“Yes!”
“Please click [Enter].”
“Will do!” Wang Tai immediately chose [Enter] and felt the scenery around him change!
He suddenly felt like everything in front of him was at his fingertips! He literally felt like he could touch everything before him!
He was like a lost soul, drifting in the darkness. In front of him was the dark wilderness, and he saw five people lurking in the shadows.
Fang Qi recognized them; they were the members of Alpha Team in Resident Evil One!
“Oh my god!” Wang Tai almost jumped up from his chair in fear. “Why am I here?”
“Stop howling!” Fang Qi couldn’t help but roll his eyes at Wang Tai. “If you just think [Exit], an option to exit will pop up. This is called virtual reality technology.”
The VR technology his system provided was much more advanced than the one in the world he used to live in! No wonder Wang Tai was scared by it.
Wang Tai thought ‘exit’ in his mind, and a special light screen appeared before his eyes.
[Would you like to exit?]
Feeling anxious, he quickly clicked [Exit] and took off his VR headset. Then, he looked around frantically. “Did… did I really exit?”
After a few seconds, he stared at Fang Qi in a daze. “Are you sure that wasn’t another world I was just in?”
It wasn’t his fault for asking this question; what he just saw was so realistic that it felt like he was there, experiencing everything that just happened!
Fang Qi pointed at himself and asked, “Do you think I have the ability to create a whole other world just for you to play a game in?”
Wang Tai immediately shook his head. “No!”
He had never seen something so magical, so he asked curiously, “So was that really just a game?”
“Of course it is; it’s called Resident Evil One: Virtual Reality Remake.” Although Resident Evil One was an old game, the system would never really give Fang Qi a 1990s version that blurred out all the scary parts.