VR Glasses

Having reached this point, Chen Chen had already mapped out a reasonable path in his mind.

So, Chen Chen began downloading the movie Ready Player One.

Because the industrial park's signal was too weak, Chen Chen had to wait half an hour before the entire movie finished downloading.

However, Chen Chen did not immediately drag the movie into the USB Drive. Instead, he opened it first and reviewed the original plot twice.

In the movie, a total of five types of gaming peripherals appeared.

The first was the cheap three-piece set used by the protagonist Wade at the beginning: "VR glasses," "motion-capture gloves," and a "pressure-sensitive omnidirectional treadmill."

The second was an "X1 tactile suit" that the protagonist bought after receiving the reward for clearing the first stage. It allowed players to experience certain tactile sensations from the game.

The third was the "OAR9400 visual impact chair" used by the villainous BOSS in the movie. It allowed players to game while half-reclining in the chair. Not only that, this visual chair also possessed mature holographic projection technology and could directly generate images in midair.

Clearly, the impact chair was far more advanced than the first two.

As for the fourth and fifth types, they were both simplified versions of the first two devices.

There were also gaming devices such as the suspension ropes that appeared at the end.

However, aside from the top-tier "OAR9400 visual impact chair," all the remaining equipment required users to perform corresponding movements in reality to control their characters.

Naturally, Chen Chen's best option was to manifest that chair into reality.

Still, Chen Chen did not think the chances were high.

Since obtaining the USB Drive, Chen Chen had manifested four things in total. The first two had been Pikachu baseball caps, the third had been NZT-48 pills, and the last had been the Immunity Injection he had just manifested.

These four items shared one thing in common: they were light and compact, small enough to fit in one hand.

Chen Chen could not be sure whether he could still succeed if he tried to extract the hemispherical chair from the movie, which weighed over a hundred kilograms.

If the manifestation failed, would it drain the USB Drive's energy?

For now, those were all unknowns.

But Chen Chen would not avoid trying just because he feared failure. Just as humanity would never have discovered the New World if it had not set out on great voyages.

Chen Chen still needed a large number of experiments to test the USB Drive's abilities. That was also the first quality required of a researcher.

Or rather, exploring the unknown had always been humanity's only path toward progress.

With that thought, Chen Chen stopped hesitating. He dragged the movie directly into the USB Drive, then clicked play.

Then Chen Chen dragged the progress bar until the screen reached the "OAR9400 visual impact chair" used by the movie's villain, Nolan.

Then Chen Chen pressed pause.

"Come out!"

Chen Chen spoke softly as he extended his right hand, imagining himself pulling the chair into reality.

Thud!

But just as Chen Chen felt himself touch the enormous chair, the movie screen went black again.

At the same time, a piercing pain shot through his index and middle fingers!

Chen Chen jerked his hand back as if electrocuted, only to see that a huge chunk of flesh nearly half a centimeter thick was missing from his two fingers!

The bone was almost visible.

With a dark expression, Chen Chen looked back at the computer screen, only to find that the movie had closed again. At the same time, a dialog box had popped up—Insufficient Energy.

"So it really is an energy issue."

Chen Chen's mouth twitched. Though his fingers hurt agonizingly, under the effects of NZT, the pain was quickly blocked out, preventing it from affecting his thoughts.

After using some tissue to stop the bleeding, Chen Chen looked at the USB Drive again. Perhaps because he had failed to manifest anything, the USB Drive had not changed this time.

"No, that's not right."

Suddenly, Chen Chen seemed to think of something. He abruptly looked up. "If every item needs to be created by the USB Drive's manifestation, then why was I able to touch them before they were manifested?"

Chen Chen remembered that this was not the first time. Half a year ago, when he had first tried to manifest the "Immunity Injection," the manifestation had failed due to insufficient energy in the USB Drive. Yet he had clearly touched that "Immunity Injection" then as well!

If the USB Drive's ability was to manifest things from movies, why could he still touch them when there was insufficient energy?

Since he could touch them, didn't that mean they had already been successfully manifested?

But if they had already been successfully manifested, why did it say there was insufficient energy?

Could it be...

Chen Chen frowned. This was a detail he had never considered before—the USB Drive's ability was probably not to manifest objects at all. Rather, it connected reality with a virtual space, allowing him to bring items from that world into reality!

That was the true nature of the USB Drive.

In other words, the energy required by the USB Drive was not used to create objects from nothing. It merely provided energy for the passage connecting two spaces.

This also explained the paradox of how merely a few hundred thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity, amounting to only a trillion joules, could manifest matter from thin air.

One had to know that fusing 1 kilogram of helium in a hydrogen bomb could release one quadrillion joules of energy, while the mass lost was almost negligible. This showed just how vastly greater the energy value of matter was compared to the scale of "one trillion joules."

After silently committing this rule to memory, Chen Chen stopped dwelling on that high-end visual impact chair. Instead, he copied the movie again and went straight to its opening.

At the beginning of the movie, the male protagonist Wade was putting on his gaming equipment.

Those motion-capture gloves and omnidirectional treadmill did not contain much technical sophistication, so Chen Chen automatically ignored them. What interested him was the pair of VR glasses worn by the protagonist, Wade.

Unlike the chair, the VR glasses were only palm-sized. The USB Drive should have enough energy.

With that thought, Chen Chen froze the image at the opening scene and slowly reached out with his left hand toward the VR glasses.

That familiar sensation came again. Chen Chen's left hand seemed to pass through space and touch something from another world.

Then Chen Chen gritted his teeth and viciously yanked his hand backward!

Thud!

The movie automatically shut off again!

At the same time, a strange-looking pair of glasses appeared in Chen Chen's hand.

The glasses were mainly white, covered in yellow and red cartoon decals. The back was secured with an elastic strap that could hold them in place on the wearer's head.

At the center of the glasses was a black strip-shaped lens.

Though it was called a lens, its purpose was not to see through it. Instead, it projected a full-range image directly onto the user's retina, creating an all-encompassing visual effect that made the experience feel infinitely close to reality.

Looking at the VR glasses in his hand, Chen Chen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, he was no longer worried that the USB Drive would fail to materialize objects. Instead, he feared that if he pulled his hand back even a little too slowly, the USB Drive might slice off his fingers.

"Looks like I'll have to find a way to make a mechanical arm to retrieve things for me in the future..."

Chen Chen thought silently as he turned to look at the USB Drive.

Sure enough, after materializing the VR glasses, the USB Drive had once again become dilapidated and battered.

The energy inside the USB Drive had been depleted once more.