Trillion
A moment later, the screen burst into a dazzling display of light and color.
"What am I doing..." Zhao Hui took a deep breath.
He found himself in a room.
"Is this... the spawn point for new players?"
The room wasn't big, and the first thing you saw was a mirror.
Zhao Hui tried to take a step.
With the omnidirectional treadmill, he felt no sense of constraint at all, as if he were walking in a confined space.
"This is amazing! It's truly amazing!"
He was like a child learning to walk for the first time, full of curiosity about everything around him. He tried to walk for a very long time with great enthusiasm.
As for the user experience... it's incredibly smooth.
Reason told him that he was currently in his company office, trying out a virtual reality game.
But everything before him was so real it was outrageous, so real it could make him forget where he was, so real he could completely immerse himself in this world.
He spent quite a while experiencing something as simple as walking.
After a while, he finally came to the mirror.
"Huh? What is this?!"
He was shocked again.
The image in the mirror looked exactly like him.
He recalled that when he first wore the head-mounted display, there seemed to be a facial recognition signing agreement, and the person in front of him was the facial data collected by the infrared acquisition device of the head-mounted display.
"Seriously, high technology everywhere..."
The game naturally offers a character customization feature, along with options for player naming and basic player information.
"Pinch the face... um... make the nose more prominent, change the face shape, and oh right, the hairstyle, change the hairstyle."
He seemed like a teenager who had just encountered online games many years ago, completely forgetting what he was doing and instead becoming engrossed in the game with great interest.
After a while, he finished pinching his face.
The person in the mirror was a blond-haired teenager.
As for his name in the game... he racked his brains and came up with the name Zhao Gao de Gao.
Character data on the side:
Name: Zhao Gao de Gao
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Identity: Commoner
Money: 0
"Money?" Zhao Hui couldn't help but smile upon seeing this.
It seems like in-game purchases are still necessary. But how does this game manage to get people to spend money?
Zhao Hui glanced at the door to the side.
Perhaps··
The answer lies behind this door.
He took a deep breath, stood in front of the door, and prepared to open it.
Take a look.
What exactly is Cloud Sea Technology's long-awaited virtual world, touted as a true metaverse ushering in a new era?
The door opened.
The person walked out.
Everything suddenly became clear.
"Oh My God!"
He managed to utter a sentence, one word at a time, and was instantly stunned.
A towering Sky Dome Tower that reaches into the clouds!
A constant stream of hovercars!
Spaceships occasionally soar into the sky from the far distance!
Of course, there are also the pedestrians who keep brushing past him at this moment... all kinds of pedestrians, men and women, young and old, tall and short, fat and thin, at a glance, it seems like a portrait of all living beings.
What a magnificent and realistic world!
"Hey! Keep an eye on things!"
A man who brushed past Zhao Hui frowned, turned around, and pointed at him.
Normally, given Zhao Hui's fiery temper, he would have jumped up and started cursing. But at this moment, everything felt like a new experience, and he simply smiled and said nothing.
Based on the speed of release.
These pedestrians in front of me are unlikely to be players; they are probably NPCs from the game world.
But what about NPCs?
He stared intently at everyone who passed by.
Their hair, their skin, their every move, everyone's expression, and even the snippets of language whispered in your ear.
That's so true.
If he didn't know the truth, he wouldn't doubt that these people were real people.
"Has Cloud Sea Technology's AI really become this realistic?" he exclaimed involuntarily, deeply impressed.
He knew that the words and actions of these NPCs were generated in real time by the Cloud Sea Technology's artificial intelligence Cloud Intelligence System.
Everything he saw was constantly refreshing his understanding, and the more he learned and observed, the more awe-inspiring he became.
This is truly a virtual world that is indistinguishable from reality.
It's fake, yet it's incredibly close to reality—a virtual world that can completely immerse you in.
"This is... a shop?"
"A real estate center?!"
"Ticket booth? Can I buy tickets to the resort planet there?"
"Competitive Gaming Star?"
"Job posting? Mining? There's actually a place to make money here?"
Zhao Hui seemed oblivious to the passage of time, exploring this world with all his might.
The more you explore, the more you feel the vastness and boundlessness of this world.
City Star, Resort Star, Competitive Gaming Star, Mining Star.
In a world where realism is taken to the extreme, everything naturally revolves around money.
From small items in shops with special effects to luxury homes and vacation villas, everything requires money to experience.
In reality, you need money to become someone superior to others.
Here, to get the best gaming experience and feel superior, you still need money.
When there are enough players online, there are still different classes. There are upper-class players and lower-class players, as well as those who spend money to make money, drive luxury cars, live in mansions, and enjoy special treatment.
It's fair to say that any ordinary player who enters the game will feel an urge to make and spend money.
As for how to obtain money...
There are many methods.
You can exchange it directly for real-world currency at a 1:1 ratio, or you can earn it through various means in the game.
It's almost certain that this game called Home will become the most terrifying money-making monster in the world's history!
"Cloud Sea Technology!"
When Zhao Hui took off the headset and left the virtual world, he immediately uttered a sigh of deep emotion.
He could almost see a super-corporation that would influence the entire world rising up.
Standing before such a colossal enterprise, whose summit was so high that one couldn't even see it from above, he suddenly felt that his company was as insignificant as a stone at the foot of the mountain.
As for the future...
"Why."
There is no future!
··
It exploded!
It exploded!
Cloud Sea Technology did not conduct any prior publicity for the new product, nor did it engage in any promotion or marketing after the launch event.
Just sell it!
Under such absolute pressure, all superficial marketing and advertising are nothing but fleeting illusions.
Once a new product is released, there will be fans who love it and professional tech bloggers who will spontaneously promote it, instantly generating a buzz.
Indeed, that is the case.
The new product went on sale immediately.
All sorts of resourceful tech bloggers and gamers rushed to release unboxing videos and first-hand experience videos.
As for the result? Unanimously rave reviews.
[Shocking! An overwhelming sense of shock!]
I'm stunned! Domestic products have ushered in the era of virtual reality!
This is absolutely a groundbreaking product. Cloud Sea Technology is destined to be a great company and will be recorded in history!
The sheer variety of review videos is dazzling, often garnering millions of likes and comments. Many users have also seized the opportunity to start live streams, practically mastering the secrets to generating traffic.
This is just the beginning.
With the subsequent offline delivery of supporting omnidirectional treadmills and haptic feedback devices, the real impact is just beginning!
Because they entered their Home.
The true metaverse has been discovered!
This is the true metaverse!
I hereby declare that Cloud Sea Technology is a century ahead of the world!
Witness history in my lifetime!
As users tried to enter the Home game, everyone was amazed by everything in the Home world.
The incredibly realistic immersion, the vast and magnificent world, the mechanics that are almost indistinguishable from reality, and the NPCs that seem like real people have repeatedly refreshed the worldviews of players.
Countless videos exploring the world of Home have sprung up on various short video platforms.
How to mold yourself into the most handsome man in history
[Beginner's Survival Diary: Days of Making a Living in My Home]
[I'm working 996 hours a day in Home, grinding my way to riches and glory]
[My daily routine of teasing NPCs, I've entered!]
One player, on a whim, started flirting with an NPC, which attracted a crowd, led to a conflict, and resulted in the player being arrested by the game's police and thrown in jail.
The real-world punishment would be being unable to re-enter the game.
There are ways to get out, such as paying bail.
This was the first time he had ever experienced spending money in this game.
In fact, there are already a large number of players who are not short of money, such as a group of game bloggers, who spend a lot of money in their Home for the best gaming experience.
They either live in mansions and drive luxury cars, or they go on vacation to watch the sunrise and sunset, the starry sky and the Milky Way, and enjoy themselves freely on the gaming planet. For them, this is what it means to have the ultimate gaming experience.
At this moment, the Home seemed to complete its cycle, infinitely approaching a real world.
Its authenticity lies not only in every detail, but also in bringing in the various rules of reality: there are different social classes, the bottom and the top, joys and sorrows, carefree moments and struggles...
Cloud Sea Technology, which truly seems like a creator, exists in another dimension.
Cloud Sea Technology, Home Operation Center.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor, there are servers stretching as far as the eye can see.
Accompanied by a group of senior executives, Zhang Yang stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at the endless server room and then up at the countless monitoring screens on the large screen.
It displays real-time game data.
For example, the number of online users, the game graphics, and so on.
The number of online players is increasing almost every moment. Unlike any other online game in history, in the Home, every online player in the game means an initial expenditure of 40,000.
Multi-functional devices do exist, but they are not common.
This can be seen from the data. Every ID that logs in repeatedly on each device is recorded. Even after removing some of the inaccurate data, it is still almost identical to the data we see.
Although the current number of online players is still far from reaching the millions of online players that popular online games often have.
But... the Home system is incredibly profitable!
Not to mention the initial hardware investment of tens of thousands, there are many other places to spend money in Home game, although they may not be much, but they will definitely be a steady stream of income.
Since the core concept of the Home is realism, naturally everything must be based on the real world.
In the real world, you can't get anywhere without money, and the same applies to your Home.
Each character has a stamina system and a life system. You need to spend money to buy food three times a day. If you don't buy food, you will become weaker and weaker until you starve to death, forcibly exit the game, and your character will be deleted and you will have to start over.
You can certainly rummage through the game world's trash cans for food, but, in short...
In reality, how many people actually rummage through trash cans to find food?
Who doesn't want to live with dignity and quality?
The same applies to Home games that closely resemble real-world designs...
Moreover, the cost of maintaining a basic standard of living is not expensive, just like in the real world. If you want to eat better, you can pay hundreds or even millions of dollars. If you are too poor, the game also provides a "cheat package" for just a few dollars, which is enough to eat your fill and survive.
If you don't have money, you can earn it in the game.
It cannot be ruled out that some people are simply lying low, spending their days rummaging through trash cans for food, or engaging in petty theft.
But so what... this is the world, this is what's real.
Without going into too much detail, once Home has a stable player base of over a million, even if each player only spends twenty or thirty yuan per day, the game alone will generate tens of billions in revenue annually.
But will there only be a few million people online in the future?
Would it really be possible for each person to spend only twenty or thirty yuan per day? If you want to live a better life in reality, wouldn't you want to live even better in a game world that's almost comparable to the real world but offers even more possibilities?
With such a great game as Home, the number of online players will only increase, which means a steady increase in revenue.
Soon it will break one million concurrent online users, so what about ten million in the not-too-distant future?
Or, what about over 100 million concurrent users?
This is what it means to have unlimited potential... Compared to all of this, Cloud Sea Technology's rise to the top of the world's corporate market value seems to be the most insignificant achievement.
Zhang Yang casually took out his phone and looked at it.
My phone is flooded with news about Cloud Sea Technology.
Domestic, overseas...
He's been featured in numerous financial and technology weekly magazines, and not long ago, Time magazine even extended an invitation to him to be their Person of the Year on its cover...
He has indeed embarked on a path to change the world.
And we will continue down this path.
I have a notification.
Zhang Yang casually pressed the item on his wrist.
Instantly, a device resembling a wristwatch projected an image into the air.
These are holographic projection and holographic interaction technologies that have not yet been commercialized and are currently only available for his use.
"Itinerary? My God!" Zhang Yang sighed.
The screen shows a densely packed schedule.
Cloud Sea Technology's latest move is so significant that it has shocked the global technology industry, and has once again thrust him, the key figure behind Cloud Sea Technology, into the spotlight.