It felt just like last time.
His entire consciousness seemed to plunge into a boundless abyss, falling toward an endless horizon in a world where he could feel no gravity.
Perhaps because the volume of information was so enormous, the "loading" took a little longer this time.
Just as Lu Zhou was almost out of patience, a speck of light the size of a grain of rice finally appeared in that pitch-black abyss.
He waited quietly for it to approach, watching the speck of light gradually expand.
Then an immense gravitational force surged from the light source and dragged him violently inside.
The dazzling light rushed toward him, and Lu Zhou instinctively closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the boundless darkness had faded from his field of vision, replaced by a vast, unfamiliar space.
His five senses returned, and his feet touched the ground, though the gravity felt remarkably weak.
After looking around, Lu Zhou's first impression was that he was probably in the cabin of a spacecraft. Beyond the portholes embedded in the walls lay a deep, dark expanse of stars.
Besides him, twenty-five other "people" stood there, dressed exactly as he was and even identical in height.
Judging by their bearing, they were probably soldiers.
Their streamlined exoskeleton armor radiated a deadly air. The angular, rodlike objects hanging against their chests were presumably some kind of rifles.
For some reason, Lu Zhou suddenly recalled the game he had recently designed in virtual reality to test the system's performance.
At that thought, a strange expression crept onto his face.
Had something gotten mixed up?
"Xiao Ai..."
He called softly, but there was no response.
Lu Zhou frowned as a faint sense of unease began to rise within him.
Had the virtual reality device failed to activate?
*Or