Chapter 92: An Experience With Virtual Reality
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The game had ended. The winner and loser made themselves manifest. The winner took it all. Xing Hai Technologies extricated itself from all the troubles and predicaments, receiving enormous publicity, and thus tightly grabbing the leading position in the cleaning robot market without any more threats.
The loser got destroyed; Rock Technologies dissolved and declared bankruptcy. The founder Cheng Yunfeng, who lost all his reputation and was left with only infamy, jumped off the building and committed suicide, leaving much chaos and troubles behind.
Upon reading the news, Chen Jin couldn’t help but sigh. “If this was just about normal business compet.i.tion and stealing some technicians from my company, I wouldn’t do anything to you. After all, your company raised more than a hundred families. Considering the living of these hundreds of families, I don’t mind giving a slice of a share to you. But you were really too greedy and nasty! Whistle-blowing, spreading rumors and slandering, you were determined to destroy Xing Hai Technologies by hook or by crook. If I didn’t have Planet Haierfa, you would really win. What a pity that you wasted your talent and a fair technology company… all of them were ruined because of your momentary foolishness.” Chen Jin sighed like he was shedding a crocodile tear, making him a bit hypocritical.
But this was exactly the cruelty of business compet.i.tion.
…
In j.a.pan, at the Yaskawa Electric Corporation, a meeting was happening. “Mr. Minami, the corporation is sending you to China to investigate a mysterious brushless motor. Bulls.h.i.+t! The people in Xing Hai Technologies said the performance of their brushless motors surpa.s.s ours. That’s impossible! Mr. Minami make a trip to China, you must investigate the whole thing thoroughly,” said a muscular middle-aged man.
“Yes, Manager!” said Shuichi Minami, a young j.a.panese man, as he bowed.
A similar meeting was happening at Fanuc Robot Corporation. “Mr. Noda, I have a task for you. Make a trip to China. You have to investigate Ao You Xing Hai Technologies to see which supplier helped them solve the supply problem of the mechanic arms moving parts… It is very likely that they have infringed on our technology patent.”
“Yes, Manager!” said Masao Noda, who was in his early thirties.
…
By April 30th, Chen Jin had already carried the spare parts from Planet Haierfa to Earth for forty-five days. Fifty thousand per day, multiplied by forty-five, meant a total of two million two hundred and fifty thousand sets of spare parts were transported to the Earth by Chen Jin. That was enough for the factory to manufacture two million Wa-wah robots. Adding the one million Wa-wah robots in the first place, the factory could produce more than three million Wa-wah robots in total.
Therefore, on the 30th of April, the official stores of Xing Hai Technologies on Taobao, 360buy.com, etc., opened the third batch of Wa-wah robots pre-order. As a result, all of the five hundred thousand robots were sold out in only fifteen minutes. After the three million Wa-wah robots were sold out, Chen Jin made a decision: he would stop manufacturing the first generation of Wa- wah robots, and s.h.i.+ft to prepare the ma.s.s production of an improved version of Wa-wah robot 1.0.
Indeed, the improvement was so very little that Chen Jin didn’t feel right to call it Wa-wah robot 2.0, so he could only add the word “improved” before 1.0… meaning that apart from the small improvements made, there wasn’t much difference in essence. Of course from others’ point of view, it was definitely an “all-round improvement” and an “excellence of quality” … But Chen Jin just wouldn’t be bold-faced enough to agree with that, because according to the technical route planned in his mind, this kind of upgrade was only the tip of the iceberg with the goal to earn money, but without any sincerity.
The production of the first-generation Wa-wah robot had stopped, and recently the research and development of the improved 1.0 generation was basically finished. After achieving the ma.s.s production, Chen Jin decided to focus on Wa-wah robot 2.0 and gather some major features to make an “epoch-making” upgrade.
…
On Planet Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, in a large steel room with a length of 30 meters, a width of ten meters and a height of nearly five meters, Alice’s new body was placed inside the room. The new body consisted of three hundred and six giant red cabinets, with a maximum computing capacity of one s.e.xtillion, and power consumption of 3000 kW. After a full start-up, in order to dissipate the tremendous heat of the hardware, the air conditioning compressor placed outside the steel room was going to emit cool air of minus fifty degrees, cooling down the room temperature to below minus twenty degrees, so as to maintain the best working condition of the calculator.
Not bad. The robots carried the super calculator “Scarlet” found in Rockford City to the Base. They cleaned the dust, and it was successfully launched after a few adjustments and testing. With the tremendous help from the robots, Alice couldn’t wait to devour the whole calculator.
At present, Alice had completed the upgrade from AI level 16 to level 22. She had the ability to build a virtual environment… The virtual world that Chen Jin was so looking forward to had finally become something that could be reached. He immediately asked Alice to build a mini virtual reality so that he could get a taste of it.
“Sure, master… the virtual reality is built.” Within ten minutes, Alice built a virtual world. In fact, she used the data that was originally stored in “Scarlet” to activate an existing virtual reality. This activated virtual world was exactly like Rockford City, or rather the virtual Rockford City. The degree of resemblance could reach 99.9%, making it no different from the real Rockford City. That’s why it was called “virtual reality.”
The virtual world was created, and the virtual helmets used to log into the virtual world could be found everywhere in Haierfa. After collecting a large pile of them, Alice picked a few good ones and lay them in front of Chen Jin so as to let him choose. “Master, first the left one; it is an OAS-8 model produced by the Oasis Company, with a maximum resemblance degree of 87%. The advantage is that it is comfortable, natural, and safe. Master, the middle one is a TNT-11 virtual helmet produced by SINK Company, with a maximum resemblance degree of 91%. The strong immersion and good operability are its strength. The last one is a SUP-15 virtual helmet produced by Jizhi Company, with a maximum resemblance degree of 95%. It pursues extreme resemblance and it is definitely the choice for the hardcore players.”
Chen Jin looked at the three virtual helmets and didn’t know how to choose. The last one seemed to be the choice; the higher the degree of resemblance, the better. But Alice explained that the resemblance of the virtual helmet and the resemblance of the virtual world deployed in the server were two different concepts. As long as the computing capacity of the calculator was high enough, the resemblance of the virtual world could reach 99.9999%… infinitely close to 100%.
The resemblance of the virtual helmet was related to the performance of the three-dimensional monitor, brain wave receiver, neural connector, and other components in the virtual helmet. It was directly used in the players’ senses in the brain, and the resemblance could never reach 100%, but only infinitely close to it.
The higher degree of resemblance wasn’t necessarily better. The closer the player was to the reality, the deeper the bioelectric probe of the nerve connector penetrates into the skin, the greater the current generated, and the greater the fluctuation of the cortex. Once you encountered danger in the virtual world, the extreme resemblance could bring about intense stimulation and thus damage the brain. In the worst case, it would lead to death. But for the hardcore players who pursue extreme resemblance, they were never afraid of danger.
But Chen Jin thought for a while. In the end, he chose the OAS-8 virtual helmet of Oasis Company because the bioelectric probe inside was shorter, so it would not penetrate the skin, unlike the SUP-15 virtual helmet of the Jizhi company, which was full of long probes inside, as if they were about to go into his brain.
In addition, since it was his first experience, Alice suggested that for safety reasons, he should adjust the resemblance of the virtual helmet to less than 50%, and the sense of pain to 0%.
“Alright.” Chen Jin did everything Alice suggested. He laid down on the metal armchair, put on the virtual helmet, and entered the virtual world. His mind was wandering in the face of the endless bright light before him.
When he came to himself, and slowly opened his eyes, he found himself on a green meadow.
“Chirp, chirp, chirp,” the sound of birds echoed in his ear. He took a deep breath, and he could actually smell the aroma of flowers. The breeze lightly stroked his skin, and the overall temperature was very comfortable.
The blue sky and white clouds, the rows and rows of skysc.r.a.pers, aircrafts flying in the air, the hustle and bustle of vehicles and people… it was like a vividly real world.
“Master, I can give you a tour of the city!” Alice appeared next to him, dressed in a princess gown, jumping around. While Chen Jin was wandering in his mind, she grabbed his hand and toured around the city with him.
As an AI that could modify the rules as she wished, Alice could stop the time, ask the river to flow backward, make the traffic disappear, adjust the gravity parameters, and even move to any corner of the city in a second… She was the G.o.d of this world.
Of course, Chen Jin could be the same.
On an aircraft above the city, overlooking the landscape of the entire city and staring at the far-reaching skyline, Chen Jin sighed emotionally. “This is the real future.” He thought about the earth’s side. It was a new century that pursued the virtual world. In 20X6, this saying was widespread among the game players because it was the “VR year.” Many technology companies introduced various kinds of VR products such as VR gla.s.ses and VR games. Considering that the player could have a brand-new experience after putting on the VR equipment, the excitement did last for a while. But the craze couldn’t last for two years. As the craze disappeared, many related companies shut down and the players only const.i.tuted a minority. VR… did not continue to develop.
What was the reason?
The requirement of hardware configuration was so high that purchasing a set of VR equipment cost over ten thousand dollars. The experience was still very unpleasing, as well. Improvements were only made visually, but a handle must be held during the operation, and the players needed to turn their head and move their bodies. Mind control was not available. Also, the video refresh rate was not high, therefore it was easy for players to feel dizzy. There had been many incidents of accidental electricity leakage, falling to one’s death… Safety was a major concern.
Similar to VR was Augmented reality (AR), yet it a.s.sociated too much with reality, which led to average immersion experience, so it was neither fish nor fowl.
“I say, only the virtual helmet is the right path and the bright future.” Chen Jin said, “Such a virtual world and virtual helmet are really needed!”