【We welcome you for using our company’s products. The scan has already started. Please wait a moment.】
【The scan has been completed. Citizen ID confirmed: SH13***313. Name: Feng Bujue: Accessing equipment: NL2055 Standard single-player gaming cabin. No abnormal hardware detected; Heart function is in a normal state; Nerve connection procedures are ready, please select your accessing type.】
【Accessing type has been set to non-sleeping mode, adjusting… adjusting complete. Please confirm to enter the game or return to previous options.】
【Program launched, entering the game in 10 seconds…】
After the countdown ended, Feng Bujue quickly entered the gaming world. He was located in an environment that was extremely similar to an elevator, but there were no floor buttons next to the door. On the wall to his right, there was a 32-inch touchscreen. The wall directly opposite to the door was a complete mirror and it could reflect a player’s head straight down to their toes.
Feng Bujue looked at himself in the mirror. At that instant, he became an extremely high-pixelated 3D CG character. His clothes became a black T-shirt and pants. There was nothing special. The person in the game and himself in reality were practically the same. Not reaching 1.8 meters tall, disarrayed hair, and the lines on his face seemed gentle.
With the support of the 4th generation quantum computer, the players who connected their nerves to the game could get the feeling of the 5 senses as if they were real. However, the pictures in the game were still CG images and there was no way for players to feel that they were in an environment that had the effect of being realistically filmed.
【Welcome to the game’s login space. The following are all the gaming categories that the Dream Company provides. Please choose which one to login to.】
The system’s voice rang out in his ears again and on the touchscreen next to him, icons that he could choose appeared.
“There’s only one choice in total, why is there even a need for a login space…Is this company hiddenly indicating that they will produce even more games…” As Feng Bujue thought about that in his heart, he touched the only game category on the screen with his finger——Thriller Paradise.
【The ages of the players who log in into this game must be over 16 years old. The company does not recommend this category for any users with any heart or mental diseases, or any related medical history.】
Those words appeared on the screen and the system voice reiterated it again. After that, three icons appeared on the screen. One was “confirm login”, the other one was “cancel”. On the side, there was a very eye-catching link, “Disclaimers”.
“Mental diseases huh…” Feng Bujue muttered to himself, “It would be better if I took a look.” He chose the 3rd option. Instantly, densely packed clauses filled the screen, and looking at the scrollbar on the right, he knew that the disclaimer would be incomparably and excessively long.
When normal people played games and saw things similar to agreements or contracts, 80% of them would directly close it or with a glance, they would pull the page to the bottom and click agree.
However, Feng Bujue was not a normal person…
He was 24 years old this year. He was a detective novelist, and he enjoyed shamelessly calling himself an “artist” or a “great writer” when other people asked what his occupation was. However, those were not important. Let us talk about his abnormality.
First of all, the original intent for playing this game was to “cure an illness”. Of course, it was not internet addiction. It was a genuine illness.
Roughly 2 months ago, Feng Bujue suddenly felt that something unusual happened to his body. He spent around 3 days to finally confirm that he lost the emotion of “fear”.
No matter how scary the sound or scene, they did not stimulate him. He spent day and night watch horror films and horror novels, and he tried to combine them with his own imagination to scare himself, but at the end, it was in vain. It was as though a certain door in his brain closed. He was very clear on which elements were frightening, and he completely understood where the scariness came from in the films, but he just could not feel fear.
So, he went to a nearby hospital. It would have been fine if he didn’t go, but since he went, indeed, there was a huge problem that was discovered. With magnetic resonance, it showed that there was a chunk of blurry shadow in his brain. It was near the amygdala and there was a possibility that it was a tumor.
After that, Feng Bujue went to several big hospitals that were ranked as the best in the country, yet none of them provided a definite diagnosis and the treatment suggestions were all over the place. After doing countless tests and passing through Nth number of famous doctors and Nth number of consultations, Feng Bujue basically understood…His disease was probably going to enter history. As the patient, he needed to consider two things. First, which doctor should have the rights over the name of the illness, and secondly, after death, was he going to donate his brain for medical experimentations and contribute a bit to the field of science.
Two months passed and the shadow in Feng Bujue’s brain did not change in any way. It did not worsen, nor did it shrink or disappear. Every other part of his body was normal and it was even healthy. After some consideration, he just refused treatments and left the hospital.
Since the loss of fear was the only symptom, and no one could determine whether he would die or not, or how long until he would die, so he might as well just leave it up to fate.
On a certain day, Feng Bujue saw an advertisement for Thriller Paradise by chance. At that time, the advertisement statement was: “A breakthrough of traditional gaming modes. You will be in despair, shock, and fear that follows wherever you go and you will feel an unprecedented gaming experience.” After that, he looked over the installation explanation and even watched some video that had claimed to have wet children when they watched it. He also noted the “If you purchase the new style gaming cabin, an account is given as a gift” link.
So, although it seemed far-fetched, not only was Feng Bujue entering the game to “play”, the more important thing was to get “scared.” His way of thinking was to “medicate a dead horse as though it was alive”, and perhaps baptized within terror, it could stimulate him and he could find the feeling of fear again.
Of course, having such a strange mental abnormality meant that Feng Bujue was not only simply a patient. It meant that he was not “ordinary” and it wasn’t only because of the tumor in his brain. Before getting that illness, he was different from others. To use a dialect[1] from a certain place——Freak.
There were many strange things about Feng Bujue, and although it did not reach the degree of OCD, most of what he did puzzled people, such as his reading hobby…
Normal people found it hard to understand his thirst for reading. For example, he would read the words on the shampoo bottle, or the instructions for household electronic appliances. He could read it from top to bottom without missing a word. The more shocking thing was…he didn’t even miss cutting a tag off from a new pair of clothes.
As long as a certain item or person was related to Feng Bujue, he would instinctively collect some information about them. He did not just randomly read through it with his brain. He even had astonishing reading and memory capabilities. Although it was not like Zhang Song, who remembered everything that passed his eyes and knew it so well that he could recite it backwards, Feng Bujue could remember at least 60% of the things that had seen, no matter how much time had passed.
“Mm…It’s pretty much the same with the agreements from other games.” Feng Bujue spent two minutes and finished reading the clauses that were several thousand words long, “The only thing special are those in section 6 right…” He slightly lowered his head, used his left hand to support the right hand’s elbow, and put his right hand’s index and middle finger on his forehead, then lightly slid down along the bridge of his nose. That was his habitual thinking motion, “That also means…if players die from heart diseases or some mental illnesses, it is not related to their company.” He seemed to speak it out loud like a conclusion.
Feng Bujue felt that he could not eliminate the possibility that the clause was a specially made joke by the Dream Company. He saw the settings of the game before on the website. The biggest selling point of the game was the idea of a “Terror Value”. Through the quantum computer and the abilities of the gaming cabin, it monitored the player’s heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, cranial nerves’ reaction, etc. to measure and calculate the degree of terror. If the player’s Terror Value in the game passed the critical point, they would instantly be cut of by the nerve connection and go offline instantly. If the player’s body had any serious anomalies, for example, after going offline, their heart stopped, or if they suffocate, the gaming cabin would instantly call for an ambulance. Besides, all of the cities that had internet for nerve connections were linked with the police and emergency treatment’s network. With that design, there wasn’t a huge chance that people would die from fear.
After clicking continue, Feng Bujue heard another system’s prompting voice: 【This is the first time that you’ve logged in to the game. Please enter the nickname that you will use in the game.】
An input box appeared on the screen. On the side, there were several restrictions, such as the name had to be over 4 bytes, and dirty words or sensitive wording were not permitted. In the era of quantum computing, those restrictions were even more thorough because the intelligence and calculation capabilities of the system was so high that it terrified one’s hair and bones. “It” only needed a word bank for censoring or even just a general category to automatically display its reasoning abilities and restrict any grey zone actions. For example, the name “Sudden Big Stalk”, or a name with any symbols behind “FUC” then a “K”, those anti-censoring methods were useless to 4th generation quantum computers. Dozens of years ago, someone worried that these types of calculative AIs would attack and enslave humans, but up until now, there was no solid proof to support that saying.
In brief, quantum computers were extremely intelligent. As for their degree of strength, there will be more later on…
【Testing complete. Nickname “Feng Bujue” can be used. Please confirm.】
The name Feng Bujue was already very cold and remote and he could have used it, but he replaced “Feng” with “Feng”[2]. First of all, he did not want to use his real name. Secondly, there was a bit of self-mockery.
After clicking confirm, the system voice said: 【The tutorial will start soon, and it can only be completed once. The script will be created according to the situation, and after finishing, you will gain the corresponding starting reward. Please note that the results of the tutorial will not affect your character’s starting stats and only the reward will be different. If the Terror Value is too high and you choose to disconnect to leave the gaming cabin, or for other reasons for going offline, you will be unable to continue the original script when you enter into the game the next time. The system will create a new tutorial for you if that happens.】
After hearing the reminder, Feng Bujue extended his hand to click the confirm option. Who would have known, when his finger just touched the icon on the screen, it suddenly became pitch-black inside the entire elevator space.
After one second, a voice rang out. It was vastly different from the system, machine-like voice before. At that instant, it seemed like an old witch, “Welcome to Thriller Paradise…”
Just as the voice finished talking, the elevator space suddenly shook without any warning. After that, in the black box in which he could not see his five fingers if he stretched his hands out, he slowly sank downwards.
Footnotes:
[1]Taiwan dialect.
[2]His original name, “Feng” means “Seal/Grant/Etc”. The second name, his IGN, “Feng” means “Insane”
【We welcome you for using our company’s products. The scan has already started. Please wait a moment.】
【The scan has been completed. Citizen ID confirmed: SH13***313. Name: Feng Bujue: Accessing equipment: NL2055 Standard single-player gaming cabin. No abnormal hardware detected; Heart function is in a normal state; Nerve connection procedures are ready, please select your accessing type.】
【Accessing type has been set to non-sleeping mode, adjusting… adjusting complete. Please confirm to enter the game or return to previous options.】
【Program launched, entering the game in 10 seconds…】
After the countdown ended, Feng Bujue quickly entered the gaming world. He was located in an environment that was extremely similar to an elevator, but there were no floor buttons next to the door. On the wall to his right, there was a 32-inch touchscreen. The wall directly opposite to the door was a complete mirror and it could reflect a player’s head straight down to their toes.
Feng Bujue looked at himself in the mirror. At that instant, he became an extremely high-pixelated 3D CG character. His clothes became a black T-shirt and pants. There was nothing special. The person in the game and himself in reality were practically the same. Not reaching 1.8 meters tall, disarrayed hair, and the lines on his face seemed gentle.
With the support of the 4th generation quantum computer, the players who connected their nerves to the game could get the feeling of the 5 senses as if they were real. However, the pictures in the game were still CG images and there was no way for players to feel that they were in an environment that had the effect of being realistically filmed.
【Welcome to the game’s login space. The following are all the gaming categories that the Dream Company provides. Please choose which one to login to.】
The system’s voice rang out in his ears again and on the touchscreen next to him, icons that he could choose appeared.
“There’s only one choice in total, why is there even a need for a login space…Is this company hiddenly indicating that they will produce even more games…” As Feng Bujue thought about that in his heart, he touched the only game category on the screen with his finger——Thriller Paradise.
【The ages of the players who log in into this game must be over 16 years old. The company does not recommend this category for any users with any heart or mental diseases, or any related medical history.】
Those words appeared on the screen and the system voice reiterated it again. After that, three icons appeared on the screen. One was “confirm login”, the other one was “cancel”. On the side, there was a very eye-catching link, “Disclaimers”.
“Mental diseases huh…” Feng Bujue muttered to himself, “It would be better if I took a look.” He chose the 3rd option. Instantly, densely packed clauses filled the screen, and looking at the scrollbar on the right, he knew that the disclaimer would be incomparably and excessively long.
When normal people played games and saw things similar to agreements or contracts, 80% of them would directly close it or with a glance, they would pull the page to the bottom and click agree.
However, Feng Bujue was not a normal person…
He was 24 years old this year. He was a detective novelist, and he enjoyed shamelessly calling himself an “artist” or a “great writer” when other people asked what his occupation was. However, those were not important. Let us talk about his abnormality.
First of all, the original intent for playing this game was to “cure an illness”. Of course, it was not internet addiction. It was a genuine illness.
Roughly 2 months ago, Feng Bujue suddenly felt that something unusual happened to his body. He spent around 3 days to finally confirm that he lost the emotion of “fear”.
No matter how scary the sound or scene, they did not stimulate him. He spent day and night watch horror films and horror novels, and he tried to combine them with his own imagination to scare himself, but at the end, it was in vain. It was as though a certain door in his brain closed. He was very clear on which elements were frightening, and he completely understood where the scariness came from in the films, but he just could not feel fear.
So, he went to a nearby hospital. It would have been fine if he didn’t go, but since he went, indeed, there was a huge problem that was discovered. With magnetic resonance, it showed that there was a chunk of blurry shadow in his brain. It was near the amygdala and there was a possibility that it was a tumor.
After that, Feng Bujue went to several big hospitals that were ranked as the best in the country, yet none of them provided a definite diagnosis and the treatment suggestions were all over the place. After doing countless tests and passing through Nth number of famous doctors and Nth number of consultations, Feng Bujue basically understood…His disease was probably going to enter history. As the patient, he needed to consider two things. First, which doctor should have the rights over the name of the illness, and secondly, after death, was he going to donate his brain for medical experimentations and contribute a bit to the field of science.
Two months passed and the shadow in Feng Bujue’s brain did not change in any way. It did not worsen, nor did it shrink or disappear. Every other part of his body was normal and it was even healthy. After some consideration, he just refused treatments and left the hospital.
Since the loss of fear was the only symptom, and no one could determine whether he would die or not, or how long until he would die, so he might as well just leave it up to fate.
On a certain day, Feng Bujue saw an advertisement for Thriller Paradise by chance. At that time, the advertisement statement was: “A breakthrough of traditional gaming modes. You will be in despair, shock, and fear that follows wherever you go and you will feel an unprecedented gaming experience.” After that, he looked over the installation explanation and even watched some video that had claimed to have wet children when they watched it. He also noted the “If you purchase the new style gaming cabin, an account is given as a gift” link.
So, although it seemed far-fetched, not only was Feng Bujue entering the game to “play”, the more important thing was to get “scared.” His way of thinking was to “medicate a dead horse as though it was alive”, and perhaps baptized within terror, it could stimulate him and he could find the feeling of fear again.
Of course, having such a strange mental abnormality meant that Feng Bujue was not only simply a patient. It meant that he was not “ordinary” and it wasn’t only because of the tumor in his brain. Before getting that illness, he was different from others. To use a dialect[1] from a certain place——Freak.
There were many strange things about Feng Bujue, and although it did not reach the degree of OCD, most of what he did puzzled people, such as his reading hobby…
Normal people found it hard to understand his thirst for reading. For example, he would read the words on the shampoo bottle, or the instructions for household electronic appliances. He could read it from top to bottom without missing a word. The more shocking thing was…he didn’t even miss cutting a tag off from a new pair of clothes.
As long as a certain item or person was related to Feng Bujue, he would instinctively collect some information about them. He did not just randomly read through it with his brain. He even had astonishing reading and memory capabilities. Although it was not like Zhang Song, who remembered everything that passed his eyes and knew it so well that he could recite it backwards, Feng Bujue could remember at least 60% of the things that had seen, no matter how much time had passed.
“Mm…It’s pretty much the same with the agreements from other games.” Feng Bujue spent two minutes and finished reading the clauses that were several thousand words long, “The only thing special are those in section 6 right…” He slightly lowered his head, used his left hand to support the right hand’s elbow, and put his right hand’s index and middle finger on his forehead, then lightly slid down along the bridge of his nose. That was his habitual thinking motion, “That also means…if players die from heart diseases or some mental illnesses, it is not related to their company.” He seemed to speak it out loud like a conclusion.
Feng Bujue felt that he could not eliminate the possibility that the clause was a specially made joke by the Dream Company. He saw the settings of the game before on the website. The biggest selling point of the game was the idea of a “Terror Value”. Through the quantum computer and the abilities of the gaming cabin, it monitored the player’s heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, cranial nerves’ reaction, etc. to measure and calculate the degree of terror. If the player’s Terror Value in the game passed the critical point, they would instantly be cut of by the nerve connection and go offline instantly. If the player’s body had any serious anomalies, for example, after going offline, their heart stopped, or if they suffocate, the gaming cabin would instantly call for an ambulance. Besides, all of the cities that had internet for nerve connections were linked with the police and emergency treatment’s network. With that design, there wasn’t a huge chance that people would die from fear.
After clicking continue, Feng Bujue heard another system’s prompting voice: 【This is the first time that you’ve logged in to the game. Please enter the nickname that you will use in the game.】
An input box appeared on the screen. On the side, there were several restrictions, such as the name had to be over 4 bytes, and dirty words or sensitive wording were not permitted. In the era of quantum computing, those restrictions were even more thorough because the intelligence and calculation capabilities of the system was so high that it terrified one’s hair and bones. “It” only needed a word bank for censoring or even just a general category to automatically display its reasoning abilities and restrict any grey zone actions. For example, the name “Sudden Big Stalk”, or a name with any symbols behind “FUC” then a “K”, those anti-censoring methods were useless to 4th generation quantum computers. Dozens of years ago, someone worried that these types of calculative AIs would attack and enslave humans, but up until now, there was no solid proof to support that saying.
In brief, quantum computers were extremely intelligent. As for their degree of strength, there will be more later on…
【Testing complete. Nickname “Feng Bujue” can be used. Please confirm.】
The name Feng Bujue was already very cold and remote and he could have used it, but he replaced “Feng” with “Feng”[2]. First of all, he did not want to use his real name. Secondly, there was a bit of self-mockery.
After clicking confirm, the system voice said: 【The tutorial will start soon, and it can only be completed once. The script will be created according to the situation, and after finishing, you will gain the corresponding starting reward. Please note that the results of the tutorial will not affect your character’s starting stats and only the reward will be different. If the Terror Value is too high and you choose to disconnect to leave the gaming cabin, or for other reasons for going offline, you will be unable to continue the original script when you enter into the game the next time. The system will create a new tutorial for you if that happens.】
After hearing the reminder, Feng Bujue extended his hand to click the confirm option. Who would have known, when his finger just touched the icon on the screen, it suddenly became pitch-black inside the entire elevator space.
After one second, a voice rang out. It was vastly different from the system, machine-like voice before. At that instant, it seemed like an old witch, “Welcome to Thriller Paradise…”
Just as the voice finished talking, the elevator space suddenly shook without any warning. After that, in the black box in which he could not see his five fingers if he stretched his hands out, he slowly sank downwards.
Footnotes:
[1]Taiwan dialect.
[2]His original name, “Feng” means “Seal/Grant/Etc”. The second name, his IGN, “Feng” means “Insane”
