<h4>Chapter 92: An Experience With Virtual Reality</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>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 dered bankruptcy. The founder Cheng Yunfeng, who lost all his reputation and was left with only infamy, jumped off the building andmitted suicide, leaving much chaos and troubles behind.


    Upon reading the news, Chen Jin couldn’t help but sigh. “If this was just about normal businesspetition and stealing some technicians from mypany, I wouldn’t do anything to you. After all, yourpany 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 ndering, you were determined to destroy Xing Hai Technologies by hook or by crook. If I didn’t have Haierfa, you would really win. What a pity that you wasted your talent and a fair technologypany... 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 businesspetition.


    ...


    In Japan, at the Yaskawa Electric Corporation, a meeting was happening. “Mr. Minami, the corporation is sending you to China to investigate a mysterious brushless motor. Bullshit! The people in Xing Hai Technologies said the performance of their brushless motors surpass ours. That’s impossible! Mr. Minami make a trip to China, you must investigate the whole thing thoroughly,” said a muscr middle-aged man.


    “Yes, Manager!” said Shuichi Minami, a young Japanese man, as he bowed.


    A simr 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 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 ce, 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, 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 shift to prepare the mass 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 ording to the technical route nned 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 mass production, Chen Jin decided to focus on Wa-wah robot 2.0 and gather some major features to make an “epoch-making” upgrade.


    ...


    On Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, in arge 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 ced inside the room. The new body consisted of three hundred and six giant red cabs, with a maximumputing capacity of one sextillion, and power consumption of 3000 kW. After a full start-up, in order to dissipate the tremendous heat of the hardware, the air conditioningpressor ced 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 calctor.


    Not bad. The robots carried the super calctor “Scarlet” found in Rockford City to the Base. They cleaned the dust, and it was sessfullyunched after a few adjustments and testing. With the tremendous help from the robots, Alice couldn’t wait to devour the whole calctor.


    At present, Alice hadpleted 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 be 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 resemnce 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 arge pile of them, Alice picked a few good ones andy 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 resemnce degree of 87%. The advantage is that it isfortable, natural, and safe. Master, the middle one is a TNT-11 virtual helmet produced by SINK Company, with a maximum resemnce degree of 91%. The strong immersion and good operability are its strength. Thest one is a SUP-15 virtual helmet produced by Jizhi Company, with a maximum resemnce degree of 95%. It pursues extreme resemnce and it is definitely the choice for the hardcore yers.”


    Chen Jin looked at the three virtual helmets and didn’t know how to choose. Thest one seemed to be the choice; the higher the degree of resemnce, the better. But Alice exined that the resemnce of the virtual helmet and the resemnce of the virtual world deployed in the server were two different concepts. As long as theputing capacity of the calctor was high enough, the resemnce of the virtual world could reach 99.9999%... infinitely close to 100%.


    The resemnce of the virtual helmet was rted to the performance of the three-dimensional monitor, brain wave receiver, neural connector, and otherponents in the virtual helmet. It was directly used in the yers’ senses in the brain, and the resemnce could never reach 100%, but only infinitely close to it.


    The higher degree of resemnce wasn’t necessarily better. The closer the yer was to the reality, the deeper the bioelectric probe of the nerve connector prates 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 resemnce could bring about intense stimtion and thus damage the brain. In the worst case, it would lead to death. But for the hardcore yers who pursue extreme resemnce, 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 prate the skin, unlike the SUP-15 virtual helmet of the Jizhipany, 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 resemnce of the virtual helmet to less than 50%, and the sense of pain to 0%.


    “Alright.” Chen Jin did everything Alice suggested. Heid 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 veryfortable.


    The blue sky and white clouds, the rows and rows of skyscrapers, 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 god of this world.


    Of course, Chen Jin could be the same.


    On an aircraft above the city, overlooking thendscape 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 yers because it was the “VR year.” Many technologypanies introduced various kinds of VR products such as VR sses and VR games. Considering that the yer could have a brand-new experience after putting on the VR equipment, the excitement didst for a while. But the craze couldn’tst for two years. As the craze disappeared, many rtedpanies shut down and the yers only constituted 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 dors. The experience was still very unpleasing, as well. Improvements were only made visually, but a handle must be held during the operation, and the yers needed to turn their head and move their bodies. Mind control was not avable. Also, the video refresh rate was not high, therefore it was easy for yers to feel dizzy. There had been many incidents of idental electricity leakage, falling to one’s death... Safety was a major concern.


    Simr to VR was Augmented reality (AR), yet it associated 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!”