Chapter 211: “Magical World”
by xennovel“Wan Yu, how are you still playing Battle Royale games? That’s so low!”
“Hmm, if not playing Battle Royale, should I be playing Kings of Glory instead?” Wan Yu sounded puzzled. He had recently switched to the new game-integrated smart glasses launched by Dream Technology and was thoroughly enjoying the Battle Royale game, only to be mocked by his friend Sun Cheng who had come to visit him at his house.
“I sent you a website link. Just visit it, register and log in as instructed. It’s a professional role-playing game set in a future world,” Sun Cheng explained.
“Role-playing games are so boring, aren’t they? I prefer action-packed fighting games,” Wan Yu shook his head and replied.
“Ah, I keep saying you’re too low. It’s the future world we’re talking about here! There are professions like space battleship commanders and mecha warriors. If you like fighting, isn’t this even more thrilling than Battle Royale?”
Wan Yu took off his smart glasses in a swift motion, staring at Sun Cheng, “Are you serious? Can I be a mecha warrior?” As someone who was baptized by sci-fi anime and had played countless mecha games, the formidable mecha was always a divine artifact in his dreams.
Unfortunately, many mecha games failed to satisfy him entirely, mostly because they lacked immersion. Even though many gaming companies have made progress with AR technology, it only made the games feel faker to Wan Yu.
So he would rather stick to playing Battle Royale, satisfying his shooting cravings. But now, Sun Cheng’s words inevitably excited him.
“Of course you can. However, this game has a feature: once you choose a profession during initial registration, you can’t change it, as if it’s a lifelong career choice. You have to level up step by step!”
“That’s some twisted company. Which gaming company is it?” Wan Yu asked.
Sun Cheng said with a smile, “Dream Technology!”
“Huh? Never heard of them.”
“Dude, have you been too much of a hermit lately? Don’t you even watch the news?” Sun Cheng said with a mix of frustration and envy.
After all, Wan Yu was fortunate enough to inherit a fortune, terrifyingly coming into possession of more than a dozen apartments in Magic City. Just the monthly rental income could easily bring in thirty thousand.
So after graduating from university, he became a hermit.
“What news? Is Dream Technology famous? I’ve never heard of them before,” Wan Yu replied with an oblivious expression.
Sun Cheng had no choice but to enlighten him, “Dream Technology is a multinational corporation that apparently does not belong to any country.
They were always under the radar but were suddenly sanctioned by the United States not long ago.”
Wan Yu scoffed, “The US sanctioning companies isn’t something unusual; haven’t many of our country’s firms been sanctioned already?”
“The point is, right after that, the US sent fighter jets and warships to launch missile strikes on Dream Technology’s industrial park in South Sudan, killing an important shareholder of Dream Technology and many employees.”
“Holy smokes! That’s explosive. When did this happen?” Wan Yu was taken aback, clearly shocked by how much the world could change in a few days without keeping up with the news. The US had actually launched missile strikes against a company’s factory?
Sun Cheng felt dumbfounded by Wan Yu’s question, “Just search it up yourself!”
“Hey, which profession did you choose?” Wan Yu put his glasses back on and asked.
“Of course I chose to be a space battleship commander!”
“Damn, that’s awesome. So, can we team up in the future?” Wan Yu inquired.
Sun Cheng sighed, “Don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m still in my apprenticeship! After getting a taste of being a space battleship commander in the beginning, I now have to painstakingly learn bit by bit. I feel like I’m going through university all over again.”
“Huh? What do you mean by learning? Isn’t it just playing a game?”
“The game requires space battleship commanders to understand a lot of specialized knowledge, which is taught through different levels of challenges. I’m just an apprentice level three. I have to reach level twelve to take the final assessment. Only then can I become a junior space battleship commander and command a spaceship. To command a fleet and reach middle rank, I’ll have to continue studying,” Sun Cheng explained.
Wan Yu was stunned. Is this really a game? It sounded more like a space battleship commander academy. How long would it take to complete all the studies? Surely not another decade of hard study?
“How long have you been… oh, I mean, how long have you been playing this game?”
“It’s been about three days. I level up once a day, so just nicely apprentice level three,” Sun Cheng responded.
Wan Yu stroked his chin, “From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem too hard!”
Sun Cheng immediately retorted, “Not hard? These apprenticeship levels exponentially increase in difficulty as you go!”
Wan Yu fell silent for a moment. “I wonder how long it will take before I can go into battle as a mecha warrior, the occupation I like?”
Seeing his demeanor, Sun Cheng couldn’t help but provoke him, “What’s the matter, don’t dare to play? Are you afraid you won’t pass, notorious as you were for failing in university?”
Wan Yu glanced contemptuously through his glasses, “Afraid to play? Is there any game that I’m afraid to play? I failed in university because I didn’t like the major, but mecha warrior is my favorite, my dream job. I’m certain I can learn it in record time.”
Sun Cheng walked to the window of Wan Yu’s room, looking up into the sky.
“What are you looking at?” Wan Yu asked, confused.
With a regretful expression, Sun Cheng said, “Looking for cows flying in the sky!”
“Get lost!” It dawned on Wan Yu that his friend was poking fun at him.
Sun Cheng laughed, “I’m telling you, there’s a ranking list for each profession in the game. Whoever clears the apprenticeship levels quickly can make it onto their profession’s local ranking!”
“Local ranking? So, there’s also a heavenly ranking?”
“Yeah. Once you become an official professional, you can strive to make it onto the heavenly ranking. Anyway, there’s not a single person on the heavenly ranking for my profession yet.”
“Sun Cheng, let’s go!” Wan Yu suddenly stood up and called out.
“What’s up? Kicking me out already?” Sun Cheng protested, looking miffed.
“Not at all. Come with me to buy provisions. I’m going to make a big purchase and then come back to play this game. I aim to quickly become the number one mecha warrior on the local ranking!”
“You? Stop kidding. The game is played by folks all over the world. Do you know how many players there are? Trying to be the world’s first is too tough!”
Upon hearing this, Wan Yu wasn’t discouraged. Instead, he became even more excited.
“Wow, this game allows global gamers to play on the same server? That server must be insanely powerful, and the bandwidth is out of this world too! Dream Technology, I’ll remember you!” he exclaimed. Grabbing Sun Cheng, he rushed out of his house.
…
Meng Yao was a third-year medical student. After the upcoming May Day holiday, she was set to begin her internship at a hospital.
Right now, without many classes to attend and after being introduced by her roommate, she had become fascinated with a new game called “Magical World.”
This game, a professional role-playing cultivation game set in the future, matched Meng Yao’s dream of becoming an outstanding neurosurgeon!
It was the reason she had chosen to study medicine in university, but the real motivation was her father’s death from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Mainly because the hospital in her small county town had no surgeons able to operate on her father in time—otherwise, he could have been saved.
From that moment, Meng Yao resolved to become a doctor, preferably a neurosurgeon.
As a result, she had always studied diligently, even in university, to the point where she even considered dating a waste of time.
So, this academically brilliant girl who had never played games before was now addicted to playing “Magical World”!
Currently lying on her bed, she was stunned every time she saw through her smart glasses the supercityscape of the future world presented in the game.
The skyscrapers were at least a kilometer tall, true titans reaching for the clouds!
From the ground up to about 100 meters, there was an array of intertwined, magnetic roads where all kinds of electric maglev cars sped along.
Above the skyscrapers, numerous flying vehicles moved through the sky.
They took off and landed on the rooftops of the high rises, fluttering like bees around giant blossoms.
In other words, the skyscrapers had entry and exit points on both the bottom and top, and elevators carried people up and down within.
Whenever Meng Yao traveled from her game home to the hospital, she would take an unmanned electric hover car—the most economical choice in terms of in-game currency.
Indeed, Meng Yao still chose to be a doctor in the game!
What hooked Meng Yao on this game wasn’t the virtual world’s realism that made players feel as if they were living in an alternate universe.
But rather, she discovered that during the apprenticeship phase of learning for doctors in the game, she genuinely learned a lot of knowledge—some familiar to her and some new.
This made her progress through the apprenticeship stages faster than the average player.
She was now an apprentice level eight!
And had reached the 288th place on the local ranking for the doctor profession!
Chapter add-on coming soon.