Unknowingly, Li Ran had been in the immersion chamber for more than a month.
Because the whole body is soaked in protective fluid, it is like the fetus staying in the mother's amniotic fluid.
The life-sustaining catheter is like an umbilical cord, transporting nutrient fluid to continuously maintain the body's needs.
Li Ran's physical condition is not bad.
If the protective fluid hadn't been replaced, Li Ran's financial situation would have been better.
The protective fluid in the immersion chamber consumes a lot of money, just like the engine oil on Li Ran's motorcycle, which needs to be replaced once a month.
Why does it need to be replaced so soon?
Even today after the war, fuel vehicles have long been scrapped and eliminated, and jet flying cars are the most popular among the middle class.
Li Ran's fuel-powered motorcycle outlasts the tortoise cover, and is only used by migrant workers like him who live in Nanying Village.
I don't know how many years this car has passed its end-of-life date, but it is still running. When Li Ran was still working, he bought it from the antique section of Rongming Street Market for 3,000 yuan.
The price of nutrient solution is also very expensive, but Li Ran has no money on hand.
Even if this month's security relief fund is issued, it won't be enough to cover Li Ran's nutritional solution expenses for a week.
Therefore, he must complete a step that all entrepreneurs must go through today - financing.
Or borrow money.
Although he has now acquired a lot of assets in Broken Star, he controls the gods' castle, Starwind City, and is gradually developing the resources on the Wind Spirit Plain. The most exaggerated thing is that he still has a gold mine on hand!
If it were in the development zone, Li Ran would become a multimillionaire in minutes!
But in the occupied area without players and auction houses, all the resources in Li Ran's hands are the same as those in inland lakes far away from the ocean - unable to circulate.
Even in an environment surrounded by powerful enemies, all of Li Ran's assets are like candles in the wind, and may disappear at any time.
Li Ran realized that now he was an all-out gambler, with no room for retreat and no way to cash out.
The only thing he can do before success is to increase the leverage. Every battle and adventure is a stud!
Li Ran went to the sink and turned on the faucet, trying to rinse his sticky body as clean as possible, then threw himself on the bed and groped through a pile of messy clothes and garbage.
After a moment, a rusty key magically appeared in Li Ran's hand.
He put on his ever-changing black jacket and struggled to get into work boots that were half a size too small at the door.
Then take off the helmet hanging on the spike.
"Although it's more uncomfortable to wear a helmet, driving this wretched car is like risking your life... A dog's life matters. A dog's life matters."
Li Ran walked out of the room carrying his helmet.
In the lobby on the first floor of the rental house, a tenant was brushing his teeth. It would be an office worker who got up at this time, and the old lady of the landlord was cleaning.
"Li Ran, is it time to pay your rent?"
Li Ran had already walked to the door of the building. Hearing this, he turned around and said softly:
"Aunt Wu, please give me another month's grace. I will definitely pay it next month."
"Oh... you said the same thing in the past four months." Aunt Wu said nothing and lowered her head to continue sweeping the floor, but Li Ran saw that the sadness in her eyebrows was a little more sad than before.
"Next time I will pay all the rent arrears," Li Ran promised, "I will definitely do it!"
Li Ran walked out of the building without looking back, but secretly sighed in his heart.
If Starwind City was breached within a month, he would have nothing to gain and paying the rent would become nonsense.
There are five two- to three-story rental houses in this alley, all of which were built in ancient times. Most of the owners of the houses benefited from the development of Qingjiang City and moved to the city. The old houses were all left to Aunt Wu. The second landlord takes care of it.
Li Ran found his favorite car under the awning. Rather than saying it was a motorcycle that had gone through countless ups and downs, it would be more appropriate to say it was an assembled vehicle.
After numerous accidents, resales, repairs and refurbishments, every part of this car is no longer original.
Just like the metabolism of the human body, sooner or later all cells in the body will die and be replaced.
Li Ran climbed onto the seat, feeling the unstable vibration of the frame, and placed the helmet on his head.
He inserted the key into the keyhole in the middle of the failed dial, turned it right to "ON", then turned the throttle handle and kicked the starter lever hard with his right foot.
The engine made an asthmatic whine.
"Come on, let me take a few steps and take a look."
The motorcycle actually started to move.
"30% success rate, good luck today." Li Ran turned onto the street of Nanying Village happily.
The projector on the side of the road continued to project translucent advertising pages, and before he could hear them clearly, Li Ran was left behind.
"The number of players in Broken Star has skyrocketed..."
"The latest transparent clothing is now on the market..."
"The stock price of the Jiaodeluo rice robot fast food has hit the limit, and the leading traditional Chinese catering company Xianshiji announced layoffs..."
"The Robotic Police Department issued a joint statement..."
You still get this kind of harassment on the streets of Nanying Village, but you won't get this kind of harassment once you leave the village and take the "highway".
It's an abandoned road mixed with asphalt, cement crumbs and dirt.
Although it cannot be compared with the dome-shaped highway that is suitable for jet flying cars, it does avoid the trouble of being stopped by the mechanical police.
There are no various service stations and consumer experience stores on both sides of the road, and the overwhelming advertising projections have completely disappeared.
Li Ran admired the wilderness on both sides of the road, and stepped on the accelerator in front of the background of pre-war villages and urban ruins.
boom!
Amidst the roar of the engine, Li Ran arrived at the South Second Ring Road of Qingjiang City in just two hours.
Li Ran came to Wanrong Commodity Port, the former Rongming Street Commodity Market.
Here is Li Ran, the only acquaintance he has in Qingjiang City.
He arrived at the third floor of the Vang Vieng Commodity Port Building, passed through dilapidated or closed merchant stores one after another, and found his destination at the northernmost end.
After looking at the crooked sign at the door, Li Ran confirmed it again.
"Future Technology Co., Ltd. is here."
Li Ran pushed open the half-opened gate, left the dilapidated business district, and entered a psychedelic world.
Although the front door is not big, the space inside is not small. In the hundreds of square meters of the venue, neon lights are flashing continuously.
The network administrator wearing enhanced mechanical prosthetics patrolled between the immersion chambers. When he saw Li Ran coming, he immediately put out the cigarette butt in his hand and glided to the bar at the door.
"Ouyou, Brother Ran! It's been a long time since I've been here. Sister Fei misses you!"
Li Ran frowned: "Don't talk in vain! Where is Sister Fei? I have an urgent matter with her."
The network administrator spread his hands and said with an innocent face: "I don't know which machine it is on. After you left, no one was willing to test her game. The progress of 'that project' has been put on hold for a long time."
That's right, Li Ran's last job was as a game tester for Future Technology Co., Ltd.
According to word-of-mouth legend among employees, the history of Future Technology Co., Ltd. can be traced back to before the war. It was founded by a chairman named Wang. In its heyday, it was a well-known high-tech technology company.
But the war changed everything, but in this forgotten era, the scale of Future Technology Co., Ltd. has plummeted, and its business scope only remains in a few traditional industries in Qingjiang City.
The key is that the company's current heir, Ms. Han Feibai, is not doing her job and is focused on developing independent games. Many of her former main businesses have been squeezed out and occupied by the emerging Wanrong Group.
Now, the only thing left is this small black Internet cafe in front of me.
In the flash of neon strips, it is obvious that the immersion cabins placed in the hall are of different colors, and some are obviously patchwork.
In fact, today, when the "Virtual Reality Restricted Use Act" comes into effect, the only SMO immersion cabin available on the market is the American Rain Entertainment's SMO immersion cabin, and all other full virtual reality immersion cabins are contraband.
However, there are some people who do not believe in evil. After being declared illegal by the mechanical police, they still find some old models or scrapped immersion chambers, forcibly piece them together, evade supervision, and use these immersion chambers to do some illegal activities.
The most famous of them is Huanle Street in the DC area of Qingjiang City, where it is said that you can experience the most extreme hallucination experience that the human nervous system can withstand.
Li Ran can't waste time here. Starwind City may face an attack from the dark elves at any time. He must raise a sum of money as soon as possible - the more, the better.
Li Ran squeezed into the hall from the network administrator, searched in the psychedelic lights, and checked each immersion chamber.
Finally, next to an immersion chamber, he saw a familiar silver carved holographic bracelet.
Those were Han Feibai's belongings, and she often threw them around randomly before entering the immersion chamber. However, in this black Internet cafe, all the people who came were regular customers, and no one ever dared to touch her things.
Li Ran pressed the emergency call button of the immersion chamber, and an angry voice immediately sounded from the immersion chamber: "The eighty-second test...failed, who is disturbing me! Don't you know the rules of future technology?"
Li Ran swallowed hard, and there was a bitter feeling in his throat. Apparently this voice brought back some bad memories, "Sister Fei, I have something to ask you, can you... come out?" one time?"
"Oh, Xiao Ran, do you have something to do with me? Wait a minute."
Pfft - the immersion chamber overflowed with gas, and Han Feibai opened the hatch cover with a loud bang. She was only wearing a white tube top and sports shorts, and she put on her coat calmly under Li Ran's surprised eyes.
No one dared to suddenly call out the proprietress in the immersion cabin, so Li Ran might be the first person to see her dressed up like this.
Li Ran followed Han Feibai with a guilty conscience to the chairman's office in the hall. Han Feibai lay down on the ergonomic sofa, his calves naturally resting on the desk.
"How about it, do you want to come back? You are the best game tester I have, and you left without saying goodbye..."
"Sister Fei, please stop talking. It was my fault for leaving without saying hello. I have business with you this time." Li Ran interrupted.
In my mind, I was thinking: Are those weird indie games you develop played by people? The difficulty is extremely high, not to mention the dark world view, especially the aesthetic appearance of the characters, which is hard to describe.
Except for Li Ran, most of the other game testers vomited the moment they entered the game - that thing was simply the product of the ancient god's nightmare.
"Oh? Tell me."
"I would like to borrow some money from you."
"How much?"
Li Ran held out five fingers, intending to say five hundred.
Han Feibai turned on the bracelet projection and moved her fingers forward. An extra 50,000 yuan was instantly added to Li Ran's account.
Li Ran's heart skipped a beat.
"Xiao Ran, you can use the 50,000 yuan first. When you run out and still don't have enough money, come to me. The labor force is tight now, so I have to conduct game testing myself. The development progress has been delayed for too long... .”
"Thank... Many thanks, Sister Fei," Li Ran said with big beads of sweat on his forehead. This was his instinct to sense danger when he felt that he was about to be hunted by a carnivore.
She...has her sights on me.
"It's nothing, I'll leave. I'll definitely return it next month." Li Ran said calmly.
"You are worried, what happened?" Han Feibai's tone became serious.
Li Ran breathed a sigh of relief. Han Feibai in this state actually made him relax a lot.
Han Feibai sat upright and pointed to the sofa in front of her desk, "Sit down, Xiao Ran."
"Then I won't be polite."
In fact, Li Ran thought that he had some friendship with Han Feibai. In the future, the business situation of technological constraints would not be easy for Fei Fei to squeeze out the money for him.
Although this money cannot be converted into cash, it can greatly alleviate the pressure caused by the huge cost of Li Ran's nutritional solutions and safety supplements.
Because he's not just the only one who can persevere through her insufferably weird indie playtests.
And in those incredible plot arrangements and anti-human combat systems, Li Ran can really feel Han Feibai's careful design.
Even after testing several projects, he sincerely appreciated several details and made suggestions.
To a certain extent, Li Ran was Han Feibai's half-confidant - the kind of superior-subordinate relationship.
However, making independent games is a dead end. After the "Virtual Reality Restricted Use Act" comes into effect, all virtual reality products that have not been approved by the Global Governance Agency will be illegal.
In fact, since the bill came into effect, only one project, Broken Star, has been approved.
The bleak prospects forced Li Ran to find another way out.
After clearing several test versions of Han Feibai's games, and experiencing countless extreme battles, operations, and puzzle-solving scenarios where he was challenged, Li Ran consciously honed his game skills, and his consciousness and combat abilities were greatly improved. On the eve of the launch of the Xing server, he sneaked away and prepared to open up wasteland.
Li Ran frowned and thought. Even telling Sister Fei about the current situation would not help. Besides, this woman doesn't play Broken Star at all——
Like many traditional conservatives, she believes there is a huge conspiracy behind the behemoth that dominates the global entertainment industry.
In her original words, “The monopoly has wiped out the entire game industry, and the scarcity of entertainment has turned players into slaves.”
Therefore, Li Ran expressed the dilemma he was facing plausibly:
"If you had a chance to win 100 billion, but there was a 99% chance of losing it every day, what would you do?"
Han Feibai took a deep look at him, opened her red lips and said:
"I will do my best to hold on to this opportunity."
"There are always times when we become desperate gamblers. We rush into the poker game in a panic and risk everything we have on it. We may end up losing everything, but before the worst outcome happens, we We must and can only try our best, and failure should not be a consideration for us.”
Li Ran's inner pressure suddenly eased.
"Just like the game I'm making now, it can only be circulated underground. There are no anti-piracy measures. Even if it becomes popular and is copied in large numbers without permission, there will be very little profit left."
Han Feibai continued: "But I heard that Mr. Wang of Future Technology started his career by making independent games. I always believe that the revitalization of Future Technology Company still depends on making games!"
Li Ran said with a black line on his face: "Yes, yes, you are right..."
Damn it, this is how future technology will ruin you!
"After all, this is all I can do..." Han Feibai's voice suddenly became lonely, "Let's go. No matter what you are facing now, please continue to work hard. If you fail, come to me to work and pay back the money."
"Okay Sister Fei, I'm leaving then, take care of yourself."
