Chapter 343: 343 Immersion

Chen Xu looked at the police uniform he wore, which was different from any he had seen. If not for the word “police” written on the chest, he wouldn’t have recognized his identity so quickly.

The key was the gun in his hand, which looked quite peculiar and was rather heavy, yet its power was rather disappointing.

The shot he just fired had hit the wolf directly in the eye, bursting its brain and killing it instantly. However, the bullet had not penetrated its skull.

At such a close range, failing to penetrate the skull was a waste of its bulk.

“Is this a pistol from the Steam Era?”

He toyed with the pistol in his hand. If it weren’t for the dangers in the wilderness around him, he would have liked to disassemble it to see how it worked.

“Second Life” was a highly open-ended game set in the Steam Era, with the main map roughly half the size of Earth. But the game featured many more instances, reportedly tens of thousands, totaling over a hundred times the area of the main map.

The gameplay was rich and varied, but the main quests were related to war, either between major nations or between the technology and transcendent factions.

Initially, NPCs dominated the world setting. But as players progressed and increased in both level and status, they steered the course of wars.

Previously, there were fifty-two districts, all initially identical in setting but diverging wildly as the game progressed.

In some, the Transcendent faction prevailed, in others a player’s force unified the world, and there were even instances where the area turned to wasteland and servers had to be shut down.

This time, with the new district opening, countless players had flooded in.

Chen Xu had entered the game almost a year after its launch, slightly behind others.

The game had assigned him the role of a police officer, likely based on his sharp shooting skills and ability to sense danger early.

This role offered significant advantages early on. In this game, there were many unique quests and instances accessible only to specific professions.

For instance, as a police officer performing well, one could trigger a mission to join a mysterious department and gain transcendent powers.

In “Second Life,” transcendent powers were highly sought after. However, becoming a Transcendent wasn’t easy early in the game, requiring a series of challenging quests. At that time, players with transcendent abilities were rare and the quests much more difficult.

Only after surviving the early stage and more players achieved transcendent status would completing these quests become easier, causing the number of Transcendents in the game to explode.

Clearly, earning money in this game meant becoming a Transcendent.

Chen Xu recalled related information he’d seen on forums. Looking up at the sky, he noticed the sun was about to set. He started to clean up the scene, where the bodies of two people and a wolf lay, which needed disposal.

While thinking, he heard the sound of a bell and looked guardedly in that direction, raising his gun. Then, he saw a mule cart appear over a lower rise.

“Officer Chen?”

A man sitting in the mule cart, seeing him, called out in surprise.

Chen Xu, recognizing the man knew him, lowered his gun.

“Ah, is that the Magic Wolf?” The man exclaimed upon seeing the wolf’s corpse.

Chen Xu replied, “You’ve arrived just in time. Help me take my colleague’s body and this black wolf back.”

“Alright, alright,” the man eagerly agreed.

Soon, the two were en route back to town with the three bodies.

The town was quaintly named Chen Family Gathering.

However, Chen Xu wasn’t born there but had come from another place. His background in the game was set as an orphan–which, he understood, was the same for every player.

Chen Family Gathering wasn’t very large, just a few thousand people–a substantial village by modern standards.

But in the game, this was considered impressive. Reportedly, the game maintained around a hundred million NPCs, each requiring three hundred credit points to sustain.

Even with bulk discounts, this amounted to tens of billions of credit points. Chen Xu thought, they really spared no expense.

As he returned to town with the bodies, it caused a huge stir; many people surrounded and nearly blocked the already narrow streets.

Most were overjoyed, clearly having suffered greatly at the paws of this black wolf.

This was Chen Xu’s first encounter with such an event. Gazing at the honest faces around him, he marveled at how incredibly lifelike the artificial intelligence simulation was–it was indistinguishable from real humans.

Arriving back at the police station, the atmosphere shifted. Seeing the body of his colleague, everyone’s expression turned to deep sorrow.

Chen Xu could relate to their feelings. How many people could a small-town police force have? Most were locals, likely relatives or friends. The grief of losing two at once was palpable.

The slightly overweight and mustachioed chief, deeply saddened, offered him a few words of encouragement and let him go rest.

The mood at the police station was mournful, except for Chen Xu, whose calm demeanor seemed odd. Honestly, he just couldn’t perform, nor did he want to.

Before entering the game, he had read about interacting with NPCs. Players had some privileges in this aspect–attitudes could be a bit haughty, and disrespect toward superiors wouldn’t lead to any personnel repercussions.

The reason was simple: who would want to play a game if they had to tiptoe around, constantly flattering NPCs? Naturally, it was all about having fun.

In this game, there was no need to worry about social interactions. Being a bit lax was fine, as long as you didn’t deliberately provoke or insult NPCs, or you might be quickly taught a lesson.

Chen Xu returned to his humble single room in the barracks. By then, the sun had set, and it was pitch dark, with only an oil lamp lit on the table, offering a quaint charm.

In his memory, the last time he had seen an oil lamp was when he was very young, staying at his grandmother’s during a power outage. The style was different, but the feeling was similar.

“The ambiance is wonderfully crafted.”

He mused internally. From the jubilant villagers in front of the cart to the mourning police officers for their colleague’s death, the game had successfully created an atmosphere entirely distinct from reality, allowing full immersion.

He took a shower in the bathroom.

Why a police station in a Steam Era town had a private bathroom with hot water was simply because players needed it.

When he entered the bathroom, he received a notification that it was for player’s use only, meaning NPCs couldn’t enter.

This was probably a compromise by the developers. Although it broke some immersion, the lack of a shower would likely deter many female players from joining.

Chen Xu thought, as he geared up for another exploration in this intriguing world of “Second Life”.