Lin You peered through the peephole but didn’t see the black-suited, sunglass-wearing bodyguard he’d imagined. Instead, there stood a girl in a hooded coat, wearing glasses and a face mask, clutching a large box in her arms.
“No way, she actually came in person…” Lin You quickly opened the door and, sure enough, found Zhu Cixia bundled up tightly outside, with a bodyguard standing a few steps behind her.
After inviting the princess inside, Lin You glanced at the bodyguard, who waved his hand in refusal and took up a position where he could simultaneously monitor the hallway, elevator, stairs, and windows, his eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly.
Alright then. Lin You gave him a thumbs-up. Professional! “Classmate Zhu Cixia, what brings you here yourself?” he asked, taking the large box from her arms as he spoke.
“I couldn’t get through to you on the phone earlier, and I was really worried. Now that I have the chance, of course I had to come see you.” The princess removed her disguise—glasses and mask—carefully storing them away before gracefully slipping off her coat and following Lin You into the living room, where she took a seat on the sofa.
Lin You opened the box and found far more than he’d expected. Nearly everything on his list was inside, and what wasn’t had been replaced with even higher-end alternatives. “This must have gone way over budget, right?”
“No matter what, I bear some responsibility for you being attacked by so many people. I can’t just brush it off as coincidence or claim ignorance. I truly hope I can help in some way to make up for my guilt.”
The earnestness in the eyes of this seventeen-year-old girl made it hard for Lin You to refuse.
She’s way too mature for her age! It just goes to show—royalty is royalty. Though still young, she’d received the finest upbringing, only entering school during her middle school years. Thanks to her outstanding grades, she’d skipped multiple grades, yet she carried herself with grace and courtesy, never displaying arrogance. It was impossible not to like her.
At that moment, the princess evolved in Lin You’s eyes from a “feudal relic” into an “adorable little rich girl.”
So Lin You met her gaze and sincerely expressed his gratitude, committing her kindness to memory.
Perhaps sensing his sincerity, the princess smiled brightly.
Once Lin You confirmed the equipment was complete, she reluctantly stood to leave. “I suddenly came out tonight without prior arrangements, so I’ve caused a lot of trouble for others. I should head back soon.”
“I’m really glad to see you’ve bounced back. Keep it up! I know you can do it!”
She gave Lin You a cute little wave before hurrying off.
After the princess left, Lin You didn’t waste any time and immediately began sorting through the equipment.
The devices fell into three main categories:
First, the Neural signal acquisition helmet, responsible for capturing brainwave signals.
Second, the Analysis equipment, which parsed the received brainwave signals and converted them into electrical signals.
Third, the Output equipment, which transmitted the converted electrical signals to a computer or other smart device.
These were all fairly mature technologies, but the problem lay in their lack of precision—they could only detect vague brain signals. Extracting the correct signals from the chaotic noise of brainwaves had always been a challenge.
But that didn’t stop Lin You, who already had the perfect solution.
Looking at the complete set of equipment, Lin You felt a surge of ambition.
“Change of plans—let’s make a game demo too! The proof-of-concept video in a week can double as a game trailer!”
With this much attention, why not make the most of it?
He glanced at his computer screen, where lines of code continued to pour forth relentlessly, though he estimated it would take all night to finish.
So he stopped watching the progress and got to work dismantling the equipment.
Step One: Dismantle the helmet.
For people who knew nothing about tech, if you followed NetDragon’s approach and used a helmet—no matter how many generations the internal tech advanced—they’d still think it was all the same: Don’t you just wear a helmet? Lin You suspected most people online fell into this category.
So the first step was to get rid of the bulky helmet.
As for the extra 12 Collection devices, the Signal amplification device, the Signal anti-dispersion net, the Neural signal filtering device, the Curved display screen… and so on—all of it could be tossed.
“Hmm, wait.” Lin You suddenly paused, not tossing all 12 collection devices into the junk bin. Instead, he kept two.
It had just occurred to him that if he made six Signal collection patches and stuck them all over someone’s head, it might lower costs, but it’d also make them look like a mad scientist strapping electrodes to a test subject.
“That won’t do. I can handle being called names, but being compared to Professor Yang? That’s a whole different story. I can’t let that curse haunt future generations.”
Better to integrate them into a single Head ring.
As for the signal loss caused by aesthetics, he could compensate by adding two extra collection devices.
The slight increase in cost would surely be understandable to players—after all, appearance is productivity, and the masses are creatures of aesthetics.
After considerable effort, Lin You finally finished the head ring.
The internal components and wiring posed no challenge—he solved those easily—but the design of the head ring itself stumped him.
He was no craftsman, and every pattern or style he tried looked increasingly bizarre. Eventually, he gave up and simply 3D-printed a smooth, pure-white shell.
“What’s this called? Minimalist beauty! Less is more!”
When compared to NetDragon’s product launch—where users would awkwardly strap on a heavy, fully enclosed helmet—Lin You could casually slip on his sleek head ring.
That alone would make the strongest visual impact, far more effective than any PowerPoint or technical jargon.
With the Artificial Intelligence still incomplete, the Neural Modem couldn’t be made yet. So the next task was adjusting the interfaces for the signal input and output devices.
He drastically streamlined the brainwave signal reception circuitry while adding interfaces and wiring for electrical signal transmission and neural signal translation.
This process was tedious but crucial—it would allow the computer to send “sensory” signals directly to the brain.
Current Virtual world games only provided players with visual feedback and controller vibrations—extremely rudimentary.
And that made sense—you couldn’t expect players to smell flowers through a screen. That wasn’t realistic.
The core issue was that computers couldn’t transmit signals directly to the brain.
But Lin You’s virtual game could. Players would experience something close to full-dive immersion—the scent of flowers, the warmth of sunlight, the texture of fabric, the recoil of a gun, the impact of an attack—all converted from electrical signals into neural signals the brain could interpret.
To players, it would feel real. And realism was built on these very details.
With all that done, Lin You finally relaxed, took a shower, and drifted off to sleep, ending this long day.
On his computer screen, lines of code continued to flow tirelessly into the night.
Elsewhere, in another building under the same dark sky, many windows still glowed brightly. NetDragon’s PR and R&D departments were still in meetings, finalizing their counterattack against Lin You’s video.