In a few months, Ma Teng's game empire plan had already been put into action!
With Xiao Yi's assistance, Fang Jueyu built the entire server in just two weeks. Under the crazy overtime hours of all the employees at Tengxun Company, they finally finished creating this game a month before the Lunar New Year.
Because they really didn't know what kind of market impact this game could cause, they only produced 100,000 units of the gaming equipment for the first batch.
For a long time, the internet was flooded with Tengxun's advertisements, but the results were not promising. The reason was simple, any technology surpassing its time initially elicited a chorus of skepticism.
80% sensory experience, even including touch and pain? How was this possible? Even those advanced countries at the forefront of technology couldn't achieve this, right?
The human sensory system is an extremely complex synergy; how could just a helmet create a game world comparable to the real world in a virtual space? It was easier said than done.
Not only that, Tengxun invested a lot of manpower and resources into this process, seemingly like burning their bridges.
If this game failed, Tengxun would undoubtedly suffer a significant injury— the investment and effort would all be in vain.
For a while, Tengxun's stock fell wildly, and the company's market value evaporated by hundreds of millions of US dollars in just a few weeks!
But Fang Jueyu and Ma Teng were full of confidence. The stock falling was normal, because no one believed they could pull off such a game. Many so-called experts even tried various channels to debunk it.
"Tengxun" became labeled as a scam company. How could a small internet company achieve what an entire nation couldn't? Wasn't this insulting players' intelligence?
However, facing this situation, Fang Jueyu and Ma Teng were grinning ear to ear. Taking advantage of this opportunity, they gobbled up a large portion of shares on the market. Combined, their total shares almost exceeded 95%!
Finally, the day of the official game launch arrived. For this release event, Tengxun selected 100 volunteers from all over the country and even some from other parts of the world for a live experience.
These volunteers were randomly chosen—a mix of people from Huaxia, other Asian countries, Europe, and the Americas. Their only common trait was that they were all hardcore VR gaming players.
Naturally, they were bewildered when invited—80% realism, how could this be? As hardcore players, they knew just how challenging this was.
Of course, they hoped someday such a game would appear, but that was like a dream, impossible to achieve in the short term.
But Tengxun was saying they had created such a game, even inviting them to experience it!
Some came with excitement and anticipation, others with doubt and ridicule. Every experiencer had different thoughts, but attracted by Tengxun's generous remuneration, they all came to the pre-release event.
The release event was broadcasted live over the internet, with a hundred pieces of equipment prepared for the live broadcast. In the center, there was a huge screen displaying everything happening in the game.
The broadcast was set to start at 7:30, but by 7:00, the live stream room was packed with viewers. Many were not there for the game, but to see the spectacle.
"Can someone experienced weigh in, how credible is this 80% realism?"
"This is nonsense! Visual experiences can certainly reach high levels of realism, but to create touch, pain, and other senses, it's not just something technology alone can achieve."
"Agreed with the previous commenter, waiting to see Tengxun make a fool of themselves."
"I bet those attending the experience are all shills!"
"@Ma Teng, pay me and I'll play a shill for you too!"
"No, no, no, I heard that even Dean Fang joined this project, don't forget that person is extraordinarily wealthy!"
"What good is money? Can money buy technology? Have him buy me a lightspeed spaceship to see if that works! This is a limitation of current technology, no blind optimism!"
"Mr. Ma, what do you think these people's reactions will be later?" Fang Jueyu and Ma Teng sat cozily drinking coffee in a room not far from the broadcast room.
"I don't know, but it'll definitely be spectacular!" Having experienced it himself, Ma Teng had no doubts about this game. Anyone who tried it would be captivated instantly, and he was no exception!
"Have you considered that even if this live broadcast conquers all the experiencers, they might still be accused of being shills?" Fang Jueyu asked.
"Hahahaha, don't worry about that. I've already thought of a way to solve it," Ma Teng pointed to a small device next to each piece of equipment, "Do you know what that is?"
"What is it?" Fang Jueyu had never seen these things before.
"This device measures human pain and quantifies it into levels. I got someone to take it from a hospital," Ma Teng explained. "It also tests body temperature, heart rate, and various indicators. The reactions from these devices will prove many things."
"Impressive!" Fang Jueyu gave a thumbs up. In some aspects, he really couldn't compare to Ma Teng.
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The time finally arrived at 7:30, and a beautiful hostess walked to the center of the studio. She began introducing the game, but given all the overwhelming publicity, this introduction seemed entirely unnecessary.
"Today, we have created a mini battle map!" The hostess said to the big screen, where a complex terrain of a desert battlefield already appeared.
"100 experiencers will engage in a free-for-all on this battlefield. While negative senses like pain and temperature are reduced to 10%, the realism of everything else is around 80%. The audience can totally use on-site instruments to verify the truth of the game's claims!"
"Impressive, Tengxun seems to have thought this through well. Using instruments makes it way more reliable than relying on an experiencer's words."
"They're really confident, could they actually have created such a VR game?"
"No way, must be just a hype thing, right? If they really pulled this off, the gaming world would be turned upside down."
"This extends beyond just gaming!"
100 volunteers, feeling both nervous and excited, stepped into the experience area. Under the guidance of the staff, they all put on those technology-infused helmets, waiting for the game to start.
"All 100 volunteers are ready!" the staff reported.
As the equipment powered on simultaneously, all the volunteers' visions went dark. When it lit up again, what appeared before them was a desert landscape almost exactly like the one on the projection.