116: Chapter 116 The whole class was stunned; a new world that overturned the entire world.

There was a deathly silence in the group chat. One second. Five seconds. A full twenty seconds passed.

The "Grade 6 Class 2 Big Shots" group, which was usually as noisy as a wet market every night, seemed to have everyone disconnected at this moment.

No emojis. No spamming nonsense. Not even the most basic punctuation marks.

Wang Peng held his phone, his palms sweating slightly. Was the internet lagging? Or were these brats scared silly?

That shouldn't be right; it was only eight in the evening, the time when these energetic guys were most active.

Just as Wang Peng was about to open his browser to check the network, his phone screen suddenly flashed. Immediately after. Bzzzz—!

The phone's vibration sound was no longer intermittent but merged into a long, continuous line, making the web of Wang Peng's thumb numb and almost causing him to throw the phone away. The notification sounds were as dense as machine-gun fire.

Sports Representative - Zhang Qiang: [ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ]

Study Representative - Li Ming: [ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ]

Class bully from next door: [ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ]

The screen was full of question marks. They were perfectly aligned, like a long-planned military parade. The screen scrolled so fast that the IDs were illegible.

Finally, someone typed out the first line of Chinese characters.

Zhao Ruilong: [ Wang Peng, did you go to Hollywood to shoot a blockbuster? Which company made these special effects? ]

This sentence was like lighting a powder keg. The group chat exploded instantly.

Sports Representative - Zhang Qiang: [ Holy crap! These lights and shadows! These water reflections! You're telling me this is a game? Is your graphics card powered by a nuclear reactor?! ]

Zhang Qiqi: [ When that zombie pounced just now, that face... ugh... it was too realistic, I was so scared I dropped my phone on the floor! Wang Peng, you have to pay for my tempered glass screen protector! ]

My Baby Lin Xiaoya: [ Wang Peng... that silhouette charging forward with a sword, is it really you? So... so handsome... ]

Seeing Lin Xiaoya's message, Wang Peng's vanity swelled to the extreme at this moment. He felt like he was about to float up to the ceiling.

He squirmed on the sofa like a maggot, his mouth stretching to his ears. "Hehehe... Lin Xiaoya called me handsome..."

Wang Peng wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and tapped his screen rapidly; he had to feign the nonchalant loneliness of an expert.

Wang Peng: [ Basic operation, don't be surprised. This is just a small beta game I happened to play at my brother's house. ]

Wang Peng: [ It's just so-so, the realism barely reaches 99.9%. ]

Wang Peng: [ The main thing is that the zombie's hit feedback is okay, feeling like every punch lands on flesh, though the sword attack feel is a bit stiff. ]

Versailles. Barefaced Versailles. This pretentious tone made the classmates on the other side of the screen gnash their teeth in annoyance, yet they couldn't help but be curious.

Doubts followed immediately.

Class Monitor - Zhao Zilong: [ You're bragging without even drafting it! I've seen the latest 3A game reviews; even a top-tier PC can't run effects like this! This is definitely a CG-rendered video! Wang Peng, you liar! ]

Study Representative - Li Ming: [ Exactly! Current consumer hardware can't run real-time rendering of this level at all. Just the physics of the grass leaves swaying would require computing power on the level of the Tianhe-2! Everyone, don't believe him! ]

Looking at this bunch of unsophisticated hicks, Wang Peng sneered. Doubts? Doubts are good. If they didn't doubt, how could they see how awesome I am?

"Since you don't believe in gods."

"Then I will show you what a miracle is."

Wang Peng opened his photo album. He selected the photo that Lu Yaoguang had snapped.

In the photo, Wang Peng was wearing a sci-fi-looking silver-grey Virtual Helmet, lying on the sofa. On the TV screen next to him, the game screen was displayed in sync—that wooden sword was precisely hacking into the zombie's neck. The motion synchronization rate was one hundred percent.

Send.

Wang Peng: [ Image.jpg ]

Wang Peng: [ Believe it or not. This is the "Virtual Helmet" secretly developed by Guanghui Technology. It's the first batch of global beta tests; even in the entire universe, I am the number one player. ]

Once this photo appeared, the group chat went completely crazy.

That helmet design with extreme industrial aesthetics. That conspicuous Guanghui Technology logo. And the evidence of motion synchronization without any latency. The evidence was irrefutable.

The class monitor, who was just clamoring about a liar, instantly went silent.

Sports Representative - Zhang Qiang: [ Wang Peng! Brother Peng! Grandpa Peng! You are my real grandpa! I beg you, let me go to your house to play once! I'll take care of all your cleaning duties from now on! ]

Class bully from next door: [ I want to play too! I can lend you my limited edition AJ for a month! No, I'll give them to you! ]

Passerby A: [ Brother Peng, do you still need a sidekick? I can help you carry your school bag! ]

Even the school beauty, Susu, who was usually incredibly cold and wouldn't even glance at Wang Peng, popped up in the group.

School Beauty - Susu: [ Classmate Wang Peng, can this helmet... really see such realistic scenery? Can you... take me to experience it too? ]

Looking at the full screen of bootlicking, and seeing the once unreachable school beauty proactively showing favor, Wang Peng felt that his life had reached its peak.

The WeChat contact list lit up with a small red dot. [ Susu requests to add you as a friend ]

Wang Peng glanced at it and clicked accept without hesitation. Don't misunderstand. He wasn't trying to be a jerk. He just purely wanted to make this group of people who usually looked down on him line up to beg him.

This feeling of manipulating all his classmates in the palm of his hand... it's so satisfying.

At this moment, it wasn't just this small class group. With the video Lu Yaoguang posted on her Moments, and with some classmates forwarding the video to Douyin and Bilibili, a storm called "Virtual Reality" was rapidly gathering in the deep sea of the internet, about to stir up a massive tidal wave.

And the man at the center of the storm was currently sprawled on the sofa, holding a phone, with the game screen of slicing Apple showing flashing blades and sword shadows.

"Wife, you missed that watermelon on the left." Lu Li swiped his finger across the screen in an arc and said nonchalantly.

Su Qingxue sat to the side, peeling an orange. Hearing this, she stuffed a slice of orange into his mouth, blocking his instructions.

"Focus on eating yours."

She watched her husband's lazy appearance and couldn't help but shake her head.

Who could have imagined that the madman who had just declared he would "sanction the whole world" and was about to subvert the global technology landscape single-handedly was now acting spoiled and playing tricks with his wife for a high score in a mobile game.

This strong contrast made Su Qingxue feel incredibly real and incredibly at ease.

"Stop playing." Su Qingxue took away his phone, her expression becoming serious: "At eight o'clock tomorrow morning, the official website will release that rendering. Are you sure you don't need to check the copy one more time?"

Lu Li chewed the orange, the sweet juice bursting in his mouth. He rested his head on his arms, his gaze passing over Su Qingxue to look at the night outside the window. In those eyes, it seemed as if he could span the distance of time and space.

"No need to check, one sentence is enough."

Lu Li sat up straight, the lazy aura on his body instantly dissipating, replaced by an edge that looked down upon the world.

He spoke again: "Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly... live?"

Su Qingxue was stunned. She hadn't heard this sentence before. But in these short dozen words, she felt a shock hitting her face. It was a negation of the existing world. A summoning to a brand new dimension. It felt as if just by saying "Yes," she could push open a door leading to a new world.

Although she didn't understand the deeper meaning, this didn't prevent her from unconditionally believing in Lu Li. The decisions Lu Li made were never wrong.

Su Qingxue nodded heavily: "Okay!"

"After tomorrow."

"The world will redefine for us what a second world is!"

"As for those sanctions..." Lu Li chuckled, a trace of mockery flashing in his eyes as he slowly looked toward the West. "I hope their knees are strong enough."