138: Chapter 138 From the press conference onwards, what you saw was all an illusion of me.

Lu Li stood in the center of the stage, his well-tailored suit shimmering under the spotlights.

He lifted his head, his gaze passing over the forest of dense camera lenses as if piercing through the void, and spoke slowly:

"The monkeys on both banks keep crying, but the light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains."

"Guanghui Technology's self-developed 5nm chip—'Light Boat-900'—is officially released!"

On the giant screen, the architectural diagram of the 'Light Boat-900' chip swirled like a nebula.

This was not just a chip.

This was the masterpiece Lu Li had poured his heart and blood into in his past life.

It was also the most expensive gift he was presenting to this era.

The entire conference venue fell into an eerie silence.

It was the blankness left after one's perception was forcibly torn apart.

It was the sense of unreality as the brain was bombarded by a stream of information.

Brother Hu sat in the front row, his palms covered in cold sweat.

He could even feel as if the oxygen in the air had been drained away by the words of the man on stage.

Even though he had seen many grand occasions, he couldn't help but break into a cold sweat for Lu Li at this moment.

He also felt deep admiration for the strength of his team.

That was a 5nm chip; even he knew what that meant.

"5 nanometers... that used to be our forbidden zone."

In the guest seating area, a white-haired semiconductor expert spoke in a hoarse, excited voice.

He was also someone Lu Li had specially invited from the semiconductor research institute.

The country had actually mastered 5nm chips, and a Lithography Machine was already under construction, but this thing was a collection of various cutting-edge technologies and couldn't be built overnight.

This time, he had come to witness a historical moment.

Lu Li did not give them a chance to catch their breath.

A curve appeared at the corner of his mouth, a look of aloofness that saw through the next thousand years.

"You might be thinking that with this chip, the resolution of the Virtual Helmet must be very high, and it must be the strongest Virtual Reality device."

Lu Li shook his head.

He extended a finger and tapped it lightly against his temple.

"Resolution? No, such low-level physical limitations do not belong to Guanghui Technology."

"'Magic-1 Generation' Virtual Helmet has abandoned all traditional screen imaging."

"We map the images directly onto your brain's visual cortex."

"It shouldn't even be called a Virtual Reality device; it's called a Neural Mesh Virtual Reality Helmet!!"

This sentence was instantly transmitted across the globe via satellite signal.

The originally boiling live stream chat room's comments vanished completely at that moment.

Following that came earth-shattering skepticism.

"He's crazy! Lu Li must be under too much pressure and has lost his mind!"

"Neural connection? That's a term from science fiction movies. Right now, we can't even accurately read a pig's brain waves, and you're telling me you can perform direct brain imaging?"

"If this is true, then Lu Li must be a god, but this world... there are no gods!!"

In front of the screen, Lei Jun of Dami Company stood up abruptly.

His hands were trembling slightly.

As a top industry mogul, he knew better than anyone the weight of the words 'neural connection.'

"If this is true, the current technology tree... is about to be uprooted by this kid."

At this moment, the rhythm in the live stream started to get derailed.

"Impossible!"

"How could neural connection be possible?"

"Even foreign countries don't have this technology, how could we possibly do it?"

"Absolutely impossible! Even Google can't do it. Google's Virtual Reality devices don't even have high screen density, and you're going straight to neural connection?"

Lu Li looked at the comments in the void, his smile deepening.

He suddenly turned around and spread his arms.

"Since everyone doesn't believe it, take a look behind me."

The camera zoomed out sharply following his gesture, providing a panoramic view.

At that moment.

The breathing of hundreds of millions of online viewers worldwide collectively hitched.

It was empty.

It was all empty.

The tiered seating behind Lu Li, which should have been filled with two thousand audience members, was now just a cold, empty expanse.

Along with those expensive broadcast equipment and media reporters, everything had disappeared.

In the entire exhibition hall, there was only Lu Li's lonely figure.

"What's going on? Did the feed freeze?"

"Special effects! It must be a glitch in the special effects!"

Just as people were preparing to start another round of verbal abuse, the ground beneath Lu Li's feet began to disintegrate.

The solid floor turned into fine, glowing dust, and the surrounding walls dissipated like smoke blown away by a strong wind.

In just three seconds.

The exhibition center vanished.

Lu Li was now standing above an endless deep sea, suspended in the air with rolling, deep blue waves beneath his feet and a galaxy within reach above his head.

He turned back again and whispered to the camera.

"Let's reintroduce ourselves."

"From the very beginning of the conference, the 'me' you saw was just a data stream existing within the virtual world."

The camera cut away sharply.

The scene cut back to the stage of the real venue.

Everyone was completely dumbfounded.

In the very center of the stage, a highly futuristic recliner had risen.

Lu Li, wearing the same suit as before, was lying quietly on the chair.

A deep blue Virtual Helmet was clamped over his face, and one could even see his chest rising and falling with his breath.

All two thousand living audience members in the venue were still frozen in the position they had been in when they stood up, as if hit by a freezing spell.

That violent tug-of-war between reality and illusion made many viewers watching the stream feel a wave of dizziness.

It was a physiological defense mechanism triggered because the brain could not process two extremes of reality.

Lu Li raised his hand in reality and took off the helmet.

He opened his eyes, and a lingering afterglow of the virtual world seemed to remain in his pupils.

He stood up and walked to the edge of the stage.

This time, he didn't use a microphone, yet his voice was still clearly transmitted in all directions.

"As you can see."

"There is no CG here, no special effects, only the miracle belonging to Guanghui Technology."

He looked toward the guest seating area.

Liu Yifei felt as if her heart had been struck by a heavy hammer; it was an extreme yearning for the unknown.

These scenes made her mouth go dry.

It was a shock and excitement from the depths of her heart, an urge to bow and worship.

"This world is too tiring."

Lu Li's voice carried a magical power that calmed people down.

"Now, the key is right beside you."

"Ten thousand beta testers."

"Welcome, everyone... cast off the shackles of your physical bodies and join me in ascending to godhood."

Following his final command, the hidden compartments of the ten thousand seats at the venue opened simultaneously.

Tens of thousands of deep blue breathing lights lit up at once.

At that moment, the exhibition center was no longer a building; it had become a stargate to the future.

Every beta tester's hands were trembling.

It was awe for a miracle.

Lu Li lay back down on the chair.

Through the helmet's sensors, he watched as ten thousand consciousness signals began to pulse in the background.

This torrent, capable of crushing the old era, had officially broken its dam.