296: Chapter 296 Dimensional Reduction Attack! Virtual Helmets to Revolutionize the Spring Festival

On the way back to the villa area, the festive atmosphere of the New Year in Mingzhu had become completely intense.

The street trees along the roadside were covered with red lanterns.

The large screens outside the shopping malls were looping advertisements for the Lunar New Year.

On both sides of the road, many shops had pasted brand-new 'Fu' characters and Spring Festival couplets on their doors. Stalls selling New Year goods were lined up, with candies, nuts, gift boxes, and firework-shaped electronic light signs crowded together, bustling with such liveliness that it felt as if the entire city had been soaked in red.

Even the low-altitude traffic lanes were much busier than usual.

Occasionally, one could see a few star wing m1s slowly gliding between the high-rise buildings.

The indicator lights on their tails traced faint trails of light in the night.

If this had been in the past, such a sight would definitely have made passersby stop and exclaim in surprise.

But now, the star wing m1 had been officially delivered. Although the quantity was not yet large, at least in pilot cities like Mingzhu, it was no longer just a concept from a press conference.

The future was flying into reality, bit by bit.

Inside the car.

Lu Li leaned lazily against the seat, watching the lanterns and crowds passing by outside the window, his expression quite relaxed.

Su Qingxue sat beside him, holding a tablet, busy processing the last few documents for Guanghui Group at the end of the year.

At this moment, her encrypted phone suddenly vibrated.

Su Qingxue glanced at the caller ID, her eyes flickering slightly.

"It's from CCTV."

Lu Li turned his head.

"At this hour?"

Su Qingxue answered the call.

The voice on the other end of the line was very polite, but the content was very direct.

CCTV hoped that Guanghui Technology could temporarily add the official live broadcast channel of the Spring Festival Gala into the Virtual Helmet.

The user scale of the Virtual Helmet this year was truly exaggerated.

It had almost become a phenomenal product domestically.

Especially for young users, their first reaction after eating every day was no longer to turn on the TV or scroll through their phones, but to put on the Virtual Helmet and enter the second world.

It was impossible for CCTV not to notice this.

If the Spring Festival Gala this year was only broadcast on TV, mobile, and web platforms without entering the Virtual Helmet, it would be equivalent to voluntarily giving up an extremely huge new traffic entrance.

More importantly, this was not just a simple matter of adding another broadcasting channel.

The immersion of the Virtual Helmet had the potential to make the Spring Festival Gala change from "watching TV" to "entering the scene" for the first time.

After listening, Su Qingxue did not agree immediately.

She just said:

"I need to discuss this matter with President Lu."

"If we cooperate, the authorization interface, live broadcast signal, stage materials, and review process must all be determined tonight."

"Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, time is very tight."

The person on the other end of the line also knew that this matter was urgent, so their attitude was very humble.

Su Qingxue confirmed a few more details with the other party before hanging up the phone.

Lu Li looked at her.

"CCTV wants to enter the Virtual Helmet?"

Su Qingxue nodded.

"To be precise, they hope to open an official live broadcast channel for the Spring Festival Gala inside the Virtual Helmet."

Lu Li was not surprised.

"Normal."

"With the current user scale of the Virtual Helmet, no one can pretend not to see it."

Su Qingxue put the phone aside and said softly:

"Actually, it's not just CCTV."

Lu Li raised an eyebrow.

"Who else?"

"Tencent."

Su Qingxue said:

"A while ago, Tencent approached us."

"They hope to do a New Year themed activity in the Virtual Helmet world."

"At first, they just wanted to create some atmosphere, such as virtual fireworks, New Year red envelope rain, Nian beast activities, and player New Year greetings."

"Later, they proposed an even bolder idea internally."

Lu Li roughly guessed it.

"Hosting a virtual gala themselves?"

Su Qingxue nodded.

"It's not a video broadcast in the traditional sense."

"They want to hold a real virtual gala."

"Users would enter the venue using virtual avatars to watch programs, interact, grab red envelopes, set off fireworks, and even interact with virtual celebrity avatars up close."

"Tencent judged that during this year's Spring Festival Gala, many young people might not stay in front of the TV the whole time."

"It is highly likely that after eating the New Year's Eve dinner and watching TV with the elderly for a while, they will enter the Virtual Helmet world."

"If Guanghui doesn't create Spring Festival content for the Virtual Helmet, it would be equivalent to wasting a massive traffic field."

Speaking of this, Su Qingxue also felt a bit helpless.

"However, I forgot about this matter earlier."

She really didn't ignore it on purpose.

There had been too many things happening at Guanghui recently.

The star wing m1 had been officially delivered.

The overseas version was being exported.

The Kunlun project had started.

The xingyan s1 project had been initiated.

And the smart city renovation in Beining City.

Even with the efficiency of the Dragon Country's infrastructure maniacs, it would probably take about another year for the renovation in Beining City to be completely finished.

This was already an extremely terrifying speed.

Under normal circumstances, a city-level intelligent renovation might not be completed in several years.

But to speed up the progress, Lu Li even took out a formula for a new type of fast-setting cement and high-strength steel from his memories of his previous life.

That kind of cement had a faster setting speed, higher strength, and even more exaggerated seismic performance.

That kind of steel was also suitable for high-strength buildings and smart city infrastructure.

Lu Li casually registered a construction materials company.

Originally, he just thought about earning tens of billions every year, better than nothing.

He didn't really care much about it.

But he himself hadn't realized that once this fast-setting cement was rolled out, it would forcibly compress the construction period of a large number of engineering projects by a significant margin.

In his eyes, this thing was just a small product he casually threw out.

But for the entire construction industry, it was a moderate earthquake.

Coupled with all the arrangements for the New Year, Tencent's New Year gala proposal was instead temporarily pushed to the back by Su Qingxue.

After listening, Lu Li pondered for a moment.

"It's too late for this year."

Su Qingxue looked at him.

Lu Li said:

"Tomorrow is New Year's Eve."

"Organizing a complete Virtual Helmet Spring Festival Gala temporarily now is too rushed."

"Program content, celebrity authorization, stage process, interaction mechanisms, server stress testing, CCTV cooperation interfaces—none of these can be handled in a day or two."

He leaned back in his seat, his fingertips gently tapping on the armrest.

"Let's not do our own virtual Spring Festival Gala this year."

"This time, we will only connect the CCTV Spring Festival Gala live broadcast channel into the Virtual Helmet."

"Wait until next year to officially hold a virtual New Year gala that belongs to Guanghui, or a joint one between Guanghui and Tencent."

After hearing this, Su Qingxue was obviously a bit regretful.

Of course, she knew Lu Li was right.

But the opportunity was really good.

If they could create a sufficiently shocking Spring Festival scene for the first year of the Virtual Helmet's Spring Festival, the significance would be much more than just an entertainment activity.

It would make all users realize for the first time that the Virtual Helmet is not just for playing games, watching movies, or chatting.

It could even carry traditional festivals.

Carry family reunions.

Carry brand-new social activity methods.

Outside the car window, lanterns flew past quickly.

Su Qingxue suddenly thought of something:

"Actually, it's not completely too late."

Lu Li turned his head to look at her.

Su Qingxue said:

"Phantom World."

Lu Li immediately understood what she meant.

Phantom World was the fully intelligent AI scene-building program that Guanghui had previously released in the Virtual Helmet ecosystem.

It was opened to game developers and content creators for use, and its core capability was generating a world with a single sentence.

Although the current Phantom World was far from perfect and many details required manual correction, if it was just to temporarily build a Spring Festival-themed scene, rather than building a large virtual game from scratch, it was perfectly sufficient.