CH 5: Mystical Helmet

In the Bull and Horse management GroupChat.

This was a small group of just four people.

The group owner was The White horse gallops, while the group members included the three admins from the main group: [Get Up Ten Times a Night], [Level 8 Gale], and [There will be ample time.]

Get Up Ten Times a Night: [Did everyone receive the helmet? ? ? ]

The White horse gallops: [Yes... it's really creepy, it was delivered right to my door. ]

There will be Ample Time: [I found mine by my garage door...]

Level 8 Gale: [Mine was on my desk... I thought it was from a colleague. ]

Get Up Ten Times a Night: [Mine was delivered straight to my dorm room! All three of my roommates were there, and none of them saw it being delivered! And another creepy thing, I don't know if you noticed, I can see the countdown when wearing the helmet, but no one else can. ]

The group fell silent for a moment.

The first to speak was the group owner, The White horse gallops.

The white horse gallops: [...That's definitely creepy. ]

There will be Ample Time: [What kind of company is this? Not only do they know our addresses, but they also deliver the package without us noticing? ]

Level 8 Gale: [Yeah, that's what bothers me the most. The address issue could be explained by our IP addresses. It's not impossible to deduce our real-world location from our IP addresses. But the delivery... I can't figure it out. I'm in Jinling, Night Ten, you're in Jiangcheng, which is 500 kilometers away, but we got the helmets almost simultaneously. ]

Night Ten: [Exactly... I got mine soon after clicking the link... ]

White Horse: [Should we call the police? ]

Ample Time: [We haven't lost anything, so the police might not take it seriously. Besides, how would you explain it to them? That you didn't expect this package? Or that there's an issue with the helmet? No one else can see anything except you. ]

Level 8 Gale: [That's the main problem, it's hard to explain what this thing is to others. I tried recording it with my phone while wearing it, but my phone couldn't capture anything. ]

In reality, Gale was a science teacher and spoke methodically. Ample Time and White Horse agreed with him.

Night Ten: [What if we disassemble the helmet and take a look inside? ]

Level 8 Gale: [We could, but it's risky. I didn't find any place where it could be disassembled. If we break it open, it's hard to guarantee it will work afterwards. ]

Ample Time: [True, we shouldn't cause Light any trouble. ]

The fact that someone could leave a helmet at his garage without him noticing made him somewhat believe what the person named Light had said.

Could this company be a mysterious research institution backed by state agencies?

So far, they hadn't suffered any loss, and he was very interested in fully immersive VR games. The countdown feature had piqued his curiosity.

Level 8 Gale: [I've Private Messaged Brother Light, but he hasn't replied yet. The IP address of that official website doesn't look domestic. Even the domain name doesn't seem normal. I can't find its registration information either.]

Night Ten: [Dark Web? ! ]

Level 8 Gale: [Not sure. ]

White Horse: [Let's wait and see. Right now, any discussion is meaningless. In three days, we'll know more about the situation with this helmet! ]

...

While the players were discussing, Chu Guang, who was in the wasteland, was still busy with final preparations.

5kg of green wheat and some iron tools.

Chu Guang had a hard time moving these items from Bett Street to the wetland park three kilometers away without being noticed.

Shelter 404 was hidden underneath the park, with the entrance located in a nursing home.

There was a lot of vegetation here, and it was next to a lake. Theoretically, there should be a lot of wild animals in the area.

Approaching cautiously, Chu Guang watched for any potential dangers around him.

Luckily, nothing happened.

Checking the marks he had left at the nursing home entrance and ensuring no mutants or marauders had sneaked in, Chu Guang carefully opened the door with his pointed water pipe.

The entrance to Shelter 404 was at the elevator at the far end of the nursing home lobby. Only the dial on that elevator had a B1 floor button.

Chu Guang went down first, throwing the grain in the corridor between the elevator base and the airlock door outside the buffer room.

This area was about forty to fifty meters underground.

To be honest, the corridor wasn't ideal for storing food, but it was better here than in the nursing home where passing mice or mutant cockroaches might find it.

After passing through the two airlock doors of the buffer chamber, Chu Guang entered the hall and looked at Little Seven, who was squatting in the corner.

"Is the forum function of the official website ready?"

"It's done."

"And the players? Have they received their helmets?"

"They have received them."

So quickly?

Chu Guang was slightly surprised.

He had left the shelter at six in the morning, and now it was around one in the afternoon. Only seven hours had passed.

"Is the flow of time really 1:1 between the wasteland and the modern world?"

"Of course, but the time here is equivalent to UTC-04:00 on Earth."

Country Hua's time in the modern world was UTC+08:00, meaning there was a twelve-hour difference, making it 1:00 in the morning in eastern Country Hua now.

Chu Guang sat in front of the computer and logged into the backend of the official website.

Little Seven had added a forum function to the website as instructed, but there was no traffic yet, so there were no posts.

The same went for the database and game galleries.

"Now.. How do I upload photos here?" Chu Guang asked, pointing to the gallery on the screen.

"Just upload them directly."

"How?...I mean, how do I take pictures? Do you have a camera?"

Such a large shelter and not a single device on the entire B1 level—ridiculous.

Even if there were no weapons, there should at least be some basic survival tools.

"Uh, no, but I can use my camera to take pictures for you… What do you want me to photograph? This place?"

Looking at the paper-bin-like robot in the corner, Chu Guang sighed.

"What's the use of photographing that... Forget it, I'll figure out a solution myself."

He couldn't bring mutants here.

However, taking Little Seven outside might be possible.

Most mutants weren't interested in inedible metal objects. With a bit of camouflage, he could leave it on the building's top to guard the area.

The more Chu Guang thought about it, the more feasible the idea seemed.

Logging onto his chat software, Chu Guang saw that all four players had sent private messages, asking about the company he worked for, what the immersive game was about, and the gaming helmet.

To be honest, Chu Guang didn't know how to answer these questions, and it was impossible to tell them the true situation of this world.

He could only make them believe this was a game world.

Only then would they be willing to come to this world as "the fourth natural disaster" and work fearlessly and tirelessly for him.

"Manager."

"What's wrong?"

Looking at Chu Guang, who had turned off the computer and stood up, Little Seven, who was squatting in the corner, asked curiously.

"Aren't you going to reply to their messages?"

"There's no need."

The more he explained to them the more flaws he might reveal. He just needed to use excuses like corporate secrets or state secrets to fool them.

As for the rest?

He would let them guess on their own.

After all, wasn't that what their brains were for? For imagination?

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