The Real World of Online Games

At the end of the 22nd century, consciousness bridging technology allows humans to directly project their brains into virtual space. The carnival of capital has spawned countless homogeneous and inferior worlds, until one day the neural ports of players around the world receive anonymous invitations at the same time. When 30 million people stepped into the ruins of time for the first time, their skin felt the burning pain of the ancient Egyptian sandstorm, and the iron smell of acid rain in the cyber city remained on the tip of their tongues. In this game without health bars and skill trees, even the starlight reflected in the NPC's pupils flashed in sync with the real universe. The first batch of pioneers disappeared collectively seven days later. Their bodies left in reality were still breathing, but their brain waves showed the waveform of a deep coma. What's even weirder is that the plague spread curve of the medieval city-states in the game actually completely coincides with the growth of cases in a certain city in reality. When the player cuts open the energy core of the mechanical tyrant in the virtual world, a wail of an unknown frequency band comes from the depths of the Pacific... This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.