Traveler of the River of Time and Space-Chapter 528 - 12: Steam Punk: Desire City 1

Buzz.

After Jian activated it nearby, the silver virtual pod slowly opened, looking like a very comfortable lounge chair, except for some devices that needed to be worn at the head position. At the top of the pod door was a logo radiating technology, with a large line of text below, using multiple languages, roughly translating to: the company is not responsible for any incidents caused by illegal use of this product according to interstellar laws.

"Let’s begin." Su Ziyu said as he lay down comfortably inside the virtual pod.

The next second.

His consciousness touched the electromagnetic waves transmitted by the instrument, which were not intense and could be easily blocked. An ordinary person would need to enter a dormant state to enter the immersive game, but Su Ziyu could multitask and enter directly.

"No signal connection!"

"No signal connection!" 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Su Ziyu felt his consciousness directly appear in a phantom scenario composed of countless cubes, with a continuous no-signal connection alert appearing at the top of his retina, likely because this planet wasn’t connected to the virtual network of Radiant Technology. However, this did not affect the use of the game pod, except for the central light gate being inaccessible.

In this game pod, there were several smaller light gates that could be entered, likely built-in single-player games.

—— "Steam Punk: Desire City".

—— "The Intruder".

—— "Biological Evolution 2.0".

There were six single-player games in the game pod, with "Steam Punk: Desire City" ranking first in terms of popularity and frequency.

Su Ziyu curiously chose this light gate.

At this moment, he felt Jian light a lady’s cigarette beside him, sitting directly on the sofa outside the entertainment room, picking up a remote control and turning on the TV. The cigarette she smoked had an herb called Spirit Leaf, with a unique taste akin to mint, but after ingestion, it had a mild sedative effect, a common medicine used daily by Spiritualists.

Due to the incomplete Civilization Advancement and lack of relevant legal constraints, many people in this world relied on addictive substances, mostly to combat the whispers of their Minds.

The scene in front of his eyes changed.

When Su Ziyu returned to his senses, he was near an abandoned factory, with a gray sky seeming heavily polluted, and the distant sound of a whistling train. Everything in sight was exceedingly realistic, from the rusty iron frames to the ground covered in sewage and dust, to the ravaged ruins of a great fire ahead, with heaps of garbage piled in corners, and buzzing flies and mosquitoes flitting about.

"Please adjust pain sensitivity, with a maximum of 20%."

A prompt sounded.

Su Ziyu curiously looked around, moved his body slightly, and directly set the pain sensitivity to the maximum.

His abilities were restricted.

Now his state was roughly equivalent to a physically robust ordinary person, with his appearance scanned to remain his own, but dressed in gray, worker-like clothes. Su Ziyu reached to touch his body and found a dagger at his waist, a banknote, and over a dozen coins in his pocket, with nothing else.

"Is it this real? Not even an item inventory?"

"No plot prompts either?" Su Ziyu took a few steps forward, discovering that the game was quite interesting, appearing to be an open-world single-player game with realism exceeding ninety percent; he could even smell the stench from a distant sewer.

Just as Su Ziyu was preparing to rise and explore the virtual scene ahead.

Suddenly, a cold male voice came from the corner on his right, followed by a middle-aged gentlemanly-dressed man with a cane and hat stepping out and addressing him: "Edward."

"According to our informant’s report."

"A batch of contraband has been smuggled into Lumen, possibly hidden at Blood Hand Bern’s factory."

"You must find them quickly."

In this virtual world, Su Ziyu’s perception was also severely weakened.

—— "Sheriff Johnson."

After all, it was just a virtual game. When Su Ziyu’s gaze fell upon the middle-aged man, a prompt quickly appeared over him.

Soon after, some scenes and information quickly emerged like memories, with Su Ziyu now playing the role of a police undercover agent. After working three months of hard labor shifts at the factory under police arrangements, he seized an opportunity to save a local gang’s high-ranking member, securing entry into their organization as an enforcer through the member’s endorsement.

However, due to a dangerous batch of contraband being sent to his city, Lumen, the police couldn’t wait for him to ascend to a higher position and planned to have him collect some information somehow.

"It’s rather inconvenient without an item inventory." Su Ziyu thought to himself.

After delivering these words, Sheriff Johnson prepared to leave. Normally, this should be the time for Su Ziyu to explore this virtual world. But Su Ziyu did not wish to follow the scripted path. He suddenly hurried a few steps to catch up to Sheriff Johnson and intended to test the NPC’s intelligence level in the game.

"What do you want to do?" Sheriff Johnson turned his gaze sternly towards Su Ziyu, cautiously placing a hand on his waist where a revolver was hidden.

—— "Attack [Red Warning]."

—— "Greet."

An immediate message appeared in Su Ziyu’s mind: "Sheriff Johnson is the only one who knows my identity. If I just kill him, I would indeed be free."

It seems like there’s a chance to go down a villain path?

Su Ziyu directly chose to attack, quickly drawing the dagger from his waist, aiming for Sheriff Johnson’s throat. As a former game planner, he knew all too well that judging the setting often necessary involved testing unconventional approaches.

Clang.

A spark flared.

To draw his gun at this distance was too late; Sheriff Johnson amazingly drew his cane in a flash, revealing it to be a rapier, and directly parried Su Ziyu’s attack.

Impressive!

Su Ziyu displayed a hint of surprise on his face. His wrist flipped, and the dagger turned into a streak of cold light aimed at the sheriff’s heart.

In this game, when entering combat mode, the protagonist benefitted from a brief bullet-time, akin to Su Ziyu’s Time Acceleration, but without some level of combat ability, even this advantage couldn’t secure a victory against the sheriff.

"Damn! You really betrayed us!" Sheriff Johnson retreated half a step, his face like ice, with a tremor of his rapier manifesting phosphorescent green flames.

The next second.

A patch of eerie green flames surged forth like a festering infection.

"Crap! You’re cheating!" Su Ziyu stared dumbfounded at the flame engulfing him before his consciousness faded into darkness.

GG.

His consciousness reconnected with the earlier cube lobby.

Su Ziyu touched his chin, gazing at the light gate in front of him, and said: "Interesting."

"Even I ended up crashing."

.........