Waiting For You Online

034. Initial Settings

As the welcoming words surfaced, at the same time He Jin also heard a system sound reading this sentence in his ear.Not long after, he felt his feet leave the ground; he was floating!

He Jin had a moment of panic and nervousness, but soon calmed down. He floated slowly, almost as if he had become a feather.

Through layers of fog, a Lotus Pond waterfall appeared in front of him. He fell gently on a lotus, facing the huge curtain of water. The waterfall was as smooth as a mirror, clearly projecting his character’s image- the Tsing Yi Maiden.

He Jin stared at the figure, and thought of “lifting my left hand”, the figure in the waterfall raised her left hand; he thought “Smile”, and the figure on the waterfall’s projection also smiled.

…… God, he really had turned into the Tsing Yi Maiden!

He then saw the delicate and lovely Tsing Yi in the waterfall changed her expression as a result of He Jin’s feeling of “shock”, and suddenly became wide eyed like– (⊙Y⊙)

He Jin was thunderstruck!…  This, this expression, is too damn exaggerated ah!

With the change in He Jin’s mind, the Tsing Yi in the waterfall also began blinking rapidly.

He Jin suddenly reacted; real people, even if they were having a huge turmoil in their heart, they could still control their surface appearance to look calm, but holographic character wouldn’t be able to do it, the helmet would present the most realistic expression of the player’s current state of mind…

…… Get lost, why do I feel like I’ve been slightly father-trapped^[1]!? Can’t this thing disguise people’s true thoughts and emotions?

While He Jin was puzzled, at the same time his brain also made a controlled reaction. He saw as his little Tsing Yi’s expression slowly began to calm down, becoming calm and collected.

Fortunately, it can do this (=_=) …

He Jin understood a little bit about how the “helmet” works- it felt like an extremely intelligent robot; while the players were trying to adapt to it, it was also adapting itself to the way human brain’s works and constantly learning to fix its end-result.

At that moment, He Jin heard the system voice saying to him: “In three seconds, the initial setting of the holographic character will be started. Countdown, 3,2,1 … Your original game name is Xiao Xian-Jin, do you want to change it?”

>> Yes/No

Friendly tips: After the holographic game deletes all chinese characters, you will have a chance to change your name for free.

He Jin: “Yes.”

Please associate your new game name: __________

He Jin: “Ah Jin.”

The era of the spirit fairy had passed, He Jin felt it would be much more simple if he was called Ah Jin.

System Voice: “Your new game name is Ah Jin.”

>>Confirm/Re-enter

He Jin: “Confirm.”

System Voice: “Your current race is Spirit; career as a ‘ Spiritual Pet’. The players with spiritual pet occupation can only custom-set their human appearance, do you want to maintain your existing character image?”

>>Yes, please continue/No, I want to change

He Jin: “No, I want to change.”

Before, when they were only playing through the keyboard, appearance did not really matter. But it had become holographic playing now, He Jin could feel his soul playing directly as the character,  so playing as a female character made him feel very awkward. He would have changed it sooner or laler anyway.

>>Change manually/ Scan real face feature and change on existing basis/Select New image from System Image Library

He Jin selected the third one and entered the system image library. Unexpectedly, he found his character’s image from eight years ago inside, still using the same gray clothes as the ones he used to play with all those years ago, a neat haired… boy? In short, it looked like a 13-years old child, with exquisite facial features, but did not really seem feminim. What He Jin liked most about this image is his eyes, they looked cold, like a shotacon killer.

He Jin selected this image. The system asked him whether he wanted to make changes on this basis, such as integrating it with his own real appearance characteristics, He Jin refused.

Then the image projected on the watefall turned into a 13-year-old boy.

The system voice also prompted him to enter the speech setting stage, letting him read the calibration of words that appeared before his eye.

System Voice: “By system testing, your voice is recognized as a young man voice, your true age is about 22 years old.”

He Jin: “It’s all monitored!?”

>>Determine to use the existing sound/Change gender or tone/Adjust age

He Jin: “Adjust the age section.”

Please choose …

>>Under 10 years old (childish)/10-15 years old (teen voice)/15-25 (Youth voice)/25-35 (matured youth voice)/35-45 (vicissitudes of uncle voices) …

He Jin: “10-15 years old.”

System Voice: “3 seconds into voice detection, 3,2,1, please speak …”

He Jin coughed softly, then said to the mirror figure on the waterfall’s surface: “Hi ~”

Hearing the end result of “his own” voice, He Jin was astonished…

So true! I feel like I’m back in my childhood!

Maybe the smart helmet had gained more understanding of him, or maybe He Jin himself had adapted to it, but now he had no need to “deliberately” imagine anything, and could easily manipulate his character in the game: when he wanted to turn around, the figure on the waterfall’s surface would turn; he spoke, the mirrored figure would also speak. He Jin looked at his hands and tried to move his fingers. The character’s skin felt so realistic, it looked really smooth as if it had been photoshopped to look as flawless as possible, and… it also felt a little warm.

He Jin patted the back of his own hand, and actually felt a little pain!

…..man, this high-tech thing is a bit scary!

But the pain was not as strong as it was supposed to be, probably only about half or less.

The initial setting progress bar entered the last step, the system voice sounded once again: “You have set a new image, please choose your development needs …”

>>Growth/Stability

He Jin thought the system was talking about strength,  so of course  he chose growth. The result? He was father-trapped once again by the helmet. He looked at the friendly tips which appeared after- “You picked the growth line. Your character image will experience growing-up with four times faster growth speed than in reality until your character’s appearance reached the same as your real age. After that, it will continue as synchronized growth.”

He Jin: “….” He, he will grow up? OAO

System Voice: “The initial setting is completed, you will officially be logged in the game after three seconds. The initial setting will not be displayed the next time you log in.”

The fog around He Jin suddenly increased and covered up everything. He Jin’s body once again began floating until the fogs dispersed, and he saw himself arrive at one of Celestial’s floating islands, the place he was on the last time he came into the game.

Real flowers growing out and rolling around the clouds, the majestic big birds soaring leisurely through the sky, the turtle fairy slowly crawling on the ground…  He Jin felt like he had crossed over to the game world, all of it feels too real!

The traditional interface and the complex skills layout had disappeared, the only thing He Jin could find now is a translucent “physical blood bar” floating around the upper left corner of his vision.

At this moment, a small elf with transparent wings suddenly appeared before him. The elf was only palm-sized, and his whole body was surrounded with crystal green light. He Jin looked at him in amazement, and heard him saying in a childish voice: “Ah Jin Hello, I am a novice guide to Holographic game version, my name is ‘Xiao Xin ‘. If you have any questions when playing the early version of this game, please ask me, I will help you to answer them ah!”

…… Wow, that’s smart!

He Jin asked, “How do I check my Friend List?”

Xiao Xin: “Just imagine it, and it will come out.”

He Jin tried to imagine it, and his Friend List box immediately appeared before his eyes!

Xiao Xin quickly explained in his ear: “The golden names in the Friend List are players who also use the holographic helmet, while the white names are for ordinary keyboard-user players.”

Fire’s name is grey, he is not online…

Of course, it’s not like Fire spent all his time on the internet, not to mention it was only afternoon now, not yet their agreed time to play—it was the first time He Jin felt so eager to see Fire, he wanted to share his joy of receiving the helmet with him.

He Jin closed the Friend List, feeling a bit down, and asked Xiao Xin: “How do I check my inventory?”

Xiao Xin: “Your inventory bag hangs on your waist!”

He Jin looked down, and sure enough he saw a gray bag tied to his belt. But such a small bag, how many things can be loaded in it?

He unpacked the bag curiously; it was empty, nothing inside.

Xiao Xin: “Please put your hand into the bag.”

He Jin put his hand in, and the usual inventory interface immediately appeared before him!

Xiao Xin: “Please look at the object you want.”

He Jin looked at “Large Grain Dan”, and instantly felt something in his hand. He stretched out his hand, and saw a chocolate bean-like dan pill lying on his palm… This is “Large Grain Dan”?

Xiao Xin: “If you need to take this thing, please put this thing into your mouth.”

He Jin: “…”

He Jin’s blood bar was still full, but in order to experience the “medicine”, he still tried to put the Large Grain Dan into his mouth. Once his palm had emptied, he felt no change in his strength, but there was a refreshing feeling in his brain, which soon disappeared after only two seconds!

…… Right, this is indeed very refreshing heh! (=_=)

Because Fire wasn’t online, He Jin only able to use his human form and couldn’t switch shape. Originally, he was also a little curious about what kind of feeling he’d have after becoming a ferret, but now he had to give up on this thought temporarily.

He followed Xiao Xin and learned some more basic operations of the holographic version, before he finally logged out of the game–Hou Dongyan is still waiting for his feedback!

He Jin took off the helmet, and sure enough, Hou Dongyan eagerly rushed over to him: “How how, is it fun? Let me try!”

He Jin told all the things he had just experienced to Hou Dongyan,  then said excitedly: “I was completely defeated by technology ah, it’s really amazing, almost like transmigrating!”

Hou Dongyan said: “When you were just sitting there, I saw the helmet had a blue light scanning your face, and I also heard you say a few words to yourself…”

“It should be the initial setting,” He Jin handed the helmet to Hou Dongyan’s hand, and said, “This thing seems to be binded to the player, and after the initial setting you can only use it for one person. But, let’s just try and see if you can experience it too.”

Hou Dongyan couldn’t wait anymore and hurriedly wore the helmet. Less than a minute later, he stood up: “No, it’s not scanning,” he paused, then began to excitedly talk, “but I saw the landing interface, it’s really super cool ah ah! I also want to! “

He Jin said jokingly: “I think the price is worth it. Buy one, I’ll support you.”

Hou Dongyan shot He Jin with another “you lucky bastard!” look, his face full of envy, before going to search for the purchase information on the internet.

He Jin held the helmet in his arms and began caressing it once again. He suddenly thought of messaging Fire about this information, but as he was about to do so, he heard Hou Dongyan laughing beside him: “haha! Jin Ge, come and see this post, I’m laughing to death ah!”

Proof-read by: EileenKH123

T/N:

[1] Father-trapped (坑-爹): literally means ‘to trap your father’. As a slang, it means ‘to deceive someone’.  So in this story context, He Jin feels deceived by the game’s technology.

Sooo happy late Chinese New Year!