Ch 141: The World’s Number One Resort

“Holographic game? In our lifetime?”

After a brief moment of disbelief, Yellow Hair and his friends were thrilled. The concept of holographic games was introduced thirty years ago by American programmer Joe Cook. Holographic games aimed to transmit brainwaves to the gaming system through virtual reality glasses and gaming pods, immersing the player in a virtual world.

In Joe Cook’s vision, holographic games were a new type of game that went beyond reality. After introducing this theory, he published a conceptual book called Holographic Research. Though Holographic Research didn’t sell well, it provided a direction for gaming research.

Over the past thirty years, countless developers have attempted to create games using “brainwave + holography,” but progress had been nearly zero. Although holographic research itself never succeeded, many movies based on holographic games became hugely popular.

Yellow Hair and his friends grew up watching movies like The Ultimate Assassin and Online Games: Wind Soul Continent, which were set in holographic virtual worlds. They had always fantasized about experiencing such games.

They thought their holographic dreams would remain in movies. Now… has a holographic game actually become a reality?

Tears of joy filled their eyes.

“Hey, punch me,” Yellow Hair said, scanning his surroundings uncertainly. Happiness had come so suddenly.

Smack! A slap came down as soon as he finished speaking.

“Damn, could you be a bit gentler?” Yellow Hair covered his face; the game’s realism was too high. Visuals, smells, and pain were simulated with 100% accuracy.

The hit stung, but Yellow Hair felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction.

This game is amazing!

“Ding! Would you like to enable team mode? [Yes] [No].”

The seven wandered around the train station when the system notification rang out. Haunted Town offered both team and solo modes, and since they had entered together, they could freely choose between them.

“Team mode?” Sun Buer checked the mission interface and asked. The others nodded. With their rich gaming experience, they knew that teaming up would make things easier than going solo.

With that, they all made their selection.

“Ding! Team Mission 1: Please head to the Song Residence, locate Song Zhizhi’s love token, and place it in the ancient well at midnight. Countdown in Yunsong: 05:25:00. [Searching phase can be skipped for 50 coins].”

As soon as they finished choosing, the mission interface refreshed.

This was a shared team mission.

“The exchange rate is one-to-one, so 50 coins equals $50… Damn, that’s classic Great Tang,” the group muttered as they looked at the note at the bottom.

There’s no game without microtransactions. As professional gaming boosters, they were familiar with pay-to-progress mechanics used by many gaming companies. Most games allowed small top-ups of ten or twenty bucks, with the costs gradually increasing as the game difficulty ramped up. This was generally within the player’s comfort zone.

But starting with a $50 fee for the first level? It was clear that future costs would only get steeper.

Suddenly, they were reminded of Great Tang fruits and Great Tang tickets… The prices of Great Tang products were consistently high. Thinking about it, the 100 coins given as a bonus at the start seemed like a significant gift!

“A bowl of dog blood, 20 coins. Basic talisman, 300 coins. Stamina boost, 200 coins…” At the top of their personal interface was a shopping icon. They opened it to find various strange items listed inside.

After some quick calculations, they realized that apart from the “bowl of dog blood,” they couldn’t afford anything else…

“The rules are explained below. Players can either purchase items with real money or earn them in-game. It’s the same trick as other game companies: paying makes things easier, but it’s still playable without spending money. Let’s stay calm,” Yellow Hair said, reading the game instructions.

The others nodded.

As gaming boosters, they enjoyed the challenge of beating the game on their own. As for paying to win… No way! Spending money in the game? Not a chance in this lifetime!

The group formed a no-pay alliance. After a brief preparation, they set off towards Yunsong Town in high spirits.

…

“Rapeseed flowers? This modeling is way too realistic. FillTech’s modelers are incredible.”

“FillTech’s company is pretty impressive, too. Established in 1901, a century-old simulation company. They were even visited by an American president at one point…”

“Seriously?”

“Not sure, just what I’ve heard. But the company’s mysterious, that’s for sure.”

…

The group moved forward while chatting. Perhaps due to the simulation aspect of the game, they felt their mental state was much better than in reality. It was like inhabiting a body untouched by sleepless nights and unhealthy habits.

This was the best physical condition they should have at their age. While the main topic of their discussion remained FillTech Company, they silently made a decision: once they left, they would start exercising and maintain a healthy lifestyle!

Feeling at their physical peak was simply amazing!

In the midst of their casual conversation, they crossed the rapeseed fields and arrived at Yunsong Town. The town perfectly embodied the characteristics of a southern water town. Although it was empty, the scenery was exquisite, like an alternative tour of Jiangnan.

“Let’s find the Song Residence first,” Yellow Hair said as they made a round at the town entrance, coordinating their search efforts. Since they were in team mode, they had access to a private chat interface, making it easier to split up for the search.

After Yellow Hair spoke, the others nodded in agreement.

And so, they divided into pairs, each group exploring one of the three streets.

“This game is incredibly well-made. Even the sand is realistically simulated… If it supported large-scale multiplayer, it would be a true second world.”

“Horror games have a smaller audience; it’s a bit far from being the second world. It might work better if it were a cultivation or martial arts game.”

“True. But is this really a horror game? There’s no one here, and it doesn’t feel scary at all.”

…

Yellow Hair paired up with Dabai, and as they wandered along the stone streets, they chatted casually.

Longquan Inn, Pan Family Tea House, Red Peach Trading Company…

Though small, the town had everything one might need. In addition to the historic Republic of China-style buildings, Yellow Hair and Dabai also saw an old, dust-covered vintage car. From these details, the town didn’t seem scary at all. Instead, it resembled a historical research site dedicated to the Republic of China era.

If the weeds were cleared and the streets tidied up, it could definitely be developed into a tourist attraction.

The two continued through the commercial area and soon reached the southern district of Yunsong. Judging by the houses and the stone lions in front, this was the wealthy section of the town.

“Hey, Old Yellow, could that be the Song Residence?” Dabai pointed to an old mansion on the south side. Its entrance was half a meter taller than the others, and the ferocious stone lions out front indicated it was the home of the wealthiest of the wealthy.

In the center of the entrance hung a plaque with golden edges, inscribed with the characters “Song Residence.”

“Ding, task location found: Song Residence.”

Yellow Hair approached and touched one of the stone lions, triggering a system notification.

“Send a message to the others,” Yellow Hair said with a sigh. Receiving a task notification upon touching an object was just like the mechanics in online games.

He had every reason to suspect that the developers of Haunted Town had played a lot of online games…

They sent private messages to the other four. Shortly afterward, their teammates arrived.

Now that the moon had risen, a layer of mystery covered the entire town of Yunsong. They checked the remaining time: 03:01:02.

Three hours left—ample time.

“Let’s head inside.” The group gathered and exchanged a few words before entering the mansion. Haunted Town was simulated so realistically that, after wandering around for two hours, they were fully immersed in the experience.

The Song Residence was structured as a large, three-courtyard complex. Though it was uninhabited, it still contained beds, teacups, and ink brushes—all in good order.

They searched room by room. Since the item they were looking for was identified as “Song Zhizhi’s love token,” they focused their efforts on the rear courtyard. But forget about finding a love token—they even flipped through all the bedding without triggering any game prompts.

“What did people use as love tokens during the Republic of China period? Hairpins? Love letters? Roses?” Sun Buer asked as he scanned the surroundings, feeling a bit lost. It was already 11:20 PM.

He had almost dug up the ground in his earlier search.

“We’ve searched everything… Should we spend 50 coins to get a hint?” Dabai suggested. They had been searching since 9 PM and were getting a bit exhausted.

“Typical trap!” The others sighed. Now they understood why “Task 1” had the note… Is this a pay-to-progress scenario?

They had 700 coins, but spending money on the very first task felt a bit disheartening.

“This game design… A horror game turned into a detective one,” the seven of them stared at the moon as Sun Buer grumbled. He didn’t feel the horror; instead, it was more like a brain teaser.

Sun Buer was sitting in the main hall on a grand master’s chair. Above him hung a plaque inscribed with “Immortal Fame.” Below the plaque was a portrait of Confucius, along with some candleholders and paper offerings.

After speaking, Sun Buer paced around restlessly, then casually picked up a candleholder—

“Ding, congratulations, player Sun Buer, for finding the love token: Song Zhizhi’s candleholder.” The moment Sun Buer grabbed the candleholder, the system notification popped up.

Sun Buer: … A candleholder as a love token? What a mystery.

He checked the candleholder’s properties.

[Song Zhizhi’s Candleholder]: Summer of 1920, gifted to Song Zhizhi by Zhai Rong.

The description was quite simple.

“Is this a horror puzzle? Who are Song Zhizhi and Zhai Rong? A storyline?” Yellow Hair examined the candleholder. As game boosters, they were quicker at processing information than the average player. Based on their extensive experience in online games, Song Zhizhi and Zhai Rong were likely key characters in the plot. If not, they were at least important NPCs in the early stages…

“Half an hour left. Let’s head to the backyard.” The candleholder didn’t appear different from any ordinary one. They inspected it from every angle before moving towards the backyard of the Song Residence.

Task requirements: 1. Find Song Zhizhi’s love token. 2. Place it at the backyard well at midnight.

They were now just one step away from completing the task.

“Let’s wait here for a bit.”

Ten minutes later, the seven of them arrived at the backyard of the Song Residence. The yard was about 300 square meters, perfectly rectangular, with an old well positioned in the center. Standing by the well, they looked inside. The well was about the size of a truck tire and over ten meters deep. From their vantage point, it appeared pitch-black and bottomless.

Under the moonlight and amidst the surrounding environment, the well took on an increasingly mysterious aura.

[Horror Town] claimed to be a horror game, but from the moment they entered until now, the seven players had been too busy to feel any horror. Now, with ten minutes left until the task’s deadline, the atmosphere grew increasingly tense as they waited.

“This atmosphere… It’s just like those ‘Pen Fairy’ rituals…” Dabai forced a smile. The eerie silence around the well was driving everyone a bit mad.

“Just think of it as a Hong Kong horror movie. This is supposed to be a horror game, right? If a little ghost or zombie jumps out later, just treat it like a movie and stay calm,” Yellow Hair tried to appear relaxed.

They recalled terrifying scenes from Hong Kong horror films, and then…

!!!

Oh god, it was better not to think about it! The more they recalled, the scarier it felt!

Their anxiety levels spiked.

Yellow Hair: … He was feeling pretty nervous himself.

A gust of cold wind blew by, making everyone’s scalp tingle.

Time ticked by second by second.

Remaining time: ten seconds, nine seconds, eight seconds…

“It’s time.” The moment the timer hit zero, Yellow Hair tossed the candleholder towards the well’s edge, and everyone jumped back.

They leaped ten meters away, instinctively grabbing onto one another.

The candleholder stood by the well’s edge, bathed in moonlight, without any change.

They stared at the candleholder anxiously. Ten seconds passed, then twenty… The deep bronze candleholder remained unchanged.

“This game sure knows how to build tension,” Dabai tried to lighten the mood.

After Dabai spoke, his friends remained silent.

Dabai turned around in confusion. He was standing on the outermost side, while the rest of the group was huddled together, staring at him with eyes full of horror.

“Why aren’t you guys saying anything?” Dabai was baffled. But as he continued to observe, he noticed something was wrong. Everyone was holding hands, standing about three meters away from him. So, who was he holding onto?

Dabai stiffened and slowly turned his head.

Behind him stood a skeletal figure, dressed in tattered rags. Its hair was gray and matted, with dried leaves tangled in it, as if it had just crawled out of the ground.

Dabai glanced down.

He realized he was holding onto the skeleton’s right hand. The hand was nothing but dry bones, covered with black spots. It was far from pleasant to look at.

Dabai looked up. As he gazed at the skeleton, it stared right back at him. Without any skin, its eye sockets appeared like two pitch-black holes…

“Ding, ‘Song Zhizhi’s Love Token’ completed. Congratulations, player, you have entered the Horror Feast [Unique Scene].” Dabai’s mind went blank as the system notification sounded.

“Crunch, crunch—” The notification was like a signal flare. As soon as it ended, a creaking noise started around them.

The seven players scanned their surroundings. The Song residence courtyard now resembled a giant graveyard, with countless skeletons crawling out of the ground. In just a moment, over thirty of them had emerged.

“Ahhh!” The six of them finally snapped out of it and rushed in all directions.

“Wait for me!” Dabai wanted to cry. It wasn’t that he was grabbing the skeleton; the skeleton was holding onto him… It was hard to shake off!

“Bang!” Dabai fell behind, surrounded by more and more skeletons. Just as he thought he was done for, Yellow Hair rushed back with a vase and smashed it onto the skeleton.

“Run!” Yellow Hair grabbed Dabai and pulled him along.

The group gathered at the courtyard entrance, adrenaline pumping. Though there were many skeletons, they moved slowly, likely because this was a beginner’s quest. This gave them enough time to escape.

“Damn it, the puzzle game turned into a zombie fight.” They dashed toward the exit, complaining as they ran. This game… was thrilling!

The Song residence had a three-part structure. They escaped from the backyard, hoping for a break, but more skeletons kept emerging from the ground.

“I’m done, I can’t handle this anymore.”

Sun Buer was close to breaking down. The mansion and the skeletons were so realistic; the game designer clearly had a twisted sense of humor!

“Ding, exiting now will result in a team mission failure for ‘Horror Feast.’ Are you sure you want to exit?” Sun Buer found the exit button, and a prompt appeared.

Sun Buer hesitated.

“Don’t quit yet, keep fighting the skeletons! Hold on for ten more minutes!” Yellow Hair suddenly urged.

Everyone: ???

“Look at the interface, there’s a countdown. I just hit one, and it added experience points,” Yellow Hair explained briefly.

The others quickly opened their personal interfaces.

Horror Feast: 09:23

There was indeed a countdown. Being professional game boosters, they quickly grasped the mechanics of [Horror Town].

[Horror Town] was divided into puzzle-solving tasks and monster-fighting phases.

The puzzle part was “Song Zhizhi’s Love Token.” Now, they were in a mandatory monster-fighting phase. Defeating monsters gained them experience points, which would help strengthen their characters for future missions.

Based on typical game mechanics, if they didn’t survive the ten minutes, the mission would probably count as a failure…

“Smack, smack—”

“Crack—”

After realizing this was a monster-fighting game, they felt somewhat calmer. With the mindset of “it’s just a game,” they picked up anything they could use as weapons and started battling the skeletons.

In this chaotic brawl, skeletons fell one by one, and their experience points steadily increased.

“Eek eek.”

Two minutes remained in the feast, and victory was in sight. Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew, and a corpse covered in sores appeared, moving with a stiff, jerky motion.

The rotting corpse wore a tattered long robe, clearly of a higher level than the other skeletons.

“A boss…” Yellow Hair and the others immediately recognized the level of threat. As the corpse drew closer, their tension mounted.

“Bang—”

“Horror Feast [Unique Scene] has ended. Enjoy the game.”

They tried to brace themselves for a joint effort, but the corpse was too powerful. Before they could even react, they were swiftly KO’d.

The countdown for the “Horror Feast” ended. The scene before them reset to its original state.

They were stunned, still trying to process what had happened. They touched their necks… they had been bitten to death by the corpse. The scene felt so real; their deaths had been gruesome.

“The [Unique Scene] is a one-time mission,” Yellow Hair read aloud from the game instructions as they sat on the ground to catch their breath. “There are over a thousand unique scenes in the game. Whether solo or in a group, each player can only encounter a unique scene once… As expected, killing monsters increases experience points. That was the unique scene for ‘Song Zhizhi’s Love Token.’ Unless we delete our characters, we won’t encounter it again.”

The group felt a bit conflicted after hearing this.

“Did we just waste it?” Sun Buer asked hesitantly. He had defeated 21 monsters, gaining 21 experience points. From a leveling-up perspective, the [Unique Scene] seemed a bit wasted.

Now that they had grasped the skeletons’ patterns, they could have gained more experience points. Even the boss encounter felt squandered.

“Should we delete our characters?” Sun Buer suggested, and the others nodded in agreement. The thrill of [Horror Town] was exhilarating, and though the previous scene was terrifying, it brought a sense of satisfying challenge.

They had fought for ten minutes, feeling an adrenaline-pumping rush.

“Oh wow, there’s a personal experience leaderboard, a horror points leaderboard, a gold leaderboard… [Horror Town] really has it all,” someone pointed out as they explored the interface further.

As they explored, they found more features. [Horror Town] might be both a single-player and multiplayer game, but that didn’t stop it from having global leaderboards. At the moment, the top player on the experience leaderboard was from Japan, boasting a score of 201.

The highest score among their group was only 32.

A huge gap.

“Delete the characters!” Yellow Hair declared without hesitation.

Why do games have leaderboards? To spark players’ competitive spirits. Now that they saw the world rankings, they felt an intense desire to compete with players worldwide, fueling their excitement.

The seven of them deleted their characters and exited the game.

Half an hour later, they grouped up and re-entered. Huang Xiaoming was now Huang Daming, and Dabai Bai had become Dablack Hei.

“There’s nothing left.”

“Looks like it’s really gone…”

“Crap!”

They glanced around, feeling a wave of despair. Just like the first time, they were at the Yunsong train station with their army-green bags. However, this time, the system’s 100 gifted coins were missing!

According to the game instructions, the system-gifted coins were a one-time gift and did not reset with each new character.

What kind of game was this?

This is what happens when you don’t read the manual!

After their initial frustration, the group resumed the game.

With the game time running at a 2:1 ratio compared to real-time, and with prior experience, they quickly completed the “Song Zhizhi’s Love Token” quest.

Yellow Hair and his friends were having a blast in the game.

Meanwhile, the Great Tang glasses were being signed for and delivered to buyers after their overseas journey.

…

“Ahhh! Can someone explain the relationship between Zhai Rong and Song Zhizhi?”

“Does anyone know where Song Chengde’s ruler is? I’ve been searching for ages and still can’t find it.”

“I’m completely obsessed with the puzzles. The Horror Feast is way too terrifying! I keep getting bitten to death by zombies, skeletons, and the zombie king. The ways to die are shockingly thrilling.”

“Haha, what’s so fun about fighting monsters? I prefer following the storyline. It would be amazing if there was a global server…”

“My dream of full immersion! I’m crying! The game’s anti-addiction system limits playtime to eight hours, and it’s just not enough!”

After some initial exploration, players began to grasp the rules of [Horror Town].

The game consists of both a storyline puzzle-solving mode and a monster-fighting, level-up mode. These two aspects occur simultaneously. If players aren’t interested in leveling up, they can simply get themselves “killed off” quickly when the “Horror Feast” starts, a feature particularly favored by more timid female players.

As for why they aren’t scared…

The in-game store offers a new item: “Out of Sight, Out of Mind,” which costs 20 coins. Its main function is to get the player “killed off” in one second, skipping the horror scene altogether.

Twenty coins equal 120 yuan, which isn’t cheap but is still within the budget of some players willing to spend on in-game currency.

As more players joined, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” quickly became the top-selling item in the horror-themed store. With the increasing number of purchases, [Horror Town] sparked even more discussions.

Over the next week, [Horror Town]‘s innovative gameplay and immersive experience quickly propelled it to the top of social media rankings on Weibo, Douyin, Twitter, and similar platforms.

“Great Tang’s Horror Town” made it into the global search TOP 50.

This was an unexpected topic that appeared out of nowhere, ranking even above “U.S. Presidential Fiscal Meeting.”

As discussions about [Horror Town] intensified, curious bystanders joined the wave of buying the Great Tang glasses.

If the Great Tang glasses were part of a global marketing strategy, it was undoubtedly successful.

Traffic to the Great Tang website surged, and orders poured in like snowflakes. Amidst all the hype and the rush to purchase, ten days later, visitors were shocked to find that the Great Tang glasses were sold out. This marked the second time, following the Great Tang fruits, that a product sold out on the official website.

Customers: … Feeling a bit lost.

Amidst the online complaints about the [Horror Town] shortage, in an ordinary apartment in Shenzhen, Sun Dahe couldn’t stop grinning. Fifty pairs of glasses… sold at double the price—what a windfall!

And now… sorry, Great Tang’s items are limited. Not to mention fifty pairs, even getting your hands on just two is impossible now.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️