16 Getting into Investigation

A little black car drove into Blue Planet, a little mountainous range in the suburb of Whale City. There were birds chirping in the forest while reptiles crawled by quickly. The bugs' chirping competed with the thrum of the car engine.

Ke Meng got out of the car. He moved his camera gadgets, folding table, and paper box to a flat area.

For an unboxing video, the unboxing part of the ceremony was fairly important.

Unfortunately, the dog-headed people had little aesthetic sense. They had offered their sacrifices in basins twice. It would have been better if they wrapped it nicely.

Ke Meng put the Immense Strength Glove into the paper box. He taped it himself to seal the opening of the box.

When everything was ready, he stood before the camera and began saying his opening piece, "Hi guys. My name is Ke Meng. I received a strange item delivery from a dog-headed friend in Ezhou today. I heard that one can carry heavy items when wearing this glove. I'll review it for you guys today to see whether that's real or not."

Ke Meng opened the paper box in front of the camera, pulling out a worn black leather glove with nails from the paper box.

He performed the automatic suction function before the camera. As soon as his fingers entered the opening of the glove, it would stick to his right palm automatically, fitting every inch of his skin.

He flipped his palm around before the camera, showing how the Immense Strength Glove looked like completely to the audience.

After shooting the item, it was time to demonstrate the application of the item.

Ke Meng walked to his car. He bent down and held somewhere at the car's bottom with a single hand. Then, he lifted it up.

It was very heavy in the beginning, and he sensed an obvious resistance.

His car weighed at least 1,560 kilograms while he weighed 84 kilograms which was the normal weight for a man who was 1.8 meters tall.

He could lift an item that weighed 1,680 kilograms with a single hand when wearing the Immense Strength Glove! Reality proved that Ke Meng could indeed lift the car.

The car's bumper was lifted to his shoulder height in a whoosh.

However, Ke Meng performed it slowly as he was worried about crushing the bottom of the car.

He put down the car and walked before the camera to introduce the Immense Strength Glove's function in excitement, "This glove gives one the ability to carry items that are 20 times heavier than your weight. So, it's proven that the item my dog-headed friend from Ezhou sent is legitimate…"

Ke Meng seemed joyful. He had no doubt that it was fake at all.

What the audience wanted to see was such an exaggerated effect. Normal people would not believe that anyone could lift a car with a single hand.

Ke Meng drove home after he was done shooting the video material. He uploaded the video onto B Site after editing it.

He checked out his pet unboxing review video. The views had risen to 40,000, which indicated that it was spreading fast. 

Time was needed for the video to be reviewed before publishing, so Ke Meng began writing and drawing while waiting.

He drew an image of an eight-point star magic formation on a draft paper. It looked like the magic formation the dog-headed people and the cat-faced people drew.

Both magic formations came from the same source. It should be the summoning knowledge taught by the black ghost apostle. Therefore, the style of the summoning formation was the same.

Ke Meng blinked after drawing the magic formation on the paper. He thought that was it since there seemed to be no obvious change.

Right, the spacetime rock powder was required for the summoning formation. Merely drawing it would not work at all.

The ability to travel through time and space was required to summon Boss Ke. The spacetime rock powder was the only ability that enabled one to cross to another world.

Meanwhile, the spacetime rock powder should be something rare. Although Ke Meng was not a player in the game, he had no idea how much the spacetime rock powder would cost, but it was a no-brainer that not many believers could hold a sacrificial ceremony easily.

…

On Orange Planet, a team of experts had finished watching the entire video. The video ended with the assassin player in leather armor staring at the sky and being forced to log out of the game.

During the sacrificial ceremony, there was nothing in the sky at all. The night was dark.

However, following the three players and the dog-headed little monsters' feedback, the little monsters seemed to be afraid of something terrifying. Even the players seemed to be staring at the terrifying object or person.

The video did not record their source of fear. Perhaps there was a bug in the game that caused an error in the content of the gaming pod system and what the players saw.

"I need the gaming company's person-in-charge to give a rational explanation. Why didn't the video recording include the player's perspective?" a researcher asked in a stern manner.

The gaming company's person-in-charge was sweating all over. Never had he thought that the game would have such a serious bug.

"Our engineers are still looking for the specific cause," he said to buy himself more time.

He had already been scolded as he rushed here. Meanwhile, it was only natural for him to get his team to look for the bug's cause. At the moment, as the person-in-charge, his job was to buy as much time as he could. He could only report everything that happened to the Omnic City Institute's director when he got the official report.

"This is a very serious gaming accident. The Orange Planet Research Institute is paying close attention to this. If the three players really have suffered brain damage, that's the end of your game," the Omnic City Institute's director threatened.

The Orange Planet Research Institute was the highest research institution on Orange Planet. They were involved in the complex industry of interstellar aerospace. Banning a VR game was a piece of cake as soon as their boss questioned it.

However, there were never safety issues coming from virtual reality games throughout history. Therefore, no VR game had been banned before.

Today, the game might be the first VR game ever to be banned by the Orange Planet Research Institute.

The gaming company's person-in-charge scrolled through his screen as soon as he heard that the research institute was following the case closely. As expected, he saw the news of the institute announcing the incident regarding the three players. The cause was still being reviewed at the moment.

"Director, my company will shut the game down now for maintenance. We won't resume it if we can't find the cause. Don't worry about it." The person-in-charge then informed the gaming company to stop the game for maintenance.

Shutting down a VR game for maintenance had never happened in Orange Planet before. After all, the global network on Orange Planet was very developed. A huge update would take a second to download. Therefore, World Game Co. became the first VR gaming company to shut their game down for maintenance.

Soon, the hospitals sent three latest medical reports.

"The three patients' overall vitals are normal. There's nothing wrong, and they're very healthy."

"Are their brains damaged? What about their brainwave status?"

"There's no physical damage on their brains at all. The patients' brainwaves are in a deep sleep mode. It's the effect of strong tranquilizers."

The researchers were relieved to hear that the three players were fine.

The gaming company's person-in-charge loosened his tense muscles hearing the latest news coming from the hospitals.

The players' brains were fine whereas his company VR game was still safe, so there was no risk of being banned.

"Question the patients as soon as they wake up. Bring over the two female players who went offline by force. We need to ask them some details face-to-face," the director said to the control center.

"Copy that."

At the same time, in two rooms with very feminine designs in Omnic City, two girls coincidentally received an investigation summons sent by the director of the research institute.