177: Chapter 177 Is this the pinnacle of human-computer interaction?

Zhang Yu felt himself appear in a pure white room. As far as his vision could reach, there was only an immaculate white, boundless and without distinction between up, down, left, or right.

In the center, a black sphere the size of a fist floated silently.

[Mr. Zhang Yu, I am Xiao Zhi, the assistant for the Zheng Tu 1.0 Consciousness Helmet. We meet again! Please focus your attention and imagine pushing this black sphere.]

A beginner's tutorial? Hearing the female voice, Zhang Yu thought to himself. He then obediently tried to push the sphere with his imagination. In an instant, the sphere actually moved about half a meter to the right.

Was it really this magical?

Zhang Yu felt as if he had discovered a new world. Although he knew it was mind control, he still felt an indescribable wonder when the sphere moved.

He could really control actions with something as intangible as thought.

Zhang Yu focused his mind again, this time imagining the sphere bouncing up and down. The black sphere indeed began to bounce in the air like a ping-pong ball, each rise and fall precisely mirroring his thoughts.

[Next is the Gomoku challenge. Please defeat Xiao Zhi.]

The helmet assistant had Zhang Yu play a game of Gomoku with it, clearly on purpose. Xiao Zhi's moves were incredibly foolish. If it wasn't intellectually disabled, defeating it would be effortless.

After Zhang Yu's victory, the voice of the virtual girl remained sweet.

[The tutorial is complete. Please call for Xiao Zhi if you need any help.]

As soon as the words fell,

the white room vanished. Before Zhang Yu's eyes appeared a computer desktop—exactly like an ordinary computer desktop. Aside from a few fixed applications and a Fangzhi browser, there was nothing else.

From this point, Zhang Yu was on familiar ground.

With a single thought, he opened the browser and began downloading commonly used media and communication software.

Opening the communication software, Zhang Yu greeted his colleagues in the 'slacking off' group chat, immediately causing a wave of surprise.

This 'typing' experience also shocked Zhang Yu. Thoughts truly became reality. With just a thought, the text was already sent. It seemed he needed to be more careful in the future, or else some of his less-than-ideal thoughts might be seen by others, which would be embarrassing.

Zhang Yu's operation became increasingly proficient.

Leaning back in the comfortable virtual office chair, he savored this unprecedented mode of communication.

All his mental energy was focused on thinking and expressing itself. There was no longer the physical hindrance of fingers searching for keys on a keyboard. This near-zero-latency interaction between thought and the digital world brought a sense of fluid, effortless smoothness.

After watching an immersive 3D movie, Zhang Yu thought with emotion, 'This money was really well spent.'

'It's hard to fathom how this company managed it. All of this is truly incredible. If people in design professions used this helmet, it would be like using a cheat tool. Who knows how many times efficiency would increase? It could completely be called a revolution.'

Is this the pinnacle of human-computer interaction?

The only regret was that playing computer games inside the helmet wasn't a great experience. Zhang Yu downloaded the currently hottest 5v5 competitive game, 'League'. He tried it and found he couldn't, with a single thought, gain full map vision or make the enemy's crystal explode.

It was just a bit smoother, after all, operation only required a single thought. He went from a noob to a pro.

Tsk tsk, Zhang Yu declared, 'The clumsy-handed have risen!'

If left unrestricted, any game would be dominated by consciousness helmet users.

After playing a few more matches, each one was a massacre.

This crushing victory brought brief pleasure but also left Zhang Yu feeling a bit bored. When operation was no longer a limitation, the challenge of the game seemed greatly diminished.

'It's like playing games with cheats on,' Zhang Yu murmured to himself.

Exiting the game, with a single thought from Zhang Yu, the AI assistant Xiao Zhi popped up on the desktop, still appearing as that sweet virtual girl.

Zhang Yu asked eagerly, 'When will the game 'journey' be released?'

Since even traditional games like 'League' could feel brand new under consciousness control, what kind of groundbreaking experience would 'journey', a game designed specifically for this helmet, bring?

He had bought the helmet for this game, after all.

Could it really achieve something like the virtual reality seen in movies?

[Mr. Zhang Yu, Xiao Zhi understands your feelings. The lottery for the closed beta slots for 'journey' is scheduled to open precisely at 00:00 on the 23rd of this month. If Mr. Zhang Yu is selected, you can enter then. Xiao Zhi reveals, this is truly the greatest game of the century.]

Zhang Yu's mind stirred, and he continued asking, 'Xiao Zhi, is 'journey' a free-to-play game?'

[That's correct, it is a free-to-play game.]

'Haha, that's really great.'

...

While Zhang Yu was immersed in the experiences brought by the helmet, nearly a million users outside had gradually received their helmets. The storm surrounding the 'Zheng Tu 1.0 Consciousness Helmet' swept across the globe.

Because this company really wasn't lying.

A renowned tech media outlet exclaimed that Third-Party Technology, single-handedly, had pushed the progress of human-computer interaction forward by at least fifty years! Traditional VR/AR concepts seemed so primitive and clumsy in comparison!

Professional fields like design and architecture were the first to see the value. Multiple top-tier design firms were exposed to be urgently contacting Third-Party Technology, seeking enterprise-level cooperation.

The stock prices of traditional tech giants famous for producing high-end monitors, keyboards, mice, and peripherals plummeted accordingly. Analysts widely believed that if mind interaction became mainstream, the entire peripheral hardware industry would face a reshuffle.

The situation was the same within Central Continent. Topics like '#journey helmet#' and '#mind control#' continuously dominated the trending charts.

'I just finished writing code using the helmet. I feel like I can never go back to a keyboard!'

'Help! How do I control my wandering thoughts? I was chatting and suddenly thought about seeing the boss naked, and the message was sent directly! [Socially dead.jpg]'

'Single-player games are fine, but shouldn't the officials of various online games ban helmet users? This counts as cheating, right? It's so unfair.'

'Is anyone reselling? Price negotiable.'

'Hehe, I managed to snag a helmet. It's really amazing. One hundred thousand closed beta slots! I hope I get selected! This faithful girl is willing to trade twenty pounds of fat for one slot!'

'Enough said, you're all rich people. Jealous.'

'...'

Soon, it was the early hours of the 23rd. Today was a weekend. In the evening, after Zhang Yu had finished his ritualistic cleansing, ignoring his girlfriend's invitation, he returned to his room and put on the consciousness helmet.

Right now, even if the world's most beautiful woman was lying on the bed, his heart wouldn't be moved.

Zhang Yu kept refreshing the official website news with his thoughts, involuntarily starting to pray to gods and ancestors. 'Buddha, ancestors, bless me. I must have one of those closed beta slots.'

Finally, as soon as midnight struck, the company released the closed beta list. When Zhang Yu saw the prompt congratulating him on obtaining a closed beta qualification, he was ecstatic, feeling as if he had used up all the luck in his lifetime.

Following the prompts, he downloaded the game package.

The icon for 'journey' was a very frightening monster image, which made Zhang Yu a bit apprehensive. But once the game package finished downloading, he cast that thought aside.

Since this company dared to release this game, safety was surely guaranteed.

'Enter the game.'

Zhang Yu said decisively. After the command was issued, darkness instantly enveloped everything.

Immediately after, the familiar game trailer began playing before Zhang Yu's eyes. In this immersive state, it appeared even more stunning and included some content not in the original trailer, such as the fact that the planet he was going to was originally called Titan.

Following the game's flow, the next step would be character creation and naming.

Zhang Yu thought to himself. He couldn't wait to create a brave warrior to conquer that land. He had already thought of a name: 'The Wandering Samurai from Earth.'

Sure enough, after the screen transition, a prompt appeared: 'Please select breed.'

Zhang Yu excitedly looked at the content below, ready to pick a breed to his liking.

Huh?

Breed?

What did this mean? The moment Zhang Yu processed this, his thoughts froze. He could no longer feel happy.

Because what was listed below were not conventional options like race and class, but a series of... dog breeds.

1. Poodle 2. Border Collie 3. Golden Retriever 4. Chihuahua 5. Samoyed 6. Chinese Rural Dog...