54: Chapter 54 The Real Fangs
The hunger was real.
While Lin Feng was squatting at the entrance of the restaurant waiting for his meal, Margaret came out carrying a plate of mushrooms.
"Fresh out of the pan."
Lin Feng took them and began to eat, head down.
Halfway through his meal, his phone rang.
It wasn't a call, but a push notification.
It was from V World—the virtual platform with fifty million daily active users.
The notification title read:
[V World New Launch: Xinfeng Town. Experience True Happiness without leaving your home.]
Lin Feng stared at that line of text, and his chewing motion stopped.
Margaret saw that something was wrong and leaned over to look.
After reading it, she was also stunned.
---
Lin Feng clicked into it.
The screen loaded for three seconds, and then a virtual world appeared.
The mine, the church, the bar, the restaurant—it was exactly the same as Xinfeng Town.
Even the signs at the entrances had been copied.
[The Last One]—the name of the bar.
[Still Open]—the sign for the restaurant.
Even that 'Ear' sculpture in the church had been recreated inside.
A virtual person stood in front of the sculpture, talking to it.
Bullet comments floated across the screen:
"Does this town really exist?"
"I heard the prototype is in Pennsylvania, but you can't go there."
"It's great that you can visit here without leaving home."
Lin Feng put his phone down and continued eating his mushrooms.
Margaret asked, "You're not watching anymore?"
Lin Feng said, "I've seen enough."
Margaret asked, "And then?"
Lin Feng swallowed the last bite of mushroom and stood up:
"Going to the church."
— —
In the church, the seven of them had already exploded with anger.
Alex held up a tablet, his face flushed red: "They plagiarized us! This is blatant plagiarism!"
Rachel was so angry her hands were shaking: "They even copied our designs! The proportions of that 'Ear' are exactly the same as on my blueprints!"
Tony frowned: "Technically, they could indeed do it. They have holographic scanning and AI modeling. The question is—how did they get the data?"
Everyone looked at Yuki.
Yuki had been typing away at her computer for ten minutes.
She looked up and handed over a slip of paper:
[Someone has been to Xinfeng Town. They took the data.]
Lin Feng took the slip and looked at it for three seconds.
Then he asked, "Who?"
Yuki typed a bit more and turned the screen around.
On the screen was a photo—a surveillance screenshot.
A young man wearing a hat, head lowered, had stood at the church entrance for a long time.
The time was a month ago.
Alex leaned over to look: "Who is this? Never seen him."
Rachel shook her head.
Tony shook his head.
Sam shook his head.
Jenny shook her head.
Chris shook her head.
Yuki handed over another slip of paper:
[The name he registered with was David. But from IP tracking, he belongs to V Company.]
The church went silent.
---
Lin Feng squatted down and looked at the screenshot.
He was silent for a long time.
Then he spoke:
"So?"
Everyone was stunned.
Alex asked, "Boss, what do you mean by 'So?'"
Lin Feng looked up at him:
"They copied it, and then?"
Alex opened his mouth but couldn't find the words.
Lin Feng continued: "What they copied was the mine, the church, the bar. But that's all they can copy."
He stood up, walked to the church entrance, and pointed outside:
"George and the others are over there growing mushrooms. Edna and the others are over there talking. Mike is over there mixing drinks. Tom is over there filming."
He turned back to look at the seven of them:
"Those things, they can't take away."
—— ——
That night, V World's 'Xinfeng Town' went online.
The data looked very good.
First-day online: three million people.
Comment section: a wave of positive reviews.
Someone said: "Finally don't have to drive to Pennsylvania anymore."
Someone said: "It's even clearer than the real thing."
Someone said: "That 'Ear' really can hear echoes, it's amazing."
Alex scrolled through those comments, his expression becoming increasingly grim.
He turned to look at Lin Feng:
"Boss, is it really going to be okay?"
Lin Feng was squatting at the entrance of the restaurant, chewing on a straw, looking at the church across the way.
George and the others were inside singing. Laughter could be heard even through the windows.
Lin Feng said slowly:
"Alex, believe it or not, those people will play for three days at most."
Alex was stunned.
Lin Feng said: "After three days, they'll realize that smiling at a screen is different from smiling at a real person."
He stood up and patted his backside:
"Let's go, time for bed."
——
Three days later, the number of online users for V World's 'Xinfeng Town' dropped to one million.
A week later, it dropped to three hundred thousand.
Different voices began to appear in the comment section:
"Got bored of it."
"It's just so-so."
"Why can't I talk to the people inside?"
"They just say those same few lines over and over, the AI isn't smart enough."
Alex scrolled through these, laughing so hard he couldn't stand up straight.
He ran to find Lin Feng:
"Boss! You were right! They really did get bored!"
Lin Feng was at the farm, picking mushrooms with George.
He didn't even turn his head:
"There wasn't much to say about it in the first place."
Alex asked: "Then what about us?"
Lin Feng put a mushroom into the basket:
"We continue."
---
V Company didn't give up.
Two weeks later, they released a new feature: Real-Person Connection.
Users could have video calls with real residents of Xinfeng Town within the virtual version.
The first batch signed up were a few young people—the ones who had left Xinfeng Town.
When Alex saw the list, his face turned green again.
He went to find Lin Feng:
"Boss, they're poaching people!"
Lin Feng glanced at the list and nodded.
Alex asked: "You're not worried?"
Lin Feng said: "Not worried."
Alex asked: "Why?"
Lin Feng pointed at George:
"Ask him if he's willing to go."
George was picking mushrooms nearby. Hearing this, he looked up.
"Go do what?"
Alex said: "Go talk to a screen."
George thought about it and shook his head:
"Not going. Can that thing hand me a mushroom?"
——
A month later, V World's 'Xinfeng Town' project was quietly taken down.
No announcement, no explanation.
When Alex scrolled to this news, he was eating mushrooms in the restaurant.
He was stunned for three seconds, then rushed out to find Lin Feng.
Lin Feng was squatting at the entrance of the town, watching the sunset with Margaret.
Alex ran over, panting for breath:
"Boss! That V World project has been taken down!"
Lin Feng nodded.
Alex asked: "You knew?"
Lin Feng said: "I guessed."
Alex asked: "How did you guess it?"
Lin Feng thought for a moment and said:
"Because fake things can't last very long."
Margaret smiled beside him.
[End of Chapter 54]
Because I have things to say and there's a character limit... so, I'm writing it here.
Next Chapter: Ultimate Showdown. V Company is going to hold a global livestream to go head-to-head with 'True Happiness'.
Everything is hard—thank you for accompanying me on this craziness until now! Sending late Lunar New Year blessings—Happy New Year's Eve! Happy New Year! May everything go your way! Good health! Peace and happiness! Happy Lantern Festival, and may everything go smoothly in '26!