The gaming chairs in the activity room came in all kinds of brands. Among them were several high-end chairs worth over a thousand yuan—top-tier stuff. Of course, those were usually bought out of pocket by wealthier club members and were for their personal use only. The remaining chairs were all purchased with club funds—cheap, no-name gaming chairs from Taobao costing one or two hundred yuan. The three chairs Yan Zhikai had brought over were of this type. Still, despite being cheap, they had all the basic functions. With the backrest fully reclined, there was still a slight angle from being completely flat. It wasn’t as comfortable as lying on a bed, but at least it was better than standing while playing a game.

“Do you two know how to use this thing?” Yan Zhikai suddenly stopped what he was doing while lying back in the chair, just as he was about to put the helmet on. He tilted his head and looked at the two beside him.

Shu Yuxin fiddled with the helmet in her hands for a moment, then nodded. “I’ve watched some tutorial videos on how this kind of VR works… I just don’t know what it feels like once you’re inside…”

By “tutorial videos,” she really meant unboxing and hands-on test videos by some content creator. The helmet of this VR device was very similar to a motorcycle helmet, fully enclosing the head. The difference was that inside the soft lining were numerous high-tech components. You could say that although the helmet mainly functioned like a probe, it was actually even more high-tech than the main unit itself.

“That’s fine. Once you’re inside, there’ll be an AI sprite to help you,” Yan Zhikai said while awkwardly putting on the helmet. “Inside, it’s basically a platform like Steam. I’ll create a discussion group called ‘Nanhu E-sports Club’ later. You guys make accounts, and after logging in, just search for the group. We’ll talk in there.”

After saying that, he finished adjusting the helmet, fiddled with its angle a bit, and then reached over to press the power button on the main unit beside him.

Then—he instantly collapsed back into the chair.

The sudden movement startled Shu Yuxin. “Holy crap, that fast?! He fell asleep already?!”

When she had watched the video before, that uploader hadn’t gone under nearly this quickly.

Before she could finish reacting, she saw Yan Zhikai shift slightly in the chair. “This helmet’s actually pretty comfortable~!”

“…”

Jiang Zixuan put on his helmet next. After lying back in the chair, he pressed the power button on the main unit. He didn’t say a single word throughout the process. With the helmet completely covering his face, Shu Yuxin couldn’t see his expression or tell what state he was in.

As for Shu Yuxin herself, she was a little excited.

Putting on the helmet felt very comfortable. Although it looked like a motorcycle helmet, it was much lighter than one—at least, far lighter than Shu Yuxin had imagined. The gap between expectation and reality was so big that it even felt a little strange. She shook her head slightly, slowly lay back in the chair, and turned on the machine.

Nothing happened.

For a moment, Shu Yuxin wondered if she had pressed the wrong button. She even sat up and peeked through the helmet’s thick visor to check the indicator lights on the main unit. After confirming they matched what the manual described, she lay back down again.

About a minute later, the effects gradually began to appear. Shu Yuxin, who hadn’t felt sleepy at all before, suddenly became drowsy in a very short time. It felt like collapsing onto a bed after a long, exhausting day—extremely comfortable, making it hard to resist the most direct urge of the mind.

To fall asleep.

And so, Shu Yuxin fell asleep.

At least, physiologically speaking, her body was in a sleep state.

Her sensation now was very strange. Her thoughts and consciousness were extremely clear—so clear that she could even recall racing four-wheel-drive toy cars with the chubby kid next door back in fifth grade. Yet at the same time, everything felt unreal, as if it were all a dream—including everything she had experienced before.

This state of mind resembled that of enlightened sages who had seen through worldly dust and transcended the mortal realm. Unfortunately, Shu Yuxin, having entered this state passively, couldn’t come up with any profound philosophical insights. And she didn’t have time to anyway—before she could fully react, everything around her changed again.

Or rather, it wasn’t exactly “around her,” because she no longer knew where she was or what state she was in. If she had to describe it, it was like suddenly going from an empty, silent room to a bustling marketplace—noise everywhere, yet she couldn’t understand a single word.

This state lasted just as briefly. After a few seconds—perhaps even less than one—she suddenly felt a sense of relief and comfort, like being pulled out of water. Then everything around her became clear, and for the first time, she truly observed the internal space of this immersive VR device.

Very ordinary—that was Shu Yuxin’s first thought.

The entire space was pure white, with nothing else in sight. She couldn’t even see her own body. She was simply a viewpoint, fixed in the center of the space. It resembled the main menu of some ordinary VR systems, though the sensation was completely different.

Clearly, Shu Yuxin hadn’t yet adapted to the neural feedback simulated by the device. She felt like her whole being was floating.

“Hello, and welcome to Huanyou VR, a product of the Huameng Corporation. I am your intelligent assistant sprite, Mengmeng.”

As a pleasant female voice suddenly sounded, a palm-sized fairy girl appeared in a flash of light before Shu Yuxin’s “eyes.” The fairy wore green clothes and had a slightly Western fantasy style, though her Mandarin was perfectly standard. This kind of character design was common in fantasy novels, movies, and games, so Shu Yuxin was only briefly surprised before quickly accepting it.

“To fully experience Huanyou’s features, you’ll need to log in to an account first~!” The little sprite fluttered her wings in a figure-eight pattern as she struggled to pull out a sign from her pocket—twice her own size—with the words 【Log In】 written on it.

Shu Yuxin fell silent.

Were all Huanyou VR AI assistants designed like this? Cute-style? Was Huameng really that confident everyone would like it…

Even though she had, admittedly, been charmed just now.

“Of course, of course! If you don’t have an account, that’s totally fine too~! We also provide a registration channel!” Seeing that Shu Yuxin hadn’t responded at all, Mengmeng suddenly tossed aside the big 【Log In】 sign and pulled out another sign of the same size, holding it high over her head—【Register】. The discarded 【Log In】 sign floated beside it.

Shu Yuxin tried to move. Although she had no body at the moment, she found that she really could “operate”—something like controlling things with her mind. She didn’t actually know what mind control was supposed to feel like, but that didn’t stop her from using it as a metaphor.

Without hesitation, after confirming she could operate normally, she directly tapped the 【Register】 sign.