This Game Is Too Real

Dawn City Nuclear Power Station, power generation room.

The console screens flickered between blue and green signals, and the low hum of white noise echoed in the spacious room.

An aging reactor sat in the center of the facility, surrounded by a crowd of people.

The faded logo and production serial number gave the reactor a somewhat antique feel, but its streamlined cast shell and intricate design still held commendable qualities.

Not just the Alliance thinks so.

Even engineers from Ideal City held the same opinion.

This is precisely why, ever since residents of the Shelter retrieved this "spare reactor" from the depths of the Metro Line of West State City and built a power station for it, the reactor has functioned as the heart of Alliance industry.

It served not only this purpose but also as a model for study and reference for researchers at Camp 101.

Due to these numerous accolades, Dawn City Nuclear Power Station's fusion engineer Wang Zhiyi proudly showcased this achievement.

Though the Manager wanted them to learn from the Academy, they couldn't afford to be underestimated, right?

Besides, when the students' work is good enough, it prompts the teachers to bring out their real skills in teaching!

Of course, Master Wang's true thoughts weren't so complicated; he simply wanted to represent the Alliance with some bravado in front of the Academy.

What he didn't expect was that after seeing this "Prosperity Epoch's crystallization of civilization," that twenty-something kid merely smirked faintly, even mocked it with a couple of remarks, showing no respect.

Master Wang's face turned red like a lantern, his colleagues worriedly watched him, fearing he couldn't handle his blood pressure.

Nevertheless, Zhong Jingchu, the young man, showed no intention of stopping, even casually added one more remark.

"Too primitive."

"You're the primitive one!" Wang Zhiyi snapped back angrily, "You all are amazing! You're outstanding! What ignition without laser ignition?"

Zhong Jingchu smiled gently and spoke calmly.

"We don't ignite; we cold start."

Wang Zhiyi was taken aback, like a splash of cold water on his head.

"...Cold start?"

He had heard the term from company people, including experts at Camp 101, but both sides suggested not opting for this technology route, even if it's more energy-efficient and effective.

The reason is simple.

Although controlled fusion was a non-renewable resource before resuming Earth-Moon flights, there were plenty of Prosperity Epoch reserves found on the Wasteland.

Given the current scale of industrial production on the surface, it's less than during the economic crises of the Old Epoch, so there's absolutely no need to consider thriftiness.

At least not for fifty years.

Seeing the bewildered expression on the old engineer's face, Zhong Jingchu didn't respond immediately but received a bottle of mineral water from the bionic assistant nearby, unscrewed the cap, and poured it on the ground twice.

This time, not only did the old engineer show a puzzled expression, but other engineers at the Dawn City Nuclear Power Station also looked confused, not knowing what he intended.

Facing those puzzled gazes, Zhong Jingchu continued in an easy-to-understand manner.

"...To fuse two metal spheres together, the most efficient method isn't to put them on a pressure machine, but to melt them."

"Atoms are the same, whether using laser ignition, inertial collision, or indirect ignition... these are methods from the early Prosperity Epoch or even the Old Era."

"There's actually nothing wrong with it."

"After all, in the era when we knew nothing about the essence of the four fundamental forces, we could only imagine a conceptual 'forge' and a skilled 'blacksmith' in our minds, using the most crude and inefficient methods to smelt, hammer, and destroy atomic nuclei to force them to release the energy hidden inside."

"But after our professor discovered the existence of gravitons, everything changed dramatically. Initially, we continued using laser technology, but not for ignition, instead to polarize atoms to form special bonding states, closing the distance between two atoms. Later, we found a method to directly use gravitons to interfere with force fields, and then tried to weaken the repulsive forces between atoms, breaking the balance of repulsion and attraction... And in the end, an unexpected miracle occurred."

"Atoms fused together like water."

Hearing this, an engineer muttered a remark.

"Isn't it just gravitons, going around so much... but even with gravitons, doesn't it still require initial input energy?"

Several engineers shared similar views.

The energy consumed to drive gravitons is significant, not necessarily cheaper than laser ignition.

"Indeed, there's no gain without input, ignition energy is inevitable," Zhong Jingchu nodded and suddenly shifted the topic, "but through force field interference, we can reduce the energy required for ignition and sustaining the reaction."

"We're not interfering with something as large as the Iron Heart, just a few atoms undergoing reactions, the energy consumed is not even close to laser heating plasma... and it's much more stable and efficient."

"Returning to the miracle I mentioned earlier, we found that the method using gravitons to bond atoms could lead to fierce fusion reactions occurring under mild conditions... at least for the initial instant, it is incredibly gentle."

"This is what's known as cold start."

Watching the engineers absorbed in the explanation, Zhong Jingchu smiled calmly and continued in a steady tone.

"Based on similar technical principles, researchers from the United Human discovered how to maintain fusion reactions under normal temperature and pressure, as well as how to conduct fusion reactions more gently, among a series of more convenient and efficient methods."

"Including the portable reactors you produced through the Black Box, which were actually born during this process."

Wonderful!

Aside from a few nuclear engineers, the staff and onlookers gathered around the reactor couldn't help but applaud.

Even though those Alliance nuclear engineers didn't clap, they wore expressions of admiration on their faces.

They had learned some reactor maintenance tech from Camp 101, but as Waste Land Wanderers, they truly had no idea how these technologies came to be.

Even their teacher — the professor at Camp 101 might not know.

After all, teachers at Shelter 101 didn't teach everything.

The young man filled their knowledge gap, effortlessly narrating the history that almost all Waste Land Wanderers had already forgotten.

From the principles of the technology.

To the origin closer to the essence than the principles!

Although Wang Laoshi respected this kid's vast knowledge, he wasn't completely convinced, only half-heartedly.

He admired it, but those oft-repeated things are just past events.

Such memories cannot serve as fuel for the reactor or as its shell.

He was more concerned about practical matters.

"You talk about these experiments as if you did them yourself." After holding back for a long time, Wang Zhiyi finally squeezed out a sentence.

Zhong Jingchu smiled slightly and said.

"I didn't conduct the experiments, but we personally performed each one, and I not only remember every detail clearly but also know 'why it is that way.'"

Wang Zhiyi held his breath, his gaze gradually growing fervent.

"Is that true?"

Zhong Jingchu smiled, nodded, and said in a gentle tone.

"Of course it's true, and my mentor said it's time to pass on these inheritances to you all."

"About how these technologies came about, how to use them, and how to experiment and improve upon the foundations laid by predecessors."

Upon hearing this, Wang Laoshi had no patience left and was wholly convinced.

And his face, which had turned as red as a pig's liver, regained its cheerful expression.

Indeed, the Manager wasn't joking; those guys from the Academy truly had skills!

If an expert of the same level acted pretentious to him, he certainly wouldn't be pleased.

Moreover, making a man in his forties or fifties bow to a guy in his twenties was psychologically unacceptable.

However, after this conversation, he was certain that this guy was much stronger than him, and was even already standing in the atmosphere...there was simply no comparison.

If he could learn some real skills from the Academy, he wouldn't mind bowing his head a little.

If worse came to worst, he'd show off to the corporate people after learning.

As Wang Zhiyi thought this, other engineers' faces were already full of enthusiastic expressions, completely convinced.

"Brother, you have to teach us that cold ignition... pshaw, non-ignition method!"

"Sigh, how come I didn't think of that!"

"Please kindly teach us, brother!"

"Big bro, if you don't mind, I'd like to call you master!"

Looking at those eager Waste Land Wanderers, Zhong Jingchu slightly smiled without showing it.

Even though he could hardly suppress the grin on his lips, he maintained the demeanor of a hermit master accepting disciples.

"You're too kind."

"I'll tell you everything I know!"

Aside from the nuclear power station staff, there were a few players idling nearby among the onlookers around the reactor.

While usually, such background-like facilities wouldn't attract players, it was clearly not an ordinary situation recently.

The Academy had dispatched an expert team to the Alliance, an issue that made the headlines of the Survivor Daily from Dawn City!

Though researchers and prospectors from the Academy had come to Dawn City before, they were few in number and always elusive, difficult to encounter unless on a scientific delegation task.

Which is precisely why, when they heard these researchers were lingering around the nuclear power station, they all flocked over for excitement.

This was far more interesting than mammoths in a zoo!

And indeed it was.

After watching a pretentious display, [Solo Hunter] couldn't help but clap with the NPCs.

"Wow, these Academy folks sure can show off!"

[Hit Stream Archer] looked at him.

"Are you talking about installing nuclear fusion?"

Single Player Jungle: "What nuclear fusion, I'm talking about showing off."

Hit Stream Archer: "Pfft—"

The [Fasting Stream Mid] who hadn't spoken was just giggling, suddenly chimed in.

"I happen to find quite a few tsunderes in the Academy."

"Like that... Jiang Xuezhou?" Single Player Jungle thought for a while. The only Academy researcher whose name he remembered was this one, and he heard about it by chance on the Forum.

Fasting Stream Mid chuckled awkwardly.

"And Yin Fang."

Hit Stream Archer: "?"

Single Player Jungle: "?"

Fasting Stream Mid: "Hehe, don't you guys think so? Although the mouths are tough, the bodies are very honest."

Single Player Jungle: "No, I just think you're being a bit weird..."

Fasting Stream Mid: "…?"

On the other side, the bionic engineers at Shelter 100 were whispering among themselves.

They're not experts in nuclear fusion research, but they are fairly knowledgeable about various models of Fusion Reactors and can tell that the researcher surnamed Zhong is indeed skilled.

At this moment, the youngster named Zhong Jingchu was already lecturing from the part about scientific history to the core challenges of cold start technology for fusion reactors, and the main ideas for solving them.

Not only were the Alliance's nuclear engineers listening with bright eyes, but even the [End-of-the-world Lone Wolf], who knew nothing about nuclear fusion, was enchanted, drooling as he listened.

Unfortunately.

The former could at least grasp some of the key points, while the latter was just listening for fun. Upon reflection, he realized he understood as little as before.

Regretfully withdrawing his gaze from afar, the End-of-the-world Lone Wolf commented with a face full of emotion.

"MMP! It's a pity I studied automation... Anyway, Professor Yan, you're into physics, tell me about that cold fusion reactor... is it really reliable?"

Sensing the fervor in the gaze, Wild Wind sighed and said.

"I'm just someone who studies physics, not a god... Don't think too much, and definitely don't hope to advance to the Prosperity Epoch in one bite, start by building a solid foundation."

Let's not even discuss things like cold start and cold fusion reactors, even by the standards of the Game world, real-life fusion technology hasn't even achieved the concept of "controllable."

The principles behind the two are entirely different and rely on distinct technological foundations.

End-of-the-world Lone Wolf still showed an expression of unwillingness, looked at Wild Wind's shaking head, and couldn't help but say.

"Surely it can provide a bit of inspiration, right? Like a technological route or something..."

"Are you talking about the technological route of cold start nuclear fusion?" Wild Wind couldn't help but laugh, looking at his colleague as he spoke, "Let me put it this way, in the high-energy physics community, there's always been a hypothesis about unifying the four fundamental forces, numerous mathematicians and physicists have pursued this endeavor, some even for a lifetime."

End-of-the-world Lone Wolf stared blankly at him and, seeing no response for a while, couldn't help but ask.

"...And then?"

Wild Wind silently looked towards the nearby researcher.

"That's a conjecture for us."

"Yet in the Game world... here, gravitons aligned with the Grand Unified Theory can be 'touched'."

"Do you know what this means?"

End-of-the-world Lone Wolf looked at him in confusion.

"...No idea."

Wild Wind stared at him for a moment, sighed, and looked away.

"...Never mind."

End-of-the-world Lone Wolf: "???"

His good buddy Fang Chang always felt that Wasteland OL was not merely a Game world but a living universe, though, as a physicist, he had a different perspective.

Purely from a physicist's standpoint, he thought it was more like another universe.

The laws of physics from reality didn't fully apply here, or only applied within a limited scope.

The deeper one delves into the microscopic realm, the higher the probability of this phenomenon occurring.

Take the classic double-slit interference experiment, in the Game world of Wasteland OL, there's a greater demand for instrument precision compared to reality, implying here the microscopic world's "uncertainty" is smaller.

Deductively, this implies the Planck constant in Wasteland OL is smaller than in reality, even if the variance is infinitesimally small mathematically.

But even if it's infinitesimally small, different is still different.

This is actually something that becomes horrifying the more you think about it.

A smaller Planck constant means the size of quantum particles is smaller, the probability of quantum effects occurring is smaller, the universe is more stable, and there are fewer uncertainties.

Let's take an easy-to-understand example.

If we compare the God who creates all things in the world to a computer, or a graphics card with limited but extensive computing power, there are now two Gods, A and B, each using their computing power to create two different worlds.

In the world of God A, only models of cities and citizens can be generated, while the pores on the citizens' skin are blurred and only generated when the camera zooms in on the citizens' faces. The pixels belonging to the pores do not exist before observation occurs.

Furthermore, in places where the camera cannot see, the "small person" generated in World A can occasionally pass through walls... commonly known as "model clipping."

In contrast, God B's graphics card not only can generate a city and the pores on citizens' skin simultaneously but can even detail down to textures visible only under a microscope... whether or not the observer brings their eyes close, the textures belonging to those pixels exist, meaning their existence does not rely on the act of observation.

In the world generated by God B's graphics card, people cannot pass through walls; at least, the "small person" walking in the city cannot clip through models, whether visible to the player or not.

And to find the "clipping" bug in the world created by God B's graphics card, one must look on the microscopic scale invisible even under a microscope.

For instance, nanometers.

When chips are reduced to a certain size, electrons and other microscopic particles exhibit the phenomenon of crossing potential barriers, known as the "quantum tunneling" effect.

Here's a metaphor that's inaccurate but illustrative: if the world generated by God B's graphics card is called "Earth OL," then the world generated by God A's graphics card is "Night City."

Moreover, it is Night City in innumerable parallel universes, unaffected by continuous interference and observational impact from "Earth OL" players.

Especially, the phrase "unaffected by continuous interference and influence" is extremely crucial. After all, any interference behavior can iterate and branch into N different parallel worlds, effectively different players have different game saves.

Meanwhile, for the game world, which cannot perform thermodynamic experiments, "frame rate" is one of the crucial parameters in calculating the Planck constant.

And the Planck constant calculated based on frame rate is definitely less than 1 and greater than the Planck constant in reality!

And far greater!

"Wasteland OL" does not have the concept of frame rate; both its graphics and physics engine's precision are far superior to traditional AAA games.

Here, let alone thermodynamic experiments, even nuclear tests can be conducted. By directly applying methods from reality, one can calculate Planck's constant, and Wild Wind indeed did this.

Initially, he conducted the experiment with a playful attitude.

After all, he knew well that such behavior is akin to fooling oneself, as the game server, upon observing his actions, might either ignore him or directly query database information to give him a result he desires.

Yet the experimental results exceeded his expectations, similar to when he first encountered quantum mechanics—

God disappeared.

Or perhaps hid.

In theory, "Wasteland OL's" Planck constant should be greater than "Earth OL's," like Los Santos in GTA5, Night City in Cyberpunk, Province of Skies in Elder Scrolls...

However, the calculated result was exactly the opposite—

The former's value infinitely approaches the latter and is less than the latter!

No matter how many times he calculated, even if he repeated the experiments many times, the result was always the same.

This implies "God B" moved into "God A's" house, and on the graphics card with lower computing power, a graphics card with higher computing power is running... and the latter can run programs that the former cannot?

He lived for over thirty years and had never seen something so preposterous!

Either Ah Guang targeted him!

Or the aliens behind Ah Guang, supposedly the civilizations from mainstream media speculations, were eyeing him, deliberately guiding him through specially designed algorithms to calculate such results...

There was a period when he was bewildered and self-doubting due to his discoveries, even taking a long leave from work, packing his bags to travel, and it took a long while to adjust his mindset to emerge from that state of self-doubt.

In truth, there's nothing to be bewildered about.

The existence or non-existence of matter is an objective phenomenon, but "existence" itself is determined by subjective consciousness.

Glancing at the End-of-the-world Lone Wolf still obsessing over gravitons and nuclear fusion, Wild Wind calmly said.

"...The game world is just a game world. You can't expect to find physical principles undiscovered in reality in games or films, and crafting an unprovable and unfalsifiable hypothesis isn't a difficult task either."

After a pause, he habitually extended his index finger to touch the bridge of his nose.

The pair of high glasses supposed to rest on the bridge of his nose did not exist in the game world.

In this world, "Wild Wind" is his name, whereas Yan Feng is another person living in a different world entirely unrelated to "Wild Wind."

"Of course, due to the closeness of Planck constants... their theories indeed gave me some inspiration; perhaps we can find something similar to gravitons."

The End-of-the-world Lone Wolf stared at Professor Yan Feng, smiling wryly as he spoke.

"You're speaking more and more incomprehensibly..."

...

(PS: It's nearly the end, saying this isn't a spoiler. Wild Wind merely fell into his own "pit," and what he sees doesn't represent my outline. Both different worlds truly exist somewhere in the universe, only their dimensions differ, not computer simulations, and aren't overly mysterious either. Additionally, the world of Shelter No. 101 is simulated; its computational power can practically simulate a planet, which is roughly the limit of Prosperity Epoch Technology. Shelter No. 404 and Shelter No. 101 are different; the former is the true "singularity.")