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As Glory grew and technology advanced, it was only a matter of time before the developers wanted to adapt the game with the evolving technology; that is to say, they wanted to implement virtual reality. Over several years, they rewrote code, redesigned graphics, and adapted Glory to VR. Once done, they sent six sets of VR gear to each of the 18 current teams plus the two new teams after the tenth season ended, with the request that the players record their experience in video and writing.
“Captain, please be more careful,” Zhang Xinjie pleaded.
There was yet another hole in the wall after Han Wenqing attempted to punch an imp. Six holes in total dotted the walls of the room, and a line of corresponding broken controllers lay shattered off to the side. It was good that most of the others in the main team had already tried VR, because at this rate, Han Wenqing alone would be putting all of the controllers out of commission. Just in case, Zhang Xinjie reserved a set for the members who hadn’t tried yet.
On the TV screen, a red box popped up. [Controller disconnected. Please reconnect controller.]
“Give me another one,” Han Wenqing demanded. Dutifully, Zhang Xinjie took the broken controller, paired a new one to the system, and handed it to him. Han Wenqing returned to beating up the imps, and Zhang Xinjie resumed writing his observations while evading stray punches. At least it was helpful dodging practice for him.
Qiu Muyun, on the other hand, was frantically trying to run to the furthest reaches of the room away from Han Wenqing while still aiming the camera at him. What a terrible day to be the future successor of Han Wenqing.
Blue Rain wasn’t doing much better.
“Why is this so slow? They need to make a better moving mechanic. How am I supposed to dodge and hit enemies if I have to press a button every time I switch between moving and attacking? This is a terrible mechanic!”
Yu Wenzhou nodded even though Huang Shaotian wouldn’t be able to see him. “Anything else?” he asked while noting down his commentary.
“Ow! This wall! How many times have I hit this wall?” Huang Shaotian kicked it, upset. “Can’t we move to a bigger room?” he whinged.
Large room or safety measures required, Yu Wenzhou wrote. “Bear with it for now. I’ll have the staff clear a room and move the TV and tower tomorrow.”
Huang Shaotian swung an arm out in front of him. “And this hitbox! I swear I hit that! This is janky! Update! Update!”
Two seconds later…
“That was supposed to be a Triple Slash! Why did it do Shadow Steps?? That’s a completely different set of actions! Terrible!”
Despite what other people may say about Huang Shaotian’s unrestrained speech, it was very useful when collecting first-hand impressions.
Lu Hanwen peeked up at Yu Wenzhou from the corner he was sitting, holding up the video camera. “Captain, can I put on headphones? If I have to stay here, I’d rather listen to something nice.”
He immediately refused. “No, you have to get used to him as a teammate.”
If Yu Wenzhou had to listen to Huang Shaotian’s verbal diatribe, so did his junior.
“Did you see that?! That should’ve been a critical hit! Were the coders sleeping when they made this?”
“Shaotian, remember this is being recorded and will be sent to the developers as feedback.”
“…They must be so tired! They should rest more.”
Meanwhile, Tiny Herb had a unique problem to deal with due to class.
Wang Jiexi slumped against the table for support.
“Captain, are you okay?” Liu Xiaobie asked.
“Motion sickness,” Wang Jiexi explained simply, trying not to hurl. Xu Bin kindly passed him a wastebin.
“Motion sickness? But the movements are so slow—oh,” Liu Xiaobie realized. “Is it because of the broom?”
As a Witch, Wang Jiexi utilized one of the few classes that could fly in Glory. While other players were confined to the ground with some degrees of jumping abilities, Wang Jiexi could rise into the air and move with greater freedom. However, for some reason, the developers had added a bobbing motion when flying in VR, which made the dichotomy between physically being stationary yet visually registering motion even worse. To the teammates that were watching through the TV screen mounted on the wall, it didn’t look so bad, but to Wang Jiexi, who had to stand still yet experience the jerking visuals of riding a broom, it was a nauseating sight.
Gao Yingjie trembled in his seat, seeing his strong and capable captain being reduced to a collapsed, sickly patient. Did he have to go through that as well? Did the Glory developers have something against Witches?
(In Thunderclap, the team was alarmed when their captain collapsed after using Rotor Wings.
“Captain! Did the headset fry your brain?” Dai Yanqi cried. “Nooo, we need that!”
“The VR headset or Captain’s brain?” Fang Xuecai asked. “We have five others—of the headset, I mean.”)
Su Mucheng was having a great time. “The graphics look very nice,” she praised as she exploded another tribe of imps from long-range distance. “The controls are simple and easy to use.”
“In what way?” Fang Rui griped. “By the time I finish rolling and switching to attack mode, two imps have already stepped on me and three others have bashed my head.”
“There’s a glitch where immediately attacking after switching causes a 13% chance of stun for two seconds. The developers must have been sleeping when they wrote the code,” Luo Ji commented.
“Really? They should take more breaks then,” Steamed Bun said.
The developers and the PR team watched the videos submitted by the pro teams.
“…We can’t release this as it is,” the head of the project said regretfully.
In the back, the tired coders who had worked hard to adapt Glory to VR were crying. Not only were they insulted, but their hard work wasn’t going to be used?
Instead of being scrapped, though, Glory VR’s release date was merely postponed as it went through extensive upgrades.
Another version was released as a placeholder, allowing users to watch streamers and broadcasted matches through the eyes of the characters. For obvious reasons, Witches and Mechanics were not a popular choice to watch.
Despite having sent a VR set to Ye Xiu as a respected member of the Glory community, the developers unfortunately did not receive any feedback from him.
That was because they sent the package to the apartment that Ye Xiu was staying at with his brother, and it was Ye Qiu who received the package.
“What’s this?” Ye Qiu muttered. “‘Hello, valued player/team. We are preparing to take Glory to the next step and bring it to life in VR. Please take the time to try it out. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you for supporting Glory.’ So it’s that game again?”
He looked at the clock on the wall. 5:09. Ye Xiu would return in approximately 50 minutes. “Let’s see what’s so great about it.”
Ye Qiu unwrapped the headset and controllers from the packaging, then hooked them up to Ye Xiu’s computer. [Please insert card] the screen read.
“A card? One of these?” Ye Qiu dug through the mess of papers in Ye Xiu’s desk and plucked out a card emblazoned with Glory. He stuck it into the card reader and put on the VR headset. A greeting appeared in front of his eyes.
[Welcome, Unrivalled Super Hottie!]
“...Brother. What. What have you been doing?”
Ye Qiu’s field of vision refreshed with new text. [To see current button settings, press the right trigger. To set custom keybinds, go to settings.] The words blinked out after a few seconds, and he was able to see that he was in a field of grass with large rocks jutting out at random intervals.
“Buttons? For what?”
He didn’t have the time to check because the mob spawn of the region, the fierce Field Wolves, came out of hiding and pounced on him.
“Aaack!” he yelped, swinging an arm out to defend himself. Unfortunately, he had underestimated how much room VR required, and his right hand and the controller went smashing into the desk.
The great noob Ye Qiu was defeated by Field Wolves and furniture.
At dinner that day, Ye Qiu tentatively asked, “Ye Xiu, would you be mad if I broke your VR gear?”
Ye Xiu was puzzled. “VR gear? I don’t have VR gear.”
Ye Qiu glanced to his room where he’d hidden the broken controller. “Right. You don’t.” He would go out tomorrow, buy a replacement, repackage the VR set, and leave the gaming to Ye Xiu from now on.