San Tian Liang Jiao
Chapter 1242 A World Without Games (11)
Since Feng Bujue had decided to kill his way back, his operational mode was bound to change.
The method of combat during an assault was definitely different from that during a detour. Before, in order to attract the enemy's attention and maintain their desire to pursue, Brother Jue hadn't gone too far…
But now, he didn't need to be polite anymore.
Although his skill bar was locked after entering this dimension, his inventory, equipment, specializations, and physical abilities were all functioning normally.
With an A-level proficiency in Mechanics and a B-level proficiency in Firearms, Feng Bujue effortlessly mastered the use of the weapons and equipment dropped by the Red Falcon soldiers… He picked up two submachine guns and charged back.
Gunmanship, field of vision, reaction speed, movement speed… In terms of overall quality, Feng Bujue was definitely a true Contra (the meaning of the game name *Contra* refers to someone with excellent combat abilities and qualities). Basically, he could do anything a character in the game could do…
For example… jumping several *zhang* high (one *zhang* is approximately 3.3 meters) from the spot, curling his body into a ball in mid-air, and firing at his surroundings… If necessary, Brother Jue could handle it.
In addition, Feng Bujue had another advantage, and that was… he wasn't as fragile as the characters in the game, who died with a single touch. Brother Jue's defense was quite high. The [i_wAnnA_Be_A_BeLt] and [1920's Mean Armor], which had been upgraded for a long time, were both pieces of equipment with extremely high defensive power. Ordinary bullet damage was nothing in front of these two pieces of armor. Moreover… with zero-time difference calculation and amazing physical abilities, he was unlikely to be hit by bullets in the first place.
In summary, the moment Feng Bujue decided to shoot his way through, the Red Falcon Army's fate was almost sealed.
After fighting for five minutes, Brother Jue had killed his way from one side of the camp to the other, successfully reuniting with Isaac and the other two.
Those three were not to be trifled with either. As elites who had fought the Peta Army's Terminator troops for many years, fighting these Red Falcon guys… was at most a training exercise for them.
Of course, their kill count and efficiency were definitely not as good as Feng Bujue's…
In short, by the time the four reunited, the Red Falcon's camp had been taken. The enemy soldiers were either dead or had fled, with no will to fight.
It was at this moment that a system prompt sounded in Brother Jue's ears: [Main Quest Triggered]
"Huh?" Feng Bujue thought to himself, "A branch main quest?"
No, it wasn't a branch main quest… To be precise, it should be called a parallel main quest, because the content of the quest didn't conflict with the other main quest.
[Enter the "Underwater Eight Levels" of the Contra Area]
"Oh, it's a hint." After glancing at the quest bar, Feng Bujue immediately understood what the system meant.
In short, this quest was a "direct hint" plus "reward delivery" type of quest. It not only told the player what to do next, but also added a quest completion number and improved the final reward when the player completed the game.
Here, it must be said again… the normal difficulty script was really too friendly.
"Hmm… but…" A few seconds later, Brother Jue changed his mind again, "The system should also be very clear that this so-called 'Underwater Eight Levels' doesn't exist, right? So what does this quest mean…"
(Note: The "Underwater Eight Levels" of *Contra* can be said to be one of the most famous and longest-running rumors in the history of Chinese games. The content of this legend is roughly that in the sixth level of the game, at an appropriate time, jumping on a soldier whose graphics cannot be displayed normally due to a bug will allow you to enter a hidden level.)
"Mr. Feng, are you alright?" Just as Feng Bujue was pondering, Isaac walked over with a gun.
At this time, Isaac was armed from head to toe, a walking ammunition depot.
"Ah… of course I'm fine." Feng Bujue still gave people the feeling of being lightly armed, although he also had a submachine gun in each hand, he could put ammunition and other things in his inventory without taking up weight and space.
"Hehe… as expected of the Savior." At this time, the bearded man holding a small cannon also walked over, and looked at the corpses behind Brother Jue that were gradually collapsing into pixel fragments, "You alone killed more enemies than the three of us combined."
"That's irrelevant…" Feng Bujue said, "This camp is just an appetizer. The battles to come will be long… You have to be mentally prepared."
"No problem." At this time, Lightning Head also walked over carrying two large guns on his back, "We are always prepared to deal with this kind of situation."
"Yeah, compared to the Peta Army's mechanical units, these little bastards are still very tender." The bearded man also replied with pride.
"That's good…" Feng Bujue said, and looked at Isaac again. This legendary hero of the resistance army was still the same as before, with a resolute and calm expression, giving people a very reliable feeling, "Then… if you guys don't have any objections, let's continue moving forward…"
"Do you know where to go?" Isaac asked immediately.
"Heh…" Feng Bujue smiled, "Contra, just go 'forward'…"
…………
Brother Jue's words were undoubtedly correct. After the four of them obtained equipment, they continued to move in the direction they had been traveling when they left the beach.
Before long, a metal gate connecting to the mountain appeared in front of them, with several soldiers guarding it on both sides.
Feng Bujue spent a few seconds making those soldiers fall on their posts forever…
Afterwards, the four of them entered the mountain tunnel behind the metal gate.
The top of the tunnel was black metal plates, and the lighting equipment was embedded in the ceiling, like a white light snake extending into the distance. The walls on both sides of the tunnel were gray, and the ground was painted blue.
Since there were no forks in the road, Feng Bujue and the others followed the only road down.
Along the way, the four encountered many Red Falcon soldiers wearing green uniforms. The combat power of these soldiers was obviously higher than the ones they had encountered in the camp before, but they still couldn't pose too much of a threat to Brother Jue and the others.
In addition to the more advanced soldiers, a red "defense wall" would appear every once in a while in this tunnel. The wall was equipped with machine guns and turrets, and a rolling mine that rolled along the ground would constantly be generated at the bottom of the wall. There was also an electric net blocking the area within a certain distance of the defense wall.
Fortunately… these walls had a common weakness – as long as the "energy core" on the wall was destroyed, the entire wall would lose its function and explode.
Therefore, as long as they spent some time aiming at the energy core and shooting from outside the electric net, breaking through these walls was not too difficult.
In this way… the four of them killed enemies and broke through walls all the way to the depths of the tunnel.
In the center of this mountain, they discovered a huge, tan-colored machine. This machine seemed to be a power supply and control device. It was as big as an apartment building, and it was equipped with six energy cores and came with a turret function.
The difficulty of breaking through this machine was that… the space where it was located was quite spacious, and there were no bunkers around. If they rashly approached, they could easily become living targets.
Fortunately, this machine didn't have the kind of AI that the Peta had, which meant that… its attack pattern was fixed. Feng Bujue used his speed advantage to go out and show off a few rounds of positioning, and soon figured out the enemy's routine.
Once they mastered the pattern, even ordinary people could avoid all the attacks. So, the group spent about two minutes working together to defeat this mini-boss.
What surprised Brother Jue a little was that… after this machine exploded, it even dropped a piece of equipment…
[Name: Energy Glove]
[Type: Armor]
[Quality: Worn]
[Defense: Weak]
[Attribute: None]
[Effect: ???]
[Can it be brought out of this script: No]
[Remarks: I heard that a dead otaku wore this NES peripheral as equipment. I think this person must be crazy.]
Although this equipment was called a glove, it was not a pair of gloves, but a single glove (the Energy Glove only had a right-hand version).
Compared with ordinary gloves, the Energy Glove was very thick and large. At first glance, it looked like part of an astronaut's suit. After putting it on, it could almost cover the entire forearm. The palm part of the Energy Glove was made of black cotton material, and the back of the hand was made of white leather with a fixed texture. On the back of the hand, there was a black sensor, which was connected to the controller on the arm part, and on that flat controller, there was also a power light, seventeen buttons arranged in three groups, and a cross direction key.
Through the above description, you should know… that's right, this is a standard Power Glove.
And Feng Bujue was very clear about the history of this thing…
…………
In 1989, Mattel released this NES peripheral. It was the first gesture control device to be mass-produced and sold. It can also be said to be the first device in the field of games… to lead people into the field of artificial reality (VR is the same type of product, but 25 years later).
The prototype of the glove was created by Thomas Zimmerman (yes, another MIT graduate). In 1982, he applied for a patent for his invention and named it "Optical Flex Sensor." After that, Zimmerman went through several years of twists and turns… first he almost had his patent bought by Atari's development department, and then he experienced the great collapse of the game market. Finally… at an electronic music concert, Zimmerman met Jaron Lanier (the father of virtual reality, a computer scientist, artist, and philosopher). The two hit it off and jointly established VPL (the first company to propose the concept of virtual reality).
VPL hired a large number of senior engineers and programmers to improve the graphics programming language designed by Lanier and the gloves designed by Zimmerman. They added ultrasonic tracking systems, fiber optic sensing technology, magnetic systems, and so on… creating a product called the "Data Glove."
This product was initially used as a data interaction device by NASA and some medical research institutions. Until 1987, A.g.e. Corporation purchased the technology license for the Data Glove and made adjustments in terms of appearance and cost. Finally, through Mattel's contact with Nintendo… the "Power Glove" was officially launched in October 1989.
Once launched, the Power Glove immediately became the hottest product of that year's Christmas (North America). In just six weeks, 654,000 units were sold. Due to the shortage in some areas, its price was once炒 (chao, to speculate) up to $139, which was almost catching up with the console itself (a NES sold for $199.99 at the time, which is equivalent to about $430 today according to the exchange rate comparison between the 1980s and today). However…
The civilian "Power Glove" was ultimately not as reliable as the military-grade hardware that VPL made itself. Soon, players discovered that the glove's performance in various games was generally very poor. Children didn't understand what "technology can't keep up with the concept" meant, but there was a more popular saying – this thing was very *shi* (shit).
So, like many products with overly advanced concepts, because the technological level at that time was not enough to support such an excellent virtual reality experience as today, this product was discontinued and withdrawn from the market a year after its launch. The impression it left in our minds was roughly only: "Not easy to use," "Terrible," "Not as good as a gamepad," and other impressions.
In the end, as an invention of great significance in the history of virtual reality development in the game industry, the Power Glove, like the later Virtual Boy (Nintendo's own black history console), helplessly沦落 (lunluo, to be reduced to) into the tears of the times.
…………
"Hmm… this is rare." Feng Bujue picked up the glove, looked at the item description, and muttered softly, "Equipment like this that 'cannot be brought out of the script' should usually be very strong…"
This was indeed Brother Jue's experience. For example, the [Blood Corpse Must Die] he obtained in Thriller Paradise's training mode, and the [One-Hit Kill Handgun] he obtained in the *Despicable Me* script, were all special equipment of this type. But those two items both had the ability to kill the script's big boss in seconds… but the quality of this glove in front of him was only "Worn," and the effect was still unknown, which was really a bit strange.
"Eh? Isn't this the Power Glove?" When Lightning Head saw what Brother Jue was holding, he quickly recognized it.
"Oh? Do you guys… even have a replica of this?" Feng Bujue asked.
"No." Lightning Head shook his head, "The engineers all said that there is no point in restoring this thing, because it is too technologically backward. If we really want to do it, with our current technology, we can completely make a device similar to the Wii Remote that is also compatible with the FC, but that would… be meaningless." He spread his hands, "In the end, in terms of the FC's capabilities, it is still most suitable to use a gamepad to control it. Instead of playing pseudo-3D games on an 8-bit machine with gloves or something, why not just get an Apple II…"
"Then how did you recognize…" Feng Bujue was about to ask.
"Is there even a need to ask?" Lightning Head interrupted in a matter-of-course tone, "Because it's very CooooooooL!"