More than half an hour later, the investors arrived one after another.
Each one strutted before Pei Qian like roosters with their tails raised high, seeking his recognition.
They were practically cut from the same mold as Li Shi.
Pei Qian wore a fake smile as he escorted them, along with Li Shi, onto the roller coaster one by one, very kindly helping them fasten their safety belts.
Although having Mr. Pei personally fasten their safety belts made the investors feel somewhat flattered, there was something about Mr. Pei’s expression that gave them the feeling he was sending them to their doom.
Perhaps it was just because the place was so dark that the shadows on Mr. Pei’s face looked particularly frightening…
The starting point of the indoor roller coaster was pitch black. Nothing could be seen inside, which made people feel a bit uneasy.
The roller coaster seated four people per row, with considerable space between each person in the same row. Their feet dangled, and while they could sense each other’s presence, they wouldn’t interfere with one another.
Beyond this, this roller coaster project had some detailed differences from other roller coaster projects.
For instance, the suspended seats had many “extras.” On the side-front of the headrest was a technological-looking display screen with various UI information, showing words like “Skylark Project” and “Prepare for Action,” along with a three-dimensional terrain map marking the current position in the insect hive.
The entire hive structure looked intricate, with various routes crisscrossing and winding around each other.
This map wasn’t meant to spoil the entire structure of the insect mother hive for visitors, so it was deliberately made chaotic with lots of information. It was just to let visitors roughly understand their current location while giving them a feeling that “the structure of this hive is so complex, so impressive.”
On the side of the seat was a specially-made magnetic rail rifle model, obviously for battle scenes.
Li Shi weighed this magnetic rail rifle in his hands—it wasn’t light, apparently weighted, and the feel of it was very good, not like some poorly-made toy.
With all this equipment in place, Li Shi really felt like a fully-armed warrior heading to battle.
Four people formed a group, departing in sequence.
There was a certain interval between each group, as each group might take different routes during the actual experience. They wouldn’t see each other and wouldn’t affect one another.
Of course, everyone’s approximate completion time would be similar. All routes were carefully planned, so there wouldn’t be issues like later groups finishing earlier or routes colliding.
It wasn’t until the last group was about to depart that Chen Kangtuo asked in surprise, “Mr. Pei, aren’t you going to try it out?”
Pei Qian shook his head: “That won’t be necessary.”
A thirty-meter roller coaster was still a roller coaster! And this roller coaster seemed to have an insect theme. If swarms of insects came rushing over, it would be a bit frightening.
Let Mr. Li and the others bear this suffering. Pei Qian thought he could just quietly observe from the side.
After all, seeing Mr. Li’s pale face and panicked expression later would bring him true happiness.
Chen Kangtuo was quite confused.
This attraction wasn’t scary, so why didn’t Mr. Pei want to experience it?
Could it be that he wanted to gauge how well the roller coaster was made through the expressions of Mr. Li and the others?
That approach seemed quite elaborate!
Could this be the highest level of being a “cloud player”?
Just by watching others play, he could deeply explore the essence of this project and make a final judgment on it?
That ability was quite impressive. I should learn from it and develop this kind of capability…
Chen Kangtuo’s thoughts involuntarily scattered, generating some strange ideas.
…
Li Shi, hugging the magnetic rail rifle with his feet dangling, entered through the cave entrance and continuously advanced deeper.
The surrounding scenery began to change rapidly.
From the initial narrow entrance, they began to descend. As the space gradually became more spacious, the tension it brought also intensified.
At first, the roller coaster moved quite slowly, and everything around was extremely quiet. The display screen on the side-front didn’t emit any prompt sounds, as if they were truly executing an infiltration mission.
Everyone involuntarily focused their attention on the surroundings. In their field of vision, some unhatched insect eggs began to appear, along with insects in dormant states. In the distance, they could vaguely see many insects busily entering and exiting various caves and routes, carrying who-knows-what.
There was even a segment where they could look down and see tank-like insect behemoths either sleeping or slowly crawling, making people’s skin crawl with creepiness.
The scenery here basically adopted a combination of virtual and physical methods. Things that were closer were mostly physical setups, such as the texture of the nearby cave walls, the glowing insect crystals on them, and the insect eggs not far away. Scenes in the distance were displayed on huge projection screens. Due to lighting and distance, combined with the visitors’ psychological suggestion, it was enough to achieve a convincingly real effect.
Soon, the four people arrived at a relatively open scene.
The roller coaster slowly ascended to a high point. For the four people, the feeling at this moment was as if they were slowly flying upward wearing Skylark battle suits and hovering at a high point in a spacious insect hive, involuntarily looking around.
This was an extremely open scene where they could see swarms of insects below, busily working with clear division of labor, giving people goosebumps all over.
A figure wearing a Skylark battle suit appeared from a cave nearby. Simultaneously, a voice communication came to everyone’s ears: “Be careful, we’re about to go deep into the hive. We could be discovered at any moment. Everyone activate your battle suit’s optical camouflage and prepare for combat!”
This figure was clearly Captain Qin Yi.
For this kind of NPC interaction, there are two approaches: one is real-person performance, participating in the entire process through methods like wire suspension; the other is to project virtual images onto huge screens.
The former might seem more realistic, but it has certain dangers, is more troublesome, and has more limitations—it’s not possible to move over a large range.
So “Skylark Action” adopted the latter approach, but this also brought a problem: Captain Qin Yi could only appear in core scenes with projection screens and couldn’t appear during transitions or walk-through scenes.
However, this wasn’t a major issue; it could be explained with the plot.
Under Captain Qin Yi’s leadership, the roller coaster began to slowly infiltrate along the right side of the rock wall, giving people the feeling that the entire squad was executing an infiltration mission, quietly bypassing the dense insect swarm in the cave below and penetrating deeper into the hive.
Suddenly, Captain Qin Yi raised his hand, and the roller coaster slowly stopped. They saw a squad of insects suddenly rushing out from the cave ahead, crawling densely along the rock wall toward the distance.
On the giant projection, the details of these insects were fully displayed. The rustling sound of insects crawling on the wall made people’s skin tingle, and they dared not even breathe.
Just as the squad of insects was about to completely leave, the worker bee at the very end seemed to suddenly sense something. It abruptly turned its head and crawled toward where Captain Qin Yi was.
Captain Qin Yi activated the optical camouflage on his battle suit, seemingly blending with the rock wall. The insect crawled around him, almost touching him, making everyone tense.
After circling around, the insect found nothing unusual and once again entered the previous cave and left.
Everyone let out a long breath, their previously extremely tense mood finally relaxing a bit.
However, at that moment, a huge insect suddenly emerged from a cave in the rock wall beside everyone—clearly the same insect that had returned, now emerging from another cave!
Earlier, when it was crawling around Captain Qin Yi, it was an image on the large projection, but this time, what appeared beside everyone was a real model.
Although the insects on the large projection were made very realistically, almost indistinguishable from the real models, the actual model had a stronger three-dimensional feel, appearing more real. Li Shi and the other three were startled!
Just as all four were frozen, there was a sudden “bang,” a loud noise. The insect let out a violent howl, then retracted back into the cave.
It turned out that Captain Qin Yi, seeing his team members exposed, had no choice but to shoot.
“Enter combat mode!”
Captain Qin Yi shouted passionately while leading everyone forward, and the roller coaster now began to move quickly!
Before this, the magnetic rail rifles in everyone’s hands were locked, and the triggers couldn’t be pulled. Now they could fire freely.
The dense insect swarm below was instantly agitated, surging toward them in overwhelming numbers!
The cave was very spacious. Some insects climbed up the rock walls, while others had wings similar to cicada wings, allowing them to fly short distances, circling in the air toward the group.
When facing the projection screen directly, everyone could clearly see the insects’ sharp mouthparts and the green and yellow sticky fluids that burst out when they were hit by bullets!
The roller coaster seats seemed to start expressing themselves freely, no longer flying smoothly as before. At times they rose upward, at times they dived downward, at times they slid sideways along the wall, and they would even rotate horizontally, moving in multiple directions in coordination with the images on the projection.
The scene before them turned topsy-turvy, giving a sense of rapid acceleration and thrilling excitement. Adrenaline surged, but in reality, the roller coaster wasn’t moving that fast. This was a visual effect created by combining the roller coaster’s movement with the large screen images.
Li Shi and the others began to instinctively fire their guns frantically. The gun body transmitted strong vibrations and recoil. The sound of gunfire, the howling of insects, various sound effects, Captain Qin Yi’s commands, and electronic prompt sounds from the display screen… all intertwined, making people instantly enter a state of self-forgetfulness, immersed in the intense battlefield!
Afterward, the roller coaster would take different routes based on the combat situation in each scene.
For example, if everyone concentrated their attack in a certain direction, weakening the insect forces there, then Captain Qin Yi would lead them to break through in that direction.
The emotions throughout the entire process weren’t consistently so excited but rose and fell like a wave.
Intense battles were often disorienting, while during transitions, the roller coaster’s speed would decrease a bit, allowing everyone to calm down a little.
Just when everyone thought they had temporarily escaped the crisis, an even greater crisis suddenly arrived, catching them off guard!
Combined with the randomness of route selection and a series of sudden events within the system, people couldn’t guess what would happen next, keeping their minds highly focused throughout.