Break out of the courtyard

As dawn broke over the United States, more and more photos and videos of the Area 51 explosion site were uploaded online by enthusiastic netizens.

Although the US government's cyber department tried its best to prevent the spread of such information and deleted most of the related content, it was impossible to persuade Peace Wisdom Technology Company to cooperate in deleting the texts, photos, and videos uploaded to the World Internet Forum, no matter how much they tried.

Therefore, the crater created by the explosion at Area 51 in the United States, the group of temporary yellow tents erected in the center of the crater, and the checkpoints and walls under construction around the crater are clearly exposed to the world.

Some conspirators still insist that the explosion was an attack by a foreign enemy and continue to fan the flames online.

Some daring media professionals drove their cars into a poorly defended ditch in an attempt to obtain firsthand news information.

Some UFO enthusiasts believe that after extraterrestrial beings rescued their companions imprisoned in the underground laboratory of Area 51, they destroyed Area 51 and called on other enthusiasts to go to the scene to find the truth.

The world's attention seemed to be focused on the explosion in the United States, waiting for the US government to release relevant information to clarify the situation, as if they had forgotten the announcement issued by the Peace Group and Zhang Heping's proposal.

But the reality is that the first-generation Virtual Reality game console was still too far removed from ordinary people, and the peace initiative was only regarded as a beautiful wish by most people, far less appealing than the attack on the United States.

However, in a corner of the internet that most people can't see, many people are applying to participate in the Virtual Dream Game Machine Technology Sharing Conference to be held on December 12th on the Peace Group's official website.

As the initiator of this meeting, Zhang Heping did not immediately check the application information. Instead, he took his children to the basement to test the first-generation Virtual Dream game helmet.

Unlike the gold-plated black iron helmet that Zhang Heping used to wirelessly control the computer, the Virtual Dream game helmet is a large, black motorcycle helmet-style device that feels quite heavy when worn.

The reason for this is that the equipment in the laboratory was incomplete, and Zhang Heping was unable to further miniaturize the functional modules that had been stacked with hundreds of layers, so the final fourth-generation brain-computer interface was a bit too large.

The people wearing black helmets and standing at opposite ends of the basement were Zhang Long and Zhang Hu, who used to be heavily addicted to video games.

Zhang Heping, Chen Shuting, Zhang Nan, and Zhang Nian stood by the wall, some looking at the motionless Zhang Long and Zhang Hu, and others at a frog brain the size of a pea on the table in the middle of the basement.

The virtual dream game that Zhang Long and Zhang Hu are playing now is called "Mosquitoes vs. Frog King"!
The specific gameplay involves players transforming into mosquitoes within a frog's dream world, trying to evade attacks from the frog's long tongue.

The reason it is a frog brain's dream, rather than an illusion like the Ruomu Brain Machine or the Ruomu Divine Tree, is mainly because Zhang Heping has only conquered the mental power frequency reduction module, and can connect to the brainwave activity of external biological brains with extremely weak mental power.

Zhang Heping initially used monkeys in his experiments, but the brainwave activity of monkeys when they woke up was very complex, and brainwaves that promote muscle and internal organ activity could be felt.

These kinds of subconscious brain management behaviors are not something normal people can feel, and they don't usually need to pay attention to them, so it can feel very strange when you first encounter them.

While connecting to the monkey's brain after it falls asleep may reduce the amount of chaotic brainwaves from the daytime, it may not necessarily connect to its dream activities.

Therefore, Zhang Heping thought of the brain regeneration fluid that restored the brain of the brainless limbs without consciousness.

After Zhang Heping solved the nutritional supply problem for the regenerated brain, the first attempt to use the regenerated frog brain was actually unsuccessful!

Because the regenerating frog's brain is completely blank, it has no brainwaves, let alone the ability to create dreams.

Subsequently, Zhang Heping tried various methods and finally successfully replicated the dream brainwaves of a live frog into the regenerated frog's brain, thus creating the first-ever virtual dream game scene:
Frogs eat mosquitoes!
The reason why players Zhang Long and Zhang Hu can only be mosquitoes in the frog brain's dream is mainly because their weak mental energy is suppressed by the frog brain's mainstream brainwaves after entering the frog brain through brain-computer interface!

Even if they wanted to become frogs, they would only be frogs as small as mosquitoes, and could never become the towering Frog Demon King!
Zhang Heping also tried to increase the player's mental input, but the result was that the brainwaves in the frog's brain were disrupted by the external brainwaves, making it impossible to form dreams.

"Dad!" Seventh daughter Zhang Nuo looked at the frog brain on the middle table and asked somewhat unwillingly, "Is it really impossible to convert mental energy into digital signals? If only I could see the scenes in the frog brain's dreams!"

“Not yet!” Zhang Heping explained slowly: “First, the frog’s brain doesn’t have enough brainwaves to continuously convert mental energy outwards; second, there’s no need for that conversion.”

"Instead of spending that time, we would be better off researching how to optimize brain-computer interfaces and biological brain servers like the frog brain."

Zhang Feng, who was standing next to her, laughed and said, "Seventh Sister, your idea is like trying to convert a color television signal into a shadow puppet show in a real opera troupe. Just think how difficult that would be?"

"Dad, the brainwave capacity of this frog brain is too low. We can't even use our mental power to observe the dream!" Zhang Bei said somewhat unwillingly, "There are a few regenerated human brains in the underground base in Shenzhen. Should we try using one?"

"Not for now!" Zhang Heping didn't want to say that he still needed to use this frog brain to improve his biological brain server building skills.

Only by improving this skill can he combine it with his advanced dream construction skill to create larger and more complex dream scenes.

As for biological brain carriers, he considered the brains of many kinds of organisms, such as sperm whales and giant squid.

Alternatively, use regenerative repair fluid to create an abnormally proliferating giant brain.

He also considered creating a regenerated body using his own flesh and blood, and then testing whether his regenerated brain surpassed that of ordinary people.

But as soon as he had this idea, he had some vague and inexplicable worries, so he gave it up for the time being.

“We can’t win! We can’t win at all!” Zhang Long said, taking off the first-generation Virtual Dream game helmet and handing it to his seventh sister, Zhang Nuo, who rushed over excitedly.

"Dad, there's a bug in the dream game you designed. That frog has an enormous amount of health. Xiaohu and I sucked over 500 mouthfuls of its blood, staining the lotus leaves under its feet red. And it's still mechanically sticking out its tongue to eat mosquitoes."

“That frog, it’s this frog brain, how could you possibly kill it in its dream?” Zhang Heping said slowly, “Unless you can make it subconsciously believe that it’s dead!”

"Let it subconsciously think it's dead?" Zhang Long pondered as he walked to the wall, repeatedly considering the meaning of his father's words.

A moment later, just as Zhang Hu took off his helmet and handed it to his older brother Zhang Bei who was waiting in line, Zhang Long looked at Zhang Heping with some uncertainty.

"Dad, if I use this virtual reality game helmet to invade someone's dream and make that person subconsciously believe they are dead in the dream, what will happen to them in reality?" Zhang Long asked, both excited and worried.

Zhang Heping casually remarked, "Most likely, it's brainwave dissipation, brain death!"

Zhang Hu hadn't heard what was said before. After walking over, he started asking his elder brother what had happened.

After Zhang Heping and his children played two rounds, they finally brought their mistress Chen Shuting onto the field. In the frog brain dream, they studied the difficult feats of how mosquitoes mate in the sky and underwater.

……

The following morning, with mixed feelings, Mr. Hua, along with Director Wang and Zhang Pandi, once again arrived at the Zhang family villa on Victoria Peak.

This time, Zhang Heping still didn't come out of the underground laboratory to greet Elder Hua and the others. However, after Zhang Bei returned to the living room from the basement and heard the purpose of Elder Hua and the others' visit, he took them to the basement.

Old Hua was initially delighted, thinking that Zhang Bei was going to take them to see Zhang Heping's underground laboratory, but they ended up in an empty basement. Apart from Zhang Bei, Zhang Nan, and the other children of the Zhang family, there was only a small square table with a few glass jars on it.

"Grandpa Hua, Grandma Wang, Second Aunt, please stand by the wall and wait for Xiao Nian and Xiao Feng..."

Before Zhang Bei could finish speaking, Zhang Nian and Zhang Feng took off their helmets, clearly having heard the commotion.

Although the first-generation Virtual Dream Game helmet was a bit large, it consumed very little mental energy because the external mental energy it emitted was extremely low.

Even if you wear this helmet and continuously release your mental energy for 8 hours, you will only feel tired like you haven't slept well, unlike the first-generation brain-computer interface which would make you faint after wearing it for a dozen seconds.

"Who wants to go first?" Zhang Bei asked, reminding his brothers and sisters to put on their gold-rimmed glasses and protect their mental energy.

Old Hua and Director Wang exchanged a glance, and were about to speak when Zhang Pandi stepped back to the door and said with a smile, "You two go first! I've played this game before."

Zhang Bei walked to the door and stood in front of his second aunt, Zhang Pandi, to prevent any unexpected bursts of spiritual energy from reaching out later.

He still remembers the first time his father let Hua Lao try on the third-generation gold-rimmed glasses brain-computer interface. He only let him wear it for a short while before taking the brain-computer interface off.

Although his father did not explain why he did it, Zhang Bei told Hua Lao that it was because Hua Lao could not control his mental power and his father was worried that something would happen to him.

The first-generation virtual reality game helmet that Hua Lao and his family were about to try on could only emit a very weak amount of mental energy, but Zhang Heping had told his children to always be careful of the dangers of mental energy.

The siblings were already proficient in controlling their own mental energy, so they weren't worried about their siblings' mental energy running rampant.

But Elder Hua and Director Wang were novices, and even Zhang Pandi knew that they should go to the door to avoid the spiritual energy that might be wandering around.

After explaining the precautions to Elder Hua and Director Wang, Zhang Bei had them stand at opposite ends of the table, put on the helmets, and experience the world's first virtual dream game.

After a while, Mr. Hua took off his helmet and looked at the glass bottle on the table in front of him with some disbelief. A moment later, he put the helmet back on.

Shortly after Mr. Hua put his helmet back on, Director Wang took it off and walked toward the door with an incredulous look on his face.

"Grandma Wang, don't you want to try it out some more?" Zhang Nan said with a smile. "When we first played this game, it took us most of the day just to learn how to fly."

"No!" Director Wang shook his head. "Knowing that such a dream game machine really exists is enough. I need to save my energy to communicate with your father."

"Second Sister, would you like to try it again?" Director Wang said, handing the helmet to Zhang Pandi behind Zhang Bei.

Zhang Pandi shook her head and laughed, "I'm too stupid, I don't know how to play this game!"

"Second Aunt, are you afraid of eating frogs?" Zhang Long took the helmet and said with a smile, "We ate three meals of bullfrog hotpot in a row and got rid of this psychological shadow. Do you want to try bullfrog for lunch today?"

“Great!” Zhang Pandi said with a smile, “You guys decide what to do, the three of us will stay for lunch.”

Zhang Long looked at his older brother Zhang Bei, who nodded and took out his phone. Knowing that his brother would arrange lunch, Zhang Long took his helmet and went to the other side to check on Elder Hua's condition in the virtual dream world.

Hua Lao had used the Ruomu Brain Machine before, so at this moment he did not pay attention to the green frog as big as a mountain on the giant lotus leaf, nor did he transform into a mosquito. Instead, he floated in mid-air in a tiny human form, observing the surrounding environment.

This game world isn't very big!

From a human perspective, the pond beneath our feet is only about one meter in diameter. It's just that the player is currently very small, which is why the pond below seems like a large lake.

Besides the lotus leaf under the big frog's bottom, there were two smaller lotus leaves next to it in the pond.

Besides that, there were only mosquitoes flying around the frog.

The area around the pond was shrouded in a gray haze, which must be the boundary of the dream.

Old Hua dived underwater to investigate. Although he felt suffocated, he was not about to drown. The underwater area was also murky and he could not see anything, not even a single fish.

After Hua Lao left the pool, he saw Zhang Long with wings growing behind him, flying on the water's surface, seemingly waiting for him.

"Grandpa Hua, this is Frog Brain's dream, it's not very realistic." Zhang Long guessed what Grandpa Hua was thinking and explained the situation to him with a smile.

Finally, Zhang Long led Hua Lao to transform into mosquitoes, fly over the lotus leaf under the frog, circle around to the frog's back and suck a few mouthfuls of frog blood before leaving the endless mosquito-eating dream of the frog brain with Hua Lao.

Compared to the previous three-generation brain-computer interface glasses, the virtual dream game helmet and the frog brain on the table that serves as the virtual dream game carrier impressed Mr. Hua even more.

In such a short time, Zhang Heping's research has already progressed to the stage of commercial application.

Just as Hua Lao was about to go upstairs to the living room to wait for Zhang Heping, he walked to the basement door, glanced back at Zhang Hu and Zhang Nan who were wearing helmets, and then asked Zhang Bei, who was leading the way:

"Xiao Bei, although this virtual dream game is novel, you brothers and sisters have been here all this time, it can't be just for fun!"

"Hmm!" Zhang Bei replied casually, "My dad asked us to test these two helmets to see what needs improvement."

This kid is up to no good. The reason they take turns playing virtual reality games in the basement is because their dad said that the brainwaves of these small frogs are simple, and that wearing a virtual reality game helmet for a long time and being in contact with its brainwaves may improve their brain development!
Zhang Heping explained to his children that the level of brain development is related to the strength of their brainpower; and the strength of brainpower, when wearing the same level of brain-computer interface device, represents the strength of their mental strength.

Zhang Bei and Zhang Nan became addicted to virtual dream games in the basement in order to enhance their brain development.

Of course, they are indeed testing the virtual reality game headset in case something goes wrong at the technical sharing session on December 12th.

After Old Hua sat down on the sofa in the living room, seeing that Zhang Bei was about to go to the basement again, he quickly tried to keep the young man occupied, hoping to find out about their father from him... (End of this chapter)