Inside the Dan Street Apartment.

Angelica propped her legs up on the sofa, reaching out to pull her damp blonde hair out of the towel, and used a pump-style hangover cure on herself, saying with a wry smile.

"Recipe? I didn't hear wrong, did I."

"Yep."

John lay half-naked, hands behind his head, with a headband in standby mode still hanging around his neck.

"Fresh food is expensive, and the menu prices are definitely not cheap. Spending so much money can't result in mushy soup poured into quick meal bags handed to customers, right? Well, at least it should be something proper served on a plate..."

He stared at the ceiling, his mind wandering to the scene when Oulos took him to meet the senior management of Gaia Cells.

The company's executive, who cooked personally, used ingredients that were quite shocking—replicated human tissue. But the dining atmosphere and the appearance of the food still left a deep impression on him.

John genuinely believed at that time:

Dining with dignity is a pleasant experience; he didn't feel it while running transport or being a mercenary, but once he experienced it, he longed for it.

"Should I let my employees come to your bar to learn cooking? We'll settle costs according to market rates."

"I made it."

Angelica turned her head and flashed a radiant smile.

"Respected Mr. John, how much are you prepared to pay to hire me as your personal chef?"

One sentence shut down the possibility.

John couldn't get Angelica; she didn't have the time or energy to spend on him.

"Where did you get the technology?"

He decided to try another approach.

Angelica didn't hide anything, lightly touching the headband on her neck to awaken it.

"Have you ever come across immersive games? I'm not too sure; you don't seem like the kind of... well, guy who'd play pixel machines or drink and play billiards. I'm a bit unsure about your hobbies."

"Not at all."

John shook his head honestly.

Tiebang Logistics' work is extremely demanding.

Tasks and performance for the frontline company staff are crazily stringent, and transport team employees can only sneak moments of leisure during cargo breaks to ensure minimum pleasure and mental health.

Super Sensing Chip and various tools are rapidly advancing.

But there are indeed people like John who have no time to get in touch or experience it.

Angelica switched device mode.

The rendering machine in the ceiling ejected the Super Sensing Chip, began linking to the headband to load the game, adjusting the wearer's sensory link, calibrating data transmission...

Angelica's recipes and rare chips recording landscapes from various places were all redeemed from a game called "Cyber Era."

The originating region is Asia, and it's currently the game with the highest market penetration in deep diving. No matter the scale of multiplayer or freedom, it's astonishingly high.

"In Eden City, those guys with headbands, aside from watching porn chips, are playing games, and everyone has a Cyber Era account. Electronic headbands from the third generation and up are even pre-installed in the equipment."

"Hey, wait, multiplayer coverage?"

John isn't a hacker, but he has basic common sense.

After the old network completely collapsed, the new network built on the black wall is very sensitive, mostly covered by LAN, making cross-region intercommunication difficult, having to overcome both political and technological barriers.

"The specific developer is unclear, but the companies whose names you can recognize virtually all participated in the Cyber Era project. Once you start playing, you'll understand why it can make rival companies set aside their grudges."

Angelica helped John log into a virtual account.

"The appearance and information are virtual, don't mind them. You must always remember never to use your real name online; cyberspace is the realm of hackers and internet monitoring. As a well-established game on servers, registering with your real name means you're running naked in front of companies."

[Device connection calibration... Iris projection... Sub-central nervous connection... Subsystem information confirmation...]

The suspended ceiling device burst into bright light.

The apartment scene before John peeled away inch by inch, morphing into a flood of data and indescribable roar.

The system calibration completed.

His consciousness was projected into an unfamiliar shell, the advanced central nervous system controlling his body in reality.

If he wanted, he could take off the headband anytime.

John's visual system rebooted,

In front of him was a hazy street view, skyscrapers hidden deep in darkness emitting distant speckles of light. Beneath him was a soggy zebra crossing, with the red light opposite that never switched off.

A virtual screen popped up in front of John, similar in process and operation to the training at Harbor Company.

Angelica's home equipment is quite expensive, with a rendering accuracy not low, but it's only at an upscale virtual cinema level. The room used by Harbor for training should be military grade.

John's avatar was a tall, burly black guy.

The core gameplay of Cyber Era is the career system, with free starter roles and high-end starting roles available for purchase—the follow-up involves obtaining points through tasks, life planning, and random events in free exploration.

For example, if you choose a bartender profession, you'll have to create different flavor formulas to please customers simulated by data, as well as pass bartending motion assessments.

Points can be exchanged for skills from other professions.

These "skills" aren't flying, laser eyes, or super magic, but completely realistic professional knowledge and replicable action chips.

Angelica earned points as a bartender, exchanged them for some meat cooking recipes, and then transferred knowledge from the warehouse onto the Separation Chip through hacking technology.

John remembered the slogans plastered around the city.

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