Chapter 917: The Breath of Life
Many players, in the gaps between playing VR games, found themselves gravitating back to their luxury homes. They stopped playing Switch in the mansion, stopped buying clothes for Nuan Nuan, and spent all their time petting the dog!
As for what petting the dog felt like…
Actually, it felt a lot like petting a real dog. The dog was well-behaved when it wanted to be, and very proactive, but sometimes it would act completely unpredictably.
One intuitive feeling was that the dog seemed to have emotions. Sometimes it was lively, sometimes downcast, sometimes clingy…
Moreover, these emotional changes had no set pattern, but they were closely tied to the player’s current actions.
For example, if a player played with the dog for a bit or took it out for a couple of runs, it would significantly boost the dog’s mood. But sometimes, even if the player tried to play with it, the dog would remain completely indifferent, and then they’d have to think of other ways.
This experience, indistinguishable from petting a real dog, made the dogs in *Oasis* attract a massive number of players. Whether they owned a dog in real life or not, everyone wanted to give it a try.
But players couldn’t help being curious: How was such a realistic dog made?
Soon, some players leaked rumors: Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, the dog you were petting might actually possess self-awareness…
The progress of AI technology wasn’t exactly a tightly guarded secret; it just hadn’t been fully exposed or widely spread yet. In fact, the latest AI technology had already circulated in many fields, but it hadn’t been loudly proclaimed or diffused among the player community.
At first, players thought this claim was nonsense, or that some paid shills were using it as a gimmick to hype up *Oasis*.
But this matter… how was it starting to seem more and more real?
As various signs kept emerging, a lot of evidence pointed to the same conclusion: This dog really seemed to be made with the latest AI, and it did possess a certain degree of self-awareness!
So-called self-awareness was essentially an entity’s understanding of itself. In layman’s terms, it meant having a bit of self-knowledge.
Applied to the dog, this meant the dog had emotions that changed in cycles and were influenced by external factors. It could recognize humans as its owners, realize dog food was edible, and sense whether it was full or hungry…
Of course, the reality was far more complex, and many details required technical jargon to explain clearly.
For players, it boiled down to one thing: My dog is alive!
It was no longer the old simulation dog program. In a sense, it was now a true virtual dog. Apart from living inside a game world, it was almost indistinguishable from a real dog.
(Of course, this was only from a human perspective. It was hard for humans to tell the difference in self-awareness between an AI dog and a real dog. As for whether real dogs would consider virtual dogs their own kind, there was no definitive conclusion yet, but experimental data looked optimistic.)
Once players learned this, they were all thrilled, and their attitude toward the dog did a complete 180-degree turn!
Before, everyone knew it was just a virtual program, so they only played with it when they were in a good mood and forgot about it when they got busy.
But now, that wouldn’t do. The dog was essentially a living creature. If you ignored it, it would feel very lonely, bored, and listless. If this went on for too long, it could even develop psychological issues or physical discomfort…
For players, this added to their burden. The dog, which previously required no effort at all, now demanded a lot of time and care. They also had to try to figure out what was on the dog’s mind and take appropriate measures…
But players weren’t resistant at all. In fact, they were having a blast!
Some real-life dog trainers even used real-world methods to train the virtual dog, and it actually worked really well!
Some players even said, “Petting the dog is so fun! *Oasis* should just be renamed ‘Dog Raising Simulator’!”
What changed wasn’t just the dog itself, but the entire game of *Oasis*.
At first, when *Seaside Mansion* first launched, everyone saw it as just a freebie from Thunder Game Platform, and no one wanted to stay there for long.
Later, with more custom features and the introduction of Nuan Nuan, players gradually started to enjoy lingering there.
But in their minds, it was still just a game, a scene, not a real “place.”
Because this place lacked vitality, lacked living things.
Whether it was Nuan Nuan or the earlier dog, players knew they were just part of the game, some kind of advanced decoration, essentially no different from a smart speaker or smart TV at home. When you were home alone, did you feel like the smart speaker was keeping you company?
But now, the dog suddenly came to life, making many players feel something had changed.
Yes, this single dog instantly infused the entire *Oasis* with a breath of life. Players felt it was no longer lonely or monotonous. It even seemed like the dog had activated the whole *Oasis* in an instant. The dog food, toys, and everything else finally had a purpose.
And even more outrageously, Chen Mo seemed to have added damage effects to all the furniture!
One player logged into *Oasis* after work and was stunned by the scene.
The house was a mess—clutter scattered everywhere, sofa cushions torn apart by the dog, feathers floating all around…
The player immediately dropped to their knees. This was way too realistic!
Fortunately, Chen Mo announced that a housekeeping robot service would be offered for 10 yuan per month. Otherwise, players would have been driven crazy—cleaning up at home after work, then hopping into the game pod to relax, only to have to clean up again in the game…
Still, this “disaster level: dog” didn’t happen often. Strict limits were placed on the dog’s personality. In essence, all dogs were little angels, but some would occasionally let loose, giving their owners a surprise (or a scare).
This was kept within a certain range, so players were generally welcoming of it. After all, this was the difference between raising a real dog and an electronic pet. An electronic pet would almost never do anything to upset its owner; as long as you followed the guide, you could take perfect care of it. But that also meant losing a lot of the fun.
However, many players worried about the dog’s well-being: “If I’m not good to the dog, or neglect it because I’m busy, will it suffer permanent psychological trauma that can’t be fixed?”