Chapter 1000: I’m a Robber?
“A city this big? Could a large part of it be fake? A long-distance model?”
Zou Zhuo, looking at Los Santos from the helicopter, couldn’t tell if this was a deliberately crafted aerial long shot or if the game was really this massive.
Zou Zhuo had seen some aerial photos of cities before. If you only looked at the urban area of this city in GTA, its size roughly matched that of a third- or fourth-tier small city or a county seat.
But this was by no means a criticism; on the contrary, it showed just how terrifyingly large the game’s capacity was. After all, the once wildly popular *Earth Online* had been hyped for years about its massive map, which might have been even smaller than this.
Moreover, *Earth Online* had sacrificed a lot to create such a large map. Back then, game pod storage capacity and read speeds were still in a pretty rough state, so many urban areas in *Earth Online* were made by reusing existing resources, with plenty of repetitive gameplay. Even so, players were still frustrated by the game’s huge resource load and infuriatingly slow loading times. Some even jokingly called *Earth Online* “Loading Online,” where five minutes of gameplay and two hours of loading were common occurrences.
The maps Chen Mo had created for *Assassin’s Creed: Origins* and *The Legend of Zelda* were also large, but the themes were different. In *The Legend of Zelda*, for instance, the main map areas were mostly wilderness, scattered with monsters, towers, shrines, Koroks, stables, and a few NPCs, and that was enough to call it a map. But a game like GTA couldn’t do that. In the urban area, it had to include all kinds of buildings—shopping malls, residences, police stations, TV stations, and so on—and the city’s structure had to be planned out. The workload for the two wasn’t on the same level.
As the helicopter flew closer, Zou Zhuo could see the city’s details more clearly. He was surprised to find that every building in the urban area seemed to have its own unique features. Looking around, he couldn’t spot two identical structures. He could even see cars weaving through the roads and pedestrians strolling around. Everything was almost indistinguishable from a normal city.
Just then, the helicopter hovered over the city. Zou Zhuo felt as if his soul had left his body. His perspective shifted to high above, giving him a panoramic view of all of Los Santos.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
His view rapidly zoomed in, locking onto a snow-covered scene at the bank in North Yankton.
That was when the game truly began.
[Ludendorff, North Yankton, 9 years ago]
A brown-haired woman in a hat was roughly shoved to the ground. A thug in a yellow jacket, holding a shotgun, pointed it at her and shouted, “Behave, and you won’t get hurt!”
Another thug had already burst through the door, knocking a guard to the floor with his rifle butt. Only two employees in shirts were left kneeling on the ground, hands raised high, trembling.
Zou Zhuo only then realized he was already in this scene.
“This intense right from the start? Fighting robbers? Damn, should I find a place to hide first? But these thugs look like vicious killers with insane combat skills. I probably can’t take them on, right?”
As Zou Zhuo was fretting, he saw the thug who had knocked down the guard staring at him: “What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and tie up the guard!”
Zou Zhuo froze. This guy’s talking to me?
Only then did he sense something was off. He touched his face.
Yeah, he was holding a gun, wearing a ski mask, and had a bag on his back—probably for carrying money.
“Wait, I’m a robber too?!”
Zou Zhuo was stunned. He’d thought he was a good guy caught up in a robbery, but it turned out he was one of the robbers!
But thinking about it, there was a strange little thrill to it.
The chubby guy instantly switched roles, eagerly following the two thug leaders as they started robbing the bank.
Occasionally, a line or two of text would appear as a prompt. Zou Zhuo raised his submachine gun, aiming at the hostages to herd them into a room, while another thug locked the door to keep them from causing trouble.
“Alright, use the phone to detonate it!” the thug beside him reminded.
Zou Zhuo felt his pants pocket and pulled out a Lehui phone.
Zou Zhuo: “...”
And this wasn’t like the latest big-screen smartphones; it looked a bit retro, since this scene took place nine years ago.
On the dial pad, there was an option for [Detonate]. Zou Zhuo made the call, and not long after, he heard a deafening “BOOM,” shaking the entire bank.
The other two thugs cheered and ran inside to grab cash. Zou Zhuo naturally followed them.
“Holy crap, so much money!”
Piles of colorful US dollars were stacked high in front of him. Zou Zhuo put down his gun, set his bag aside, and frantically stuffed cash into it.
Honestly, the stacks of bills looked incredibly realistic. Even though Zou Zhuo was wearing gloves and couldn’t feel the texture of the paper, just the weight and general sensation were enough to make his heart race.
Zou Zhuo kept stuffing the bag until it was so full he couldn’t fit any more. A small line of text appeared in the bottom right corner of his view: Gained $.
“Damn, one bank robbery nets 180,000 bucks instantly? This is definitely the quick way to make money!” Zou Zhuo wanted to look for more cash, but amid the piercing alarm, the other two thugs kept urging him, so he had to follow them out.
But just as he was leaving, a guard suddenly rushed out from the side, pressed a pistol to Zou Zhuo’s head, and yanked off his mask.
“Got you! I saw your face, and I’ll remember it!” The guard tightened his grip on Zou Zhuo’s neck, while the pistol in his right hand pressed firmly against Zou Zhuo’s temple.
Zou Zhuo was stunned. With a gun barrel right against his face, what was the point of resisting? He didn’t dare move an inch.
Just then, the game character spoke on its own: “You forget a thousand things every day. Why not make this one of them?”
At the same time, a prompt appeared in Zou Zhuo’s view to switch characters.
The moment he switched, it was like his soul left his body, instantly inhabiting the other thug.
“Damn, that’s a thing?”
Zou Zhuo saw his former self—Michael—squirming like a fish under the guard’s gun, while his own gun was already aimed at the guard’s bald head.
He pulled the trigger.
“BANG!”
With the gunshot, Zou Zhuo felt a recoil push against his shoulder. He saw the muzzle flash, and the guard’s head burst into a spray of blood. His body thudded to the ground.
“F**k! You didn’t have to do that!” Michael grimaced, wiping blood off his face with disgust.
“Let’s go. You’ll have time to mourn later,” the character Zou Zhuo was now playing said nonchalantly.
Logically, killing someone in such a highly realistic virtual world should stir some emotions, but Zou Zhuo found he didn’t care much about the guard’s life or death. He had already perfectly slipped into the role of a robber.
Zou Zhuo suddenly realized that in this virtual world, he could run wild and break the rules without any limits…
And it was thrilling!