Chapter 1023: Movie-Watching Experience
Lin Xue arrived at the Matrix Shopping Center, then spent fifteen minutes finally managing to park the Aston Martin in the garage.
“Yeah! First successful reverse parking in my life!”
Lin Xue happily opened the door and got out, only to see a barrage of unbearably miserable wails in the bullet comments.
“Wow, Xue’s driving skills are just goddamn roadkill material. Even if she gets her license later, I’m definitely staying far away when I see her on the road!”
“With a 360-degree panoramic camera, she still struggles to reverse into a spot. There’s literally no one else like this…”
“The thing is… aren’t all the surrounding spots empty? Why does she have to squeeze into this one? Just take up two spots and be done with it…”
“No idea what Xue is being so stubborn about, or what she’s so proud of…”
Lin Xue’s face darkened: “Seriously, you guys are getting more and more out of line. As a beginner, I managed to reverse park perfectly—shouldn’t you be encouraging me a little? Hmph, I’m ignoring you. I’m going to watch a movie.”
Arriving at the Matrix Shopping Center, Lin Xue wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but it seemed noticeably more crowded than last time.
In fact, from the moment it launched until now, the number of people at the Matrix Shopping Center had been steadily increasing. The current crowd was just right—neither too crowded nor too empty.
It felt just like a real shopping mall. Customers were doing all sorts of things: some were stuffing themselves at various food stalls, some were trying on clothes in clothing stores, and others were riding the pirate ship in the amusement area. There were also people like Lin Xue, holding a drink or an ice cream, heading toward the cinema. If you wanted some peace and quiet, you wouldn’t hear anyone else’s voice at all. But if you were watching a comedy and the whole theater burst into laughter, you could still feel the atmosphere of the scene.
Lin Xue still preferred the more traditional feeling of watching a movie with a lot of people, so she chose to keep the live sound.
After a brief black screen, images appeared in Lin Xue’s field of vision.
To her delight, this was definitely not some 2D or 3D movie—it was a VR movie.
At that moment, Lin Xue felt like she was playing a VR game, completely immersed in the movie world. Around her were towering skyscrapers. The camera, or rather Lin Xue’s perspective, was dozens of meters up in the air, allowing her to look down at the rooftop of a nearby building and gaze straight ahead at the opposite high-rise, which was entirely covered in glass curtain walls.
Up, down, left, right.
Lin Xue tried looking around, but found her field of view was fixed at 180 degrees. She couldn’t turn to see behind her. This was probably because the main information of the movie happened in front of the camera, so they didn’t want players to miss key details by looking around randomly.
In other words, it was actually made in 360 degrees, but to give players a better viewing experience, the field of view was restricted.
Lin Xue was now a ghost, without a physical body. She could feel herself still sitting comfortably in the cinema chair, but her body didn’t appear in the movie scene. This feeling was similar to traditional head-mounted VR movies, just that the image quality had been upgraded by several levels.
“The movie’s started. Not bad. If it’s fully VR, then the price feels reasonable. Let’s see how the content is.”
A fast-paced melody, like the ticking of a stopwatch, echoed, creating a very tense atmosphere. The camera slowly zoomed in, gradually approaching the glass-curtain-walled building that was level with her view.
Suddenly, a piece of glass in the field of view completely shattered, startling Lin Xue.
The camera cut directly into the window that had been blown open. Masked robbers began executing their plan methodically.
Two people were on the rooftop handling the alarm system, three drove a car straight through the front entrance to rob the bank.
The five of them split into three lines: one was responsible for disabling the alarm system, one for opening the vault, and one for dealing with the guards and the bank manager at the front.
At this point, the difference between VR movies and games became fully apparent.
Many VR games use a first-person perspective, and even during cutscenes, the view quickly returns to the character, making it very seamless for the player.
But in the movie, especially in the opening bank robbery scene, the camera frequently switched between different robbers. Clean, sharp movements, simple but information-packed dialogue, and a subtle, tense rhythm all kept Lin Xue’s mind highly focused. Her brain was racing, absorbing a flood of information.
At first, Lin Xue thought this was just a cliché crime story. Next, the robbers would probably finish robbing the bank, the police would arrive, and then a shootout would ensue, right?
However, that wasn’t the case…
The robbers, following the Joker’s orders, killed each other off. In the end, it turned out the Joker had been hiding among them all along.
Casually finishing off the last thug, the Joker walked up to the bank manager and said in his uniquely sinister voice: “I believe that letting you live will make the story… much more… interesting.”
The moment the Joker took off his mask, his eerie face was almost pressed against Lin Xue’s nose. She could even clearly see every pore on his face.
Messy blonde hair, heavy black eye shadow, a face painted deathly white, and two glaring scars on either side of his lips, slathered in thick, bright red lipstick, cutting across his entire face into a grotesque smile.
Finally, the Joker even flashed a terrifyingly chilling grin before turning and walking away.
A school bus drove out of the bank, perfectly merging with a line of other school buses. By the time the police cars finally arrived, they were too late.
In just five minutes, this movie had presented the audience with a perfect, high-intelligence crime, leaving Lin Xue utterly stunned!