Madison Square Garden.
The arena, holding tens of thousands, was utterly silent. Every eye was fixed on the massive holographic projection at the center of the stage.
There was no cold metal or complex circuitry. Instead, there was a picturesque lakeside forest.
Sunlight pierced through the dense canopy, casting dappled shadows on an ancient stone path. The air was filled with the fresh scent of grass and lake water, and the crisp calls of unknown birds echoed from a distance.
It was breathtakingly real.
Paul, clad in simple leather armor with a plain iron sword at his hip, stood within this forest, looking like a youth who had stepped right out of the Middle Ages.
"This is Aincrad, Floor 22."
Paul's voice, amplified by the sound system, reverberated through the hall, reaching every ear with perfect clarity.
He wasn't looking at any teleprompter. He simply glanced around the world he had personally created, a relaxed smile on his face.
"Nice view, right? A good place to retire."
The audience exchanged bewildered glances, completely failing to understand what the new wunderkind of the tech world was getting at.
Retire? A fourteen-year-old boy was talking to them about retirement?
Just as confusion spread, Paul walked to the side of the path, toward a diamond-shaped crystal that floated in mid-air, emitting a soft blue glow.
He reached out and tapped it lightly.
"Corridor."
The command was spoken softly.
In the next second, a scene unfolded that made the scalps of tens of thousands tingle.
Paul's body instantly dissolved into billions of blue light particles, scattering like dandelion seeds in the wind, and vanished.
"Whoa—!"
A tsunami of gasps erupted from the crowd.
The live chat in the broadcast stream exploded, the dense text nearly obscuring the entire screen.
[WTF! Teleportation? Am I seeing things?]
[The Starks have mastered spatial technology? What kind of black magic is this?!]
[Oh my god, this is even more insane than the Arc Reactor! Is humanity about to enter an interstellar age?]
Before the audience's shock could subside, the holographic image shifted abruptly.
The particles of light rapidly reformed in the air, and Paul's figure reappeared. But his location had changed from the tranquil forest to the base of a colossal, floating steel city.
It was a magnificent metropolis that defied description, with layers of structures extending upward until they disappeared into the clouds.
"Welcome to Floor 1, the Town of Beginnings."
Paul spread his arms wide, like a monarch presenting his kingdom.
Down in the front row, even Tony Stark's eyes couldn't hide his astonishment.
He knew Paul was working on virtual reality, but he never imagined the kid could achieve this level of immersion. That momentary teleportation almost had him convinced it was real.
"So, this is your new product?"
An impatient reporter in the front row couldn't help but stand up and shout, pointing at where the Corridor Crystal had been in the projection. "That blue crystal, is it some kind of personal teleportation device?"
The question instantly ignited the crowd's enthusiasm. Everyone stared at Paul with looks of fervent hope.
If Stark Industries was truly releasing personal teleportation devices, the world would be changed forever.
"A teleportation device?"
Paul heard the question and shook his head with a laugh.
The look on his face was that of someone watching a group of primitives marveling at magic.
"No, my friend. That's just a game item."
He paused, deliberately building the suspense, watching the expressions on the faces below shift from feverish excitement to disappointment, and then from disappointment to an even more intense curiosity. Only then did he slowly add:
"An item… that allows you to experience the extraordinary in my world."
Before his words had faded, the sound of heavy footsteps and a brutish roar came from nearby.
The camera pulled back to reveal a wild boar monster the size of a small car, with tusks jutting out and its eyes glowing crimson. It lowered its head, pawing the ground with its hind legs as two jets of white steam snorted from its nostrils.
"ROAR—!"
The boar monster let out a bellow and, with a foul stench, charged at Paul like a runaway heavy-duty truck.
"Ah!"
A woman in the audience let out a short scream, and many people instinctively shut their eyes.
The sense of pressure was just too real.
Yet, the Paul in the projection didn't move a single step.
Just as the boar was about to crash into him, he casually thrust the flimsy-looking beginner's iron sword forward.
There was no earth-shattering collision.
No clash of sparks from a parry.
Only a soft "squelch" so faint it was almost inaudible.
The boar's frenzied charge came to an abrupt halt. Its massive body froze in place, a trace of confusion flashing in its crimson eyes.
The next second, its body dissolved into a shower of shattered blue polygons, vanishing into the air like soap bubbles.
[One… one-shotted?]
[That's not scientific! How could that flimsy sword pierce such a thick hide?]
[It's fake, right? This has to be a pre-rendered CG animation!]
[No, look at Paul's expression. He's too relaxed. This looks more like… an admin stomping a noob!]
The live chat erupted once again.
Paul retracted his sword, blew off the non-existent dust, and faced the camera with a slightly smug smile.
"In this world, firearms are forbidden. The guns and missiles you're all familiar with are nothing but scrap metal here."
He pointed the tip of his sword to where the boar had disappeared.
"To survive, you can only rely on the sword in your hand and your courage."
"By the way," he added, his tone shifting to one of self-deprecation, "before I got admin privileges, the number of times I died to this guy was probably… in the hundreds. After all, for a newbie, its charge is really hard to dodge."
"But now…"
A grin spread across Paul's face, revealing a row of white teeth. "Things feel different with the 'speed cheat' turned on."
The words "speed cheat" brought a knowing smile to the faces of countless gamers in the audience, and the atmosphere shifted from tense and thrilling to relaxed.
This boy genius was surprisingly down-to-earth.
"Alright, the warm-up is over."
Paul plunged his sword into the ground and surveyed the entire arena.
"Now, I want to play a game. Who can guess what new product I'm actually here to announce today?"
The moment he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the hall ignited to a fever pitch.
Countless hands shot up, people shouting their guesses.
"It's this game called 'Aincrad'!"
"It's the holographic projection technology!"
"It's artificial intelligence! That boar monster's AI was too real!"
Paul smiled and shook his head.
"All wrong."
He snapped his fingers, and a virtual spotlight began to sweep rapidly across the audience. Everyone's heart was in their throat.
Finally, the beam of light came to a stop in an inconspicuous spot in the third row.
Seated there was a quiet woman with long black hair and a serene demeanor.
"Third row, sixth seat. This beautiful lady," Paul's voice held a magnetic quality. "Please, tell me the answer."
All the cameras and every pair of eyes in the hall instantly focused on the woman.
She slowly rose to her feet. She showed no nervousness at being chosen, appearing remarkably calm instead.
She looked at the stage, at the spirited young man reigning over his virtual world, and a light of wisdom shone in her clear eyes.
The arena was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for her answer.
"You're not launching…"
The woman's voice was soft, but carried clearly throughout the hall by the microphone.
"…a game, nor any single piece of technology."
She paused, her gaze meeting Paul's in the projection.
"What you truly want to showcase is the ability to create a 'world.' A means to… completely disconnect human consciousness, immerse it into virtual data, and shut out all physical senses…"
Her every word landed like a heavy hammer blow on everyone's heart.
"A technology called 'FullDive'."
FullDive!
The moment those words left the woman's lips, the entire Madison Square Garden fell into a dead silence.
It was as if an invisible hand had seized everyone by the throat.
On the stage, the confident, everything-under-control smile on Paul's face stiffened for the first time.
He looked at the woman, and deep in his eyes, a storm raged that even he hadn't noticed.
He had prepared countless brilliant speeches, designed a series of interlocking steps to guide the world's audience, step by step, to witness the birth of this epoch-making product.
But he had never imagined.
That someone could see through his entire plan and reveal the truth before he had the chance.
After a brief moment of shock, the curve of Paul's lips slowly began to rise again.
Only this time, his roguish smile held something more—the genuine… excitement and amusement of meeting a worthy opponent.