“Alright.” Simon readily assented to the robot’s words.

“Good. Now please follow me.” said the robot before beginning to head out. “Whilst I show you around, I of course, will explain as we go. If you ever have any questions, you can ask anytime.”

“First, I will start off with this building. This building is known as the…”

...

Together, man and robot navigated through the vast metropolis. As they continued on, Simon was introduced to countless parcels of knowledge and plenty of important buildings.

Of these buildings, the most notable ones were the Hall of Fame, the Laboratory House, the Center of Learning, and the Veracity Athenaeum, which were each incomparably impressive on their own.

With all of these things located in the same world… it could be said that this was truly a legendary place for scholars!

This world operated on one main idea: All the tools necessary to improve were present. But only by virtue of effort and talent would one truly shine!

Take for example, the laboratory simulation policy. Since experiments were simulated, energy was naturally required in the process. But of course, there was no such thing as infinite energy.

As a result, all members of the Virtual World were given a monthly allowance of energy. Only by rendering merits, passing certain trials, or upgrading one’s authority would the energy limit be raised.

As for the various important buildings…

The Hall of Fame is, of course, to note formidable members of the research team. Namely, people whose merits were enough to become worthy of renown over. The Hall of Fame contains both their legacies, and their emotions within.

The Laboratory House is, of course, the site of simulations and experiments. In this place, one could control even the finest of details and variables in an experiment, and repeat said experiment thousands of times with the click of a button! Every scrap of information attained would be automatically inputted and organized into graphs, tables, and lists, making it a very streamlined process.

The Center of Learning is, of course, where professors impart their knowledge unto their fellow scholars. This is the main attraction of the world, and occasionally, even actual members of the Veracity team would sit down to listen in on these lectures.

Meanwhile, the Veracity Athenaeum is actually considered to be the most important location in the entire virtual world… in this place, countless amounts of data and theories are stored. The amount of information in this place is absolutely staggering!

After all, many generations of scholars under the Veracity team left behind their insights into this very Athenaeum. Not to mention, there was also plenty of information from outside sources within it as well! It was quite literally a sea of knowledge...

…

“This concludes the tour. Do you have any final questions?” the floating robot asked emotionlessly.

By now, they had made their way back to the building where he had originally fallen into, after having navigated through many parts of the metropolis.

“Not at all. Thank you for your tour.” Simon lightly said.

[Tour complete. Rejoining the main server…]

Woosh!

Suddenly, instead of there only being robots, there were now people as well… lots of them.

This came as no surprise to Simon though. After all, the robot had long since explained that first timers spawned in a separate “server” than where everyone else was.

“Hey, a new one was just sent over.” a balding middle aged man nodded towards his direction.

“Welcome.”

“Oh? A new guy.”

A couple of the dozen or so people who were hanging out in this circular building greeted him, while the others sent him a glance. After all, it was not a common occurrence for a new member to be sent into the world.

“Thank you.” Simon acknowledged his fellow associates with a smile. “You all can just refer to me as Simon. I look forward to working with you all.”

“Haha, the same could be said for us.”

“Well then, as we like to say... welcome to the land of scholarly riches, the Veracity World!”

…

After exchanging a few lines with his fellow associates, he finally headed out.

Simon inwardly frowned as he entered a floating vehicle.

One should not be fooled by the warm front that his associates maintained. After all, everyone here was certainly a talented, influential, and competitive figure.

Without question, among these people, there were many crouching tigers and hidden dragons… would these people typically greet others with warmth or respect?

Of course not.

Most likely, since no one knew much about him, they were in a state of cautious support.

They would maintain a positive relationship whilst observing his actions. If he proved to be unworthy of respect, he would likely be cast aside. But if he proved to be exceedingly worthy, he would probably be surrounded on all fronts by bootlickers. Whichever the case, people would try to use him.

First, he decided to visit the Hall of Fame. According to conventions, it was a must see, and naturally he did not have a need to go against it.

Soon enough…

Simon disembarked from a sleek floating vehicle, and onto the ground in front of a regal and imposing marble hall.

Engraved upon the front of this building, there were simply three words: Hall of Fame.

Simon quickly made his way up the marble stairs and finally, into the building.

‘Wow…’

Now, he stood at the threshold of a vast room, filled with countless solemn statues. All in all, there must have been hundreds of them!

He immediately went up to the closest statue, and began investigating.

This particular statue was of a shrewd, short looking man, whose gaze seemed mysterious and deep - even though it was a mere statue.

Below the statue was a pristine white plaque, which read:

“Joe Mama, the man who proved String Theory, along with a number of other minor theories. He was one of the three founders of the Veracity team.”

The letters on the plaque then rearranged into an image - an image of a lab. Then, the image turned into a video; the stone suddenly moving like liquid, displaying the process of which string theory was proven.

…

“Ligma Bolse, the man who came up with the Ligma Theory of Nucleus, along with a number of other findings. He was an official member of the Veracity team.”

An image of a series of symbols and numbers appeared on the plaque…

…

“Sugh Mah, the woman who founded Sug Mah Technologies. She was an official member of the Veracity team.”

A company building with various technologies appeared on the plaque…

…

One statue, two statues, three statues…

Simon quickly found himself entranced in these statues and the information that they came with. Within every statue, within every theory, proof, and achievement… he could sense the emotions and effort that were poured in.

…

Eventually, when three hours had passed, he had gone through all of the nearly thousand statues.

Though the imagery that was displayed on the plaques seemed simple, they were actually deceivingly profound, with secrets hidden within every movement of the plaque. In fact, upon ruminating on these ‘videos’, one’s familiarity with the subject displayed would undoubtedly improve.

‘Wow, what a marvelous place…’ Simon sighed in wonder. To think that even the hall of fame was this impressive… he was rejoicing in the fact that he decided to join this research team!

After going through each of the plaques, he felt like his horizons had broadened significantly. Without question, erecting these statues was truly an impressive feat.

‘When will a statue of my own be erected here?’ he mused as he left the hall.

Simon’s next destination was the Laboratory house. And so, he quickly made his way there as well.

...

Within the Laboratory house, there was a massive database from whence items could be taken out and used in a simulation. In this case, he took a random planet, and stuffed it full with dinosaurs, then sent a meteor straight into it.

However, it has to be known that he chose the lowest level of simulation quality. After all, he couldn’t just waste all of his energy onto some random simulations of no scientific value…

But still, the level of detail was decently high - high to the level of being able to see individual particles of dust. As a result, it made for a rather spectacular sight. He could even rewind time, zoom in, and watch it all in slow motion.

This simulation had only cost him a mere hundred megawatts. Considering that he had access to 20 thousand megawatts a month… what he had just used was merely a drop in the ocean. Such were the benefits of modern technology!

After sating his curiosity in the Laboratory house, he then decided to paid a visit to the Veracity Athenaeum.

It has to be known that the Athenaeum was actually a massive underground structure that spanned the entire metropolis...

As a result, it could be accessed from practically anywhere in the Virtual World. And so, Simon only needed to jump down one of many tubes, before landing into the massive underground library.

Thump!

As he lightly landed, he took note of his surroundings.

There was an uncountable amount of shelves all over the place, organized in a neat grid. All of the shelves in sight were full of books, and even with his extraordinary vision, he could hardly see the end of this massive room.

A few sparse figures could also be seen sitting around here, reading up on books or studying. No one paid him any mind, and it was almost completely quiet in here. Combined with the dim lights and the crisp air, it was a soothing environment - perfect for studying or meditation.

Of course, when looking for a book, there was no need to actually check every individual bookshelf. Spread about in this massive room were machines that looked like ATMs, which worked as ‘Search Engines’.

Within these machines, one could filter out books by subject, level of complexity, completeness, etc. Once one found a book that was desired, with just a click of a button, the book would be sent flying over to the recipient.

Simon of course, knew all of this as this information was included in the introduction to the Virtual World. After all, this place could be considered as one of the most important places in this world.

‘Perfect!’ Simon’s expression brightened when he saw such a sea of knowledge. He couldn’t be more eager to dive in!

He quickly made his way to the closest ‘Book ATM’ and began searching for interesting books.

First, he tried searching for information pertaining to magic. Unfortunately, it seemed that none of them were placed into the vast Athenaeum.

‘Mm, I suppose it makes sense. After all, this place is rather ‘open’ to outsiders. How could they possibly allow any random student to access the vast secrets of magic?’

After setting aside his disappointment, he quickly got to researching.