The Court's Plans, the Company's Expansion

"Something even worse is about to happen!"

"My second uncle... they said the United Association is going to introduce new measures, requiring every player to register and undergo a security check before logging off."

"You also need to report your situation regularly."

What if I don't want to apply anymore?

"Then we'll put you on the high-risk list and monitor you 24/7."

"With so many drones available now, it's easy for them to keep an eye on you 24/7."

"Yeah, unless you hide in the game's Safe Zone and don't log off."

"But the game's Safe Zone, while secure, lacks entertainment and daily life; it's almost like being in prison."

"Damn it! When we Rogue Players were being arrested and killed before, the United Association never stepped in, never mentioned registration, and never talked about the risks."

"Now that strange things are happening, you're scared and realize there's danger. Where were you before?"

"Yes, if they had registered and protected players earlier and given casual players the proper respect, I would have thought they were alright. But now that this has been exposed, it's clear they don't care about the lives of us casual players at all; they only represent the company's upper management from beginning to end!"

"Damn it, if that's the case, if I'm ever going to die, I'm definitely taking a few big weirdos back with me!"

"Let's go together!"

"+1!"

For a time, the Archipelago Forum was filled with righteous indignation.

This is easy to understand.

You don't call me when it's time to eat, but you only come looking for me when you're about to bleed?

Everyone knows that once you register, your life and death are in the hands of others, and if there's anything that needs to be done as cannon fodder, you'll definitely be the first one they consider.

This is beyond doubt.

The problem is that when they are hunted down by Corporate Players, they have no one to turn to for help.

Now that it's been discovered that players can cause significant harm, they're being registered one by one.

This was clearly a miscalculation on the part of the United Association.

Actually, you can't blame them for making a mistake; they were just too greedy.

Thinking they would devour all the scattered people, they overlooked the truly terrifying aspect of the strangeness.

It's just a strange anomaly, but if left unchecked, it could potentially destroy the entire planet.

What if there were a hundred, or a thousand?

What would that look like?

Must we follow the example of the Skyfall World was shrouded in darkness, hiding in our ancestral halls and letting other places fend for themselves?

That's impossible.

Doesn't that turn into permanent imprisonment?

A deep underground cave.

Gao Linzhi was browsing the Archipelago Forum.

He witnessed the overwhelming resentment erupting from the Rogue Players.

However, he also knew that most people were just talking big.

But out of a hundred people, there's a high probability that one person will actually believe it.

In the past, this one person was insignificant; if they caused some damage, it would only affect those around them at the bottom of society.

But things are different now.

One person, if left unchecked, could potentially destroy an entire planet!

This forces those Company Executive executives to value every single person.

Hehe.

Gao Linzhi was eager to know how they were going to manage the Ordinary Player scattered all over the place.

If there is one, there will inevitably be two.

When one cockroach is exposed, there are at least a hundred cockroaches in your home.

Gao Linzhi believed that other anomalies had definitely already quietly entered the offline cities, but had been suppressed.

Unlike the Long family, which poses such a significant threat.

Gao Linzhi's conjecture was entirely correct.

Dove Market, located north of Xu City, is an obscure little-known town.

With a population of only 50,000, it falls right at the lowest point in the city management system, making it a micro-city managed by a micro-company.

The companies and cities correspond to the following levels: extra-large, large, medium-large, medium, small-medium, small, and micro, respectively.

If the population becomes too small, it will be abolished and merged into a larger surrounding city, becoming a township.

The Hundred Birds Company is managing this city.

At this moment, the company chairman was discussing matters with several subordinates.

"Chairman, the strange occurrences within the Long family have been suppressed and exposed; we're not the first." the General Manager said.

"In that case, we can report this strange circulation in the stairwell to the United Association and have them send someone to handle it." The chairman nodded.

"Yes, our company simply can't handle this. Fortunately, it's relatively minor, confined to one building, so we can suppress it and prevent the news from spreading," the Finance Director added.

"That's right. If it spreads and scares away the permanent residents, our city will be gone, and the company will be forced to dissolve."

Several subordinates sighed.

This is the root cause of their failure to report it.

Allowing free movement of people is one of the fundamental agreements jointly formulated by the companies.

Every company must comply.

Without this, the economy would be completely finished.

It will only breed a large number of feudal landlords.

Now that they have someone to take the lead, they have become much bolder.

"Alright then, let's report it."

There are many similar cases.

In short, while everyone thought the strange occurrences in the Long family were just the first, little did they know that many other strange things had already been lurking in the real world.

The strange occurrences in the Long family were, arguably, the first case to be publicly revealed, and the first to be handled in a semi-public manner.

On an island at sea.

Here lies a bustling metropolis, the very location of the United Association's headquarters.

Inside a large office, several employees were chatting idly.

For them, the strange, the players, Skyfall World were already an open secret.

In fact, many ordinary people already know about it, since those players have openly appeared.

However, due to the company and city's systems, many people in the city still thought it was fake.

"Sure enough, just as we expected, when one cockroach appears, a thousand more are lurking in the shadows." An officer shook his head as he looked at the reports appearing one after another on the platform.

"These companies are all stubborn and unwilling to give up until they reach the Yellow River. They all want to cover things up and not affect the population and economy, but they don't realize that the more they try to cover it up, the worse it will become."

"Before, the association was just an empty shell; no company took us seriously. Now that there's something special, and we need to cooperate across regions, we finally have money and people," another member said.

"Yes, every cloud has a silver lining. In my opinion, this strange occurrence is actually a good thing for our organization."

"In the past, major companies often delayed paying their dues, but now they pay frequently, as if afraid we've forgotten about them. They pay small companies as well as large ones, and the number of people in the association has increased twentyfold in just the last two months."

In a place where urban self-governance and corporate management are the norm, business owners naturally dislike having someone above them who controls them.

Before the emergence of the Skyfall Game, the United Association's influence was actually quite small; it was more of a platform for arguing and cooperating.

This provides a place for everyone to argue, file lawsuits, and sign contracts, preventing them from turning into enemies without saying a word.

That would affect making money.

Just as everyone was chatting, someone walked in.

"The association is forming a paranormal investigation team. Anyone want to sign up?"

"Once you register, you'll be given game access, game guides, and mentorship to become a skilled player. You'll even receive Revival Stone so you can play without worry."

Originally, everyone was trying to avoid it, but when they heard that they would actually receive Revival Stone, they all became excited.

"I want to sign up!"

"I want to sign up too!"

The number of people signing up was very high.

They really wanted to be one of them.

Although the risks are significant, they are not worried about this issue.

Because everyone has to die eventually.

Becoming a player grants the possibility of Immortality.

Outsiders may not know this, but as members of the United Association, they naturally do.

They also knew that the United Association already had a related organization.

It's just that the scale isn't large enough.

After all, reality isn't fiction; funding and manpower don't just appear out of thin air.

Funding is essential for budgeting, and a budget is crucial for manpower.

People are needed to get things done.

It's that simple.

Now, in order to deal with the strange occurrences, the scope has been greatly expanded.

News about the United Association quickly reached Gao Linzhi's ears.

But Gao Linzhi didn't care about this.

The United Association gets stronger if it wants to, it has nothing to do with them.

If the other party thinks they can threaten him with some useless people, then they are sorely mistaken.

In the world of games, the gap between the strong and the weak is simply too vast.

As for the relationship between the two sides, it is not as tense as it was at the beginning.

This isn't because the United Association has gotten better; rather, the situation has forced them to focus their attention on a bizarre threat.

The original intention was bad, but it was executed well.

This day.

Gao Linzhi pondered what he should do.

For him, the equally bizarre also became his greatest adversary.

In this new era, the supernatural is equivalent to a hostile third party.

Its threat forced Gao Linzhi and the United Association, who were originally at odds, to begin to ease their tensions.

A friendly relationship between AB depends on C.

This is a general formula.

For Gao Linzhi, defeating the strange opponent will not be an easy task.

Because the other party is part of the world's rules.

It's still quite difficult to handle.

He needs to continue improving himself.

Especially now that the supernatural has appeared in the real world, he needs to increase his ability to fight it.

For him, the best way was still to infiltrate the Imperial Observatory.

Ideally, you should have an informant there to constantly relay the other party's knowledge and research findings to them.

In this way, he will be able to gain more relevant knowledge.

Of course, he could also stay hidden in the Safe Zone of the ancestral hall.

However, the ancestral hall Safe Zone is, after all, a feature created by the game.

Being safe now does not guarantee being safe in the future.

No one understands the principle that "relying on a mountain can lead to its collapse" better Gao Linzhi.

Moreover, even more powerful monsters will emerge in the future.

If you think that a village ancestral hall can ward off all strange occurrences, you're overthinking it.

With this in mind, Gao Linzhi decided to go to the Imperial Observatory again.

The Iron-Eating Beast Anomaly reminded him that he needed to find multiple ways to fight it.

The greatest principle of a person who follows the path of survival is to prepare contingency plans for the most extreme possibilities.

So he switched his starting location on different islands again, first going offline to a certain city, then logging back in from that city, and thus arrived at the Capital Island.

This Capital Island has become one of his permanent residences.

The Capital Island consists of three parts: the outer city, the inner city, and the imperial city.

When Gao Linzhi stood on the outskirts of the city, the Wanderer people he had seen last time were gone.

Instead, there were rows of shacks.

Although it's called a shack, its design is quite varied and interesting.

There was a dirt road that was just beginning to take shape, and public toilets on both sides.

There are people managing the shantytown.

Gao Linzhi immediately recognized that this was done by a player.

Expecting the imperial court to do this is wishful thinking.

Unless a rare, extraordinary person like Hai Rui appears.

Sure enough, there were some players coming and going in the shack area.

Several shops were located in the center of the shack.

Those were shops selling grain, cloth, medicine, tools, farm implements, seeds...

It can be said that the most essential shops for clothing, food, housing, and transportation have all been opened.

As for where the supplies came from, they obviously came from the offline world.

The offline world is experiencing severe overproduction.

Major companies only worry about how to boost consumer spending, never about not having enough goods to produce.

This also applies to food.

It's fair to say that while the company's system has various flaws and its Company Executive is ruthless, it has never lost to anyone when it comes to "overproduction."

Upon seeing this, Gao Linzhi realized that, if the supernatural phenomena were excluded, the Skyfall World was actually a huge consumer market.

Unfortunately, due to its Presence of Anomalies, this consumer market is difficult to develop.

First, the company is hesitant to move large quantities of supplies in and out, fearing it might bring the supernatural into the real world.

But now this problem no longer exists... not solved, but rather it has already been introduced, so there's no need to worry about it anymore.

Secondly, there was the obstruction from the Sky Wolf Dynasty. Any powerful feudal dynasty would instinctively abhor foreign trade.

The reason is simple: foreign trade can cause social instability.

Only weak dynasties would favor foreign trade to bolster their national strength.

People are buying grain at the grain store.

Those players are recruiting ordinary people to work for them.

They were doing simple tasks.

It can be said that they are fully capable of supporting these refugees.

But they don't do that. The company has a complete set of procedures to follow for how to develop and cultivate the market.

The first step is to use food to create a supply gap, then use food to hire laborers and offer higher prices.

Next, enable these workers to increase their labor value and income, making them their own consumers.

The ultimate goal is to develop the local workforce and unique resources, and to absorb their knowledge, technology, and unique resources and workforce.

This is a truly Gao Ming company, unlike those early gold and silver mining companies that aimed solely at accumulating gold and silver.

The result was that they obtained the gold and silver, but their own company declined and lost its ability to generate revenue.

Meanwhile, the imperial guards stood by and watched indifferently.

They neither interfered nor extorted money.

He just stood there, lazily watching.

Someone tried to extort money from them, but was stopped by their superior.

Gao Linzhi guessed that the players and the imperial court must have reached some kind of deal or compromise.

Recently, a famine has occurred, and the imperial court is indeed unable to support so many Wanderer people.

Letting players raise them will solve the problem.

Of course, the potential risks are even greater.

Within three years at most, the imperial court will lose this portion of the population.

That court must have ulterior motives.

In fact, Gao Linzhi understood why.

Because the imperial court is not afraid that players will win over the hearts of these people.

This is an extraordinary world; wherever the strongest reside, that's where the hearts of the people lie.

The hearts of ordinary people are far less important than those of the low-magic world.