Another Chance, Manipulation from Behind the Scenes

"To paraphrase you extraterrestrials, this is a forbidden zone!"

"These seemingly peaceful places are the most terrifying, because you never know when something strange might suddenly appear."

"In this ocean, there are some strange phenomena that never subside; they are constantly active."

"In here, you can't just take any detour; it's like entering Lightning Zone."

"Do you dare to wander around? If you do, there's only one outcome: you'll be blown up."

The three of them immediately understood.

They were not puzzled as to why the steward of the Prince's mansion knew about landmines.

Firstly, landmines actually existed in ancient times.

The ancients knew how to make landmines using gunpowder.

It's just not large in scale.

Secondly, many veteran players have already been in contact with the manager.

In these Lightning Zone, there is always a single path that has been explored with lives on the line.

"Moreover, this place is more dangerous than other places, where the roads are all clearly visible."

"You must memorize the way through this place."

"We usually enshrine the remains of several old boatmen who have been traveling this route for many years; it's a tradition passed down from father to son."

"The wind direction changes constantly in this sea area, so all sorts of navigation methods—whether it's stargazing, divination, or the compasses, sextants, magnetic field positioning, starlight positioning, or inertial navigation provided by you players—none of them work here."

"The only effective way to position yourself is through people's hearts, intuition, and inspiration."

"Therefore, even if those old boatmen were high-ranking officials in the court, apart from the Saint, no one dared to do anything to them."

"This is a technical skill level."

Upon hearing this, the three of them were actually somewhat envious.

"Yes, this old servant also thinks these people are really good. They only need to work hard once every ten years, and can rest the rest of the time. Their families also have land to share." The steward of the Prince's mansion sighed in agreement.

After discussing it, the three of them were already feeling extremely headache-inducing.

Goodness, three points. Even if one doesn't need to be addressed, there are still two, so we need to be on guard everywhere.

This is unacceptable!

"We can't do it, we don't have the energy to do it."

The three players, seeing this, couldn't help but feel discouraged.

With their current strength, none of their points are easy to defend.

Now they couldn't help but feel sympathy for the imperial court.

It's incredibly difficult for the imperial court to maintain such a massive entity.

"Maintaining a dynasty's rule in the extraordinary world is a thankless and arduous task."

"Yes, in the extraordinary world, the larger the territory, the more hatred accumulates. Unless there's some kind of destiny involved, small City-State- states are the best model."

"Now that I think about it, I suddenly understand why our offline dynasties disappeared and we went straight into the corporate era."

"Yeah, the company is so great. If it goes bankrupt, so be it. The higher-ups can eat and drink as they please, and they don't even care about anything that happens."

"That's right. Companies have limited assets. Unless the top management violates the rules themselves, if the company goes bankrupt, it has nothing to do with their personal wealth."

"I really can't believe how the imperial court managed to collect all these offerings in previous years."

At this moment, the steward of the Prince's mansion laughed and said, "That's because we haven't been able to collect them all in previous years either."

"How so?" The three of them immediately became interested.

"The imperial court isn't the only one collecting these funds; it's not just our Prince's Mansion contributing. Many important officials and the Imperial Observatory are also involved."

"In previous years, when tributes were collected, the Imperial Household would first send people to collect the tributes that had been pre-determined on the Capital Island and several nearby islands."

"Next, the Imperial Observatory would travel by airship to collect the most valuable, expensive, and useful offerings from the more distant locations, and then share the profits with the imperial court."

"For example, those top-tier tributes that you players talk about, the Gold Tier and even red-tier tributes."

The three of them were deeply moved.

This is Gold Tier or red-tier item.

They immediately became greedy.

You have to understand, even the top big shots don't have items of this caliber.

The steward of the Prince's mansion paid no attention to the changes in the three men's expressions, and continued:

"After these two major rounds of harvesting are completed, what remains is the round needed for the court's daily operations."

"The imperial court will send more troops aboard the ships to collect over 70% of the tribute from the nearby islands, that is, the islands within a thousand miles."

"With these two rounds, we can guarantee that more than half of the imperial court's expenditures will not encounter major problems."

"As for the other distant places, the imperial court will collect as much as it can."

"In fact, the ships dispatched by the imperial court did not undertake the main task of collection; they were basically divided up with the people sent by the local prefects."

"The imperial ships went there primarily to demonstrate imperial power."

"Once in a decade, don't miss it."

The three of them suddenly realized.

"Usually, the local prefects would collect 3 million, keep 2 million for themselves, and the imperial court would get 1 million."

"Of course, that's the official figurehead. In reality, they usually take 90% while the imperial court only gets 10%."

"And there are even more outrageous ones. They claim they can't collect any money at all, so they won't hand over a single penny to the imperial court, and they even want the court to subsidize them."

"I'm taking the test..."

"That's fucking clever."

"I've learned something new."

The prince's steward smiled.

What's this?

Although he was extremely loyal to the prince, he also shared a considerable amount with his subordinates.

From the renovation of a royal palace to the planting of flowers in a garden, it's all the same.

"This is the most common practice."

After their initial sigh, the three of them immediately lost their spirits.

They understood why the Sky Wolf Dynasty was able to survive.

It turns out that they never expected to be able to collect all the offerings from thousands of miles away.

It would be best if we could accept it, but it doesn't matter if we can't.

It's mainly to show off my presence.

"If that's the case, why not just abandon the island thousands of miles away?" Player 1 suddenly asked.

The prince's steward was speechless.

If these extraterrestrials were placed outside, they would be immediately dragged out and beheaded.

"Keeping those islands is to prepare for any eventuality."

"The abundance of strange phenomena also means a wide variety of local specialties. If something that grants Immortality were to appear somewhere, but the imperial court has already abandoned the island, we might not even know about it, let alone levy any taxes on it."

Everyone immediately understood.

This is their true mindset in not giving up on things thousands of miles away.

That's true.

The reason why emperors of feudal dynasties abandoned the frontier and retreated step by step was that production was insufficient to cover expenditures.

However, if something that grants Immortality were to occasionally appear on the frontier, would the emperor still give it up?

They will only try every means to maintain their existence.

After thinking about this, they were speechless for a moment.

"Well, it seems our plan to use the imperial court to deal with that big shot has failed before it even began," Player Two said helplessly.

"No, according to the steward, we can leverage the imperial court's authority to persuade the local governor to do our part."

"Yes, that's right."

The three then began to secretly discuss their plan.

At the same time.

The other three players also had a different kind of experience.

Zhang San, Wang Er, Li Si were seen chatting in the village.

They already knew they hadn't completed the mission; they hadn't seen through the Memory Reset trap.

"Damn it, how could this happen?" Zhang San was furious.

Wang Er chimed in, "This game is really playing tricks on people!"

"Actually, I had a feeling that something was wrong, but none of you seemed to be acting strangely, so I thought I was just overthinking it," Li Si said.

"Damn, you're just a Monday morning quarterback," Zhang San and Wang Er said disdainfully.

The three of them wandered around the village.

Seeing other people's IDs above their heads, some of whom have green tags, I feel very envious.

Wang Er retorted, "Hmph, they're all cuckolded turtles, do they really think it's a good look?"

"Exactly, if it had a gold label, it would be worth checking out," Zhang San added.

"That's right, that damn planner, all he does is mess things up. He should just kill them!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than another flash of white light appeared.

The three of them only saw a flash before their eyes, and then they fell to the ground.

At this moment, the village Patrol Team immediately came over and took the three of them to a nearby pavilion to rest.

"Send someone to diagnose them immediately and see if they're cursed!" The Patrol Team captain immediately went to find someone.

They did not rashly bring people into the Safe Zone.

At this very moment.

The three are experiencing a hallucination.

Their memories have been altered once again.

In their new memories, the three escaped from a secret passage at the bottom of a well, only to be captured by government officials.

They then found an opportunity to escape from prison.

They ran out of the village.

He then spent his time Wanderer outside.

Until one day, they were too exhausted to walk any further.

Moreover, there was no food or drink along the way.

For some reason, they also forgot about their Game Backpack.

This meant they hadn't had water or food for a long time.

Finally, the three collapsed to the ground and closed their eyes.

I don't know how much time has passed.

"Hey, Old Zhang, wake up." Zhang San barely opened his eyes and found that it was Li Si.

"The zoo's closed, and you're still sleeping here."

"Yesterday? Were you lost in a dream?"

"It's alright, it's alright."

"It turns out, it was all just a dream."

"What gamers, what stories, it's all fake."

Zhang San found it utterly absurd that he would have such a dream.

He looked up and saw that it was already dark.

In the distance, light singing and dancing create a familiar urban scene.

He didn't know why he had that dream.

Weird?

Skyfall World?

Real game?

It's ridiculous; I've been reading too many novels.

Afterwards, he tidied up and prepared to leave work.

On their way home from work, Zhang San and Li Si chatted as they walked.

"You're really Fortune. You slept through all that time at work and the principal didn't even notice," Li Si mocked.

"Who told the zookeeper to always take care of his little guy, the one who'll make him rich in the future?" Zhang San said subconsciously.

A money tree appeared in his mind, which was actually a dinosaur bred in a zoo...

It resembles Tyrannosaurus Rex in appearance and can mimic various human movements.

With strength hundreds of times greater than a human's, the spectacle it would create is unimaginable.

This has made the kindergarten director a fortune.

"But then again, what if something happens to that dinosaur?" Li Si asked.

"I thought of that a long time ago, but the headmaster thought it was no big deal and didn't want us to cause trouble." Zhang San said, a hint of helplessness on his face.

Li Si comforted him, saying, "It's alright. If things really get too bad, we can just resign. If anything unexpected happens, it won't be our fault."

"Come on, let's go to my house and play games."

Another game?

Zhang San instinctively replied, "Okay, let's go."

That evening, Zhang San was at Li Si's house, playing the latest PS game together.

Li Si then said, "Why don't we call Wang Er over too?"

"Okay." Just as Zhang San was about to call Wang Er over as well.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, accompanied by a voice saying, "Dad, open the door quickly, I'm so hungry, I really want to eat meat."

The voice was both familiar and unfamiliar.

"Wait, we're all single, where would we get a son?"

Li Si and Zhang San looked through the peephole and were surprised to see it was the dinosaur from the zoo!

A huge dinosaur was standing outside the building, its head sticking into the passageway and pointing towards Li Si's house.

Li Si's house is on the fifth floor!

"What's going on?! Dinosaurs have come here! And they've even learned to talk!"

"How would I know!"

The two were quite surprised.

Actually, they should have realized something was wrong at this point.

All I can say is, you were given a chance but didn't use it!

Just then, Zhang San's phone rang; it was Wang Er calling.

Zhang San hurriedly answered the phone, and Wang Er on the other end said, "Zhang San, something bad has happened! The director just called me and said the dinosaur is missing. You and Li Si need to come over right away and help us look for it."

"No need to look anymore, I'm at Li Si's house now, the dinosaur is right at the door!"

"Great! I'll go tell the principal right now!"

"Damn it!" Zhang San cursed loudly upon hearing this.

"It's alright, Li Si told me his door was custom-made, you should be safe now," Wang Er quickly explained.

"Safety my ass! If it can't go through the door, can't it go through the window?" Zhang San said angrily.

"Don't worry, it shouldn't be too aggressive and won't break the window rashly," Wang Er reassured him.

"That's alright. But Wang Er, you need to explain to us why this dinosaur can talk like a human and keeps calling me 'Dad'?" Zhang San urged.

Wang Er for a moment, then explained, "The zoo director wanted the dinosaurs to have human-like intelligence so they could perform difficult maneuvers to attract tourists, so we incorporated your and Li Si's genes when we were breeding the dinosaurs."

"You bastard, I'll settle this score with you later."

Zhang San was speechless. So, he and Li Si had become the fathers of a dinosaur?

After hanging up the phone, he said to Li Si, "The most important thing now is to call the police."

Li Si nodded as well.

The two still did not notice anything unusual about what was happening before them.

This only shows that they are indeed not qualified enough.

If it were Gao Linzhi, he would have sensed something was wrong long ago.

So Li Si picked up the phone and dialed the patrol officer's number.

The two told the patrol officer everything that had happened.

"Yes, Mr. Li, we'll set off immediately."