Interlude Three

Ups and downs—life was unpredictable.

Zhang Yi was now the "boss" of a small business. Three companies were registered under his name, ostensibly operating in several respectable-sounding fields such as health technology, biological research, and e-commerce consulting. Their actual scale was small, but they barely managed to maintain a respectable façade.

He kept a pretty mistress on the side, traveled in a sedan with a private driver, owned properties in several first-tier cities, and was often greeted with a smiling "President Zhang." He looked every bit like a successful middle-aged entrepreneur.

Yet aside from a few "old friends," few people knew that this man, who had once tended boiling-water furnaces at a coal plant and changed his name more than once, had originally been called "Zhang Yimao" on his household registration.

Or how this seemingly prosperous, amiable, profit-minded "boss" had built his fortune in the first place.

—Well, put bluntly, it was nothing more than using methods that peddled banners like "health supplements for the middle-aged and elderly" and "miracle wellness medicine," doing business everywhere, freely skirting the edge of the law, yet somehow still counting as "legal."

An IQ tax. What a wonderful term.

Much like that gentleman alien named Mephilas, "When a person's intelligence does not match their wealth, that wealth will return to the hands of someone who does." This had been the sort of saying Zhang Yi loved most when he was young.

...The kind worthy of becoming a life motto.

And even after wisely turning his ship around and striving to whitewash his past, those inconspicuous gray traces had long since begun to steer toward shore.

Boss Zhang, who had never liked appearing publicly, had always known one thing clearly—horses did not grow fat without night forage, and men did not grow rich without windfalls.

Yet the gray foundations of his rise were like a birthmark, forever rubbed across his spine.

They invisibly cut off many glamorous paths beneath the sun.

Everyone needed to save face, after all.

Zhang often considered that a regret.

Of course, that did not stop a shell company that theoretically was not under his name at all, merely having some business dealings with his little factory.

Not long ago, its "flagship product" had been launched: a high-end therapeutic device supposedly painstakingly developed using the most advanced foreign "quantum energy field" and "far-infrared light wave" technologies. After a thirty-percent discount, it cost only 1,400 yuan per unit.

High quality and low price, perfectly suited to the constitutions of the elderly!

That was what the advertisements said.

...In reality, the most valuable components inside that beautifully crafted metal casing were nothing more than a heating resistance wire that cost forty yuan, deliberately dressed up to look "high-end," several low-power massage magnetic pads suitable for the human body, and a few strings of LEDs that emitted a faint blue glow.

No one would stay foolish and rich forever, but there would always be someone foolish and rich.

Honestly, Zhang Yi had originally thought his life would probably go on like that. And there was nothing wrong with it.

But when he had fortunately been randomly invited as a tourist into the mysterious world called the "Main God Game," his fairly kind and honest-looking face had helped him smoothly gain assistance from quite a few strangers in the same mission world. He passed the first-round Newcomer Trial and became an official Level 1 Main God user.

—This was a place full of potential!

The moment he stepped onto the Main God Platform and saw that unfathomably deep exchange list, he immediately understood that.

Even Zhang Yi himself was surprised. The drive from his youth, the ruthless spirit of doing anything to achieve his goals, that fierce desire and motivation rising from the depths of his heart, seemed to blaze violently in his chest once more!

Like a starving wolf seeing lamb meat.

But ideas were important, and opportunities were even more important!

And now that this situation had arisen, as he watched waves of unfamiliar people sweep in amid beams of light—

Once he recognized the clear information gap, and saw that these people were obviously of uneven quality, their eyes seemingly full of "wariness" while the uncertainty and confusion beneath remained impossible to conceal—many of them clearly having never "seen the world," in the literal sense of people from all walks of life—

His professional "instincts" clearly reminded Boss Zhang—most of the people here were fat sheep...

There seemed to be no reason to hesitate too much.

Especially after he had decisively shoved aside nearly all his affairs during the seven-day interval, crammed the designs and theories from certain "specific online literary works" like most users had, and, driven by professional instinct, carefully studied the "trading nature" and "relevant rules" of the currency called "Universal Points," which measured the circulation value of things, through the various notices provided by the Main God.

At that moment, Mr. Zhang Yi nearly reflexively came up with some ideas...

...Some rather bold ideas.

"Holy shit! What is he doing?!"

The beginning was forgotten, the middle was forgotten, and the end was forgotten too. In short, faced with this bizarre scene that looked like someone holding a Golden Megaphone and setting up a roadside stall, shouting, "Don't miss it if you pass by! Come take a look! Top-quality ancestral dog-skin plasters and miracle pills!"

Especially since the golden megaphone in his hand clearly possessed some special effect.

Despite the noisy surroundings, where others had not yet needed to shout themselves hoarse to converse, every word and syllable from his mouth could still be heard clearly by crowds of "spectators" around him!

The strange sensation, enough to make one's scalp tingle, carried an even greater sense of shock.

For some reason, though, Du Qifeng felt a vague and peculiar familiarity.

As if he had experienced this situation before?

Oh, he remembered!

It was when they had just passed the Newcomer Trial and heard someone trying to take out a "loan" from the Main God!

This bizarre feeling, so outrageous it left people dumbfounded yet somehow held a thread of logic, could actually be so similar?

But when he turned to look, it was not just the college student. Even "He Zhizhang" and "Lu Xun" beside him were clearly stunned senseless.

But wasn't that why they said age brought wisdom?

While Du Qifeng and He Qiu were still gaping and unable to make sense of it, Lu Yansheng, who had relatively richer life experience, had clearly caught the scent of something!

This was just like the old days of paper stock certificates, when those mysterious-looking "experts" in stock trading halls would sidle up and sell you so-called "exclusive insider information"!

He was going to exploit the information gap to deceive... no! Harvest these newcomers who had entered the Main God Game later!

Looking at the man with a beer belly in the crowd not far away, deliberately speaking fairly fluent English, along with that hazy face whose original features could not be seen at all—

There was no need to doubt it. His malicious intent was practically written on his face!

Just as Lu Yansheng hesitated over whether he should say something.

Apparently having been somewhat attentive to the situation here all along, the man holding the Golden Megaphone slowed his tone, then turned toward the three of them first and gave them a meaningful look.

[User No. 0104754, you have received an in-person message from User No. 0112137 (viewable).]

Lu Yansheng fell silent for a moment.

Seeing the two young men beside him still standing there like foolish deer, their heads full of question marks and exclamation points while remaining oblivious to everything else, Lu Yansheng said nothing. With a deliberate thought, he silently opened the message.

[—Friends, please do not interfere with my business. Once it succeeds, we split it seventy-thirty. How about it?]

The instant he finished reading, the Main God's cold voice rang out—

[User No. 0112137 has initiated a Main God Arbitration Agreement with you. Do you accept? (Specific agreement details viewable)]

While this middle-aged user surnamed Lu fell into thought.

Elsewhere, someone calmly withdrew his gaze as well.

"...Once there were more people, there really were all kinds of 'talents.'"

A total of five hundred thousand invitations had brought in two hundred and forty thousand tourists, who had eventually turned into just over two hundred thousand "new users."

Compared to the more than two thousand people in the first round, the number had suddenly expanded by nearly a hundredfold.

At this point, even if all kinds of demons and monsters emerged among them, it would not be particularly surprising.

The user named "Zhang Yi" was holding an [All-Server Announcement Golden Megaphone] that he had only exchanged for not long ago, apparently born from some unknown fictional spacetime. He sang, praised, and boasted so extravagantly that he was nearly talking flowers into bloom!

He was even "thoughtfully" telling those tourists who had cleared the trial how to activate their numbers and claim their mission settlement rewards, then eagerly and warmly sending in-person trade requests to crowds of newcomers in his sight...

Whether there were dates on the tree or not, he was swinging the pole three times first...

Li Yun saw clearly that this was not an isolated case.

Once they understood that the Main God's "trading rules" required both parties to be clearheaded and relatively willing, and that they could not seize things by force or coercion...

Gentler methods such as guidance, implication, and even deception naturally became these users' almost only option.

Not to mention that, in a corner of the platform far away, there was a "priest" radiating a faint golden glow. He held an ancient, incomplete handwritten copy of the Bible, wore an expression of solemn dignity, yet had yellow skin and was dressed in outdoor sportswear. He was attempting to deliver an impromptu "sermon" to the surrounding crowd—

But from what Li Yun heard, the man was nearly replacing concepts through ambiguous phrasing and several indirect implications. He vaguely connected "the Father in Heaven" with "the great and only ruling God whose gaze descended from heaven upon this place," while deliberately or inadvertently mentioning "indulgences"...

Well, he was fairly clever. He used the Main God to borrow a tiger's hide, yet never directly mentioned the title "Main God."

Although the Main God would probably not care about such trivial matters before a certain line was truly crossed, the man's words did carefully avoid some of the risk of directly mentioning the Main God.

Still, Li Yun looked at the scripture in his hands, which had clearly been drawn from a Newcomer Blind Box only a few days ago, then at the set of claims, implications, adaptations, and connections coming from his mouth, which had likewise clearly only been devised recently. Yet the man showed no trace of stage fright, speaking with utter conviction...

Li Yun could only say that people truly had different talents.

—Just as some people could only eat pickles in a beer hall and sulk, while others could use a five-hundred-thousand-mark loaf of bread as a microphone in a beer hall.

According to this fellow's smooth tongue, this "Main God Game" seemed to be a trial descended upon the world after that supposedly omniscient and omnipotent Lord had merely changed His name.

The lambs would wash away their sins in the trial of blazing fire, while as the "Noah" of a new era, he would lead the "sinless" ones who passed judgment onto the ark of salvation...

Oh, right. It sounded as though the ark he spoke of was supposedly a major project located in the real world, one that still needed the "donations" of all believers present before it could be completed...

Don't ask. The actual object was not here, so if you wanted to see it, you naturally had to offer a little "gift" first, right?

And yet, among the various listeners around him, some people really did seem receptive to this!

Quite a few people eagerly crowded forward, muttering as they tried to touch the holy radiance seemingly enveloping the area around him, which in truth merely flowed from that scripture. Some even knelt on the spot, wanting to speak in detail with this "Noah of the new era" and ask for his help...

In short, it was truly eye-opening.

Of course, when it came down to it, compared to that "Zhang Yi," these people merely differed in details such as their specific rhetoric, methods, scale, and target audience.

In essence, there was not much difference.

This trend of "harvesting newcomers" had undoubtedly only just begun to sprout, but Li Yun had no intention of interfering.

After all, the impact of the information gap between veteran users and newcomers objectively existed. In that case, unless the Main God's rules explicitly prohibited it, the trend of people attempting to profit from it could not be stopped.

As the saying went: profit, three hundred, noose.jpg.

Personally, Li Yun did not particularly like this behavior.

But after guaranteeing the "enforceability of arbitration" and "respect for both parties' wishes" in trades, it would indeed be unwise for the Main God to further interfere in this normal process, which was essentially part of "natural market transactions."

Ultimately, aside from the inevitable suspicion of affecting the free-trade mechanism.

Such matters also contained a certain degree of natural market feedback, regulating and influencing one another. There was even an implicit value-system judgment originating from the "Main God" in place.

It was destined not to get out of hand.

Grasp the greater trend, let the lesser trends flow—this was the path of relative "balance."

Take Zhang Yi, for instance. Even after concealing his obvious characteristics, he was trying to harvest a round of newcomers nearby through half-truths and falsehoods. Yet he had only proposed a "relatively restrained" trade price of five Universal Points, not daring to go too far.

For one thing, he had likely considered that if the price were too high, others obviously would not easily accept it. Even if those newly arrived tourists did not understand the specific circumstances, they should not be outright fools.

For another, in the real world, he could have made it a one-shot deal, changed his appearance and identity, fled elsewhere, and rebuilt the airs of "President Zhang."

But on this "Main God Platform," which seemed to hold infinite possibilities, heh...

Blinded by profit—such had always been the way.