"Old Man, should we do as Lin, the Storekeeper, suggested?" Immortal Realm’s First Paparazzi asked Lonely Old Man.
With Lin Bai leading the ga and Lonely Old Man leading the players, after establishing his credibility, all players would subconsciously ask him when they encountered problems.
"The Heavenly Dao Laws you spoke of?" Lonely Old Man asked back.
"Yes," Immortal Realm’s First Paparazzi nodded. "What if the Heavenly Dao Laws spread through the Justice League, and a particularly hard-to-defeat BOSS appears?"
"Just do as Lin, the Storekeeper, said. The ga developers have settings related to achieving Godhood through Heavenly Dao Laws. Regardless of whether Justice Weekly exists or not, a BOSS who successfully cultivates these laws will eventually appear," Lonely Old Man said. "It’s useless to ddle with the laws; it will only annoy Lin Bai—a loss outweighing the gain. Notify the advertising departnt to leak so content from the second issue of Justice Weekly and solicit more advertisents. I’m sure companies would love to advertise in this first regular publication. After all, it’s not just NPCs who are following Justice Weekly, especially with this issue’s explosive content."
"I worry that it might get banned if it’s too excessive!" Immortal Realm’s First Paparazzi said.
"Has Lin Bai brainwashed you?" Lonely Old Man gave him a strange look. "Of course, it’s crucial to maintain moderation. The ga officials have the ability to pixelate explicit content. You can publish explosive content in the ga world, and Justice Weekly would beco popular because of it. But if the live broadcast gets pixelated, would you pay the penalty for breaching the advertising sponsor’s contract?"
"NPCs can do things we can’t, and we even have to clean up their sses. In this damn ga, have the roles of players and NPCs been reversed or what?" Immortal Realm’s First Paparazzi waved his hand helplessly. "Fine, you all chat; I’m going to write articles."
「...」
"Old Man, don’t you feel that the ga’s style is becoming increasingly skewed?" Bitter lon Vine said once the Paparazzi had left.
"I realized that long ago. Wherever Lin Bai is, things will surely take a very strange turn," Lonely Old Man replied. "Everything he does seems to intentionally muddy the waters. I never understood why the ga company would create such an NPC.
Recently, I’ve been paying attention to the forums. No other city or sect has an NPC like Lin Bai. Even if a lucky player encounters a hidden NPC in the ga world, at most, they’re guided around brothels or forbidden areas—everything is within the realm of comprehension.
Even the Western ga, Land of Gods and Demons, is the sa. Those foreigners are truly playing the ga by the book, not deviating at all. The skills they learn, including those from NPCs, are also very normal; there are no super skills like the Heavenly Dao Laws."
He looked at the high-ranking mbers of the Beggar Gang beside him and chuckled. "In the entire world, only our Lin, the Storekeeper, is this unique. He does unexpected things—either stirring up trouble or on his way to do so—as if he isn’t himself unless he’s antagonizing the entire world. How should I put it? His actions are like those of a lunatic—utterly illogical."
"Exactly. Many of his ideas are incompatible with this world," Mad Man comnted. "From the brainwashing marketing ads at the beginning to the later appearance of the recording pen and cara, I’d totally believe you if you said he was soone from the real world."
"Would soone from the real world write the Heavenly Remnant Collection?" Dumbelldore retorted.
"The scariest part is that he succeeds in everything he does. Moreover, within his own logic, everything is perfectly reasonable," Bitter lon Vine continued. "Yet it contradicts the ga’s fundantal logic. None of his actions contribute positively to the ga’s operation; rather, it seems like he’s deliberately going against it."
"Many foreign scientists speculate that the ga Land of Gods and Demons doesn’t actually have servers—that it’s a real world. The ga company supposedly projects players’ consciousness into this world using so kind of consciousness projection thod. They’ve cited various pieces of evidence, claiming they’re irrefutable..." Lazy Cancer Endless chuckled. "But our experts here just pointed to Lin Bai as one example, and it completely demolished the foreign experts’ entire chain of evidence."
"Actually, I have a theory," I’m Not an Alt Account said. "Lin Bai’s Righteous Door doesn’t exist in this ti period at all. Lin Bai traveled here from the future. The arrival of players disrupted the world’s normal functioning, almost completely squeezing out the indigenous people’s living space. However, players also brought various technologies to this world, like recording pens and caras.
Soti in the future, the natives, having been reduced to the lowest stratum of their world, researched a ti-travel spell. They sent Lin Bai to the initial period of the players’ arrival, all to disrupt the players’ ga experience and save the world."
"Makes sense!" Silver snapped his fingers. "This would reasonably explain why no one in the entire world knows the Righteous Door’s location. Even Lin Bai can’t return to the Righteous Door because he’s incapable of ti travel himself. It also explains the origin of the recording pens and caras; those items were all sent from the future..."
"Similarly, it could explain Lin Bai’s ideology and philosophy, as well as those Divine Skills of his that are incompatible with this world," Mountain Tiger remarked. "Because those spells haven’t appeared at this stage, it’s very likely players will research them in the future. Lin Bai isn’t experiencing sudden epiphanies; he’s gradually recovering his strength. After all, suffering side effects from ti travel is quite normal..."
"Hey! Hey! Aren’t you all getting carried away? It’s just a ga; what’s the point of discussing all this?" Iron-Headed Immortal asked. "If you’re all so talented, why don’t you go write novels?"
"There is a point to it," Lonely Old Man said, listening with relish. He glanced at Iron-Headed Immortal and continued, "Considering every possibility can be very helpful to our gaplay. It helps us explore Lin Bai’s true motives, or rather, the likelihood of those laws actually existing! We’ve been following Lin Bai until now, and although we’ve made a lot of money, our levels haven’t increased much. Instead, we’ve made a ton of enemies, and many NPCs have beco wary of us."
"I’ve had this feeling for a long ti: Lin Bai seems to know everything about us players’ thods, which is actually very abnormal." He paused for a mont. "Don’t laugh, but before I t Lin Bai, I shared the sa opinion as those foreign experts—this isn’t a world created by a ga company; it’s a real world. After all, this virtual reality technology far surpasses our current level of science."
"This is sounding more and more like a conspiracy theory!" Iron-Headed Immortal comnted.
Lonely Old Man shook his head. "Earlier, I’m Not an Alt Account’s words gave an idea. If we stop treating Lin Bai as an ordinary NPC and instead consider him a savior, then all his seemingly unreasonable actions can be explained."
"If he’s the savior, why isn’t he uniting the NPCs? Instead, he’s constantly stirring them up," Dragon Breath asked. "That doesn’t make sense, does it?"
"How can one man, who doesn’t even understand the world’s structure, unite all the NPCs?" Lonely Old Man glanced at Dragon Breath. "Besides, what makes you think he isn’t uniting the NPCs?"
"The Justice League," the surrounding players chorused.
"Exactly, the Justice League. He’s not just uniting NPCs; he’s also using us. Through the Beggar Gang and the Righteous Door, he has brought the players together too, incidentally ruining our ga experience and leaving us scrambling with no ti to level up." Lonely Old Man narrowed his eyes, looking towards Lin Bai’s residence, and murmured, "Once all that is unreasonable is eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Everyone, it seems we’ve found the truth. Although Lin Bai’s actions are excessive, he is indeed doing his utmost to save this world from the players, even if it ans making himself a public enemy of the world..."
"Viewed this way, Lin Bai is quite a great man, isn’t he?" Silver said softly after a mont’s pause.
"Not just great, but also incredibly capable," I’m Not an Alt Account comnted. "He appeared around the sa ti as the players, yet he single-handedly roiled the entire world’s situation. Even if any of us knew the whole truth, who could have done as well as he has?"
「...」 All the players fell silent.
"So that ans there’s no Righteous Door!" Dumbelldore said, his tone sowhat disappointed.
"There is a Righteous Door, but no one can get to it," Bitter lon Vine said. "Perhaps it’s all a fabrication by Lin Bai, just like the Heavenly Dao Laws—just sothing he dangled before us."
"This is all just our speculation," Lonely Old Man said. "We can speculate boldly, but we must verify the facts carefully, step by step. Don’t jump to conclusions. Who knows? Maybe the Righteous Door and the Heavenly Dao Laws really do exist."
"Old Man, can I post our speculations on the forums?" Iron-Headed Immortal asked.
"Post it on the forums? Why?" Lonely Old Man questioned.
"To let more people join the discussion and speculate on the truth!" Iron-Headed Immortal said.
"What good would that do us?" Lonely Old Man retorted.
「...」 Iron-Headed Immortal fell silent.
"Lin Bai employs overt sches. Using advertising as his tool, he has us all bound to him," Lonely Old Man said. "As long as we still want to make money, we have to protect his interests, and even him."
"Are we going to be led by the nose by him forever?" Dragon Breath frowned. "I’m a bit unwilling to accept this!"
"Exactly. If this world is indeed real, then the potential benefits are imnse. If Lin Bai controls them, we stand to lose even more in the future," Bitter lon Vine added.
"That’s why I’m so determined to uncover the truth behind Lin Bai," Lonely Old Man chuckled. "Once we understand everything, devising counterasures will be much easier. Lin Bai can leverage us, and we can leverage him too.
In six days, another batch of players will arrive, right? We’ll gradually split the Beggar Gang into two factions. One will cooperate with Lin Bai to suppress the natives and other players. The other will secretly develop, level up, and build our own enterprises. Once we’ve established our own power base, we can kick Lin Bai to the curb and operate independently."
"Do we still cultivate the Heavenly Dao Laws?" Iron-Headed Immortal asked.
"Cultivate them. Lin Bai is too shrewd. At least in his presence, we must appear to be cultivating them so as not to arouse his suspicion," Lonely Old Man said, looking around at everyone. "Everything we’ve discussed today stays among us, the high command of the Beggar Gang. Don’t let it spread further. We also need to learn from Lin Bai: to be the only sober ones in a crowd of drunks, to learn to manipulate things from the shadows. Let the other players continue their rry little ga."
"Old Man, I have an idea, but I’m not sure if it’s doable," Well Does Not Move said.
"What idea?" Lonely Old Man asked.
"The influence of Justice Weekly is limited to Qian City, so we can’t earn much from advertisers here alone," Well Does Not Move said. "We could recruit agents through the forums, getting players in other cities to help promote Justice Weekly. Distance isn’t a restriction for players. We can instantly send them the published content via the forums or live streams, and they just need to print and publish it on their end. This would rapidly expand Justice Weekly’s influence and attract more sponsors..."
"That’s a good idea!" Silver said.
"It might have been a good idea before, but now, if Justice Weekly spreads too quickly, it will greatly increase Lin, the Storekeeper’s, renown. This is highly likely to attract more uncontrollable trouble for him or the Beggar Gang," Well Does Not Move warned. "After all, Lin, the Storekeeper’s, strategy is gradual expansion. If these unexpected events occur and Lin, the Storekeeper, can’t handle them, then the Beggar Gang will be finished."
"What’s there to fear? If Lin, the Storekeeper, can cause trouble for us, why can’t we cause trouble for him?" Lonely Old Man chuckled. "Seizing the market in the shortest ti possible can only benefit us; there’s no downside. Don’t forget, in six days, a new batch of players will arrive. The players joining later will have researched countless strategies from the outside, just waiting to implent them once they’re in the ga!
There will also be financial consortiums capable of crushing us, even if they can’t affect us for now. But there will always be new disciples joining the Beggar Gang, right!
In the future, as advertising revenue shrinks and the Beggar Gang’s mbership grows, how will the Gang expand without the lure of money? As long as we can get our hands on the money now, why worry so much about later?
The trouble will be Lin, the Storekeeper’s. As long as we control a mature market operation plan, his death wouldn’t significantly affect us. But first, that market has to be in our hands..."
「...」
Because of the privacy afforded by private chat, the players didn’t avoid Lin Bai during their conversations.
Lin Bai also needed to learn the latest situation about the ga outside and their true thoughts from their discussions to formulate the most accurate responses.
Thus, Lin Bai, who was teasing Little Fox in the next room, listened to the players’ entire speculation about him, and he was, frankly, astounded.
It had to be said, the players truly possessed a rich imagination. They’d managed to guess that the Righteous Door didn’t exist in this world. Moreover, they had even designated him as the ssiah from a future world... Their reasoning was so plausible that he almost believed it himself. If only they knew! All he did was for self-preservation, to secure a place to survive in this world.
However, even though the players’ reasoning process was utterly preposterous, the bizarre thing was, their conclusion wasn’t far off from Lin Bai’s own deductions. Ever since he confird that the System and the ga company weren’t on the sa side, he knew the System behind the scenes was indeed trying to disrupt the ga’s normal operation. In a way, calling him the savior of this world didn’t seem entirely wrong.
It had to be said, this identity was quite appealing...
As for the players using Justice Weekly to cause trouble for him, Lin Bai didn’t take it to heart at all. Too many debts, no worries; too many lice, no itch. The Morning Yuan Sword Sect had already gone to seek reinforcents from the Seven Orthodox Sects; why would he fear more enemies?
Besides, the dia System needed a powerful dium to connect the entire world. Theoretically, any trouble was actually a catalyst for his growth. The players might be shrewd, but their mistake lay in not understanding just how massive his cheat truly was!
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