Chapter 194: The Villain Savior

"Lao Gu, should we do as Shopkeeper Lin says?" 【Xianxia's Number One Paparazzo】 asked 【Gugao Laoren】.

Lin Bai is leading the game, and 【Gugao Laoren】 is leading the players; after establishing his prestige, all the players subconsciously ask him whenever they encounter problems.

"You're talking about the Laws, right?" 【Gugao Laoren】 asked in return.

"Yeah." 【Xianxia's Number One Paparazzo】 nodded, "What if the Laws spread through the Justice Alliance? Will it lead to the appearance of bosses that are especially hard to push?"

"Do whatever Shopkeeper Lin says. The game officials have settings regarding becoming a god through Laws; regardless of whether *Justice Weekly* exists, there will definitely be bosses who have successfully cultivated the Laws in the end," 【Gugao Laoren】 said. "Meddling in the matter of the Laws is of no help and will only provoke Lin Bai's resentment; it's not worth the loss. Notify the advertising department to leak some of the content from the second issue of *Justice Weekly* and take on more advertisements. I think those companies will be very happy to publish ads in this first formal publication. After all, it's not just NPCs who are paying attention to *Justice Weekly*, especially since the content of this issue is so explosive."

"I'm worried it'll get banned if it's too excessive!" 【Xianxia's Number One Paparazzo】 said.

"Have you been brainwashed by Lin Bai?" 【Gugao Laoren】 gave him a strange look and said, "Of course you have to pay attention to the scale. The officials have the ability to apply mosaics. You can publish overly explosive content in the game world, and *Justice Weekly* will become popular because of it. But if a patch of mosaics appears during a livestream, will you pay the breach of contract fees for the advertisers?"

"Things NPCs can do, we can't, and we even have to clean up after the NPCs. This crappy game, the positions of players and NPCs have been reversed!" 【Xianxia's Number One Paparazzo】 waved his hand helplessly. "Alright, you guys chat, I'm going to go compile the article."

"Old Gu, do you feel like the game's style is getting more and more skewed?" Watching the paparazzo leave, 【Bitter Melon Vine】 said.

"I felt it a long time ago. Wherever Lin Bai is, the direction of events will definitely be very bizarre," 【Gugao Laoren】 said. "Everything he does is like he's deliberately muddying the waters. I've always been unable to understand why the Game Company would create an NPC like this."

"In the past two days, I've kept an eye on the forums. No other NPC in other cities or sects is like Lin Bai. Even if some lucky ones encounter hidden NPCs in the game world, at most they just take the players to visit flower houses or break into forbidden areas; everything is within a comprehensible range."

"The Western *Shenmo Dalu* is the same. That group of foreigners is truly playing the game step-by-step; there's nothing out of line. Moreover, the Skills they've learned, including the NPCs' Skills, are all very normal; there haven't been any super Skills like the Laws."

He looked at the few high-ranking members of the Beggar Sect beside him and gave a dry laugh. "In the whole world, only our Shopkeeper Lin is one of a kind. His actions are unexpected; he's either looking for trouble or on the way to looking for trouble, as if he wouldn't be himself if he weren't enemies with everyone under heaven. How should I put it? His behavior is like a lunatic's, and everything he does has no logic to speak of."

"Right, many of his concepts are incompatible with this world," 【Madman Nan】 said. "From the brainwashing-style marketing ads at the beginning to the Recording Pens and cameras that appeared later, I'd believe you if you said he was a person from the Real World."

"Would a person from the Real World write *Collection of Heavenly Remnants*?" 【Deng Li Buduo】 asked in return.

"The scariest thing is that he has succeeded in every single thing. And in his logic, everything is reasonable," 【Bitter Melon Vine】 said. "But it doesn't conform to the basic logic of the game's operation. Everything he does doesn't play any positive or constructive role in the game's operation; it's as if he's deliberately going against the game."

"Many foreign scientists speculate that the *Shenmo Dalu* game doesn't have a server at all; this is a real world, and the Game Company projected the players' consciousness into this world through consciousness projection. They've cited all kinds of evidence, which is almost impeccable..." 【Lan'ai Wuqi】 chuckled and said, "But our experts here only cited one example—Lin Bai—and it destroyed all the evidence chains of the foreign experts."

"Actually, I have a guess," 【I Am Not A Small Account】 said. "Lin Bai's Justice Sect doesn't exist in this time period at all; Lin Bai traveled here from the future. The appearance of players disrupted the normal operation of the entire world, almost squeezing out the living space of the natives. But at the same time, players also brought various technologies to this world, such as Recording Pens, cameras, and so on."

"At some point in the future, the natives, who had already been reduced to the bottom of the world, researched time-travel spells and sent Lin Bai to the early stage of the players' Advent, just to disrupt the players' gaming experience and save the world."

"That makes sense!" 【Silver】 snapped his fingers and said, "This can reasonably explain why the whole world doesn't know where the Justice Sect is. Even Lin Bai can't return to the Justice Sect because he can't travel through time himself. It can also explain the origin of the Recording Pens and cameras; these items were all sent from the future..."

"It can also explain Lin Bai's thoughts and concepts, as well as those supernatural Dao Methods that are incompatible with the world," 【Down Mountain Tiger】 said. "Because those Dao Methods haven't appeared at the current stage; it's very likely that they were researched by players in the future. Lin Bai isn't having an epiphany, but is gradually recovering his strength. After all, it's normal to have side effects after traveling through time..."

"Hey! Hey! Are you guys bored? It's just a game, is there any point in discussing this?" 【Tie Tou Xian】 said. "Since you're all so talented, why don't you go write novels?"

"It's meaningful," 【Gugao Laoren】 listened with great interest. He looked at 【Tie Tou Xian】 and said, "Considering every possibility will be of great help to us in playing the game. It helps us explore Lin Bai's true purpose, or the possibility of whether those Laws truly exist! We have followed Lin Bai until now; although we've made a lot of money, our levels haven't increased much, but we've provoked a whole bunch of enemies, and more NPCs have become wary of us."

"A long time ago, I had a feeling that Lin Bai seemed to know our players' methods like the back of his hand, which is actually very abnormal." He paused for a moment and said, "I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, but before I met Lin Bai, my view was the same as those foreign experts: this place is either created by the Game Company or it's a real world. After all, these virtual reality technologies far exceed our level of technology."

"It's getting more and more like a conspiracy theory!" 【Tie Tou Xian】 said.

【High-Level Old Man】 shook his head and said, "Just now, 【I Am Not A Small Account】's words gave me inspiration. If we don't treat Lin Bai as an ordinary NPC, but treat Lin Bai as a Reincarnator, all his unreasonable behaviors have a reasonable explanation."

"If he is a Jiusheng, why doesn't he integrate the NPCs, but instead keeps tossing the NPCs around?" 【Longxi】 said. "That doesn't make sense, right!"

"How can someone who is alone and doesn't even understand the structure of the world integrate the NPCs?" 【Gugao Laoren】 looked at 【Longxi】 and said, "Besides, what makes you feel that he isn't integrating the NPCs?"

"The Justice Alliance," the surrounding players said in unison.

"Right, the Justice Alliance. He is not only integrating the NPCs, but he also used us to integrate the players together through the Beggar Sect and the Justice Sect, and incidentally destroyed our gaming experience, leaving us exhausted and having no time to level up." 【Gugao Laoren】 narrowed his eyes, looked at Lin Bai's residence, and murmured, "Eliminate all the unreasonable, and whatever remains, however impossible, must be the truth."

"Everyone, we seem to have found the truth. Although everything Lin Bai has done is excessive, he is indeed trying his best to save the world from the players, even at the cost of pushing himself into the position of a public enemy of the world..."

"From this perspective, Lin Bai is still a very great person!" 【Silver】 was stunned for a moment and said softly.

"Not just great, but also very formidable," 【I Am Not A Small Account】 said. "He appeared at almost the same time as the players, yet he stirred up the winds and clouds of the entire world by his own strength. If it were any of us, even if we knew the whole truth, who could do as well as he did?"

"..." All the players fell silent.

"That is to say, there is no Justice Sect!" 【Deng Li Buduo】's tone was a bit disappointed.

"There is a Justice Sect, but no one can go there," 【Bitter Melon Vine】 said. "Maybe it's all a pie in the sky drawn by Lin Bai, just like the Heavenly Dao Laws."

"Everything is our speculation," 【Gugao Laoren】 said. "We can make bold speculations, but as for the facts, we still have to verify them step by step, carefully. Don't jump to conclusions easily; maybe the Justice Sect and Heavenly Dao Laws really exist?"

"Lao Gu, can I post our speculations on the forum?" 【Tie Tou Xian】 said.

"What for?" 【Gugao Laoren】 asked.

"To let more people join the discussion and speculate on the truth!" 【Tie Tou Xian】 said.

"What good does that do us?" 【Gugao Laoren】 asked in return.

"..." 【Tie Tou Xian】 stopped talking.

"Lin Bai is using a public strategy; he used the advertising tactic to tie all of us up," 【Gugao Laoren】 said. "As long as we still want to make money, we have to protect his interests, and even protect him."

"Are we going to be led by the nose by him forever?" 【Longxi】 frowned and said, "I'm a bit unwilling!"

"Right, if this world is truly real, then the interests contained within it are too great. If we are controlled by Lin Bai, we will lose even more in the future," 【Bitter Melon Vine】 said.

"This is why I am obsessed with exploring the truth behind Lin Bai," 【Gugao Laoren】 smiled. "Once you understand everything, it's much easier to come up with countermeasures. Lin Bai can borrow our light, and we can also borrow Lin Bai's light."

"Six days later, will another batch of people arrive? We will slowly divide the Beggar Sect into two parts: one part will cooperate with Lin Bai to suppress the natives and other players, and the other part will develop in secret, level up, and build our business. When we foster our own forces, we'll kick Lin Bai away and go it alone."

"Should we still practice the Laws?" 【Tie Tou Xian】 asked.

"Practice. Lin Bai is too shrewd; at least in front of him, we must practice it so he doesn't get suspicious." 【Gugao Laoren】 looked around at everyone and said, "Everything we discussed today is limited to us high-ranking members of the Beggar Sect; don't spread it out. We also have to learn from Lin Bai: everyone else is drunk while I alone am sober. Learn to control everything in the dark, and just let the other players continue to enjoy the game."

"Lao Gu, I have an idea, I don't know if it's still doable?" 【Jingbuyi】 said.

"What idea?" 【Gugao Laoren】 asked.

"The influence of *Justice Weekly* is limited to Qian City; contacting advertisers won't earn much money," 【Jingbuyi】 said. "We can recruit agents through the forum and let players in other cities participate in the promotion of *Justice Weekly*. Distance is not a limitation for players. We can instantly replicate the printed content through the forum or livestreaming, and they only need to print and publish it there. Doing this can rapidly expand the influence of *Justice Weekly* and attract more sponsorships..."

"This is a good thing!" 【Silver】 said.

"It might have been a good thing before, but now, the rapid spread of *Justice Weekly* will greatly increase Shopkeeper Lin's fame, which is very likely to bring more uncontrollable trouble to him or the Beggar Sect," 【Jingbuyi】 said. "After all, Shopkeeper Lin's strategy is to plan slowly. If Shopkeeper Lin can't handle these unexpected events, then everything in the Beggar Sect will be finished."

"What are you afraid of? Shopkeeper Lin can find trouble for us, why can't we find trouble for him?" 【Gugao Laoren】 laughed. "Seizing the market in the shortest possible time only has advantages for us, no disadvantages. Don't forget, six days later, a new batch of players will arrive. The players who enter later don't know how many strategies they've researched outside, just waiting to enter the game to use them!"

"There are also financial groups that can crush us with their wealth, even if they can't affect us for the time being. But there will always be new Disciples joining the Beggar Sect!"

"In the future, advertising business will become less and less, and there will be more and more people in the Beggar Sect, losing the attraction of money. How will the Beggar Sect expand? If we can get the money in our hands, why care about so much?"

"The trouble is Shopkeeper Lin's. As long as we master the mature market operation plan, even if he dies, it won't have much impact on us, but the premise is that the market must be in our hands..."

Because of the privacy of private chats, the players did not avoid Lin Bai when they talked.

And Lin Bai also needed to learn the latest situation of the game outside from their mouths, as well as their true thoughts, so as to make the most accurate response.

Therefore, Lin Bai, who was teasing a little fox next door, listened to the players' speculations about him the whole time, and was amazed by what he heard.

I have to say.

The players' imaginations are truly rich; they guessed things about the Justice Sect that don't even exist in this world, and what's more, they even assigned him the identity of a savior of the future world...

The plot was so reasonable that he almost believed it himself.

Heaven knows.

Everything he did was just for self-preservation, to seek a place to survive in this world.

However.

Although the players' reasoning process was complete nonsense.

But strangely, the result was not much different from what Lin Bai himself had deduced; ever since he verified that the system and the Game Company were not on the same side, he knew that the system behind it was disrupting the normal operation of the game.

To some extent, saying he is the savior of this world does not seem wrong.

I have to say.

This identity is actually quite cool...

As for the players using Justice Weekly to cause him trouble, Lin Bai didn't take it to heart at all.

A debtor is not worried about having too many debts, and a person with many lice does not feel the itch.

The Chaoyuan Sword Sect has already gone to fetch reinforcements from the Seven Righteous Sects, so why would he fear more enemies?

Besides.

The Media System needs a powerful medium to connect the entire world; theoretically, any trouble is actually urging him to grow.

The players might be very shrewd, but where they go wrong is not knowing just how big the cheat he has is!

(End of this chapter)