Chapter 378: Mindset

"They are too impatient." General Chen was also watching the live stream. "If they proceeded slowly and steadily like us, Lin Bai would not ignore them."

"Indeed! Lin Bai is greedy; with a piece of fat meat as large as Shenmo Dalu, how could he possibly give it up?" Cheng Xunyun agreed. "They only need to wait, and Lin Bai will naturally intervene in the situation of Shenmo Dalu. Shenmo Dalu is filled with players from the Western Continent; as long as they cooperate, Lin Bai will certainly give them a share of the spoils."

"Xunyun, you are wrong. The Immortal World is clearly a level higher than Shenmo Dalu. Lin Bai can handle the Immortal World, so he will not share Shenmo Dalu with anyone. Even if he delegates power, it will be to the natives of the Xianxia World or the fans loyal to him; those people are Lin Bai's true inner circle."

General Chen said, "The Western Continent has never trusted Lin Bai from the beginning to the end. Seizing resources is secondary; they want to beat Lin Bai to establishing their own power in Shenmo Dalu. At that point, they would have the leverage to negotiate with Lin Bai, rather than being ignored by him as they have been. They are gambling on the future, but unfortunately, they are going to lose the bet."

Cheng Xunyun was lost in thought. After a long while, he asked, "General, will Lin Bai clean up the mess for them?"

General Chen was stunned for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know. A normal person in Lin Bai's position would spend effort cultivating their own forces, or at the very least, stabilizing their own territory. But Lin Bai keeps talking about dealing with the Game Company while acting too much on his own whims. He seems to be merely enjoying the process of conquering territory. He never seriously manages it, only continuously expanding; he is more like a bellicose emperor, acting only to prove his ability to the world. I can no longer see through him."

"General, now that you mention it, there is a term that fits Lin Bai quite well," Cheng Xunyun said.

"What is it?" General Chen asked.

"Player," Cheng Xunyun said. "Lin Bai's actions are more like a player than even the players themselves. Even now, on the forums, many people still treat Lin Bai as the crown prince of the Game Company!"

"..." The gray-haired General Chen gave a violent start. After a long time, he sighed, rubbed his temples, and said, "Let them make their noise. We shall wait and see, doing our best to preserve ourselves; the truth will eventually come to light. Although Lin Bai is reckless, his personality is rather soft. As long as one follows his arrangements, not many people die at his hands."

Lin Bai shared all the information from Lin Liubai and felt deep sympathy for the plight of the Western Continent.

But it was only sympathy. This was their own choice, and since they had chosen it, they should accept the result. In any case, no matter what these people did, he would profit from it.

As his position grew higher and higher, Lin Bai was forcing himself to change his previous babysitter mentality.

He had to place himself in the position of a chess player and treat everyone as a chess piece to have any chance of surviving this cruel game.

After all.

The Game Company truly did not treat the people of the various worlds as human beings, and the messy systems on him frequently issued tasks that feared only that the world would not be in chaos; clearly, they did not treat him as a human either...

Now that the center of the game between the two sides was on him, a major piece, he would strive to jump off the chessboard.

John suddenly logged on, squeezing Lin Liubai out of the game.

Lin Liubai returned to John's body in the Real World and saw Joseph's slightly apologetic old face: "Alliance Leader, I am truly sorry. We used this method to summon you back, but we were truly at our wits' end. You are a god high above; surely you have a clear grasp of the war that just took place. We heavily wounded the enemy, but we also paid a huge price. We summoned you back this time to borrow your magical spells to let our dead soldiers be resurrected by turning into butterflies..."

You brought me here to resurrect them just to appease the anger of the outside world, didn't you!

Lin Bai grasped his thoughts in an instant. He looked at the corpses covered in white sheets laid out on the ground, then looked at the riddled four-winged angel: "Joseph, are you certain you want me to use Butterfly Transformation to resurrect them?"

"Certain," Joseph said. "They have already fallen in battle. Being able to turn into butterflies and live again is their honor. Moreover, practicing the magical Eastern immortal arts is enough to allow them to regain human bodies."

"I have always been known for my mercy, and I did not say I would not resurrect them. But Butterfly Transformation requires pairs; that is to say, there must be people who love each other willing to die with them for me to turn them into butterflies, just like the Flying Dragon knight who died for the priest on the battlefield back then. Are you certain there will be people willing to die for them, only for both to turn into butterflies?"

"..." Joseph was stunned. "It must be two people?"

"Yes," Lin Liubai nodded.

"Then I may need to ask their lovers before I can give you an answer," Joseph said, looking troubled.

He had indeed wanted to use the method of resurrecting soldiers to appease the anger of the Real World, but knowing the harsh conditions, he realized this path would not work.

There was likely no one in the Real World willing to let themselves turn into a butterfly for the sake of a dead person, only to have to go to the distant Eastern Continent to practice cultivation techniques again, just to gamble on a chance to become human once more!

"Fine, come find me to resurrect them whenever you have gathered enough couples' corpses!" Lin Liubai looked at Joseph and said, "General Joseph, I am very angry that you squeezed me out of the game this time. However, considering this is your first offense, I can let this matter pass. But next time, if you interrupt what I am doing for such trivial matters, I will make you feel what the wrath of the Lord of the Three Realms is like."

"Understood." Joseph's expression changed slightly, and he reflexively gave a military salute to Lin Bai.

"That is all. Handle the matters here yourself; I have more important things to do," Lin Bai said.

"Alliance Leader, please wait," Joseph hurriedly called out to stop Lin Bai.

"What else is there?" Lin Bai frowned.

"Alliance Leader, you already know the result of the war. We used technological weapons to wipe out a legion of nearly ten thousand people in a short time, but the opponent only dispatched one four-winged angel, and it caused us heavy casualties." Joseph's expression was not very good. "In this world, there are six-winged angels, eight-winged angels, and even the most powerful twelve-winged angels. Above the angels, there are gods. Alliance Leader, our army may not be their match; we need your help."

Is the United States using this method to force him to participate in the game field of Shenmo Dalu?

The price for this is high enough!

However.

This is indeed the most correct way. Even if modern technological weapons are enough to contend with the natives of Shenmo Dalu, relying on themselves to conquer this land would take too long, and it is highly likely they would fail.

It would be different with his help.

After all, it only took him less than a year to unify the Xianxia World...

Lin Bai looked at Joseph and asked, "How do you want me to help you?"

"If you could take action personally, that would be best." Joseph looked at Lin Bai's expression cautiously. "Of course, if it is inconvenient for you to take action, you could use the Magpie Bridge to gather our players scattered across the world. I have heard that you have been doing this these past few days. Players possess endless lifespans; if they participate in the war, our losses will be minimized, and we can reap more benefits for the Justice Alliance in the shortest possible time. We are merely your vanguard; this world will eventually be yours."

"No problem, but you must wait two days for me; there are still some matters to handle in the Immortal World. I have not finished exploring this world yet, and setting up the Magpie Bridge now would not achieve a surprise effect."

Lin Bai considered for a moment and agreed.

Laying the Magpie Bridge for the people of the Western Continent to connect to the game world was intended to force out the rulers or gods of this world in the shortest possible time, and they were doing a good job of it now.

The Magpie Bridge would have to be laid in Shenmo Dalu sooner or later; doing them a favor was just helping himself.

Moreover, Lin Bai had now discovered a simple method for laying the Magpie Bridge.

Marking.

Through marking, he could quickly connect the Magpie Bridge between two people or cancel it without needing to be there in person.

The effect of marking was clearly much greater than he had imagined.

"That would be best; we can afford to wait two days." Joseph rubbed his hands together, overjoyed. "We won this battle, so we should have a few days of breathing room, enough for us to clean up the aftermath."

He paused and smilingly invited Lin Bai, "Would you like to go see Free City? The City Lord of Free City must have been scared out of his wits by this local war. We intend to completely take over Free City and use this city as our first stronghold in this world..."

"Fine, I will go with you," Lin Bai nodded, looked around Red Wolf Valley, and said, "You indeed should have a base of your own."

Lin Bai was waiting, waiting for the players below to ascend to the Immortal World, and then he would quickly set up Magpie Bridges at each Reception Pool, and in one go, map out the Immortal World. That way, he would have enough mobility and room for maneuver.

One Songshi City, one Free City—relying on two small points to expand outward was not his style, and it would be easy to suffer encirclement. He needed flexible mobility.

However.

After suppressing the Celestial Beings of Songshi City, Lin Bai was not idle; instead, he gathered the few players to whom he had issued Reporter IDs. He decided to follow the original plan and complete the tasks of the Media System.

The players who possess a Reporter ID are one 【Xianxia First Paparazzo】, one 【Miaobi Shusheng】, and another 【Battlefield Madman】...

They were all carefully selected by Lin Bai; they have sharp pens, love to stir up trouble, possess high Loyalty, are clean and honest, and do not belong to any organization.

Nowadays, these players are the backbone of the two magazines, having completely replaced the group of 【Silver】 and 【Huangye Lang】, reporting directly to Xu Longyun and not needing to be responsible to any other players.

These are the players Lin Bai re-selected after experiencing betrayal during the lightning tribulation; naturally, without sufficiently high Loyalty, they would be unable to perfectly execute his various propaganda plans.

"Justice Weekly" and "Heavenly Dao Review" must be Lin Bai's private forces, must be held in his hands, and cannot be utilized by anyone else.

Several players were very excited to see Lin Bai.

"Alliance Leader, nowadays, as several worlds integrate, simple paper-based propaganda is already becoming unable to keep up with the speed of the world's development." 【Xianxia First Paparazzo】 was dressed neatly, his hair combed meticulously, "You have been to our world and should know about media methods like the internet, television, radio, and so on. I think we must keep pace with the times and let the people of the Xianxia World understand the changes outside through more ways."

"Of course, transitioning to the internet immediately is not very realistic. I think we can first establish a radio channel and form the 'Justice Weekly' Radio Group; the wireless radio terminals only need radios."

"Establishing radio stations in every city can broadcast information in real-time to the masses who cannot afford newspapers. With the Xianxia World and the Real World connected, we have the ability to complete this deployment in the shortest possible time. Of course, this might require recruiting a large number of employees..."

"You don't need to tell me about these things; you can just report directly to Xu Longyun. As long as the proposal is reasonable, she will help you contact Cheng Xunyun." Lin Bai glanced at 【Xianxia First Paparazzo】 and nodded, saying, "Today, I called you here because I want to set you few up as models for the media industry. People who follow me in doing things should not be obscure."

【Joy from Xianxia First Paparazzo, Miaobi Shusheng, and Battlefield Madman; +1 +1 +1】

Several players looked at each other and said in unison, "Thank you, Alliance Leader."

【Miaobi Shusheng】 said, "Alliance Leader, actually we don't care about fame anymore. The reason I joined 'Justice Weekly' is because I admire the Alliance Leader. Being able to work for the Alliance Leader and publicize the things the Alliance Leader does so that more people know about them, I am already very content."

【Xianxia First Paparazzo】 said, "Shusheng is right; we are all people striving for ideals. We want to build the two publications into a super-large group that spans the game world—no, three worlds. Whether we ourselves become famous or not is not important."

"No, it is very important." Lin Bai looked at the few of them and said sternly, "Because media is also a Dao. The Daos I practice are too many and too messy, and I cannot attend to them all. After thinking it over, the God of Media can only be born from among you few. And the primary condition for the God of Media is that one must be famous oneself, so that what you say can carry the weight of the Nine Cauldrons and be convincing to others."

"Alliance Leader, is media also a Dao?" 【Xianxia First Paparazzo】 was clearly a bit skeptical.

"Of course it is a Dao." Lin Bai said, "Otherwise, why would I establish two publications? Spreading the Dao through publications is only one small aspect of it."

"Media controls public opinion; going a step further, it influences everyone's thoughts. If this cannot become a Dao, what else can? The Eleven Ancestors of the Justice Sect once performed Divination for the Media Dao. It is said that when the Media Dao reaches great success, whatever major events happen anywhere in the world can be reached in an instant, and the past of events can be traced back, so one will not be deceived by any false appearances."

Gulp!

The three players swallowed their saliva in unison, their eyes suddenly brightening.

Lin Bai smiled: "The Reporter ID in your hands that can enter any forbidden area was refined by the Thirteen Ancestors of the Justice Sect based on the characteristics of the Media Dao..."

"Alliance Leader, reaching in an instant—can it break through space?" 【Battlefield Madman】 asked with a trembling voice, "For example, going directly to Shenmo Dalu without passing through the Magpie Bridge."

"It should be possible! The three thousand Great Daos lead to the same destination; the Magpie Bridge of the Love Dao can traverse space, so the Media Dao should be able to as well." Lin Bai nodded affirmatively, looked around at the three, and said, "Now do you still think your fame is not important?"

(End of this chapter)