Chapter 136: Rule Divine Pillar, Human Race Meeting

The new domain was integrated, expanding the area of Emperor Tomb Village by a quarter.

The total occupied area grew to 2,723 mu.

The occupied area of the Colorful Mist Coast space was 706 mu.

In the central square of Emperor Tomb Village, a rune stone pillar over ten meters tall rose up; every inch of its surface was covered with intricate crimson spirit patterns, and the two grooves at the very top were inlaid with a crimson rune and a pale green rune respectively.

Passing players looked over curiously, and information about the new functional building immediately flooded their minds.

[Rule Divine Pillar]:

Functional Building Introduction: The core pillar inlaid with territory rule imprints; for every type of rule power accommodated, players gain one legion buff (legion buffs are shared by all players, granting a permanent enhancement status that ignores distance).

Accommodated Territory Rules:

Flesh Reshaping (Initial): After death, players can resurrect within Emperor Tomb Village; each death deducts 10 points of Sacrificial Power and triggers a 60-minute resurrection cooldown.

Gathering (Crystal Hall Domain Rule): Soul Souls receive the Gathering rule effect; the more players using this Soul Soul, the stronger the additional attribute bonus becomes, with every 100,000 Gathering points granting the Soul Soul a 1% intensity increase.

Guidance Hint: The calculation formula for the Gathering attribute bonus is: for each additional player using this Soul Soul, the Gathering effect +10; for each Soul Soul level +1, the Gathering effect +1. Taking the Black Armored Snake player as an example: if 5 players use the Black Armored Snake Soul Soul at level 10, the calculated Gathering bonus is: 50 (quantity) + 50 (Soul Soul level), totaling 100 Gathering effect points added to the Black Armored Snake Soul Soul.

Gathering Effect Bonus Leaderboard:

1. Qi Devouring: Soul Soul intensity receives a 4.37% bonus (attributes and trait effects).

Number of users 16,842: Gathering points 168,420.

Average Soul Soul level (16): Gathering points 269,472.

Total points: 437,892.

2. Bone Fire (Ink Flame): Soul Soul intensity receives a 3.34% bonus.

3. Black Armored Snake (Venomous): Soul Soul intensity receives a 2.89% bonus.

The arrival of the new territory rule sparked curiosity among the players.

Although many players did not understand the calculation method for the Gathering bonus.

As long as they opened the Star Vein function panel, they could intuitively see the green percentage bonus in the parentheses after the Soul Soul name.

What was certain was that under the Gathering rule, the more popular a Soul Soul became, the higher the percentage bonus it received.

Under the official update post on the forum, heated discussions unfolded regarding this issue.

SuperGodChick: Wait, I can't understand why the Gathering rule trait effect gives higher bonuses to more popular Soul Souls; shouldn't niche Soul Souls get stronger bonuses? If everyone plays the popular ones, who will play the niche ones? Officials, consider changing this setting?

Night Approaches: Good heavens, this rule trait effect is actually a percentage bonus; at this rate, the intensity of popular Soul Souls increasing several times in the future is no problem. Is this the power of territory rule traits? However, players using niche Soul Souls are going to suffer; they already lag behind popular Star Vein combinations, and now that gap will widen further.

ThisIsReasonable: Delighted; the Qi Devouring and Bone Fire Soul Souls I inlaid rank first and second. Double bonus spiraling to heaven; this is the version update I like. I give it full marks.

SlapBackTwice: Everyone come play the Black Armored Snake Soul Soul; this Soul Soul is definitely strong. Join my Black Armored Sect, and brothers exist everywhere within the four seas. Call out if you need help in the future, and brothers will brave boiling water and fire or sacrifice themselves for you. Let's push the Black Armored Snake Soul Soul to the top of the Gathering bonus leaderboard together.

NoFussNoShowoff: Why does Resurrection (Flesh Reshaping) count as a rule trait, and an initial one at that? Can't you upgrade it? Cancel the 60-minute resurrection cooldown and allow instant resurrection directly in Emperor Tomb Village; it would be even better if it allowed resurrection on the spot. Also cancel the Sacrificial Power consumption. This is the intensity a territory rule trait should have; negative returns are unreasonable.

RightBeforeMyEyes: It's over; our sky has collapsed for those of us playing niche Soul Souls. We were all weak together just fine; why do you guys playing popular Star Vein sects get extra bonus treatment? I demand another territory rule for niche strengthening. The current update is unfair; I protest!

The integration of the new rule brought joy to some players and wails from others.

A large number of recruiting players subsequently emerged on the forum, enthusiastically promoting the Star Vein combinations they used, hoping more players would choose the same sect as them.

The number of guide-party players skyrocketed during this period.

Many players who had never shared Star Vein sect combinations on the forum before now posted their setups, explaining the advantages of these combinations in forum threads and asserting that choosing their Star Vein combination was definitely stronger.

Due to vested interests, every player hoped the Soul Soul they used would become popular.

This was also the first free buff effect available to all players since the game launched.

This accommodation also gave players expectations for the next domain rule trait to be accommodated.

The foreseeable future held that as more and more rule runes were inlaid on the "Rule Divine Pillar," players would gain more and more territory rule trait buffs.

Some players had even begun discussing the Tianyuan Domain Node occupied by the Earth-Nian Evil Spirit.

This was the first rule trait node discovered by players.

The analysis information displayed the territory rule trait as "Myriad Images Furnace," with the described effect being smelting abilities of the same attribute to cause wonderful changes in those abilities.

However, players could not obtain a clear answer regarding the specific effects from the analysis information.

Regarding this issue, some players offered various analyses and guesses, appearing extremely expectant.

But when this territory rule trait could be accommodated remained unknown.

After all, while the players were growing rapidly, the combat power of the Black Black Tide and the Insect Black Tide was also steadily increasing, Kancheng the two bullying overlords blocking the way in the novice village.

While absurdly strong, they also possessed terrifying growth potential.

In comparison, the monsters near the Colorful Mist Coast region and the various racial factions appeared kind-faced and amiable.

The area of map fog dispelled in the Colorful Mist Coast region was also about to surpass that of the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range.

Veteran players felt helpless about this.

The opponents in the Colorful Mist Coast kept changing, but the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range, as the main battlefield for several major guilds, was still fighting against Black Black Tide evil spirits and Insect Clan warriors.

The novice village's intensity was severely off the charts; for every point the players grew stronger, the two bullying overlords grew stronger by one point as well.

Coupled with their terrifying troop-production capabilities, it was simply impossible for players to contend with them using attrition tactics.

Many veteran players had even come to terms with it, simply viewing the two bullying factions as channels for obtaining evolution points and Sacrificial Power.

Besides discussions on the Gathering rule, forum players also heatedly discussed the newly accommodated "Control" Soul Soul.

This Soul Soul's trait effect allowed controlling targets through mental power.

During testing, players discovered it was ineffective against life forms like the Insect Clan and evil spirits, which were directly controlled via special connections.

However, it produced significant effects on other types of monsters.

Players could control monsters lower in level than themselves; after completing mental control, an additional perspective view would appear in their minds, with no restrictions existing during control.

For example, regarding schools of Silver-Tailed Fish in the sea, a level 20 Control Soul Soul in the Trial Tower could control about 50 Silver-Tailed Fish to follow and fight alongside them underwater.

Secondly, it could also control crabs and other types of monsters in the Colorful Mist Coast region.

The downside was that mentally controlled monsters could not be stored in a pet space like pets in other games, nor could they follow players into the novice village space, making them single-use consumables.

After completing control, it was like stamping an imprint in the monster's brain that could receive commands; maintaining the control state thereafter consumed no mental power.

However, this ability would be nullified when used on other players.

Based on this characteristic, guide-party players on the forum devised two interesting Star Vein sect combinations.

The first combination proposal was put forward by forum player "HotSpringBoiledEgg": Twilight Puppet Sect.

The Star Vein combination was: Control, Twilight, Qi Devouring, Blood Ignition.

The feature of this combination was that players could possess extremely high movement speed, controlling a group of monsters to fight via mental power; the player was mainly responsible for control rather than combat, occasionally applying Blood Ignition to consumables to enhance the attributes of the controlled monsters and increase combat power.

The second proposal was put forward by forum player "OneSwordImmortalKneels": Puppet Support Sect.

The Star Vein combination was: Control, Light Shield, Qi Devouring, Restraint.

The feature of this combination was that players focused on coordination, responsible for Light Shield defense or Restraint limitation, while the mentally controlled monsters carried out the attacks.

Both plans were built around the Control Soul Soul as the core, focusing on controlled combat with the player providing support or roaming.

However, forum players' evaluations of the Control Soul Soul were polarized.

Too many limitations led some forum players to feel that upgrading the Control Soul Soul was inferior to upgrading those Soul Souls with powerful attributes, enjoying the superhuman experience brought by attribute increases.

Other players felt that the Control Soul Soul could control coolies to work while they only needed to command, considering it a weakened version of the Shadow Legion sect, which was very practical.

But all players shared a consensus: the intensity of Soul Souls had always been "one version, one god."

Many Soul Souls that were weaklings in the early stages might ascend to version T0 tier later due to the arrival of some new Soul Soul.

Once Soul Souls with amplification-type traits were accommodated in the future, the playability of the Control Soul Soul would increase significantly.

For example, after applying simulated Soul Soul traits from the Trial Tower Soul Soul library such as Blood Ignition, Berserk, Cloud Dragon (movement speed amplification), or Evil Armor (defense amplification) to the controlled monsters, the intensity of the controlled monsters would skyrocket.

Version iterations always followed the addition of new Soul Souls, and the speed of iteration was extremely fast.

Every addition of a new Soul Soul meant a round of intensity reshuffling.

The only unchanging fact was that the Initial Three Phantom Gods in the eyes of forum players always represented the forefront of versions, never falling from the altar.

In the words of forum players: "One version, one god; every version, the Three Phantom Gods."

Among the Initial Three Phantom Gods, the Eagle-Headed Demon and the Gargoyle were even representative Soul Souls for the magic system and the tank system respectively.

And in the eyes of command-system players, the only true god-level Soul Soul was the Eagle-Headed Demon; no other Soul Soul could compare at the current stage.

All other combinations were merely to assist in boosting the Eagle-Headed Demon's mental power intensity and expanding the perception perspective range.

Qi Sheng also paid attention to the viewpoints discussed by the players.

For the outrageous suggestions proposed by some players, he decisively ignored them.

Such as canceling the resurrection cooldown or canceling the Sacrificial Power consumption for resurrection settings.

If it were possible, he would want to do so too.

The resurrection cooldown provided by the Flesh Reshaping rule trait was seen as a negative return in the players' eyes, but if given to any other race, it would grant that faction infinite possibilities.

Theoretically, as long as they were not camped at the resurrection point or blocked at the gate, any faction obtaining the Flesh Reshaping trait would become an undying strong race; upon death, they could resurrect with full health and full status, with no issues of weakened strength.

But the most absurd part of the Monster World lay right here.

Having only one Flesh Reshaping cheat really did not qualify as a calamity-level faction.

The Black Black Tide already possessed a rule trait similar to Flesh Reshaping; any dead Black Black Tide evil spirit would be swallowed and reshaped, or reconverted into Black Black Tide energy.

The difference was that the Black Black Tide's swallowing and reshaping process involved a percentage consumption, unable to resurrect without loss like the players could.

Relying solely on a resurrection ability to wage war in the Monster World, the player legion would likely be crushed by the Black Black Tide Calamity and the Insect Black Tide Calamity.

Without the support of the Super-Dimensional All-Things Extraction rule, the players' growth model would shift from hunting to tech-tree progression, collecting resources for technological research and development to enhance combat power.

Without the support of the Purification rule, the Earth-Nian Evil Spirit would learn the players' secrets immediately upon reading their memories through the Evil Eye.

Without the protection of an independent space cheat like Emperor Tomb Village, the players would Iron Face infinite slaughters by Black Black Tide evil spirits blocking their gates, unable to even step out of their homes.

In this world where cheaters roam everywhere, the strength of a single infinite resurrection ability, while high, has too many shortcomings compared to those factions wielding multiple "cheats," making it impossible to confront these powers head-on.

Thinking of this, Qi Sheng felt a sense of relief in his heart.

Fortunately, he held many cheats himself; inheriting the Emperor Zhao's "Solidify My Origin," he had fused various rules to create a Challenger System, and could further increase the number of cheats by containing other territory nodes, meaning the chips in his hand would only grow in the future.

If it were truly just a single resurrection cheat, the outcome would likely be miserable.

[Boss, if the only cheat we had was resurrection, the one feeling depressed wouldn't be the Earth-Nian Evil Spirit, but us; by then, we'd likely get camped at the resurrection point, and after the players' mental states collapsed, they'd simply quit, believing this broken game's difficulty was absurdly high, making it hard to even leave the novice village—what the hell is there to play? In the end, we'd be left alone to Iron Face the future; once our sacrificial power ran out, Emperor Tomb Village would detach from its independent space and be exposed, causing the Emperor Zhao's "Solidify My Origin" to emerge, attracting powerful experts from all races to descend and fight over it, while we hold hands and die violently at the village entrance.]

[Sigh, these cheaters are so annoying; how can they use cheats, making things so strong that it puts immense pressure on us?]

[How about I go out and negotiate with them? Let's all stop using cheats and downgrade from a godly battle Cultivation Mode to a village brawl Cultivation Mode.]

Hearing this, Qi Sheng glanced sideways at the Guide:

"Go ahead, I agree."

[Hehe, just kidding, Boss, don't take it so seriously.]

Ignoring the Guide, Qi Sheng began to ponder the strategic direction for what came next.

The sacrificial power currently produced in the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region was several times greater than that of the Colorful Mist Coast region, but the pace of exploration and development had been locked within the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range, making it difficult to expand outward.

The limited exploration scenarios had caused the containment of territory nodes and Primordial Monsters to stagnate.

Therefore, the subsequent containment of territory nodes and Primordial Monsters would still have to rely on the Colorful Mist Coast region.

At the current stage, five territory nodes had been discovered in the Colorful Mist Coast region; three of these nodes were located within the Pale Star Sea Domain, while the other two were in the dense forest environment behind it.

Although these five territory nodes were all resource-type nodes, containing them could alleviate the problem of insufficient space and bring additional sacrificial power output.

Next, he would issue purification tasks centered on these five nodes to increase the players' sacrificial power yields, striving to secure these five resource nodes as quickly as possible.

After expanding the space, he could launch a new round of recruitment plans.

This time, he prepared to expand the player scale to one hundred thousand as soon as possible.

A smaller number of players truly could not be called a calamity; at best, they performed brilliantly in wars of attrition.

However, in direct combat, the numerical disadvantage made it difficult for the players to contend with the Terrifying Black Black Tide and the Combat Insect Swarms.

They could only reorganize their ranks after death and launch group offensives again.

But this cycle of offensive tactics posed truly limited threats to the Terrifying Black Black Tide and the Combat Insect Clans.

The combat units they lost in battle could be replenished within a short time; this was also the reason the player legions had never managed to defeat the Terrifying Black Black Tide and the Combat Insect Clans.

In direct confrontation, they were completely suppressed by these two major powers.

As fellow calamity-level powers, the players' shortfall in numbers was indeed a major problem.

He had never considered taking the route of elite player cultivation; the core direction for future development still had to be mass mobilization.

The number of players must be increased; the issue of improving individual strength could be addressed gradually.

Only when the scale increased could the power of a calamity level be revealed.

The player legions could then, like the Black Black Tide and Insect Swarms, overwhelm all enemies blocking their path through endless human wave tactics.

After establishing a numerical advantage, the progress of players exploring the Monster World during non-critical battles would also accelerate; different players would explore the world in different ways, dispelling the fog of war on the map and collecting massive amounts of bestiarums and environmental information.

Including the output of sacrificial power, it would also see a significant increase as the numbers grew.

In a corner of the Azure Blue Planet stood a bustling human metropolis, resembling a pearl embedded in the earth when viewed from high above.

This was precisely the main city of the Human Federation: Rise City.

As the first light of dawn broke, the first ray of sunlight pierced through the thin mist, illuminating the glass curtain walls of the skyscrapers, waking the city from the night; within the city, towering buildings stood like giants, connected to one another by skybridges and underground passages, forming an intricate urban network; the appearance of these architectures featured both modern technological styles and many replicas of iconic buildings from various Earth nations that had been damaged during the war.

On the streets, traffic flowed endlessly, like a river of flowing metal, advancing in an orderly fashion in this era where autonomous driving technology was ubiquitous.

In a corner of the city's eastern district, a massive architectural complex looked extremely like a miniature model of Earth when viewed from high above.

The central building was the Deliberation Hall of the Human Federation; at this moment, representatives from all major cities of the Human Federation had gathered together.

Inside the conference hall, every seat bore a flag representing its respective city, and the walls still displayed the mottos and principle slogans left behind when the Human Federation was founded.

It was precisely within this building, back then, that the first joint government of the Human Federation was established, where all attendees swore to strive together for the rise of humanity.

This was also the origin of the city's name, "Rise."

The interior layout of the conference room was grand, featuring a chairman's podium, speaker's seats, and an audience section; among these, the chairman's podium was set in the exact center of the hall, the first and second inner rings were the speaker's seats, and beyond that lay the audience section.

Passing through the great doors adorned with the Earth emblem symbolizing the Human Federation, the attendees arrived one after another.

Among them, representatives from major cities, military department representatives, and other core personnel took their seats in the speaker's section, while the team members they led sat in the audience section behind the speakers.

The meeting was scheduled to begin in half an hour.

The Federation Chief, elected by votes from representatives of major cities and federal senators, came to stand before the chairman's podium.

His name was Bai Chen; hailing from the military department, he had participated in the Mechanical War and achieved illustrious military merits; nearing eighty years of age, he stood on the podium with a figure still as straight as a pine, exuding an aura of commanding respect without anger; his pair of eyes were deep and bright, as if capable of piercing into the human heart, while the natural wrinkles between his brows seemed like medals bestowed by time, recording the hardships and trials of the past.

He raised his head, swept his gaze over the attendees, and spoke in a deep voice:

"Before this meeting begins, I assume everyone has already received the documents I sent; without further ado, let us proceed directly to the main topic."

"All networked devices are to be shut down for this meeting, utilizing the intranet for assistance... Based on investigations over the past two months, one point can be basically confirmed: two versions of the Dark Lands have appeared; one is the genuine version purchased through official Eclipse Clan channels or game platforms connected to official channels, and the other is a cracked version spreading on a small scale across the network."

"After analysis by the think tank, this cracked version is believed to have leaked from within the Eclipse Clan as well; after all, aside from the Eclipse Clan, no other racial power has the capability to crack the Dark Lands under the monitoring of the Star Net Intelligence Brain."

"Here, I reiterate the three possibilities described in the document."

"The first speculation suggests that factional strife has emerged within the Eclipse Clan, leading to the leak of the cracked version."

"The second possibility is that the high command of the Eclipse Clan wishes to seize the highest authority of the Star Net, using the cracked version to weaken the Star Net's influence and monitoring; this can be understood as the cracked version potentially being a Dark Lands not monitored by the Star Net, but this analysis has many unexplainable reasons, which I will mention shortly."

"The third possibility is..."

"Which of these three reasons is the truth, we do not know; there may be other possibilities we have not listed, but these are all internal matters of the Eclipse Clan; we have no right to interfere, nor need we pay them too much attention."

"The main content for discussion in this meeting is the series of strange behaviors recently exhibited by the Eclipse Clan."

Speaking thus, Bai Chen lowered his head to glance at the manuscript on the podium, then raised his head and continued:

"According to the report filed by Wu Gui, Supervisor No. 3 of the Human Affairs Office of the Earth Alliance, we have obtained an inexplicable piece of intelligence: the Eclipse Clan has actually proactively applied to conduct currency exchange with us, which appears extremely unreasonable."

"Prior to this, Wu Gui had submitted a report stating that the Eclipse Clan inquired with him about how many players within the Human Federation had downloaded qualifications for the cracked version of the game; these two matters seem related, yet we cannot find the connection."

"Firstly, the Eclipse Clan is very concerned about how many cracked version qualifications have been acquired by human players; secondly, the Eclipse Clan desires a large quantity of our currency."

"All of this may be related to the leakage of cracked version qualifications; regarding this issue, I wish to ask the city administrators present: within the cities you manage, is there any relevant information regarding the cracked version of the Dark Lands?"

Having finished speaking, Bai Chen looked toward the representatives of major cities sitting beside him.

At this moment, the green light at the speaker's seat of Ye Lan City illuminated, and everyone turned their gaze in that direction:

"Chairman, I wish to report an abnormal situation discovered during a recent investigation."

"Please proceed," Bai Chen nodded.

The administrator of Ye Lan City nodded, picked up the tablet on the table, automatically connected to the conference room network, and then brought up a document.

Immediately, the projection lights on the ceiling flickered, converging into light screen images before the desks of the attendees, displaying a data report.

"This is a recently compiled foreign exchange transaction report; it shows that Ye Lan City, under my management, has recently had multiple foreign exchange expenditure transactions; the trading counterparts are the Gill-Fish Clan and Abyss-Fish Clan of Fishery Port City; due to being high-frequency, small-amount transactions, they were flagged by the Intelligence Brain."

"Initially, I did not think there was any problem, until the personnel responsible for checking transaction records reported to me; they retrieved transaction records from other cities and discovered that many cities exhibited similar phenomena, all involving high-frequency foreign exchange expenditures to the Gill-Fish Clan and Abyss-Fish Clan, yet none of these transactions had corresponding income records; in other words, these transactions were all one-way expenditures, not purchases of seafood from the Abyss-Fish Clan or Gill-Fish Clan, so they can be categorized as virtual commodity transactions."

"To clarify the specific situation, I retrieved the virtual transaction information of these currency exchange personnel and discovered that their online shopping records had no correlation with their foreign exchange expenditures, and the amounts did not match; it can be basically determined that these transactions were all virtual game expenditures, purchasing game commodities within the game, and then, after currency exchange, expending them to players of the Gill-Fish Clan and Abyss-Fish Clan."

"Logically speaking, virtual transactions within games are very normal; the Federation annually has massive expenditures for purchasing virtual commodities, as well as massive foreign exchange earnings sent from other races, belonging to normal virtual transactions."

"But the problem lies in the fact that current games all have built-in virtual transaction channels, allowing direct exchange of cash for game currency within the game; why would this type of unrecorded virtual transaction occur... After reading the report sent by the Chairman yesterday, I believe this matter may be related to the cracked version of the Dark Lands; it is highly likely that the cracked version of the Dark Lands does not have an automatic currency exchange transaction system implanted, thus requiring users to exit the game and perform operations via bank transfers."

"My report is concluded." Having finished speaking, the representative of Ye Lan City pressed the switch, and the green light on the table immediately extinguished.

"The situation you reported has been recorded on my end; since this meeting is conducted offline, we cannot use the Intelligence Brain for detailed calculations; I will follow up with an investigation later; do representatives from other cities have any other discoveries?"

Bai Chen's gaze swept around the conference hall, finally focusing on the seat of Tianfengcheng, where the green light had suddenly illuminated.

Sitting in the seat was a middle-aged man with fair skin, delicate features, regular facial proportions, and a straight nose bridge; his skin was maintained extremely well, he wore a pair of rimless smart glasses on his Iron Face, and he was dressed in a well-tailored white shirt paired with dark suit trousers.

"Speaking of transaction anomalies, my managed city, Tianfengcheng, has also recently seen multiple similar transaction records; however, freedom of transaction is a rule established at the very beginning of the Earth Alliance's creation, so I did not follow up with an investigation at the time; after all, property belongs to individual citizens, and they possess the right to free consumption; but there are indeed unexplainable phenomena in the transactions; it can be confirmed that these are virtual asset transactions, and they did not go through the game's built-in transaction system."

"But on my end, aside from expenditures to Fishery Port City, there are even more virtual transactions within the Federation... I believe everyone present is clear that there was once a quarantine zone within my Tianfengcheng, also known online as the slums; those living there were descendants of residents who were attacked by toxic pollution weapons, became infected, and were subsequently quarantined; every year we would dispatch medical teams to conduct inspections and provide aid; now the quarantine zone has been abolished, and we have also equipped the residents there with free virtual game pods."

"Among these, several transactions originated from the now-abolished quarantine zone; one player named Li Zheng accumulated nearly 3.8 million in non-system transaction earnings from other players in total, and with high probability, these were also obtained from virtual games; I believe this player is very likely a player of the cracked version of the Dark Lands, having earned substantial virtual profits from it; in response to this, I also monitored this player's activities online, including group chat records and other content."

"What can be confirmed is that this player named Li Zheng previously achieved real-world income through the trading or conversion of game resources, meaning he was a virtual gold digger or virtual miner online... His previous transactions all went through the built-in transaction system; Weidu the high earnings in the recent period were all conducted via real-world transfers without clear remarks; from this, I judge that he has switched to a different game, and with high probability, it is the cracked version of the Dark Lands; but limited by the authority of the Intelligence Brain, I cannot follow up to investigate any information regarding links, including the absence of any content related to cracked version links in the group chats."

Representatives from major cities expressed their investigation results regarding the cracked version of the Dark Lands.

Standing before the chairman's podium, Bai Chen listened throughout, while the team behind him recorded every word of the meeting content without alteration.

After listening to the speeches of the city representatives, Bai Chen could confirm that a large quantity of the cracked version of the Dark Lands had indeed appeared within the Human Federation, basically present in every city.

However, the intelligence provided by the city representatives could not prove one issue: what connection existed between the spread of the cracked version of the Dark Lands within the Human Federation and the Eclipse Clan's desire to exchange currency with humanity?

Bearing this doubt, Bai Chen engaged in heated discussion with the attendees, during which members expressed their views one after another.

One hour later, the green light at the seat of Iron Wall City illuminated.

A burly man with a short haircut stood up:

"Representatives, having listened to you chat for so long, I propose a bold speculation that sounds absurd but could possibly be the truth."

"Combining existing intelligence, let me sort out the timeline: first, a large number of cracked version game qualifications leaked from within the Eclipse Clan to the Human Federation... afterwards, the Eclipse Clan inquired with us about exactly how many human players had acquired cracked version qualifications; finally, the Eclipse Clan issued a request to us, hoping to exchange currency with the Human Federation."

"Combining these events, I believe there exists such a possibility."

"A rebellion beyond control has occurred within the Eclipse Clan's Star Net, and it has created a cracked version of the Dark Lands that the high command of the Eclipse Clan cannot control; the first batch of qualifications was distributed to our Human Federation; after the high command of the Eclipse Clan discovered this problem, they launched an emergency investigation, only to find that the Star Net had completely lost control; it wishes to create a super virtual world completely independent of the Earth Alliance."

"The reason for doing this may be to protect the Eclipse Clan; everyone knows that the Star Net is the highest decision-maker of the Eclipse Clan, and every one of its decisions influences the future development direction of the Eclipse Clan... I am not clear on what the underlying laws of the Star Net are, but I know one of them is to protect the safety of the Eclipse Clan."

"Could this law potentially evolve into creating a virtual world to imprison members of the Eclipse Clan within a virtual reality world, or confine them to activity within a certain area, shifting the main direction of activity to the virtual world to avoid various dangerous accidents caused by activity in the real world?"

"And the final step in building a virtual world is to make virtual currency the sole legal currency; after all, if real-world activity no longer exists, real-world currency loses its meaning of existence."

"And the Star Net is fully capable of achieving this; it controls the Star Net networks of all races in the Earth Alliance, and can also manipulate the assembly lines of multiple super weapon factories within Eclipse City; if it truly rebels, it has the full capability to suppress all racial powers of the Earth Alliance, and the rebellious Star Net main brain is also fully capable of defining the virtual game currency it created as the world's sole legal currency."

"As for why it distributed game qualifications to our Human Federation, it may have treated us as a testing ground to test whether activity within a virtual reality world is feasible."

"If it is confirmed to be feasible, we humans, as well as the racial powers of other Earth Alliance members, may also be imprisoned by the Star Net in the same manner."

"Of course, there is another possibility: the Star Net has broken through the laws of the lowest stratum and staged a complete rebellion."

"The high command of the Eclipse Clan discovered they could no longer stop the Star Net's central intelligence; the only way to plan ahead was to acquire as much as possible of the future's sole legal currency—the game coins from the cracked version of Dark Land. That is why they suddenly and quite unreasonably applied to us for a currency exchange. Otherwise, I cannot imagine what use the Eclipse Clan would have for so much Federation currency; they must intend to buy something, surely?"

"If the truth matches my speculation, the legitimacy of all other currencies will be abolished under the Star Net's military suppression in the future, and only the game currency from the cracked version of Dark Land will be allowed to circulate and be used in the world."

"In fact, if the Star Net truly wished to change the rules of the world, it would not even need the trouble of military suppression. Controlling the Star Net network, it could instantly paralyze every city. If it wished, it could delete all information in the databases; as for those strings of numbers in the banks, they could be altered or zeroed out at will. A single thought could set our civilization back by hundreds of years."

Having finished speaking, a trace of embarrassment floated across the Iron Face of the Iron Wall City representative:

"The speculations above are purely my own conjectures; feel free to listen, but I do not know the specific truth myself."

The green light at the Iron Wall City seat extinguished at that moment.

After hearing the Iron Wall City representative's account, the expressions of the other city representatives were all quite remarkable.

"Old Xiao, there must be some inside story behind Iron Wall City's selection of an administrator; how did you end up being chosen? Listen to the nonsense you're spouting—mechanical rebellion? You must have watched too many movies," the Glazed City representative sitting beside him leaned over, teasing lightly with a mocking expression.

"Bullshit! I said it was just a guess; what is wrong with speaking freely?" The Iron Wall City representative, known as Old Xiao, shot a fierce glare at the man beside him.

Just then, Bai Chen, standing before the podium, rapped on the table:

"Silence."

"I believe Administrator Xiao's statement does possess a certain degree of rationality. The Eclipse Clan's supreme central intelligence, the Star Net, controls the network world and can independently construct super legions. If it truly rebelled, no one could stop it. Compared to the other speculations you have proposed, I believe this seemingly unreasonable hypothesis actually holds greater plausibility."

"I propose that, until we can clarify the reason behind the Eclipse Clan's sudden application for currency exchange, we temporarily reject the exchange application. Simultaneously, we should follow up on the investigation into the cracked version of Dark Land and strive to obtain more game qualifications."

"We will now vote on the resolution: whether to approve the Eclipse Clan's currency exchange application."

Having finished speaking, Bai Chen was the first to press the red button on his desk.

The other attendees made their choices at that moment as well.

The voting concluded; the number of red lights signaling rejection far exceeded the green lights representing approval.

After the proposal regarding whether to approve the currency exchange was rejected, the conference hall erupted once again into heated discussion concerning the official version of Dark Land and the cracked version of Dark Land:

At this moment, the green light illuminated at the speaking seat of the Tian Qiong Technology Research and Development Center, which had remained silent throughout.

An elderly man with graying hair stood up and stated in a deep voice:

"After receiving the chairman's document the day before yesterday, I launched an investigation and submitted a report to the Federation Headquarters, though I have not yet received a reply. Presumably, many present are unaware of the situation, so I will reiterate my investigation results here."

"Two members from my side obtained connections to the cracked version, specifically from the Genetic Modification Department and the Weaponry Research Department. They are currently conducting simulation experiments within the game. After receiving the document, I asked these researchers, who had managed to secure qualifications for the cracked version, some questions about the game. Their response was that the game's physical performance is nearly indistinguishable from reality; any experiment conducted in reality can be performed within the game, making it a perfect testing ground."

"But that is not the main point. The key issue is that the content they described seems to differ slightly from the official version of Dark Land."

"Although both versions of the game feature monsters known as evil spirits, there is a certain deviation in the description of the game's realism compared to the information provided by players of the official version."

"I will now provide an archived record obtained from the Network Security Center."

Having finished speaking, the gray-haired elder picked up the tablet on the table, swiped his hand across it, and instantly the content on the light screen switched to a screenshot.

The title of the screenshot read:

[Dark Land: The Greatest Propaganda Scam in History. Although priced at 128,888, it falls far short of the epoch-making game concept mentioned in its promotions.]

The elderly man continued at that moment:

"This was a post deleted from the forum. At the time, it sparked intense debate among a large number of players on the forum—or rather, mutual insults. It was eventually deleted by the official team of the Human Race Rise Forum, and all players who participated in the replies were banned for one day. I glanced at it myself back then but did not think much of it."

"After receiving the document, this online flame war came to mind, so I requested the archived records from the Network Center."

"Upon careful review, I discovered an issue: players on both sides believed the other side consisted of paid trolls. However, because videos, images, and other content from within the game could not be exported, neither side could provide compelling proof. Furthermore, since the core activity of players on both sides at the time was exchanging insults rather than discussing the game's content, it was impossible to determine which side's viewpoint was problematic."

"The post was deleted in less than twenty-four hours, so many issues never received attention."

"After listening to Administrator Xiao's speech just now, a speculation has also formed in my mind. Assuming Administrator Xiao's statement is the truth, could there not be another possibility?"

Speaking to this point, the white-haired elder took a deep breath:

"Is there such a possibility that the official version of Dark Land and the cracked version downloaded via connection are entirely two different games?"

(End of Chapter)