Chapter 136: Rule God Pillar, Human Race Council

The new domain merged in, and the area of Emperor Tomb Village expanded by a quarter.

Total land area increased to 2,723 mu.

The land area of the Colorful Mist Coast space, meanwhile, was 706 mu.

In the central plaza area of Emperor Tomb Village, a runic stone pillar over ten meters tall rose up; every inch of the pillar's surface was covered in intricate, blood-red spirit runes, and in the two grooves at the very top were set one blood-red rune and one pale-green rune respectively.

Passing players looked over curiously, and instantly the information for the new functional building flooded into their minds.

【Rule God Pillar】:

Functional Building Introduction: The core pillar for embedding territory rule imprints. For every type of rule power contained, players gain one type of legion amplification (legion amplification is shared by all players, granting a permanent buff status that ignores distance.)

Territory Rules Already Contained:

Flesh and Blood Weight (Initial): Players can revive within Emperor Tomb Village after death; each death deducts 10 points of Shou Shou Jili and triggers a 60-minute revival cooldown.

Gathering (Shuijingdian Domain Rule): Painful Painful Minghun receives the Gathering rule effect boost. The more players using this Painful Painful Minghun, the stronger the additional attribute bonus. For every 100,000 Gathering points, Painful Painful Minghun gains a 1% intensity boost.

Guidance Hint: The calculation formula for the Gathering attribute bonus is: each additional player using this Painful Painful Minghun adds +10 to the Gathering effect, and each Painful Painful Minghun level adds +1 to the Gathering effect. Taking the Black Armor Snake players as an example, if 5 players using Black Armor Snake all have Painful Painful Minghun at level 10, then the Gathering calculation points are: 50 (quantity) + 50 (Painful Painful Minghun level), totaling 100 Gathering effect points added to the Black Armor Snake Painful Painful Minghun.

Gathering Effect Bonus Rankings:

1. Qi Devouring: Painful Painful Minghun intensity gains a 4.37% bonus (attributes and trait effects).

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

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

Total points: 437,892.

2. Bone Fire (Ink Flame): Painful Painful Minghun intensity gains a 3.34% bonus.

3. Black Armor Snake (Fierce Venom): Painful Painful Minghun intensity gains a 2.89% bonus.

……

The appearance of the new territory rule sparked player curiosity.

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

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

What was clear was that, under the Gathering rule's boost, the more popular a Painful Painful Minghun was, the higher the percentage bonus it received.

Under the official update post on the forum, a heated discussion unfolded on this issue.

Super God Chick: Wait, I can't understand why the Gathering rule's trait effect gives higher bonuses to more popular Painful Painful Minghun. Shouldn't it be set so that the more obscure Painful Painful Minghun get stronger bonuses? This way everyone just plays the popular ones, who'll play the obscure ones? Can the devs consider changing this setting?

Night Is Coming: Good lord, this rule trait's effect is actually a percentage bonus. At this rate, in the future it won't be a problem for popular Painful Painful Minghun to have their intensity boosted several times over — is this how powerful territory rule traits are? Though players running obscure Painful Painful Minghun are going to have a rough time. They were already behind the popular Star Vein combos, and now the gap is widening even further.

This Beavers: Sweet as can be, the Qi Devouring and Bone Fire Painful Painful Minghun I slotted are ranked first and second — double bonus, spiraling to the heavens. This is the kind of version update I love, full marks from me.

Two Slaps Right Back: Everyone come play Black Armor Snake Painful Painful Minghun, this Painful Painful Minghun is absolutely strong. Join my Black Armor Sect, brothers across the four seas. From now on, just give a shout if you need anything, and your brothers will go through fire and water for you, take a knife for you in the ribs. Let's work together to push Black Armor Snake Painful Painful Minghun to the top of the Gathering bonus rankings.

No Fuss No Show: Why does revival (Flesh and Blood Weight) also count as a rule trait, and an initial one at that? Can you upgrade it — cancel the 60-minute revival cooldown and change it to instant revival in Emperor Tomb Village? Instant revival on the spot would be even better, and cancel the Shou Shou Jili cost too. That's the kind of intensity a territory rule trait should have — negative returns don't make sense.

Appear Before My Eyes Right Now: We're done for, the sky's fallen on us players running obscure Painful Painful Minghun. We were all nicely weak together, so why should you guys playing popular Star Vein schools get extra bonus treatment? I demand another territory rule that buffs obscure ones. This update is unfair, I protest!

……

With the merging of the new rule, some players rejoiced while others wailed.

A large batch of recruitment-bent players surged onto the forum, enthusiastically promoting their Star Vein loadouts and hoping more players would pick the same school as them.

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

Many players who never shared Star Vein school combos on the forum took out their Star Vein loadouts, posted on the forum explaining the strengths of the combo, and declared that choosing their Star Vein loadout was absolutely the strong choice.

Self-interest — every player hoped the Painful Painful Minghun they used would become popular.

This was also the first free buff effect obtainable by all players since the game's launch.

This containment also gave players expectations for the next domain rule trait to be contained.

It was foreseeable that, in the future, as more and more rule runes were embedded in the "Rule God Pillar," the territory rule trait buffs on players would keep growing.

Some players had even begun discussing the Tianyuan domain node occupied by the Earth-Thought Evil Spirits.

This was the first rule trait node players had discovered.

The territory rule trait shown in the analysis info was "Myriad Phenomena Furnace," whose described effect was smelting abilities of the same attribute to produce wondrous changes.

But as for the specific effect, players could not get a clear answer from the analysis info.

On this issue, players offered various analyses and guesses, looking quite expectant.

But when this territory rule trait could actually be contained remained unknown.

After all, while the players were growing fast, the combat power of the Hei Chao Xie Sui and the insect tide was also steadily increasing — truly the two great road-blocking tyrants of the newbie village.

Absurdly strong, yet also possessing terrifying growth potential.

By comparison, the monsters near the Colorful Mist Coast region, as well as the forces of the various races, all seemed kind-faced and amiable.

The map fog cleared in the Colorful Mist Coast region was also about to surpass Emperor Tomb Mountain Range.

Veteran players were quite helpless about this.

The opponents at the Colorful Mist Coast kept changing, but Emperor Tomb Mountain Range, as the main battlefield of the several major guilds, was still fighting the Hei Chao Xie Sui and insect warriors to this day.

The newbie village's difficulty was severely over-spec — the stronger the players got, the stronger the two tyrants got right alongside them.

Combined with their terrifying reinforcement ability, they simply could not be countered by players using attrition tactics.

Many veteran players had even made peace with it, simply treating the two tyrant forces as a channel for farming evolution points and Shou Shou Jili.

Apart from the discussion of the Gathering rule, forum players also heatedly discussed the newly contained "Control" Painful Painful Minghun.

This Painful Painful Minghun's trait effect was controlling targets through spiritual power.

Players discovered in testing that it had no effect on insect race and Hei Chao Xie Sui — lifeforms controlled through special connections.

But it could produce significant effects on other types of monsters.

Players could control monsters lower-level than themselves; after completing spiritual control, an additional viewpoint image would appear in their mind, with no restrictions during control.

For example, the Silver Tail fish schools in the sea — a level-20 Control Painful Painful Minghun in the testing tower could control roughly 50 Silver Tail fish to follow it and fight on the seabed.

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

The drawback is that monsters controlled by mental manipulation cannot be stored in a pet space like pets in other games, nor can they follow players into the Novice Village space; they are consumable items.

After completing control, it is like imprinting a command mark into the monster's mind, and maintaining the controlled state consumes no mental energy.

But this ability is nullified when used on other players.

Based on this feature, forum strategists have devised two interesting Star Vein builds.

The first build was proposed by forum player "Hot Spring Boiled Egg": Twilight Puppet Stream.

The Star Vein combination is: Control, Twilight, Qi Consumption, Blood Burn.

The characteristic of this build is that the player gains extremely high movement speed, controls a group of monsters to fight, focuses solely on control rather than direct combat, and occasionally applies Blood Burn to the consumable items to enhance the controlled monsters' attributes and boost combat power.

The second build was proposed by forum player "One Sword Immortal Kneels": Puppet Support Stream.

The Star Vein combination is: Control, Light Shield, Qi Consumption, Binding.

The characteristic of this build is that the player provides support—using Light Shield for defense or Binding for restriction—while the mentally controlled monsters handle the attacks.

Both builds center around controlling Painful Painful Minghun, emphasizing control-based combat with the player acting as support or mobile operator.

But opinions on Painful Painful Minghun are sharply divided among forum players.

Too many limitations lead some players to believe improving Painful Painful Minghun is less worthwhile than enhancing powerful attribute-based Painful Painful Minghun to enjoy the superhuman experience of attribute boosts.

Others feel Painful Painful Minghun allows control of laborers, letting the player simply command—making it a weakened version of the Shadow Legion Stream, highly practical.

But all players agree: the strength of Painful Painful Minghun has always been "one generation's god, one generation's king."

Many early weak Painful Painful Minghun may later rise to T0 tier due to the arrival of a new Painful Painful Minghun.

Once future containment of enhancement-type Painful Painful Minghun is achieved, the playability of Painful Painful Minghun will increase dramatically.

For example, after applying simulated Painful Painful Minghun traits from the Test Tower's library—such as Blood Burn, Berserk, Cloud Dragon (movement speed boost), or Evil Armor (defense boost)—the strength of controlled monsters will skyrocket.

Version shifts always follow the introduction of new Painful Painful Minghun, and the pace of change is extremely rapid.

Each new Painful Painful Minghun means a fresh round of strength reset.

The only constant is that the forum players' initial Three Phantom Gods remain perennially top-tier, never falling from their divine pedestal.

As forum players say: "One generation's god, one generation's king; through every generation, the Three Phantom Gods endure."

Among the initial Three Phantom Gods, Eagle-Head Demon and Gargoyle are the representative Painful Painful Minghun for magic and tank roles.

In the eyes of control-focused players, the only true god-level Painful Painful Minghun is Eagle-Head Demon—no other Painful Painful Minghun can match it at this stage.

All other combinations are designed to support and enhance Eagle-Head Demon's mental strength and expand its perception range.

Qi Sheng also paid attention to these player discussions.

He firmly ignored the absurd suggestions raised by some players.

For example, removing resurrection cooldown or eliminating the Shou Shou Jili cost for resurrection.

If he could do it, he'd want to too.

The resurrection cooldown provided by the Flesh and Blood Weight rule trait is seen by players as a negative, but offering it to any faction would grant that group limitless potential.

Theoretically, as long as they aren't camped at resurrection points, any faction possessing the Flesh and Blood Weight trait would become an immortal race—death allows full-health, full-status resurrection with no power degradation.

But the most absurd thing about the Monster World is this:

A single Flesh and Blood Weight buff alone doesn't qualify as a Catastrophic-level faction.

Hei Chao Xie Sui already possesses a similar rule trait: any deceased Hei Chao Xie Sui is either consumed and reshaped, or reconverted into Hei Chao Xie Sui energy.

The difference is that Hei Chao Xie Sui's consumption and reshaping process involves percentage loss—they cannot resurrect without damage like players do.

Relying solely on a resurrection ability to wage war in the Monster World, the player legion would likely be crushed by Hei Chao Xie Sui Catastrophe and Insect Tide Catastrophe.

Without the transcendent All-Thing Extraction rule, player growth shifts from hunting to tech-tree progression—gathering resources to develop technology and thereby increase combat power.

Without the Purification rule, Earth-Nian Xie Ling reading memories through the Evil Eye would immediately learn the player's secrets.

Without the protection of an independent space like Beneath Di Zhao Village, players would face endless slaughter from Hei Chao Xie Sui blocking their doors—unable to even step outside.

In this world where buffs are everywhere, a single infinite-resurrection ability, though powerful, has too many weaknesses compared to factions wielding multiple "cheats"—it cannot directly compete with them.

Thinking of this, Qi Sheng felt relieved.

Fortunately, he possesses multiple buffs himself; having inherited Beneath Di Zhao's Solidify My Origin, he fused various rules to create a Challenger System, and can increase his number of buffs by containing other territory nodes—his future leverage will only grow.

If he had only a single resurrection buff, his fate would be grim.

【Boss, if we only had a single resurrection buff, it wouldn't be Earth-Nian Xie Ling who's frustrated—it'd be us. We'd be camped at resurrection points, players would lose morale and quit entirely, calling this broken game absurdly overpowered, too hard to even leave the Novice Village—what the hell is even the point? In the end, we'd be left alone to face the future, until our Shou Shou Jili runs out, Beneath Di Zhao Village detaches from its independent space and is exposed, Beneath Di Zhao's Solidify My Origin emerges, drawing divine descents from all races to fight over it, and we'd just stand hand-in-hand and die at the village gate.】

【Hey, these buff monsters are so annoying—how can they even cheat like this? It's putting so much pressure on us.】

【Maybe I should go out and negotiate with them—everyone stops using buffs, and we downgrade from god-fighting mode to village-gate brawling mode.】

Qi Sheng heard this and glanced sideways at the guidance:

"Go ahead. I agree."

【Hehe, just kidding, Boss, don't take it so seriously.】

Ignoring the guidance, Qi Sheng began contemplating his next strategic direction.

The Shou Shou Jili output from the Beneath Di Zhao Mountain Range is now several times greater than that of the Color Mist Coast region, but exploration and development have been locked within the Beneath Di Zhao Mountain Range, making expansion outward difficult.

Limited exploration areas have stalled the containment of territory nodes and Meng Yuan Chu monsters.

Therefore, to contain territory nodes and Meng Yuan Chu monsters going forward, the Color Mist Coast region must still be relied upon.

Currently, five territory nodes have been discovered in the Color Mist Coast region: three within the Azure Star Sea, and two in the dense forest behind.

Although all five territory nodes are resource-type, containing them will alleviate space shortages and generate additional Shou Shou Jili output.

He will now issue Purification missions centered on these five nodes, increasing Shou Shou Jili rewards for players to secure them as quickly as possible.

After expanding space, he can launch a new recruitment campaign.

This time, he plans to rapidly expand the player base to one hundred thousand.

A smaller player count cannot truly be called a Catastrophe—it's at best a formidable force in attrition warfare.

But in direct combat, numerical inferiority makes it difficult for players to resist the Terror Black Tide and the Battle Insect Swarms.

They can only reorganize forces after death and launch another coordinated assault.

But this cycle of offensive attacks poses a truly limited threat to the Terror Black Tide and the Battle Insect Clan.

Their combat units lost in battle can be replenished within a short time—this is why the player legion has never been able to defeat the Terror Black Tide or the Battle Insect Clan.

Direct confrontations are completely crushed by the two major forces.

As another Catastrophe-level force, the player legion's shortage in numbers is indeed a major problem.

He never considered pursuing an elite-player cultivation path; the core direction of future development must still be mass troop production.

Player numbers must be increased first; individual strength improvements can come gradually.

Only when scale reaches a certain level can the power of a Catastrophe-level force truly manifest.

The player legion can also, like the Black Tide and Insect Swarms, overwhelm all enemies blocking their path through endless horde tactics.

After establishing numerical superiority, the pace of player exploration in the Monster World will also accelerate, as different players explore the world in different ways, dispelling map fog and collecting vast amounts of bestiary and environmental data.

Including Shou Shou Jili output, it will also see significant improvement with increased numbers.

……

In a corner of the Blue Planet stands a bustling human metropolis, which from high above resembles a pearl embedded in the earth.

This is the capital of the Human Federation: Rise City.

At dawn, the first ray of sunlight pierced the thin mist, illuminating the glass facades of skyscrapers and awakening the city from night; within, towering buildings stood like giants, interconnected by skybridges and underground passages, forming a complex urban network—these structures blended modern technological aesthetics with many replicas of Earth's iconic buildings damaged in war.

On the streets, traffic flowed incessantly like a moving river of metal, advancing orderly in an age when autonomous driving was ubiquitous.

In one corner of the city's eastern district, a vast complex of buildings, viewed from above, resembled a miniature model of Earth.

The central building was the Human Federation's Council Hall, where representatives from all major Human Federation cities had gathered.

Inside the conference hall, each seat bore a flag representing its respective city, and the walls hung with the founding principles and slogans of the Human Federation.

It was in this very building that the first united government of the Human Federation was established, and all attendees swore to work together for the rise of humanity.

This is precisely the origin of the city's name: "Rise."

The interior of the conference hall was grand, featuring a podium, speaking platforms, and audience seating; the podium stood at the center of the hall, the first and second inner rings were speaking platforms, and beyond them lay the audience seating.

Participants entered one by one through the main door adorned with the Human Federation's Earth emblem.

Among them, representatives from major cities and military officials took seats at the speaking platforms, while their team members sat in the audience seating behind them.

The meeting commenced half an hour later.

The Federation Chief, elected by vote from city representatives and federal legislators, stepped forward to the podium.

His name was Bai Chen; he came from the military, had fought in the Mechanical War, earned distinguished battle merits, and at nearly eighty years old, stood tall as a pine on the podium, radiating an aura of quiet authority; his deep, bright eyes seemed to pierce through the soul, and the natural creases across his brow resembled medals bestowed by time, bearing witness to past hardships and trials.

He scanned the attendees and spoke in a low, steady voice:

"Before this meeting begins, I assume everyone has received the documents I sent. No more pleasantries—we proceed directly to the subject."

"This meeting will shut down all internet-connected devices and rely solely on internal network support… Based on investigations over the past two months, we can now confirm one thing: the Dark Land has two versions—one purchased legitimately through official Eclipse Clan channels or affiliated gaming platforms, and another a pirated version circulating in limited online circles."

"After analysis by our think tank, this pirated version is believed to have originated from within the Eclipse Clan, as no other race or faction possesses the capability to bypass the StarNet AI's surveillance of the Dark Land."

"Here I reiterate the three possibilities outlined in the documents."

"The first hypothesis suggests internal factional strife within the Eclipse Clan led to the pirated version's leak."

"The second possibility is that Eclipse Clan elites seek to seize supreme authority over the StarNet, using the pirated version to weaken the StarNet's influence and surveillance—this implies the pirated version may be a Dark Land unmonitored by the StarNet, though this theory fails to explain several key points, which I will mention shortly."

"The third possibility is…"

"We do not know which of these three is the truth; other possibilities may exist that we have not considered—but these are all internal Eclipse Clan matters, and we have no right to interfere, nor need to concern ourselves excessively."

"The main focus of this meeting is the recent strange behavior of the Eclipse Clan."

Saying this, Bai Chen glanced at the manuscript on the podium, then looked up and continued:

"According to a report from Wu Gui, Supervisor No. 3 of the Earth Alliance's Human Affairs Office, we received an inexplicable piece of intelligence: the Eclipse Clan has proactively applied to exchange currency with us—an action that makes no sense."

"Previously, Wu Gui submitted intelligence indicating the Eclipse Clan inquired how many Human Federation players had obtained pirated game access. These two incidents appear related, yet we cannot identify the connection."

"First, the Eclipse Clan is deeply concerned about how many pirated access codes human players have acquired; second, they seek large quantities of our currency."

"All of this may be tied to the leakage of pirated access codes. Regarding this issue, I wish to ask the city administrators here: do you have any information regarding pirated Dark Land access in your cities?"

With that, Bai Chen turned to the city representatives seated beside him.

At that moment, the green light above Yelan City's speaking platform lit up, and all eyes turned toward it:

"Chairman, I report an unusual discovery from recent investigations."

"Proceed," Bai Chen nodded.

The Yelan City administrator nodded, picked up the tablet on his desk, and automatically connected to the conference room's network, then pulled up a document.

Instantly, ceiling projectors flickered, forming a glowing screen above each attendee's seat, displaying a data report.

"This is a recent foreign exchange transaction report showing multiple outbound currency exchanges from my city, Yelan, directed toward the Gills Clan and Abyss Fish Clan of Fishing Port City. Due to high-frequency, low-value transactions, the AI flagged them."

"At first I saw no issue, until personnel reviewing transaction records reported they had cross-checked other cities' records and found similar patterns: numerous cities had high-frequency outbound exchanges to the Gills Clan and Abyss Fish Clan, yet none had corresponding income records—meaning these transactions were one-way, not purchases of seafood from the Abyss Fish or Gills Clans, and thus qualify as virtual commodity trades."

"To clarify the situation, I examined the virtual transaction histories of these currency exchangers and found no correlation between their online shopping records and outbound exchanges—the amounts did not match. It is nearly certain these transactions are virtual game expenditures: purchasing in-game items, then converting and transferring funds to players of the Gills Clan and Abyss Fish Clan."

"Normally, virtual in-game trades are routine; the Federation annually spends vast sums on virtual goods and receives substantial foreign exchange income from other races—this is standard virtual trade."

"But the problem is: modern games all have built-in virtual trading systems allowing direct cash-to-game-currency conversion. Why do these unrecorded virtual transactions exist? … After reviewing the Chairman's report yesterday, I suspect this is tied to the pirated Dark Land—likely because the pirated version lacks an integrated currency exchange system, forcing users to exit the game and conduct transfers manually."

"My report is complete." With that, the Yelan representative toggled the switch, and the green light on his desk extinguished.

"I have recorded your report. Since this meeting is offline, we cannot use the AI for detailed calculations—I will follow up later. Do any other city representatives have additional findings?"

Bai Chen's gaze swept the conference hall, finally settling on the suddenly lit green light above Tianfeng City's seat.

Seated there was a middle-aged man with fair skin, refined features, a straight nose, impeccably maintained complexion, and a pair of frameless smart glasses. He wore a tailored white shirt and dark trousers.

"Regarding transaction anomalies, my city, Tianfeng, has also recorded multiple similar transactions. However, transaction freedom was established as a rule during the Earth Alliance's founding, so I did not investigate further at the time—property belongs to citizens, who have the right to free consumption. Yet the transactions do exhibit unexplainable patterns: they are clearly virtual asset trades, bypassing the game's built-in trading system."

"But in my case, besides outbound payments to Fishing Port City, most transactions occurred within the Federation… I assume everyone here knows Tianfeng City once had a quarantine zone, known online as the slums, inhabited by descendants of residents infected by toxic weapons and isolated after the war. Each year we sent medical teams to inspect and assist them; now the quarantine zone has been dissolved, and we have provided free virtual game pods to its former residents."

"Among these transactions, several originated from a canceled quarantine zone. One player named Li Zheng obtained nearly 3.8 million in non-system transaction profits from other players, most likely also derived from the virtual game. I suspect this player is likely a user of the cracked version of Dark Lands, profiting handsomely from virtual currency. Consequently, I have monitored this player's online activities, including group chat logs and other content."

"What can be confirmed is that this player named Li Zheng previously realized real-world profits through trading or converting game resources, essentially an online virtual prospector or virtual miner... His previous transactions all went through the built-in trading system; only recently have his high earnings come from real-world transfers without clear remarks. From this, I judge he switched to a different game, most likely the cracked version of Dark Lands. However, limited by the permissions of the Smart Brain, I cannot follow up to investigate any information regarding links, and even the group chats contain no content related to cracked version links."

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

Standing before the podium, Bai Chen listened throughout, while the team behind him recorded the entire meeting content word for word without alteration.

After listening to the statements from representatives of each city, Bai Chen could confirm that a large number of cracked versions of Dark Lands had indeed appeared within the Human Federation, basically in every city.

However, the intelligence provided by representatives from each city failed to prove one question: What connection exists between the spread of the cracked version of Dark Lands within the Human Federation and the Eclipse Clan's desire to exchange currencies with humanity?

Carrying this doubt, Bai Chen and the assembled attendees engaged in a heated discussion, during which various members expressed their own views.

One hour later, the seat of Iron Wall City lit up with a green light.

A burly man with short hair stood up:

"Distinguished representatives, after listening to you talk for so long, I propose a bold guess that sounds absurd but might be the truth."

"Combining the existing intelligence, let me sort out the timeline: First, a large number of cracked game qualifications flowed from within the Eclipse Clan into the Human Federation... Afterwards, the Eclipse Clan asked us exactly how many human players had obtained cracked qualifications. Finally, the Eclipse Clan made a request to us, hoping to exchange currencies with the Human Federation."

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

"The Star Network of the Eclipse Clan suffered an uncontrolled rebellion and created a cracked version of Dark Lands that even the Eclipse Clan's high command could not control. The first batch of qualifications was issued to our Human Federation. After discovering this problem, the Eclipse Clan's high command launched an emergency investigation, only to find the Star Network had completely lost control; it wanted to create a super virtual world completely independent of the Earth Alliance."

"The reason for doing this might be to protect the Eclipse Clan. Everyone knows the Star Network is the highest decision-maker of the Eclipse Clan; every one of its decisions affects the future development direction of the Eclipse Clan... I do not know what the underlying laws of the Star Network are, but I know one of them is to protect the safety of the Eclipse Clan."

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

"And the final step in building this virtual world is to make virtual currency the only legal currency, after all, if no real-world activities exist, real-world currency loses its meaning."

"And the Star Network is fully capable of doing this; it controls the Star Networks of all races in the Earth Alliance and can also manipulate the assembly lines of multiple super armories in Eclipse City. If it truly rebels, it is fully capable of suppressing all racial forces of the Earth Alliance, and the rebellious Star Network main brain could also define the virtual game currency it created as the world's only legal currency."

"As for why game qualifications were issued to our Human Federation, it might be treating us as a testing ground to test the feasibility of activities in a virtual reality world."

"If it is clearly feasible, our humanity, as well as other racial forces of the Earth Alliance, might also be imprisoned by the Star Network in the same way."

"Of course, there is also a possibility that the Star Network broke through the underlying laws and completely rebelled."

"The Eclipse Clan's high command discovered they could no longer stop the Star Network Smart Brain; the only way to lay the groundwork in advance was to acquire as much of the future sole legal currency as possible, namely the game currency within the cracked version of Dark Lands. This is why they suddenly and unreasonably applied to us to exchange currencies. Otherwise, I cannot think of what use the Eclipse Clan would have for so much Human Federation currency; they must buy something, right?"

"If the truth is as I guess, the legality of other currencies in the future will be abolished under the Star Network's military suppression, and only the game currency of the cracked version of Dark Lands will be able to circulate and be used in the world."

"In fact, if the Star Network truly wants to change world rules, it doesn't even need the trouble of military suppression; controlling the Star Network, it can instantly paralyze all cities. If it wishes, it can delete all information in the database. As for the string of numbers in the banks, it can be modified or zeroed out at will; a single thought could set our civilization back by hundreds of years."

Having spoken, a hint of awkwardness appeared on the face of the Iron Wall City representative:

"The above guess is purely my own speculation; just listen to it. I am not clear on the specific truth."

The green light on the Iron Wall City seat went out at this moment.

After listening to the Iron Wall City representative's account, the expressions of representatives from other cities also appeared quite spectacular.

"Old Xiao, there must be some inside story in the selection of administrators for Iron Wall City; how did they end up selecting you? Listen to what you're saying; even a mechanical rebellion has come up. You've probably watched too many movies," the representative from Glazed City, sitting beside him, leaned over and teased softly with a mocking expression.

"Nonsense, I said it was just a guess; what's the problem with speaking freely?" The Iron Wall City representative, known as Old Xiao, glared fiercely at the man beside him.

Just then, Bai Chen, standing before the podium, tapped the table:

"Quiet."

"I believe Manager Xiao's statement does have a certain degree of rationality. The Star Network, the highest intelligence brain of the Eclipse Clan, controls the network world and can independently create super legions. If it truly rebels, no one can stop it. Compared to the other guesses you proposed, I believe this seemingly unreasonable guess actually has higher rationality."

"I propose that before the reason for the Eclipse Clan's sudden request to exchange currencies can be clarified, we temporarily do not agree to the currency exchange application, while simultaneously following up on the investigation of the cracked version of Dark Lands, striving to obtain more game qualifications."

"Now, let us vote on the resolution: whether to agree to the Eclipse Clan's currency exchange application."

Having spoken, Bai Chen pressed the red button on the table first.

The other attendees also made their choices at this moment.

The voting ended; the number of red lights for rejection far exceeded the green lights for approval.

After the proposal regarding whether to agree to the currency exchange was rejected, the conference hall once again launched into a heated discussion regarding the legitimate version of Dark Lands and the cracked version of Dark Lands:

At this moment, the speaking seat of the Sky Dome Technology Research Center, which had remained silent, lit up with a green light.

An old man with gray hair stood up and said in a deep voice:

"Two days ago, after receiving the Chairman's document, I launched an investigation on this matter and submitted a report to the Federation Headquarters. I have not yet received a reply. I imagine many present are unclear about the situation, so I will reiterate my investigation results here."

"Members from two departments here obtained cracked links: the Genetic Modification Department and the Weapon Research Department. They are currently conducting simulated experimental tests within the game. After receiving the document, I asked these researchers who managed to grab the cracked qualifications some questions about the game. Their answer to me was that the physical performance effects of this game are almost indistinguishable from reality; any experiment in reality can be conducted within the game; it is a perfect testing ground."

"But this is not the point. The point is that what they said seems to have some discrepancies with the legitimate version of Dark Lands."

"Although there is a type of monster called 'Evil Spirit' in the game, there is a certain deviation in the description of the game's realism compared to the information provided by legitimate players."

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

Having spoken, the gray-haired old man picked up the tablet on the table, swiped his hand, and instantly the content on the holographic screen switched to a screenshot.

The title of the screenshot was:

【Dark Lands, the biggest propaganda scam in history. Although the selling price is 128,888, it falls far short of the epoch-making game concept mentioned in the promotion.】

The old man continued at this moment:

"This was a post deleted from the forum. At the time, it triggered a massive number of players on the forum to participate in the debate, or rather, to curse at each other. Finally, the official team of the Human Rise Forum deleted it, and all players who participated in the replies had their accounts banned for one day. At the time, I clicked and took a look, but didn't take it seriously."

"After receiving the document, I thought of this online verbal battle, so I requested the archived record from the Network Center."

"After carefully flipping through it, I discovered a problem: both sides of players thought the other side was paid shills, but because videos, pictures, and other content within the game could not be exported, both sides of players were unable to provide strong proof. Moreover, at that time, the core of both sides of players was cursing at each other; the focus was not on discussing game content, so it was impossible to distinguish which side's viewpoint had the problem."

"The post was deleted in less than 24 hours, so many questions did not receive attention."

"Just now, after listening to Manager Xiao's speech, I also formed a guess in my mind. Assuming what Manager Xiao said is the truth, is there still such a possibility?"

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

"Is there such a possibility that the legitimate version of Dark Lands and the cracked version downloaded via link are completely two different games?"

(End of this chapter)