Chapter 235 Zootopia

Many years later, Boss Cai can still remember the afternoon when he found the shrine after he had narrowly escaped death in the icy river.

That was his most embarrassing moment. He had just escaped from a crusher that seemed to crush his soul. At the same time, he saw the big rock that was swept ashore by the river.

This was probably some kind of fateful encounter. Boss Cai instantly felt his heart pounding in his chest.

Perhaps it was because his heartbeat resonated with the things in the box in front of him, he walked forward uncontrollably like a possessed person.

This stone looks like it was formed naturally, and its outer edges have been smoothed by the river water, but its shape is very strange. It can be seen that it is a standard square.

The square stone box was hollowed out and contained a stone statue whose face could not be seen clearly.

Boss Cai only observed the stone statue for two seconds before it instantly disappeared from his sight. He tried to adjust his breathing, and his eyes were directly glued to the plates beside the feet of the statue.

The other plates were empty, except for a small plate with a glowing screen strangely placed on it.

The screen was very small, like a small mirror, reflecting his embarrassed and ordinary face.

Boss Cai has always hated his somewhat wimpy appearance, but he found that he could not take his eyes away from the electronic screen.

The devil's voice seemed to come from the rolling waves of the river of life and death, telling him how precious this screen was.

"...This is one of the management permissions. Once you get it, you will help the main system manage this place...

Your ferry failed. This world's copy is about to usher in an explosive reproduction period. This is no longer just a hundred-story shopping mall copy. It will expand infinitely and become a growing highway...

You need to provide players with the food props they need to enhance their ability to pass levels. You need to train them and help them so that they have the motivation to return..."

"...Once you accept it, you may never be able to return to the real world...You will also become an administrator with a completely different status..."

Boss Cai looked at the river, thinking that the river was talking to him.

It turns out that the River of Life and Death also has intelligence?

He felt that he should be afraid, but there are always some critical moments in life, and you don’t need to look back to know that a decision at this time may affect the rest of your life.

He actually didn't want to go back to the real world. He had no family, friends or lover. If he had to say anything, he just wanted to make a lot of money, have a place to live and a store of his own.

"So, what's the price for taking this thing?"

When he asked this question, his hand, which was trembling slightly with excitement, had already reached the shrine.

Amid the roar of the river, a voice that was unclear whether it was male or female laughed: "Use it, and that's your price."

"Its owner plants a seed, and the fertility of the soil makes the seed begin to grow. One day she will take the fruit, and at that time, your pain will be your reward."

"Of course, if you still want to go home at that time, you don't have to pay anything, and you will even get a ticket home."

Later, Mr. Cai thought, what is this? It sounds like a slogan for sending people to Africa to dig for minerals.

However, the gems in the mine were so dazzling and colorful that he couldn't refuse.

He picked up the screen, and soon after it was touched, it disappeared into his palm, as if it was going to merge into one with him.

Soon, the human's head felt like it was going to explode and he felt like his head was melting. He gradually lost consciousness above his neck. A large amount of information about this road gradually flooded into his consciousness.

That is a must-have knowledge base for managers.

The human brain cannot bear all of this, and his head needs to be completely replaced by an electronic display screen.

But this is not a bad thing. The cowardice and powerlessness of being unable to escape from the game that only human players have are also stripped away from him.

Later, Boss Cai looked at the white gloves on his hands and felt a fulfillment he had never felt before.

The gaming world suddenly became simple in his eyes. He could simply invade small copies and rewrite other people's programs and the rules of the game.

Just like the simplest hacking techniques in the programming languages ​​he had learned before.

He could even use this method to get his hands on more game resources. He turned into a copy locust on the road, madly devouring everything to strengthen himself, until he was warned by the main system, and then he slowly restrained himself.

Boss Cai thought that his life had reached its lowest point after his failure to cross the river and the sinking of his boat. However, he encountered a stone shrine and got a palm-sized screen, and he went from being a player at the mercy of others to an NPC in charge of the fate of others.

He also knew several other NPCs who had obtained corresponding items from the shrine.

These are the surviving passengers on board.

Some of them took away microphones, some took away game consoles, some got a car key, and some got a strange blueprint of hell.

They were all once top players on that ship, and they ushered in a new life after falling into the water.

A life restarted for gaming.

It doesn't matter if they can't return to reality. From now on, this is their reality, and they will build a brand new business empire here! In the world of infinite games, players are assets, ghosts are also assets, and the games that must be participated in and the rewards in them can all be provided by them.

They were once players and know what players need.

It took Mr. Cai many years to run each convenience store and form a complete business chain with other copy games to achieve a balance between supply and consumption.

Perhaps because he was given a convenience store, he was different from other NPC administrators. Occasionally, he needed to venture to the river to catch some souls and raw materials.

Over the years, he never encountered the stone shrine again, and the prophecy that the owner of the shrine would take away the fruit seemed like just a joke.

Boss Cai seemed to hypnotize himself and tried hard to forget those things.

He already lives in the present, and games are his new life.

All the efforts were worth it. He had his own little world and his own chain of convenience stores. He could look down on those players from a high position, just like he was looking down on his once ordinary self.

go home?

Boss Cai gave up that thing hundreds of years ago.

It’s so nice to live here.

There are so many interesting dungeon games here, and humans struggling to survive in them, he can watch all the suffering from afar.

So, when some of the guys on the committee suggested setting up an escape hatch, he voted in favor without hesitation.

The world behind the door is fake? What does it matter?

For the Infinite Highway, as long as the world behind the door is safe enough, as long as there is a place to rest forever, the fake can become real.

Come on, isn’t the real world fake too?

When he was still living in the real world, he sometimes felt that he was just the most inconspicuous one among thousands of protagonists. There were so many colorful characters in real life, and he was just an NPC.

If he stays here, his life will not be ordinary. He is the administrator and one of the game operators who dominates the fate of the players.

He personally wrote the rules of the convenience store and mastered the clearance rate of each game.

He has lived up to the promise he made when he got the screen. He has provided so many living props, so much food and resources.

What did he do wrong?

He also followed the system's requirements for the game data, and even if he made a mistake, the main system would punish him.

Isn't his life full of precariousness enough?

"No, you can't take it away. This is my convenience store, this is my business empire, this is everything that belongs to me!! Why are you taking it back at this time? Why are you taking away all the fruits of my victory!"

Thousands of lightning bolts burst out from the almost cracked screen.

Qiao Song's hand had clearly touched the display screen, but he still felt a sudden shock.

Fortunately, she petrified herself in time and turned herself into a stone statue.

Boss Cai no longer cares whether this is a trap set by that old man Chen Long.

When he was alive, his short life was always filled with boring daily routines and repetitive programming work consisting of simple numbers.

The Infinite Highway gave him a second life, so why should he give up the rest of his life?!

Those hundreds of convenience stores were already trophies connected to his soul. They were his! No one could take them away, and no one could take them back!

A red color rose up like a magma eruption, and Qiao Song saw that the screen, which had expanded to the size of a roadside billboard, had cracked into countless pieces.

Boss Cai was like an indigenous person who was unwilling to accept demolition. He resisted to the death and roared angrily. His excited emotions seemed to infect many players.

In an instant, more skill BUFFs that enhance the personal abilities of more life players hit him again.

This is the first time that Boss Cai fights alongside the player, and he faces the original owner of the shrine that he once received a gift from.

It's impossible to say I'm not afraid.

But he had no way out.

If Qiao Song is really the statue in the shrine, no matter what the final outcome of her battle with Chen Long in Zootopia is, she will eventually take back all the permissions that have been spread out. She has the ability to do so.

The promises made on the Infinite Highway are never just verbal promises; they are contracts copied deep in every player's soul. Boss Cai has salvaged so many players from the river, from living humans to a pile of parts.

He knows what the data inside the soul looks like.

But Boss Cai was unwilling to give up.

In his mediocre life, convenience stores were the only thing he wanted. He could choose not to return to the real world, give up his identity as a player, give up his human appearance, and live his whole life with a display screen on his head... He only wanted convenience stores...

"So that's what you think?"

Qiao Song turned into a stone statue and could not make many micro-expressions. She could see tiny dust particles in the sky. These things were emitted from Boss Cai and scattered below, making those players as if they were injected with chicken blood. They rose up to attack and killed each other with their peers in other areas.

Chen Long made a big move and sent Boss Cai to him. Was it to test her recycling ability?

"Actually, if you really want to work for a convenience store, I can make you into a mascot and put you in there..."

Qiao Song's words caused the giant screen that covered the sky to flash with sparks.

“Shut up!!!”

Boss Cai, who was furious, swung his fist at Qiao Song who was jumping up and down.

But Qiao Song is no longer the guy who needed the investment buffs of other guild players to barely make a cut with a chainsaw.

The stone statue raised its hand, and suddenly a strange, narrow oval-shaped gap appeared in the sky, just like the coin slot of a piggy bank.

【Hai Pig·Money comes, money comes, money comes from all directions! 】

In an instant, all the players in the Pig Field, whether they had already arrived, were on the way, or had not set out at all, everyone began to speed up on the spinning bikes, treadmills, stair climbing machines, and Smith machines, sweating hard with all their might.

Every calorie they burn will turn into a soul coin in Qiao Song's pocket.

The gold coins and soul coins falling from the sky had beautiful colors and shapes. This was the rain that Qiao Song made for himself.

Qiao Song doesn't need anyone to invest in her now, she herself is the capital.

"I've wanted to say this before. You're really a joy to watch when you're so angry. Also, I wasn't joking. Since you like running a convenience store so much, I can give you the management of this place. However, you have to remember this first—"

The stone shell on Qiao Song's face faded away little by little, and she turned back into a human. She pulled out something that looked like a chainsaw but didn't look like a chainsaw from the toolbox whose progress bar was instantly filled with energy and was about to explode.

The weapon was surrounded by a circle of blue-black flames, like the low-temperature boiling water of the River of Life and Death, wrapping around it coldly.

Below, countless restrictive skills erupted at the same time, including those of the security inspectors. Some of these skills prohibited the use of weapons here, and some prohibited the carrying of lethal items, but they could do nothing to Qiao Song.

The clothes on her back tore apart, and a pair of huge black wings grew out, which were colorful in the sunlight.

Qiao Song flew out of the skill restriction area of ​​most players, and all the drones that could catch up with her were knocked away before the battle began.

Qiao Song looked down coldly.

The dense crowd below was like ants, some of them came to kill her, and some came to help her.

Most of them even have the appearance of animals.

A chaotic battlefield where everyone has become a wild beast. They bare their fangs and use their skills, as if killing one more person would give them a chance of victory.

They completely forgot what their purpose was in winning this game in the first place.

It's time to go home, you idiots.

She, a stone person, is the most sober one here: "I am obviously the only one who is not a player, and you are all human beings."

Qiao Song flew towards the out-of-control display screen that was a thousand times larger than himself, and raised the black flame long sword in his hand that had lost its shape.

"Boss Cai, next time before you choose a side, at least you have to remember who is the owner of the convenience store and who is the owner of this road—"

She did not mention a word about the promise she made that year, and only cut it from top to bottom with one stroke.

In the past, her electric saw could only make the display screen angry, but now there is still the same size difference as before. After she cut it, Boss Cai felt that the screen that was about to boil into an iron plate suddenly cooled down.

When Qiao Song swung the weapon, it was not a knife at the beginning, but the water of the river of life and death.

Click.

A white ice crystal quickly spread along the crack.

Those threatening black wires were frozen into popsicles.

Boss Cai felt that familiar coldness almost in despair, just like when he fell into the river of life and death many years ago.

First, the extreme low temperature makes people numb, as if time has been frozen and they stop thinking.

Then comes the decomposition, separating all the elements that make up a human being from the skin - memories, soul, skills and props, and the most precious item in his life, which he considers to be a medal.

The disintegrating giant robot was turned into powder all over the sky under the stimulation of the ice crystals.

Qiao Song quickly took away several glowing objects that floated out of Boss Cai's body. Among them, the most important one was a palm-sized display screen.

She put all the miscellaneous items, including a male body, into the storage space of the toolbox.

He stepped on the robot and jumped out, and immediately flew away from here.

The players who were in chaos below finally realized that something was wrong. Those under Qiao Song's command had already heard the system prompts issued by Qiao Song using the shrine and had to retreat.

Hulala——

Like a mountain spring erupting, a large amount of water is rapidly splashing out from the thousands of mechanical fragments that Boss Cai has disintegrated into.

That was a gap that Qiao Song had just created after using his weapon.

Of course, she had already notified her family to retreat. At the same time, the convenience store controller that she had just snatched back from Boss Cai began to melt along her palm.

[Resource Editor is restarting...]

[Data initialization successful, signal reconnected...]

[Ding——Welcome back, respected initial convenience store administrator! ]

Qiao Song raised her eyebrows. She had not finished reading the book "Prequel to Infinite Highway" and had not completely remembered her lost memories. She did not expect that she was really the former owner of the convenience store.

A black feather in his pocket that was shining brightly suddenly moved, and Li Yuan's muffled voice came out from inside:

"You didn't kill him outright? I feel like his soul didn't make it into the resurrection game."

The Hell Community controlled by Li Yuan also has the power to build a resurrection game, but he has never done so.

All hell needs to do is judge souls and measure merits. This is what he had promised Qiao Song. Just because Li Yuan doesn't want to get involved in the resurrection process doesn't mean he can't check the progress bar.

Qiao Song flapped the borrowed black wings on his back.

"Why, can't I keep a worker for myself?"

Li Yuan immediately guessed what she was going to do, and said in a strange tone:

"Are you now recruiting new employees for yourself and preparing to run away?"

This time, Qiao Song didn't smell any sourness, but instead heard a hint of resentment.

She did plan to mold Boss Cai's soul into something like a tablet, and then exploit him to continue working for her for decades.

hiss--

Wait, strictly speaking, if the entire Infinite Highway is her asset, then she stuffed all those managers into the shrine, like a street stall sale, waiting for the elite players on the ship to come ashore and use them themselves, sign a contract, and help her manage the highway...

Come to think of it, has she been a hands-off boss for decades? No wonder it’s so easy for her to find younger brothers and employees every time…

Qiao Song remained silent. As soon as she stopped talking, the little crow on the other end started laughing.

Li Yuan's voice was a little numb, as if he had finally controlled his emotions and could finally speak with his own voice without the damn barrage.

"Zishu City is ready to remove most of the system's permissions. Have you made up your mind?"

Li Yuan was asking about Qiao Song’s final handling of Zootopia.

After successfully regaining the jurisdiction of the convenience store, this Boss Cai, who had been running the business for many years and had spread copies all over the road along the River of Life and Death, also had permissions different from other administrators.

The wires of the display screen are like blood vessels that penetrate into the land, absorbing nutrients from underground and finding the boundary between the river and the game.

Placing it in Zootopia means that the owner of the convenience store can accurately find the boundary between the river and Zootopia.

Qiao Song wanted to overthrow Boss Cai just for the power in his hands.

The guy on the display screen came to this place just to cast a net to salvage souls and replenish the inventory in the warehouse, but Qiao Song needs the exact opposite.

She hummed.

"I will completely flood the entire Zootopia with river water. You can notify others to start preparing to evacuate."

She wants to destroy the entire copy.

It can even be said that Qiao Song wants to completely destroy this city.

The Zootopia map contains more than just a mini-game, but is the birthplace of almost most of the copies of Infinite Highway.

But Qiao Song wants to destroy this place.

This was the final challenge invitation she was going to give to the old dragon.

Qiao Song flapped his wings, crossed the border, and flew directly to his final destination.

She looked up at the sky and the flying balls. The pairs of eyes watching her stared at each other from afar, as if asking:

Chen Long, since you have been monitoring this place, you should know what I am going to do in the end.

Why did you deliberately send Boss Cai to me?

In the golden success area, the old guy squatted on the pure gold seat and for the first time showed a determined expression.

"Qiao Song, since you greedily choose to take back your original rights at this time, you must pay the corresponding price for it."

With Qiao Song's current identity, there are very few things that can threaten her.

Fortunately, Chen Long knew that once he became a human being, he would have human weaknesses.

The old voice echoed in the hall, and it seemed satisfied that everything was going according to plan.

“What the system cannot exact from you, it will exact from other players.”

He had just finished speaking.

When Qiao Song controlled the junction of the river and Zootopia and began to gradually backflow the river water, a convenience store located nearby on the edge of Zootopia suddenly began to uncontrollably spray out large amounts of black and white cold river water, just like Zootopia.

The same situation occurred at a second convenience store further away.

Qiao Song originally wanted to use the convenience store's passage to divert the river water into the entire Zootopia, but Chen Long would not let things develop so smoothly.

He never thought that he could defeat the master of the shrine who had given them power in the first place.

All he wanted was a new agreement, a fair and equal agency agreement.

Why should such a beautiful game world be destroyed?

Since Qiao Song likes freedom, then embrace freedom.

Chen Long was happy to help Qiao Song manage a city.

To this end, he can add new, countless weights to one end of the scale of choice.

For example, the entire Infinite Highway, and all those innocent players who did not come to Zootopia.

"Since you choose destruction, let's do a multiple-choice question."

His old voice echoed in the hall and in the sky above Zootopia.

In the layers of dark clouds were golden lightning, the impending rainstorm, and his determination to fight to the death.

"Use that river to destroy Zootopia, the entire highway, and the entire game world. Or take back your river water, calm down, and divide the world again."

"This game world will still be yours, Qiao Song. All I want is a little bit of management rights. That way, everyone will benefit, right?"

The gurgling river water gradually radiates to the entire Infinite Highway with Zootopia as its center.

He waited for Qiao Song to make the final decision.