Huangli City's rejection wasn't a huge blow to Yang Jia. It was just that, ever since she'd discovered this world was just a game, she'd been under Li Bai's protection, enjoying smooth sailing and encountering few setbacks. This incident, though minor, had made Yang Jia wary.

In the past, she had spent most of her time developing herself. Furthermore, the cities were disconnected, so naturally, there wasn't much interaction. So, while Phoenix City was ahead of the curve and attracting attention, there wasn't anyone truly committed to doing anything. But things were different now.

The trend of integration was driven by Yang Jia herself. She was well aware of the huge impact and influence this would have on the entire world, and even the overall situation would change.

In a world dominated by powerful forces in many areas, only this approach could allow Yang Jia to find opportunities for growth and rapidly strengthen himself. After all, troubled times are always the time for heroes to emerge, and also the time when ordinary people are most likely to rise to prominence.

But Yang Jia was also well aware that he wasn't the only one who could benefit. As long as he managed the situation, more and more influential figures would emerge. And those major powers might not necessarily allow such a thing to happen. Now that they had the opportunity to make contact, the difficulties Phoenix City would face in the future would only increase.

If you are blinded by the previous smooth sailing, you may have to suffer more losses before you can recover your losses.

Fortunately, there were too many things on his shoulders, so Yang Jia had to stay alert all the time. Even when he was relaxing, he had to keep himself on guard. Now he has reacted and adjusted his mentality, and he will naturally be more calm when dealing with it in the future.

As more and more people arrived, Yang Jia couldn't approach them one by one. However, seeing so many people in Phoenix City was still quite a shock.

Although he knew his opponents were extremely powerful, his judgment would never be accurate unless he saw them with his own eyes. Seeing these people, Yang Jia, despite the pressure, couldn't help but feel excited.

"Although I always feel that the appearance of players is not a good thing for this world and the indigenous NPCs, I have to admit that because of your appearance, this world has become particularly wonderful." She said this to Li Bai.

If this world were not a game, would I continue to live in a muddle-headed way like before?

In the past... Yang Jia thought about it carefully and could hardly remember what kind of life he had lived before. That's right, that kind of life was really boring. Every day was almost a repetition of the previous day. The slight changes were all trivial details, making it impossible to remember them in detail.

Yang Jia felt a chill down his spine whenever he thought that he might just end up accomplishing nothing in his life.

So, while the players' presence might not be a friendly thing for this world, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing for Yang Jia. Besides, it was also how she met Li Bai.

Li Bai whispered, "Existence is reasonable. Sometimes, some changes are not a bad thing, right?"

Even if the price to pay is considerable, Yang Jia believes that through the collision with players, something different will emerge, impacting the world. Good, bad, all kinds of things. But the world will select itself, the fittest will survive, and those who remain will be the most suitable for her.

She smiled at Li Bai and continued to look down.

The two of them stood in the office building of the City Lord's Mansion. New guests would definitely pass by here when they came and went, so Yang Jia and Li Bai simply came here to observe, hoping to quickly form an overall impression of everyone.

At this time, a small group of people caught Yang Jia's attention.

"Those people..." she asked Li Bai uncertainly, "Are they NPCs?"

"Yes." Li Bai nodded. "Currently, there are still more than a dozen cities in the hands of the NPCs, and they have also sent people here this time."

However, the gap between NPCs and players is still huge. Perhaps the NPCs who have persisted until now are aware of this, so they subconsciously gather together to form a group. But even if they are not used to this change, they still come.

Perhaps, as Yang Jia had previously speculated, not everyone was unaware of the impending changes. The truly outstanding ones might have already noticed them.

"Let's send someone to contact them later." Yang Jia thought for a moment and said.

If they truly felt a sense of crisis, they would surely seize the opportunity and strive for advancement. Yang Jia herself, though an NPC, had become so much like a player that even the system couldn't tell them apart. So she was eager to see what kind of future a truly ordinary NPC could forge in such a chaotic world.

Before that, give it a push whenever you can.

Li Bai thought for a moment and said, "It's not bad to make friends with those far away and attack those nearby."

Most of these cities that hadn't been annexed were in the northwest, quite far from Phoenix. Although in this game world, this "far" didn't mean much due to the existence of underground passages, everyone still used to divide the areas by region.

Yang Jia smiled, "I didn't think that much." He just felt a sense of sympathy for his fellow humans, and wanted to see how far they could go.

"Let Bai Ting go," Li Bai suggested. Ever since Bai Shu arrived, Bai Ting had begun a reclusive life, rarely appearing in public unless absolutely necessary. Her fear of her sister was evident. Bai Shu had clearly noticed this, often expressing helplessness when facing them, and even asked Yang Jia to take good care of Bai Ting.

Given Bai Ting's personality, she would have been exhausted after being cooped up in her room for so many days, especially during this bustling time. Finding something for her to do that would allow her to avoid Bai Shu's sight and get some fresh air would surely delight her.

After everyone arrived, Yang Jia finally organized an activity to take everyone on a tour of Phoenix City.

However, everyone knows that everything that Phoenix City puts on the surface has long been studied thoroughly by everyone. I am afraid that some of the hidden things have also been discovered. Only the most core parts cannot be found out for the time being because only a few people know about them and they will not be detrimental to Phoenix City.

So after the tour, Yang Jia began to promote the system platform independently developed by Phoenix City.

The reason so many people came here this time was, firstly, to find a way to break through the city barriers, and secondly, this system.

This gaming world also embraces technology and commerce, and there are many intelligent players among them, so Yang Jia isn't the only one who's considered pursuing this path. Those who came to Phoenix City to participate in the tournament and purchased a phone from Qin Yan are particularly keen on this.

But it turns out that not everyone can make a living from this. Business, not to mention the unique setting of the game world, meant that in the early days, trading between a few cities wasn't a big deal. Only now, with the growing number of players, has business begun to pick up. But after deducting costs and exorbitant shipping fees, the profit isn't significant. As for technology, they can build such a system, but without connectivity to the main system, it's meaningless.

They were all well aware of the importance of such a system. So, even though they knew Phoenix City wouldn't selflessly help them and would undoubtedly find a way to create a backdoor in the system to allow them to spy on them and gain access to their information, they still had to compromise and do business with Phoenix City. However, once they overcame the hurdle of connecting to the main system, they were confident they could create a better defense system and eliminate the hidden dangers.

The method for opening up the city was too important to discuss publicly, so they opted to contact Phoenix City's personnel privately to find a breakthrough. However, the system could be discussed openly.

"I wonder what City Lord Yang wants?" As an established ally, Bai Shu was the first to speak up.

In fact, this kind of cooperation was also mentioned in the contract signed between Yang Jia and her, but helping out a little at this time was nothing to her.

Yang Jia had been prepared for this. "I have a list of materials here. The items on it are what we need in Phoenix City. I'm sure everyone has some. If you can bring them out for exchange, that would be the best."

Phoenix City is currently leading the way in all research efforts within the game. While others are aware of the requirements, research still requires securing sufficient territory and establishing a firm foothold. There's no need to rush. During this period of development, they've undoubtedly accumulated a significant amount of supplies, but they're just sitting there anyway, so why not put them to good use and trade them?

However, some were wary of this request. They all knew what was going on in Phoenix City. Yang Jia had recruited a number of technical personnel, already leading the way. If they also had sufficient supplies... But then again, besides this, they had nothing else to impress Phoenix City. And they wouldn't give up on the interactive system.

After some thought, many people took the list handed out by the staff and began to look through it, comparing it with what they already had at home. Some even noticed the prices listed nearby. In addition to exchanging the parts needed for the interactive system, Yang Jia also clearly marked the price for these materials and supplies.

But this price...

"City Lord Yang, you're putting us in a difficult position." Lei Ming, the leader of the Lei family, said with a smile, "Isn't this price a little too low? We worked hard to get what we have. We can't sell it so cheaply that we can't even get back our original investment, right?"

The Lei family borders Phoenix City, so there will definitely be more exchanges in the future, and it's unlikely to be peaceful, so Lei Ming isn't afraid of offending anyone. Being the first to speak up will actually increase others' favorability towards him, especially those independent city lords.

——Yang Jia wants to take Sanren into his pocket, so how could these big forces not want to do that?