Empty Valley
Holographic command center.
"Five years ago, after the policy restricting female players was announced, the number of Soul Song players plummeted. After a year-long campaign by major guilds to dissuade and suppress female players, the number of female players was largely eliminated. For the past four years, daily active users have remained stable."
“However, a week ago, there was a significant drop in daily activity.
"Before the Yongan mission was exposed, the number of people loading the game and logging into the forum was roughly the same, around 11 million per day. After the exposure, the number of forum logins skyrocketed by 500,000 per day, but the number of people loading the game was the opposite.
"According to data from 12:00 PM today, the cumulative number of people logging into the forum today is 12.37 million, and we predict it will exceed 15 million by midnight. However, the number of people loading the game is only 8.31 million, a daily average decrease of nearly 400,000..."
The data personnel's report stopped and the conference room fell silent.
Everyone's eyes turned to the end of the long table.
The leader of Dragon Breath Group 2 quietly reminded: "Second meeting."
Erhui came back to his senses, and his tired and old eyes glanced at the chart on the holographic projection.
"Oh, what's the reason?"
The data officer was slightly embarrassed and coughed lightly. "According to our data team's analysis, the cause is the Yong'an mission. The data changes coincided with the time the mission was exposed..."
"Even if you're talking nonsense, choose the right place!"
Erhui suddenly raised his voice, "I'm asking why players don't play games and only browse forums! No matter how bad Yong'an is, he can't kill hundreds of thousands of people every day, right?!"
Everyone in the conference room was embarrassed.
This part involves reporting on the players' mental states, which the data staff have already analyzed since the beginning of the meeting.
The leader of Dragon Breath Group 2 immediately gave the data personnel a look.
The latter nodded quickly, "Yes, yes. Next, we will analyze the reasons for the decline in daily active users."
He flipped back to the first page of the report. "We've reviewed and compiled all the forum posts from the past week. The hot topics have been centered around two areas: the fifth instance and the fall of high-level players."
The two aspects can also be summarized in one word - Yong'an Farm Mission.
Since the news of the fifth dungeon spread, some senior experts compared the situation when the other three dungeons were launched and firmly rejected the possibility that Yong'an was the fifth dungeon.
This led to widespread rumors that there were bugs in the Soul Song, which in turn caused countless players to sell off their items and transfer their game assets.
In this situation, the Ouli Guild was the first to lose patience and publicly admitted on the guild's official social media that the news of the "fifth copy" was true.
Ouli took the lead, and other large guilds followed suit, forcing Long Yan to accept this way of dealing with the situation.
The official Longyan did not issue a statement to admit or deny it, but took a tacit attitude, leaving some room for maneuver in the future to eliminate Yongan.
However, this crisis public relations did not reassure the players, so various countries further launched public opinion tactics, causing the "experts" who had previously denied the fifth copy to jump out and contradict themselves.
By using all kinds of dazzling details that are created out of nothing, the fact that "the fifth copy is the official copy" has been deeply rooted in people's minds.
The public opinion tactics finally paid off, and the number of players transferring assets decreased rapidly. However, the daily active users of the game did not reverse the downward trend.
This brings us to the second reason – the fall of high-level players.
The top missions that took place in Lengbing City and Ghost Island were fine, but the top mission that took place in the Spirit Realm caused more than 20 top players on the list to fall off the list at the same time, shocking everyone.
Many meticulous players began to study the connection between the Yong'an mission and the fall of high-level players.
Assuming that the task details revealed by the mysterious ID "Zhongyazhide" are true, the statistical results are very shocking: Yongan Farm tops the list!
Among the top 100 players, 42 of them failed to make the list because of Yongan Farm!
Among the 42 players who failed to make the list, 9 of them are super gods!
As we all know, not long ago, the top 18 players on the Destiny Rankings were all super gods. Opening the Destiny Rankings page on the light screen and seeing a screen full of super gods has always been exciting.
However, when I open the light screen now, there are only 9 super gods left...
Of course, the Destiny Ranking is a ranking of destiny, and it doesn't represent the player's level. Among the players at the bottom of the list, there are also some super gods, and even some super gods who are unlucky have fallen off the list.
However, everyone knows that judging a player's strength depends not only on their level but also on their luck.
The super god who fell out of the front row, without enough luck, can his strength be compared with the front row?
Because of this, Yong'an Farm, the fifth dungeon, has earned various titles: God-Slaying Dungeon, Super God Cemetery, Death Farm...
This has greatly dampened players' enthusiasm for the new copy.
In fact, because the fifth copy is constantly moving, many higher-level players are worried that they might accidentally run into Yongan and die inexplicably.
This is not an unfounded worry, because the fall of high-level players continues.
A large number of high-ranking players in the Spirit Realm were simultaneously removed from the rankings. For the next three or four days, the names of players continued to disappear from the list. Most of them belonged to the five major guilds: Longyan, Gar, Oli, Feili, and Yatan.
After the data officer finished his report, the leader of Dragon Breath Team 2 added, "There haven't been any changes to the players on the leaderboard over the past two days. We've already arranged for experts to release information to appease them, but it's been ineffective."
Erhui's face turned ugly: "What words did you use to appease him?"
"Game assets and real-world currency are interchangeable, and Soul Song players control too much wealth. Every time a dungeon was released, it was equivalent to overissuing currency, which would cause a wave of widespread inflation."
"The game officials have learned from their experience, so this time they're using the method of generating in-game copies to redistribute existing game wealth and avoid hyperinflation..."
Erhui looked at him in surprise. "Who would believe this? Why didn't you report to me before formulating the script?"
"Uh...it's the rhetoric directly set by the strategy office up there. The effects haven't been seen yet, so maybe we have to wait a few days."
"It means that our Long Yan also recognizes the fifth copy!" Erhui slammed the table.
The team leader hurriedly explained, "We decided on the script, but the export isn't domestic, but to other countries. Second meeting, the higher-ups still hope we can complete the Yong'an mission."
After a while, his expression cleared up a little, but then his eyes darkened again, as if he was thinking about something.
"Is he still making trouble?"
The team leader had a complicated expression: "The joint team didn't attack rashly these past two days, so... it's been quiet for the time being, and no one has seen the ink removal."
Erhui snorted coldly, "Raising a tiger is a disaster, raising a tiger is a disaster! Haven't the higher-ups responded to our application yet? It's just a brain, can't we just crush it with a slap?!"
-
To the west of the Spirit Realm, a huge castle was slowly moving across the vast black plains.
On the land that was rolled over, there were two rows of deep pits as thick as a person's waist. They were big enough to hide an adult by jumping into them.
A few kilometers away, a group of wild players saw the moving castle from afar, and the leader shouted, "Over there, the fifth dungeon!"
Before he finished speaking, a black line fell from the sky.
The black lines and the bright blue electric light are intertwined together, bringing unparalleled power.
Just as he was about to land, a large number of figures rushed in from all directions, took the lead, and surrounded the group of wild guests.
Indiscriminately, they drew their weapons and used the skills of advanced players to wipe out the entire wild guest team in an instant.
Each person stared at a corpse, and if there was any sign of resurrection, he would stab the corpse in the vital part.
The black line hovered in mid-air.
Chi Xin suppressed his fear and anger, raised his head and said, "Except Mo, our joint team will be responsible for dealing with these people."
Please don't do anything.
Please... don't kill any more of our compatriots.
His short silver hair turned jet black, and the electric light in his eyes gradually faded.
He withdrew his indifferent gaze and disappeared into the horizon again.
Chi Xin breathed a sigh of relief and directed the joint team members: "Each of you will carry a body away. Keep a close eye on it. Everyone must be completely eliminated and no word can leak out!"
After a week, the team members had become accustomed to this.
What guild agreement, what players can't kill players, in the face of national interests, everything is empty.
They silently dragged the corpses, used their mobility skills, and ran back five kilometers away - a joint army of 500 people.
It was pitch black, no one spoke, the silence was depressing, and we followed the traces left by the farm.
The Youqi Sword hung at the highest point in the sky. Looking up from the ground, it was a black dot so tiny that it could not be distinguished by the naked eye.
But the pale sun of Soul Society was higher than he, more out of reach.
The fake sunlight enveloped him, but no matter how close he got, there was no warmth at all.
A figure slowly appeared beside him.
Xie Xin bathed in the white sunlight, his robes fluttering and his hair flying. Judging from his appearance alone, he certainly didn't look like the terrifying Ghost King, but more like a holy god.
Chu Mo didn't look at him.
Xie Xin sighed and laughed: "If you had been as diligent as you are now, you wouldn't have to worry about not being able to enter the Ghost Ruins."
He lowered his eyes and looked down at the farm below, which had shrunk to the size of a fingernail.
"Before, you broke into her world, but now she has entered yours. Kill that little thing and she'll have nothing to rely on. Naturally, she'll come to you for help. Isn't that tempting?"
I don’t know whether Chu Mo was dead or he thought Jie Xin was dead, the two still had no interaction.
Xie Xin's expression suddenly changed: "A dodder flower that can only survive by relying on others can make you forget where you came from?! Forget the mission you shoulder?!
"Qi Mo, once your physical body in that world is completely dead, do you think you can still resist me and pose the slightest threat to me?!
“He gave birth to me, and it was I who divided you!
"Since you dare to betray Him, there is no place for you in this world!"
-
An Rou felt something and looked up at the sun.
The sunlight in the Soul Realm is not very strong, but it is still a bit dazzling if you look closely.
She didn't see anything.
An Rou blinked hard, waited for the light spots on her eyelids to fade, and then lowered her gaze.
Today is the first time that the red flame cotton has matured.
Without Paopao, it would have taken a little longer to cultivate the red flame cotton, but thanks to Paopao, he copied all the red flame cotton before going offline.
The cotton field, which was originally only a few square meters in size, now covers eight floors with cotton and soil.
Gathering potion ingredients is a delicate task, and there are only flower farmers on the farm, no cotton farmers. Fortunately, the Spirit Realm doesn't make the NPC settings too elaborate, and the method of growing potion ingredients seems to be etched in the genes of flower farmers like Tiande.
Without Paopao's reshaping skills, the flower growers also took good care of the other three raw materials.
Cotton buds grow at dawn and mature at midnight. In the afternoon, the cotton buds have split open, and orange-red cotton emerges from the green gaps, full of vitality.
Red flame cotton is the raw material for spiritual potions. Standing among a large field of cotton, even the depressed mood becomes suddenly brighter.
An Rou let go of Heng Bobao's hand, turned her head and smiled: "How are you? Do you feel better?"
Heng Bobao wrinkled his nose. In just one week, he had lost a lot of weight, even his cute baby fat was gone.
There were faint dark circles under his eyes, and his bright eyes no longer flickered.
He looked haggard, but his expression was full of anger.
You're just running away without even saying hello. When you come back, I'll see if I'll pay any attention to you!
While thinking this in my heart, I asked, "When will he come back?"
"As for those who are destined to be with you, traveling around will help you develop your abilities. Didn't your father also say that a true man has ambitions to travel far and wide?"
An Rou pinched her cheek and pulled a face, "When he feels that he has mastered his skills and is qualified to marry you, he will naturally come back."
"What if I'm old and no longer pretty?!"
Heng Bobao slapped An Rou's hands repeatedly, "Stop pinching, stop pinching, your face will age faster if it becomes loose!"
An Rou turned around and tapped her nose: "You age faster if you don't sleep at night. Didn't you look in the mirror this morning to see how heavy your dark circles are."
"Then I'll go to sleep right away!" Heng Bobao ran away in a panic.
An Rou followed him downstairs slowly.
Paopao designed the staircase of Mianman Building into a spiral shape, making it very smooth to go up and down the stairs.
As An Rou reached the first floor, Fire Pharmacist came running over with a smile, "Farmer, once we finish picking the fruits tonight at midnight, I'll be able to make a spiritual potion right away!"
The other three pharmacists had already started making potions, but he was the only one waiting until now. He felt like he was eating and drinking for free every day and was restless.
An Rou was amused by him: "Thank you for your hard work. Are there enough people picking the fruits?"
"That's enough. There are hundreds of people in Fengyu Temple. We can give 100 to Mianmanlou. The cotton fields on the eighth floor look a lot, but they're not very big when spread out. I estimate that it will be picked in less than an hour."
An Rou nodded, said "thank you for your hard work", and went to the other three buildings.
Mu Man Lou, Yu Man Lou and Hua Man Lou, with the care of the Fengyuguan NPCs, the three potions are growing well.
After a few days, the farm has produced a lot of medicine.
The Black Market Island Trading Building was used as staff quarters, and the two trading rooms and the rooms above were already empty. An Rou simply had them connected and used them as a pharmaceutical warehouse.
Now, one wall of shelves is filled with low-level potions.
In the corner of the other wall, there was no shelf, but a bed.
In the eyes of the NPCs, the bed was empty. Only An Rou and the ghoul staff could see that Paopao was lying on it. His face was rosy and his breathing was steady.
Ziwu Youqi cut off one of his arms. After An Rou drank several bottles of high-level life potion in time, the broken arm was finally reconnected, leaving a circle of hideous red scars.
The injury has healed, but he has not been online yet.
The reason why Paopao was arranged here was mainly because of Heng Bobao.
Paopao went offline suddenly, without saying he would come back or not. An Rou had to make up a reason for him to travel to appease Miss Heng.
NPCs can't see the player's offline body, but they can touch it. If you place it in the staff dormitory, ordinary farm residents will not get close to it, and naturally they won't notice it.
In addition, when Paopao's soul returns online, the ghoul employees who smell the scent will discover it immediately and tell her immediately.
However, deep down, An Rou didn't want Paopao to return to this game.
She sat down beside the bed and looked at the sleeping person quietly.
She once thought that the NPCs in the game had no skills, and survived in the gap between ghouls and players, and were surrounded by dangers.
As she learns more and more about the truth of Soul Society, she realizes that being a player is full of dangers.
The Ghost King couldn't attack players outside of the Ghost Ruins, but he had many ways to deal with them. Even SSS-level ghouls were toys that Jie Xin could manipulate at will.
Putting aside the potential danger to his life, with his running personality, it was not suitable for him to continue walking with me.
Destroy the game world for the real world?
——This idea has never been an option for An Rou.
Who would tear down their own house and watch themselves and the people they care about buried in the dust?
She is not that great, nor does she want to be.
She just wanted to live a peaceful life in a territory she could control, which she had never experienced in reality.
Having said that, without running around, An Rou seems to have experienced a peaceful life these days.
She had no light screen and couldn't see Paopao's light screen. She was forced to stay away from the forum and had no way of inquiring about the movements of larger guilds and many players.
I eat, drink, live, and travel all on the farm. Every day, I check on the progress of potion making, watch the farm residents plowing the fields, see the busy but happy faces on Second Street and First Alley, watch An Younian cook and steam buns, watch Leng Hanli teach the women how to grow flowers and arrange them in her spare time, watch Meihong teach them how to style their hair and make beautiful hair accessories...
Quiet, peaceful, and non-contentious.
Even the NPC's inherent greed for money is completely overwhelmed by the idyllic environment and life.
It's a perfect little world.
An Rou was determined to build a fully functional farm, and she did it.
Isolation from the world, and yet it was achieved.
But she had never imagined this kind of life on a farm.
The farm she imagined had only two people and a ghost, and at most a runner, where the days would be quiet and carefree.
But the current bustle and prosperity seems pretty good.
However, An Rou knew very well that all this was temporary.
Through Bao Fu's eyes, she saw the hundreds of soldiers of the United Group, who were marching in a mighty force and staring at them covetously.
They were hanging far behind the farm, following it westward, gradually approaching the valley.
If Bao Fu's hibernation this time was not limited to his soul, and his body had not sunk into the ground as well, they would have pounced on it and torn this beautiful scene apart.
Similarly, Bao Fu's void can block the Ghost King's spying. Jie Xin probably doesn't know that Bao Fu's soul has fallen into hibernation, or even that he doesn't know the existence of the soul at all.
An Rou believed that Jie Xin had been hiding in the dark, and the reason he had not appeared was simply because he was afraid of getting rich quickly.
That sword...can pose a threat to the Ghost King.
The longer time passes, the clearer An Rou's memory of entering the real soul world becomes.
She was indeed unable to speak at first, like a bystander with only ears, until a force penetrated into her body.
At that time, facing Jie Xin, who was like the master of the soul world, she suddenly felt confident.
It's not just psychological fearlessness, but also the strength to match.
That force is sudden wealth, or more accurately, the soul of sudden wealth.
There is a sword hidden in his soul.
An Rou has recalled that this snow-white long sword is exactly the same as the flying sword in the old man's hand.
Paopao said at the time that it was called "Phoenix Flame".
Ziwu Huangyan is at the same level as Ziwu Youqi in Chumo's hands.
The Phoenix Flame Sword was swallowed up by the old people as they became rich. This kind of swallowing was different from the ghost technique "swallowing an elephant".
The latter is limited to the physical level, and the rich can spit out whatever they swallow.
The former is more like fusion. The props owned by the old man are integrated into Baofu's body and become the task rewards that can be obtained by killing him.
For some reason, Bao Fu took out the Phoenix Flame at the critical moment, allowing An Rou to use a skill in the crisis and successfully escape from under Jie Xin's nose.
There was no screen description, so An Rou didn't know the name of the skill. Following the pull of the power within her body, she performed it naturally.
Unfortunately, after returning to the game world, Phoenix Flame disappeared just like the power in his body.
An Rou guessed that it returned to his body along with his rich soul.
Phoenix Flame is very important. It is enough to allow the farm to fight against the Ghost King in terms of strength, and then, the farm will no longer have to fear any player.
However, at this moment, Huang Yan was not in her hands.
An Rou closed her eyes, slowly exhaled, and looked at Paopao again.
Since yesterday, she had seen a line of towers appearing in the distance. At her pace, the farm would reach the hollow valley by tomorrow at the latest.
At that time, her peaceful life will come to a brief end until she successfully obtains the Rainbow of the Valley.
The plan for the fifth copy cannot be stopped. She must get enough bargaining chips to start face-to-face negotiations with the major guilds, especially Long Yan.
But the Rainbow of the Valley of Desolation hangs high on the top of the Valley of Desolation, sinking into the clouds that are invisible to the naked eye. It is the top priority of the Valley of Desolation camp's defense.
It is not easy to get rich overnight and dormant by running offline.
An Rou has a plan, but this plan becomes extremely difficult without Paopao's help.
She didn't want him to return to the game.
But she really needed him.
An Rou stretched out her hand involuntarily, but when her fingertips were about to touch Paopao, she pulled it back.
-
Paopao is always online.
Like many people, he only logged into the forum and did not load the game.
The young man hadn't taken care of himself for many days, and his immature stubble had turned into a dark blue patch, finally adding a touch of maturity to his appearance.
Just a little decadent.
Especially his eyes. If An Rou saw him at this moment, she would only feel that his eyes were very similar to Chu Mo's in the past, as calm and still as still water.
There is also an entrance to the Destiny List on the forum page, and the glass screen of the game cabin stays on the Destiny List page.
Paopao stared at this page for an unknown amount of time.
Every change in his name would tear his heart apart.
This game will kill you.
My brother said that my parents died in this game.
Paopao suddenly felt that he was ridiculous.
Meet the boss, meet the farm, meet the sudden wealth, meet Wang Da Zhang Da, meet Meng Ziyu...
He once thought that he had touched the hidden core of the Soul Song and discovered the unknown secret of the game.
This made him feel a sense of superiority and relief every time he saw his brother, the famous President Long Yan.
However, my brother already knew it.
I've known the cruel reality of this game for a long time, I've known the cause of my parents' death for a long time, and I've even worked hard to keep these secrets.
In Paopao's memory, the faces of his parents have long been blurred, and his closest brother always goes out early and comes back late, whether it is studying or working.
Talk, do, think...
No matter whether it is his business or his brother's own, his brother can always make a choice in the shortest time in the calmest, most rational and direct way.
Cold, arrogant, and inhuman.
Paopao always thought that this was what it meant when an elder brother is like a father.
It turned out that my brother had already devoted all his time and energy to these secrets. At only 28 years old, he had already taken the position of the first president of Longyan.
That's ridiculous.
His sense of superiority and his secret joy were so ridiculous in front of his brother.
But why, even though my brother has done this much, he still hasn’t ended the game?
This kind of man-eating game shouldn't even exist...
Why...why on earth?
Paopao couldn't figure it out.
Has the brother's original intention changed? Now that he has found out the cause of his parents' death, does he no longer want to end the game?
Every minute we conceal it could result in someone’s death!
An Rou's words echoed in his mind.
"What was their purpose, and what did they sacrifice to achieve it?"
“…Every player who enters the game is a potential victim.”
Victims...Are all people victims, abandoned by the country?
Can't they see that those who don't enter the game, women, the elderly and children, are also being abandoned?
Could it be that his brother is so hypocritical, watching others being sacrificed indifferently, and then turning around to warn only him not to play games?
"Hypocrisy..." Paopao murmured.
This concerns everyone's fate, why not make it public?
"hypocritical……"
Paopao's finger stopped on [Start Game].
Why can everyone else sacrifice but not him?
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