Chapter 487 The National Team
During the plot in Rob Town, the three big BOSSes that were "refreshed" one after another were "forced to be killed by the plot" by Lao Yang. During the siege, the four BOSSes that were "refreshed" on the city wall (in fact, they were killed in seconds by Yang Qiu before their full bodies were revealed) were not touchable by the players - no matter how handsome or cool Lao Yang's BOSS-killing action was, the players had very strong opinions about it.
Players are always enthusiastic about fighting BOSS, a popular entertainment activity. The harder and more difficult the BOSS is to defeat, the more enthusiastic they are. In traditional PC games, players have the perseverance to stay online for days and nights to pile up kills and defeat BOSSes that are beyond the current game version, not to mention games like "Another World" that can be played in sleep.
It is also because players have seen so many big bosses but have not been able to fight them that they are doubly enthusiastic about the Night Watch mission in Tachia County - everyone especially wants to "trigger" an unprecedented big boss.
Unfortunately, most of the incidents that have been resolved by the players were related to the "official" cult Whisperers of the former Tachia Territory, and the upper echelons of the Whisperers had been slaughtered by Yang Qiu... So all the enthusiasm of these players was used to collect evidence, search homes and arrest people.
Only those who work hard can win. The reason I chose to fight this "Incident No. 063" is that I think this mission should have nothing to do with the "Whisperer Sect", a low-profile cult that has been complained about by players on the forum - after all, the people in this sect directly capture, rob, and cheat people, and their criminal methods are very impressive.
That's right, "The Whisperer", the evil god that has appeared frequently in players' "mission texts" and "mission clues" recently, has been classified by players into the traditional online games' commonly seen NPC forces that are specially designed to be used by players to brush and take the blame for the plot, similar to the Mole Gate, the Copper Coin Society, and the Red Cult, because there is no BOSS to defeat. If Count Geketan knew about this, he would be furious.
The important task of "luring the enemy" was unilaterally entrusted to the two fishermen who were squatting by the river to fish. Only those who work hard can win, so they led their friends to wait patiently in the forest farm without any psychological burden.
Not long after, I saw the two of them suddenly shouting and screaming.
“Here they come?!” The hardworking man was cheered up and looked over there quickly.
Then... he saw the fisherman with the ID "Beibu Gulf Wolong" pull the fishing rod hard and pull out a ball of slime from the river water which was about waist-deep and a little over four meters wide... yes, just a ball, a round, sticky ball of slime monster about the size of an adult's head.
Only hard work can win and his friends: "..."
"Fuck, this is disgusting, what are you fishing for!" Wanfeng Lake Fengchu was dancing and shouting, "Don't swing the rod over here, don't throw this slug-like thing at me, it's disgusting!"
"What the hell, where did this disgusting slime monster come from?!" Wolong from Beibu Gulf, who had used too much force and whose body was swinging along with the fishing rod, was also cursing.
"I was just wondering why you always catch such messy things!"
"Fuck, can you blame me for this?!"
The two fishermen frantically struggled for a long time before finally throwing the slime monster to the edge of the rocky beach and throwing it away. Beibu Gulf Wolong didn't even want to retrieve the fishhook, and directly changed the fishing line...
Ivan looked at the two funny guys expressionlessly, then turned to look at her friend and complained in a low voice, "I say... I've been to this forest twice, and I've never seen anything other than wild beasts spawn here... Aren't the small monsters like slimes that are spawned for novices always spawned in groups? How can you spawn one alone?"
The buddy who plays the Walker also has a lot of complaints: "I can only say... these two funny guys have some good RP."
About ten minutes later, Wanfeng Lake Fengchu, who had just criticized Brother Wolong for his bad fishing, stretched his neck to look into the stream after pulling the fishing rod a few times, and let out a cry, almost throwing the fishing rod out of his hand.
"How the hell did you catch a stray dog's corpse?" Wanfeng Lake Fengchu yelled at the top of his lungs. Aipincaiying and the others could hear it clearly even though they were a few dozen meters away. "Dogs can swim, right? Brother Wang, how dare you drown yourself!"
"Hahahahahaha, you, a fake fish, have the nerve to say that my fishing skills are bad!" Wolong of Beibu Gulf gloated beside him.
Only hard work can win and his friends: "..."
An hour later, the four players who were counting on the two fishermen as bait watched helplessly as the duo caught slime monsters, wild dog corpses, old leather shoes, rotten bamboo baskets, broken pottery jars, broken umbrella stands, and so on.
"Aren't you here to fish? Where are the fish? Where are the catches? Why don't you catch something normal and see it?" Sister Ivan growled with her teeth bared and her fists clenched.
"How dare these two guys post about their fishing experiences on the forum?" Even Hard Work Can Win couldn't help but complain.
While the four people who used others as bait couldn't help but turn into complainers, on the other side, the town of New Seeley, the source of the incident, also welcomed another group of undead.
There are only two people in this group of undead.
The ID of one of them was "Qitian".
As for this Qi Tian... I think some people probably still remember him. Yes, he is one of the two PLA players who were first arranged by the national team to enter and enter the player group. He and Ji Tang are comrades in the same battle zone.
Led by this national team member, they quietly appeared in Xinxili Town after the "trend" of the large group of players had faded... The purpose of their visit was self-evident - they came to investigate the "063 Incident".
After all, the national team knows that this world is not just a game. Players will give up on suspected disaster missions because they can't complete them due to stuck links. The national team must not give up easily... The national team will never sit idly by and watch the potential hidden dangers of Xinxili Town.
"——This is about the information the players have collected."
On the way into the town, Qi Tian led the way and turned back to introduce the situation to another "player" he brought with him.
As for this "player"... judging from his ID style, it is obvious that he is from the same group as Master Liu and Lao Geng who work diligently as online GMs - this person's ID is simply called "Lao Yin".
That’s right, this person is Yin Zhengliang, a professor in the Department of Criminal Psychology at the Public Security University of China, who has not appeared in the show for a long time but has actually been using the forum ID “Director Lu” to keep in touch with Yang Qiu, setting traps for each other, testing each other, analyzing each other, and engaging in a battle of wits and courage until now.
By the way - when Yang Qiu discovered that the alien world trader was unable to revitalize such a large economy under his control, he decided to use the collapsed demon world to process nuclear waste to earn "foreign exchange" on Earth. It was Professor Yin Zhengliang who helped at the critical moment and analyzed the personality traits and stability of "Lord Yang" from a professional perspective, which facilitated this matter.
In short, if Professor Yin Zhengliang had not helped Yang Qiu from a distance and allowed him to quickly obtain the first batch of supplies paid by the national team as a reward, the development of Innadeli Territory and Adler Territory would never have been so rapid... At least it would have been impossible for Rex to drive a Wuling Hongguang so quickly.
"Hearing what you said, it seems that although these young people conducted a serious investigation, they also caused a lot of disturbance to the residents." This was the first comment Professor Yin Zhengliang made on the players' behavior after listening to Qi Tian's introduction.
"This, this..." Qi Tian looked embarrassed.
"He went to someone else's house and rummaged through the cabinets in front of the owner, and followed them so closely that he almost drove them crazy." Professor Yin Zhengliang shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Really... China is a country of etiquette after all, how come they don't behave like human beings when they come to another world?"
Qi Tian was so embarrassed that he tapped his toes on the ground: "Well, professor, that...actually, players are not always like this--"
"It's going to be terrible if it keeps going like this." Professor Yin Zhengliang shook his head again, "Forget it, this case is indeed quite urgent, let's go into the town first."
Qi Tian felt as if he had been pardoned, and quickly sped up... Our PLA is not usually so cowardly, but when faced with this kind of old-fashioned intellectual, he really has no idea what to do.
The two of them entered the town one after the other. The spontaneous market that was common near the town gate of a country town suddenly became quiet.
The townspeople who were picking vegetables in front of the vegetable stalls, squatting on the ground picking potatoes, or standing on the roadside chatting with acquaintances, all looked at the two undead who walked into the town with different expressions.
Two seconds later, the townspeople let out uncontrollable screams of collapse, unbearable anger rather than fear, and fled in all directions howling like ghosts and wolves.
Qi Tian: “…”
Yin Zhengliang: “…”
Qi Tian couldn't understand what the townspeople were shouting, but Professor Yin Zhengliang... this old expert had read the draft language textbook . Although he couldn't communicate fluently with the people from the alien world like Zhao Zhenzhen, who had lived in the alien world for a long time without the assistance of Lord Yang, he could still have simple conversations by understanding simple words and sentences and slowing down his speech.
"Hmm... 'The undead are coming again', 'Oh my god', 'Go home'... I only understood these few sentences. The accent here is different from that of the Adler people. Some pronunciations are difficult to recognize... It seems that our players are quite valued by the indigenous people." Professor Yin Zhengliang complained calmly.
Qi Tian silently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
When a player committed a misdeed, Professor Yin Zhengliang stepped in to investigate... and it went surprisingly smoothly.
As soon as the two men arrived at the Aubrey residence, which had been harassed by the undead countless times, the former sheriff Westford Aubrey rushed out of the house to open the door. He was so skilled that it made people feel distressed that he quickly opened the study door and bedroom door in his house. Then he consciously and tiredly returned to the living room and sat down, numbly waiting for the undead to finish the search and leave.
Obviously... the former sheriff has given up resistance and is willing to cooperate voluntarily to protect the doors and windows of his house from being damaged.
Professor Yin Zhengliang sighed and walked into the house with a displeased look on his face.
The Aubrey family's residence is considered to be a relatively respectable family in the town of New Sealy. The house has an independent and fairly spacious yard. The main building of the mansion is a two-story brick and wood structure building about six meters high. Next to the wooden building is a garage about four meters high - used to park carriages and store sundries.
Westford's study also serves as a place to entertain guests. The bookshelf is placed against the wall, and a set of fabric sofas for entertaining guests is placed in front of the desk. There is a coat rack for guests to hang their coats in the corner next to the sofa, as well as a small square table for temporarily placing personal belongings.
Professor Yin Zhengliang took a quick look around the study, bedroom, living room, and kitchen that had been "visited" countless times by players, and then went upstairs.
The second floor is the room of Westford's two sons and youngest daughter. The eldest son and his wife occupy two rooms, the unmarried second son and the unmarried youngest daughter each occupy one room. The remaining empty room at the end of the corridor is used as a storage room.
After looking the Westford family's main house from top to bottom, Professor Yin Zhengliang did not rush to draw conclusions. He walked out of the living room on the first floor and turned into the garage next to the main house.
This garage has two compartments, the inner one is used to store food and sundries, while some tools for repairing carriages are placed in the corner of the outer compartment, and there are some shallow wheel tracks on the open space in the middle.
"Hmm...it doesn't look like there's much of a problem."
Professor Yin Zhengliang looked at the inner and outer compartments for a while and then came out of the garage.
When he was about to walk out of the garage, Professor Yin Zhengliang suddenly stopped.
"Professor?" Qi Tian, who had already walked into the yard, looked back in surprise.
Professor Yin Zhengliang stopped at the door of Aubrey's garage and scanned the spacious courtyard of Aubrey's house.
The size of this yard is about the same as that of a small farmyard in a wealthier rural area of China...it can accommodate a van and a tractor.
A layer of cobblestones was laid opposite the garage and the house as a road for carriages to enter and exit, and the rest of the open space was mud - the road surface was compacted quite solid, so there was no need to worry about it being particularly muddy when it rained.
There are two rows of flower pots in the yard, a small flower bed made of bricks, and a swing in the corner, probably for the little daughter to play with. It can be seen that this family pays more attention to details than ordinary people and is a person who pays more attention to the fun of life.
Professor Yin Zhengliang thoroughly observed the entire yard, then turned around and observed the garage more carefully and meticulously.
"Professor Yin, have you discovered something?" Qi Tian came over cautiously.
Professor Yin Zhengliang looked away and turned his gaze towards the neighbor of the Aubrey family. He said as if talking to himself, "The Aubrey family is considered rich in town, right? Their garage is built to the same specifications as other people's houses."
"Uh...it seems so." Qi Tian didn't understand what the professor wanted to say, and said, "Their family is a hereditary sheriff."
"Really..." Professor Yin Zhengliang responded casually and re-entered the garage.
This time... he first carefully observed the door frame of the garage door, stared at the wall, the top of the door frame and the base of the wall for a long time, and then checked several walls of the garage.
“This gate was expanded later.”
Qi Tian was confused when the old professor spoke up, pointing at the garage door and saying, "When this 'garage' was built, the space reserved for the door wasn't this wide."
Qi Tian: “…Huh?”
"Also... there should have been two windows on that wall. The wall coating is of varying thicknesses, so the reserved windows must have been sealed, leaving only the one on the east wall." Professor Yin Zhengliang said affirmatively.
Qi Tian was confused: "So... so what?"
"Does the garage need internal and external partitions?" Professor Yin Zhengliang asked again.
Qi Tian: “Hmm…”
"Does the garage need an attic ?" Yin Zhengliang raised his head with sharp eyes and looked upwards.
Qi Tian also looked up and looked at the ceiling of the attic.
This garage is more than four meters high, and the roof is a vaulted roof commonly seen in Tachia buildings. Judging from the height seen indoors, there is indeed an attic.
"Uh... Professor, actually the players have also noticed the attic here. I've also gone up there to take a look... There's nothing on it, it's just empty." Qi Tian quickly added.
"No, it's not a question of whether there are clues in the attic, but the existence of the attic itself is a problem." After saying this, Professor Yin Zhengliang stopped explaining and his expression became more solemn.
Why does Professor Yin Zhengliang, a very busy man in real life, have time to "play games"?
Part of the reason lies with the newly appointed Undead Archon of Taqiya.
This new Undead Archon has an important background... He is a retired cadre from the province next to Yang Qiu's hometown.
This old cadre could have entered the game last year in Earth time, which was when the Adler Territory was conquered - but because a young poverty alleviation cadre was paralyzed in bed after a car accident, this old cadre gave his helmet to a young man who needed to "log in" to the other world to recover his spirit.
Later, the old cadre was no longer in a hurry to compete with the young people until Director Lu completely solved the shortage of helmets (partly because Yang Qiu took the initiative to do it, and partly because the national team earned it themselves). Then the old man happily came in to experience his second life.
Then... this old man, who had worked as a deputy department head before retiring, keenly discovered the real hidden problems of Xinxili Town in a very short time.
The population growth rate in New Seeley Township is wrong.
This population growth rate is certainly not calculated by comparing with the Earth plane. The dimensions are different and have no reference value. The old man realized this after comparing other towns in the northern part of Tachia Territory with towns of similar population size to New Sili Town.
According to the existing and accessible archives of the Tax Commissioner of Creek City (because of the need to collect head tax, the population files of the Tax Commissioner are more accurate than those of the Civil Affairs Commission), in the past fifty years, the population statistics of New Seely Town, which are updated every ten years, have an average growth rate of 3% to 5% lower than that of other towns of similar size, including newborns and natural deaths.
In fact, this fluctuation is not a big problem when taken alone... After all, the population increase and decrease is fluctuating. If the local economic situation is better in a few years, children can have more children, and the population will go up; if the economy is bad and the climate is bad, more elderly and sick people will pass away, and the population will go down.
But if the population growth rate has remained below the average by 3% to 5% every decade for fifty years in a row, there is definitely a problem.
In short... this small town with a permanent population of just over 8,000 people would quietly lose a small amount of population every ten years without alarming anyone or attracting anyone's attention.
This part of the lost population is very small, and it only reflects a few points in the population growth rate. If it were the local governors, they would definitely not care about such a "small" thing - with the population size of this rural town, the population growth rate will be affected by a few more deaths or fewer births, which is not worth worrying about at all.
But the Chinese people from the Earth plane will care about it, take it seriously, and regard it as a top priority.
