Chapter 76 Coincidence
Master Liu, Lao Geng, Ji Tang, and the members of the expert group who are hiding in the mountains of Province G in reality, all have a consensus: in the game world of "Alien World", no one can be ignorant of the true origins , and Lord Yang Bi cannot be ignorant of it!
In fact, the full-scale close-up photos of Lord Yang captured by Ji Tang and the two elder brothers have been studied by the expert group for a long time. The research institute has even produced a half-body model of Lord Yang...
Lord Yang in the "game" looked to be about thirty or forty years old, with long black hair that fell past his shoulders, thin cheeks, regular features, and obvious oriental features.
Professor Yin Zhengliang from the expert group once had a sudden idea to input Yang's front and side face pictures into the Big Data Center of the Ministry of Public Security, and compared them with dozens of Chinese people with a similarity of more than 90%. But after investigating them one by one... they were all living their lives well, and they were definitely not Lord Yang, so they were all ruled out.
Some people have speculated whether Lord Yang might be the "target" active on Earth, but after comparing the video footage of the two, Professor Yin Zhengliang himself first ruled out this possibility - not to mention that the two men's appearances were so different that even the positions of their facial features were different, their language habits, voice spectrum, body shape, and gait were also very different.
Of course, assuming that Lord Yang used some magical magic to disguise himself as a harmless "target" and move around on Earth, this is not impossible... After all, when players "log in" to the game world, they can indeed use attack skills similar to those in online games, and there are also equipment such as the Deception Orb that can disguise the undead as humans. The expert group believes that magic that can completely change a person's appearance is possible.
However, the expert group still finds it difficult to explain the bizarre logic of this action - a magician who can change the terrain (the loess road at the south gate of Zhen) by manpower and deliver large amounts of supplies across dimensions, does not commit crimes or break the law by force on Earth, nor does he work as a dimensional trader to make a fortune. Instead, he goes to great lengths to create a game for young Chinese people to play... What's his goal?
As a magician, he actually has a dream of becoming a game producer. I guess this kind of weird plot only exists in light novels.
No matter what, Lord Yang, this "native NPC", definitely has a significant connection with the "target" and is definitely one of the masterminds behind the "game". There is no doubt about these two points - Master Liu & Lao Geng have confirmed from the "senior NPCs" that the undead characters controlled by the players belong to Lord Yang, and even the "senior NPCs" have the concept that the players' souls come from another world.
Well, the other world that the natives believed was a demonic world... This was something that Master Liu and Lao Geng were both very confused about, and they couldn't explain it...
In short, as the investigation around the game "Alien World" and the "target" has proceeded to this point, it is difficult for the expert group not to focus on the Lord Tarantan and the black magician Yang in the game.
The expert group adopted the most conservative and cautious zero-contact strategy for the "target". Naturally, they were even more cautious towards this magician who was like a god on earth. Even the two brothers who entered the game half on "vacation" and half to cooperate with the organization's work, the expert group gave them conservative instructions.
Master Liu, who has been engaged in road and bridge engineering for his whole life, will certainly not undermine the strategy of the expert group, but he is still very active in playing some tricks without affecting the expert group's strategic plan...
"Liu, do you mean that we should take the undead out of Tarantan?" When Hal heard this suggestion, an expression of disapproval appeared on his face.
"That's not right." Tattle objected. "Liu, you may not know enough about the world outside of Tarantan. The continent of Nabarron is a place blessed by the gods. Even Lady Gold Coin will not tolerate the undead creatures from the dark world entering her territory openly."
Pansy nodded first, then realized something was wrong and glared at Tuttle: "Pay attention, old man, what do you mean even if it's a gold coin lady?"
"No offense." Tuttle quickly raised his hand toward Pansy apologetically.
"Well, let me put it another way..." Master Liu smiled calmly, raised his hand and pointed at the four disabled helpers at the table at the kitchen door, who were enjoying the same breakfast as the thieves in front of them: "Are people like them special cases?"
"Huh?" The three natives didn't understand.
"I mean, are people like the lower-class civilians in Kamoer Town special cases in the outside world?" Master Liu gestured with his hands. "People like them who struggle to make ends meet and cannot even guarantee the most basic right to survive are relatively rare in the world outside of Tarantan, or are they very common?"
After hearing this, the three former thieves looked a little strange...
Tuttle was born into a middle-class family, but fell to the bottom after his father lost his job; Hal's family was also very wealthy before he became a teenager, but after his family fell into poverty, he had to experience all the hardships of the world; and Pansy was born into a lower class family - the three of them really couldn't say that the common people in Cameroon were a minority.
But...they are human beings after all.
It was really a bit too much of a stretch to ask the three of them to admit in front of a ghost that there were indeed many unfortunate people among their compatriots who were willing to "bend their bodies" to the ghosts just like the townspeople of Camor in order to survive...
Master Liu was very smart. He knew at a glance that the three young men were embarrassed, so he took the initiative to help them out and brought up another topic with a smile: "Old Geng and I often go out to the foot of the mountain outside the town to move things. This valley is quite large. In addition to the town, there are still many wastelands. Just take a casual estimate. Not to mention a lot, just the two places near the water in the north and west, it is easy to open up hundreds of acres of land."
"With Tarantan's climate and sunshine, even if only half of the hundreds of acres of land can be used to grow crops, it would be easy to produce hundreds of thousands of kilograms of grain in a year or two, right?"
"Also, I didn't have a chance to see the outside of the valley, but the young man we know went out to see it. There are a lot of forests and swamps, but there are also a lot of abandoned plains. Even if you don't plant crops, you can sow some grass there. It's not a lot, but if you plant a thousand acres of pasture grass, I don't know how many cattle and sheep you can raise!"
After confusing the three former thieves, Master Liu sighed again, "What a pity. The majority of Tarantan's inhabitants are the undead. Even if there are mountains of food and meat here, it is meaningless to the undead."
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Tuttle and Pansy's eyes lit up.
The two smart guys looked at their friend excitedly...but they saw Hal looking at Master Liu with a look that they were very familiar with, as if he was disgusted that this old ghost's boasting was even worse than those drunkards on the dock...
"Mountains of food and meat? Can the undead get drunk?" Hal not only looked at him with disdain, but also said it out loud, sneering at Master Liu, "Calm down, man. There is only wilderness outside the exile town. The pasture you dream of is only the bones and feces of wild animals. If you let these women in the town go out to grow grass, the only result will be more chewed bones in the wilderness."
Master Liu smiled without saying anything, and looked at Tuttle & Pansy with great energy.
Before Hal could say anything more rude, Tuttle said, "I know what Yang wants. Thank you, Liu."
Hal was still confused, and Pansy was eagerly winking at him...
Master Liu laughed and walked away, leaving the space for them to communicate. As soon as he left, Tuttle pulled Hal and said with suppressed excitement: "Hal, do you still remember the ambition of Yang that we analyzed first?"
Hal was stunned.
It wasn't that this guy had a brain like a block of wood, but he just couldn't figure it out . As soon as Tuttle reminded him, he woke up and slowly opened his mouth...
"Let's talk about it when we get back." Pansy glanced at Master Liu not far away and said in a low voice.
The three brothers devoured the remaining food in no time, served some food to the five female workers they were in charge of, and then left in a hurry.
After returning to the Walker's Guild, Tuttle closed the door, turned around and said excitedly to his two friends: "Our chance has come!"
"That's right. Yang has given us power this time. We must make good use of this opportunity." Pansy had suppressed her excitement before, and said in a sonorous and powerful voice, "Doesn't Yang want his undead to be more aggressive and more keen to challenge the strong? Doesn't he want more subjects? We will satisfy him!"
Hal: Uh--
"War can make the undead stronger, and the looted population can enrich the people of Tarantan. Either way, it is in line with Yang's expectations. That guy has absolutely nothing to say." Tattle rubbed his hands with excitement. "As for the consequences of launching a territory war and how to feed the looted population, that is Yang's problem. Anyway, we are just doing what he asked."
Hal: “…”
He thought that his two old brothers were bewitched by Liu and suddenly became loyal to Yang... Fortunately, his brothers never let him down.
The three brothers didn't even bother to "go to work" to receive players, and immediately rushed out to contact the Knight Instructor Jerome and the Warrior Instructor Charlie Rex...
The point is, it’s Charlie Rex.
Before being tricked by Yang Qiu to come to Tarantan, this group of former thieves had been squatting in the Sorensen Mountains for several years, doing the illegal work of robbing and collecting tolls. They only cared about which caravan would pass through Sorensen in which month, and did not care about the people's livelihood issues around them... When it comes to understanding the relatively nearby southeastern border of the Rhine Kingdom that is suitable for "activities", we have to look to Rex, a warrior who has just been hiding in Sorensen for a short time.
The reason why he chose the Kingdom of Rhine instead of the Principality of Shiga was easy to understand. Yang had just gone to the border town of Kamoer in the Principality of Shiga to show off his power. If he led the undead to kill them now, it would be easy for him to get into trouble as well...
It was the first time Rex saw the former thieves’ enthusiastic smiles, and he felt very uncomfortable…
"So...you want to know where in the southeastern part of the Principality of the Rhine there is that extremely chaotic, barren, and miserable place?" Rex said with a strange look on his face.
"That's right!" Hal rubbed his hands with a smile, waiting for Rex's answer with anticipation.
Rex stared at Hal for a while, then silently looked at the two think tanks beside Hal.
Tuttle and Pansy also looked at him with bright smiles on their faces.
"Sorry... ? I don't quite understand what you mean?" Instead of being warmed by their smiles, Rex became alert.
"It's like this, Rex." Tuttle took the initiative to step forward and said righteously, "Yang is the lord of Tarantan, and Tarantan is short of subjects. This time Yang hopes that we can come up with a professional mission that can allow the undead to be fully trained. So what could be more suitable than rescuing more poor people?"
Rex with a blank expression: "..."
If someone else said this, he would believe it.
Forget about you bunch of bandits and robbers.
When Tuttle saw Rex's reaction, he knew that this "voluntary thief" was wary of them, so he immediately spoke from the bottom of his heart and said sincerely: "I know you look down on us, Rex, but I must tell you that none of us was born to be a thief by choice."
"I once dreamed of becoming a member of the Rhine Kingdom's National Guard. Before... my family encountered misfortune, I never thought that I would even be able to walk in the sun with honor. If there were better options, who would be willing to live a life of dancing on the edge of a knife and being insecure at any moment?"
"People like us can at least rely on force when we have no other choice. For example, those female workers Yang asked us to take care of were in a situation where they could not survive and had no other choice but to wait for death. When there is a chance to help these poor people who have no choice, even thieves like us who have stained their hands with the blood of others want to lend a hand. Isn't it understandable that we want to lend a hand?"
"We're human too, Rex."
Rex: “…”
"...Okay." Rex nodded reluctantly and took two steps back awkwardly. "I understand... But before we take action, I must first explain to Yang where we will take the undead."
"Of course you do, old man," Tuttle said happily.
Rex left in a hurry, and Hal and Pansy looked at Tuttle with a different look...
"Well...is this guy reliable?" Pansy raised her chin in the direction where Rex went.
Tuttle smiled confidently, "Don't worry, Pansy. Little Charlie is about the same age as Manan. When we saw him, he had collapsed to the point where he didn't even have much self-awareness left. People with high inspiration are most easily bewitched by emotional words. It makes more sense for him to persuade Yang than for us to go on stage ourselves."
Pansy and Hal nodded in unison.
It's true that these bandits living in the Sorensen Mountains don't really understand the living conditions of the people in the southeastern part of the Rhine Kingdom. But, there's really no need to understand - there are so many miserable people, they are everywhere, there's no need to look for them specifically.
In other words, they were just looking for a reason to contact Rex and trick him into testing Yang...
Monday, October 28th, 10 a.m. Earth time.
Ji Tang, who openly logged in to play games on weekdays, the first thing he did after logging in... was to lower his head to confirm the yellow words that appeared in the information bar.
Ji Tang, who never reads the information board announcements, did receive a lot of education from the weekend event that just ended...
Very good, the dog production team has finally acted like a human being. They said they would only hold activities on weekends, so they only do so on weekends. Now it’s finally normal during the working week.
Ji Tang breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards the Warrior Guild.
Entropy does not increase. Tang Jia was not online in the morning because she had classes. Yang Ying, who had already resigned, was online earlier than Ji Tang. When he saw Ji Tang coming, he called him over and took the opportunity to improve his reputation in the game before it got dark.
Although the Inner Demon dungeon in the weekend event was not won, the word that there was a position for a warrior in the dungeon has spread among players. The warrior guild, which used to be deserted, now has a few casual players who have not yet changed their professions and are squatting there to complete tasks.
"Xiaotang doesn't have classes this afternoon, so she'll be online in a few hours. Qingyue seems to have joined some research group, so she might be online less these two days." While completing tasks, Yang Ying chatted with Ji Tang, "But I think she's upset because she didn't get the activity book, and she's unwilling to tell us, so she's hiding and adjusting herself."
"That's right... They are students who value their studies, so it's a good thing for them to be busy with their studies." Ji Tang was a little absent-minded, and from time to time he turned his head to look in the direction of the Warrior Guild Hall.
The old comrade from the Chamber of Commerce cafeteria reported to the expert group yesterday about giving suggestions to the "senior NPC". How come more than a day has passed and there is still no movement in the game?
The sky in the game gradually darkened. Yang Ying, who was not going to spawn an NPC to work, pulled Ji Tang to hand in the task. The two entered the small hall of the Warrior Guild, and Ji Tang keenly discovered... there was a large backpack next to the warrior instructor's desk!
There is also a rolled blanket tied on top of the backpack!
"Here it comes!" Ji Tang cheered up.
In the last tricycle caravan expedition mission, the players were still operating inside Tarantan and were unable to actually see a settlement where people lived.
The former thieves had ulterior motives and wanted to drag the undead out to cause trouble, which coincided with the needs of the expert group... They were eager to know the information outside of Tarantan!
