The World Online

After the frolicking, the 4 sisters stopped and came back to the topic. Tsing Yi hugged a Mashimaro doll, sat on the couch and said, “Yesterday’s trip, it gave me a big shock. Shanhai is way stronger than I thought it was. Way beyond the imaginations and speculations in the forums.”

“How so?” Bai Hua asked curiously.

Tsing Yi wasn’t one who would boast. If she said she was shocked, she meant it wholeheartedly. Bai Hua had to observe the other allies and therefore her observations towards Shanhai Town wouldn’t be as detailed as Tsing Yi’s.

“In general terms, it means Shanhai’s territory system. I discovered Shanhai had built a nearly perfected territory system. Whether be it government, military, or economy, it all had well-built systems, it even included the subsystems such as talents cultivation and industrial development.

The whole Shanhai Town only had Qiyue Wiyi as a lone player, so this is really unbelievable. How could he shape Shanhai into this in such a short period of time?” Tsing Yi disbelievingly said.

“What? I can’t understand a thing.” Hong Ying interrupted her and said, “That Qiyue Wuyi, is he really that strong?”

Bai Hua nodded her head, “Little sister is right, we have a lot to learn from Shanhai. Qiyue Wuyi gave me a feeling. He is immensely familiar with the game. Other than that, I have a feeling, he played this game for a different reason than any others. As a professional gamer, we are used to managing Consonance Town as an in-game property. But Qiyue Wuyi, he is different, it feels like he is really considering himself as a real lord, and Shanhai as his territory.”

“Did you girls realize? Although Shanhai didn’t have any other players, the way he treated the NPCs was the same as how he treated the players like us. He did not differentiate NPCs and players in any way. Perhaps this is why he could manage Shanhai into the strong town it is right now, the sense of mastery and responsibility over the land. That is what we are lacking the most.”

“One more thing.” Tsing Yi added on. “Although he gave us, the allies, a tour around the town, I am feeling that he still hid some things from us. At least, we still don’t know what the sources of his funds are. Shanhai is well developed, their taxation system is also better than ours[a]. But in turn, in order to maintain the ongoing systems, the funds needed were immense too. Big sister, I don’t know if you had noticed, but the living standards of the residents of Shanhai Town are way better than Consonance Town’s. All of them wore new clothes, with ruddy faces filled with energy. This denotes that they lived an abundant life. When we had lunch in Restaurant Sangu, there were a lot of residents dining on the ground floor. This is something unimaginable by the residents of Consonance Town.”

Bai Hua nodded and exclaimed, “Yes, that too, is something I am curious of. But, that would be normal to them, Shanhai Town must have its own unique funding source. It is understandable for him to hide it from us. I believe his funding source could not be replicated. Otherwise, with his generosity, he would have told us a word or two about it.”

“Indeed.” Tsing Yi nodded in agreement, and said: “To know a man by repute is not as good as meeting him face to face in the flesh. Big sister’s move of supporting Qiyue Wuyi to the position of the leader of the alliance was a good move. A day’s time was enough for us to feel his formidable and ambitious aura. For a man around our age, this is truly rare.”

“Yo, little sister. Could it be you have fallen deeply in love with him? Is your springtime really coming?” Zi Luolan teased her again, not even thinking herself as the elder sister at all.

However, Tsing Yi did not back off this time. She pretended and said, “Hmph, what about it? Don’t you think Qiyue Wuyi is really masculine? Much better than those effeminate boys out there.”

Zi Luolan looked at her, astonished. She smiled and said, “Little girl, at such a young age yet your taste is not bad at all. You are right. This Qiyue Wuyi, he is very special.”

With a ridiculing face, Tsing Yi teased Zi Luolan in turn and said, “Sister still dares to talk about me. From the way I see it, you are the one who has fallen in love!”

As the representative of the “Bold faction”, the teasing from Tsing Yi was merely nothing to Zi Luolan. She walked seductively towards Bai Hua, swiftly hugged her, and said with a sweet voice, “Cheh, I am not fond of him. It’d be enough to have my Bai Hua to sleep with me. Is that right, my wife?” Upon finishing the sentence she kissed Bai Hua on the cheek.

Tsing Yi closed her eyes with her hands and shouted, “Ah, I’m still a little girl! How can you do this in front of me!” While in actual fact, she’d opened her fingers widely looking at the scene.

Bai Hua pushed Zi Luolan aside and said, “You all, we are talking about serious matters here! Can you all be little more serious?”

Zhi Luolan didn’t take that matter seriously and said, “I thought we just finished. What’s more to talk about? Shanhai Town’s secret, there’s no need to think so much about it.”

Bai Hua shook her head and said, “That is not the point.”

“Then what is?” Zi Luolan asked.

“The point is, from what we can see, Qiyu Wuyi obviously knows of the game better than any one of us. The thoughts and feelings he’d invested were also much greater than ours. Why didn’t you all think of why he’s doing it? What’s his purpose of playing this game?” Bai Hua blurted a few questions.

“Why do you have so many questions, he’s probably just one of those game-experiencers.” Hong Ying said suddenly.

The so-called game-experiencers were those who immersed themselves fully in the game, claiming themselves as the aboriginals, experiencing the game in a different way than normal players did. Ever since the game’s reality became 80% as real as the real world, players of this kind had increased greatly.

For the military lovers, they would chose a military background game. For those who loved ancient knights and heroes, they would choose a martial arts/ medieval background game. If you were a playboy, and was unable to practice it in real world, there would also be such games that could fulfill your desires.

In short, as long as one didn’t do any crime, you could do whatever you wanted in the game. Some hardcore game-experiencers immersed themselves into the game world to a point that they couldn’t differentiate the real and virtual worlds anymore. As a result, they would hibernate their real body and live in the gaming world for eternity.

Bai Hua shook her head and denied the possibility. She said, “No, it can’t be. According to my intuition, Qiyue Wuyi is not one of those players. He was sober with a well-directed purpose. It’s just that he had a different goal than us.”

Zi Luolan frowned and said uncertainly, “Or is that the game really has some dark, secret, and untold truth behind it? The territory-buying frenzy incident lately, I am sure all of you know about it. It seems like it is getting more and more serious and on a bigger scale now. Just two days ago, there was one corporate who contacted me, wanting to purchase our territory. Girls, guess how much they were offering?”

“How much?” Tsing Yi asked curiously.

Zi Luolan glanced at Bai Hua and said, “5 hundred million!”

“Oh god, so much. Why didn’t you tell us before, second sister? All the other previous games we had played, adding them up wouldn’t even be able to exceed that amount!” Hong Ying was shocked.

Zi Luolan looked at Bai Hua and said, “I’ve mentioned it to big sister before, but she declined.”

“Why?” Hong Ying asked Bai Hua.

Bai Hua shook her head and said: “Silly girl, there are no free lunches in life. These corporations were crazily buying territories. It was just too unusual. There must’ve been some reason behind it. They’re not dumb, but instead they were cunning like foxes. For them to offer 5 hundred million for a territory, there will be immense benefits to them in the deal.”

“Think about it, all those games we’ve played, there were some with the same settings of territory/kingdom building. But even then, these corporations did not purchase the territories but rather had us promoting their brands or selling their products in a shop or something like that. Therefore, at times like this, we have to be firm and calm. We must not be blinded by the profits now and miss the greatest opportunities. Anyhow, we are not lacking of money. With our savings, we couldn’t even deplete them in our whole life, so why the hurry in selling off Consonance Town?”

Upon hearing Bai Hua’s explanation, Hong Ying and Tsing Yi nodded in agreement, fully supporting her decision.

“What could be really going on?” Tsing Yi muttered to herself.

Bai Hua shook her head and said, “No one knows yet, maybe only those top corporates might know a thing or two. But, with the doubts of public in an uproar on the internet now, the Allaince government wouldn’t last long before it stands out and makes a statement answering the public’s call.”

“It is true, I see it that way too. Hence, all we need to do now is to wait calmly. Managing Consonance Town nicely is the only thing we need to be concerned of.” Zi Luolan added.

“En.” The sisters nodded together.

Seeing that the atmosphere was winding down, Bai Hua ended the conversation.

The sisters got up and went to their own matters. At this time, Bai Hua would usually surf on the forums, getting new information and updates. Zi Luolan would start a shopping spree in the virtual mall, and even 2 closets couldn’t fit all her clothes. As for Hong Ying, she would go to the gym without fail. Tsing Yi liked to watch anime, and sometimes she would pull along her sisters to join her.