Chapter 124 - Preparation
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
After Ouyang Shuo finished expanding the space of his storage bag, he started purchasing military goods.
He first spent 210 gold on 210 ordinary military tents. Since it was inappropriate for Ouyang Shuo to ask the officers to stay in the same tents as the soldiers, he had bought 10 more tents for his officers. Then, he spent another 50 gold on a fine military tent, storing it in his storage bag. The fine tent would be used as command post.
This was followed by military grain pills. With 500 gold, Ouyang Shuo bought 50,000 military grain pills, enough to sustain 1000 men for a month. Plus, these pills could be stored in his storage bag. They had no such things as an expiration date, so even if they couldn’t finish them, they could still use it next time. The military grain pill had a diameter of 2 cm, so 50,000 pills took up only a small little corner of his storage bag.
After leaving the barracks, Ouyang Shuo made his way to the wood workshop.
The wood workshop had changed a lot since the last time Ouyang Shuo had come. It had expanded to 4 or 5 times larger than it was before, and had been divided into two sections. The front section was purposed to accommodate the guests and visitors, while the back section was a large space of the workshop. Hundreds of carpenters were in the workshop, busy crafting parts and manufacturing the wooden-ox horse.
As it was late in the day, Ouyang Shuo lost his intent on touring the workshop. He received the south-pointing chariot from the manager Lu Guangzhi, stored it in his storage bag, and directly returned to his manor.
Ouyang Shuo went back straight to the manor and logged off.
In the brick and mortar world, it was already the height of summer.
Ever since the last holiday trip they had, Bing’er had been more clingy than ever. Today was a Sunday, Ouyang Shuo woke up early from bed and brushed himself up. As soon as he was done, the little girl came rushing out from her bedroom, she was ready to join Ouyang Shuo for a morning jog, for this, she even omitted her favorite habit of sleeping.
“Baby, why are you so active lately? Is the Sun now rising from the west?” Ouyang Shuo teased her.
The little beauty smiled and said nothing like a proud peacock.
Bing’er wore a pink t-shirt along with pink cotton sports pants, and on her legs were a pair of white canvas sports shoes. Her appearance was exactly that of an active sports girl. Ever since she and Xiaoyue had gotten along together, Bing’er’s clothing was handled by Xiaoyue. Compared with Ouyang Shuo’s aesthetics, hers naturally was a few levels better. After all, in the field of fashion, most men were far behind the women.
While jogging around in the park, passersby were staring at the little beauty as though as she were a star walking on the street. Even Ouyang Shuo could enjoy the luxury of being stared at by passersby.
Even after they came back, Xiaoyue was still in bed, it seemed that she was sleeping in due to the game. Although, it was proven that when players were in-game, their human body would be in a light sleep state, but it wasn’t as good as real sleep. Therefore, for some players, especially female players, if conditions permitted it, they would sleep in after logging out of the game. As the saying goes, lack of sleep is the enemy of a beauty.
After breakfast, Ouyang Shuo opened his handbrain and logged in to the game forum.
Around these 2 days, the forum had been extra lively, the focus was naturally directed towards the Battle of Zhuolu. Such a new style of a quest system with the lack of disclosed information had kept the players in suspense. However, most of the players weren’t qualified for the battle and could only discuss about it in the forum.
Although, there were adventure players who had the same whimsical ideas to join the lord players in their territories and indirectly achieve the goal of participating in the Battle of Zhuolu. Unfortunately for them, most of the qualified lord players were the best of the best and they didn’t have a lack in talents. Furthermore, due to the limitations implied on the title, most of them could only bring 100 to 200 men along with them, and there were no available spaces for the adventurers anymore.
Ouyang Shuo was still worried, that after knowing his identity, his little aunt Ling Jing would approach him and ask him to bring her mercenary group along. If that were the case, then there existed a risk of getting exposed too early.
Yet, truth had proven to Ouyang Shuo that his worries were merely in his imagination. Ling Jing, although different from others in terms of sexual orientation, was particularly good at conducting herself in society. She kept her promise out of love for her nephew and had never spoken a word to her partner Xie Siyun about Ouyang Shuo’s identity.
In the game forum, other than the Battle of Zhuolu, there were still some other hot topics.
The territory-buying incident caused by Song Wen was still in a frenzy even after 2 months, and it was actually getting bigger. Even after the government had released its notice, it still wasn’t enough to quell the public’s doubts.
Ever since the incident, the smart ones among the civilian lord players had declined and rejected the corporate people’s offers. Some of them were waiting to sell only for a better price while some decided to wait until things had been cleared before making any decisions.
The number of territory lands was limited in nature, the existing territory land in the whole China server would not exceed 10,000 in number. While being 1 of the only 2 strongest within the federal government, China had way more than 10,000 top corporate people, and even individuals worth 100 million numbered more than 10,000.
With such a situation at the moment, the wolves had little meat to share. With a low supply and a high demand market, it would be natural for the prices to shoot up high. The wolves had to increase their bidding prices higher and higher in order to acquire territory lands. Song Wen had spent a 100 million on a grade 3 village and Song Jia still thought it was a waste of credits. Yet now, even an offer of 200 million credits was still insufficient for one to get a grade 3 village, so one could tell how crazy the market was right now.
Following the high price of territory land, the public’s doubts against Earth Online had evolved. As of now, the doubts had spread not only in China, but all over the world. Ouyang Shuo would like to see how long the federal government could hide the truth from the public.
For Ouyang Shuo, it was natural for him to wish for the federal government to disclose the truth. As a direct result, the public would stop changing in-game golds into real-world credits, and this would in turn cut off gold-funding sources from players like Di Chen and the like.
However, no matter how much he wished for it, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t going to do it himself. Acts like posting the truth onto the game forum would be the same as looking for a death wish. In this modern era, skynet was capable of overlooking everything, everywhere. Ouyang Shuo wasn’t equipped with the necessary hacking skills to release the truth while bypassing or avoiding the skynet.
No matter who or what was it, those who dared to expose the most confidential intelligence of the Alliance would be faced with harsh repression. The Alliance might not be able to overwhelm the public’s will, but there were multiple ways one could imagine for an individual to be squelched.
In this modern era, the democratic system had been perfected. Suggestions like the ones Ouyang Shuo gave to Song Wen were derived interpretations based on the player’s understanding of the game rules, combined with real world business regulations. Such acts, even detected by skynet, would be considered legitimate and Ouyang Shuo would be protected from skynet by his civil rights.
But, if one had disclosed confidential information intentionally, and hence caused social chaos, then the Alliance would have enough reason to arrest you immediately under the charge of leaking the Alliance’s confidential secrets.
That said, before finding the perfect timing, Ouyang Shuo would not put himself in danger easily.
It was already 11 AM when Ouyang Shuo logged out of the forum. It was then Xiaoyue was finally awake, Bing’er teased Xiaoyue just like she would tease Ouyang Shuo when he had slept in.
The little girl lifted her fleshy small hand, lightly scraped her fleshy face, laughed, and teased Sun Xiaoyue. “Shame shame, big sister is a lazy pig, Bing’er had already finished her homework. Big sister only woke up now.”
Sun Xiaoyue wasn’t like Ouyang Shuo, so she felt embarrassed. She quickly walked over, hugged Bing’er in her arms, squeezed Bing’er’s fleshy face, and said, “Bad Bing’er, you even dare to tease big sister now. I will teach you a lesson, else your tail would go over the sky.”
“Ah!” Bing’er immediately begged for mercy. She made a pitiful face and said, “Wuwu~~~Big sister, Bing’er realizes her mistakes. I will not tease and say you are a lazy pig anymore.”
“You still dare to speak of it!” Sun Xiaoyue was furious and used her hand and tickled Bing’er. The little girl couldn’t take it and kept laughing.
“Ah, haha, big sister!!! Bing’er really knows she did the wrong things, haha. Big sister, have mercy on Bing’er!” The little girl begged for mercy as tickling her was Bing’er’s biggest weakness.
“Hmph, now you’re talking.” Xiaoyue had finally let her off and went into the toilet like a winner at life.
Ouyang Shuo was really enjoying the show while making himself comfortable on the sofa.
Bing’er turned her head to Ouyang Shuo and saw her brother’s gloating face. She rushed into his arms and said, “Big brother bad bad, you don’t even come and save you cute little sister.”
Ouyang Shuo laughed, knocked on her head, and said, “Haha, you think Xiaoyue sister is like me? Someone you can simply tease? You made the mistake, you face the consequences.”
Bing’er felt embarrassed and hid her face in Ouyang Shuo’s arms, not saying a word.
Ouyang Shuo caressed her little head and deciding to gave her an out, he then said, “Baby, say what you want for lunch, I will make it for you.”
“I want sugar-vinegar ribs!” Unsurprisingly, the little foodie lifted her head and said excitedly
“You little brat, you keep ordering foods that require great preparation. Fine, I’ll fulfill your request for lunch, making sure our little princess is satisfied.”
She was so happy her eyes practically became a line. She kissed Ouyang Shuo on the face and said, “En, big brother treats Bing’er best!” proving Ouyang Shuo’s petting was useful.
“I want boiled potatoes and sirloin.” All of the sudden, Sun Xiaoyue’s head came out of the bathroom and said loudly.
Ouyang Shuo made a facepalm, accepted his fate and helplessly said, “Understood!”