They Shall All Fall Before Us!

After the meeting adjourned. Nearly everyone filed out of the council chamber looking satisfied, including the journalists from Ideal City, Li Ke from the Academy, and other non-parties to the ceasefire negotiations. Except for the Legion's delegation. Cohen remained frozen in his seat, glaring with daggers across the negotiation table at Chu Guang. The Wilante officers standing behind him looked so enraged they seemed ready to devour him alive. Chu Guang alone wore a bewildered look, wondering how he had offended these big-nosed folks this time. Fortunately, Cohen didn't make him guess, venting his fury directly. "I am deeply displeased with your phrasing! This is an unconditional ceasefire. There are no victors or losers in this war! You had no right to use the word 'victory'!" *Just over that?* Chu Guang clicked his tongue inwardly. *We agreed everyone would claim their own victory. What's wrong with saying a few words to my own subordinates?* *Besides, it's not like you weren't given the floor.* *You were the one who had to act all haughty and brush it off with 'Cut the crap.' Who else can you blame?* *If I'd known you were this petty, I should've grabbed nineteen pens and swapped to a new one after every stroke just to torment you for a few extra minutes.* *I could've used the leftovers for a raffle draw.* *What a missed opportunity!* "It really wasn't quite appropriate," Wu Changnian cleared his throat softly, glancing at Chu Guang beside him and speaking mild reproof. "This is a ceasefire negotiation. Using the word 'victory'... might cause misunderstandings." Facing the barrage of hostile glares from across the table, Chu Guang didn't care in the slightest, saying nonchalantly, "What does it matter? Does the Ideal City press even have a branch in Triumph City?" Wu Changnian pondered for a moment and nodded. "Fair point." He had also been somewhat surprised by Cohen's intense reaction. The words were clearly meant for the man's own troops; flying into a rage over it was making a mountain out of a molehill. Still, speaking for the Enterprise, he had to offer some smoothing words. After all, the ceasefire agreement had already been signed, and stirring up fresh trouble at this juncture benefited no one. Cohen glared coldly at Chu Guang before finally giving a snort. Bracing his hands on the table, he stood up, snatched his copy of the ceasefire accord, and led his officers out of the council chamber without looking back. The nearby players, eager for action, showed looks of disappointment, especially a few troublemakers who loved nothing more than chaos. *Looks like we can't pop the loot out of these old geezers after all...* Watching their bleak, retreating backs, Chu Guang turned to Wu Changnian beside him. "Did you get the coordinates of the Pioneer's crew?" Wu Changnian nodded. "They've handed them over. The 26th Strike Team, led by Yun Song, has already reached the vicinity of the target zone. The entrance to Shelter 0 is there as well, near a mutant tribe. The Legion has terminated its mercenary contract with them, so we are free to dispose of those mutants as we see fit." Chu Guang gave a subtle look. "I was wondering about that earlier. Mutants in the Great Desert... actually doing business with humans?" In their eyes, weren't humans purely breeding tools and food? It sounded as absurd as trying to negotiate terms with a takeout order. Wu Changnian shrugged. "I found it strange too, but according to the Legion's own explanation, General Klaas, the former commander-in-chief in the Sunset Province, likely struck some sort of deal with those mutants. Mutant mercenaries even fought in the expedition a year ago." "And based on our intelligence, those mutant mercenaries' fearless charges and horrifying regenerative capabilities make them tough even for soldiers in powered armor." Though only "tough." The Death Corps had clashed with those mutants before. According to Brother Edge's own appraisal, those guys were just elite mobs with slightly thicker health bars—not even as troublesome as the Wilante elites they had run into on Height 330. After a brief pause, Wu Changnian continued. "Cohen claims the Marshal was unaware of this. That Joseph probably knows something, but he was unwilling to elaborate... In any case, Klaas is dead, Griffin is dead, and while McLaren is still alive, he likely doesn't know much either. It's not a glorious matter; they won't dig deeper just to satisfy our curiosity." Chu Guang raised an eyebrow. "Meaning we have to wipe their asses for them?" Wu Changnian nodded. "Yes." Chu Guang gave a chuckle. "Heh, they sure wiped their hands clean of the shit—claiming whatever the last guy dropped has nothing to do with the current administration." Wu Changnian nodded again, looking seriously at his young ally. "Indeed. While you probably know this in your heart, I must still offer a word of caution: be wary of them. Be wary of every single one of them. Regardless of the little episode just now, they will never forget today's 'humiliation.' The moment you display any weakness or vulnerability, they will bare their fangs without hesitation and make their move... They are a race engineered purely for warfare. Griffin was, Cohen is, and anyone else they send here will be the same." This was also why the Enterprise supported the Alliance holding Bister Town. They needed a trustworthy friend to keep an eye on those restless Wilantes. The commotion those people had stirred up had already put the Board of Directors on guard. The Great Desert could not hold back Wilante ambition; if only for the peace of Yunjian Province, they could not remain entirely detached. Chu Guang curled his lip. "No wonder they can get along with mutants." "Those are two different matters... Though speaking of which, I was stunned when I arrived: to think there are grayish-black mutants in this wasteland." Wu Changnian sighed, adding with evident sentiment, "I thought blue mutants with gills were ridiculous enough... Just how many secrets in this world remain unknown to us?" Chu Guang couldn't agree with his sentiment. Whether green or blue, grayish-black or multicolored, as long as it was a mutant, he didn't intend to leave a single one alive. Monsters that tied predation and reproduction together and wrote hatred for humanity into their very DNA should never have existed in this world in the first place. They were just like goblins. Behind every mutant whelp lay a blood debt. After witnessing the hellish nightmare in the mutant nest on 76th Street in Qingquan City, he had no intention of ever negotiating with any mutant. At the thought of his old friends from the Pioneer being held with those beasts, Chu Guang unconsciously clenched his fist against his knee. "I have a small request." "What request?" Wu Changnian's eyebrow twitched involuntarily. He had developed a headache whenever he heard this man say words like "request" or "suggestion." Yet to his surprise, the man didn't make any difficult demands this time. "Before withdrawing from Oasis 2, I want to drive my Heart of Steel a bit further west to bring our old friends home." Wu Changnian was taken aback, a strange look coming over his face. *What kind of strange request is that?* Though puzzled, he naturally wouldn't refuse. "No problem... If anything, I should thank you. The air currents over the Great Desert are erratic, and the Orcas and Cloud Dragonflies reportedly perform poorly out there." A smile crossed Chu Guang's face as well. "Then it's a deal." ... Shortly after the ceasefire agreement was signed, the Enterprise forces stationed in Falcon City launched their Migratory Birds, giving wings to the news of victory. The released drones crossed the desert, flew over valleys, and traversed rivers and mountains along the way, finally arriving shortly after dark at that city-state perched on the east coast. Holographic fireworks bloomed above Ideal City, and the central Board Building used an entire outer wall as a screen, displaying this historic moment to all of Ideal City's residents. This included the speech by Deputy Minister Wu Changnian of the General Management Department. And it included the words spoken by his ally—the Administrator of the Alliance and Shelter 404: "...It is an honor to witness this moment with you all." "This is our victory!" Yes. This was victory! The Wilantes of the West Coast were ashamed to admit military defeat in the Sunset Province, and their euphemistic wording was merely a fig leaf for losers. The expressions of those big-nosed officers as they signed the ceasefire were the best proof. For the onlookers buzzing across Endpoint Cloud, Chu Guang's concise proclamation of victory was far more popular than Deputy Minister Wu Changnian's lengthy address. Even Chu Guang hadn't expected that a straightforward piece of truth without any boasting would make him go viral once again in Ideal City. In the discussion forums of *Battle Royale*, run by Skeleton Studio. Because the game developers had such a hardcore background, they had attracted countless netizens who had zero interest in virtual reality games but were fascinated by the Alliance. The CEO named Xue Hongliang was also remarkably savvy, renaming the virtual community banner to "This Is Our Victory!", drawing cheers from countless players and passersby alike. On this day of celebration, no one was discussing the game; almost everyone was cheering for the victory that had just arrived. A crowd of bizarre avatars cheered in the square. "This is our victory!" "Wake up, bro. Our ground forces only sent one strike team and an experimental android unit. What does winning this war have to do with us?" "Doesn't that just prove the Board's brilliance? Not a single citizen of Ideal City had to die, and we secured final victory without breaking a sweat!" "Uh... a few died on the way, actually." "Mod, over here! Kick out this guy who can't read the room!" "Hahaha! I love their Administrator! Compared to that rambling middle-aged guy, the handsome young man is way more my style!" "Waaaah, when are they opening flights to the Alliance? I've never been outside Yunjian Province!" "That might be tough. I heard River Valley Province is the home of Deathclaws. Even if the Alliance is our ally, going there is pretty dangerous." "Either way, thank goodness... Our boss can finally come back to make games!" "Looking forward to it!" "Hope he comes back alive." ... In the Night City bar. For the Victory Day theme party, the background music playing tonight consisted of songs "composed" by residents of Dawn City. Figures swayed on the dance floor, LED masks flickering with shifting smiley faces. Under the flashing red, yellow, and blue neon, the retro rhythm felt surprisingly attuned to the revelry of the scene. Sitting in a corner of the bar, Fang Chang quietly watched the figures nearby, feeling a slight twinge of regret. He had likely missed the "Boundless Yellow Sands" expansion. Still, he hadn't wasted these past few months. During his time training and recharging at Yunjian University, he had learned plenty of eye-opening things, including the business models popular in this city and the management methods common here. He was now certain that among the developers of *Wasteland OL*, there was at least a consulting team of experts in politics, economics, military affairs, history, culture, religion, and more to polish the finer details. Take the Enterprise's currency, for instance. At first, he had assumed that credit, abbreviated as Cr, was just reskinned game currency. But upon deeper examination, he discovered that its core coincided perfectly with the real-world concept of DeFi—decentralized finance. No. Describing it that way was frankly an insult to Cr. In reality, DeFi was still in its exploratory stage, far from stable; most digital tokens issued on that theory were speculative schemes to fleece gullible investors. Yet in this virtual game, true decentralized finance had actually been implemented on a localized scale! At least in Ideal City and through Cr. For example, at the most fundamental level, every resident of Ideal City was an issuer of credit currency and simultaneously a guarantor of its issuance. For a traditional central bank to inject currency into the market required various financial tools. Yet whether lending to businesses to expand production or lending to citizens to consume, the beer and foam poured over the top of the pyramid could never benefit everyone equally. It could even happen that some people never tasted beer at all, drinking only a bellyful of foam, while others drank until they vomited beer without tasting a speck of foam. Under the framework of Ideal City's credits, however, it was a completely different story. Smart contracts coded with quantum algorithms guaranteed fair and equitable transactions, while the nature of the credit currency itself, along with a suite of financial regulations, ensured that everyone participating in production benefited equally from the prosperity of that production. Of course, this system had its drawbacks. Equality did not mean uniformity; not everyone could live in a room with a window or on an upper floor of a skyscraper. Furthermore, due to limitations inherent in the rules themselves, it did not restrict monopolies. In fact, it effectively encouraged mutual mergers among "production divisions" within the Enterprise. As a result, in a place like Ideal City, established monopolies were even harder to break, and no power outside the rules could correct them. Unless the monopoly itself were eliminated by the market due to an operational crisis or random accident—which was virtually impossible. And the Board, whose seats were determined by shareholding, would never push through anti-monopoly legislation. At most, they used checks and balances to restrain monopolized "production divisions," making it difficult for them to profit by exploiting company employees living within the system. After all, in this peculiar economic system, every citizen was an issuer of currency and had already become part of the currency itself. Philosophically speaking, although this caused people to be highly "monetized" by credits and lose their human attributes, framed another way, it could also be interpreted as "liberating ordinary people from the debt relationships of the old era." Everyone was their own creditor, no longer a slave to money, nor enslaved to others because of it. Aside from fostering monopolies as a side effect, an overly conservative credit expansion strategy made it difficult for startups like Skeleton Studio to break through. Those who disliked playing by the rules or were unfamiliar with them struggled to adapt to life here. Conversely, the risks across the entire economic system were compressed to an astonishing degree. Over the past century and a half, this small society of one to ten million people had not experienced a single true economic overheating or depression! The entire system operated on a steady upward trajectory—slow, but certain. He had never seen an economic curve with such a stable slope! If any mid-sized or larger economy in reality possessed such certainty, without even a ripple of fluctuation, it would have slammed the accelerator long ago. Failing to align the slope with the Y-axis would be doing a disservice to such guaranteed investments; there would be no such thing as "certain but slow." Most absurdly, this idiosyncratic economic system could seamlessly interface with a slate of traditional old-era economies, including the Alliance! Whether it was import-export business or foreign aid expenditures, it had zero disruptive impact on the smooth operation of the economy as a whole. Without question, this was a model that did not exist in reality. If this game truly were as completely authentic as it claimed, this unique model alone would be enough to drive economists around the globe insane! Naturally, this system built upon Cr as its bedrock was horrifyingly complex. Even residents living within Ideal City likely understood only the tip of the iceberg. Let alone an outsider like him. Yet merely grasping the basics had left him deeply awed. Over nearly half a year of study, Fang Chang even had the illusion that some of the less "avant-garde" sociological knowledge and experience might actually work in the real world. Even if only on a theoretical level. Ever since achieving financial freedom, he had become a professional gamer purely out of interest, rarely paying attention to the financial field anymore. Yet this game had rekindled his passion for the major he had once set aside, to the point where he was actually attending university inside a game. Life was truly full of surprises... Just then, the electronic wind chimes hanging at the bar entrance swayed gently, and a tall beauty walked in from outside. Although Li Shuyue's appearance was not among the most striking in a place like Ideal City, where handsome men and gorgeous women were a dime a dozen, her sharply tailored, monochrome office suit and distinctly brisk air looked exceptionally unique in a cyberpunk-flavored bar like this. So much so that the moment she walked in, Fang Chang spotted her at once. Likewise spotting the figure who stood out from his surroundings, Li Shuyue walked straight to him and sat down in the chair that pulled out automatically. "...Company meeting ran a bit late. Hope I didn't keep you waiting. Today's on me." "No problem, still two minutes until our agreed time," Fang Chang said with a smile, glancing at the holographic clock on the wall. "I actually only arrived a few minutes ago myself." "Is that all you have to say upon seeing me?" "Thank you for treating, President Li." Li Shuyue rolled her eyes. Just then, she noticed *Introduction to Artificial Intelligence* and *Principles of Economics* resting on the edge of the table, along with the Yunjian University uniform he was wearing. She couldn't help bursting into laughter, teasing, "You read this stuff in a bar?" "Just got out of night school," Fang Chang shrugged nonchalantly, adopting a half-joking tone at her strange expression. "Can't help it. We wastelanders from the countryside don't know the ropes; we can only squeeze in extra study while you folks are off work relaxing." Li Shuyue offered earnest advice. "We're used to leaving professional matters to professionals. If you want to recharge during your downtime, I recommend taking management." Fang Chang smiled. "Oh, that? I took that too." Li Shuyue: "..." Seeing her rendered speechless, Fang Chang continued. "Speaking of which, what made you think of talking business here?" He had originally planned to spend some time in the library before logging off, only to be suddenly called out by her to discuss business. Only after agreeing did he realize the location was the Night City bar, not far from the Yunjian University building. Li Shuyue replied casually, "We can't very well go to a café at night." "So why did it have to be at night?" "Nobody expected you guys to win today! You should have given me advance notice!" Li Shuyue said with a touch of complaint. Fang Chang smiled but said nothing. He had naturally known the Alliance would win tonight. In fact, he had known the second the ceasefire agreement was signed—before the news even reached Ideal City. However, communication among players wasn't shared with NPCs outside the Alliance. Considering she might have connections to the Board, he hadn't brought it up. If the Board mistakenly believed he possessed an information channel beyond their knowledge, it could cause unnecessary complications. When unsure whether the other party would care about such a detail, his habit was always to assume they would. Seeing that Fang Chang didn't intend to explain, Li Shuyue felt a pang of frustration, but didn't dwell on the minor point. After all, he had no obligation to share inside information with her. "Anyway, I want the business plan we agreed upon earlier to be put into motion before midnight tonight, using the draft you submitted to me last time... I need you to verify the details. If there are no surprises, we'll go with that one. I hope there won't be any surprises." This was the first commercial cooperation between the Enterprise and the Alliance. She had prepared for months and didn't want other speculators who smelled blood to beat her to the punch. She had a premonition. The Alliance would become a new growth engine for the Enterprise's overseas profits! With that, she took a holographic computer pen from her briefcase and placed it on the table, handing him a pair of AR glasses linked directly to the computer. While the draft wasn't some monumental trade secret, it wasn't suitable for display in a public setting either. Taking the glasses, Fang Chang couldn't help grumbling inwardly. *Discussing serious business cooperation in a bar—this client is out of her mind.* "Midnight... Is it really fine so late?" Fang Chang asked offhandedly as he conducted a final check, tapping open the light-blue holographic pop-up to skim through it. "In this city, time is credit, and credit is everything... Remembering that line is worth more than reading any number of textbooks." Glancing at the text flickering on the electronic screen nearby, Li Shuyue suddenly remembered something. She waved over the ordering robot and tapped twice on its head. Soon, two glasses of specially mixed spirits were brought over. "Right, almost forgot. Congratulations," Li Shuyue said, watching Fang Chang review the document intently. She picked up one of the rainbow-hued cocktails, tapped the rim of the other glass, and parted her lips. "Congratulations on winning the war." "Your expression tells me you're disappointed," Fang Chang teased to lighten the mood, noting her deadpan face. "Indeed," Li Shuyue rolled her eyes, taking a sip of her cocktail. "I almost had the chance to shelter a homeless Awakened." "That joke isn't funny at all." If their spawn fountain were pushed, the game would shut down. Still, he believed in his companions. Those guys might goof off normally, but when it was time to get serious, they had never let him down. And he wouldn't let them down either. Smiling pleasantly, Fang Chang lifted his glass from the table. "To our enduring friendship, and to victory thousands of kilometers away—" "Cheers!" ... *Bang—!* Brilliant fireworks blossomed above Dawn City as well. Compared to Ideal City, where the first half of the night was drawing to a close, the sky over River Valley Province was not yet as dark, but the festive atmosphere was not a bit inferior. The streets of Dawn City were decked with lanterns and streamers, as if the shelter residents had known long in advance that victory would arrive today. Though there were no holographic projections blanketing the sky or thousand-meter-tall floor-to-ceiling screens, the excitement and joy in the hearts of the survivors living here were not inferior in the least to their friends on the East Coast. In fact, the fiery heat coursing through their veins burned even hotter than that of the residents of Ideal City. They had lived through this war! They had defeated the invincible Legion! Even if only for a brief moment, they had accomplished a miracle that countless wastelanders considered impossible—they had defeated the Legion on an open battlefield! Those haughty heirs to old-world legacies were not invincible. The Alliance had proven it. United, they could defeat the Wilantes even in the very domains they excelled at and took the greatest pride in! The players might not feel it quite so intensely, but in the heart of every survivor in the Alliance, a scorching mark had been stamped without their realizing it. A tender sprout had burst through the hardened soil. The old era was drawing to a close. What departed henceforth was not only the bitter winter, but the desolation in people's hearts. New protagonists were stepping onto the stage of history. It would be an era belonging to all wastelanders, no longer reserved for a chosen few. Everyone believed beyond a shadow of a doubt— One day, all those old orders shall fall before us! Fireworks blooming in the night illuminated every upturned face. The cheers rising and falling along the streets filled every shelter resident and every wastelander from the wilderness with deep warmth. "Long live the Alliance!" "Long live victory!" "Long live the Administrator!!" On this night, many were destined to find no sleep.