CHAPTER 499: IMAGE 159: NEW VERSION PREVIEW 2

[System: .... Intelligence is not IQ, these are two different concepts]

Lin Miao took the box, nodded to the other party, and then turned around to leave.

"Thank you, please convey to Ms. Mercedes that this cooperation was very pleasant."

Walking out of the military technology building, the originally foul air now seemed especially sweet.

This is Night City!

The urine smell and burning rubber scent you smell are the essence of urban decay and anarchy!

If not?

Then there’s something wrong with your nose, you should really look into your own issues.

At least that’s what Lin Miao thought, now he felt a sense of freedom as if the sea and sky were wide open.

"Now, this is truly the beginning."

Everything before today was just child’s play.

Attacking Ganbi Mansion?

Fighting gangs?

Smuggling?

These things are nothing on a macro level, even with hundreds of players, they couldn’t harm a big company in the slightest. Yesterday’s fire only singed Huang Ban’s leg hair.

Only by scaling up and gaining more influence and power is it real.

Otherwise, he’s just a slightly active fish on the dinner table.

Jumping around now, when the diner picks up the knife, he’ll just be at their mercy.

Upon returning to the office with the data, Lin Miao immediately integrated it all into the data server room.

While awaiting the Sea God’s rapid learning, he was also preparing the plan for the next version.

[Current total number of players: 500, Online players: 327]

Version 0.5 opened 400 slots in three batches, and this number is already close to the daily activity limit that Night City can actually handle. Increasing the number of people further would become very troublesome.

In just two months of coming here, first they punched the Trauma Team, wreaked havoc in the Taiping Continent sewers, burned Huang Ban’s waterfront, and fought every gang in the city. If everything goes as Lin Miao envisions, expanding to 2,000 in version 0.6, they might just try to overthrow the city government tomorrow, seize Lucius Laine’s seat, and cause chaos everywhere.

Just like having dozens of Hakimis at home, it’s chaotic.

This is also why Lin Miao is so eager to cultivate Big Sur and transform Stone Ridge Mountain, he needs a true base for the players.

And to find something for these hyperactive individuals to occupy them for an entire version.

The answer is — go gray!

Lin Miao plans to hollow out the entire Stone Ridge Mountain, turning the entire mountain into his secret base, burying the fifty bio-modification pods received from tasks and lottery draws while preparing hundreds or thousands of hibernation pods, mass-producing player bodies within, and a massive data server room as an external disguise.

Meanwhile, to avoid arousing suspicion, the surface work must proceed simultaneously and at a scale large enough to deflect any doubts. Large areas around Stone Ridge Mountain will be constructed with recycling, plastics, plantation, steel, military, and chemical factories.

Of course, notionally this area still belongs to Night City, after all, the Stone Ridge Mountain town itself is evidence of Night City’s failed expansion efforts.

To achieve the scale Lin Miao has in mind, an investment of at least tens of billions of euro-gold is needed, and the money he just got from Huang Ban is merely a drop in the bucket.

But the good news is, the money is coming.

After unanimous negotiation by the city council and a publicity push by military technology and a series of companies, companies soon reached out to Lin Miao.

Yet the identity of the visitor surprised Lin Miao.

Lin Miao once assumed the ones visiting him could be the military technology for additional investment, the Ye Corporation managing Night City infrastructure, Zeta interested in high-tech, or even perhaps Huang Ban.

But.... it was Kangtao.

This eastern giant enterprise, which never had any direct contact with Lin Miao...

A middle-aged man with slicked-back hair sat across from Lin Miao, his face weathered and some gray mixed in his hair.

"Hello, Mr. Lin, I’ve long admired your name."

After a handshake, Lin Miao curiously asked, "How should I address you?"

The man replied, "You can call me Dong Hui, the person in charge of this Kangtao Corporation investment."

"Dong Hui..."

Lin Miao nodded.

"Nice name."

"Is it?" Dong Hui chuckled, "But Mr. Lin’s name isn’t that great."

Though it sounded a bit offensive, Lin Miao merely smiled without speaking, watching the other, waiting for him to continue.

Dong Hui looked at Lin Miao, his gaze inscrutable, "A forest in the water, vast and endless. When such a vast wave comes, how can a small forest withstand the overwhelming tide? You’ll eventually be submerged. Why not plant roots in a drier place, slowly planning growth so as to truly flourish."

Lin Miao tapped his fingers on the table, looking at the seemingly distant yet familiar fellow, and couldn’t help but feel.

"People, in the end, cannot choose their birth. Since the roots are already planted, changing places would mean significant cost and pain; soldiers must block, water must be stopped with earth. Besides, a drier place isn’t necessarily better, even on high mountains, forests struggle to grow."

In fact, what he said wasn’t wrong. In his past life, he likely drank himself to death, indeed engulfed by water.

Moreover, his lack of response wasn’t due to hometown nostalgia, it was purely out of distrust.

Currently, Lin Miao doesn’t believe anything recorded about the East in Night City. Maybe the historical events recorded there are true, perhaps internal conflict really did break out, reducing influence to the point of not even controlling the South Sea and Korea.

But everything began to change in the late 70s.