CHAPTER 193: 193 SAVIOR OF VILLAINS

"Old Man, should we do as Lin, the Storekeeper, suggested?" Immortal Realm’s First Paparazzi asked Lonely Old Man.

With Lin Bai leading the game and Lonely Old Man leading the players, after establishing his credibility, all players would subconsciously ask him when they encountered problems.

"The Heavenly Dao Laws you spoke of?" Lonely Old Man asked back.

"Yes," Immortal Realm’s First Paparazzi nodded. "What if the Heavenly Dao Laws spread through the Justice League, and a particularly hard-to-defeat BOSS appears?"

"Just do as Lin, the Storekeeper, said. The game developers have settings related to achieving Godhood through Heavenly Dao Laws. Regardless of whether Justice Weekly exists or not, a BOSS who successfully cultivates these laws will eventually appear," Lonely Old Man said. "It’s useless to meddle with the laws; it will only annoy Lin Bai—a loss outweighing the gain. Notify the advertising department to leak some content from the second issue of Justice Weekly and solicit more advertisements. I’m sure companies would love to advertise in this first regular publication. After all, it’s not just NPCs who are following Justice Weekly, especially with this issue’s explosive content."

"I worry that it might get banned if it’s too excessive!" Immortal Realm’s First Paparazzi said.

"Has Lin Bai brainwashed you?" Lonely Old Man gave him a strange look. "Of course, it’s crucial to maintain moderation. The game officials have the ability to pixelate explicit content. You can publish explosive content in the game world, and Justice Weekly would become popular because of it. But if the live broadcast gets pixelated, would you pay the penalty for breaching the advertising sponsor’s contract?"

"NPCs can do things we can’t, and we even have to clean up their messes. In this damn game, have the roles of players and NPCs been reversed or what?" Immortal Realm’s First Paparazzi waved his hand helplessly. "Fine, you all chat; I’m going to write articles."

「...」

"Old Man, don’t you feel that the game’s style is becoming increasingly skewed?" Bitter Melon Vine said once the Paparazzi had left.

"I realized that long ago. Wherever Lin Bai is, things will surely take a very strange turn," Lonely Old Man replied. "Everything he does seems to intentionally muddy the waters. I never understood why the game company would create such an NPC.

Recently, I’ve been paying attention to the forums. No other city or sect has an NPC like Lin Bai. Even if a lucky player encounters a hidden NPC in the game world, at most, they’re guided around brothels or forbidden areas—everything is within the realm of comprehension.

Even the Western game, Land of Gods and Demons, is the same. Those foreigners are truly playing the game by the book, not deviating at all. The skills they learn, including those from NPCs, are also very normal; there are no super skills like the Heavenly Dao Laws."

He looked at the high-ranking members of the Beggar Gang beside him and chuckled. "In the entire world, only our Lin, the Storekeeper, is this unique. He does unexpected things—either stirring up trouble or on his way to do so—as if he isn’t himself unless he’s antagonizing the entire world. How should I put it? His actions are like those of a lunatic—utterly illogical."

"Exactly. Many of his ideas are incompatible with this world," Mad Man commented. "From the brainwashing marketing ads at the beginning to the later appearance of the recording pen and camera, I’d totally believe you if you said he was someone from the real world."

"Would someone from the real world write the Heavenly Remnant Collection?" Dumbelldore retorted.

"The scariest part is that he succeeds in everything he does. Moreover, within his own logic, everything is perfectly reasonable," Bitter Melon Vine continued. "Yet it contradicts the game’s fundamental logic. None of his actions contribute positively to the game’s operation; rather, it seems like he’s deliberately going against it."

"Many foreign scientists speculate that the game Land of Gods and Demons doesn’t actually have servers—that it’s a real world. The game company supposedly projects players’ consciousness into this world using some kind of consciousness projection method. They’ve cited various pieces of evidence, claiming they’re irrefutable..." Lazy Cancer Endless chuckled. "But our experts here just pointed to Lin Bai as one example, and it completely demolished the foreign experts’ entire chain of evidence."

"Actually, I have a theory," I’m Not an Alt Account said. "Lin Bai’s Righteous Door doesn’t exist in this time period at all. Lin Bai traveled here from the future. The arrival of players disrupted the world’s normal functioning, almost completely squeezing out the indigenous people’s living space. However, players also brought various technologies to this world, like recording pens and cameras.

Sometime in the future, the natives, having been reduced to the lowest stratum of their world, researched a time-travel spell. They sent Lin Bai to the initial period of the players’ arrival, all to disrupt the players’ game experience and save the world."

"Makes sense!" Silver snapped his fingers. "This would reasonably explain why no one in the entire world knows the Righteous Door’s location. Even Lin Bai can’t return to the Righteous Door because he’s incapable of time travel himself. It also explains the origin of the recording pens and cameras; those items were all sent from the future..."

"Similarly, it could explain Lin Bai’s ideology and philosophy, as well as those Divine Skills of his that are incompatible with this world," Mountain Tiger remarked. "Because those spells haven’t appeared at this stage, it’s very likely players will research them in the future. Lin Bai isn’t experiencing sudden epiphanies; he’s gradually recovering his strength. After all, suffering side effects from time travel is quite normal..."

"Hey! Hey! Aren’t you all getting carried away? It’s just a game; what’s the point of discussing all this?" Iron-Headed Immortal asked. "If you’re all so talented, why don’t you go write novels?"

"There is a point to it," Lonely Old Man said, listening with relish. He glanced at Iron-Headed Immortal and continued, "Considering every possibility can be very helpful to our gameplay. It helps us explore Lin Bai’s true motives, or rather, the likelihood of those laws actually existing! We’ve been following Lin Bai until now, and although we’ve made a lot of money, our levels haven’t increased much. Instead, we’ve made a ton of enemies, and many NPCs have become wary of us."

"I’ve had this feeling for a long time: Lin Bai seems to know everything about us players’ methods, which is actually very abnormal." He paused for a moment. "Don’t laugh, but before I met Lin Bai, I shared the same opinion as those foreign experts—this isn’t a world created by a game company; it’s a real world. After all, this virtual reality technology far surpasses our current level of science."

"This is sounding more and more like a conspiracy theory!" Iron-Headed Immortal commented.

Lonely Old Man shook his head. "Earlier, I’m Not an Alt Account’s words gave me an idea. If we stop treating Lin Bai as an ordinary NPC and instead consider him a savior, then all his seemingly unreasonable actions can be explained."

"If he’s the savior, why isn’t he uniting the NPCs? Instead, he’s constantly stirring them up," Dragon Breath asked. "That doesn’t make sense, does it?"

"How can one man, who doesn’t even understand the world’s structure, unite all the NPCs?" Lonely Old Man glanced at Dragon Breath. "Besides, what makes you think he isn’t uniting the NPCs?"

"The Justice League," the surrounding players chorused.

"Exactly, the Justice League. He’s not just uniting NPCs; he’s also using us. Through the Beggar Gang and the Righteous Door, he has brought the players together too, incidentally ruining our game experience and leaving us scrambling with no time to level up." Lonely Old Man narrowed his eyes, looking towards Lin Bai’s residence, and murmured, "Once all that is unreasonable is eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Everyone, it seems we’ve found the truth. Although Lin Bai’s actions are excessive, he is indeed doing his utmost to save this world from the players, even if it means making himself a public enemy of the world..."

"Viewed this way, Lin Bai is quite a great man, isn’t he?" Silver said softly after a moment’s pause.

"Not just great, but also incredibly capable," I’m Not an Alt Account commented. "He appeared around the same time as the players, yet he single-handedly roiled the entire world’s situation. Even if any of us knew the whole truth, who could have done as well as he has?"

「...」 All the players fell silent.

"So that means there’s no Righteous Door!" Dumbelldore said, his tone somewhat disappointed.

"There is a Righteous Door, but no one can get to it," Bitter Melon Vine said. "Perhaps it’s all a fabrication by Lin Bai, just like the Heavenly Dao Laws—just something he dangled before us."

"This is all just our speculation," Lonely Old Man said. "We can speculate boldly, but we must verify the facts carefully, step by step. Don’t jump to conclusions. Who knows? Maybe the Righteous Door and the Heavenly Dao Laws really do exist."

"Old Man, can I post our speculations on the forums?" Iron-Headed Immortal asked.

"Post it on the forums? Why?" Lonely Old Man questioned.

"To let more people join the discussion and speculate on the truth!" Iron-Headed Immortal said.

"What good would that do us?" Lonely Old Man retorted.

「...」 Iron-Headed Immortal fell silent.

"Lin Bai employs overt schemes. Using advertising as his tool, he has us all bound to him," Lonely Old Man said. "As long as we still want to make money, we have to protect his interests, and even him."

"Are we going to be led by the nose by him forever?" Dragon Breath frowned. "I’m a bit unwilling to accept this!"

"Exactly. If this world is indeed real, then the potential benefits are immense. If Lin Bai controls them, we stand to lose even more in the future," Bitter Melon Vine added.

"That’s why I’m so determined to uncover the truth behind Lin Bai," Lonely Old Man chuckled. "Once we understand everything, devising countermeasures will be much easier. Lin Bai can leverage us, and we can leverage him too.

In six days, another batch of players will arrive, right? We’ll gradually split the Beggar Gang into two factions. One will cooperate with Lin Bai to suppress the natives and other players. The other will secretly develop, level up, and build our own enterprises. Once we’ve established our own power base, we can kick Lin Bai to the curb and operate independently."

"Do we still cultivate the Heavenly Dao Laws?" Iron-Headed Immortal asked.

"Cultivate them. Lin Bai is too shrewd. At least in his presence, we must appear to be cultivating them so as not to arouse his suspicion," Lonely Old Man said, looking around at everyone. "Everything we’ve discussed today stays among us, the high command of the Beggar Gang. Don’t let it spread further. We also need to learn from Lin Bai: to be the only sober ones in a crowd of drunks, to learn to manipulate things from the shadows. Let the other players continue their merry little game."

"Old Man, I have an idea, but I’m not sure if it’s doable," Well Does Not Move said.

"What idea?" Lonely Old Man asked.

"The influence of Justice Weekly is limited to Qian City, so we can’t earn much from advertisers here alone," Well Does Not Move said. "We could recruit agents through the forums, getting players in other cities to help promote Justice Weekly. Distance isn’t a restriction for players. We can instantly send them the published content via the forums or live streams, and they just need to print and publish it on their end. This would rapidly expand Justice Weekly’s influence and attract more sponsors..."

"That’s a good idea!" Silver said.

"It might have been a good idea before, but now, if Justice Weekly spreads too quickly, it will greatly increase Lin, the Storekeeper’s, renown. This is highly likely to attract more uncontrollable trouble for him or the Beggar Gang," Well Does Not Move warned. "After all, Lin, the Storekeeper’s, strategy is gradual expansion. If these unexpected events occur and Lin, the Storekeeper, can’t handle them, then the Beggar Gang will be finished."

"What’s there to fear? If Lin, the Storekeeper, can cause trouble for us, why can’t we cause trouble for him?" Lonely Old Man chuckled. "Seizing the market in the shortest time possible can only benefit us; there’s no downside. Don’t forget, in six days, a new batch of players will arrive. The players joining later will have researched countless strategies from the outside, just waiting to implement them once they’re in the game!

There will also be financial consortiums capable of crushing us, even if they can’t affect us for now. But there will always be new disciples joining the Beggar Gang, right!

In the future, as advertising revenue shrinks and the Beggar Gang’s membership grows, how will the Gang expand without the lure of money? As long as we can get our hands on the money now, why worry so much about later?

The trouble will be Lin, the Storekeeper’s. As long as we control a mature market operation plan, his death wouldn’t significantly affect us. But first, that market has to be in our hands..."

「...」

Because of the privacy afforded by private chat, the players didn’t avoid Lin Bai during their conversations.

Lin Bai also needed to learn the latest situation about the game outside and their true thoughts from their discussions to formulate the most accurate responses.

Thus, Lin Bai, who was teasing Little Fox in the next room, listened to the players’ entire speculation about him, and he was, frankly, astounded.

It had to be said, the players truly possessed a rich imagination. They’d managed to guess that the Righteous Door didn’t exist in this world. Moreover, they had even designated him as the messiah from a future world... Their reasoning was so plausible that he almost believed it himself. If only they knew! All he did was for self-preservation, to secure a place to survive in this world.

However, even though the players’ reasoning process was utterly preposterous, the bizarre thing was, their conclusion wasn’t far off from Lin Bai’s own deductions. Ever since he confirmed that the System and the game company weren’t on the same side, he knew the System behind the scenes was indeed trying to disrupt the game’s normal operation. In a way, calling him the savior of this world didn’t seem entirely wrong.

It had to be said, this identity was quite appealing...

As for the players using Justice Weekly to cause trouble for him, Lin Bai didn’t take it to heart at all. Too many debts, no worries; too many lice, no itch. The Morning Yuan Sword Sect had already gone to seek reinforcements from the Seven Orthodox Sects; why would he fear more enemies?

Besides, the Media System needed a powerful medium to connect the entire world. Theoretically, any trouble was actually a catalyst for his growth. The players might be shrewd, but their mistake lay in not understanding just how massive his cheat truly was!