True and False Rebirth

“Star Palace? A guild has 100,000 game slots?”

“Yes, Star Palace’s official account just made the announcement!”

“Another announcement?”

Senior Grand Secretary Xu took a deep breath and fell into thought.

“Senior Grand Secretary Xu, what should we do?”

Senior Grand Secretary Xu looked at the other party curiously.

“What do you mean, ‘what should we do’? All the civilian forces in salvation are protected by the Earth’s Will. What can we do?”

“Senior Grand Secretary Xu, do you think Yang Jian knew about this news, which is why he’s so… fearless?”

Senior Grand Secretary Xu frowned.

“Just say what you want to say directly!”

“Could he really be… a reborn person, as the internet says?”

If someone had told him that before, he would have transferred them to clean toilets!

And after cleaning, they’d have to drink a mouthful of the water, to show some craftsmanship.

But the experiences of the past month and a half had greatly increased Senior Grand Secretary Xu’s acceptance of such supernatural matters and claims!

“No matter what, he’s one of us…”

At least for now, Yang Jian hadn’t shown any hostility towards the officials, and had even cooperated to a considerable extent!

The scene was silent for a while.

Elder Wu spoke at the right time, breaking the heavy atmosphere.

“It seems that strength holds a very high proportion in the eyes of the game’s officials!”

“Haven’t we known that for a long time? Just like the Four Great Nations compared to other smaller nations…”

“Have your association arrange a dedicated person to liaise with Star Palace, and incidentally, help them solve some overt troubles and difficulties!”

Elder Wu nodded and glanced at Hu Mingwei.

“I’ll arrange it when I get back!”

“Based on our current understanding of salvation, all matters should be handled sooner rather than later! We must distribute all five million slots we have within two days at most, today and tomorrow!”

Elder Wu spoke at this moment.

“The Long family wants three thousand slots…”

Senior Grand Secretary Xu was silent for a moment.

“Give them! The Long family has been quietly acting as a mascot all these years. They didn’t ask for any last time when there were only 200,000 slots, and this time they’re not asking for too many…”

“Okay!”

As for the slots reserved for the families of high-ranking officials… that was an unspoken understanding!

Although they still didn’t know how to bring their strength out, as long as they had enough strength, they would eventually figure it out!

Now, the most important thing was strength, strength, and still damn strength!

…“I think it’s about time. We won’t get anywhere by continuing this meeting! Let’s adjourn. You all hurry and level up during the Blood Moon period!”

The six members of the Rift and Salvation Emergency Response Committee all left.

The remaining Elder Council continued their meeting!

“New game personnel will no longer be incorporated into the Rift and Salvation Emergency Response Committee! They will still be directly responsible to their current departments!”

“Elder Wu, arrange for them to continue doing a good job of defending the four main cities!”

…Elder Wu nodded in agreement.

He had already anticipated this when the announcement came out early this morning!

Although the former Rift and Salvation Emergency Response Committee had multiple departments under its jurisdiction.

But the uncertainty of the apocalypse gave them autonomous power.

Now that the Xia Nation had 5 million official slots, even with his toes, he knew this couldn't be handled that way… Kyoto.

A modern architectural complex at the foot of the Xishan Mountains.

The Long family, the House of Prince An, lived in this area.

The current Prince An was named Long Chi, and he was already 72 years old this year.

His family was wealthy and powerful, and at 72, he looked energetic and radiant.

If it weren't for the wrinkles on his face and the gray hair at his temples.

People would believe him if he said he was in his fifties.

Sitting opposite Long Chi was his youngest granddaughter, Long Ruoling!

“Since Grandpa doesn’t believe it? Why do you keep asking me?”

Seeing his youngest granddaughter’s expression, as if she had grown up overnight.

Long Chi couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

“Ling’er, your statement is too fantastical. Even though I’ve lived my whole life, I don’t know whether to believe it…”

Long Ruoling also knew that something like rebirth was simply too unbelievable.

If someone else told her, she might not believe it either!

She had died in the Abyss’s second major invasion.

Improving strength through the game could be said to have pros and cons.

The advantage was that one could improve strength in a way they could understand.

The disadvantage was that it was easy to confuse game monsters with Abyss demons… especially when you saw a murloc charging at you, it was easy to treat it as an ant that could be crushed later.

But in fact, the native murlocs of the Abyss were man-eating demons!

Long Ruoling originally thought she had died just like that… but she didn’t expect to open her eyes and return to 4 AM on July 20, 2225!

The good news was that she had been reborn.

The bad news was that the timeline was problematic.

The first thing she did after being reborn was to check online what year it was… and that’s where she found the problem.

Although a long time had passed and she couldn't remember the exact date, the second large-scale public beta in her previous life was definitely in August, or even late August.

She urgently wanted to know what caused this series of changes!

The reason was easy to find. A quick online search for salvation.

Among the information that popped up, at least seven out of ten posts were related to this person, the president of Star Palace: Tianmu Zhenjun!

In her timeline, there was no such person as Tianmu Zhenjun!

Nor was there a guild called Star Palace… The recognized world’s number one expert was Zhou Yue, with the ID Moon Fairy!

Of course, her ID in this life was Yueyin Qingya.

Later, after Zhou Yue gradually solidified her position as the number one expert in salvation, her past was also dug up.

Her life trajectory for the first 17 years was basically the same.

It was just that in her previous life, Zhou Yue didn’t start a business after university, nor did she have a classmate named Yang Jian… After working for half a year, she was about to get a promotion.

Her boss suddenly went crazy and wanted to suppress her to promote his own relatives.

Zhou Yue quit in anger. Coincidentally, salvation started its public beta, so she bought a helmet to relax… And now… it could be said that the trajectory was completely different from this life!

But, why did the most important part go wrong, when everything else, except for matters related to the apocalypse, matched her memories of the previous life?

Long Ruoling also didn’t know how to explain it to her grandfather… “I hear from you that all the problems are caused by this Yang Jian!”

“I’m not sure, but he wasn’t this brilliant in my previous life!”

“Are there any other differences?”

“Yes, the second batch of public beta slots in my previous life opened in August, which was at least a month and a half later…”

Actually, when Long Ruoling stood in front of him and said those words.

Long Chi basically believed her.

Long Ruoling was his youngest son’s only daughter.

His youngest son died in a border conflict while serving in the military, leaving behind only this daughter.

Long Ruoling herself was also ambitious, always demanding the strictest standards of herself.

She wouldn’t play such a joke on him!

“Now, what we care about most is how to bring our strength out of the game? If the Abyss is really as dangerous as you say, we, being mere mortals, will find it difficult to win!”

Speaking of this, Long Ruoling had something to say.

“I do know this, but it’s clearly not comprehensive enough!”

Long Chi was interested now!

“What do you mean, not comprehensive enough?”

“After reaching a level three guild, you can apply for a wild outpost, commonly known as guild city building! A powerful guild city will have a teleportation array connecting the two worlds. Controlling your game character to walk out of the space-time teleportation array will merge it with yourself, thereby gaining the strength from the game!”

“Don’t you know this? How is it not comprehensive?”

“Because after such a fusion, your strength will no longer advance and will forever be stuck at level 60! The same level as the city guards in the major main cities, commonly known as super soldiers! This level of strength is not even enough for defending cities when fighting the Abyss!”

“What about Zhou Yue? What is her strength!”

“When I died, she was already at the peak of her second advancement, level 80!”

Long Chi digested the news his granddaughter brought back, and then chatted with her for a very, very long time.

“So, you mean the current officials of the Four Great Nations are restricted by the Blue Star Consciousness and cannot act against those civilian forces?”

“This matter only came out after the Abyss invasion. At that time, the public accused the officials of not integrating all forces and being inactive. The officials, in desperation, revealed that the Four Great Nations had always been restricted in their actions by the Blue Star Consciousness!”

The officials couldn’t intervene in salvation’s civilian forces?

Hearing this news, Long Chi couldn’t help but feel regret!

If he had known this before the first public beta, the Long family would have had hope for another rise!

After thinking for a moment, he dismissed this thought.

Known it earlier?

If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have believed such nonsense and would only have thought his granddaughter was crazy… “By the way, when did the Abyss invade?”

“We were first invaded at the end of the year. At first, they were scattered and very weak! By the time the world barrier was riddled with holes, the Abyss launched its first large-scale attack in February of next year!”

“But given the current situation, we can’t just apply things rigidly…”

Long Chi pondered for a moment.

“I asked the officials for three thousand slots. You take charge of this force. Do you have the confidence to lead the Long family to survive the future drastic changes?”

“I want to go to Star Palace and see what changes there are! In my previous life, the player forces of our family were managed by my fourth brother, and he did very well…”

“And the outcome?”

Long Ruoling was a bit speechless.

“Grandpa, haven’t you always taught us: when the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact?”

Long Chi asked many more questions about the Abyss and salvation.

Long Ruoling knew some things, and didn’t know others… This was the helplessness of a minor character on the periphery!

…After Long Ruoling left, three people came out of the small room next door.

Long Ruoling’s eldest uncle, second uncle, and the fourth brother mentioned earlier… “Dad, do you believe Ling’er’s words?”

“Do you believe it?”

Long Shan smiled bitterly.

During their conversation earlier, they had also discussed some details in the game, details that were easy to verify.

What’s true can’t be fake, and what’s fake can’t be true… “It seems we still need to cling to the officials’ coattails! Ling’er still came back a bit late. It would have been great if she could have come back before the first public beta…”

“How about this, we also need to prepare for both eventualities. Arrange all the named juniors in the family to official agencies to follow orders, and let those who are low-key follow Ling’er to Star Palace…”

The people in the room exchanged glances and responded in unison.

…Not to mention the impact of this sudden update on the entire Blue Star.

Just the 100,000 guaranteed slots for Star Palace caused a scramble among everyone in the Xia Nation.

“Why do I have to be able to settle in Yun Province? Is there a reason? I checked online, didn’t it say Lingyun Studio is in Linhai City?”

“Not sure, can any D-university students come out and explain…”

“I’m from D-university, but I don’t want to tell you. We D-university students get annoyed when you ask us everything…”

“I saw this electronic contract online, and honestly, Star Palace’s benefits are pretty good!”

“I saw a rich man buying Star Palace slots… Ten million each! No contract needed, just pay and you get it. I heard they’re only selling a thousand…”

“Only selling a thousand? Ten million each, a thousand is ten billion… Did I calculate that right?”

“That’s good, it means you paid attention in elementary math…”

“Didn’t I hear that the president and vice president of Lingyun Studio are both super rich? Why do they still need to sell game slots?”

“I heard Star Palace has planned and built a small city in Yun Province…”

“I have inside information. The small city is nestled by mountains and rivers, and there are many strange buildings, like blacksmith shops, tailor shops, herb gardens, and so on…”

“Has construction already started?”

“No, I hacked into the design unit’s blueprints and saw it. I’ve already bought a house next to them…”

“Damn, I want to buy one too!”

“Are you stupid? Just sign a contract with Star Palace and you’ll be directly arranged to go there, won’t you?”

Huh?