134: Chapter 134 National Mobilization
Inside the conference room of the Luohe Hall operations base.
A video call was taking place on the large screen.
Elder Long and Elder Lin said with grave expressions, "According to statistics, the number of people in the Xia Kingdom currently known to be participating in the game is around 500 million."
Jiang He stood up and shouted, "Elder Long, why hasn't the state taken action to ban the sale of game helmets?"
Elder Long sighed, "It has already been banned, but it is simply impossible to control now."
"Impossible to control? Why?"
"Sigh, many companies have invested huge amounts of capital for the sake of rare ores in the game. The state will not interfere with those who have already entered the game, but they are constantly recruiting employees to join the game to increase production rates. As for the source of the helmets, there are many on the black market now, and it is impossible to stop them from trading privately."
Jiang He slammed the table and shouted, "Are you disregarding the lives of the common people for the sake of profit? Do you know what they look like now?"
At this moment, Elder Lin, who had been silent, suddenly spoke, "Little Jiang, don't get excited yet. According to investigations, of those entering the game from now on, only a small portion of first-time entrants will be forcibly plunged into a coma and become NPCs. Moreover, their vital signs are normal, and there won't be a crisis in the short term. To save them, we can only rely on you."
"Rely on us? What do you mean?"
Elder Lin shook his head, "We are not sure either. But this refugee mission appeared in all four main cities simultaneously; presumably, someone is secretly helping us. The state has already notified the people in the four main cities to spare no effort in rescuing the refugees. As for what happens later, we can only take it one step at a time."
Jiang He rubbed his head desperately and sighed, "Fine, I understand."
The video call hung up.
"Jiang He, what should we do about our side in Chang'an City?" Bai Luoyao asked.
Jiang He sighed, "Help me pass a message to the Empress. By the way, do you have Gu Qingming's phone number?"
"Mm-hmm..."
One hour later, Jiang He logged back into the game.
He headed straight for the imperial palace.
Before long, an announcement rang out in the Crystal Capital.
[Player Game ID · Duke Assigned Mission]
[All players are limited to completing the refugee rescue mission within seven days]
[Those who do not participate in the mission will have their citizen status forcibly revoked]
[Special Note: Abuse of refugees is prohibited. Any behavior such as beating or humiliation will result in immediate revocation of citizen status upon discovery. Simultaneously, you will be blacklisted by the Crystal Capital Guard and a bounty order will be issued in the name of the Royal Family]
"Damn it, I don't accept this. Why can you, a player, assign tasks to us?"
"Right, what can you do to me if I just don't do it?"
"Damn, stop arguing, hurry up and do the mission! I just saw someone being dragged out of the city by guards. Guess what happened?"
"What happened?"
"What happened?"
"What happened +1"
"What happened +10086"
"As soon as he was dragged out of the city, the citizen status above his head disappeared, and then he was hacked to death by the guards."
"Yes, yes, yes, I saw it too. That guy lost his citizen status, was hacked to death by the guards, and could only respawn on the spot. He has already dropped 30 levels now."
"Holy crap? For real?"
"Form a party, form a party, let's find refugees."
Meanwhile, the same announcement rang out in the distant Chang'an City.
[Player Qingming Yushang · Earl Assigned Mission]
[All players are limited to completing the refugee rescue mission within seven days]
[Those who do not participate in the mission will have their citizen status forcibly revoked]
[Special Note: Abuse of refugees is prohibited. Any behavior such as beating or humiliation will result in immediate revocation of citizen status upon discovery. Simultaneously, you will be blacklisted by the Chang'an City Guard and a bounty order will be issued in the name of the Royal Family]
"F*ck, Gu Qingming, are you an idiot? You're actually issuing this kind of mission?" Zhang Zixuan cursed in the chat channel.
Of course, he wasn't the only one cursing him.
Almost half of Chang'an City was boycotting this mission.
At this moment, Gu Qingming stood inside the imperial city, clenching his fists, and muttered softly, "Jiang He, I will trust you this one time. You had better not screw me over."
In just half a day, dozens of refugees had been found by players.
During this time, Jiang He returned to the imperial palace to check on things.
And asked many questions.
"Did they hit you? Did they curse at you?"
The NPC shook their head.
Suddenly, a girl NPC ran out and pointed her finger at the player who had brought her back.
"Aba aba"
Jiang He immediately turned his head with a gloomy expression, "What did you do to her?"
That was a Level 50 Knight player, ID: Batian.
He was so scared his face turned pale, and he waved his hands repeatedly, "I, I didn't do anything."
"If you didn't do anything, why is she crying?"
The girl NPC was seen staring at him with teary eyes.
"It's not that, Big Brother, I really didn't do anything."
Batian suddenly shouted, "I know! She might be trying to say that I harassed her."
"Damn, you dare to harass her?" Jiang He was so angry that he raised his hand to slap him.
As a result, Batian cried out aggrievedly, "Don't hit me! Big Brother, I really didn't harass her!"
"When I saw her, this NPC was being surrounded by a pack of wild wolves."
"At the time, I wanted to take her away, but she was so scared that her legs went soft. I had no other choice but to carry her on my shoulder and run back."
Jiang He heard this and turned to ask the girl NPC, "Is what he said true?"
The girl NPC nodded vigorously, then glared at Batian with a look of disgust.
Jiang He was instantly embarrassed.
"Uh... buddy, this isn't your fault. You did the right thing."
At this moment, Batian waved his hand aggrievedly, "It's fine, I know I'm ugly, but I didn't expect to be despised by an NPC like this inside the game."
Jiang He felt helpless and casually took out a silver coin and handed it over.
"Brother, I am really sorry for misunderstanding you. Take this silver coin as compensation."
After receiving the silver coin, Batian finally smiled.
He then ran out of the imperial palace.
"Lord Duke, I'm going to continue looking for people!"
Before long, the news spread in the chat channel.
"Holy crap, have you guys heard? Someone brought a refugee back and even got a reward?"
"Mm-hmm, I know about this. The person who got the reward is my buddy, and I heard he was given quite a lot."
"Damn, don't any of you fight me for them, I'm going out to find people!"
After seeing these messages, Jiang He started to get a headache.
It seemed that he had to bleed a little.
Subsequently, he posted a message in the chat channel.
[Game ID]: Anyone who brings back a refugee will be rewarded with one silver coin. Accumulate five people, and you will be rewarded with one gold coin. Accumulate 10 people, and you will be rewarded with 5 gold coins.
After this message.
Most players in the Crystal Capital had a pillar of spiritual support.
Especially some small studios.
They were playing the game just for money in the first place.
Now the value of game currency was constantly rising.
One gold coin was equivalent to several months of their income.
Almost all day, Jiang He stayed in the imperial palace and did not go out.
He was responsible for checking whether the returning NPCs had been subjected to abuse or other behaviors.
He knew that many players were doing the mission with resentment.
He was afraid that they would vent their resentment on the NPCs.
Just then, he saw a player in the distance walking over with an NPC on their shoulder.
Jiang He frowned and walked forward.
Bang—
The NPC was thrown to the ground by the other person.
The person said with a long face, "Lord Duke, can I trade a dead one for money?"