“…Heh. The group with the fewest members, yet the most money. Little friend Boyuan, do you know who they are? They’re not people you can afford to cross lightly.”
“Are they the Heavenly King or Laozi?”
Shen Zhi, breaking into a sweat for Zhang Yang: “…”
The woman seemed not to have expected Zhang Yang’s answer to be so unconventional.
And so amusing.
Her smile grew wider.
“The Heavenly King or Laozi may be up in Heaven, but if he descended to the mortal world, I doubt even he could make people listen as well as that group does.”
Zhang Yang merely raised an eyebrow.
Who could be that powerful, the game developers’ relatives or something?
Shen Zhi discreetly tugged at Zhang Yang’s narrow sleeve, signaling her not to bring trouble on herself with her words.
This woman might seem friendly enough to them on the surface, and claim to have been the eldest brother’s classmate, but she could turn on them in an instant.
He didn’t believe these ruthless types would let old ties get in the way.
Zhang Yang: “Why are you tugging on my sleeve?”
Shen Zhi: “…”
The woman’s initially superficial smile slowly widened and deepened, turning entirely into heartfelt delight.
“You really are an interesting young friend. So very interesting. It’s just that you young people think too simply. The world is complicated; a passionate heart and reckless courage alone won’t get you everywhere. Weighing the pros and cons is the one truth that cannot be overturned. The ‘group of people’ you’re talking about may not have the means to carve up territory and establish themselves as kings, but they have the resources to put someone in that position. How could you afford to offend them lightly?”
Shen Zhi listened without expression.
He added coldly, “The rebel leader also comes from a great family.”
Wouldn’t the gains from using their status within the same class to win allies be greater than the gains from betraying their class and killing their own allies?
Anyone seeking to accomplish great things could hardly do without allies.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Yang said, “So what you’re saying is, they do have some family wealth, just not enough to let them ignore other people’s opinions. In essence, they still have to compromise and play the underling. They don’t dare fall out with the major backers, so they go all out against the oxen and horses?”
In short—
“Isn’t that just bullying the weak and fearing the strong?”
Zhang Yang glared at Shen Zhi with reproach.
Earlier, after hearing this guy condemn that Princess, Zhang Yang had briefly thought the rebels were victims, some kind of righteous army.
Turns out both sides were as bad as each other?
She rattled off a whole string of words without caring whether the two people present could understand her.
Well, the woman probably understood some of it.
Zhang Yang had noticed her smile was looking strained, like she could barely keep it up.
Still, that woman had a really good temper.
Even after all that, the name above her head hadn’t changed color.
Unlike Shen Zhi, that chameleon, who changed color as easily as breathing.
Right in front of the two of them, and under their watchful eyes, Zhang Yang suddenly stood up and began exploring the room as if no one else were there.
She picked up every ornament to inspect it, weighed it in her hand, and made a couple of comments.
She lifted cushions, raised tables, climbed the walls and up onto the beams, looking around in every direction.
After a while, she felt that something was off.
Crouching on the roof beam, she looked down and met two pairs of eyes, each a different kind.
Oh, now she remembered what was off.
She hadn’t heard any of their dialogue while they were going through the story.
“Go on with what you’re doing. Why are you looking at me?”
Don’t slack off!
These story dialogues were the biggest waste of time.
At first, Zhang Yang had thought that, out of courtesy, she ought to stand quietly to the side and listen to these NPCs finish their conversation.
Then she realized that this behavior of hers was deeply inhuman, full of giveaways!
Real human players didn’t have that kind of patience.
They’d entertain themselves while the NPCs talked, by, among other things, hopping around or rummaging through everything.
Zhang Yang had worked out the rules and solemnly committed them to memory as ironclad principles.
Shen Zhi’s expression was beyond words.
He covered his face with one hand.
The woman almost laughed in anger, but kept her good-natured tone on the surface.
“Little friend, even if you want to scout the place out, you should avoid doing it right in front of the host.”
Treating her like she wasn’t there, searching all over the place right in front of her?
Zhang Yang blinked her peach-blossom eyes.
“Scout the place out? You think I’m a thief?”
Seeing Zhang Yang’s undisguised confusion, the woman felt a breath catch in her chest, stuck in her throat, leaving her so choked up she could hardly bear it.
She didn’t answer, so Zhang Yang took that to mean she had nothing to say and continued exploring the room to kill time.
When she came back down, only Shen Zhi remained below.
“Where’d she go? Why did she leave?”
“Would you stay if you were still angry?”
“Women shouldn’t get too angry. It can cause breast lumps.”
“…Did you find anything?”
Zhang Yang said, “This place is so poor you couldn’t turn up a single coin. ‘Bare walls’ would be putting it mildly. What could I find? If I had to say, there are signs of mice in the rafters. I recommend buying some rat poison and glue traps, so they don’t contaminate the food.”
“…Heh. You searched pretty thoroughly.” The woman hadn’t assigned anyone to keep watch over them, but she hadn’t set them free, either.
She was simply letting them stay for a few days, so she could play the gracious host.
On the surface, they were honored guests; in reality, they were half prisoners.
“Did you tell her what the soldiers under her command are about to do?”
Zhang Yang’s abrupt change of subject nearly caught Shen Zhi off guard.
“I brought it up. She said she’d send people after them. Even if they can’t catch up, she won’t let them off lightly… This is the best outcome we could hope for right now. And those soldiers aren’t under her command, anyway. She’s only a strategist for the rebel army.”
“Oh, a high-level corporate drone.”
Shen Zhi: “…”
Zhang Yang stretched.
“Where am I sleeping tonight?”
“Go next door. Don’t go wandering around.”
The house wasn’t very large, and it had only three rooms for sleeping.
Shen Zhi assumed Zhang Yang would obediently go next door.
To her surprise, Zhang Yang looked over all three rooms, then chose the one with the most space, the finest furnishings, and the softest bedding, and lay down fully clothed.
Could it have been the owner’s master bedroom?
That didn’t matter.
What mattered was that human players lived by one rule: never shortchange yourself.
When Zhang Yang woke up, there was someone else in the room.
“Whoa, who said you could come in?”
“Little friend, this is my room and my bed.” When she returned and found the bedroom door open, she immediately assumed an assassin had broken in.
The moment she stepped inside, she keenly picked up the faintest sound of breathing coming from the inner room.
Her expression turned cold as she approached, hand on her sword.
To her astonishment, the person asleep on her bed was the little friend from earlier that day.
There was nothing secret in this temporary room, so she wasn’t worried about an outsider breaking in.
She hadn’t chosen to act immediately, and had quietly waved away the guards instead.
She waited over a cup of tea, but Zhang Yang showed no sign of waking.
Who could have guessed that as soon as she woke, she’d question her like that?
As if she were the owner of the room.
The most outrageous thing was that the woman woke up, rubbed her eyes, and showed none of the awkwardness one might expect after trespassing in someone else’s bedroom. The source of this chapter is NovelPing.
Instead, she poured herself a cup of tea as naturally as could be and drank it to clear her head.
The room was dimly lit by candlelight, with most of the light focused on a screen in the middle.
“What is this crooked thing supposed to be?”
“A map.”
“What’s a map?”
The woman said, “Heaven shelters and earth bears all things, so heaven is called the canopy and earth the carriage. A map, naturally, is a drawing of the land.”
Zhang Yang had just started to walk past the map screen when she suddenly perked up, took a big step back, and began commenting with keen interest.
“So this is a map of the Homestead? It looks a little rough…”
After looking it over from every angle, Zhang Yang realized she couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
This map was completely different from a game map.
She pointed at a random spot.
“Where’s this?”
She wasn’t treating the woman like a stranger at all.
Well, she was treating her like a map search function.
The woman said, “…The vassal state of Jing.”
“Jing State? What about here?”
“The vassal state of Liu.”
“And here?”
The woman: “…”
Zhang Yang asked about several places.
The more she heard, the more something seemed off.
“Why are they all some kind of vassal state?”
“It’s not all feudal states, though. There are seven great empires in the world: Ziwei (Purple Forbidden), Taiwei (Supreme Palace), Tianshi (Heavenly Market), Zhuque (Vermilion Bird), Xuanwu (Black Tortoise), Qinglong (Azure Dragon), Baihu (White Tiger). All the other, smaller feudal states branched off from these seven. This map was drawn more than twenty years ago, so it’s out of date now.”
Zhang Yang hurriedly cut her off.
“No, no, that’s not right!”
“What isn’t right?”
“You just said… seven great empires? Smaller feudal states?”
The woman looked at Zhang Yang, who had reacted so strongly, baffled.
To her, it seemed this was something terribly wrong.
“You mean these big and small empires were founded here?”
“Yes. What’s wrong with that?”
Zhang Yang: “…”
There was plenty wrong with it!
How dare these NPCs?
Founding empires on her Homestead land?
Had they even asked her?
Were they paying her rent?
If they were founding empires, what was she supposed to found?
The deed to a Homestead was worth 888,800,880,000,000 Alliance Coins.
She’d spent all that money to buy it!
These uninvited squatters could all get the hell out of her home!
Zhang Yang paced back and forth, holding back her anger.
Some of it was directed at these NPCs, and the rest at the game developers.
Was this plot cooked up with their asses?
She’d spent so many Alliance Coins on that deed, and it came with all these uninvited squatters who’d taken over her home?
[Note: In this translation, the seven empires are rendered in pinyin (e.g., Ziwei, Taiwei, Tianshi, Zhuque, Xuanwu, Qinglong, Baihu), while their corresponding power systems are rendered in English (Purple Forbidden, Supreme Palace, Heavenly Market, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, White Tiger). This convention is used to distinguish the political entities from the powers they wield, allowing readers to easily differentiate between an empire and the power system.]