Chapter 1 The Fall of the Empire

According to reports, Kunlun Avenue experienced a wild beast attack last night. Experts suspect that it might have been a Northeast tiger that escaped from the zoo. The zoo's management has denied these claims. The police are currently investigating the matter and ask the public to pay close attention. If anyone has any leads, please contact the police immediately."

Xu Li was leaning against the bar watching the news when the door to the teahouse suddenly opened. A young man in a suit and leather shoes walked in. He appeared to be under thirty but had a rather mature air about him. Carrying a briefcase, which seemed to contain a laptop or something similar, he entered. Seeing a new customer come in, Xu Li hurriedly went over to greet him.

"May I ask how many are with you, sir?" she inquired.

"Just me. I've booked a private room on the second floor," he replied.

"Oh, that must be Mr. Xiao Buli. Please follow me," she said

Once on the second floor, she had the waiter bring up a pot of tea and then he closed the door of the private room, opened the briefcase, and indeed, there was a computer inside. After booting it up, he logged into a game.

Looking at the familiar scenes on the screen, Xiao Buli sighed.

The game he was playing was called "Jiuzhou Domination." He had devoted six months of energy to this game. But don't get him wrong, he wasn't some gaming addict; he was a professional gamer—a Strategy Planner with the Qingyang Studio.

Unlike typical professional gamers, Qingyang Studio profited by exploiting the game's glitches and mastering its rules. Usually, they would research a game as soon as it was released to assess its quality and potential profit points to decide whether it was worth investing in. If so, they'd proceed with further research and planning. Through precise calculation and exploring the game's content, they quickly grasped the economic mechanisms and equipment obtainment methods within the game to turn a profit.

Using this method, he and his team had earned substantial profits from several popular games.

But this time, they encountered trouble. They had set their sights on "Jiuzhou Domination," a game that touted national warfare, right from its beta testing. In this game, the map was divided into nine sections, known as Jiuzhou. All the dungeons and instances suitable for leveling and looting were scattered among these nine sections. Each section had a main city that provided players with quests and supplies for restocking. These main cities could be conquered by players, and each city had surrounding villages, strongholds, and passes, creating a complete virtual world. To promote the game, the operators launched an unprecedented slogan: the first guild to capture all nine main cities would be named the "King of Jiuzhou," winning a prize of one million RMB.

Upon hearing this news, Xiao Buli immediately led his team to join the game and established the renowned guild, the Qingyang Empire.

After six months of bribery, scheming, warfare, and slaughter led by Qingyang Guild, the Qingyang Empire had conquered eight of the server's main cities. The various great guilds on his server had been either fragmented or crushed by him, losing their qualification to compete for the title of King of Jiuzhou. Only the Iron Blood Alliance maintained some strength, clinging to the last city not yet conquered by him. However, the fall of the Iron Blood Alliance was just a matter of time—unless something unexpected occurred.

Just as he was preparing to advance west and finish things off once and for all, the game suddenly updated. The new version introduced many changes which weren't significant, but what truly upset Xiao Buli was a change in the monetization of the game, shifting from a time-based charge to a free-to-play model with item fees.

Upon hearing this news, the leader of Iron Blood Alliance, Long Aotian, was overjoyed. He immediately purchased a Dragon Soul Set worth a million RMB and a Demon Sword costing five hundred thousand RMB from the in-game store and personally joined the battle to defend the city that evening.

It turned out that in front of a true cash player, all strategies and tactics were as ineffective as clouds, and solidarity was worthless. Long Aotian singlehandedly guarded the main gate of Liangzhou City, and Xiao Buli, leading his elite forces, attacked more than a dozen times, all in vain. That night, the battle that seemed to be a sure win ultimately ended in defeat.

Yet, this defeat was just the beginning. It was unclear where Long Aotian got so much money from, but he equipped several of the alliance's top players with RMB-purchased gear and recruited many solo players to the guild. The next day, they launched a counter-attack. The grand blueprint of the Qingyang Empire crumbled like rotten wood. In less than half a month, the eight main cities that Xiao Buli controlled fell one after another. Despite their numerical superiority, the Qingyang Empire lost every battle, while the Iron Blood Alliance's momentum seemed unstoppable—it looked like they would soon unify Jiuzhou. As their last city, Youzhou City, remained in their hands, Xiao Buli had no choice but to employ his final tactic.

As the penultimate main city was about to fall, he pooled all the gold coins left in the guild to create over thirty guilds and applied for siege rights with each. This move cost him over one and a half million gold coins, roughly fifty thousand RMB. When the Iron Blood Alliance arrived at the gates, they were awkwardly informed that they would have to wait at least a month before they could siege, meaning even if they razed Youzhou City to the ground, they wouldn't be able to claim ownership.

This certainly couldn't salvage the Qingyang Empire from its fate of dissolution, but it could buy some time. Battles were raging on other servers as well, with some showing signs of unification. Left with no choice, Long Aotian opted for negotiation. He offered Xiao Buli three hundred thousand RMB to hand over Youzhou City. While this was certainly less than the one million RMB prize announced by the gaming company, it was much better than leaving empty-handed.

Xiao Buli had no other options but to accept the offer, and today was the day for the arrangement to be fulfilled.

Half an hour later, the door of the private room once again opened. Startled by a soft cough, Xiao Buli snapped out of his reverie.

Looking up, three people entered, among them a charming, smiling handsome man—it must be Long Aotian from the Iron Blood Alliance. The other two were burly bodyguards dressed in black suits and sunglasses, one of them carrying a briefcase.

Why does this feel like a mafia negotiation? Xiao Buli couldn't help but mock himself amidst the rush.

"Did you bring the money?"

Long Aotian waved his hand, and the briefcase was immediately opened. Glancing at the neatly stacked cash inside, Xiao Buli let out a dejected sigh. Half a year of management, and this is still a less than ideal outcome.

He nodded, reopened his laptop, and the white walls of Youzhou City remained unchanged, though they were no longer his.

Upon seeing him log in, many guild members who were resting or idle in the city immediately messaged him.

"Boss, you've finally come. When are we going to counter-attack?"

"Boss, you haven't been online for days, are you brewing some grand plan?"

"Boss, shouldn't we also pool together some money to buy a few Dragon Soul Sets? With the right gear, we'll definitely take it back!"

Reading those messages, Xiao Buli forced a bitter smile. Without responding, he walked directly into the City Lord's Hall. When he went to select the option to surrender the city, Xiao Buli hesitated for a moment, "I only have one request, please don't expel my brothers."

Long Aotian nodded nonchalantly, "Of course, I too have immense respect for these battle-worn warriors. Their commitment to stand by each other till the end shows they are truly trustworthy. Under my rule, they will surely become part of us and gain better prospects and development opportunities."

Xiao Buli nodded. As members of the occupying guild, they could enjoy many in-game benefits. At least he had secured a settlement for his people, and he felt he had done right by them, to the best of his ability.

He opened the guild management page and chose to apply for a merger with the Iron Blood Alliance. Long Aotian immediately accepted it, and amidst a sequence of system announcement chimes, the Iron Blood Alliance became the first guild to unify the entire server.

System Notice: Congratulations to the Iron Blood Alliance for being the first guild to unify Jiuzhou in Jiuzhou Domination, Guild Leader Long Aotian awarded the title of King of Jiuzhou, and will receive a grand prize of one million yuan from the game's operators.

System Notice: A new version of the game is coming soon, with more and better content waiting for players to explore. Stay tuned!

Reading the system announcement, the guild channel instantly erupted in an uproar, a mix of voices rising. Xiao Buli had no interest in those words; he simply logged out of the game, closed his laptop, and sighed deeply. Turning to glance at Long Aotian, he saw the latter was also closing his laptop, preparing to leave.

Offhand, Xiao Buli asked, "What does the title of King of Jiuzhou mean to you?"

Long Aotian shrugged, "Nothing."

As he turned to leave the room, he suddenly paused and looked back, revealing a victor's smile, "Everything."