To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Chapter 268: Chapter 176: The Arrival of the New Era (Three More Updates)_1

“The seventh experiment, fine-tuning world climate, succeeded.”

“The ninth experiment, adjusting the distance between the planet and the stars, succeeded.”

“The eleventh experiment, regulating the thickness of the atmosphere, succeeded.”

After giving the Food Lord an ice cream as a reward, Lin Nan looked at his experimental records and realized that this reality manipulator was even more powerful than he had imagined.

As long as the subject was deeply moved when eating something delicious, it could unleash a formidable reality manipulation ability, yielding unimaginable effects.

Moreover, the potential of this ability was very high, as multiple tastings of delicious food could stack up to a limit, allowing for even more powerful effects when used.

Apart from that, Lin Nan felt he was doing a pretty good job at managing.

The Food Lord had already committed to heart the teachings of “Labor brings happiness,” “He who does not work, neither shall he eat,” and “Snacks can only be eaten once a day,” which made it deeply moved every time it ate something.

This discovery made Lin Nan feel that he might have to revise his previous gameplay objectives again.

Now he realized that the reason the Freedom Alliance was able to create counterfeit art was probably that they had found a reality manipulator and satisfied the conditions to activate its ability, thereby attaching anti-counterfeit tags to their goods.

No wonder they didn’t want to disclose that condition, because achieving it isn’t too difficult, as long as you have a reality manipulator.

But the issue is, reality manipulators are rare, and the various sects are hunting them, which greatly reduces the chances for players to encounter them.

Having reviewed previous intelligence, Lin Nan concluded that reality manipulators might truly be reincarnations of gods.

If that hypothesis were true, there would be a thousand reality manipulators, yet about seventy percent of them were likely to be captured by their corresponding sects, leaving perhaps only three hundred at large.

And the number of players… as of now, 2.6 million…

It’s one in ten thousand.

The power of reality manipulators allows them to easily reap high profits, after all, monopolies can be profitable, and transcendence represents an even higher dimension of monopoly.

What’s more, these reality manipulators might need to return to their roles as gods, so establishing a good relationship now could lead to higher profits once they return, earning more money.

When Xu Qingling and the others came online, Lin Nan specifically went to the room to hold a meeting and shared the intelligence.

After learning that the dirty big cat could actually be a god, the group started thinking about how to make use of the Food Lord.

“Why don’t we make a strong claim and then dominate this planet?” Wang Xiaoying suggested, “With a planet as our base, we can gain more profits in this star system, and we can also gather the entire planet’s resources to provide delicacies for the Food Lord.”

“Good idea,” Xu Qingling nodded, “Moreover, Lin Nan’s experiments have transformed many areas, making this planet increasingly habitable.”

“What about the sects? They have deeply entrenched themselves here for hundreds of years. It seems wrong for us to just take over,” Pingping expressed concern, “And stealing isn’t very nice, is it?”

“That’s true,” Lin Nan nodded, “Let’s get in touch with the local culinary sect and see if they are willing to sell. However, we’ve had some conflicts with them before, so it’s better to ask a third party to help.”

After the discussion, Lin Nan found the Maine Coon in the bar and conveyed their desire to purchase the planet.

The bartender was very happy to hear this news.

The Planetary Governor is a secular ruler, and a strong one can stand on an equal footing with the sect’s priests, and the public can thus get better treatment.

Therefore, it immediately helped to facilitate the purchase of the planet, reaching out to the sect in the morning, but was imprisoned in the sect’s prison by the afternoon.

The culinary sect made it clear they would not sell.

Not only that, they accused the Maine Coon of recklessly altering the climate and worshipping other gods unlawfully, and even launched a despicable sneak attack on the Floating City.

Though there was no evidence, they were convinced that this was a conspiracy by other gods, a ploy while the Food Lord was preoccupied.

As the main culprit, the Maine Coon was to face the cruelest punishment tomorrow, water torture!

It would be thrown into a cage and repeatedly drenched in water until it drowned alive in agony.

The entire process would last three days, serving as a warning to the public about the consequences of defying the sect.

Upon hearing this news, the Food Lord broke down.

It stared blankly at the Floating City rising in the distance, mumbling continuously, “How could they do this! How could they be so cruel?”

“How do you think they should behave?” Lin Nan asked.

“They used to be so cute! They would give me delicious food every day, tell me what good deeds they did today, which areas they helped adjust the climate for, how much faith they spent to support refugees, and so on. They were always doing good things, so why has it come to this?”

Lin Nan looked at the creature, somehow reminded of Boss Wolong’s only daughter.

She interned at her father’s company, and during that time, the company kept strict work hours: start at 9 AM, finish at 6 PM, with no overtime.

The chief planner was all kindness and smiles then, never raising his voice above 40 decibels, treating everyone to milk tea and barbeque every day. He was a super good guy.

But once the wealthy daughter left, everything resumed as usual.

The Food Lord in front of her was just like that wealthy daughter.

Lin Nan could lecture on many grand principles, such as “different clothes for different people,” or “every place pretends to be at peace.”

Yet in the end, she was sitting on top of the Food Lord’s head, looking into the distance and saying, “Hasn’t it always been this way?”

“And what can you do about it? I guarantee that if you can rescue it, I’ll agree to anything you want.”

“Aren’t your promises a bit too cheap?”

“But promises are all I have left.”

For the first time in his life, the Food Lord felt a special dependence on an ordinary cat.

The cat was cold-tempered, tough in action, and not considerate enough.

But it always managed to serve up a plate of fried rice after a hard day, sometimes even with a small serving of dried fish on the side. The thought of possibly never seeing that big cat again caused the Food Lord great heartache.

Patting the Spotted Cat’s head, Lin Nan said, “Don’t worry, I’ve already done it.”

The Food Lord looked up sharply, dislodging Lin Nan, who landed right on its nose. The Food Lord then carefully picked her up in its mouth.

Carefully placing Lin Nan down, the Food Lord asked expectantly, “What have you done? Did you seek help from your Outer Gods?”

“No, I wrote a strategy guide.”

“Hm?”

“The guide details how the reality interferers might be Gods and lists the number of interferers, their characteristics, and so on. Then, combining intelligence from various sources, I deduced the likely locations of the reality interferers, most of which are within the Sects. This information is authentic, but I mixed in one piece of false information.”

The Food Lord swallowed hard.

This tactic of mixing mostly true information with a bit of falsehood was not uncommon, but when used by a master, it could have decisive effects.

“So, what is the false information?”

“Well, it’s not exactly false. I simply suggested that the Maine Coon might be a reality interferer. So, I need your help with something.”

“What is it?”

“Adjust the flames and spell out ‘HELP’ in the atmosphere. Then, without us having to do much, players will come to help.”

The Food Lord pointed skeptically at the sky, where red flames bloomed like lotuses in the atmosphere, organizing themselves into the large word “HELP” as willed.

This signal stirred many players who had read the guide and confirmed its authenticity to action.

The precedent set by the Freedom Alliance laid before them; the profit gained from art trafficking turned an unknown small organization into a giant, and the business opportunities it implied tantalized every player.

The first batch of troops began to assemble, with numerous spaceships hovering on the outskirts of the planet, causing the Sects to tremble.

The technology between them didn’t differ too much, but this planet was quite remote, and the Sect’s stationed spaceships were few. A volley would be enough to completely dispatch them.

Without much hesitation, the local Sect declared surrender. All spaceships were taken away, and Sect members were exiled on the spot.

The Maine Coon was released, and discovering that it was not the so-called reality interferer, the players quickly left for the next location.

After all, if the guide only indicated a possibility here, instead of complaining about its inaccuracy, it was better to head to the next site to capture a reality interferer as soon as possible.

Each rare reality interferer meant immense wealth and needed to be kept tightly in hand.

Watching the players who suddenly appeared and then vanished just as quickly, Lin Nan knew a new era was approaching.

The quest for reality interferers would direct the players’ next objective, exacerbating the antagonism between players and Sects, ultimately evolving into an all-out war, propelling the game into a new phase. As for what might happen in this stage, it was all unknown.

The Food Lord didn’t have as many thoughts; it only saw the Maine Coon slowly approaching.

Seeing the safe and sound Maine Coon, the Food Lord couldn’t restrain itself and pounced forward, biting the cat’s neck in a playful tussle.

And with that, a grand era was about to unfold.

But these were not what surprised Lin Nan.

What surprised her was that she seemed to have quite a talent for stirring up trouble in the game; she might not understand office politics, but it appeared she was rather skilled at scheming within the game.

“Could it be that I am inherently a bad person?”

Reflecting on everything she had done in the last two days, Lin Nan sighed quietly.