"Screw you!"
"Compensation? Screw your compensation! I failed yesterday, and you're giving out compensation today?"
"Are you messing with me? Why me?!"
"…"
「It was 5:30 PM.」
Lince, who had hastily eaten some instant noodles for lunch, was now at a small noodle shop downstairs, treating himself.
He ordered a bowl of chicken giblet noodles and started scrolling through videos while he waited.
Right then, he was watching a livestream from what looked to be a Player who had failed.
The streamer was a young woman who was reasonably good-looking, so her stream had a decent number of viewers.
Riding the wave of hype generated by the True Game yesterday, her channel was quite lively at the moment.
However, it was clear she had completely lost it.
"Hahaha, she's tilted! Look, Sister Lin is totally tilted, haha~~~"
"Ah, so satisfying. Who cares if I don't have game access? Haha, here's an unlucky soul who had access but missed out on a 'million'!"
"My condolences! RIP, streamer."
"Haha! My condolences +1."
"…"
In the stream, a large number of viewers were enjoying the drama, clearly reveling in her misfortune.
Lince felt a bit of sympathy for the streamer, but that was it. After all, she wasn't the only unlucky one.
"Young man, your chicken giblet noodles are ready."
The noodle shop owner brought the bowl over to Lince's small table.
"Mm, thanks."
He took the noodles from the owner and went back to scrolling through the livestream while slurping them down.
He had to finish eating quickly. In a little while, he needed to go to a pet shop in Times Square, about two kilometers away, to pick out a new pet.
At the moment, Lince wasn't thinking too much about it; he was just scrolling through these videos for some online entertainment and to gather useful information about the game.
After quickly finishing his noodles, Lince went to the pet shop, chose two little hamsters, and hurried back to his apartment.
During this time, he noticed that everyone, from passersby on the street to the pet shop owner, was talking about the True Game.
And just a moment ago, he had received a call from Aunt Wang at the neighborhood committee office.
She said that tomorrow morning, the neighborhood committee would be conducting a door-to-door population census registration for all residents of the Riverfront District.
'A population census? At a time like this?'
Lince was instinctively suspicious.
But after thinking it over, he figured it didn't matter.
'I've been unemployed for a long time, and I'm a 26-year-old. I'm definitely one of the prime targets for this door-to-door "census."'
'There's no avoiding it.'
But Lince wasn't worried in the slightest.
The reason was simple. Shortly after the game's exclusive comment section—now a full-fledged forum—had opened, a pinned notice on the homepage had already put all the Players at ease.
So, Lince felt no sense of crisis at all.
He soon returned home and immediately logged back into the exclusive True Game forum.
There, a conspicuous "Official Game" post was pinned to the forum's homepage.
[Notice: Due to the impact of operational publicity, and to protect Player privacy, we are now announcing privacy protection measures for online Players.]
(1. Playing the True Game online does not rely on any Blue Star Alliance internet services. Power outages or network disconnections will not affect gameplay for those who have installed the game. Therefore, Players should be aware that no method can be used to track a Player's IP address via the network, nor can power or internet outages affect normal gameplay. Please explore the specifics on your own.)
(2. Through their own will alone, Players can mentally control the game's presence on their PC. Unless the Player consents, no other person or object can view or search for the game icon or even its data on the Player's PC against their will.)
(3. The exclusive online Player forum can be linked to a mobile device. Once linked, no one can view the forum's existence or its content against the Player's will.)
This simple post had already lifted the burden for most Players who didn't want to expose their identities.
「It was now 7:30 PM.」
Most Players had already finished their eight hours of gameplay for the day, so the game's forum was quite bustling.
Among the posts, one right below the pinned notice was particularly popular.
It was a recruitment post from the official Countermeasures Bureau.
[The Countermeasures Bureau bears no ill will toward Players. For the sake of Blue Star and the Human Alliance, we ask all Players to set aside their personal prejudices against the Human Alliance's government and enthusiastically join the Countermeasures Bureau.]
The post detailed the current salary and benefits for Players. For instance, the Eastern Continent's Countermeasures Bureau offered a base monthly salary of 20,000 Human Alliance Coins, an eight-hour workday with two days off per week, and a six-insurance, two-fund benefits package.
Furthermore, different departments and positions offered varying salary increases.
For example, combat positions paid three times more than logistics positions.
All in all, while the pay might not have seemed high to some, it was still very attractive.
After all, the average base salary in the Human Alliance's Eastern Continent was only 3,000 to 5,000.
With the base salary and various benefits the Human Alliance Countermeasures Bureau was offering, the average person could easily make over 350,000 a year.
It was a joke. That kind of compensation was higher than what many executives at regular companies earned.
So, as soon as the post went up, it generated a lot of buzz on the forum.
"I firmly support the Human Alliance. I'm willing to join the Countermeasures Bureau and have already submitted my application."
"I firmly support the Human Alliance. I don't care about the salary and benefits; I just want to serve the Human Alliance and society."
"I firmly support the Human Alliance and have also submitted my online application to join the Countermeasures Bureau. But by the way, since the benefits are so good, will you also be assigning us wives later on?"
"…"
It had to be said that within this thread, quite a few Players chose to trust the Human Alliance and even support the government.
However, right below the Human Alliance Countermeasures Bureau's appeal, there was another thread arguing against joining.
[The Human Alliance Countermeasures Bureau? Not even a dog would join. Whoever joins is an idiot. You think you can buy our lives with this little bit of money?!!]
The post's content wasn't particularly original, nor was it filled with deep-seated hatred.
But the points this Player made were very thought-provoking.
For instance, now that the True Game was bringing Extraordinary Power into reality, there would surely be many among the Human Alliance's top brass who would stop at nothing to achieve immortality.
And it wouldn't just be the Alliance's leadership; even some big-shot business tycoons would do the same.
Therefore, the Player actively laid out their viewpoint: why shouldn't Players bide their time and wait for a better offer?
At this stage, although the only game item Players could bring into reality was the Character Card, who could guarantee that other items wouldn't become available later?
If you joined the Human Alliance, how would these items be handled?
Would they be considered the Player's private property or public property? Furthermore, what price would the Human Alliance Countermeasures Bureau offer for a Player's future gains?
So, this Player's advice was for Players to hold off on making a decision for now. They could wait and see how the game developed, then sell their services to the highest bidder.
She even stated outright that there were already rumors circulating through various channels that many large financial conglomerates within the Human Alliance were willing to pay a high price to recruit Players as their personal "Guests."
And that wasn't all. The Player also went on to elaborate on the selfishness of human nature, even bluntly asking if people understood the meaning of the saying, "Are kings and nobles destined by birth?" in this era of great change.
After reading the last part of the post, Lince could only think, 'Damn.'
'This person was one step away from outright declaring they wanted to start a rebellion!'
Lince made no comment on this. 'I'll just be my own model, law-abiding citizen,' he thought. 'I'm not getting involved in this mess.'
And so, Lince continued to read through the other Players' discussions on the forum.