Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 619 - 617 Business
Li Ang emerged from the void and lightly landed on the brick and stone ground of the square. Compared to a few days ago, the Game Square had undergone some changes. A garden with a fountain sculpture now graced the front of the shopping mall, and streetlights, street signs, lawns, and flowerbeds lined the roads. One could even see various insects actively moving about in the flowerbeds, making the square feel less cold and rigid.
This was quite curious. According to a Secret Society known as "The Watchers" on the forums, facilities like fountains, statues, and lawns had slowly appeared over the past few days without player intervention, likely the work of the System itself. Some people believed this was the System automatically generating an environment based on the characteristics of the mainstream players to adapt to their lifestyle habits—now that humans were the mainstream players, the environment naturally had to reflect human aesthetics.
However, this gave rise to a new question—where were those animal-type players in the square? Were they disguised as humans blending into the crowd, or did they have a separate square specially designated for animal players? The discussion on this topic never ceased on the forums, but unfortunately, those in the know were unwilling to speak, and the large organizations' responses to this question were equivocal, seemingly reluctant to disclose more information.
Li Ang shook the white lab coat he wore on the outside and, after looking around, began walking toward the shopping mall on the opposite side of the square. On the way, he saw a player wearing a yellow, circular, smiley-face badge, using a professional camera to film the bustling street scene.
The yellow smiley-face badge was the mark of "The Watchers," a Secret Society. They claimed to be "record keepers, observers, and guardians." Their usual activity was to film and document everything related to the slaughter game, from black market transactions in the suburbs of Southeast Asia to the mansions and luxury cars of the newly emerging The Seven Warlords of Brazil in South America, from the dying moments of Bounty Hunters beaten to death by their enemies to the extravagant scenes of newly enriched rookie players splurging in nightclubs. The Watchers always managed to procure various types of photographs, accompanied by a plain but precise textual description, and published them on their website. In their own words, "We are observing and recording the true history."
In the eyes of other players, these people must have a lot of free time and be remarkably unafraid of death. Li Ang had taken great care with his disguise, so he wasn't particularly afraid of cameras. Besides, if The Watchers took things too far, they would be smacked into a wall by the Square Guard NPCs.
He walked down the busiest streets of the square, first visiting the office buildings of official organizations like the Special Affairs Bureau, the Global Occult Coalition, and the Supernatural Accident Place of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The first few floors of these official buildings were open to players, and they warmly welcomed players interested in cooperation and accessing information.
Just as Li Ang had anticipated, the official organizations indeed possessed several mature, stable, and safe Body Modification technologies. These were capable of transforming ordinary people into top-tier warriors, pushing them near the human physical limit in a very short time. There were also several efficient modification schemes for lower-level players. However, it seemed the official organizations were holding back, as these modification surgeries were not cheap. Regular players wishing to undergo modification had to sign a myriad of complicated agreements, consenting to contact with officials in the real world and the registration of their player information. If one wanted to gain extraordinary power comfortably and easily, naturally, a certain price had to be paid. Very fair.
After checking the Body Modification services of the official organizations, Li Ang went to the branches set up in the square by civilian organizations. Though called civilian organizations, each one was a behemoth of a multinational corporation. The stakes in the slaughter game were so immense that even multinational corporations found it difficult to swallow them whole. To compete and protect themselves, corporations from different fields even began to form alliances.
Consortiums were monopolistic groups formed through the fusion of massive banks and massive corporations controlled by a few financial oligarchs. Zaibatsu, on the other hand, were monopolistic groups formed under the control of the same financial oligarchs, combining family and close relatives. Groups that unified over the slaughter game, symbolizing vast old power, leveraged their past tremendous wealth and resources to control a large number of players and stabilize the situation as the game began. Their upper echelons exhibited characteristics of both Consortiums and Zaibatsu—among them, many young family heirs held player status, making it difficult to precisely define them or judge whether they belonged to the old or new powers.
In any case, these groups united in secrecy, leveraging their established networks to do each other favors. Publicly, they banded together to launch one or several new companies to represent the interests of their organizations. The various services these new companies offered were indeed cheaper than those of official institutions and had a better cost-to-performance ratio. However, their contracts were just as strict—they promised that once you joined the company, they would immediately arrange a series of custom enhancement surgeries for you, transforming you in minutes. However, you would also find yourself tied to the company's war chariot with no way off, potentially remaining a minor pawn until death, never knowing which organizations were truly behind the company.
Li Ang visited a number of company branches set up by civilian organizations, and it was fair to say these groups had invested heavily. The receptionists, both male and female, were each more gentle and professional than the last, with outstanding looks. They never showed any impatience despite Li Ang's repeated inquiries. It was a mystery how they trained their staff. Li Ang lamented missing the chance for a classic "salesperson looks down on me, so I slam ten million on the table" show-off moment.
Apart from the commercial companies established by these major groups, some medium and small-sized Secret Societies also offered Body Modification and enhancement services—including the Whale Song Organization and the Datura Organization.
After touring the commercial district and collecting the necessary information, Li Ang headed toward the property sales office, filtering the information in his mind.
The Global Occult Coalition and other official bodies offer the most basic Body Modifications. They not only improve physical fitness but also enable muscles to instinctively remember tactical movements. One could say that after the modification, you're essentially a freshly minted special forces soldier.
The Whale Song Organization offers the path of mechanical ascension, replacing human body parts with mechanical prosthetics. After modification, physical capabilities skyrocket, and you also gain bonus abilities like night vision and super hearing. But if you accept the Whale Song Organization's modifications, you'll have to rely on them for any future upgrades to your prosthetics. The drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
Although the Monster Alliance seems quite comical—formed by a plethora of players with heterogeneous bloodlines, numerous members, a mix of the good and the bad, and many rival factions—it lacks unity. Yet, they offer the richest variety of modification surgeries. If you want the Bloodline of The Blood Clan, get embraced; if you want a Werewolf lineage, get bitten. In minutes, you can go from a typical nerdy weakling to a nerdy weakling of the Dark Clan.
Prometheus Laboratory Company excels in both biological and mechanical paths. Whether it's advanced mechanical exoskeletons, personal micro-missiles, high-frequency cutting swords, magnetic levitation skateboards, or Super Soldier Serum and Lizardman bloodline genetic potions, they have it all for sale if a player desires. Safe, fast, and fairly priced. According to the receptionist, they seem to have even more powerful technologies...
As for Datura... tsk, those people are actually still alive and have even brazenly opened a shop in the square. They continue to offer Datura Potions of various models, from C to Z. It's said one type of potion allows users to burn their life force in exchange for unlocking their physical potential to the extreme.
Aside from Datura, there's also a company called the Temple of Life offering similar products. Is this company backed by some pharmaceutical giants?
Let's see, what other Secret Societies are there... Bell Tower from Great Britain offers magic circuit implant surgery. It has poor cost-effectiveness and a long payback period. It doesn't provide immediate results.
The Temple Knights offer holy stigmata branding services, capable of emitting Holy Light to damage Dark Clan members. But you need to be pure of heart and possess unwavering will. The latter is manageable, but purity of heart... that alone would exclude more than ninety percent of players.
The Demon Scientist Alliance, this emerging Secret Society, is quite interesting. They make deals with demons yet believe in science, fiddling with gigantic, grim-looking machinery in red and black, possessing a kind of evil aesthetic. However, their offered modifications are too extreme for the average person to handle.
The Witch Alliance? This organization is quite friendly. The charges for Body Modification are very low, and if you join the Alliance, you can even get it for free, plus tutorials from senior Witches. Unfortunately, only women can join...
Sword King Court... This new guild sounds pretty impressive, with members adopting famous swords as their codenames, like Ju Que, Zhan Lu, Chun Jun, Sheng Xie, and Yu Chang. But they seem to have been established only recently, right? Most of their members are sword cultivators, likely from various schools such as the Sword Sect (focusing on technique) or the Qi Sect (focusing on internal energy), who are good at fighting. However, the modification services they currently offer amount to little more than helping people open their governor and conception vessels... not even comparable to the 'old grandpa in a ring' trope.
Li Ang reviewed all the organizations, large or small, new or old, that offered Body Modification services, and finally concluded one thing—the modification surgery he offered truly had a unique advantage.
Opening a shop and moonlighting as an unscrupulous shop owner seems like a very lucrative prospect.
With this thought, Li Ang no longer hesitated. He entered the sales office and said to the receptionist, "Hello, I would like to buy a piece of land."
