This Game Is Too Real-Chapter 780: How about we borrow some too?

Southern Sea Northern Island, seagulls with flapping wings giddy with delight above the construction site, splattering bird droppings everywhere.

Not only the residents of the Northern Island had been well-fed.

With the impending battle in Haiya Province, a massive influx of players had descended upon the Northern Island, and various birds on the island had grown fat and robust.

Some had even become too fat to fly.

As he watched the varied faces on the construction site, Wolf of Battle rested his hands on a shovel and said with a quirky expression,

"Is it just my imagination?"

The Dog of the Pipes, who was dusting off, looked up at him.

"What?"

Wolf of Battle stroked his chin, muttering,

"Why do I feel like there are more people competing with us now?"

Originally, there were only about thirty people at this construction site, excluding him and his three civil engineer brothers, with less than thirty NPCs.

However, these past few days, the number had soared unexpectedly, doubling and doubling again, heading beyond two hundred.

In reality, these numbers were normal, but the problem was that this was the southern sea area in "Wasteland OL," and the total population was just slightly over a million.

Where the hell did all these people come from?!

"It’s not your imagination," Far-sighted Eagle said with narrowed eyes, "The war has ended, a baby boom must have logically occurred, leading to a population increase... It makes sense."

The Dog of the Pipes: "F*ck! Do your babies grow that fast?!"

Stick Brother: "..."

Although the players couldn’t figure out the reason, it was true that there had been more people on Northern Island these days.

Not just the construction site, but also the docks, supermarkets, restaurants, and so on.

These people seemed to appear out of nowhere, and most were new faces.

Aside from their skinny figures and timid eyes, these people somewhat resembled the residents from Falling Leaves Province.

According to some veteran players bragging, many survivors from Falling Leaves Province had migrated from the Great Desert during the early Wasteland Era.

Of course, back then, it wasn’t called the Great Desert but was known as the four major industrial zones: East, West, South, North.

Curious about where these NPCs had come from, Wolf of Battle, spurred on by his mischievous friends, stepped forward and stopped a man to ask.

"Hey, where are you guys from?"

The man clearly didn’t want to talk to him, but also didn’t dare to offend, mumbling after hesitating for a while,

"Mammoth State."

Wolf of Battle paused,

"Where’s Mammoth State?"

The man explained,

"Poluo Province."

Wolf of Battle nodded blankly,

"Oh, that place... That’s really far."

The man didn’t speak further, eager to keep moving bricks, and after excusing himself, hurried off.

Wolf of Battle didn’t stop him, but his gaze followed the stooped man as he looked towards the group in the distance.

Their appearances were diverse; young and old, handsome and ugly, but their manner strangely similar.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on how to describe these people, but subconsciously thought of cows.

This was the strangest part.

He remembered that the Cow People were supposed to be nobles in Poluo Province, yet these individuals seemed more like the Godly Cows of the Sun-Bearing Day.

Their necks seemed to be bound by an invisible rope, backs to the blazing sun, nobody was leading them, yet everyone seemed to be led by the nose.

Nearby, Stick Brother sighed, removed his miner’s exoskeleton, and stepped forward to stop an older gentleman.

"Old... sir, you’re working too hard moving bricks, wear my equipment."

He wasn’t at the site for money, but rather to mix reputation and earn Contribution Points in the area. He also wanted to boost his Strength sequence and engage in "social practice."

This was a game mechanic in "Wasteland OL," established long ago.

When players wanted to use VM and the systems linked to it to start activities in a region, they had to begin with grassroots tasks, raising the local reputation to over 1000 (friendly).

The man, suddenly addressed, was somewhat flustered and hastily declined,

"I... I don’t know how to use it."

Thinking to be thoroughly good, Stick Brother enthusiastically said.

"No problem, I’ll teach you!"

"No no no, sir, I’m afraid I might ruin it, I... really can’t afford to compensate." The man wore a sincere and fearful expression, desperately waving his hands, refusing to take it on.

"No worries! This thing isn’t expensive, just 2000 silver coins. If it breaks, it’s fine, I’ll just get a new one." Stick Brother activated the VM’s translation function and repeated this with a laugh, though not in perfect United Human.

The man merely gave a bitter smile in response, not saying a word.

silver coins.

He only makes a little over 100 a month...

But even 100 silver coins was much better than when he was farming in Mammoth State.

Farming in the noble lords’ estates meant only getting beans when there was a surplus of food that couldn’t be sold, otherwise, he’d have to eat dirt at least once every three days.

People here not only provide food and accommodation but also only require eight hours of work a day. He could save up all of the 100 silver coins and send them back home.

He heard that some quick-handed young men could move more and make 5 to 8 silver coins a day, potentially amassing over 200 in a month!

silver coins, that’s 2000 gallons, even in Jin Galun Harbor that’s considered a high salary, not to mention that food and lodging here are free.

Thinking of the mouths to feed back home, he stopped wasting time with this obviously ill-intentioned stranger, quickly muttered an excuse, and went off to move another load...

...

Sometimes fate is just so marvelous, a seemingly unsolvable problem tortures your mind without any solutions, yet it gets perfectly solved in the most unexpected place.

Mammoth State, huh?

Truly a promising place.

Once the trade relations between Mammoth State and the South Sea Union are established, maybe the South Sea Union could really consider investing there.

General Li Minghui never expected that, having decided to slack off, before he even started to nap, someone handed him a pillow.

And not just one, but a hundred thousand.

These young laborers from Mammoth State, all aged between eighteen and thirty, married, with at least two children at home, some even agedly parents to care for.

The Mammoth State Authority promised him, these people brought in through labor dispatch wouldn’t run off or commit crimes and would leave after earning their pay without utilizing any of the South Sea Union’s public resources or social welfare.

Their only requirement was that the South Sea Union provided the vessels for transporting these people, and be responsible for their training.

In other words, they only managed the people and their administration.

When General Li Minghui heard this offer, he immediately agreed, even diverting the newly commissioned nuclear-powered freight submarine to transport them.

Up to now, fifty thousand Mammoth State laborers have been working in the South Sea Union, the construction sites in the Northern Islands shooting up like rockets.

Although he didn’t want to get involved in too many unnecessary tasks during the remainder of his term, he couldn’t pass up such a win-win situation without feeling guilty towards the people of the Southern Sea area supporting him.

However, what General Li Minghui didn’t expect was that even so, representatives from the Southern Sea area still found fault with him.

It was a serene and sunny afternoon, he was sitting in his office, drinking tea, and reading the newspaper when suddenly the sound of footsteps approached rapidly from the corridor outside.

Just as he set down the newspaper, Si Wen, the Secretary-General of the representative committee, entered pushingly and started pointing at his nose.

"What’s with those people at the North Island construction site?"

The representative committee of the South Sea Union, aside from the ordinary representatives, had a committee elected by representatives, and the Secretary-General usually represented the collective opinions of the committee.

Although General Li Minghui disliked these noisy bunches, they had the last say in laws, so he couldn’t help but pay attention and explained,

"Those are refugees from Mammoth State."

"Why would Mammoth State’s refugees appear in the Southern Sea area?" Si Wen stared into his eyes aggressively, "The representative committee didn’t pass any resolution related to this, how could you make unilateral decisions!"

General Li Minghui did not respond to his question, but counter-questioned,

"Has the representative committee prohibited labor dispatch?"

Si Wen frowned, unsure of the motives hidden in this, but still responded formally,

"No."

General Li Minghui continued,

"Has the representative committee prohibited enterprises of the union from working on North Island?"

Si Wen impatiently said,

"No, what exactly are you trying to say, are those guys all from the union?"

"Then what’s wrong with the labor dispatch company registered in Potato Harbor sending ten thousand workers to North Island?" General Li Minghui’s face revealed a grin as he looked at the stunned Si Wen and spread his hands, "There’s no violation of any laws, if I refuse their goodwill, you would blame me for abusing power... Sorry, but I won’t be so foolish. Maybe you should return and discuss, and redefine the identity of dispatched workers, but that’s your issue."

"Is there anything else?"

Chu Guang took a sip from his teacup and leisurely watched the Secretary-General, who was struggling to form a sentence, and teased him.

"Why don’t you go back and have a meeting to discuss it?"

Si Wen glared at him fiercely, about to turn and leave, when suddenly another person appeared at the office door.

However, this time it wasn’t a representative from the conference, but the Secretary from the Presidential Mansion.

Seeing the door open, the Secretary walked straight in and, speaking rapidly, addressed Chu Guang, who was sitting at the back of the office.

"Mr. President, Duke Nihak from the West Winds Empire requests an audience! He represents the Royal Family of the West Winds and expresses their willingness to provide the South Sea Union with a loan for post-war reconstruction, amounting to ten billion West Winds dinars, interest-free, repayable within twenty years."

Chu Guang was taken aback; he couldn’t even recall what West Winds dinars looked like and instinctively asked.

"How much is that in silver coins?"

The Secretary also paused, his expression awkward as he replied.

"Uh, there’s little direct trade between the Union and the Empire, usually conducted through Jin Jialun Port... The current recognized exchange rate there is 4 gallons for 5 West Winds dinars, with cotton for textiles and soybeans for feed being the main commodities."

Following the lifting of the embargo, the market price of soybeans in both the Tiger and Leopard States was about 5 West Winds dinars per pound, while it averaged around 4 gallons in Jin Jialun Port, mainly used for oil extraction and feed production.

Although previously, due to a "mass borrowing and selling off" of West Winds dinars by the Jin Jialun Port Bank, the dinar turned into waste paper in the Lowell state and even in Tiger and Leopard States, the Empire was not Giant Stone City after all. With its large population and hardworking nature, nearly a hundred million serfs’ sweat flowed along the Everflow River into the Tiger and Leopard States, forcefully elevating the value of the West Winds dinar.

Furthermore, while initially the value of the West Winds dinar was determined solely by the export of two commodities—slaves and livestock—the presence of Jin Jialun Port had enlivened the Empire’s import-export activities, shifting from "absolutely no foreign interest" to "having a relatively stable exchange rate."

Using the data provided by his Secretary, Chu Guang did a quick calculation, and he couldn’t believe it without calculating.

Eight hundred million silver coins?!

If this exchange rate holds true, does it mean each person in the West Winds Empire is lending 8 silver coins to the South Sea Union?!

Is the Empire that wealthy?!

Chu Guang felt his hands trembling; he hadn’t even shaken this much when he was bombarded on Anle Island.

As Si Wen stood next to the desk seemingly in shock, mouth agape, silently staring at Chu Guang, he almost seemed eager to snatch the pen on the desk and sign the loan agreement for him!

Eight hundred million silver coins...

That meant each citizen of the South Sea Union could divide up eight hundred!

In fact, without the delegate’s frantic implications, it took Chu Guang just swallowing his saliva before he quickly asked his Secretary.

"How are they paying? No, I mean when will the money be delivered?"

The Secretary whispered.

"Duke Nihak didn’t say... But he’s currently on North Island; don’t you plan to meet him in person to negotiate?"

Chu Guang swiftly looked toward Si Wen, who obediently retreated to the door of the office like a satiated seagull.

"I’m done here; may your negotiations go smoothly, esteemed General Chu Guang, and may you lead us from one victory to another."

This guy had never called him a general before, especially not within this Presidential Mansion.

Watching Si Wen leave the office, Chu Guang couldn’t help but utter a scornful remark.

"These money-eyed guys!"

After coughing, he turned to his Secretary.

"Please invite Duke Nihak to dine with me... the highest standard, don’t neglect our distinguished guest."

...

The frontline in Haiya Province was as intense as ever.

With the update to Beta0.7, the testing player cap was raised to one hundred thousand people and a large influx of new players entered, recently the Union had seen some promising new army groups catching Chu Guang’s eye.

Like the "Imitators"—the Hellfire Legion of the Burning Corps.

As the Union’s second airborne army group composed of players, this unit had reached a size of one thousand members.

Unlike the Burning Corps, however, without equipped power armor, they more resembled light parachutists, accustomed to using the W-1A unpowered glider and a motorized vehicle parachuted from Goblin Technology.

While the veterans of the Burning Corps always teased them as "phantom fire youths," this group’s performance on the northern line was quite impressive, vaguely reaching T3 standards, even surpassing the Silver Corps, which had securely held the position of a mixed brigade during the Alpha testing phase.

Certainly much more reliable than groups like Abstract Corps, which mainly engaged in antics.

Additionally, a new "Mountain Unit" called the Climber Army stood out,

taking advantage of the hilly northern landscape of Haiya Province, this unit of over a thousand players managed to develop their unique tactics through numerous deadly encounters and collaborated with the NPCs of the Dawn City Industrial area to develop special mountain warfare equipment.

Including a grappling hook gun and short military boots with hooks.

Without any exoskeletons, using these simple, inexpensive tools, they could burst forth with combat power not inferior to that of exoskeletal soldiers.

Moreover, the enthusiasts for preaching, Difficult for the Strong and Tranquility, founded the Raptor Troops.

Initially part of the Burning Corps but never sticking with the group, Level 99 Junk Picker finally retired from the Burning Corps to join this newly established group.

The combat performance of this group was still a question mark, but the future seemed promising.

Due to the overwhelming prowess of the players, Chu Guang had recently felt more and more like an NPC.

His daily work was to stand at the respawn point and watch as the players on the front lines charged forward with roars while shells were lobbed forward as if they were free.

The current situation on the northern front was akin to a meat grinder. There was tactical room for maneuver, but strategically, there was virtually none.

This was the case from the ten thousand-strong reinforcements sent by the Army to the Academy’s Alpha Special Mobile Force and the mercenaries and greenhorns continually sent to the front line by various companies.

However, it was exhilarating that under the siege of the Allied forces, the Torch Church was showing increasing signs of fatigue. Perhaps this long-lasting war could be wrapped up soon.

The area of Haiya Province was less than 1.5 times that of Mammoth State. The fact that the war had dragged on this long was truly because the Torch Church was incredibly tenacious.

On the first weekend of November, Chu Guang had planned to take half a day off to browse the internet on Earth to see how other "operators" were fleecing people, when Cheng Yan, the foreign minister of the Alliance, unexpectedly made a video call,

"...Respected Manager sir, although you may have noticed already, I still need to remind you that the Empire seems to be making some sneaky moves around us again."

Chu Guang raised his eyebrows and asked curiously.

"Oh? What moves?"

Cheng Yan continued cautiously.

"...They have given the Southern Sea Union a ten-billion Xilan dollar interest-free loan, with only a simple stipulation that the funds must be used to import goods from ports in the Xilan Empire homeland. Besides that, they have also secured a steel and cement export order worth one billion Xilan dollars at 50% below market price."

Chu Guang was stunned and didn’t speak for a good while.

It wasn’t that he was shocked by the Empire’s lavish spending, but rather that he didn’t understand what they were up to.

Usually, situations that baffled him like this occurred with the players; it was quite rare for an "NPC" to confuse him like this.

The last time had been when the Grey Wolf Army raided Potato Harbor, and he had stared at the map for ages without understanding what the Empire had gained from it besides getting beaten up.

This time too, he simply couldn’t figure out what new trick Witch Gu was trying to pull.

Objectively speaking, debt as an economic lubricant is not inherently problematic. After all, foreign loans can stimulate exports of domestic products, and exports are one of the three main drivers of an economy, especially under certain circumstances where lending money abroad is more useful than lending it domestically.

Especially when the domestic market money supply is less than the actual market demand—facing deflation, in other words—importing small amounts of inflation from smaller economies is a basic strategy, particularly for economically robust entities like the Southern Sea Union.

However, the problem was that Poluo Province was still a serf economy, with many survivors considered as "livestock" according to the standards of Stars. Clearly, inflation or deflation wasn’t the issue; rather, there wasn’t a traditional market to speak of, so why forcefully use a market-based approach?

If Chu Guang had to consider it from the perspective of the Empire’s Royal Family, he could think adding a clause for repayment with an equivalent amount of dinars or silver coins, or requiring the Southern Sea Union to receive Xilan currency when selling goods to the Empire, might not seem so absurd.

But even disregarding the "benefits" themselves, this operation was filled with perplexing elements.

Previously, when the Alliance borrowed money from Giant Stone City, Giant Stone City was willing to lend partly because they were armed and partly because there were mutual investments between both sides, not small in scale, practically stacking up a buff against defaulting. Even from the Alliance’s own interest standpoint, direct defaulting was unlikely.

Just like the Southern Sea Union wouldn’t likely default and not pay back the Alliance.

In fact, Giant Stone City had adopted a similar economic control model over various farms in the Brocade River Province, including investments in Kham Tree Plantations in Brocade River Province by List long ago.

It was just that the Inner City Nobles were too greedy and arrogant, stacking the chips too high at the gambling table, eventually leading to their own downfall.

As for the Empire...

They might indeed have deeper pockets than Giant Stone City, but apart from that, they lacked any of the conditions, at least from his outsider’s perspective.

Chu Guang thought long and hard but couldn’t figure out what game the Empire was playing; it certainly didn’t seem like charity, rather more like someone was giving Witch Gu bad advice.

However, someone offering money for nothing was ultimately a good thing for the little brothers in the Alliance.

After all, the Southern Sea Union was not just experiencing inflation, but a "direct collapse of domestic currency," with even the local authorities paying salaries using the Alliance’s silver coins.

At this stage, if someone was willing to buy the "air" from the Southern Sea Union which was even less substantial than "beer bubbles," only a fool would refuse.

Chu Guang couldn’t help feeling amazed; besides the Academy, there was now another inscrutable player on this wasteland.

The Sticky Community and Jin Jialun Port had given money to the Empire, but that the emperor would use it this way was indeed beyond his expectations.

"How about you ask Duke Garava if we could also borrow some?"

Cheng Yan was startled.

"This... That might not be such a good idea."

He wasn’t in charge of economics, but he generally felt that having too high a debt was not a good thing, and he also felt that Xilan currency wasn’t very useful.

Despite their different thoughts, Chu Guang simply encouraged him with a smile. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"There’s no harm in asking... Of course, if they really don’t want to, just forget it, no need to force them."

Seeing that Chu Guang wasn’t joking, Cheng Yan could only respond with a wry smile.

"Alright."

After the call ended, Chu Guang was planning to put this matter aside, but he couldn’t resist the urge and went on to the forum to post an update, revealing the news of this massive amount of money to the lifestyle players in the Southern sea area.

Even a mosquito is meat, and since the Southern Sea Union might not fully consume this proverbial chunk of meat, it might as well let the players active there help the locals digest it a bit.

For instance, helping them cash out the unspendable Xilan money at a 50% discount for silver coins.

Although Xilan currency wasn’t very useful elsewhere, it was valuable to the lifestyle players active in Jin Jialun Port...

—

(Thanks to "Makabakamo" for the six-league chief rewards!!! You rock!!)