Dai Wenqian had excellent self-control. Not only was he not angry, he instead said, "We don't have any irreconcilable grievances. I'm not looking for you to settle old scores this time, but to discuss a transaction with you."

"Doesn't the Special Defense Department manage you players?" Xu Huo put down his water glass.

"The Special Defense Department isn't that fast. Even if they get results, they won't be applied to us first." Dai Wenqian said, "You should still have some spares on hand, right? Sell them to me. You can set the conditions."

Hearing this, Xu Huo laughed. "Quite the bold talk. I wonder if you can offer better conditions than the Special Defense Department."

Dai Wenqian was silent on the other end for two seconds before saying, "Xu Huo, there's really no need for such confrontation between you and me. Given the current situation, wouldn't a strong alliance be better?"

"There's the government-recognized Players Association, and player-established organizations. Their numbers and scale are huge. Although the Special Defense Department has also absorbed many players, they won't fully trust civilian players. From what I know, the Special Defense Department has been continuously selecting suitable people from the military to become players, and it's quite effective."

"Once the military players rise up, there won't be anything left for us. Wanting to survive, it's never wrong to plan more for yourself, especially since I have so many players under me counting on me."

"You're the same. You can enter the game, but you can't just abandon your home, right?"

"It's not the right time yet, but if a real situation arises, do you think the Special Defense Department people will be so easy to talk to?"

After listening to him, Xu Huo finally said, "I'm not worried the Special Defense Department will threaten me with my family to do something. But your words reminded me. When I came back, I received a message from my family saying someone has been watching them nearby. Was that you?"

His tone didn't change, but Dai Wenqian sensed the threat through the phone.

"Your family is under the protection of the Special Defense Department. How would I dare?" His voice lowered slightly. "Xu Huo, cooperating with me has no downsides. There are more and more players, and their methods are impossible to guard against completely. You don't want to go home for a visit one day only to be chased and cornered by a bunch of players, do you..."

Xu Huo directly hung up the phone and sent a message to Team Leader Wu.

"I'll have Team Leader Song restrain his people." Team Leader Wu replied quickly.

Not long after, Sima Xiao Er returned and skillfully prepared a meal.

After Xu Huo ate, seeing Sima Xiao Er looking idle, he asked, "Don't you usually need to participate in training?"

Liu Jia had also joined the Special Defense Department. For players lacking basic skills, the department provided training.

"Physical training is all done, but the rest is beyond me." Sima Xiao Er scratched his head. "The branch bureau invited specialized teachers to give lectures, teaching us how to analyze dungeons. I can't learn it."

"Don't laugh, Brother Xu. I passed my first few dungeons by bribing other players. My brain just doesn't work that way. I can't analyze dungeons, but finding the strongest player is never wrong."

"What if you encounter a single-player dungeon?" Xu Huo asked.

E-rank dungeons are all multi-player dungeons, with no clear groupings or hostile relationships. In most cases, all players share the same objective, so cooperation is common. But later on, it's hard to say. As player levels increase, dungeon difficulty will also rise.

For example, the Rose Castle dungeon boss's disguise, and the infiltration of non-dungeon players. In the Deep Blue Laboratory, there was the ghost-catching game pretending to be a clearance requirement. And this was under conditions with limited venues and participant numbers.

"I also know dungeons will definitely get harder in the future," Sima Xiao Er said miserably. "But I just can't think of the things others can. What am I supposed to do?"

"Does the Special Defense Department arrange for players to mentor other players?" Xu Huo asked instead.

"They do, but there are very few." Sima Xiao Er said. "Right now, everyone is busy leveling up. Hand-holding isn't realistic."

"Player status can be paused." Xu Huo revealed. "Upon advancing to D-grade, you can apply to the Game Government or the Partition Government to pause your player status. You don't have to do a dungeon every month."

Sima Xiao Er said joyfully, "There's such a good thing?"

Xu Huo glanced at him. "Applying isn't that easy either. The minimum condition is to do labor for these two governments."

Sima Xiao Er's expression became animated. "Rather than working for others, better to work for your own country. I'll apply after Zone 014 develops more in the future."

Xu Huo appreciated his optimism and asked further, "Have there been any special events in Zone 014 recently?"

"I know a little about this," Sima Xiao Er said. "Some strange magnetic fields have appeared in remote, deep mountains and old forests. Explorations haven't found anything else, but some experts say this is a sign of Zone 014 merging with the game. Eventually, Zone 014 will also become part of the game. When that happens, dungeons will appear in Zone 014, with no distinction between dungeon worlds and the real world."

Xu Huo nodded. This was inevitable, just unclear what criteria a new partition needs to meet to fully integrate into the game.

But for now, full integration isn't a good thing. Once high-level players can move freely in Zone 014, a considerable number of high-level players would be needed to maintain order. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Nothing much else," Sima Xiao Er thought for a moment before adding, "But I heard from people in other departments that recently, some strange people have been buying property in big cities."

"The government is now very strict about household registration. Every asset transaction is recorded in detail, so they found some people who appeared out of nowhere."

"Illegal identities?" Xu Huo became interested.

"Legal, actually. Too legal." Sima Xiao Er said. "They're using the ID cards of missing persons."

"There were many missing persons cases a while back, with many people on record. Regardless of where these people came from, their ID cards and facial features in the system match. But some people did say it probably wasn't the original person."

"And no matter what these missing persons did before or how much money they had, after returning, they spend money to buy property or shops in prosperous areas. But they usually open repair shops and toy stores."

This sounded familiar. Under normal thinking, players wouldn't care about things like property or household registration, nor would they need to. But last time in Harbor City, Painting Woman obtained the ability to use paper over an extremely large area by acquiring land use rights from the government. This means the Partition Government's authority over household registration and property is recognized by the game, and this method can influence items to a certain extent.

"Are these people players?" Xu Huo paused before asking again.

"They seem like it, but also not. They don't seem to need to enter dungeons." Sima Xiao Er said. "The Special Defense Department also investigated. If there's anything special, it's that they sell things very expensively, and they accept both our paper currency and White Bills."

"Are there shops like that in Ting City?"

"Not in Ting City." Sima Xiao Er looked at him. "Brother Xu, do you know what these shops are for? Are you planning something?"