Chapter 23: The King of the Virtual World
The meeting room was enveloped in utter silence.
The emergence of the Virtual Realm concerned the fate of all humanity.
How could the real world possibly remain peaceful in the face of such an upheaval?
At best, large-scale open warfare had not yet erupted.
But as for covert maneuvers... they were inevitable.
...
After a brief wait, a technician entered the room.
“Commander, I’ve transmitted the profiles of all the top management from the ten largest Metaverse guilds in Huaxia. Let me bring them up for you.”
As he spoke, the technician pressed several buttons on the conference table. Instantly, a massive holographic projection appeared above it.
Hundreds of portraits were displayed, each accompanied by a brief introduction.
Above all the images, four bold words were displayed:
Skyline Guild.
At the very center, larger than the others, was the portrait of Chen Nian.
In the projection, Chen Nian’s brows were slightly raised, a faint smile playing on his lips, lending him an air of irreverence.
Ye Guangyu’s gaze fell to the information beneath Chen Nian’s portrait.
“Chen Nian, 23 years old, professional gamer, president of the Skyline Guild, orphanage-raised, afflicted with a rare genetic disease, parents unknown.
Dropped out eight years ago, entered the metaverse gaming world, became a professional player, has won numerous awards in the gaming industry, and is the most famous metaverse player in Huaxia.”
Surrounding Chen Nian’s portrait were four others.
Ye Guangyu tapped the projection, centering one of them.
This individual wore a serious expression, brows furrowed in contemplation.
“Lu Yixiu, 23 years old, born to an ordinary family, graduate student at the School of International Relations, Capital University. Outstanding academic performance, multiple national scholarships, already under the watch of relevant authorities.
Vice President of Skyline.”
After reading Lu Yixiu’s profile, Ye Guangyu swiped right.
A young man with long hair obscuring one eye and an indifferent expression appeared in the center.
“Zhou Zhirui, 23 years old, only son of Zhou Zhen, head of the Zhou Martial Arts School. Runner-up in the third Metaverse No-Holds-Barred Tournament.
Highly skilled in martial arts in reality, and among the top operatives in the virtual world.
Head of Operations, Skyline Guild.”
...
“They’re all outstanding among ordinary people,” Ye Guangyu murmured, and swiped again to the right, revealing a cheerful young man with blond hair.
“Tang Ping, 22 years old, second son of Tang Yuan, chairman of Zhenxing Metaverse Device Group. His elder brother, Tang Zhen, is a renowned neo-human scientist at the Academy of Sciences.
He himself possesses no particular talents, but is an avid ‘whale’ in gaming.
At Skyline’s founding, rumor has it he spent tens of millions, notorious in Magic City as a prodigal scion.
Head of Logistics, Skyline.”
“The second son of the Zhenxing Group’s chairman...” Ye Guangyu was clearly surprised.
Zhenxing Group was a well-known publicly listed company, specializing in manufacturing metaverse pods.
Just yesterday, he had met Tang Yuan to place a massive, unlimited order. He hadn’t expected to see his son’s information today.
“Heh... a spendthrift indeed.”
Ye Guangyu swiped again, and a beautiful young woman appeared in the center.
“Xu Jing, 22 years old, senior at Capital University of Finance and Economics, head of finance, Skyline.”
Surrounding these four were another circle of portraits.
Captain of Skyline—First Operations Team...
Captain of Skyline—Second Operations Team...
Reconnaissance Team Captain...
Commando Team Captain...
Security Team Captain...
The Burning-the-Midnight-Oil Team Captain...
...
At a glance, there were hundreds of managers, each with clearly delineated responsibilities, orbiting like satellites around the young man at the center.
“This kid has quite a knack,” Ye Guangyu murmured, then switched over to Huaxia’s second guild, Galaxy.
Compared to Skyline, Galaxy’s internal structure was far looser.
Moreover, many of its departments were obvious imitations of Skyline’s.
“Since Skyline was founded, they’ve made plenty of enemies. Those people formed a new guild—Galaxy,” the technician explained.
“So without Skyline, there would be no Galaxy, is that right?”
“In theory, yes.
The third largest guild, Fortune, is Huaxia’s biggest gold-farming guild; many who earn a living in the metaverse belong to it.
Skyline is their largest client.”
“I see...” Ye Guangyu nodded slightly and continued reviewing the files with patience.
After reading through the material, several links appeared at the end.
The first link was titled: “World War: Final Battle of the Two Great Factions—Allied Forces vs. Empire, Millions Collide!”
Ye Guangyu clicked the link, and instantly, the room was filled with the thunderous cacophony of a battlefield.
The video’s perspective zoomed swiftly upward, soon reaching several hundred meters above the ground.
From this height, a dense mass of tanks and soldiers could be seen below.
One side wore red, the other black.
The two steel torrents clashed, the roar of gunfire, artillery, and aircraft engines shaking the sky.
In the upper right corner, the current online player count was displayed.
At that moment, the number stood at 3,826,000, but it was decreasing at a staggering rate, a testament to the ferocity of the battle.
In the lower left, a full-channel chatbox was visible.
In the chatbox, Chen Nian, bearing the title of Alliance Leader, was furiously directing the six Allied guilds against the seven Empire guilds.
At the forefront of the Empire’s forces was a guild called Hand of God.
...
Were it before, Ye Guangyu would have found this video childish and hardly of any value.
After all, the game’s setting was from a century or two ago—modern warfare was nothing like this.
But now, he watched with unusual intensity.
What drew his attention most was the execution capability of Skyline Guild.
Nearly every time Chen Nian issued a command, Skyline would complete the deployment in short order.
By comparison, the other guilds lagged conspicuously behind.
As the red tide gained the upper hand, the chatbox flashed with a message:
“Hand of God? What a joke!
Today, we’ll break every hand they have!
Let them know who is the true king of this virtual world!”
...
“King of the virtual world...” Ye Guangyu unconsciously echoed the phrase.
He sped up the projection.
In the end, the red tide triumphed over the black.
At the very end, a group photograph was left on screen.
In it, Chen Nian stood at the center; though younger than he was now, his features were recognizable.
Beside him were the four principal Skyline managers whose profiles Ye Guangyu had just reviewed.
Every face radiated irrepressible joy.
Apart from the Skyline members, the photo included members from other guilds as well.
Galaxy’s president, Xia Xiyun, pouted at Chen Nian, clearly disgruntled.
Fortune’s president, Yuan Zhendong, stood three places away, scratching his head with a guileless expression.
...
“Chen Nian is a crucial figure,” Ye Guangyu whispered.
From the intelligence so far, it appeared there was no currency in the Virtual Realm.
But looked at from another angle, currency did exist.
That currency was souls—human lives.
As long as enough souls were invested, perhaps something could be gained in the Virtual Realm.
And if souls were the currency there, then Chen Nian was undoubtedly among the richest individuals in today’s world.