NABC Chapter 75 Making Rules Visible: My Territory, My Rules
Chapter 75 Making Rules Visible: My Territory, My Rules
"Boss!"
The holographic projection of Li's face was distorted beyond recognition due to the extreme instability of the data stream.
"The server crashed!"
Chu Jiang's hand, holding the milk tea cup, froze in mid-air. He didn't even look down; he simply stared calmly at Li the coder.
"If it explodes, fix it; half of your performance bonus will be deducted this month."
"It's not a code explosion! It's a physical explosion!" Li's voice was shrill enough to pierce eardrums. "The Soul-Devouring Beast...it...it gnawed on the backup power supply, and now it's licking our core server! The cooling fan blades are all curled up from its licking!"
Before the words were finished, the mechanical voice of the Little V tablet sounded from the side.
"Reporting to the boss. Large-scale energy spikes have been detected in a total of 3,700 areas across the west, east, and south of the city. The source of these energy fluctuations is highly resonant with the mental and emotional states of the 5.7 million online users in the live stream just now."
The lens of Little V flashed a waterfall of data.
"Preliminary assessment indicates that the user's mental energy was momentarily overloaded, causing the server entity 'Soul Devouring Beast' to suffer from indigestion and trigger a stress response. The chain reaction has been triggered, and the 'Three Paths Crossing' program's mortal server has been completely taken offline."
Chu Jiang put down his milk tea cup.
understood.
The benefits were so great that users were so excited they crashed the server.
"Boss, what do we do now?" Li, the programmer, cried, "Our app is a complete brick now! I can't even access the backend!"
Before Chu Jiang could speak, the glass door of the milk tea shop was suddenly pushed open.
"Something terrible has happened!" Red Boy rushed in with a grave expression, pointing outside, "Something's happened in the sky!"
Everyone in the store rushed to the door.
The once clear sky now resembles a pot of boiling, colorful porridge.
Countless streams of different colors converged in the sky above Shanghai, colliding and tearing at each other to form a huge, slowly rotating vortex.
The air in the entire city became heavy and oppressive, carrying a frenzied, sweet, and fishy smell.
On the street, a young man who had just awakened his superpower—the ability to manipulate metal—found himself unable to control a soda can parked on the roadside.
The can seemed to be flattened by an invisible hand, then frantically absorbed the surrounding spiritual energy, stretching and deforming in mid-air, and even vaguely taking on a human shape.
"My God, what an opportunity! This is a stroke of luck!"
On the rooftop of an office building in the distance, an old man dressed in a Taoist robe sat cross-legged, looking as if he were insane.
"I have been in seclusion for thirty years, waiting for this day! The spiritual energy tide is rising; today I will ascend to immortality right here!"
As he spoke, he opened his mouth and inhaled sharply, instantly drawing in a stream of spiritual energy as thick as a bowl.
But before he could refine it, a half-demon who had just crawled out of the sewer swallowed the spiritual energy in one gulp, and his body instantly swelled up.
"Heh heh, old man, this spiritual energy is now demonic!"
Chaos is unfolding in every corner of the city.
"It's over," Red Boy muttered to himself. "The spiritual energy has gone berserk and out of control. If no one manages these chaotic energies, the entire city will become a giant poisonous concoction, and the one that survives will be an unprecedented monster."
Augustine, the newly recruited deliveryman, stared at the sky, his face pale.
"In the name of God, is this... is this the Last Judgment?"
Chu Jiang took out his phone; the screen was completely black, without even a single signal bar.
He sighed.
"A bunch of naive people who get all excited over a little perk. This group of users is the worst I've ever managed."
He turned and walked into the store.
"Xiao V, immediately execute the Level A contingency plan."
"Boss, the network is down, the server is down, and the Level A contingency plan cannot be activated."
"Then let's execute Plan Z." Chu Jiang didn't stop walking.
"Boss, Plan Z is not in our contingency plan database."
"This is what I'm adding now." Chu Jiang picked up a black umbrella from the bar. "Plan Z, Z stands for 'final interpretation right'."
He pushed open the back door of the milk tea shop and walked towards the stairs leading to the rooftop.
"I'm going to the rooftop to get some fresh air."
The Shanghai Center Tower is the tallest building in the city.
Chu Jiang stood on the edge of the rooftop, holding a black umbrella.
The violent air currents made his clothes flutter, but he seemed to be rooted to the spot and didn't move an inch.
He looked down at the city below, which was beginning to descend into madness.
Countless points of light and shadows chased and fought on the streets, and occasionally out-of-control spells blasted onto high-rise buildings, exploding into bursts of fire.
"Technology is sometimes just that fragile."
He looked at the phone in his hand, which had turned into a brick, and casually threw it off the high-rise building.
He folded his umbrella, letting the wind tousle his hair, and opened his arms.
"When you downloaded my app, you all clicked the 'Agree' button, right?"
His voice wasn't loud, yet it eerily drowned out the wind, echoing clearly in every corner and in everyone's mind.
"You definitely didn't read that user agreement that's tens of thousands of words long."
"But it's okay."
"Let me read one of them to you."
"The final interpretation right belongs to Santu Express (Yangjian Business Division)."
Chu Jiang opened his eyes, his gaze calm, as if he were looking at his own vegetable garden overgrown with weeds.
"Now, let me explain what 'all' means."
He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers lightly.
"Smack."
A soft sound.
From the basement of the milk tea shop, from the core server room that the Soul-Devouring Beast used as a scratching post, a golden light shot into the sky.
Following that, every mobile phone in the city that had downloaded the "Santu Express" APP, every small shop with a QR code for payment, and every corner that had ever been covered by the APP's signal...
Countless unseen "order base stations" were activated simultaneously at this moment.
Thin but strong golden threads rose from every pore of the city, intertwining and stretching in mid-air, quickly forming a giant net covering the entire metropolis.
On the giant web, countless runes flowed; upon closer inspection, they were none other than the user agreement that no one would ever read.
On the rooftop, the old Taoist priest who was preparing to ascend had just inhaled a breath of spiritual energy, and before he could even warm it up, his body was tightly bound by several golden chains that descended from the sky.
A lifeless, mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
[Dear customer, we have detected that you are engaging in illegal cultivation in an undesignated area, violating Article 108 of the "Three Paths Quick Crossing User Agreement," which prohibits the theft of company assets (spiritual energy).]
[Your account is being forcibly suspended. Duration: 72 hours.]
The old Taoist priest rolled his eyes, was lifted up by the chains, and floated back to the ground, his magical power completely locked away.
The half-demon who had absorbed the spiritual energy was also bound by chains and hung directly from a street lamp.
[Warning: Your behavior has been detected as disorderly conduct, disrupting public order, or polluting the environment. 500 points will be deducted from your Yin Virtue Credit Score. Please undergo community service at the designated location within 24 hours; otherwise, it will affect your and your immediate family members' future reincarnation order.]
Throughout the city, countless awakened beings, cultivators, and demons who attempted to take advantage of the chaos were all bound hand and foot by golden chains of rules at the same time.
All I could hear were various notices of violations.
[You have violated the "No Urinating or Giving in Public Places" rule and will be fined 200 Yin Virtue Points.]
[You were speeding in a no-fly zone. Your "Somersault Cloud" pilot's license is revoked, and you are permanently banned from taking the test.]
[Your involvement in pyramid scheme activities has been detected. We are processing your application for a "Ten-Day Tour of Avici Hell" experience package.]
The golden net covering the entire city, like a giant comb, repeatedly smoothed out the turbulent and chaotic tides of spiritual energy.
The manic energy became docile.
The diverse attributes were categorized.
Finally, the entire vortex of spiritual energy was completely dispersed, transforming into a golden rain of energy that fell gently down.
The raindrops fell on people, and their fatigue disappeared.
When it falls on plants, even withered trees come back to life.
On the rooftop, Chu Jiang reopened his black umbrella, and the golden raindrops parted automatically around him.
He pulled out an identical spare phone from his pocket, and made a peace sign at the city night view behind him, which was covered by a golden net and showered with light.
"Click."
A selfie is complete.
At the same time, a system notification that only he could see popped up in front of him.
[Ding! Detected that the host has successfully materialized virtual rules, defining the order of the mortal realm for the first time, completing the hidden achievement 'My Territory, My Rules'.]
[Congratulations, host, you have obtained a special title: Shanghai Landlord.]
[Title Effect: Within your 'Territory' (Shanghai), you have absolute rule-defining power over all entities that have signed 'Agreements'. All revenue generated here (including but not limited to spiritual energy, faith, and merit) will automatically have 1% deducted as 'property management fees'.]
Chu Jiang looked at the last line of text and pursed his lips.
"The property management fee is only one percent?"
"System, your perspective is still too narrow."