NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2.1: Are My Sins Clear Now?
The success rate of the public execution is around 50%, and through other means, the success rate can be artificially raised to 100%.
And when the execution is successful, the rewards that he would gain are substantial.
Using this talent of hers, whenever an opposition rises inside of his community, Zuo Chan can easily frame that other party, easily toppling the leaders of the opposition within the community!
Ever since Zuo Chang obtained the Xue Qiangwei, he treated her as his right-hand woman. Even though her attributes were low compared to the other servants that followed him, he still nurtured her carefully, he used her from the very start of the game till the very end.
He still remembered when his community reached “1555.” The situation was dire both internally and externally, his community had very low stability and high dissatisfaction. His policies couldn’t be enforced, and there were protests on the streets every day.
In order to break through the predicament, even though the failure rate of public executions was 50%, he had Xue Qiangwei create wrongful cases, attempting to reverse the situation—
Unfortunately, it ended up in failure.
Just as it seemed he was about to reach a dead end, an unexpected turn of events occurred, giving him a lifeline to latch onto.
You must understand, the things that are needed to bring a community from the ‘99999’ to ‘1555’ are a lot, and it was not easy by any means.
During the impeachment, when his subordinates looked around, they all felt they didn’t have the capability and decided to let “General Tianwang” – Zuo Chang’s game ID – lead them.
However, some treacherous officials had to be eliminated.
The person who bears the brunt first was Xue Qiangwei!
Who was she?
Xue Qiangwei is both cruel and ruthless, to either her allies or enemies alike, she also has an arrogant and domineering personality, oftentimes she would frame the loyal and killing the innocent!
No one knew how many pillars of the community had killed this girl.
A proposition was laid out before Zuo Chang:
【Your ministers are willing to restore your power and serve you again, but they have a demand: execute Xue Qiangwei.】
【They sent representatives to negotiate with you…】
【1, Refuse. Game over.】
【2, Kill Xue Qiangwei. The more you rely on Xue Qiangwei, the more your subjects will hate her. By choosing this, you will gain unprecedented support and praise. There will be no opposition within the community, and your subjects will be more united than ever. However, your followers’ loyalty will drop by 20 points, and they will be chilled by this decision. They will abandon you like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Your loyal followers will decrease.】
【3, Exile Xue Qiangwei. You back down, choosing to exile Xue Qiangwei and promise never to use her again. By choosing this, all values within the community will return to normal levels.】
After taking some time to calculate the gain and loss from each option, finally, Zuo Chang chose the third option.
Loading a saved game wouldn’t have made much sense. The situation was dire at the time, and usual means couldn’t restore all community values to normal levels.
As for why he didn’t choose the second option…
Zuo Chang didn’t think deeply about it.
At the time, he was just playing everything just like how a man would treat a game, without so much thought.
Now—
“Will I be able to meet her again?”
Zuo Chang inexplicably thought, then quickly shook his head.
“Does the thing that I had done when I sat in front of the computer have any relevance to what happened now? Still, I have to admit, if the thing that I had done inside the game has turned into reality, that’s just too frightening. The number of people that I had ordered to execute has crossed the hundred mark, right?”
Moreover, in the last fight, Zuo Chang lost against the Celestial God.
If all of that was real, how is he still alive now?
Navigating through the crowd, ignoring the beckoning of hustlers, Zuo Chang stepped over the city gates and officially entered the city before him.
Behind the city gates was a large square meticulously paved with square tiles.
Around the circular fountain, white doves perched, and a ten-meter-tall black stone sculpture stood in front. Squinting, Zuo Chang felt the statue was somewhat familiar.
“Mommy, mommy, look at that big brother.”
A young voice sounded not far away. Zuo Chang lowered his head and saw a little girl with braided hair pointing at him, saying to a woman beside her, “That big brother looks like the statue of General Tianwang!”
Wait, wait a moment—
The statue of General Tianwang?!
Zuo Chang raised his head again, his head turned up and down as he scrutinized his eyes at the statue.
It didn’t really resemble him.
You could say it vaguely resembled him, but there were significant differences in the details.
But “General Tianwang”—
That was his game ID!
Zuo Chang walked toward the woman and asked, “May I ask, is this the statue of General Tianwang?”
Hearing his sudden question, the woman was taken aback and smiled, saying, “Yes. The Lord of Heavenly King City greatly admires General Tianwang. He wants to lead the community just like General Tianwang, he wants to turn the city into a single digit community and face the Celestial God like how General Tianwang did. So, he had this statue made for people to admire.”
Listening to this, turmoil stirred within Zuo Chang.
He then asked, “Even such a cruel ruler as General Tianwang has admirers? I’ve heard he was a warlord who engaged in endless military expansion, turning farmlands into opium fields during his rule’s end, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands.”
The woman seemed somewhat uneasy.
She looked around, then whispered, “Don’t say such things! It’s known that General Tianwang values human life lightly. This is common knowledge. But he was also a powerful figure, both feared and respected. Many ambitious people see him as an idol. Countless scholars also praise his courage to resist against the Celestial God!”
“…”
What a mess!