Shepherding Humanity

The situation grew increasingly heated, dominating the headlines and topping the search engines. The second hottest headline was "My parents scolded me for not playing games", and the third hottest one was "Allegedly, a day in reality is a hundred years in this game, and we have achieved immortality. But is this really true?”

The entire net was in an uproar, and hundreds and thousands of medical students eagerly toiled away. Xu Zhi was quite shocked by all of this; he got up from in front of his laptop and went to get a can of soda from the refrigerator.

"This guy really knows how to stir things up. As soon as he logged out, he mobilized the netizens to help him analyze the plants and herbs in the Magic World."

Xu Zhi had thought that Future Skywhale was only bragging and showing off, but in fact, he was actually asking for help and wanted to live a little longer in the other world.

Xu Zhi was rather pleased with this development.

"I’m pleasantly surprised… With this, the world of magical potions will soon undergo revolutionary changes. Originally, it should have taken mages generations of research to properly understand the medical properties of certain herbs. This would have taken thousands of years, but now, with the entire internet working together, things should be completed in no time…"

Xu Zhi thought for a moment, "Soon, the Magic World will have a systemized approach to making alchemical potions. I… might be able to cure my cancer."

This has happened sooner than he expected.

Xu Zhi was already in the final stages of cancer, and he had almost given up. But now, there was hope.

The transmigrator Grantham has pleasantly surprised him many times, and greatly advanced the Magic World's civilization.

At this moment, the Hive Mind suddenly alerted him:

"Organizations from all over the world are attacking our game website's official forum… Do you want to counterattack?"

Xu Zhi frowned.

This incident has caused too much of an uproar. It was only to be expected that there would now be people trying to hack the website.

"I just want to farm, and find a way to treat my cancer." Xu Zhi sighed. "You don’t need to retaliate. Just block and ignore them."

He had expected this.

VR technology that was realistic enough to create a second reality could already be considered miracle technology.

And now, there was also a shocking difference in time flow: one day outside was one hundred years inside the game—virtual immortality in a sense. It was only natural that others would start to take notice.

Xu Zhi asked the Tyranis Hive Mind: "Are you sure there won’t be any problems?"

The Hive Mind mechanically replied:

"The modern technology of this world is still far behind compared to the Tyranis. They will never be able to find our physical address."

Xu Zhi nodded. Everything was fine then.

He currently focused on evolving the body and unlocking supernatural abilities, but the previous Tyranis Queen had focused on evolving the brain and developing Tyranis technology; their orbital cannons had been quite impressive.

Although all of that knowledge was now lost, the Tyranis Hive Mind was still the crystallization of that advanced technology. Those hackers shouldn’t be able to do anything to him.

After some thought, Xu Zhi decided to ignore this issue.

So what if the entire world has been thrown into an uproar?

Who cares if others are plotting against me? What can they even do against me?

—I’ll keep on cultivating my land. Let them be dumbfounded!

…….

At this moment, the laid-back Xu Zhi was leisurely sipping his drink.

He had mail-ordered the beverage online, when it was on sale at thirty-eight yuans per box. After all, he was very short on money these days.

He sat in his yard and was feeling quite relaxed and happy with his current lifestyle when suddenly, there was a knock on the gate.

Boom boom boom!

"Hey, hurry up and open the door. You haven’t gone nuts from all that farming yet, right?"

Xu Zhi stood up, and went to open the gate. It was Chen Xi.

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going to go back to college. "

Chen Xi stood at the door and mumbled, her figure resembling a wilted eggplant. "By the way, that game you mentioned before, I just heard about it. It’s become a national phenomenon, can you really get me an account?"

Although Chen Xi was not even a gamer, the uproar over this game has been so great that even an outsider like her knew about it.

She knew how high the demand for this game truly was. Supposedly, a beta tester’s slot was now worth 400,000 yuans on the market, and you couldn’t buy one even if you wanted to!

This made her uneasy.

After all, while Xu Zhi used to be very amazing, that was all in the past. He was once a young and promising senior executive in a foreign company, with plenty of connections, but now…

He was a farmer.

"I can. Don't worry, I know someone who can write that paper for you! He’s an expert in the field, you’ll definitely be able to get into the Third Open Beta." Xu Zhi said so after thinking for a moment.

"That… I’m sure that’s what everyone else must be thinking! Those people are probably well prepared. Compared to the Second Beta Test, there’ll be even more experts this time around. And all those professional gaming clubs will also be competing for a slot." Chen Xi hurriedly said.

"Don't worry, my friend is better than all of them." Xu Zhi laughed and patted the worried girl's head, reassuring her: "There’s no need to worry, you only have to buy a computer when you get back and wait. I’ll take care of the rest."

"Oh." Chen Xi decided to stop questioning him. She jumped up and gave Xu Zhi a kiss on the cheek, then blushed and skipped away. "Dear, I'm going back to college. Let us meet later in the game."

Xu Zhi touched his face and laughed.

In this superficial world, people rarely meant what they say, but a woman's blush spoke louder than any words.

Previously, he had felt no attraction to Chen Xi; he simply liked the fact that the girl liked him and lovingly prepared meals for him every day. But now, he thought that she was truly a good girl, and spending time with her made him happy.

"After all, she was willing to approach you when you’re at your lowest point, and suffering from cancer. There can be no doubts about her feelings."

……

Xu Zhi calmly returned to the yard.

Because Chen Xi was going back to college, he felt that he should start thinking about his future plans for the sandbox.

"First of all, the preparations for the Third Open Beta! Originally, I didn't plan to start a Third Open Beta, but I need a reason to let that girl into the game."

The Third Open Beta that so many were desperately looking forward to was only happening because Xu Zhi wanted to give his girlfriend a small gift and satisfy herlittle wish.

"Since this is the case, the Third Open Beta will be limited in scope, and about thirty slots should be enough for her to blend into the crowd."

With that casual thought, Xu Zhi decided the fate of countless players.

"Then, there’s the issue of further expanding the Magic World’s sandbox!"

Xu Zhi frowned a little. He sat on his chair, ate his apple, and looked at the larger sandbox.

Although its inhabitants’ usual range of activity was only thirty square meters out of a hundred, and most areas were deserted, this was still something he needed to seriously consider.

After all, while the Magic World used to have a very primitive civilization, there were now alchemical airships that could quickly travel a great distance.

Powerful mages have also begun to appear in great numbers.

Level Six and Level Seven witches like Medusa could easily shatter a small mountain and destroy entire cities. People with that kind of power were often callous; if there was not enough space, a single battle between them could destroy the world.

"Should I expand it?"

Xu Zhi thought for a while, then shook his head, "That can be a problem for later."

After all, in Xu Zhi's eyes, their prided alchemical airships were little more than buzzing flies.

A mighty wizard who could shatter a small mountain was nothing more than a little ant breaking apart a thumb-sized pile of dirt.

"Now, unless there’s someone who can easily destroy an entire mountain range—the equivalent of an ant destroying a huge plot of land the size of a cell phone—there is no need to expand. I still have time." Xu Zhi’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he took another look at the large sandbox. There has been a new development.

His eyebrows violently twitched.

"Motherf*cker. As soon as Grantham got back, he started causing problems!

Like past monarchs, he has begun to explore the the world's borders. What’s more, by utilizing the power of the entire nation, he wants to reach the Nine Heavens? And find the legendary island in the sky, the land of the gods, "Achilles"? He wants to beg the great gods of heaven to grant him immortality?"

Xu Zhi was stunned.

There were no gods in heaven, his bluff was going to be revealed!

I wanted you to lead the world into the age of alchemy, but I definitely did not want you to screw me over like this!

He immediately turned around, went to the storage shed, and started rummaging. "You’re getting too full of yourself, little bro. You want to reach heaven, huh? Then let’s see how you deal with heaven’s wind… Time to bring out my high-powered electric fan."