Chapter 63.2: Director Lu's Emails
On the way back to the research institute, Lu Yiyun, who was driving, fell silent midway and let out a sudden sigh.
"Director Lu?" Her assistant turned toward her.
"It's nothing." Lu Yiyun smiled faintly but didn't say anything else.
This convalescent care facility hidden deep within the mountains of G Province housed several other patients who had made significant contributions to the country, besides Liu Yaowu and Old Geng.
These helmets couldn't cure illnesses directly, but they could provide a sense of emotional comfort to these now helpless individuals who had contributed so much, as well as offer relief from some of the physical suffering, much like what was happening with Old Geng.
However, the research institute had a limited number of helmets, while there were a significant number of patients with consciousness disorders awaiting clinical treatment.
Lu Yiyun, who was leading the expert task force, couldn't help feeling that this was rather regrettable.
There were just too few helmets. Were there more, there wouldn't be a need to struggle over who to prioritize.
During the period where goods and supplies were given to the "target," the expert task force hadn't been idle… All necessary actions had been taken.
After the necessary actions were taken, the expert task force confirmed that the "target" could indeed transfer real-world supplies into the "game world." However, it seemed that living beings couldn't be transferred.
The BeiDou satellite locator beacon attached to the tricycle carts went offline about four hours after the container exchange. Afterward, Ji Tang managed to locate the still-operational satellite locator beacon on a tricycle cart within the "game."
Firearm components hidden in different tricycle carts were also successfully brought into the "game." After discreetly collecting and assembling these components, Ji Tang conducted test firing, and their functionality remained unaffected.
The experts had also intentionally placed a cage with two mice in one of the containers. When Old Geng, who had logged into the game two days after the exchange, located the container with the special mark, he discovered the corpses of the mice.
Afterward, Professor Yin Zhengliang of the expert task force took over Lu Yiyun's forum account, offering various prices and all sorts of excuses to test the other party's resolve. Unfortunately, the "target" was adamant about cooperation being limited to the exchange of helmets and refused any other form of collaboration.
After several rounds of negotiation, the "target" hinted that the supply of helmets couldn't be increased endlessly, but had some sort of restriction.
What exactly this restriction was, Professor Yin Zhengliang couldn't find out…
Facing such a cunning and crafty counterpart gave Professor Yin Zhengliang a headache, and similarly, so did Lu Yiyun.
One step at a time, I guess, sighed Lu Yiyun inwardly, trying her best to suppress the rising restlessness in her heart.
That night, Yang Qiu returned from the other world back to Earth. As usual, after showering and having supper, he browsed the forum, giving upvotes to informative posts as well as warnings and suspending forum users who mindlessly flooded the forum with requests for accounts.
Over the last two days, the hottest topic on the forum was discussions about civilian NPCs. The newly added NPCs in the "main city" maps of Exile Town and Desolate Outpost had captivated the interest of casual players. Various speculations about these NPCs were flooding the forum.
Well… this wasn't out of the ordinary. Compared to the various "advanced NPCs" that behaved quite unrealistically, "civilian NPCs" were indeed closer to the understanding of humans that players from Earth had…
Yang Qiu scrolled through these analytical posts by casual players one by one. His main purpose was to ascertain whether anyone had some crazy idea to try something absurd—like testing if they could kill civilian NPCs, even though Identify showed civilian NPCs with green names and incapable of dropping any equipment. If anyone showed signs of such reckless behavior, Yang Qiu wouldn't hesitate to drop the ban hammer on them.
As of now, things seemed to be going relatively well. The wilderness around Desolate Outpost and the Spider Cave at the underground passage in Exile Town were teeming with monsters that could satiate players' aggression. Moreover, the announcement during the settlement of the [Rebellion Suppression] quest made it clear that attacking NPCs outside of quests would result in the deduction of all reputation and an account ban. As a result, OtherWorld players, who cherished their accounts, weren't prepared to risk a permanent ban.
After browsing through the forum, Yang Qiu checked the administrator back end as he usually did.
During this period, "Director Lu" had been sending him emails almost daily, using various tactics to try and extract information from him. While Yang Qiu was a tad annoyed, he couldn't simply ignore or cut ties after receiving large amounts of supplies. If he acted ungrateful now, it might become difficult to request anything in the future.
In today's email, "Director Lu" mentioned that there was a surplus of several hundred tons of grain in a certain granary in the southern region of G Province and asked if Yang Qiu would be interested.
Yang Qiu: "…"
Is this fellow testing if I have any intention to establish dominance and rule here…? Yang Qiu didn't show any excitement but stroked his chin instead while contemplating. The civilians brought back from Camore and the Holy Legion cavalry visiting Exile Town have made these guys certain that the "game" is indeed another world. Could they be considering my moves ahead?
To be honest, when given the choice of whether he wanted grain, Yang Qiu definitely did so.
However, it was pretty obvious that there was a change in the person behind this "Director Lu" email account. It wasn't the same scientist who was single-mindedly focused on research as before. Getting their grain would come at an equivalent cost—and it wouldn't be handed over for free.
And this was where Yang Qiu faced a dilemma. He hadn't yet advanced to Grand Mage, and his Imprint Matrix couldn't be "expanded" yet. As of now, he couldn't provide them with more helmets.
After some consideration, Yang Qiu replied that there was currently no need for the grain, citing the reason being no storage space.
This stance of his was neither denying nor confirming their guesses.
Having thrown out this ambiguous stance, Yang Qiu peacefully went to bed.
The next morning, when Yang Qiu woke up and logged into the forum administrator back end once more, he found another email from "Director Lu."
In this email, "Director Lu" made a shockingly straightforward and revealing statement—"Due to a certain mechanical factory in X Province having arrears, there is a surplus of cement production lines, fertilizer production lines, thermal power generator units, and other supporting equipment. Are you interested?"
Yang Qiu: "…"
What sort of factory can accumulate so many complete sets of equipment overnight! Do they think I have no common sense!
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l