Chapter 63 Misgivings

If they had only heard this information in isolation, the bosses wouldn't have paid it much attention. Everyone has their own aspirations. In a situation like this, wanting to preserve one's own strength and keep guild members from getting involved in a possible war was perfectly normal. But at this moment, the instigation and rumor-mongering encountered unprecedented obstacles, making this piece of information seem very intriguing.

The bosses exchanged glances, and without communicating verbally, they each issued orders to inquire about information from their respective guilds.

This time, the results came quickly, and the bosses were truly speechless. The guild leaders they asked had all given the same instructions, without exception. Was this a coincidence? Did all the guild leaders think alike? Or did the leaders secretly agree on this? But the problem was that there was absolutely no need to make such an agreement. If they wanted to get involved, they would, and if they didn't, they wouldn't. Agreeing to participate together would make sense, but why would they need to agree not to participate?

The bosses felt a sense of unease, but they didn't say anything for the moment. They had already issued their orders, hoping to obtain more detailed and accurate information. But the result of their inquiries was the same: each guild leader had simply given this order, without much explanation.

"What do you all think?" After a moment of silence, someone finally spoke.

"I don't believe this is a coincidence," one person said.

"Nonsense, there's no way it could be such a coincidence."

"If it was a joint agreement, then why? With something like this, other guilds can go if they want to, and we won't suffer any losses by not participating. It seems completely unnecessary to agree not to go together!" Someone voiced the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Could it be this?" someone suddenly suggested. "According to the analysis, Very Heaven should be quite unpopular in Cloud City. Perhaps these guilds made such an agreement to take advantage of this group of outsiders and get rid of Very Heaven?"

"Very Heaven was originally disliked, but after Qianli Yizui freely popularized the efficient leveling method in Cloud City, this development department seems to have changed somewhat!" another person said.

The first boss immediately smiled and said, "True, the Cloud City players' opinion of them may have changed as a result, but there's a group of people who won't."

"Who?"

"The guild leaders."

The bosses suddenly understood. Indeed, the more grateful ordinary players were to Very Heaven, the more envious and jealous the guild leaders would be! Ordinary people wouldn't have this emotion, but the guild leaders would. Now, this opportunity, which wasn't quite kicking someone when they're down, but simply minding their own business, would allow Very Heaven to suffer a devastating blow. The guild leaders probably didn't want to miss it, so they jointly issued this order, right?

This order was very ordinary, easy to understand, and didn't require much explanation. Guild players wouldn't overthink it. Because they weren't like the studio bosses, who could discover this coincidence through their information channels. They would only know about the decisions of the guilds in their small circle of friends. Moreover, most people's circles of friends were basically their comrades in the same guild.

"Can the Cloud City guilds be so united?" One boss was still a little doubtful.

"Of course not all the guilds are. I ask all of you here, of the guilds you inquired about, was there any guild below level four?" one person said.

The bosses looked at each other and shook their heads. Only large guilds had commercial value. There wasn't a second guild as small and powerful as Very Heaven. The studios' human resources weren't unlimited either. Who would invest their limited resources in this unpromising small guild? Of course, they all tried their best to maintain smooth information channels with the large guilds, so none of the guild information they collected was from small guilds.

"I think there should be many small guilds that didn't participate in this agreement, but they are weak and isolated, and they need to observe the situation. With these large guilds having clarified their attitude, their attitude has also been clarified. That's why our instigation didn't have any effect! Because we can't instigate the large guilds, these small guilds see that the large guilds aren't moving, so of course they won't move either."

"That makes sense." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"The world is a dangerous place! It's true that a tall tree catches the wind," one boss even lamented.

Gai Shiqi Ying listened to this lament with a strange feeling. He had been so miserable recently, and hearing about a tall tree catching the wind made him involuntarily want to identify with it. He strongly suspected that this lamenting fellow was subtly mocking him.

As for this discussion, Gai Shiqi Ying didn't say a word because the bosses' discussion was beyond his expectations. When he first noticed this situation, his first thought was that it was bad. Very Heaven was prepared and had organized all the guilds to guard against anyone taking the opportunity to cause trouble. But before he could speak, the bosses started talking all at once, and they actually analyzed a version where the Cloud City guilds wanted to borrow a knife to kill someone.

Gai Shiqi Ying was also dazed by this because everyone's way of thinking was also very reasonable, and the possibility was extremely high. In comparison, his own idea seemed a bit like paranoia. Was he taking Very Heaven too seriously? Besides, what was there for Very Heaven to be afraid of? Why would they need to stop it? Wasn't that helping them out?

"Boss Gai, why aren't you saying anything this time? I wonder if you're hiding some brilliant insight?" After the bosses finished chattering, they realized that Gai Shiqi Ying hadn't said a word this time. This also showed that Gai Shiqi Ying really had a strong presence now. People noticed even when he didn't speak.

"Everyone's analysis is already very reasonable. I was originally suspicious that Very Heaven was playing some tricks, but after hearing what you all said, I feel relieved." Gai Shiqi Ying changed his way of speaking but still expressed his doubts.

"Very Heaven? Why would they play tricks? Do they really want to take on these twenty-six guilds alone, so they're telling the Cloud City guilds not to interfere?" Someone laughed, already thinking that Gai Shiqi Ying was overthinking things this time.

"Then what do you all think we should do now in this situation?" Gai Shiqi Ying said.

"I think we can continue the instigation. Now that we know the situation, we need to change our approach and encourage people in a targeted manner. Although those guilds that follow the wind are small, a single spark can start a prairie fire. They should still be able to serve as a fuse. When the situation escalates, even if those large guilds don't want to join, it will be difficult for them."

"If it really doesn't work, we can send people to mix in with the players and fire some cold shots to directly trigger incidents!"

The bosses were all talented people. When it came to these tricks, each idea was better than the last.

"Good, good, good, then let's continue." Gai Shiqi Ying nodded repeatedly.

The instigation continued. The strategy was certainly adjusted. Faced with the guild players who had been given prohibitions, they no longer used the previous methods of stirring up trouble but instead said things like, "I heard that Guild XX doesn't allow players to do this and that," or "Why aren't the big guilds making any moves?" They wanted to reveal the secret agreement between the major guilds to ordinary players. Then, faced with non-guild players or players from small and medium-sized guilds, they continued to adhere to the previous instigation route.

As they instigated, the instigators' hearts grew colder and colder. Because they found that not only was it still ineffective, but more terrifyingly, they seemed to have made themselves look familiar. Because no one else was saying these things except for them. Rumors were always spread by this group of people. No one else was discussing it except for them. As time went on, these troublemakers seemed so isolated, and they increasingly felt like they had been stripped bare and thrown into the public eye.

The project managers of each studio all realized that the situation was very bad, and they decisively stopped the instigation. Then, they reported to the bosses. This time, they weren't saying nonsense about the Cloud City players being heartless or having too much willpower. The experienced managers had all realized that this resistance to rumors wasn't accidental. It was a deliberate effort to prevent it.

The bosses all believed in the professional judgment of their professional talents and were shocked. They all looked at Gai Shiqi Ying in unison: "Could it really be that Very Heaven took precautions in advance?"

"If it really was Very Heaven, why would they do this?" Gai Shiqi Ying said in a deep voice, "To protect the interests of the vast Cloud City players from being harmed? Do you think they would be so noble?"

"This? We're not familiar with them, we don't know..." someone said.

"Damn it, if they had such thoughts, why would they act perversely during the city war? In the entire Parallel World, only the players in Cloud City received almost no benefits during the city war! Why? Because Very Heaven's defense of the city ruined things and robbed away the benefits that should have belonged to all the players."

"That can't be considered the same thing, right? That's the rule of the game activity!" one boss said.

"Damn it, then what about Qianli Yizui? Is there any decent player who goes around killing people like him?" Gai Shiqi Ying said.

This time, everyone was speechless. Qianli Yizui was famous. Just that one time after another challenging himself to break his PK value record, who would believe he wasn't a great demon?

"The people of Very Heaven are definitely not noble," Gai Shiqi Ying concluded.

"Then why are they doing this? Do they already have a 100% solution to deal with the twenty-six guilds?" After one boss finished speaking, he couldn't help but look in the direction of the clock tower. Although they were gone, they still left people to pay attention to the situation there. The current news was no different from when they left.

"Or maybe, this step of theirs is simply to prevent us!" Gai Shiqi Ying said.

"Damn it, are they gods or monsters? How could they know about our actions that are so far away?" One boss didn't believe it.

"Boss Ya, what do you say about this?" Gai Shiqi Ying suddenly changed the subject, and Yaxiaosuangen, who hadn't said a word, was unfortunately hit again.

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I said there would be an update this Sunday! Is there any day that there won't be an update?