Chapter 1 Chu Nuan City

Chu Nuan City.

Fang Yue stared at the massive city gate, momentarily stunned.

It wasn't the size of the gate that surprised him, but the sheer volume of people.

The flow of people entering the city surpassed anything Fang Yue had ever seen in the game, and it was remarkably efficient.

Yes, efficient.

The high efficiency matched the enormous crowd.

However, this efficiency wasn't quite what Fang Yue expected.

Even in Gu Yue Village, the guard's inspection of outsiders wasn't this casual.

They simply asked for a name, registered it, and then impatiently waved the merchant caravan through, as if every second they were delayed meant losing money.

Even Fang Yue, completely cloaked in black robes and without any form of identification, was simply registered under the name "Ye Niuniu" without question.

Seeing that everyone else seemed used to this, Fang Yue followed the caravan into Chu Nuan City, filled with doubt.

It had to be said that this efficient and lax inspection had infused the entire city with vitality. The sheer number of people exceeded Fang Yue's concept of a town.

In this world rife with bizarre occurrences and frequent deaths, a city managed to accommodate so many people and maintain prosperity.

Fang Yue found it unbelievable and immediately thought of absolute power!

Chu Nuan City must possess a strong individual or some method to suppress and crush the bizarre, ensuring a certain level of safety.

Otherwise, Chu Nuan City could never be so stable.

Fang Yue guessed there must be something special like Lord Han or the formation in Mo Village.

Furthermore, the Qing Guards of Chu Nuan City were incredibly lazy. With such relaxed defenses, weren't they afraid of bizarre entities or criminals entering the city?

"That's where Lord Ye is mistaken."

"Call me Niuniu!"

"...Uh, Lord Niu?"

"Forget it, just call me Lord Ye."

Lord Niu sounded a bit like Lord Niuzi… strange.

Speaking of which, where did Niuniu end up?

The last time, when Mo Village was destroyed, Fang Yue had specifically called him.

It turned out he had earned too much money in Mo Village and was spending it all in reality.

It had to be said that Niuniu, with his innate divine strength, actually had a knack for business, even mastering the art of group-buying for socialites.

When Fang Yue left Mo Village, Niuniu's business had taken a turn for the better, and he started making big money, becoming increasingly reluctant to leave Mo Village.

Fortunately, he had the habit of regularly selling his game currency for real money.

Otherwise, the day Mo Village fell, and he was killed by a bizarre entity, he would have lost everything.

Later, Niuniu was killed by a bizarre entity and began living a lavish lifestyle, more so than Fang Yue, who earned millions a year. He even tried to flex in front of Fang Yue at first, but after learning about Fang Yue's savings, he immediately shut up and pitifully begged Brother Ye to take him along.

Take him along? He was working for a rich second generation, who he had now killed...

Fang Yue couldn't help but want to facepalm. Ignoring the cause and effect, the result was a bit frightening.

But Niuniu was lucky. Back then, the Bizarre Level Line was low, and death in the game was just death in the game, unrelated to reality.

He could simply reincarnate and change characters.

So Niuniu still had the opportunity to re-enter the game, unlike now, where dying in the game... would likely cause something to happen in reality as well.

Later, Fang Yue asked about Niuniu's situation twice more. Niuniu had created characters, but one died quickly, and the other lived relatively comfortably but was tired of playing, fishing for two days and drying the net for three. His strength completely lagged behind, and he was barely surviving as a casual player.

He himself didn't care at all, and was rather proud: Isn't a paying boss supposed to have a comfortable life in the game?

That was true, but unfortunately, it was quite difficult to be a casual player in this game.

Niuniu completely treated the game as leisure and entertainment, shifting his focus entirely to the pleasures of the real world.

Fang Yue saw through his intentions. Plus, his last starting point was a small mountain village near Qing City in Qing Country, and they wouldn't be able to meet in person for a while, so he gradually lost the desire to contact him.

Since the other party was trending towards quitting the game, it wasn't good to keep bothering him.

After those two inquiries, Fang Yue never asked about Niuniu's situation again, and didn't know if Niuniu was dead or alive now.

However, that didn't stop Fang Yue from using his name to impersonate his identity. Who would investigate a small vagrant in a small mountain village in the Qing City area?

Even if there were people with the same name and surname, they wouldn't be linked together.

Suppressing his thoughts, Fang Yue listened to Butler Hai explain why such relaxed security existed at the city gate.

"Lord Ye may not know, but as I said before, Chu Nuan City is different from other cities. It's a major trading city. It relies on the flow of people from all over the place, using a large population base to conduct frequent trade, generating huge profits as its foundation.

In order for the trade in Chu Nuan City to thrive, we certainly can't restrict the flow of people as much as other towns.

This prisoner can't enter the city, that person with a bizarre curse can't enter the city... If we were to strictly guard against everyone, then the Qing Si's manpower would be spent checking people all day long, and the real merchants would be blocked outside.

The losses would be too great, and the low efficiency of entry would cause merchant groups that couldn't complete their transactions to leave. Without merchant groups, the popularity would decline, creating a vicious cycle.

Therefore, in the continuous development of Chu Nuan City, the inspection of outsiders and the openness to people have become more and more relaxed. Now, as long as you want to enter the city, you can basically enter. As for the means of detecting bizarre entities, each city gate actually has a separate embedded formation, so ordinary bizarre entities can't sneak in."

After listening, Fang Yue was a little dazed.

So Chu Nuan City almost didn't care about the safety of the people inside for the sake of population flow.

All actions and indicators were based on attracting a massive influx of people. Naturally, the population flow was continuous, but... what about safety?

If no one guaranteed safety, people would run away no matter how many there were. Surely not everyone wanted money more than life?

There were indeed some people who wanted money more than life, but these were only a few.

In this world of bizarre entities, everyone had a hard time living, and they cherished their lives.

"That's where Lord Ye is wrong. Merchants are all 'desperados.' To dare to run a business outside, they've already put their heads on their belts. They might encounter any kind of crisis. If it weren't for Lord Ye before, wouldn't our merchant group have been wiped out?

So danger is never a problem for merchants. Knowing that Chu Nuan City can make a lot of money, talents and resources from all over Qing Country are constantly converging on Chu Nuan City.

It can be said that apart from the towns around the Qing Country's capital, which firmly control absolute resources and are the most prosperous areas of Qing Country, the entire country has opened up a second prosperous area, which is Chu Nuan City.

Although Chu Nuan City is still far from catching up with the Qing Country's capital, it's like a wild horse that's running wildly. In less than a hundred years, it will definitely be on par with or even surpass the Qing Country's capital!"