Chapter 156 – Drastic Actions
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
Only after checking the new stats of the territory did Ouyang Shuo have the mind to view the new Lord's Manor.
The entire manor had increased by over 3 times and could be compared to the old county government’s manor.
The upgraded Lord's Manor was still split into front and back. The difference was now each part had 3 courtyards, connected in a row to form into a grid of 6 courtyards.
Of the 3 big courtyards in the front, the one in the middle had taken over the function of the old front yard. The only difference was apart from the meeting room the lord's office, the various department's offices had all changed into the offices of the various directors.
The lord's office was still to the west of the meeting room. The office was twice the size of the old one. Not only was there a waiting room, but there was a small office for the clerk.
To the west of the meeting room, apart from the lord's office, was the Finance director’s office. East of that were 3 offices which only had the Administration director and Material Reserves director, as the last office was still empty. As for the Military Affairs director Zhu Hongliang, he still worked at the military district courtyard.
The patio in the middle of the courtyard had an additional pavilion and other facilities. It made the courtyard look additionally stylish. Between the east and west sides of the courtyard was an open-roof walkway to the two courtyards.
The courtyard to the west held the offices of the various divisions. In the main room as well as in the side rooms, there were a total of 15 offices. As for the divisions under the Administration Department, and those under the Finance Department, Material Reserves Department, and the Auditing Department, all 11 had their own offices.
As for the Procuratorate Division and the Law and Order Division, they shared an office outside.
The east courtyard was a field, and was similar to the barracks in design. The storehouse, accommodations, and canteen were all there. This would be the place for the manor guards to stay in and to be in charge of the safety of the Lord's Manor.
The 3 courtyards in the back were still the living quarters of the lord and his close ones. Ouyang Shuo took the middle one while the ones on the sides were prepared for his female dependents.
The 2 sisters were arranged to stay in the west courtyard. In the past, as they had no choice, the 2 sisters shared the same courtyard as Ouyang Shuo’s. Now that they could afford it, of course he had to give the girls their own courtyard.
As for why he didn't give each of them one courtyard, naturally Ouyang Shuo had considered other things.
Seeing that the storms were getting stronger in real life, Ouyang Shuo predicted that the migration project was going to be moved forward. Hence the east courtyard was prepared for Bing'Er.
Apart from that, at the back of the Lord's Manor, there was an additional garden. The 3 courtyards at the back was connected to the garden.
The garden was of much higher class than the design and decoration of the patio. There was a small bridge which overflowed and trees, fish, and birds, there was everything.
As time was limited, Ouyang Shuo didn't look around clearly, taking a quick glance before going to his room and going offline.
In the day when he was at home, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t in the mood to pay attention to the forums. One could imagine that the forums were bustling, but they couldn't pique his interest.
After the Battle of Zhuolu, Ouyang Shuo placed priority on the territory upgrade. Now that he’d succeeded, he was thinking about whether to start his plan.
Ever since he got the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique, he was feeling very impatient.
It was mentioned that if one wanted to divulge secrets about Earth Online and didn’t want to be accused of revealing national secrets, the only way was for players to deduce and guess through things in-game. Like when Ouyang Shuo asked Song Jia to purchase player territories, such an act was legal.
Now that the territory purchasing had reached near the breaking point, what was missing was that final push.
And now, Ouyang Shuo had the ability to tip it over and make everything blow up.
If he anonymously revealed on the forums that the secret manuals in the game could be practiced in real life, that would make the whole world explode.
Originally, even if players obtained authentic secret manuals, it was hard for them to learn them in reality. As the secret manuals was too low-leveled, their effects couldn't be adequately displayed. Secondly, if no players pointed them towards the right way, rarely would there be players who thought that way.
The only people who knew the truth were those that practiced ancient martial arts, and these people would definitely not reveal this secret.
Hence even in the Qingyang sword sect which Feng Qingyang had set up, its disciples learned the emperor rank secret manual, but no one would think to practice it in real life.
Of course Ouyang Shuo would expect there to be some lucky people who managed to get authentic internal force cultivation secret manuals. However, they would need to keep it a secret to protect themselves. Hence until now, no one had exposed any secret related to this.
Obtaining the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique was like obtaining a sharp knife to counter attack. His secret manual was obtained through legitimate means. Hence, if he announced that he found out that secret manuals could be practiced in real life, then it would be within his rights. Be it Gaia or the federal government, none of them would be able to punish him.
Ouyang didn't hesitate any longer and switched on his handbrain, going onto the forums. He didn't care about all the other useless and messy news, anonymously posting that he had unintentionally found out that secret manuals worked in real life. He said that he didn't know whether or not it was all in his mind so he wanted other players to verify.
Anyways from start to finish he just pretended to be a lucky fellow, and that he was both scared and excited and just wanted to share it with everyone.
This post was just like throwing down a mine.
Maybe it wouldn't come into effect.
But as long as players paid attention to it and followed the post to try to practice the internal strength force techniques, this news wouldn't be able to stay hidden.
If such a secret were revealed, then everything unusual about Earth Online wouldn't be things that the federal government could continue to hide. They would have no choice but to bring forward the migration project. With that, it would be destroying the greatest advantage and trump card of Di Chen.
It had to be said that this drastic action was very toxic.
As long as the migration was brought forward, then Di Chen and the others wouldn't have an advantage over Ouyang Shuo. Since they were on the same starting line, Ouyang Shuo would have nothing to fear.
The reason why Ouyang Shuo was so confident Gaia wouldn't delete his post was because of the stance of the federal government.
Based on their wishes, they didn't want to hide anything about Earth Online. The current situation was just a compromise they had to do when discussing with the various strong powers. If someone legally revealed insider news, then the federal government would take it as a good thing.
Who knew, perhaps Gaia would also help to hide the identity of the poster, lowering the risk of him being revealed to a minimum.
After posting, Ouyang Shuo logged off the forums and starting to cultivate.
The mine had been buried, and maybe in a few days it would explode. In the game, as he had the first city in the world, Ouyang Shuo had gained an absolute advantage. So one could say that everything had been prepared well by him.
Ouyang Shuo now needed to think about the next step of Shanhai City's development.
Upgrading to a city was a brand-new level. He couldn't use the same management methods as that of a township to manage a city. To say the truth, his ability to control a city was pushing it.
After all, he was an adventure mode player in the last life, and he’d never touched territory building. All the things he knew were basically things he heard in his last life.
In reality, he was just a college student that just graduated. Be it in experience or ability, he was quite limited.
If it weren't for the grind in his last life, he wouldn't have the confidence to lead Shanhai City and its people all the way.
In the current situation, the only thing he could do was to put in more hard work and to learn in the field using the advantage of his last life to accumulate an advantage in the early stages.
Apart from that, he had to be humble and cultivate a desire for learning. He has to treat people well and get more people to trust him. Thinking far ahead was his key to victory.
He had to make use of himself knowing the development direction of the game to make long term plans. Like this, even if his ability was lacking, his men could cover him and allow him to fight head to head with the others.
This was why Ouyang Shuo had focused on developing and bringing in talent. As a lord, he only commanded the big picture and steered the ship in the right direction. The rest depended on his men.
No one was born as a talented person. Only through many trials and turmoils would one succeed. Just like the Han emperor Liu Bang, his many officials and he himself grew up as peasants.