Quadruple split.

Chapter 2879 Seven Inches
"Structural defects?"

Originally, after hearing about what [Tide Bug] had done in Anka Market, she was so indignant that she wanted to immediately fight those bad guys. However, after searching for some related information online (such as the post by Typing Warrior using a pseudonym about the situation where the entire [Undying] studio was wiped out without a trace), Lu Jiang felt like the sky was falling and was almost devastated. Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she hurriedly asked, "What kind of defect is that?"

"You can understand it as the reason why the Viper Guild is so tenacious and difficult for countless enemies to eradicate in the past is that it is not a pyramid structure like most organizations, but a looser and more complex structure like a net."

Mo casually transformed [Akatsuki] into a spear, drawing a slightly distorted and intricate spiderweb structure on the ground in front of him. He explained calmly, "The advantage of this structure is that even if one, two, or even several nodes are attacked, it will not damage the integrity of the entire organizational structure, nor can it severely injure or defeat them. You can understand it as follows: although it may be seriously injured, it is almost impossible for it to suffer a 'fatal wound' because it was not a whole from the beginning."

Gu Xiaole: "...The Union of Soviet ■■Republics?"

Mo Tan: "...I don't think that's the case at all."

"Oh!"

Gu Xiaole nodded obediently and said with a grin, "Then you continue."

"Yes, I'll try to keep it brief."

Mo Tan breathed a sigh of relief, then continued to explain to his companions: "You can think of the viper as a cunning creature with more than a dozen 'brains'. Its vitality is exceptionally strong. Even if a considerable number of its brains are destroyed, it can still try to survive and grow new 'brains' over time. Moreover, as long as the hunters cannot completely eliminate it, they will face countless annoying troubles in the future."

"..."

After a brief silence, Jadka was the first to speak: "I agree with Mo's statement. In fact, in the past, Viper has faced many extremely strong attacks. The Church of Justice, the City of Miracles, and the Gold Coin Merchant Guild all have records of killing [Snake Head] and his henchmen. But even so, those guys are still able to make a comeback after a short hibernation, in a more covert and vicious form."

Ji Xiaoge blinked and asked curiously, "What if we eliminate all the [Snake Heads] at the same time?"

"That was a task that was almost impossible to accomplish."

Mo Tan shook his head with a wry smile and said helplessly, "The Viper Merchant Guild's influence extends throughout the entire continent. The 'Tide Worm' we killed was just a cadre in one of its branches. And there may be dozens or even hundreds of people like him scattered throughout the continent under the command of his [Snake Head]."

Gu Xiaole tilted his head and thought for a moment before asking, "But they probably don't have many top-level leaders, right?"

"Twenty."

Having already conducted a similar investigation of Viper when he was 'Tan Mo', Mo Tan answered without hesitation, saying solemnly, "Their identities are completely confidential, their subordinates are intricate and complex, they possess extremely powerful resources and intelligence networks, and the highest-level leaders, who lurk in the shadows, total twenty people. Within the Viper Chamber of Commerce, they are known as the 'Committee of Twenty.' Although they are in principle in the same faction, their positions are different, and the relationships between them are also very complicated."

The beautiful female Onmyoji rubbed her temples, a slight headache in her eyes, and muttered, "That's a bit too much..."

"Moreover, although the number of [Snake Heads] is twenty, if we expand this scope to those who are 'qualified to become Snake Heads', that is, those who are executives in the Chamber of Commerce with the [Sharp Teeth] level... then this number will at least increase several times."

Lu Jiang stared blankly at Mo Tan and asked, "So, even if the [Snake Head] is killed, a whole bunch of people will take over the position and continue to do bad things?"

Mo Tan nodded slightly and added, "In principle, that's correct. However, given the loose structure I just emphasized, the relationships between the [Snake Heads] are quite delicate. So if one of the [Snake Heads] is killed, the one qualified to inherit its position immediately without causing too much turmoil will definitely be one of its several [Teeth] subordinates, not hundreds."

"In other words, if someone is capable enough to completely defeat a certain 'Snake Head' along with all its senior officers, they can indeed greatly curb the emergence of a new 'Snake Head' and even extend this cycle to several years."

Jadka shook his head as he applied ice to his staff, saying, "But the problem is, it's a pipe dream to wipe out all of the [Serpent Heads] and their forces in one go. After all, they're not going to line up neatly and wait to be killed."

"In addition, vipers have another huge advantage."

Mo Tan raised a finger and said seriously, "That is the 'market'."

Ya Ya: "...Woof field?"

What market?

Ji Xiaoge asked directly, curiously, "Is it a slave market? A black market? Or something else?"

"All 'markets' that, in principle, can only operate behind the scenes."

Looking at her beloved's focused and serious face, Mo Tan tried her best to remain focused and serious as well, explaining, "You can think of the market as a cake. The cake on the table includes catering, education, equipment, logistics, land, and so on. The cake under the table includes things like the slave trade and the black market that you mentioned. In addition, there are things like psychotropic drugs, gray intelligence, prohibited materials, murder and sex trafficking, and so on. And the size of these two cakes... is fixed."

"Can't understand."

Samurai Shodown made a cold and ruthless assessment, subtly asserting its presence.

"I understand what you're saying."

Gu Xiaole, as the original being, smiled and confirmed, "What Mo-chan means is that the total amount of these 'markets' is unlikely to expand or shrink, and the size of the pie won't decrease as the bad guys are killed. Instead, other people will have to compete for those unclaimed pie, right?"

Mo Tan nodded and said in a deep voice, "That's right. As the unofficial hegemon of this world, the Viper Merchant Guild can regain market share very quickly. Even if the leaders and cadres of one of its branches are all killed, there will definitely be many survivors among the largest number of lower-level members. As long as they are incorporated into other factions within the organization, those resources will return to the Viper."

"The dog is a little dizzy."

Having absorbed too much information, Ya Ya hopped over to Mo Tan's side, lazily rested her head on his lap, and started whining and acting coquettishly.

Ji Xiaoge also wrapped herself up like a badminton shuttlecock with her wings, hugging half of her face and complaining, "I feel like this is going to go on forever."

"It just never ends."

Jadka sighed and said helplessly, "Moreover, those successors will not only control the resources, but will also carry out large-scale retaliations to subjugate those they have recruited."

Lu Jiang looked at Mo Tan with a conflicted expression: "Brother Mo, what you said before was 'structural defects,' right? Why do I feel more and more hopeless the more I hear it?"

"If you want to achieve anything, you must acknowledge the opponent's strengths; otherwise, it's just pure self-indulgence." Mo Tan shrugged and said softly, "So, next, what I personally believe are the weaknesses of the Viper Merchant Guild—"

"Speak quickly!" "Speed!" "Yes!" "Okay!" "Woof!"

Everyone's spirits lifted simultaneously.

"First of all, as I just mentioned, their structure is not a conventional pyramid structure, but rather complex and loose."

Mo Tan didn't keep them in suspense and immediately shared with his partners: "And this means that their reaction speed will definitely not be very fast, and their execution ability will be greatly reduced."

Lu Jiang fiddled with her newly styled wispy bangs and asked, "Is this a big problem?"

"This is certainly a big problem. For example, when both sides are hostile, the other side's execution ability is not very high. Think about the slaves we rescued from Viper. To use Viper's vengeful style, if the opponent were the Wanderer's Inn, we probably wouldn't have survived for more than three days."

Mo Tan smiled slightly and reminded him, "But after we resolved that slave trade incident, we haven't been targeted for a long time, which speaks volumes. Moreover, besides responding to problems, they even hinder each other."

Gu Xiaole nodded vigorously and seconded, "That's right, that's right. Last time, that epic-rank thief claimed to be a member of [Wildfire]. As a fellow member of Viper, that thief actually wiped out all of the Woodlice's people all by himself."

"So if we make good use of this, we can at least ensure that the 'current target' will receive almost no support in the early stages of the confrontation, and may even be met with people who kick them while they're down."

Mo Tan gave Gu Xiaole a thumbs up and added, "But as I said before, the market share is fixed. If we act blindly, we may end up just doing the work for our fellow Viper members."

"Wedding dress!"

Gu Xiaole's eyes lit up, and she exclaimed, "As for wedding dresses, I still prefer wedding gowns the most! I really can't appreciate white kimonos or anything like that; they look a bit dull."

"A wedding dress..."

Ji Xiaoge flapped her wings and muttered softly, "I wish I had a chance to wear it."

"Wang Sha?"

Yaya turned to look at Jadka and asked, "What's that?"

"I think it must be a type of formal dress."

Although his knowledge of otherworldly beings wasn't very comprehensive, Lao Jia still guessed 99% of the time based on his rich experience and imagination, so he added, "The kind that's very ceremonial."

"cough."

Mo Tan skipped over this dangerous topic with a complicated expression and continued, "Then... according to my investigation, compared to the past Viper Merchant Guild, the '20-person committee' within this organization has begun to decline significantly in terms of its prestige. For example, the 'Snake Head' on 'Wheel Worm's' head has many shortcomings in terms of ability and even needs others to assist him."

Lu Jiang looked at Mo Tan with admiration and exclaimed, "Brother Mo, your intelligence gathering skills are amazing! I searched online for a lot of things before, but I didn't find anything useful."

"I mainly asked a few friends for help, and I also searched quite carefully myself."

Mo Tan waved his hand modestly and continued, "The current Viper Merchant Guild is theoretically the most suitable period in hundreds of years to be 'nibbled away'."

Ji Xiaoge thought for a moment, then gave up and asked Mo Tan with a cheerful smile, "So how should we gradually take over?"

“It’s not us going to ‘nibble away’.”

Mo Tan chuckled, then said with a hint of helplessness, "Although I'm reluctant to admit it, 'evil' can never be eradicated anywhere. What I want to do is make these 'evil' things as controllable as possible."

Gu Xiaole's eyes lit up immediately, and he clapped his hands and said, "I understand, I understand! I've watched a lot of gangster movies back then. What Mo-chan means is that those 'good' bad guys who can fight and collect protection money, but also hold umbrellas for stray cats, fight like men, and run in the sunset, should replace Viper!"

【…】

Subconsciously imagining himself running in the sunset in a state of 'chaotic neutrality', Mo Tan felt a churning in his stomach and managed a weak smile, saying in a dry voice, "Although it's a little different, I do have this plan, and I've contacted some people who are familiar with this area before."

"Hmm, could it be..."

Despite having given up thinking, driven by a competitive spirit, after Gu Xiaole completed her guess, she tried again to rack her brains and finally had a flash of inspiration. The winged beauty suddenly raised her head and asked Mo Tan excitedly, "Where are Xueyin and Jiali's organization here?"

Mo Tan, who was extremely worried that Ji Xiaoge would get together with Xue Yin and be led astray by her, sighed and said in a tone that seemed to be comforting herself, "Probably... In short, I will try my best to keep my distance from them and make sure that I don't have any extra contact beyond basic understanding."

"I'll do whatever you say."

Ji Xiaoge smiled and then said seriously, "As for my side, although my strength is definitely not as good as yours and Sister Xiaole's, the reconstruction progress of the Ascension Fortress has been very good recently. I have a feeling that it won't be long before everyone can help out to some extent."

"Ya Ya and I will basically be staying at the Grand Arena."

Jadka chuckled and said happily, "This kind of training environment with almost no worries is so rare. It would be a shame not to give it my all, and besides..."

"And what?"

“Ya Ya has made great progress recently, which is perfect for this kind of occasion where we can continuously ‘verify’ her abilities.”

Chapter 2870: The End