The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 606 The [Digital Ark] Project! (Seeking monthly votes at the end of the month)
Xu Meng shook her head, then patted Xiao Meng on the back, letting Xiao Meng lead her out.

In the blink of an eye, he silently arrived on the rooftop.

Here, everything becomes much clearer:

The hovercar alone couldn't accurately pour the water from the tank into the library; many other players were assisting on the rooftop.

Some hovercars are suspended in the air, serving as landing platforms, while some players stand on the roofs, busily adjusting their grappling hooks.

Players on the rooftop also used grappling hooks to secure it to the railing.

—Although the railings look thin and flimsy and serve mostly a decorative purpose, they are still indestructible under special code protection!
Two hovercars in the sky released their cables, and the heavy water tanks, losing their right side support, plummeted. However, they were caught by hooks on the railing halfway down and remained suspended in the air at a 45-degree angle.

The drain outlet is directly opposite the library's atrium.

The powerful flow of water cascaded down, the rushing sound echoing in Xu Meng's ears.

He took a few steps to the side and looked towards the edge.

They discovered that hovercraft were using fire hoses as temporary anchor points.

Players worked in groups of three to secure water pipes to windows, ensuring that water flowed into the building.

As for the source of the water—

Apart from a few fire trucks, the rest came from fire hydrants.

When watering the World Tree before, players had already figured out the water supply rules of the Sprawling City, and now they were able to use them with great ease.

They only faced one real problem:
Police officers and firefighters in the sprawling metropolis.

The moment the first player fired a shot inside the library, the police department dispatched patrol cars to the scene.

There are now a dense crowd of police officers outside.

But in no time, the players had used trucks and building materials to build a temporary defensive line around the Library of Nations, stopping all the police officers 10 meters away from the library.

Even the fire hoses that connect to fire hydrants further away are guarded by people to prevent the water supply from being cut off.

……

"You guys... are really something!"

Xu Meng was simply amazed.

Xiao Meng gently poked his waist.

"What's wrong?" He looked down at Xiaomeng.

Xiaomeng stretched out her index finger and pointed to the rooftop of the building across the street.

Xu Meng initially thought they were just players watching the show and didn't take it seriously, but now that Xiao Meng specifically pointed it out, he finally paid attention.

"Hahahaha!"

After Xu Meng saw the person opposite her clearly, she burst out laughing on the spot.

The person opposite them was none other than the employees of the Mansheng Metropolitan Urban Construction Department, who were in charge of the construction of the [International Library]!

They were now lying on the edge of the opposite rooftop, their eyes wide open, glaring angrily at the players causing trouble.

He Lin, who was leading the group, had veins bulging on his neck and was carrying an RPG on his shoulder, which he had already aimed at the players' defensive line on the ground.

Fortunately, several colleagues behind him held him tightly, preventing the rocket from being fired...

"It seems that the players have won this round of the battle between the players and the development team by a small margin."

Xu Meng said with a smile.

Xiao Meng asked with some concern, "Won't they start fighting?"

Xu Meng shrugged and said, "Go ahead and fight if you want."

"As long as you don't cheat, you can hit me as much as you want."

He loves watching funny things.

But while we can enjoy the entertainment, we can't neglect our serious business.

The commotion caused by this group not only completely exposed the existence of the [World Library], but also attracted the attention of a huge number of netizens.

Since that's the case, why not take advantage of this buzz?

Not only can it quickly increase the number of books in the [Library of All Nations], it can also give players something to do.

Players have boundless energy; they can't help but want to do something when they see something new.

If this force is left unchecked, it can indeed lead to many unpredictable events.

However, if properly guided, it can also become a powerful force.

He and Xiaomeng left the noisy and busy rooftop and went to the rooftop diagonally opposite—a place that was neither noisy nor missed the excitement on either side.

After logging into my social media account, I planned to write an announcement.

As soon as he opened his account, a widget that Xiaomeng had written for him popped up, notifying him that he had been mentioned by netizens far more often than his usual average number of times in the past few hours.

Upon closer inspection of the keywords, it turned out to be a petition from players asking him to lend another hand to game developers around the world.

They even said outrageous things like, "If we can support the elderly in the countryside, it doesn't matter if we support some more development teams."

This claim is completely unrealistic.

[Rejuvenation] is indeed very profitable, especially after the age limit was lowered from 60 to 50 in the middle of the month, and the daily revenue immediately more than doubled.

The upgraded super server also experienced no pressure.

This money was practically free for him.

But supporting elderly people in rural areas and supporting development teams all over the world are completely different concepts.

An elderly person in a rural area only needs a few hundred yuan per month.

How many programmers are needed?
10 times?
Don't be ridiculous, it's at least tens of times, and sometimes even hundreds of times!
Not to mention the additional expenses required to advance the project...

There are countless game development studios around the world, but most of their projects go from initiation to failure without making a ripple.

Making games sounds romantic, but in reality, it's a job with extremely high risks and costs.

No one can cover this.

Xu Meng won't work either.

but……

"Providing a safety net is definitely not an option, but speeding things up a bit and laying the groundwork in advance... isn't out of the question."

Xu Meng is certain that the virtual world will become a semi-open model in the future.

In that case, it wouldn't hurt to release the [Genesis Engine] so that developers can learn about it in advance.

Let's hold another small competition.

Use a fixed topic to test the developers' creativity and abilities.

With proper screening and project planning, we can not only identify truly capable development teams, but also bring new surprises to players.

Xu Meng made a note of this matter, planning to finish her current tasks and then work with her subordinates to plan it out.

Then they quickly drafted the announcement and released it.

Dear friends:

good morning, everyone!
Many people have probably already noticed:
The final project of the Mansheng Metropolitan Expansion Project—the [International Library]—has been completed and put into operation.

Although some special circumstances have temporarily prevented the project from functioning properly, it is just a minor inconvenience and a small exchange between some players and the development team.

The problem won't last long.

Compared to the "water" problem, the bigger problem is actually the library's collection of books.

Just as we feared at the beginning: the number of books in the world is a far too large and far too astonishing concept.

It is simply impossible for the manpower of just one company like Dream Building to fulfill everyone's desire to include all books from all countries in the world into this virtual library.

We have more than enough technology, but we are far too lacking in manpower!

therefore--

As the creator of this virtual world, for the first time, I am launching an initiative to everyone in the world—not just players, users, or netizens, but everyone who can see these words.

I will be launching a project called [Digital Ark].

This plan will be launched simultaneously in all countries around the world, and will be open to everyone in the world.

I assure the world with my integrity that [Digital Ark] will be a purely charitable project.

Neither I, Zhumeng, nor any other individual or organization will ever profit from this project.

All technologies, resources, and future operating costs used in this project will be unconditionally covered by Zhumeng.

However, such a monumental project of civilizational scale cannot be accomplished by Zhu Meng alone.

and so--

I urge all open and inclusive government organizations to facilitate this project.

I urge all creators and book publishers to set aside their prejudices and break down old barriers to join this grandest project ever.

I urge anyone in the world who is capable to join this project.

I will be launching the official website for [Digital Ark] shortly, and Mengjin will be updating a brand new section. The [Digital Ark] APP will also be launched within three days.

Anyone can scan the books at hand and upload them to [Digital Ark]!

Friends, all we can do at Zhumeng is lay the foundation and design the framework.

Only you all are truly capable of building this tower!

Please!
-
Xu Meng's prediction was correct. Because of the "flooding of the Library of Nations" incident, players all over the world, as well as a large number of netizens and media, are now paying attention to the library.

Everyone is speculating how this matter will end.

Did the development team suddenly appear out of nowhere and eliminate the troublemaking players?

Or will they secretly reinforce the NPC police officers and firefighters to rescue the trapped players?

Or perhaps they won't show up at all, and will just leave when the players get tired of it?

……

As a result, everyone waited and waited, but instead of the development team, they met Xu Meng.

It's not about the "flooded library," but rather—

"[Digital Ark]? Mr. Xu, is this... a genuine desire to build a digital sanctuary for civilization?"

"This kind of thing... can already be considered a great achievement, right?"

"When Mr. Xu mentioned building a tower, did he mean the Tower of Babel? A tower that can only be built by all of humanity working together?"

"This is the largest digital project in human history! An unprecedented undertaking! We must do our part!"

"I'm going to scan the erotic books under my bed right now! And all the thousands of doujinshi and manga I've collected! Everyone for me! I for everyone!"

"But... even if it's a charity project, won't doing it this way lead to copyright disputes?"

"According to the current Copyright Law, libraries do not need to buy copyrights, but whether a virtual library can be considered a library is hard to say."

"Hilarious! Mr. Xu is afraid of a lawsuit?"

……

Xu Meng's initiative was not only published on the Pilipili and Juanyun platforms.

Instead, it was the first time that a true multi-platform release was made – Xu Meng simultaneously released the content on every public platform.

As he wrote in his initiative, this time he wanted to mobilize as many people as possible.

As a result, the influence of this initiative is astonishing!

The level of support he receives domestically has always been at its maximum!
Numerous provincial and municipal library official accounts have spoken out online, expressing their commitment to "unreserved" cooperation with Zhuzhu Dream and their all-out efforts to promote the [Digital Ark] project.

Then one university after another stepped forward to express their support for the project.

—It not only involves sharing books, but also proactively proposes sharing past and future dissertations at all levels.

Then, independent bookstores scattered across the vast land of China also expressed their anticipation for this project.

Finally, there are individual book collectors in China.

These people should not be underestimated either.

In terms of sheer volume of books, an individual book collector simply cannot compare to a large library.

However, it has its own strengths in areas such as ancient books, obscure translations, out-of-print books, and niche books, and is of great value in filling gaps and omissions.

After these organizations and individuals, the support from ordinary netizens mostly remained at the level of cheering and shouting.

But cheering and shouting also has its value.

You can never have too many.

The reaction abroad, however, is the opposite.

The first to come out in support of Xu Meng were actually netizens and private book collectors.

Smaller libraries responded gradually after that.

As for those world-renowned libraries, they remain uncertain, and it seems that we will need to wait for the staff of Dream Building to conduct face-to-face talks before we can hope to reach a cooperation agreement.

However, with the overwhelming support from netizens, the obstacles to achieving cooperation are rapidly decreasing.

As the world begins to discuss [Digital Ark] and the media rushes to report on it, Xu Meng's next step has already caught up—

The Dream Building Game Platform and the Holographic Belt have both received updates.

After the game platform is updated, players can use holographic devices to read the books in the [Library of All Nations] collection in their own living rooms.

After the holographic belt is updated, you can read the books in the [Library of All Nations] from anywhere with internet access.

Just as Xu Meng promised: all of this is free.

However, at the same time, a number of writers also received transfers from Zhu Meng.

The transfer note reads: [Book borrowing fee].

The book borrowing system at the World Library is quite fun.

On the surface, there is only one copy of each book, and borrowing the book is free.

However, if the first book has already been taken, you will need to pay 10 credits to borrow a second one.

This amount of money is negligible for the users of Mansheng Metropolis.

However, if they are popular bestsellers or required reading for primary and secondary school students, the total number can be quite considerable.

This credit will be converted into cash by Zhumeng at an official ratio of [10:1] and paid in full to the book's creator.

Once the news was released by the creators who received the money, the number of authors who actively sought to collaborate or indirectly expressed their intention to collaborate through publishers immediately surged!

……

……

After finishing this task, Xu Meng went to look at the rooftops on both sides.

The library has been completely filled, and the water tankers and fire hoses in the sky have stopped.

He Lin fired an RPG at the hovercar in the sky and then quickly led his team offline to deal with the surge of work that followed the release of an announcement from the boss.

For at least a month to come, he won't have time to outwit and outmaneuver the players.

The library suffered a silent loss from the flooding; they could only swallow their tears...

Xu Meng stretched and looked at Xiao Meng: "Alright, finally finished with work, now we can play games!"

"Yay!" Xiaomeng exclaimed happily.

Xu Meng took one last look at the street below.

Unsurprisingly, players have started fighting amongst themselves.

Many players were excited by Xu Meng's [Digital Ark] project and began to feel annoyed by these disruptive players.

They quickly changed their stance, wanting to restore the library to normal so as not to interfere with the [Digital Ark] project.

The two groups quickly clashed and started fighting on the spot.

Gunfire erupted in the streets!

……

"really not bad."

Xu Meng nodded, then pulled Xiao Meng towards the edge of the city to join another group of players and embark on a journey through the wilderness and rainforest.

(End of this chapter)