The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 676 "Childbirth Battle" Game

When Xu Meng told Wu Shuang about her plan to extend the life of the US president, it didn't cause much of a stir.

During the holographic call, Wu Shuang's expression changed drastically only when Xu Meng said, "The US president may not make it."

When Xu Meng talked about using technology to prolong his life, Wu Shuang appeared very calm.

Xu Meng thought this was quite normal.

After all, this is nothing new in Xia Kingdom.

Xu Meng has already achieved preliminary results in the safety testing of the "Dream within a Dream". She has even built a sanatorium in the second layer of the dream and housed hundreds of elderly people from the Xia Kingdom, most of whom are old, seriously ill, meritorious soldiers and scholars.

It won't be long before it's further promoted and gradually moves closer to becoming a "social welfare measure".

We're moving at a slower pace now; we just need to wait for a shift in societal attitudes and give sociologists and anthropologists some time to discuss the pros and cons of doing so.

In this situation, allowing one or two foreigners to use it is not a big problem as long as proper isolation is implemented.

As for the benefits gained in the exchange...

I'd do anything, even free, to help stabilize the world situation!
-
Since meeting with Xu Meng, the US president, who had previously made fewer and fewer public appearances and for shorter periods, has suddenly become more active again.

With his strong push, the hostile attitude and restrictions that the US government had placed on DreamWorks were quickly lifted.

Multiple customs inspections, additional tariffs on various goods, and targeted construction of the Great Firewall... all were announced to be cancelled within just three days.

Their attitude towards building dreams has completely changed 180 degrees.

The speed and force of the U-turn were astonishing.

But before the voices of doubt could grow louder, almost all major media groups in the United States went all out, praising the president for being open-minded, inclusive, and considerate of the people, and for making a wise decision.

In the past few days, Americans have been opening the internet and feeling like they've misread something or that the website is bugged.

It took several unbelievable crashes and restarts to finally accept this reality—

The businessman president, who has been criticized by a large number of media outlets for nearly 10 years, has surprisingly received unanimous praise from all media, all websites, and all programs.
Even the left-wing media of the opposing party, which used to criticize him the most, now unequivocally support his actions.

The only thing they didn't forget was criticizing him for being autocratic and stuck in his ways when he issued those restrictive measures.

When media groups go all out, with various voices writing and speaking out from different angles, and newspapers, radio, interviews, and talk shows all pitching in to bombard the public with information, the effect is astonishing!
In this situation, it is precisely the most prevalent conspiracy theorists in the United States who can still firmly refuse brainwashing, and even deduce that the president has been replaced by the reptilian people, and that media moguls have reached an agreement with the Dreamers, selling out the country for eternal life, and so on.

Unfortunately, they could only spread their ideas through an old-fashioned radio station.

Because television stations and the internet no longer accept this kind of argument, and it would be ignored if it were published.

……

Finally, three days later, Xu Meng and Xiao Meng visited the president's private estate in Florida as holographic images.

The President attaches great importance to this meeting.

But instead of rushing to start "treatment" for Xu Meng as his life was nearing its end, he displayed a rare composure—

Instead of calling his bureaucratic team and technical advisors, he summoned his close family members and introduced them to Xu Meng and Xiao Meng.

They were also taken on a tour of the beautiful estate, which faces the Atlantic Ocean, backs onto a lagoon, and covers an area of ​​8 square meters.

They practically turned the meeting into a family dinner.

In just three days, he temporarily set up a large number of holographic devices in the manor to facilitate Xu Meng and Xiao Meng's tour.

After walking around for a while, Xu Meng's stereotype of him was greatly reduced.

When I received his medical report and saw his brain condition, I couldn't help but become more attentive and serious.

Xu Meng's first conclusion from the report was:

The president downplayed the conversation three days ago.

He didn't just "almost" suffer from brain failure, he "already" suffered from brain failure!

Neurons in the cerebral cortex and deep structures are rapidly damaging and dying, at a rate far exceeding that of normal elderly patients with brain atrophy.

If effective measures are not taken to curb it, he may suffer from Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and senile dementia all at the same time.

That's not even the worst of it.

Normally, elderly people suffering from brain failure die from complications, not directly from brain failure itself.

But the president is different.

He will be a rare case of dying from brain failure—his remains after death will have extremely high medical research value.

No wonder he doesn't care what happens after his term ends...

Without Xu Meng's help, he really wouldn't have lived to see that day!
Of course, the situation is different now.

After Xu Meng uses computing power to share most of the pressure on his brain neurons, the rate at which neurons fail and die will be greatly reduced.

If he doesn't feel ashamed of wearing the "collar," Xu Meng could even give him a special favor by having the Aurora Communications Satellite provide him with 24-hour computing power to further slow down the rate of depletion.

After Xu Meng brought up the matter, the president didn't care at all whether the symbolism of "wearing a collar" was a bit bad, and readily agreed.

Indeed, disregarding other factors, Zhumeng's brain-controlled prosthetic products have consistently used collars as devices for collecting and translating neural signals, a fact that is known worldwide.

Of course, the product development department has also heard a lot of user feedback recently and has begun to design more discreet hats that are less easily identifiable as alternatives.

But that's at least two or three months from now.

Afterwards, Xu Meng successfully completed this "surgery," which was not exactly precise but highly technical, and successfully kept the president, who was rushing toward his death, alive.

After finishing, I also went to Alfred's house.

In the equally impressive mansion, they completed the device unlocking and access authentication for him.

Alfred was restored to his youth through the [Rejuvenation] function, and he didn't have the problems the president faced, making things much simpler. He could even avoid having Xu Meng appear.

But Xu Meng figured that since she was already there, she might as well show herself and say hello.

It requires very little effort, yet yields huge benefits.

why not?
-
Neither the president nor Alfred mentioned their meeting with Xu Meng in public.

Therefore, this matter did not cause much of a stir among the public.

But it's different for the world's wealthy and powerful.

This event had an impact almost equal to that of Xu Meng's "BitTorrent Storm," which ruthlessly crushed multinational corporations.

The difference is that this time, Xu Meng no longer intimidates them; instead, she has become a highly sought-after person.

Business summits, business collaborations, technical exchanges, private banquets... all came flooding in on Xu Meng.

Then he left them all there unattended.

Since the president was difficult to reach, Alfred became the replacement and became extremely busy.

As for Xu Meng, he turned his attention back to satellite matters.

Instead of personally communicating with the technical team at Edge Industries, he facilitated a meeting between Edge Industries' technical team and the Aurora Satellite project team. But in reality, there wasn't much to discuss.

Xu Meng had already told all the engineers: the orbits required for the aurora satellite array cannot be compromised.

This is undoubtedly a monumental project, crucial to the development of the nation, its people, and even the entire civilization, and cannot tolerate any flaws.

So this so-called "communication" is actually the engineers from the Aurora project team telling the engineers from Edge Industries which orbits are needed, and then prioritizing them according to the order in which the satellites are launched.

Meanwhile, the measurement and control engineers at the edge of the industry are prioritizing and arranging orbit changes for their own satellites and adjustments to global network services.

As for Xu Meng herself, she only met and talked with Thomas Booker alone at the beginning of the trip.

The topic of conversation was, naturally, Thomas Booker's "simulated Mars landing" as mentioned on social media.

While this appears to be Thomas Booker seeking Xu Meng's help, in reality, Xu Meng would also gain a significant advantage if it were actually done.

Thomas Booker had to disclose a large amount of technical specifications and hardware parameters for launch vehicles and Starships to ensure a completely realistic simulation.

Once the simulation is successful, this technology will no longer be a secret.

Not only Thomas Booker can send immigrants to Mars, but Xu Meng can too.

It sounds like a win-win situation.

But peripheral industries can create a competitor for themselves from scratch.

Even if Xu Meng's focus is not on this aspect, and she may not actually be planning to colonize Mars, it would still be a very risky endeavor.

Thomas Booker's ability to make this decision speaks volumes about his decisiveness and unwavering determination to land on Mars!

Xu Meng admired his ambition.

I was also looking forward to his Mars project, so I readily agreed.

Just like their conversation at the [Animal Kingdom Racing Competition], there was no personal grudge between them.

That afternoon, DreamWorks and Edge Industries jointly announced their collaboration on [simulated Mars landing], which unsurprisingly caused a sensation online once again.

Then, the carrier rockets that build dreams were launched one after another into space, releasing satellites into low Earth orbit batch after batch.

Space enthusiasts thoroughly enjoyed the show.

The only regret is that we never saw such a large-scale, magnificent aurora and satellite fire shower again.

……

……

While the real world is bustling with activity, the virtual world is not calming down either.

As the Gudening team had guessed, the number of players willing to engage in infrastructure development had decreased significantly, and the road from the Sprawling City to the Mushroom Kingdom and the Fortress City of Norringen was being built very slowly.

Even so, more and more players are coming to the Mushroom Kingdom and Norringen.

Mei Er's shop has become a popular tourist attraction, and its revenue has skyrocketed.

The parasitic vine problem he was worried about finally saw a glimmer of hope for a solution thanks to the arrival of a large number of players and the activation of the Norringen resurrection point.

The only remaining challenge is the fusion of the giant and the parasitic vines.

When these two things are combined, the difficulty level skyrockets! They become almost the biggest obstacle and killer on players' way to Norringen.

Players within Norringen City also had to devote a great deal of energy to dealing with the endless harassment from Titans day after day. In addition, many were exhausted from training with the [3D Maneuver Gear], spending a lot of energy on practice every day, leaving them with little energy to break through the inner city.

But this also led to a completely new situation in the city—

After learning about the brutality and greed of the royal family and nobles, a group of Russian players had a sudden inspiration and began to recruit NPCs into the army for training on a large scale.

At the same time, they were instilled with the oppression of the inner city over the outer city, and told what kind of life they could have without these parasites—abundant food and clothing, and freedom.

Others, seeing what these Russian players were doing, immediately became interested.

Players from Xia and France, in particular, joined in enthusiastically, not only helping with ideological education but also donating all sorts of firearms and ammunition to encourage NPCs to fight their way into the inner city and defeat the oppressors.

Soon, a third legion appeared in the outer city, in addition to the "Garrison Legion" and the "Survey Legion": the Justice Legion.

This is also a purely NPC legion; even the instructors were recruited by players from two other legions.

Everyone was hoping that this NPC army could storm into the inner city on its own and overthrow the rule of the royal family and nobles.

……

Compared to the excitement among the players, things were much calmer inside the Dream Building Company.

The development team is busy creating various new content as always, and Xu Meng no longer needs to keep an eye on things all the time.

But sometimes, Xu Meng still has to make an appearance.

For example, Xiaomeng's first work, "Animal Kingdom," after rounds of testing and revisions, and after incorporating suggestions from a large number of players—especially children and their parents—finally decided to release the official version.

The date is set for November 1st.

Xu Meng naturally wanted to pay attention to this matter personally.

Not only did they personally experience it and provide reviews, but they also allocated a very large sum of money for publicity and marketing expenses—even though it was completely unnecessary.

In short, they'll offer the best possible benefits.

Xiaomeng deserves this treatment!
For example, at the end of October, Cade Hawke and Sofia Mikhailova, who had been out of contact for a long time due to their baby-making and childbirth, suddenly contacted Xu Meng and said that their project had made progress.

Xu Meng had almost forgotten about this incident.

The star developers who were in the same batch as them had already finished their projects and started planning new ones. Xu Meng was also mentally prepared for them to take a year off to have a baby.

Hearing them say there was progress was very surprising, so he quickly took Xiaomeng and teleported there in holographic mode.

When they met the couple, Mikhailova's belly was noticeably bigger. Xiao Meng still habitually ran over to listen to the baby's heartbeat, but Xu Meng grabbed her arm.

"I thought you were already on vacation," Xu Meng said, puzzled.

“She can’t stay still.” Cade Hawke shook his head. “If she’s quiet, she’ll get anxious. I thought the dream machine has no radiation, is safer than a cell phone, and can improve sleep, so I didn’t stop her.”

"So this was Sophia's idea?"

Cade Hawke nodded, his expression somewhat subtle.

Xu Meng didn't understand: Shouldn't we be happy about the progress? What does this expression mean?
But as soon as Sofia opened her mouth, he understood—

"We want to develop a game that combines various elements such as [cooperative childbirth], [child raising], [bloodline iteration], and [minion battles]."

One sentence made Xu Meng blink wildly.

It took him a lot of effort to get his head moving and try to process Sofia's thoughts.

After a long while, he said incredulously:
"You mean... players cooperate to have children, and then use those children to fight each other???"

(End of this chapter)