The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 705 A Turning Point in History: Where Will the World Go?
Xu Meng was just as surprised as netizens.

Although he participated in many meetings, they were mostly technical explanations of the vast ocean of information.

He did not attend the meetings related to specific decision-making and implementation.

He simply concluded at the last meeting that the number of users and the volume of content in the virtual world determine the efficiency of exploring the information universe and the ability to defend against potential crises, respectively.

So he received a promise:
"No one can create content in the virtual world better than you or Zhumeng."

"We trust your abilities, and we are very confident in entrusting this work to you."

"As for the number of devices and users, leave that to us."

The high-ranking leader made these remarks so casually that Xu Meng didn't think much of it at the time.

I just told the marketing department that there might be special national subsidies or official cooperation such as centralized procurement in a while, and that we should cooperate well then.

After that, he stopped caring and went off to do other things—he had completely changed from his previous lazy state and was now full of energy, busy every day.

But he never expected that when the authorities did not act, they would act with overwhelming force!
Almost every department that could be involved or contribute mobilized to help popularize the Dream Machine nationwide.

— Reaching this level goes beyond simple promotion and equipment sales; it's essentially treating the virtual world as a national infrastructure.

It can almost be said that this is a super-large-scale and unique "cyber new infrastructure" project!
At this rate, the number of virtual world residents using the Dream Machine will at least triple in the next year!
This only considers the Xia Kingdom and does not include overseas situations.

With comprehensive policy support from the country, the industrial chain can continue to be optimized, and production capacity will continue to surge.

At that time, overseas users will undoubtedly experience explosive growth!

Adding in both internal and external factors...

They're aiming for a tenfold increase in a year!

Only then did Xu Meng realize what the state apparatus and the torrent of history truly meant!

One move and it's all about establishing a powerful momentum!
Domestic netizens cheered with joy, while overseas netizens were green with envy, urging their own governments to follow the example of Xia Kingdom.

In particular, citizens of developed European countries known for their high welfare and human rights standards have begun to loudly proclaim that "freedom to enter and exit the virtual world is also a basic human right" and demand that governments guarantee this right of citizens.

The tide of public opinion surged forth, creating a cacophony of voices.

Governments around the world were wondering what important information Xia Kingdom had obtained in advance to do this, when they turned around and saw their youngest and most energetic citizens causing a disturbance.

Many player guilds and gaming clubs transformed overnight into social activist organizations, pushing their leaders and group owners to become social activists, raising their voices and starting to represent the nation in making demands.

They are not ambitious individuals, nor are they acting in their own self-interest.

——Quite the opposite.

These key figures, chosen by players to represent them and call for government action, are mostly users who already own the Dream Machine; they are the ones who least need government assistance.

Initially, they were simply acting out of compassion, calling on the government to provide opportunities for all vulnerable groups in society—those who are unable to walk, see, are paralyzed, or have limb disabilities—to regain their health in the virtual world.

Then, this scope quickly expanded to include retired elderly people.

They believe that the state should fund and guarantee their right to "return to youth" in the virtual world.

Next are the impoverished citizens with limited financial means.

In the end, they rallied online and on the streets, shouting out the same voice and demand:

"The virtual world is a basic human right!"

"Every citizen should have the right to freely enter and exit the virtual world!"

The momentum was so great and the spread so fast that it swept across Europe in just one week!
This has caused politicians from various countries a great deal of trouble.

They really want to meet the needs of the people.

But today is different.

Even established developed countries don't have much surplus money left—they're barely able to pay pensions, so where would they find the extra funds to provide dream-making machines for everyone? Let alone build any public dream-making facilities!
That's no small sum of money.

They could only offer excuses:

“We are a free and democratic country, while Xia is a socialist country. Our national systems are different, and our advantages are different. We simply cannot copy the practices of the Xia government.”

"However, we have heard the voices of the people and will seriously discuss and study them, and respond to the people's demands as soon as possible in a way that suits our national conditions."

This method successfully fooled some people.

Unfortunately, this delaying tactic quickly and completely failed.

The beacon of "democratic countries" has actually followed in the footsteps of Xia Kingdom and has also started subsidizing the dream-making machine!
Although the money for this expense is not from the federal government, but from multinational corporations and large conglomerates, the federal government has promised that a certain percentage of these expenses can be deducted from taxes.

Even the President of the Union hosted a banquet at the White House, inviting world-renowned business tycoons to dine together and discuss future business and technological developments.

The business tycoons were deeply impressed by the president's vision and said they would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to purchase the Dream Machine and sell it to American citizens at low prices as an "investment in the future."

How can this not be considered government handouts?
Netizens across Europe were outraged, and even media outlets from various countries were quick to criticize presidents and prime ministers in interviews.

"You said that our system is different from that of China, so we can't simply copy their government's practices. What about the United States?"

"Isn't the United States a democratic country?"

"Or is the government already in a meeting discussing having domestic companies fund the support of the people?"

Even seasoned and experienced politicians, when asked this question face-to-face, would feel a headache coming on and hesitate to speak.

They really wanted to say, "How can that be the same?!"

How many companies in old Europe still possess the astonishing revenue-generating capabilities of American business giants?
How can they, with the same power they wield, force multinational corporation bosses to pay them money, just like the US president?
If the country and government are not strong enough, there is really no way to learn from them!

They were extremely distressed.

I really can't understand why the United States would follow China's example and help promote the Dream Machine.
On the one hand, they felt that this violated the consistent practices of the US government and businessmen and was completely unreasonable.

On the other hand, they also had some concerns:

The two most powerful forces in the world today, Xia Guo and the United States, have started doing the same thing, but they are completely unaware of what is happening.

This not only made them uneasy, but even frightened them.

This sense of crisis, coupled with public pressure, forced them to take action and, without any prior knowledge, began purchasing more dream-making machines.

But they actually guessed one thing wrong—

Although they are doing similar things, the reasons for the actions of the United States and China are different.

Xia Guo truly possessed all the information and had already obtained its first significant technological achievement.

For Xia Guo, even before the investment began, they had already gained a technological achievement in a compact nuclear fusion facility, making further investment a natural next step.

But the United States doesn't receive this treatment.

Xu Meng only took some time to visit the US President and update him on the research and development progress of consciousness uploading.

He was informed that he had achieved significant results, but had also encountered some bottlenecks.

Xu Meng did not lie to him.

He truly experienced the process of transformation and ascension, and the events that happened to him during this process have left their mark on the digital world.

By reversing the entire process through these records, he can do the same thing to other people.

His current problem is that this data contains a vast amount of information that is currently unanalyzable—more complex than the threads of data-driven thinking. He must decipher this information before he can truly master the technology.

It's all true.

In order to complete the crack as soon as possible, he must expand the number of Dream Machine users as much as possible.

This statement is half true and half false.

The number of players whose consciousness enters the dream world does not directly affect his speed of solving the puzzle.

However, if someone in the US helps him promote the Dream Machine and expand the production of "threads," then he won't need to waste his energy on this aspect and can naturally free up more energy to work on cracking it.

Moreover, as the number of users continues to grow, his mood will improve.

A good mood can also help improve cracking efficiency!

The president is currently being kept alive by Xu Meng's technology; he won't die anytime soon, but he can't be cured either.

He now wields immense power, but his term is drawing to a close.

He can't afford to delay.

Now that Xu Meng had truly offered him a lifeline, he didn't hesitate for a moment and immediately patted his chest, promising to do his best to help increase the number of users of the Dream Machine.

Xu Meng then sent the same message to Alfred and the others.

Their reaction was similar to that of the US president; they took action without saying a word.

Xu Meng didn't think she was lying.

Once he gets the consciousness uploading technology sorted out, he really will give these people a hand.

However, unlike what they imagined, it won't just be the privileged who will benefit from this technology.

Xu Mengzhen intends to turn this technology into a basic human right.

Xu Meng plans to take all those who reach the end of their natural lifespan into the virtual world to start a second life.

After all, these can all "produce silk"!

As for the potential problems of resource shortages and wealth accumulation caused by "immortality," the destructive potential is entirely controllable given the availability of "unlimited energy" and "unlimited technology."

This is not true physical immortality, and the resources consumed are limited.

The computing power of super servers has not yet reached its limit, and there is still the infinite "cloud" of the information universe.

Once an artificial sun is built in reality, and a large ship is built in the virtual world, the real world will embark on a great expedition to the stars, while the virtual world will embark on an infinite voyage across the sea of ​​information.

I'm afraid we won't have enough manpower at that time!

Why worry about too many people?
Xia Guo took the lead, and the United States followed closely behind.

Europe, Asia, the Americas... all countries with the capacity felt inexplicable pressure and took action to avoid falling behind completely.

Netizens around the world are getting excited.

They began to realize that a crucial juncture had arrived.

The whole world is standing at a crossroads in history, and has even taken a crucial step.

But they couldn't see clearly where this step would lead.

In this atmosphere of restlessness, fervor, unease, and confusion, the month passed day by day.

……

The creative competition is still ongoing, and all rules are being enforced:

More and more developers are making money. At its peak, hundreds of thank-you and celebratory posters can be sent out every day!

The game development industry has completely come back to life.

Players have discovered a bug, and several world bubbles that burst every day will appear.

Surprisingly, this serious bug not only occurs in small, individually created world bubbles, but players have also found opportunities to pop several large world bubbles.

However, these world bubbles can be restored after they burst, so players don't feel any psychological burden.

After a success, everyone cheers and celebrates wildly.

In contrast, some other shattered world bubbles evoke a sense of melancholy—

Those tiny, poorly rated bubbles of the world were mercilessly torn apart by the surging undercurrents deep within the sea of ​​creativity, and ceased to exist completely.

The first time, players cheered, saying, "These trash shouldn't have been born into this world."

But the second and third time, the players stopped gloating.

Instead, they spontaneously gather in the sea of ​​creativity, watching those world bubbles shatter, sink, and disappear.

And they sighed with regret.

Then, after the undercurrent ended, seeing that several world bubbles, which were clearly receiving a flood of negative reviews and were at the bottom of the sea of ​​creativity, were completely unharmed because so many people played with them and the bubbles were too big and too strong, I started to complain and curse them as "a scourge that will live for a thousand years"!
……

Besides the sea of ​​creativity, the most attention-grabbing thing is the door in the sky.

The world behind that door was no longer a secret—Xu Meng did not ask the 60 players involved in the operation to keep it a secret.

They successfully completed their mission, securing massive benefits worth hundreds of billions for players worldwide, and were very proud of it. When asked about the process, they naturally didn't hide anything.

However, when they went there, taking photos and videos was not allowed in the vast ocean of information.

Simply talking about it can be a bit abstract.

So netizens have been clamoring every day, hoping that Xu Meng will open up this world and let everyone go behind the door to see what's going on.

The fact that the door would occasionally open and let a few people in made the players even more annoyed.

If their dreams don't get a response, they'll take action on their own.

Try all sorts of ways to fly and get closer to that door.

Unfortunately, all their attempts failed—the door was simply inaccessible.

Let alone hovercars, even warships and planetary cannons can't get close.

This disappointed everyone.

Until December 30th, Xu Meng, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly reappeared and released an announcement—

"At 10 PM on December 31, 2026, the Global Developer Creative Competition will officially conclude! Dream Chaser will announce the final rankings via live stream."

Following that, Zhumeng will hold a New Year's Eve press conference, with me as the keynote speaker.

The theme of the press conference was:

【unlimited】

Please be sure to watch on time.

(End of this chapter)