Stars, Players and Immortals

Chapter 89 The Old Hand's Pound Sterling

Compared to the clamorous crowd of players in the square, who were completely bewildered, the pound moved a full tier faster.

Others were either crowding at the entrance of the job change hall, peering at the notice board to study the job change branches, or standing on tiptoe to count the length of the line at the vehicle registration desk, while others were dizzy and disoriented around the signboard looking for the military merit exchange window, bumping around the whole place.

The pound had already silently circled to the edge of the square, stood against the cold alloy railing, opened his private contacts, and his fingertip precisely landed on a contact he had specially set up before the maintenance period. It was a unique network of contacts he had accumulated in the previous version of the Skydrive government line.

No matter what world you go to, you can't do without connections.

The same system announcement can only be followed by ordinary players to queue up, but Pound Sterling can use the connections he built up in the previous version to get ahead of time and access the entry point behind the policy (version answer).

[Gu Yuanzhou, Administrative Coordination Office, Provisional Government of Sky Chaser]

This relationship was something he quietly built up at the end of the previous version when he was farming reputation with the Skyward faction.

Back then, all the players on the server were scrambling to get high-merit combat missions, while he took on the less desirable, errand-running jobs that others looked down on, helping the administrative coordination office with a series of trivial tasks.

These tasks are time-consuming and offer little reward; to the average player, they are simply thankless and dirty work.

But it was through these few unnoticed errands that the British pound obtained the contact information of the official government affairs NPC of Skydrive, a connection that most players wouldn't even dare to dream of.

The difference between top-tier (T0) players and ordinary players is always hidden in these unseen details.

Gu Yuanzhou's image appeared in front of the pound, with the background resembling an administrative hall, and people carrying documents and data boards walking by behind him.

"Mr. Ying?"

Gu Yuanzhou looked up at him, a tired smile on his face.

"Just as the commander predicted, you will appear at this time."

Did Zhang calculate the players' return time in advance?

The pound sterling stirred slightly, silently memorizing the message.

This supreme commander of the Skywards truly lives up to his reputation as the core of the version and the protagonist of the world; he possesses unique mechanics that other NPCs do not have!

In a flash, a familiar yet measured smile appeared on his face, and his tone was warm but not abrupt: "Director Gu, it's been a long time. Seeing how busy you are, you don't even have time to catch your breath. Our return as Sky Chasers has only added to your workload."

"The square was so crowded just now that I almost got sent to the buffer zone by the crowd control system. Luckily, I managed to get around it quickly."

"The government must be under a lot of pressure lately, right? I wonder if Your Excellency has any new plans? As Sky Drivers, it is our duty to share the burden for the Martian people, so please feel free to ask if there is anything we can do to lend a hand."

Gu Yuanzhou smiled upon hearing this, and without beating around the bush, he tapped the data panel in front of him twice with his fingertips and got straight to the point.

Soon, a public policy summary was sent to the pound's personal terminal.

The pound quickly reviewed the most crucial points.

During the six-month maintenance period, the Tianqu Provisional Government has completed the initial integration, bringing all four lines of military production capacity, security system, people's livelihood distribution, and administrative registration under unified command, and the entire operation of Mars has been completely unified.

The enactment of the "Chip Registration and Advanced Knowledge Open Source Act" further overturned the technological iron curtain that had been in place for decades during the reign of the Holy Cardinals.

Previously strictly prohibited knowledge has been completely unrestricted in one go.

According to the new bill, Martian citizens can apply for relevant knowledge access once they complete identity registration, chip filing, and corresponding ability assessment.

Players are considered abnormal by the Martian natives and cannot be directly identified as ordinary citizens. Therefore, Zhang Qiming issued the "Regulations on Registration, Entrustment and Public Safety Management of Abnormal Entities".

This regulation will include players in the Skyward government's special operations sequence.

To put it bluntly, what players used to call "missions" are now officially referred to as "government commissions".

From street and alley security operations and factory security assistance to large-scale tasks such as assisting with military production lines, test flights of new spacecraft, deep space data exploration, and cross-sea cargo escort, as well as high-risk anomaly area reconnaissance, all sorts of jobs have been crammed into this commissioned system.

After a commission is completed, not only will faction reputation be settled, but civilization contribution points will also be accumulated, and the corresponding level of knowledge permissions will be unlocked simultaneously.

To complete the first job change, players need to fulfill the corresponding government commissions.

By thoroughly analyzing these provisions, the pound sterling instantly grasped the underlying logic of the new version.

Moreover, he learned from Gu Yuanzhou that the career change hall and the abnormal body registration office were already overcrowded, and if he went to queue up now, he might not even get a turn today.

And so, the pound sterling smiled genuinely.

"Director Gu, I've run errands for the Administrative Coordination Office a lot before, our relationship is..."

Gu Yuanzhou shook his head, tapped the data panel twice with his fingertips, and said in a businesslike tone: "Cutting in line is against the rules, and this loophole cannot be opened."

The smile on the pound's face didn't waver at all, but his heart sank slightly.

He thought that with the friendship he had built up in the previous versions, he could get some leeway, but he didn't expect that Director Gu would be more principled than he had anticipated.

As he was pondering how to rephrase the request, Gu Yuanzhou slowly added the second half of the sentence: "However, the Administrative Coordination Office just approved an emergency building materials transfer commission to transport three batches of structural reinforcement components from the Mariner Valley building materials base to the Olympus Ring Road infrastructure construction site, and we are short of a few reliable people."

Upon hearing this, the British pound instantly understood.

This isn't about a shortage of people; it's clearly about giving him a compliant way out, neither breaking the rules nor failing to do someone a favor.

Director Gu is a good person to work with!

He immediately swallowed back the words that were about to come out, responding crisply and clearly, without any hesitation.

"Director Gu, there's something else I'd like to ask you. I just checked the government announcement (system update), and it says that Skydriveers can now apply to purchase personal properties and spaceship parking spaces?"

He paused, his tone subtly probing, his words carefully chosen: "I just wanted to ask, for those of us who were among the first to complete the formal registration and have been cooperating with the government for a long time, are there any corresponding support measures? For example, a first-time rental discount for those who settled in the first batch, or a special subsidy for our contributions to the government?"

"As a Skywalker, I want to find out in advance so I can make plans for the future."

This question was perfectly watertight, not mentioning backdoor deals at all, and relying entirely on official policies.

Director Gu glanced at the pound. Having worked in the administrative field for so long, how could he not understand the old fox's thoughts?

>