Pokémon, but cultural invasion.

When opinions from residents of all ranks, big and small, began to surface, Qishu finally couldn't hold back any longer.

She gritted her teeth and spat out four words: "These unruly people."

"And these players completely misunderstand my good intentions, trying to find ways to evade taxes, while claiming that fighting with others is endlessly enjoyable."

Enraged, she clenched her fists and said, "Since you've all started evading taxes, don't blame me for being impolite."

After falsifying the accounts and making a profit from the players in the business simulation game, the accountant walked out of the shop with a satisfied smile.

"Look what a Tier 0 professional class looks like!"

He was about to head to the next area to earn Skycoins when he suddenly froze as he walked onto the street.

There seem to be an unusually large number of toll booths on the screen.

"When we went in, there were so many toll booths outside?"

Chapter 139 I woke up to find the sky had collapsed.

Within a screen's width, on a road approximately 200 meters long in the game, there were a total of thirteen toll booths, averaging one every fifteen meters.

The toll booths are arranged like streetlights, covering the entire highway, and are quite spectacular when viewed from both sides.

The accountant player fell into deep thought. This strange layout—why did the curator, Qishu, suddenly start performing performance art?

Normally, most people would just curse and turn away when they see a dense array of toll booths along the way.

Strangely, these citizens, who claimed to be equipped with intelligent AI, still drove to work despite their anxieties.

They were cursing and paying money all the while driving.

It's as if toll booths are some unavoidable rule, a strange tale.

Is this class absolutely necessary?

The accountant boarded a city bus, and fortunately, the fare was normal.

On his way to the next shop, he witnessed the NPCs' resistance.

Long queues form in front of the used car market due to the unreasonable high density of toll booths.

It seems this AI is intelligent; it knew that continuing to drive to work was too uneconomical, so in a fit of anger, it sold its car and started taking public transportation.

As more and more citizens sell their vehicles, the price of used cars has plummeted, and even brand-new cars can't fetch high prices in Night City.

The viewers in the live stream watched as Qishu built tollbooth after tollbooth along the extensive city roads, a truly horrific sight.

"There are no humans left, so they're using toll booths as streetlights. The streamer has completely gone mad."

"Workers who have had a miserable day find that not only have they not earned any money, but they also have to pay their own toll fees."

"Luckily, we players didn't have time to buy a car..."

This operation mainly tormented the NPCs, so players just thought that Qishu wanted to make a fortune, and some even gloated.

The most direct reflection of the decline in vehicle prices is the plunge in the stock prices of local automakers.

Qi Shu manipulates his character to arrive at the stock exchange, seizing the opportunity to buy up car company stocks that have plummeted.

The deficit, which had begun to decrease slowly due to the large number of toll booths, has swelled again.

"The game design probably couldn't incorporate a massive stock trading system, so a simplified version was made, where the stocks that can be bought and sold are all various companies in the city."

"I think I understand what Qishu is trying to do."

"Buy with the owner, and you'll get a villa by the sea. I'm so quick, Qishu has bought up all the shares of several car companies."

"The toll booths will be demolished sooner or later, and the stock price will recover after they're removed. There's a clever trick to that, isn't there?"

The chattering viewers in the live stream were completely unaware of the seriousness of the problem.

They watched as Qi Shu lowered the electricity price to the lowest setting on the control panel and cheered with joy.

"Finally, they're starting to give back to the community. Since the toll fees are so high, it's only reasonable to lower other prices as well."

"I misread it before. The streamer is a kind and honest person."

"Taking money from NPCs to benefit players? Absolutely right."

The toll fees are almost entirely paid by the citizens, but the reduced electricity costs are something that players can also enjoy, especially those who focus on management gameplay.

Two days ago, one kilowatt-hour of electricity cost one coin; today, it only costs 0.01 coins, which is practically free.

Among them, the biggest electricity consumers, the players in the breeding house, were overjoyed. Do they even know what version customization is?

The constant temperature incubation in the incubation house consumes a lot of electricity, and the almost free electricity greatly reduces operating costs.

In addition, there are the essential costs associated with cooling.

The season in Night City is summer, and if no cooling measures are taken, characters are prone to suffering from the "heatstroke" debuff.

All players enjoyed the benefits.

"Fine, let the common people suffer. I'll bear the blame, and you can take the benefits."

Qi Shu, on the other hand, had a compassionate look on his face, shaking his head and sighing from time to time.

Soon, night fell in Night City.

Shops closed, and lights in residential buildings went out one after another. Low electricity rates made every household pay more attention to their sleep experience, and they set their air conditioners to the most comfortable temperature of 22 degrees Celsius.

Only the energetic players continued their intensive work throughout the entire city.

In the eyes of NPCs, they are tireless, nuclear-powered oxen and horses.

In a few mines where players can earn Skycoin 24/7 with no time restrictions, players are working hard.

One player with the ID "Stone Maniac" was particularly eye-catching.

He ventured deep underground where no other player had ever reached, and unearthed precious minerals that no one else had ever heard of.

Other players would have already saved up enough Sky Coins to experience other industries, or at the very least, they could change their outfits and get rid of their initial clothes.

However, Stone Maniac remained silent and only focused on mining.

It was as if he wasn't there to play a game, but to dig through the ground.

Players who run the business will also play a few mini-games at night after closing time to earn some extra money.

While chatting with other players in the mine, we exchanged game tips and various information.

"Brothers with breeding sheds, hurry home! The strange tree in the ditch has gone berserk!"

I don't know who yelled that in the world chat.

Before the players realized what had happened, Qi Shu in the live stream just sneered and casually scrolled up the [Electricity Fee] section of the city control panel.

Games are more fun when played together.

When Izumi was chatting, he said that there was once a remote region where a loaf of bread could be sold for 500,000 marks.

Not to be outdone, Qi Shu dared to sell five hundred Sky Coins for a single unit of electricity.

"Born here, lure the citizens in, and then kill them!"

"You take advantage of people sleeping to raise the electricity bill from the lowest to the highest? Are you even human?"

"The NPC woke up to find the sky had fallen."

"Oh no! I haven't checked the live stream for a bit, and while I was in the bathroom, my breeding shed was gone!"

For the viewers in the live stream, the streamer's act of using a tollbooth as a street lamp was already outrageous, but they didn't expect that the bigger surprise was yet to come.

Residents of Night City not only face countless toll booths on their way to work, but they are also stabbed in the back while they sleep.

"Don't slander me, I'm saving this city."

Qi Shu spoke with righteous indignation, having already disabled the floating obscuring element on the [Funds] screen.

The ever-increasing number of red characters is disappearing at a visible rate.

The morning of the second day in Night City was literally a scene of bustling noise and chaos.

When the residents got up and looked at their electricity bills, the pop-up chat box was full of salacious remarks.

Never before had there been so many NPCs complaining at the same time; Qishu's screen was practically flooded with their grievances.

So she adjusted the electricity rates to quell public discontent.

The players in the breeding house were terrified by this action, fearing that they might lose everything overnight, and decided not to go out for the next few days.

AIs are still intelligent.

Knowing that driving would involve passing through rows of toll booths, I chose to take the bus to work.

Qi Shu, however, was more skilled and had already filled his fare to the maximum, charging fifty coins per ride.

The residents had no choice but to pay their fees and go to work, their faces flushed.

Resident satisfaction is declining sharply.

Night City returned to tranquility.

But when the viewers saw that the stocks the anchor had bought at the bottom were still not moving, they realized that she was playing a bigger game, and the bigger one was yet to come.

Chapter 140 The Sky in Night City is Too Dark

Night City appears calm on the surface, but a storm is brewing.

Players who were content with their small plots of land were all on edge, feeling that Qishu was definitely up to no good in the dark.

They decided not to go out to do missions that night, but to wait in the shop for Qi Shu to make his move.

But... today's day seems exceptionally long.

As office workers finished their busy day and prepared to leave work on time as the sun set, the setting sun seemed to be dragged down by an invisible hand.

A new red sun rises in the morning light.

It's not sunset, it's a new sunrise.

The NPCs who had just stepped out the door froze for a moment. According to the rules, nighttime was their rest time, and they should have gone home.

But now that the sun has risen and it's a new day, it's time to go back to work.

So, weary office workers dragged their tired bodies back to their office buildings to work.

This time, the sun rose and showed no sign of setting.

The players stared at the clock; fifteen minutes had passed, and it should have been evening by now, but the sun was still high in the sky.

Night City... has no night?

This is a good thing!

Players who manage the game were still dissatisfied with the setting that there were fewer customers at night, so they simply canceled the nighttime setting. Anyway, it will definitely be restored after a while, so let's just consider it a peak sales period.

As for Qishu's idea, does he think that NPCs working continuously can bring more benefits and better pay off debts?

who cares.

Weary-looking customers visited the small shop, and the business revenue genuinely increased.

Night City experienced an unprecedentedly long day.

"The NPCs would work non-stop without nighttime, streamer, you're a genius!"

"How utterly depraved must one be to come up with so many ways to torment AI?"

"I have no objection, but the situation doesn't seem too good right now."

Good cities attract citizens, and citizens will naturally flee bad cities.

An endless array of toll booths, exorbitant electricity bills, and relentless overtime.

Under such torment, some citizens finally couldn't bear it any longer and chose to flee.

From an overhead view, many people were shouting "Escape from Night City" as they walked toward the train station.

Unfortunately, transportation facilities such as train stations and docks were shut down due to construction.

The sidewalk was incomplete and impassable for some reason.

For players, missing paving stones are just a matter of taking one step, but for NPCs, it's different; the game logic dictates that they can only walk on complete paths.