Chapter 254: The Spirit of Craftsmanship
World Channel 0000026 Banquan Longma: "Mr. Li Zheng, my subordinate was ignorant and made some wrong decisions, causing some trouble for Mr. Li in the past two days. For this, I, on behalf of the entire Creation Organization, offer my sincerest apologies to Mr. Li and hope Mr. Li will be merciful and spare them."
If, a moment ago, there were players expressing doubts about those few clarifying messages on the world channel.
Now that Banquan Longma personally stepped forward to endorse and apologize, it proves that Li Zheng being labeled as a "rapist" was indeed a false accusation.
The world channel became lively, especially Dragon Country players who were on good terms with Li Zheng, speaking out vehemently.
(The following are world channel comments, duplicate comments considered loudspeaker-type items.)
Wang Chaoran: "Apologize? Just say you're scared, it's more fitting! And you want the big boss to forgive you? Let me ask one thing: on what basis?!"
Chen Xiangrong (friend): "It's just because our big boss is supremely powerful and scared the hell out of you bunch of bastards! If the big boss wasn't so strong, would you say this? Would you come out to apologize? Would you spare the big boss? Screw you! Big boss, don't let them off, hit them hard!"
Lu Li: "Here it is! Nihong Country's famous artisan spirit! By the way, don't be a wuss, come fight us! Damn! Do you still think it's a hundred years ago? Do you think Dragon Country people are yours to bully at will?"
Liu Jiale: "Dragon Country: I'm standing in front of you, do I look the same as before?"
Zhan Zhouzhou: "On Earth, we have to consider international circumstances and couldn't do anything to you, but here, if you dare to provoke us, you'll definitely die!"
Chu Xiao: "We don't like to cause trouble, but we're never afraid of it. A single apology can't make up for the damage you've done to Li Zheng's reputation, so we won't accept it!"
Banquan Longma: "Everyone, please calm down. I just learned the truth, and the reason I'm contacting Mr. Li is to make amends for the damage to Mr. Li's reputation, hoping he can accept our apology."
Phoenix Mountain: "Just because you say accept, we should accept?"
Yan Guang: "Exactly, just because you say accept, we should accept?"
Jin Zaiyin: "Dragon Country people are so petty, they've apologized and made amends, but they're still so unforgiving."
Ye Kai: "Shut up, you Stealing Country bastard! You're here with your moral coercion? No way, your country doesn't even have morals, where do you get the face for moral coercion?"
Ye Yuan: "Bro, they don't need 'face'."
Yu Xiaoyu: "Indeed! Ye Yuan sister, remember me, as long as you curse the Stealing Country, you're my sibling from another mother!"
...
The world channel was chaotic, with some supporting Li Zheng, and others supporting Banquan Longma.
Some pretended to mediate with a balanced view, while actually engaging in moral coercion.
Those making the most noise were the Stealing Country and Star Stripes Country, with players from both countries wishing for Li Zheng's downfall.
They surreptitiously fueled the flames, hoping for further escalation between Li Zheng and Creation.
Some even directly used "Dragon Country people this, Dragon Country people that," trying to incite a conflict between players from the two countries.
Some Dragon Country players couldn't stand it, responding with comments.
Until Li Zheng spoke on the world channel, breaking the chaos.
Li Zheng: "We're all adults here, stop with the trickery meant for kids, don't embarrass yourselves. Your brother is already dead by my hands, begging won't help! Not just your brother, every participant, every single one, must die! Not even Jesus can save you, I said so!"
After a while, he sent out a second message: "Here specifically naming a few foreign players, you're all on my list, don't think you can run! If you want to live, you'd better flee early and live with your tails between your legs from now on."
The named players jumped in agitation, claiming they didn't participate in the defamation scheme and that Li Zheng wanting to kill them was implicating the innocent.
Li Zheng continued to speak, presenting all the evidence collected by Lu Li, exposing the hypocritical masks they tried to hide beneath.
Apart from Jin Zaiyin, all were the ones who cursed Li Zheng the hardest and most viciously.
Li Zheng wanted to kill them, and indeed had some personal motives, but they were definitely not innocent!
The instigators and bandwagoners of online violence, not one is innocent.
Just like snowflakes in an avalanche.
The world channel buzzed again, Li Zheng silently watched for a while, sadly realizing that among those who had cursed him before, only a few were now apologizing.
Even though he had unlocked private chat permissions to accept everyone's messages, there were very few apology messages.
On the contrary, even now, many were still cursing him.
However, the crime became "showing off".
Interestingly, two people in private messages asked Li Zheng if he had any intention of joining an organization.
If he was willing to join, Li Zheng could even receive the highest treatment.
Yes, he could hand over a smaller portion of his daily private explorations.
It genuinely made Li Zheng laugh.
It seems like there are no benefits for Li Zheng joining them, not to mention he has to hand over most of his exploration every day, waiting for the so-called "higher-ups" to distribute?
That's kind of sick!
Putting these two on the blacklist, Li Zheng went through his private messages for a while but didn't find the "Kunlun" and "Nine Heavens" mention that Gangmen Bias to the Left talked about.
These two groups of Dragon Country players are very mysterious, and their presence has not been seen on the world channel, even though Li Zheng's incident stirred up quite a storm for a few days, neither organization made any public statements.
Aside from the little sycophant by Phoenix Mountain's side — Yu Xiaoyu, Li Zheng knows nothing about them.
This girl from Kunlun has been in contact with Phoenix Mountain for many days, and she genuinely seems to have come for Phoenix Mountain personally, not expressing any other clear intentions to date.
There are only seven people left on the ten-person list, and Li Zheng switches the private messages back to "friend" mode, seeing a message from Zhan Zhouzhou.
"Ma Yan is dead, killed by a Platinum Level creature. I've avenged her."
Li Zheng immediately understood the subtext of this message and replied asking for details.
Logically speaking, it should be challenging for Ma Yan to enter the Platinum Level creature's room, especially after the terminal has been updated twice, making it significantly easier, and the player survival rate much higher than before.
Speaking of Ma Yan, she was indeed very clever, but she died because of that cleverness.
Upon seeing Zhan Zhouzhou teleport over, she immediately started running, and under Zhan Zhouzhou's pursuit, luck finding her three consecutive empty rooms.
Finally, due to the frequent occurrence of Zhan Zhouzhou and her in the same room, the difficulty of subsequent rooms rose sharply, and she ended up in a no-win scenario.
Strictly speaking, Ma Yan should be considered to have "committed suicide" because Zhan Zhouzhou didn't even say a single word to her nor lay a finger on her from start to finish.
It could be said it was her fate.
Actually, if she had held out for just one more room, Zhan Zhouzhou wouldn't have caught her, only able to wait until tomorrow to continue.
After understanding the full details, Li Zheng sighed, "This person's luck is truly something else, should we call her a European Emperor or the absolute opposite?"
He took out the list, selected someone from it, and teleported over to them.
Spent some time dealing with and taking down a player from the Star Stripes Country and Mickey during the "chase."
From the Stealing Country, aside from Jin Zaiyin who left an unknown place 167 through the Space Jumping Device, another was likewise easily taken care of.
This person died rather humorously, as Li Zheng's first sword deliberately missed, causing him to bump into the sword edge when dodging, cutting the implant in his nose...
And later, again due to "running away," he died in the mouth of a Matrix creature.
To avenge these people, Li Zheng wasted quite a few of today's regular exploration attempts, leaving only three.
He's starting to feel a bit weary, but since he started, he must finish it, having given these people a chance to apologize.
They didn't take it.
If they refuse to repent, they should be ready to face others' revenge.
So far, there are four people left on the list.
Jin Zaiyin, who escaped the original channel, is one of them, and Li Zheng assumes he might have fled to the Mud Furnace people and plans to find him slowly.
Additionally, there are two players from Elephant Three Kingdoms, and Li Zheng checked the data Lu Li sent and discovered they have the same surname and look alike, probably brothers.
Lastly, even Zhan Zhouzhou couldn't refrain from saying, don't let her die too quickly — Xu Lina.
"Let's go to Elephant Three Kingdoms first, these brothers are likely acting as a team, maybe I can save a Star Thief's teleportation chance."
With the target locked, Li Zheng teleported over.
"He really came."
Since Li Zheng's call out on the world channel, the two Elephant Three Kingdoms players brushed their Identity Cards at the metal gate, and at this moment, seeing an extra figure in the room suddenly, they turned around and plunged into the light curtain without thinking.
Li Zheng arrived and looked around but didn't find the two.
Yet, he noticed two open doors and smiled casually, "This is what the previous ones thought too, thinking with two doors open, I wouldn't know which direction you ran."
"But they all died... Hmm?"
Startled, Li Zheng looked in a direction where waist-high reeds were swaying.
Originally swaying orderly with an unknown breeze, one suddenly shook irregularly.
[There is someone in the grass.]
...
Ps. The next chapter is a little gross, a forewarning preview for tomorrow, remember to mentally prepare yourself when reading.