Chapter 47: Can You Handle This?

"I heard from my big brother that the number of players in the Federation is fast approaching 300,000! And according to Federation projections, by this time next year, the player count might break the 50,0000 mark."

Chen Ran's tone was mixed with obvious amazement:

"When we graduated, none of our ID numbers exceeded 250,000. It's only been a few days... I always feel like the Evolution Game is speeding up."

"It should be because the cadet player academies in other Federation cities all completed their graduation assessment processes this week. After all, the public announcement schedules across various regions are roughly the same," Cao Yu reminded her. "And don't forget, the academies are only a small fraction. The truly massive numbers come from direct recruitment within the military, and those actively chosen by the Evolution Game."

The number of players in the Federation had actually been steadily increasing.

The Federation had conducted specialized research on this, discovering that although the mortality rate of low-level players was high, the rate at which the Evolution Game replenished players had always outpaced the death rate.

Basically, the moment one player died, the Evolution Game would select another to quickly inherit their player ID... In short, the number of active players had always been in a state of positive growth.

Moreover, the speed was not uniform.

Cao Yu did not know whether there was a limit to the number of players in a single world partition.

"Sigh, the more players there are, the more dungeons there are, and the more monster crises eroding reality there are... I just feel like the world is getting more and more chaotic."

After her amazement faded, worry crept into Chen Ran's tone.

However, she didn't dwell on the matter too much, returning to the main topic: "So, do you want to transfer over to my side?"

"I'll say it again, I appreciate your intentions," Cao Yu refused.

"Fine." Chen Ran didn't push the issue, switching to an invitation instead: "Then once we've both started our jobs, let's carve out some time to run a dungeon together?"

"Sure," Cao Yu agreed.

Chen Ran listened to him well, and when facing danger, she wasn't lacking in reckless courage. Much like An Li, she belonged to the category of relatively reliable teammates.

The two chatted idly about trivial daily matters for a bit longer before hanging up.

Cao Yu's casual expression faded, replaced by a touch of seriousness.

The Evolution Game... was it speeding up?

He didn't treat Chen Ran's speculation as a joke.

Intuitively, he felt that the probability of this guess being correct was quite high.

'The Federation has always been cut off from the outside world, and the Evolution Game is starting to accelerate... Could these two things be related?'

Lost in thought, Cao Yu walked into the subway entrance.

...

There were a total of twelve municipal districts in Sishan City.

As one of the four largest major districts, Meishan District naturally had its own Special Affairs Bureau branch office.

However, unlike ordinary administrative organizations, the Meishan District branch only set up five offices—"Southeast, Northwest, and Central"—without breaking things down to the street level.

The office Cao Yu was heading to was the Central Office, which also served as the headquarters of the Meishan District branch.

When he exited the subway and arrived at the front gates of the office building, Cao Yu wore a rather surprised expression.

Because he saw an acquaintance.

"Brother Cao? What a coincidence! Are you here to report for duty today too?"

Not far away, Zhou Fan was waving, calling out a greeting, and running over quickly.

After he drew closer, Cao Yu asked, "Why did you come to Meishan District?"

"The quota for Qingshan District must have been full, I figured I got squeezed out," Zhou Fan replied. "I received my employment notification yesterday, and was told I've been transferred to Meishan District."

His tone showed no indignation, and instead held a trace of happiness.

Actually, for him, going anywhere didn't matter as long as he could stay in Sishan City.

Although Meishan District harbored quite a few hidden dangers, but... Big Boss Cao Yu was here!

Originally, he had been wondering how to find an opportunity to curry favor and latch onto Cao Yu's coattails, but it turned out... the heavens really hadn't treated him poorly.

Meeting an acquaintance made Cao Yu quite happy as well, and he smiled: "What a coincidence then, let's go report in together."

"Brother Cao, after you." Zhou Fan consciously fell half a step behind.

Cao Yu: "..."

Zhou Fan was only at the age of a college student; who on earth had he learned this set of behaviors from?

Halfway there, Zhou Fan asked Cao Yu:

"Brother Cao, how much do you know about the Meishan District branch?"

"I've been pretty busy these past few days, haven't looked into it much," Cao Yu said. "I only know the district director is named Jiang He, a Class C player."

Since he was his future immediate superior, he still needed to pay a little attention.

"Actually..."

Zhou Fan lowered his voice:

"The most formidable player in our Meishan District branch isn't Jiang He, but Deputy District Director Zhao Dezhu. Rumors say that this Deputy Director Zhao is close to completing his evolutionary progress in the Class C stage. At this rate, there's a high probability his evolutionary progress will reach 51% next year, officially stepping into the Class B tier and entering the ranks of the Federation's strongest players..."

Zhou Fan began popularizing intelligence regarding the Meishan District branch for Cao Yu.

Meishan District currently had one district director, which was Jiang He. There were two deputy district directors; Zhao Dezhu was one of them, and the other was named Li Lan. Although she wasn't a Class C player, her evolutionary progress had reached 31%, entering the Class C bracket.

Among these three, Zhao Dezhu came from an ordinary background, while the other two both hailed from aristocratic and powerful families.

After the Federation was established, although the aristocratic system had been abolished, those former families merely changed their mode of existence and still wielded massive influence.

After the descent of the Evolution Game, aristocratic families relied on their early advantages in money and power to do business with players, accumulating plenty of evolution points and props, thereby cultivating some high-level players within their families who entered the interior of the Federation's Special Affairs Bureau.

As for those who failed to cultivate them... power struggles meant that those who didn't advance would fall behind.

Today, nearly half of the entire Federation's Special Affairs Bureau personnel came from aristocratic backgrounds. They held high-level positions within the organization's system yet did nothing, idling away while collecting various resources.

Only about half of the people actually did any real work.

Meishan District was no exception.

Listening to this, Cao Yu wasn't surprised at all.

The Federation had unified the world for a long time. In the absence of external enemies, not only would internal strife become fierce, but the rate of decay would also experience a super-multiplier.

This was a historical law.

Added to the fact that current dungeon invasions and monster crisis events were far from reaching a global scale and remained within a controllable range... under such an environment, the Special Affairs Bureau supporting only half of its personnel as idlers was already considered a small number.

"...In short, the major factions within the Meishan District branch are roughly divided into three, centered around the three directors," Zhou Fan said. "As for minor factions outside of these, there are way too many, and I haven't finished counting them yet."

Cao Yu asked, "How many players are there in the Meishan District branch?"

"Just over two hundred." Zhou Fan replied.

"So few?" Cao Yu was surprised.

"That's not few, Brother Cao," Zhou Fan said. "After all, Meishan District doesn't have many dungeon invasion or monster crisis events, so it doesn't require too many players."

"..."

That wasn't what Cao Yu meant at all.

What he wanted to express was... holy crap, it's barely over two hundred people, how on earth can you still manage to spawn so many factions?

Zhou Fan continued:

"And Meishan District is a bit chaotic, so most people with better choices won't come here. Take Qingshan District for example; I heard the number of official players there is approaching five hundred. Just think about it, Brother Cao, all the official players in the entire Sishan City combined don't even add up to two thousand, and a single Qingshan District accounts for five hundred... Truly exaggerated! Oh, right, there's one more thing."

Zhou Fan's expression grew a bit more serious as he said:

"Brother Cao, Director Zhao Dezhu of our Meishan District branch has a completely different working style compared to the other two directors—he prizes ability above all else. As long as your operational capability is outstanding, and you can resolve troublesome incidents like monster crises and player crimes, no matter what kind of trouble you stir up, he will step forward to cover for you."

"What, looking to join this Director Zhao's faction?" Cao Yu smiled.

"Players like us from ordinary backgrounds will probably be automatically categorized into his faction."

Zhou Fan reminded him:

"However, Director Zhao only values capable people. His younger sister, Zhao Ling, holds a director position in the branch and has launched a 'Special Operations Team' project..."

Through the explanation, Cao Yu finally understood Zhou Fan's intentions.

Director Zhao's younger sister, Zhao Ling, had a personality similar to her brother's and also appreciated players from ordinary backgrounds with outstanding abilities.

The "Special Operations Team" she established served essentially as a sanctuary for this subset of players, shielding them from the influence of the aristocrats' infighting.

As long as one was willing to sign up and do practical work, they would receive protection from her and her brother.

Furthermore, this brother-sister duo was famously protective of their own!

No aristocrats in Meishan District dared to offend them.

Because there was no guarantee that one day, Director Zhao's evolutionary progress wouldn't step into 51% and enter the tier of the Federation's strongest players.

In an era where absolute might belonged to the individual, rules could not bind the strong.

If you dared to offend a strong person, the strong person would dare to wipe out your entire family... Even if it couldn't be done openly, a strong person playing dirty in the shadows was even more terrifying, right?

After finishing his introduction, Zhou Fan stated the purpose of this conversation:

"Brother Cao, do you think that after we report in, we should go pay our respects to Director Zhao Ling and join her 'Special Operations Team'? With your abilities, Brother Cao, once you have a powerful backer, it will truly be like a fish leaping into a vast sea or a bird soaring through the high sky!"

"Hmm, we can go check it out later."

Cao Yu didn't refuse.

After all, Zhao Dezhu... just hearing that name sounded very reliable.

He didn't have the spare time to play games of intrigue and infighting with the aristocratic descendants inside the Special Affairs Bureau.

He preferred things to be simple and direct.