This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 531 Beta 0.5 Version Update!

Chapter 531: Chapter 531 Beta 0.5 Version Update!

The celebration was winding down.

Har, who had drunk too much, was snoring loudly as he lay sprawled on the table, while at the same time, over in another world, the "Wasteland OL" official website was just starting to buzz as players gradually logged off.

Night Ten, "Damn, Fang Chang is out there throwing dog food again!"

Fang Chang, "I haven’t even left the house."

Escaping Mole from the Canyon, "So the question is, what has this guy been up to, staying at home all day? (funny)"

Elena, "Sounds like a story! (funny)"

Gnome King Riches, "Mole!!! Please take care of the comic.(funny)"

Fang Chang, "(rolls eyes)"

Crow, "You guys, you’re too dirty, they are actually quite a sweet couple."

Tail, "Speaking of which, I’ve discovered there are quite a few hidden couples among the NPCs! ψ(｀∇´)ψ"

Quit smoking, "Who?"

Tail, "Frost and Solar Eclipse!"

Quit smoking, "Hahaha, that brainless and unhappy couple?"

Si Si, "Pfft, that’s a little harsh on them."

Sesame Paste, "But androids don’t have genders, right?"

Tail, "!!! That makes it even more exciting."

Si Si, "?"

Meat Mountain Big Steamed Bun, "???"

Crow, "Now I’m really curious why you are so concerned about the Manager these past three days. 0.0"

Little Bullshitter, "Why are you so interested in the Manager, Crow? (smirk)"

Tail, "Really, that’s weird.

Night Ten, "Back off, Crow Boss! Humans and NPCs have no future! (funny)"

Wild Wind, "Fang Chang, ’Thanks, I feel offended.’ (side eye)"

Crow, "What the heck?! I’m just curious, and you guys are swiping for affection too! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻"

Makabazi, "She’s panicking hahaha, she’s panicking!"

Crow, "(ಠ_ಠ)"

Teng Teng, "But speaking of which, we indeed haven’t seen much of him."

Escaping Mole from the Canyon, "Probably doing the same as Brother Fang Chang, working behind closed doors. (smirk)"

Fang Chang, "Cough, seems like Long Moon Group needs to expand into the gaming business."

Escaping Mole from the Canyon, "Big brother, I was wrong! (terrified)"

Giggle, "I think I saw him drinking with Har, and Har wrote a poem then, but it got lost in translation because he was so drunk."

Feng Qing, "But then he disappeared again."

Gui Gui, "I saw him! He was at a barbecue stand, with Boss Xia!"

Outlaw Maniac, "And Little Fish!"

Elena, "Feels like a family of three. (funny)"

Gnome King Riches, "Bwahaha."

Real Mosquito, "Crow Boss, don’t be sad, they’ve already got kids. (smirk)"

Crow,

Elena, "Shivering. (funny)"

Official Website Announcement: [Beta0.5 Version Update Notice]

Star River Not Entering Dreams, "?"

Pick up trash 99 level, "??"

Quit smoking, "Holy shit!"

...

[Beta 0.5 Version Update!]

[Update Details:

1. Player Public Affairs: Due to the responsible performance of the Celebration Autonomy Committee during the celebration, the Alliance’s Manager has decided to mobilize the residents of Shelter No. 404 to participate more in public affairs with the Alliance and localities! Although we don’t have the high-tech of other refuges, we have the determination to end chaos and barbarism, and a supreme belief in society!

Players currently holding a VM as well as certain special NPCs can initiate ’proposals’ provided they do not violate the ’Player’s Manual’, ’Fundamental Laws’, and other relevant terms, and after gaining more than 10% support, it moves to the ’bill’ stage for voting by all VM holding players, and after passing, it is submitted to the Alliance’s relevant departments for public deliberation at the monthly meeting, finally taking effect with the Manager’s signature.

As the number of people in the Alliance grows and the Manager’s energy is limited, the server environment of "Wasteland OL" will be maintained collectively by everyone. A good copy is copied by everyone, and it doesn’t matter if it is copied wrong, we all correct it together!

2. New Transport "Inflatable Airship": Direct flights from City of Dawn to Pioneer City have now been launched! There is currently only one flight per month, transported by civil airships! As there are only save points, not respawn points, in the Great Desert, please cherish your life!

3. Floor B6 Biological Laboratory is now fully operational. If you find any interesting specimens in the wasteland, be sure to contact NPC Heya!

4. Alliance Museum, Alliance Zoo officially open! Players can apply for museum exhibits space and the Variant Gardens area for their special commemorative collections or strange species found in the wasteland! (Some animals that are difficult to breed can be replaced by photos, e.g., Sand Worms.)

Curators and Zookeepers are being recruited; players can select their preferred curator and zookeeper through the VM voting system or the NPC common city hall mailbox! Not just NPCs, players can also sign up! (Note: Carefully consider before signing up, if you slack off or get too many complaints, you could be booted out by the Manager.)

5. Closed beta player account cap raised from 12,000 to 30,000! Daily closed beta access increased to 40-50.

6. Fixed a few bugs.

7. ...

]

Heaven’s Beta0.5 finally arrived belatedly.

While there was no mention of new expansion packs, the series of information in the announcement was still enough to catch the eye.

Especially the fifth item!

The beta testers’ numbers increased from just over ten thousand to thirty thousand!

The average number of beta testing qualifications issued daily had doubled!

Following the ceasefire agreement’s effectiveness and the end of the "Yellow Sand Miles" expansion pack, the issuance speed of the beta testing qualifications for "Wasteland OL" had noticeably slowed down, with the number of daily issuances even dropping to single digits!

Now, with a new batch of helmets suddenly arriving, it was undoubtedly a long-awaited rain after a drought for those forum users who had been squatting till their legs were numb.

The youth’s reckless remark: "Ah Guang, you are my dad!! You understand, right?"

A netizen from the north: "Brothers, where are these helmets made? I’m up for free work, just pay me with a helmet!"

A cheerful netizen: "I offer a hundred million to buy a helmet!!! T.T"

Dinosaur Warrior: "I’m a student, could any kind soul please give me a free helmet, postage included. T.T"

Grandpa Ao: "Trash game! Not even a dog would play! Spit! Damn!"

Thunder Mage Professor Yang: "Pfft, if you’re so capable, take down the reservation tag before you talk! (Rolls eyes)"

Despite the huge reservation base, the probability of winning a helmet was still like winning a lottery ticket, but it still brought a glimmer of hope to tens of millions of eagerly anticipating players.

A one in a thousand chance was still better than the one in ten thousand chance from before.

As for why the increase in beta testing qualifications for "Wasteland OL" had occurred all of a sudden, the official forum was abuzz with various theories.

Some analyzed from a realistic perspective, stating it was due to the maturity of the industry, an increase in helmet production, and server capacity.

In other words, the open beta was not far off!

Others analyzed from the "supply and demand" perspective, suggesting that it was the game officials laying the groundwork for the release of the next expansion pack.

After all, with the Alliance’s territory expanded so much, and the players’ activity area increased exponentially, it was necessary to ensure that players were present in each "big zone".

Otherwise, wasn’t creating the map a waste?

Besides these rational analyses, there were also wild speculations.

Like Grandpa Ao and his followers unanimously believed that the planners were just hard scamming because there were not enough "suckers" to be harvested yet, claiming all on the forum, aside from myself, were just fakes!

A few others ventured into conspiracy theories about human experiments, speculating that this was an attempt to overturn the global economy!

Still, a very few others didn’t join in the discussions, assuming it was a positive sign from an extraterrestrial civilization releasing goodwill, thus they silently increased their holdings of silver coins and discreetly got what they needed from the auction, quietly making a fortune.

Spending a few or even tens of billions could buy a groundbreaking key technology, creating a market worth tens or hundreds of billions; such good deals were indeed rare.

If only the scale of experiments from extraterrestrial civilizations were not so small, they would have bought even more!

It was proven that any individual or organization’s perspective had certain limitations, and people could only make predictions based on the intelligence they gathered, which inevitably carried subjective biases.

In truth, there weren’t so many "reasons"; Chu Guang himself was quite baffled as his long-desired gene sequence suddenly became available.

[Hidden Mission Completed:]

[Description: The lair located on Floor B6 was completely devoured by an abnormal life form’s mother entity, triggering the "flag6.2" judgment, "Floor B6 Biological Experiment Accident" event concluded.]

[Note: This might be an unforeseen result.]

[Mission Reward: 18,000 gene sequences.]

B4 floor’s viewing room.

Watching the light blue popup window that appeared before him, Chu Guang, who had just returned from the celebration, sat on the sofa with a peculiar expression.

He remembered that just three days ago, when he had just come back from the front line, he had complained in a room at the end of B4 about running out of beta testing qualifications.

Unexpectedly, in less than seventy-two hours, the issue he had complained about at the shelter had been perfectly resolved.

And so many at once, no less!

Eighteen thousand helmets, just maintaining the speed of issuing beta testing qualifications between 40 and 50, that would be enough for a whole year!

Perhaps...

Should he go there and make a wish again?

However, this thought lingered in Chu Guang’s mind for less than a second before he dismissed it.

Based on his previous speculation, the manager’s work log, the speed of the gene sequence distribution, and various triggering conditions should have been predetermined.

Even if he offered incense to the First Generation Manager, it probably wouldn’t be of any use.

What Chu Guang was more concerned about was the "flag6.2" that appeared in the explanation section. If he remembered correctly, when he initially unlocked Floor B6, the triggered judgment was "flag6".

That implied, besides the possibility judgment he had triggered, there were actually "flag6.1" and possibly 6.3, 6.4...6.x, a series of other options?

"Does that correspond to another possibility...?" Watching the text in the pale blue screen, Chu Guang fell into contemplation.

Although he was curious about what results the other options might correspond to, the mission description indicated that this event had concluded.

Unfortunately, he lacked the ability to save and load game states, and the outcomes of another pathway could only be seen by another him in a parallel world.

Yet, he believed the path he was on was promising.

This was a choice made together with the players, and he believed that even if the road were fraught with hardships, Falling Feather, Xiaoyu, and he himself would have no regrets.

After all, it was their own choice.

With a light flick of his index finger in the air, he turned off the pale blue holographic window. Just as Chu Guang was about to head back to his room to rest, Heya’s communication request suddenly came through.

"Xiaoyu has new developments—"

"It’s fully awake?"

"You knew already? I almost forgot you could watch the surveillance. Yes, it’s awake, and it seems like it has something it wants to say to you," said Heya with an excited face on the screen.

Chu Guang nodded.

"I’ll come right away."

After ending the communication, Chu Guang immediately headed to Floor B6, reaching the biological laboratory, with Heya already waiting for him at the entrance to the buffer chamber.

"Come quickly."

Upon seeing Chu Guang, she waved her hand and then excitedly headed toward the direction of the machine room.

Chu Guang followed her for a while, and soon saw Xiaoyu, now fully awake.

It sat like a queen ascending the throne, positioned at the center of the room, its vast, pale-red mycelium skirt spreading out like an ocean, its abstract facial features becoming increasingly humanlike.

Ten slightly juvenile humanoid sub-entities stood quietly in front of it, their lower bodies connected to the pale-red skirt, just like its children.

In some sense, it had indeed absorbed part of human culture and the intellectual aspects of humanity.

For instance, its current queen-like appearance was a manifestation based on its own cognition and the aesthetic established afterward. Even its originally fierce and slightly frightening tentacles had evolved into a relatively round and cute version.

For instance, when it learned from researchers in the lab that the "iron clumps" in the computer room were crucial to the lab, it didn’t occupy them rudely like an animal would; instead, it courteously vacated the servers.

Appreciating the humans who helped it implant headphones into its sub-entities, as well as installing microphones in its room, it was very happy and learned quickly.

Chu Guang could feel that when he stood at the door looking at it, its emotions showed significant fluctuations.

In the long, dolphin-like calls of "Yi Wu," there was a clear sense of joy and affection.

"It seems to see you as a sort of father or mother," Heya joked, "Should I congratulate you?"

Chu Guang rolled his eyes at her, walked into the computer room alone, and stood next to the escalator with a smile, shouting,

"How does it feel?"

His booming voice echoed through the room, blending into the light red sea.

Chu Guang thought it would respond with a "Yi Wu," but unexpectedly, it had learned to speak, stammering,

"...I feel good, thank you."

It was using Chinese.

Because Falling Feather had always communicated with it using the players’ language, it naturally learned that language.

After a while, Chu Guang would have researchers teach it the common language of the United Human, which would make it easier for it to communicate with more people without translation tools.

"You can talk now?"

Xiaoyu spoke in a raspy yet serene voice, clearly and slowly.

"I have learned, but language is not efficient. However, for communication, I am willing to learn."

Chu Guang tried to understand its point from a linguistic perspective.

In terms of language, the smaller the uncertainty, the smaller the entropy, and the less information carried. Simply put, a language with smaller entropy needs more characters or syllables to describe the same thing. The advantage is accuracy; the downside is redundancy. On the other hand, a language with higher entropy can describe with fewer characters and syllables. The advantage is conciseness; the downside is inaccuracy.

Humans use language for more accurate and convenient communication. However, for a "Hive creature" like Xiaoyu, information is often a unidirectional transmission from the lair to the sub-entities, making language an inefficient means of communication. A Yi Wu of different frequencies could replace a thousand words, letting the sub-entities know what to do next.

Of course, this was merely Chu Guang’s speculation, and a three-second guess was likely one-sided.

"I’m glad you think so," Chu Guang said kindly with a smile, "Your language is too abstract, too difficult for most of us."

Xiaoyu took some time to think.

Perhaps it was a benefit of evolution.

Chu Guang could distinctly sense that Xiaoyu, after metamorphosing into a lair, had a new spark of wisdom in its eyes.

Although slight.

"Respected... mother of humanity, I can sense their trust in you, so you are their mother, and they are your sub-entities... can I understand it that way?"

After listening to Xiaoyu’s long-formulated words, Chu Guang shook his head.

"Not at all; I wouldn’t recommend thinking that way."

"Then what are they?"

"They are simply individuals who trust me, unique beings with their thoughts and logical actions."

"How should I converse with you then?" Xiaoyu’s voice carried a hint of confusion and bewilderment.

Chu Guang could understand its unease and confusion, a similar situation had occurred when the Alliance diplomats first arrived at Ideal City.

The Supreme Council actually had no Manager.

So, words that should have been said to one person had to be conveyed in a different way, to a group of people.

Fortunately, Si Si’s adaptability was quite good, and the corporate council had also been in contact with the survivor forces of the Wasteland before, allowing for smooth communication between the two sides.

Little Fish was puzzled because humans did not possess a single-minded hive like the bees.

"Do you trust me?" Chu Guang asked as he looked at it.

"Of course, and without any doubt," Little Fish replied, its voice strong with emotion, the fungal mat undulating like ocean waves, "You... were the first person I saw when I awoke, and you generously offered me the chance to grow while I was still immature, like a kind father and mother."

As it spoke, Little Fish’s voice suddenly deepened.

"But, I occasionally worry... whether it’s you or Falling Feather, you may not be able to stay with me for too long, and some memories might become things that only I remember one day in the future."

"Don’t worry about those things, let the future handle the future; we only discuss the present," Chu Guang continued as he looked at Little Fish sitting in the center of the machine room, "All I need to know is that you trust me, and that’s enough."

"Is that... really enough?"

"Yes," Chu Guang nodded, "You and the others among us already share at least one common understanding. Since all of you trust me, the issues you’re concerned about aren’t really issues; you can communicate directly with me... Just use the microphone we’ve prepared for you and call my name."

Little Fish’s emotions stabilized a bit, and it spoke with slightly lowered eyes.

"Thank you..."

Chu Guang smiled, speaking in a gentle tone.

"You’re welcome. We are already on a path we never envisioned, and communication is the best way to resolve differences."

"Tell me whenever you have any confusion in the future!"

...

The day after the celebration ended, everything in the Southern River Province seemed to return to its normal course.

Except for a few envoys from various survivor settlements who lingered in the prosperity and glory of Dawn City and the Alliance and were reluctant to leave, most envoys took the Alliance’s return gifts back to their homelands on the last day of the festivities.

The Alliance’s return gifts to other forces included a set of 12 "Champion" brand injections and a set of 12 inducer expression serums. The former boosted "all attributes by 4% to 20% for a certain period," and the latter had a nearly 45% chance of awakening if all four doses were administered.

Both items were products from the Black Box, not considered rare for the Alliance, but for most small and medium-sized survivor forces, they were gifts impeccable in both value and significance.

Of course, for significant allies and forces that had provided overly valuable gifts, Chu Guang also gave away a juvenile Deathclaw.

As an envoy of Bugra Free State and a salesperson for the Firestone Group, Xavier took the Alliance’s return gifts back at the earliest opportunity.

Although there had been considerable friction between the two sides over issues such as the Chew-bone Tribe, tariffs, and weapons trade, the situation had not deteriorated to a fight to the death.

After reporting to the chairman of the Firestone Group about the celebration and banquet, Xavier cautiously expressed his opinion.

"... The Alliance’s Manager is quite ambitious; I can clearly feel that he will not be satisfied with ruling just that small part of Southern River Province. Just from a few words of conversation, it’s hard to judge his capabilities, but his words genuinely have the power to enchant, which was completely different from when I first met him in West State City!"

"Additionally, I’ve observed other envoys, even those from remote areas serving feudal lords, inevitably drawn to his proclaimed ideology of equality and unity, and even some planning to change their names to join the Alliance forces."

Lounging with his legs on his office desk, the dapper Sigma played absently with a glass in his hands and casually replied.

"There’s nothing strange about that; it’d be surprising if he only wanted to settle for that small area in Southern River Province... hasn’t Pioneer City already extended its reach into the Great Desert?"

"... The higher-ups of the Free State consider that might just be a ruse to distract the Army’s attention," Xavier said in a low voice.

"The thoughts of the animals in the pigpen don’t matter."

Hearing his boss’s careless mockery, Xavier chuckled bitterly, comforting himself that at least he was just a messenger from the Free State, not one of the higher-ups; the words were not directed at him.

However, his boss’s statement wasn’t really incorrect.

He himself occasionally felt that every time the Grand Canyon intervened in the affairs of the Free State, it made those already not-so-bright leaders become even more foolish.

The prestige of the Firestone Group and their dominion over the Free State would then become even more pronounced than before due to the shuffle by the Grand Canyon.

Xavier cleared his throat and continued.

"There’s one more thing, their manager particularly snubbed the representative from Giant Stone City at the banquet, and from my subsequent observations, I have a very strong premonition."

"Giant Stone City is probably doomed."

It sounded like a tall tale.

After all, Giant Stone City was once the overlord of the southern part of River Valley Province, one of the inheritors of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee’s legacy.

That’s why Xavier hesitated a bit when he voiced his judgment.

But to his surprise, President Sigma, sitting behind the desk, simply hummed indifferently.

"It was expected."

Xavier was slightly stunned.

He didn’t doubt his boss’s judgment.

After all, he was merely a messenger from the Free State, a corporate salesman; surely, there was information he was not privy to.

After a moment of silence, Xavier said uncertainly,

"But I still have a question... The Alliance claims they do not interfere externally, but they are about to move against Giant Stone City, which invested in them. Isn’t that too hasty?"

"Non-interference? Ha, that doesn’t mean they are running a charity. Naive Blue Jackets are nearly extinct nowadays; they just changed their approach a bit."

Sigma mocked dryly, and continued,

"Take Luo Xia Province for instance, even if the Gnome King Riches Academy controls Falcon, the Legion still has control there. Who would suspect that the Alliance isn’t the master of that place?"

There was talk that Gnome King Riches had built a statue for the manager out of the dinar-melted gold. Even if gold isn’t valuable in Wasteland, their action was quite meaningful.

At the ceremony, the Academy wouldn’t say a word.

As soon as the fight was over, who in Luo Xia Province wouldn’t flirt with the Alliance? To increase their silver coin reserves, each kingdom slashed the price of grain!

"The Alliance doesn’t tighten their grip over the riverbanks; they only maintain indirect control because it maximizes their benefits better than aggressive plundering."

"In contrast, the Legion isn’t very smart," Xavier heard him say. "They brutishly occupied Honey Badger Kingdom and even went through the trouble of fabricating the ’Spirit of the Sand Sea Prophecy of Desert Unity’ as an excuse. What’s the result? Even their own allies don’t buy that nonsense. Honey Badger Kingdom has never been more united, guerilla fighting the Legion in the mountains, sniping them in the cities, burning their own crops. The Legion’s blitz lasted seven days, and the Alliance took only three days to snatch it back."

If the Alliance chose to occupy Luo Xia Province, even if they raised a flag of equality and had the king abdicate, there would endlessly be those resisting them.

No matter how unlikable the royal family was, it was still blessed by the Spirit of the Sand Sea.

Thus, in Sigma’s view, the Alliance did a smart thing by leveraging some of the Academy’s experiences.

"In handling regional affairs, the Academy is much smarter than the Legion. They provide patents and technology, while Wasteland Wanderers produce for them. Even if they keep the lion’s share, the Wanderers can’t complain. Those Weilante people, on the other hand, conquered vast territories but turned themselves into vulnerable giants. Just diverting their attention briefly would make the slaves start slacking off or even rebelling."

"So, the business assessment of the Legion is quite justified. Aside from playing self-entertaining coloring games on the map, they haven’t solved any of the existing issues in Wasteland."

However, although he gave the Academy high praise, Sigma didn’t like the Academy because those people couldn’t conduct business at all. His Firestone Group’s branches found it nearly impossible to penetrate the marshlands, and that was in the literal sense.

In contrast, it was much easier to deal with the Army; as long as one could afford the Dinar, even the trade of mutants could be overlooked.

Even if the Marshal wouldn’t do it, the officers below him would.

Thus, Sigma looked down on the top echelons of the Free State for their various analytical reports on the Alliance. In his view, only fools who understood nothing would use the simple diode thinking of good and evil to define a collective’s will. How could an organization possibly entrust its future to something as insipid as good and evil?

Even businesses, a century and a half ago, did the same dirty work that couldn’t be cleaned up, and their mode of "apology" was merely to pursue the mutants of the Province of Yúnjiān along the coastline.

"I don’t understand, can’t the lord of Giant Stone City see what the Alliance is doing?" Xavier furrowed his brows, looking perplexedly at his boss.

Leaning back in his chair, Sigma lazily said,

"You’re right not to understand, because you simply don’t know what those lords are truly like... If you ask me, the Enlightenment Society got one thing right. The Post-War Reconstruction Committee is the evilest, most rubbish organization in the Wasteland. They think they’ve built settlements and preserved the seeds of civilization, but up close, those places are nothing but pigsties that turn people into pigs."

A prime example was Bugra Free State.

That old geezer, unwilling to concede the failure of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, still hypocritically honored the pledge not to interfere in Wasteland affairs. Thus, he created another "new pigsty" right on his doorstep and called it Bugra Free State.

Naively, they hoped their "advices" would allow this free pigsty to develop equitably and eventually replace the departed Production Department, Defense Department, and Technology Department.

Isn’t that a joke?

Fortunately, the survivors of the Free State had their own ideas, and most were not content to be pigs in a pen, constantly revised under the nitpicking of a group of hard-of-hearing stubborn old men.

Through generations of effort, they added another rule on top of the rules prescribed by the Grand Canyon—

Namely, to use "Firestone Group" to override the "Free State"!

The latter acted as a puppet ruling by day to appease the Secret Country, while the former reigned as the underground world’s uncrowned king by night!

To achieve their goals, they would occasionally resort to blackmail, extortion, bribery, kidnapping, and other means, forcing the officials of the Free State to become one of their own.

In this way, no matter how many times the Grand Canyon tried to interfere, the Free State remained a tremendously free sanctuary.

Sigma’s face bore an undisguised cold sneer.

He was precise about his own positioning.

He was a traveling merchant, a businessman, he viewed businesses as "idols," but he wouldn’t act like those sanctimonious folks on the East Coast.

He only played himself—a petty person motivated solely by profit.

After all, they put on "legal" vests just so they could do whatever they wanted under the guise of overt rules. If they still had to obey the constraints imposed by others, wouldn’t that betray the painstaking and lonely efforts of countless generations of presidents of the Firestone Group?

This was the Wasteland!

Lowering his legs from the table, he looked at Xavier—his long-time close aide responsible for Southern affairs.

"Keep a tight watch on the nails we’ve buried around Giant Stone City."

"Since the Alliance wants to slaughter this pig for the New Year in advance, let’s help them speed it up—but we’ll take our cut too!"

Xavier nodded seriously.

"Yes!"

...

(This Chapter has refined the setting of the Bugra Free State, which players familiar with the Stars should recognize—although not exactly alike. It fills in the gaps from 150 years ago based on historical documents investigated by players in the Grand Canyon. Incidentally, the name Bugra doesn’t have any real-world connection with Prague; it’s merely a transliteration of burglars. Also, another side note, the views of the characters in the book represent only their personal positions, like Yin Fang, who looks down on corporate people but actually doesn’t shun Batch from the corporations and is even willing to help him. This isn’t a contradiction in my settings, but simply different personalities and stances of each character.)