Chapter 160: Integration
"I never expected that Stone would be a much more capable manager than I am," Lin Zhongqing said suddenly after watching for a full half hour.
"You are very capable too," Dongfang Yitong comforted her. "Do you want to keep watching?"
"No more. Experiencing thoughts accelerated by a hundred times is still a bit tiring. I am still far from strong enough; I need to integrate more forces," Lin Zhongqing shook her head.
Lin Zhongshi's world operated at a relative time one hundred times that of the real world. To watch his live broadcast, one had to accelerate their thoughts within the conscious world to synchronize with those scenes.
Otherwise, one would only see high-speed movie frames.
The two exited the conscious world and returned to reality.
A few days in Lin Zhongshi's world was a year in reality; clearly, it was an experimental field, whereas reality had to be tackled step by step.
If anyone could accelerate the vast real world by a hundred times, they would undoubtedly be at the Creator level.
Next, Lin Zhongqing directly transmitted her voice through the spirit-realm to all major chamber of commerce organizations. Any business territory exceeding three hundred thousand square kilometers was required, within seven days, to either come in person or send a representative to pay homage at the Divine State Copper Fortress. Those who failed to arrive within the deadline would be expunged.
She no longer had the time to use conventional methods for governance. Although heavy-handed pressure was unappealing, she had to admit that in many cases, it was indeed more efficient and could concentrate power the fastest.
As soon as the news came out, it caused an immediate uproar.
Although those well-informed knew her power was the greatest, her presumptuousness in acting as the master and issuing such forcible commands without any legitimate justification still made many people feel dissatisfied.
..........
Among the Nanling Chamber of Commerce, there were people bitterly complaining.
"I used to think she was a decent person who would reason with us, but now it seems she is far too overbearing!"
"Indeed, originally everyone cooperated on an equal footing. Now she pulls a stunt like this, placing herself high above us. I'm afraid her next move will be to demand tribute from us. This is simply outrageous..."
"As expected, once order is restored, whoever has the bigger fist gets to call the shots."
"If I had known this, we might as well not have changed masters. At least those otherworldly masters were easier to fool."
There were many similar remarks. When Hou Xiaopang heard them, he immediately imposed a gag order on the entire chamber of commerce.
No one knew the inside story better than he did. Right now, Lin Zhongqing was like a dying tiger—she might not necessarily be terrifying, but she was definitely unhinged.
If anyone dared to stand up and defy her command, she would undoubtedly suppress them with thunderous force, ensuring the offender died before she did.
The chief of the dark guards had already informed him of what happened in the spirit-realm.
If the Sword System were still with him, he would know that this dark guard chief was none other than the slick operator who had befriended Fan Bei's avatar.
The spirit-realm now featured an additional Tiger Mountain and Fox Mound, with an aura far surpassing that of the previous mysterious manor.
Lin and Dongfang had fled at the mere sight of it.
This was his entire report. Against such a backdrop, Lin Zhongqing's current actions could only be described by four words: "a dying struggle."
..........
Hou Xiaopang's heart was extremely conflicted at this moment.
On one hand, if Lin Zhongqing kicked the bucket, Lin Zhongshi wouldn't gain any benefits, and he would have a chance to win back his wife.
On the other hand, if she kicked the bucket, who could guarantee that he wouldn't be next?
He was not one of those short-sighted fellows who only stared at what was immediately in front of them.
"I'll just have to take it one step at a time."
Just as he had anticipated, seven days later, news came that Lin Zhongqing had selected fourteen major chambers of commerce in the Americas, Europe, and elsewhere, preparing to use coercive means to force them into submission.
These selected major chambers of commerce had regarded her issued notice as mere intimidation and blackmail, turning a blind eye to it. They didn't even send a refusal reply, let alone bargain, completely treating her like a fraud and thin air.
A mere woman from the Divine State, speaking empty words, wanted to make them yield—this was simply a fantasy.
As for her claim of having eliminated the legendary mysterious manor, they remained skeptical, especially since no one had witnessed it with their own eyes.
That manor was indeed abandoned, but whether it was abandoned voluntarily by its master or destroyed by her was uncertain.
Under such circumstances, surrendering outright seemed too ridiculous; hesitation, calculation, and wait-and-see policies were the mainstream choices.
Therefore, these people continued to do things according to their previous plans, at best dispatching some individuals to the Divine State to gather intelligence.
A skyscraper in the Americas.
A group of people of various backgrounds were holding a quarterly meeting, discussing how to achieve their current development goals.
"We need to restore another thirty ranches. Under the new measures, the current birth rate has finally reached a new peak, and the demand for meat and dairy has increased dramatically," a professional manager reported earnestly.
Everyone nodded. This was a sign of economic recovery. With population restoration, as long as the authorities didn't mess things up, economic prosperity would naturally follow, because people were the foundation of economic prosperity, and labor was the root of everything.
"In addition, our industrial zones are also being cleared and restored, but the priorities for cleanup still need to be determined by you all: should it be the military industrial zones, or the agriculture-related industrial zones?"
"Naturally the latter. No one dares to attack us right now anyway, and those cannons are useless against mysterious powerhouses. Restoring them is just a waste of precious resources," an elderly white man sitting at the head of the table said matter-of-factly.
Everyone continued to nod; what he said was correct.
The appearance of evil spirits had directly swept all kinds of modern human weapons into the dustbin of history. Their purpose was to deal with humans themselves, and against evil spirits, they were not even as useful as a single copper coin.
Indeed, their ancestors had good vision in choosing gold, silver, and copper as currency; otherwise, not even a thread of survival would have been left behind.
At that moment, two figures suddenly appeared above the conference table, instantly catching everyone's attention.
"Who are you?" someone asked in surprise.
"Could it be you are those two inviters from earlier..." There were still smart people among them who recalled the notice from a few days ago, and their complexions instantly turned pale.
They hadn't expected their opponent to possess such ghostly and unpredictable methods. Wasn't this identical to those gods?
"I'll skip the self-introduction; the invitation sent to you earlier has already made things clear. Now I am here to fulfill the agreement. Those who refuse me, I will send them to meet their master."
..........
Lin Zhongqing's tone was icy cold, exuding a resolute and murderous intent from head to toe.
She could not hesitate; hesitation would lead to defeat.
At this moment, everyone's expressions changed drastically, and they all turned simultaneously to look at the elderly white man.
This had been his decision. At the time, his tone had been very disdainful, declaring it to be nothing more than a prank meant to extort them.
This was the peculiarity of the Steward System; regarding the struggle for upper-level rule, it did not interfere. If it were the rules of the Good Guy System, it would not have allowed Lin Zhongqing to act so arbitrarily.
"What do you want? You must understand that our罗斯 (Roth/Ross) Chamber of Commerce also has backers," the elderly white man forced himself to say.
"Oh, you have backers? Call them all out, and I'll smash them one by one..." Lin Zhongqing said casually.
She transmitted her meaning directly into the minds of these people, completely bypassing language barriers.
The elderly white man shivered and then began to pray.
However, more than ten minutes passed, and his prayers yielded no effect.
"It seems your backers don't want to see you. I'll send you to meet them instead," Lin Zhongqing said, waving her hand. The elderly white man watched as his body gradually translucentized and vanished.
"Does anyone else want to refuse my invitation?" She pulled out a tissue and elegantly wiped her hand, just as if she had chased away a fly.
Everyone lowered their heads one after another.
Power was always so direct and effective; all governance ultimately boiled down to the governance of power.
..........
Two months later, precisely on August 3, Year 36, the Global United Chamber of Commerce was established. In principle, it unified the global market for common development, and Lin Zhongqing took the title of Grand Commander of the Chamber.
To this, the leaders of numerous large and small organizations merely responded with silence. They neither expressed opposition nor actively participated; in any case, they remained passive and non-compliant, listening when commanded, but absolutely never taking the initiative to offer any suggestions.
Secretly, various rumors began to circulate.
"It's just a makeshift organization. The moment that woman dies, it will surely vanish into thin air."
This was the view held by most of the leaders.
Without roots, without groundwork, relying entirely on brute force to shove through directly—what kind of prestige or execution capability could such an organization possibly have?
The rule of evil spirits had been established only after wiping out seven or eight out of ten humans and setting up a pseudo-holy land as a buffer. Yet even until a few months ago, they hadn't truly ruled completely, still relying on various proxies to rebuild civilization.
Ordinary people only thought humans had driven away the evil spirits, unaware that the prelude to the other side's performance had just concluded.
Regardless, a wildly growing, globally unified organization had finally emerged once again. At the very least, everyone had to acknowledge its existence in words.