136: Chapter 136 The Plan Unfolds, Sakura is Taken aback

The fourth day after the first act of the plot began.

The four-person team from Dragon Country completely changed their course of action.

They stopped caring about the students outside the city.

They also stopped caring about the criminals inside the city.

Fan Ling's [Path of the Artist] contained a large number of petty tricks for swindling and deceiving. With the assistance of Chen Aoyun and the others, a shell company with an actual investment of only a hundred but a registered capital as high as a million was finally registered before sunset.

On the first day, they registered. On the second day, they launched their deceptive business. On the third day, revenue started flowing in!

With this income, Chen Aoyun began purchasing MP3 players in bulk throughout the city. With more money than he knew what to do with, Chen Aoyun even rented a recording studio to record his own caterwauling—after auto-tuning, of course—onto the devices.

Carrying these devices out of the city, Chen Aoyun's plan finally reached the stage of widespread implementation!

It was once again the moment before nightfall. Over at Sakura Country's Saku Kenichi's place.

The slight increase in Dragon Country's favorability three days ago had always left him feeling uneasy.

But in the blink of an eye, three days had passed, and Dragon Country's favorability had not changed again. Saku Kenichi couldn't help but think,

"Could it be that I'm overthinking this? The Game of National Destiny has reached this point, and levels are too important for every country. The Raiders on Dragon Country's side have low levels and don't even dare to show their heads; what am I worrying about for nothing? As for that inexplicable increase in favorability, perhaps it's related to it..."

An ancient book pieced together from torn pages appeared in Saku Kenichi's hand.

Unique ancient books were items that all the 'Famous Scholars' in the compass loved.

With an ancient book synthesized from thirty-two torn pages, Saku Kenichi could use it to increase the favorability of any 'Famous Scholar' by 32 points.

This was Saku Kenichi's trump card; if used well, it could allow Sakura Country to turn defeat into victory at a critical moment.

"The hidden rules mentioned that there are a total of one hundred ancient book torn pages, and each torn page can increase the favorability of any Famous Scholar in the compass. Presumably, the slight increase in Dragon Country's favorability the other day came from this."

Having figured it out, Saku Kenichi's wary heart was put at ease.

Kayahara Ao still had his trademark pose of resting his feet on the table, sneering,

"I told you Dragon Country was trash. Three days have passed, and for both Famous Scholars, Dragon Country's favorability hasn't changed a bit. I don't know what you've been worrying about all these days."

Ignoring Kayahara Ao's provocation, Saku Kenichi busied himself with arranging tomorrow's tasks while waiting for the midnight bell to toll.

Dong, dong, dong—when the bell rang, and Saku Kenichi checked the changes in the favorability of each 'Famous Scholar' for the day, he was stunned!

Among the two lit-up Famous Scholars on the compass, the favorability for [Chief] was normal: Britain was still first, USA was second, Sakura Country was third, and Dragon Country's favorability remained at 0, still at the bottom.

But the change in favorability for the 'Famous Scholar' [Dean] left Saku Kenichi completely confused!

[Character: Dean; Recommended Hero Type: Success in Youth; No. 1: USA, favorability 82; No. 2: Sakura Country, favorability 80; ... No. 9 Dragon Country, favorability 30]

"How many students did we escort in total today?" Saku Kenichi suddenly looked up and asked with a grave expression.

"We escorted three waves in total," a Raider from Sakura Country replied. "One wave had two students, and the remaining two waves had one student each, for a total of 4 people escorted."

"What's wrong? Did something go wrong?" Everyone looked at Saku Kenichi.

"No! That's not right!" Saku Kenichi muttered, "Escorting one student should increase favorability by three points. We escorted 4 today, so the favorability for the Famous Scholar [Dean] should have increased by 12 points! Yesterday, our Sakura Country's favorability with the Famous Scholar [Dean] was 72; logically, it should be 84 now, so why is it only 80?"

How could four points of favorability inexplicably disappear?

This wasn't the reason Saku Kenichi's expression was so grave; the real reason Saku Kenichi looked so grave was that Dragon Country had gained 19 points of favorability in a single day!

"How did Dragon Country's favorability increase? Did other countries go easy on Dragon Country? Did they let Dragon Country escort the students in their areas? There's no reason for that, right? Although countries can make private deals in the Game of National Destiny, Dragon Country is a weak nation with shallow foundations; what conditions could they offer to make other countries go easy on them?"

Guessing was useless, so Saku Kenichi directly called the [Strategists] of other countries.

The replies he received stunned Saku Kenichi. No country had gone easy on Dragon Country!

The [Strategists] of all countries said that the students in their areas were all escorted normally, and not a single one was missed!

If no students were missed, then how did Dragon Country's favorability increase?

There was only one answer: the favorability points for the students escorted by all countries had been deducted!

Yes, it wasn't just Sakura Country whose favorability points from escorting students didn't add up; the same situation had occurred in other countries!

USA had escorted 3 students today. Logically, their favorability with the Famous Scholar [Dean] should have increased from 76 to 85, but the favorability shown on the compass was only 82—three points of favorability were missing!

It was the same for USA, and the same for Ottoman. All the [Strategists] who were willing to answer Saku Kenichi's call provided information that the favorability for escorting one student had dropped from 3 to 2!

The one point of favorability that was inexplicably eaten away, when added together, was exactly the amount of favorability Dragon Country had gained today!

Saku Kenichi couldn't figure out how Dragon Country had managed to do it.

Kayahara Ao, who had previously dismissed Dragon Country with disdain, no longer mentioned Dragon Country as bottom-tier trash.

Saku Kenichi had at least managed to determine the reason for Dragon Country's favorability increase through a series of analyses and communications. Without Saku Kenichi's analysis, Kayahara Ao's brain would just be a mess.

At this moment, Kayahara Ao finally realized that Dragon Country was extraordinary!

"Investigate!" The thing he was most worried about had happened, but after it happened, it actually ignited Saku Kenichi's fighting spirit. "Tomorrow, all personnel in the criminal district must go outside the city to find clues! You must figure out for me how Dragon Country is cheating!"

"Will doing this affect the raid on the Famous Scholar [Chief]?" A Roleplayer whose original mission was in the criminal district asked worriedly.

"It will definitely affect it! But I said, this concerns future major actions against Dragon Country; preventing Dragon Country from winning more National Destiny has the highest priority. Execute my order!"

This time, even Kayahara Ao did not object. After Saku Kenichi finished arranging his side's actions for tomorrow, he dialed the numbers of the [Strategists] of various countries once again.

"What? You want me to pay attention to the escort of students and see if Dragon Country is up to something? How are they causing trouble?"

Ottoman [Strategist] Adar's voice rang out on the other end of the line, "Why should I? I've made calls too; now, for all countries, the students being escorted are more or less experiencing a drop in favorability from 3 to 2. Anyway, my Ottoman favorability with [Dean] isn't the highest, so I don't care! Even if it really is Dragon Country causing trouble, it doesn't affect me much; at most, I'll just expel any Dragon Country people I run into in the future. You want me to help you figure out how Dragon Country is causing trouble? Do I look like I have nothing better to do?!"

Just as Adar said, although Dragon Country's unknown petty tricks were strange and disgusting, if everyone was being disgusted, that was a different story. Moreover, some countries already had low favorability with [Dean], so they had even less enthusiasm to delve into what Dragon Country was doing.

If the favorability with [Dean] is low, can't I focus my personnel and energy on the other Famous Scholar [Chief]? I could even focus on searching for new Famous Scholars.

Since you Sakura Country care so much about Dragon Country, then you Sakura Country can investigate it yourselves; what does it have to do with me?

Adar's reaction made Saku Kenichi frown. "I can give up the 'criminal district' for you and other countries to use in turns."

Anyway, Saku Kenichi had already decided to transfer all the Raiders from Sakura Country's 'criminal district' outside the city to investigate what Dragon Country was doing. Therefore, the two 'criminal districts' in the city that were tacitly registered under Sakura Country's name would be useless for a while. Since they were sitting idle anyway, it was better to give them up as a benefit to get other countries to assist in investigating Dragon Country.

After a moment of silence on the other end of the line, Adar finally spoke, "Take turns using the 'criminal district' registered under your Sakura Country's name? Since it's taking turns, that means other countries are in the same situation, right? That won't work! Doing it this way still won't widen the gap between Ottoman and other countries. Furthermore, I am brothers with that Dragon Country [Strategist]; how could I do something to hinder a brother... You'll have to pay more! One Hu of National Destiny!"

Winning first place in the Game of National Destiny only yields a total of 10 Hu of National Destiny. The task Saku Kenichi asked Adar to do wasn't too difficult, but the other party asked for one Hu right off the bat—it was truly a lion's share.

After some bargaining, the call ended. Saku Kenichi then called the next [Strategist]...