The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 389: All expenses will be paid by the President!

While players around the world are paying attention to the disputes in the virtual ocean, a magical thing is also happening in the real ocean.

On the high seas east of Luzon.

The Sakura Flory, a large cargo ship registered in Izumo and actually operated by Toban, encountered a strange incident on its way to the west coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Qiao Wei, the lookout of the freighter, suddenly saw a small patch of fog.

Or maybe the cloud?
He wasn't quite sure.

Tonight the moon was obscured by dark clouds, and the observation conditions were quite poor. We should not have been able to see the sea fog dozens of kilometers away.

But through the telescope, that patch of fog looked a little different from the surrounding sea fog. It seemed a little...

Too strong.

But in the vast ocean, anything strange can happen.

It's just a small piece of thicker sea fog, and it's not on our route, so there's no need to make a fuss.

After paying a little attention, Qiao Wei continued to look in other directions.

After he finished observing the surrounding situation and looked in that direction again, he found that the sea fog was much closer.

“Is there a sea breeze?”

He glanced at the weather data and the small flag not far away.

"wrong."

The wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

Qiao Wei thought about it and decided to report it and give a reminder.

"Brother Zhang, there is a sea fog coming from the east, and it is moving quite fast."

"Got it." A simple reply came from the intercom.

Qiao Wei then felt relieved.

Afterwards, even when the sea fog drifted over and spread all over the freighter, he didn't take it too seriously.

"I've already reported it!"

But soon, something was not right.

The fog is too thick!
It's almost impossible to see anything more than five meters away.

Qiao Wei felt like an isolated island floating in the fog.

This made him a little uneasy.

He switched the intercom channel to listen to his colleagues' voices:

"What a thick fog! Have you ever encountered such thick fog before?"

"I encountered it three years ago, but not this quickly."

"Xiao Li? Where are you? It's time for the shift change."

"It's so foggy, so stop hanging around on the deck and go back to the cabin."

……

——The personnel on this ship are very complex, mainly composed of Xia people, Izumo people and Indians, and each has its own exclusive channel.

The voices of his colleagues made Qiao Wei relax.

When he relaxed, he felt a little sleepy.

He is very strange.

——Knowing that he would be working the night shift, he had already slept a lot during the day.

I was so energetic just now, why do I feel sleepy now as the fog has come?

Less than two minutes after he felt sleepy, he began to yawn and his eyelids began to droop.

five minutes later.

He tilted his head and fell into a deep sleep on the lookout tower.

At the same time, the staff on the deck of the freighter were also overwhelmed by sleepiness and fell asleep irresistibly.

When sleepiness strikes, some people don't even have time to find a comfortable place.

I just sat on the deck, leaned on something and fell asleep.

The passengers in the cabin were slower, but within half an hour they were all overcome by sleepiness and fell asleep in a mess.

After waiting for another 10 minutes.

“Thump, thump, thump, thump—”

There was a huge propeller noise coming from above the freighter!
But apart from the sound, there was still nothing in the thick fog.

The noise of this huge propeller flew over the container without anyone noticing.

After hovering for a while, the container with container number TD-AX1101 slowly rose.

Next came TD-AX1102, TD-AX1103...all the way to TD-AX1110.

A total of 10 containers slowly rose into the air, and then disappeared out of thin air after reaching a certain height.

The sound of the propeller slowly faded away.

The thick fog also went away.

The only thing left was the Taiping Dawn, which had fallen into the dream world.

……

At the same time, Xu Meng was in front of players from all over the world.

Fang Shuo was awarded the title of [Honorary Player], the [Ocean Survival Competition] championship trophy, and the unactivated [The Ocean] door key.

And invite him to come to the Dream Building Headquarters to customize his own NPC image.

Afterwards, a total of three honorary players in the top 3 were eliminated, including Fang Shuo, the new [Honorary Player], and players ranked 100 to 101 were added. They were also given invitations to offline events and physical passes.

——For this kind of offline activities, [Honorary Players] will automatically be qualified and do not need to take up other people’s places.

[Dream Machine] Although the ownership of the redemption voucher remained unchanged, Xu Meng was never a stingy person and gave away 3 more machines on the spot.

After completing this series of public events, Xu Meng announced the end of the live broadcast and disappeared offline.

……

……

The next day, Qiao Wei woke up before dawn.

I immediately felt back pain and it seemed like I had a stiff neck.

But his first reaction was not to care about his own body, but——

"Fuck, it's over!"

"I fell asleep on the night shift?"

"And slept through the entire night?!!"

Qiao Wei was shocked and felt guilty. After a long mental struggle, he switched the intercom to the work channel.

But there was no curse coming from inside. Neither the driver nor the captain made a sound.

Instead, a group of people on the deck were running towards the container yard in a noisy manner.

"What's wrong?" he asked in confusion on the intercom, "What happened?"

The sound on the intercom was chaotic.

After a while, a voice said, "Ten containers are missing."

"???"

Qiao Wei blinked and tried to think about it several times, but he still couldn't digest this sentence.

“What do you mean there are 10 fewer containers?”

"That's what it means! There are 10 containers missing!!"

"We are on the high seas! We haven't stopped the whole time, how could there be a container missing?!" Qiao Wei couldn't believe it.

"If you don't believe me, come and see for yourself!"

……

Container yard.

Captain Kentaro Kobayashi, first mate Arjun Singh, and a group of sailors were all gathered here.

Looking at the large gap in the middle of a pile of containers, their heads were buzzing.

The captain walked forward in disbelief and touched the vacant spot.

But he only felt air.

——Obviously, the container is not invisible, but it has really disappeared!
"How could a container... evaporate into thin air?"

Kentaro Kobayashi was puzzled.

Everyone on the ship was so sleepy that they fell asleep. Although it was strange, it was at least understandable.

Maybe he ate or drank something wrong. We can investigate it later.

But the container disappeared...

This is really too bizarre!

It was so bizarre that it broke through his common sense.

If the container on the edge disappeared, he could still barely convince himself: maybe the waves were too big when he was sleeping, and the cable that fixed the container was old and broken, causing the container to fall into the sea.

But now, the containers on both sides of the yard are safe and sound.

Only 10 are missing in the middle!
How the hell do you explain this??
It couldn't even be sabotage by the crew.

Because there is no equipment for loading and unloading containers on the cargo ship! !
Could it be that Ultraman flew over in the middle of the night, stole 10 containers and flew away again? !

The captain took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

"What's in these containers?"

A crew member immediately responded: "Look at the information on the bill of lading. TD-AX1101 to TD-AX1110 are all electronic components."

"Which company?"

The crew member glanced at the information on his hand: "[Chenji Microelectronics Company]."

Kentaro Kobayashi's eyes widened instantly.

He immediately realized: This is a serious problem!

Chenji Microelectronics is renowned worldwide in the field of high-end chips, even surpassing Dongfan Island itself.

If these 10 containers are filled with the most advanced chips, the losses of this "container theft case" will be extremely staggering!

If you think about it more deeply.

Who in the world needs high-end chips the most? Who has the ability to move 10 containers on the high seas without anyone noticing?

The captain's hair stood on end.

Stop thinking about it immediately.

I even want to pretend nothing happened.

But he was the captain and had to deal with the matter, so he could only bite the bullet and say, "Let's go and see if there are any clues left."

He had already planned to just go through the process and report directly to the company headquarters via satellite phone.

As for the clues...

He had no hope at all.

——If they were able to move 10 containers away without anyone noticing, how could they leave any evidence?

But what surprised him was:
They actually found evidence!
"Captain, there is a hard drive here, and there is a note underneath it."

"Hard drive?" Kentaro Kobayashi walked over quickly, took the hard drive from the crew member, and looked at the note in his hand.

I blinked, not understanding.

He knew three languages, but that did not include the ones written on paper now.

Just when I was at a loss, the first mate Arjun Singh said in surprise: "It says here that there is money in the hard drive?"

"Can you understand?" the captain asked in surprise.

“Of course, this is Hindi!” said the Indian first mate proudly.

The captain's eyes suddenly became subtle when he looked at the first mate.

——On this ship, 60% of the employees are of Indian descent! Not only are these crew members scattered across various positions, but they also stick together extremely closely!
Could it be that……

"Does it say who they are?" asked Kentaro Kobayashi calmly.

"No, I just said hello to you, the captain, and told you that the money in the hard drive would be used to purchase the goods in these 10 containers."

Kentaro Kobayashi frowned.

This isn't his merchandise! He's just a delivery guy!
and--

“Is there money in the hard drive?”

Arjun Singh shook his head: “It’s cryptocurrency.”

Kentaro Kobayashi was stunned for a moment before he realized: India shaking its head meant "yes"...

“Bitcoin?” he said, naming the cryptocurrency he was most familiar with.

"No~no~no~~" Arjun Singh spoke in curry-flavored English and nodded in denial.

“It’s [T-coin]!”

"T-coin? What's that?" The captain frowned.

He had never heard of the cryptocurrency.

Arjun muttered with a strange smile: ", "(See less, be surprised more.)
“This is a cryptocurrency issued by the President of the United States, nicknamed Presidential Coin.”

The captain frowned even more tightly when he heard this.

——The mysterious country from the East (India) colluded with my crew and used the cryptocurrency issued by the President of the United States to force them to buy 10 containers of chips???

(End of this chapter)