Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

The following day at 9 PM, the servers of the Datang Virtual Land Transaction Center experienced an unprecedented surge in traffic.

This is not just a jumping symbol in a holographic fiber optic network.

That was the wealth frenzy that erupted from all bracelet holders within the Tang Dynasty at the same time.

Inside the supercomputing room at the heart of the city that never sleeps, dozens of specially made quantum backbone optical cables are emitting a faint smell of burnt rubber due to data overload on their outer nano-insulation layer.

The coolant was bubbling and hissing as it boiled inside the transparent pipe.

"Sir, the traffic volume is about to explode!"

The number of access requests per microsecond has exceeded ten million, all of which are confidential keys from major families!

The operator's voice was distorted by blood rushing to his head, and his fingertips trembled so much on the console that they almost left afterimages.

Wu Meiniang stood in front of the control panel, her delicate face expressionless, staring coldly at the golden wave line representing the injection of funds.

On those multi-dimensional curtain walls that glow with a deep green light.

The first few hundred plots of land released in the "Second Chang'an" project are being dyed a glaring crimson red, signifying that the land has been locked up, at a heart-stopping speed.

This is a cyber-massacre without gunfire, yet a thousand times more brutal than any battlefield.

In reality, the old aristocratic families who had been stripped of their land were all staring at the screen with red eyes in their dimly lit mansions.

Their withered fingers pressed down hard on the holographic keyboard.

Some of these people were fleeced by the Tian Shu system on New Year's Eve, while others were driven to the brink of bankruptcy during the restructuring of the real economy.

But now, in this virtual world without labor laws or physical restrictions, they see a glimmer of hope for their family's turnaround.

"Buy! Transfer all the working capital from those two iron mines in Taiyuan and start trading immediately!"

In a secret room of the Wang family, the Wang clan patriarch slammed his cane hard on the ground, making a dull thud.

His lips twitched violently, and his cloudy old eyes were filled with the madness of a gambler.

"In reality, Li Chengqian uses various new laws to strangle us. We have to pay taxes when buying land and we have to buy labor insurance when hiring workers."

But in the metaverse, once you buy this code, it becomes our Wang family's private sanctuary, passed down through generations, and nobody can interfere!

This is a distorted mentality that is completely misinterpreted by the privileged class, yet is still regarded as gospel.

In that minute, it transformed into a torrent of credit points flying everywhere.

A piece of land made up of data codes consisting of zeros and ones has seen its price skyrocket in an absurd drama, fueled by a frenzied online attack.

[Plot No. 001, located directly in front of the virtual Daming Palace, initial price: 100,000 credits.]

[Current bid: 800,000 credits.]

[Current bid: 1.5 million credits.]

Each time the pulsating dark gold characters refreshed, it was accompanied by a howl from the supercomputing center.

"These lunatics, they don't even value credits as money."

Changsun Wuji sat in a side hall of the Taiji Hall, looking at the asset chart that was simultaneously displayed on his bracelet, his chubby face trembling incessantly.

He absentmindedly rubbed his dry eye sockets.

"My silk shop in the most prosperous area of ​​Zhuque Street, after conversion, is only worth 300,000 credits per acre."

This glowing virtual code is now being sold for millions, which clearly surpasses the real estate prices on Suzaku Avenue!

The absurdity of this kind of capitalism was amplified infinitely by countless greedy desires in that single second.

It completely detached itself from the material entity and became a concrete manifestation of class fanaticism.

Whoever can buy the land closest to the virtual Grand Palace will be able to maintain their superior aristocratic dignity in the "Second Chang'an".

For this string of glowing data symbols, those powerful families did not hesitate to sell off their workshops and fertile fields in the real world.

"Lord Changsun, isn't this exactly what His Highness the Crown Prince wanted?"

Wu Meiniang slowly walked to his side, her voice carrying a coldness and contempt that befitted someone in charge of the empire's finances.

"They thought they were buying private territory, but they didn't know that the underlying code of the metaverse needs to undergo system maintenance and upgrades every three days."

"For each server upgrade, I will forcibly deduct 0.03% of the land area from their digital account."

Upon hearing this, Changsun Wuji couldn't help but shudder.

He looked at the salted fish-shaped crown prince standing in front of the control panel, casually peeling an orange.

For the first time, a chill ran down my spine at the sight of this kind of capital plunder that left nothing but scraps and bones.

Li Chengqian is using a piece of code that requires absolutely no cost.

They forcibly replaced the tangible wealth accumulated by powerful clans over hundreds of years.

"Your Highness, the remnants of the Wang family of Taiyuan and the Lu family of Fanyang have already started fighting."

Wu Zetian pointed to the virtual land king that had soared to four million credits and was named "Number One in the Heavenly Realm".

Those two companies have already poured all their anonymous principal, hidden in underground banks in the West Market, into this land.

The numbers on the screen began to jump wildly at a rate of 100,000 per millisecond.

The red light turned all the operators' faces deathly pale.

"Let them fight it out, anyway, it'll all end up being my vacation expenses."

Li Chengqian stuffed a segment of orange into his mouth without even lifting his eyelids.

His gaze fell on the edge of the holographic display.

There, several hidden, faint data streams, bearing traces of special encryption, were coldly watching this aristocratic revelry like a hibernating venomous snake.

The tension in the final ten seconds of the countdown was stretched to an extreme that made one's body stiff.

The patriarch of the Wang clan had his finger hovering over the final confirmation button.

His thighs trembled violently beneath his robe, and cold sweat trickled from his forehead into his mouth, tasting bitter and salty.

In just one more second, this code will be permanently stamped with the totem of the Wang family of Taiyuan.

However, in the final ten-thousandth of a second before the golden hammer was about to fall...

All bidding records on the main control board.

In that instant, it was strangely stuck in mid-air.

"Buzz—!"

A muffled, high-frequency oscillation of data suddenly erupted from every physical speaker in the trading center.

The red and green blocks that were originally jumping around so tightly that there was no gaps.

Within that microsecond, they were brutally washed away by a torrent of pale white data, bearing the mark of ancestral encryption, without warning.

A completely unverified account from Datang, displayed as an "Unknown Anonymous Client".

With a brute force computing power that is completely unreasonable and almost like a dimensional reduction attack.

At the very moment the final closing ceremony took place, a terrifyingly high price was thrown onto the holographic screen above the Taiji Hall, leaving everyone speechless.

[Current bid: 50 million credits.]

The string of pale white numbers emitted a dark, eerie, and cold light above the red background.

Fifty million.

This number was as large as an insurmountable mountain, and within a microsecond, it instantly and without any suspense annihilated all the powerful rivals who were struggling to survive in the tunnels.

The Wang clan patriarch's cane fell to the ground with a thud.

He stared at the gray message "Insufficient balance, auction failed" that popped up on his screen, his face turned ashen, and he slumped to his knees.

Not only him, but all the core operators of the Datang Cyberspace Administration were stunned in that minute.

Everyone stared intently at the mysterious black hole account of unknown origin. For a moment, the only sounds in the computer room, besides the roar of the supercomputer, were heavy, frantic breathing.

"This...this is impossible! All the real-name treasuries in the entire Tang Dynasty are under our surveillance. Who could move 50 million in cash at once?" Changsun Wuji suddenly turned his head, his eyes wide open, staring intently at Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian spat out the orange seed from his mouth, pressed his right hand lightly in the air, and looked at the string of black code. The nonchalant look in his eyes finally disappeared completely.

Wu Meiniang's fingers traced blurry afterimages on the virtual keyboard, her face so dark it was almost dripping with water: "Your Highness, data retrieval failed. The underlying gateway for this account isn't accessed from within the Tang Dynasty; it comes from... deep within the public network of a North American province!"

Just as several powerful families were fiercely competing for that "virtual land king," an anonymous, mysterious account suddenly offered a staggering 50 million, instantly annihilating all competitors. Shocked, everyone frantically investigated the identity of this mysterious buyer.