Chapter 383: The Mysterious Organization that Controls the World

A mysterious building, top-floor smoking room.
"Hey, isn't this Mr. Du? Hiding here puffing away? Didn't you say you were quitting?"
"Hehe, you know what, this smoking room is really something.
Besides, I just got scolded for ages, and my craving for a cigarette just popped up. I had to have one to calm myself down."
"Got scolded again?"
"Ugh, don't even mention it!
From 'Your tanking maneuvers are a disaster,' to 'What kind of garbage is your equipment enchantment?', he lectured me like I was a grandson.
So, what are you smoking here for?"
"Me? I never said I was quitting."
Lin Fan and Du Yuanhang, two big shots whose mere presence shakes the entire industry, were now sprawled on the sofa in the smoking room, like two game addicts whose souls had been stolen by video games.
"Hey Lin, when you came in, did you even know what kind of place this was?" Du Yuanhang exhaled a smoke ring, looking utterly hopeless.
"Of course I knew. Chairman Huang personally contacted me, saying he needed a powerful tank to play games with."
"Why the hell didn't you say so sooner!" Du Yuanhang was so angry he almost poked his face with his cigarette butt.
"You made me... I thought I'd stumbled into some kind of den of thieves, like a secret agent rendezvous, with all the oaths and secrecy, and what happened?
Turns out, it's just a gaming guild for a bunch of old nerds!"
"Hahaha, your death-defying expression back then cracked us all up."
Lin Fan laughed so hard he almost fell over, while Du Yuanhang still felt embarrassed thinking about it.
He had assumed this heavily guarded, futuristic, mysterious building was the headquarters of some secret organization that determined the fate of the world, a gathering place for a group of behind-the-scenes manipulators who decided the world's destiny!
To his surprise, upon opening the door, he found a room full of grown men huddled around a large screen, enthusiastically discussing how to defeat the final boss in the game!
Huang Fengwen, chairman of Fanghuan Group, was the president.
Su Hao, chairman of Fanghuan Investment, was the vice president.
And this lavishly built, technologically advanced building was one that Su Hao had personally funded to ensure everyone had a better gaming experience!
“What, regretting it? Want to quit?” Lin Fan teased.
“Quit my ass! When Chairman Huang recruited me, he made me swear a solemn oath: ‘Membership is entirely voluntary, quitting will cost me my life!’”
“Haha, the chairman really fooled you.”
“I was so scared my legs went weak, you know?”
“Alright, he was just joking. If you really want to leave, no one will stop you.”
Du Yuanhang knew this, of course, and frankly, he wasn't so keen on leaving anymore.
"Honestly... this place is pretty good.
The old guys in this guild are all really nice.
And this game, I thought I'd never play it in my life, but now that I've started learning, it's actually kind of addictive."
"Yeah, dozens of people yelling and screaming, working all night to raid a boss, cooperating to take it down—that feeling is incredibly exhilarating!"
Lin Fan stayed in this guild for that reason too.
Of course, the main reason was also because his skills were terrible, he kept getting flamed, and he had to stay and try to prove himself.
"And the facilities are amazing! After a team battle, you can take a bath and get a massage, it's like living in paradise. But..."
Du Yuanhang changed the subject,
"I've noticed something, isn't the average age of our guild members a bit too high?"
"It's an old game, so it's normal for players to be older."
"Not only are they old, but they all have 'important backgrounds.'
I've been chatting with people these past few days, and they're either directors of this company, CEOs of that group, or even a few in the government, and at a pretty high level."
"So?"
"I heard that after Chairman Su became vice president, he personally 'optimized' the guild members, resulting in this current core group."
In other words, a large portion of the members here were personally selected by Su Hao.
"Wow, you've only been a member a few days, but you've already got a pretty good grasp of everything."
"Occupational hazard, occupational hazard," Du Yuanhang waved his hand. "We in the shipping business rely on connections; we're used to networking first wherever we go."
"I think Chairman Su probably didn't consider their professions when choosing people. Most of them are people he gets along with in the game, so he just brought them in."
"No other intentions?"
"What intentions could there be? Just a bunch of like-minded old men getting together for some fun."
That makes sense.
Du Yuanhang also felt that these people genuinely loved the game; otherwise, who would have so much free time to come here for gatherings every few days?
"Do you know about the Freemasons?" Du Yuanhang suddenly asked.
"That mysterious organization in the conspiracy theories that claims to control the world?"
"Yeah. It started as a stonemasons' guild.
They got together to exchange skills, support each other, and share jobs—just a makeshift operation."
"And then it expanded?"
"Yes. When members weren't just stonemasons, and more and more social elites joined, its size exploded."
And so, a stonemasons' guild gradually evolved into the standard villain in various urban legends and conspiracy theories.
"Why are you suddenly bringing this up?"
"Nothing, just thinking about it while looking at our guild."
"You've been watching too many movies." Lin Fan stubbed out his cigarette, stood up,
"Alright, get back online after you've rested enough. We're both tanks, so we need to practice our teamwork, otherwise we'll get flamed again tonight."
"Sigh… more yelling." Du Yuanhang stood up with a pained expression.
“If you don’t want to get yelled at, practice harder.”
Lin Fan walked out of the smoking room first.
Du Yuanhang remained alone in the smoke, lost in thought.
A gaming guild…
A gaming guild whose members were all extraordinary, even somewhat suspicious.
Although its origins might truly have been just gaming.
But who could say for sure, like the Freemasons that evolved from the Stonemasons’ Guild, this strange group that gathered under the guise of “playing games”…
would one day evolve into a mysterious organization capable of influencing the world order?