【Europa Text: Hahahaha, the mouths of the Great Xia netizens are truly blessed!】

【Slaughterhouse warning! Sakura Country netizens are instantly depressed!】

【Hahahaha, this insult is top-tier!】

Wang Hao chuckled, his fingers flying across the terminal to type a line of text, which he sent directly as a barrage comment.

【If you want to blame someone, blame your own city lords. It was them who didn't value your lives, so stop barking here.】

After sending it, he switched to the administrator interface, picked out the Sakura Country netizens who were speaking rudely one by one, and with a swift stroke, banned them directly.

【System: User "Land of the Rising Sun Eternal" has been muted for 24 hours by administrator "Beacon Fires Number One Simp".】

【System: User "Soul of Bushido" has been muted for 1 hour by administrator "Beacon Fires Number One Simp".】

The other side of the screen instantly quieted down.

Wang Hao leaned back in his chair with satisfaction, popped his lollipop back into his mouth, and chewed on it leisurely.

Li Xue, watching from the side, couldn't help but laugh: "You're too ruthless, aren't you? They just cursed a few times, and you banned them directly?"

Wang Hao spread his hands righteously: "They're in my brother's livestream cursing my brother. Should I keep them for the New Year?"

Li Xue shook her head, her gaze falling back to the screen, when she suddenly exclaimed: "It's almost at one billion popularity... This livestream is almost catching up to the World Cup."

Wang Hao raised his eyebrows smugly, then suddenly remembered something, sat up straight, and his eyes lit up.

"Right, my article's view count broke 100 million today!"

He was so excited he nearly jumped out of his chair, his lollipop falling out of his mouth and landing on the table with a plop.

He scrambled to pick it up, blew on it, stuffed it back into his mouth, and mumbled: "No, on such an important day, I have to do something big!"

Li Xue looked at him warily: "What are you going to do?"

Wang Hao ignored her, rummaged through his drawer for a long while, and finally pulled out a crumpled notebook.

The notebook's cover was curled at the edges, and the corners were stained with ink blots from who knows when.

In the name field, the characters "Lin Feng" were clearly written, but they had been crossed out, followed by "Wang Hao" written in crooked handwriting, obviously added later.

Wang Hao scratched his head and chuckled: "This was from half a year ago. I ran out of notebooks and borrowed one from Lin Feng, and he gave me an empty one with just his name on it.

Back then, you could buy ten of these notebooks for one credit, but now—"

He paused, his eyes narrowing into slits, "It's priceless."

Li Xue looked at the crumpled notebook, her mouth twitching: "You aren't planning to..."

Wang Hao took a deep breath, as if making a difficult decision, held up the notebook with a pained expression, took a high-definition photo with his terminal, and posted it to the livestream.

The caption had only one line: "In view of how awesome my good friend, the Lord of Beacon Fire Territory is, and because my article's view count has broken 100 million, I have decided to take out my treasured, peerless artifact for a giveaway! Follow to participate!"

The livestream room exploded instantly.

【Peerless artifact? A notebook?】

【What's so special about this notebook? Isn't it just a beat-up old notebook?】

【What do you know? The value of this notebook doesn't lie in the notebook itself, but in the four words 'crossed out and rewritten'. Lin Feng crossed out his own name and let Wang Hao write his own. What kind of magnanimity is this? It's the spirit of'success does not need to be mine'!】

【Look at these scratch marks, they are natural and perfectly balanced. The last stroke of the character 'Feng' flicks upwards slightly—a classic general's calligraphy style! It seems to contain the soaring ambition of Lord Lin from back in the day!】

【Russian Text: The paper of this notebook has undergone half a year of natural oxidation, and the degree of curling at the corners is just right. It's definitely a treasure!】

【American Text: This is a historical artifact. I offer one million credits.】

Wang Hao watched the screen full of crazy barrage comments, laughed out loud, and slapped the table.

【Alright, alright, the giveaway has started. 120 million people are participating, good luck to you all!】

As soon as he finished speaking, his terminal instantly froze, and the numbers on the screen jumped crazily for a full half-minute before stopping.

The winner's ID finally popped up: Little Umbrella of Rongcheng.

System note: Great Xia female netizen, from Rongcheng.

The barrage area instantly went wild. Before Wang Hao could even speak, a new barrage comment popped out from the massive amount of messages; it was from "Little Umbrella of Rongcheng" herself:

"I won? I really won? I'm going to enshrine this notebook when I get back! I'll worship it every day! May it bless me to pass the college entrance exam!"

The entire screen was instantly flooded with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

Wang Hao was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "A fellow countryman from Rongcheng! Congratulations! Send me your address via private message, and I'll mail Lin Feng's notebook to you!"

The barrage area was filled with wails: "I didn't win!" "Rigged!" "Brother Hao, draw another one!" "Does Lin Feng have any other notebooks?"

Wang Hao turned off the barrage, leaned back against his chair, and looked out the window with a satisfied smile on his face.

Li Xue looked at him, shook her head, and whispered: "Crazy, everyone's gone crazy."

...

The morning sunlight slanted in through the high windows. Lin Feng sat in the main seat with a material allocation application form spread out in front of him.

He held a pen and scribbled a few notes on the edge of the document.

It had been four days since Meng Yi returned to Hangu Pass with the last batch of Great Qin Elite Soldiers.

During these four days, the 20,000 Great Qin Elite Soldiers inside Hangu Pass were all deployed near the West Gate wall, and their coordination with the Night Whisper Legion and New Moon Legion became increasingly smooth.

On the city wall, the fixed garrison consisted of 10,000 Great Qin Elite Soldiers, 5,000 County Soldiers, five battalions of the Night Whisper Legion, and five battalions of the New Moon Legion. Looking north from the city gate tower, dense figures filled every section of the battlements.

The remaining troops served as reserves, responsible for patrolling within the pass and rotating shifts, changing every eight hours in an orderly fashion.

There were many new faces on the city wall, all County Soldiers transferred from various affiliated territories.

This was their first time climbing the 40-meter-high city wall; they held onto the battlements and looked down, swallowing hard.

The veterans squatted under the battlements, polishing their blades, occasionally looking up at the newcomers with the calm expression of "those who have been through it all."

Chewing on their rations, they said indistinctly: "You'll get used to it. After standing here for a while, your legs will stop shaking."

As the Orc Army continued to approach the South Pole Region, intelligence from the General Bureau was synchronized daily via Bureau Chief Liu Zhaowan.

Lin Feng finished processing a document, put down his pen, and picked up his teacup to take a sip.

The Beacon Guards outside the door pushed it open, knelt on one knee, and pressed their right fists to their chests: "Reporting to Lord Lin, Bureau Chief Liu Zhaowan requests an audience."

Lin Feng put down the teacup: "Show her in."

The Beacon Guards acknowledged the order and retreated, their footsteps gradually fading down the corridor.

Before long, Bureau Chief Liu Zhaowan walked in, her dark blue uniform immaculate, holding documents in her hands.

She walked up to Lin Feng, bowed slightly, and handed over a file: "Lord Lin, the latest intelligence on the Orc Army."

Lin Feng took the file and was about to open it.

Bureau Chief Liu Zhaowan suddenly spoke, her tone a bit more casual than usual: "Lord Lin, the Lords Assembly in May is only a few days away. Do you plan to attend?"