Top-Down Communication

"Your Excellency Warden, you wanted to see me?"

As soon as it was dawn, Han Che called Shi Ding into his office.

When Han Che saw Shi Ding come in, he waved for him to sit down on the sofa.

Then he sat down opposite him and said, "Well, there's something I need to tell you."

"Last night, the group called. The leader's idea was that in future operations, we cannot exterminate all the players who have entered the prison."

"We need to leave some for them to eat, so that the prison can continue to develop. This matter will be communicated to the other brothers later."

Shi Ding looked surprised, but seeing that Han Che hadn't finished speaking, he didn't rush to ask questions and listened quietly.

"In short, it involves using prison resources to exchange for other resources from players."

"At the same time, there's a problem I overlooked before." Han Che raised an eyebrow and glanced at Shi Ding, then continued, "From now on, you guys, that is, the six members of the warden's personal guard, can no longer go into battle every time the prison opens."

At this point, Han Che deliberately paused. He knew Shi Ding very well, and now he was sure he would ask why.

"Huh? Why is that?" Shi Ding couldn't sit still any longer and immediately stood up to ask, his tone even carrying a hint of grievance.

"The brothers have been working very hard, Your Honor. Whatever punishment you have, please do it. My brothers..."

Before Shi Ding could finish speaking, Han Che waved his hand to interrupt, saying, "It's not just the six of you; I can't go into battle every time either."

Shi Ding didn't immediately understand what Han Che meant, his mouth slightly open. Han Che continued...

"I was so focused on getting the enemy out of the prison that I completely forgot that as the warden, the map boss in the players' eyes, I shouldn't be appearing so frequently."

"This will affect players' enthusiasm for exploring the prison, and of course, it will also make it easier for them to develop strategies against me."

Han Che stood up, walked to Shi Ding's side, put his hand on his shoulder, and gently pressed him back onto the sofa.

He then walked slowly around to the back of the sofa with his hands behind his back. "And you six, as my personal guards, will naturally have to reduce your battle frequency with me."

"So what should we do?" Shi Ding asked. "Where do we go after the prison opens?"

"Just close the door in the room next to my office, stay inside, and we'll come out when the prison reopens."

"Are we just going to let those operators fight alongside our brothers?"

"It's alright, trust me, I'll cover for them." Then Han Che chuckled, "That's not enough, we also need to tell the brothers to keep their distance from those ordinary player operators who look poorly equipped and have mediocre skills."

"Be careful when you fire, don't kill them."

This time, Shi Ding didn't say anything more. It was unclear whether he had truly acquiesced or was simply speechless.

"Let's just consider it as an investment in the prison's economic development," Han Che explained, trying to comfort her.

"Use the cheap local products of the Hafk Group to exchange for some important resources to develop the weapons and equipment of our brothers, as well as prison facilities."

"But we don't have that many assets right now, do we?" Shi Ding asked, puzzled. "After last time, the entire prison's resources and assets should only amount to less than 20 million. How can we afford to let those player operators eat like that?"

"Don't worry about that. The leader said we can trade lost player operators for 1000 million in assets."

"So many!" Shi Ding exclaimed in surprise.

"At the same time, we're not letting them eat for free. We'll control the drop rate. We just need to make a few demonstrations every now and then."

"The point is not to let them actually make money, but to make them feel that there is money to be made in prison."

Afterwards, Han Che continued to explain his ideas and the future operation model of the prison to Shi Ding.

Shi Ding is now not only the captain of his personal guard, but also the de facto second-in-command of the prison.

Whether it's relaying orders or organizing the prison guards' combat training and deployment, Shi Ding is fully capable of it.

"Rat-a-tat-tat..."

Before we knew it, we had been chatting for a long time, until outside the office window, waves rose on the water, and a huge black shadow slowly descended from the sky.

A huge armed helicopter landed on a platform on the water.

Han Che watched as a team of fully armed Hafk soldiers disembarked from a helicopter outside the window.

"The people the group sent have arrived. How are those lost operators? Are there any problems?"

"No problem, it's that guy named John, still looking half-dead."

Han Che nodded slightly. That's fine. Since they got lost, these people have become like puppets, without any independent thoughts or actions. There's no point in keeping them around.

"However..." Shi Ding hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

"But what?"

"I feel that the other two brain-computer interface operators might still be of value."

Han Che stared at Shi Ding, waiting for him to continue.

"Those two guys are different from the others. They have their own consciousness, can act independently, and are quite cooperative in all aspects."

"Also, I wonder if they have any other intelligence or information, such as that exoskeleton, which might be usable without a brain-computer interface with their cooperation."

Shi Ding said seriously, clearly having put a lot of thought into these three brain-computer interface players in the past few days.

"If we could help them figure out how to use exoskeletons, we could equip every one of our prison guards with one..."

Shi Ding suddenly realized that he might have misspoke. "Ah, Your Excellency Warden, I was just making a guess. I didn't mean to disrespect the decisions of the higher-ups."

Han Che frowned slightly, seemingly lost in thought. "Hmm... It's nothing, I know."

Ta-da!

Shi Lei knocked on the door, then submitted a report and entered the office.

"Your Excellency Warden, a group of people have arrived outside. They claim to be sent by senior leaders of the Hafk Group to carry out an escort mission. Please give your instructions."

Where are you now?

"I was stopped by the brothers at the prison gate."

"Okay, take me there."

Han Che then got up, walked out of the office, and prepared to welcome the "imperial envoys".

Shi Ding followed behind Han Che, but Han Che stopped him. Then Han Che leaned close to Shi Ding's ear and whispered a few words.

"clear!"

A few minutes later, Han Che arrived at the prison gate and brought the small contingent of troops from headquarters into the prison.

"Your Excellency the Warden has achieved remarkable feats in such a short time; we are all truly impressed."

"No, no, you were just lucky."

Along the way, Han Che exchanged pleasantries and compliments with the team leader.

As they approached the prison area, the squad leader said, "There are seven Lost Operators here this time, right? These are seven 10 million supply cards. You can exchange them for supplies with headquarters if needed."

Seven rectangular, black and gold metal cards were handed to Han Che.

Han Che stopped and carefully examined the texture of the card.

"Thank you so much, but..." Han Che said, taking two cards out of the deck and putting them back into the squad leader's hand.

"However, I am truly unworthy of such a large sum of money. Please take these two bills back with you, squad leader."