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At 4:30 in the afternoon, after the march, Carl returned home, shivering from the cold.

Towards the end of the protest, several gaming companies arranged food trucks to provide hot food and coffee, which helped a lot in enduring the cold.

The reason for several companies supporting the cause was due to Germany’s unique gaming industry situation:

Germany’s gaming industry is growing rapidly, with substantial numbers of players and revenues.

However, a severe problem is that only two of the top 10 gaming companies are based in Germany; the other eight are subsidiaries of European companies operating in Germany.

This means the industry is thriving, but most of the money goes to foreign companies.

Due to the constraints of EU trade agreements, the German government can’t set up obstructions for companies from other European countries, only providing local subsidies for German companies.

Cloud Dream sells its consoles in Germany through several major European gaming companies, with no fixed German partner.

Thus, Carl’s protest, calling for lifting restrictions and setting up server centers, is advantageous for these companies.

They dare not openly confront the government, but providing logistical support is not an issue.

Returning home, Carl warmed himself up with a hot bath and ignored having dinner, opened his computer, and started creating topics online, urging all players to take a stand and express their demands through a strike!

“In the hundred years that have passed, the key to advancing human society has always been technology!”

“For four hundred years, the most significant obstacle to uniting people worldwide has been narrow-minded nationalism!”

“If the wind of internationalism were to blow strongly and people all over the world realized unity, how could the world be plunged into hundreds of years of warfare, with tens of millions of lives lost?”

Carl’s passion soared.

“Do we really think that now, by restricting the most outstanding, most advanced, and most epoch-making technology of this century—virtual reality technology, from entering our country, we are making a wise decision?!”

“Or is it just an inertial exclusion induced by narrow-minded nationalist thinking?”

“I strongly call upon all the new generation of citizens with an internationalist spirit to make a united voice: No more confrontation! No more exclusions! Embrace technology! Embrace the world!”

“This is not a trivial matter for a group of game players, but a significant issue for all citizens!”

“It relates to whether all of us and our descendants will live in an open, inclusive, and free country, or an exclusive, closed, and shackled country in the future!”

At this moment, Carl’s writing became smoother, and he became more and more convinced.

Blood surging in his heart, Carl felt like a fearless warrior filled with patriotism and concern for his nation’s future, sword and shield in hand as keyboard and mouse.

“Here, I call upon all the citizens who care about our country’s future to rise and participate in a massive strike two days later (December 6th, this Friday)!”

“Let our voices echo throughout Berlin, throughout Germany, throughout the European Grand Alliance, and even—”

“throughout the world!!”

Carl slammed the return key!

He then took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, feeling the lingering aftertaste of sheathing the sword.

He even felt he found his life’s mission—

[To devote my limited life to the boundless internationalist movement! To strive for the unity of all people in the world for a lifetime!]

*

Such an impassioned and stirring declaration undoubtedly caused an uproar within the gaming community.

Though the text did not explicitly mention Cloud Dream nor the construction of a virtual reality gaming server center, the appeal was very clear: to demand the government to lift restrictions on Cloud Dream’s construction of the server center.

Because only by doing so would they be “embracing technology and the world” and “open, inclusive, and free.”

More importantly, it gave all gamers the moral high ground to condemn the government righteously.!

All gamers took action.

Not only virtual reality gamers but also players on traditional platforms joined in.

Even though a minority of them were genuinely planning to strike, most did not intend to participate, but it didn’t stop them from posting online in support.

After all, speaking online costs nothing, and no one knows who’s who.

The endorsements from these gamers, coupled with those who love to instigate chaos, quickly made the “Grand Strike Declaration” gain over a million clicks, soaring in popularity!

But soon enough, this behavior also angered some people—

Those uninterested in virtual reality games or more concerned with social order.

They began to voice their objections to the “Grand Strike” online, accusing Carl and the others of harming their country for selfish reasons, disrupting social order, and affecting the daily lives of millions of citizens.

“Is a ‘Grand Strike’ for a foreign company that causes harm to your own country’s people evil and childish? Or insidious in intent?!””

“I suggest the government investigates the bank accounts of the ringleaders for any illicit private transactions!”

“I’ve already called the police; go explain it to them!”

“This kind of strike is a violation of labor law; get ready to go to jail!”

…

Of course, the players didn’t accept defeat so easily and immediately voiced their disagreement.

Thus, those in favor of the strike, those against it, and countless fun-seekers fueling the fire on both sides, watched the madness unfold.

The war of words spread little by little, rapidly spiraling out of control.

Gradually, Carl and his comrades inevitably fell at a disadvantage.

After all, in terms of numbers, they were ultimately the minority: compared to the elusive internationalist spirit, ordinary people cared more about their daily lives not being disrupted.

*

But the Internet is an open world, and the fierce quarrel between German players and opponents naturally stirred up huge waves in the online world.

Anchor Turner, located in France, quickly noticed the commotion in the neighboring country.

As a once-glorious American, Turner couldn’t stand by while these fighters were at a disadvantage!

Even if the establishment of the server center in Germany would make it harder for France to level up in the T1 War Zone later, Turner considers himself a noble player, preferring to defeat his opponents fair and square!

So, without a second thought, he began mobilizing his live stream audience to “embark” on the German Internet, supporting the German players’ “grand strike movement”.

This wasn’t enough; Turner even made a special trip back to his hometown in America to post on the Internet, seeking support.

Spanning across seven time zones, Daxia also noticed the whirlwind.

A post emerged first on the Whirlpool Game Forum —

[Brothers, charge! The German brothers need our help!]

Streamers who hadn’t finished their streams already saw their live stream rooms quickly being occupied by this topic.

Regardless of the late hour, Daxia players entered the virtual world, using Cloud Dream’s cross-border network channels to access the German Internet and watch the commotion.

Thanks to Cloud Dream’s global translation, Daxia players had no pressure to enjoy the show upfront, barely missing a beat aside from a few remote dialects and swear words.

Super Tomato took one look at Carl’s “Grand Strike Manifesto” and just couldn’t help but ridicule: “My God, what’s this ‘Admonishing Germany for Closing Off and Locking Its Gates’?!”

Originally offline, Yi also excitedly resumed his stream.

The live stream room title was straightforward —

[Upholding the internationalist spirit, supporting our comrades overseas! Let all the players in the world unite!]

But after watching the online debate in Germany for a while, Yi couldn’t help but shake his head in disappointment: “German brothers are not doing so well… They don’t know how to use magic?!”

Audiences who had just crowded into the live stream room, still unclear about what had transpired, saw Yi registering an account on the German network platform.

Upon completing registration, he immediately began posting:

[#Mass Strike! We call upon all women, workers, immigrants, environmentalists, animal rights activists, vegans, and LGBTQIAPKDXR+ individuals to join our essential strike! An open, inclusive, and free country affects everyone’s lives and well-being!]

Yi crafted the entire text almost without thinking.

The only breaks came when searching for that string of letters, which Yi copied and pasted from a search engine.

After posting this, Yi didn’t forget to say in the live stream room: “Everyone, quickly register an account, help us upvote, and share the post to contribute to its popularity.”

“Also, when registering, pay attention to the gender options; don’t choose traditional genders like male and female. Just pick one of the ones I wrote above, or leave it blank.”

“When you register and comment, remember to say you’re ‘oppressed,’ ‘exploited,’ and ‘a sexual minority.’ Then, in support of your identity and group, support this grand strike.”

Yi’s last bit of advice was: “Make it believable!”

This series of actions immediately had the audience in the live stream room laughing —

“Why are you so skilled?!”

“What the heck are those LGBTQI whatevers? Can you even smoothly read them aloud?!”

“Why no black people? Are you racist towards black people?”

“God is racist towards black people! This isn’t America, how many black people are there in Germany?”

…

Although they were furiously mocking the situation, everyone was also eager to stir up trouble, so they excitedly joined the fray.

Thus, the wind direction… began to change!

German players may have fewer numbers than netizens, but when it comes to global Cloud Dream players, there are more than the entire population of Germany!

Even though only a portion of players from various countries was supporting the movement, and most of them were there for fun, they immediately reversed the unfavorable public opinion and made the “grand strike” popularity explode.

For a moment, the movement even had a touch of internationalism to it!

…

…

At 8 o’clock that evening, the German Federal Network Security Bureau announced it would re-examine the highly-concerned matter of the Cloud Dream server center construction and would release the latest examination results to the public within three working days.

The [Mass Strike Movement] achieved phased results even before it officially began!