Upon hearing Jack's words, the surrounding miners couldn't help but look up at the person who had taken the initiative to greet them.
Some appeared surprised, while others returned a smile.
Perhaps sensing the goodwill in Jack's heart, people from other worlds also began to try and communicate with him.
Soon, more people couldn't help but join in the mutual exchange.
In the following days, besides mining together, people would also chat freely and discuss various topics in their leisure time.
They talked about the cultures, technologies, and customs of different worlds, or complained about the suppression from their mentors and various unreasonable rules.
"We have a miraculous plant in the Third World that can cure any disease!"
During the casual chat, someone suddenly spoke, constantly trying to raise the price of their spiritual plant.
"Really? That's too amazing! However, our world also has…"
Another person immediately stepped forward to agree and began to explain some specialties from their own world.
Just like that, everyone's relationship became more harmonious, and they began to discuss whether to exchange goods and services, conducting cross-border transactions through the Cyber Dimension.
The City of Freedom, with Cyber Cultivators from various worlds starting to exchange goods and services, also became increasingly prosperous, with countless buildings being created through the diligent work of coders.
However, these buildings were still a drop in the ocean compared to the enormous demand, as there were hundreds of millions of unregistered cultivators from eight worlds.
The existence of the City of Freedom, once known by one Cyber Cultivator, would soon be known by the entire circle.
Lana tried to recruit more coders to complete the construction, but Cyber Cultivators were not foolish.
Except for a few people from feudal worlds, all the others were from modern societies and had experienced the information explosion of the internet age, so they had seen all sorts of strange things.
How could they fall for Lana's trick and purchase her knowledge on loan?
Without buying the knowledge on loan, the money they could earn from coding diligently for a year was not as much as what they could gain from cultivating for a year.
Only a fool would go and let Lana exploit them. Apart from a few who had mastered programming and chose to accept Lana's tasks, the other Cyber Cultivators indicated that they would rather continue mining unless the price was increased.
There were also some who stated that if Lana was willing to open-source the knowledge, they would be willing to join the coder team and help Lana with the construction of the City of Freedom.
But as soon as Lana heard someone wanting to freeload, she immediately slapped him into the wall so deeply that he couldn't be dug out, turning him into a data cluster in his struggle, which was devoured by the City of Freedom.
Even this person's entire network of connections behind him was instantly wiped out by Lana's Nascent Soul power.
This is the power of the Soul Killer; with just a glance, it can easily erase everyone's souls, turning them into the most basic data.
The reason Lana was so ruthless was still for the same purpose: to establish rules for the City of Freedom and assert her absolute authority.
Moreover, such people had lived too easily, forgetting the hardships of mining in the Cyber Dimension, and began to push their luck, testing her bottom line.
For such individuals, Lana adhered to the principle of "better to kill by mistake than to let go," and would absolutely not spare anyone who dared to test her bottom line.
In this city, no one could defy her will—not even think about it—let alone question or test her.
Open-source knowledge? It was impossible to open-source; never in this life would it be open-sourced.
Lana would rather let everyone sleep on the streets than give her knowledge for free to these unfaithful mud-legs who did not believe in the God of All Machines.
Anyway, the entire Cyber Dimension only has the City of Freedom as a safe city, and the largest Digital Monster world is only open to the Mechanicus and digital life forms, not welcoming these unregistered individuals at all.
Therefore, what she was doing now was a monopoly business. Even if Lana only left one spot on the street, they would all be grateful and thank Lana for leading them out of the suffering of the Cyber Dimension.
So, not only did Lana not lower the price because she couldn't sell, she even increased it again, doubling the 5 Golden Gear Spirit Coins to 10 Golden Gear Spirit Coins for purchase.
Lana knew very well that the reason coder knowledge wasn't selling was because many of these unregistered individuals who came to the City of Freedom were still doubtful about whether engaging in coding work could earn money.
After all, they didn't even have a Silver Gear Spirit Coin, let alone a Golden Gear Spirit Coin. Who had money to save instead of using it for cultivation?
Once one's strength is great, money will naturally be abundant. Without strength, no matter how much money is saved, it will only be saved for others.
Because of this, many people had not even tried the hacker knowledge Lana sold and were already deterred.
Mining, though boring and tedious, allowed them to access higher-level knowledge.
The stable monthly income also gave them a sense of security. If they were lucky enough to dig up valuable technology, whether it was submitted to their sect or used by themselves, it would be an overnight fortune.
In contrast, being a coder and working overtime day and night only to receive a meager salary was simply not worth it.
Therefore, many people would rather mine for a lifetime than switch to being a coder.
Facing this situation, Lana knew she had to establish a successful example to attract more people to join.
So, Lana transferred a Mechanical Sage from the main branch.
This Mechanical Sage, skilled in performance, with his excellent eloquence and gentle personality, quickly integrated into the miner community.
However, unlike other miners who had more or less some gains, this Mechanical Sage's luck was terrible. For over a month, he had almost no harvest, digging up only waste rock.
Eventually, he had to make a "wise" decision—to purchase Lana's knowledge loan and switch to coding work. He gradually faded from people's sight and disappeared.
Initially, everyone was not optimistic about this Mechanical Sage and did not believe he could earn a lot of money from this line of work, still insisting on mining every day.
But as time went on, something nobody had ever expected—something astonishing—happened.
Just a few months later, when this once extremely unlucky fellow reappeared, he had actually completed Foundation Establishment and was only one step away from forming a Core!
This was a realm most cultivators dreamed of!
As the saying goes, "It's not that you're afraid your brother is living a hard life, but that you're afraid your brother is driving a Land Rover."
The same principle applies here.
For these miners, their own failures certainly made them feel bad, but seeing others succeed made them even more distressed.
So, these people tried every means to inquire, and then, through communication and interaction with this Mechanical Sage, the miners realized that the other party had indeed successfully transitioned.
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