What Liu'er wanted to do was exactly the same as Xia Chuhe's next task—to raise money for the child's medical treatment.

The abandoned city, untouched by outsiders, remains perpetually in a state of repetitive stillness.

No matter what Liu'er does, the Lost City will reset the next day, just like the endless loop in the movie Groundhog Day.

Only when outsiders intrude will the Lost City operate according to the timeline.

But, regardless of the state—

The world belongs to Liu'er.

Xia Qiu and her companion, being outsiders, were able to notice this, and Liu'er, an insider who lived in the situation every day, had already realized it long ago.

It could be said that everything that happened after entering the Lost City was just a little joke played by Liu'er and the others.

Everyone who enters the Lost City will follow various routes to reach Liu'er and help her accomplish what she wants to do.

It's not that Liu'er doesn't work hard, but rather that she seems to be under the spell of poverty.

Even with the power to change the world, one still cannot change poverty.

Li Qiusheng grabbed his hair in frustration: "Why do you insist on saving this child? Can't you just enjoy life?"

“Life is only 30,000 days long. I live a repetitive life. Even the most interesting things become boring after a while.” Liu’er gently picked up the child. “But she is different. Raising a human child is really interesting, even though she forgets what happened the day before. Even with repetitive things, her reactions are disordered and different. She is the only spice in my boring life.”

Furthermore, having experienced being abandoned by her family, Liu'er always felt that this child was a reflection of her former self.

Xia Chuhe, who had raised kittens, nodded in agreement with deep feeling.

Having a pet is not only fun, but also makes you love it more and more each day after you invest your love in it.

Li Qiusheng couldn't understand this feeling: "Then just keep living like this, sister, I beg you, don't make things difficult for us, we're so poor we can't even afford to sleep on the street."

Liu'er was speechless and choked with emotion. After a moment, she explained, "She's sick. She has an attack every day. You don't understand how helpless I feel when I see her suffering. Sometimes, I even hate having human emotions. It's too painful."

Li Qiusheng pursed his lips, recalling how Li Yue had been so anxious when she was sick, sometimes wishing she could take the patient's pain upon herself.

...

The child needs surgery, which costs one million credits. The child's mother has saved over 500,000, the factory owner can compensate about 300,000, and Liu'er has 100,000 in savings, so they are still short 100,000.

To pay for her child's medical treatment, Liu'er even considered selling the house, but... no one even came to see it, let alone get the cash.

Xia Chuhe summarized the deal between the two parties: "As long as we help you raise enough money for your child's medical treatment, you will help us find the core of the dungeon, right?"

“Yes!” Liu’er nodded emphatically.

"Okay, deal!"

Liu'er breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed the child's head: "Remember to put my child home after you've watched the sunset!"

Li Qiusheng: "What are you going to do?"

Liu'er: "Going to work!"

Li Qiusheng: "Can I not go to work?"

Liu'er: "No, going to work is more interesting. I'll be waiting for your good news!"

The red sun, far away on the horizon, sank below the horizon, its molten gold splashing onto the clouds and mountains, burning one's eyes.

Li Qiusheng picked up the child and put him back into the room through the window, muttering, "The sunset sets so quickly."

"Want to see it? Call Liu'er and ask her to play it for you again," Xia Chuhe laughed.

Li Qiusheng rejected this absurd suggestion.

Xia Chuhe suddenly remembered something: "How many phone calls did you receive today?"

Li Qiusheng counted on his fingers, "Twenty or thirty, I guess?"

"How many minutes does it take to answer a phone call?"

"A few seconds at the shortest, ten minutes at the longest?"

Thirty phone calls, each lasting ten minutes, would only take five hours to complete, with very short breaks between each call.

In other words, they actually work less than eight hours a day, but... eight hours pass by.

Looking back now, those three days seemed to have passed very quickly.

The two of them didn't realize it until the pain of their work made them perceive time more clearly.

If they hadn't suddenly learned the truth about the Land of Rules and, in a moment of relaxation, noticed something amiss with the sunset, the two of them probably wouldn't have realized it for quite some time while working in their environment.

"Boss, how are we going to raise the money? We can't just keep working, can we? If we save thirty every day, it'll take forever."

"No rush. I care more about something else than saving money."

Xia Chuhe cares about Liu'er's significance to the world.

Liu'er can control the world, a situation very similar to that of Cupid.

Cupid is the ultimate boss in the romance storyline, but even Cupid has to share half of his power with Ai.

Is this also why Liu'er is restricted by "money"?

However, the Land of Rules is not a copy; the two are different and cannot be generalized.

Besides this possibility, Xia Chuhe also considered two other possibilities—

First, the Land of Rules is a creative game similar to Minecraft, where player Liu'er can create anything in the world.

Second, Liu'er is dreaming; she is the master of dreams.

While raising money, Xia Chuhe wanted to figure out what kind of situation Liu'er was in.

Xia Chuhe contacted Liu'er, demanding to see the real world.

Liu'er asked, puzzled, "You can just look with your eyes, why are you asking me?"

"Do the cars and drones you're controlling today really have self-awareness?"

Liu'er chuckled: "You're really perceptive. They certainly don't have human-like consciousness, but isn't that more interesting?"

Xia Chuhe threatened Liu'er: "I need to see the real world before I can figure out how to raise money."

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!