Chapter 30 Vacation Star

"Mr. Fang, we're really sorry, but someone sent us to teach you a lesson. If you cooperate obediently, we might go a little easier on you."

After saying that, the leader tilted his head and gestured to his underlings behind him to turn on the camera function on the terminal so that they could record a video to report back to their patron.

Seeing this, Fang Zhuo pointed to the surveillance camera at the corner of the corridor: "If you need it, you can go directly to the security room to get the surveillance footage."

The people opposite then noticed the surveillance camera hidden behind the tall green plants around the corner, and their expressions immediately became somewhat awkward. For a moment, they didn't know whether to approach or not.

But the leader quickly made up his mind, swung the iron rod heavily, and rushed towards Fang Zhuo.

In a flash, just as the club was about to strike him, Fang Zhuo didn't flinch. He simply opened the system panel and quickly scanned the description of the minor skill he had previously redeemed.

[Superpower [Bang, Hand at Will]: When you make a shooting gesture with your right hand, simply say 'Bang' to fire a bullet.]

[This bullet will simulate a real-world ballistic trajectory, with a firing velocity half that of a physical bullet and a propellant charge half that of a physical bullet, but it can cause temporary cardiac paralysis for ten seconds upon impact.]

He made a gun gesture with his right hand, and when the other person was less than a meter away from him, he pointed his fingertips at the calf of the muscular man in the lead.

The muscular man paused slightly with the stick in his hand, then chuckled dismissively, "Dude, who are you trying to scare?"

Fang Zhuo silently mouthed: "Bang."

The bullet moved very slowly, so slowly that he could see the confused and bewildered expression on the other person's face.

But the next second, the question on that face turned into intense pain.

A small burst of blood erupted from the muscular man's calf in an instant. The wound area was large, but the depth was not as severe as that caused by a traditional bullet at close range.

No one present saw what weapon Fang Zhuo was holding, nor did they hear the sound of a gun being fired; they only saw him make a hand gesture the whole time.

The scene was almost eerie.

Blood quickly trickled down beneath the muscular man in the lead. He gritted his teeth, suppressing the pain, and subconsciously looked left and right, trying to figure out if there were any hidden mechanisms nearby.

His henchmen, terrified, pulled out a homemade gun and shakily aimed it at the monster.

This skill of the system was a one-time use item, and Fang Zhuo had no backup plan, but he showed no sign of nervousness. He coldly faced the muzzle of the gun and made the shooting gesture again towards the person holding the gun.

Their lips had barely curled into a smile when their standoff was abruptly interrupted by a loud shout from a security guard:

"What are you guys doing over there?! Where did you get those guns?!"

The burly men were already on edge. Before the security guards could get close, they dragged the injured man and ran. The henchman, now relaxed, was trembling. In his panic, he accidentally flung the long-barreled rifle behind a flowerbed.

To prepare for Juyu's group broadcast competition, this security team was borrowed from a professional third-party security company. They were even bigger than the muscular men, and looked quite intimidating from a distance.

Seeing the security guard getting closer and closer, they didn't even bother to send someone to retrieve the gun. They dragged their leader like a dead pig and ran away as fast as they could.

After the security captain ran closer, he recognized Fang Zhuo. He first looked the client up and down, and only after confirming that the client's father was not injured did he cautiously say:

"Mr. Fang, should I call the police for you?"

"No need." Fang Zhuo borrowed a new pair of gloves from the security captain, and picked up the homemade gun from the ground while wearing the gloves.

If the police actually see the surveillance footage, he'll probably be taken to the hospital and dissected like a guinea pig for research.

[Beep, one million yuan has been deposited into the account]

"Send me a backup of tonight's corridor surveillance video. Destroy the original file immediately."

Fang Zhuo patted the security captain on the shoulder, then gently made a zipping motion as if he were zipping up his mouth:

"You've worked hard maintaining order at the scene these past two days. Please treat your team to a simple late-night snack."

The security captain smiled so broadly his eyes narrowed into slits, and he bowed deeply in a fawning manner.

"Don't worry, boss. Our company has a very strict confidentiality agreement. I know what I should and shouldn't say. I guarantee I'll handle whatever you ask of me perfectly."

Big platforms definitely offer more opportunities; you can practically pick up money on the street.

There aren't many bosses this generous these days.

He quickly turned on his personal computer, logged into the stadium's back-end monitoring system using the team account, cut out all the 24-hour monitoring videos for today, sent them to the boss, and then enabled an extra hour of blocking for the camera in this corner.

After doing all this, he instructed his other men in the group chat to surround the entire corridor.

He then quickly ran to the storage room and dragged back a whole truckload of cleaning tools and a row of stage props.

“Boss, the Star Federation has very strict gun control laws. It’s inconvenient for you to carry that thing around. This cello case with the metal shielding coating is more suitable. We all use this.”

The security captain obsequiously put on gloves and helped pack the gun into the box. He then personally knelt down to clean up the bloodstains left by the burly man who had just led the way. He took out a spray bottle from his pocket and confirmed that there was no residual blood on the floor tiles after spraying.

Fang Zhuo watched the other person's overly skillful movements quietly.

This third-party security company is not among the largest in the Star Federation, but its prices are unusually high, and now it seems that you really do get what you pay for.

The quality of this service is far superior to that of the thugs Ruan Zihan hired.

The security captain was carefully examining the fluorescent reaction on the corridor walls with an instrument. After finishing the inspection, he helped Fang Zhuo carry the cello case to the spaceship door.

"Have a safe trip, boss. This is my electronic business card. Please feel free to contact me if you need anything in the future."

“Our team is very experienced. If anyone comes to the set to cause trouble, we can handle them perfectly. You can rest assured.”

Fang Zhuo nodded.

The rain outside subsided, and since both the stadium and the hotel were located in the heart of the city, it only took twenty minutes to get back to the hotel.

Having learned from his previous experience opening blind boxes, he quickly made his choice this time, decisively selecting the box with the heaviest average weight.

With a burst of white smoke, ten boxes appeared neatly on the hotel coffee table.

As usual, he started by opening the lightest boxes and opened two strength pills in succession. The notes indicated that they could temporarily increase physical strength and combat power for half an hour after consumption.

There were eight boxes left. Fang Zhuo picked them up one by one and shook them. Four of them were of similar weight and felt square when they were placed inside the box.

[Congratulations on obtaining the Residential Building Module *1]

[Note: The layout and design of residential building rooms can be freely defined, currently limited to a land area of ​​1500㎡, including a main building area of ​​700㎡ and a garden area of ​​800㎡, and a building height of no more than five stories (including the basement)]

[Congratulations on obtaining the Office Building Module *1]

[Note: The site area is limited to 2500㎡, and the building height is limited to six stories.]

[Congratulations on obtaining the Large Photography Studio Building Module *1]

[Congratulations on obtaining the Shopping Mall Building Module *1]

[Note: The site area is limited to 3400 square meters, the building height is limited to four stories, and the number of merchants cannot exceed 80.]

[Note: As the company's operating level increases, the restricted area and height of all building modules can be increased accordingly.]

The system gifted him four buildings that could be placed anywhere he wanted. Although he couldn't trade them directly, their combined value was at least several billion.

This time, the overall value of the blind boxes was much higher than last time. Fang Zhuo then opened the heaviest one. As a spherical object flew into his computer, an app called "Vacation Star Editor" appeared on his computer's main interface.

The app's homepage features a galaxy overview map of the entire Star Federation. The three asteroids that originally orbited the main star have now become four, quietly circling the main star in the tranquil night sky.

He simply took the remaining four blind boxes back to the spaceship and immediately headed for the extra asteroid.

The spaceship hovered in mid-air. Fang Zhuo looked down at the vacation planet while changing parameters in the editor.

The asteroid's terrain and even weather can be modified within a certain range using the editor. This modification is delayed by only about ten seconds and blends seamlessly with the original terrain.

The planet boasts stunning natural scenery, with vast lakes and plains, and lush, verdant forests.

The system came with five docking ports, which he could drag and drop to place the spaceship docking ports anywhere.

According to the rules shown in the editor, public air routes will officially be connected to this planet starting the day after tomorrow. It is designated as Planet 399 and will be seamlessly integrated into the entire Star Federation's public transportation network.

If the previous four buildings were worth between several billion and tens of billions, then the commercial value of this planet is far more than tens of billions.

It's a pity, it would be even better if it could be resold secondhand.

This place is very close to the main star; a round trip by spaceship takes only forty minutes. Developing any industry here has a natural geographical advantage.

Fang Zhuo certainly didn't intend to treat it as just a simple vacation spot.

He decided to replan the entire landscape of Star 399 tomorrow, move the four buildings provided by the system over, and make this the new base for Giant Entertainment.

Sitting in the spaceship, he then opened another, heavier blind box.

Nothing happened again, except that a small white dot appeared in the resort-style lake below.

He piloted his spaceship downwards for a while and discovered it was a huge luxury cruise ship. Upon closer inspection, a list of basic parameters appeared:

[Giant Entertainment Cruise Ship]

[Gross tonnage 220,000 GT, length 360 meters, passenger capacity 5,800, number of decks 20]

Sure enough, after setting up the personal improvement series, the system gave me a lot of things that could improve my quality of life.

He then opened the remaining two blind boxes. One of them contained a bodyguard employee card, while the other fell into his palm like a ball of light.

[Congratulations, host, you have gained +10 personal attribute points (equivalent to 30 out of 100)]

[It has been detected that only seven attributes are currently enabled in the host's X-ray vision mode. We suggest you temporarily store this reward in your inventory.]

After storing the attribute points in his backpack, Fang Zhuo flew the spaceship back to the hotel.

Having learned from his previous experience rescuing Deng Jiaqiang, he specifically instructed Jiang Yu to clear his schedule for tomorrow afternoon, ready to go to sea to rescue his new employee at any time.

However, just as the spaceship's hatch opened on the hotel's top floor, and the stairs led down to the terrace, Fang Zhuo suddenly saw someone crouching on the terrace railing—

The man was dressed in black ancient costume, wearing a huge bamboo hat, and his whole body was soaked by the rain. He was squatting on the railing of more than forty floors in the midst of a storm.

Aside from the bodyguards and staff provided by the system, he never imagined that someone would appear in his hotel suite in such an unbelievable manner and pose.

Seeing Fang Zhuo emerge from the cabin door, the man jumped down from the railing, knelt on one knee, and made a fist-and-palm gesture:

"My lord, I am Fu Zhaoyu."

Very good, he's a young man with a classical style.

Fang Zhuo paused for a moment, hesitating about how to greet the young man in ancient style in a proper yet polite way. Fortunately, the other party remained silent, thus avoiding the trouble of awkward small talk.

He glanced at Fu Zhaoyu's stats, his gaze lingering on the [Stamina: 10] entry, and asked:

"How capable are you? Can you even stop a bullet?"

Fu Zhaoyu remained outside the terrace, not bringing the moisture from his clothes inside: "Okay."

Wearing gloves, Fang Zhuo took the homemade gun directly from the cello case he had brought back that night, skillfully cocked it, and fired it directly into the boundless night sky next to the bodyguard.

The difference was only a few microseconds.

He couldn't see when the other person drew their knife; he only vaguely saw a flash of light before his eyes, and then the bullet shattered into pieces and fell onto the tiles at the junction of the terrace and the living room.

Fang Zhuo put the gun back in the box, gave the other person a thumbs up, and then sent the address of the employee dormitory to Fu Zhaoyu's personal computer.

Worried that the other party's appearance might frighten the staff dormitory managers, he sent several messages to them in advance.

Just like when he arrived, Fu Zhaoyu's departure was also very sudden.

Instead of taking the stairs or the elevator, we quickly and dizzyingly climbed down the facade of the forty-plus-story building.

Like the system's skill, such bodyguards can only be used for self-defense in situations where attackers dare not call the police. However, if they choose to launch an attack on a competitor, this obviously overpowered attack method will definitely attract strict scrutiny from the Star Federation authorities.

Fortunately, his safety is now finally guaranteed, and he no longer needs to worry about Ruan Zihan's sudden little schemes.

The suite was lit by a dim yellow sleep light; it was already past three in the morning.

The competition livestream has just ended, and while all the viewers are still reminiscing about it, each streamer's super topic has gained at least tens of thousands of followers.

As usual, those marketing accounts that try to ride the wave of popularity run rampant, and the StarNet is full of all sorts of true and false so-called insider information and revelations.

At 4 a.m., a post written in the voice of an insider quietly climbed to the bottom of the trending searches.

"Buy it. Now give this answer on the MiHu platform 50,000 views." Ruan Zihan said to his assistant while angrily shooing the other people in the room to the side.

He had barely hung up the phone when he was met with a barrage of complaints.

"Boss, you have money to invest in traffic, so why don't you have money to pay us the balance? We haven't even asked you for our brother's medical expenses yet..."

The muscular man licked his lower lip: "Everyone in our line of work has raised their prices. It's one thing that you're only willing to pay a deposit of 100,000, after all, you've done a lot of business for us before. But not even paying for medical expenses is a bit disgusting. Who are you insulting?"

Ruan Zihan swept all the files off the desktop and onto the floor, then slammed his fist on the sofa several times.

"You're all pushing me, how far are you going to push me?!"

He strode up to the muscular man and said, "Do you want to listen to what you're saying—Fang Zhuo made a shooting gesture to your older brother, and then your brother was suddenly shot? Are you trying to fool a three-year-old? Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"You can't even get the job done, yet you dare to ask for the final payment? Who's trying to disgust whom?"

The muscular man was speechless for a moment.

The kid in charge of recording was new and was so focused on recording the older brother's heroic figure that Fang Zhuo's movements were blocked by the older brother in front of him, so that part of the details wasn't captured on camera.

The video made it seem as if they were fleeing from Fang Zhuo in disarray; only the few people directly involved knew exactly what had happened.

The muscular man tried to explain, but was quickly met with an impatient sneer from Ruan Zihan:

"I transferred another eight thousand to you. Get lost and don't bother me."

After getting rid of the beggars, Ruan Zihan smashed all the worthless things in the office.

His recent response is arguably the closest to the true situation of Giant Entertainment.

The rewards promised by Giant Entertainment were too extravagant. He suspected that even if half of them were delivered, the entire internet would praise them. But if he bought the answer first, all the viewers would be watching Giant Entertainment to see if they would deliver the rewards. Even a slight discount would cause dissatisfaction.

Giant Entertainment either has to pay a huge cost to fully fulfill its promise, or it will have to bear the consequences of being ridiculed by the entire internet.

He was determined to put the other side in a difficult position.

Ruan Zihan stared intently at the computer screen until six in the morning, when the reposted exposé finally climbed to fifth place on the trending topics list, sparking heated discussions among countless netizens.

[Mihu asks: What are your thoughts on the recent Juyu Group Broadcast Competition?]

[Just got off the Skyrail. Thanks for the invitation, but I'll remain anonymous due to potential conflicts of interest.]

I had just returned to the backstage area around 1 a.m. when the boss immediately gathered all the streamers, announced that all rewards would be drastically reduced, and asked everyone to sign a confidentiality agreement.

They only planned to buy the Federal Center Plaza screen for two hours, take photos, market it, and then leave; the promised exclusive lounge was actually just a small private room enclosed by temporary partitions.

The script for the short drama was the kind of cringeworthy, low-brow video with ten or twenty episodes, completely different from what I had imagined.

Although I know that the resources I actually receive will differ from what was officially announced, I still feel sorry for the small streamers who finally made it into the top six.

I used to enjoy the job quite a bit, since the company's perks were genuine, but this time it's really disappointing...

[Is the person who leaked the highly-rated information an employee of Juyu Entertainment? Or just a regular employee or a small-time streamer?]

[This answer was posted at 3 AM, wow, that's so real, it's exactly the time the confidentiality agreement was signed.]

[When the original poster first posted this, they weren't anonymous yet. Around 3 AM, I checked their profile, and it was all about live streaming. They only started being active about two weeks ago when Juyu Entertainment first started group streaming. They looked like a Juyu Entertainment employee.]

[Wow, you found out what the private lounge was like that very night?! Even if you ate rat poison, you wouldn't have gotten it that fast!]

[Don't believe me? +1. Giant Entertainment spent such a huge amount on the final round of competition, they wouldn't skimp on a single dressing room.]

[I'm laughing so hard. The dressing room isn't going to make you any money, so why are you getting such a good treatment? I'm so glad the boss of Xinju Entertainment is such a good person.]

[Hahahaha, I thought Fang would just symbolically buy a large screen for one day, but what's with the two-hour purchase? He's really stingy.]

@Federal Central Plaza, please come and debunk this rumor quickly, otherwise we'll know it's true.

[Don't the commenters realize that having money and being willing to spend money on prestige are two completely different levels of assets? Forgive my bluntness, but Juyu hasn't yet reached the point where it can book Federation Square for a week.]

[A Star Entertainment Marketing Account with 100,000 followers is now accepting submissions from Star Entertainment's livestreamers, and is looking out for heartbroken streamers.]

[...I was originally planning to check in on the big screen in the square, but now I'm so disappointed.]

[Seriously, you guys were really hoping to get the giant screen in Federal Central Square for a month when you voted? Have you never been a fan of any celebrities or are you just brainless? Instead of criticizing the official channels, see if you can extend the two hours to a whole day.]

[It's suggested that the official account issue an apology as soon as possible. They should have considered the potential backlash when they announced these rewards. This isn't the way to create a buzz.]

[@GiantEntertainment, do you dare to stand up and give everyone an explanation?]

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Author's Note: I'm recommending the pre-order for "Old Lady, But an Infinite Dungeon Cleaner"!

By the way, could you please add this column to your favorites? [kiss][kiss]

Copywriting:

Wang Liping worked hard for her three sons her whole life, leaving them a house as compensation for their demolished property and 200,000 yuan in cash.

In the end, all she received were her sons' greedy accusations and her grandson's disdainful glares.

Forced by circumstances, Wang Liping returned to her rural hometown, where she lived in poverty and had no one to care for her.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back twenty years in the past.

At that time, the house had not yet been demolished, and she was still in good health. Wang Liping decisively severed ties with her sons and moved into the best nursing home in the city with cash.

On the same day that she finished greeting her roommates at the nursing home, Wang Liping found an unexpected job posting—

[Position: Cleaner at the copy company]

Monthly salary: 25,000 yuan

[Benefits: Shuttle bus service, paid annual leave, and you can take any items left behind in the dungeon.]

[Job Requirements: Bold yet meticulous, with strong mental fortitude; those with relevant experience in the field are preferred]

No age limit

Wang Liping: Okay, now that we've covered the advantages of this job, what about the disadvantages?

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