2 Chapter 2
"Shushu? Shushu?"
Tong Shu was covered in sweat, her left hand tightly clutching her nightgown, her cheeks flushed red. Suddenly, she took a deep breath and abruptly opened her eyes.
"Shushu, did you have a nightmare?" Tong's mother asked worriedly by the bedside, wiping the sweat from Tong Shu's forehead. "You suddenly screamed, so I rushed over to check on you. Is it too hot? Can I turn the air conditioner down a bit?"
“Mom…” Tong Shu looked at her mother sitting by her bedside, her expression dazed.
Was I... just dreaming?
"Experts say the temperature won't drop until the end of the year. Ugh, using the air conditioner too much isn't good for you..."
Tong Shu's mother kept nagging in her ear, but Tong Shu couldn't listen anymore.
She suddenly grabbed her mother's arm and asked, "Mom! What month is it now?"
"June...June already?" Tong's mother replied, puzzled.
Tong Shu recalled the sound of the explosion and clenched her fist tightly.
"What's wrong, Shushu?" Tong's mother asked with a worried look.
Tong Shu came to her senses and whispered to her mother, "It's okay, Mom, you go to sleep."
Tong's mother still looked at Tong Shu with some unease.
"It's nothing, Mom, I just had a nightmare." Tong Shu forced a smile and urged her mother to go back to her room and sleep.
"Alright then..." Tong's mother walked out of Tong Shu's room, turning back every few steps. "Call me if you need anything."
"Mmm!" Tong Shu nodded, signaling her mother to close the door.
The moment the door closed, Tong Shu immediately remembered the little fox's divination, jumped out of bed, rushed to the desk, and picked up the game console.
The cartridge slot was empty, there was nothing there, and the game icon I'd been playing for five years wasn't on the console's home screen either.
Before Tong Shu could react, she felt a heat on her chest.
[Activating...]
[Identity verification in progress...]
[...binding]
[...Binding successful!]
As the last notification sound in her mind ended, Tong Shu's vision went black.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a familiar yet unfamiliar little house, with a little fox wearing a mask standing in front of her.
Tong Shu yelled "Ah!" and plopped down on the wooden floor.
A sharp pain emanating from her tailbone reminded her—this was not a dream!
The little fox trotted over and stood in front of Tong Shu, nervously rubbing its little paws together and circling around her.
"Island Master! Island Master, what's wrong?!"
...
"Nini...Nini?"
Tong Shu called out the little fox's name in surprise.
Unexpectedly, the little fox suddenly pouted, burst into tears, and grabbed Tong Shu's arm tightly.
"Waaaaah—Island Master!" Nini cried, tears streaming down her face. "Doka is gone! Bean and Bean Bean are gone too! My friends... all my friends just vanished with a 'boom'!!"
Doka is the director of the island's service center in this game. He is a round capybara with a beer belly. Tong Shu's main quests are all issued by this NPC. Douzi and Doudou are the shop assistants on the island. They are also two cute little animals.
The game "Little Forest Island" is set in a world where the protagonist is tired of city life and comes to a deserted island to farm and build infrastructure. The protagonist recruits a group of small animal NPCs, each with their own strengths, to work in various functional buildings on the island and live happily together.
Initially, the island had nothing but native fruit trees, rivers and streams, beaches and the sea, and a dilapidated service center.
Under Tong Shu's management for five years, her island has completed the construction of all facilities, including restaurants, clothing stores, shops, hospitals, and more. Even the service center has been transformed into a very impressive two-story building.
Because Tong Shu has a slight obsessive-compulsive disorder, she deliberately divided the area into an orchard, a residential area, a commercial area, a planting area, and a recreational area. The protagonist's own house was built on an independent island within an island, and it was a luxurious villa with a basement.
"You...you stop crying." Tong Shu was still a little incredulous and tentatively patted the little fox's head.
Nini let out a sob and actually stopped crying.
"No, why don't you take me to see what's going on..."
Tong Shu braced herself against the ground and managed to stand up.
“Oh…then Island Master, you’ll come with me…” Nini reached under her mask to wipe her tears, grabbed Tong Shu’s trouser leg with her little paws, and led her out of the fortune-telling hut.
Stepping outside and seeing the small island she had personally created, Tong Shu's mind went blank once again.
Is...it really my island?
As I entered the service hall, light streamed in through the windows, and it was indeed empty.
"Let's turn on the light," Tong Shu said, reaching for the light switch by the door, but the light still didn't turn on.
“It’s no use,” Nini said listlessly. “Doca is gone, and there’s no electricity.”
Tong Shu was still wondering what the connection was between electricity and Duoka when a system notification sounded in her mind.
[Please find a good engineer to temporarily replace Doka!]
At the same time, Tong Shu suddenly found herself with a work badge.
The job title field read "Senior Engineer," while the photo and name fields were blank.
"What...what is this?"
Tong Shu gripped her employee badge tightly, and the system notification sounded in her mind again.
[Please return to the human world and find suitable employees within one day to ensure the island's facilities function properly! Employees holding this employee ID can freely enter and exit the island through the island owner.]
"Doka is amazing, he fixes everything that breaks..." Nini thought of the missing Doka, and tears streamed down her face again.
But Tong Shu clearly had no intention of comforting her.
A suitable employee... can gain access to the island through her...
As things stand, the island is a completely independent entity from the real world.
If all of this is true, then wouldn't those who followed Tong Shu to the island be able to directly escape that great disaster?!
"Nini, how do I get out?" Tong Shu asked impatiently.
Nini pointed to Tong Shu's chest, "The key, the island lord's key is right there."
Tong Shu touched her chest and sure enough, there was a square protrusion, like a game card embedded in her skin.
Just as she was thinking about how to get out, Tong Shu suddenly felt dizzy.
When I opened my eyes again, I was already standing in front of the desk.
Tong Shu took a deep breath, then suddenly jolted awake and raised her right hand.
A work badge appeared before my eyes, and one of the columns filled out on it read—
[Senior Engineer]
————————————————————————
"Dad, come here for a second."
After dinner, Tong Shu mysteriously called her father into the room.
"These two, father and son." Tong's mother glanced at them as she cleared the dishes, then turned and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.
Although Tong's father didn't know what his daughter was planning, he happily followed Tong Shu into her small room.
Tong Shu had her hands in her pockets, clutching her employee badge tightly.
The name tag was written by Tong Shu after thinking about it all night, along with her father's name and a one-inch photo.
Seeing that Tong Shu remained silent for a while, Tong's father scratched his head in confusion: "What's wrong? Is there some surprise for Dad?"
Tong Shu nodded, then shook her head.
Tong's father was even more confused.
Tong Shu gritted her teeth, reached into her pocket, and handed something to her father.
Inside the green frog-shaped card holder was a name tag with his name on it. The three characters "Tong Songming" were clearly Tong Shu's handwriting, along with the words "Senior Engineer" printed in cute, round font.
Before Tong Songming could even laugh at his daughter for being so old and still doing handicrafts, Tong Shu grabbed his arm.
In an instant, the world spun around, and when I opened my eyes again, I was standing on a lush green lawn.
"ah!"
Tong Songming yelled and fell to the ground.
"dad!"
Tong Shu hurriedly helped her father up and settled him on a bench nearby.
"This...this...this—" Tong Songming raised his arm, pointing haphazardly with his fingers, "What, what place..."
The finger circled around and suddenly poked a furry head.
Nini took a half step back after being poked, rubbed her head, and then politely bowed to Tong Songming.
"Hello, Mr. Engineer."
...
"ah!!"
"dad!!!!!"
Tong Songming fainted.
"So, I'm going to play games with you now?" Tong Songming said in a daze after waking up in the big villa on Tong Shu Island.
"Dad! This isn't a game!" Tong Shu exclaimed angrily. "The world is about to end! How can you not understand!"
"Oh, oh, oh!" Tong Songming caught his breath. "So we all have to hide here to avoid dying from the heat?"
“To be precise, only you and I can come in right now.” Tong Shu frowned. “Besides, we can’t stay hidden inside forever; people will get suspicious.”
Tong Songming's expression also turned serious: "And your mother and grandparents...we have to think of something."
Tong Shu nodded. Although her father was nearing retirement age, he was still quite open-minded. Judging from his expression, he seemed to have accepted reality.
Tong Songming's gaze was somewhat complicated. When he heard that his daughter had fallen into a crevice while going to pick up her grandparents, he still felt it was unreal, but he also felt a real pang of heartache.
"Don't worry, Dad's here this time."
[Congratulations, Island Owner, on successfully recruiting a Senior Engineer! You have received a Storage Backpack*1]
As Tong Songming finished speaking, a system notification sounded in Tong Shu's mind, and at the same time, an item appeared in Tong Shu's hand.
[Storage Backpack: A seemingly ordinary backpack, made by Kouzi and imbued with spatial magic by Nini. It can retrieve island products from the human world and store human world items. Only the island owner and staff can use it.]
nice one!
Tong Shu couldn't contain her excitement.
Tong Shu remembered that the island's shops had plenty of supplies, and the island's fields could also be used for planting. In the apocalypse, what was the most important thing? With this backpack, their family's survival rate would be greatly increased!
From the moment Tong Songming put on his employee badge, the island's power system restarted, and the lights in Tong Shu's villa automatically turned on.
It seems the system can run automatically as long as someone is in the position. Tong Shu seemed thoughtful.
"Is there any water? I'm so thirsty." Tong Songming recovered from his shock and looked around for some water to drink.
Unfortunately, Tong Shu didn't put food and drinking water in the villa when she was decorating it, since she didn't expect the virtual protagonist to have a need to eat.
"Let's go to the store and take a look." After saying that, Tong Shu led Tong Songming and followed Nini to the store.
----------------------------
"this..."
The shelves, which were usually full of goods, were now empty. Tong Shu looked at Nini in confusion.
"That's it." Nini shrugged. "I was just about to say that along with Doka, all the supplies on our island also disappeared!"
In "Little Forest Island", besides the construction tasks of various functional buildings, the most fun part is the item collection system.
This is one of the reasons why Tong Shu has been able to play for so long.
Because the item catalog is very difficult to complete, it is usually obtained as a reward for completing various tasks, as a gift from islanders by increasing friendship with them, or by collecting materials yourself based on randomly refreshed blueprints... In short, it takes a lot of time.
Fortunately, if an item is unlocked in the encyclopedia, the island owner can purchase that item from the island's shop.
Tong Shu spent five years painstakingly completing the entire encyclopedia, but now there's nothing left.
Before Tong Shu could even feel sad, she heard the system notification sound again.
[How can we survive without supplies?! Island Master, please complete the item encyclopedia with 1000 items within one day! Let's lay a solid material foundation for the island's inhabitants!]
Tong Shu looked at her newly acquired backpack and finally understood why this reward appeared first.
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