Chapter 20. Power, endless and boundless. ...
Lu Yusheng felt even more guilty and quickly waved his hand awkwardly, "No, no, I'm fine."
After saying that, I strangely recalled the scenes of receiving caring phone calls from my parents during holidays, which seemed to slightly overlap with the present moment.
...Lou Bao, you really are...I'm going to cry my eyes out.
Hua Manlou did not give up, and continued, "Although Miss Lu's shop has many rare treasures, it is usually deserted. I suppose you must have been worried about business yesterday?"
"If you need money, don't hesitate to treat us well."
As he spoke, he even regretted not realizing this sooner. She was a weak woman with no martial arts skills, yet she dared to do business in this remote place; her life must have been difficult.
And what Hua Manlou said at the end was not a lie; originally, he, Lu Xiaofeng, and Sikong Zhaixing were all wealthy.
Before Lu Yusheng could react, he added, "Miss, would you like to move to a shop in a better location? The Hua family has many shops; transferring one would not be a problem."
Upon hearing this, the latter shook his head decisively. This was a building provided by the system, made entirely of reinforced concrete and equipped with player protection features. Even the best shops here were nothing more than blue bricks and white tiles, completely on a different level.
As for the money he mentioned, Lu Yusheng couldn't help but engage in a painful internal struggle.
She accepted it, but she always felt inexplicably guilty for taking a shortcut.
If she didn't accept it... the pie the system offered was like a carrot dangling in front of a donkey, making her itchy with envy.
She knew that her chivalrous friends were not short of money, but they were not related to her, and no matter how rich they were, they did not belong to Lu Yusheng.
After all, Lu Yusheng is only possessive of money from strangers; he doesn't care about money from friends.
She sighed silently to herself: Even I would feel ashamed to scheme against my friend's pocket!
But in the end... after much deliberation, I decided to agree.
She felt guilty for taking his money for nothing, so she came up with a compromise: investing in him. Of course, this was on the condition that he really cared about these small profits.
So she quickly said, "There's no need to change the location. Although this place is desolate, the cost of building this building will be considerable. If you are willing to provide financial support, I would be extremely grateful. The money can be considered a loan, or if you'd like, it can be considered an investment. I will then give you dividends annually or quarterly..."
In fact, Lu Yusheng had already planned to set the internet fee higher later, and he could also sell some of the by-products in the store.
Of course, electronic products are out of the question, since there's no electricity here, and customers would just end up using them as bricks.
After all this, she was confident that she could at least repay the money she had borrowed.
As for the note she wrote while she was not fully conscious... she remembered the word "shareholder" that had been crossed out on it, and silently apologized to herself from five hours ago.
Hua Manlou was indifferent to the suggestion. The money was not important to him, but he would not object to Lu Yusheng's good intentions.
He could sense the state of the business here; the actual dividends probably wouldn't be much, so he figured he might as well take them to put Miss Lu's mind at ease.
——————
So Lu Yusheng slowly stuffed the cold silver notes into his pocket, and after he finished, he mentally accessed the supply system. As the silver notes in his pocket gradually decreased, he finally received the system's notification sound.
[Phase 1 revenue target achieved, surrounding environment search secure, system upgrade in progress]
As she worked, she stole glances at Hua Manlou's reaction across the street. Seeing that he remained calm, she felt a little relieved, though occasionally a thought would flash through her mind: "Where did he put all that money before?"
Finally, after hearing the familiar activation sound, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Hua Manlou noticed the sudden sound and asked her what was wrong.
"No, I just suddenly feel safe again." Although he knew that Lu Yusheng couldn't see, he still showed a bright smile.
Because you have money?
Hua Manlou chuckled. People in the martial arts world always like to claim that money is just an external thing and spend it like water. But clearly, eight or nine out of ten of the sufferings in the world are caused by money. When they are truly penniless, they will do crooked things under the guise of robbing the rich to help the poor.
People as genuine as Lu Yusheng are rare these days.
Lu Yusheng didn't covet the extra money in his stack and returned it all.
Taking more now will put more pressure on them later, and the current situation is already enough to force this fledgling small shop to undergo a major organizational restructuring.
Just around 12:30, the horse-drawn carriage delivering the food finally arrived.
Three or four servants carried in food boxes. Whether the food was freshly made in the carriage or there was some special shock absorption mechanism in the carriage, the food was still intact when it was taken out.
After lunch, Lu Yusheng's mood gradually calmed down. However, she still couldn't help but want to see what the ultimate pie promised by the system was. So she made an excuse to ask Hua Manlou to watch the shop for her for a while and then slipped upstairs.
Since the system is already activated, staying in the store is still the safest option.
Currently, it seems that the system's protection mechanism is to forcibly expel those she defines as enemies, so Hua Manlou is also safe here.
Back in his room, Lu Yusheng couldn't wait to summon his system.
System upgrade complete; integrating plugins and new resources in progress.
She immediately fell silent and listened.
Seemingly sensing Lu Yusheng's urgency, the usually silent system also took the initiative to speak.
[Considering the overall high level of danger in this dimension, which is mismatched with the host's own strength, I applied to headquarters and installed a new plugin and upgrade package. The final result is—you can now freely choose a game to affect your surroundings or yourself.]
We will project the settings and features of the selected game in a form acceptable to the native inhabitants of the current dimension.
This... is just as exciting as choosing a completely new system!
After understanding what the other person meant, Lu Yusheng was overjoyed at first, and then, almost without hesitation, blurted out the name of the game with the highest combat power in his memory—
"Legendary Epic Ultraman Brawl: A Guide to the Galaxy's Shining Light".
[...Game combat power cannot exceed the current understanding of this plane too much. We are here to develop, not to destroy the world.]
The system couldn't hold back and typed out its speechlessness for the first time using ellipses. Could such a cosmic-level being be summoned so easily to a pure martial arts realm?!
Lu Yusheng lowered her head in disappointment. She had hoped to get the Giant of Light to fight for her, so she could only start to struggle with the decision.
Rather than choosing abilities that affect the surrounding environment or the house, she would definitely prefer those that can be projected onto herself. If they are strong enough, she wouldn't mind making some minor modifications to her body.
Of course, compared to modern high-tech weapons, the internal energy and true qi abilities in this dimension may not be anything special.
So Lu Yusheng quickly recalled the various online games she had played before. Card summoning was out of the question, as it would be difficult to explain having too many unregistered accounts, and even if a character was strong, it wasn't necessarily because of her own strength, so it was ultimately a limitation.
Similarly, games like "League of Legends" and "Glory of Kings," while supposedly featuring competition on the same stage, are essentially about controlling characters to fight.
It would be acceptable to apply the abilities of each hero to oneself, but considering that the system even rejected her Galactic Team, it's clear that it wouldn't be so flexible.
She should cherish this potentially one-time opportunity and not get a useless ability.
Therefore, Lu Yusheng, who is always unconventional, didn't even consider the dress-up and romance games that he cherishes so much for a second.
She then remembered that she had played a mech combat game with a space setting, but after thinking about it, although she really wanted to pilot a mech, she gave up. Mechs are also external forces, while here, if the rules are used well, she can almost become a god.
He then added, "People get tired too. What if you get attacked in your dreams? A glass cannon is not an option!"
So, in the end, the clumsy Lu Yusheng settled on three conditions:
1. This ability must make one invulnerable to weapons and external objects;
2. At the same time, it is necessary to possess certain attack methods;
3. It aligns with current global understanding.
The first two conditions don't have to be met, but the third is a hard condition and the one that bothered her the most. Fortunately, after much hesitation, she finally had to come up with one.
When Lu Yu was in college, she played a martial arts-themed massively multiplayer online game called "Hundred Days to Immortality". Although a large part of the content of this type of game is about interacting with game NPCs, it would probably be reduced if it were applied to her.
The system should allow her to level up gradually, just like the characters in the game, and unlock corresponding sect skills.
She might even get a chance to experience those supernatural mounts and weapons in the game that are just designed to make money.
Actually, there are many similar ancient-style MMOs on the market. The reason for choosing Chun Chun is that although the game has "immortal" in its name, it has very few supernatural elements. In addition, it is the first large-scale online game she has ever played.
After telling the system the game name and settings and receiving a positive response, Lu Yusheng was satisfied to see a large line of text on the system page in his mind.
[Data import in progress]
It seems like it's settled.
How long is it expected to take to import this?
Since it is currently operating normally and has not been forced into hibernation, the system can be fully focused on answering her questions while loading.
[Estimated completion time: 4 hours and 13 minutes]
Lu Yusheng did a quick mental calculation and figured it would be around six o'clock. If she finished dinner early and went back to her room, she could explore her new ability as soon as possible!
After calming down, she even had the energy to pay attention to the terms mentioned in the system's previous words: "So the headquarters you mentioned earlier, is that the mysterious force that brought me here?"
The system readily agreed.
Fearing that knowing too much might have negative consequences, Lu Yusheng didn't ask any more questions. After all, a system sounded like a technological product, not something that could be born naturally. Knowing its origin was enough.
But she couldn't help but ask again, "So, why did you send me through time? What use is opening an online store to you?"
This time, the voice in my mind paused for a moment before slowly saying: "Opening a shop isn't actually important; what's important is that it allows me to explore new ways of obtaining energy."
After seemingly considering it for a moment, it added: "Don't worry, there are many more experimental planes like this, so headquarters won't interfere too much. However, you cannot cease operations before the contract expires. Of course, this is a long-term mission, and operations can be temporarily suspended under special circumstances."
Hearing that there would be no excessive interference, Lu Yusheng felt somewhat relieved, but he didn't miss the term "contract period."
She hesitated for a moment, then asked, "How long is this 'contract period'?"
The system didn't hide anything: "[40 years is calculated based on the current time flow rate in this plane.]"
This retirement age... is not unacceptable.
Lu Yusheng felt a little relieved, but then, as if remembering something, he casually asked, "If my business isn't doing well, you won't call me, will you?"
The system remained silent for a long time before finally replying with a single sentence without an ellipsis: "I don't know."
Just then, there was a knock on the door, followed by a burst of hearty laughter from downstairs.
She heard Hua Manlou's voice, recognized that he had knocked on the door very politely, and had only called her name twice in a low voice.
At this moment, Lu Yusheng also remembered that it was Lu Xiaofeng's voice downstairs, and immediately ran downstairs, and then—
Then she saw two men dressed in white, and a stranger dressed in white with a black-sheathed sword on his back.
A note from the author:
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