Chapter 1 Congratulations, player, you've drawn an SSR character...
The moment Lu Xiaoqi opened the car door, she was choked by the overwhelming fishy smell and took a half step back. The faint stench of the silted riverbed, mixed with the odor of rotting old wood, fermented in the sweltering heat of midsummer, producing a nauseatingly sour and putrid odor.
"This place stinks!" She hurriedly covered her mouth and nose with her sun-protective sleeve, her almond-shaped eyes glistening with tears from the stench.
The taxi driver, a middle-aged woman, asked with some concern, "Young lady, are you sure you want to come here? After the developer ran away, even mice don't want to make their nests here anymore." She pointed to the archway covered in ivy in the distance, "Last time, an internet celebrity came to film a video, and his camera was hit by a falling tile."
"It's nothing, I just came to take some photos."
Lu Xiaoqi looked up at the dilapidated plaque reading "Qinghe Ancient Town" atop the archway, where saplings sprouting from the cracks in the bluestone swayed in the wind. She took out her phone to check the navigation—the location was exactly as described.
Lu Xiaoqi twitched the corner of her mouth.
Is this the "millennial cultural treasure" worth 500 million yuan mentioned in the contract?
She thought for a moment and said to the driver, "Ma'am, why don't you wait here for me for two hours? Consider it half a day's hire for you."
The job was easy, so the driver readily agreed.
The buzzing of the drone as it took off startled the crows perched on the eaves.
Lu Xiaoqi stared intently at the screen in her hand. The aerial footage revealed that the ancient town was actually quite large—a winding river divided it into several sections, with an artificial lake at the back. Rows of houses stood side-by-side, pavilions and towers dotted the landscape, and the roads were paved with blue bricks, hinting at its former prosperity. But now, the once orderly streets and alleys were torn apart by overgrown trees and weeds, leaving only the dilapidated gable walls; whitish plastic garbage piled up in the silted-up riverbeds, and dark green water plants floated faintly in the water.
There wasn't a soul in sight in the town; even the flowing water seemed to have stopped.
The driver also saw it and sighed, "It's all deserted like this, what a pity. It used to be quite lively."
Lu Xiaoqi asked curiously, "What was this place like before?"
"This used to be a tourist attraction, a 4A-level scenic spot! Back then, the water towns in the neighboring provinces were all being developed like crazy, right? A big boss thought this place was pretty good too, so he bought it and moved all the residents out of the town, taking their old houses, saying he wanted to create the number one water town in Jiangnan. It took several years to build, and at first it was okay, quite presentable, and some tourists came. When it was busy, there were queues for boats."
Lu Xiaoqi adjusted the camera angle: "So how did it turn out like this?"
"They just relied on throwing money at advertising, and once the ads were taken off, nobody came anymore. To be honest, this place was never meant to be a tourist attraction. It's just a county town, without even a bus station. It takes over an hour to drive here from the city, and there aren't any other tourist attractions around." The driver scoffed. "There are so many ancient water towns now, all pretty much the same, so they weren't competitive. They held on for another year before closing down. Later, I heard from others that the big boss was actually using it to launder money, and apparently he's already been arrested."
Lu Xiaoqi: ......
She planned to visit the ancient town, and the driver asked if she wanted to accompany her. She declined, and the driver was happy to relax in the car with the air conditioning on.
Walking through the town, Lu Xiaoqi finally saw its true appearance.
The bluestone bricks on the road had long been cracked and twisted by the grass. The walls on both sides of the street were covered with moss, and some were even covered with vines. The carved windows creaked in the wind, and the few remaining panes of glass were about to fall off. Some houses had their doors open, revealing bare doorways. A peek inside revealed only dark halls and weeds in the courtyards.
"This is the thousand-year-old treasure you were talking about?" Lu Xiaoqi said irritably, seemingly talking to no one in particular. She kicked aside a broken pottery jar blocking her way, startling a rat in a hole in the wall. "I think it would be quite nice to open a subterranean theme park."
A voice suddenly rang in her mind: "Player detected entering quest area! Newbie gift pack triggered—"
"Gift package my foot!" Lu Xiaoqi squatted by the river and poked the dark green algae carpet with a twig. It smelled even worse, so she threw the twig away in disgust. "This place is perfect for murdering and burying bodies. Anyway, you won't be able to find out if it all stinks."
Ignoring her complaints, the voice continued, "As long as you complete the ten weekly tasks issued by the system, you can activate the basic maintenance function."
As soon as she finished speaking, the dilapidated and crumbling ancient town vanished from her sight in an instant, replaced by its restored appearance:
The vermilion-lacquered covered bridge reflected the Milky Way, lanterns from painted boats illuminated the bluestone path, peddlers called out their wares by the roadside, and foreign women danced in the taverns—a scene of ancient prosperity. Beautiful women in long gowns brushed past her, their silks brushing against her, then disappeared into the shadows with their laughter.
Lu Xiaoqi felt as if she had fallen into a beautiful dream.
That's amazing.
She clicked her tongue in amazement, knowing that this was the system's holographic projection function, which was indeed a technology far beyond what we have today.
The story of her and the system needs to start from yesterday, or rather, from six months ago.
Lu Xiaoqi is a content creator on the platform known as "Lu Xiaoqi," who makes a living by making history and science videos. She has a small following. When she first quit her job to start her own business, she received a project from the "Wanjie Technology Promotion Committee," which asked her to produce a series of history and science videos.
Although she felt the company's name was a bit too cheesy, the company was generous with its funding and never interfered with her creative process, making them a rare find. This project earned her a down payment, which she used to buy a house.
So when the Worldwide Technology Promotion Committee contacted her again to ask if she was interested in participating in a new cultural tourism project to revitalize an ancient town, Lu Xiaoqi agreed without hesitation and without even giving it much thought.
Then... a strange thing called "Ancient Town Management Game System" appeared in her mind.
It was like a dream. When Lu Xiaoqi first heard the system's voice, she almost thought she had developed schizophrenia. It took her a long time to adjust before she accepted the fact that she really did have a system.
According to the system, Lu Xiaoqi has struck it rich—this ancient town is worth hundreds of millions and is a precious treasure of Chinese culture, which is now being given to her for free. As long as she manages it properly and meets the requirements set by the committee, she can make a fortune every day and obtain numerous benefits.
She was skeptical, which led to this trip to explore the ancient town.
......
The system's voice, like a dessert shop promoter, relentlessly proclaimed: "Player, keep up the good work! Draw your initial support card now and you can also enjoy..."
"I want to terminate the contract." Lu Xiaoqi remained unmoved. She grabbed her backpack, turned, and left. "According to Article 148 of the Civil Code, a contract signed under fraud..."
How much money would she need to invest to get this dilapidated ancient town officially operational?
The system paused for a moment, its voice becoming completely flat: "According to Article 32 of the 'Convention on the Inheritance of Civilizations Across the Worlds,' those who refuse to fulfill their obligations after signing the contract will bear the liability for breach of contract."
Lu Xiaoqi snorted and reluctantly stopped walking.
Of course, she hadn't forgotten that exorbitantly priced breach of contract clause.
"Can I hand it in?"
If you hand it over to the government, you'll at least get a large bonus, right? Maybe you can even sit back and collect dividends.
System: "No, the intervention of powerful forces will cause more chaos in the timeline. Therefore, players must abide by the confidentiality agreement and must not reveal the existence of this system to irrelevant persons. Otherwise, it will be treated as a breach of contract."
"This is an unfair contract!" she said fiercely, looking around. "We have no start-up capital and no employees! At least... give me two people to clean this place up, okay?"
"Once players complete the task, they will receive a monetary reward!" The system's voice returned to its initial cheerful tone. "As for manpower, drawing cards will solve the problem."
As soon as the system finished speaking, eight golden cards appeared in front of Lu Xiaoqi, floating in mid-air.
"The ancient town currently lacks popularity and has not enough staff. In order to better develop Qinghe Ancient Town, players are encouraged to draw more NPCs as soon as possible! You can enjoy two extra chances when drawing initial NPC cards now."
Lu Xiaoqi carefully examined the cards. There were eight cards in total, and each one had a Bagua (Eight Trigrams) pattern on it. They all looked exactly the same and were indistinguishable.
She was somewhat wary: "What kind of employees?"
Should we give her a Super Saiyan?
System: "Players will know soon after drawing their cards."
Lu Xiaoqi narrowed her eyes. Things had already come to this point, so why not just try her luck? However... she touched her hand, feeling a little worried. Her luck in the lottery had always been rather average.
"Can I have three draws?" she asked.
"Yes," the system added, "the extra two were secured for the players."
Lu Xiaoqi replied insincerely, "...Thank you so much, you're so awesome!"
She looked at the eight cards, chose one, gritted her teeth, and stretched out her hand.
A dazzling light flashed.
The system's cheerful voice rang out: "Congratulations, player, you have drawn an SSR character card!"
Lu Xiaoqi was extremely excited.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
However, after the golden light flashed, nothing happened.
Lu Xiaoqi blinked; this was awkward.
Where is her SSR? She has such a high-ranking SSR!
The system thoughtfully provides the following message: "NPC characters will be deployed to the ancient town within ten minutes. Players can check the relevant cards in their system space first."
Lu Xiaoqi entered the system space with some skepticism. Compared to the previous blank space, the system space was now completely different and brand new.
It had become a miniature version of Qinghe Ancient Town, even perfectly replicating the cracks in the bluestone pavement. And she, Lu Xiaoqi, was now embracing this miniature projection of the ancient town.
At this moment, Lu Xiaoqi felt as if she had absolute control over Qinghe Ancient Town. As long as she used her "hand of God," she could bring about earth-shattering changes to the real Qinghe Ancient Town.
The system quickly pulled her back to reality: "You don't have this ability yet. Focus on leveling up. After leveling up, you'll have all the abilities you want."
Lu Xiaoqi: "You're just a pie-in-the-sky, heartless capitalist! You talk a good game, but you have no money and no manpower."
The system complained, "Didn't I already give you people?"
"I haven't even seen what it looks like yet..."
While arguing with it, Lu Xiaoqi skillfully tapped her personal panel from the upper right corner.
This also includes a lot of new information—
[Player: Lu Xiaoqi]
[Operating Entity: Qinghe Ancient Town]
[Operating Status: Not yet open for business]
[Comment: It's been closed for years, in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it would be better to open a "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" experience center.]
Lu Xiaoqi got excited: "Look, look! Even you think you're suited to open a haunted house, right? I told you, why don't we just open a murder mystery theme park? We can just do 'Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,' we don't even need to build anything, there will definitely be people willing to be the sucker... no, to experience this unique and exciting feeling."
The system gently replied: "Honey, open your taskbar and take a look."
Lu Xiaoqi gave a soft snort and glanced at the task bar—
[Main Quest: To revitalize Qinghe Ancient Town and open it to the public, with the theme of promoting traditional Chinese culture.]
She thought to herself, "How can 'Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio' not be considered traditional Chinese culture? Humph!" Then she continued reading:
Current progress: 1%.
[Mission Reward: 5 million in cash, 1 treasure chest.]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
