«He! Has no money!!!»
Although the rushed design plans created by He Fang couldn’t be immediately implemented, He Fang finally breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that the Nightmare Beast Seeds wouldn’t affect the people in the city.
He now had more time to revise the defensive building blueprints, making the entire design more suited to the current situation of the city.
He Fang made himself a cup of oat milk tea, placed it on the table, and began researching online.
The city in “Ruins Without Restart” had always been meticulously maintained by He Fang. After seeing the various disasters faced by other players, He Fang had been overly cautious and careful with his city’s construction. Though the population grew slowly, the birth and death rates were steady. He Fang had continuously worked on upgrading basic infrastructure such as hospitals, police stations, drainage systems, and power supply. The only thing he hadn’t considered was defense.
“If I could avoid war, I would,” He Fang thought. “The population is already so small. It hurts to lose even a few more.” To He Fang, the disappearing little NPCs in the city all had their own unique charm. They often got into arguments, which caused crowds to gather, and some did good deeds, with vehicles stopping for pedestrians. Sometimes, when he felt down, he would use the god’s perspective to watch the little people in the game trying to live their lives. He could watch for quite a while.
Now that He Fang knew the Nightmare Beast Forest was temporarily harmless to the residents, he realized that rather than expanding the land, he should focus more on upgrading the defenses. However, the city’s population being at full capacity was also a huge problem. If the population became too large, happiness would decline and NPCs could start to leave.
The area surrounding the city was all Nightmare Beast Forest. The current funds should be enough to open up a new area by the next time He Fang logged in. But once he expanded, there would be no funds left to upgrade defenses.
“Maybe I could adjust the taxes and make a quick profit?” He Fang thought with a mischievous smile.
But in the end, He Fang shook his head. Such a short-sighted approach would only reduce the residents’ loyalty. From what he could see, loyalty seemed to be a very useful thing.
Building a city involved so many considerations. He Fang decided to clear his mind and deal with things tomorrow. He ate another pack of instant noodles, went back to his bedroom, and slept soundly.
The next day, when He Fang logged in, the first thing he did was check the city’s event statistics. He was suddenly surprised to see the overcrowded list.
Since “Ruins Without Restart” had gone online, the event statistics had been fairly ordinary, with no major incidents.
For example: ‘Mr. Xu from the north moved his family to the city center’, ‘Ms. Wang thinks the park is too small and hopes for a bigger one to dance square dancing’, or ‘The hospital’s waiting time is too long and wants more windows’. These were the usual types of tasks given by residents. They often provided hints for adjusting the city’s layout to make it more rational.
Today, mixed in with these usual entries, was ‘Temporary resident Min Zhizhou participated in research at the Institute’, and there were several such entries. The passage of time in the game had caused Min Zhizhou to participate in countless research sessions at the Institute, to the point it seemed as though he almost lived there.
Along with these events, there were also a significant number of unit-related events.
‘The Institute wishes to establish a biological research base away from the city.’
‘The police station has decided after careful consideration, to establish a prison and is requesting approval for the establishment of the prison.’
‘The police station has decided after careful consideration, to establish a defense department and is requesting approval to establish an armed unit.’
‘The city government proposes the establishment of a high court.’
‘The Ministry of Public Security suggests setting up a temporary residence gathering place.’
…
Looking at the long list of ‘proposals’ and ‘requests’, He Fang’s expression was incredibly complex.
After the news that the Nightmare Beast Forest was harmless spread, the events, which had previously been as quiet as a chicken, suddenly turned into a clamor of human voices.
These messages almost seemed to carve the words “urgent need for land expansion” into his eyes.
However, from these suggestions, He Fang also saw the urgent need for changes in the city. While he wanted to proceed carefully, he truly wasn’t sure if there would be a city outside the Nightmare Beast Forest suddenly interacting with them. He wished to tackle multiple things at once, but…
He Fang rubbed his forehead in frustration.
Everywhere he looked, there were demands. But he was now faced with a huge problem.
He had no money!!!
Not a single coin. It was driving him crazy.
Although the game was designed around cities with a complete economic system, the city wasn’t rich at all. The main reason was that “Ruins Without Restart” was set in a post-apocalyptic reconstruction setting.
There were no other trade partners and all funds had to come from internal development. All the money basically came from the effects of inflation.
Although the game didn’t require specific terrain for all needed resources, the difficulty was still very high.
They say that to get rich, you must first build roads, but this approach didn’t work in “Ruins Without Restart”. The way to quickly develop the economy in this game was by increasing the population, increasing demand, expanding the city, and using internal economic growth to expand the available construction land. Proper factory development for industrial growth was also crucial. To ensure the resources were stable, agriculture had to be given a certain range.
If anything didn’t align with the overall town’s progression, its value would change. If the market economy was imbalanced, it could easily cause the economic collapse of the entire town. Therefore, He Fang had always been very cautious in building the town.
To rapidly develop the economy in a short time, the best option now was to expand the land, as was requested in the statistics. However, expanding the land wouldn’t satisfy the city’s management needs. He Fang felt a splitting headache.
He Fang decided to go online. He had something to consult with the only NPC who had useful information, Min Zhizhou.
As soon as He Fang logged in, he saw that he was still in the same three-person household from before, but the other three were probably not home now. He Fang put on his hat, sneaked out through the window, and made his way out. He really couldn’t take the enthusiastic family anymore.
Using the map to search, He Fang discovered that Min Zhizhou was at the research institute. Remembering the string of messages about Min Zhizhou participating in research, He Fang instantly felt a chill run down his spine.
Could those researchers really be treating Min Zhizhou as an experiment and doing something extreme to him?!
He Fang entered the research room and, using the map, pinpointed Min Zhizhou’s location. However, what he entered was an observation room just a glass wall away from the laboratory where Min Zhizhou was. Several researchers were recording data. The only one who turned around was the young researcher.
“City Lord!” The young researcher’s eyes lit up the moment he saw He Fang and hurried over. “It’s truly an honor to see you again.”
He Fang took a couple of steps back, trying to appear nonchalant. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the researchers were eyeing him too eagerly, making him feel extremely unsafe, especially this young researcher.
He Fang quickly checked the young researcher’s profile. The researcher’s name was Zhu Yan. He was the son of the institute’s director. He was very young. What shocked He Fang was Zhu Yan’s loyalty. When He Fang last checked, it had only been a little over 6,000, but now it had surpassed 8,000.
It was the first time He Fang had seen loyalty grow so rapidly. His jaw nearly dropped. When he looked at the statistics before entering the city, loyalty had increased but still hadn’t reached 4,000. Just Zhu Yan alone had raised it by several percentage points.
At that moment, a lively and youthful female voice came through an electronic device, asking, “Zhu Yan, I’m ready. Shall we start the experiment?”
Zhu Yan’s gaze shifted away from He Fang and instantly became calm and detached. His voice was even and composed as he clicked to activate the voice message. “It’s ready. The experiment begins.”
Experiment? What experiment?
He Fang leaned forward, peering through the observation glass.
In the large, white, empty laboratory, Min Zhizhou stood in place, dressed in a simple white coat. His expression was tense as if facing a formidable enemy. His eyes were sharp and his mental focus was intense as if he were facing a monster capable of tearing him apart at will.
But… standing in front of Min Zhizhou was a girl, no more than a third of his size. She seemed to be trembling in fear, her legs shaking.
The two of them stood in a standoff, wary and fearful of each other, each holding the same weapon, facing off.
He Fang: “?”
Lmao, what’s even happening 😂