FPE Chapter 20

The reason the glasses had been specially made in the first place was that human bodies on Earth possessed too little energy to perceive magic beasts. For this reason, Chi Yizhen had created plastic glasses infused with energy — known as extraordinary power in the other world, or mana in gaming terms. When players wore these energy-charged glasses, it was as though they had gained an extra power bar, elevating them from ordinary people to half-extraordinary beings, and thus enabling them to interact with magic beasts.

But as Fantasy Amusement Park’s reputation continued to grow, the glasses were becoming more and more of a crutch.

Ever since Xiao Zhou had been the first to take the plunge — becoming a Level 1 extraordinary being inside the park and obtaining the Mountain-Cleaving Axe — visitors’ enthusiasm for hunting magic beasts had been running extremely high. However, because the park had only been open for such a short time, people with talents as exceptional as Xiao Zhou’s were one in ten thousand, and so no one had yet discovered the problem with the glasses. If one day Xiao Zhou, as a Level 1 extraordinary being, forgot to wear his glasses, he would be astonished to find that the park had achieved naked-eye holographic display.

When that day came, the park’s secrets might very well be uncovered.

Therefore, whether for the sake of the park’s reputation and development, or to free himself from the miserable role of “holographic glasses” manufacturer, it was absolutely necessary for the park to undergo this round of renovations.

“Game,” Chi Yizhen said, “I seem to recall you mentioning before that the Fantasy Amusement Park is the player’s divine kingdom, and that the player can establish any rules they want within it.”

The mechanical voice rang out: [That is correct. However, that is only the ideal state. The player is not yet a true divine being, and the park does not yet qualify as a true divine kingdom.]

Chi Yizhen had anticipated this. After all, even after levelling up, he and the park were only Level 4. If the natives of the other world ever found out that a Level 4 extraordinary being had the audacity to dream of establishing a divine kingdom, they would have laughed their heads off. He wasted no time and said directly, “Just tell me what it takes.”

[Gods are born from the hearts of men — so long as the human heart does not perish, divinity shall not be extinguished. A player’s points are derived from their believers and may be used as the power of faith, which is the source of a divine being’s power. Therefore, the player may spend points to establish rules.]

Chi Yizhen’s spirits lifted at once. Points were meant to be spent, he reasoned, and besides, he currently had over forty thousand of them. He immediately typed into the editing box that had popped up on the game panel: “All visitors who purchase tickets to enter the park shall be able to see and interact with magic beasts without obstruction, just as a Level 1 extraordinary being would.”

[Ding! Rule established. Twenty thousand points deducted.]

Chi Yizhen hissed sharply, suspecting the game of robbing him blind. “Why is it so expensive?!”

Without a word, the game threw up an image. He saw that the park’s original virtual model was now overlaid with a faint green glow — and this glow did not merely cover the entire park, but extended further to encompass the five hundred acres of land behind it.

Seeing this, Chi Yizhen felt his sense of injustice ease somewhat. Twenty thousand points for coverage this vast actually seemed fairly reasonable. He then noticed a green countdown timer in the upper right corner of the park model, its numbers ticking away rapidly, one second at a time.

Chi Yizhen’s outstretched finger trembled. “This effect only lasts one month?”

The game gave no reply, but the answer was self-evident.

Chi Yizhen clenched both fists, itching to throw a punch at the game — and then heard the game continue: [In areas covered by the power of the rule, the concentration of extraordinary factors will increase, creating a chance for plants and animals imbued with extraordinary power to grow.]

Chi Yizhen understood. The implication was that the game would not fleece its player, and that he should stop letting his imagination run away with him.

Yet he found himself even more worried than before. He had originally planned to build the surrounding wall later, but now that the game had said as much, if he did not hurry up and fence in those five hundred acres behind the park, what would happen if the extraordinary animals and plants that grew there escaped? Setting aside his personal financial losses, who knew whether these extraordinary creatures might be dangerous? If they got out and harmed innocent people, he would not be able to sleep at night.

He hastily used his points to erect a wall enclosing the thousand acres of land behind the park. Since the perimeter of a thousand acres came to roughly over three thousand metres, it was quite a substantial undertaking. The moment he pressed confirm, his remaining points drained away in a torrent — this single wall alone had cost him fifteen thousand points, and it was only an ordinary wall at that.

But looking at it from another angle, these extraordinary animals and plants would become another major attraction of the park, which meant he had gained yet another source of income. After all, the eight million yuan he had borrowed from the bank was only on a five-year term — with a low interest rate — and if he did not earn enough to pay it back within five years, his park would be auctioned off.

Although Fantasy Amusement Park’s current trajectory made repaying the loan no great challenge, he was the kind of person who disliked being in debt. The mere thought of eight million yuan hanging over his head gave everything he did an edge of urgency.

In the blink of an eye, his points had dwindled to just seven thousand nine hundred. With so little left, he would have to spend every single one with great care.

Chi Yizhen set diligently to work on the renovations. Before dawn the following day, a construction crew dispatched by the game entered the land that had been opened up behind the park. Over the course of a two-day project period, they would faithfully replicate every last detail of Chi Yizhen’s vision. During this time, a steady stream of job applicants began arriving at Fantasy Amusement Park — and in considerable numbers, all of whom had seen Chi Yizhen’s recruitment notice online and come specifically because of it.

While Chi Yizhen was conducting interviews, the two petty thieves who had stolen his plastic glasses turned them over to their employer — only to be subjected, not long afterwards, to a thorough dressing-down from the boss.

The buzz surrounding Fantasy Amusement Park that week had been impossible to ignore. Even the CEO of Hongxuan Technology, a well-established name in the industry, had extended an olive branch to the park, to say nothing of the smaller local companies. Watching Fantasy Amusement Park seemingly on the verge of taking off, those smaller companies were green with envy. Yet the park refused all forms of investment and would not allow any merchants to set up inside it. This posture — of clearly intending to keep all the profits for itself — left those companies seething with a mixture of admiration and resentment.

Most of them confined their grievances to private grumbling, but some people were different. They preferred underhanded methods — such as the boss of a company in Xinghu District of Jin’an City that produced knock-off mobile games, who had directed his men to steal the holographic glasses from Fantasy Amusement Park.

This boss, by the surname of Wu, had rather pleasant ideas about how things would go. He had long since made inquiries into the situation at Fantasy Amusement Park. This small amusement park, barely a week old, did not even have any employees — the park director had to sell tickets and serve as staff all at once, running himself ragged and utterly incapable of attending to every corner of the park. Stealing a crate of holographic glasses would be no great feat. Of course, being a small enterprise, he lacked the technological capability to reverse-engineer such a sophisticated product as the holographic glasses. But he had connections — the moment he had the glasses in hand, he had notified a foreign buyer who had already expressed interest, and the goods were promptly shipped out.

However, not long after the goods were dispatched, a call came from the police, informing him that he had been found to have directed criminal activity, that the evidence was conclusive, and that he was to come down to the station. Cold sweat broke out over Boss Wu instantly. He immediately summoned his two subordinates and unleashed a torrent of abuse upon them. “What kind of job did you do? How did you get caught?”

The two men took the verbal beating with their heads bowed, feeling thoroughly aggrieved. “Boss,” they said, “we disabled all the surveillance cameras with our equipment the moment we got in. There’s no way there’s any footage. They can’t possibly have evidence — they must be bluffing us!”