Chapter 31: Tycoon Simulation 1
The next morning at 8:00 AM sharp, the system voice rang out, and Chu Yun simultaneously materialized in a virtual space.
[Welcome to Tycoon Simulation Survival. Total players in this round: 10,000. NPCs: 10 billion.]
[You need to survive here for 60 days and accumulate as many gold coins as possible. The conversion ratio between in-game currency and system gold coins is 1:10. Your final settlement reward = (Actual gold coins owned – 5,000 starting capital) ÷ 10. If your final settlement balance is negative, the system will seize a portion of your personal property as collateral.]
[Note: You cannot leave the instance at will during this survival round until it concludes.]
[Game Background: The year is 2880. Science and technology are highly advanced, boasting bleeding-edge breakthroughs. You have migrated from a backwater region to Green City, spending all your savings to lease a 20-square-meter storefront. To make a living here, you intend to open a ××× shop. Initial Assets: A 20-square-meter storefront + 5,000 gold coins.]
The storefront options were:
[Stationery Store / Bookstore / Internet Cafe]
[Or: Refresh options.]
This was the first time an instance with normal NPCs had appeared, causing Chu Yun’s heart to stir slightly.
She parsed the few lines of description for clues. In this era of advanced science and technology, machines had replaced manual labor and digital media had replaced paper. Stationery shops and bookstores were no longer in vogue. In a tech-centric age where technology was fully popularized, it was highly likely that no one would frequent an internet cafe either.
Chu Yun clicked refresh, bringing up three new options: Nail Salon / Electronics Store / Fast Food Restaurant, or refresh again.
The startup costs for a nail salon were low, but she didn’t possess any nail art skills, so she decisively passed.
An electronics store fit perfectly with the mainstream tone of this era, but the wholesale cost of electronic products was relatively high. Judging by the game’s description, she was currently a penniless stiff. The game only stated she had leased a storefront, not that it was stocked with inventory. Therefore, the 5,000 coins of starting capital provided by the game were likely meant for purchasing stock. After some thought, she passed on this as well.
A fast-food restaurant? Seeing this option, Chu Yun’s eyes lit up. She had just checked her personal interface and found that Happy Farm had been brought in with her. The control buttons were not frozen, which meant she had a continuous source of food supply. Using it to open a fast-food restaurant couldn’t be a more perfect fit.
Chu Yun refrained from refreshing again and selected the fast-food restaurant option.
With a flash of white light, Chu Yun appeared inside a modest storefront.
The interior decor was simple. The white walls bore a few smudges, looking as though they had been wiped by a dirty hand, completely devoid of any decoration. The total area was 20 square meters, within which the washroom occupied 2 square meters and the cooking counter took up 3 square meters.
The game was reasonably thoughtful, placing a wok and an electric rice cooker on the cooking counter, along with a dozen sets of dining bowls. Within the remaining 15 square meters sat four sets of small tables and chairs—the light green iron sets commonly seen in street-side diners.
On the table lay a smartphone common in the 21st century, which powered on with a single tap without requiring a passcode. It contained only two applications: one was a personal payment app showing a balance of 5,000 coins, and the other was a news app scrolling hot stories in real-time.
The hardware facilities were fully prepared; all that was missing were the ingredients.
Chu Yun slid open the restaurant’s glass sliding door and stepped outside.
Is this the technological era of the future in 2880?
Lifting her gaze, towering skyscrapers stood in close arrays not far away. Massive electronic screens projected virtual 3D holographic images, rapidly flashing one advertisement after another. Skybuses and flying cars nimbly darted between the buildings, serving as the city’s transportation hub.
Meanwhile, her storefront was located in a semi-basement position. The dusty light-up sign above the entrance bore three large characters: “Small Restaurant.” Due to years of neglect, the neon illumination for “Small” had completely fizzled out.
A few stray trash cans lined the street ahead, surrounded by scattered plastic bags. It looked cluttered and dilapidated, forming a stark contrast with the high-tech, futuristic urban architecture just beyond.
No matter how rapidly a city developed, the poor and the wealthy would always coexist, but the polarization felt exceptionally glaring at this moment.
While Chu Yun was lost in thought, a sound came from the adjacent shop as the old sliding door emitted a harsh, grating screech.
Chu Yun turned her head and happened to catch the eye of Yu Wenhao as he walked out. The door of the shop on her other side flew open with a loud clatter—it was Xu Dongdong! Having formed a team, she had assumed their locations would be randomly distributed like in the previous game, but she hadn’t expected the system to be so thoughtful this time.
The three entered Chu Yun’s restaurant and sat down to deliberate on a strategy.
Chu Yun was running a restaurant. She still had four large baskets of green vegetables on hand, and the staple crops could be harvested in a few days.
Xu Dongdong was operating a studio that specialized in selling handmade paintings. This was thanks to his family cultivating his talents prior to the game, sending him to various hobby classes since childhood, and later sending him to further his studies at a world-renowned art school.
Yu Wenhao, on the other hand, had opened a martial arts training hall. His thought was that it would be best if he could recruit students; if he couldn’t, he would go out and find a job to earn money. The system stated that a player’s personal gold coins could not fall below the 5,000 gold coins of starting capital before the game concluded. As long as he controlled his spending and refrained from using it, he could clear the instance.
Chu Yun couldn’t help but give him a big thumbs-up. The suggestion to work a job was brilliant!
The game didn’t specify that one had to successfully run a shop; at settlement, it only held a requirement for personal gold coins. As long as the final balance exceeded 5,000 gold coins, it wouldn’t care where the money actually came from.
Under circumstances where initial capital was too low and one was unfamiliar with this alien world, working a job was undoubtedly an excellent choice.
The group opened their shop doors and switched on their signs to indicate they were open for business.
However, whether because it was too early or because their semi-basement location was a bit tucked away, not a single soul passed by the entrance.
Yu Wenhao prepared to scout the surrounding area to familiarize himself with the environment, look for job opportunities, and unearth potential customers along the way.
Xu Dongdong planned to head back to paint a few pieces. The studio was equipped with brushes, paper, and pigments, but was devoid of artwork; he couldn’t have customers arrive only to discover there was nothing to sell.
With no customers in the restaurant, Chu Yun decided to go outside to drum up business.
She pulled out a pen and paper and wrote an advertising slogan on a blank sheet: “Green City Small Diner. Specializing in various stir-fries: Lettuce in Oyster Sauce, Stir-fried Garland Chrysanthemum, Savory Napa Cabbage. Address: No. 34 Underground Road, Central Eight District, Green City.”
She had discovered the address on a concealed door plate by the entrance. She was reluctant to sell the staple rations like mantou and bread inside her storage ring; she didn’t have many to begin with, and the rice in Happy Farm hadn’t been harvested yet.
Holding a dozen hand-written advertisement flyers, Chu Yun walked up out of the semi-basement. The underground and above-ground areas were connected by a dozen steps, but the actual environments were worlds apart.
There were almost no pedestrians on the street; only flying cars zipped past overhead with a sharp whoosh, whipping up a messy gale. Chu Yun raised her flyers with both hands, attempting to get them to notice and pull over, but the passing vehicles barely slowed down, completely failing to notice a lone person drumming up business below.
Chu Yun observed that the transportation vehicles here possessed their own dedicated transit lanes. Specialized transit like the 110 or 120 emergency vehicles flew on the topmost tier, public transit like buses and subways ran on the second tier, while private transit occupied the lowest tier. Very few pedestrians walked on the ground level.
Not far away, a massive electronic screen projected a 3D hologram of an exquisite beauty. Her slender, delicate hand held a glass vial resembling an oral health solution. After displaying it, she drank it down with an exceptionally blissful expression, and subsequently, the advertising slogan blared: “Watermelon-Flavored Nutrient Solution. Awakens your tastebuds, melts on your tongue.”
“?”
They feed on nutrient solutions here?
Baffled, Chu Yun took out the phone provided by the game and opened the news app inside.
She had never seen the script of this world before, but miraculously, she could read it fluently—likely a parameter adjusted by the game.
The top few trending articles in the app were almost entirely about a certain corporation newly developing a high-tech machine, which received fervent popularity the moment it hit the market. Scrolling down, she spotted the advertisement from just now. The ad had only been posted this morning, yet the comment count already surpassed a million.
“Does this new nutrient solution really taste as good as the ad claims? I almost want to vomit eating the ones your company produced previously.”
“I’m not harboring high expectations. It’s not like they don’t have a track record. Didn’t they claim to produce a nutrient solution full of color, aroma, and flavor before? In the end, I bought it and took one sip only to get a mouth full of bitterness. It ticked me off to no end.”
“Sigh, there’s no choice. If you don’t drink nutrient solutions, you’re just waiting to starve to death. No matter how awful it tastes, you have to eat it. That’s life.”
“I envy the ancients so much. I heard that biodiversity was high back then, plants hadn’t gone extinct yet, and animals weren’t contaminated by radiation. There were truly super many delicacies. Watching those videos left behind by the ancients makes my mouth water uncontrollably now.”
“Those mukbang videos have already been banned by the state; watching them is illegal. But to the sister upstairs, can you DM me to share them? Please!!!”
“Same, same, same! Even if I get reported and have to sit in jail for a few days, I still want to watch!”
The subsequent comments down the line were all begging for mukbang videos. Chu Yun, who had just arrived, found it baffling. Just a video, and that counts as illegal?
Chu Yun finished skimming the feed, gaining a general understanding of the current state of this world.
It appeared she had made the right choice. This was an era where science was highly advanced, but severe radiation pollution had long since driven real food to extinction.
No wonder the trees not far away looked a bit fake; looking at them again with fresh insight, she discovered they were actually 3D projections.
No wonder this city was called Green City. It wasn’t because it possessed abundant green plants, but because this world was entirely devoid of real green vegetation. She possessed real food never before seen in this world; if managed properly, pulling in over ten thousand a month wouldn’t be an issue at all.
Chu Yun could already envision the grand spectacle that would ensue when her small diner launched, but the immediate problem was—how was she going to rope in her very first customer?
She possessed a secret weapon that could guarantee a victory with a single strike, yet she lacked that lone catalyst to set it off. The passing flying cars still traveled at a blistering speed, refusing to grant Chu Yun a single glance. But Chu Yun didn’t give up. She believed that as long as she waited patiently, she would eventually flag down a car or catch a pedestrian walking on foot.
Just like that, Chu Yun stood from 8:30 AM until 11:00 AM, and a turning point finally arrived.
A sleek, cool green flying car altered its original transit lane. A hundred meters ahead, it gradually descended from the aerial roads onto the surface level, pulling over along one side of the street.
Subsequently, an elderly man who looked to be in his seventies emerged from the driver’s seat. He wore a Baroque outfit and looked like a butler. After getting out, the old man walked half a circle to the rear passenger side, opening the door with immense deference.
The first thing Chu Yun spotted was a pair of small feet clad in adorable leather shoes. The elderly butler attempted to assist him but seemed to be rejected, and finally, a seven- or eight-year-old little boy emerged. He wore a miniature suit and a little bow tie, carrying himself like a mini-adult.
The duo walked sluggishly toward Chu Yun’s position. Chu Yun narrowed her eyes into a smile, waiting with immense anticipation. Waiting by the tree for the rabbit—a rabbit has finally come.
Butler: “Young Master, your health has been poor since childhood. There is no need to waste your precious energy for the sake of a stranger.”
Child: “Butler Zhou, it’s fine. I just happened to want to get down and walk around a bit.”
Butler: “If anything goes amiss with your health, how am I supposed to account for it to the Old Matriarch?”
Child: “Just don’t tell Mother. I’m only coming down to walk for a brief moment, I’m not that fragile!”
Left with no choice, the butler looked forward and grunted, “Hmph! That woman looks like trouble at a glance. She’s probably trying to flag us down just to hitch a free ride. It’s one thing to be a freeloader, but what’s she doing trying to flag down cars on a high-speed transit lane? She could at least find a designated parking area!”
Chu Yun caught the butler’s final sentence.
However, she deliberately ignored the elderly man’s hostile gaze, squatting down with the handwritten advertisement flyer in her hand. Smiling warmly at the little boy, she pitched: “Hello, little friend. This is my newly opened small diner. I can make delicious stir-fried green vegetables! Do you want to come inside and try some?”
Children lacked heavy guard and were the easiest to persuade. Furthermore, looking at the relationship between these two, this child held the dominant saying power.
“Lettuce in Oyster Sauce, Stir-fried Garland Chrysanthemum, Savory Napa Cabbage? Aren’t these the extinct plants Mother talked about? Are you telling the truth or lying?” The little boy’s eyes widened, his mouth practically forming an ‘O’ shape. Chu Yun’s maternal instincts flared up, making her desperately want to pinch his cheeks.
Except, there was a fiercely loyal butler standing beside him, glaring daggers at her. She estimated that the moment she reached out a hand, she would be intercepted.
Chu Yun maintained her warm smile as she replied, “It’s real, entirely real. My shop is right downstairs. You can come down and try it; if it doesn’t taste good, it’s free.”
Looking at Chu Yun’s face with her eyes narrowed into slits, Butler Zhou constantly felt she harbored wicked intentions and was out to do something improper to his young master.
“Alright, take me over right now,” the little boy commanded in a babyish voice. Clearly unable to wait any longer, he still feigned an air of solemn composure.
“Young Master, this person is absolutely a fraud. Plants went extinct centuries ago; where would green vegetables come from? One must maintain a defensive mind against others!” Butler Zhou restrained the eager young master, his gaze locked dead onto Chu Yun.
Just as Chu Yun was about to fire back, the little boy spoke up: “Butler Zhou, since we’re already here, checking it out won’t cost us anything. Besides, given our family’s influence, who would have the guts to scam me?”
“…”
Chu Yun thought to herself: I wouldn’t dare, absolutely wouldn’t dare. I’ve just arrived and only want to run a small-scale business.
She hadn’t expected the little boy to be so full of grit from a young age; she felt a bit glad she hadn’t pinched his cheeks earlier.
Butler Zhou cast a cold, patronizing look at her. “Since the Young Master has put it that way, we’ll head down to take a look. I reckon you wouldn’t dare pull anything wicked anyway.”
Chu Yun suppressed the colorful language that almost escaped her lips. Placing a hand over her chest, she consoled herself: Forget it, forget it. The customer is king, the customer is king.
