Ch 6: The World’s Number One Resort

Tang Huai slid the roasted fish off the wooden skewer. He had quite a bit of experience grilling fish, so the timing was just right. The fish wasn’t charred; instead, it had a slightly crispy, golden exterior with a tender look, making it quite appetizing.

He sighed. Without salt or seasoning, he had braced himself for some bland and unappealing food.

After letting the fish cool slightly, he took a bite without much expectation.

Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and incredibly flavorful. Tang Huai had expected the fish to taste like flavorless cotton, but instead, it had a rich, smoky, tender flavor that activated all his taste buds. Tang Huai enjoyed fish, but he had never tasted anything this fresh and delicious in his life!

“What species of fish is this?” Tang Huai took another bite, feeling every cell in his body revel in pleasure. In just a short while, he had devoured half of the two-pound fish.

“Blue Lake Fish, only found in Blue Sea Lake. This is the lowest grade of Blue Sea Fish. If the host completes the tasks diligently, you can upgrade it to a higher grade of Blue Sea Fish…” FD730 answered diligently. For some reason, Tang Huai felt a faint sense of pride in FD730’s tone.

After learning the scientific name of the fish, Tang Huai continued eating. FD730’s words piqued his curiosity. If the low-grade version was already this delicious, how much better would the upgraded version taste?

While pondering this, Tang Huai quickly finished the two fish and, still unsatisfied, grilled a third one. After eating his fill, he checked the time—it was now midnight in Mexico.

Tang Huai filled a jug with some lake water and headed back toward the treehouse.

Lying on the wooden bed in the treehouse, he gazed at the starry sky. The temperature difference between day and night on Sora Island was significant, but thanks to the beginner perk of “strengthening the body,” Tang Huai didn’t feel cold at all. Thinking about this, he opened his personal panel.

He had two beginner perks: (1) Strengthen the Body: This improved physical fitness, agility, strength, and resistance by tenfold. (2) Universal Fluency: This enabled him to understand and communicate in 3,026 global languages effortlessly.

Strengthening the body was straightforward, but when Tang Huai saw the description of Universal Fluency, he was taken aback. According to the system, he had essentially “learned” over 3,000 languages. Tang Huai wasn’t sure how many languages there were in the world, but 3,000… that was an incredibly vast number.

Once the Grand Island Owner mission was over, maybe he could find a job as a translator? Tang Huai chuckled at the thought. After a brief moment of reflection, he decided to rest. He’d had a long day—surviving a shipwreck, climbing two mountains, and then binding with a system… he was understandably tired.

After taking a couple of sips of lake water, Tang Huai settled in for sleep.

Ding ding, ding…

Just as he was about to drift off, his phone rang again. Tang Huai picked it up and saw a new friend request on WeChat. There was no note attached, and the requester’s nickname was “Nightfall,” with a scenic travel photo as the profile picture.

Tang Huai declined the request. Thirty seconds later, another verification message arrived: Song Qing.

Tang Huai paused, surprised that Song Qing had reached out. Aside from the old love letter mix-up, he and Song Qing hadn’t had much interaction. After thinking it over, Tang Huai accepted the request.

“Long time no see,” Song Qing greeted first.

“It’s been a year since graduation.”

“Are you abroad?”

“Just wandering around.”

“I’m getting married next month.”

“Congratulations.”

…

The conversation between Tang Huai and Song Qing was casual and sporadic. They hadn’t been close in school, and even less so after graduation.

“The wedding will be held in Luohai, not far from Shengze. I hope you can make it.”

“… I’ll try to arrange it.”

At the end of the conversation, Song Qing invited Tang Huai to his wedding. Tang Huai was a bit surprised and gave a vague response. Their relationship wasn’t close enough to warrant attending the wedding, and he doubted Song Qing cared about receiving a few hundred yuan in wedding money from him…

After finishing the brief chat with Song Qing, Tang Huai turned off his phone. A gentle breeze blew in, and in the peaceful little wooden house, Tang Huai fell into a deep, restful sleep.

…

“Who are you chatting with?” As Tang Huai fell into a peaceful sleep, in a high-end villa in Luohai, Song Qing was dressed in casual home clothes, looking at the chat history on his phone with a thoughtful expression, as if reminiscing. Just then, the bedroom door opened, and a delicate-looking young man walked in and asked.

“Discussing wedding arrangements with some classmates,” Song Qing casually replied, seamlessly switching the chat screen.

The young man, his fiancé, was Zhou Xingzhao. Since the announcement of the Same-Sex Marriage Protection Law, more and more people had come to accept same-sex marriages. Song Qing and Zhou Xingzhao had known each other since childhood, and their families were well-acquainted. Both sets of parents were happy with their marriage. Song Qing was a year older than Zhou Xingzhao, and now that Zhou had graduated, their wedding was on the agenda.

“How many people are coming? I’ve already sent out all the invitations on my side…” Zhou Xingzhao, very satisfied with Song Qing, sat beside him and started chatting naturally.

Song Qing answered thoughtfully. As the conversation continued, they ended up in an intimate moment.

It was now 2 p.m. Afterward, Zhou Xingzhao went out to have dinner with some friends, while Song Qing lit a cigarette and went back to scrolling through the earlier chat history. The cheerful profile picture of “Great Tang Fruits” appeared prominently in his friend list.

Song Qing hadn’t interacted much with Tang Huai, but their dorms were next to each other, so they frequently crossed paths. Over time, Song Qing had started to notice Tang Huai. Tang Huai’s appearance and personality were exactly the type Song Qing liked, but Song Qing was a pragmatic person. He knew that Tang Huai’s parents were both working-class, and his family’s financial situation was average. In contrast, Song Qing’s family was in the steel business, and their assets were far beyond what Tang Huai’s family could compare with.

Song Qing wasn’t very old but lived a realistic life. He knew there could never be anything between him and Tang Huai, and gradually, his interest in Tang Huai faded. When Song Qing learned that Tang Huai ended up selling fruit after graduation, he felt a sense of inevitability. The saying “it’s hard for those from humble backgrounds to rise to prominence” had always struck him as harsh, but it was a truth he couldn’t deny.

Compared to Tang Huai, Zhou Xingzhao was the best choice for him. After that realization, Song Qing stopped paying attention to Tang Huai altogether.

Today’s contact was purely accidental. Song Qing had been lurking in the class group chat when the topic unexpectedly shifted to him and Tang Huai. And then… Tang Huai himself showed up. Song Qing felt complicated. Tang Huai had been like his “white moonlight” during his university years. But now, the version of Tang Huai he could accept was not the one traveling leisurely abroad as a cultured young man, but rather the one selling fruit from a cart at a neighborhood market.

Tang Huai living an ordinary life only served to validate Song Qing’s decision as the right one.

After repeatedly scrolling through the chat history, Song Qing finished his cigarette and lit another, his thoughts inscrutable.

…

While Song Qing was feeling conflicted, on Sora Island, thousands of miles away, Tang Huai woke up from a restful sleep, refreshed and ready to start his day.

Tang Huai opened the task panel. The current tasks were in two parts: [1] Survive on Sora Island for ten days. [2] Familiarize yourself with the culture of Sora Island.

These were beginner tasks, both extremely simple.

Tang Huai had already asked FD730, and the ultimate goal of the Grand Island Owner system was to build the world’s best ocean resort island. To be the best in the world, it would have to surpass others in terms of economy, culture, geography, popularity with tourists, and more…

As Tang Huai pondered the tasks, he began climbing the hill again. In no time, he reached the top once more. Looking out, aside from Blue Sea Lake, the surrounding land stretched barren and desolate as far as the eye could see.

Tang Huai switched his interface to the island sandbox view.

Currently, the Blue Sea Lake area was the only one lit up, while all the other areas were still covered in a grey mist, divided into low, medium, and high categories. Tang Huai would need to plant trees, attract residents, build houses, and draw in tourists to develop the island. Thinking about the long road ahead, Tang Huai couldn’t help but feel a heavy sense of responsibility.

After wandering around the area for a while, Tang Huai returned to the small wooden house.

For the next nine days, Tang Huai settled into a routine of lighting fires, grilling fish, and strolling around. Much like the area near Blue Sea Lake, the other 49 system-designated zones were barren yellow land due to being “undeveloped.”

Blue Sea Lake was located in the southernmost part of Sora Island, classified as a low-level zone. Tang Huai designated it as Zone 1, and the other areas were numbered accordingly. Sora Island was vast, so Tang Huai only explored the surroundings of Zone 1.

During his downtime, Tang Huai enjoyed observing the island sandbox map. After watching it for a few days, he noticed something unusual—a small section between Zones 36 and 39 seemed to be faintly illuminated. Zones 32 to 39 were located in the high-level area.

Tang Huai asked FD730 about it, but FD730’s main role was to issue tasks, and it didn’t have knowledge beyond that. Tang Huai could only keep his curiosity to himself, planning to investigate the high-level areas once his permissions increased in the future.

…

On the morning of the tenth day, after waking up, Tang Huai placed the key and bank card from the metal box into his bag. Then, after crossing two mountain ridges, he sat leisurely by the coastline.

At 10 a.m., a light-colored ship appeared on the horizon.

“Tang! Oh my God! You’re still alive!”

Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the beginner’s task…

At 10:20, the ship was just 200 meters from Tang Huai. It was a large cargo ship, and Hank stood on the deck, waving frantically at Tang Huai.

Seeing Hank, Tang Huai let out a huge sigh of relief. Since his phone had regained signal, Tang Huai had been trying to contact Hank, but all he got was a busy tone. Just when Tang Huai was about to give up on Hank and reach out to Ma Chuan for help, Hank’s phone finally connected.

After Tang Huai fell into the water, Hank and the others were lucky enough to escape unharmed. The Storm had sustained some damage, but it wasn’t enough to prevent short-distance travel. Due to Tang Huai’s disappearance, their previous route had to be canceled, and the Storm returned to Clipperton Island.

Hank and Captain Reno had mixed feelings about Tang Huai’s presumed death. The ocean was merciless, and they had accepted his fate. After resting at Clipperton Island for two days, Hank was preparing to return to Mexico when Tang Huai’s call came through.

Hank was shocked to hear that Tang Huai was still alive, but the Storm needed repairs and couldn’t head to Sora Island immediately. Feeling helpless, Tang Huai offered to pay $50,000 for Hank to rent a passing cargo ship… one bound for Hawaii. The process was complicated, but Tang Huai was finally rescued.

Looking at Hank’s blonde hair, Tang Huai felt a wave of emotion. As the ship approached, the system notification chimed, mentioning something about a “task reward.” However, Tang Huai wasn’t interested in any rewards right now—he just wanted to return to China.

When Hank came ashore, Tang Huai gave him a big, heartfelt hug. It felt so good to see a familiar face!

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️