Ch 48: The World’s Number One Resort

As Tang Huai clicked to use it, the 【Aunt Miley】 card transformed into a wisp of smoke. In an instant, a middle-aged woman in her forties, wearing a lotus-colored dress with small floral patterns, slowly appeared in front of Tang Huai.

“Aunt Miley?” Tang Huai was slightly surprised at the sight of the woman. ‘Miley’ was a Western name, so he had assumed that Aunt Miley would be a typical English woman.

But now, the woman in front of him had yellow skin and a high nose bridge. Her hair was slightly curly and brown. If you ignored the hair color, she looked a bit like someone of mixed Chinese and English descent.

Tang Huai opened Aunt Miley’s identity information.

【Aunt Miley】: Chinese-English mixed race, 43 years old, passionate about cooking, Intermediate level.

Loyalty: 89 points, 【Excellent】

…

Aunt Miley was a mixed-race Chinese-English woman, and the system showed a loyalty score of 89, which was a delightful number. Tang Huai let out a long breath, finally free from the worry of loyalty issues.

“Is this restaurant a gift for me? Oh my, wise and mighty host, Miley is so touched!” Tang Huai closed the identity information and was about to greet her when he saw Aunt Miley circling around the first floor of the restaurant, thanking him with an excited expression.

Aunt Miley had a high nose bridge, big eyes, and slightly round cheeks. Coupled with her slightly plump figure, her overall image lacked sharpness and had more of the gentle aura typical of an Eastern woman.

“Ding, AI affinity level is rapidly increasing: 89, 91, 93…”

As Aunt Miley was overwhelmed with excitement, the system prompt rang in Tang Huai’s ear. Ten seconds later, Aunt Miley’s loyalty stabilized at 97 points.

The system’s maximum affinity score was 100, so 97 was quite high. Tang Huai had already been prepared for Aunt Miley’s possible betrayal, but the system gave him a pleasant surprise.

“You can just call me Boss Tang from now on,” Tang Huai said, collecting his thoughts. As Aunt Miley’s affinity soared, Tang Huai’s impression of her also rapidly improved.

“Thank you, Boss Tang. This wonderful restaurant is truly a magical gift… Sorry, Miley is a bit incoherent. Does the island have ingredients? Miley would love to make a hearty lunch for you.” Aunt Miley stepped on her dress, climbed to the second floor, and then went to the restaurant’s entrance. Five minutes later, she stood before Tang Huai again.

“There are blue sea fish, purple cabbage, tomatoes…” Tang Huai initially didn’t want to bother her, but after some thought, he spoke up. Aunt Miley’s talent was cooking, and she was at the Intermediate level… Tang Huai was very interested in her culinary skills.

After some thought, Tang Huai called out to Da Huang. Running errands was Da Huang’s specialty. Da Huang wagged his tail and ran toward the mountain with an excited expression.

“Being able to cook for the boss is such a happy feeling,” Aunt Miley said with a satisfied look as she watched the interaction between Tang Huai and Da Huang.

Tang Huai touched his nose, wondering if it was just his imagination. He felt… Aunt Miley’s tone and actions seemed somewhat exaggerated?

Da Huang ran fast and returned after an hour and a half, with Ali following behind.

Tomatoes, cabbage, purple cabbage… Ali carried a lot of bags in his hands, which contained spiritual plants from the Blue Sea Spiritual Field. Additionally, he had two blue sea fish hanging from his neck. There were also plenty of seasonings like salt.

“Thank you,” Aunt Miley said excitedly as she received the items. Ali retreated to stand beside Tang Huai. Although Aunt Miley was an intermediate AI on Sora Island, Ali only listened to Tang Huai’s orders.

Holding the ingredients, Aunt Miley returned to the kitchen, where the sound of chopping vegetables rang out.

Tang Huai watched curiously. It was 11 a.m., and he was eagerly anticipating Aunt Miley’s finished dishes. She cooked with great care, and in no time, an enticing aroma wafted out. After another half an hour, Aunt Miley walked out of the kitchen.

“The ingredients are too few, so we’ll have to make do for now,” Aunt Miley said as she placed the dishes on the table.

The first dish was boiled fish, the second stir-fried cabbage, and the third was tomato scrambled eggs—the eggs laid by the cauliflower chicken.

“Delicious.” Tang Huai took a piece of fish belly, took a light bite, and his eyes lit up. The blue sea fish was already exceptional, and now, combined with Aunt Miley’s god-level cooking skills, the taste was beyond words. It was the best fish Tang Huai had ever eaten.

After eating the fish, Tang Huai moved his chopsticks toward the eggs. The entire tomato scrambled eggs were golden and crispy, making Tang Huai almost bite his tongue off. Aunt Miley’s culinary skills were excellent. By the end, even a simple plate of stir-fried cabbage evoked childhood memories…

“Drip, drip—” Tang Huai was enjoying his meal, lost in the moment, when a crisp dripping sound came from beside him.

Tang Huai looked up in confusion. At this moment, Aunt Miley was no longer filled with joy; her face was already wet with tears.

Tang Huai: ?

“Aunt Miley, what’s wrong?” Tang Huai hurriedly put down his chopsticks. Miley’s expression was so perplexing that Tang Huai couldn’t help but reflect on whether he had done something wrong earlier…

“I knew it. My cooking is terrible. No one likes my food…” Before Tang Huai could think further, Aunt Miley quickly gave an explanation.

Tang Huai: What is this about?

“The food is delicious,” Tang Huai praised seriously.

“I know, you’re just comforting me,” Aunt Miley continued to sob.

“No, really. The food is truly delicious. The blue sea fish is fresh and not greasy, and the base soup is wonderfully made. The tomatoes are well-handled, and the eggs are fresh; the flavors blend perfectly…” Tang Huai began to praise in detail, and by the end, he had to rack his brains for every complimentary word. Miley’s expression gradually shifted from initial anxiety to growing confidence.

“I knew it! Aunt Miley’s cooking must be the best.” Five minutes later, Aunt Miley regained her confidence. Her whole demeanor returned to the positive energy she had before cooking.

Tang Huai let out a long breath. If he had to keep praising for another ten minutes, he wouldn’t have known what words to use…

After the exaggerated praise session, Tang Huai finally understood why Aunt Miley’s card included the words “Despairing.”

Aunt Miley loved cooking, and compliments from diners made her ecstatic, while silence left her anxious and despondent. From now on, if he wanted to eat Aunt Miley’s dishes, he’d have to prepare a heap of fancy praises in advance…

“Boiled fish, 350 dollars. Tomato scrambled eggs, 100. Stir-fried cabbage, 50. After deducting the cost of ingredients and the island owner’s share, you can just give me 100 dollars, Host,” Aunt Miley said, tugging at her clothes with some embarrassment.

“Okay.” Tang Huai was stunned for a moment, then nodded. He had thought the three dishes were a friendly gesture… However, with Aunt Miley’s culinary skills comparable to a top Michelin chef, Tang Huai was more than willing to pay 100 dollars.

After paying the bill, Tang Huai and Aunt Miley discussed the arrangement: Sora Island would provide the ingredients for the Delicious Restaurant. After deducting the costs and various fees, their profit split would be 4:1. Tang Huai would take four parts, while Aunt Miley would take one.

Tang Huai felt a bit embarrassed and wanted to split the profits 50-50, but Aunt Miley refused no matter what. After all, Tang Huai provided the ingredients, the venue, and the restaurant; all Aunt Miley needed to do was pursue her passion.

The two argued for a while before Tang Huai realized that this split was probably a system-enforced rule. Not only for the Delicious Restaurant, but even for the future candy store, cinema, and other businesses, Tang Huai could earn anywhere from 50% to 80% of the profits.

Tang Huai felt as if a few gold ingots had been added to his hands, ready to generate a steady income for himself. After eating and drinking to his fill, Tang Huai stayed at the Delicious Restaurant for a while before heading back to the Blue Sea Forest.

…

“I hopped over the wall into a North American high school chat group. There are quite a few pictures of the Ice Snow Castle in there. The castle seems to be real; a graduating class from a North American high school visited it.”

“Feels like a publicity stunt. A swing that high can’t possibly support people.”

“Holy crap! I follow Li Suhao from Kalan Cosmetics. Check his Weibo from last month! There’s a surprise!”

…

While Tang Huai was heading to the Blue Sea Forest, @GreatTangOverseasResort on Douyin went viral. The first and second videos looked like special effects, and the third and fourth could be classified as effects too. But the fifth video was clearly shot on location.

Given the influence of Lazy Fish Live and Aierjian, many tourists had seen the video recorded by Jiang Yaoyao. They analyzed each frame of the Blue Sea Lake in both Great Tang’s video and Lazy Fish Live’s video, eventually confirming that they were indeed the same place.

Now, this raised a new question: if the fifth video was real, were the first four also genuine?

Several tech experts joined the team analyzing Tang Huai’s videos. No matter how they tried to composite and dissect the footage, they couldn’t find any traces of post-editing. Tang Huai’s five videos went viral on Tree Sound, and soon after, the topic “Are Great Tang’s videos real or fake?” started trending on Weibo.

In this nationwide discussion, some tourists dug up the Twitter accounts of the students from Ace High School. These students weren’t social media influencers, but their video did gain some brief attention when it was first posted. Just like the Chinese tourists, everyone concluded that the video was a composite.

While Twitter buzzed abroad, Li Suhao was the hot topic domestically. Li Suhao, the young master of Kalan Cosmetics, would occasionally play around on Weibo. Last month, he posted photos of the Snow Village. At that time, the Ice and Snow Castle hadn’t been built yet; only the Crystal Bridge was there.

“Brother Li, are the photos real or fake? Do the Crystal Bridge and Snow Village actually exist?” Curious tourists flocked to Li Suhao’s Weibo, asking.

Li Suhao didn’t have a large following, only around 200,000.

“Damn, Old Li, you’re trending.” At that moment, as the neon lights began to shine, Li Suhao was at a KTV playing dice with his friends. He had rolled a low number and was preparing to drink as a penalty when a friend next to him patted his thigh.

“You must be mistaken.” Li Suhao shook his head. How could he possibly trend? Nonetheless, he curiously took out his phone.

Sure enough, he was on the trending list, albeit at position 48, far down the list on Weibo.

“Real location filming. I only wandered around near the Crystal Bridge; I didn’t visit the Ice Snow Castle. [Regret]” Li Suhao replied to the most popular tourist’s comment.

“Holy crap, it’s real? Is this the ninth wonder of the world?”

“Looks fun! Does anyone know where the Great Tang Resort is?”

“On Sora Island in the Pacific. First, fly to Mexico, then transfer to a ship…”

Li Suhao’s reply was like an endorsement for the Great Tang Resort, causing the tourists to go wild. Blue Sea Forest was real, the Snow Village was real, and although the giant statue hadn’t been verified, it was probably real as well…

No way, is there really such a massive statue and castle in the world?

…

“Contact the Great Tang Resort for me. I want to go right now.” Amid the online frenzy, in a luxurious villa in the suburbs of Luo Hai, an excited girl around eighteen, with twin ponytails and wearing a Lolita dress, was watching the Great Tang Resort’s douyin videos.

The girl’s name was Zhou Zilin. “Nine out of ten Lolitas are rich,” and Zhou Zilin was no exception. She often wore her Lolita dresses and uploaded short, rhythm-heavy videos on douyin. With a lavish mansion as her backdrop and a different style of Lolita dress each time, her videos left her followers in awe. After three months of managing her account, Zhou Zilin now had 20.56 million followers and was a bona fide douyin influencer.

Zhou Zilin loved the feeling of being in the spotlight.

“Isn’t school in session? You failed two courses last semester and have been skipping class for a month. If it weren’t for my good relationship with your department head, you’d be on the brink of dropping out!” Standing beside Zhou Zilin was a middle-aged man with a big belly who looked quite authoritative.

The man’s name was Zhou Xiangtao, Zhou Zilin’s father, currently involved in international trade business. It was rare for Zhou Xiangtao to come home, and now his daughter was staying at home every day, skipping school. Zhou Xiangtao was about to lecture her, but before he could get far, Zhou Zilin diverted the topic to the Great Tang Resort.

Zhou Xiangtao was a bit disappointed with her.

“I want to go! Mom, I want to go abroad. I haven’t left the country this year!” Zhou Zilin said impatiently, raising her voice. After that, she called out toward the door.

“Oh, let Linlin go abroad if she wants. It’s a good thing for the child to go out and see the world. Honestly, we should’ve sent her abroad for studies last year…” A moment later, a woman in her forties with refined looks and temperament walked in. This was Zhou Zilin’s mother, Gao Yun.

Zhou Zilin was the only daughter of the Zhou family and held a high status within the family.

“Fine, go if you want.” Zhou Xiangtao said with a wave of his hand, feeling a headache coming on. Their family was wealthy and powerful, so if Zhou Zilin wanted to indulge, so be it.

After Zhou Xiangtao returned to his company, Zhou Zilin pouted, then excitedly began researching information about the Great Tang Resort. A devoted fan of the second dimension, the moment she saw the Blue Sea Forest and the Ice Snow Castle, she already pictured herself taking photos in her Lolita dress on the treehouse and castle. It would be a beautiful scene.

Lazyfish Yaoyao had gone viral for a while, and the video contained detailed information about the Great Tang Resort. Soon, Zhou Zilin mapped out her route to the resort. She booked five plane tickets, including one for herself, her mother Gao Yun, and three assistants.

This time, Zhou Zilin packed a lot of Lolita dresses, all of which were her treasured collection. She was very much looking forward to the upcoming trip.

…

“Okay, five people, right? We’ve been getting a lot of visitors lately. Yes, see you in a week.” On Sora Island, in the Blue Sea Treehouse, Tang Huai noted down Zhou Zilin and her party’s information.

Since the five-shot video went viral on Tree Sound, @GreatTangOverseasResort had gained 6.02 million followers, and the five videos had accumulated nearly 100 million likes and views combined. The second video had the highest number of likes, close to 30 million.

Tang Huai opened his personal panel.

Name: Tang Huai
Island Value: 0
Reputation Points: 1.86 million

Unlike before, the system’s reputation points and douyin likes ratio had dropped from 1:10 to 1:100. The ratio plummeted like bungee jumping in just one day. Tang Huai felt a bit regretful, but he also knew that the reputation point calculation was complex; the previous 1:10 ratio was simply too excessive, so this new ratio was more reasonable.

Regardless, earning 1.8 million in two days gave Tang Huai a great sense of accomplishment.

After browsing his personal panel, Tang Huai purchased three restaurant AIs, five scenic service AIs, and five Sora bodyguards (standard type).

After this round of purchasing, he was left with only 60,000 reputation points. Tang Huai felt a bit helpless, but restaurant AIs and scenic service AIs were necessary.

These AIs were not intelligent but were programmed by the system, similar to robots in sci-fi movies. From their appearance and interaction, they were indistinguishable from ordinary people.

After allocating the personnel, it was already 9 p.m. Silence enveloped the surroundings. Tang Huai tidied up a bit before going to sleep.

In the following week, Tang Huai received twenty to thirty inquiry calls daily. These calls were made from within the country. Some inquired about travel matters to Sora Island, while others demanded Tang Huai to post more videos to verify the authenticity of the Ice Snow Castle and the Giant Kingdom.

For the first type of call, Tang Huai patiently answered their questions. As for the second type—after trying to explain to a few tourists and being mocked as a scammer, Tang Huai simply blocked them.

The Great Tang Resort had just made its appearance to the public, and to silence the doubts of tourists, the resort could only strive to do better—much better.

Many tourists were interested in the Great Tang Resort, but aside from the five who inquired on the first day, no one had confirmed their visit yet. Tang Huai felt a bit helpless. Sora Island was far overseas, and transportation was extremely inconvenient. Those who could come directly were usually those in China with relatively better conditions…

Transportation was indeed a major obstacle.

Tang Huai began to think seriously. The system’s shop offered a building card for a 【Basic Airport】 priced at 3 million island points. With some effort, Tang Huai could accumulate enough points to afford it. However, even with an airport, he would still need planes. Even if he could afford to buy them, he would also need to collaborate with domestic airlines for air transport… It was a massive project that could only be tackled step by step.

…

“Awooo—” On the morning of the sixth day, Tang Huai brought Da Huang to the Blue Sea Fields.

Tomatoes, cabbage, and purple cabbage were all growing lushly. Tang Huai had been observing for several days and found that the spiritual plants had a very short growth cycle. As long as they were watered with enough Blue Sea Lake water, they could grow crop after crop.

“Baa—” Tang Huai let Da Huang go, and it quickly dashed into the flock of sheep, sending the lambs scattering in all directions. Tang Huai watched with amusement. The lambs had reached maturity and were only slightly smaller than Da Huang, but they still looked soft and adorable in front of him.

“Host, something has happened in the town.” Tang Huai had just picked two apples and was about to eat them when he heard Aunt Miley’s timid voice.

The Intermediate AI came with the function to transmit messages to the island owner.

“What happened?” Tang Huai put down the apples.

“Well…” Aunt Miley sounded nervous, and even after sending three transmissions, she still hadn’t explained the situation clearly. Tang Huai frowned, then opened the island’s sand table.

At that moment, there were seven green figures in Area Three, indicating the presence of tourists. Tang Huai frowned, closed the sand table, and walked towards Sora Town.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️