Ch 52: The World’s Number One Resort

At 10 a.m. China time, Li Weiwei returned to her office after finishing the morning meeting at Xia Feng Technology Company.

Xia Feng Technology primarily focuses on mobile app software, and Li Weiwei is the marketing director. With her latest project just wrapped up, she had some free time over the next couple of days.

Back in her office, Li Weiwei opened the Douyin app. She is an avid user of Douyin short videos.

“Like a little tree, little tree…” The trending background music of Douyin played as Li Weiwei scrolled through the feed before opening her list of followed accounts.

There were over a dozen accounts on the list, all belonging to Lolita fashion influencers.

Li Weiwei is a Lolita dress enthusiast. Though she’s 32 years old and a decisive female director at work, she still has a girlish heart. She loves fancy dresses but feels too shy to wear them in real life. So, she follows Lolita content creators online to indulge her interest.

Many people on her follow list had recently posted updates, so Li Weiwei scrolled through them attentively.

“One outfit, two outfits, three outfits… ten outfits changed in ten seconds. How delightful.”

“Ah, ah, ah! Is that the new bridal dress from Elys? It’s gorgeous!”

Li Weiwei gasped internally as she watched the Douyin clips. Seeing so many beautiful outfits at once… it was simply exhilarating!

“Huh, @YipianFenglin uploaded a new video?” After scrolling for a while, Li Weiwei noticed this update with a slight look of surprise. @YipianFenglin was Zhou Zilin’s Douyin nickname.

Although Zhou Zilin was a Douyin influencer, she didn’t post updates very frequently, typically once every ten days or half a month. Her last video was posted six days ago, which was relatively recent for her.

@YipianFenglin was not only beautiful but also usually wore luxurious, exquisite outfits, and Li Weiwei often watched her videos to get her fashion fix. Noticing the new video, Li Weiwei hesitated for a moment before casually tapping to watch.

“Glorious as frost, on the ancient city’s edge, one carries a sword to roam the world—” An aged-sounding background track began to play.

Li Weiwei: …

Was it just her imagination, or had she been hearing this song, “Sword Across the Rivers,” quite often while browsing Douyin lately? Shaking off the thought, she continued watching.

As soon as she saw the first frame, Li Weiwei was completely stunned. In front of an enormous ice castle, Zhou Zilin sat on a giant swing in a black Lolita dress, her eyes cold. Surrounding her was a vast expanse of snow. As the camera panned out, it revealed a boundless world of white.

“Oh my God, where did Xiaofenglin shoot this? It’s so atmospheric.”

“This scene looks a bit familiar, like I just saw it somewhere…”

“Whoa, it’s @GreatTangOverseasResort! Even the theme song is ‘Sword Across the Rivers.’”

@YipianFenglin had 20.56 million followers, and as soon as the video was posted, the comments filled with exclamations. An ice castle, “Sword Across the Rivers”… The hype around @GreatTangOverseasResort had only subsided a week ago, and now, seeing the ice castle again, everyone immediately remembered.

Did @YipianFenglin visit Great Tang Resort?

@YipianFenglin: “Currently on the ship, and Great Tang Overseas Resort is not special effects. [Plane Ticket] [Boat Ticket]”

As visitors discussed the video, @YipianFenglin posted another update. This time, it wasn’t a continuous video but a compilation of her photos on Sora Island: the Blue Sea Treehouse, the Snow Village, Bianjing Ancient City… The backgrounds matched those previously shown by @GreatTangOverseasResort, along with close-up shots of her plane and boat tickets.

The viewers were stunned… Was this for real?

Before they could react, @YipianFenglin uploaded yet another video. This one was filmed on a roller coaster. Through the transparent glass ceiling of the ride, the video showed giant bronze statues magnified N times over, creating the illusion of a kingdom of giants. Exclamations from Zhou Zilin and her assistant could be heard intermittently in the background.

“Whoa, it’s real!” The viewers couldn’t help but gasp as they saw the surrounding bronze statues. They were immediately reminded of last week’s trending topic.

@YipianFenglin’s background had been dug up when she first became popular. Although the public didn’t know her real identity, they were aware that she was a wealthy second-generation individual. She had a reputation for being selective and had refused numerous ads from unknown brands. With Zhou Zilin now vouching for the place, everyone finally believed that Bianjing Ancient City truly existed.

In this era of internet communication, @YipianFenglin had no reason to lie for Great Tang Resort.

“Oh no, I kind of want to go now… Does anyone have a guide for Great Tang Resort?”

“Ahhh, the New Year’s holiday is coming soon. I’m so excited!”

Tourists began to share the posts one after another. They had already been quite tempted after watching Tang Huai’s videos on Douyin. Now, knowing that the castle and the ancient city truly existed, that temptation quickly turned into a desire to take action.

As the posts continued to be shared, Great Tang Resort’s popularity surged once again. In addition, the theme song “Sword Across the Rivers” also experienced a revival. It was an old song that was becoming popular again…

…

“Move the signpost a bit to the left, perfect…”

A week later, Sora Town was officially completed. The disguised laborers had left, leaving the entire town empty.

The system-built structures in Sora Town now included the Delicious Restaurant, Sora Cinema, Candy House, and Cobbler’s Shop. Besides those already established, there were also several small buildings that had not yet been furnished. Each small building had a pointed roof angled at thirty degrees, painted in various colors such as orange, blue, and fresh green. From the outside, they resembled quaint fairytale houses.

These buildings were disguised, waiting for Tang Huai to acquire enough shop cards to add attributes to them, just like the Delicious Restaurant. If Tang Huai wasn’t satisfied with the appearance of these buildings, he could replace them with card-styled houses. However, that would involve tearing down and rebuilding.

The established buildings stood out among the pointed-roof houses, yet there was an inexplicable harmony in their prominence.

The spacing between the small buildings was orderly and scattered, creating a sense of lightness and joy.

Tang Huai rode his hoverboard around the town, then returned to the port.

At a distance of about 100 meters from Sora Port, a long castle wall stretched out. Like the town, the wall was brightly colored and exquisitely designed.

The wall enclosed Sora Town from south to north in a straight line about 300 meters long. At both ends, it bordered on the dark, rugged rocks. In the center of the wall was a 20-meter-wide opening, with an automatically controlled gate at its front.

This was the system’s [Sora Passage]. The passage was divided into an entrance and an exit. Currently, since the other ports were not yet opened, this passage was the only access point for tourists entering and leaving Sora Island. Its security was top-notch, powered by advanced technology.

Now that the [Sora Passage] was in place, Sora Island had taken on the basic scale of a tourist island. Tang Huai was very pleased with it.

After taking a look around the [Sora Passage], Tang Huai opened the system interface.

Host Name: Tang Huai

Unlocked Areas: [Blue Sea Lake], [Snow Village], [Bianjing Ancient City], [Sora Town]

Current Task: None

Item Slot: Empty

Island Points: 0

Reputation Points: 36.85 million

Thanks to a week of promotion on Douyin, Great Tang Overseas Resort had exploded in popularity. It was even more sensational than Tang Huai’s previous five-shot series. During this time, Tang Huai received numerous calls from travel agencies, all wanting to sign contracts with Great Tang Resort.

Nowadays, both international and nearby tours were quite common. If one really wanted to travel abroad, scraping together ten or twenty thousand yuan was doable. Douyin had a large number of affluent users, and now that Great Tang Resort was experiencing its second wave of fame, they truly wanted to see it for themselves.

Traveling from China to Sora Island was not convenient, and most people preferred group tours over independent travel. Where there is demand, there is a market. Tang Huai noted down the contacts from the travel agencies, planning to return to China in the next couple of days.

Aside from the travel agency business, Tang Huai also planned to use his connections to see if he could start a business selling Sora fruits. Leaving such a treasure isolated on the island felt like a waste.

If the business went through, the planting area of the Blue Sea Spirit Field could be expanded accordingly. As long as there were enough island points, anything was possible.

After some consideration, Tang Huai opened the system shop. Now that he had accumulated enough reputation points, it was time to shop.

Over the past few days, Tang Huai had prepared a shopping list.

With the list in front of him, he boldly made his purchases:

• [Sora Guards]: Standard type, 50 people, 5 million points.
• [Sora Guard Captain]: Advanced type, 3 people, 3 million points.
• [Town Security Officers]: 10 people, 1 million points.
• [Sora Sanitation Workers]: 50 people, 5 million points.
• [Sora Drivers]: 20 people, 4 million points.
• [Sora Signboard – Advanced]: 10 million points.

…

Tang Huai bought a whole lot of items, mainly focusing on various non-intelligent AIs. For Great Tang Resort to operate properly, these basic personnel were indispensable, along with skilled workers like the Sora drivers.

The road from Sora Town to the Blue Sea Forest was now open, and the Blue Sea Forest connected to Snow Village and Bianjing Ancient City. Technically speaking, Sora Town’s transportation network was now well-connected.

Previously, Tang Huai had purchased ten sightseeing buses, each capable of carrying thirty people. This capacity was sufficient for now, but it would be inadequate as more tourists arrived. He planned to buy another batch upon his return.

After making these purchases, Tang Huai was left with over 8 million island points. He decided to keep this reserve for future use, such as expanding the Blue Sea Spirit Field or buying emergency supplies.

Tang Huai put away the AI cards, then turned his attention to the final card: [Sora Signboard – Advanced]: 10 million island points.

The signboard was expensive, but Tang Huai had no regrets. A signboard represented the resort’s image. Now that Sora Island had the means, it was time to strive for excellence.

Thanks to his efforts over this period and Tang Wangchun’s inheritance, Tang Huai now had over three million US dollars. While that wasn’t a vast amount, it was more than enough for inviting celebrities to the grand opening. It was late November, and the Chinese New Year was a little over two months away. Tang Huai planned to officially launch the resort during the Lunar New Year and make it as grand as possible.

With this thought, Tang Huai couldn’t help but smile. He began to understand why companies would go all out for their opening ceremonies. It was a matter of pride. A high-profile launch could significantly boost a company’s reputation compared to a low-key start.

He needed those reputation points.

After arranging Sora Island’s development plan, time had passed, and it was now 10 p.m.

With the island silent around him, Tang Huai enjoyed some late-night snacks at the Delicious Restaurant before returning to the Blue Sea Treehouse.

He had a restful sleep.

The next morning, Tang Huai arrived at Sora Port, dragging a large suitcase. On the horizon, a silver-gray yacht approached slowly.

The Great Tang No. 1 had arrived.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️