Ita Era

Chapter 62 Going Home (24)

Congratulations on clearing the "Return Home" dungeon! Overall rating: S.

The first reward: two gold friend cards. You can write your friend's name on the card, and the card will be sent to the other person. If the other person agrees, you will also become their friend. Both of you can then travel to each other's villa via a teleportation array and use each other's facilities for a fee. If friends enter the instance simultaneously through the same teleportation array, they will be assigned to the same instance and the same scene, if permitted.

The second reward: one Four Symbols Teleportation Card and one One-Way Teleportation Ticket. One-way teleportation has already been explained. Ding Shi directly tore up the One-Way Teleportation Ticket, indicating that he would continue the dungeon challenge.

The Four Symbols Teleport Card allows you to travel to any Four Symbols City outside of instances. Using the teleportation array in a Four Symbols City costs 10 gold to return to the island.

The third reward: a full house upgrade card, which upgrades the entire house, including facilities, by one level.

Fourth reward: Two facility scratch cards. Each facility scratch card guarantees a functional building.

The fifth reward: $450. Combined with his original savings, Ding Shi was now a wealthy man with a fortune of $500.

Ding Shi first filled out a friend card for Chu Yu, but after sending it, it disappeared without a trace. It seems that she has not yet left the instance, or has died in the instance.

Using the whole-house upgrade card, the thatched hut was upgraded to a stone house, and the table, bed, toilet, and other items inside were also upgraded. The stone house's area expanded to 100 square meters, the coal stove became a coal-burning fireplace, and a chimney was automatically added. Ding Shi deeply regretted not building a heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove), otherwise it could have been upgraded to... a fiery kang?
The interior floor is entirely paved with bluestone, which is flat and clean. The main material of the walls is rock, so the biggest problem must be dampness.

Next up is the facility card. Wash your hands, pray to all the gods, and when you're about to flip the card, you glance at your luck score: 4 points. So you decide not to flip it.

Using the Four Symbols Teleportation Card, only one Four Symbols City, No. 00, can be selected.

The next second, Ding Shi appeared in City 00. He was standing in the teleportation array in the commercial center square. Although there were no players yet, the place looked quite prosperous, with all the shops along the street already open, selling everything from food and drinks to clothing and daily necessities. The staff inside were currently all robots.

System notification: AI monitoring zone, please be mindful of your words and actions. This makes it sound like you can do bad things just because you're not in the monitoring zone.

Ding Shi first spent $1 to rent an electric scooter for 5 hours. He went to the eastern villa area, but because he didn't have an invitation from a villa owner, he was blocked by an invisible wall and couldn't enter. The same thing happened in the west, south, and north communities, except that he wasn't a resident of any of the communities and therefore couldn't enter. In other words, people in the eastern villa area could invite anyone into the villa area, while only residents of the other three areas could enter.

Ding returned to the commercial street, which was very large. The outer layer mainly sold inexpensive and practical goods, while the value and quality of the goods increased as you got closer to the inner layer.

Ding Shi parked the car and went into the land and housing agency.

This is where you can handle rental and purchase procedures. Currently, all housing and land resources are controlled by AI and have not yet been put into circulation.

Ding Shi wasn't interested in the community; after all, no matter how luxurious a villa was, could it compare to his own island? He set his sights on the outskirts of City 00, which had farms, power plants, and other facilities serving City 00, as well as plenty of vacant land. The staff at these facilities were currently robots; once human players moved in, the players would take over the robots' positions.

Ding Shi spent $200 to buy a relatively intact 5-square-kilometer plot of land in the eastern suburbs. What for? He didn't know. Why did he buy it? Because it was so cheap. Living in today's society where land is incredibly valuable, many people have an immense desire to own land. Ding Shi has to pay 5% property tax annually, which is $10.

As long as the ecosystem is not severely damaged, such as by digging a pit several kilometers deep, the authorities will not interfere with the use of the land.

The second shop Ding Shi visited was a construction company. After inquiring, Ding Shi paid $100, and the construction company dispatched a robot to the island where Ding Shi lived to build a road from the beach to the villa on the mountaintop.

Then I went to the electric scooter shop and bought an electric scooter for $10.

The next shop was the power company. Ding Shi paid $0.1 per kilowatt-hour to have electricity connected to the island for residential use. A contract was also signed, stipulating that the power company would provide free wiring and installation services for any future additions or removals of facilities by Ding Shi. Finally, on the power company's recommendation, Ding Shi purchased a batch of light bulbs.

Ding opened an account at a securities company, invested $50, and bought shares of Four Symbols Electric.

I spent $30 to buy a year's subscription to a robot butler. The butler was incredibly capable; it could cook, do laundry, mow the lawn, dig the floor, and do everything.

After the round trip, plus the prepaid $10 electricity fee and $10 transfer fee, $400 was gone.

Back on the island, the robots from the construction and power companies had already started working. Instead of magically building roads, the robots were genuinely putting their work to the task.

The robots first built a material warehouse near the teleportation array. All the teleported materials went into the warehouse, and then the robots moved them to various locations. Little Tangtang hovered above Ding Shi's head, while Ding Shi sat on a large rock, the two of them watching the robots busily at work. Some might ask, "What's so interesting about that?" This shows a lack of understanding of some men; some men can stare at a working excavator for hours. Watching the robots work was a pleasure for Ding Shi; they worked in unison, with synchronized steps and methodical efficiency.

The power company spent 5 hours completing the work.

The robot butler, named RobotManager, installed energy-saving light bulbs inside and outside the main villa after receiving orders. In addition, it also performs many other functions, including cook, weed killer, pest control, and alarm clock.

Day 7 of returning home.

Ding Shi woke up from the rattan bed, and the first thing he did was check his luck stat: 2. He threw a nut at the other person.

Ding Shi gave a shout, and the machine operator notified the robot that it could continue repairing the road. Ding Shi washed up, ate breakfast, and went to the martial arts gym next door to practice throwing knives.

After an hour's rest at noon, Ding Shi practiced drawing talismans in the afternoon, but he couldn't draw them well. Feeling a little discouraged, he looked at the machine and his eyes lit up. He asked, "Little Machine, can you draw talismans?"

Administrator: "No."

Little Tangtang sat on the machine tube's shoulder, tilted her head to look at Ding Shi's painting, then looked away without saying a word.

Ding Shi immediately stepped forward: "My dear little Tangtang, beautiful lady, do you know how to draw talismans?"

Little Sugar proudly raised her head and said, "No, but I also know where your problem lies."

Ding Shi asked with a smile, "Little Tangtang, would you like me to massage your legs?"

Little Sugar said, "I can teach you, but I need one thing."

Since it was a transaction, Ding Shi put away his smile and asked, "What do you want?"

Little Sugar said, "The seven of spades in your locker."

"Dream on." Ding Shi sat back down.

The machine operator said, "Master, your biggest problem with drawing talismans is holding the brush."

Little Tangtang glared at the machine operator, who ignored her and continued, "There are many ways to hold a calligraphy brush. Before the Song Dynasty, the finger and palm method was used, where the wrist remained still and only the fingers and palm moved. After the Song Dynasty, the wrist method was used. Modern people's brush-holding and writing habits are related to wrist movement."

The finger-palm method allows you to hold the paper in your left hand and write with your right, resulting in a flexible pen tip. The wrist method requires the paper to be placed on a table, and the pen tip lacks flexibility.

The clever Ding Shi immediately understood what the machine manager meant. The reason he couldn't draw raindrops well was because he was using wrist movement instead of the finger and palm technique.

Ding asked the operator curiously, "Can I ask you any questions I may have in the future?"

The administrator replied, "I can only answer the most basic professional questions."

What do you mean? This is the most basic question? Are you mocking me?

Ding Shi rolled his eyes and looked at Xiao Tangtang: "Xiao Tangtang, you want to exchange a playing card for the most basic professional question? Have you no shame?"

Little Sugar reached out and tore off a face, threw it on the ground, and flew away arrogantly.

Ding Shi was shocked; it really had no shame.

(End of this chapter)