Life in a Simulation - Chapter 3
The blood-red hue before his eyes gradually faded, and the gray-white walls of the rental room came into view.
Shaking his head to clear his mind, Zhou Ming opened the task panel of “Simulating Life”:
Mission Map: “The Reversal Life of Zhang Ergou”
Game Character: Zhang Ergou
Game Status: Ended
Property: 1 (You possess a dilapidated thatched cottage)
Status: 0 (The lowest of the low)
Reputation: 2 (You once had a bit of fame)
Partner: 0 (Loneliness is your destiny)
Offspring: 0 (You left nothing but a handful of yellow soil)
Life Span: 18 (Your lifespan exceeds 28% of the villagers)
Achievement Points Earned: 21
Game Evaluation: F (You have achieved nothing remarkable in this game other than wasting your life)
Highest Achievement: 21 (500 points are required to unlock the next level)
“Damn it, 21 points? I spent 18 years in there and only got 21 achievement points? After deducting the life span, I actually only have 3 points?”
“System, are you kidding me?”
Zhou Ming cursed loudly, feeling utterly cheated. Initially, he had been full of confidence, thinking he would dominate the game, but reality had slapped him hard in the face. This game was not as fun as he had imagined.
“Speaking of which, how did I die just now? Why did those people want to kill me?”
Regaining his composure, Zhou Ming fell into a reverie. He had been doing well in the game, about to reap a large number of achievement points, when suddenly misfortune struck. Who had he offended?
“The host can review the game playback,” the system reminded him.
Zhou Ming immediately clicked the replay button on the screen. In the dark night, among a group of figures, he recognized two familiar faces—one with a scarred forehead and a face full of flesh, and the other short and weasel-like with a gleam in his eyes like a hungry wolf.
“Li Hu and Sun Dafu?”
Zhou Ming knew both of them. Li Hu was the head of the guards at the house of the village head Li Shouzheng, and Sun Dafu was Li Shouzheng’s outer court steward. These two were prominent figures in Niujia Village. Every autumn and year-end, they were the most ruthless in collecting rents and debts for Li Shouzheng. Their names were enough to silence crying children in the village.
“Did the village head Li Shouzheng want me dead?”
Zhou Ming instantly realized who the real culprit was. Without Li Shouzheng’s orders, Li Hu and Sun Dafu would not have come to kill him for no reason.
“But… I have no grudges or debts with Li Shouzheng. Why would he want me dead?”
Zhou Ming was puzzled. He had been very low-profile in the game. How could he suddenly attract a deadly threat?
“Could it be…”
A sudden realization struck Zhou Ming. In the later stages of the game, after he successfully developed a new agricultural planting method over five years, the first to be affected would naturally be the village head Li Shouzheng, who lived off collecting rents. If the tenants in the village could support their families with just a few acres of thin land, as Zhou Ming had done, why would they continue to rent land from Li Shouzheng? With fewer tenants, his income would decrease, and the phenomenon of selling children to pay debts would also diminish. The good days of the landlord Li Shouzheng would be over forever.
Touching the interests of the landlord class was the fundamental reason for his deadly trouble.
Realizing this, Zhou Ming couldn’t help but complain, “System, there’s no way to achieve high scores in this map, right? There are no resources for inventions, and successful farming would offend the landlords and lead to death. It’s hard to succeed no matter what path I take. Tell me, how am I supposed to play?”
The first round of the game ended in a惨defeat. The originally thought-to-be-easy 500 achievement points now seemed as insurmountable as a mountain. For a moment, Zhou Ming even felt that the “Simulating Life” system that had fallen from the sky was as useless as a chicken rib.
With only 21 achievement points, he couldn’t even afford the cheapest skill item in the system mall, the “Primary Farming Technique.” What was the point of playing this game?
“Host, the starting difficulty of the beginner’s map in ‘Simulating Life’ is the lowest among all maps. As long as you find the correct method of reversal, ‘The Reversal Life of Zhang Ergou’ will not be difficult for you.”
“Are you serious, System?”
“Absolutely. As long as you find the right path,” the system affirmed.
Alright, I’ll trust you one more time.
Putting aside his frustration and calming down, Zhou Ming began to summarize the reasons for his failure in the first round of the game.
First and foremost, he realized he was severely unprepared. Not only did he fail to memorize important techniques like glassmaking and steelmaking, but he also didn’t remember the basic chemical formulas for cement production and gunpowder mixing before entering the game. Inventions were almost impossible.
Moreover, in terms of farming, Zhou Ming was half-baked. His experiments with new agricultural planting methods almost starved him to death. It was only in the later years that he found some clues and slightly improved. If he had read some professional books on agricultural planting techniques before entering the game, he would definitely have avoided so many detours.
Lastly, and most importantly, possession is a sin without guilt. After developing farming techniques that were ahead of his time, he should not have been so eager to share them. He needed to ensure his personal safety first and foremost.
The next morning, instead of entering the game again, Zhou Ming went to the city center library. He spent a hundred yuan on a library card and, among the towering bookshelves, found several professional books related to steelmaking and farming. He immediately began to study them earnestly. Whenever he encountered valuable information, he would take out the paper and pen he carried with him and furiously take notes.
For several days, Zhou Ming was in this intense state of learning, so engrossed that he forgot to eat and sleep. When tired, he would nap on the desk; when hungry, he would take a few bites of the bread in his bag and drink some plain water. His dedication even caught the attention of some regular library-goers.
“Xiangxiang, that guy looks really strange. Since we got here, he hasn’t even looked up from his book once,” a petite girl whispered to the elegant woman with long, flowing hair and skin like jade sitting beside her. She thought to herself: Xiangxiang looks like a national goddess. More than half of the men around here are pretending to read, secretly glancing at Xiangxiang. I didn’t expect that guy to act as if we don’t exist. It’s so annoying.
Keep pretending, she thought.
The elegant woman, who was immersed in a philosophy book, slightly lifted her phoenix-like eyes. Her peripheral vision caught Zhou Ming writing excitedly in his notebook: “Sulfur + charcoal + saltpeter, ignited in a 1:2:3 mass ratio, produces an explosive reaction, generating potassium sulfide, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide…”
Seeing Zhou Ming’s sudden excitement and animated gestures, the elegant woman smiled charmingly, revealing a fleeting yet stunning beauty. She shook her head and said to the petite girl beside her, “He’s really a peculiar person. Xiao Fei, don’t mind him. You have your postgraduate entrance exam coming up. Let’s continue with our studies.”
“Oh~” The petite girl pouted and glared at Zhou Ming before returning her attention to her review materials.
About a week passed, and Zhou Ming, now fully recharged, took a deep breath and opened the game panel with a hint of anticipation.
“This time, I’ve memorized all the knowledge points I need! Whether it’s inventions or farming and breeding, nothing can stop me. This time, I’m going to earn more than 500 achievement points!”
“Drip~”
“The player is beginning to enter the game……”