Super Island Tycoon

Jiang Cheng noticed there weren’t many people here yet. He checked the time and realized there was still a while before the competition started; turned out he’d just arrived too early. Without thinking too much about it, Jiang Cheng walked forward, taking the chance to look over the items on display.

Walking all the way in, Jiang Cheng realized the level of technology here wasn’t all that different from his own. He’d just seen a Jiezhi Storage Bag, along with a whole series of polymer products. If these things were on Earth, he’d be completely capable of making them himself.

Jiang Cheng saw that the building had three floors. Normally the competition should be held on the first floor, but judging by the look of it, the first floor was the same as before, still just a science and technology exhibition hall. Jiang Zai went up to the second floor; when he got there, he saw a lot of computers. Strictly speaking, this was a huge room with lots of desks set up, and each desk had a computer on it. Jiang Cheng glanced around and saw a raised platform and a large screen, with ”Fifth Black Innovation Technology Competition” written on it.

Jiang Cheng chuckled; they were already on the fifth one. He had just signed up online with a simple registration and found that the competition’s sign-up process wasn’t that strict, and they didn’t even hold a public preliminary test. Although that sounded completely unfair, Jiang Cheng himself had no doubt he could get through the preliminary.

Jiang Cheng went up to the third floor and saw that, like the first floor below, it was also a tech exhibition. But it seemed very plain and simple, with only a few items on display. Jiang Cheng walked up for a closer look and realized they were robots. These robots were unlike any kind he’d ever seen before: they didn’t look anything like humans, and they weren’t normal robots either. They looked more like Transformers. From the look of things, the science museum had just opened, but there were already a lot of kids circling around these robots. Jiang Cheng suddenly thought of Cloud—if she saw these, she’d definitely be delighted.

He had no idea how they were doing now, and he had no way to contact them. Jiang Cheng was a little worried, but judging from Master Venerable’s attitude, he should at least be ensuring their safety.

Jiang Cheng looked around a bit more, and suddenly his phone rang. He checked it and saw a text message confirming he had passed the preliminary and could now take part in this competition.

Jiang Cheng looked at the simple text and still had no idea how he was ultimately going to get out of here. But since he had absolutely no leads, all he could do was focus on what he could do right now. Including chasing down the criminal earlier, Jiang Cheng had never regretted it. That kind of thing is something everyone ought to do. Jiang Cheng thought.

Not long after, when Jiang Cheng went downstairs, he saw that a lot of people had arrived. It seemed they were all participants in the competition. Without exception, they were all dressed very properly and tastefully. Jiang Cheng looked at his own clothes, clearly out of place compared to these people, and regretted not buying a few outfits that wouldn’t draw attention.

Jiang Cheng went to stand in an inconspicuous spot, ignoring the unrestrained stares from the people around him. ”Sigh, this guy’s clothes must be from decades ago.” ”Yeah, and he still dares to show his face out here.”

Jiang Cheng was a bit speechless. Just because he was dressed badly, he had to be talked about like this. After a while, someone came in through the entrance, and the whole place instantly quieted down. Everyone’s gaze shifted to the figure coming in through the door. Jiang Zai of course saw her too—it was Qiu Qingqing. So she’d ended up in the same world as him. Jiang Cheng thought. The people nearby started gossiping about Qiu Qingqing. ”She’s really gorgeous, my god.” ”Yeah, look around—there aren’t even that many girls here to begin with.” ”But I’ve never seen anyone this pretty before.”

Seems the people here have similar aesthetics to Li People, Jiang Cheng thought, watching as Qiu Qingqing walked straight to the front row without so much as glancing to the side, then stopped at the edge to stand there. Her face was cold the whole time. At least in all the times he’d seen her, he’d never once seen her smile. Jiang Cheng really didn’t understand what these people saw in chasing after such an ice-cold person.

After Qiu Qingqing came in, a lot of the guys’ eyes were glued entirely to her, and quite a few even went up to ask for her contact info. For a moment, the whole venue quieted down a lot.

But Qiu Qingqing completely ignored everyone there and didn’t say a single word. ”Could it be she doesn’t know how to talk?” ”Mute?”

Watching Qiu Qingqing, Jiang Cheng did feel she had a kind of aloof, apart-from-the-world air about her.

After a while, a few people came in through Door 123, all dressed very formally. Jiang Cheng saw two men, both looking to be in their forties. The one in front came in first and immediately caught sight of Qiu Qingqing; his eyes stuck to her and wouldn’t move, his whole expression lecherous. The one behind nudged him with his elbow, and the man seemed to snap back to himself, clearing his throat. ”Focus, the competition’s starting!”

The way he talked, plus his face, which could be described as shifty-eyed and rat-like, made Jiang Cheng feel this was definitely not a good person.

”He’s the examiner? Oh my god, I might as well not take the test.” ”Yeah, I heard he’d already been fired—how’s he still here?” ”You don’t know? His family’s got strong backing.”

Jiang Cheng listened to the people around him discussing this examiner; everything he heard was negative. And thinking back to the way the man had just looked at Qiu Qingqing, it had been pretty disgusting.

”The computers in front of you are all infected with viruses. Remove the virus as fast as possible; we’ll be looking at how long you take.” The man who had spoken before continued. He acted as if he couldn’t hear the criticism below, but his eyes never left Qiu Qingqing the entire time. The party involved seemed not to notice, staring straight ahead with a cold, expressionless face. Jiang Cheng had to admit he respected that.

Jiang Cheng saw that the people around him had already started moving, so he immediately opened the virus on the computer in front of him as well. He checked the ports through which the virus had infected the system and realized that this one was completely different from the Canglan Virus he’d encountered before, and far more troublesome. Jiang Cheng focused entirely on the virus in front of him. He noticed the people around him weren’t making any progress either; they were probably at a loss.

The guy beside Jiang Cheng, after realizing he simply couldn’t remove the virus, looked a little ashamed and frustrated. He turned to look at Jiang Cheng next to him. All he could see was that the young man by his side wasn’t very old, but had a calm, steady air about him, as if he had everything under control. His fingers were flying nonstop across the keyboard, his eyes locked on the monitor. For some reason, the guy just had a feeling that Jiang Cheng could do it.

Jiang Cheng had no time to spare for whatever was happening nearby. All his attention was on the virus in front of him. No matter how difficult it was, there was nothing else he could do now, and he was almost there. Jiang Cheng thought, speeding up his actions. Done! Seeing the computer return to normal, Jiang Cheng felt a surge of excitement.

The guy next to Jiang Cheng seemed really excited too. ”It’s fixed? You’re so cool!”

Only then did Jiang Cheng notice the boy who’d been watching him the whole time. The boy looked a bit younger, dressed very stylishly, and had a somewhat handsome appearance.

Jiang Cheng just nodded and didn’t say anything. But the guy beside him kept talking enthusiastically to Jiang Cheng. ”I couldn’t do it at all, you’re incredible. I was watching you the whole time—you’re seriously amazing.” The boy looked at Jiang Cheng with open admiration.

Jiang Cheng felt a little embarrassed by the praise and smiled. ”…” But he still couldn’t find anything to say, and just smiled back at the boy.