Chapter 145
Lu Hanzhi was a bit dazed. He wondered why there was a welcome ceremony just for coming back online.
Fortunately, it didn’t last long. A few seconds later, the system’s usual prompt sounded: “Congratulations, host. You have activated the Intermediate Upgrade Path. The Intermediate Path will provide appropriate tools to make your upgrades smoother.”
A skeptical expression appeared on Lu Hanzhi’s face. Smooth?
Yeah, right. As if I’d believe you.
He said, “Just tell me what to do! You always make it sound better than it is, but I’ve seen the reality. If I weren’t smart, you wouldn’t have gotten past a single stage of this path.”
System: How did I end up with such a narcissistic host?
System: I’m struggling too, okay? Do you think the system is some kind of casual puzzle game? Of course there’s difficulty, otherwise it would violate system rules.
Systems have principles too.
The system continued, expressionless: “Host, please listen carefully to the Intermediate Stage rules so that you can complete missions more efficiently and avoid detours.”
Lu Hanzhi waved off the explanation. “Go ahead, please.”
The system prompted again: “The Intermediate Mission Path, like the beginner path, is divided into five stages. Each stage has a main emperor branch; completing it grants large amounts of exchange points and may trigger ordinary side quests, which also provide extra exchange points. Each stage’s missions are divided into three steps; completing the first step grants an Intermediate Treasure Chest, which can drop Intermediate Array Blueprints, Intermediate Free Exchange Tickets, and Intermediate Forging Blueprints. The more missions the host completes, the more side quests are triggered, and the more rewards are obtained. This storyline will open the Eastern Sea map, and new clue fragments will gradually appear in the main plot.”
Lu Hanzhi roughly understood. The rules were similar to the beginner path.
Only now, the main plot had opened the Eastern Sea map.
The timing was uncanny—just now, Yuwen Min and Lu Xuzhi had talked about welcoming the Eastern Sea mission, and now the corresponding task line appeared.
Lu Hanzhi didn’t know if his mission would have something to do with the Eastern Sea.
In any case, he thought: respond to challenges as they come. There’s always a way if your intelligence doesn’t fail.
He took a deep breath and accepted the first-stage Intermediate Task.
As the system’s prompt sounded, the first-stage task opened in his mind:
“Congratulations, host. You have activated the first-stage mission of the Intermediate Path. Please choose the path for this stage: 1. Strengthen the nation through agriculture. 2. Strengthen the nation through science and education.”
Lu Hanzhi frowned. “What kind of mechanism is this?”
The system explained: “Strengthening the nation through agriculture raises the GDP from agricultural production to a certain level. Upgrading pace will follow crop growth cycles, which is relatively slow.
Strengthening the nation through science and education advances the national education level to a new era. Upgrading difficulty is higher, and practical obstacles may occur.”
Lu Hanzhi gritted his teeth. “For Great Zhao, both paths are urgent. I just want to ask—can I choose both paths?”
The system replied, “Yes, but in practice it will be difficult. Host will need to run both lines simultaneously. The benefit is that the Intermediate Stage is divided into two parts: Strengthening the Nation through Agriculture is the first part, and Strengthening the Nation through Science and Education is the second. If the host wishes, both can be pursued at the same time. However, time must be managed carefully—failure to complete within the time limit will cause the storyline to reset.”
Lu Hanzhi clicked his tongue, feeling conflicted.
But this mission seemed endless, and he found it quite a headache.
So he closed his eyes, thinking, “Well, if I die, I die. My main task right now is to do the mission anyway.”
Besides, these two paths didn’t have to follow a strict order; they could run simultaneously.
He opened his eyes and said to the system, “I choose to run both paths at the same time.”
The system’s prompt sounded again: “Congratulations, host. You have successfully triggered the dual-mission path of Strengthening the Nation through Agriculture and Science and Education. The first-stage mission has now begun. Please bind an empty area to serve as your agriculture and science base.”
Lu Hanzhi thought to himself that site selection was indeed important.
Naturally, it had to be in the suburbs—not somewhere densely populated.
Ideally, it should have a mountain at its back and a river in front. He recalled a perfect Feng Shui location.
North of the southern suburban estate, there was a deserted, flat plot of land.
It was uninhabited but had both mountains and water.
With the mountain behind and water in front, Feng Shui said the mountain represented support, and the water represented wealth.
Mountains meant people, water meant money. So Lu Hanzhi zoomed in on the capital’s map and selected that plot for his base.
The system prompted again: “Congratulations, host. This mission is completed, and you have earned 5 exchange points.”
Lu Hanzhi gasped. The reward just quintupled at once!
That was pretty good.
He immediately accepted the second mission. The prompt came: “Congratulations, host. You have successfully accepted the second Intermediate Path mission. Auxiliary tools for this mission have been placed in your toolbox. Agriculture Mission: Successfully build a building taller than ten floors. Science Mission: Designate this building as a science and education base. Mission rewards: 50 exchange points x2, and one Intermediate Treasure Chest x2. As this is the host’s first time completing an Intermediate Path Mission, wisdom points buff is increased by 100%. Use your clever mind to contribute to humanity’s progress.”
Lu Hanzhi exclaimed in awe. He thought that choosing the dual path had been the right choice—the two missions actually overlapped.
He took a deep breath and resisted the urge to scold the system.
He always felt the system’s ideas were bizarre.
You… uh, never mind, can’t curse.
This was a semi-feudal, semi-slave society, right?
The metallurgy and construction techniques hadn’t developed enough, and yet it asked him to… build a structure taller than ten floors?
Not to mention that the tallest building in this era was only four floors. With the current construction materials, anything taller was almost impossible.
Honestly, he felt skyscrapers were pretty pointless in this era.
Sure, building houses was a part of improving people’s livelihoods.
But there was no need for a skyscraper—the land was abundant, and land wasn’t scarce. There was no reason to build so high.
But the system was the master here. If it insisted, he had to comply.
He just wanted to ask: how am I supposed to build this without proper technical support?
He hoped at least the system would give him a blueprint.
Oh, wait—the system probably had provided one.
Lu Hanzhi searched the system interface for a while and finally found the toolbox at the bottom right corner.
The system had mentioned that auxiliary tools would be placed there.
He immediately opened it. When he saw an enormous auxiliary tool, he was left speechless.
After a few minutes of stunned silence, Lu Hanzhi said to the system, “Can I… change my mind now? I think doing a single-path route would be fine too. A slow and easy life sounds perfect.”
The system replied ruthlessly, “Host has already initiated the dual-mission path. The system warned the host before activation that the dual path would be extremely difficult, yet the host still chose it. Once a path is chosen, it cannot be changed. Host must complete the missions to avoid storyline reset. However, since you are in the Intermediate Stage, the main storyline is locked. Even if you make no progress for a short time, the main plot will only revert to this point.”
Lu Hanzhi roughly understood—like a game with stages. Not bad.
The path he chose, he would follow it to the end.
He opened the large box and found stacks of building blueprints and textbooks with instructions.
With blueprints in hand, practical execution would be much simpler.
After finishing Ah Chan and Ah Meng’s home banquet tomorrow, Lu Hanzhi planned to start building his agriculture and science base.
That night, Lu Hanzhi recruited Yuwen Jue to join him.
Yuwen Jue was busy dealing with Ah Meng, who had pooped. Lu Hanzhi said, “Why not leave it to nanny? Since second sister-in-law doesn’t touch a finger to work, why don’t I help you?”
Yuwen Jue, holding a warm damp towel and wiping Ah Meng’s sturdy little legs, replied, “I prefer to do it myself. Since I gave birth to him, I have to take responsibility.”
Lu Hanzhi said, “You’re still on your first child. Once you have more, you’ll relax.”
Yuwen Jue thought about it and said, “That’s true…”
Lu Hanzhi laughed. “Then let’s treat everyone the same.”
In the end, Yuwen Jue responsibly finished cleaning Ah Meng, putting on a fresh diaper.
Afterwards, she asked, “What do you need, Hanzhi?”
Lu Hanzhi took out his small toolbox. “Second sister-in-law, let’s partner up to build a house!”
Yuwen Jue took the box, flipping through the complicated blueprints. “What’s this? Hanzhi, what crazy idea do you have this time?”
Lu Hanzhi said, “These are building blueprints… basically… modeling plans…”
Yuwen Jue asked, “I… don’t really understand. Hanzhi, can you explain it to me slowly?”
Lu Hanzhi noticed that his second sister-in-law had been a bit out of it since giving birth to Ah Meng. Lately, he spoke slowly and always seemed a little absent-minded.
He smiled and said, “No rush, no rush. I’ll explain it to you slowly, second sister-in-law. We have the whole night! Who knows when the two of them will come back, so we might as well just share the bed for now!”
Yuwen Jue said, “Alright, bring Ah Chan over.”
Lu Hanzhi replied, “Ah Chan? Ah… I’m not sure where he went. But with Xiao Liuzi looking after him, it’s fine. Our Brother Liu is the most reliable—he’ll definitely bring him back to sleep on time.”
Yuwen Jue noticed that Hanzhi’s heart had grown bigger, that he seemed to live more freely than before.
Probably ever since returning from Western Xinjiang, he had changed somehow.
In the past, he always seemed ready to leave at a moment’s notice, but now he seemed to consider this place home.
Yuwen Jue looked at Lu Hanzhi and smiled. “Hanzhi, have you encountered some good news recently?”
Lu Hanzhi didn’t understand and looked confused. “Huh? Second sister-in-law, what are you talking about?”
Outside the door came Ah Chan’s voice. The little chubby boy had gotten tired from playing and was probably coming back to ask Hanzhi for food.
As he entered, he saw little Ah Meng sleeping in his cradle.
Ah Chan waddled over on his chubby little legs, bent down, and planted a smack on Ah Meng’s cheek.
Lu Hanzhi: ……
Yuwen Jue: ……
Before either parent could say anything, Xiao Liuzi stepped forward like a little adult and said, “Junior disciple, you must not randomly kiss others. It’s very rude. The teacher says: ‘Do not act improperly.’ Whether between men and women or between men, one must not overstep boundaries.”
Lu Hanzhi: ???
Yuwen Jue: ???
Your favorite BL chaos wouldn’t be possible without coffee… lots of coffee….
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