Chapter 73 - 69: Something’s About to Go Wrong?

Chapter 73: Chapter 69: Something’s About to Go Wrong?

The assistant was truly curious when he asked Ao Youda.

After all, internet traffic and popularity were hard things to grasp. Otherwise, despite all the time they’d spent promoting it, their Noahda Bamboo Forest Maze had only managed to become famous within the niche of bamboo maze attractions.

When people went to play in a bamboo maze, they might hear that the Noahda Bamboo Forest Maze was the "number one maze" or something similar.

It was just fame and traffic within a small circle; it was completely unable to break into the mainstream.

Otherwise, if you went out and randomly asked ten people on the street, not a single one would have heard of the Noahda Bamboo Forest Maze.

But Li Yuan Farm was different. With its current level of popularity, if you went and asked ten people on the street, it was very likely that more than half of them had seen their videos. Their follower count alone had surpassed 1.5 million in a short time. There was simply no comparison.

Ao Youda, however, asked, "What’s that maze guy, Ah Luo, been up to lately?"

Hearing the name, the assistant couldn’t help but complain, "That guy is a real bastard. He’s always got it in for us. Right after we upgraded our Bamboo Maze, he came specifically to challenge it. After he solved it, he even said our maze was too easy."

Ah Luo was an influencer who gained popularity by solving mazes. He had a sizable fanbase and specialized in challenging maze attractions all over the country, claiming he would conquer every maze in the world.

Of course, if those maze attractions were willing to pay, he didn’t mind going easy on them and helping them with some advertising.

Hearing his assistant’s words, Ao Youda smiled and said, "That’s how he makes a living. If he didn’t say that, how could he make himself look so skilled? However, this time we can use him. Go find him, give him 100,000 yuan, and have him go through Li Yuan Farm’s Bamboo Maze. After he clears it, just have him say that Li Yuan Farm’s maze isn’t as good as ours."

The assistant’s eyes lit up when he heard this.

’What a brilliant move!’

Li Yuan Farm was so popular, it definitely had a lot of people paying attention. If an expert maze-runner challenged it at a time like this, it would attract even more attention. Once Ah Luo cleared it and then publicly declared it wasn’t as good as their maze, all that popularity would be redirected to their Bamboo Maze.

"Go get it done!" Ao Youda immediately instructed his assistant.

The assistant didn’t hesitate, immediately taking out his phone to make the call.

On the other side, a young man quickly answered a call. It was none other than Ah Luo, the maze runner. He smiled when he saw the number.

’Isn’t this the people from the Noahda Bamboo Forest Maze?’

He found these people ridiculous. They clearly couldn’t stand him, yet they couldn’t get rid of him, and he could still one-up them every time.

After answering the call, he spoke into the phone, "To what do I owe the pleasure, Noahda Bamboo Forest Maze?"

Ao Youda’s assistant didn’t waste time with pleasantries. He said directly, "Ah Luo, I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of the Li Yuan Farm Bamboo Maze. We can give you 100,000 yuan to go and try their maze. All you have to do is, after you clear it, say their maze isn’t as difficult as ours."

"So you’re here to give me money. That’s easy enough!" Ah Luo agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Because he was already planning to go to Li Yuan Farm’s Bamboo Maze. He’d already bought the ticket and even booked a red-eye flight.

He was, of course, aiming for that 200,000 yuan prize.

Besides, going to Li Yuan Farm to do the maze would let him ride their wave of popularity. It was killing two birds with one stone.

He hadn’t expected that Noahda would now come and offer him another 100,000 yuan. All he had to do was say that Li Yuan Farm’s Bamboo Maze wasn’t as good as Noahda’s.

This was practically killing three birds with one stone.

How could he possibly turn down such a great deal?

Besides, as long as he cleared Li Yuan Farm’s Bamboo Maze and was the first to claim the 200,000 yuan prize, wouldn’t he be the one to decide which was harder and which was easier?

Plus, in his opinion, Li Yuan Farm’s maze was probably just a bit bigger, that’s all. It couldn’t possibly compare to the Noahda maze.

The Noahda maze really had some tricks up its sleeve.

He had been through so many bamboo mazes, and Noahda’s was truly the most difficult.

With that thought, Ah Luo immediately took out his phone and started recording a selfie video. "Hey everyone, my name is Ah Luo. I’m sure you all know about Li Yuan Farm’s Bamboo Maze by now. A lot of my fans have been asking me to go challenge it. In response, I’ve already bought my plane ticket and will be heading to You City overnight. I’m sure I won’t disappoint you all. After all, a bamboo maze is no big deal for me."

After filming the video, Ah Luo uploaded it directly.

...

「You City.」

Another day had arrived.

Zhang Lin checked his balance: 1,985,614.25 yuan.

Yesterday, his balance had broken three million. But after recruiting employees and a series of other expenses, it was now under two million today.

The 1,000,000 yuan prize was guaranteed by the Tourism Bureau and the Agriculture Bureau, so his contribution of 800,000 yuan and the Tourism Bureau’s 200,000 yuan had all been transferred into a notarized account.

He also made a final payment of 140,000 yuan to Huang Tao.

Then there were the orders for signal jammers and surveillance equipment, which cost another large sum. On top of that, the other party had to rush the job overnight, which meant additional labor fees.

However, as long as it didn’t affect today’s project promotion, it was a good thing.

Next, he opened the market interface and saw the procurement list.

1. Honey Peaches (Quality 1), wholesale price 4 yuan/pound, available quantity 1,500 pounds/day.

2. Sunshine Rose Grapes (Quality 1), wholesale price 6 yuan/pound, available quantity 1,000 pounds/day.

3. Special Fast-Growing Rapeseed Flower Seeds (Quality 1), purchase price 250 yuan/pound, available quantity 10 pounds/day.

4. Blueberries (Quality 1), wholesale price 4 yuan/pound, available quantity 500 pounds/day.

5. Sweet Potato Seedlings (Quality 1), purchase price 0.5 yuan/seedling, available quantity 10,000 seedlings/day.

6. Mature Honey Peach Saplings (Quality 1), purchase price 50 yuan/sapling, 1,000 saplings/day.

6. Refined Horse Feed, 10,000 yuan/ton!

This was everything he could currently purchase. Zhang Lin bought and made arrangements for each item, then washed up and went out for breakfast.

As usual, his mom had breakfast ready for him.

When Lin Yan saw her son come out today, she looked at him with some hesitation, as if she wanted to say something but was holding back.

Zhang Lin noticed his mom’s unusual behavior and asked, "Mom, what’s wrong? Is there something you want to tell me?"

Hearing her son’s question, Lin Yan said, a little embarrassed, "Lin, Mom’s been resting for a while now, and my body’s pretty much recovered. I can’t stand being idle, so I want to find something to do. Is there anything at the farm that Mom can help with?"

As a mother, she really didn’t want to ask her son about this. Before, her health was poor, and she had to recuperate. Now that there was no pressure and her health had improved, she truly couldn’t sit still.

Zhang Lin smiled upon hearing his mom’s words. It was a small matter, and he had already thought of a job for her. He said with a smile, "Mom, that’s no problem. Liu De is swamped with work and is also managing logistics, so he’s stretched thin. You can help me manage logistics. From now on, when new employees come to get their uniforms and living supplies, you can just hand them out."

The job was easy and didn’t require much thought, which was perfect for his mom.

Lin Yan just didn’t want to be idle; she didn’t really care what the job was. After getting his answer, her face was all smiles.

After finishing breakfast, Zhang Lin also left the house, riding his scooter to the farm.

Although he had Bailong as a mount, he couldn’t possibly ride Bailong home at night and keep him in the residential complex.

After arriving at the farm, the first thing Zhang Lin did was call over a female staff member and ask, "Lin Hong, is everything ready?"

He had previously recruited staff for the Bamboo Maze, and these people naturally needed a supervisor. Lin Hong was the one he had promoted.

"Boss, I’ve already had the ticket office help print them," Lin Hong said as she took out two vouchers and handed them to Zhang Lin.

One was a cash voucher with a face value of 500 yuan, redeemable for 500 yuan in cash.

The other was a meal voucher, which could be exchanged for a set meal worth 500 yuan at the restaurant.

These were also to be placed inside the Bamboo Maze.

The Bamboo Maze had many puzzle spots, as well as some unexpected surprise locations. Rewards needed to be prepared for these places.

Therefore, he planned to put these two types of vouchers in the safes at the puzzle spots and in the boxes at the surprise locations. He figured that any tourist who managed to reach one of those spots would surely be pleasantly surprised.

Zhang Lin also instructed, "Good. Go to the Bamboo Maze and get things ready. Place these vouchers inside. Tourists should be arriving soon!"

"Okay, Boss!" Lin Hong nodded and immediately went to do her work.

Liu De followed him into the prefab office to report, "Boss, we’ll continue planting the peach trees today. However, the sweet potato seedling planting experiment you ordered has already covered two acres. Should we continue?"

Now that more employees had been recruited through the game, Liu De had been promoted to a manager. He no longer needed to make deliveries himself; reporting to Zhang Lin every day was now one of his duties.

Zhang Lin’s interest was piqued. Given the special nature of sweet potatoes, you could take cuttings for new seedlings in batches very quickly.

That’s why he’d previously asked Liu De to try transplanting the seedlings. He wanted to see if these self-transplanted seedlings would have the special attribute and whether they were affected by the system’s limitations.

He was very interested in this point.

If this experiment succeeded, it would open up some possibilities.

He immediately followed Liu De out of the prefab building and went to inspect the two-acre plot where they had been transplanted. Based on the growth speed of the game’s sweet potato seedlings, these self-transplanted ones would root very quickly, and he would soon know the result.

Just then, his phone rang. It was a call from Zhao Han, the director of the Tourism Bureau.

He answered the call and asked with a laugh, "Director Zhao, calling me this early in the morning? What can I do for you?"

Zhao Han’s hurried voice came through the phone, "Boss Zhang, haven’t you seen the trending topics online this morning? There might be a problem with the Bamboo Maze!"

"What’s going wrong now?" Zhang Lin frowned. After hanging up with Zhao Han, he took out his phone to check the situation online and quickly saw what the trending topic was about.

’Seriously? *This* is the "problem" Director Zhao was talking about?’