Zero, "…Huh?"
Fuli didn't answer his confusion, but switched topics.
"This time it's your memory with 'The Hunt.'"
Zero's mouth twitched, "Wait, wait, my most respected and all-powerful Aeon of Remembrance surely wouldn't just let a mere mortal like me be poisoned to death, right?"
Fuli ignored his moral blackmail.
Zero tried to struggle, "At least try saving me first, right? Don't make me out like some unkillable villain boss…"
Fuli still didn't speak.
Zero, 'You not talking is making me panic here!'
Zero started to give up in despair, "Am I really some awful person? Did I… reboot the universe countless times?"
Fuli raised His hand slightly. At those words, His movement paused for a moment.
With that faceless visage, He looked at Zero.
Zero, "…"
'That reaction, don't tell me I really have rebooted the universe?!'
In Fuli's palm, an ice lotus gradually appeared. He repeated once more, "This time, it's your memory with 'The Hunt.'"
Blinding white light swept over him. The five large words, "Xianzhou Simulator", flashed past.
The next instant, Zero forgot everything that came before, plunging straight into the memory.
———
[Memory Starts]
Two burly men clung to his legs, shouting "General!"
When he looked up, night had already fallen.
On the system map, one person's satisfaction rating toward Yaoqing had dropped.
And as luck would have it, that person was in a house just a dozen meters away.
Zero glanced at the 99% satisfaction bar, so anxious he was scratching at his heart.
As his subject, how could they not be happy? He wouldn't allow it.
It was like seeing an unread message for someone with OCD, he just wanted to rush over immediately and solve it.
He tried to struggle, "…Let go of me!"
But the men only clung tighter. One shouted, "General, don't!"
The other echoed, "Yes! Night is deep now, if you go visiting at this hour, it will damage General's reputation, "
Zero was puzzled, "What? I have to pick the right time just to visit people?"
Players never pick a time to do quests.
The Chief Strategist arrived late, running the whole way, panting and gasping for breath. Hearing this, he snapped angrily, "Of course, you do! She's a widow with children."
"If you show up at her home in the dead of night, what will people say if word spreads?! You losing face is one thing, but she still has to keep hers! Hurry up and drag him back to the manor!"
Zero, "…"
'Sounds… kind of reasonable, actually.'
He shook off the two men's "help," then obediently followed the Chief Strategist back to the General's Manor.
After watching them leave, he saw it was still early, so he sat at his desk and glanced at the system mission panel.
[Xianzhou: Yaoqing]
[You are Yaoqing's General]
[You exhaust yourself for your people, none fail to follow you]
[He always blocks you from gaining what you desire]
[Can you lead the people of Yaoqing to immortality?]
'What's this? Who? Aha?'
Zero had no clue for now, so he decisively gave up thinking, and began processing documents with the help of the system map.
Through it, he could see the truest situation.
Skimming lines in seconds, he picked out the key points, quickly finishing his own stack before dragging over the Chief Strategist's pile to work on those too.
By the time the Chief Strategist arrived precisely on the dot at the General's Manor, Zero had just put down his brush.
The stack of documents he'd cleared was taller than the desk itself, just looking at it gave a rush of accomplishment.
The Chief Strategist came in carrying a bag of fish in one hand and a bag of books in the other. Before he could say a word, Zero had snatched both away.
He looked at the fish, then at the pile of elementary-level homework sheets, baffled, "Uh, Strategist, you're not trying to make me review primary school lessons, right? This isn't for me, is it?"
Saying that, he stuffed everything back in the bags.
A vein throbbed on the Strategist's forehead, "…So you didn't investigate anything? Last night you really intended to go knock on their door empty-handed?"
Zero, "Ah, you mean that household yesterday? I was just about to ask them, why not just give them money?"
"And where would you get money from?"
Hearing that, Zero froze, "I… don't have money?"
The Strategist was silent a moment, then said, "Your memory… You sank your entire salary into the Colossus Project. You've forgotten again?"
Zero was shaken to the core. He pulled up the system to check what mental buffs he was wearing, combing through carefully, and finally, hidden in some tiny corner, he found a note in font no bigger than an ant.
[Note: 0.01% chance of amnesia]
Zero, "…"
That probability… he actually hit it? And from the sound of the Strategist, it wasn't even the first time.
Just how cursed was his luck?
Forget it. He'd keep wearing it. No way he'd lose his memory every time. He'd swap it out once he rolled a better buff.
Anyway, the system kept a record of everything.
Zero next checked the system time. Too lazy to scroll through logs, he simply questioned the Strategist directly, "It's already Star Year seventeen hundred-something, over three hundred years have passed, right? How has the Colossus still not been developed?"
Strategist, "…Shouldn't you be concerned about how we've both lived over three hundred years?!"
Zero pondered a moment, then answered matter-of-factly, "Of course it's because I haven't conquered the universe yet."
Please, he was a player.
Players can do anything.
Living three hundred years? Piece of cake.
As for the Strategist, of course he had to stick with him.
By now, he'd figured out how the game worked. Just patched together out of a bunch of genres.
The citizens of Xianzhou were kind of like those eccentrics in Ice Age, still trying to open entertainment houses in minus-whatever degrees.
Externally, the path was "stars and sea", just fight, simple.
Internally, it was a sim-management game, infrastructure, fulfilling the endless demands of the Xianzhou people.
As for clearing the game? Obviously it couldn't be achieved by just staying in this one little patch of land.
As a player, of course he had to solve problems for the entire universe.
Like handling the Mara-struck, dealing with the rapidly breeding insect swarm, resisting possible higher-dimensional invaders.
Easiest of all, leading his faction to ascend dimensions.
Zero glanced at the system tech tree, after three hundred years, "Neutron Annihilation" still wasn't unlocked. His liver ached just looking at it.
Three hundred years already, and he was still stuck farming mobs in the starter village.
He asked the Strategist, "So what's going on exactly?"
The Strategist was silent for a moment, then concisely summarized the cause.
In short, just because Xianzhou was safe, didn't mean other places were quiet.
The Xianzhou didn't only have Xianzhou. There was also Luofu, Zhuming, and so on. People from the other Xianzhou kept coming to request aid.
Xianzhou had to send troops, right? When others borrowed money and supplies, Xianzhou had to help, right?
This caused the "Colossus Project" to be forced into suspension again and again, dragged out three hundred years, still unfinished.
Zero, "…Maybe we should just rebel. I'll be Emperor, you be Chancellor."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/XenosX
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰