Chapter 1

After waiting day and night, I finally get to meet my brothers and sisters in the new book! Thank you all for continuing to support me. Let's start a new story together!****

It was early winter in Beijing, and the cold wind was howling at night.

When Wang Bo finished work, it was already pitch black outside. He sighed with relief as he looked at the pile of code on his computer screen: the overtime was over, and he could finally go home.

He glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of the screen, which startled him. It was already past ten o'clock. He hadn't realized he had worked overtime for four hours!

"Damn, when will this kind of life end? Working five days a week, overtime four days, and no overtime pay. Truly, a bitter life," Wang Bo lamented helplessly. He didn't mind if anyone heard him; the office was already empty.

He shut down his computer, turned off the lights, and locked the door. After completing these tasks, he grabbed the two phones from the corner of his desk and headed for the subway station.

The subway ride would take another half an hour. Wang Bo took out the phones to pass the time. One was his domestic phone, and the other was a test phone from his boss.

The so-called test phone was a regular smartphone, but it was specifically used to test-run some programs or games. The IT company Wang Bo worked for was not well-known or large, and it didn't make much money. With the booming game market, the company decided to take advantage of the opportunity and developed several games, requiring all employees to participate in internal testing.

The purpose of the internal testing was not to play the games but to find bugs and vulnerabilities. Therefore, the employees had little interest in the games, and the bosses often didn't play them at all, handing their test phones to their subordinates to test for them.

Muttering, "Being a boss is really great," Wang Bo unlocked the screen. On the dark screen, there was only a 3D heart-shaped icon. He wondered what the game development department was thinking, as the heart icon was green instead of red, which seemed a bit off from the norm.

He opened the game guide, which contained a lot of complex information, densely packed. Wang Bo didn't have the patience to read it in detail, so he skimmed through it to get the main points.

The guide said that when players opened the game, they would receive a "Lord's Heart," which would improve their physical attributes. No matter how weak a person was, they would become a formidable human beast with it. Binding the Lord's Heart to a territory would make the player the owner of that territory, controlling it.

In addition to the Lord's Heart, there was another item called the "Territory Heart" in the game. The Territory Heart could be seen as a part of the Lord's Heart and could directly affect a specific part of the territory. There was a lot more information, but he was too annoyed to read it all.

Finally, the game could be reset. If the player was dissatisfied with their territory or encountered problems during development, they could remove the Lord's Heart and choose a new territory to start over. However, this would erase all previous development in the old territory.

After reading the guide, Wang Bo tapped the 3D Lord's Heart on the screen. Immediately, an image of the Earth appeared, and the 3D green Lord's Heart appeared in the top right corner of the screen.

The game's opening sequence used a 3D animation style. The spherical Earth rotated on the screen, then the view zoomed in, similar to Google Maps, changing from a long shot to a close-up.

Next, it was like a geographical documentary, with various countries flashing by on the screen. Wang Bo, who was testing the game for bugs, had no interest in watching the opening sequence, so he casually dragged the green Lord's Heart to the screen, binding it to the territory.

When he released his finger, a dialog box appeared on the screen:

"Territory Location: Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand, Otago, Canterbury, Sun Never Sets Territory.

Territory Area: 1,000 square kilometers (250,000 acres, 100,000 hectares).

Territory Population: 1 (Lord Wang Bo).

Territory Buildings: Roberts Castle.

Resources: Unknown.

Territory Heart: None.

Accept Territory: Yes? No?"

Wang Bo glanced at the information and immediately chose the "Yes" option. However, after tapping "Yes," he suddenly felt something was off. He thought about it for a while but couldn't figure out what was wrong, so he assumed he was overthinking and lowered his head to play the game.

However, after he made his choice, the screen froze, with only one line of text flashing: "Territory acceptance in progress, please wait patiently, Lord."

He waited for half an hour, and the subway arrived at his destination, but the text on the screen was still flashing.

Wang Bo tried to restart the game and even turn off the phone, but nothing worked. It seemed to be completely frozen, with no response. He wanted to remove the battery, but the phone, which was of an unknown brand, had an advanced integrated design, and the battery couldn't be removed.

This made him feel a bit relieved. He didn't want to work overtime at home after working overtime at the office—playing a game he didn't like was no different from working overtime.

Exiting the subway station, a cold wind blew, and Wang Bo tightened his down jacket, running into the rental community.

At the entrance of the community, a middle-aged man was selling roasted sweet potatoes from a cart. Wang Bo knew him but wasn't very familiar with him, only knowing that his surname was Liu, and he called him Brother Liu.

Brother Liu had a good business sense. He ran a small business at the community entrance, selling vegetables in spring, fruits in summer, snacks in autumn, and roasted sweet potatoes and chestnuts in winter. His business changed with the seasons, and he always managed to make money.

Seeing Wang Bo, the middle-aged man greeted him warmly: "Little Wang, why are you back so late? Want to buy a roasted sweet potato? It's hot, from my hometown, fragrant and sweet. You'll definitely sleep well after eating it."

Wang Bo, who was shy, felt embarrassed and couldn't just walk away, so he said, "Brother Liu, you're still not closing up? Okay, pick me a sweet potato—hey, hey, hey, I didn't mean such a big one, right?"

As soon as he said to pick a sweet potato, the middle-aged man chose the largest one and placed it on the electronic scale, saying, "You don't know, Little Wang, the younger the girl, the more fun it is; the bigger the sweet potato, the better it tastes. Hey, Xiao Tao, what are you doing? Why don't you greet your Uncle Wang?"

A little boy in a thick down jacket came around from the other side of the cart and said in a clear voice, "Uncle Wang, hello."

Wang Bo smiled awkwardly, "Call me Brother Wang, I'm not old enough to be an uncle yet."

With the child there, he felt embarrassed to ask for a smaller sweet potato. After all, it wasn't easy for the man to do business in such cold weather with a child.

The middle-aged man wrapped the sweet potato in newspaper and handed it to him, then turned to his son and said, "What did I teach you? Just say hello? Can't you say more?"

Wang Bo chimed in, "Yeah, Xiao Tao, what else did your dad teach you?"

The little boy's eyes darted around, and he grinned, "Um, Dad also taught me Tang poetry and Song lyrics. Let me recite one for you: 'If you don't work hard when young, you'll end up in IT when you grow up...' "

Wang Bo almost threw the sweet potato at the middle-aged man. What grudge did he have against him, teaching his child to provoke him like this at night?

The middle-aged man also felt awkward and quickly said, "I was just joking, Little Wang. Don't take it to heart. The sweet potato is ten yuan. Just give me ten yuan."

Wang Bo paid and took the roasted sweet potato back to his small apartment. He shared the place with a friend, who was already sound asleep with his girlfriend.

He carefully changed into slippers and returned to his room. He peeled the sweet potato and took a few bites. The sweet potato was indeed delicious, soft, sweet, and smooth. The inner flesh, roasted to a golden brown with a hint of red, was fragrant and appetizing.

Looking out the window at the howling cold wind, Wang Bo, while eating the sweet potato, couldn't help but think of the winters in his hometown during his childhood. The family would sit around the stove, and his father would roast a sweet potato for him. The sweet potatoes they grew at home weren't as big, but they tasted better.

After eating half a sweet potato and daydreaming for a while, he took out the phone to check. The screen still hadn't changed and couldn't be turned off. He could only put it aside, wash up, and go to bed, waiting for the battery to drain and the phone to shut down on its own.

He turned off the lights, got into bed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. After a tiring day, he quickly drifted into a dream. In the dream, a paradise-like land slowly appeared: fertile soil for a hundred miles, rolling hills, birds singing, flowers blooming, green trees, waves rippling, and wild animals roaming freely. Finally, the scene settled on a majestic and ancient medieval-style castle…

****Note: During the new book period, I will update twice a day, at noon and 6:30 PM. Please understand that I cannot update more frequently during this period.