Mu Anqi felt that Ji Huaichu, amidst the rain of peach blossoms, was incomparably elegant. In Ji Huaichu's eyes, the little money tree was walking toward her through the peach blossom rain, smiling sweetly as she offered her a branch of peach blossoms— it was truly a heart-stirring sight.
"Thank you, I really like it, and I also really like you." Ji Huaichu accepted the peach branch. She looked at Mu Anqi, hesitated for a moment, but restrained herself from asking about the wedding date. Instead, she lightly sniffed the peach blossoms and gazed at Mu Anqi tenderly.
"Actually, it's a new skill I just got," Mu Anqi said a little embarrassedly. The idea had come to her on a whim after obtaining the skill… Ji Huaichu's serious reaction made Mu Anqi feel that she should have prepared the surprise more carefully. Mu Anqi ended the skill. The peach blossom rain lasted only a short while, but in that brief minute or so, it had cost 385 points, calling it the ultimate money-eater wouldn't be an exaggeration.
The peach blossom petals covered the ground. Looking at the colorful petals all over, Mu Anqi felt a bit regretful. "Does the general's residence have a broom or something? If we collect the petals, they can be used to make pastries or brew wine…"
The peach blossom petals produced by the spatial skill were all of the highest quality. Mu Anqi thought that pastries made from such expensive petals… must taste amazing.
Ji Huaichu didn't reply. Black mist rose at her feet, and shadows of ghosts shot out, swiftly cleaning up the petals on the ground. The ghostly figures gathered armfuls of petals and directly transported them to Mu Xiaobai's home.
The scene… was somewhat incongruous, yet inexplicably romantic. Though the ghostly figures were humanoid, their entire bodies were black, without substance or consciousness, merely forms condensed from yin energy, an external manifestation of Ji Huaichu's power. But when this group of ghostly figures carried armfuls of peach blossom petals, they no longer looked frightening.
After returning to the General's residence, Mu Anqi had a bit of osmanthus cake, then went with General Ji to Mu Xiaobai's home. Mu Xiaobai was quite puzzled by the sudden delivery of such a large pile of peach blossom petals. Though she knew peach blossoms could be used to make pastries, there were simply too many to use.
Mu Anqi arrived just then, warmly and enthusiastically recommending to Mu Xiaobai a whole series of peach blossom products — "peach blossom cake," "peach blossom wine," "flower pastries," "peach blossom porridge," and "peach blossom tea." Of course, peach blossoms shouldn't be eaten in excess. Besides these, they could also be used to make beauty products… but since Mu Xiaobai clearly wasn't interested in that area, Mu Anqi didn't continue.
Maybe they could set aside a bag of petals to send to the White Fox Demon King? She wondered if Bai Yulai needed any sort of maintenance.
Just as Mu Anqi was planning to be a salted fish for a while at Mu Xiaobai's place, sprawled out on the sofa waiting for dinner, little Xia Fenghua came back.
—And brought along a female ghost.
Thus, there were two extra sets of bowls and chopsticks at the dinner table.
The female ghost looked a bit uneasy. Of course, that nervousness was because Ji Huaichu, expressionless, had been staring at her the whole time. The hidden displeasure in that gaze made her quite uncomfortable.
"I've thought about it. I want to cooperate with you on the game dungeon," the female ghost said, looking at Mu Anqi. During the Black Mirror vortex, Mu Anqi had said a lot of things that made her think deeply. Back then, Mu Anqi had probably just been speaking casually, saying whatever came to mind, but it had greatly affected her. Her theatrical storyline really wasn't complete enough and was far too limited. Now that she had come to the Shattered Mirror Continent… life? Power? She didn't have such lofty pursuits, she just wanted to perfect her dungeon, let players come in to test it repeatedly, and satisfy her desire for observation.
She could provide the energy needed to construct the dungeon herself. If Mu Anqi was willing to cooperate with her, then the script would naturally come together. Mu Anqi agreed, and there was also the possibility of securing investment from Ji Huaichu's Guansi Company… even if not, it didn't matter. Her ability was very useful, and several games had already extended olive branches, hoping she could take charge of "game reset" work. After some time, she would be able to accumulate Guansi on her own.
This time, it was Mu Anqi's turn to be shocked. "But I'm a player!"
"The profits can be split fifty-fifty." The female ghost glanced at Ji Huaichu. "Games make a lot of money. As long as I keep it running, every wave of players that enters will bring in steady income… Surely, no one would complain about having too much Guansi, right? The game can also generate emotional value, which can be exchanged in the Nirvana Space, for either Guansi or energy to strengthen oneself."
"You do explain things quite clearly to her," Ji Huaichu suddenly said, glancing at Xia Fenghua, who was holding a bowl and eagerly waiting for dinner.
Xia Fenghua: "…Isn't… isn't that just how handovers work?"
"Can I play an NPC in the game?" Mu Anqi suddenly grew excited. She looked at the female ghost. "I don't need the Guansi or anything, but can I cameo as an NPC and bully the players?"
The story the female ghost had designed wasn't very harmful, no matter how players rated it, clearing the dungeon was still quite easy. Since that was the case… could she mess with the players a little inside the game? It would be even better if that could count toward reducing her required game runs.
"I don't know," the female ghost said honestly. "Maybe you can ask that space."
Mu Anqi then opened the settings and tried contacting the Nirvana Space system in her mind, but whatever the system was busy with, it didn't respond right away, which made sense; with so many players, it would be strange if it could answer everyone instantly.
"Let's eat first." Ji Huaichu picked up the bowl in front of Mu Anqi and helped her serve some rice.
Xia Fenghua looked on enviously, then helped by taking the bowls of the female ghost and Mu Xiaobai, filling them with rice and bringing them back to the table.
The dinner table was very quiet, with only the occasional sound of Mu Anqi's chopsticks tapping the edge of her bowl. Mu Anqi ate happily, and whenever she sensed the mood wasn't quite right and turned to glance at Ji Huaichu, Ji Huaichu would always smile gently at her — as if everything were perfectly normal.
After dinner, a message from the system finally came through.
[Player's specific situation has been verified. After multiple considerations, the player is permitted to enter the game as an NPC, but may not maliciously harm or rob other players, and must not reveal their player identity during gameplay.]
[Entering the game will not consume vacation time. The system will issue point rewards based on the amount of emotional value the player gains! This game will not count toward game clear records and will not grant item draw chances, skill draw chances, or vacation time.]
"They agreed!" Mu Anqi said excitedly. As for the rewards being less than those for regular players? Mu Anqi didn't care about such small bonuses. It was a pity that entering the game wouldn't grant anything other than "points," but she had already expected that—after all, being an NPC and being a player were completely different experiences. NPCs could earn emotional value by tormenting players! As for vacation time… the Nirvana Space naturally wouldn't let Mu Anqi exploit loopholes to live a life of endless holidays, never logging out of the game again.
If only money could make ghosts work and allow her to hire players, but thinking about it, that was unrealistic anyway.
"Helping in the game doesn't conflict with rest time, and there are point rewards too," Mu Anqi thought. With how immoral—ah no, how unique—her skills were, wouldn't emotional value practically fall right into her hands? As for not harming players, her skills didn't deal much damage anyway—at most, they caused some "mental damage."
Mu Anqi looked at Ji Huaichu. "After one more round of games, we can go traveling in a regular world. Only seven days, though. And if the General is interested in cultivation or fantasy worlds… those world passes are much more expensive than the regular ones."
"Then let's cooperate," Ji Huaichu sighed. She glanced at the female ghost before continuing, "Build a village next to the main city. With her abilities, she can easily restrict the players' movement range."
"If it works well, I can even lend you part of the main city to help construct a new large-scale dungeon," Ji Huaichu said. She hadn't opened a dungeon in a very, very long time—but if Mu Anqi could cameo in the game and earn points that way… reopening a dungeon wouldn't be out of the question. The specific details could be adjusted later.
Just as Xia Fenghua was resting after the meal, she suddenly shivered. What did she just hear? A new large-scale dungeon? Was this a dungeon? No—this was a potential 'new workload' for her!
Xia Fenghua hesitated for a moment. "General, I think… we could hire more ghosts and monsters to help with the construction."
"For example, the guards and residents patrolling inside the city—they'd surely be eager to contribute their strength to the General!"
"And the White Fox Demon King and other demon and ghost kings—if they hear that the General plans to open a new large-scale dungeon, they'll definitely come to assist!"
Ji Huaichu gave Xia Fenghua a sidelong glance but didn't say anything. After all, Xia Fenghua's workload really was a bit heavy.
"Maybe we could invite the demon king who specializes in illusions to cooperate?" Mu Anqi suggested after thinking for a moment. "Miss White and Mr. Black? But it seems like Miss White and Mr. Black prefer more Western-style designs…"
"That's their preference, not their limitation," Ji Huaichu replied.
After all, most of the time, as long as the money was in place, many problems stopped being problems.
Mu Anqi thought about it, with Ji Huaichu providing the funding and Miss White and Mr. Black handling the illusion construction, then… she could work together with Miss Female Ghost to properly discuss revising the story.
"Maybe we can design it in a death-reset-and-restart mode. That way, we can repeatedly extract players' emotional value." Mu Anqi was a player herself, and she actually didn't want players dying in the dungeon. What the ghosts and the Nirvana Space needed was emotional value anyway— so that made it simple: max out the difficulty, and reset upon death!
The villagers could be beast-headed monsters, but actually, there was no need to design them that way, they could just be ordinary villagers. Then they could frighten the players subtly through little details, for example, a villager having no shadow, or villagers sometimes gliding instead of walking. Or perhaps players might discover by accident that, though the villagers looked human, upon closer inspection they seemed to be shrouded in mist, deeply uncanny. Suddenly, Mu Anqi thought of those mysticism books in the special store. She glanced at Miss Female Ghost, thought for a moment, and decided to invest a bit.
A 100-point book, discounted to 70 with VIP, wasn't too expensive. Mu Anqi picked a story collection and handed it to Miss Female Ghost. "I hope this helps you with constructing the dungeon!"
"By the way, after all this time, I still don't know what to call you."
Miss Female Ghost accepted the book, and just by looking at the cover, an indescribable sense of unease rose in her heart. The discomfort made her all the more solemn. "We can split the dungeon profits thirty–seventy. I'll only take thirty perc
ent! As for my name… I don't want my old one anymore. You… can just call me Dramatist from now on."