【Congratulations — the main city population has reached 1,000,000. System upgraded to City Tier.】
【Next tier requires a population of 100,000,000.】
【Current total population: 3,800,000. Basic requirements met. Population policy updated — now operating under Elite Strategy.】
【Monthly population intake is now capped. The cap is determined by Dragon City's global influence. This month's allowable intake: 100,000.】
【Bonus: one supercomputer server, dedicated to population management. Any unlawful operations by the bound user will result in penalties.】
【New items have been unlocked in the shop. Please browse at your leisure.】
Zhao Baihui had been in high spirits — until he read the update. He nearly slapped himself in the face.
"Damn it, the system played me!"
"If I'd known it would pull something like this, why was I in such a rush to upgrade? I should've imported as many people as possible first!"
"Now I'm stuck with a cap!"
But the moment he opened the new items page, his mood did a complete reversal. His eyes lit up.
Maybe upgrading early wasn't so bad after all. Upgrade sooner, enjoy sooner.
The system had added a massive catalogue of electronics.
*Electronics.*
Zhao Baihui nearly lost his mind with joy. More than ten years — and at last, the good life had arrived!
Then he looked at the prices, and the cursing began.
"This piece-of-junk computer from decades ago, and you're charging me twenty thousand a unit? You robbing me? Think I'm an idiot?"
"My lord, what do you mean, 'robbing'? What's an 'idiot'?" Little Zhao Wenjing came padding in on small, quick feet. She was already over six years old.
"Ahem — nothing, nothing. You misheard me. Wenjing, go fetch your Aunt Jinyi for me."
"Yes, my lord. Aunt Jinyi went to work. I'll go call her back."
Six-year-old Zhao Wenjing was already remarkably sensible — sweet, well-behaved, and pretty as a porcelain doll. Zhao Baihui loved nothing more than commissioning new outfits for her in every conceivable style and fabric, dressing her up in a different look every day.
This sent Jinyuan into theatrical fits, wailing that the lord had lost interest in her, that he no longer doted on her, that life had lost all meaning. Then Zhao Baihui would chase her around trying to give her a smack.
At six, Zhao Wenjing had already taken over some of the small tasks once handled by her Uncle Mingming.
---
A few days later, Dragon City University opened a new department — the Department of Computing. No one quite knew what it was for.
A cohort of recent middle school graduates was recruited to fill the first class.
Dragon City now had not just primary schools and a university, but middle schools as well. Middle school students received further instruction in core subjects, along with a selection of specialized vocational tracks. Graduates earned double the stipend of primary school graduates and were placed in desirable positions. Advancement opportunities were also considerably better.
"What — the lord himself is teaching our class?"
"Heavens, we are so lucky! We made the right choice — absolutely the right choice!"
Some of the students were beside themselves with excitement. When the day of the first lesson arrived, they were ushered into a classroom and arrived early to a one, sitting in quiet, well-behaved rows, waiting for the lord to appear. The strange, bulky objects sitting on the desks in front of them aroused considerable curiosity — but not quite enough to outweigh the anticipation of seeing him in person.
At the appointed hour, Zhao Baihui pushed open the door and walked in.
"Good day, everyone."
"Good day, my lord!" The response shook the walls.
"In here, don't call me that. Call me Teacher."
"Good day, Teacher!"
"This course is centred on the object sitting in front of you. It is called a computer, and it is a remarkable thing."
"Once this class has mastered it, you will all become instructors yourselves, passing on what you've learned to others."
"These machines will gradually become part of everyday life."
"You won't just learn how to use them — you'll learn to assemble and repair them, and how to lay server cables and networking infrastructure."
"There is quite a lot to cover."
"For now, we begin with basic operation — what the computer does and how to use it. Those who progress fastest will be assigned to train government and banking staff. The compensation is quite good."
"Now — let's take a look at how to turn one on."
The computers were thoroughly antiquated — bulky CRT monitors, mechanical hard drives with a single gigabyte of storage. But they had mice. They had a proper desktop operating system. Zhao Baihui told himself to be grateful.
Truly — at least it wasn't command-line only.
All basic office functions were covered. There was an email client. There were even a handful of built-in games: Solitaire and Minesweeper.
What more could a man ask for?
At thirty-eight million in daily subsidies, he could purchase a thousand units, along with the necessary servers, cabling, and consumables.
If one were to name the inventions that had most transformed the world, the computer and the internet would surely rank among them.