Chapter 55: Making It All Up! Simple and Brutal!

Seeing that Lin Jiao made such a proposal, Lu Feng also decided to take a trip to the East City Alliance.

This East City Alliance should be something akin to a camp in a game. In the game, it served as a gathering camp for players, while in the game's world background, it was a settlement for survivors.

"How far is the East City Alliance from here?" Lu Feng asked.

Lin Jiao replied, "Traveling on foot, it's about half a day's journey!"

"Hmm," Lu Feng nodded.

Checking the time, he considered setting off early tomorrow morning, otherwise, darkness might fall while he was still halfway there.

Lu Feng gave a few instructions, then with a thought, logged out of the game.

As soon as he returned to his apartment, he received a call from Dafai: "Boss Feng, County Magistrate Lin has come to the teahouse, saying he wants to discuss matters regarding the intangible cultural heritage application for Qingfeng Tea."

"Alright, have County Magistrate Lin wait for a moment." Lu Feng felt a bit puzzled; hadn't he already had Dafai send the intangible cultural heritage documents to the county government earlier?

Nevertheless, he headed straight to the teahouse without delay and met Lin Xuecheng.

Upon seeing him arrive, Lin Xuecheng immediately picked up a set of documents and said, "Boss Lu, the materials you submitted earlier are very detailed. However, for an intangible cultural heritage application to succeed, there is still one crucial element missing—the story behind this Qingfeng Tea."

"Ideally, this story should have a legendary quality to it. Of course, the story doesn't have to be true; even if it's completely fabricated, it's fine. After all, this kind of cultural value is created, so let's create a good one."

"???" Lu Feng was clearly stunned upon hearing Lin Xuecheng's words.

Is that even allowed?

Yet, upon second thought, with so many categories of intangible cultural heritage projects out there, could all those stories really be true?

Many of those tales were probably just randomly made up on the spot.

However, even if they were fabricated, once the intangible cultural heritage project was approved, it would become an authentic story that could be used for promotion, and one could even introduce the tale to the outside world with complete confidence.

Lin Xuecheng was clearly well-versed in this aspect and immediately went on to say, "Boss Lu, isn't Master Zhu our most famous historical figure in Yucheng? We can make use of Master Zhu in our story. We can say that one day, Master Zhu went on an outing to the tea mountains with a friend and saw an old farmer stir-frying tea using a special method. Recognizing Master Zhu, the farmer wanted to treat him to the tea."

"As a result, Master Zhu was so amazed by the flavor of the tea that he lingered and fell deeply in love with it. The farmer then asked Master Zhu to name the tea. That day, the sun was warm and a gentle breeze was blowing, so he helped the old farmer by naming it Qingfeng Tea."

"Of course, the specific details can be refined and made more vivid when we write out the story."

Lu Feng's mouth hung open slightly upon hearing Lin Xuecheng's proposal, and in the end, he could only nod and say, "Let's do as County Magistrate Lin says."

Clearly, his Qingfeng Tea had been plucked right out of a video game, but now, it was miraculously tied to a historical celebrity like Master Zhu, and the very name of the Qingfeng Tea had been bestowed by Master Zhu himself.

He wondered if anyone shooting a TV series or movie about Master Zhu in the future would include this plot of him naming Qingfeng Tea.

With these thoughts in mind, Lu Feng had Dafai find someone to flesh out the story and compose a few additional tales about Qingfeng Tea from other dynasties, which could then be handed over to Lin Xuecheng.

...

The next day.

Early in the morning, Lu Feng went to his rented apartment, and with a single thought, entered the game and materialized inside the bank.

Lin Jiao had clearly already briefed Xu Bin and the other two; all four of them knew they were heading to the East City Alliance and were already waiting.

Lin Jiao had brought along the laser rifle, but as a precaution, she wrapped it in strips of cloth to avoid drawing trouble.

The East City Alliance lay to the east of the bank. After setting off, Lu Feng and his group spent half a day traveling before spotting a particular area at a street corner marked with distinctive flags.

The flags bore inscribed patterns and emblems, clearly representing a faction.

At this moment, Lin Jiao explained, "Boss, that's the emblem of the East City Alliance. We have now entered the territory of the East City Alliance."

Just then, a strange noise rang out.

From the side of a street, a car suddenly rushed out. To Lu Feng's astonishment, the vehicle had no wheels at all; instead, it was hovering slightly above the ground.

It turned out to be a hovering car.

Towed behind the hovering car was a strange apparatus emitting flames and releasing a plume of white smoke.

The white smoke seemed to be luring something, and a moment later, massive black creatures rushed out from a nearby alleyway.

Those creatures fluttered transparent wings; they were actually cockroaches the size of calves.

That hovering car was actually baiting cockroaches.

The instant the cockroaches burst out of the alley, gunshots suddenly erupted from the buildings on both sides of the street, firing upon the giant roaches.

Even a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into the middle of the swarm, instantly obliterating a large group of them in a massive explosion.

Within a short span of time, the lured giant cockroaches suffered heavy casualties.

Following that, a group of people rushed out, trailed by several trucks that immediately began loading the giant cockroaches into their cargo beds.

Upon witnessing this scene, Xu Bin remarked with emotion, "It looks like the breeding conditions in the East City Alliance are quite good this year; food prices should drop quite a bit."

Lu Feng snapped back to reality and asked, "These giant cockroaches are farmed?"

He had initially assumed these giant roaches posed a threat, which was why these people were specifically clearing them out, but the reality was clearly different from what he had imagined.

Lin Jiao explained, "Giant cockroaches contain a lot of nutritional components, and in particular, they can be processed into a high-protein nutritional paste similar to bread. This is also the primary currency used for purchasing food in the East City Alliance."

Upon hearing this, Lu Feng inexplicably felt a wave of nausea rise in his stomach.

Nutritional paste, used as food currency—needless to say, it was meant to be eaten. This reminded him of the cockroach paste depicted in apocalyptic disaster movies.

He never expected that in this post-apocalyptic world, people would genuinely rely on cockroaches for sustenance, even though these giant roaches differed somewhat from ordinary ones.

This also made him swear to himself that once he entered the East City Alliance, he would absolutely never touch any nutritional paste.

Lu Feng and Lin Jiao continued on their way toward the sector of the East City Alliance, soon arriving at the entrance where a squad of soldiers carrying old-fashioned firearms could be seen patrolling.

As the four of them approached, the soldiers noticed them and sized them up. One of them stepped forward and said,

"Welcome to the East City Alliance, the four of you. According to custom, we need to check your DNA codes!"

"Alright," Xu Bin nodded, heading toward a specialized instrument set up near the entrance alongside Chen Tao and Chen Hao.

Lin Jiao whispered an explanation to Lu Feng: "Boss, DNA code scanning only became prevalent after DNA testing devices were invented ten years ago. In the post-apocalyptic era, this serves as a reliable form of identification for survivors, since everyone's DNA is unique."

"Furthermore, once registered, DNA codes can be used for purposes such as issuing warrants, searches, and investigations. This equipment is immensely helpful for the East City Alliance's governance."

Afterward, Lu Feng followed Lin Jiao over to the instrument.

The device featured a specialized port; once a hand was inserted inside, it would scan the skin cells and hair to detect the DNA code.

As Lu Feng looked at the device, he thought that if such technology were brought back to the real world, it would undoubtedly be revolutionary.

Yet he also knew he currently lacked the capability to achieve such a feat, especially since he didn't even understand how the technology worked, let alone possess any blueprints.

Therefore, he couldn't rush. Great towers are built from the ground up; he should first master the technology for electromagnetic rice cookers.

That item was currently the most suitable and achievable for him to tackle.

Once he acquired the complete technology and disposed of that ton of gold, he would have just enough capital to invest and build a factory.

"Apologies, no DNA code record found for you. Please re-enter. May I have your name?"

As Lu Feng inserted his palm into the scanner, the voice of the instrument chimed.

Under Lin Jiao's guidance, he finally entered his name into the device and completed the registration.

As for the name, he just picked one at random. While it didn't really matter in this game world, picking one casually did no harm either.

After confirming that the four of them had no criminal records or outstanding warrants issued by the East City Alliance, they were cleared to enter.

This series of events surprised Lu Feng.

He had expected the post-apocalyptic scene to mirror the movies, filled with slaughter and plundering everywhere.

Yet it was clearly not entirely like that.

At the very least, this East City Alliance still maintained certain rules of civilization, or rather, a basic sense of order.

Then again, it made sense; in games, those camps were also orderly and maintained a degree of structure.

Soon, Lu Feng stepped inside the East City Alliance.

The scene within was remarkably lively; in many places, clusters of people could be seen gathered together, engaged in loud, animated discussions.

Many of these individuals carried sabers strapped to their waists or even slung old-fashioned weapons over their shoulders.

Lin Jiao explained further: "Those are mercenary teams. Under normal circumstances, they venture out on their own to hunt mutated beasts, gathering source crystals, meat, or various materials. The carcasses and different body parts of mutated beasts all have their uses."

"Of course, the high-ranking figures of the East City Alliance will sometimes hire them as well. Chen Tao and Chen Hao used to belong to such a team, but everyone else in their group died in that department store."

"If the boss ever needs to temporarily hire muscle for something, they make a pretty good choice."

Lu Feng nodded.

As he walked further, he caught sight of more gathered survivor citizens—many of them emaciated, some seemingly lacking even the strength to walk due to extreme hunger.

Women dressed in peculiar attire openly solicited customers in front of hastily erected tents, though business evidently wasn't very brisk.

A patrol squad of seven soldiers marched past on the street, and the leader held a specialized megaphone, announcing: "Please abide by the laws of the East City Alliance. Murder and theft here will result in execution, trading without paying taxes will lead to banishment, and malicious assault will be punished with imprisonment."

Hearing this, Lu Feng could not help but sigh that these were truly simple and brutal rules.

However, in the apocalypse, there seemed to be little need for too much red tape; sometimes, simple and brutal methods were far more effective at maintaining order.

Lu Feng followed Lin Jiao toward the employment market of the East City Alliance, and the moment he stepped inside, he was met with a startling sight.