After waking up, unemployed shut-in Lin Wei finds that she has transmigrated into the Qin dynasty as an impoverished noblewoman buried in debt. Then she discovers that her rundown courier station has become a photonic System inside her head, and somehow it's deeply integrated with Pinduoduo!
Faced with a seemingly hopeless situation and unable to speak the local language, Lin Wei goes completely off the rails. She spends her last bit of “reputation points” on a map of the world and a bamboo slip reading “The Qin will fall under its second emperor,” then rushes to the gates of Xianyang Palace to plead with the emperor: “Your Majesty! Wanna buy? Buy me, and I'll deliver ten thousand generations of peace to the Great Qin!”
The First Emperor, Ying Zheng, looks at the oddly made map and the woman who can pull things out of thin air, his fury giving way to suspicion. After Lin Wei struggles through a spoiler about the fate of the Great Qin in “plastic Qin-speak,” the most absurd ruler-and-subject partnership in history is born: one will do anything to stay alive, the other will try anything to defy fate.
From that day on, the Great Qin takes a completely different direction:
Building imperial roads? “Let's get ten thousand people to join the group order and double the efficiency!”
Transporting army rations? “Sign up for nationwide delivery and earn reputation points for every order!”
Fighting locusts? “Scientific locust-control package, special price today!”
Prince Fusu is forced to study science and math, while Li Si and Zhao Gao stare in astonishment at the new policies in court. Lin Wei only wants to earn a few reputation points to trade for snacks, but before she knows it, she's upgraded the whole Great Qin through group buying.
When she finally saves up enough energy, the System displays its ultimate mission: “Preserve civilization. Accept the order?”
Lin Wei looks back at Fusu, whom she's turned into a STEM nerd, and the First Emperor, who has gone from tyrant to business partner. She grits her teeth:
“Fine, I'll take it! I'll handle this order!”
This is a wildly imaginative historical tale about a shut-in trying to survive, a tyrant changing his fate, and how group buying can change the world.
What a mistake. I read the introduction and thought it was a cool article, but I didn't expect it to be on the Machiavellian side. My brain really can't understand it, but it also gave me a frightening feeling.