Building Infrastructure in the Middle Ages

[Next up for preorder: A College Student's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse. Blurb below, please add it to your reading list!]

(I’m back! I’m currently revising the story. Some plot details have been adjusted. Once I’ve finished the changes I want to make, I’ll continue updating. Chapters one and two have been revised so far.)

Mu Zhao, a 28-year-old CEO of a gaming company and designer of the large-scale city-building game Houtu, got so drunk at a celebration banquet that when she opened her eyes, she had transmigrated to a backward and absurd medieval world.

She had become Miel Is, a noblewoman in exile, abandoned to fend for herself in the empire’s barren easternmost territory.

She started out with a crumbling tower and a floor crawling with maggots amid rotting flesh.

Mu Zhao: ...Can anyone actually live in this dump?

The territory was so poor it couldn’t scrape two coins together. Its slaves were worked to the bone, and it was so remote that even tax collectors hated coming here.

Mu Zhao: Perfect. This is right up my alley.

So she rolled up her sleeves and got to work on infrastructure:

She ousted the arrogant steward, seized the corrupt knight commander’s estate, freed the slaves, improved agriculture, built roads and factories, spread knowledge, established a new currency, and even taught these medieval natives a thing or two about “sustainable development.”

*

When Mu Zhao first arrived: Respect other people’s destinies. I’m a capitalist, not some savior.

She established a merit-badge program.

A woman in her sixties studied for her teaching certification.

A thoughtful young woman became obsessed with being a blacksmith.

As soon as children could talk, they were expected to come up with ideas to help develop the territory.

There was work for everyone in this land that needed rebuilding!

Later, the crumbling tower became a thriving territory, and the “seed of the devil” became a lord revered by all. Mu Zhao used modern knowledge to outclass the otherworld, transforming a barren little territory into the capital and a trade hub, and even opening new sea routes.

Everyone admired her and followed her guidance.

Mu Zhao: Oh no. If my employees all think I’m a good person, how am I supposed to do bad things?

But the game she had raised like a child in the modern world had actually become a person. And somehow it had come through with her, too, wearing a secret identity.

Reader's Guide:

1. A fictional medieval continent. The initial era is based on the European slave-owning period. Many details are invented, so please don’t compare it to real history.

2. A powerful female lead. Every woman has her own strength!

3. The female lead’s career and the ensemble cast are the main focus. The male lead appears late.

4. Chapter one contains a lot of background information. Feel free to dive in after that.

5. Not a traditional Western fantasy story. Planned as two volumes: the first is set in the Middle Ages, and the second includes Western fantasy elements. Both focus on infrastructure development.

6. The female lead is a lord who can't keep her eyes on just one person. There will be an alternate-universe ending after the main story is complete.

A College Student's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse:

On a quiet Wednesday afternoon, Ke Man's roommate headed out to tutor a student.

She had just opened the door when she immediately shut it again, then turned around with a complicated look on her face.

“I’m not joking. There’s a zombie outside.”

The apocalypse came quietly after a nap. Order collapsed, and communications went down.

After locking the dorm-room door, Ke Man wrestled with herself for a while.

In the end, she pulled a knife from beneath her pillow and dragged a box of survival supplies out from under her desk. It was stocked with plenty of high-calorie food,

plus a pile of thermal blankets, a radio, first-aid kits, ice packs, and more.

Ke Man had always been a pessimist, and she was afraid the apocalypse might arrive one day.

News about global warming or sudden severe cold in recent years had made her uneasy.

So she had secretly stockpiled a few things in case of extreme temperature changes.

When she finally decided to use those supplies to get through the crisis with her roommates...

· Her roommate, who was always obsessed with idol performances, had actually been worried about tsunamis because their school was by the sea:

She opened the cabinet door covered in posters of her idol and took out an inflatable boat in a carry bag and four life jackets.

· Her roommate, who spent all her time studying in the library, had actually been worried about a radiation disaster in the island nation:

She took four radiation suits, a Geiger counter, potassium iodide tablets...

· Her roommate, who took tutoring jobs whenever she had free time to make money, had actually been worried that the neighboring superpower would cause trouble again:

She opened a huge 28-inch suitcase packed with masks, disinfectant, protective suits, and all kinds of medicine.

Ke Man: “…”

The good news: My roommates all predicted the apocalypse.

The bad news: They all got it wrong.

When all four radios could only produce harsh static, desperate students jumped out of windows, and zombies roamed as far as the eye could see, the world fell silent.

They knew that surviving on campus would be much harder than they had imagined.

But at least there were no early morning classes during the apocalypse, and even in despair, new strength was born.

Dorm rooms became fortresses, classroom buildings became strongholds, and the library became an intelligence center.

The nation’s budding flowers made full use of the school’s resources, determined to get their parents’ recently paid tuition money’s worth.

They set up “College Student Survival in the Apocalypse” classes in their classrooms and dismantled machine tools for parts to make weapons;

They beat their chests and regretted not paying attention in class, left with no choice but to learn from library books and apply what they learned on the fly;

The metalworking workshop became an armory, while the alcohol and disinfectant in the chemistry lab became highly sought-after goods;

Bicycles and scooters were remodeled into mobile fortresses;

They gave the zombies nicknames and joked about their situation, getting used to finding humor in hardship.

But as time passed, the zombies gradually rotted into piles of flesh, and the threat they posed diminished. Other dangers, however, began to emerge.

They realized that the school could not shelter them forever. If they wanted to survive, they had to leave campus.

Reader's Guide:

1. The original main group consists of Ke Man and her three roommates. Others will join later.

2. This is a full-scale apocalypse. Order has almost completely collapsed, and society is slowly rebuilding.

3. Volume one takes place at the school. Volume two leaves campus and enters the wider world.

4. The story is set in the same world. Other apocalypses will follow the zombies.

5. The female lead and her roommates' predictions aren't purely coincidental. The reason will be explained later.

Theme: Use modern wisdom to break through feudal constraints. Change comes with sacrifice, and knowledge reshapes the world.