A Million a Day, But No One Can Leave My Town

Zhao Hui awakened the Lord System. Rules: All living creatures within the territory can enter, but none can leave. A level-one lord receives one million in construction funds each day. A level-two lord receives two million each day… The only requirement for leveling up is population. Once the population reaches the threshold, the lord levels up and the territory expands. But this expansion made my little town stretch across five continents and four oceans. Many years later, standing atop the Empire State Building and looking back, I felt it had all been like a dream, no more than an illusion. The town’s joint defense force, founded to make up for the shortage of police, had become the empire’s national army, crushing all opposition wherever it went. The Lord’s Supermarket, built to attract the town mayor’s attention, had become a commercial behemoth controlling global supply chains. The high school founded to give the children left behind a happy education had become the empire’s highest institution of learning. The grassroots theater troupe founded to give the townspeople some entertainment had become an internationally renowned temple of the arts. In short, everything had changed. The only thing that remained the same was my innocent, steadfast heart.