Happy Little Mayor - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Lord of Heart

In the night of the early winter of Beijing, the cold wind screamed.

When Wang Bo got off work, it was already pitch black outside. He looked at the computer screen that was filled with codes and let loose a sigh: “Overtime complete, I can finally go home.”

He subconsciously looked at the lower right corner of the computer screen, the time displayed frightened him a bit. A bit over 10 o’clock at night. He didn’t expect that he would work overtime for 4 hours today!

“Momma’s egg, when will these kinds of days be over? Five days of work per week with four days of overtime without overtime pay. It’s really Hardship’s mother opening the door for Hardship, and Hardship arrived at home.” Wang Bo helplessly lamented, he wasn’t afraid of being overheard since at this time, there were no one else in the company.

Turn off the computer, turn off the lights, lock the doors. He finished the set skillfully as he picked up the two mobile phones on the corner of the desk and left in the direction of the subway station.

After getting on the subway, there was still half an hour of travel time. Wang Bo fished out his mobile phone to pass time. Previously, he took two mobile phones; one phone is his country’s phone (Made in China), the other one is his leader’s experimental mobile.

The so-called experimental mobile is basically the ordinary smartphones, but specifically designed to run certain programs and games. The company IT that Wang Bo works at isn’t very big or famous, and doesn’t make much money. Therefore, going  along with the fierce rise of popularity in mobile games, the company decided to take the opportunity to profit. In this period of time, they developed many games and required all employees to participate in the closed betas.

The Closed Betas weren’t for fun, but to find any BUGs and loopholes. So the employees don’t really have much of an interest in playing. Even the Leaders didn’t have any interest to play and directly threw their experimental mobiles down to their subordinate pawns to find steam buns to take care of.

TL Note: Steam buns = Problems

He muttered to himself a little ‘Being the Leader is so nice’. Wang Bo plainly unlocked the screen. On the dim black mobile screen, there was only a 3D effect of a heart symbol. He’s unaware of how the game development department thinks; the heart icon is green instead of red, a little out of the sorts from common sense.

Clicking on the game directions, the things presented were very complex, a whole bunch of things densely packed together into a heap. Without any thoughts, Wang Bo examined it carefully, sweeping it to get the general idea of the main essential points.

The directions say, when the player opens the game, they are able to get a ‘Lord of Heart’ to improve physical quality. No matter how weak someone is, with that, they can all transform into fierce beasts in human form. Along with this piece of Lord of Heart and a territory binder, the player can then become the territory’s owner and control the territory.

Besides Lord of Heart, there is also a prop known as Territory of Heart within the game. This Territory of Heart can be seen as the separate half to the Lord of heart. It can be directly used on a portion of the territory. The presentation after that was another pile; feeling annoyed, he didn’t read it.

Finally, this game can be deleted and restarted. If the person is unsatisfied with their territory, or some problems arose during the development of their territory, they can remove the Lord of Heart and switch to another territory to begin development again. The territory the player previously developed would be deleted.

After roughly reading the directions, Wang Bo reached his hand out to the 3D Lord of Heart and lightly tapped it. Immediately after, the image of the Earth appeared on the screen. The green Lord of Heart that has a 3D appearance appeared on the upper right corner of the screen.

The game opening uses the 3D animation style. The round Earth on the screen continued to revolve in a circle, and as if it was like Google Map, the field of view stretched and the far view of the Earth turned into a near one.

After that was something similar to the documentaries on geography; various countries swept across the screen one by one. Because Wang Bo was playing the game to find any loopholes, he didn’t really have the mood to watch the opening title. Using his hand, he dragged the green Lord of Heart that was at the corner to the middle of the screen. This can be considered as combining the Lord of Heart with the territory.

When he released his finger, a dialogue box appeared on the screen:

Territory Location: Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand, Otago. Canterbury, England, the sun never sets on the land.

TL Note: 奥塔格 = Ao-ta-ge -> Otago = University in New Zealand

Territory Size: 1000 square kilometers (250,000 acres, 100,000 hectares).

Territory Population: 1 (Lord Wang Bo).

Territory Buildings: Roberts Castle.

Resources: Unknown.

Territory of Heart: None.

Receiving Territories: Yes? No?

Wang Bo gave the information a sweeping glance and immediately pressed the ‘Yes’ option. But after pressing the ‘Yes’, he felt as if there was something odd, but after thinking for a little bit, he couldn’t think of anything that could be wrong. Thinking that he was overthinking things, he lowered his head to begin playing the game.

As a result, after he made his choice, the screen of the mobile phone stopped with only a few flickering words remaining on the screen: In process of receiving territories, please wait patiently Lord.

He continued to wait for half an hour; the subway finally made it to its destination and the words on the screen were still flickering.

Wang Bo tried to close the game so much that he even tried to turn off the mobile, but it was all totally useless. The mobile phone seemed to be frozen, there wasn’t any reaction. He wanted to take out the battery, but he doesn’t know what brand this phone is for it to have such an advanced integrated frame. He can’t take off the cover, so he naturally can’t take out the battery.

Against expectations, he relaxed a little. He doesn’t want to work overtime and get more overtime work at home – Although this is playing a game, what’s the difference between playing a game you don’t like and overtime?

Walking out of the subway station, a burst of cold wind blew by. Wang Bo tightened his down-filled jacket and marched with large steps toward the housing area.

At the entrance of the neighborhood, a middle-aged man was pushing an oven cart selling sweet potatoes. Wang Bo recognizes him, but he wasn’t familiar with him. He only knows that his surname is Liu, and he usually calls him Liu Ge.

This Liu Ge has a very good business brain. He would set up a small vendor stall at the entrance of the neighborhood and do business. During springtime, he would sell vegetables, summer, he would sell fruits. At fall, he would sell snacks and at winter, he would sell roasted sweet potatoes and chestnuts. All year round, his business would change, able to make money all the time.

Seeing Wang bo, the middle-aged man gave a passionate greeting: “Xiao Wang, why did you get back so late? Why not buy a roasted sweet potato to eat? It’s still nice and hot. This old man’s sweet potato is delicious and nutritious, you’ll definitely get a good night’s sleep after eating one.”

Wang Bo’s face was thin, being greeted so passionately, he would be embarrassed if he just walked by: “Liu Ge still hasn’t closed at such a time? Alright then, pick a sweet potato for me – Hey hey hey, I say, you don’t need to pick such a big one right?”

When he said to pick for him a sweet potato, the middle-aged man directly picked the biggest one and placed it on the electronic scale, weighing on one side and talking on the other: “You don’t know, Xiao Wang brother. The more tender a girl, the more amusing to play with. The bigger the sweet potato, the tastier it is. Xiao Tao, what are you doing? Your Uncle Wang is here and you’re not even greeting him?”

On the other side of the oven, a small boy in a thick down-filled jacket was revealed. Using a clear and lively voice, he said: “Uncle Wang, hello.”

Wang Bo gave an embarrassed laugh: “Just call me Wang Ge, I’m not at the age to be called uncle yet.

When the child came out, he was too embarrassed to ask for a smaller sweet potato. Taking along their children on such a cold day doing business really isn’t easy.

The middle-aged man wrapped the sweet potato in newspaper and gave it to him. He then turned his head toward his son: “What did dad teach you? You can only say hello? Can you not say something else?”

Wang Bo took this chance to also ask along: “Right, Xiao Tao, what does your dad usually teach you anyways?”

The small boy’s eyes whirled a little as he grinned and laughing said: “En en, dad also taught me to recite Tang poetry, let me recite it. If you don’t work hard when you’re young, then you have to make up for it when you grow older……”

Hearing this, Wang Bo almost swatted the middle-aged man’s head with the sweet potato. What enmity and complaints do you have, even using your son to provoke me in the middle of the night.

The middle-aged man was also embarrassed and quickly said: “I was just joking, don’t take it to heart Xiao Wang. The sweet potato is ten dollars and ten cents, just give me ten.”

Wang Bo gave the money and took the sweet potato into his little nest. His home is co-rented with his friend. This friend of his is already asleep with an arm around his girlfriend for who knows how long.

He carefully put on his slippers and returned to his room. He peeled off the skin and took two bites. The taste of the sweet potato really is pretty good, sticky sweet and slippery. When you peel off the outer skin, what was exposed was the perfectly roasted golden brown flesh. The sweet aroma surged out, increasing people’s appetite.

Looking at the screaming wind outside the window and eating sweet potato, Wang Bo unwittingly began to think about his childhood in the countryside during winter. The whole family would sit around the fire and his father would give him a roasted sweet potato. The sweet potato wasn’t as big as this one, but he felt that the taste was better than this one.

After eating half a potato and letting his imagination run wild for a moment, he pulled out the mobile phone to take a look. The screen remained unchanged and still could not be turned off. So he could only put down the phone and clean up for bed. That way, it’ll automatically turn itself off when it runs out of battery.

Turning off the lights, getting in bed, closing eyes, sleep. After an exhausting day, he quickly slipped into the land of dreams. In his dreams, a heaven-like piece of land emerged: fertile lands, never ending mountains, birdsong and fragrant flowers, lush trees, free winds, leisure beasts and finally, a lofty and simple medieval style castle.