Chapter 58: A Real Dumbing Down

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: A Real Dumbing Down

A Bamboo Maze is a unique type of bamboo landscape, an attraction that combines natural beauty with a cultural experience to offer tourists the fun of exploration.

Nowadays, this type of attraction is common in many agricultural scenic areas, especially in regions rich in bamboo, because they are cheap and quick to build.

Moreover, as such attractions have become more common, many places have had to make them more challenging to stand out. Many Bamboo Mazes now feature intricate, complex path systems that test a tourist’s sense of direction and memory.

Crucially, this type of experience is also extremely popular.

There’s even a Bamboo Maze at one of the Miao Clan’s scenic spots that has been designed as a genuine labyrinth.

It’s a maze in the literal sense—once you go in, it’s incredibly difficult to find your way out. They even offer a reward: any tourist who successfully navigates the maze within a set time limit receives a special product from the Miao Clan.

They can afford to be so confident because even renowned maze-solvers take a significant amount of time to get through their Bamboo Maze.

For the average person, the difficulty is truly off the charts.

Zhang Lin never expected that the 500,000-fan milestone from his online promotions would reward him with such a special location construction scroll.

But what really made him curious was how exactly this Dumbing Down Bamboo Maze would achieve its "dumbing down" effect.

He looked at the game interface in his mind and, sure enough, saw a scroll option in the construction market screen.

It was essentially a game facility. The only difference was that normal game buildings required an available construction slot, whereas this scroll did not. As long as its requirements were met, construction could begin immediately.

Zhang Lin immediately examined the information on the Dumbing Down Bamboo Maze Construction Scroll!

[Dumbing Down Bamboo Maze Construction Scroll: Quality 1]

[This is a special design blueprint for a Bamboo Maze. The resulting maze will possess special attributes: Bewilderment +1, Exploration Dumbing Down +1, Desire to Explore +1, Beautiful Scenery +1!]

[Construction Requirements: 1. A 1,000-mu bamboo forest. 2. Construction cost of 5 million!]

[Special Restrictions: 1. Can only be built within the farm’s boundaries! 2. Attributes do not affect the host or game-recruited employees!]

After seeing the item’s description, Zhang Lin finally understood why it was called the Dumbing Down Bamboo Maze.

’Damn, it really has a Dumbing Down +1 attribute!’

’In other words, once this Bamboo Maze is built, any tourist who enters to have fun will get hit with the Dumbing Down effect?’

’Maybe it looks super simple from the outside, like anyone could walk through it, but once you enter, the Dumbing Down effect kicks in and you turn into a complete idiot?’

’It’s like going in a majestic golden retriever and coming out a derpy-looking husky.’

’And on top of the Dumbing Down effect, there’s also a Bewilderment +1 attribute!’

’The Dumbing Down attribute already turns people into derpy huskies. With this added on, tourists would probably get confused even if there were only two simple paths in front of them, right?’

’This 1,000-mu Bamboo Maze will probably become a true labyrinth. Even professional maze-solvers would be left dumbfounded!’

’But being dumbfounded would be one thing; it also has a Desire to Explore +1 attribute.’

’This will make tourists want to keep exploring even if they can’t find the exit.’

’After getting their intelligence lowered once, they’ll want to try again, turning into the classic "no-skill, all-passion" player.’

’The Beautiful Scenery +1 attribute is probably there as a consolation prize. Even if you can’t find your way out, at least the bamboo forest is gorgeous to look at.’

’A stubborn person could just say, "I’m not lost, I’m just admiring the view."’

This Bamboo Maze was really something. Once built, it would surely become a massive gimmick, just like the rapeseed Flower Sea. It might even be more profitable, since the rapeseed Flower Sea is seasonal, with its bloom lasting only a short time.

But a Bamboo Maze would be different; it could be open virtually all year round.

As long as he marketed the gimmick well, he was sure tourists would be coming year-round to check in at the Bamboo Maze and have their "husky" moment.

However, building this Bamboo Maze required two things: a 1,000-mu bamboo forest and 5 million.

He didn’t have 5 million at the moment, but hadn’t the Tourism Bureau promised a 10 million grant? He could just write up a proposal, get that 5 million, and start building.

The 1,000-mu bamboo forest was also a simple matter. Their own You City was known as the "Home of Mao Bamboo," and it had bamboo in abundance. There was a large tract of bamboo forest right next to his 2,000-mu farm. All he had to do was go to the Agriculture Bureau and lease the land next to his farm.

Even if that tract of forest was already leased by someone else, it wouldn’t be a problem for the Agriculture Bureau to step in and secure it for him.

So, all he had to do tomorrow was write the proposal and speak to the two bureau directors, and everything should be sorted out.

But this Bamboo Maze did have one more construction restriction than his previous items.

The "buildable only within farm boundaries" restriction was the same as before, making it exclusive to his farm.

What was different was that the Bamboo Maze’s attributes would not affect him, the host, or any employees recruited through the game. That was good news.

After all, he didn’t want to turn into a derpy husky on his own property. Plus, the Bamboo Maze would definitely need staff working inside it. It was perfect that the game-recruited employees were immune, as it would prevent any secrets from being exposed.

Zhang Lin was growing excited about the Dumbing Down Bamboo Maze. He started searching online for information about bamboo mazes, paying special attention to the Miao Clan’s famous "true labyrinth" to see how they operated it.

Besides, their maze wasn’t even 1,000-mu, yet they dared to offer a prize to anyone who solved it. With his system-enhanced attributes and a 1,000-mu area, what was there to be afraid of? He could definitely offer an even more generous prize to those who made it out.

’I’ll have to think carefully about what prize to offer.’

But what about the tourists who couldn’t get out?

He checked the situation at the Miao Clan’s Bamboo Maze and saw that quite a few tourists did, in fact, fail to find the exit.

It was a no-brainer, then, that most tourists would get trapped inside his game-produced Bamboo Maze. The question was how to guide them out.

The Miao Clan’s premier Bamboo Maze had a safety route. Arrows pointed the way to this alternate exit, so if you couldn’t find the true exit, you could just follow the arrows out.

Zhang Lin quickly checked the Dumbing Down Bamboo Maze scroll in the game interface. Sure enough, it included a safety route that led to an exit.

Of course, this wasn’t the "victory" exit; it was a rescue exit.

Naturally, if a clever tourist tried to walk this path in reverse, they would find it leads directly into a dead end.

Zhang Lin spent the entire night studying the paths on the scroll. The more he looked, the more astonished he became. Even without the special attributes, he could tell the layout was already quite complex. The night passed in a flash.

The next day, Zhang Lin woke up early to send out the fruit that had restocked in the game for wholesale. Afterward, he went to the farm to conduct a field survey of the bamboo forest. He wanted to determine the specific area he would need to lease for the Dumbing Down Bamboo Maze before heading back to the farm’s main grounds.

Early in the morning, a number of tourists had already arrived. Some of them had sallow complexions and looked unwell; they were clearly suffering from constipation, and from the looks of it, their cases were quite severe.

Over the past two days, the first thing tourists did upon arrival was go to the ticket booth and then enter the rapeseed Flower Sea. These new arrivals, however, swarmed the Honeysuckle sales counter, all wanting to buy Honeysuckle Tea.

In the video Zhang Lin posted yesterday, he had explained that the daily supply of Honeysuckle Tea was limited, so these people were afraid it would sell out.

After checking on the farm’s operations, he returned to his office in the prefabricated building and began to write his proposal.

Besides, Zhao Han, the director of the Tourism Bureau, had already told him to just write something simple—just enough for them to have something to show their superiors. And if "simple" was what they wanted, that was something he excelled at.

He quickly finished a proposal titled "Li Yuan Farm’s 1,000-Mu Bamboo Maze Project."

However, when he looked at the 5 million figure for the funding...

He thought for a moment and changed it directly to 10 million.

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