Chapter 139: Chapter 119: The "Apocalypse-style: Underground Shelter" Theme Park Plan

That’s right, Li Xiang was going to get into tourism.

He was probably the only person who could turn a blind date into a "talent poaching" or "recruiting" event.

The tourist attraction wasn’t built yet, of course. For now, he was just scouting out the young women from his hometown, earmarking potential talent for the future.

After all, the attraction would be located near the remote Li Family Village. Recruiting from out of town would be difficult and impractical. The best option was to source locally, hiring the best and brightest young people from the surrounding area. His top picks would be attractive, good-looking, and competent.

This was Li Xiang’s plan. He would gradually develop the attraction into a massive, world-famous "Apocalypse-style Underground Shelter" theme park—one that could rival Disney. No, ’one that would crush Disney’.

It wouldn’t just be a park. In the future, he’d also produce related films and even establish branches in other locations, making a fortune. When the Apocalypse came, he would be the master of multiple underground bases.

’Because building an underground Shelter, an Underground City, requires a colossal amount of manpower, materials, and money,’ he thought. ’To be honest, the thirty-plus million I have on hand is just a drop in the bucket.’

Just think, how many hundreds of millions does it take to build a city on the surface?

Never mind a large one—a small city for a hundred thousand people would cost tens to hundreds of billions, and that’s a conservative estimate. The cost of any further upgrades would be incalculable. For Li Xiang to do it all by himself was simply too difficult, too difficult, too difficult.

How much time would it take just to excavate such an underground space? And even if he could dig it out, what about fitting it out? Waterproofing, seepage prevention, water, electricity, ventilation, sewage disposal, and so on?

What about hospitals, schools, factories, underground farms, power plants, armories... and everything else?

This was for over a hundred thousand people living together in an underground world. Just managing their daily waste and sewage treatment would be a massive undertaking. He’d need to hire professionals to design and plan it all.

And collaborating with the government was impossible for now, so he had to start it himself.

’Besides, if it were a base built in cooperation with the government, would I still be in charge? Would it even be mine?’

Then there was the most important point: in modern society, during peacetime, building a private house is impossible, let alone undertaking massive construction projects to build an underground Shelter.

It was the same principle behind the ancient practice of "selling oneself to bury one’s father."

Why would you need to sell yourself just to bury your father? Couldn’t you just dig a hole and be done with it? It might lack a bit of ceremony, but when you’re that poor, who cares about rituals?

But that’s not how it worked. The moment you dug a hole, Master Liu’s servants would rush over with their tools. "You can’t bury him here! This is Master Liu’s land!"

So you’d move to another spot, farther away. But as soon as you buried the body, Landlord Qian’s men would come charging over, brandishing torches, dig up your father’s corpse, and whip you while roaring, "This is Landlord Qian’s property! Who gave you permission to bury someone here, you worthless peasant?!"

If you were unlucky, they’d just beat you to death.

Therefore, to get a small plot for a grave, you had no choice but to sell yourself into servitude as a servant or a maid.

Back then, when Zhu Yuanzhang’s parents died, he had nowhere to bury them. He happened to meet a very kind man named Liu Daxiu, who gave him a burial plot, allowing his parents to finally rest in peace. Later, after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he ennobled Liu Daxiu as "Marquis Yi Hui," a title that was hereditary and perpetual, ensuring his family’s wealth and status for the entire two-hundred-plus years of the Ming Dynasty.

The original text reads: "When We were of humble station, We suffered the loss of Our parents and had difficulty finding a gravesite. You, acting from a benevolent heart, generously gifted Us a plot of your own fertile land. This allowed Us to lay Our imperial father and mother to rest. How could such a great kindness ever be forgotten! Therefore, We bestow upon you the title of Marquis, and upon your wife of the Lou Clan, the title of Lady Marquis, and further compose this text in tribute."

In modern society, it is of course also impossible to privately build a house or any other facility. You need to obtain permits and go through all the official procedures. Otherwise, it’s an illegal structure.

There have been cases of this before. Someone wanted to build a house on their own farmland in a remote rural area, much like Li Family Village, far from the bustling cities. Worried about being discovered, they went to great lengths to camouflage it, putting up a shed at night, covering it with a green tarp, and then layering green branches on top of the roof.

But you can’t keep it under a shed forever, can you?

The reason Li Xiang wasn’t discovered when he was secretly mining last time was because he was an Extraordinary Being. The operation was small-scale, he had the cover of the mountains, and he managed it all by himself. He used the System Space to sneak the Stone back without a trace, secretly unloading it in batches under the cover of night and cloudy skies.

The key was that he only had a small amount of Stone.

What if it were anyone else? With all the machinery, equipment, and people coming and going, all that commotion would get them caught red-handed immediately.

That’s why he planned to get into tourism.

He would openly build a super-Shelter theme park right under the world’s nose—apocalyptic in style, filled with a sci-fi feel, and all with the proper permits, completely legal and compliant.

But to do this, he needed money. He needed a massive amount of financing.

To get financing, he had to have traffic and show profitability. He had to make potential investors see the profit prospects. Who would back a money-losing project? Nobody’s money grows on trees.

Li Xiang’s initial plan was this: after becoming the village chief, he would use "rural development and economic revitalization" as his justification to develop his backyard and the surrounding landscape into a tourist attraction. Then, he would apply for the first phase of the underground Shelter theme park project.

But just having an attraction wasn’t enough. There were tons of places with tourist resources. Why would anyone come to this backwater?

That’s where he, the major online celebrity, would come in as its spokesperson. This was one of the main reasons he’d started streaming in the first place.