Chapter 65: What the Heck, 140 Proposals?

The local Okinawan RB government initially expressed sympathy for the plight of the American military bases, but their attitude quickly changed. This was because pieces of military base facilities, swept away by the storm, began to turn up all over Okinawa and in nearby waters.

Facilities themselves were not a big deal—broken glass, twisted doors, fragments of rooftops could be cleaned up without much fuss. But there were also weapons! Broken ammunition crates, and some still filled with sets of M16 automatic rifles, even grenades and similar gear. These scattered items kept turning up from time to time. Some boxes were full, others empty. Who knew how many had been picked up by local RB residents—this was a real headache.

To be fair, the U.S. military was quietly distressed by the loss of their arsenals. Fortunately, heavier weapons like missiles and torpedoes hadn’t been swept up by the wind. In response to the Japanese side’s protests, the Americans offered some comforting words and promised to cooperate as needed to prevent “terrorist attacks” on the island. What they didn’t mention was that the quantity of lost weapons was far greater than the Japanese authorities had estimated...

...

The stolen armaments ultimately ended up hidden by Ao Guang beneath the mountain trees, while Wu You had yet to see what lay inside. Catching sight of the grand, towering mountain trees through Ao Guang’s eyes, he suddenly remembered a design contest for a treehouse estate that he’d posted online. It had been nearly half a month—time to check in, hopefully someone had submitted a completed proposal.

He turned on his computer and searched for the “Bug Builder’s Haven.” To his surprise, a flood of related links appeared, all accompanied by attractive renderings. These were mostly from major forums and websites; the official Bug Builder’s Haven site, which should have topped the search results, was only fifth. Seeing the tiny images in the search bar, Wu You felt a sense of familiarity—those trees were unmistakably mountain trees.

He hurried into Bug Builder’s Haven and logged into his old account. The personal info showed over ten thousand private messages. If it had been ten, he might have checked them, but with tens of thousands, Wu You had no desire to open a single one. Had advertising really become this insane?

The forum was filled with threads discussing his contest, but he didn’t spot his own post right away. (He’d overlooked the site-wide sticky section.) So he entered his personal space to look for it. His contest thread had garnered thousands of replies.

He clicked in. The first several thousand were mostly spam or people marking their presence before the thread got popular. Later, as the spam diminished, space was made for designers to upload their proposals. Wait, the number seemed enormous. He counted: from post 3561, where the first designer named “StoneStoneStone” uploaded, all the way to post 3700—each one was a compressed file of a design proposal.

The timing varied, but—good grief—140 proposals? Weren’t designers supposed to be prideful, with typical efficiency meaning it’d take about half a month to complete a design? How did “StoneStoneStone” finish in just two or three days? And what was up with this wild enthusiasm on the forum?

Well, that wasn’t Wu You’s concern. Just browsing through all 140 proposals would take ages, and he’d have to compare them. Were design teams really so desperate for money? Two million wasn’t a small sum, but this was excessive.

Just as he was thinking this, he noticed the contest reward had changed. The forum admins had added eight million more, making a total of ten million Bug Coins. Damn, he’d never agreed to that extra eight million! Wu You grumbled inwardly.

...

Bug Builder’s Forum and the various streaming platforms had been waiting for the “Master of Beast Mountain Manor” to appear. This unreliable contest host had posted and then vanished for over ten days. With the forum battles so fierce, he hadn’t replied to a single comment. Many people messaged him with questions, but there was no response. The forum admins had to step in, claiming the “Master of Beast Mountain Manor” hadn’t logged in recently.

But the forum’s bug builders and other netizens believed firmly that “Master of Beast Mountain Manor” was secretly watching from an alternate account. In the past few days, no new design teams had uploaded proposals, and the steady stream of renderings had mostly stopped. Now everyone was waiting for the “Master of Beast Mountain Manor” to announce the results. Yet he remained stubbornly silent, refusing to show himself.

Come on, have some mercy on everyone’s impatient nerves! Many design proposals hadn’t posted their renderings online yet. People just wanted a glimpse. And, of course, to join in the fun during the selection process.

...

Wu You was a little troubled.

Still, the proposals were already submitted, and his post even mentioned this as a grand competition. He sighed and began downloading the files. Each of the 140 compressed packages was nearly 1GB, most of which was taken up by renderings. Wu You swore he’d never downloaded so many “movies” in his life.

Fortunately, a savior soon appeared. The forum admin had been keeping a close eye on the design contest. As soon as the “Master of Beast Mountain Manor” finally logged in, the admin messaged him directly through internal site management. If Wu You was willing, they could help him with the selection process. The judging panel would be made up of senior bug builders who hadn’t entered the competition.

Bug Builder’s Forum had wanted to do this from the start, but with the host absent, they couldn’t touch the compressed files without permission. Wu You was delighted to accept. He wasn’t a real architectural master, and scoffed at the forum’s speculation that he was a design guru.

After discussing with the admin, they decided Bug Builder’s Haven would host the initial judging, narrowing the field to five finalists. Wu You would then choose the winner himself. Once the process was set, the admin posted an announcement: the contest host had reappeared, and the forum and website had settled on the judging method.

Bug Builder’s Haven and the wider internet exploded with excitement. Finally, there was something to watch. Some quirky online bookmakers even started taking bets.

...

Hu Lei was feeling anxious and conflicted. He was confident in his own proposal, but then 139 more had been submitted, most by well-known and powerful design teams—not amateurs. Originally, he’d hoped to gain an advantage by submitting early. But the “Master of Beast Mountain Manor” defied all expectations by vanishing for half a month, turning Hu Lei’s early entry into a disadvantage.

He and his roommates watched the forum daily and discovered that today, the elusive “Master of Beast Mountain Manor” had finally logged in.