Sure enough, as soon as the words fell, black water symbols appeared on the houses one after another.
"What does this mean?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"Wastewater backflow, because the sewage system hasn't been built yet," Jiang Senlin explained.
Jiang Senlin built a sewage outlet by the river and connected the pipes to the city.
For the next ten minutes or so, Jiang Senlin kept operating and explaining to his parents.
"In the early stages, you can build a landfill and pile up all the city's garbage temporarily. Later, you'll need a garbage incineration plant to burn the garbage, which can also generate electricity. If the garbage isn't processed in time, the city's disease rate will soar. If too many people get sick, the industrial zone will collapse, no one will go to work, and tax revenue will plummet, leading to the city's bankruptcy."
"You need at least two fire stations and police stations. When the weather turns rainy and lightning strikes, some houses will definitely catch fire. Rainwater can't extinguish fires, and without firefighters, the entire street will burn down. Police stations are mainly for catching criminals. However, there's a money-saving bug in the early stages: for any building with criminals, we can directly demolish it."
"Children's playgrounds and city parks both serve to increase happiness. When happiness is high, more people will migrate in, causing the city to expand. If happiness is too low, locals will flee, industries will collapse, and then the city will go bankrupt."
"Hospitals are a big problem. I haven't played for long, and I'm still figuring them out. Once a city reaches a certain scale, cross-infection occurs, and the number of sick people will surge. Building a dozen hospitals and clinics won't be enough, and then people will start dying everywhere. I don't know what to do about this yet, so I can only build more crematoriums."
"Taxes can be adjusted at any time on this panel. When you're short on money, you can directly max out the taxes. Initially, citizens can tolerate it, and a large sum of money will come in. When citizens start fleeing, you can lower the taxes again to get them back. Then, when you're short on money again, you can repeat this process."
"Once you have enough spare money, you can buy land and expand the city. I usually build large cities starting from the second plot of land, with bus and subway lines."
"Transportation isn't important in the early stages, but it's quite important later on. After the population exceeds five million, if the roads aren't wide enough, the entire city will be gridlocked, and the consequences of gridlock are severe. For example, look here, someone died at school… how can someone die at school?"
"It's not important. Anyway, there's a corpse at the school that needs to be transported, but the roads nearby are all blocked. See, the hearse is stuck several streets away and can't get through. But the students are still in class, and their classmates are studying with the corpse, which starts them getting sick. Then the hospital's ambulances can't get here either. See, someone else died, and eventually, the entire school will turn into a zombie-infested situation, all caused by traffic congestion."
"I'm playing on easy mode. The people in it are quite foolish. Students will stay in class with the corpse. If you play on hard mode, students will run around, claiming that someone died at school and going home to slack off instead of studying. Then, in the end, this school will produce a batch of useless students, none of whom will get into university. Universities will become empty, and some office buildings and industrial zones that need university graduates will also go bankrupt, creating a chain reaction."
Jiang Senlin explained for a long time, and Cen Yemeng and Jiang Ye became increasingly interested.
"How realistic can this game be?" Jiang Ye asked.
"It's very similar to reality. All the buildings can be entered, and the graphics are almost like a movie. You can also see different people doing different things."
Jiang Senlin adjusted the game parameters and maxed out the graphics.
The computer fan spun wildly, making a sound like a hairdryer. Jiang Senlin poured a cup of cold water onto the computer, and the fan's speed immediately decreased, as water cooling assisted.
Entering the game again, he switched to first-person view on the street.
Indeed, the graphics were indistinguishable from reality. The leaves on the roadside trees swayed in the wind, and sunlight dappled through the gaps in the leaves. Various vehicles came and went, some burning oil, others floating electric cars. The people in each car were different; some were on the phone, some were nodding their heads to music, and some were arguing with the passenger seat. A stray dog urinated under the traffic light, showing no manners, but the details of the dog's fur and urine were very clear.
"This game has a game pod version where you can transfer your consciousness into it, and you can barely distinguish between the game and reality. However, the game pod version is very expensive, priced by the minute, and ordinary students can't afford it," Jiang Senlin explained.
"I wasn't asking about the graphics, but about the rules of city operation," Jiang Ye said. "How closely does it adhere to reality?"
"Rules…" Jiang Senlin shook his head. "Dad, this is just a game, not a city construction model. If it were truly like reality, this small laptop wouldn't be able to run it. My computer only has 50zb of memory; it's a student machine I bought from the school store."
"Your dad doesn't understand the current gaming market very well. Are there any simulation games that are very similar to real cities?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Not that I know of," Jiang Senlin shook his head. "It's mainly limited by cost. Such games definitely require very expensive machines to run, but most poor people can't afford them."
"What's the extent of this game when played to the end?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"You can cover the surface of a planet with cities, and it's said to be able to support ten billion people," Jiang Senlin chuckled. "Games are games; they don't follow logic. The entire planet can be covered in cities, densely packed, and still function."
"Do you like playing this game?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"Yes, I've played for over eighty hours and feel like I'm just getting started," Jiang Senlin nodded.
"Why do you like it? Do you like the feeling of building cities?" Cen Yemeng blinked.
"Yes, a city prospering and growing under my hands, with more and more people moving in, and tax revenue increasing, that process is very rewarding," Jiang Senlin nodded. "Mom and Dad, you can try this game in your spare time; it's quite stress-relieving."
Jiang Ye suddenly laughed. "Your mom and dad don't play games like this; your mom and dad play for real."
Jiang Senlin paused, then also laughed.
Indeed, city construction was just a game for ordinary people.
But Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng had planned hundreds and thousands of prosperous metropolises and had truly developed and built many planets.
"Do you want to play for real?" Jiang Ye suddenly changed the subject.
Jiang Senlin was stunned. "What do you mean?"
"We'll give you an empty plot of land, and you'll manage it entirely, from nothing to something, from something to excellence. See what kind of city you can build," Jiang Ye said. "Hands-on operation, isn't that more interesting than a game?"
"This…" Jiang Senlin's expression was shocked. "I don't know how…"
"If you don't know, learn," Cen Yemeng and her husband shared the same thought. "Your dad is willing to give you a city, so give it a try. You can't jump right in; you need to learn first. Take a university course on city construction during the winter break, and then your dad and I will find some old mayors to teach you things not found in books. Once you've learned enough, we'll let you put it into practice."