Chapter 14: Name

My Island is a game designed for Su Shiyi alone, it’s more accurate to call it the Island Planning Handbook. She can choose between a chibi or realistic art style based on her preferences, and she can switch between the two at any time.

Su Shiyi first chose the chibi style, and after some cloud effects that came and went, the entire island appeared before her eyes.

At the center of the island is the Gu family estate. The largest area is occupied by a fairytale-like castle, followed by a meticulously arranged garden planted with various rare and precious flowers, and a dedicated area for growing fruits and vegetables to provide the freshest organic ingredients for the Gu family when they come to vacation.

Although Gu Chen said he gave the entire island to Su Shiyi, she didn’t plan to touch this estate or the other lands that had already been planned. The landscape design of the island was actually excellent, likely done by top designers, and she only needed to enjoy it.

Moreover, excluding the large estate, zoo, helipad, port, golf course, and racetrack, there were still over 500 hectares of land on the island that she could plan out!

What does over 500 hectares mean? She could build five Disney theme parks!

Before planning the island, she also faced a problem: she needed to decide on a name for her island. Perhaps because the Gu family owned too many islands, they weren’t too particular about this one, and the registered property name was Jiangxin Island.

Although this description wasn’t wrong… was it a bit too ridiculous that fourteen places in the country share the same name?

Su Shiyi was bad at naming things. She originally thought it would be fine to keep the name Jiangxin Island, but Kevin recommended another one: Shiyi Island. It’s a homophone for her name and creates a gentle ambiance, implying that under her construction, the island would become more “timely.”

After listening to his explanation, Su Shiyi thought this naming idea made a lot of sense, so she said, “Then let’s call it Billion Island. I hope there’s an endless supply of billions!”

Kevin: …

“Alright, Miss Shiyi, as you wish.”

Su Shiyi entered the name Billion Island in My Island. She had to say, naming things really has a sense of ceremony. The moment she pressed the submit button, her feelings for the island grew deeper.

She hoped it could thrive and bring more and more billions.

My Island drew from many home and city-building games, but Su Shiyi was playing the invincible version. The coin balance required for any operation on the island was infinite, there were no construction or cooldown periods, and the entire catalog was unlocked. Yay!

Su Shiyi first checked the system description. The game supported multi-device synchronization, so her tablet and computer could both update in real-time. She could treat it purely as a game or as a construction plan for Billion Island. Every time she pressed the “Submit” button, the system would send the current island facilities to Kevin, and he would verify the details with her.

Since My Island was still in the testing and development stage, the customer service entry was very easy to find. If Su Shiyi had any ideas that the system couldn’t currently implement, she was encouraged to provide feedback to customer service.

Hmm, this game only had one player, but it was equipped with three customer service representatives, working in shifts 24/7 to consult with her at any time.

Su Shiyi swiped through the menu page, and the building categories were: 【Real Estate】, 【Agriculture】, 【Industry】, 【Commerce】, 【Decorations】, and 【Public Facilities】.

Great, these categories weren’t very strict, but she understood them.

She opened 【Industry】 and, seeing all sorts of factories inside, she lost interest and closed it. With such beautiful scenery on Billion Island, developing industry seemed like a waste. She planned to focus on developing the tourism industry on the island, as long as it didn’t interfere with the Gu family’s vacation plans.

Following the same reasoning, 【Agriculture】 also seemed unnecessary. Would she really want tourists to come and look at rice paddies? G City’s latitude is low, so it’s not suitable for growing pasture, and large-scale livestock farming wasn’t something to consider.

Hmm… but compared to industry, agriculture isn’t completely out of the question. Since Su Shiyi wanted to develop the tourism industry on the island, she would definitely need hotels and restaurants, and it would make sense to set aside a plot of land to grow organic fruits and vegetables similar to those in the Gu family estate. This could also serve as a marketing gimmick.

See, Su Shiyi just never had the chance, but as long as she could be the island owner, who wouldn’t be a small business genius in their own right?

The 【Real Estate】 category clearly indicated what it was about, and when Su Shiyi clicked it, she wasn’t disappointed. The section was divided into residential and commercial buildings.

In the residential module, Su Shiyi could even DIY the design of apartment buildings and villas, deciding their land area and floor height, which opened her eyes wide. She ended up saving several different style templates provided by the system.

Things like house design were better left to the professionals… although whether the island made money or whether her houses could even be sold wasn’t important, she was well aware of her own artistic skills and wanted the buildings on the island to be high-quality.

Considering the “upper-class ambiance” displayed everywhere on the island, Su Shiyi thought that the people who might consider buying houses here would likely be for vacation purposes. So, she didn’t bother with the apartment buildings and instead thought about building rows of villas by the river. Half of them would be for sale, and the other half would be for guesthouses.

There were several villa design templates available, including modern minimalist, traditional Chinese, European retro, French luxurious, and English natural styles, making it hard for Su Shiyi to choose. In the end, she decided to go with a bit of each so that future customers could have a variety of choices.

As for the villa specifications, since they were for vacation use, many functional rooms weren’t necessary. She decided on standard two-story, 300-square-meter villas with small gardens and high-end finishes. When Su Shiyi glanced at the system’s estimated pricing, she was taken aback—50,000 per square meter?

So buying a villa would cost… at least 15 million?

To be fair, a well-decorated villa in G City costing 100,000 per square meter wasn’t considered expensive, and even doubling that in the city center wouldn’t be an exaggeration. This estimate was still based on the fact that the island’s infrastructure wasn’t fully developed. Once it was completed, the property prices would surely skyrocket.

No wonder her big brother Gu Chen said that 100 million was just his pocket money for a few days… But then Su Shiyi remembered, the large-scale construction on the island was bound to cost a lot of money, right?

She couldn’t help but feel a little guilty and asked Kevin, “Does my big brother know that I want to develop this island?”

“Mr. Gu knows. Miss Gu is very supportive and looking forward to it. She hopes Billion Island will be completed soon, so she’ll have more things to do when she comes to the island.”

Got it, the key point came after that. As long as Gu Pan approved, Gu Chen would pour in the money.

Su Shiyi couldn’t help but have the idea of renaming the island to Panpan Island, but Kevin told her that Gu Pan already had several Panpan Islands overseas, each of which was bigger than her Billion Island.

Su Shiyi: …

She should have seen that coming. In sweet romance novels, everything that could make the heroine happy was done by the male lead or the male supporting characters. So annoying!

Since she had ample financial support, Su Shiyi let herself go and happily started placing villas on the island. After planning out the residential and guesthouse areas, it was time to focus on hotels.

She browsed through the various hotel models provided by the system but didn’t find anything that excited her. When she reached the themed hotels, a bold idea suddenly popped into her head.

“Kevin, can we consider IP collaborations for the island development? Not just hotels, I also want to build an amusement park.”

She gave Kevin a long list of her favorite works, feeling quite pleased.

She might not be able to build a Disney theme park, but other IPs could definitely be pursued! Whether domestic or international, ancient or modern, as long as the Gu family could negotiate, she could create an IP-themed amusement park on the island!