Interstellar Travel: Becoming a Dress-Up Game Designer

Chapter 299

There are many types of houses, including yurts, small bamboo houses, pavilions, sheds, and even simple thatched huts, flower arches, and straw mounds. Next to each is a small courtyard of two or three square meters, surrounded by exquisitely planted vegetation. A chair, a table, and a small tea table are placed in the center of the courtyard, making it very attractive during the day and perfect for taking photos. At night, all the lights adorning the houses are lit, making them even more delicate and atmospheric. They sit on this wide meadow, like individual spaces, where countless visitors come and go, enjoying a few seconds or minutes of fun.

This side is great for taking photos, while the lantern street on the other side is closer to everyday life and happiness.

As many lanterns were lit, the patterns and pictures on the lanterns, which were originally not easy to see closely, became incredibly clear. Many poems and beautiful verses were also inscribed on them, making them especially beautiful in the dim candlelight. In Chinese culture, texts and pictures are not only decorations but also symbols of family heritage; families of high status would certainly display many of them.

Chinese characters are exquisitely beautiful and were among the first writing systems to be displayed. Beyond purely calligraphic works, many Chinese literati and artists always accompanied their paintings with text, annotations, and their own seals. For the artists, the calligraphy and painting themselves were not the most important thing; what mattered was the artist's thoughts, feelings, and what they wanted to express within them.

Artworks are always so magical; regardless of whether the viewer understands them or not, they can always sense whether the work is imbued with emotion. Perhaps this is why people appreciate works created by real people with genuine care and dedication.

Lin Shuying is truly qualified to speak on this point, as her era was one of the height of AI. The 22nd and 23rd centuries before her were a period of rapid development in AI creative technology, with many works still created by real people. But in her time, almost everything was AI-generated. Aside from physical labor like clothing making, cooking, and manufacturing, which AI couldn't handle, almost everything was done by intelligent machines. Even in her industry, many creators were lazy, using AI to design blueprints and then producing their works themselves. People like her who draw and design themselves are almost disappearing. This includes advertising, video creation, book creation, cover illustrations, photography, art painting, animation, and more—the more creative and inspiration-dependent the field, the more heavily AI has permeated it.

When everyone lives in such an environment, the things created by the author's own hands seem both luxurious and incredibly cheap. Luxurious because only humans know what a normal and beautiful human world truly is; cheap because the creations become food for AI; a waste of time and energy, their greatest value being simply feeding AI.

After all, no one is foolish enough to buy expensive things; in comparison, cheap AI creations can generate millions of works in seconds...

At first, some might have cared about the strange lighting, the extra legs and arms, the odd gazes and stares, or the plot that defied reality and logic. But in the intelligent world, it's perfectly normal for Harry Potter to become Tang Sanzang's eldest disciple and journey to the West to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures...

But after seeing it a lot, you get used to it, and then normal things become unappealing. You feel that normal things lack the distorted beauty and the awkward beauty of super-saturated light.

This is a situation where one trend overshadows another, when the majority becomes the norm and permeates life, even pushing the ordinary and normal to the edge of the world or beyond.

Thus, the world has been replaced, and the original world has become history.

The lanterns are primarily decorated with ink wash and meticulous brushwork, each stroke seemingly carefully drawn by a designer rather than created using AI calculations. Qingfengyi is always very meticulous in this regard; even when using AI to calculate entirely new appearances of animals like birds and goldfish, the basic shapes are still designed personally, ensuring nothing odd appears. The designs from the AI's calculations are then further refined, removing any strange color schemes.

Therefore, Qingfengyi's design style is truly unique, making people feel gentle and real, romantic and comfortable. Now everyone is immersed in these things, enjoying the purest beauty.

Players' wallets were drained like water; many lanterns seemed to cost only a few silver coins, or even a few copper coins. But there were so many of them!

The world channel fell silent after hearing a single comment:

"My mech commander, my backpack is full!"

"......"

"..."

"You must be kidding, right? A player named Qingfengyi can have a full inventory?"

Qingfengyi's backpack slots are calculated in units of tens of thousands, and many players find them too numerous and difficult to find, so they don't fill them up completely.

"Seriously, I'll show you screenshots. I never imagined that all these lanterns were different things! Ahhh! But they're so beautiful, I can't bear not to buy them. Pictures and videos included."

The image shows the category section, specifically under Furniture - Lighting. The video shows the content scrolling down; with so many items in her inventory, she only interacted for a few seconds. It's filled with incredibly beautiful lanterns. Even just looking at the icons, these lanterns are breathtakingly beautiful; I almost don't want to take them out.

"My mecha grand marshal, where did you collect these? They're so beautiful."

“I love that set of plain floral octagonal lamps, they’re so beautiful! I absolutely adore this design with so much blank space. Could you sell them to me? I’ve seen many similar designs, but none of them are as ethereal and elegant as these. Price is negotiable.”

"I also saw the plain octagonal lantern with floral patterns. It really evokes a sense of imagination and feels like a gentle spring breeze. I want to buy one too!"

"I'm looking for any of the backpacks available."

.........

Thirty seconds after the initial post, the player finally shared her update, but she was reluctant to sell it. She immediately said, "These are all rare items. The set you mentioned is a treasure from a serendipitous encounter. An old man in Zhilan Mountain sold it to me. It's called 'Eight Gentlemen's Appearance.' It's so beautiful. Here's the video."

The video showcased all eight lamps one by one. I didn't have time to reply earlier, probably because I was preparing the video. There are eight lamps in total, all similar in appearance, with upturned octagonal corners and small gold tassels hanging from them, adorned with rubies. They are made of the finest bamboo shadow paper, extremely thin, translucent, and pure white, allowing a pale yellow light to emanate from within, creating a slightly dim, warm glow.

It was nighttime, the atmosphere and timing were just right.

The plum blossoms are as red as fire, with a few yellow stamens peeking out. There is no color spreading around them, only the pure white of paper, as if they are blooming proudly in the snow.

The chrysanthemums are yellow and white with red stamens and some green leaves. The paper seems to have undergone a slight temperature treatment, which deepened the colors considerably. One glance evokes late autumn. Only this late autumn is gentle and beautiful; the beauty displayed by the chrysanthemums is not bleak, perfectly suited to the festive atmosphere.

There are also orchids, peonies, roses, gladioli, daylilies, and honeysuckle, which is quite fantastical and different from the legendary Eight Gentlemen. Peonies and roses are more often associated with beautiful women, while daylilies and honeysuckle are rarely seen, giving the impression of a delicate, rural beauty. However, the meticulous ink painting style of these lanterns has no traditional feel; instead, it exudes natural beauty.