Volume 2, Chapter 84 – Isn’t It Great to Be Rich?

According to the System panel, Eden City’s current basic data was as follows.

════════♡════════ ❀ Faction Center: 【Eden】(+)  ❀ ────────♡──────── ✿ Facilities: ❀ Military Zone 【Lv1】: Can train and produce 500 NPC soldiers per day, with a random chance to generate higher-tier template soldiers. Note: NPC soldiers can only be converted from civilian NPCs and cannot be created out of thin air. ❀ Current number of soldiers: (873/5000) ❀ Residential Zone 【Lv1】: Provides housing for ordinary NPCs (0/50000) ❀ Administrative Zone 【Lv1】: Residence of faction leadership and place to handle faction affairs. ❀ Commercial Zone 【Lv1】: Hub of various industries, primary location for trade. Number of shops: (0/50) ────────♡──────── ✿ City Effect: ❀ Refugee Attraction 【Lv1】: Each day there is a chance to attract wandering refugees to become city residents. ════════♡════════

Inside the Lord’s Hall of 【Eden】, which was located at the center of the Administrative Zone, Tianyin, Xingyu Muxi, and Xiaomengyao were gathered together.

The data above was what appeared in front of them after Tianyin shared her System panel.

Holding the arm that had just been bitten by Xiaomengyao earlier, Tianyin explained, “This is roughly the city’s attribute panel.”

Xingyu Muxi studied the data with a thoughtful look on her face.

“It looks like a pretty straightforward attribute interface. Military, commerce, civil affairs, and administration are all clearly divided. But from the looks of it right now, our city doesn’t even qualify as a small town~”

“Uu, that does seem to be the case, Master. Look, there aren’t any civilians at all.”

Xiaomengyao immediately pointed out the key problem.

There were no civilians.

According to the System’s mechanics, while monsters that provided experience could spawn randomly, NPCs with actual self-awareness could not.

That meant if Tianyin wanted Eden to grow, then population would be the most critical factor of all.

When Tianyin noticed the last line on the panel, the “Refugee Attraction” entry, her eyes brightened.

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“Refugee Attraction… Sister Xiaomu, does this mean exactly what it says? That we can attract refugees? Wouldn’t that gradually solve our problem of having no civilians?”

“Not necessarily, Xiaoyin. Think about it. Right now, we’re deep inside undead territory. Just that alone makes it impossible for any refugees to come here.”

After thinking for a moment, Xingyu Muxi quickly denied Tianyin’s hopeful assumption.

“But, I think our biggest issue right now is resources~”

Suddenly shifting the topic, Xingyu Muxi’s expression turned serious.

“Resources?” Xiaomengyao echoed uncertainly.

“Eh? What do you mean by resources?” Tianyin’s voice was full of confusion.

“I mean materials, Xiaoyin. Haven’t you noticed that next to the city’s name on the panel, there’s a little plus sign?”

“A plus sign?”

Tianyin blinked, then looked in the direction Xingyu Muxi mentioned, and sure enough, there really was a small, clearly visible “+” next to the name.

“What’s this?”

Curious, Xiaomengyao tried tapping on the glowing plus sign, but since Tianyin had only enabled viewing permissions for them, her action had no effect.

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“My guess,” Xingyu Muxi said, sounding confident, “is that this is where you upgrade the city. You spend a certain amount of resources to raise its level, which in turn increases various limits, like population cap and so on.”

She spoke like someone who had done this many times before.

And that wasn’t surprising. Before playing this game, Xingyu Muxi had already played many different types of virtual games, and she was especially familiar with development or farming-style games.

Following her suggestion, Tianyin tapped the plus sign next to the city’s name. The virtual interface in front of her immediately changed.

A few seconds later, new text appeared before her eyes.

════════♡════════ ❀ City Lv1 ❀ ────────♡──────── Resources required for upgrade: Wood 50,000; Stone 50,000; Gold 50,000.

Once all resources are gathered, the city can be upgraded to Lv2.

All areas and traits of the city will increase to Lv2, and all known effects will be multiplied by ten. ════════♡════════

“…Eh? It really is an upgrade option! Sister Xiaomu, I was just thinking that Eden’s population and troop caps were way too low, and now there’s actually a way to increase them…”

Tianyin looked delighted, like she had just opened a door to a brand-new world.

But then, as if realizing something, her expression quickly dimmed.

“But Sister Xiaomu, how are we supposed to gather all those resources? Just collecting wood alone would take forever for the few of us we have. And that’s not even counting the 50,000 gold and stone… it feels completely impossible…”

She wasn’t wrong. They had no manpower, no stone, no wood. Sure, with enough people, wood and stone could eventually be collected. Tianyin believed that given time, it wasn’t an insurmountable problem.

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But the gold, how would they get that?

Materialize it out of thin air? Impossible.

Just the gold alone made the situation hopelessly difficult.

“For me, that’s actually not such a big problem, Xiaoyin.”

Xingyu Muxi’s calm response left both Tianyin and Xiaomengyao staring at her in shock.

“Don’t look so surprised, Xiaoyin. Did you forget who I am in the other world~?”

“Hm? Who you are?” Xiaomengyao looked completely lost.

But Tianyin remembered. Xingyu Muxi had mentioned it before, she was the young lady of the most powerful family in the most powerful faction.

Could it be…

Although Tianyin faintly guessed what Sister Xiaomu was planning, as an NPC, she knew very well that even if she understood, she couldn’t say it out loud. And even if she wanted to, she couldn’t.

So all she could do was put on a confused expression and look at Xingyu Muxi.

“Sister Xiaomu, what are you planning to do?”

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“Well~ I almost forgot Tianyin isn’t one of us outsiders. But Xiaomengyao should know what I mean~” Xingyu Muxi said with a teasing smile.

“Pfft—you’re not… you’re not planning to… to whale ¹ Players who spend real money on the game , are you?”

Spending money.

Even before Xiaomengyao could finish the sentence, Tianyin silently completed it in her mind.

As expected, if it was a game, there would always be unnatural ways to advance.

RMB players ² RénMínBì wánjiā (人民币玩家), the term in chinese to describe players who spend large sums of money on microtransactions. It’s basically the same as whale. really were everywhere, able to slip in through every crack.

Tianyin couldn’t help but grumble inwardly, starting to silently despise that big glowing orb who had turned her into a loli.

“Well, for me, those resources really aren’t a problem at all, Xiaoyin. If I wanted to, I could have this entire city maxed out overnight.”

Watching the confident Xingyu Muxi before her, Tianyin suddenly felt one overwhelming thought rise in her heart.

Ah, damn it… it really is great to be rich.

So unfair… How envious could one possibly be?