Chapter 00004: Are You Short on Money
# Are You Short on Money?
Chapter 4
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 4: Are You Short on Money?
After ending the morning prayer with a collective “Gan!”, Princess Viola moved to a meeting room.
She turned to her Royal Guards and asked,
“Regarding our direction from here on out, does anyone have something to say?”
To receive the attention of the legendary Demon God—this was without a doubt a great blessing.
But not everything could be solved by praying to the Gods.
Gods were such beings that interfering in the mortal world was extremely difficult.
If they wanted to accomplish something, it was usually handled by the temple priests or devout followers.
Only under dire circumstances would a god act directly in person.
Princess Viola believed that when they repelled the bandits earlier, the Demon God must have expended a great deal of divine power.
She felt that she had received divine revelation—thus, she was so highly regarded by the Demon God.
But she mustn’t let that make her proud and complacent.
If the Demon God grew weary of her and turned away from her, she would lose her final backing.
If it’s something that humans can handle, then don’t trouble the God.
With this thought in mind, Viola gathered more than ten of her most trusted knights to discuss their plan moving forward.
All the members of Viola’s Royal Guard were women, and all hailed from the families of nobles or high-ranking officials.
At the very least, everyone could do arithmetic and read—which was leagues ahead of the common folk.
Add in the environment they were raised in, and they were not only officers and escorts, but also Viola's most valued advisors.
“Zola, what are your thoughts?”
A female knight sitting on Viola’s left responded to the question:
“Your Highness, should we immediately gather people to compile scripture and doctrine for Lord Demon God?”
A god without doctrine would find it extremely difficult to spread their faith.
Doctrine defined a god’s aims and duties—if outsiders didn’t know what your god stood for, how would they be willing to believe?
“No, we cannot act rashly. The Demon God has already become a figure of legend. If we hastily compile doctrine, it might cause displeasure to our Lord.”
When dealing with matters of gods, one must be especially cautious.
Viola added,
“However, converting the Audience Hall into a chapel must be done as soon as possible. I can’t clearly hear the sacred voice of the Demon God—perhaps this is also related to that.”
If current conditions allowed for it, Viola would’ve already had someone construct a massive temple for the deity.
“Understood. Then, Your Highness, allow me to report on our current situation.”
Viola gave a slight nod.
After a light cough, Zola spoke:
“First, the city defenses. Leon Stronghold was originally built by our predecessors to explore the boundaries of the world. Several hundred years have passed since—it has fallen into ruin, and the defensive facilities have nearly collapsed. Though we destroyed the only canyon path leading into and out of Leon Territory during our escape, how long it can stall our pursuers is uncertain. Furthermore, we may have to deal with bandits composed of routed troops and refugees.”
Though Leon Territory was a destitute and remote corner of the world—even after the divisions among the Demon Kingdoms of Avarus, none of them cared for such a poor piece of land—they would definitely want to capture Viola and extinguish any chance that the Avarus family could make a comeback.
“Second is the issue of supplies, like food and medicine. We left in too much of a hurry. With all that’s been used on the journey, our food stores are already scraping the bottom, and our medical supplies are completely exhausted. Many of the wounded can only have their injuries bound up with basic bandages.”
“The local doctors in Leon Territory should still have some medicines. As for food…”
Viola gave it some thought.
“I remember that there are some villages and towns up north of Leon Stronghold on the map. We still have some Gold Coins that were brought along. We can buy food and other necessities. If the money’s not enough, sell off some of the palace art pieces we brought with us.”
“It would be best not to sell the artworks, Your Highness. Those are the pride and heritage of your family. Also, once we put them up for sale, it could expose our presence in Leon Territory.”
“I understand. That will only be an option if there’s no other choice.”
Zola gave a soft cough before she continued:
“As for recruiting and training soldiers, I believe it can be put on hold. The locals don’t know us well. Should we forcibly conscript troops, it could harm our reputation. That would reflect badly on both Your Highness and Lord Demon God. Additionally, I believe Count Leon isn’t pleased by our arrival. Though on the surface he lent us the castle and troops, I seriously doubt his loyalty. He has a very poor name among the local civilians. We must proceed with caution.”
“I see. What Zola brought up will become our immediate short-term goals. If anyone has suggestions or opinions, please share them now.”
—–‐‐——–‐‐——
Back in the day, Li Chengxi was also the type who’d shout, “You dare talk back? How many moms do you have?” But now, he had gone full Buddhist mode—after all, he didn’t really do team ranked matches anymore.
His headset had broken ages ago, and he never bothered to get a new one.
On the online shop, he picked out the headset with the fastest delivery and then shifted his attention back to his laptop.
By now, the chapel was completely empty.
Li Chengxi moved the mouse, wanting to see where all the people had gone.
When the cursor moved to the edge of the screen, the image shifted to one side.
Only then did he realize that the camera wasn’t fixed—it could freely move around.
Of course, the so-called “Palace District” couldn’t possibly just consist of one chapel.
By moving the mouse, Li Chengxi saw guards patrolling in the castle corridors, maids polishing vases, and a group of knights training in the castle courtyard.
By clicking on a tiny up-and-down arrow on the screen’s edge, he could even switch between floors.
Holding down the left mouse button while scrolling the wheel let him zoom in and out—with full zoom showing all the details of every little pixel person.
At minimum zoom, it basically looked like a map, with “Leon Stronghold” reduced to a small dot in the top-left corner.
You couldn’t really blame Li Chengxi for being slow on the uptake.
This game didn’t have any kind of newbie guide whatsoever—he had to figure out all the features himself.
Resetting the camera, he toggled through the castle floors.
Soon enough, he found the chibi-style, two-head-high pixel version of Princess Viola in the floor above the chapel.
She was sitting around a round table with a bunch of knights.
Seemed like they were mid-meeting.
But Li Chengxi couldn’t hear what they were talking about—there were no dialogue boxes over their heads.
As it turns out, there were only two situations when dialogue boxes actually appeared.
One was when a Viola character portrait popped up.
The other was when a crowd was yelling at the top of their lungs.
Like earlier, when the bandits attacked—folks had speech bubbles popping up everywhere with shouting and slashing.
Li Chengxi watched for a bit, curious what they were discussing.
So he moved his mouse and clicked on Princess Viola.
This time, a manga-style speech bubble appeared above the princess’s head, which read: “Regarding the issue of Gold Coins, perhaps we could seek help from Count Leon…”
A speech bubble floated up above the knight beside her as well: “The count's intentions remain unclear. I don’t believe he’d hand over coins so easily.”
Not only could he now see what the princess was saying—even the conversations of all the other knights seated at the same round table were visible.
Li Chengxi suddenly understood.
If he wanted to view dialogue, he had to click one of the NPCs participating in the conversation, or else nothing would show up.
This setup made perfect sense.
With too many NPCs on screen at once, dialogue boxes would cover the whole screen—you wouldn’t even know who said what.
But speaking of which…
“Gold Coins? Are they short on money?”
(End of Chapter)