Chapter 00045: The Blonde Drill Curls
# The Blonde Drill Curls
Chapter 45
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 45: The Blonde Drill Curls
"Mr. Li, you have a delivery."
"Oh, just leave it over there."
Li Chengxi picked up the utility knife and quickly tore the delivery box open.
Inside, there was a massive bundle of vegetable seeds—mostly different varieties of white radish.
The seeds he received previously had already been sown.
Following Viola’s suggestion, soldiers had cleared several plots of land near the city gate and were using water from the moat for irrigation.
First to be planted were potatoes, radishes, and soybeans.
These three crops weren’t demanding in terms of soil fertility, the season was favorable, and growing them was relatively hassle-free.
Other vegetables that weren't suitable or required more care to grow had been left untouched for the time being.
A portion of those seeds had been handed over to the Tree Elf Druids, who took them back to the Springlight Woodland.
Compared to the sparse and infertile soil in most of the Leon Territory, Springlight Woodland had the benefit of druidic magic.
Not only was it literally spring all year round, but its soil was incredibly fertile.
It was essentially a magical greenhouse.
They could grow anything there.
More importantly, it solved the crucial issue of seed supply.
All the seeds Li Chengxi had ordered online were from seed companies.
That meant their first harvest, in both yield and quality, would be the best one.
But if you waited for the plants to mature and tried to harvest seeds yourself to replant, the yield and quality would drop sharply.
If you wanted good crops, you’d have to buy more seeds.
That's how it worked, really.
If everyone just reused seeds from one purchase, who would ever buy from the seed companies again?
Problem was, Li Chengxi could provide a few seeds for experimental purposes, but providing seeds for the entire Leon Territory? Not a chance.
That’s where the Druids came in handy.
While the second generation of seeds would see a decline in both quality and yield, with the Druids’ efforts, who’s to say they couldn’t refine and create even better varieties than the ones that had been purchased?
And the Druids themselves were very invested in this initiative.
Once they heard that the Demon God had granted seeds of crops unheard of in this world, it was like New Year’s had come early.
One by one, they rushed to Leon Stronghold, hoping that Princess Viola might spare some seeds for their research.
The food stores of the Tree Elves were never abundant to begin with.
Even with good soil and ideal climate, the limited space meant it was impossible to plant grains on a large scale.
So for them, radishes—which grew fast and yielded a lot—were particularly appealing.
The only thing that left Li Chengxi a bit dissatisfied was discovering that nearly none of the Tree Elves in Springlight Woodland were becoming believers.
And this was after he had helped them resolve a life-or-death crisis.
He took a look around and saw that only four or five Tree Elf children had managed to hit a Devotion of 10. Probably because the scene when he expelled the power of the Plague Goddess looked really flashy and cool.
Viola told Li Chengxi that Tree Elves rarely devoted themselves to any specific god.
And when they did, it was usually to natural deities.
Most Druids among them only revered the laws of nature.
It was a cultural thing—not something that could be changed overnight.
Since it was a matter of custom, Li Chengxi didn’t dwell on it too much, especially considering that Springlight Woodland didn't have a large population to begin with.
By contrast, missionary work in Leon Stronghold was going extremely well.
At first, the only believers were Viola and her Royal Guards.
The soldiers on the city walls who witnessed how the Demon God defeated the mountain bandits were more like awe-struck fans—they had no clue how to pray, nor did they try.
But now, the number of believers in Leon Stronghold had grown to between one to two thousand people a day, and the growth rate was still accelerating.
Li had no doubt that soon the entire Leon Territory would become followers of the Demon God.
Faith Points, the most vital resource, used to go up just a few points per day.
Now it rose by at least a hundred daily, sometimes even two to three hundred.
Logically, the rate at which believers grew should correlate to the rise in Faith Points.
But so far, the number of believers was growing much faster.
That was because just having believers wasn’t enough—they had to pray.
Only during the two daily prayer sessions—morning and evening—did Faith Points actually increase.
And praying wasn’t as simple as just putting your hands together.
There had to be a symbolic gesture and a clear indication of whom one was praying to.
Right now, the only place barely meeting the standard was the chapel within the castle.
But Viola was still a fugitive princess—opening up the castle to the general public was out of the question, for her safety.
Given the practical impossibility of building a grand temple overnight, Viola came up with several workarounds.
She first had the Holy Emblem of the Demon God placed on the plaza.
Every day, Royal Guards would lead the gathered citizens in prayer there.
Scaffolding had already gone up, and construction had begun on a large divine statue to better facilitate public worship.
Additionally, she commissioned a large batch of Holy Emblems to be made, the kind that could be worn as necklaces.
Initially, she wanted them made of silver, but lacking supplies, they were made of copper and iron instead.
The Tree Elves also offered to work overtime producing a batch of finely crafted wooden Holy Emblems.
Once these Emblems were completed and distributed, the believers could pray at home.
At that point, the rate of Faith Point growth would skyrocket.
That said, even if Faith Points were the most vital resource in this whole game, there weren’t many ways to use them.
You could either bestow divine arts to believers or have Li Chengxi personally reach in and interfere with the world.
But even so, it always felt like the god’s scope of power was far too limited.
If that’s the case, every action needed to be taken with care.
As a god, you had to retain some air of mystery.
Only then would believers continue to revere you.
So Li Chengxi was also cautious with how he granted divine arts or intervened directly.
He figured he’d treat godly powers like a system of rewards and punishments.
Do well, and you’ll get it.
Slack off, and no amount of devotion will help.
After all, being too generous with divine arts might lead believers to think all they had to do was mutter a prayer and they'd receive miracles.
That would lower their Devotion and, in turn, slow the gain of Faith Points—a dead-end cycle.
Switching the camera view, Li Chengxi glanced at the plaza, where Shelly was leading the faithful in prayer, then shifted the view to the interior of the castle.
There, he saw Viola and the Royal Guards just finishing morning prayer and exiting the chapel.
Li Chengxi decided to wait until the afternoon prayer session to give Viola the newly arrived radish seeds.
Sure, he could just place the seeds in her hands right now, but placing them on the altar during prayer would give it more impact.
He wanted that sense of ceremony.
But, he noticed Viola wasn't heading toward her usual office, nor was she going out to check on the nearby villages.
Instead, she walked into the second floor’s reception room.
Who was she meeting?
Soon, two pixelated figures entered the reception room—people Li Chengxi hadn’t seen before.
They seemed to be on familiar terms with Viola.
One of them was blond, wearing a puffy skirt and leaning on a staff—a bizarre outfit combination that left Li speechless.
“There really is a blonde drill curls girl, huh…”
What stood out the most was her hair—bright gold and curled in giant drill-like spirals.
The other one was dressed in a butler uniform.
At first glance, especially in chibi pixel form, Li Chengxi thought this one was male.
But once he clicked open the ability panel and saw the character artwork, he realized it was actually a cross-dressing beauty.
This master-and-servant pair didn't seem like ordinary folk in the slightest.
(End of Chapter)