Chapter 00082: A Knock at the Door in the Middle of the Night
# A Knock at the Door in the Middle of the Night
Chapter 82
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 82: A Knock at the Door in the Middle of the Night
Viola was completely baffled, the White Dragon was crying its eyes out, and on the other side of the screen, Li Chengxi secretly nodded to himself.
After talking for so long, he had finally gotten the White Dragon to deliver the Gold Coins...
The Leon Territory's current development certainly wasn't short on money.
No matter how much was spent on infrastructure and raising an army, they wouldn't be able to spend nearly forty thousand Gold Coins in a short time.
But while the territory wasn't short on money, Li Chengxi was.
The Leon Territory was now stabilizing, and there wasn't much for him to do.
Every day, Li Chengxi would just watch Viola and the others' prayers, then glance at the vegetable patch by the City Gate.
Occasionally, he would check on the Tree Elf tribe, and that was about it.
It was an idle game, after all, and its main feature was 'idling'.
But with little for Li Chengxi to interfere with, it felt a bit boring.
So, Li Chengxi remembered that the game actually had three scenarios, one of which was the Wuxia scenario that required an inventory of fifty thousand Gold Coins to unlock.
Originally, Li Chengxi hadn't been in a hurry.
After all, the Leon Territory was too small and poor.
Unless Viola led her army out of the territory someday, or the newly built factories could start selling their products, it was unlikely he could fill the gap of over ten thousand Gold Coins.
But the appearance of the White Dragon perfectly solved this problem.
So, Li Chengxi had the White Dragon take around fifteen thousand Gold Coins to the Leon Fortress.
However, he hadn't expected the White Dragon to be so resistant.
"I'm just borrowing a little, and it's not like I won't pay it back. Was it really necessary to cry so pitifully?"
"For a dragon, Gold Coins can sometimes be more important than life itself."
Although Audel couldn't see the game screen, she had heard the entire conversation between Li Chengxi and the White Dragon.
"It's a good thing you said you were borrowing. If you had asked the White Dragon to give the Gold Coins to Viola for free, it would have died before agreeing to it."
"Is it that exaggerated?"
"The only time a dragon will spend money is when it's an investment for an even greater return. There's a rather extreme saying: if you were to kill a dragon's entire family, it might not dare to seek revenge out of fear for your strength. But if you were to touch its treasure, it would tear you to shreds and take a couple of bites out of you even if it meant its own destruction."
"It can't be that bad, surely..."
Despite not having much money himself, Li Chengxi truly didn't value it that highly.
There were far too many things in the world more important than money.
"It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it's surprisingly convincing when it comes to dragons. They might worship a Dragon God, but even a god they revere shouldn't dream of touching their treasure. They often build the altars for their Dragon God far from their lairs, afraid that the Dragon God might covet their hoard."
Audel sat beside Li Chengxi and continued to speak.
"That White Dragon is a young adult. It doesn't have a large hoard, and you said you were just borrowing. That's the only reason it agreed."
"Hearing you say that, does it mean I was a bit out of line?"
He suddenly felt a twinge of guilt.
But on second thought, what was borrowed was borrowed.
There was no use thinking about it so much.
At worst, he would just have to be nicer to the White Dragon in the future.
Speaking of which, although the White Dragon had arrived with its treasure, the Gold Coin resource count in the top-right corner hadn't changed.
This was because it all needed to be tallied.
The Gold Coins were simple enough; they just needed to be counted.
But the White Dragon's hoard couldn't possibly be just Gold Coins.
Items like gemstones had to be appraised one by one to determine their value, and there were various other miscellaneous things.
Only after everything was accounted for could it be added to the treasury.
Only after everything was tallied and stored would the Gold Coin resource number in the top-right corner change.
Li Chengxi had learned this previously when Viola sent soldiers to transport treasure back, so it was impossible to unlock the Wuxia scenario immediately.
It would take at least a day or two.
–‐‐——–‐‐——
The tally would take time, and Li Chengxi didn't rush Viola.
In any case, it would take a day or two at most.
As for the White Dragon, it fully displayed its reluctance to part with its treasure.
It stubbornly refused to leave, hanging around the fortress as if terrified the treasure it had lent out would never be returned.
Viola, meanwhile, was comforting the White Dragon while sending soldiers to inform the commoners that all was well, explaining that the White Dragon was an envoy from the Demon God and so on.
Otherwise, there was no telling what chaos might have erupted.
It was said that many people had already started packing their belongings onto carts, showing just how scared they were.
While things were chaotic and frantic on Viola's end, Li Chengxi's side was calm and uneventful.
As time passed, night fell once more.
Li Chengxi closed up the shop, went upstairs to wash up, and prepared to have dinner.
"Flame Dragon Armor, combine!"
Just as he came out of the bathroom, he saw Audel standing in front of the TV, mimicking the transformation poses from a special effects drama.
She seemed to be obsessed with it.
At first, Audel hadn't seemed very interested in television, since magic could also create projection screens capable of transmitting sound and images.
But after Li Chengxi randomly found some shows for her to watch, she was instantly captivated.
It seemed there were very few forms of entertainment on her side.
Audel was wearing a pair of newly bought hot pants and an off-the-shoulder top.
The outfit had been bought to be worn as pajamas, which was fine, he supposed.
"Why are you still wearing white stockings? Aren't you hot?"
Putting on stockings right after a shower would feel stuffy, even with the air conditioning on.
"Ah? Isn't this how you're supposed to wear it?"
"Well, it's not that you're not supposed to... Whatever."
To be honest, her beautiful legs in white stockings were indeed a pleasant sight.
Li Chengxi sat on the sofa, resisting the urge to let his gaze linger on her white stockings, and waved to Audel.
"Stop watching. Time to eat."
Tonight's dinner was ordered from the small restaurant next door again.
Since he was used to eating late, he had just reheated it.
Just as he was about to get his chopsticks, Li Chengxi suddenly heard a banging sound from downstairs, clang, clang, clang, accompanied by the ding-dong of the doorbell.
The rolling shutter of the convenience store's main entrance was already down, and there was no doorbell there, so the sound could only have come from the back door.
The very one whose hinges Lei Lei had torn off before.
"Who could be knocking on my door in the middle of the night?"
Li Chengxi glanced at the time.
It was already past eight o'clock.
Telling Audel to eat first, Li Chengxi headed down the stairs.
By the time he reached the warehouse door, the banging sound had grown faint and weak, though the doorbell managed to ring one last time.
"Who is it?"
He turned on the light and shouted through the door, but there was no reply from outside.
This instantly put Li Chengxi on alert.
Although the security in his neighborhood was excellent—not a single theft had been reported in over a decade—the recent bank robbery came to mind, and Li Chengxi felt it was better to be cautious.
He didn't dare to open the door directly.
Instead, he carefully peered through the peephole from a short distance.
Outside, he could only see the glow of the neighborhood streetlights and the lit windows of the residential buildings across the road.
There wasn't a soul in sight.
Just as Li Chengxi was wondering if it was a prank, the door banged again, clang, clang, clang.
This time, the sound was even more feeble, and the doorbell didn't ring.
There was someone outside!
Li Chengxi grabbed a crowbar, used for opening packages, from behind a shelf.
With his other hand on the doorknob, he turned it with a click.
The moment he opened the door, a deathly pale face fell toward him into the room, startling him so badly that he almost brought the crowbar down on it.
A pale face suddenly appearing out of the darkness in the middle of the night would make anyone jump.
But when Li Chengxi took a closer look, he saw...
"You're Qian Sen? What happened?"
It was none other than Qian Sen, the man Li Chengxi had just met a few days ago.
But his face was now deathly pale.
He must have been leaning against the door, because as soon as Li Chengxi opened it, he stumbled inside.
(End of Chapter)