"Thank you, everyone, for your hard work. I hope that our future cooperation will be even smoother and smoother …"
Samantha, who was standing on the podium, looked at the thick script in her hand and tilted her head. She thought about it for a moment before nodding and letting go of the script. She then continued speaking.
"… Of course, I'll skip ahead. Thank you, everyone, for your continued support. Cheers. "
"Ohhh, thank you, everyone."
"Loli … long live the wood spirits! The cutest little Samantha is amazing! She's truly my angel!"
"Who's your angel? Lady Samantha belongs to everyone!"
At the celebration banquet, Samantha said these words as if she was reading her lines. She used the preamble to skip the thick script of her speech, and the adventurers responded enthusiastically, although the direction of the response seemed a little strange …
"Why do I feel like she's more and more like an idol celebrity than the leader of an entire species?"
"Sister, you were the one who wanted me to write this, and you even said that it was very important. You wanted me to finish it with the highest quality. You're treating the product of two all-nighters like this …"
Let's ignore Rosa, who had dark circles under her eyes and was glaring at her older sister with deep hatred. She had worked so hard to write 30 pages over the course of an entire night, yet her older sister simply said "Of course," so it was likely that a fight between the sisters would be unavoidable. However, a strange follower behind Rosa was shouting at her.
"Little Rosa in her dark form is also cute!"
"Pink is indeed black when cut open."
Cough, it would seem that while the wood spirits were becoming more and more human-like, there were also more and more strange people.
It seemed that at some unknown time, the wood spirits had become abnormally popular. Beyana's strange adventuring team was no exception. There was actually a market for such a strange support team.
Of course, there were also many people with deviant sexual orientations who had ulterior motives. As a result, under the watchful eyes of the plants, they were caught before the conspiracy could be carried out. After that, no one really knew whether the thorns or the roots would play out.
However, unlike most ordinary wood spirits who were easy to get along with, Samantha was accustomed to treating others coldly. She would never waste words, and if she could solve a problem with one word, she would definitely not say two. If she did, it would be almost as if she was scolding others, and she would never smile. However, the strange part was that this behavior of hers had unexpectedly caused her to become incredibly popular. In fact, she even had the largest fan club in the world … Should I comment on this? No matter what world I was in, there would always be all sorts of gentlemen. Yet, such a cold-faced, venomous-tongued loli had actually become the most popular.
"Little Samantha has worked hard too."
I looked at Little Red who was hugging little Samantha and rubbing her cheeks with all her might. Little Samantha, who was trying her best to struggle but couldn't get rid of Auntie Monster Strength Dragon and was looking at me for help. I didn't know what to say.
When I heard that the leader of the wood spirit club was actually this female dragon, I wasn't surprised at all. I could only sigh that this former "fake loli" was probably overflowing with maternal instincts again.
I had to admit that appearances were sometimes quite important. For example, my undead army had saved Sulfur Mountain City and had a much better relationship with the ordinary living. However, there was still a gap between them and the ordinary living. It could only be said that they had a good relationship with the ordinary living.
Yet, the wood spirits only needed to wave their hands, and a group of loyal adventurers would immediately follow them. It was said that the wood spirits' fan club had more than six digits in number, and that they were even forming a personal guard squad. It seemed that they intended to become the wood spirits' labor force. I really didn't know what to say.
When Samantha announced a toast, and the gentlemen were encouraging Samantha to sing a song to liven up the atmosphere, I felt as if I had been granted amnesty and began enjoying a luxurious dinner that I hadn't enjoyed in a long time.
I indeed spent last night at Samantha's place, but this wasn't because Samantha and the others mistreated me. It was because the wood spirits' staple food was fruits and vegetables. Since they were so kind to treat me, I naturally couldn't refuse. I also didn't want to use my hard-earned Justice Points to buy some chicken or pork. So, I could only make do with the wood spirits' recipes. Unfortunately, their dishes were quite plain, and they didn't have any artificial additives or seasonings. They were quite filling, but the taste … to quote the silly cat, "I'd rather eat rats than grass. At least rats have some flavor."
"It seems that I'll need to think of a way to earn some gold coins to spend."
I was quite curious as to who was capable of stealing money from me. Actually, losing my money pouch didn't really matter. After all, there were only two or three hundred gold coins in it, which wasn't much to me. The only thing that bothered me was that some of my personal belongings had disappeared as well.
"… Is it because you keep losing money that you don't bring any money with you?"
"No, it's just that it's too troublesome to bring any money with me. It'll be fine once the Goddess of Wealth's' banking business' opens up. "
Yes, there were "banks" in this world, but rather than calling them financial institutions, they were more like safes. If you stored your money there, you could only take it out from there. You would also have to pay a storage fee, or else the bank owner would confiscate your money.
Bring it with you? Dimensional storage equipment was expensive and rare, and it had limited space. There was also a limit to how heavy it could be. It wasn't enough to store any backup weapons, and gold coins were even more troublesome.
In legends, warriors who could easily carry several thousand gold coins were probably the strongest. Several thousand gold coins would weigh several dozen kilograms. An ordinary person would definitely be overloaded if they carried ten thousand gold coins. Casually carrying one hundred thousand gold coins would be impossible, unless they had a carriage to carry the gold coins with them.
Of course, it could be said that credit coins had been used before. However, the "banking business" was usually handled by mercenary guilds, merchant guilds, and similar organizations. However, their business areas were limited, and not only was it far from convenient, it was also quite unreliable.
The members of mercenary guilds were all mercenaries, so they weren't trustworthy to begin with. And merchant guilds would often go bankrupt. Even if they managed their businesses well, in the eyes of the major nobles, the nobles who had money but no private armies were nothing more than efficient cash machines. As long as they could find a reasonable reason, it wasn't uncommon for those so-called cash notes to become worthless paper overnight.
The end result was that there were far too many precedents. Precious metals and magical metals were forever the hard currency of this world. After all, they could be used to create weapons and equipment, as well as to research alchemy and magic. They were expensive consumables.
And Beyana's "new banking business" was basically using Justice Points as currency. Basically, you could use precious metals to exchange for Justice Points. Then, when you arrived at a certain location, you could use Justice Points to exchange for precious metals for consumption.
In order to prevent people from using large amounts of gold coins to exchange for Justice Points, which would affect the price of Justice Points, the moment Justice Points were exchanged for Justice Points, they could only be used as currency. They couldn't be used to exchange for special resources. Although it sounded quite complicated, the content was actually quite simple — the true equivalent of Justice Points had already appeared.
Justice Points that had been exchanged for Justice Points now had the nickname "Wealth Points." However, this didn't affect their true nature. And, thanks to the Divine Authority's guarantee, it seemed that Justice Points would truly be accepted by the entire world. If Beyana succeeded, perhaps Wealth Points would be able to replace heavy precious metals and become the world's universal currency.
This wasn't any strange concept. However, in this era of feudal royalty, there weren't many that could accomplish such a thing. The nobles viewed their territories as their personal wealth, and they were used to collecting taxes and forcefully conscripting their territories. Even if there were some who were more open-minded, the frequent wars and changes in royalty forced them to gather all their wealth on the wheels of war. If they couldn't even protect their lives, breaking one or two agreements was nothing.
Since the nobles, royalty, and merchants all regretfully tore apart the foundation of trust in the world's universal currency, most people lost trust in so-called paper money. Now that Justice Points were gradually being accepted by the people, Beyana naturally wouldn't miss this golden opportunity.
Using the Divine Authority as a guarantee for the new generation's currency was a completely unprecedented attempt. It represented many unforeseeable futures. But as long as it succeeded … even if it was only half a success, it would definitely bring the definition of wealth to a whole new level. For example, the development of finance, futures, loans, and other industries would likely change many things at that time.
"… Perhaps the first person in the Aillé God System to become a Main God won't be the God of Fate or the Moon Goddess that everyone favors. Instead, it'll be the originally weak Goddess of Wealth."
Of course, such an important societal change wouldn't happen overnight. At the very least, every country wouldn't allow a currency that was more trustworthy than their own official currency to be created. No matter how successful Beyana was, it was likely that this path would be filled with thorns.
At the very least, many Contract Heroes were quite excited when they discovered that they didn't even need to exchange their Justice Points for rare treasures. They felt that they were on the right boat.
Most Contract Heroes didn't think about the significance of the other changes. They were only happy for the sake of obtaining a tangible income. When they discovered that their lives had changed because of certain things, they could only passively accept it. However, some people had already seen through many things. In fact, they even viewed this as an opportunity.
"Your Highness Roland, may I have a chat with you?"
Roland was still that handsome magic Knight who made others feel inferior. I couldn't help but recall some things as I looked at his handsome face, which was even more nervous than the last time I saw him.
Actually, due to the wood spirits' strategic goal being leaked, I immediately suspected that there was a traitor among the adventurers' higher-ups. This "outsider" who was able to directly enter the wood spirits' core region became my primary suspect.
His subordinates helped me find the undead mage traitor, but that didn't clear his name. In fact, it was the opposite. I treated him as my primary suspect for sacrificing a pawn to protect a treasure, and he received the special treatment of being monitored by plants 24/7.
It wasn't until the end of the battle that the true traitor, Molly, was revealed that he was finally cleared of suspicion. As a high-level commander of the adventurers, he received a silver military achievement medal for his performance.
But to be honest, I didn't expect that he would come looking for me after everything was over.
After all, my true identity had been exposed. The "Undying Roland" on the Calamity Rankings was an Undead Emperor who had brought death and Yongye with him. The few high-level adventurers who learned of my true identity through their own channels were all quite reserved when they saw me. Not only did they take the initiative to chat with me, they would even sit up straight when I looked at them with pale faces and cold sweat. It was as if I was a man-eating tiger.
Even for those who didn't know the truth, the golden military medal would still cause them to be quite reserved. If they were any smarter, they would probably think about the reinforcements on the Calamity Rankings and know what to do when facing this "Gold Medal Winner."
But in the end, I didn't like this type of atmosphere. Recently, I had been incredibly free. Even if I was eating to my heart's content without caring about my image, nobody would pay attention to me. But now, this little fellow actually came looking for me of his own volition, which made me feel even more interested.
"I'm here to discuss cooperation …"
Obviously, some things weren't suitable to be discussed in public, so we found an empty room and had a good chat. In the end, we discovered that both of us seemed to be able to reach a common goal, which was why we signed a few agreements that weren't suitable to be revealed to the public.
"Well then, Your Highness, I'll be taking my leave first. I look forward to meeting you again in the Bardi capital."
I watched as the Westwood Guardians' leader, "Black Guardian" Kaise Elowen, left in satisfaction. Although our first meeting wasn't pleasant, perhaps we would have many more chances to cooperate in the future.
"Such a person isn't simple at all. Perhaps he'll become famous in the future. Right, let's check if there's any information about this person in the game's history …"
There were far too many legends and records. Just remembering the names of epic heroes and other dimensional gods and demons would be enough to fill up a dictionary. Many times, a great hero or antagonist that sounded really powerful would only be briefly mentioned in the "history". It would be impossible for me to completely record everything down. Still, if I had a name, it would only take me a bit more time to look up their deeds.
[Page 367, line 7. He's quite an interesting person.]
From a certain standpoint, the moment my System spoke, I felt that something was off about the situation. And so, I quickly flipped to that page and saw the records. Then, I understood.
"Kaise Elowen … he's truly an interesting person."
…
Bright red dragon blood filled the entire pool. The strange thing was that although I could smell blood, I didn't feel any discomfort from the smell of blood.
This was the blood of an Immemorial Red Dragon, a treasure that couldn't be bought with money. But, ever since I soaked myself in the blood pool, I lost all feeling in my body. I felt numb and swollen, and my body itched to the point where I wanted to skin myself with a knife. But the next instant, I lost all feeling in my body.
[Sensory isolation service. Charge 10 … no, 100 Justice Points.]
"… You're taking advantage of my misfortune. Can't you have some conscience!? "
[In that case, cancel this service and return the Justice Points? Are you sure? Three, two …]
"… You win."
Everything returned to silence. Since my physical body wouldn't be able to move around for the time being, I focused on my spoils of war in the Frigidwinter Earth. From a certain standpoint, as a victor who had successfully "picked up corpses", I had obtained many spoils of war. However, digesting them wouldn't be so easy.
It was enough that I could only watch from the sidelines once. Now, what I needed to do was quite clear.
"Hurry up and become stronger."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
