Chapter 2: New Century (Epilogue)
Chapter 737: Hades City
[Resurrection Crystal placed]
[City Lord System activated, system is collecting information… Collection complete… City module synchronizing… Synchronization complete]
[Congratulations on becoming the City Lord of Hades City. You can now open the city panel to view the city’s status, and you can also spend resources to build special buildings.]
Upon seeing the system notification, Aryk felt a surge of heat rush to his head, as if some dormant bloodline had been instantly awakened.
He opened the city status panel and saw rows of information displayed:
[City: Hades]
[Current Status: Normal]
[Building Durability: City Lord’s Mansion – Good / Residential Housing – Normal / Mage Tower Cluster – Good / Road Conditions – Normal / City Wall System – North City Wall – Damaged (Front city wall towers require repair, magic turrets require repair, 56 sections of the city wall require repair)]
[City Population: 70,000]
[Owned Technologies: Alchemical Golem Technology, Magic Potion Refining Technology, Magic Crystal Mining Technology, Tier 6 Magic Civilization, Magic Cannon Manufacturing Technology]
[Owned Resources: 5 tons of Magic Crystals, 140,000 Gold Coins, various minerals of unspecified quantity]
[Lord’s Assets: Former Lord’s Wife x1, Lord’s Castle x1, Butler x2, Maid x86, Male Servant x147, Manor x4, Farmland 5736 mu, Original Hades Guard Legion, Treasure Vault x3]
After reviewing the status of Hades City, Aryk compared it to his original Winter City and felt that Hades was incredibly wealthy. If Hades, a desolate border city, was this rich, then how wealthy must central cities like Lapland be?
However, Aryk felt no envy.
He believed that the greatest sense of accomplishment came from building everything from scratch.
As soon as this thought arose, a system mission suddenly popped up.
[Hidden Mission – Choice (Triggered)]
[Mission Description: After taking over the city, you look at the wealth accumulated, and your heart is filled with mixed emotions. You recall how barren your previous Eagle Territory was, how its residents struggled to find enough food, and how difficult it was for the King of Winter to reach his current position. You are moved by this!]
[Choice One: Hand over 50% of your wealth to the King of Winter]
[Choice Two: Be an ungrateful wretch and keep everything]
[Note: Your choice will determine your mission reward!]
Aryk: “(°Д°)…”
Did this game system have mind-reading abilities?
He wanted to build everything from scratch, but that didn’t mean he wanted to hand over the accumulated resources of Hades City! If he handed over fifty percent, then he would truly be starting from scratch!
But looking at the mission prompt, Aryk felt like handing over a portion might not be so bad.
Since it was a hidden mission that required such a significant sacrifice, the mission reward couldn’t possibly be lacking!
With this thought in mind, Aryk made his choice.
[…You are moved by this and choose to hand over 50% of your wealth to the King of Winter for safekeeping. The King of Winter’s favorability towards your city has increased by 50.]
Aryk waited for a long time, but no further reward popped up.
This meant that the mission’s reward for choosing the first option was indeed just that little bit…
A city favorability increase of +50?
Is that all?
He almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
Rushing to the warehouse, he found that his gold coins, magic crystals, weapons, and armor had indeed been halved. However, the castle’s servants and the former lord’s wife remained.
“Why didn’t they split that old hag in half and take her too?” Aryk grumbled dissatisfiedly.
It wasn’t that he felt it was wrong to offer his wealth to the King of Winter, but rather that the reward was too perfunctory. Even giving him a +50 favorability with the King of Winter would have been something!
What good was a +50 city favorability increase?
Did those items he handed over not count towards him at all?
Garbage system, utterly disappointing!
Pah!
However, as Aryk continued to open the subsequent city construction system, his perspective immediately changed.
[City Affairs Hall: Requires 10,000 Gold Coins, 500 units of Wood, 500 units of Stone, 10 City Favorability. Automatically manages city industries, providing your city with 1,000 Gold Coins in income daily (Next level: “City Council”)]
[Tier 2 City Defense: Requires 2,000 Gold Coins, 700 units of Wood, 1500 units of Stone, 20 City Favorability. Increases the defense of city walls and gates, adds 10 Venom Dragon spray towers, 20 arrow towers, and 500 Sharpshooters. (Next level: Tier 3 City Defense)]
[Moat: Requires 500 Gold Coins, 5 City Favorability]
[Sisterhood of St. Erla: Requires 500 Gold Coins, 100 Magic Crystals, 100 units of Wood, 50 units of Stone, 30 City Favorability. You can recruit or train nuns here.]
[Barracks: Requires 500 Gold Coins, 100 units of Wood, 30 City Favorability. You can spend resources here to recruit Crusaders and Sharpshooters, with a maximum of 20 recruited daily. (Next level: Sentry Post)]
…
[Demon Furnace: Requires 5,000,000 Gold Coins, 100,000 units of Stone, 50,000 units of Wood, 200,000 Magic Crystals, 1000 units of Rubies, 1000 units of Amethysts, 100 City Favorability. You can spend resources here to summon Fear Demon Kings, with a maximum of one summoned daily.]
After reviewing everything, he realized he could build all the special buildings that Winter City had. If he had enough resources, he could completely transform Hades into a second Winter City and recruit his own powerful army.
But all of this was dependent on one crucial hurdle.
That was City Favorability!
Now, looking at the +50 City Favorability on Hades’ city panel, Aryk no longer felt like an idiot who had been taken advantage of.
City Favorability, truly valuable!
