"City Lord, greetings!"
The sonorous shouts echoed throughout the city. Kailin, who was inspecting the city's construction with Chen Yu, paused instinctively, a hint of nervousness flashing across her face.
"This won't do," Chen Yu said, a smile in his eyes, standing beside Kailin.
"You've been City Lord for so long, you still haven't gotten used to it?"
"A little bit," Kailin replied, her lips pressed together, a trace of timidity in her expression. "Our city's population has grown so much recently. Being called City Lord by so many people is still quite unfamiliar."
"Indeed."
Chen Yu nodded noncommittally as he looked at the people toiling within the city.
"Have you been taking in many refugees lately?"
A week had passed since the planar fusion. As expected, the situation mirrored the initial fusion, with several regions being integrated into Chen Yu's jurisdiction.
The planar space had expanded once more.
The current planar space of the Grotto-Heaven was nearly tens of thousands of square kilometers. At this rate of fusion, it was only a matter of time before the plane returned to its original state.
After the fusion, Chen Yu's first priority was to recruit personnel.
He had absorbed as many indigenous people from the surrounding villages and tribes as possible, accepted refugees from the Grotto-Heaven, and disseminated information within the explored city-states.
Currently, the population of Chen Yu's city-state had exceeded ten thousand.
"We haven't stopped taking in refugees. As for spreading the word about our city's benefits to other city-states, many natives from various city-states and towns have joined us during this period," Kailin murmured softly. "I believe it won't be long before our city reaches the scale of a Level 1 City-State."
A Level 1 City-State has a population of 50,000.
If Chen Yu's city-state could truly reach a population of 50,000 in such a short time, then everything would proceed according to Chen Yu's plan.
Becoming a Level 1 City-State was also one of Chen Yu's objectives.
"How long will it take, specifically?"
"At the current efficiency, with thousands of people joining our city every day, it's estimated to take at most one month for our city to reach the scale of a Level 1 City-State," Kailin stated confidently.
At this point, a hint of pride flickered in Kailin's eyes.
To transform a dilapidated city-state into a Level 1 City-State in just a month was something no one in the entire Grotto-Heaven could achieve.
Her decision to follow Chen Yu had indeed been a wise one.
"Too slow."
Unexpectedly, Chen Yu shook his head after hearing this.
"Ah, Camp Leader, this is still slow?" Kailin was so astonished her mouth was nearly agape. "The daily population growth rate of our city-state is incomparable to even Level 1 towns, rivaling that of a Level 2 city."
"We don't have that much time."
Chen Yu narrowed his eyes and shook his head, his gaze profound.
"Here's what we'll do: raise the city's wages to triple. If people are willing to stay in our city-state, they can enjoy a 30% discount on housing purchases and a one-year tax exemption."
*Gulp.*
Upon hearing this, Kailin's eyes were filled with shock.
Triple wages, a year of tax exemption?
"Camp Leader, triple wages are one thing, but with tax exemption, our city-state will have no tax revenue, and our finances will be in deficit," Kailin reminded him earnestly.
"Isn't it already in deficit?"
Chen Yu let out a laugh.
His city-state was still in the early stages of construction, with ongoing construction everywhere. There wasn't even a single officially operational shop yet.
The construction of the city-state relied entirely on his continuous injection of funds.
Deficit?
His city-state had never been profitable.
"It's just a little tax revenue, nothing major," Chen Yu murmured. "What I need now is to quickly get the city-state to the population scale of a Level 1 City-State, so I can proceed with my next plan."
"Understood."
Kailin pressed her lips together, then hesitantly murmured.
"Camp Leader, we're out of money."
"Out of money again?" Chen Yu raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Didn't I just give you two million gold coins a few days ago? Gone in just a few days?"
"We've been procuring heavily during this period."
"Mmm~"
Chen Yu nodded slightly.
This was also his order, to have the city-state dispatch procurement teams to acquire resources aggressively from the explored city-states, without any specific targets.
Anything that could be bought, he wanted it!
In this short span of a week, he didn't know how many city-states' supplies he had emptied, all stored in the demon bracelet Barbara had given him earlier.
There was no other way.
The city-state was newly constructed, and all sorts of resources were scarce. Furthermore, Chen Yu wanted to get the city-state on track in the shortest possible time. His city-state had to possess the resources circulating in other city-states, even if he had to acquire them at a high price. Only by making the city-state appear prosperous could he attract other merchant caravans or families to open branches here.
Otherwise, a city-state that couldn't attract investment, no matter how many citizens it had, would be useless.
"How much money do we have in the bank now?"
"Less than thirty thousand."
"Hoo..."
Chen Yu couldn't help but look up and let out a deep sigh.
Money flowed like water.
He had expected city-state construction to be expensive, but he hadn't anticipated it to be this much. His savings had been completely drained by this city-state.
"Here."
With a lift of his wrist, two chests of gold coins appeared before Kailin.
"These two chests of gold coins are about 500,000. Take them and continue using them. Don't worry about the money; continue with the previous procurement plan."
"Yes!"
Watching Kailin leave, a weary Chen Yu sat down on a rattan chair in the camp, rubbing his temples with his right hand.
Troubled!
He never thought he would have a day where he worried about money.
"Why hasn't Jiang Yaqing contacted me yet?" Chen Yu licked his lips and sent a voice invitation, but it wasn't answered.
The equipment needed to be sold as soon as possible.
Many of the resources he had collected during this period had been crafted into equipment. Now, his demon bracelet stored countless sets.
If he didn't sell these resources quickly, his cash flow would be cut off.
"What are you worrying about now?" Barbara, wearing a floral dress and sporting devil horns, walked over with a smile, casually picking up a glass of juice from the table and taking a sip.
"Are Black Bean and the others awake yet?"
Chen Yu, leaning back in the rattan chair, raised his eyebrows. Barbara shrugged.
By her estimation, Black Bean and the others had been summoned for seven days, but there were still no signs of them waking up. If it weren't for Barbara and Sona saying their condition was good, Chen Yu would have truly feared they had met with an accident.
"Sona is watching them, so don't worry."
Barbara, sipping her juice, raised her eyebrows and stretched lazily.
"What did Kailin say to you this time to make you so worried?"
"Money, the city-state is out of money," Chen Yu sighed, his brows furrowed. "Millions of gold coins were spent in less than a week. I'm regretting it now. What good things could I have done with those millions instead of building a city-state?"
"This is nothing yet."
Barbara pouted. "For my Demon King City, each of the sixteen cities used over a billion gold coins. You're already struggling with just a few million?"
"Then... do you still have money?"
Chen Yu's eyes suddenly widened, full of anticipation.
"Didn't I give you all my money?" Barbara spread her hands. "I only had a little over a million gold coins left, and I gave it all to you without holding back."
"Trash, tsk~"
Chen Yu sneered, but Barbara suddenly changed her tune.
"It's just that I have a few treasuries, and there's still a lot of money and resources there. They are rare and precious resources, you know. No one knows the location of the treasuries except me."
As she finished speaking, Barbara smiled and stared at Chen Yu.
"Who did you just call trash?"