Tiechui opened her mouth. Indeed, there was no rule stating that a goblin merchant could not serve a witch at the same time.
The trading company's bylaws stated that they "must not harm the company's interests," but acting as an exclusive supplier for a Great Witch who held an ancient heritage was clearly creating immense profit for the company.
Tongque was also thinking rapidly, her mind working a bit faster than her older sister's.
Currently, they were the only channel through which the Topaz Trading Company could contact this witch.
If they became territory residents at the same time, their status within the company would only rise, not fall.
The vice president was a clever person; she would only see this as a massive windfall. With two people from the company bound to this witch, their future cooperation would only become more secure!
“...Is that really alright?” Tongque asked in a low voice, a final trace of uncertainty lingering in her tone.
“Why wouldn't it be?” Wu Yao countered.
“It's not like I'm locking you up in the territory and forbidding you from leaving. You can still run your trade routes and return to the company whenever you need to. It's just that you'll have an additional status as territory residents.”
“What about our trading company badges?” Tiechui asked tentatively.
“Keep wearing them,” Wu Yao said, waving her hand dismissively. “I have no use for them.”
“Then are we territory residents or trading company merchants?” Tongque was still somewhat unsure of the exact boundaries.
Wu Yao thought for a moment before giving what she felt was the most accurate answer: “You'll hold dual roles, understand? Just help me manage the territory's commerce when you're free. The rest of the time, you can do whatever you want.”
Tiechui's expression visibly brightened.
“And...” Wu Yao added the final straw, retrieving two Niveya's Stones from her Inventory and spinning them between her fingertips. “There's a sign-on bonus if you join. What do you think?”
The two goblins stared intently at the two translucent white beads shimmering with a silver glow, both swallowing hard at the same time.
Tiechui looked at Tongque, and Tongque looked back at her. Both saw the exact same answer in each other's eyes.
“I'm willing,” Tiechui said.
“I'm willing too,” Tongque added immediately with a nod.
【Goblin Tiechui and Goblin Tongque have joined the territory.】
【Current Residents: 2/100】
Two new rows of data appeared in the blank list of the Resident Management interface. Their two avatars popped up at the very top, with their race, profession, and Affection levels noted beside them. In addition, stats for loyalty and satisfaction had appeared, along with several tab interfaces below.
Watching the two goblins scramble to hold their newly received sign-on bonuses, Wu Yao couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile.
The remaining three residents were all in Qinghe Town; it wouldn't be too late to recruit them then. For now, she would focus on completing the other conditions first.
The translucent interface expanded before her eyes. Currently, she only had two basic buildings—the cabin and the warehouse—and one production building, which was the Farmland.
The cabin served as the Territory Core and was fixed at the exact center, unable to be moved. The warehouse sat adjacent to the eastern side of the cabin; although its capacity remained unchanged, she could submit materials to upgrade it. The Farmland was arranged in the southeast corner of the territory, with ten plots planted with the seeds she had just sprouted.
Wu Yao clicked open the building categories.
Production Buildings, Basic Buildings, Defensive Buildings, Public Buildings, Magic Buildings, Decorative Buildings, and Special Buildings—seven tabs lined up in a row, each opening into a long list when clicked.
Some building icons in the list were illuminated, while others were grayed out. The grayed-out ones were labeled with "Insufficient Materials" or "Prerequisite Building Not Unlocked."
She was most interested in Magic Buildings, and her finger tapped that tab almost impatiently.
She was greeted by an entire row of dusty, grayed-out icons, each requiring at least one Mana Crystal. She scrolled the list from top to bottom and then back to the top, but not a single one was lit.
Disappointed, she closed the Magic Buildings tab and switched to Production Buildings.
After a brief glance, she saw Orchard, Pasture, Barn, and Fishpond—these were the four production buildings she had selected.
The Topaz Trading Company would bring the materials required for these four. Although she didn't meet the construction requirements yet, she could build them later.
Along with the existing Farmland, this would make exactly five complete production buildings.
Wu Yao tapped the thumbnail map quickly a few times, marking the planned construction locations for the Orchard, Pasture, Barn, and Fishpond.
The Orchard would be toward the south, where it was open and received good sunlight; the Pasture and Barn would be next to each other for easy management; and the Fishpond would be dug in the northeast corner of the territory.
With the production buildings settled, next were the defensive buildings.
The defensive buildings related to magic were also completely grayed out. Names like Elemental Turret and Elemental Sentry Tower made her mouth water just looking at them.
Since she couldn't build any of them anyway, instead of staring at the gray icons and drooling, she might as well build three random ones first to satisfy the main quest's requirement of three defensive buildings.
Wu Yao scrolled down the list and found three buildings at the very bottom for which she had sufficient materials and met the requirements.
Stone Wall, Wooden Wall, and Wooden Sentry Tower—all three were ready to go.
Wu Yao quickly made her decision and casually opened the buildable structures list.
The first one was a Streetlight. She clicked on it to view the details.
【Streetlight】
【Category: Basic Building】
【Effect: Provides illumination at night, lighting up a radius of ? meters】
【Option 1: Iron Ingot ×2, Wood ×5, Glass ×1, Grease ×5】
【Option 2: Iron Ingot ×2, Wood ×5, Mana Crystal ×1】
【Option 3: Iron Ingot ×2, Wood ×5, Lightbulb ×1, Copper Wire ×5, Generator ×1】
【Option 4: ...】
Below that was a line of smaller prompt text.
【Prompt: The system will automatically match the design blueprint based on the submitted materials. Building attributes will vary depending on material quality. Alternatively, you may craft finished lighting fixtures at the Workbench and submit them directly for construction.】
In other words, she could either choose to submit the corresponding materials and let the system build it automatically, or she could craft it herself at the Workbench and directly submit the finished product.
Furthermore, the constructed buildings would have subtle differences depending on the materials submitted.
If she used high-quality materials to craft it, the Streetlight's illumination range might be larger, its durability might be higher, and it might even come with some extra attributes.
But if she merely submitted the basic materials for the system to build it automatically, she would only get the most ordinary Streetlight.
“This design is way too flexible,” Wu Yao couldn't help but mutter.
Among the options for submitting finished products, she even saw the batch of small clay lamps she had bought in Qinghe Town.
The soothing herbal lamp oil inside was also recognized by the system as an extra buff affix.
【Soothing: Provides a trace soothing effect when illuminating, improving sleep quality.】
Just how much effort did the development team put into these kinds of details?
While she complained inwardly about whether the game's completion level was ridiculously high, she happily prepared to exploit the loophole.
Since finished products could be submitted directly, when she went to Qinghe Town to pick people up, she would sweep through the town's blacksmith and carpenter shops and buy everything she could.
Her Inventory had plenty of slots anyway, so she didn't mind the space. If there were ready-made ones in town, she would just buy them and submit them directly, saving herself the trouble of gathering materials piece by piece.
The future was bright!
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