After the bandit incident ended, night had fallen, and the issue of the guild’s development was brought to the table. As the saying goes, we must keep up with the times—our guild also needs to grow and expand. There’s strength in numbers, and today’s battle made that clear: the main reason those bandits were so rampant was because they had so many people. Our guild is still quite streamlined; right now, everyone is about the same, so we haven’t shown any real advantage. In the future, it will definitely be the case that those with more people will rule the world. Of course, we need to have certain standards when recruiting—one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel.

The first goal is to develop our economy. Without money, we can’t take a single step. Even a hero can be stumped by a lack of a single coin—this isn’t unusual in the online world. Currently, the businesses open to players are taverns, blacksmith shops, appraisal centers, and pharmacies. Of these, the tavern suits us best, since it’s Little Henry’s dream. Plus, his chef skill is already at level 10, so he can design his own dishes. This guy probably loves gold coins so much that he moved the system to let him learn financial management, so he can bargain with NPCs when doing business. All we need to do is hire a few more chefs and some waiters. Opening a hotel requires a 1,000 gold coin processing fee,

land costs 10,000, and hiring an architect for construction will cost about 5,000, so the first investment totals 16,000 gold coins.

Right now, the guild treasury only has 5,000 gold coins. I was worried, but in the end, Mood solved the problem. They invested 20,000 gold coins as a contribution to the guild. Wow, they’re really rich, but I still have to thank them. Of course, the debt must be repaid.

The recruitment activities were handled by Grace and her group, The Two Sams went to be bodyguards, Little Henry took care of the paperwork, and I was told not to go because of my poor image. Sigh, at least Darling understood and stayed with me in the guild. Soon, everyone was busy and disappeared, leaving the big hall empty except for me, Darling, and Little Grace. From the time we met until now, this was probably the first time we’d been alone together in such peace and quiet.

“Darling, what should we do? Want to go level up?”

“I don’t want to. It’s rare to get a chance to rest,” she said, then threw herself into my arms to sleep. She really is like a little lazy cat.

Looking at her rosy, smiling face, I picked her up and carried her back to the bedroom.

Darling’s room was decorated as cutely as she was. Looking at the adorable Darling in my arms, I couldn’t help but give her a kiss and put her on the bed. Just as I was about to leave, Little Grace suddenly grabbed me.

“Big brother, sleep with me! I don’t feel comfortable sleeping alone.” She usually rests with Grace. I silently chanted to myself not to be tempted, though honestly, I was starving for affection—after all, I’ve been a virgin for twenty years.

In the end, I mustered supreme willpower and walked out the door, but this ambiguous relationship had already been planted.

A beautiful new day. Today our tavern opened for business, named “Number One Tower Under Heaven.” It sounds a bit arrogant, but Little Henry said it’s both pressure and motivation. He’s not going to level up much anymore, focusing instead on running the tavern and managing the guild’s finances. Of course, everyone fully supports his decision. This time, we hired a total of 10 senior chefs, 50 regular employees, and 4 NPC security guards. Our scale is now the largest in Yanhuang City, though we’re still far from our goal.

On the first day of opening, of course, we all had to be there. Everything was half price today, and with 7 people from the beauty ranking list showing up, they attracted a huge crowd of their fans to come spend money. The scene was lively and a complete success, though there was some chaos. Fortunately, the security was good—those fans were just too crazy.

We’d lost a few days of leveling, so we had to hurry. Now we train in groups; with higher levels, too many people actually slows things down. The three of us naturally stayed together as one group, the The Lauren Family sisters were another group, The Two Sams and some new members formed a group, and Little Henry stayed to look after the shop.

It had been a long time since I’d visited the Deer God, so I decided to go check it out and kill some bandits along the way. Last time left me really frustrated, so now it was time to settle the score. Besides, I feel like reputation must have more uses than just what we’ve seen so far. We arrived at the foot of Rocky Hill, where a Rocky Fortress had already been built. From time to time, we saw little minions patrolling the mountain. The three of us fought our way through, leaving chaos in our wake. The stronger leaders didn’t show up—probably off having a feast—so we made it through easily and even earned a few reputation points.

The Green Wilds Forest was still as beautiful as ever: green mountains, clear waters, full of vitality. Ever since the bandits of Rocky Hill started protecting the area, it’s become much quieter. The price of pet eggs has also gone up, especially for high-level ones, which are in short supply. We leveled up in the second-tier magical beast area, where the monsters are all between level 40 and 60. With Darling protected by her invisibility ring, we didn’t have to worry about her.

Her bow’s attack power is pretty high now, and she’s almost level 40 herself. Darling’s bunny pet has also leveled up, now possessing healing and detection skills. It’s a defensive pet, which suits Darling perfectly. Grace’s Red Cloud is now level 15, with a lot more feathers, which faintly glow with firelight. It’s gained the Hellfire skill and can absorb fire magic attacks, while low-level water magic is ineffective against it.