...…

Ribbit wanted to add something more, but Shin already felt that his head was getting dizzy as he kept hearing the expenses that the former have spent. And when he couldn't take it anymore, he waved his right hand at the latter and signaling for the town's manager the stop, as he had already taken enough damage (heard enough of it); he needed some time to recover from the 'damage' that he received.

And when he finally recovered from the shocked, Shin braced himself for what he was about to hear before asking Ribbit once again. "Don't list them out one by one anymore. What I wanted to hear was the total expenses that you have spent for the development of the Town."

Ribbit tried to say something but he only managed to open and close it with no words came out. It was because he starting to feel that the temperature inside the mayor's office starting to plummet with a great margin.

'If I answered wrongly, I will severely get punished for sure,' is what entered Ribbit's head at this point of time. His back was already drenched with sweat when he swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he braced himself at telling Shin the total expenses. "We spent a total of 20,430,000 gold coins for the development of everything, Town Mayor."

Cough! Cough!

Shin suddenly choked with some air as he heard the total price. And before everything suddenly turn south, Ribbit immediately added with a single breath. "But we already recovered most of those expenses due that the continues flow of players that are coming in and out on our town. We also collected the fees from the inns, restaurants and the blacksmith shops these past few days. And all in all, we have collected a total of 52,467,791 gold coins."

Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!

This time Shin coughed even more violently when he heard that amount of gold coins. At first he doubted his ears and carefully once again. "Huh? Come again?"

When Ribbit saw that Shin's mood suddenly turned for the good side, he immediately strikes while the iron is hot. "We have collected a total of 52,467,791 gold coins, Town Mayor. What's more, we are still waiting for the next batch of fees that are about to be collected. And we also have some funds that are yet to be collected from Sir Felix. Most of our funds are from the dungeon collection fees that he had collected."

'I have that kind of money now!? And now that I think about it, I almost forgot about that money printing machine.' Thought Shin to himself before asking with expectant look under his mask. "H-How much funds do we have on the dungeon entry collection?"

"Most of our expenses that we spent on the Town's development came from there, but we still currently have a total of 25,284,762 gold coins worth of funds," said Ribbit confidently while also having a feeling of relief deep inside. 'I just I've dodged the bullet, right?'

'I have so much gold coins…!? I'm rich! I'm rich now! Hahaha… I'm free! I'm a free man now! Hahaha….' Shin almost got a heart-attack the moment he heard the amount of gold coins that he currently have. Given all of that, he could now pay his debt from his Big Sis and freed himself from being a 'slave'.

And while thinking about a lot of things here and there, a sudden idea suddenly entered Shin's head. He immediately raised his head and asked Ribbit. "What are the requirements to advance our Town into an Advance Town?"

Ribbit was taken aback at Shin's sudden question before thinking for a moment after recovering himself. And after some thinking, he asked Shin about it before giving his reply. "Are you planning to upgrade the town directly to Advance Rank now, Town's Mayor?"

Shin knitted his brows after hearing that. Then he asked with a confused tone. "Yeah, why? Is it not possible? Given our current funds, I guess that was enough to promote the Town, am I right?"

Ribbit nodded his head and answered. "To tell you the truth, Town Mayor, me already met all of the requirements to promote our Town to Advance Rank long ago. We could even promote the town now if you wanted to, Town Mayor."

"How much will be the expenses that we needed to spend to do that?" asked Shin as he suddenly felt that needed to plan things out.

"Hmm… Including the all of the materials that we lacked and the manpower that we needed, then we needed to spend a total of 25,000,000 gold coins. And if we consider that size of the Town and the maximum population that it is going to have, we will be needing to hire more security personnel; so that will cost us an additional 7,000,000 gold coins. Give that, we will also need to equip those additional guards with decent weapons and equipments; we can't let then roam around the Town with ragged cloths after all. At the same time, we also need to hire more blacksmiths to forge those equipments; as well as the materials that they are will be needing for those equipments. And that will be a total of another 13,000,000 gold coins."

"Hmm… What else? Ah! We also needed to pay for 2,000,000 gold coins for the renewal of our land deed. On the other hand, our buildings are more than enough for that city. We only need to upgrade the major establishments such as the Teleportation Hall, Mayor's Residence, Tax Collector Building, and Currency Exchange Building, so we need a total of 5,000,000 gold coins on that."

"Oh! We also need to pay the Adventurer Guild a total of 5,000,000 gold coins for them to properly garrison on our town. That way, the security of our town will rise for another level; what's more, they can also send some experts to our town in case of emergency, like if a monster horde is going to attack our town."

After that long list of expenses, Ribbit finalized the tally and tell Shin the total cost of the upgrade of the Town. "All in all, we are going to spend a total of 57,000,000 gold coins."

Shin felt that his heart was being stabbed once again; every time Ribbit mentioned a cost of a certain expenses. And when heard the final tally, he felt that his poor heart was exploded by being pound by a huge hammer.

'It is fine, Shin. It is just for the investment. You just need to think about the profit that you will gain from it once the Town was fully promoted. What' more, there are still a little over 20,000,000 gold coins that will be left that I can use.' Shin tried to calm himself down while also comforting himself at the same time.

Then he braced himself and about to say that he was willing to upgrade the Town right now. But before he managed to open his mouth and said the thing that he wanted to say, Ribbit immediately beaten him on it. "But, I will not suggest to upgrade our town into an Advance rank for the time being."

Shin only managed to open his mouth this point as the words were suddenly stuck at his throat; almost chocking him. And after a brief moment of recovering, he opened his mouth once again and asked Ribbit about his thoughts. "Why did you say so? Isn't upgrading the Town in to Advance Rank will give us more profit? What's more, there are a lot of play-…. Adventurers flocking towards our town. So upgrading it now is way better than to let it stay on its current rank. That way, we can also occupy more adventurers here; we can also attract more of them at the same time."

"I see, so Town Mayor is also fond of hitting multiple birds with one stone," said by Ribbit as he nodded his head at what Shin had said. But he immediately added after that. "But I will still not suggest to promote the Town for the time being."

Shin tilted his head to the right while knitting his brows as he tried to think of a reason why Ribbit wanted to postpone the promotion of the Town. 'Now that I think about it, this guy said that he is a merchant before working under me, right? Oh! Right! This guy's Intelligence and Wisdom stat are also quite high. And base on the way how he acts, his AI should also be pretty much higher than the other NPCs, right?'

Now that Shin recovered himself and calmed his emotions from the excitement that he felt earlier, he could now see some reasons for this Town's Manager of his. And after some thought, he decided to hear Ribbit out. "Alright, let us hear it out. Tell me your reasons."

'Good grip!' Ribbit release a sigh of relief inside after seeing that his Town Mayor have finally calmed down. Then he started to reason out his side. "Promoting the Town directly to advance rank will really fish out a really good profit for us, especially with the current situation. But… That is only for the short time. How should I put it? It is like just a temporary pleasure."

"This place is indeed perfect for the current major populace(Current average Level of the players; which is around Level 70-90) of the adventurers because of the environment of our city. What's more, the places that you adventurers called 'maps', in our area are perfect for them. And there is also the fallen Seventh Outpost not far from here; that place is quite famous for the majority of the players to hunt some beast, gather some materials and rare weapons."

"But once the major populace of the players improved, this place is going to set aside by them while looking for another place to settle in. What's more, the Holy City is not far from here; and that city is going to get promoted into a Capital City sooner or later. Given that, we are just going to lose to the Holy City when that time comes. So promoting this City is just going to be a waste of time, resources and money."

Shin's eyebrows were suddenly locked into a frown after hearing that. "Are you telling me to give up on this place, and look for another place that I can invest with?"

Ribbit gently nodded his head and said. "You are half right about that, Town Mayor. Yes I'm telling you to stop investing on this Town but that was for the time being, since this place is already more than enough to occupy the current major populace; we don't have to invest more on this place since we already know that 'this place' is going to get thrown behind."

Shin was still slight confused. Even if he was able to get the point of Ribbit's words, he still didn't know where this discussion was going. Well, this was understandable since he was still new to the gaming world as he was still not aware of some specifics according to these kinds of things.

Ribbit, on the other hand, ignored Shin's confusion as his 'merchant insights' were starting to kick in. "Now this is my main point, Town Mayor. The Guild Leader of the Hand of Midas Guild is our business partner right?"

Shin raised one of his brows and said. "Yes, but that was only for profit shares. They can only get some income from our town as they supply us with sufficient resources and manpower; as for the extras of those two, of course, we are going to pay them for that. But the Town is still under my control as I can do whatever I want on it. She can only affect my decision regarding the garrisoning rights of some Adventurer Team, Guilds and other Organizations."

"Well, I don't have a plan of inviting any of them for the time being after all. The reputation of the Hand of Midas Guild is more than enough for us to ward off the other powers from eyeing us, much less attacking this town. I only accept the Assassin Union on here since I feel that they are going to become useful for us in the near future. What's more, I can also use their intelligence network for some things."

Ribbit nodded his head after hearing all of that. Then he suddenly said after a brief moment of silence. "Then what do you think of fully partnering up with the Guild Leader of the Hand of Midas Trading Firm?"

Shin suddenly felt an intense chill on his spine after hearing that, especially when started imagine making a deal with Shiella once again. 'D*mn! I don't want to make a deal with Big Sis yet. I felt like she is already suspicious of me. What's more, I also need to make some troublesome plans to make sure that I will have the upper hand in this deal.'

Then he heard Ribbit talking at him once again together with his merchant look. "You don't have to decide about it now, Town Mayor. How about hearing me first before making your decision?"

And this time, when Shin couldn't help but see Shiella's silhouette coincides with Ribbit's figure as he take a look at the latter. Then he unconsciously nodded his head and started listening at the Town's Manager.

...