Chapter 152: Compensation

Ye Laoshi's face was slightly flushed; he rarely lied, and it was only in the game that he didn't feel any particularly obvious sense of guilt.

Of course, it wouldn't matter even if Luolita hadn't been rescued; she would be able to reappear in Tana City in a few days anyway.

It was just not easy to explain to Evans.

"That's good, now that the Wealth Church has stepped in, we don't need to be too nervous," one teacher said, as if relieved. "Fortunately, she didn't have any proof on her identifying her as a Wisdom Believer; it's best if the Wealth Church can claim her."

"Of course, it's also possible because she herself isn't an Awakened." Several teachers breathed a sigh of relief; the affairs of the Wealth Church were no secret in the eyes of these clever people, though for the general public, the world of the Awakened was still a bit too distant.

It seemed these teachers were very likely Awakened; Ye Laoshi still wore a worried look on his face. "We are indeed all ordinary people, but what does 'Awakened' mean?"

"You've seen it too, so I won't hide it from you. Although most people in the Royal Capital don't know much about these people, for the believers of Wisdom, they all have some understanding of awakening." Mazhan gave Ye Laoshi a comforting look. "Those people from the Sun God Cult are Awakened; they possess the power of Purification, which is why that Mutated Octopus would avoid them. It's just that they don't have a good method to capture this octopus; I have to say, they are truly too stupid."

"If it were the believers of Wisdom, we wouldn't do such reckless things. We would prepare a plan in advance and have basic psychological preparation for what might happen," Griffin said with some pride. "We would produce at least three capture schemes, each minimizing harm to civilians, and we would prepare at least two or more Magical Items to resist attacks from mutated creatures. After all, we don't know what level the appearing mutated creature will be."

"Level? Are there divisions?" Ye Laoshi asked curiously.

In reality, he was indeed curious; in this game, there were no levels among monsters, and the game didn't display them at all.

"Of course there are; even among the Awakened, there are different levels," Griffin said with a smile. "Although I haven't awakened, I know that early-stage Awakened generally have three levels, and they need enough time to digest the Magic Potion."

"Digest the Magic Potion?" Ye Laoshi found the key point once again. "I thought that as long as you drank the Magic Potion, you would directly advance and become an Awakened."

"You actually think awakening is a form of advancement? That's not bad, actually," Griffin continued. "Take the people from the Wealth Church as an example; if they are Awakened, they often possess sufficiently strong Qi Luck in the early stages. This kind of thing is hard to describe, but in short, it allows them to get rich to a certain extent, or to win at something. However, it often requires a long time to accumulate before it can take effect again; this is the digestion of Qi Luck. Furthermore, during the subsequent digestion, they might also learn methods like Turn Stone into Gold. Of course, the gold produced often reverts to ordinary items; it's just a matter of time, but as long as one can achieve Turn Stone into Gold, they are already a genius who has digested more than half. As for full digestion, one can begin to progress to the next stage."

"There is a next stage?" Ye Laoshi said with some surprise; he had thought this game didn't have paths like advancement.

After all, there weren't even many Awakened among the players right now.

Griffin looked around and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Of course, this is my speculation; I have no say in the later stages. After all, I only know that after complete digestion, the church will provide other Magic Potions; I don't know the specifics."

As long as one is not a true Awakened, or has not digested more than half of the Magic Potion after awakening, there is no way to know the information about the later stages.

The churches did not deliberately hide things regarding awakening; most churches even used awakening as a benefit to get more people to work for them.

But they mostly did not mention things after awakening.

The Wisdom Church had very strict requirements for awakening; even if you were already a professor, you might not necessarily be able to reach the step of awakening.

Because the knowledge you gain after awakening might overturn your cognition.

As for other churches, the Wealth Church was even stingier. Don't look at how many people believe in wealth—almost everyone has admitted to believing in wealth to some degree—but within the Gold Tie, the number of Awakened was not very high.

Like Feng's own team, there were fewer than ten true Awakened, yet he had to manage the entire Tana City.

Now that the team had been handed over to Sarana, the number of Awakened would be even fewer, because they had already lost the actual management rights of Tana City, and many matters needed to be handed over to other churches, so there was even less need for a large number of Awakened.

It was already considered very lucky that players had so many Awakened now; of course, the overall number was still not enough, and compared to ordinary people, there was no difference.

Ye Laoshi secretly noted these down and then said, "Since I know she has been claimed by the Wealth Church, I can rest easy. At least Luolita won't be interrogated at the Police Station."

"That's hard to say; I suggest you care more about her," one teacher said, also relieved. "By the way, if you are still interested in those cultural relics, you can come to find us at any time; just write our address here for the letters."

"Thank you very much." Ye Laoshi politely took off his hat and bowed. "Thank you so much for today; I am truly sorry for making you worry along with me. If it is convenient, may I treat you to a meal?"

"No need to rush; you are truly a gentle gentleman. Go see her first; I think you can go visit her now," Mazhan nodded, approving of Ye Laoshi. "I think she must really need you right now."

It seemed he had been misunderstood, Ye Laoshi nodded helplessly. Forget it, he would be returning to Tana City soon anyway, so there was no need to explain.

At this moment, Luolita was not as anxious as Mazhan thought; on the contrary, she was somewhat excited.

Because she had already obtained the newspaper with her own photo printed on it.

This game was truly made well, or rather, she had really wronged the GM. These NPCs evolved quite well; she had truly misjudged the person.

That photo was taken quite well; because she was still wearing a gown, even though she had a relatively thick cashmere coat over it, her dashing posture still left an indelible impression on people.

Coupled with the flowery language written in the newspaper, Luolita felt as if she had truly become a celebrity.

Although she was still a nobody in real life, in the game, she had at least become popular among the NPCs.

Quite a few reporters had already expressed their desire to interview her, the police were overwhelmed, and even the Chief, Kraut, came to the reception room in person, hoping Luolita could appease those police officers.

"Just tell them we didn't lock you up; I hope you can understand," Kraut said with some guilt. "Please rest assured, we have already applied for compensation, but it might differ somewhat from what you need; after all, the police system doesn't have that much money."

"Oh? Then what is your idea?" Feng also knew he couldn't go too far. Since the other party had already set the stage for negotiation, he could wait until the negotiation was finished before leaving.

"It's like this, we still have a plot of land in the eastern suburbs," Kraut said tactfully. "Although there are no buildings on it, nor has a Nongzhuang or hunting ground been built, it can be transferred to Miss Luolita. This plot of land is not small, I think..."

"Then I understand, but this land cannot make up for such a large economic gap. I remember this land is originally located on the mudflats near the port; warehouses cannot be built on it, nor can Grain be planted. Because it is remote, it wouldn't be cost-effective to open a shop, and if one were to build a manor, one wouldn't be able to enjoy any beautiful scenery." Feng shook his head. "If it's this plot of land, in the Wealth Church's estimation, it's probably not even worth 500 Xide."

"But that is 500 Xide after all. As for other compensation, I believe the Sun God Cult should provide it; after all, they also occupied a large part of the interests."

Feng nodded; he knew that pressuring the Police Station too tightly wasn't a good thing. The biggest problem lay with the Sun God Cult. As for Luolita, she was originally from Tana City and had no house or land in the Royal Capital; if she could obtain the benefits of such a plot of land, he believed those Xiahui People would make reasonable use of it.

"I also know your difficulties, but until now, the Sun God Cult hasn't had anyone appear to explain all of this." Feng still wore an expression of dissatisfaction, but the problems were all dumped onto the Sun God Cult.

"We are already looking for them; they should be on their way," Kraut said awkwardly. "Besides, none of us want things to become this deadlocked."

He hadn't known Feng's background before; he only knew that Feng was assigned to this thankless job because he had done something wrong.

Every time, the police would blame the Wealth Church for poor management, then have this unlucky guy Feng explain the problems, and finally sign some very useless documents.

After all, the Wealth Church had no way to manage those believers.

So Feng's position in the Royal Capital could be said to be a very awkward one; if it weren't for doing something wrong, it would be very difficult to become an Awakened administrator in the Royal Capital.

This position, if placed in those inconspicuous small cities, for example, Tana City, might not even exist at all!

It's just that what he didn't expect was that this unlucky guy was exactly in this position because of the Sun God Cult, which had split the diocese of Tana City and even lost actual control, which was why he was in this position.

Now it was fine; the Sun God Cult had been caught in a handle by him in the Royal Capital, and it would be impossible not to extort them properly.

Soon, people from the Sun God Cult finally walked into the Police Station from the side door. The one who came to talk this time was not Bishop Andre David; after all, this matter was not yet at a level where he needed to talk. The young man who came over had a look of arrogance on his face, and as soon as he entered the door, he said, "Is this the lady who assisted in capturing the Mutated Octopus today?"

"Yes, it is her; her name is..." Kraut wanted to introduce her to ease the atmosphere.

But it was clear that this negotiator did not intend to ease the atmosphere.

The other party directly took out a bag of gold coins and placed it on the table. "Here is 1000 Xide. I hope this matter ends here. We will remember the kindness of the Wealth Church, but this is not the time for you to use your skills. We still need to hurry to treat those wounded, so we won't keep you company."

Saying this, he didn't even look at Feng and walked straight out of the reception room.

This made everyone feel that their jaws had dropped.

"I now know why, in legends, the Sun God offended the Beauty God." With this kind of emotional intelligence, it would be impossible not to offend someone. If the people inside the Sun God Cult were all like this, Luolita felt it was only natural for this church to become a church of singles.

Even Feng hadn't expected this situation; he had already prepared to use his negotiation skills.

I didn't expect things to end just like this.

"I don't think I'll be saying anything good about the Sun God Cult; I can only say that we received the compensation we were owed," Feng said directly, though whether that person from the Sun God Cult heard him, no one knew.

……

Holding the gold coins and the land deeds, Luolita finally appeared before the public before dinner.

The reporters in front swarmed over, countless camera flashes flickering; everyone wanted to know the legendary experience of this young girl.

Why she was someone recognized by the Wealth Church.

Whether she was an Awakened.

What she came to the Royal Capital from Tana City for...

Everyone wished they could get the first-hand information directly.

"Sorry, please ask your questions one by one. We will answer at most ten questions; after all, we have just been through a fright." Feng could be considered experienced with this sort of thing, and it wasn't his first time facing the press, but Tana City only had one newspaper, while here in the Royal Capital, the newspaper offices were as numerous as the hairs on an ox.

"May I ask how you became a member of the Wealth Church?" a Reporter asked, seizing the lead.

"It is like this: in Tana City, I once assisted Feng in dealing with evil witches. They once created a horrific tragedy in Tana City, and the process was too ghastly to look at. As an ordinary person living in Tana City, I felt we had to do something, so I found Mr. Feng Brown of the Gold Tie, who was in Tana City at the time. I am grateful for his recognition; otherwise, I would not have been able to become an ordinary person who opposes anomalies once again today." Although she did not speak very fluently, Luolita had tried her best to perfect the answer she and Feng Brown had agreed upon.

This answer seemed to shift all the questions onto Feng.

But it also solved the reporters' main question: why she became a member of the Wealth Church.

"Then, are you an Awakened?" another Reporter asked next.

His words drew eye-rolls from quite a few reporters, because in the previous question, Luolita had already made it very clear that she was just an ordinary person.

(End of this chapter)