"Hahaha! You're really straightforward, Old Brother White," Ethan said as he calculated the bill, "Ten two-bedroom apartments with a living room, ten Dragon Coins a day, rented by the year, comes to 36,500 Dragon Coins."
"Four small villas, one hundred Dragon Coins a day, comes to 146,000 Dragon Coins a year."
"One luxury supreme villa, one thousand Dragon Coins a day. Since I'm giving you half price, Old Brother White, that's five hundred Dragon Coins a day, which comes to 182,500 Dragon Coins a year."
"360,500 dragon coins in total.."
"Gasp!"
When Mr. White heard the figure, he couldn't help sucking in a breath.
It was clearly just renting some houses to live in. How had it ended up costing so much money?
"It's… so expensive!", Mr. White said miserably, "Really no more discount?"
"You're my brother, so I'll knock off the odd amount for you," Ethan smiled, "Just give me 360,000 Dragon Coins!"
"But right now I…"
"I know you don't have enough money right now. I understand," Ethan patted Mr. White on the shoulder, "Just pay me after you sell the ice gallbladders! I'm not in a hurry."
"Mm-hmm, that's great."
Mr. White nodded repeatedly, "Since you don't need the dwarves' help here, I'll leave with them tomorrow. I'll go to Border City first and sell the ice gallbladders, then bring some goods back here to sell at the market."
"You still have the remaining two thousand Dragon Coins. Do you need me to buy any goods for you?"
"Yes!"
Ethan smiled and said, "But you don't have to wait until tomorrow. I found a quick way to get to Border City."
"Actually, I went there earlier today and even made a round trip."
"What?", Mr. White stared at him in disbelief, "How is that possible? Border City is at least a three-day journey from here, and that's assuming you're traveling fast. To make a round trip in one day, you'd have to be riding a Wind Dragon."
"I wasn't riding a Wind Dragon. I only rode a Dark Armored Beetle," Ethan smiled and looked toward the Demon Tree, "Have you forgotten about the Demon Tree, Mr. White? You only need to spend ten spirit stones, and you could probably make a round trip today."
"Oh right, how did I forget about the Demon Tree?"
Only then did Mr. White suddenly remember that there was a Demon Tree right behind Ethan's town.
It was probably also because of his preconceived ideas.
At first... he hadn't noticed that Ethan had a Demon Tree here, so he had naturally assumed that the only way to get to Border City was to slowly travel through one teleportation array after another.
Although he later discovered the Demon Tree, that deeply ingrained way of thinking hadn't changed right away.
"Right, given the Merchant Alliance's usual style, you should have a Demon Tree there too, shouldn't you?", Ethan suddenly thought of something and asked, "And Border City has a Demon Tree too. Why don't you just ride a Dark Armored Beetle directly from the Merchant Alliance to Border City instead of taking such a roundabout and troublesome route?"
"Not just anyone can use the Demon Tree," Mr. White smiled helplessly, "Especially merchants like us who specialize in unusual businesses. For example, the sea monsters I transport from the coast, as well as cyclopes. None of these can enter the Demon Tree."
"It's precisely because these living creatures can't use the Demon Tree that merchants like us, who make a living running around and earning hard-earned fees, exist."
"The easy businesses were already taken over by the other big merchants long ago. How would it ever be my turn?"
"But…"
Mr. White changed the subject, "Fortunately, I met you! I guess my luck has finally turned around. Now I finally have a place where I can settle down and do business without worry."
"From now on, I'll be counting on your support, Lord Ethan!"
"Of course! Of course!"
After sending Mr. White to the Demon Tree, Ethan returned to his villa.
After being busy all day, he could finally sit down and catch his breath.
Although building the town didn't require him to do the work himself, calculating whether there were enough materials, then immediately going to the trading markets in the world channel or regional channel to buy whatever materials were lacking, was still quite troublesome.
But fortunately… it was finally more or less finished.
Although the town was only a rough outline right now, doing just one thing a day was already enough. Any more and he couldn't take it.
Ethan still remembered seeing a line on internet before he transmigrated. It said that people nowadays didn't even know where their time went. It seemed like there was only enough time in a day to do one thing.
If you cooked a meal today, you probably wouldn't even have time to go to the supermarket.
If you took care of your child for a day, you probably wouldn't even feel like washing your face.
It seemed... this was what modern life was like.
But in fact, it also proved that people needed to balance work and rest.
Ideally, the only work you had to do each day was collect the rent once, then go home and rest. Do even one more thing, and somehow it already felt exhausting.
[T/N: New fanfic chat—"Genshin Impact: Just Another Guy who Transmigrated". Currently, it has a Powerstones Goal for 5 bonus chapters. It ends on Monday, so rain those Powerstones.]