Stellar Train: I Open a Small Shop on the Train-Chapter 158

Barbara immediately remembered that she indeed did not have a bank account.

"Thank you, Miss Topaz, and I really appreciate you personally bringing this to me."

Topaz shook her head.

"No problem. I just happened to have never been to Mondstadt before, so I came to take a look."

Hearing this, Barbara invited her.

"Then, let me show you around Mondstadt? I'll treat you to Sweet Madame Chicken, a specialty dish here."

Topaz smiled.

"No need, I have a meeting soon. I'll head back first. Maybe next time."

Barbara felt a little disappointed.

"Alright then, next time. When you have free time, I'll take you around Mondstadt."

Topa smiled and nodded, then left the church while Barbara watched her go.

Barbara picked up the bank card in her hand and looked it over, then linked it to her chat app.

Seeing the balance of 5 billion credits, she didn't know how to spend it.

So much money—how should she spend it? Buy some pretty clothes? But that wouldn't cost much.

After thinking for a moment, Barbara decided to donate the money to her sister so she could use it to build up Mondstadt.

If this had been before she knew that Venti was the Anemo Archon,

Barbara definitely would have without hesitation used the 5 billion credits to promote Barbatos's miracles or build statues of the Wind God for people to worship.

But now... I'm just glad I still believe in you.

Barbara walked to Jean's office door and knocked.

"Sis, are you in there?"

After a moment, Jean's voice came from inside.

"Come in, Barbara."

Barbara entered Jean's office and looked at the mountain of paperwork on Jean's desk.

"Sis, are you working overtime today?"

Jean shook her head.

"No, most of these are files to be handled tomorrow.

Don't forget, we agreed to go eat together tonight.

Wait a bit; I'll finish this document and then come with you."

Barbara walked over and handed Jean the bank card Topaz had given her.

"Sis, these are the credit points Barbara earned from singing, just delivered by Miss Topaz.

I don't need this money, so you can use it to build up Mondstadt."

Jean smiled warmly at Barbara and returned the card to her.

"Barbara, this is your own money; keep it and use it slowly. I'll figure out the funds for Mondstadt's construction."

Barbara pouted.

"No, you take it. I don't want it anyway. Hmph~"

Barbara placed the bank card in Jean's hand and then went to sit on the nearby sofa, acting stubborn about not wanting the 5 billion credit points.

Jean sighed and smiled helplessly, having no choice but to accept the money for Mondstadt's construction.

Honestly, Jean was also worried about the new Mondstadt's development.

First, the efficiency of local workers was well known.

Second, the materials issue.

Jean had heard from Venti that Fontaine was already building a new city and envied how they had the funds to buy advanced equipment and materials.

Now, with this 5 billion credits, the immediate problem was solved.

Jean quickly finished the paperwork, and the two sisters left the Knights of Favonius headquarters.

They exchanged glances, Barbara smiled and linked arms with Jean, and the two sisters walked toward the Hunter's Restaurant.

In Sumeru city,

The Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and Nahida were making preparations.

Upon learning that Fontaine had started city construction, the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and Nahida decided to speed things up and send the first batch of personnel ahead.

The first group mostly consisted of craftsmen and a few scholars.

Nahida was in charge of leading the team.

For the new Sumeru city plan, the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and Nahida decided to keep Sumeru's unique features and planned to ask Calestia to transplant the Tree of Life to the new Sumeru territory,

to create a forest by the Tree of Life.

The Greater Lord Rukkhadevata looked down at the first group of immigrants, many of whom had desert features.

He said,

"Citizens, you will be the advance team to open our future home.

Remember, safety first, understood?"

The crowd below responded together,

"Yes! Safety first!"

The Greater Lord Rukkhadevata looked at Calestia playing games on her phone beside her.

"Lady Calestia, please lend us a hand."

Calestia licked her lips.

"Wait until I finish this round, just a few minutes."

The Greater Lord Rukkhadevata broke out in a cold sweat, feeling speechless.

This woman literally plays games everywhere—on the computer at the internet café, on his phone outside, and with a controller at Ye Yun's store.

A few minutes later, Calestia happily turned off her phone.

"All done, let's go. I'll help you move this tree."

Calestia reached out, and the space containing the Tree of Life shrank quickly into a small cube floating into her hand.

Then Calestia stepped through a teleportation portal.

Nahida ordered the first immigrants to follow after seeing this.

The Greater Lord Rukkhadevata crouched and tidied Nahida's clothes.

"Nahida, be careful."

Nahida smiled.

"Okay~"

Nahida entered the portal.

Calestia arrived at Ye Yun's shop, opened a teleportation portal, and guided the Sumeru people to enter.

"Don't look around, hurry this way. Go through this door, then organize your group and wait for Nahida's orders."

Soon, the first batch of 5,000 immigrants all went through Calestia's portal to the new Sumeru territory.

The new Sumeru is located in the south of the continent, with lush vegetation and a hot climate.

Calestia and Nahida arrived at their chosen city-building site and dropped the Tree of Life onto the ground.

As soon as the Tree of Life touched the ground, its roots grew rapidly and anchored deep into the earth.

The new Sumeru city is located in a valley where three rivers meet, surrounded by mountains and forests, home to many Sumeru-specific creatures brought by Nahida beforehand,

such as Dodos and Shroomboar.

Standing beneath the Tree of Life, Nahida issued orders to the crowd below.

"Team one, gather clean water resources.

Team two, collect timber.

Team three, hunt for food.

Team four, handle construction.

Team five, manage security, organize patrol groups in shifts to ensure the camp's safety.

Everyone understand?"

The crowd shouted in unison,

"Understood!"

Nahida was very pleased.

"Then, let's go! For Sumeru! Let's go!"

The first group consisted of 5,000 people, 1,000 per team.

Sumeru has over 600,000 people in total; the more immigrants come, the faster they can catch up with Fontaine's progress.

Fontaine went through a great war, and only tens of thousands remain nationwide.

***

Time passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, six days had already gone by, and there was only one day left before the train group headed to the next stop, Amphoreus.

During these six days,

Stelle's Weibo account actually received advertisements—three ads earned her 1 billion credit points. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

Furina and Barbara were also called over by Topaz to release their second song.

Both songs were produced at great expense by Topaz, with quality comparable to Furina's previous hit, Light Ripples.

This new release, however, didn't bring Furina and Barbara a large new fanbase like the first one did.

Furina's fan count had now reached 1.9 billion; just from the earnings of the songs, she had made over 100 billion credit points.

Barbara's popularity wasn't quite as high—her fans had only just passed 90 million, and she had earned about 15 billion credit points.

All six nations of Teyvat had already begun their city construction projects.

Among them, aside from Fontaine who entered early and had the fastest construction speed, it was Liyue that built the quickest.

Zhongli personally went to Jing Yuan to borrow a batch of advanced city-building equipment.

For materials, with him and Azhdaha around, there was no need to buy anything; they simply fabricated what was needed.

With the super efficiency of Liyue's craftsmen, in just one week, they had built a coastal city in the territory of New Liyue that could accommodate 100,000 residents—New Liyue Harbor.

The architectural style of New Liyue Harbor combined modern and classical elements, similar to the style of the Immortal Vessel.

Fontaine had Furina, the wealthy benefactor, while Liyue had Zhongli, the king of connections—the two nations were head and shoulders above the others in speed.

The second tier was Sumeru and Snezhnaya.

Snezhnaya chose land in the northern region again, where fertile black soil was abundant.

The third tier was Mondstadt, which, with Barbara's assistance, managed to purchase some advanced equipment and materials.

Unexpectedly, Inazuma's speed was the slowest!

Yes! Inazuma was the slowest at building cities, and even now had just laid the foundation.

At that moment, Calestia, who was deeply immersed in gaming, heard the news and dropped her jaw in shock.

She couldn't even focus on her game and rushed over to New Inazuma to question Makoto and Yae Miko.

Makoto could only helplessly accept it.

Inazuma was in a pitiful state!

The total population of the whole country, including the Watatsumi Island side, was only 260,000.

These people had long been starving and were physically weak.

As for research, don't even mention it—if their stomachs weren't full, how many could afford to study?

Inazuma had no money, no people, no equipment, relying purely on manual labor, so of course the efficiency was slow.

After hearing Makoto's explanation, Calestia sighed and personally donated 100,000 star coins to Makoto to buy equipment.

As of today, the equipment was still on the way and would only arrive tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Rimuru's side was also engaged in large-scale construction during this period.

Stelle and the others mostly spent this time in Rimuru's area.

They went to the human city and formed an adventurer team called the "Invincible Beautiful Girl Squad."

Stelle recruited Firefly, March 7th, Ayaka, Hu Tao, Amber, Eula, Xiangling, Furina, and Robin.

All the members were beautiful girls, without a single male.

In the northern area of the Jura Forest,

Stelle, March 7th, Firefly, Hutao, and Jing were cleaning up a battlefield.

They received a mission today:

to eliminate a highly poisonous spider nest that suddenly appeared in the northern Jura Forest.

Upon arrival, the five managed to clear the nest in just five minutes—a task that would have required a full large adventurer team.

At Stelle's feet, the Lightning Wolf was chasing a small spider, occasionally pinning it down with its paw.

At that moment, Liuying came over.

"Stelle, done. After we submit this mission tomorrow, our Invincible Beautiful Girl Squad will be promoted to a C-rank adventurer team!"

Stelle nodded.

"Mm, our goal is to be the strongest adventurer team!

Let's go, it's getting late. Let's submit the mission first, then return early, tomorrow we start a new expedition."

Stelle and the others returned to the city.

Just as they entered the Adventurer's Guild, they saw Ellen, Kido, and Kaval looking troubled.

The Adventurer's Guild was a large tavern, mostly wooden, providing drinks and food for sale, priced slightly cheaper than outside restaurants.

Many adventurers came here when idle to eat.

Ellen, Kido, and Kaval were worried about the next meal.

Ellen had spotted a magic staff and spent all her money to buy it.

Hearing her stomach growl, Ellen deeply understood a saying:

"Impulse is the devil! Splurging feels good for a moment, but starving feels awful."

Stelle saw the three and walked over.

"Yo~ isn't this Ellen? Why the long faces?"

"Oh, it's you, Stelle. You guys have become famous recently—just a few days ago, you advanced from F-rank to D-rank."

Stelle shook her hair and raised her head.

"Of course! I am the invincible Galactic Fire Hero!

By the way, what's wrong with you three? Having trouble?"

Kido gave a bitter laugh and shrugged.

"Miss bought a magic staff; now we don't have money for food."

Ellen heard Kido spill her secret and immediately grabbed Kido's waist and twisted hard.

"Kido!"

Kido grimaced.

"Ouch!!! It hurts, hurts, hurts!"

Stelle heard this and understood, giving a "I get it" look.

"I understand how you feel.

Back then, when I woke up in the Herta Space Station, penniless, I had to starve."

March 7th rolled her eyes at Stelle, folding her arms.

"Hehe, such a 'back then' story—how long ago was that? You just said 'back then' just now."

Stelle smiled sheepishly.

"I'm just trying to set the mood~ don't mind me."

Stelle looked at Ellen.

"Come on, come with us to Rimuru's place later. He's got tons of good food.

Yesterday I saw him buy a whole container of seasonings."

Ellen said,

"Hmm, okay. It's been a few days since I last saw Mr. Rimuru."

Kido also recalled the taste of the grilled meat they had at Rimuru's.

"Ah~ I still remember how delicious that grilled meat was~ very fragrant!"

Kaval nodded in agreement.

After submitting the mission and obtaining the C-rank adventurer badge, Stelle led Ellen, Kid, and Kaval towards Rimuru's camp.

With the Tempest Wolf as their mount, they traveled fast.

In just half an hour, they returned to the former Goblin Camp, now the Monster Federation Republic City.

This city now gathered over 10,000 goblins and many other intelligent monster species.

Stelle, March 7th, Firefly, and Hutao went directly through the portal to end today's adventure and returned to the train.

Ellen, Kido, and Kaval went to find Rimuru.