What the heck is "paying rent"?

Lin Li lay on the sofa, saying nothing, just closing her eyes for a short rest.

She actually wanted to ask Elysia some questions, but didn't know how to start, so she decided to let it go.

She knew Elysia must have wanted to ask her some things too, so she would just wait for the other person to speak first.

She had never been the type of person to initiate conversations.

Indeed, seeing the atmosphere turn a bit silent, Elysia picked up the remote and turned on the large LCD television in front of the sofa.

"Does Xiao Li have any favorite TV shows?"

"SpongeBob SquarePants."

"Uh... Okay." Elysia thought to herself, Isn't that a cartoon? I didn't expect Xiao Li to like this kind of thing.

After searching for a while on the TV, she found SpongeBob SquarePants, picked an episode at random, and started playing it.

Seeing this, Lin Li opened her eyes and watched the TV.

"..."

Lin Li saw the big, blood-red characters at the beginning.

"Change it! I don't want to watch this episode!"

"Huh..? Why?"

Elysia asked, confused. Although she didn't understand why Lin Li's reaction was so strong, she still changed the episode.

"Because the episode just now was about the Shovel Killer, and it scared me." Lin Li said expressionlessly, showing no sign of having been scared.

"..."

Elysia couldn't help but chuckle, and one hand instinctively reached out to stroke Lin Li's head.

The soft, fluffy hair made her reluctant to let go.

Feeling the warmth on her head, Lin Li couldn't do anything about it.

Although she really disliked people touching her hair, being petted by Elysia like this felt quite comfortable, so she didn't tell her to stop.

During the entire SpongeBob episode, neither of them spoke, both seeming to be watching intently.

But as soon as the episode ended, Elysia immediately spoke.

"Doesn't Xiao Li have any questions to ask?"

"Yes."

"What questions?"

"Did you change my clothes?"

"Mhm, of course. You were covered in blood at the time, and it pained me so much. So when we got back to the base, I cleaned you up and changed you into some pajamas." Elysia sounded quite proud, with an expression that seemed to say, Praise me!

"How is it? Are these pajamas comfortable? If not, I can change them for you. There are plenty in the closet."

"No, no need to change... Speaking of which, did you..." Lin Li's cheeks flushed.

Damn it, so she saw everything before?

Elysia seemed to guess what Lin Li was thinking and quickly said:

"Of course not. When I was cleaning you, I was wearing an eye mask the whole time."

"Really?" Lin Li asked suspiciously.

"Mhm, I promise?"

Elysia smiled.

She promised she was wearing an eye mask while cleaning her, but she wasn't wearing one when she put on the pajamas.

Fortunately, Xiao Li didn't seem very sharp and didn't notice that.

"Okay, I believe you."

Lin Li's complexion returned to normal a little, though only a little.

"Then where is this? Is it your home?" Lin Li asked again.

"Mmm... We are currently at the main base of Flame-Moth in Flame-Moth City. This villa was rewarded to you because you killed a Herrscher and earned merit."

"So this is actually my home?"

"Mm."

"..."

Lin Li thought for a moment and opened her system interface.

The number was still [-], and apart from Charm and Intelligence, all other stats were low-tier.

"Since this is my home... do you want to live here?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Then... shouldn't you be paying me rent?"

"Yeah... huh?"

Elysia froze, she never expected Lin Li to ask that question.

While it made sense, something felt off.

Why would she need to pay rent?!

Did Lin Li really need money that badly?

Elysia recalled meeting Lin Li on a rooftop, being chased by Mantis.

Thinking in reverse, why was Lin Li on the rooftop? Could it be because she was broke or in debt and wanted to end it all?

In an instant, Elysia considered countless possibilities and her gaze towards Lin Li became sympathetic.

Lin Li looked at her strangely, not understanding what Elysia had imagined.

"Then how much rent does Lin Li want?"

"Uh, let me think."

Of course, she wouldn't think about it. She had no experience in collecting rent and could only ask the System.

"System, System, can collecting rent be considered property?"

[If it's not too large an amount, it counts.]

"Then how much should I charge Elysia? Is one thousand a month okay?"

[It's fine.]

The System didn't expect Lin Li to say such an outrageous number.

This was a villa! Even a single bedroom would cost more than a thousand, right?

But it didn't need to give Lin Li any advice. Everything was Lin Li's choice, and it chose to respect it.

After receiving the System's affirmation, Lin Li pondered.

The most common rent she saw online was one thousand yuan a month for a one-bedroom apartment with a private bathroom...

Lin Li observed the surrounding space and felt it was about right, marveling at her own genius.

While a thousand wasn't much, it was... every little bit counts, and she wasn't going to do anything else anyway.

Since she had the System, she would definitely do anything that could make money!

"Is one thousand a month okay?" Lin Li asked a bit sheepishly.

Damn it, why was she feeling embarrassed? She was the one collecting rent right now...

Well, this was her first time collecting rent, and she wasn't confident.

"One thousand?" Elysia furrowed her brow.

She had been prepared to give Lin Li several thousand a month, she didn't expect the other party to ask for so little?

Thinking about the hundreds of thousands in her bank account, she fell into thought.

This wasn't a reward for killing Herrschers, this was all earned by Elysia from traveling the world and opening a small shop.

In Flame-Moth, ordinary soldiers earned very little, only a meager six hundred gold coins.

Most Flame-Moth soldiers joined out of sheer passion, or because their homes were destroyed, forcing them to join Flame-Moth.

Only when they accomplished great deeds would Flame-Moth issue special allowances, but it wouldn't be much. For instance, the allowance Lin Li received for killing the Second Herrscher this time was only a hundred thousand...

Most of it was related to military rank. For example, Flame-Moth's higher-ups were currently discussing forming a special squad for Lin Li, which would grant her higher treatment within Flame-Moth in the future.

After Lin Li killed the Herrscher, she and other Flame-Moth personnel searched the building, but they couldn't find any information on Lin Li. She didn't have a phone, ID card, or bank card on her.

"Uh... is one thousand not enough? Then, then eight hundred?"

Seeing Elysia like that, Lin Li thought she had asked for too much and reduced it by two hundred.

Unexpectedly, Elysia quickly shook her head:

"No, no, one thousand is fine. Lin Li, please wait for me for a moment."

Elysia brought a box from the bedroom, which had Flame-Moth's exclusive hot-stamped logo on it – a moth that looked like it was on fire under the light.

Beautiful, in Lin Li's words... Wow, damn, it's really cool!

She opened the box, revealing a phone and a bank card, both recently processed by Flame-Moth for Lin Li.

"Lin Li, how about I pay you several years' worth of rent at once?" Elysia took out her phone and entered Lin Li's bank card number.

"Mmm... that's fine, you can pay for as long as you want to stay."

"Okay, then I'll... stay with Lin Li for five years first."

"Ah? That's too long..."

As Lin Li spoke, she noticed the number on her System interface had changed.

Property changed from [-] to [8000], and then instantly to [].

"?"

"Why do I have an extra hundred thousand, besides the rent you gave me?" Lin Li asked, confused.

"That's a reward from Flame-Moth, you dummy."

"..."

Lin Li pouted, picked up her phone, and flopped onto the sofa.

My assets are at a hundred thousand, can I add attributes now?