Even in the real world of 2035, the paid office model remains an abstract concept.
So it took [Pond Fish and Old Abyss] almost half a minute of thought to understand the true meaning of [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ].
Her friend, the supplier of Aberration plants, seemed to be quite wealthy. She remembered that during the last battle in the church of some town, it was she who helped several players who were rewriting the scenario to advance their funds in order to invite Ed to join.
Is this the power of a "cook"?
That's terrifying.
Still shaken, [ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ] finally negotiated a price with his friend, and a business plan was sent to [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ] in real life via online channels.
World of Disorder, a few hours later.
The copied plan was placed on Ed's desk, and the boy picked up the paper and began to read it carefully.
So, they were planning to rescue the orphans ahead of schedule?
That makes sense. Everyone knows that a major battle is about to break out in Fir City in the near future.
Players with a basic sense of right and wrong are unlikely to bring the fighting to civilian homes, but these orphans in the small church are indeed vulnerable to being caught in the crossfire...
That's a good plan, let's check the budget...
Only 100 gold coins?
Ed roughly estimated in his mind the costs of infiltration, disguise, and time... Objectively speaking, this matter was risky and the rewards were indeed not high, and the incentive of one hundred gold coins still felt a bit too little.
Thinking this, Ed looked at the player in front of him who was giving him a strange look:
Are you sure they've entrusted you with handling this matter entirely?
"Um."
[ The Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ] answered, but seemed a little distracted.
"You can ask them about the approximate execution time of this plan."
"Um."
"Let's revise the budget here. One hundred gold coins is too little; it might not be enough to mobilize that many Soul Returner to participate in the event."
"Um."
At this moment, [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ] had forgotten most of its mission and was completely immersed in its identity as a fan of the virtual character.
If she were the one charging the fees, this behavior would obviously be wrong, but now that she's become the team's main benefactor, the situation is completely different.
It is well known that coal mine owners rarely provide guidance on the creation of artworks while providing funding.
The same goes for [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ]; she will truthfully relay all the issues Ed raised to the three members of [ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ]. As for how they should actually fix them?
That has little to do with me, the big spender.
However, it would be best to revise it a couple more times, so that there will be several more opportunities to take close-up photos later.
And so, over the next three days, the Old Bottles, New Wine Plan was continuously refined through repeated exchanges between the two parties.
As the head of the Second Holy See, Ed was clearly very concerned about rescuing orphans, both from a moral and utilitarian perspective.
Even if these orphans did not choose to Gungnir, they would eventually become the backbone of the Second Holy See.
Ed was very satisfied with this.
During repeated exchanges and discussions, [ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ] secretly took a large number of photos of a certain game character and planned to start selecting them after the final version was approved, determined to make a character photo book for her own use. Therefore, she was naturally very satisfied with the repeated back-and-forth between the two sides.
Although the trio carrying out their infiltration mission in Fir City had their plans scrapped several times, Ed doubled the budget he provided, so the three of them were naturally not dissatisfied.
Everyone was happy; everyone was very satisfied.
But there will always be people who are dissatisfied.
The bishop, who was in charge of managing the chapel priests and nuns, was not very satisfied.
The church has been infested with rats far too often lately!
I don't know what happened, but this winter the rats seem to be particularly fond of coming to the church to look for food.
But the people who Tree Worship Church don't eat much to begin with, and this is especially true in a small chapel with clearly defined areas, so even if rats come, they basically won't get enough to eat.
But rats are animals that never leave empty-handed. Even though there was very little food in the chapel, they began to gnaw on the chapel's public facilities at night.
Sure enough, in just one week, two wardrobes and two storage boxes were gnawed by rats. Although these things are not expensive, being disgusted by rats so frequently is definitely not a good thing.
As the bishop in charge of the chapel, his strength was naturally no less than that of the Aberration rats. However, the problem was that he had never seen the rats in person, only the traces left by the creatures' destruction. This left him feeling rather embarrassed, as if he had no way to use his strength.
One morning, the bishop in charge of the chapel saw the unshaven carpenter and his assistant huffing and puffing as they carried away a large wooden crate for the fifth time at the church entrance. His anger finally erupted at that moment!
An hour later, all the priests and nuns from the chapels were gathered in the largest prayer room of the chapel.
This place was originally a spot for the children of Fir City to practice choral singing, but now it has been turned into a temporary meeting room.
After a perfunctory prayer to the World Tree icon, the bishop began to recount the main topic of today's meeting—how to solve the recent rat infestation in the chapel.
The three, [ Zhong Lele ], [ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ], and [ Dark Archmage ], mingled among the nuns below, trying their best to keep their mouths shut and prevent themselves from laughing out loud.
So far, a total of two wardrobes and three storage boxes have been given away in the chapel. According to their plan, there should now be a total of eight people in the group (plus two carpenters).
However, there is always a difference between ideals and reality.
Even though [ Zhong Lele ] can target and eliminate priests and nuns with small social circles, it cannot directly change their interpersonal relationships from having both parents alive to having both parents dead.
Therefore, replacing a priest or nun does not always mean taking away just one person. Sometimes it involves two or three people, and sometimes it can even become four or five people. It is necessary to take away all the living people living in his or her house.
The priests and nuns who were replaced are still on leave at home, constantly memorizing their new identity information to avoid being exposed.
If it weren't for the generous incentives Ed offered, some players might not have even bothered with such a complicated plan.
However, the plan is about to succeed. The chapel will rotate shifts about every eight days. As long as they can ensure that their own people are on both the day and night shifts for three consecutive days, they will be able to transport all the orphans from the chapel away.
The transport capacity of the Soldier Bee is quite limited. Even if overloaded, they can only transport two children at a time, so this matter needs to be considered carefully.