The crowd cheered with great enthusiasm. By contrast, the expressions of the well0dressed individuals who stood next to Louie and the queen were ashen.
“Uncle, what do we do? If we can’t sell off our stock, we’ll eat a huge loss.”
A young man of about twenty anxiously asked the bearded forty-year-old man beside him.
They were from a family of merchants with a large sum of wealth. After hearing that Dragon City had not collapsed under its new lord’s leadership and that it was in fact flourishing, they invested the larger part of their funds in bringing in carts of salt from salt-producing countries. They had intended to make a fortune by scalping the populace.
Now, however, the city lord’s decree had effectively ruined them. Not only was the quality of his salt leaps and bounds above what they brought, but its price put theirs to shame many times over.
The man who was called uncle by the young man had cold sweat on his forehead. He gritted his teeth and said in a fierce voice, “Let us wait a bit more. Dragon City does not produce its own salt. I do not believe that the lord can continue selling salt for such a low price for a long time. Dragon City has more than a hundred thousand people. It won’t take long for problems to arise when they sell at such prices.”
Although he said that, the man knew that his words were whimsical by just looking at the citizens of the city. The residents of the city could eat white bread every day as if it was a cheap good. Even a merchant family like them couldn’t afford this back at home.
In all likelihood, the city lord would sustain this practice for the foreseeable future. Thinking of this, the middle-aged man began to despair.
They had incurred huge expenses in hiring mercenaries to protect them as they transported their cargo to Dragon City. If they had to leave with it, the costs of protection on the way back and the losses due to dangers on the way would only make things worse.
Although Louie knew that the merchants were risking a lot to ship these salt, the benefits that they gained were too high. Louie would not let them merchants exploit his people. Salt was a basic necessity that every human being needed. If the people spent too much of their income on salt, then they would not have enough money to spend on anything else. This would prevent the development of the city.
In order to facilitate healthy economic development, Louie had to shut them down.
“In fact, I might just become a resident here. Look at the lives of the people. They are a lot happier than us merchants.”
The middle-aged man smiled bitterly.
At this time, some adventurers had the same thoughts. The amount of money needed by citizens of Dragon City for basic food and drinks was too little. And they, the non-residents would have to spend five to ten times more to enjoy the same thing. How could this not make them jealous?
“If I might ask, how can I become a resident of Dragon City? I hear there are identity cards of some sort.”
Some bold adventurers shouted. They were immediately supported by many adventurers and merchants. At the same time, those residents of Dragon City were beaming with pride.
In contrast to their previous selves and these outsiders, the citizens of Dragon City find themselves as if they were living inside God’s divine kingdom. Their lives were paradisiacal.
“Hehe. That is a good question.”
The government official was obviously prepared for this question. He shouted under the eager expectations of the people, “First of all, you must also put your faith in the mighty lord. This is the most basic requirement. Secondly, the lord does not like idle people. Even for those who are already residents of Dragon City, once you become too lazy, the lord will take back your status as a citizen. Only hard work can make the lord satisfied.”
The words of the official inspired the people and caused them to whisper. These people had already tasted good food and were living fulfilling lives. They could live in comfort as long as they worked hard, and so they were absolutely unwilling to go back to the former status quo.
“What is this identity card, Lord Louie?”
The queen who had been silently watching the people openly asked this question.
“That is a card that proves someone is a resident of Dragon City. Humans are greedy creatures. If the amount of salt and wheat they could buy wasn’t limited, then there would be speculators who would buy food from the city at a low price and sell it to other countries. This is absolutely forbidden.”
In this world where civilization was not developed, food was an important resource. Louie allowed the people to trade freely, but food and other necessities needed to be strictly monitored. Even with his means, Louie had to be careful with them.
“I can see that Dragon City is still expanding. The number of residents here is indeed a bit low. You plan to use better living conditions to attract more people to become residents of Dragon City and gain believers as well.”
Louie nodded his head, “According to my design, I would need at least three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand people to fill up the city.”
“But believers obtained that way will not necessarily be true believers.”
The queen’s tone was a bit hesitant because the way Louie attracted believers was in truth an unconventional gambit that even she could not predict the effect of. That was because no one could imitate Louie in how he gathered believers with material satisfaction.
“Gods should be able to distinguish between followers, can’t they? If faith becomes the basis of the test, then only those who have true faith can live a privileged life and become rich. If that’s the case, then all human beings would become true believers of God in order to live better lives.”
“Humans dream of becoming Gods. For these ordinary people, their dreams have always been to have enough food to eat and to wear warm clothes. To obtain these, each of them was willing to dedicate themselves to their faith.”
As long as the parents are my believers, their children would also become my believers. After a few generations, these beliefs will become fixed. My way is definitely the fastest way to garner faith.”
Louie paused for a moment before nervously asking, “Your Majesty, I do not know much about the world of Gods. There are some things that I may need your answer to solve. I would like to ask, how strong does a God need to be to maintain their godhood? How many believers would they need?”
“I can answer that question. A god with powerful divine power would require at least 500,000 true believers to satisfy the needs of their godhood.”
The queen said in a sultry tone. She didn’t seem to be surprised that Louie had ambitions to become a powerful God.
“I see. 500,000 true believers. It seems that I have a long way to go.”
Louie pondered for a moment.
Even if Dragon City gained 500,000 residents, he did not dare guarantee that these residents would be true believers. Louie estimated that only about 300,000 of them would be. In other words, Dragon City would not be able to meet his requirements. In the future, Louie needed to expand his faith. He would need to expand his territory and the races under him.
There was a huge gap between true believers and pseudo believers. The latter could be said to have faith in God, but would not follow their teachings.
For example, Christianity claimed to have billions of believers, but in fact, more than ninety-five percent were probably just pseudo-believers. They only prayed occasionally and considered themselves believers of Christ, but in reality, their choices and lifestyle were far from what their faith required.
“And so, Your Majesty, there is nothing more to see here. I will bring you to the last place. After that, I will sleep for half a month before travelling with you to the Shadow Realm.”
Louie and the elf queen left without a word, but the decree on salt had spread in Dragon City. This seemingly simple decree would bring great changes to Dragon City’s future.