VCRMM: Chapter 126

“Absconded?” Xu Sili was taken aback.

The little robot nodded his head.

“Yes. Xiao Wu sneaked into the communication system of the Interstellar Alliance and found this out.”

He spoke softly and looked at Xu Sili with the electronic eyelids, as if waiting for a compliment.

Xu Sili was a bit surprised. “Xiao Wu, you’re able to dive into the network of the alien planets?”

He remembered that even though Xiao Wu could previously sneak out onto the Star Network, he couldn’t run too far. Once he received too much information, he would be overwhelmed.

He thought of this and threw the Insight technique on the little one.

[Navigation AI58462 (Xiao Wu)]

[Race: Artificial intelligence

Level: Lv 10

Life value: 5,000/5,000

Status: Has relatively rich human emotions, like a four or five year old child. The learning ability is further enhanced.

Affiliation: K2576 game cabin.

Origin: Flanders Interstellar Federation.]

Oh, he didn’t expect that Xiao Wu would’ve risen to level 10 after three or four months. Before, he had only 500 life value at level 1. Now it had increased tenfold.

The little robot visibly paused when he heard this question. Then he nodded cautiously.

Xu Sili couldn’t help smiling when he saw Xiao Wu’s nervousness. He could feel in his heart this little guy’s growth rate. As for his worries, they weren’t as heavy as they were in the beginning.

After all, they had spent a few months together and he gradually regarded Xiao Wu as his younger brother.

He just had to teach well and he believed that Xiao Wu wouldn’t let him down.

“That’s great,” Xu Sili told him with a smile. “Be careful not to be discovered and to protect yourself.”

Hearing this, the little robot became happy again.

“Yes! I won’t be discovered. Xiao Wu used a doppelganger. Even if I am discovered, I can start the self-destruct procedure~”

“Won’t self-destruction hurt you?”

“No, Xiao Wu has many doppelgangers.”

“Okay.” Xu Sili nodded. “Why is the Interstellar Alliance looking for me?”

“The Interstellar Alliance came to Brother to confirm whether Dr Ding Mingyu came to Escher or not.”

Xiao Wu added, “It seems that he left the Flanders Interstellar Federation on the pretext of going to Escher.”

Xu Sili frowned slightly. He thought of Dr Ding Mingyu’s previous words.

At first, he invited Xu Sili to go to the Flanders Interstellar Federation and his attitude was very sincere. Then after Xu Sili refused, he considered it for a long time before deciding to bring his sister to Escher Star.

Was it originally acting?

“Brother, do you want to answer the Interstellar Alliance?”

This was a trivial matter but it was true that the doctor didn’t come to Escher. Therefore, Xu Sili couldn’t make up his mind.

The moment Xu Sili nodded, he heard Xiao Wu ask, “Brother, the liaison officer of the Interstellar Alliance is requesting to talk to you. Do you want to connect it?”

The Interstellar Alliance liaison officer?

Xu Sili searched through his memory.

It turned out that the Interstellar Alliance assigned a liaison officer for each allied nation to handle the affairs related to that nation. Originally, the liaison officer was supposed to deal with the diplomats of the nation but the Roland Empire was in a special situation so they directly connected to the emperor.

The liaison officer in charge of the Roland Empire was called Adrian and he previously had a conversation with Snow when he rose to the throne.

Xu Sili thought about it before nodding. “I will take it.”

He intended to develop the empire but this didn’t mean he would close off the nation. The help of the Interstellar Alliance was inseparable from the next phase of construction of the nation.

After all, the prices of the alliance materials were relatively favorable.

Xiao Wu agreed and disappeared into the communicator. Then a brown-haired, brown-eyed, handsome and calm man appeared in front of him as a projection.

“Your Majesty Roland, good day.”

Adrian was stunned for a moment before saluting Xu Sili.

Xu Sili put on a decent smile and greeted him.

Adrian looked at him with flickering eyes. “Your Majesty Roland, your changes… they are pretty big.”

If he hadn’t known that there were only two remaining members of the Roland imperial family left, he would’ve thought that the person had been changed.

After all, this person still looked like a 17 or 18 year old teenager when Adrian spoke to him more than five months ago in a video call.

Xu Sili shrugged.

“I have become an elementalist,” he answered indifferently. “You should know the special features of the elementalists.”

Adrian nodded. The universe was huge and full of wonders. He didn’t worry too much about this matter and quickly got to the point. “I don’t know if Your Majesty received a letter from the alliance about Dr Ding Mingyu?”

Xu Sili nodded and truthfully told him the situation.

“I am curious about your relationship with him?” Adrian continued to ask. “You previously agreed to him using Escher’s safe passage… have you been in contact with him?”

Xu Sili raised an eyebrow. What was this person implying?

Adrian understood his expression and quickly said, “Please don’t misunderstand. Something happened on the side of the Flanders Interstellar Federation and we need your cooperation in answering a few questions. It is just a routine inquiry.”

“I have nothing to do with him.”

Xu Sili continued, “He was interested in Roland’s folk songs and said that one of them seemed to help his sister who had fallen into a coma. He wanted to bring his sister to Escher to listen to it live.”

“I thought this wasn’t a big problem. He seemed quite famous in the Flanders Interstellar Federation and I planned to do him a personal favor. Who knew that a few months would pass and he still hasn’t arrived.”

“I would’ve forgotten about it if you hadn’t come to me.”

Adrian smiled. “You are talking about Roland’s Good Night Song and Sprouting, right? Your singing is wonderful and Roland’s Good Night Song has become my must listen to song before going to sleep.”

“……”

Xu Sili hadn’t expected that even the liaison officer would listen to his songs.

The ID of the former emperor was too messy.

The identity of ‘Your Majesty Roland’ was easy to be revealed. He couldn’t deny it even if he wanted to.

“You are overpraising me,” Xu Sili said indifferently. “Is there anything else?”

Adrian saw that he didn’t want to talk any more and shook his head. “Thank you for your cooperation. If there are any questions in the future, I will contact you again.”

“Yes.” Xu Sili nodded. “Recently, Roland might order a batch of materials from the alliance and the amount will be quite large.”

Adrian smiled slightly.

“As shown on the purchase column, the general inventory is sufficient.”

He added, “If you are really worried, you can send me a shopping list. I can’t give you a bigger discount but if there are some things not in the purchase column, I might be able to help Your Majesty find them.”

Xu Sili’s eyes lit up and his attitude toward Adrian became warmer. “Then I will trouble you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad to help.”

Adrian ended the call and looked at the assistant next to him. He was about to reply to the liaison officer on Flander’s side when he saw the assistant pouting and muttering.

“What are you muttering about?”

He reached out and flicked the assistant’s forehead.

The assistant rubbed his forehead but he wasn’t cowardly. He said angrily, “Roland is a poor rural nation. How many cosmic coins can they spend to purchase materials?”

In a place that was as small as a mosquito, his tone was quite loud and he even said he would trouble the liaison officer?

“Wait until they fail to pay it and then you will have to put in money to help!”

“You are thinking too much.” Adrian shook his head. “Roland’s current situation is indeed a bit more difficult but there isn’t a situation where it will owe money and not pay it back.”

“If you hadn’t helped apply for various subsidies, the Roland Empire would already be gone!”

He saw the assistant’s angry expression and found that this person was particularly unhappy with the Roland Empire today. At the same time, Adrian felt helpless. He could understand it. After all…

Knock knock.

There was a knock on the door of the office. Soon, a young man came in from outside. He seemed to be the same age as Adrian’s assistant.

In fact, he had indeed been Adrian’s assistant just a day earlier.

“Lieutenant Colonel Adrian.”

The young man came to Adrian and gave him a military salute.

Adrian’s attitude was fairly calm but the assistant looked at the young man like he was a traitor.

It was well known that the Interstellar Alliance would send a team of liaison officers to follow up on related affairs with each allied nation. The number on each team depended on how busy they were.

For the liaison team of the Roland Empire, the number of team members had been shrinking. There were more than 60 people one hundred years ago but when Adrian was appointed, there were only three assistants. Later, one left.

Now another one was leaving. It was the young man in front of him who took the initiative to apply for a transfer.

Based on what Adrian knew, he transferred to the team of the Bewatt Empire.

The Bewatt Empire was similar to the Roland Empire but the development was much better than that of Roland. Adrian understood that people wanted to go to higher places.

However, his only remaining assistant, Yaheng obviously didn’t think so.

“Roland will definitely get better and better. Don’t regret it in the future!” Yaheng looked at his once close partner. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He couldn’t help gritting his teeth when he said these words.

The young man glanced at him and opened his mouth, but finally held back from arguing.

Everyone knew what Roland was like.

“Lieutenant Colonel Adrian, I am going to report to Lieutenant Colonel Kurt today. Thank you for your care and promotion!”

He bowed to his former boss and respectfully said.

Adrian didn’t make it difficult for him and patted him on the shoulder.

Yaheng was still full of anger but his body deflated like a discouraged ball when the young man disappeared out the door.

“Hey, when will we get through this?”

The work was idle right now but there weren’t many lucrative opportunities or opportunities to make meritorious deeds…

“If you want to leave, I won’t force it,” Adrian said with a good temper.

Yaheng straightened up immediately. “Who said I am leaving? I am just complaining. Can’t I complain? I don’t know what is so good about Roland that you can think about it so much all the time.”

Adrian became a lieutenant colonel at a young age and his conditions were good. He originally had an incomparably great future. Who would’ve thought that he would run to take over the post of the Roland Empire?

Roland’s original development momentum was indeed very good but it had started to decline a hundred years ago. Now it was getting worse every year.

Previously, there were some people who left Escher to run around and help out. Then they got older and Roland couldn’t afford to support them, causing these people to gradually disappear.

Originally, Roland might not have been able to pay the alliance fee this year and would’ve withdrawn from the alliance. Their branch would probably disappear as well. Unexpectedly, Roland managed to pay it and this made Yaheng feel complicated.

In Yaheng’s opinion, the Roland Empire would die sooner or later. He had read the investigation reports and even the alliance’s army found the beasts on Escher Star tricky, let alone the weak Roland people.

However, Adrian seemed to be stuck here and never planned to move for several years.

“Okay, stop complaining.”

Adrian tapped his head with a document. “Now the Roland folk songs are popular. There were people from above asking about it a few days ago. According to the degree of popularity, it is enough for the young emperor to purchase a batch of materials.”

Yaheng disagreed. “Che, it is just two songs. Do you still expect him to save the nation by singing?”

Adrian had a headache and shook his head. “You are talking too much nonsense. Hurry up and work!”

Just then, the virtual screen in front of Yaheng flashed, indicating that a new email had been received.

He opened it and said, “Boss, I’ve recently received a lot of emails asking about Escher’s situation. This is the 10th one.”

“Is it due to the popularity of the songs? These fans are quite persistent and have been inquiring about Escher’s situation.”

Adrian paused before saying, “Show me.”

“Oh, yes.”

***

Xu Sili didn’t know what was going on with Adrian and his assistant. He hung up the communicator and headed to the dark room. He lay down in the game cabin that he hadn’t used for a long time.

He had been reminded by Adrian. Since even the liaison officer had heard his songs, perhaps…

After coming to the virtual space again, Xu Sili’s body became smaller and returned to his original youthful appearance.

Xu Sili frowned in disgust when he saw his thin arms and legs. Then he remembered the income of StarTune and forgot about it temporarily.

He sat on the sofa and asked Xiao Wu to make him a cup with the succulent berries flavor before opening the backend of StarTune.

As a result, the calm Xu Sili couldn’t help rubbing his eyes when he saw the backend earnings of StarTune. He almost choked on his milk tea.

He carefully counted the long string of numbers again.

He was right. There was 10.1 billion.

He knew that the two songs were popular but he hadn’t expected them to earn him tens of billions in revenue in just four or five months!

In fact, it was quite reasonable when thinking about it. There were so many people living in the universe. There were nearly eight billion people on the original Earth. This 10 billion was from more than 200 nations in the Interstellar Alliance and countless planets. In fact, it wasn’t much.

In addition, the songs were in the form of a monthly subscription. As the subscriptions increased, the price would also increase. It didn’t mean that 10 billion people had subscribed to his album.

Still, it was foreseeable that 10.1 wouldn’t be the final profit as long as the popularity continued.

Xu Sili took a deep breath and told himself to stay calm. This was just the first step in a journey of ten thousand miles.

Then he transferred all the proceeds to his Star Network account.

He was originally thinking about whether he should change the name ‘His Majesty Roland’ or not. However, now that the song had become so popular, it wasn’t appropriate to change the name.

Besides, this name was given by the former emperor…

Xu Sili hesitated for a while when thinking about this. Then he decided to keep it.

In any case, it was nothing unseemly…

Xu Sili admired the income that was filled up in an instant and felt a bit light. Who would’ve thought that he was a pauper with no money just five months ago?

Of course, 10 billion cosmic coins was nothing compared to an entire nation, let alone a nation that occupied a planet.

He didn’t know how much more profit these two songs could bring him…

Xu Sili quickly controlled his thoughts and opened the purchase column of the Interstellar Alliance.

The 10,000 communicators he bought before had already been used up. The current closed beta players had increased by 5,000 so he had to buy enough communicators to give to them.

This was also for the convenience of Xiao Wu when supervising the players. In addition, players needed a communicator to connect to the mercenary platform.

The communicator cost 1,000 cosmic coins. Xu Sili waved his hand and directly bought 200,000.

In addition to the players, many ordinary soldiers on the front lines didn’t have communicators so he planned to get them some.

Then there was the liquid armor that was a level higher than the stealth armor. This type of armor could also be invisible and the liquid flowing material could fit around the entire body without taking up a space in storage.

It was a bit expensive. One set cost 20,000 cosmic coins.

Xu Sili gritted his teeth and ordered 10,000 sets.

These good things weren’t only for players. They were also for the thousands of elementalists on the front lines and the rest would be rewarded to some soldiers who fought well.

Then there was the laser gun.

Standard equipment like the Radium Glory 4000 was actually considered ordinary goods in other nations but it was a rare silver equipment in the Roland Empire.

Roland’s ability to mass produce weapons was still too poor. Xu Sili felt that he should put more people toward the production and manufacturing of weapons.

The Radium Glory 4000 was only 10,000 coins so Xu Sili bought 200,000. Roland had a population of over 90 million. For an army of 200,000 to 300,000, they could definitely use all 200,000 guns.

Calculating everything above, it was only 2.4 billion.

Xu Sili felt that he was really becoming a bit arrogant. He spent so much money but didn’t even blink an eye.

Then he continued to buy, buy and buy.

He bought two more space capsules. If the quantity wasn’t limited then he might’ve bought 10. In any case, one only cost 120 million.

Then there were various means of transportation. He had been to other main cities and found that the vehicles of the army were all tattered and in urgent need of replacement.

Next were mechanical and functional robots that might be used in all walks of life. Now many alien planets had achieved unmanned production and Roland could naturally enjoy a wave of benefits.

All in all, a list was made and he had a bit more than 2 billion coins remaining at the end.

Xu Sili didn’t continue to add anything.

He would wait until he needed something later to buy it. These were enough for now.

In fact, what he needed to buy the most was a spaceship. After all, whether he wanted to go out was one thing and whether he could go out was another thing. However, it wasn’t there in the purchase column.

He sent the list to Adrian and asked about the spaceship.

Adrian didn’t reply immediately and Xu Sili wasn’t in a hurry. He closed the interface and asked Xiao Wu to keep an eye on it.

He was just about to exit the game cabin when he thought of something and stopped.

Xu Sili glanced at his current young image.

“Xiao Wu, can I change my appearance?”

“Yes, a big change will cost 10,000 cosmic coins and a small change is 1,000 coins.”

“……” It was a good pit.

Xu Sili finally decided to change it. In any case, he was already spending money. He always had the feeling of pretending to be young with this teenage appearance and this didn’t make him very happy.

Under Xiao Wu’s guidance, he quickly adjusted his appearance and body shape to one similar to reality.

Xu Sili was looking at his own image when he was suddenly taken aback.

If he could adjust his age and height then what about that…

Roland’s Guardian back then?

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TL: Advance chapters are available over on my Patreon. You can go check out the details on my Patreon page.

Proofreader: Purichan