My territory is filled with block creations.

Do I have to pay money too for Chapter 15?

This question didn't stump the villagers, since they had lived here since childhood and were very familiar with the surrounding terrain and other towns.

One of the villagers answered the fastest this time, even faster than Lester, who was about to speak: "I know, I know, the nearest town is Autumnwind, to the west of the village."

Thorne mentally located the village: "So, to get to Autumnwind Town, we need to cross that forest?" He pointed to the dense forest to the west of the village.

"Yes, I've been to that town before. It took me almost two days to walk there," Lester said this time, speaking up before the other villagers could get there first.

"So what's the size of that town? What can you buy there?" Thorne continued, "For example, chickens, ducks, geese, horses, pigs, or other livestock, or copper, iron, and the like."

Alex, who was munching on a flatbread nearby, heard Thorne's question and walked over curiously, asking, "By the way, wasn't Autumnwind Town raided by those monsters?"

"Chickens, ducks, geese, and everything in Autumnwind Town is available, but horses and pigs depend on luck. There are actually two blacksmith shops in town, but I don't know how much iron you can buy there. As for whether they've been robbed, I think they should be alright. Autumnwind Town has patrol teams and an adventurers' guild, so they shouldn't be like us."

When Lester got to this point, his expression became somewhat downcast, as if he was recalling some painful memories he dared not look back on.

Seeing this, Thorne didn't press the matter further and instead directly moved on to the next topic: "Then I'd like to give you the task of buying supplies in Autumnwind Town. Would you be willing to accept this task?"

Alex, who was mechanically munching on her pancake, stared blankly at Thorne. "Isn't this a bit off? Shouldn't we have continued chatting and building rapport before handing him this daunting task?"

Or perhaps you could chat with all the villagers to see which one is most familiar with the route, most talkative, or has connections to Autumnwind Town, which would help you complete the task better. Why did you just tell Lester right away? Lord, is that how you do things?

Alex looked at the other villagers with a helpless expression. Apart from Lester looking at Thorne with a surprised expression, the other villagers all hung their heads down, as if to say, "You can't see me, you can't see me."

Besides that, there was another villager who was the first to respond to Thorne's words.

Well, it seems there aren't any better candidates than these two.

Thorne then noticed the villager's bright eyes, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Looks like you want to give it a try too. It's good to go together; you can look out for each other. What's your name?"

The villager quickly replied, "My name is Lai Gou!"

Thorne: ? ? ?

Thorne was stunned for a while before his mind reconnected. He touched his chin, looked at Lester, then at Lazy Dog, and asked somewhat awkwardly, "So, may I ask why, in the same village, your name is Lester and your name is Lazy Dog, yet the styles of your names are so different?"

Lester immediately puffed out his chest with a hint of pride: "Because I have parents, and he doesn't."

According to the law of conservation of pride, Lester proudly puffed out his chest, while Lai Gou lowered his head awkwardly. Thorne glanced at Lai Gou's sullen expression, thought for a moment, and then said, "So, would you like to change your name?"

Lai Gou's eyes lit up upon hearing this; he seemed to be able to guess what Thorne was going to say next.

"Would you like to name me?" Lai Gou asked excitedly.

"How about Doug if you'd like?" Thorne didn't have any wicked ideas, after all, Doug was indeed a proper name, although in a sense it was a bit of a pun on the name "Lai Gou" (meaning "Lai Gou"), which made it a better match.

And when Doug heard the name "Lai Gou"—no, now Doug—his eyes lit up.

Doug knew, of course, that his previous name was awful, but he was too embarrassed to follow suit and give himself a decent name. Not only would he not be able to choose a good one, but others would definitely laugh at him for it. So he had been avoiding the issue of his name.

It seems that as long as he acts indifferent, others won't bother to laugh at him because of his name. But things are different now. Now his name was given by the lord, so who would dare to laugh at him?

"Stop grinning like an idiot, your lord is still waiting over there." Just as Doug was feeling smug, a soft voice from Alex reached his ears.

Doug immediately jumped, and seeing Thorne had devoured a quarter of a pancake in half a day, he quickly thanked him, saying, "Thank you, Lord! From now on, I'll be called Doug!"

After he finished speaking, he looked around at the others and saw that everyone's expression carried a hint of envy, which made him even more intoxicated.

Thorne then got back to business: "So, what do you think of what I said before? The matter of going to Autumnwind Town to purchase supplies and sell cloth along the way."

"My lord, I'll do it!" Doug spoke first, and Lester, a beat slower to react, quickly followed suit: "Me too!" Then he suddenly remembered something: "Um, my lord, what are we going to use to buy it?"

"Don't worry about that." Thorne said, then subconsciously reached into his pockets, turning all eight pockets of his jacket inside out before pulling out twelve silver coins...

So my life in the capital was indeed too extravagant? I should have saved more money if I had known.

After sighing inwardly, Thorne counted the twelve silver coins in his hand. This amount of money was only enough to buy ten catties of iron. Add a cartload of... wool cloth, it probably wouldn't be enough either. After all, in his plan, this first wave of business not only required purchasing enough iron to supply himself with the corresponding power-generating machines, but also livestock.

Chickens are the most important because I need their feathers to make arrows, some necessary seasonings to improve the villagers' living conditions, and some strange seeds, such as sugarcane. With sugarcane, I can make sugar and paper, both of which are hard currencies in trade. Then I can make trade grow bigger and bigger like a snowball.

Other animals like pigs, cattle, sheep, and horses could be considered secondary, but buying them would definitely not be enough with a cartload of cloth and twelve silver coins. Unfortunately, those twelve silver coins represented all his savings, so...

Thorne slowly turned his gaze to Alex, who was standing not far away eating a pancake. Seeing Thorne's gaze, Alex felt a great crisis looming over her, and said with a wronged expression, "Do I have to pay too?"