The housing system could either be a player's most valuable asset or their most useless. Many players didn't even build a basic home, which could be built with free-to-play materials, whereas other players would spend countless hours perfecting everything.
Down to doing quests for materials or rare recipes, participating in special events, hunting down treasures, bargaining with other players, and carefully designing each inch of their island or lot on a neighborhood's island. Homes were a status symbol for some players, a way to show their time, effort, and money spent in the game.
When Xu Wei started streaming the game, he only cared about how his home looked. His viewers would make fun of him if he visited his island, yelling that he'd bought one of the richest pieces of land in the game, but it went to waste.
He had bought a single island, which was about the size of these lots, with the only difference being his view and the fact that he could unapologetically build off of his island in all four directions.
He had those viewers to thank because he had greatly underestimated what one could do with their land, barring the visual aspects.
Just by a single glance, it was evident what type of people his new guildmates were.
Rich, with too much time on their hands.
He had an inkling when he looked at their gear and costumes earlier. It wasn't rare to find a guild that housed a lot of whales, but it was rare when every single player was a whale with too much time on their hands. Xu Wei didn't mind that, though.
It would make him stand out less in the future.
He had been standing atop a floating island that the guild mates must have made as their spawning point, but once he fell to the ground, he had to admit that this island was too fucking big.
From above, he could see almost every plot of land. When he was on the ground, in the middle of the pavilion they had made next to a large pond, he could only see the edge of each lot on both of his sides and the top of their houses.
The island itself was staggered. Each plot of land was either separated from its neighbor by a natural mountainous incline or a steep cliff, which allowed for more privacy between neighbors. Hence, it was no wonder that Heavenly God Slayer was complaining. He was on lot 11 and could easily peek into Odin's lot 12 plot, but Odin couldn't see his own unless he went over to visit or built a floating island above his own, which he didn't, but I Like Ramen in lot 14 did.
There was no one in lot 13, or the lots between 15-20. On the other side, only lot 10 was available, next to Son of Peace.
For the sake of symmetry, he decided to check with the guild.
[Guild] Fearless: Odin.
[Guild] Odin: What?
[Guild] Son of Peace: No way…
[Guild] Son of Peace: There's a lot next to me!
[Guild] Son of Peace: I have a flower garden, you can visit any time!
[Guild] Fearless: #13?
[Guild] Building the Crematorium: (°ロ°)
[Guild] Autumn Moon: There wasn't anyone in 13 before, right?
[Guild] Odin: Buy it! Buy it!
[Guild] Son of Peace: Nooooooo
[Guild] Son of Peace: (╥﹏╥)
Xu Wei watched the chat pass by and almost felt bad for not choosing lot 10, but he'd already made his choice. He walked to the bottom of the island and found the Island Manager, Shen Lou.
[Would you like to buy property?]
[Yes]
A map of the island appeared in front of him, showcasing the available lots and the names of the owners of the purchased lots.
[Number 12, Odin]
[Number 13, Empty]
[Number 14, I Like Ramen]
[Would you like to purchase lot 13 of the White Cloud guild's neighborhood for 1,500 gold?]
He instinctively looked down at his available balance. 1,632 gold. 632 gold came from a combination of rewards from his main quest, dungeon loot, and selling miscellaneous garbage he picked up to NPCs. Shin Bao had sent him 1,000 gold as a starting bonus in addition to the allowance he promised Xu Wei, since it was against the terms of service to buy gold in this game.
Shin Bao wasn't allowed to complain. When Xu Wei had quit, he had over 700,000 gold between his two accounts, which he had sent to Shin Bao. If anyone was at a loss, it was Xu Wei. He had no idea how that fool had gone through all that gold.
[Yes]
[Congratulations on purchasing your first piece of land! We hope that you enjoy your new home. Press L when you are on your lot to bring up construction options!
If you leave the guild "White Cloud", you will be reimbursed 80% of the land fee and everything on your land will be moved into a separate inventory that you can access when you purchase another lot of land or an island of your own!]
As he exited the pop-up, a golden message floated across the guild members' screens.
[Fearless has moved into lot 13!]
[Guild] Son of Peace: It's fine, I didn't want a neighbor anyway...
[Guild] Odin: I hope this will be a better neighbor than my other side.
[Guild] Heavenly God Slayer: Go carry yourself, then!!!]
As the guild chat continued to move quickly, Xu Wei didn't make his way to his plot of land. Instead, he talked to Shen Lou again and bought a labor NPC. When he got back to his lot, the NPC was standing just inside, waiting for instructions.
Xu Wei asked him to get rid of the long grass, and, like magic, the NPC chanted a spell, and the grass was cut.
Although Xu Wei lived in an apartment building, he clicked his tongue and thought about how nice it would be if he could do that in real life. Such a small action, but it was efficient.
After that, the NPC disappeared.
Xu Wei felt even more at a loss - he only asked the man to do one thing, and then he just disappeared like a ghost without seeing if he needed him to do anything else!
One action, then he's done his work for the day!
Did this look like a full day's pay?
'I spent 15 gold for a guy to chant a spell!'
Well, it was too late to get his gold back. He opened the item shop and looked at the residences that were available for this month.
Every month, the game would add new residences or rotate old residences into the item shop and free-to-play construction shops. This was after players complained about everyone having the same yard layouts, the same pillars, the same houses, gardens, etc.
He looked at the preview of each and considered his neighbor's houses when he bought an elegant residence called 'Oasis of the Wandering Immortal'. Just like its name, the main residence itself wasn't flashy, yet it also wasn't cheap. With this, he wouldn't be bringing down the value of his neighbors' houses.
Before he started designing his lot of land, he first needed to decide where he wanted everything to be. He entered construction mode, then he entered birds-eye view mode and looked at the almost transparent grids on the ground.
Three hours later, Xu Wei rolled his wrists as he stood at the front of his island and looked at his progress. While he hadn't even placed his residence yet, he had done quite a bit. He created an island with three separate terraces as tiers, breaking the ascent to the top into spaces.
It looked as if it could be an item shop package, but Legends of Xia wasn't that nice of a company.
As he moved his camera around, he had to do a double-take. There, sitting on the edge of the cliff around a table that certainly wasn't there three hours ago, sat half of the guild he had just joined. None of them were facing the other direction, and they were staring at him.
[Guild] Autumn Moon: I think we've been caught.
[Guild] Spring Is Here: You think?
[I Like Ramen is online]
[Guild] Don't Hit Me: Two hours and fifteen minutes…
[Guild] Autumn Moon: He might die if we send him into a dungeon alone. Look at that kid, can't even notice us when we're right in front of his eyes.
They weren't wrong. If Xu Wei had turned his camera to the side just a little bit more, he would have been able to see the six people watching him. He just didn't think that they would have this much free time; it was his own mistake.
[Guild] I Like Ramen: What two hours and fifteen minutes?
[Guild] Odin: We have a new neighbor!
[Guild] Giant Fish: We watched this kid build a little floating island for that long, he didn't notice. Concerning.
[Guild] I Like Ramen: Neighbor?
A few moments later, I Like Ramen spawned into the neighborhood. He stared down at the scene before him. Between his and Odin's lots was a little Night Elf, only level 48, staring at the group on Odin's lot without saying anything, as if he were shocked.
[Guild] I Like Ramen: You guys have a strange habit of terrifying noobs now?
In actuality, Xu Wei had left his computer to open his door. He was not shocked.