After experimenting with the statue creation feature for a while, I finally came up with a few designs.
Out of everything I’d tried, three designs particularly stood out.
First, of course, was the ultimate waifu bait goddess design!
Let’s be real here. If I wanted something that could command attention and inspire worship, what could possibly be more effective than a goddess of divine beauty?
And there she was, a mysterious goddess who embodied both light and darkness, with four magnificent wings, two angelic and two demonic. Her elegant figure was wrapped in a flowing divine gown decorated with celestial patterns, while a radiant halo floated behind her head like a miniature sun.
Her beautiful face carried a gentle, almost motherly warmth, yet there was also an undeniable sense of divine authority in her gaze.
Yep.
This one would definitely make an impression!
The second design was completely different though.
This time, I went with an emperor. A powerful king who looked like he had conquered half the world and was already planning to conquer the other half.
He sat upon a massive throne, clad in magnificent imperial armor with a crown on his head, a great sword at his side, and an ornate scepter in his hand.
His calm, authoritative expression and imposing presence screamed absolute dominion.
If the goddess represented divine protection, then this guy represented raw imperial power.
Or, in other words...
A complete contrast between gooner-bait waifu and handsome husbando!
Muahaha! If I could bring these designs back to the real world and put them into one of those gacha games, I was sure the fans would absolutely love them!
And finally...
The dragon.
Because, obviously, dragons were awesome.
They were mythical beasts, symbols of power, majesty, and dominion itself!
This one was absolutely enormous.
It had a massive body covered in thick, spiky scales, four powerful legs, enormous wings, and a long serpentine tail coiled around its pedestal. Two enormous horns curved backward from its head, while several smaller horns framed its jaw.
Its mouth was slightly open, revealing rows of sharp teeth, while its narrow, slitted eyes radiated an ancient and terrifying presence. Anyone who stared directly into those eyes for too long would probably feel an instinctive sense of fear.
I also added several decorative chains and ancient runes across its body, giving it the appearance of an ancient divine beast rather than an ordinary dragon.
And finally, at the tip of its tail, I added a gigantic flame nearly half the size of its entire body.
Beneath it was a mountain of gold coins and treasure, as though the dragon had spent thousands of years guarding an endless hoard.
A true ruler of fire.
A guardian of ancient treasures!
A dragon emperor!
Hmm...
Now that’s intimidating!
I stared at the three designs in the system panel for a while.
A divine goddess.
An imperial emperor.
An ancient fire dragon.
All three looked incredibly impressive.
But... which one would be the best choice for my first statue?
******
A while later, after making a few final adjustments, I finally settled on the three designs.
Personally, I really liked the dragon design.
Unfortunately, it was also the most expensive by far.
The blue panel beneath each design displayed the final construction cost:
[Divine Goddess of Light and Darkness — 255 Points]
[Handsome Emperor — 187 Points]
[Scary Fire Dragon — 324 Points]
Those were the final prices after I’d already done my best to reduce the costs by making the statues smaller and removing unnecessary details.
Even after all that, the dragon still required a ridiculous amount of Points. It cost nearly twice as much as the emperor!
Still, I could understand why.
The dragon was by far the most complicated design, with a massive body, huge wings, horns, scales, flames.... All those details added up quickly.
After considering everything, I finally decided to go with the emperor.
After all...
I was a medieval-style castle.
So wouldn’t a medieval-style king suit me best?
Yeah.
This is definitely the one.
Now, all I needed was the Points to build it!
****
And so, for the next few weeks, I hoarded every Point I could and farmed every goblin I encountered.
Luckily for me, it seemed like one or two groups of goblins showed up almost every week, practically volunteering to donate their Points to me.
During that time, I also figured out another way to deal with them.
The problem with crushing goblins beneath the portcullis was that it damaged their corpses, which reduced their selling price. If I wanted to maximize my profits, I needed a cleaner method.
After a few experiments, I finally found one.
And it turned out to be ridiculously simple!
I could just drop a sharp weapon on them from above.
Apparently, whenever I chose to retrieve an item from my Inventory, I could choose between placing it gently on the ground or simply dropping it from above.
There was one limitation, though.
I could only drop items from a maximum height of ten meters above the floor.
For example, if I selected the second floor, I could drop an item from anywhere up to ten meters above that floor.
Even so, that was more than enough for my purposes.
So whenever a group of goblins appeared, I simply lured them into my courtyard and...
Sploosh!
Skewered!
A sharp spear came crashing down from above and pinned the unfortunate goblin to the ground!
It took me a few attempts to get my aim right. After all, dropping a spear accurately onto a moving target wasn’t exactly as easy as clicking a button in a video game.
But once I got the hang of it, the whole process became incredibly quick and efficient.
Best of all, I could simply retrieve the spear afterward and store it back in my Inventory.
Reusable weapon.
Minimal waste.
Maximum profit.
Now this is efficiency!
Compared to my old method, the goblin corpses remained in much better condition and could be sold for their full value.
And so, I kept doing it.
Goblin after goblin, Point after Point, my balance steadily climbed.
However, there was something else I needed to spend my hard-earned Points on before I could finally build my statue.
Once I reached 100 Points, I immediately spent them to upgrade my Castle Core to Level 2.
The upgrade increased my passive Point generation from 1 Point per day to a whopping 10 Points per day!
At that rate, the upgrade would pay for itself in just ten days.
Yeah! Maximizing my economy is always the way to go!
I briefly considered saving up for the next Castle Core upgrade as well.
However, there was a small problem.
The next upgrade required System Shop Level 3.
And one of the requirements for System Shop Level 3 was...
Having at least five Citizens.
Yeah...
The System was really forcing me to get some citizens before I could progress any further.
There was no way around it.
Still, after weeks of saving and farming goblins, I eventually managed to accumulate enough Points for what I wanted.
Day 54
[Points Remaining: 336]
Finally.
The time had come.
It was time to get my first citizen!