Atelier Tycoon Episode 6
Still, she had no choice if she wanted to unlock the shop, so she cautiously approached the bulletin board. She expected the request papers to be damp since they came from the white pigeon’s mouth, but fortunately, the papers were stiff.
After skimming through the requests, Liliphe concluded that the shop unlock condition wasn’t difficult either.
It wasn’t about achieving 50 or higher favorability with a specific resident, but a total of 50 or higher. She could manage it with just the materials in her inventory box.
A beginner’s atelier might have struggled, but the atelier Liliphe had built was close to max level. She could make most items with ease.
Among the mediocre requests, one caught her eye.
[Rěnmò yú ?ㄱrP lou màn Emfz` jié]
Requester: ???
Request Content: Philosopher’s Stone ×1
Reward: Favorability+??
Period: No deadline
‘What in the world…….’
The text was garbled again.
‘Is text corruption a common occurrence in this game world?’
First the first sentence on the last page of the guidebook, and now this request. It wasn’t just one instance; this was the second time she’d encountered corrupted text.
“Hmm……”
She had no clues to figure out why.
Wondering if Zeno might know, she turned her gaze and met his eyes.
“Did you have something to say to me?”
“Huh? Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
Lilyphe waved her hand.
‘There’s no way he’d know.’
He seemed to know quite a bit for a familiar, but she didn’t think he’d know about text corruption phenomena.
The shop, the request board, the white pigeon—these things Zeno had told her about were all matters within the atelier. She considered the corrupted text to be related to the system.
So, even though Zeno, who was essentially a game character, seemed to know a lot, she assumed he wouldn’t know about the system.
‘He probably doesn’t even know this world is a game world, so how could he know about the system?’
No need to cause confusion with unnecessary talk.
Liliphe looked at the garbled request title text, then checked the requester, content, and reward.
“That’s shameless.”
The reward was meager compared to the request content. This fact didn’t sit well with Lilife.
The Philosopher’s Stone required pouring in multiple materials. It was an item that required a lot of effort to create.
If easy-to-make low-level item recipes were ‘Material + Material + Material’, then high-level item recipes were ‘Item + Item + Item’. The Philosopher’s Stone fell into the high-level item category.
Furthermore, the Philosopher’s Stone used the Ice Pellet Flower, a material only collectible in the White Snow Mountain. Incidentally, that flower was known to have a 1% acquisition rate.
It was a request that should yield at least ten million gold, yet the reward was only favorability. And she didn’t even know how much it would increase.
Liliphe looked at the Philosopher’s Stone request with displeasure, then read another request.
[The Bottom’s Fallen Out! What Do I Do…]
Requester: Rone (Resident of the First Tower)
Request Content: Basket ×1
Reward: 800G, Favorability+5
Period: Within 2 days
A request for a basket had a higher reward.
“They’re offering 800 gold just for a basket, are they joking? If I take that request, I’m a real sucker.”
“Is the request not good?”
“They want a Philosopher’s Stone, but the compensation is… here, look for yourself. You’ll find it absurd too.”
Lily took a step back and shifted her body so Zeno could see the board.
Zeno looked at the board, then turned back to Lily with a troubled expression.
“I can’t read the requests.”
“Huh? You can’t read?”
“No, it’s not that… It’s just that only the Atelier Owner can see the requests… Probably other familiars and residents see the papers on the board as blank, just like I do.”
“That’s fascinating.”
This was something she didn’t know in the game.
Lily asked how he knew so much, and Zeno moved his lips, muttering so softly only he could probably hear.
“…I’ve seen a lot……”
“Huh?”
To Lilype’s questioning, Zeno smiled and said it was nothing.
“You raised me by two stages, didn’t you? I suppose I’ve just learned a lot because of that.”
Zeno had evolved two stages thanks to the Growth Potion. His appearance had changed twice as well.
“You learn things like that when you grow?”
“Yes. It seems there’s a difference in abilities compared to the stage before growth.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Lily nodded in understanding, then paused.
She thought that not only the atelier, but Zeno the familiar had also inherited her play data. That’s why his level wasn’t reset to ‘3-Star Lv.0’ but remained ‘3-Star++ Lv.49’.
However, unlike his stats, it seemed Zeno’s memories hadn’t fully inherited the play data and were incomplete.
‘Zeno called me ‘Master’ when we first met.’
Therefore, she guessed that Zeno didn’t remember ‘Manon’. Since Liliphe and Manon looked distinctly different, if Zeno had memories from the play data, he would definitely know she wasn’t the atelier’s original owner.
‘But he remembers evolving two stages, yet he doesn’t recognize his owner?’
It was too strange no matter how she thought about it, so she finally brought up Manon’s name.
“Hey, Zeno. Are you sure I’m the one who made you grow? Isn’t your master Manon, not me……?”
“Manon? No. My master is you, Lilipe-nim.”
“And the person who made you grow? That person had silver hair, not black hair like me, so you couldn’t possibly get confused.”
“The person who made me grow was also you, Liliffe-nim.”
At Zeno’s firm answer, Liliffe scratched her head. Judging by the look in Zeno’s eyes, he was certain she was his master.
‘Is it because the original story hasn’t started? Because the Lilype I possessed is still the Atelier Owner?’
Currently, she was the Atelier Owner, so perhaps Zeno recognized ‘Lilipe = Manon’.
Unlike in <Atelier Tycoon>, Zeno seemed to have a sense of self, but the fact was, Zeno was just a game character. So, it was perhaps natural that Zeno the familiar was influenced by the system.
“You are my only master, Liliphe-nim. That will never change.”
The corners of Zeno’s mouth lifted, making his originally docile expression even softer.
Lilife had the frivolous thought that if he smiled brightly, he might just melt away entirely, then headed with Zeno to the Golden Fields.
With one more person, it was easier than before to carry the tools to the fields.
Arriving at the Golden Fields, Liliffe began cutting the barley with an awkward posture. Even though her posture was clumsy, the barley she cut was sliced to a uniform length, just like the barley she saw in the game.
She held the cut barley in her hand, and when she could no longer hold it, she tucked it under her arm. When even under her arm was full enough, she set it down on the ground and continued working.
Harvesting the barley was quickly finished, just like when planting the crops, and again, there was no stamina consumption.
But unlike before, a problem arose. The barley was scattered messily across the field, making it difficult to plant the next crop.
Liliphe looked at Zeno with a pleading expression.
“Liliphe-nim, didn’t you have the ability to summon tools from thin air?”
“That doesn’t work anymore……”
“Huh?”
Zeno seemed flustered by the mention of her not having a character-specific inventory, then rolled his eyes.
“Ah, sorry. I must have had a momentary confusion in my memory. I was going to say that I remember you sometimes used a box……”
“A box?”
She needed to clear the barley from the field to harvest the next crop, so Liliphe, who was gathering the barley into one spot, had a sudden idea upon hearing Zeno’s words.
“Oh, that’s a great idea! I’ll go get it from the house, so can you gather the barley in one spot for me?”
“Yes.”
Liliffe quickly ran back to the mansion. Then she lifted the smallest wooden box. It was about the size of a Boston bag, and luckily, it only felt as heavy as an empty wooden box.
When she returned to the Golden Fields with the box, Zeno had already gathered all the barley into one pile as she asked.
‘He’s kind and good at his work…!’
Looking at the piled-up barley, Liliffe didn’t hold back her praise for Zeno. If anything, Zeno seemed embarrassed by the praise and even scratched his head.
He looked so cute to Liliffe that her hand naturally went to his head. Liliffe was a bit taller than Zeno, so patting his head wasn’t difficult.
Zeno opened his already large eyes even wider and made eye contact with Lily.
“Because you’re cute.”
“Ah……”
“If you don’t like it, I’ll stop.”
Lilype wanted to pat cute things, but to increase Zeno’s favorability, she had to suppress her desire.
She wanted to maintain a good relationship; she’d rather avoid doing things he disliked and risk negative favorability.
“Ah, n-no, it’s fine. You can do it more……”
Zeno bowed his head, his fingers fidgeting incessantly
