"Holy shit…"
As I opened the Sovereign Shop and looked around, I was speechless.
Turns out, the Sovereign Shop was a store that allowed me to manage my citizens!
How?
Because through this shop, I could obtain some really, really nice things called Sovereign Skills!
Right now, my Sovereign Shop was only level 1, but it already presented me with 5 skill options:
[Eye of the Overlord]
Type: Passive
Description: A passive skill that allows you to observe the basic status of any citizen under your rule.
Cost: 20 points
[Lord's Blessing — Level 1]
Type: Active
Description: Spend points to enhance a citizen's attributes or even upgrade their skills.
Cost: 20 points
[Rule Maker]
Type: Active — Toggle
Description: Spend points to create rules that your citizen will be rewarded if they follow or punished it they break them.
Cost: 150 points
[Quest Creation]
Type: Active
Description: Grants the ability to assign basic quests to your citizens.
Cost: 20 points
[Tax Collection — Level 1]
Type: Passive
Description: Each citizen will generate points for you daily. Upgrading this skill increases the amount of points generated.
Cost: 200 points
(More skills will be available once you upgrade the Sovereign Shop.)
***
Yeah, isn't this amazing?
If I had these skills, I would be able to not only see my citizens' stats, but also influence their growth and even issue quests!
I could already see the endless possibilities.
Like… give my citizens a quest to kill monsters, get points, upgrade my shop, use points to level up my citizens, then give them even more challenging quests!
It's like I'm playing a video game now!
Sure, I wasn't the best when it came to RTS, strategy, or kingdom management games and such, since I was more of a hack-and-slash, waifu-collector gacha kind of guy, but regardless, this still sounded fun!
Still, one question remained though… how the heck was I supposed to get citizens?
I had already tried to grant citizenship to animals. But the birds, deer, and raccoons simply weren't intelligent enough. Because of that, I couldn't grant them citizenship and ended up losing points for nothing.
Then…
Do I have to wait for an actual human to wander into my castle?
Hmmm….
Just then, another idea flashed into my mind.
Wait…
WAIT A MINUTE!
GOBLINS!
From what I had seen, goblins were quite stupid creatures. The fact that they fell for the simplest bait imaginable was more than enough proof. However, they were still intelligent enough to make basic clothing and use weapons. They even had their own language…
Surely… that had to be enough to meet the skill's requirements, right?
Well, there's no harm in trying!
***
And so, I eagerly waited for the next goblin to appear, ready to test whether I could finally grant citizenship or not.
A few days later, another goblin appeared. This time, there was only one.
Finally! It's time to get my first citizen!
And shortly after, I was already focusing on that little guy, who was happily sinking its teeth into the fat piece of steak I'd used to lure him into my territory.
"Alright, system. Grant this dude citizenship!"
[Ding!]
[Would you like to use Citizenship Granting on Level 7 Forest Goblin?]
[Cost: 6 Points]
What?!
I was confused at first.
Previously, granting citizenship to animals had only cost 1 point. But this time, it cost six?!
Well… that was understandable, I guess?
I suppose that was because the goblin's level was much higher than previous animals.
Luckily, I had enough points.
Points remaining: 7
So, I gave my approval.
"System, just do it!"
And the system complied.
[Attempting to grant citizenship to Level 7 Forest Goblin…]
As the skill was in process, the goblin froze, then glitched in place for a few seconds, similar to how the animals reacted when I tried to grant citizenship to them.
Meanwhile, needless to say, I was now insanely nervous.
Come on…
Come on!
For some reason, this reminded me of those monster-catching games, where you throw a ball and then pray to every god you know that the capture succeeds!
Surely… I wouldn't need to beat this goblin half to death before granting it citizenship, right?
However—
[Citizenship Granting Failed!]
[Reason: The target lifeform is intelligent enough. But affinity is too low, it will not voluntarily submit to you!]
[Hint: Citizenship Granting requires recognition of the Sovereign.]
AAAAAAAAAAAAA FUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKK!
COME ON, SYSTEM! WHAT DO YOU EVEN MEAN?!
AFFINITY?!