With Liyue's new city completed, along with other satellite towns still needing construction, these people were basically unavailable for reassignment.
As for Tsaritsa, for the time being, they couldn't help much. Many of the buildings in their base weren't finished yet.
Exploration and development of the new continent discovered by Beidou would require a large workforce. Conservatively, it wouldn't be fewer than three thousand people.
After Ryen cleared the second wave of monsters in the Twilight Forest, it would be time to send in a major force to explore resources. Given the dangers of the Twilight Forest, a thousand people would be the minimum safe number needed.
And that was without considering the potential launch of new modules later, which would require even more personnel for resource collection.
Four thousand people was the minimum number Ryen demanded for the next phase.
As the MC world developed and expanded, everything couldn't be built roughly like before. Cities, bases, structures — Ryen now required aesthetics and advanced design. Redstone technology also needed to be implemented.
After all, this was his world — the foundation of his existence. He didn't want his world to consist only of wild mines and landscapes. With too few people, it would be impossible to meet his standards for world development.
These four thousand newcomers were distributed evenly among the three nations of Liyue — one thousand each. As for Inazuma, it would depend on how Makoto arranged things when she returned.
One advantage of being constantly at war was that soldiers were always sufficient.
Tsaritsa, however, was a bit worried. The Fatui soldiers under Rosalyne and Tartaglia were still under evaluation; gathering even a thousand was difficult. Even if they managed, those thousand would also be responsible for development across this continent and other dimensions.
In other words, Tsaritsa still had to find personnel for the new continent's exploration.
The Cryo Archon almost looked like she was wearing her worry on her face. For a while, she had no solution and could only see if the public rooster and the others could squeeze out a few more people.
After chatting for some time, Makoto and Miko became increasingly aware of the uniqueness of this world. Taking everything into account, its potential absolutely surpassed everything else.
This meant cooperation was inevitable — and it had to be implemented as soon as possible.
With that in mind, Makoto basically confirmed when she would return to Inazuma. After resolving the Azhdaha issue tomorrow, she would set off to return. Once back, she would immediately reorganize Inazuma, aiming to stabilize the situation within three days.
Then she would remain in Inazuma to restore civilian life while allowing Yae to lead the development efforts. This was the best plan.
With this approach, combined with the resources that could be exported from this world, Inazuma's civilian life could be fully restored in less than a month.
After that… Makoto could finally breathe a little easier and come over to check on things.
With these plans basically settled in her mind, night had fully fallen.
Ryen and the others left the MC world and returned to the Jade Chamber to continue the banquet. It was both to celebrate Makoto's resurrection and to preemptively celebrate the addition of another powerful force joining their alliance.
The next morning.
Early, Zhongli knocked on Ryen's door.
Still half-asleep, Ryen rolled over, holding Lisa tightly.
But not long after, Zhongli knocked again.
This time, he woke Lisa, who groggily pushed Ryen.
"Go open the door… you're so annoying!"
Ryen frowned, his hair a total mess, and went to the door.
When he opened it, Zhongli and the others were already there.
Without any formalities, they greeted briefly and walked past Ryen into the courtyard.
"You're really something else!"
Ryen glanced at the sky — it was just sunrise — and immediately got annoyed.
"Was it really necessary to be in such a hurry?"
Zhongli leisurely sipped his tea and said calmly,
"One's plan for the day starts in the morning."
Ryen curled his lips, irritated:
"You deserve all this trouble! Don't you know the greatest happiness is to sleep until you naturally wake up?"
Zhongli paused, his voice low:
"Sorry… I'm an Archon."
"…"
Ryen ignored him and turned back inside.
"Call me when everyone's here!"
Groggy, Ryen didn't even realize that the room he returned to wasn't Lisa's, but Ganyu's.
But it didn't matter.
Ganyu was awakened by Ryen's movements, but once she realized what was happening, she nestled back into his arms and continued dozing.
The happiest moments weren't about sleeping until naturally waking up.
It was waking up, yet keeping your eyes closed, cuddled in your loved one's arms.
Awake, yet savoring the quiet while keeping your eyes shut.
Watching Ryen's figure disappear, Zhongli shook his head.
Beside him, Skybracer pointed out Zhongli's absurdity:
"Mr. Ryen is clearly someone stronger than even an Archon, carrying seven visions on him. Why does he need sleep? And he's cranky when he wakes up too."
Cloud Retainer gave Skybracer a disdainful glance, shook his head, and went to tend the farm.
"Ryen doesn't need sleep; he needs the quiet moments with little Ganyu. You bachelors will never understand."
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