As interested as she was though, she didn't say Yes immediately.
Even with all these odd alien elements, she still knew that this wasn't a game at all, where people had many lives and NPCs were guaranteed to be harmless.
Even if there was an explicit note saying they couldn't do any harm to the territory, there was no mention of protection of the individual.
She might be much stronger than other Terrans, but who knew what would come out of this teleportation circle.
Her brain couldn't help but imagine a couple of scenarios that she really didn't like.
She cringed at the thought of zombies appearing all of a sudden, asking them to hire her with those creepy groans of theirs.
Ugh.
She shook her head and stared at the circle again in ponder. Her lips were pursed, before finally approaching it again.
While risky, a lot of good things tended to come from risk.
Not to mention, thinking about how the Universe system had always been objective and helpful… it would be such a pity to pass on this opportunity because she was afraid.
In the end, she decided to take a small leap of faith, and throw down a whooping 100 gold.
There was an option on not hiring anyway, she might as well study the options first.
[Yes]
[-100 Gold]
She watched as lighting from the pattern glowed and followed the lines outwards, remaining lit up indefinitely.
[Would you like to open the portal for 1 silver (1/3)]
Yes.
[-1 Silver]
Soon a holographic image of a man appeared, looking dazedly at the screen.
Althea could help but appreciate the magical technology before anything. The closest thing she could describe it was, like the game panel, a holographic image of sorts (which, by the way, was still being perfected in Terran).
At the same time however, it was not quite a hologram. It had a more 'airy' and translucent feel to it. More like the air itself was condensing to produce a colored image.
It was very magical.
It was only at this time that she finally took a moment to look closely at the person.
He was quite tall. He was plain looking but had soft features. He also had a semi-bald head, that was more pronounced on the side.
He also had an apprehensive expression on his face, which was a little amusing. Anyway, Althea moved on and shifted to look at his stats.
[Name: Madon Loo
Level: E
Abilities: Production of low level weapons
Wage: 10 gold per month
Confirm? Yes | No (1/ 3)]
Production of low level weapons? Her eyes brightened. Did it mean this person could produce weapons that damaged the monsters here? The wooden swords, bows and arrows, etc. that could do similar damage with their Terran guns?
However—
She pressed NO in the end.
She already had a weapons shop, there was no need for this. She could only hire one a day, what if there were better options at the back?
However, this overlap between building and person did make her curious. If she hired an NPC, would they be able to replace the use of a building?
Then she looked at the 'hologram' again, deep in thought. She wondered how would she start see the next option?
First she tried to swipe the image to the left, though the image only broke to pretty dust-like particles that recondensed to form the image.
She thought for a moment and uttered "next," and the image broke down.
[Would you like to open the portal for 1 silver (2/3)]
Yes.
The image of a 6 feet tall old man appeared. It seemed that everyone that appeared would be around or taller than this height? Even a crunched old man was taller than the typical Terran man.
[Name: Crutch Bendon
Level: D
Abilities: Production of low to mid level armors
Wage: 15 gold per month, food twice a day inclusive
Confirm? (2/3)]
This time she said Yes. Somehow, she doubted the next one would have a higher level.
Judging by the logic of the system, it was likely that the better quality NPCs would be available upon levelling up. Naturally, she wanted the best for her territory.
Of course, their monthly costs also increased.
When she made her choice, the light from the circle projected upwards, creating a light curtain. When the light dimmed, the same old man appeared within the magic circle.
Teleportation??
Oh my goodness. While she didn't know what to expect exactly, this was a bit… shocking to witness.
However startled she was though, Althea didn't show anything on her face.
The old man, on the other hand, was stunned when he saw her. It was only for a moment and he quickly caught himself and kneeled down. "My Lord."
"Get up." Althea hurrieldy said. "Just call me Althea."
The old man gaped, looking aghast. "That… isn't customary my Lord…?"
"People here don't know I'm the Lord, so please treat me like the others."
Crutch looked at her in incomprehension, not understanding why she did so.
Althea sighed and opened up her game panel, deciding where to place him at.
It just so happened that one of the new shops along the main commercial area hadn't been rented yet. She took down its availability.
"There's a house on this address. The ground floor is for commerical, the upper floor could be your sleeping quarters."
The man stared at her, confused.
"Not an armory, my Lord?"
"Is there a difference? I mean with what you would produce than what a building could."
Crutch seemed to be at a loss, as if he didn't think about this issue at all. "Not much, but our existence doubles the productivity of a building, at the minimum. That's all I know. I apologize my Lord."
Althea was relieved, it meant she wasn't wrong. A pity for the productivity, but who told her building slots to be filled up.
Anyway to sum, NPCs could, indeed, replace buildings.
"It's fine you helped me a lot." She said and the old man looked so honored Althea thought he'd have bowed if she didn't stop him.
At the same time, she thought of how other Terrans would choose in her position. They would probably opt to buy buildings instead of hiring NPCs.
The one-time cost of a typical commercial building was only 50 to 100 gold, and you could produce unlimited amounts as long as one gave the raw materials.
This was in contrast to the NPCs, which were paid 10 gold a month, at the cheapest, and their productivity would definitely not be 'unlimited'.
She couldn't tell which would upgrade faster, either, so her choice actually had a number of risks.
But, well, each to their own. She still believed in her intuition.