Haven Online

Chapter 214: Property Management Office

After saying his goodbyes to everyone in the party, Xinya disconnected from the call and closed his interface. Without the blue semi-transparent screen impairing his vision, he was finally able to get a proper good look at the property management office that was in front of him. 

As he took in the building before him, a look of sheer bewilderment crossed his features. With the hastiness that could only be seen in cartoons, he opened his interface back up and pulled out his map once again. 

Quickly as he could he double-checked the name that was imputed to make sure that this was really the building he was looking for. It took him completely by surprise when he saw that it actually was.

Because in front of him, in between a busy pottery shop and antique mail office sat a small rundown wooden south-facing three-bay structure that was supposed to be the property management building. This confused him greatly since this wasn't how he expected the office to look like at all. 

Although he had never seen one of the offices in his last life, he did read about the one in Arkala on the forums before. Following the update, when needing to eat became a must, a lot of eager people started to want to buy farms. 

So a very nice player went out of their way to write a proper guide on the subject. Which detailed everything from how to purchase a farm to the best seeds players should start off planting with. Although he might have not remembered much from the guide, he did recall that the property management office didn't look like the one he was seeing.

Even as he stood there staring at the building in confusion, he couldn't help but wonder if after the update happened if the building would go through an upgrade as well. This sparked a memory in him of his previous life when new restaurants popped up in the town he was staying in during that time, making Xinya think that his assumption was probably correct.

Giving a slight shrug at the establishment appearance, Xinya began to walk towards the main door. No matter how it looked on the outside, as long as he could buy his farm he really didn't care all that much. 

Opening the giant brown door, the green-haired man stepped inside only to be surprised anew, at how different the inside looked from the out. It was as if he stepped into another place altogether.

Besides having an NPC behind a counter and three terminals that showed tiny holographic houses above them, the inside of the Property management office was entirely bare. Bare as in the wall, the floor was without any type of detail at all, it gave Xinya a feeling of incompleteness somehow.

'Not like I can blame the devs for not putting much effort into this place, it's not any players will try to use it at this time,' Xinya thought as he walked fully into the office catching the NPC's attention.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes, sonny boy," the orange eyes Dragonkin beamed from behind the counter. "I haven't had a customer come in person in years."

Walking until he was right in front of the man, Xinya asked, "Really, in years?"

"Yes siree, not in years. It happened after I put in the mailing system, which lets people buy and sell their houses through a catalog." the man replied regretfully in a southern twang.

Xinya had a feeling that this was something that only NPC homeowners were privy to since he never heard about it before in his last life. Not that the catalogs mattered anyway since most players won't be thinking about selling their homes once they get it, now renting it out was a whole other discussion altogether.

Smiling Xinya said, "Then I will be very happy to be your very first customer after such a long time." 

"Same here, sonny," the man told him gleefully before becoming serious. "So tell me how can I, Lei Tengfei be of service to you?" 

"Well, I would like to buy some farmland. One with a cottage if I have enough coins. Can you help me with that?" Xinya asked, giving the man a hopeful look.

Looking into the naive dark green eyes of the Dryad boy in front of him, Lei Tengfei wondered if the lad knew what he was getting into. Buying a farm wasn't a simple matter, especially if a person is short on coins.

Sighing to himself, Lei Tengfei had a feeling once the lad saw how expensive it was to own one, he would be leaving as quickly as he came, but until then he doesn't mind having the conversation. 

"I can help you with that, but before I show what's up for sale, I feel as though I need to educate you about the ins and outs of owning land," Lei Tengfei straightforwardly told him.

Even though Xinya had a feeling that he would know most of the things the man would tell him, he didn't mind getting a refresher. So with a nod of his head, he said, "Ok, tell me what I need to know."

"First of all, what you really need to know is that after you purchase a lease that won't be the end of the spending you will have to do for your farm," Lei Tengfei declared firmly, rubbing his scaly chin.

The man went on to tell Xinya about how there were property taxes from the town's bank that he needed to abide by. That every month he would need to pay 10% of what his land is worth at the time.

"What happens if I don't?" Xinya asked, wanting to make sure that he was thinking was right.

Noticing that the boy was hanging off his every word, Lei Tengfei puffed out his chest. "Well, sonny, if you are ever overly late in paying your taxes you would go into debt, and once you are in debt, the collectors would come for"

"Collectors? Who are they?" Xinya asked, cutting the man off in the middle of his sentence. He felt that he was a little fuzzy on this aspect since, after all, he never did have the experience of owning land before so he didn't really need to know this stuff.

"They are creatures that you would never want to meet," Lei Tengfei told him seriously. "If you go into debt, these shadowed like beings called Khn md, that the bank controls, will come to your farm and take anything you have of value until they have collected enough items to accumulate to the amount your debt is."

Xinya didn't remember reading about this at all, but he was glad he knew about it now. However he was still curious about something, "How about if I have some farm animals would they take those too?"

"Yes they would, when I said everything, I meant every single thing of value. But you will be able to get them back if you pay off your debt before 7 days," the orange-eyed replied.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Xinya said, "That's good to know."

Xinya knew that there was a 99% chance that he would never have to worry about any of this but there was still that 1%. And no matter how small of a chance it was he wasn't going to let it catch him by surprise. 

"So sonny," Lei Tengfei began with a curious look in his eye. "Do you still want to buy some land?"

"Yes, I still would like to," Xinya announced determinedly.