I Am an Emperor in a World of Mixed Anime

With Teacher Xiao Liang by my side, how could I be inferior to that Liu Shan?

"Having the Prime Minister is better than having a million soldiers!"

Higashino Akira sincerely exclaimed, "Even a million-strong army can't withstand firearms, and it's difficult to arrange identities for unregistered people, but with Zhuge Liang, things are different."

I could change my surname right now and go and create four great Han dynasty sites!

"You flatter me, my lord. The position of prime minister is now a thing of the past. Since I have answered the call, I must take care of the emperor's affairs. From now on, please just call me by my courtesy name, Liang."

"Hmm, that works too..."

Seeing that his new lord was at least someone who would listen to advice and didn't give the impression of being an unworthy ruler at first glance, Kongming felt much more at ease.

This encounter was truly bizarre and fantastical, like a dream.

However, having answered the call, Kongming did not intend to be perfunctory. Although the past was now history, at least he could stay in the future and take a good look at this era for his old friends.

"Now that our lord's great cause is just beginning, it is a time when he needs men. I am afraid that I alone cannot support the army. However, an army cannot move until its supplies are ready. I wonder if our lord has a plan, how much military rations have been collected, and how many men are available?"

Kongming attempted to clarify the current situation for the new lord and discuss important plans together.

However, once Higashino Akira received a gold medal, his initial fervor for meeting a legendary figure cooled down.

"There's no rush. We have a general idea, but we're not in a hurry to implement it. As for whether it's complete or not, we won't discuss that for now."

"Right now, the most urgent thing is for you, Kongming, to understand the present world, learn the local language and common sense before we can discuss anything else."

"As for capable people, in the early stages of starting a business, quality is more important than quantity. I have Zhuge Liang, who is far superior to a million people!"

"Ah, am I the only one here?" Kongming was a little confused, and suddenly felt a slight pain in his liver.

"Hey, in this day and age, we're all about streamlined operations and taking unconventional approaches."

Higashino Akira put his arm around Kongming's neck, looking like two good buddies, and led Kongming out of the alley. "Besides, once Kongming understands more about this era and the current situation, he'll know why having too many people isn't necessarily a good thing."

After all, we can't just start by saying that what we're going to do is secretly establish a country in another sovereign state, use it to our advantage, and eventually take over the country, right?

Faced with his lord's words, Kongming could only smile wryly and resign himself to his fate.

Passersby along the way were amazed by the lifelike Zhuge Liang and many people took the initiative to ask if they could take a photo with him. However, since Zhuge Liang did not understand Japanese or what taking a photo meant, Higashino Akira politely declined.

Instead of taking Kongming home, Higashino Akira found a hotel near the language school, booked a room for him, prepaid a month's room fee, left him a lot of cash, and told him to rest well and come back to see him the next day before leaving alone.

On my way home, I also bought a scratch-off lottery ticket.

Chapter Eight: We'll use buying

There's no rush to scrape it off.

Akira Higashino bought scratch-off lottery tickets simply as an exploration of whether the way the system's daily monetary rewards were obtained was affected by his own behavior.

He had received 10,000 yen twice in the past two days. The first time was when a senior from his school club sent him a message informing him that he had sold a piece of his work. The second time was when a junior high school classmate he hadn't contacted in seven or eight years and who wasn't actually very close to him suddenly added him as a friend and transferred 10,000 yen to him, saying it was to repay money he had borrowed and forgotten about.

Back in junior high, Higashino Akira didn't have a cell phone, let alone any social media accounts. Heaven knows how many people this classmate had to ask before finding his account and adding him as a friend, since even Higashino Akira couldn't quite remember that he had borrowed money from that classmate.

These methods might be acceptable once or twice, as the source of the monetary rewards can be reasonably explained. However, if this happens repeatedly, outsiders might notice something amiss.

As long as he doesn't give himself away, Higashino Akira doesn't think anyone will know he has a cheat code, but it's still necessary to take the initiative to make some expansion attempts just in case.

When I got home, the living room lights were still on, and I could hear the TV program playing from the entrance hall. When I walked over, I saw a girl in pajamas on the sofa, hugging a pillow and dozing off.

"Why don't you go to sleep if you're sleepy?"

The sudden noise startled the drowsy Miko Yotsuya awake. She turned around and saw Akira Higashino casually draping his long trench coat over the sofa. "Welcome back, Onii-chan. There's still hot water in the bathroom. The food can be heated up in the microwave..."

Upon hearing this, Higashino Akira suddenly looked at her with a serious expression. "So you were waiting for me to come back?"

Yotsuya Miko did not respond, fearing that she would be seen as seeking credit or acting like an immature child who couldn't stand being without an adult and was being spoiled.

Seeing the girl staring at him nervously and silently, Higashino Akira paused for a moment and said, "You don't need to wait for me to come back. I've only been staying here more frequently lately. I have other places to stay. When I'm out and about, I might just stay at the school dormitory or somewhere else for one night. Even when I come back to stay, there might not be a fixed time."

"Feel sorry."

Miko Yotsuya's voice was somewhat low, indicating that she was feeling very down.

It wasn't as easy as I thought to get along with him. I'm sorry to have disappointed you, Mom.

Get some rest.

"Ah."

Yotsuya Miko obediently got up, put down the cushion, and walked towards the bedroom.

"Oh, right," the 'older brother's' voice suddenly sounded from behind, "Thank you."

Yotsuya Miko's eyes widened immediately, and she turned around to look at him in disbelief.

Higashino Akimasa took a small sip of warm water.

"If you don't go to sleep soon, and you're late for school tomorrow, I won't let you get away with it when the school calls back."

Is he just being arrogant?

Yotsuya Miko muttered a few words of complaint, and the disappointment in her eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a surge of energy.

Praise Mom!

"Right? Jianzi and Xiaoming are both good kids. Good kids can get along well as long as they are a little more honest with each other."

"You did a great job, Zi!"

The wife, unseen by ordinary people, smiled with relief, watching tenderly as her daughter passed straight through her body and walked into the bedroom.

In the living room, watching two burly men with full beards wrestling on TV, Higashino Akira was speechless and couldn't help but want to make sarcastic remarks.

What are these things? Do female high school students these days like to watch such hardcore shows in private?

After turning off the TV, Higashino Akira went into the bathroom to wash up. To be honest, he had already slept a lot during the day and couldn't feel sleepy at all.

At exactly midnight, Akira Higashino scratched off the scratch-off lottery ticket he had bought and checked the information on it.

You'll receive 20000 yen. You can exchange it when you go out to run errands at dawn.

Almost immediately afterward, my phone beeped with a notification that the transfer had been completed.

[Dreaming of becoming a rich woman in Tokyo: That junior is here again, she bought another calligraphy copybook from you. Congratulations, junior, your net worth has doubled!]

[Higashino: I still have calligraphy practice books?]

[Dreaming of becoming a rich woman in Tokyo: It's like those draft papers you used for practicing calligraphy that you didn't throw away—they got bought!]

[Higashino: ...]

[Dreaming of becoming a rich woman in Tokyo: Speaking of which, it seems she really does have a crush on you, Higashino.]

[Higashino: Why do you always contact me in the middle of the night?]

[My dream is to become a rich woman in Tokyo: because I've already sold my daytime hours to life.]

[Higashino: Good night.]

[Dreaming of becoming a rich woman in Tokyo: A man who doesn't understand romance!]

With 20,000 yen for lottery tickets and 20,000 yen for calligraphy practice books, I've got 40,000 yen in total.

Although the latter is somewhat subtle, the idea of ​​proactively expanding revenue channels and giving the system more options for its efforts has indeed been effective.

After all, you can't sell drafts every day, can you?

Where do all these drafts come from? Besides, these things need to be thrown away regularly. If you really want them, you can just say so and take them. There's no need to spend money at all.

What a strange junior!

The next morning, Higashino Akira got up early and left home almost at the same time as Yotsuya Miko, who was going to school.

While it was still early and there weren't many people doing business, Higashino Akira went directly to the bank to apply for a mortgage loan, using the house he inherited from Old Deng as collateral to borrow 75 million yen from the bank.

The house isn't that important, but the land has to be bought!

Even if we can't snowball the effect, buying a little bit is better than nothing.

After all, land in Higashino Akira's hands can really generate money.

Having made thorough preparations and arranged a meeting place with a real estate agent, Higashino Akira bought some things along the way and went to the hotel to visit Kongming first.

He knocked on the hotel room door, and it opened quickly. Kongming had been waiting for a long time, dressed in his finest clothes.

"Greetings, my lord."

"No need for formalities. It's already this late, let's eat first. I brought you breakfast, Kongming."

Higashino Akira handed over the packed breakfast and casually placed the other bags on the bed, opening them one by one. "This is a cell phone, a tool used to communicate with each other in this era. You can think of it as a carrier pigeon, but it has more functions and is more convenient. I will teach Kongming how to use it later, as well as two sets of clothes to change into."

Kongming, holding the lunchbox, asked, "Does my lord have something to do next?"

"Go and expand our territory."

"A war is brewing?"

“No, that’s too barbaric.” Higashino Akira shook his head. “We’ll buy it with money.”

"..."

Even a wise strategist like Zhuge Liang was momentarily stunned and remained silent for a long time.

"Then shall I accompany my lord?"

"No need. I have other plans for Kongming. There will be many areas where Kongming will need to exert his efforts in the future. Before I need Kongming to come out of seclusion, Kongming just needs to wait patiently."

Chapter Nine is not a buddy...

At the language school, Akira Higashino brought Kongming here and enrolled him.

Learn two languages: modern simplified Chinese characters and Japanese.

Looking at Kongming, dressed in a long robe and wearing a feather fan and turban, sitting upright in the classroom surrounded by a group of junior and senior high school students, Higashino Akira nodded in satisfaction.

We have to learn Japanese, since we're practically deep behind enemy lines, and we can't afford to be unable to communicate.

At noon, Higashino Akira met up with the real estate agent at the place he had arranged beforehand, where the agent had been waiting for a long time.

The agent was a man in his thirties, dressed in a well-tailored suit, named Masahiko Sato. He was already waiting at the agreed-upon coffee shop. Upon seeing Akira Higashino, he warmly greeted him and exchanged business cards.

After exchanging pleasantries, Sato got straight to the point: "Mr. Higashino, you mentioned on the phone that you wanted to look at land plots or properties with large plots of land. I wonder what your specific budget and size requirements are?"

"A budget of 70 million is available initially, payable in installments. The larger the area, the better." Higashino Akira said calmly as he accepted the coffee from the waiter.

“Seventy million…” Sato thought for a moment, then asked, “Are there any bank loans available?”