Let go of that monster girl!

Molen placed a few candy coupons on the pillow between the person and the cat.

"what is this?"

"Hmm, this is, Candy Coupon Meow."

Jimmy squinted at it, then reached out and scratched the cat's ear.

Who did it?

"We made it together, meow." Jimmy rubbed his eyes again, seemingly trying hard to remember.

"The Baron said before that he would give out a lot of candy at the opening ceremony, and the mice would definitely squeeze it until it melted, so the cats came up with a lot of ways to deal with it."

After she finished speaking, she turned around, stuck her butt out, and rummaged through the pile of clutter in the tent, her tail held high. She pulled out several items from under a pile of pillows and cat toys.

Jimmy held up a ceramic jar with green cat paws painted on it, which had apparently once contained catnip.

He shook it, and it rattled inside. Then he picked up an even smaller jar and shook it.

"This is the big jar, a jar that holds a hundred candies. This little jar holds ten candies. But we need too many jars, we don't have that many jars."

Jimmy put the jar aside and took out a long string of sugar cubes strung together with thin string.

She lifted the string of candy, and the weight of it immediately bent it into a precarious arc.

"This is a hundred beads, strung together, but it's so inconvenient to use, meow."

Jimmy casually pulled a loose candy from the pile of junk, handed one to Moran, and popped one into his own mouth, making a crunching sound as he chewed.

The berry candy melts in your mouth, sweet with a rich, tart berry flavor that's quite delightful.

"Some cats suggested that one berry candy represents many sugar cubes, but the Baron's sugar cubes are too pure and sell for much more than berry candy, meow."

Molen stroked his chin. "And then?"

"Then Miss Seventeen dug out the lottery tickets the cats used to make when they ran the amusement park, and said that we could try this method, since she could make anti-counterfeiting tickets."

After Jimmy finished speaking, he rubbed his little hands nervously and asked, "Is it not working well, Your Excellency?"

This is really true.

Very useful.

Molen simply didn't know how to describe this groundbreaking invention.

Copper, silver, and gold, as the most common equivalents, have two basic properties.

First, everyone recognizes its value.

Second, no one can monopolize its production.

In fact, copper, silver, and gold are not ideal currencies because as society develops, the amount of goods increases, but the amount of precious metals does not increase in tandem with societal development.

Especially for noble ladies, they often wished they could stuff all their gold into their warehouses to rot, and the supply of precious metals on the market was constantly decreasing.

Therefore, in feudal times, currency shortages and deflation were extremely common.

Each generation of rulers was aware of this problem to some extent, but their solutions were basically to introduce inferior currency with increasingly lower gold content.

Sugar, especially the sugar produced in Aishan, also possesses the properties of being equivalent to copper, silver, and gold.

No merchant really cares whether the gold coins are round or square, just as no one really cares whether the transaction is conducted with sugar or copper.

However, sugar as a form of currency has many drawbacks.

Unless it is stored properly in a centralized location, sugar is susceptible to moisture, mice, and rats.

Nearly half of the sugar that enters the market ends up in the rats' bellies, and the most troublesome thing is that Dwarf Mountain can't accurately know exactly how much the rats have eaten, so he has no way of knowing how much sugar is still circulating in the market.

But sugar coupons are a completely different thing.

Molen took out ten sugar cubes and a ten-candy coupon printed with black ink from his pocket and placed them side by side on the pillow in front of Jimmy.

"Mr. Jimmy, do you know the difference between these two?"

Jimmy squinted for a long time, feeling dizzy, then poked the sugar cube with one finger and then the sugar coupon.

"Can't I eat candy coupons, meow?"

"That's right, that's the greatest thing about sugar coupons."

Congratulations to the fox and cat merchants for just inventing "credit money".

Sugar coupons are sugar, but they are not sugar. They are easy to store and easy to count, so Aishan can easily keep track of the stock and flow of sugar coupons.

The most crucial point is that, regardless of its advantages and disadvantages, it is entirely controlled by Aishan.

Even if a large amount of sugar floods the market and causes devaluation, or if someone maliciously hoards sugar in an attempt to trigger deflation, Dwarf Mountain can easily manipulate the market by simply announcing that the value of sugar coupons will be exchanged for mithril or nutrient mushrooms.

This is a currency that is completely, 100% controlled by the rats.

Those who manipulate the rules will never outmaneuver those who set them; this is the underlying principle behind the right to mint coins.

Molen didn't even need to do anything; he simply redeemed the sugar coupons, ran the North Hill Market, and allowed the sugar coupons to spread as sugar trading expanded.

All the merchants and nobles who possessed these small cards would eventually realize one fact:

"Only when the low hills stand tall do sugar coupons have value."

Now, choose a side.

A bloodless war, using the sweetest weapons.

Of course, the rules of the game are not that simple.

"Mr. Jimmy, do you know what makes sugar coupons valuable?"

Jimmy sat cross-legged on the mat, his face flushed, his head drooping little by little, then suddenly lifting up again.

Molen seems to have seen it.

"Is it candy...meow?"

“It’s about reputation.” Moran put the candy coupon back on the pillow.

"The mice believed that every candy coupon could be redeemed for candy, and it was this trust that gave it value."

“Miss Jimmy doesn’t need to do anything. She just needs to manage the Dwarf Mountain Market well and demonstrate Dwarf Mountain’s credibility. Merchants will naturally gradually trust this new currency.”

Jimmy did not reply immediately.

Her cat ears slowly drooped down, her tail rested on the back of her little paws, and the drunkenness on her face seemed to have subsided somewhat.

She didn't care that only one of the straps was still hanging on her shoulder.

Her voice suddenly became much softer, losing its usual liveliness.

"Your Excellency, do you know why cats are always wandering?"

"Because in the ruins of Cat Territory to the east, there are still many useless cats."

"The cat always wanted to save money to bring them all to the sun-drenched north."

"But the North isn't really a good place either; stray cats have no home anywhere."

"If Your Excellency wishes for cats to no longer be strays, then..."

"Can you give the cat a home?"

Molen looked at the usually cunning girl in front of him, who had put away all her shrewdness and revealed her soft inner self, and asked the most basic question.

"Of course, I will arrange for the mouse to go to the cat's territory later."

The response to this answer was a kiss that tasted like berry candy.

The girl leaned forward, her face still flushed, and the other side of her sundress slipped down to her forearm.

"The cat once said... cats are very trustworthy..."

Chapter 133 The Carrot Family and the Ominous Business

Molen looked up at the sky.

The taste of a catgirl is really good...

Lem looked up at Moren, pouting, seemingly lost in thought.

Ahead, a dozen or so mouse girls were working together to stand a tall notice board upright, stacking it into a pile of mouse nails.

The notice board has flip-up wooden signs, each marked with a number, indicating a terrifying countdown, and next to it is a drawing of a brave rat girl holding a sword.

"With one heart and one mind, the rats will triumph over the heavens; let us prepare for the calamity of the month [100] days!"

If a passing mouse girl saw this, she would probably think that the Baron was looking up at this signboard and would admire the Baron for always caring about Dwarf Mountain.

In the blink of an eye, construction on the Aishan North Market has been underway for almost a month.

Today, the rats of the North Dwarf Mountain Market finally witnessed the scene they had been waiting for.

A large group of rat girls stood on tiptoe beside the mine tracks at the southern edge of the market, peering into the darkness.

"Are they here? Are they here?"

"Not yet, let's wait a bit longer."

"I think I heard a squeak!"

In the darkness of the distance, the clanging sound grew louder as it approached. The pale yellow glow of a fluorite lamp emerged from the end of the mine track, and a rat girl train slowly approached along the tracks.

Before the train had even come to a complete stop, the mice on board poked their heads out and waved their little hands at the mice on the platform.

"Squeak!"

Hello everyone!

"There are delicious honey cakes and berry candies here!"

"Really? Take me there, take me there."

"Follow me, follow me, turn left ahead and there's a stall up there."

The mice walked hand in hand into the depths of the market, chattering incessantly along the way.

The rats that remained beside the train began unloading. Box after box of exquisite metal products were carried off the carriages: polished iron pots, delicate hinges, and sets of knives and farm tools, all stacked on the platform.

Merchants immediately surrounded them, scrambling to pull out their sugar coupons.

"I want all of these iron pots!"

"I want twenty sets of these farm tools!"

"Excuse me, excuse me, I was here first!"

"Oh dear, why didn't I save any candy coupons!"

A little mouse girl ran up to Moren, stood at attention, and raised her little hand to her ear in salute.

"Reporting to the Baron, the journey has been very smooth. I don't know why we haven't encountered a single Chimera Beast!"

Molen actually had prepared a few actors and rehearsed the script for a while, but it seems there's no need to hype it up at all.

Quality is the best advertisement.

The merchants who had snatched the goods held these durable and inexpensive items high above their heads, their faces beaming with pride.

Merchants who failed to snag a bargain couldn't help but beat their chests in frustration, staring longingly at the empty shelves.

The merchants who were still observing gripped the silver coins in their pockets, wondering whether they should hurry up and exchange them for sugar coupons to make a quick profit.

Jimmy stood atop a wooden crate, holding a large brass megaphone, looking nothing like the drunkard who had been rolling around in a pile of pillows just yesterday.

"Queue up, queue up, meow! Don't push, meow! The train arrives every day, meow! If you want to trade, hurry up and exchange your money for candy coupons, meow!"

She looked radiant, her fur was shiny, and she reportedly hadn't even eaten breakfast.

Many merchants immediately realized what was happening and rushed to the sugar coupon trading point, taking out packets of loose sugar and silver coins to hand over to the counter.

"Change it, change it right now!"

"Give me fifty red ones!"

Beyond this bustling scene of peace, in the far reaches of darkness, the Exterminators have already abandoned their search for the ruins.

Whether or not they found what they were looking for, they began to withdraw their troops.

The colossal rune statue, as tall as a mountain, slowly rose to its feet, each step causing the earth beneath its feet to tremble. It marched northward, surrounded by countless knight golems and soldiers lined up in formation, forming a river of steel.