“That’s expensive!”

My PP (power points) is not enough!

“Yeah, but surely, that excursion to your previous world couldn’t have cost that much right? I would be surprised if you used more than 0.1 power points. It was a magic-less world after all.”

"The cost of divine intervention is nothing like in Maldea."

Rina floated around, nodding her head.

She seemed to have confidence in her judgment.

“...”

“You didn’t use more than 0.1 power points, did you?”

“...”

“0.5? That’s salvageable. I can give you some of my own.”

“...”

“Don’t tell me!? 1 power point!? I know you are a ditz, but I don’t know you are this much of a ditz!”

“...”

“Hey, that’s not funny. I’m having cold sweat here.”

“Ehhh~, Rina-chan, what milk flavor do you want next? Carrot and mango? Or is carrot and strawberry okay? I found this new brand on Earth. It’s very sweet!”

“Huh? Why are we talking about milk now? I don’t care, just answer me, how much did you spend on your previous world?”

Rina approached me. There was a glint in her mascot eyes.

There was no expression on a doll’s face, but it was scary.

“Ehhh~hehe, hehe...”

I shakily tapped my fingers.

“I think it was...”

“Three points...”

“...”

“...”

There was a long silence between us.

Rina-chan’s doll face remained expressionless.

“It’s not my fault! It’s those artist's fault! Their drawings are too good! I have to commission all of them!”

“And those editors too, they kept doing the footage wrong, so I had to call them back and get everything right!”

“And, and the milk cartons! They cost a lot of you know! It was … a luxury item on Earth. Yes! It’s expensive to materialize them!”

“So you’re saying, it’s my fault, too?”

“Ehh, ehh, no...”

Rina flew closer.

“While I’m busy min-maxing the HELL of our protection barrier, which minds you, it’s the only thing that stood between us and thirsty gods that want to eat your soul. YOU! You had the time and audacity to waste your precious PP on other people!”

“I have always wondered how a goddess could waste 2,000,000 points on a single world, now I know the goddamn reason!”

“You’re so god . freaking . useless!”

Rina slapped me in the face with her hand muff.

“Uwaaaa! Mom, mom, don’t kick me out of the house! I will behave! I won’t spend your money on useless things anymore! Pwease don’t kick me out! I don’t wanna be homeless!”

“Wha-hey! Stopped squishing me! I can’t breathe! And who is your Mom!?”

“Mom! Noo, Rina-chan! Please don’t kick me out! Promise you won’t kick me out!”

“I get it! I get it! I can’t even kick you out if I want to, so let me go! It’s too tight!”

“Uwaaa…”

Rina hurriedly escaped from my arms and took distance.

“Seriously though, how could you even be a goddess? My head hurts.”

Rian shook her head.

It was puzzling to me as well.

“I don’t know either...”

Rina let out a long sigh.

“Whatever … let’s be rational about this.”

“With 7 power points, you would only have 2 power points left after manifesting, so that would only be enough for 200 bodies.”

“No! It must be 500! My company has officially announced that and all tester slots were pre-ordered! If we stepped down now, it would be irredeemable!”

My company’s public image would be destroyed!

“It’s not possible! The cost of 500 new humanoid bodies could never be as low as 2 power points, unless you want all of them to be missing an arm and a leg or something. Why do you always have to make things so goddamn hard for me!?”

“I’m sorry…”

Mom (Rina-chan) is mad.

“Hmmph! Just shut up for a moment, I’m racking my brain here.”

Rina scrunched her forehead. 

“There might still be a solution.”

“You have one?”

My eyes were beaming.

Mom (Rina-chan) is reliable after all.

As expected of my hugging doll.

“Create 500 animal bodies, or goblins, I don’t know. They are cheaper.”

“...”

That was not what the marketing team drew up.

 [Maldea Saga] was supposed to have the classic RPG elements.

“If I do that, my game is gonna get one-starred to oblivion...”

“Didn’t you say people on Earth are easy? That this RPG system of yours would work no matter what since people will be desperate to play it?”

Rina lazily floated among space.

“No, it’s not as simple as that, Rina-chan. I sold the slots to not only rich people, but many famous influencers too. If the experience is contradictory to what they were promised, no matter how objectively good the experience is, they would still get frustrated.”

“And if they complain to their audience, the reputation of my PP (power points) farming system will be ruined.”

“If you can think that much, then why can’t you just stop being such a wastrel? Is it that hard?”

Rina rolled her eyes at me.

“... it’s hard.”

I muttered.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Rina scrunched up her doll's face.

"Ehhh~, nothing..."

"Whatever, just drop the quality of your game down a bit. No one gives a damn anyway."

"No!"

“You little...”

"Rina-chan!"

"What?"

I looked at her earnestly.

“I want the game to have a perfect image, so that I could open the door wide to the second testers, and then the third testers, open beta players even.”

“They would have no qualms enjoying a new world that they could only see in their dream, and have fun with their friends to the fullest.”

“Such is the spirit of MMORPGs. I don’t want a half-hearted mimic.”

"The reason I painstakingly created every detail of Maldea was for this day too. It's my life's work."

Rina silently looked at me.

There was disgust in her eyes.

“Nice speech. But you still don’t have enough power points.”

“I know...”

"Uwa...what to do, what to do..."

As we, one god and one doll(?) still deep in our thoughts, there was a ‘ding’ sound from my Outer Palace.

megege

About Rina, you can think of her appearance as Amber's doll from Genshin Impact (look it up if you have never played GS, it's cute)