The Red Dragon Lord is OP, but Insists on a Pop Culture Invasion! Chapter 97: Tackling a Tough Challenge with Miss Toto

San Andino City, in the Pope’s Country, was the hotown of the Bishop of Twin Tower City.

It was also the city with the most supporters for the Bishop’s faction.

Rows of white houses with red-tiled roofs, resembling rows of mushrooms, stretched across the hillside.

It was not a very large city. Its primary industry was hand-weaving.

When the entire traditional textile industry was hit by steam-powered looms, this region was one of the few that transitioned smoothly to handmade custom goods.

Its second major industry was brewing.

The wine produced here was in constant high demand. It was said that the best was offered to the Goddess, while the next best was sold to the public.

Every day, ships loaded with oak barrels departed, leaving behind the much-beloved Gold, Silver, and Copper Coins.

The nations of the Continent all used similar monetary systems, with only slight variations in design.

The lay believers did not have to follow such strict precepts, so drinking and brewing alcohol was naturally considered reasonable.

However, the ones who could brew the best "fernted wheat juice" and "fernted grape juice" were the clergyn in the monasteries.

All in all, San Andino City was a relatively prosperous city.

It wasn’t as wealthy as Twin Tower City, but no one had to share a rental in the remote suburbs and spend several hours commuting each day.

They didn’t have to cram into horse-drawn carts for work, sotis falling asleep on their feet.

When people had spare money and so free ti, their thoughts would turn to entertainnt.

However, in the Pope’s Country, there had never been many entertainnt options available to the common folk.

That was, until the Bishop who had traveled far to Twin Tower City sent back products from the Zog Group.

Toys and comics imdiately beca all the rage, and mahjong was especially well-received by everyone from eighteen to eighty.

You could always bla a loss on bad luck, which made the frustration of mahjong far less than that of traditional board gas.

It was also more addictive.

Being one tile away from a Nine Gates hand only to have soone else win with a simple ld could make you wake up angry in the middle of the night for days afterward.

Novels over a million characters long, which had failed to sell in other cities, found an audience here.

Perhaps because believers were required to read scriptures, the literacy rate in the Pope’s Country was significantly higher than in other nations.

But of all the products, the most sought-after were undoubtedly the gas.

Those who knew Magic could activate a Red Middle Rune and open the door to a new world.

As for those without a talent for Magic, they could only wait with longing to play on one of the few available ga consoles.

All the ga consoles in the city belonged to the Church. To ensure fairness, a few consoles were allocated to each neighborhood based on its population.

The opportunity to play was decided by a lottery.

If you didn’t win, then unfortunately, it ant you weren’t pious enough toward the Goddess, because the Goddess grants good fortune to Her most devout followers.

Residents had no choice but to use money to solve their luck problem, and a second-hand market for ga tickets quickly erged.

The small paper tickets were once scalped for exorbitant prices.

There were always rumors that the Church secretly controlled the market, but others refuted this, since the winners didn’t cover their faces when they went to claim their prize.

The prices for different ga tickets varied greatly.

For example, for the ga called *Holy Mountain Journey*, it took twenty of its tickets to trade for just one ticket for auto chess, and even then, the trade was hard to make.

Everyone believed that the ga, by using the na of the Holy Mountain, was an insult to the Holy Land and that the Judgnt Court should punish its creator.

Today, however, the bustling ga ticket market was deserted. Everyone’s attention had been captured by sothing else.

Big news: a cargo ship full of Magic Vision Devices was about to arrive at the port.

At seven o’clock tonight, every community church would be holding a free Magic Vision screening.

They would be broadcasting a live stream of Priest Andrei’s ga.

The whole city was in an uproar. Everyone was asking, "Who is Andrei?"

Soone imdiately stepped up to claim a connection.

"Isn’t that so-and-so’s kid, little what’s-his-na? I used to hold him when he was a baby! Look at him now, he’s made it big, getting on Magic Vision..."

Of course, this kind of na-dropping didn’t always work.

"I know! He’s the designer of *Holy Mountain Journey*! I saw his na first in the credits when I beat the ga!"

Soone in the crowd shouted.

The person who had just been boasting about Andrei’s glorious achievents imdiately changed his tune.

Just a mont ago, it was all about how Andrei loved reading the scriptures since he was a child, and how he had taught the boy everything he didn’t know.

Now, it was that they weren’t actually that close, and that the boy insisted on pestering him with questions but could never learn a thing.

The others paid no mind to his theatrics. They were more shocked that soone had actually managed to beat that miserable ga. What a glutton for punishnt.

The person who beat the ga forced a smile, savoring the crowd’s brief mont of awe.

Inwardly, though, his heart was bleeding.

When the *Holy Mountain Journey* ga consoles first arrived, he had been certain that a ga with such a na would be popular in the Pope’s Country.

So, he had hoarded a large number of ga tickets at a price of 20 Copper Coins each. Now, he couldn’t even sell them for 1 Copper Coin a piece.

He had no choice but to play them himself. It was hard to even match with a teammate, so he ended up giving tickets away for free just to get people to party up with him. He eventually cleared all twelve parts of the ga and still had several hundred tickets left.

Although no one was particularly interested in Priest Andrei’s creation, they were still curious to see the Magic Vision.

At seven in the evening, every community church was filled with people.

The larger churches were especially packed, as they had been allocated the 55-inch, high-spec Magic Vision Devices.

People were even squatting in the aisles, their heads tilted up toward the screen at the front of the church.

The seven o’clock bells rang, and the Magic Vision Device’s screen lit up right on ti.

An image appeared. The main part was the Illusion generated by the ga console. In a box in the bottom-left corner was a Priest, and in a box in the bottom-right was a Half-Elf, who appeared to be the one controlling the ga.

At the top were two sets of numbers.

One was next to a heart-shaped icon, with a number fluctuating between 60 and 70.

The other was next to a Gold Coin icon, and it displayed a 0.

The audience stared at the screen, murmuring amongst themselves.

"Wow, are they trapped in that box? How terrifying! What kind of dark magic is this?"

"No way. There are so many Magic Vision Devices. You couldn’t fit two people in one of them."

"Soul Capturing Technique! It must be the Soul Capturing Technique!"

The church’s Priest gestured for everyone to be quiet as a voice ca from the Magic Vision Device.

"Twin Tower City Magic Vision Station, Twin Tower City Magic Vision Station. We are now live with ’Overcoming Obstacles with Miss Toto.’ I am your comntator for this stream, Andrei, and on the other side is the one and only Miss Toto, whom you all know."

Priest Andrei took on the role of host and announcer.

"’Live’ ans that what you all see before you on the Magic Vision Devices is happening right now, in real-ti, in Twin Tower City. Anyone can matchmake at any ti to play alongside Miss Toto.

"Let explain the rules for this stream. If you match with Miss Toto and clear a difficult stage, both of you will be rewarded with one Gold Coin. The ga ends if you return to the starting point.

"Additionally, every ti Miss Toto’s heart rate exceeds 100, she hits the ga console, or she uses indecent language, one Gold Coin will be deducted from her personal total as a penalty. Both numbers are displayed at the top of the screen."

The rules were very simple. Everyone understood.

"Is it really happening in Twin Tower City? That’s so far from here," soone said doubtfully.

"Has anyone here bought this ga? Try activating the Rune and matchmaking."

"Who would buy that ga? You’d have to be bored out of your mind."

"But you can win Gold Coins."

"It’s not that easy. I played for two hours with a ticket and went back to the start sixteen tis. You’d have to be sick in the head to play this thing."

"But you get to play with Toto! Except for auto chess, where she hasn’t played enough matches, what ga isn’t she number one in?"

"Yeah, I know, but you need two people to play this ga."

Amid the chatter, the first matchmade player connected, and the ga officially began.

Toto skillfully led her partner through the first two easy stages. She was controlling a character with arms but no legs and was now clinging to a cliff at the start of the third stage.

"Follow my lead. Swing left, then accelerate right, land on that platform over there, hold the jump button for one second, and get above ."

The other player lived up to everyone’s expectations.

Their charged jump fell short. They slamd into the side of the cliff and tumbled all the way down, the inertia dragging Toto down with them. Such a realistic physics system! Both of them were sent back to the start.

"Ga over. Prize money: Two Gold Coins," Priest Andrei’s voice announced.

"Son of a bitch!"

Toto was a forr Thief, after all. Old habits die hard.

"Indecent language. Minus 1 Gold Coin."

"Wait, ’son of a bitch’ counts?"

"Indecent language. Minus another 1 Gold Coin."

Toto’s temper flared.

"Heart rate over 100. Minus 1 Gold Coin."

An achievent popped up on the ga screen at the perfect mont.

Welco Ho, tee-hee.

The accompanying image was a smug-looking yellow ball with a laughing face.

Toto finally snapped.

"BANG!"

She kicked the ga console.

"Attacking the ga console. Minus 1 Gold Coin."

"Doesn’t it have to be a fucking slap to count?"

"Indecent language. Minus 1 Gold Coin..."