Monster Country Federation, the next morning.
Bang!
"I can't accept it!"
Milim slammed her hands on the table, looking at everyone present with an angry expression.
"Milim, you have to accept it! Otherwise, we won't play with you!"
Zhong Chen said dismissively, unconcerned by Milim's anger.
"Why?! All I wanted was to go play by myself!"
Milim stared at Zhong Chen with teary, aggrieved eyes. Anyone unfamiliar with her might have been swayed by her pitiful expression.
But what kind of person was Zhong Chen? Milim, with her meager tricks, couldn't shake his resolve. Not a chance.
"Heh! Don't try that on me! It won't work!"
Zhong, the Iron-Faced and Ruthless, Chen, mercilessly declared her tactics ineffective.
To be fair, it wasn't that Zhong Chen was heartless.
He was simply afraid that if Milim acted alone, the entire world might face an apocalypse within seven days.
It definitely wasn't because he feared the world being destroyed by Milim, leaving them with nothing to play with. Absolutely not!
After all, they weren't good people… Pfft… They weren't bad people either!
"Waaah, waah, woo woo woo… A Chen is a bad guy… Woo woo… I won't be friends with you anymore!"
Zhong Chen: What kind of elementary schooler talk is that?!
Everyone watched Milim, who was sobbing loudly without any regard for her image, and chuckled behind their hands.
"Lady Milim, here… pudding!"
Milim's crying stopped abruptly when she saw the pudding Sakuya placed in front of her. Her movements were incredibly swift.
She picked up the spoon, scooped a mouthful of pudding, and put it into her mouth. Her tear-streaked face instantly broke into a satisfied smile.
"Mmm mmm… As expected of Sakuya's pudding, it's so delicious!"
"Lord Zhong Chen, who do you plan to bring to the New World this time?"
Kagaya Ubuyashiki, sitting in the first seat on the left, asked gently.
"Anyone can go! This time, I will open a permanent Dimensional Gate between that world and this one!"
"That world is covered in ocean. I will go ahead and build a small continent, and then you can bring the reserved construction capsules over!"
"We are going to establish a new city of the Monster Country Federation in that world!"
Zhong Chen sat at the head of the table, explaining the differences of this world to everyone present.
"The Dimensional Gate can actually be permanent? Does that mean Lord Zhong Chen won't need to open this gate anymore in the future?"
"It can actually be permanent?"
"This is truly…"
Hearing that this Dimensional Gate would be permanent, everyone present was involuntarily shocked.
One must know, this was no simple matter.
Previously, if they needed to travel between two worlds, Zhong Chen had to personally open the Dimensional Gate.
This meant they couldn't fully acquire resources from previous worlds.
After all, Zhong Chen was the boss of the Monster Country Federation. His subordinates couldn't bother the boss every time something came up, right?
Moreover, they always handled things themselves if possible, absolutely never bothering Zhong Chen or Rimuru.
This was why the top brass of the Monster Country Federation were all members of the Do-Nothing Organization.
They were all spoiled by their subordinates.
Now that they could freely travel between two worlds, there were simply too many things they could do.
"Speaking of which, this city doesn't seem to have a name yet!"
Shizue suddenly remembered that their current city had always been nameless, and then spoke up.
"That's true…"
"We've been so busy we forgot about it!"
"Wow! Then let's give it a name!"
Rimuru said excitedly, her exquisite and beautiful face filled with eagerness.
"Hmm! Then everyone, please offer your suggestions!"
Zhong Chen said, resting his chin on his hands.
"I propose calling it Demon City!"
Milim excitedly raised her hand and spoke.
"Milim, you are not a member of the Monster Country Federation, so your suggestion is invalid! Rejected!"
Zhong Chen directly delivered a decisive blow, sinking Milim.
"Woo woo…"
"Next!"
"I propose it be called Zhong Chen and Rimuru!"
Rigurd, with extreme excitement in his eyes but a serious expression, stated his suggestion.
"Rejected! What kind of terrible name is that?! Rigurd, you should spend some time in the academy studying cultural lessons!"
Before Zhong Chen could speak, Rimuru had already impatiently rejected the proposal.
"How about…"
"Rejected!"
"Then call it…"
"Rejected!"
"…"
Everyone's suggestions were successively rejected; the names they came up with were simply unacceptable.
Just as Zhong Chen was thinking that if nothing else worked, they could just call it Central City Rimuru, like in the original work…
The Monster Country Federation's chief strategist, general affairs officer, Kagaya, the Omnipotent, gently uttered a name:
"Since everyone always wants to combine Lord Zhong Chen's and Lord Rimuru's names, how about Chenlu City?"
"Central City, Chenlu? Not bad, actually!"
"That works!"
"As expected of Mr. Yaozai!"
Zhong Chen also pondered for a moment and found the name indeed good, so he asked Rimuru:
"What do you think?"
Rimuru, with a look of pleasant surprise, raised her hand and gave a thumbs-up, saying:
"Totally OK!"
"Alright, then it's settled!"
"From now on, the capital of the Monster Country Federation will be called Chenlu City!"
Everyone present nodded in agreement.
"Then this time, I will go ahead with the Royal Knights. Once I set up the Dimensional Gate, you can all come over!"
"Oh, and in the future, there might be more and more connected worlds."
"So, I plan to open up a dedicated alternate dimension for Dimensional Gates to serve as a transit hub. What do you all think?"
Zhong Chen thought that there would be more and more permanent worlds in the future, so he proposed his idea.
"I think that's a good idea. It will also facilitate the management of personnel traveling between different worlds later on!"
Kagaya Ubuyashiki nodded in agreement upon hearing Zhong Chen's suggestion.
"Then this alternate dimension shall be called the Dimensional Hub! As for who will be permanently stationed there, you can discuss it yourselves!"
"Then, there's nothing else to discuss, right?"
Zhong Chen looked at everyone present and asked.
"Nothing!"
"No problem here either!"
"Then, meeting adjourned!"
...Pirate World
The boundless azure sea was like a giant sapphire, stirred by the sea breeze, raising ripples. The entire sea area echoed only with the cries of seagulls, as if performing a grand concert.
Of course, the above is a more poetic description.
The actual situation was a rather unremarkable sea surface with a few seagulls flying by, and the seagulls, as if in heat, insisted on squawking a few times to assert their presence.
Just as one of the seagulls was about to squawk again, a hand grabbed it.
"If you make another sound, I'll roast and eat you! Understand?"
The seagull looked at the young man holding it and nodded frantically.
"That's more like it. Squawk, squawk, squawk, you're annoying me!"
With that, the young man released the seagull. Once freed, the seagull fled as if for its life, flying away quickly, terrified that this person would disregard martial ethics and seize it again.
At the same time, the seagull secretly decided to find its relatives who worked as news birds to blacklist this man.
"Lord Zhong Chen! Is this the New World?! Ah! It's simply marvelous!"
Diablo, dressed in a butler's tailcoat, was filled with the joy of discovering the unknown.
As someone who loved to explore the unknown, being able to personally explore a New World was, for him, a surprise second only to serving Rimuru.
"Haha! You'll love this world, Diablo!"
Zhong Chen said to Diablo with a smile.
"Then… let's choose here…"