Chapter 126: The Undead Bears a Heavy Responsibility!
The spider's nest that leads directly underground to Exile Town is the first novice monster spawning point "designed" by Yang Qiu for players.
When Yang Qiu was "designing" this monster spawning point, he certainly put a lot of thought into it.
In order to ensure that there would be a steady supply of first-level spider monsters to provide "services" to the players around the clock, he first explored around and found a giant cave, then painstakingly cleared out spider holes and spider nests within a radius of dozens of miles, and forcibly gathered all these various "species" of low-level spider monsters into the same cave.
This unreasonable and forced co-existence operation has led to a bizarre situation where multiple monsters are "mixed" in a monster nest - this situation would never happen in the real monster ecology - but players are satisfied as long as they can kill monsters and get loot, and they don't care about the monster ecology problem.
But... the frequency of monster "refresh" is to meet the needs of players to squat and kill monsters, and the problem of excessive monster density has arisen again - not to mention the newbies who have just been "born", even fully armed veteran players who go in to kill monsters may cause monster riots, resulting in casualties or even the destruction of the whole team if they are not careful. This is not uncommon.
After the opening of Desolate Stronghold and the addition of the Poison Mist Swamp, a spawning point that can lure out single monsters, players' enthusiasm for the Spider's Lair, where monsters are easier to kill, has greatly cooled. As long as they can form a group of knights who can carry monsters, they will run to the Poison Mist Swamp. This already shows that the "design" of the Spider's Lair as a spawning point for novices has failed...
Although the spider's nest is a poor design as a novice monster spawning point, spider venom sacs are still relatively commonly used spellcasting and alchemical materials. Players still need to hand in spider venom sacs when changing jobs, exchanging reputation, and obtaining designated equipment materials for the Undead Chamber of Commerce, so Yang Qiu does not plan to change it... just develop a novice monster spawning point that is less difficult and easier to survive.
The open-pit coal mine area is located in a hilly area. There are large areas of rocky beaches with exposed surface and only weeds and moss growing on the west and north sides, dense forests on the east side, and a natural river passing by in the south, with large tidal flats on both sides of the river.
Yang Qiu climbed up a hill about a hundred meters high and looked around.
From time to time, the roars of monsters could be heard from the dense forest in the east. At the end of the sight, one could vaguely see a gigantic harpy rising and falling among the treetops deep in the dense forest.
On the slightly closer southern mudflat, there were a large number of muddy mud monsters and rotten-skin crocodiles with half their bodies buried in the mud.
The large rocky beach in the northwest seemed calm, but when a lizard was crawling over a seemingly ordinary thorn bush, a sandworm as thick as a thermos bottle suddenly emerged from the sand, bit the lizard, and retracted into the sand at lightning speed.
"The slime monsters and sandworms are considered level zero, and the rotten skin crocodiles are considered level one. The monster density is lower than that of the spider's nest. If we only include the mudflats and rocky beaches, there is enough space for novice players to move around here."
Yang Qiu stroked his chin and pondered: "The only problem is that it's too close to the jungle. If higher-level monsters in the jungle wander out, they will slaughter the players here... Never mind, just treat it as a surprise in the process of spawning monsters. Put a zombie NPC on the edge of the jungle, and if a player approaches, remind them not to go in, then I'll have fulfilled my duty."
"The skin of the slime monster can be used to make armor lining... No, it seems that the outer skin of the alchemical puppet needs to be extracted from the skin of the slime monster? Hmm, this is valuable. I will buy it back from players for five pieces for one copper coin."
"The Sokri people seem to have the habit of feeding their livestock and poultry with sandworm meat, which can save money on feed... Sandworms are also difficult to kill. The recycling price of a sandworm corpse is about one copper coin."
"It's unfair to veteran players that novices can earn reputation by killing monsters. It will reduce the value of reputation, so no reputation will be given for settlement."
"Old players worked hard to get the Spider's Lair opened. We can't just open this mining area monster spawning point casually... Let's give them a big quest to do!"
After figuring out the general outline, Yang Qiu immediately took action...
First, he went to the "source of corpses" - the ruins of an ancient battlefield on the Tarantan Wasteland.
The Tarantan Wasteland, where wars had been fought for hundreds of years, was full of ancient battlefield ruins. The three thousand accounts of these new players were picked out from among the countless thousand-year-old corpses after Yang Qiu visited several ruins...
More than 80 kilometers east of the Exile Town, there is a naturally formed canyon.
The ruins of this ancient battlefield, where countless people were buried, have been covered by dense vegetation. When Yang Qiu came to pick up "materials", he destroyed some of the plants at the entrance. This time when he came to take a look again, he found that many skeletons that were originally entangled in the vegetation had "come alive" and were wandering around the entrance of the canyon that he had cleared.
"This place seems to be very suitable for being used as a plot setting... We can use it when there are no activities to distract the players."
Yang Qiu walked straight ahead through the unconscious, slowly wandering primitive undead and entered the depths of the canyon.
There are very few "zombies". Except for the special environment like swamps where zombies can be produced, most corpses will inevitably turn into skeletons.
It is definitely not a good idea to use a skeleton as an NPC, because players will definitely attack the NPC... Skeleton NPCs cannot be resurrected .
After searching the canyon for a while, Yang Qiu finally found several waxed corpses in a cave that was once used as a temporary storage point for supplies and collapsed due to unknown reasons to form an enclosed space.
"One, two, three... Only five? It's really hard to replenish zombie NPCs."
Yang Qiu shook his head, took out tent cloth from the space ring, wrapped the five wax zombies, summoned the undead lizards, and pulled them back to the mining area.
The next step is to assign appropriate "plot NPC" identities to these five wax zombies, and then lay out the prototype of a mining base, waiting for the players to arrive...
While Yang Qiu was diligently planning the game content for his anchor plan, three hundred kilometers away in Westram, the lord-mayor combination of Rex and Ji Tang were facing severe tests.
"There is still a week left until September. In September, the villagers will start selling grain and paying taxes."
In the conference room, Ms. Shirley, who has lived in Westham for more than six years, spoke first with a solemn voice: "At this time of year in previous years, Baron Marcus's steward would bring a convoy to Westham to purchase the wheat, corn, and soybeans sent to the town by the villagers and pay the tax on the spot."
"The housekeeper of the Marcus family will keep the price very low, forcing the villagers to sell at least 50% of their output in order to barely pay the tax." Another lady who had been a headliner like Ms. Shirley said, "But from what I heard... they also need to prepare more than 5,000 gold coins."
"Mr. Rex has cancelled local taxes. During the autumn tax period, we only need to ensure that the taxes for the king and the church are paid." Ms. Shirley continued, "To ensure that the taxes for the entire territory are paid, at least 3,000 gold coins are needed."
"Three thousand gold coins?" Rex pressed his forehead with a headache.
Three thousand gold coins equals thirty thousand silver coins and three million copper coins.
Three million copper coins does not seem to be too much when evenly distributed among the more than 20,000 people living in the Westram territory. Each person only needs to pay more than 100 copper coins. As for the matter of taxation, no matter which world it is, it is impossible to adopt the even distribution model. It must be done according to the system.
The town population pays tax in proportion to the income of the highest-earning male head of the family. The average annual income of an adult male in Westham is around 100 silver coins, which means that the average family needs to pay around 30 silver coins in tax each year. Since the town population is mostly large families, this tax, while painful, will not break any bones for the town residents.
Farmers pay taxes not based on their family's annual income but based on their land output.
If the laws of the Rhine Kingdom were followed alone, the taxes paid by farmers would not be too harsh... 10% of the output would be handed over to the Church of the Lady of Gold, 10% would be handed over to the king, and 10% would be handed over to the lord who directly ruled the area, for a total of 30% of the harvest.
But everyone who has read history knows that the rules set by those in power are used to constrain those below them, and those who are qualified to influence the rules often like to desecrate and trample on them the most.
The 30% agricultural tax on output, which does not seem too heavy, was subject to a regulation that it could only be paid in cash and not in kind, and there was also a rule that local farmers could only sell their grain to local lords. Whether the farmers could ensure their food and clothing by relying on the grain they had worked hard to grow for a year depended on whether the local lords were still willing to be human beings.
Rex's father was a landed viscount, and he knew very well how much power the nobles who actually owned the land had over the locals.
After being pushed to the position of lord by Yang, the first thing Rex did was to abolish the tax model for large families in towns and cities, and only tax them based on personal income. Those with a monthly income below eighteen silver coins did not have to pay a penny; for farmers, the 10% tax in the local lord's share was directly abolished - he knew too well how much impact the exemption of this 10% tax would have on local farmers.
The local lords' taxes are exempt, but the king's taxes and the church's taxes still have to be paid. Regardless of whether he wants to lower the price of farmers' grain or not, Rex, as the current lord, still has to prepare a large amount of currency, and the lack of currency is the biggest problem they face.
"With the current cash in the town hall, plus the supplies of the Sokri caravan seized by the undead a while ago, we can only barely scrape together one thousand gold coins." Rex sighed, "We must find a way to make up the shortfall of these two thousand gold coins before the autumn tax deadline... Otherwise, the Bartles family will have an excuse to interfere with Westram."
Ji Tang frowned and said, "Aren't there many manor farms in this area? Those manor farms don't have to pay taxes?"
"Indeed, there is no need." Rex said in a very painful tone, "The land of these farms has been bought out in one go, and the ownership is registered in the name of a family member of the big family. Only the governors of the places where the family's main residence is located have the right to inquire about their tax situation."
Ji Tang had no expression on his face… He would not comment on the fact that land ownership could be bought out, and that large families could legally avoid taxes by purchasing properties in other places.
"If we want to raise funds quickly, we can only do business with Innadri." Zhao Zhenzhen, who Rex invited to listen, spoke up and got to the point. "Rex, is the attitude of the Bartles family not conducive to the transaction between Westram and Innadri?"
"Yes." Rex's face became even more painful when he mentioned this. "Gould, who visited us a while ago, proposed... the settlement requirements, which were to unconditionally release all the city defense soldiers, return the seized equipment and horses, and prepare 3,000 pieces of undead cloth and 20 undead servants as compensation for offending the Bartles family."
The entire conference room was silent.
The clerks thought that this request for compensation was unreasonable, while Ji Tang and Zhao Zhenzhen were thinking about what the twenty players would do to the Bartles family...
"Why not bypass the Bartles family and do business directly with the Innadeli people?" Zhao Zhenzhen said.
"That may not work, Ms. Zhao." Rex said with a frown, "Without the Bartles family stepping in, the city defense army and the city police will not allow it, and all our goods will be forcibly confiscated."
Zhao Zhenzhen thought for a moment and said, "What if what we sell is not goods but some kind of service?" Before Rex could shake his head, she added, "Don't worry about whether the personnel will be controlled. We undead are not afraid of being imprisoned and can escape at any time."
Players must not be afraid of having their personal freedom restricted. They can just commit suicide and return to the city... As long as they are not torn apart, their equipment will not be lost.
Rex was extremely surprised. He invited Zhao Zhenzhen here, hoping that this more thoughtful undead lady could help him find a solution, but he still found it difficult to understand this proposal: "If that's the case... then what kind of services can our undead friends provide?"
Zhao Zhenzhen smiled slightly: "If you can apply for a batch of 'special materials' from Lord Yang for us, then we can organize the undead to go to Innadri to earn enough currency for Westram."
Yang Qiu, who was busy designing a new monster spawning point, received a request from Rex through the branding matrix. He only took a glance at the so-called "special materials" list and guessed who was behind this operation.
"He really is trying every way to test my bottom line." Yang Qiuru muttered to herself.
Zhao Zhenzhen, the "tool man", has been very honest since he came online. He is less troublesome than Ji Tang. It seems that he is accumulating energy and reading the bar, just waiting to seize the opportunity to use a big move...
Yang Qiu must not dare to release the 3,000 Huskies that have just been online. As for the old players, it is not a big problem - the old players have proved themselves in the two defensive battles. No matter it is fighting against the city defense army or attacking the Sokri caravan, the players have not destroyed the crops along the way and have not harassed civilians. They are much more civilized than most armies in this world.
As long as they don't act like "special NPCs" with hidden quests and don't have any equipment to steal, at least to civilians, these veteran players are not much more dangerous than drunks appearing on the streets.
Yang Qiu weighed the pros and cons, turned around and opened the space-time rift, and went back to Earth to purchase...
Soon, a batch of "special materials" was delivered to Rex and then transferred to Zhao Zhenzhen.
After receiving this batch of supplies, Zhao Zhenzhen took a deep look in the direction of Tarantan... and then used her authority as a "tool man of the Undead Chamber of Commerce" to issue a task to all online players who had gained reputation with the Undead Chamber of Commerce.
This is not the first time that players receive tasks from "tool players". Last time, they took over Ji Tang's task and performed their talents... While they were complaining "What a weird task", they went to Westram to find Zhao Zhenzhen.
