Chapter 148 The World Has Changed
The Siren lowered its sails and slowly docked at Pirt Harbor.
Unlike Bilgewater's slaughterhouse docks that are piled with sea beast carcasses and filled with the smell of blood, Piltover's docks are cleaner and much more prosperous.
The harbor is full of masts and ships, and further away you can see the towering buildings of Piltover, the majestic coastal defense dike, and the most eye-catching, the Sungate Canal Lock.
This huge mechanical gate, which glows golden in the sun, is just as it looks, a money-printing machine that spits out gold coins.
"I heard that the Piltover guys control this canal and can collect thousands of gold coins in tolls every day!"
"Tsk tsk... This is even easier than robbing money!"
Looking at the golden Sungate sea lock, the sailors sighed with envy.
"They are just robbing money." Sarah curled her lips sarcastically:
She casually pushed her wavy bright red hair behind her ears, revealing her cold and disdainful profile:
"The Piltover people guard the canal and collect tolls, while we collect tolls by floating on the sea."
"Oh, no one is nobler than anyone else."
Saying this, Sarah looked back at Zaun again.
While outsiders arriving at the port are amazed by the prosperity of Piltover, if they look back, they can see Zaun on the other side, which is shrouded in poisonous clouds, dilapidated, and clinging to the ground like a festering sore.
Most people only think that Piltover is beautiful and Zaun is dirty; Piltover is good and Zaun is bad.
But Miss Fortune has her own opinion:
"The capital of civilization, the city of progress, what? It's just a larger version of Bilgewater."
Bilgewater is divided into the upper town and the lower town. The lower town is inhabited by poor fishermen, while the upper town is inhabited by wealthy pirates.
Piltover is also divided into the upper city and the lower city. The lower city is Zaun across the canal, where poor workers live.
As for the upper city...it's inhabited by just a bunch of pirates who have washed their hands and come ashore.
Yes, in Sarah's opinion, those elegant and civilized gentlemen in suits and ties in Piltover are just another form of pirates.
Because ordinary people can only see the civilized and orderly side of Piltover.
But as a pirate captain and bounty hunter in Bilgewater, Sarah can see more of the dark side hidden behind this progressive city than ordinary people in Piltover.
For example...
Sarah came to Piltover this time to discuss some shady business with the people of Piltover.
"I don't know what dirty work these hypocritical guys are going to assign us this time."
The pirates of Bilgewater actually have deep ties with the big families of Piltover.
The masters of Piltover often have some dirty work that they are not convenient to do themselves, so they hire pirates from Bilgewater to do it.
In order to make money and expand her power, Sarah often takes on such jobs.
After many unpleasant collaborations, she had long seen through the hypocrisy .
These sanctimonious hypocrites are even more disgusting than the "open-minded" big pirate like Planck.
But...
"Who can resist money?" Sarah subconsciously weighed the purse on her waist.
The bag was so heavy that it would emit pleasant golden notes when touched.
About a week ago, someone contacted her with sincerity through the Midarda family's underground channels in Bilgewater, bringing a huge sum of money as a deposit.
This big customer specifically asked Miss Fortune Sarah to lead the team personally to Piltover to meet with him to discuss cooperation.
The name of this great customer is:
"Levi, Levi the Leader."
Sarah didn't know anything about the Leaders Association, nor did she know Levi.
However, in her opinion, this so-called Leaders Association is probably no different from other big families and big companies in Piltover, a group of self-proclaimed civilized gangsters in suits.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have contacted her and secretly cooperated with her as a pirate.
"Leader, what a pity..."
“What a neat and clean name.”
…
Sarah arranged for a small number of people to stay at the dock, and brought along the first mate Raven and a group of elite soldiers as bodyguards.
As for most of the remaining sailors, she followed the old custom in the maritime industry and gave them a short vacation after docking, allowing them to go into the city to have fun on their own.
As for what kind of fun her little brothers, who were bored at sea, were looking for after entering the city... Sarah didn't want to understand, nor was she too lazy to care.
Anyway, as long as these rough guys don't act wild in front of her, she doesn't care where they go to have fun after the holidays.
However, after landing, Sarah asked someone about the approximate address of the Leader Association headquarters where Levi had agreed to meet her in the commission, and she unexpectedly discovered:
She and her group of "breeding pigs" were heading to almost the same place.
The headquarters of the Wind Leader Association has now moved to the Zaun community;
The casinos and brothels that foreign sailors love to frequent are mostly located in Zaun communities and the civilian areas around the communities.
It’s not that there are no casinos or brothels in the wealthy area of Piltover, but the level of the place is too high and the consumption is too high, so even pirates who do business with no capital can’t afford it.
Besides, they are doing business for the Lord of Piltover and they look down on these stinky and lowly sailors.
Therefore, Sarah had no choice but to endure the discomfort and temporarily walk in the same direction as her younger brothers who were anxious to give their younger brothers a holiday.
The group soon arrived at the Zuan community.
"We're here! This is the place we came to last time!"
The sailors' eyes were shining and they were shouting with excitement.
There was an experienced sailor among the sailors, who was bragging to his companions: "Do you know? The top prostitute in this brothel, Kolya, is my old lover in Piltover. Her breasts are not as big as our captain's..."
"Cough cough." Sarah coughed twice with a cold face.
The horny sailors then remembered that their beautiful captain had been following them during this holiday.
Now is not the time to drive.
"Um, Captain Sarah..."
"Let's just go in... uh... play poker."
In front of Miss Fortune, the rough guys blushed with shame.
"Get lost!" Sarah angrily kicked the old driver who was the first to tell dirty jokes: "If you have anything to say, go find your old lover, don't go crazy in front of me!"
"Get out, all of you!"
She drove away all the sailors who were on leave.
But not long after, before Sarah had time to leave to find the headquarters of the Wind Leader Association, the sailors she had sent away turned back.
"What's wrong?" Sarah was puzzled.
"I don't know..." The sailors were even more confused: "That brothel that deals in sex trade has been turned into a proper hotel."
"We wanted to go in to look for the girl, but they chased us back."
As they spoke, they pointed to the sign with the blue bird emblem hanging at the door of the store.
Although the sign clearly stated "hotel", none of the sailors who were used to having fun here had expected that this place would actually be converted into a proper hotel.
"Is the boss crazy? Can running a guesthouse make more money than a hotel?"
The old driver couldn't help cursing and spitting when he failed to meet his old lover.
But Sarah didn't want to listen.
Her eyes fell on the blue bird emblem on the sign, and the small words written in the corner of the sign:
"Leader Hotel Chain Group, Store 002."
Hotel chains are also a new thing in Runeterra.
But what Sarah cared more about were the three words "leader".
“Is this the leader’s industry?”
"They bought the brothel and turned it into a hotel?"
Sarah didn't know how much money this so-called hotel chain could make, but if she used her brain she would know that no matter how much money a hotel could make, it couldn't be faster than a brothel.
Why would a leader do such a loss-making business?
Sarah felt more than a little curious about her new employer.
Then... Sarah and the sailors walked and strolled along the way, and they soon discovered:
"Damn! Where's the brothel? Why is it all gone?"
The sailors were dumbfounded.
The last time I came here, this was still Piltover’s characteristic industrial street.
After only a few months, the former Happy Forests were transformed into hotels, restaurants, and even workers' dormitories with the Blue Bird emblem of the Leader.
What happened?
Just like that, a group of hot-blooded, rough men wandered around the Zuan community for most of the day...
"There's not even a brothel!"
"Goddess Na! This place is hell!"
"Hell..." Sarah was a little absent-minded.
This is not hell.
She still clearly remembered how dirty and chaotic the scene was in the past.
But only a few months have passed, and it seems like a completely different world has emerged here.
How was it done?
Who did it?
"Is it... the leader?" Sarah thought of the blue bird emblems that were all over the streets.
And at this moment, she was not paying attention, and the sailors couldn't help but cause trouble for her.
These old hands had already stacked up their blood rage to the maximum, just waiting to kill everyone, but after wandering around for a long time, they couldn't find anyone to confront them.
How can I tolerate this?
They looked around with red eyes, as if they wanted to open their eyes wide to search for any "leisure shop" they had missed.
In the end, the leisure shop was not found.
But what they found was a group of female cleaners wearing yellow vests and holding big brooms, sweeping the streets.
"Alas, that's not..."
The eyes of the boastful old sailor driver lit up.
He wasn't so horny that he would get aroused when he saw a woman.
But among the female cleaners sweeping the floor over there, many were acquaintances of him and his sailor brothers.
"Hey, Coria! Is that you, Coria?"
"The top star of that pink house, hey, do you remember me?"
The sailor came forward with a wicked smile and said hello, shaking the purse at his waist arrogantly:
"Look, I've made a fortune this time, and I have money to take care of your business!"
As he shouted so loudly, the eyes of people around him immediately focused on him.
The cleaning lady, whom he called "Kelia", suddenly stood there with a pale .
"What are you standing there for?" The sailor asked in confusion, "By the way, where did your place move to? I can't find it. And why are you sweeping the floor here? Did you make a mistake and get punished by the mama-san?"
He kept asking.
The sailors around also laughed evilly.
The female cleaners all had dull expressions on their faces. They stood there like wooden sticks, with their heads down and unwilling to say a word.
Finally, someone couldn't stand it anymore and said, "Shut up, asshole!"
A black-haired girl, also wearing a cleaner's uniform and with a quiet pigtail, stood up angrily.
She was Lina, who was still serving forced labor.
"They are cleaners now, do you understand?" Lina scolded, "There is no one you are looking for here, you can get out!"
"What?" The pirates couldn't bear to hear the harsh word "get out".
Not only did they not leave, they also jokingly asked: "Cleaner? Are you kidding?"
"Hey, Ke Liya, are you serious? You're not doing a good job that can make money by just stretching your legs, but you're sweeping the streets?"
The female workers were silent for a while.
The air was extremely subtle.
Then, Lina took a deep breath and stood in front of her co-workers with a serious expression.
"Gentlemen, you should apologize to them," Lina said seriously.
"Apologize?" The pirates widened their eyes in disbelief.
Although they were just lowly sailors.
But... asking them to apologize to a bunch of pheasants?
Do they deserve it?
"You bitch, I still have to be careful with you, bah! How can this be justified in the world!" The pirates pulled out their guns in anger, exuding a strong murderous aura that only veterans of many battles could have.
They thought this would scare the apparently frail girl.
But Lina didn't retreat at all:
"Let me tell you, the world has changed!"
"They are human beings! You are no nobler than them, or anyone else!"
