Chapter 183 Undead Friends
No one can tell exactly when the slums appeared outside the West City Gate, but it is a fact known to everyone that the slums have been expanding towards the South City Gate. The closer to the West City Gate, the more dilapidated and older the buildings in the slums are, and the opposite is true as you move south.
Both John and his father were born in the slums. When John was still young and his grandfather had not passed away yet, he heard his grandfather say that his grandfather's mother seemed to be one of the earliest residents of the slums.
John's great-grandfather was a self-employed farmer in the town of Kane. Some nobles built farms near their family's property and bought the land at high prices. Tired of farming, his great-grandfather sold the land and took his family to the city of Innadri in search of a chance to survive.
When my grandfather was young, he was also a citizen of Innader. He used the money from selling his land to buy a house in the city and found a good job. Those were the beautiful memories that my grandfather always missed and kept telling little John about.
If everything went well, John's family might have gradually transformed into native Innader citizens after a few generations. Unfortunately, there is no if - the great-grandfather, who was tired of the life of a farmer, was not vigilant enough about the more complicated and dangerous environment in the city. After just a few years of stable and affluent life as a small citizen, he became addicted to gambling. Not only did he lose his job, but he also lost the house where his family lived.
When my great-grandmother was forced to move to the slums of the "free living area" outside the city with her children due to the pressure of survival, the whole family had not seen my great-grandfather for half a year... No one knew in which gutter he died.
Later, John's father and John were both born in the slums. From birth, what they saw was a chaotic, crowded environment with garbage everywhere, and strong men were proud to be gang members. Although they also went to the city to work and knew how prosperous the Innadri city center across the city wall was, they could not imagine that they would have the opportunity to live in such an environment.
John only remembered that the slums were not so big when he was a child. It only took five minutes to run south from the platform next to the Mule and Horse Market Square to the end; but now, it takes at least twenty minutes to walk through the entire slum.
In a slum area that is the size of a small town and has thousands of households, it is normal for people in one alley not to know those in another alley. For example, the earliest residents who lived near the west platform rarely interacted with those living near the south city gate.
The mobile mill appeared on the western platform, and many people living in the south came through the maze-like alleys to grind flour, but as soon as the undead appeared, these people ran away... When John and his companions came out of the alley, all they saw were the people living nearby except the undead.
The biggest reason why the residents who lived near the platform did not flee in panic was the calm attitude of the mobile mill workers who placed their machines and carriages on the west platform.
When the undead came running, the workers of the mobile mill standing between the undead and the slums were very calm. They just glanced at the undead and continued to do their own things. They also calmly and loudly comforted the people around them: "Don't be afraid, we know those undead. They are just a little curious and will not attack people."
No one believed this at first. Those who lived far away fled as fast as they could, and those who lived nearby also ran home in a hurry, trying to take their valuables with them and leave quickly.
The undead came rushing over, and indeed did not attack the busy mill workers. Instead, they ran past the mobile mill and into the slums with a look of curiosity, looking around. Only then did the people who were eager to flee calm down a little.
What John and his companions saw was such a strange scene... People were either standing against the wall in fear or hiding in the nearby wooden shed; while the dead spirits were running around and looking around, as if they were very curious about everything.
One of them pinched the straw curtains hanging on someone's window , making a "KABAKABA" sound; another tried to climb onto someone's roof, pulling the dry thatch off.
"Hey, hey! Undead, you can't destroy residents' houses!"
John saw the miller shout at the ghosts who were trying to climb onto the roof.
John suddenly became a little nervous. He was afraid that the workers' rude attitude would anger the undead, but... then he was stunned to see that the undead climbing the roof actually stopped moving - it even threw the thatch it had pulled off back onto the roof embarrassedly, like a child trying to erase the traces of its own prank.
The discovery that these undead spirits actually knew how to listen to people made John and all the local residents breathe a sigh of relief, and their hearts, which had been hanging in their throats, finally dropped.
At this time, the undead who looked curious for a while began to try to push the wooden door of the residents' simple sheds.
"Ah——!" The people hiding in the shed screamed in horror.
Several mill workers had to put down their work and ran into the slums, shouting: "Dead friends, we are in some trouble and need your help!"
This sentence seemed to have a magical power. The undead who were running around and making trouble stopped what they were doing instantly and rushed towards the mill workers...
John and his friends: “???”
Local residents: “???”
John and his companion exchanged glances, and the four of them left the flatbed truck loaded with goods in the alley, huddled together, and moved nervously towards the direction of the workers.
Before these worried and curious young men could get closer, John saw Brother Barton, who was usually very kind to him and had encouraged him to work as a flour miller, squeeze out from the pile of dead bodies. Seeing him, he waved happily: "Come on, John, give me a favor."
John looked fearfully at the undead surrounding Brother Barton, and took a few steps forward. "What do you need me to do?"
"Go borrow some shovels, hoes, wheelbarrows and other tools." Barton took out a handful of copper coins and stuffed them into John's pocket. "These are for rent."
John was popular in the area, and he knew that Old Tom's family nearby often got jobs demolishing old houses in the city, and they had these tools at home, so he quickly called his friends to go over with him to borrow them.
In a few minutes, John and his friends loaded the borrowed tools on a cart and ran back quickly.
Patton thanked John for his help, turned around... and handed the tools to the undead.
John and his friends: “???”
A small number of the hundreds of undead souls accepted the tools, carrying shovels, hoes, and pushing carts, and walked towards the bottom of the city wall in a lively manner - there was a huge garbage dump there.
The other half of the dead souls did not leave, and continued to pester the mill workers, making "KABAKABA" noises.
John and his friends standing nearby nervously heard Brother Patton and other workers say to the undead: "Undead friends, there really is no mission here. Why don't you go back to the camp? Lieutenant Pete and Captain Ken need your help."
"There are no hidden tasks, really none..."
"Okay... go to the third alley from here, and the sixth house on the right is Mr. Nelson. His roof is leaking badly. Can you help us collect some materials to repair the roof and solve the leaking problem of Nelson's house?"
"Uh--there's a depression of water in that area between those houses. Please help us fill it up..."
Some of the undead followed the workers' orders and enthusiastically headed for the place designated by the workers; some of the undead seemed to have lost interest and left noisily, heading towards the west city gate; some of the undead neither left nor did what the workers designated, and continued to run back to the slums...
Compared to the hundreds of undead running around, the sight of only a dozen undead looking around did not seem so unacceptable. The people who were standing against the wall or hiding in the corners breathed a sigh of relief. Those who hid in the house dared to stick their heads out to look around, and even cautiously tried to go out.
John and his friends, who heard and saw with their own eyes the millers ordering the ghosts around, stood there in horror.
"Why are you still standing there? Didn't you get any work grinding flour today?" After finally sending the undead away, Patton waved at John and the others.
John and his friends woke up as if from a dream, and hurried back to the alley to pull out the flatbed truck...
As the four young men were struggling to pull the heavy flatbed cart towards the platform, a few undead spirits running around actually ran over and helped them push the cart.
John, who was pulling the flatbed in front, and his friend Tommy, who was pushing the cart from behind, were afraid of the approach of the undead, but they didn't dare to refuse...
After moving the car to the side of the platform, these undead spirits seemed to be expecting something, making KABAKABA and gesticulating to John and the others.
John & his friends: "..."
They really couldn't understand what the undead were trying to say, so they had to ignore them and silently unload the goods, taking them bag by bag to the grinding machine for grinding.
The undead left disappointed, and John's pounding heart finally calmed down.
"Brother Patton, what's going on with these undead ghosts?" Sanji, a freckled boy and one of his friends, asked with fear and curiosity.
The miller, Westram Operator Barton, suddenly showed an indescribable expression...
"Those are our undead friends from Tarantan, the undead active in Westram that I told you about before." Barton said with a complicated expression, "They are very good undead and are willing to help people - but you must never ask them for help without 'mission authority' and without issuing reputation rewards. You must remember this. No matter how enthusiastic these undead are, you must never let them work for nothing."
"Yes, you must remember this." An operator next to him said, "Even if we have reached the upper limit of the monthly 'reputation rewards' that can be issued, we cannot order the undead to do anything, otherwise there will be very terrible consequences."
All formal clerks and operators who have obtained the Azalea Badge can obtain a certain amount of "reputation issuance authority" and seek help from the undead when there is a serious shortage of manpower or when there are indeed force majeure difficulties.
But this amount is not much. Unless there are special requirements for a certain job you are responsible for, otherwise, for an ordinary operator like Patton, the territory reputation that can be issued to the undead every month is capped at one thousand points.
The "Mobile Mill" plan had little to do with the Undead. The authority of Operator Barton and others was not upgraded. Just to prevent the Undead from causing trouble to the residents of the slums, they used up all their quotas...
John and the other youngsters who had been registered on the "available personnel" list by Operator Patton and others knew the origins of Patton and others, and nodded with a vague understanding.
They all want a better life, they all want to leave this slum , even if they need to associate with the undead to achieve this goal, they will not refuse - at least they have seen with their own eyes that these undead will indeed not attack them, will not kick them a few times just because they are in a bad mood, and use their discomfort and grievances to relieve stress.
Officer Barton smiled at the young men, and while he kept starting the machine to grind grain, he asked, "Has the workers' union ever interfered with your business?"
"Not yet." John said hurriedly, "But when we went to collect the goods today, someone from the Workers' Union came to ask us. They wanted to know our relationship with the Mobile Mill. We told them as you instructed, saying that you are indeed from Westham and you seem to be Lord Rex's men."
"Very good." Operator Barton said with a smile, "The battle will start tomorrow. When you deliver the goods into the city later, if the union people come to contact you again, you should find a way to get their people to come out and meet us."
"Okay." John nodded quickly.
Operator Barton then looked at Sanji, the freckled boy who was the most well-informed among the group of young people: "What about those street gangs?"
"We rarely see them on the streets. They seem to be busy with something." Sang Ji, who works as a handyman in a newspaper office, said immediately, "When I entered the city today, I went around to the tavern area and saw that Big Mark and his gang were not there. If I'm not mistaken, they should have been hired away. I just don't know who hired the gang, and the people in the tavern don't know either."
Operator Barton smiled and nodded.
The mission of the Mobile Mill is to investigate the lower-level civil organizations in the city of Innadri. Street gangs and workers' unions are the main targets of the operators' investigation.
There are more than 40,000 workers and migrant workers in the South and North districts of Innadri City. The trade union, which seems to be no big problem on the surface, is actually a huge blood-sucking worm attached to these 40,000 workers. For example, Caroline, a girl from Westram who used to work in a restaurant in the South District, needs to hand over 10% of her monthly salary to the trade union, otherwise she will lose her job.
Not to mention the street gangs...all the gray industrial chains have street gangs of all sizes.
To liberate Innadri, it is not enough to just drive away the Bartles family. It is not just the undead that are participating in the battle.
