Chapter 192: The Undead: Fighting Pornography and Illegal Publications
Viscount Darcy had just finished his breakfast when Butler Ford came back with the news that the West Gate had fallen.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough—" Viscount Darcy put down his mouthwash cup, wiped the corner of his mouth with the napkin he hadn't taken off yet, and said in astonishment, "So fast?! Didn't the city police recruit seven or eight thousand militiamen? Even if eight thousand chickens were released, they couldn't be caught so quickly!"
Butler Ford said in embarrassment: "This... the west gate is full of undead, and none of the people who climbed the city wall have returned. I really don't know how this battle was fought."
"Cough, cough, cough!" Viscount Darcy coughed even harder: "Wait, what do you mean no one came back?"
"Your Excellency III, the people from City Hall and the City Police Department have all been arrested." Butler Ford said with a strange look on his face.
"What...what?!" The well-maintained old man's hands trembled, and he almost tore off his tie and napkin together. He said in disbelief, "You mean, the illegitimate child not only captured Adela III, but also arrested people from the City Hall and the City Police?"
Butler Ford looked even weirder: "Yes, sir."
Viscount Darcy was stunned, and with a hiss, he put his hand on his forehead and said, "This is really a ghost... What kind of new lord has come to Innadri ?"
"That's right." Butler Ford obviously couldn't understand this either. "It's understandable that he wants to replace all the people in City Hall with his own people, but why is he picking on the city police chief?"
The official violence institutions of the cities of the Rhine Kingdom usually consist of three aspects:
First, there is the National Garrison, which is usually responsible for the defense of the city gates and patrol and alert of the entire territory; however, if the lord prefers to establish another armed force, such as Innadri's city defense army, then the National Garrison will be sidelined.
Second, they are the staff of various departments who take orders from the civil service group of City Hall.
The operators hired by the City Hall are often selected from mercenaries and professional strongmen who have long-term cooperation with official agencies. They are a bit similar to the bad guys recruited by local governments in the feudal era of China.
Third, there is the urban law enforcement system consisting of prisons, courts and city police.
Unlike the civil service groups that would occasionally band together to fight against the lords, the law enforcement system in this world would never offend the lords, because the police officers in this world did not need to be responsible to the local people or the civil service groups, but only to the lord himself - the city police system was designed to maintain urban order and was of the same nature as the town militia.
In short, the city police chief is the last resort of power in the world's ruling force, a tool among the power tools. He is a "loyal dog" who is loyal only to his lord, and whoever sits in the lord's position can do whatever he wants.
"Could it be that this private... this Rex wants to assign all his own people to the city police chief?" Viscount Darcy could only understand it from this perspective, shaking his head and saying, "How can the temporary police officers be as familiar with the environment as the local veterans? It seems that the streets will be in chaos for a while."
"Mr. Charlie Rex seems to be a very strong man," Butler Ford echoed.
It is normal for officials to be replaced when lords change. When a new lord comes to a territory, a group of political officials must be replaced, and a lot of affairs officials may also be replaced. After all, every new noble has his own team, and other people's people are not as easy to use as his own people.
But it is ridiculous that even the city police superintendent has to be replaced - the person who buys the new estate will replace the butler and the deacon, and the higher-ranking servants will also be replaced. Who would even think about replacing the handyman in the stable?
Viscount Darcy uttered a disdainful "huh" and wanted to make a habitual mockery of "after all, he is a bastard who cannot be on the stage", but thinking that the other party was already the owner of Innadelli, he held back his words and said, "For the time being, stop the business except for St. Joseph Street, and we will talk about it later."
Butler Ford responded quickly.
The territory of Everwatch Town to the east of Innadri is the territory of the Darcy family. In addition to Everwatch with a total population of nearly 100,000, the Darcy family also owns two manors, six farms, a horse farm and a mine in Innadri.
Backed by such abundant resources, it was natural that the Darcy family owned many industries in the city. They had three mid- to high-end restaurants in the South City District alone, and they also had more than a dozen leather workshops, grain and oil stores, and garment stores.
Of course, all these industries combined do not make as much money as the two stores on St. Joseph's Street - old-fashioned aristocrats like Viscount Darcy look down on nouveau riche like Baron Marcus who openly run the red-light district, but that doesn't mean they won't try to make money. It's just that these old-fashioned aristocrats are better at disguising themselves, and it's impossible to find any connection between them and the two stores on St. Joseph's Street.
Before Butler Ford left to gather the deacons, Viscount Darcy's second son, the middle-aged Adams Darcy, ran into the restaurant with a pale face and stumbled, saying in panic, "Oh no, father, St. Joseph's Street is being attacked by the undead!"
"Why are you so flustered!" Viscount Darcy got angry when he saw his second son who was usually unreliable. "Those undead are the undead army brought by Charles Rex. Why would he attack St. Joseph's Street instead of going to the City Hall? What is there for him to attack on St. Joseph's Street? The church!"
Adams Darcy's face turned paler and paler, and he said anxiously, "No, father, those undead spirits did not attack the church. They rushed directly into the clubhouse area and are looting all the stores there!"
"What?!" Viscount Darcy stood up.
Of course, an elderly viscount could not risk his life by going to the streets where the undead were. Butler Ford took the order and hurried to St. Joseph Street with a group of strong male servants.
The club district is located in the north-central part of St. Joseph's Street. The entire block is lined with mid- to high-end clubs, love hotels, brothels, striptease shows, dance halls, large show bars and other places of entertainment. It is a more prosperous place of entertainment than the original Westham red-light district, but the fees are not very affordable, so its popularity is slightly inferior.
This neighborhood, which used to be full of laughter and was known as the Paradise of Innadi, can now be described as a living hell...
Butler Ford led a large group of people to the intersection of the block, and saw a group of undead carrying six or seven half-naked men with their hands and feet tied out of the building, and roughly pushed these wailing unfortunates onto the cold ground.
Before Butler Ford and the male servants of the Darcy family could digest the shocking scene they had seen, they saw several people dressed as noble guards being chased onto the street by another group of undead, who held them down in the street, stripped them of their clothes, and robbed them of their equipment in public...
While stripping the clothes of these unfortunate guards, the undead excitedly made a "KABAKABA" sound, as if they were enthusiastically exchanging robbery experiences...
"This NPC's uniform is so flashy, I like it!"
"Why are there only men's fashions? Are there no women's fashions?"
"If you steal women's fashion, you will be fined, big boss. Just bear with it."
"Damn, they have to be gender-discriminatory when brushing costumes, what a shitty planner!"
While this group of undead were skillfully stripping the unfortunate guards naked, several large groups of undead were rushing by in the background, rushing from one store to another.
The screams of women and the wails of men filled the entire street. The street, which was wide enough for four carriages to run parallel to each other, was filled with victims lined up in all directions, which was extremely shocking.
Butler Ford felt his hands and feet were cold, and he silently took two steps back, and then two more steps back.
None of the male servants who usually relied on the Darcy family's name to shout and yell dared to move forward...
Not long after the Darcy family arrived, several families who had property in the club area came one after another.
These housekeepers who were all furious when they came here, after seeing the situation inside the club area from the intersection... they seemed to be under a spell and did not dare to step out of line.
When a ghost looked towards the intersection, it scared the whole group of people so much that they all hid behind a building.
Fortunately, these undead spirits seemed to rob only within the club area and seemed to have no interest in people outside the club area.
The road sign at the intersection of the club area is like an invisible barrier, separating the inside and outside of the club area into two worlds.
Within the barrier, the undead whizzed by, ransacked everything, and attacked any living person they could see.
Outside the barrier, passers-by and street-side shop owners who cautiously peered out of their homes would not be attacked even if they were discovered by the undead...
Butler Ford took out a handkerchief from his jacket pocket tremblingly and wiped the sweat off his face.
He saw the undead ransacking the Darcy family's clubhouse.
He saw the deacon of the club, who was usually very respectful to him and knew how to please others, being carried out of the club by the undead with a terrible scream. The deacon's uniform that was custom-made by the Darcy family was stripped off by the undead, leaving only his underwear.
He saw the gang members hired by Darcy's family to watch the scene were trembling with fear by the undead, and he stretched out his hands to let the undead tie them up.
He saw the goods that the Darcy family had collected with great effort fleeing in panic. When they ran to the street, they found that there were even more undead on the street, so they screamed and hid back.
Dozens of undead souls entered Darcy's club to rob, and when they came out, some were carrying sacks filled with gold and silver ornaments, while others were happily carrying heavy money boxes engraved with the Darcy family crest.
Butler Ford's eyes went dark.
This carnival-like looting lasted for more than an hour, and dozens of entertainment venues in the entire club area were looted. Only then did the undead stop and leave, moving on to the next "battlefield" - the bar area.
The undead left, and the butlers who were secretly watching from the dark had no chance to go in to rescue their own people or count their losses, because the Westram security team came over...
These people, who used to have lower status than the city police, were just militiamen. They arrogantly set up roadblocks at several intersections in the club area and hung up warning signs with big red letters. Then, under the watchful eyes of the housekeepers of each household and countless passers-by, they methodically moved the people tied up by the undead onto the requisitioned square-headed carriage of the city police...
Butler Ford stared at those Westham bumpkins who were taking advantage of the power of others for a long time with hatred, but in the end he did not have the courage to go over and act like a viscount butler - Charlie Rex, the illegitimate lord, was too unrefined in his conduct, and he was worried that this guy who had no aristocratic manners at all would capture him as well.
The club area was relatively remote, so there weren't many spectators when the undead were ransacking it. But when they reached the crowded and popular tavern area, the scene was different.
When more than two thousand (players are logging in one after another) undead swept through the tavern area, which was larger in area and had more stores than the club area, the residents in the surrounding blocks were first frightened and fled.
Soon, people discovered that the undead only robbed most of the businesses in the tavern area (marked by the three Hal brothers) and ignored other people. In shock, many people joined the crowd of onlookers...
The gray industry in the bar area also provides places to spend the night, but the environment is worse and the place is narrower. The undead rush into the bars like wolves and tigers, and the number of ragged prostitutes carried out from the narrow side rooms is no less than that in the club area.
Players don't really like the "NPC" costumes here, and there are fewer eye-catching half-naked men, but players have also snatched a lot of equipment and weapons... uh, seized them - the security in the bar area is much worse than that in the club area, and most of the bars have a collection of controlled knives, which greatly enriches the players' weapon choices.
In more than an hour, 80% of the businesses in the bar area were shut down. The undead continued to rush to the next "battlefield" . The security team members who had just cleaned up the club area continued to take over the scene and carried away the prisoners...
Yang Qiu, who was wearing a subspace barrier that only allowed people connected to the branding matrix to see him, blended comfortably among the large group of players throughout the whole process, and collected the spoils nearby with worthless game coins and reputation.
It must be said that Innadeli's gray industry is extremely lucrative... Yang Qiu's space ring could no longer hold anything after clearing the club and bar areas. Fortunately, he prepared for a rainy day and borrowed Brother Lowell's space props in advance...
"I hope the casino district won't let me down."
Yang Qiu, who was leading the natural disasters to the next place, was rubbing the space bracelet on his wrist happily.
Hal, who was also leading the team to crack down on pornography and illegal publications under the cover of the subspace barrier, remained silent throughout.
The trick he and his good brothers Tuttle and Pansy used to make money by taking advantage of the information gap was really different from Yang's way of making money by directly taking away other people's land - the former thief leader fell into deep frustration.
On the other hand, Viscount Darcy, who was anxiously waiting for news at home, spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot when he learned that his two most profitable industries had completely severed ties with his family.
"This hateful robber, this shameless fellow is a hundred times more brutal than the Bartles family!!" The old viscount slammed the table and cursed, "The Darcy family and Charles Rex are sworn enemies!"
