Chapter 195: Undead Coin
It is not easy to be a puppet lord under the Tarantan system . Just look at how Charlie Rex has completely changed into a different person in less than half a year.
Other people’s puppet lords might just eat, drink and have fun, but this is impossible under Yang.
He obviously had no real power as a lord but had to shoulder the responsibilities of a lord. He had to do endless village surveys, endless public opinion surveys, endless meetings and endless accounts. If he made any mistakes, he had to be terrified and worry about being in trouble with Yang. Is this what a human being does?!
"Can I refuse?" Tuttle Joe put down the glass of milk and said very seriously.
"Probably not." Rex, who came to inform his fellow sufferers personally, said sincerely, and did not forget to add sincerely, "You know I don't have the power to grant fiefdoms without authorization. It was Yang's decision to let you serve as the new Lord of Westram ."
There was silence in the room with four people sitting there...
The City Hall has three buildings, the main building is five stories high and the two subsidiary buildings are four stories high; the main building and the subsidiary building on the left are office spaces, while the subsidiary building on the right is the officials' luxurious offices with rest suites.
The owners of these luxurious offices are now waiting to be arranged in the prisoner camp outside the west city gate. The entire right-side annex building will of course be flexibly used by the new owner - bathrooms and toilets will be designated as public areas, study rooms, living rooms, bedrooms will be separated by partitions, and the furniture will be changed to make it a ready-made employee dormitory.
The three Hal brothers were the great heroes on the secret front of this battle to capture the city. If it weren't for their hard work, it would have been difficult for Yang Qiu to accurately eliminate all the merchants who were related to the nobles or gang members and engaged in illegal business activities. When allocating the rooms, Yang specifically told Rex a few words and allocated a living room with a dining balcony to the three brothers.
It was a bit shabby for three people to share a separate living room, but Rex's small bedroom was right next to it...so even Hal couldn't complain.
When Rex opened the bedroom door, he could see the three brothers having breakfast in the dining room in front of the living room. After getting breakfast, he told Tuttle the good news.
You can tell what Pansy and Hal are thinking by looking at their faces filled with astonishment and disbelief...
Tuttle's reaction was easy to understand. He almost had the word rejection written all over his face.
It’s not that Tuttle doesn’t yearn for power and status. As long as he is a man, who doesn’t want to be the master of a country or a city and have the final say in his own territory?
The problem is that becoming Yang's puppet lord will only turn you into a tool who is exploited even more harshly and has even less freedom!
"You really can't refuse?" Tuttle repeated mechanically.
Rex patted the poor ranger on the shoulder and said sincerely: "Don't be so pessimistic, man. Although Yang's requirements are often difficult, at least you can get an incomparable sense of accomplishment. Everything you have paid is very meaningful. This is the best reward, isn't it?"
"No... I'm not an idealistic lunatic like you. I'm different from you." Tattle Joe stared with dead fish eyes. Although he looked calm on the surface, his slightly trembling lips revealed the excitement of this ranger. "You can achieve your long-term ideals regardless of the cost, but I can't. I'm a normal person who needs vulgar feedback to feel happy."
"Well... at least there's a salary. When we worked for Yang, we got the agreed compensation on time every month. Although we are often dismissed by Yang with physical goods... but the supplies Yang gave us are indeed very practical." Rex's eyes wandered.
"Which lord lives on a salary of one gold coin!!" Tattle shouted at the time.
That’s right, when Yang Qiu tricked these indigenous tools into going to the depths of the Tarantan Wasteland to eat dust, he did promise to pay them one gold coin per month.
But... half a year has passed, and these brothers haven't even seen a single copper coin, let alone a single gold coin...
Not only did they not get the money, but when the thieves tried to defect, Yang took out an account book and looked through it, and they found that their son still owed Yang a large sum of food money...
Otherwise, Hal wouldn't have been able to think of ways to get some money on him during his "business trip". It was really a pain in the ass that a group of adult men (even professional strongmen) couldn't find much money in their pockets.
Tuttle's protests had no effect. After eating the breakfast prepared by the Logistics Department, he was dragged by Rex to change into decent clothes, and went with Rex to show off to the local nobles.
Tuttle really wanted to find an opportunity to escape, but when he suddenly realized that Hal was staring at him with eyes that seemed to want to eat him alive... Tuttle did not resist Rex too fiercely.
Hal doesn't care whether being a puppet lord is hard or not. This guy who only wants to stand out and show off in front of others will definitely only want to strangle Tattle to death in the short term.
Sure enough, as soon as Tuttle was pulled away by Rex, Hal asked Pansy with red eyes: "What's wrong with that guy Yang? Can't he see that I have more leadership qualities?"
Pansy said nothing and quickly cleared the dishes off the table to prevent Hal from getting angrier and smashing things… If they broke anything, they would have to pay for it, and Yang would have to add more entries to their account book.
Hal was furious in the room. When he was summoned to the auditorium of the main building of the city hall to meet the nobles of the new lord and doubted their lives in the face of Rex, who was not a gigolo at all, Yang Qiu put on a cloak and strolled to the Night Watch headquarters of the Gold Coin Church on St. Joseph Street.
The facade of the Night Watch headquarters is very low-key. In order to prevent ordinary people from accidentally entering, a not-so-conspicuous tobacco club sign is hung on the door, and below the sign is written in red letters: Members-only club, no strangers allowed.
The facade is inconspicuous and there is nothing special about the foyer: there is a set of dark brown cloth sofas on each side of the foyer, which is the size of an ordinary living room. Opposite the door is a concave counter similar to the layout of a hotel front desk. A woman wearing glasses is sitting at the counter reading a gossip magazine.
As soon as Yang Qiu entered the lobby, the old-fashioned woman behind the counter put down her magazine, rolled her glasses, and said stiffly, "Sorry, sir, we don't accept new customers here."
Yang Qiu put down his hood and looked at the other person with a smile.
Seeing this visitor who had come here once before and almost frightened the officials to death, the female receptionist who had scared away many intruders with her stepmotherly face suddenly changed her expression and quickly stood up and bowed slightly, "Excuse me, it turns out to be Mr. Yang, the spellcaster."
"I'm very sorry for coming here without permission." Yang Qiu also bowed slightly in return and smiled, "If it's not an offense, I hope to visit Captain Clark and the officials of your department."
The female receptionist calmly said that she would of course not offend him. She politely invited Yang Qiu to sit in the inner reception room and prepared tea. When she came out, she immediately rushed to the counter and frantically called the officials in the organization and the captain of the night watch.
Most of the night watchmen are active at night. Early in the morning, no matter whether they are officials, clerks or on-duty night watchmen, they are still sleeping in bed. When the female receptionist called them, they all sounded sleepy and their voices were muffled.
When they heard that the "Nightmare Butcher" was coming to their door, the gang suddenly woke up.
Soon, Night Watch Captain Lynch Clark and several headquarters officials appeared in front of Yang Qiu, sweating profusely.
After Yang Qiu explained their purpose, these people began to sweat even more.
"Excuse me, but if I understand correctly... Mr. Yang, do you hope that our department can open exorcist registration to the undead?" Captain Clark said in disbelief.
"Yes." Yang Qiu said with a smile, "Our undead friends come from Tarantan. Everyone who has dealt with our undead friends knows that these Tarantan are very intelligent, humane, and very helpful. If your department can abandon prejudices, do not regard the Tarantan undead as aliens, and are willing to accept them, I can assure you that they will be very willing to help the Innadri people solve those difficult and dangerous enemies in the dark."
Captain Clark & other officials: "..."
"Of course, if we want to safely let them work to maintain the peace and stability of Innadri, it is not enough to just open up exorcist registration to these Tarantan undead, we also need to pay them." Yang Qiu added.
Captain Clark and the other officers showed an understanding expression, as if they saw through Yang Qiu's intention.
The Nightmare Butcher is lawless and has no martial ethics. He has repeatedly relied on his ability as a spellcaster to bully princes and nobles who are not even professional strongmen. Equally famous for his bad behavior is his obsessive love for money - this guy has never been moral when it comes to robbing money!
Captain Lynch Clark sneered. He had just acquired the territory of Innadri, but he wanted to turn his back on him and ignore the agreement with the Bishop to blackmail him? He was overthinking! The Gold Coin Church would never make deals with blackmailers!
Under the gaze of these people related to the Gold Coin Church, Yang Qiu calmly... took out two game coins produced by a Chinese manufacturer.
"The undead only recognize this kind of currency. They don't accept ordinary coins." Yang Qiu put the exquisitely crafted game coins with a very low copper content on the coffee table and pushed them to the leaders of the Night Watch. "Your department needs to exchange this kind of coins with Lord Rex before you can use it to hire the undead to do things."
Captain Clark & other officials: "..."
"In addition to this currency, the undead also accept weapons and equipment from professional warriors as compensation." Yang Qiu still had a warm smile on his face. "For troublesome and dangerous tasks such as investigating haunted houses and clearing monsters, you can pay a few hundred undead coins, plus one or two pieces of enchanted fine equipment, and hire ten to twenty undead teams to serve your department. Of course, if the difficulty is too high, please increase the reward as appropriate, otherwise the undead will refuse to accept it."
Captain Lynch Clark had a dazed look on his face, his mouth half open, and the officials' reactions were not much better than his.
Allowing undead creatures to register as exorcists is a fantasy for the Night's Watch.
But...if you think about it carefully, it seems like a good idea to let those immortal undead spirits help their own night watchmen to clear landmines - usually they hire exorcists to do this job, but how can exorcists be as fearless as the undead?
"...We cannot act arbitrarily on such an important matter." After a fierce inner struggle for a while, Captain Lynch Clark said with difficulty, "I need to ask Bishop Gene for guidance."
"Of course." Yang Qiu smiled brightly.
Bishop Lee Gene heard about this over the phone and reacted very strongly. He rushed over in less than ten minutes.
After the host of the Innadri branch of the Gold Coin Church arrived at the scene, he inquired in detail about the safety issues of hiring the Tarantan Undead and the level of assistance that the Night's Watch needed to provide during the employment of the undead. He also argued with Yang Qiu about who would be responsible for the damage caused by the undead during their missions... After all, he was the boss of the place and his perspective on things was different from that of ordinary people.
After a difficult negotiation, Yang Qiu and Bishop Li Jin reached the following agreement:
First, the Night's Watch organization needs to exchange gold coins for Undead Coins - the exchange ratio is 1 gold coin = 200 Undead Coins, which is equivalent to a 5:1 exchange rate between local copper coins and game coins. The premium part is Yang Qiu's income... ahem.
Second: Lord Charlie Rex will provide a venue as a registration place for exorcists of the Night Watch organization that is open to the undead. The location will be chosen in the club area where all illegal businesses have been sealed off, and the Night Watch organization only needs to pay a very low rent.
Third, the Night's Watch organization does not set any threshold for the registration of exorcists, and any Tarantan undead who comes must be approved.
Fourth, the Night's Watch organization must provide detailed text intelligence support during the period of hiring the Tarantan Undead. If there is a large-scale mission, the Night's Watch will need to be dispatched to guide the operation. In return, the Undead will do their best to protect the safety of the Night's Watch on duty.
5. If combat damage occurs during the mission of the Tarantan Undead, the Undead, the Night Watch and Lord Charlie Rex will share the responsibility, with the ratio of 1:5:4.
If the players find out that they still have to pay money after completing the mission, they will definitely go crazy. Yang Qiu must try his best to avoid this kind of trouble...
After obtaining the employment contract and currency exchange agreement from the Night's Watch, Yang Qiu walked out of the Night's Watch headquarters refreshed and walked briskly to find the Bounty Association office.
The Innadelli Underground Bounty Association's external window is located in the Oak Bar. The president, Ms. Kelly Simon, is stationed on the second floor for a long time, acting as a matchmaker between wealthy employers who need people to do things and professional strongmen who need money, and charging a certain amount of commission.
When Yang Qiu appeared in front of the lady with a smile, the branch president of the Bounty Association was stunned for a full five seconds.
"I'm very sorry for the intrusion, Ms. Simon." Yang Qiu bowed slightly in a friendly manner, "Is your bounty association willing to cooperate with the new Lord of Innadri, Charlie Rex?"
