Chapter 232: Undead Internal Conflict
Operator Patton had just finished dinner when he received a notice of an emergency assembly. He hurriedly put on his coat and went downstairs with his colleagues.
Coming out of the operators' dormitory in the building on the left and running into the spacious courtyard of the City Hall, Operator Patton saw... the gate to the courtyard was completely blocked by the undead, and undead were popping out from time to time on the earthen platform in the middle of the courtyard where the undead were "resurrected".
"What's going on?" A group of operators looked at each other.
Some of the more open places in the city are sometimes used by the undead for auctions and competitions, such as the City Hall compound, the Free Market Square on St. Joseph Street, and the Mule and Horse Market outside the West City Gate; but in the final analysis, the frequency of large numbers of undead appearing in the city is still relatively rare. They prefer to stay in "Desolate Stronghold" and "Exile Town" and other places that operators have only heard of but have never been to.
Operator Barton was an eyewitness to a "collective activity of the undead" after all. He stared at the group of undead suspiciously for a while, then he suddenly thought of something and his expression quickly became serious.
"The undead have appeared in large numbers...something big has happened!"
Sure enough, when the operators entered the main building, Zhao Zhenzhen, who summoned them, immediately informed everyone of the not-so-good news: a vampire had sneaked into the city!
This vampire has killed at least one civilian!
Without giving the operators time to be shocked, Zhao Zhenzhen quickly opened the Granser street map and quickly divided the area into inspection areas.
Operator Patton immediately had a bad feeling. Even though he knew he couldn't be distracted at this time, he couldn't help but secretly glance at his colleagues.
The only people present were those who were staying in the temporary dormitory of the City Hall - that is, the former comrades of the city defense army who came from Westram and surrendered with Lieutenant Wagner.
Operator Barton's heart suddenly burned with anxiety... Are they the only ones allowed to deal with dangerous things like vampires? !
It turns out that higher salaries are not that easy to get!
"Patton!"
Operator Patton, who was excited, suddenly heard Zhao Zhenzhen calling his name and quickly responded loudly: "Here!"
Zhao Zhenzhen didn't notice Barton's abnormality, and ordered at her usual speed: "You take a team and visit the residents of No. 090 to 120 on Fourth Street in Granser District one by one. Remember, you cannot step into the yard or enter the residents' houses. You cannot separate from the team members. You must ensure that there are more than 20 undead around you to protect you at all times! Do you understand clearly?"
"I heard it clearly!" Operator Patton replied through gritted teeth.
At present, there are more than 120 staff members working in the City Hall (excluding the Public Security Office).
Most of these staff members were retained by the previous mayor. They have renewed their contracts with the current city hall and have a basic salary and basic benefits. The contract period ranges from one year to three years. If their business capabilities cannot be improved to meet the standards of the city hall after the expiration, they will be dismissed.
These operators often privately call themselves "contract workers" - they are in the same situation as the young and strong men who surrendered during the territory war.
Old crew members like Patton who followed them from Westham are lifelong operators... Their salary and benefits are double that of contract operators. Even if problems with their business capabilities are found in the year-end assessment, they will not be fired but will be transferred to Westham for "further training."
In addition to job security, lifelong officials are also allocated housing. The seized properties in the former casino area that John's group of young and strong men are being organized to renovate and rebuild are benefits allocated to lifelong civil servants.
It is certainly exciting to own your own house in the city. You should know that although there are many streets and houses in the city, most of these properties belong to rich people - for example, the apartment building in the back street of the bar district is the private property of the Darcy family, and the merchants on Mary Street actually pay rent to the same landlord.
This made Operator Patton and his comrades feel proud of their wise choice, and also made the "contract operators" jealous of these lifelong operators, hoping to be "regularized".
Faced with such a fragrant bait, Operator Patton really didn't dare to escape... No, he didn't even dare to show the slightest resistance.
Zhao Zhenzhen divided the twenty-odd lifetime operators into five teams, arranged team leaders and visiting areas, and then led the operators out of the building to meet up with the players.
Ninety percent of the more than 300 players in Lahongge's Blood Alliance have arrived. In addition to the well-equipped and well-coordinated veteran players from the first test, the second test players are also quite strong. Most of them have completed the second transfer and have rich experience in large-group activities (it is difficult to develop a player force without large-group activities, and people often run away without knowing it); seeing that the NPC operators brought by Zhao Zhenzhen were divided into five teams, these players also divided into five groups very efficiently.
The one protecting Operator Barton's team is a Phantom who always speaks his mind.
The player Huanling is the most mischievous one among the "three generals" under Brother Lahong, but he never slacks off when it comes to big things. He immediately commands the more than 60 players in his group to surround all the NPCs, and requires the players walking on the periphery to release them as soon as the identification skills are ready, and not to let monsters suddenly spawn and attack the NPCs so that they cannot react - it is an escort mission, and intercepting the monsters spawned by the system is a routine operation.
The few operators who were closely protected by the Undead didn't react much... These Tarantan Undead were capable of all kinds of weird and absurd operations, they had seen a lot of them.
The operators arrived at the Granser district peacefully, and they even heard the undead protecting them cursing that they didn't even kill any monsters along the way and wasted their feelings...
Five groups of undead were protecting five teams of operators. Such a bloated group certainly couldn't continue to act as a group. When the group led by Brother Lahong entered the first street, the other groups could only wait behind... The streets here were not wide enough for two groups to move side by side.
Operator Barton stood on tiptoe and looked around at the undead skulls. He felt a subtle sense of relief, but was also a little worried that he would not be able to go back to sleep the whole night. He had a lot of work arrangements tomorrow and could not take a day off.
Regardless of whether he is particularly "loyal" or not, Operator Patton is indeed conscientious.
Phantom, who was standing not far in front of Operator Barton and his companions, looked around warily for a long time, and said in confusion on their Blood Alliance channel: "This shouldn't be the case. Aren't Entropy and Wonderful Writing both online? Vanilla and Give Me Medicine are also online, so why aren't they here to steal it?"
"Maybe there aren't enough people in the team? Who cares? Let's just do our task." Shen Xixue followed up with a sentence.
"I think we'd better not let our guard down. Vanilla killed our brothers who were blocking the door outside the Night's Watch Hall several times. That guy will definitely find a way to get back at us." Mingfeng Chunpu reminded his friend.
"Let's put it this way. When you escort the NPC to check the residents, don't just gather around the NPC. Have some people pay attention to the surroundings. If you see Vanilla and the others, call for support immediately." Brother Lahong instructed in the Blood Alliance.
Phantom thought this was a good idea, so when their group entered the Granser block and turned onto Second Street, they arranged two teams to spread out and keep a vigilant eye on places like cracks between houses and bushes where people might appear.
The interception monsters spawned by the system are not a problem for players who are proficient in various online game routines, but players causing trouble are the big problem!
Operator Barton naturally had no idea what the undead were discussing. Seeing that the undead were suddenly acting as if they were facing a formidable enemy, he began to feel nervous again... Could it be that the undead had special sensing abilities and discovered some particularly dangerous and terrifying omen? !
Thinking of this, cold sweat broke out on Operator Barton's forehead.
Operator Patton knows only too well how arrogant and domineering these Tarantan Undead are!
Not only did they have no respect for Yang who summoned them, they also had no respect for Brother Lowell!
Could it be that... the vampire hiding in the dark is scarier than Yang and Brother Lowell? !
The color on Operator Barton's face slowly faded, and he even began to feel weak...
The Granser neighborhood has five districts, three of which are located south of the landscape lake, one is located east of the artificial lake, and one is located north of the artificial lake.
The areas to the south and east of the landscape lake are townhouses for middle-class families, while to the north are higher-end, more expensive and luxurious single-family villas for the nobility.
The area to which Operator Patton was assigned was on the east side of the artificial lake. The townhouses here were more spacious than those on the south side. Not only did they all have sizable gardens in front of the houses, but there were also many landscape trees planted . There were also facilities similar to street gardens and leisure areas every few townhouses.
Of course, the cost of living here is also very high. Families with an annual income of less than two hundred and fifty gold coins cannot afford the cost here... The annual rent here, including water, electricity, gas and other expenses, adds up to forty gold coins.
Entering the fourth block where there are relatively few buildings and where people can hide, the attitude of the undead became more serious. Even the inner circle of undead surrounding the operators stopped chattering and started to frequently cast identification spells on the people around them.
At this point, not only was Operator Barton's heart pounding with nervousness, but several of his colleagues were also frightened by the attitude of the undead, and they were crowded together while walking...
Just when the operators were getting nervous, they suddenly heard the leading undead in front of them shout, "Attention! They're coming!"
"What's coming?!" Operator Patton was startled and looked over in horror.
But then... not far ahead, from the landscape bushes a short distance away from the street lights, a large number of undead suddenly jumped out.
The undead were wearing extremely familiar equipment, whose age could be seen even under the street lights, and they were not much different from the undead that protected them.
Barton & colleagues: “???”
The undead hiding in the bushes appeared, and without explaining their intentions to the "NPCs" who were surrounded by them, they rushed over with roars and screams.
Barton & colleagues: “???”
The undead on both sides started fighting, the sound of weapons colliding was heard continuously, and shouts and curses were heard one after another.
The guard team in front was still fighting with the ambushed enemies. At the same time, more undead came up from the slope of the roadside scenic lake, penetrated directly into the abdomen of the Phantom Team, and rushed towards the NPCs in the protection circle with their fangs and claws bared.
There were quite a large number of attackers in this group. After a short while of fighting, many of the undead that stood in front of Operator Barton and others turned into white light and disappeared.
"So many people are ambushing us? Shameless!" A player from the Phantom Team cursed in anger.
"Aren't you shameless for monopolizing the quests?!" The ambushing player became even angrier, cursing back while using his skills crazily.
Operator Patton and his colleagues were all confused.
They could understand what the two groups of undead said, so there was no misunderstanding that the attackers were not the Tarantan undead.
This made these operators, who had just been so nervous, even more confused...
So, the tense attitude of the undead after entering the Granser District was not because of the vampires, but because of the internal strife among the undead, right?
As the number of undead standing in front of them to "protect" them decreased, Operator Barton and the others fell into a very awkward situation. They were unsure whether to go forward to persuade them or wait for them to fight to a result.
If I try to persuade them... it's too dangerous. Everywhere there are swords wielding from the fighting undead. Don't try to stop the fight and end up getting yourself into trouble.
Just when they were at a loss whether to laugh or cry at this chaotic situation, the attackers broke through the defense line, and a group of undead rushed towards Patton and others with a very clear purpose.
Then... this group of undead surrounded Patton and others.
After surrounding Barton and the others tightly, the attackers turned around and smugly shouted to the undead who were "protecting" them: "Put down your weapons! Your mission NPC is in our hands!"
"Stop it, Yanzu! All the NPCs have changed hands!!"
Barton: “…”
Operators: “…”
