Chapter 295 The Road Ahead Is Long and Difficult
After two hours of traveling on the old green train, Yang Qiu arrived at a small station at the border between Innadri and Tarantan.
Further ahead, the trains no longer run, and supplies from Innadri have to be transported in by trucks and horse-drawn carriages.
The small station was converted from dozens of wooden houses left behind by the prisoner road construction team (all the prefabricated houses that could be dismantled and taken away were taken away). In addition to being used by the Innadeli Railway Construction Logistics Department, it also attracted some small adventure teams and mercenary groups operating nearby.
When Yang Qiu got off the train, he saw a group of strong men and women with rough looks waiting in front of the small kitchen of the Logistics Department to buy food.
"These people came from Sorenson next door." Pansy, who was in charge of the transfer of materials at the station, casually introduced to the senior leader who came to "inspect", "When they first came, they wanted to rob our train, but they gave up when they found that the carriages were full of concrete, steel bars and rails. They turned around and started doing business with us."
Of course cement, steel bars and railroad tracks are valuable, but the tonnage is there. It would be better to get some monster skins, furs and bones than for everyone to carry a few tons back to the city to sell.
"Oh? Robbery?" Yang Qiu looked at the group of muscular and brave men and women with sharp eyes.
"Now they will pay for food, water and accommodation." Pansy had to emphasize, "When they take our train back, they will also pay for the fare."
Hal, the operators and the Sokri mercenaries are already struggling to take care of the prisoners now, so just give them some work!
Yang Qiu looked away with regret... The ones who would pay were the customers, and he would never do such a thing as attacking the customers.
Places with convenient transportation will gradually gather popularity. The small border station where only staff were originally stationed now has a small shop selling food (an official shop run by the Logistics Department, mainly preparing food for the staff), a small hotel for people to stay overnight, and even a small tavern - which sells cheap corn rum, malt beer brewed by local farmers and the like.
In a few years or even decades, this place might even become a small town... The history of the formation of human settlements mostly follows this pattern.
Yang Qiu is a Chinese. He likes popularity by nature. He wandered around the station and chatted with the farmers who came to the town with vegetables. Then he summoned the undead horse and headed deep into the Tarantan Wasteland.
The adventurers and mercenaries who came from the neighboring Sorenson Mountains to resupply, only then discovered that a black magician had passed by them...
"Hey, Pansy, that could be...?" A burly man who knew Pansy approached her in surprise and started talking to her.
Pansy was directing the operator driving the crane to load the rails and cement from the train carriages into the truck. The locals still treated these second-hand mechanical creations from Earth as if they were their enemy and did not dare to take them lightly. They just replied impatiently, "Yes, it's him."
"It's actually him." The sturdy man was shocked and said in disbelief, "The legendary nightmare butcher would sit on the steps and chat with the farmer?"
Pansy just sneered... The black magician's good temper is only directed at ordinary people. If I hadn't helped you to smooth things over, believe it or not, you guys would have become prisoners waiting to be taken to the road construction team.
Next to the railway built by the road construction team, there is a two-lane road that is only roughly covered with road surface and can accommodate trucks.
Occasionally, there are second-hand Chinese-made trucks that are of solid quality and durable passing by on the road, but most of them are modified steel-frame carriages pulled by ground lizard horses - the ground lizard horses brought by the Fiery Sun Cult, the Nadli City Defense Force and the nobles' private soldiers, and the Sokri caravan that attempted to kidnap Westram last year, except for those allocated to the Transport Department (formerly the Carriage and Horse Department), are used on this road.
Yang Qiu trotted on the undead horse for more than an hour and saw the large construction site of the prisoners' road construction team from afar.
The Tarantan Wasteland does not have as many mountains as the one in Westham, but it has many swamps. In some places, the swamps are so large that they cannot be bypassed. If a railway is built through it, it will be necessary to fill in the road or even build a bridge.
And this is also the most expensive place...all the steel bars and cement transported from the earth are consumed here.
When Yang Qiu rode into the construction site, he saw many prisoners working hard with the help of excavators to dig deep into the quagmire that had been deposited for years. They shoveled the cleared mud into trucks or steel-framed carriages as required by the undead engineers and sent them back to the rear - these were all natural fertilizers for fertilizing the fields, and the national team in charge of infrastructure work would certainly not waste them.
Yang Qiu was very confident in the national team. After admiring the progress of the project for a while, he went to find Hal and did not disturb the engineers who had gone to another world to start a second career.
At this time, Hal... was busy releasing some prisoners.
That’s right, prisoners who were captured to build the railway had the opportunity to be released, and they didn’t have to work until they died... Prostitutes, gamblers, and petty street thieves with relatively minor crimes had the opportunity to go home as long as they behaved well during the labor reform and served a period of time.
And get paid...
When Yang Qiu entered the prisoner barracks, a dozen prisoners with skin tanned to a similar shade as the Sokri people were brought out of the barracks by Sokri mercenaries. They were dressed in neat and simple clothes, carrying luggage and small cloth bags containing their salaries.
After spending more than half a year together, these Sokri mercenaries who were forcibly detained had developed a good relationship with the prisoners from Innadeli. From a distance, Yang Qiu heard a frosted-looking Sokri man giving earnest advice to the prisoners he brought out:
"…your wife sends you money and clothes every month. You are the one that the prisoners' families are most concerned about. Live a good life with your family when you go back. Don't let your wife down. If you still land yourself here, your next prison term won't be so short. Your wife might be disappointed in you and remarry someone else. Don't regret it so much that you can't even cry."
"I understand, guard, I will never do wrong again." The released prisoner burst into tears after being persuaded. "Guard, if you go to the city in the future, please remember to visit my home. I live in the South City District..."
"Yes, yes, there will be a chance." Suokeli comforted him and then said to another young man, "You too, are already grown up, don't worry your parents anymore. Your mother washes vegetables in the logistics department, and the money she earns in cold water every day is not enough for you to spend two nights of wine and women. You were arrested here, and your mother has to save money to make clothes for you and send them to you, for fear that you will be cold. Think about whether this is suitable for you."
Yang Qiu stopped where he was, watching with a smile as the released prisoners were taken out of the barracks by the Sokri mercenaries and put on the carriage back to Innadri.
Hal Maxwell was still the same, even though he was sitting behind a desk piled with paper documents, holding a pen in his hand and a little ink on his cuffs. But his fierce look, as if he was going to kill someone if they disagreed with him, and his eagle-eyed and wolf-like temperament had not changed at all because of his copywriting work.
Yang Qiu removed the subspace barrier and appeared. Hal, who was gritting his teeth and writing a report on the release of prisoners, almost knocked over the ink bottle.
"What are you doing here?" Hal asked warily.
Yang Qiu calmly took out the iron plate component engraved with the Undead Summoning Array from his space bracelet and said, "Of course I'm here to send you manpower."
Hal's face twitched a little when he saw that there were only partial patterns of the magic circle on the iron plate...
He hasn't dealt with the undead (especially players) for more than half a year.
And he didn't miss the days when he dealt with the undead more than half a year ago at all!
"Don't be so repulsive. Our undead friends can be very annoying sometimes, but they are not without merit. At least they are trustworthy when dealing with monsters." Yang Qiu said with a smile, "Take this set of components with you, and assemble the teleportation array when you need the undead to clear the way for the road repair team."
Hal took the iron plate with a look of disgust...
"By the way, I heard that you asked the Bounty Association to inquire about your aunt and cousin?" Yang Qiu said.
Hal was reluctant to discuss this with Yang Qiu: "This is my private matter."
"No, what I want to say is, do you want to find your only two remaining relatives and let them come to live in Innadeli?" Yang Qiu said with a smile.
Hal first looked at Yang Qiu suspiciously, and for a moment he did not understand what Yang Qiu wanted to express. After a while, he finally reacted and shouted angrily: "I said, this is my private matter!"
Yang Qiu stopped teasing him and walked away laughing.
It is a normal idea for everyone to hope that their remaining relatives can live in a place where they feel safe and secure... Hal, the awkward Kenyan boy, has actually acknowledged Innadri from the bottom of his heart.
In this dark, terrible and fucked-up world, creating a place where people in this world can live in peace is what Yang Qiu has always thought about and is working hard to do.
"The road ahead is long and difficult."
Standing in the quiet prisoner barracks, overlooking the bustling railway construction site, Yang Qiu murmured softly.
On the other side, the orange cat boss, who had determined the development direction of his tiny knight team, hurried back to Innadeli to find Zhao Zhenzhen.
"Sister Zhao is not online? The bones are still on the ship to Moses Port?"
With no other options, the orange cat boss had to call his friends to accompany him, teleport back to his own knight territory, and then go to Moses Port to find Sister Zhao - it turned out that the teleportation point that could teleport to Moses Port was installed in his territory, so they had to find another way.
"We're not going to walk there, are we? We don't even have a map, we'll definitely get lost." Tang Jia disagreed with the bad idea of walking to Moses Port.
Jialuo and Yang Ying had limited interest in the business-style gameplay. After joining in the fun for a while, they went back to play their own games. Only Tang Jia and Ouyang were left to accompany the orange cat.
"Why walk? Take a boat." The orange cat boss pointed to the boats sailing on the Barcelo River southwest of the Knight Territory.
"I can't swim!" Tang Jia said.
The orange cat boss thought about it and dragged out the solid wood square table from the lord's house...
A small passenger ship was sailing from the town of Newin to the port of Moses. When it reached the border between the territories of Inadili and Odysseus, the captain with a big beard suddenly heard the sailors on the deck screaming and howling.
"What are you arguing about? Don't disturb the guests!"
The bearded captain came out of the cabin, cursing. He just yelled at the sailors and couldn't help but yell...
Three ghosts of the dead were floating in the middle of the gently undulating river, holding a large square table and waving their arms towards the passenger ship.
"... Pretend you didn't see it and go around it!" The bearded captain immediately turned around and said to the first mate.
The first mate pointed to the river and said, "Boss, they are paddling over here."
The bearded captain took a deep breath...
The deck of the passenger ship was not high, and the undead could reach the side of the ship by standing on the large square table and stretching their arms. The bearded captain really did not have the courage to offend these undead to death, so he could only bite the bullet and stop the ship and let the three undead climb up.
Not only did the three undead know how to “take a ride” on their own, they also knew how to use the ropes on the deck to hoist the large square table up…
One of the undead shook off the water on his body, and his terrifying skull face moved around the nervous crew members. He walked up to the bearded captain, who looked the oldest and whose clothes were made of more exquisite materials. He took out a few silver coins and placed them on his bone claws, but did not pay directly. Instead, he pointed at himself, then at his two companions, and tilted his head slightly.
Bearded Captain: “…”
The bearded captain swallowed his saliva, his mind spinning with all the rumors about the Tarantan ghosts spread by the Innadri and Moses Port people. He raised two fingers woodenly and said, "Three, three people, even if you get on board halfway, you'll need two silver coins."
The orange cat boss must not understand the common language of the civilian NPCs, but body language knows no borders. He glanced at the raised finger of the bearded captain, picked up two silver coins that were specially left by the NPCs when doing caravan business, and shook them slightly to confirm whether this was the amount of the shipping fee.
The bearded captain nodded.
The orange cat boss then put away the extra coins and handed the two silver coins to the other party.
The bearded captain was so stupid that he just accepted the fare instinctively.
The first mate and sailors standing nearby looked at the captain with admiration - how dare he collect money from the dead!
The bearded captain took the money and suddenly looked calm for some reason.
The ghost who paid the money did not leave. He looked at the sailors again and pointed his bony finger at the towel hanging around a sailor's neck.
The sailor bravely took two steps forward, took out the towel and handed it to the dead man.
The orange cat boss took the towel, wiped the water off the weapons and equipment, drained the water, and handed it to his friend.
Tang Jia and Ou Yan each wiped the water off their equipment and returned the towel to the sailor. The three of them then walked into the public cabin on the first floor, found a seat by the window, and sat down. Ignoring the screams of the guests in the cabin, they started chatting as if no one was around.
The sailors nervously followed into the corridor, climbed to the cabin door and stared at these three undead who did not consider themselves outsiders at all and treated them as casually as ordinary guests for a long time, then turned back to look at the captain.
On the deck, the bearded captain, holding two silver coins in his hand, looked calmly at the first mate next to him and said, "A dead ghost took our ship and paid the fare. This dream is really interesting."
Sailor & First Mate: “?!”
