Chapter 300 Hidden Branch
Old Jack gritted his teeth and walked through the streets full of dead souls. After about twenty minutes, he arrived at the bar street of West Street Market.
Yongwang Town has a conservative atmosphere. There are not many lights and nights in the bar street. The waitresses are all big and strong women, and the drinks they sell are mainly cheap rum.
Old Jack pushed open the door and entered a bar with a horseshoe sign. He asked the bartender for a glass of corn wine. He looked around and saw that there were not many people in the store. When the bartender handed him the glass, he lowered his voice and said, "I want to see Daisy. Is she there?"
The bartender glanced at him, nodded implicitly, and pointed to the stairs behind the right side of the bar.
Old Jack picked up the corn wine and went up to the second floor tremblingly, as if he wanted to find a quiet place to sit.
There are four rooms on the second floor of the bar. The doors of the two rooms near the stairs are open, and you can see that they are full of messy sundries. The doors of the two rooms deep in the corridor are closed, and there are also a lot of sundries piled at the door. At a glance, it seems that the second floor of this bar only serves as a utility room.
Old Jack walked around the rags and scraps on the ground and came to the door of the third room with difficulty. He raised his hand and knocked on the door: "It's me, Jack from the grocery store."
After a while, Old Jack heard the sound of heavy objects being moved in the room through the door.
After waiting patiently for a while, someone finally opened the door from the inside.
"Come in and talk." The person who opened the door was a woman with an apron, a headscarf and a fat face. She urged Old Jack to enter the room which was also full of junk, and then quickly closed the door.
"Have any undead come here?" Old Jack's heart beat faster when he saw his accomplice's nervous look.
"I have been here twice." The woman's face did not look good.
Old Jack's eyes suddenly widened.
"Don't worry, it's okay." The woman waved her hand, kicked away the garbage at her feet, walked to the gray sofa in the pile of debris and sat down. "I knew that some agents and mercenaries would use a kind of detection magic recorded on scrolls, so I dug a tunnel under this bar and built the entrance on the second floor. I piled so much garbage here, even those undead who can use spells will never find the person I hid."
The fact that the Tarantan undead could use magic was something the Innadri people knew when the Solari Order stumbled.
"You are the most reliable, Daisy. If we put this batch of goods somewhere else, we will be in trouble this time." Old Jack breathed a sigh of relief, and then said nervously, "But it is still not safe. Those undead searched too carefully and would repeatedly search the places they have already searched. We have to send the goods out quickly."
"I know!" Daisy, the owner of the Horseshoe Bar, said irritably, "Didn't I tell you, you idiot, that the undead came here twice! Both times they found my place! If I hadn't been calm enough, I would have been exposed long ago!"
Old Jack didn't dare to provoke this crazy woman and kept his mouth shut.
"What the hell! Aren't these two dead girls just the shoemaker's money-losing goods? How could they attract the dead here?" The proprietress became more and more angry.
Old Jack's heart skipped a beat. It was his idea to take action on this batch of goods. He didn't dare let the boss lady think it was his fault, so he hurriedly said, "It's not necessarily because of these two little girls. Do you remember the group of orcs who came to town five days ago? They were said to be wealthy orcs from the Kenyan Empire. Even the slave traders in Adler sent people to help them find people. If these Kenyan orcs spent money to hire the undead——"
The fat on the boss lady Daisy's face trembled, and her already fleshy face looked even more ferocious.
The people in the town had indeed rarely seen orcs.
But in Everlook, there are indeed quite a few orcs...
"It's actually like this!" Daisy, the proprietress, was so angry that she gritted her teeth and said, "It's actually like this!"
It’s not that there was something wrong with their business, but that they were implicated by their peers!
When the players turned the town upside down and complained a lot... Yang Qiu had already left the town and appeared at the rural market two miles away from the eastern outskirts of Yongwang Town.
The territory of Everlook is less than half the size of Westram, but its population is over three times that of Westram. The villages are more densely populated, and the scale of human settlements is also more impressive.
For example, this rural market next to the town has developed to a certain scale - there are many thatched huts on both sides of the more than 100-meter-long dirt road, and there is also a not-small carriage and horse inn in the middle of the market.
The carriage and horse inn consists of a three-story building and a row of wooden houses. The yard surrounded by earth walls is quite large and can accommodate at least two caravans of a hundred people to rest temporarily. The function of this market is not only to serve the locals. Because of its convenient land trade route, it can also benefit from long-distance caravans every summer and autumn.
It is only March now, and the caravans will not arrive for at least one or two months, making the market seem a little deserted. Only a small number of locals are walking around selling and buying mountain products. The inns where the caravans stay are so empty that there are hardly any people to be seen.
Yang Qiu, who concealed his figure with the subspace barrier, walked into the carriage and horse inn with confidence.
There were only four carriages parked in the yard, which was about the size of a middle school playground.
These four carriages were considered quite luxurious, with chassis made of pure steel and bodies made of the finest wood. The windows and doors had quite delicate patterns, but it seemed as if they had undergone a major overhaul, with some parts of the carriages covered with a layer of iron sheet painted the color of wood.
Well, these four carriages must be luxurious and familiar... because they were originally the vehicles of the old mayor of Westham and a big boss of a club. They just have the surnames and coats of arms of the original owners worn off, and some special patterns erased...
There were two orcs standing in front of the place where the carriage was parked, feeding the horses. There were eight lizard horses. The horses were well-maintained, with shiny fur and the scales on their legs polished to a shine.
Yang Qiu moved a little closer and heard the two orcs talking in low voices with concern. One of them suggested taking the seriously ill companion to the city for treatment, while the other was full of concerns and hesitant.
Yang Qiu stood there for a while, and when he didn't hear anything else, he walked past the two orcs and entered the hotel.
Inside the three-story brick and stone building, at the main entrance on the first floor, two sturdy humans were standing on the steps chatting, staring intentionally or unintentionally at the orcs feeding the horses in the yard.
Walking up the stairs into the hall, you can see four or five people sitting by the counter, drinking, smoking, and talking loudly.
On the sofa in the corner, three orcs were arguing about something, and sitting with them was a wealthy, smiling and easy-going man.
Yang Qiu stood at the door of the hall, looked at the three orcs, then turned to look at the two orcs in the yard, and couldn't help shaking his head.
These guys are really... too stupid. They were not careful enough when they selected companions for Osrian King.
When others told them that Osrian had a malignant infectious disease, they believed it.
Osrian was isolated in the cabin, which was a bit tragic, but at least his life was not in danger at the moment. The ones who were really facing the crisis were actually these five orcs who seemed to be free.
Orcs can have quasi-professional-level combat capabilities when they reach adulthood, not to mention these orcs who claim to be "Orc Citizens of the Kenya Empire" and seem to have some background. The other side obviously has no confidence that they can catch them all in one fell swoop.
Yang Qiu was not in a hurry to show up. He walked to the back hall of the hotel, got some free drinks, then returned to the lobby and sat down next to the arguing orcs.
Innadri had business partners who were slave traders of Adler. Yang Qiu was able to confirm this after he discovered the abnormal number of orc slaves in Innadri.
Before being sold to Westram, the orc girl Lika could even remember that the farm where she grew up had several complete orc families - this was enough to prove that the orcs sold to Innadri were not brought here in scattered numbers, but were transported here in large numbers and batches!
In Naderi, the slave trade is strictly prohibited. Although there is also a large-scale breeding of serfs in the neighboring territory of Odysseus, the vast majority of them are indeed "lifetime servants", or "lifetime slaves", or "voluntary" free people.
Through the players' perspective, Yang Qiu can be sure that... the Crescent Manor, which the players have visited many times, has at least several hundred slaves.
And this is also what worries Yang Qiu - even in a leading port city like Moses Port, the underground slave market is not as rampant as that in Innadeli!
During the hundred years that the Bartles family ruled Innadri, they did make certain contributions to the economic, population, and agricultural development of Innadri, but their internal governance was extremely rotten.
While eavesdropping openly, Yang Qiu was slightly distracted and paid attention to the progress of the players.
Many shops in Yongwang Town were troubled by the repeated visits of the undead and had to close early, but people who lived in the town had no choice but to flee. Even if they returned home, they would be harassed by groups of undead.
Yang Qiu will ignore this rather excessive behavior of the players for now.
After all, Everlook does have big problems, perhaps even more serious than Westram back then.
The vast majority of Westham people are forced to accept the cancer of the red-light district, and those who go along with it are at least exposed.
And in Yongwang Town, even a capable native like Patton, who had been the lord for three months and thoroughly reorganized the militia and security teams, still didn't find any problems!
The cancer of Yongwang Town has grown into the flesh. It cannot be discovered without digging up the skin and flesh.
Yang Qiu passed the time browsing the views of the players who were harassing the residents, and when he switched to the views of the brilliant writer, he paused slightly.
Miaobishenghua and her relatives and friends searched one by one and found a bar in the bar district of West Street. They searched upstairs and downstairs but to no avail. When they walked out of the bar, Miaobishenghua suddenly exclaimed "Huh" and stopped and looked back.
"What's wrong, Huahua?" Yang Ying, who was walking behind Miaobishenghua, asked casually.
Miaobishenghua pushed Yang Ying away and ran into the bar again, turning his head to look at the lobby on the first floor of the bar.
There were a few drinkers sitting in the bar, who seemed to have come out to drink because they were harassed at home. They were very annoyed by these undead spirits that were everywhere, but they dared not say anything. They just sat there with their glasses in hand and glared at them.
Miao Bishenghua didn't care whether a bunch of yellow-named NPCs had any opinions about her. Her eyes swept back and forth across the ceiling of the lobby on the first floor, her fingers moving as if she was calculating something.
"Is there something wrong with the ceiling?" One of the friends whose identification skill CD was restored casually threw out a skill, then said in confusion, "No problem, there's nothing."
"Stop making noise." Miaobishenghua didn't bother to explain. He walked to the middle of the lobby, ignoring the anger of the drinkers, and measured the width of the lobby floor and ceiling with his finger bones using the method of measuring proportions like an art student.
Afterwards, amid the puzzled gazes of the players and drinkers, Miaobishenghua ran into a small kitchen isolated at the back right side of the lobby, fumbled around for a long time, and came out again with a confused look on his face.
Then, Miaobishenghua thought of something else, lifted the hem of his robe and ran to the second floor.
Yang Ying didn't understand what she was doing, but as a warrior who often led a team, she would definitely not let the team's nurse be left alone, so she hurriedly followed.
Miaobishenghua ran to the second floor which was full of junk, raised his hand to his nose, used his finger bones to measure the distance between the two open rooms, and then measured the distance of the corridor, and clenched his fist and clapped his hands: "It is so!"
Yang Ying: “Eh?!”
Although confused, Yang Ying did not hesitate at all and immediately called all the people downstairs up.
"What on earth do you want to do! Haven't we checked it?!" In the third room, the ferocious-looking proprietress, who seemed to be sorting out sundries, opened the door and cursed.
In real life, if you see a strong woman who weighs three times as much as you, your writing skills will definitely shrink, but in the game... I have seen more terrifying monsters on the battlefield, so I didn't pay any attention to her. I just excitedly said to my friends: "The internal area of the house is wrong, there is a tunnel in this house! The entrance is on the second floor!"
Hiding the tunnel entrance on the second or third floor instead of the first floor, this trick has been seen in detective novels a long time ago!
Yang Ying said nothing, picked up his weapon and walked into the room.
The face of the Horseshoe Bar owner changed drastically...
The bar's proprietress Daisy, who used what she thought was a clever way to deceive the mercenaries who took on the missing person commission and even deceived the city hall agents, had no idea how the secret of the second floor of the bar was seen through by the undead - in order to solve the problem of different echoes when someone accidentally knocked on the wall, the proprietress Daisy even deliberately built the walls with different thicknesses!
In shock and anger, the proprietress turned back into the room, pulled out a heavy, thick-backed machete from under the sofa in the garbage pile, and rushed out with a roar, chopping Yang Ying with the machete.
As a warrior who had been on the front line of battle for a long time and often fought against all kinds of monsters and demons, Yang Ying was not at all afraid of the attack from the humanoid monster whose name suddenly changed from yellow to red. He took the initiative to half-crouch sideways and rushed towards the proprietress.
The warrior's rune skills consume more energy than other player professions. The advantage is that even a weak player with motor nerves close to zero can be forcibly influenced by rune skills to perform perfect combat operations as long as the rage value (reserve mental power) is sufficient.
Yang Ying, who had never received any training in fighting, used a charging skill that was completely unaffected by her combat ability, which was only commendable in flexibility and was a mess in other aspects. Her shoulder with shoulder armor hit the side of the proprietress very accurately.
After charging to the target, Yang Ying skillfully raised the two-handed heavy sword (actually, it was a knight's sword weighing more than six kilograms, which should be a one-handed sword for a serious professional) in both hands, and swung out the sword with a flurry of swords that could attack all enemies in the fan-shaped position in front of him...
Lady boss Daisy is the first humanoid monster that players have encountered without armor.
Although the proprietress was extremely strong and had martial arts skills that were no less powerful than those of a quasi-professional, and her fat body had defensive properties that were no less than those of light armor, she was still a flesh body after all. Once she came into contact with the sword that was wielded with great force, she was cut into pieces with blood and flesh flying everywhere. She howled in pain and instinctively dodged backwards.
If it were on flat ground, it would be no problem for the proprietress to dodge Yang Ying's stupid move of just standing still and attacking.
The problem is... the boss lady's feet are full of messy things that prevent outsiders from investigating the second floor...
After taking only two steps back, the proprietress stepped on an empty rum bottle, and her huge body collapsed with a scream of fear.
With the weight of the boss lady Daisy, she would have to struggle for a while before she could get up if she fell on the ground. It would be terrible if she fell in the garbage mountain... Her entire back was hurt by the messy garbage, and it hurt more than her belly. She tried to support herself on the ground with her arms, but she grabbed a handful of garbage, and then another handful of garbage...
The boss lady fell down with such a loud noise that the entire floor of the second floor shook.
The drinkers and bartender on the first floor all heard the loud noise and looked up in surprise.
The grocery store owner, Old Jack, who was sitting on the counter with a wine glass in his sweaty hands, couldn't help but tremble all over...
When Old Jack came downstairs, he was reluctant to part with the corn wine he had just ordered and decided to drink it and leave.
As a result, before I had even finished drinking half of the drink, an undead spirit broke in...
Old Jack, who seemed a little annoyed, was not too nervous at first. Daisy herself said that two groups of undead had come here before and found nothing.
This group of undead did not find anything when they went upstairs for the first time, and they came down in less than two minutes.
Before Old Jack could calm down, the group of undead who had walked to the door suddenly seemed to have discovered something, strolled around the lobby, and ran upstairs...
"It's over, it's over, a fight has started, I'm exposed, I'm definitely exposed!" Old Jack was terrified and wanted to leave this dangerous place immediately.
But... the other people sitting in the lobby had no intention of leaving. As the undead went upstairs for the second time, these ignorant townspeople stretched their necks to look towards the stairs, as if they had discovered something extremely rare and interesting. If there hadn't been so many undead going up and blocking the stairs, Old Jack suspected that these people might have wanted to follow to watch the fun.
They are very interested in everything that has nothing to do with themselves and is worth talking about. Even the smallest things can be mentioned over and over again. This is probably a common trait among all small town residents... After all, ordinary days are too boring, and everyone needs some different stimulation to refresh their minds.
Old Jack knew very well that if he behaved differently from others and ran away when everyone was trying hard to spy on the situation on the second floor, he would be as conspicuous as a louse on a bald head!
The bartender at the bar was so panicked that cold sweat ran down his chin, but he didn't dare to run or hide. He just tried his best to pretend to be as curious as everyone else and kept looking towards the stairs.
After the ceiling shook, the second floor calmed down.
After a while, the drinkers downstairs heard the sound of someone smashing the wall upstairs...
“Oh my god, are these undead going to tear down the bar?” The bartender screamed, looking as if he was really frightened by the undead’s behavior. “How could they do this?”
The drinkers could no longer sit still, and gathered around the bar near the stairs, inadvertently surrounding Old Jack who was sitting at the bar. They asked the bartender in a flurry of excitement:
"What on earth is upstairs?"
"Are these undead coming for your bar?"
"The boss lady is upstairs, right? Did she have a conflict with the undead?"
No matter which world people are from, they recognize people by their faces.
If the proprietress of the Horseshoe was a beautiful woman with a lingering charm, then these drinkers might unite against a common enemy. Who knows, a few brave men might emerge to speak up for the proprietress, or even run to call the security team to rescue her.
The problem is... the boss lady Daisy is not as beautiful as her name suggests, and she is not popular in the town. Not only is she so vicious that people stay away from her, but she is also very arrogant. When she has a dispute with her neighbors, she often takes out her terrible thick-backed machete to scare them.
So the proprietress rarely shows up on the first floor...If she is on the first floor, customers are reluctant to come.
The bartender also knew that his bar was not very popular among the neighbors, and that the bar had indeed been doing things that would be condemned by the townspeople if exposed. At this time, he did not want to defend the proprietress Daisy at all, and only racked his brains to find a way to get himself out of it:
"I don't know. Everyone knows that the boss lady always picks up unwanted things and piles them up on the second floor. I don't go up there once a month. Occasionally, someone comes to see the boss lady and they just stand at the stairs and talk to her. There's no place to step on the corridor on the second floor!"
"Even though I've worked here for three years, I still don't know the boss lady very well! She's not the kind of person who's easy to talk to. Everyone in this town knows about this!"
The bartender was racking his brains to exonerate himself when the undead piled in the stairwell suddenly retreated back to the lobby on the first floor.
This time, the undead who had not paid attention to the bartenders before not only blocked the door of the bar and prevented anyone from leaving, but also two of them bypassed the bartenders who were gathered in front of the bar, jumped into the bar, and without saying a word, pinned down and tied up the bartender...
"What are you doing? I'm innocent!" The bartender didn't expect that these undead didn't care about his performance at all, and shouted in despair, "I didn't do anything, I don't know anything!"
...Unfortunately, the two sides do not speak the same language.
Not long after the undead tied up the bartender, the frightened customers saw two pale, trembling girls coming down from the second floor with the help of undead...
"Ah!" A drunkard pointed at the two girls and exclaimed in surprise, "Aren't those the sisters of the shoemaker Dennis?"
There are over a thousand households in Yongwang Town, and several thousand townspeople. Not all families are familiar with each other, but most of the townspeople still have an impression of the families that are worth talking about in the town.
"Didn't the shoemaker's sisters go to the city to work? Why are they here?" another older drinker said in shock.
Old Jack, who was mixed in with the drinkers, couldn't even sit still and slid off the high stool.
It's over. It's all over...
The two terrified girls didn't have time to identify Old Jack, but it was only a matter of time, Old Jack couldn't escape.
The players who failed to complete the task after all the trouble did not complain at all about wasting their time. Instead, they were very happy.
Miaobishenghua checked the new tasks and task rewards on the task panel and said happily: "I didn't expect that I could discover hidden side quests by doing a professional task. This new map is great!"
