Chapter 313: The Destruction of the Base Camp
Patton knew the undead's style of doing things very well. He stopped the orc militia who wanted to enter the town to help. He only ordered everyone to guard the entrance to the valley, and then began to detain the caravan in the square in front of the town.
There were seven caravans camping overnight in this black market base. These merchants who were always timid in front of the undead immediately gained the courage to strike back when they saw the living militia in uniform. They all started shouting about their own backgrounds - which caravan was the property of a certain noble in a certain place, which caravan was owned by a certain noble and so on.
When a merchant shouted that the Prince of the Rhine had shares in his caravan, the militiamen who were ordered to receive the prisoners inevitably hesitated.
Before this merchant with a strong background could feel proud, Barton waved his hand and said, "Why are you still standing there? Count the prisoners!"
The merchant who had just managed to sit up was startled and shouted, "Do you know what you are doing, country bumpkin? I am the prince's man!"
Patton looked at him expressionlessly, then turned to the militiamen and said in confusion: "What is this person saying? I don't understand. What accent is this?"
Militiamen: “???”
Barton's good friend, the clever Operator Ron, responded tactfully: "It seems to be the accent of the capital. It is quite different from the common language here. I can't understand it either."
"Oh, so you're from the capital." Barton suddenly realized, "Born in such a good place but not doing business, running to a rural area like ours to engage in the slave trade. Tsk tsk, such people should be sent to Tarantan to build roads for a few years and be properly educated."
"That's right." Operator Ron laughed, walked forward, picked up the merchant with a strong background, and stuffed him into the carriage without saying anything.
The merchant's face turned pale and he tried to say something, but Ron stuffed a piece of rag into his mouth.
Patton didn't even bother to glance at the merchant who claimed to have the prince's backing, and continued to arrange for the militia to count the prisoners and vehicles.
The caravan members must be arrested, the caravan property must be confiscated and made public, and the slaves illegally held by the caravan must be rescued and transformed into legal citizens.
This order not only came from Lord Innadri, Charlie Rex, but also from the black magician Yang. If Prince Rhine has any dissatisfaction, he can go and reason with the black magician himself!
"Hurry up, don't let the undead take over the town. We haven't cleaned up the battlefield outside the town yet!" Patton shouted vigorously to the militiamen, "Send a few female militiamen to take care of the rescued civilians and light a fire!"
The seven "illegally operating" caravans all had slaves to a greater or lesser extent, and the Tachia caravan that had just "sold" two undead was no exception. When Old Bert went to discuss business with the owner of this place, his subordinates strolled around the square and bought several female slaves and loaded them into the carriage.
Mei, a resident of the western town of Adler, was one of these unfortunate female slaves.
Mei is very young, only thirteen years old, and her fate is very similar to that of Ms. Shirley - she was not trafficked, but abandoned by her family.
Girls with a fate like Mei's were not particularly rare in the Rhine Kingdom...If they were not old enough to get married, could not do heavy work, and their families happened to be struggling to make ends meet, they would be eliminated from the family as a burden.
Life in the hands of the slave traders was not easy. Mei could not remember how many days she had not had a decent dinner. When she was handed over to the Tachia caravan, her only hope was that the new owner would be more generous and give her one more slice, no, half a slice of bread.
Unfortunately, the caravan boss, Old Bert, who was cheated by the owner of this place when selling the undead, was in a bad mood. The group of female slaves who were bought at the same time as Mei not only failed to get dinner, but two of the older female slaves were raped by the caravan members.
When the undead attacked in large numbers, the hungry Mei was locked in a half-full truck with other female slaves. Because one of the two people who were raped was groaning intermittently in pain, no one could sleep.
When the undead rushed into the camp of the Tachia caravan, the female slaves, who were frightened by the noise outside, huddled together tightly, watching with trepidation the skeleton figures that flashed from time to time between the gaps in the truck's planks.
It was not until the militia pried open the door of the truck that Mei and the other female slaves who shared the same fate realized that the world outside had changed beyond recognition.
The Taqiya people, who did not treat the female slaves as human beings, had their hands and feet tied with strange white strips (cable ties) and were carried like pigs and sheep by people wearing militia uniforms and loaded into a vacated large truck.
Mei bravely looked around and found that the square in front of the town, which served as a slave trading market, was completely controlled by people in militia uniforms. There were many militiamen who were shouting and cursing fiercely at the merchants who were tied up and refused to behave themselves, and there were even more militiamen holding torches, seemingly checking and counting the merchants' goods.
The militiaman who pried open the door of the truck counted the number of slave girls, raised the torch and shone it into the truck, and shouted to Mei and the others, "Are you the only ones here? Are there any others?"
None of the terrified slave girls answered him.
"You scared them all, be gentle!" Another operator came up and waved at the slave girls, "Hey, come over here!"
Mei and the others stumbled along with the operator through several noisy merchant camps, and were brought to the wooden building where the thugs were on duty at night, and handed over to the female orc militia.
Like Mei, there were more than a hundred slaves who were brought to the wooden building, a small number of them were women, and most of them were young and middle-aged men; all of them were frightened by the changes that happened tonight, and many of them even numbly followed the habits trained by the slave traders after being brought here, shrugging their shoulders, hanging their heads, consciously lining up, and squatting on the ground obediently.
The female orc militiamen had suffered the same fate as these poor people not long ago. They did not speak out to correct their behavior, but silently separated the women from the men, distributed blankets, and let everyone sit on them.
After settling the people down for the time being, the female orc militiamen who had experienced slavery went around checking the people and brought out those who were injured.
Mei was not beaten, but one of the two women who were sexually assaulted with her put up a little resistance during the assault. She had scars and wounds on her face, arms, and thighs that were particularly shocking under the firelight, and her hair had been pulled out in large chunks.
The female orc militia helped the scarred woman to the fire, fed her alchemical potion, and then took out medical cotton. She first wiped the wound gently with the potion, then applied medicine powder and covered it with medical tape.
When the wound was wiped with medicine, the woman who was trying hard to suppress her sobs trembled in pain. Seeing this, the female orc militia took out a crystalline white sugar block from the medicine box and asked her to hold it in her mouth to relieve the pain - using sweetness to dilute the pain was also the "experience" that the orcs learned on their own during the unified treatment after being rescued.
Another man with a pale face and bloodstains on the back of his tattered pullover was picked out from the crowd by the female orc militia, and two female militiamen carried him to the campfire.
The condition of this male slave was even worse than that of the woman who had been sexually assaulted. The criss-crossing scars on his back from being whipped had become inflamed and ulcerated because he had not received treatment. He himself also developed severe fever symptoms. He was only able to hold on until now because of his desire to survive, out of fear of being thrown out of the valley by the slave traders to fend for himself.
Several female orc militiamen surrounded him, poured him several times more alchemical potion than others, and made him hold a candy in his mouth. After laying two layers of blankets next to the fire, they helped the man lie on top, cut open his shirt with scissors, brought clean water from the wooden house, diluted the potion, and several people came together with medical cotton to clean the wound on his back and apply medicine...
The slaves who were ordered to sit on blankets and wait watched quietly as the orc female militiamen treated their companions.
The emotions that living people should have gradually appeared on the numb faces of many people.
Some people began to wipe their tears silently, some prayed in a low voice, and more people turned their heads and stretched their necks to look at the town across the square.
Because the square was full of militiamen walking around with torches, the town across the square seemed even darker and more difficult to see.
But it doesn't matter.
What’s important is that even across the square, people sitting in the wooden building near the entrance to the valley can hear the shrill screams and terrified cries coming from the town from time to time.
These sounds are as beautiful as heavenly music to the ears of people who have suffered enough.
Since the Rhine Kingdom's Protectorate War two hundred years ago, the people of Adler have gradually abandoned this land.
It is difficult to tell how many innocent souls have been buried and how many lives have been ruined in this hundreds of kilometers of uninhabited area; the only thing that is known to the world is that two knights who were awarded knighthoods as civilians walked out of this southern wilderness, and one of them was Stewart.
The slave trade was a highly profitable business, but a highly profitable business could not last long without a backer. Any slave trader who was well-known in this wilderness had some connection with an Adler noble.
What makes Stewart different from other slave traders is that after he spent a lot of money to obtain the title, he did not just quit his job and leave. Instead, he returned to the South and continued to develop his old business.
When the lord of the neighboring Innadri was still the father of Adela III, Stewart had already established a human black market "empire" that belonged to him alone in the southern part of Adler's territory - not only did he have a base camp like the valley town that dared to be set up in broad daylight, but there were also more than a dozen small and medium-sized strongholds on the scale of mountain villages; not only did more than half of the slave business in the Rhine Kingdom go through Stewart's hands, but Stewart also had a hand in foreign business.
For example...all the orc slaves from the Innadri Territory and the Odysseus Territory were traded in Stuart's population black market.
The fact that all of Innadelli's peers were wiped out caused a lot of trouble for Stewart. After all, without the Frank family, a stable "downstream distributor", Innadelli's business would not be so easy to develop.
"Illegitimate children just don't know the importance of things." This was Sir Stuart's most direct reaction after learning about the demise of the Frank family.
Which noble family in Innadri does not have a farm? Which farm does not need slaves? What is the difference between combating the slave trade and offending all the nobles in Innadri?
It was short-sighted and unreasonable for a country lord who had only temporarily obtained his fiefdom through luck and brute force and had not yet been recognized by the capital to rashly offend all his peers.
Of course…even though he hated Charlie Rex, an illegitimate child who relied on luck to get to the top, Stuart was also very curious about this man's history .
For example, how exactly did Charlie Rex control the undead given to him by the Nightmare Butcher?
It is not uncommon for spellcasters to give or sell tamed monsters or summoned creatures to others on the continent of Nabaron. In the Port of Moses in the territory of Odysseus, there are often magical mounts from black magicians, or rare monsters that spellcasters have captured and tamed.
The undead were by no means a rare summoned creature. The reason they had not become a commodity was simply because the undead creatures were too low in intelligence, had no combat power, and had no desirable features in appearance.
Stuart was very interested in the Tarantan Undead, a "rare species" of undead that had the power to fight against the Cult of the Fiery Sun, could capture cities and territories , and could even be lent to others for combat. He was more interested in the Tarantan Undead than those nobles who wanted to spend a lot of money to buy the Tarantan Undead as a topic of bragging.
Old Bert, a Tachia merchant, claimed that as long as he carried a six-legged lizard past the lone Tarantan undead, the undead would curiously come over, sit on the lizard's back and be taken away safely... Stuart was somewhat skeptical about such a weird way of capturing people.
But since the Tachia merchant could bring the undead to his base camp and make these undead be sold honestly... Stuart thought that this capture method might really work.
Before he lay down to sleep, Old Stuart was still calculating how many of the captured undead he would sell and how many he would keep for himself...
When he was awakened by the commotion outside, this slave trader leader, who was over sixty years old, was dreaming of leading an army of undead to attack a wealthy and prosperous territory.
"Who's making that noise?!" Old Stuart, whose sweet dream was interrupted, roared angrily outside the bedroom.
The male servant guarding the outer room ran in with a panicked look on his face: "Master, there is a commotion on the street outside, it seems someone has broken in!"
"What a joke?" Hearing this, old Stuart just thought it was absurd.
He is not like Charlie Rex, an illegitimate son who acts without any rules after suddenly rising to a high position. All the powerful nobles in Adler territory can benefit from his business. If anyone wants to make trouble with old Stewart's business, there is no need to wait until the army is sent to this place in the south. Old Stewart can find out clearly who wants to target him, who pays the money and who provides the troops.
Shouting to the panic-stricken butler to help him out of bed, old Stuart picked up the cane from the bedside table and walked out with great momentum.
The private soldiers who were also alarmed were rushing to old Stuart's room and gathered around the leader of the slave traders.
There is no external enemy. At most, there will be a traitor in his own nest... Old Stuart has experienced a lot of such things. Few of his subordinates are content. Most of them are ambitious people who are jealous of the family business he has built and want to replace him.
"Who is this idiot causing trouble again? Do they really think I'm old?" Old Stuart thought murderously, "It seems necessary to hang a bunch of idiots at the mouth of the valley to dry!"
As soon as he came out of the big house... Old Stuart was stunned.
In the small town under the moonlight, people can only see objects under the nearby light source. Places that are a little further away and cannot be illuminated by the lantern are just a dark shadow.
On the streets without street lights, many people were running around in chaos, like headless flies. One could only hear various strange screams of shock, anger or fear, but no shouting or cries of fighting or killing.
Old Stuart, who has been taking high-level alchemical potions for a long time to maintain his health, has better eyesight than some young and middle-aged men, but even he can only see that there seem to be many figures rushing in from the other end of the street, and he can't see anything clearer.
This is not the point.
The point is... the enemies didn't just rush in from the streets. There were dense, impatient figures on the roofs and walls of houses on both sides of the road...
"W-What the hell is this?!"
Old Stuart's heart trembled, and he subconsciously shrank into the big house, but he still couldn't help looking towards the street intersection.
The enemies ignored the terrain and did not pay any attention to their formations. As they rushed into the block, they poured into the buildings on both sides like water.
The lights in the building illuminated the "true form" of the invading enemy, and shuddering screams pierced the night sky: "Undead! It's the Undead, ahhhhhh——!"
Old Stuart was dumbfounded...
No - it was only a few hours ago that the Taqiyas brought the captured undead to him? !
How did these Tarantan Undead know that their companions were kidnapped and even came to their door in such a short time? !
No, that's not right!
The point is, do these Tarantan undead actually have the collective consciousness to rescue their compatriots? !
Isn't it said that these undeads kill each other all the time, and many people have seen it with their own eyes? ?
Old Stuart's earlier ambition to deal with his subordinates disappeared, and he hastily ordered his private soldiers to defend the big house. He didn't even take his walking stick, and only took a few of his most trusted private soldiers with him, and ran towards the secret passage at a brisk pace.
The judgment of this old slave trader leader was very wise. The Tarantan Undead, who were able to kidnap the enemy prince in the midst of thousands of troops, could not be resisted by the defense force of the base camp at all. The smart thing to do was to cut off the tail and survive, abandoning this base camp to save themselves.
Old Stuart didn't even bother to wait for his son who lived nearby. He was only interested in escaping danger as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately... because the undead launched their attack late at night, their action was not only swift but also left no grass behind wherever they passed. No one was able to report the situation in time, so when old Stuart discovered the seriousness of the problem, he was less than a hundred meters away from the undead that were rushing in.
And at this distance...it can be scanned by the players' identification skills that can penetrate walls and see through things.
Hundreds of players simultaneously poured into this street, which had the most densely built buildings and looked the wealthiest in the town. Countless identification spells were thrown in multiple directions, and it was difficult for Old Stuart not to be caught.
What's worse, old Stuart is a man who enjoys life. The furnishings in his mansion are even more luxurious than Augusta's residence above the bar. He also wears a jewel necklace around his neck that he bought at a high price and enchanted by a high-level spellcaster to prevent assassination.
"There's a super fat boss over there!"
The players who scanned old Stuart cheered excitedly like it was the New Year. A group of walkers directly activated the Wind Control Technique and rushed towards Stuart's house with green eyes.
The players, who treated the various districts of Innadri City as parkour entertainment venues and almost all of whom were good at Super Mario, rushed into the yard of the big house in less than ten seconds.
The loyal private soldiers rushed forward bravely to stop them... but it was of no use. These players, who were willing to skip work and classes to play the battlefield missions, spent an average of more than a thousand hours (in-game time) in monster spawning spots with extremely difficult survival conditions, such as Spider's Lair and Poison Mist Swamp. The players did not take the obstruction of only twenty or thirty private soldiers seriously at all.
Some broke through the door, some jumped out of the window, and in a blink of an eye, more than 20 walker players passed the powerless private soldiers and broke into the luxurious house that Stuart had carefully renovated.
"Fuck, this place is so lush!" One player was so blinded by the luxurious furnishings in the house that he almost couldn't move his legs.
"Just let the brothers behind plunder. It's all a unified auction and the money will be divided anyway. Don't let the BOSS get away!" A sober player reminded nearby.
This game doesn't have a backpack system. The rewards players receive when participating in activities are all laid out in the open, and there really isn't much room on the skeleton to hide the loot...but it unexpectedly created a gaming environment full of integrity.
"That's right!" The player who was almost tempted by the luxurious interior furnishings reacted and chased old Stuart who fled to the secret passage in the backyard more actively.
Old Stuart ran anxiously to the backyard, which was only a few steps away from the barn where the secret passage was located. He heard the life-threatening "click, click" sound behind him and almost went crazy: "There are so many buildings and so many people, how do these undead know where I am?!"
No one could answer his question. The players who were running towards him after the identification spell scanned the target cheered and rushed forward. Some of them held back the private soldiers who turned back to resist, while others bypassed the private soldiers and rushed towards Old Stuart with shining eyes...
The few private soldiers and guards that Old Stuart brought with him all had professional-level combat capabilities. If it were half a year ago, they would kill every player with one hit, and there would be no need for a finishing blow.
Up to now, players who have experienced the pursuit by the former thieves' group, the annihilation in the spider's nest, the annihilation in the monster battlefield, the annihilation in the poisonous fog swamp, the annihilation by the Fiery Sun Cult, the annihilation in the siege, the annihilation in the eastern battlefield of the Odysseus Territory... have not only tripled their ability to withstand attacks as their level (mental power) increased, but have also become extremely proficient in various dirty operations to avoid damage.
The walker player who came up first, dodged and slid when the opponent drew his sword and chopped at him, and none of him was hit by the private guards.
After avoiding the first wave, he turned into a Shadow Ranger, kept his distance, drew his bow and arrow, and fired three consecutive shots with the energy sword. Regardless of whether he could hit the target or not, at least he could provide cover for his teammates.
Players who have transformed into Death Walker are even more despicable. They hold a small dagger in their hands and rarely get close to the enemy. If they get close, they will stab the enemy in the butt.
The private guards waved their weapons in frustration and chased after the undead, but not only did they fail to touch the undead, but their own armor was shot and chopped with clanging sounds.
What made these private guards hired by Old Stuart even more desperate was that they couldn't even catch up with the undead who were carrying their master...
When the darkest moment before dawn arrived, the valley town, which had been noisy for more than an hour, gradually calmed down.
The experienced Patton had been listening to what was happening in the town from the square in front of the town.
When he saw a large group of undeads laughing and joking out of the town, gathering in the square cleared by the militia, holding up items and shouting about auctioning, he calmly waved to the crowd: "Okay, it's our turn to go in and clean up the battlefield."
