Chapter 348: A war without moral principles (V)
A proper membership club is actually a place similar to a hobby club or interest club. It is a place for people with common interests to gather and for people with equal social resources to socialize, such as the Sapphire Street Tobacco Club that a certain Innadri City agent likes to go to.
An informal club is also a place for people with "common interests" to gather, but this "common interest" tramples on morality and touches the legal red line, and is a key target of the crackdown on pornography and illegal publications.
Before traveling through time, Yang Qiu was just a sixteen-year-old boy, not yet old enough to support the ladybug's behavior out of the so-called "male alliance" instinct; after traveling through time, the deep darkness he witnessed made him hate all evil, and Yang Qiu didn't even take the ridiculous excuse of "mistakes all men make" into consideration.
As long as he has influence over a place, he will never tolerate such an industry that obviously eats people to be openly practiced.
During the few days he stayed in Dutata City, Yang Qiu took the trouble to run around the whole city. He marked all the places involved in pornography, gambling and gangs in advance, and the relevant personnel were all marked as red names. When the players arrived, he would clear them out at once and return Dutata City to a bright and clear place.
It was 10 a.m. in the alien world time, 6:30 p.m. on Earth time. The undead army descended on the central city area. In less than an hour (in the alien world time), the Lord's Mansion, Viscount O'Neill's Mansion, City Hall, the Tax Department, the City Police Department, the Market Department, the prison and other administrative departments, as well as the so-called high-end entertainment venues and casinos in the northern section of Central Avenue were all destroyed.
At this time, the number of players active in the central city area has reached 20,000. Groups of undead are running wildly on every street and alley, chasing after the fish that escaped the special crackdown and chasing these red-named monsters that are extremely conspicuous among the ordinary citizens, making them have no way to escape.
A noble deacon who ran a club in the northern section of Central Avenue luckily escaped from the chaos, and after hastily changing his appearance, he fled all the way to the noble residential area in the central city. Before he ran out of the Central Avenue, he was discovered by a passing undead, who pounced on him in surprise, tied him up, and dragged him away.
While the undead were arresting gamblers, several casino thugs escaped from the escort field they were guarding, and ran towards the port area, trying to find a place that was inconspicuous enough to hide. Before they could run out of the back streets and alleys, they were spotted by players in another alley from a distance using identification magic, and they were caught in a jar.
The central city is inhabited not only by nobles but also by the city’s entire middle class—after all, the public security in areas outside the central city of Dutata City is so bad that those who cannot even afford to live in the central city are not qualified to call themselves middle class—as well as a large number of civilians .
What happened this morning can be said to have shattered the worldview of residents in Midtown...
Pearson Stanford is a sheriff's detective who lives on Maple Leaf Avenue. Because he was in charge of a case, Detective Stanford left home before eight o'clock and went to the port area to investigate the case.
The case that Agent Stanford is investigating is the mysterious case of an unidentified male corpse that was dumped in a sewer in the port area half a month ago. The experienced Agent Stanford found that the unidentified male corpse had a large number of defensive wounds on his arms and many old knife wounds on his torso and limbs. He believed that this should be a man living in the underground world, so he focused his investigation on the port area.
The port area is located in the northern part of the eastern city of Dutata City. It has a mixed population and poor public security. It is full of foreign scammers and local thieves and robbers. Even Agent Stanford has to be cautious when operating in this area.
At 9:20, Stanford got a clue related to a casino on the northern section of Central Avenue from an old sailor in the port area. After paying the reward, he hurried back to Midtown.
Agent Stanford, whose mind was full of clues to the case, had just approached the inner city wall when he discovered that something was not right.
Normally, there would be soldiers from the National Garrison active at the inner city wall, but due to the imminent threat of a territorial war, the National Garrison had been transferred to guard the outer city wall. The inner city gate had been under the charge of the city police for the past two days.
When Agent Stanford was leaving Midtown, he saw some city police officers moving around near the city gate, but now there was no city police officer to be seen.
What's even more strange is that at this time, there should be many shopping carriages from noble families and maids from middle-class families entering and exiting this door, heading to the port area to buy fresh catches, but at this moment this inner city area is deserted, with no one seen coming in or out.
Agent Stanford walked through the city gate and into Midtown in confusion...and was shocked to hear heart-wrenching cries for help coming from the buildings along the street.
"What happened?!"
Agent Stanford subconsciously pulled out the revolver from his jacket pocket—senior agents like him who were responsible for investigating serious cases were allowed to carry firearms in addition to conventional weapons and armor—and nervously ran towards the building where the noise came from.
Before he even reached the bottom of the three-story red brick building, Agent Stanford was horrified to see... a pale skeleton flashing by in the corridor on the second floor.
Agent Stanford stopped immediately, stood there for two seconds, then took out his pocket watch to check the time.
That's right, it's 9:23 in the morning, not even the right time for a haunted place - no!
How could the undead appear on the central avenue of Midtown? !
Before the confused Stanford agent could figure out the current situation, he saw several disheveled men scrambling out of the red brick building in panic.
As a local, Agent Stanford knew very well what this beautiful red brick building was used for... It was an exclusive club owned by a certain nobleman, where the spending in one night was equal to Stanford's weekly salary.
Agent Stanford was about to go up and ask the men what happened, but before he could move, he froze in place.
A dozen undead in armor and holding weapons chased out of the gate. They caught up with the unlucky guys who escaped at a speed beyond normal people's imagination and knocked them to the ground neatly.
What was even more terrifying was that these undead who had knocked people down also very skillfully tore off a thin white belt from their belts and quickly tied up the people who failed to escape at a dizzying speed...
Agent Stanford looked at the scene in horror. Although he raised the revolver in his hand, he had no idea who to aim at, and even if he did, he had no idea whether it would work...
The undead also discovered him.
Agent Stanford saw that the undead suddenly seemed very excited, gesticulating and making "KABAKABA" sounds, and pointing at him.
"Damn, this NPC has a gun!" a newbie in the third test shouted in surprise.
"Is there a gun in this game?" another newbie in the third test said in shock.
"You're making a fuss about nothing. There are also some NPCs in Innadili City who are equipped with guns." said an old player.
"Can I grab it?" the newbie in the third test asked expectantly.
"What are you thinking about? Can't you see it's a green name? Go and get it if you're not afraid of being blocked." The veteran player rolled his eyes.
Although the newbies in the third test had only played the game for more than a month (Earth time), they cherished their accounts more than the old players - after all, these players could all be considered the lucky ones picked out of a hundred - they said "oh" regretfully, carried the prisoners with the old players, and retreated into the building.
Agent Stanford, holding his gun as if facing a formidable enemy, just watched as the undead ignored him and carried the struggling and crying unfortunate ghosts back in front of him...
Agent Stanford: “……???”
The detective, who was brave enough to go into the most chaotic port area alone to investigate a case without an assistant, stood there for a while with his legs trembling slightly. He prepared himself mentally for a long time, put away his gun, and walked towards the red brick building with strength.
Judging from the speed of the undead he had witnessed, the revolver would hardly pose much of a threat to them - the undead who were pointed at by the gun showed no fear at all, so there was no point in holding it in his hand.
Since these undead spirits didn't attack him, he might as well go in and see what was going on.
After entering the wide-open red-painted door and seeing the situation inside the building, Agent Stanford not only failed to figure out the situation, but also felt that his head was even bigger...
On the first floor, which was more spacious than twice the total size of all the rooms in the townhouse where the agent lived, there were dozens of disheveled adult men, with their hands and feet tied, neatly lined up in the hall like cargo.
There were several undead moving around the kidnapped men, one of them even... holding a pen and something that looked like a notebook, his jaw opening and closing, as if he was counting the "trophies" on the ground...
"The ones over here were captured by the first regiment, and the ones over there are from the second regiment. Don't mix them up. This wave of reputation building depends entirely on these prisoners. If you make a mistake, it will easily cause conflicts."
The New Blood Alliance group, which was composed of a small number of veteran players and a large number of newbies, was counting the number of prisoners on the spot. As he was counting, the veteran players who served as executives were muttering to the newbies: "In the past, prisoners and spoils of war were mixed together in battlefield activities. Those who slacked off got the same benefits as those who charged into battle. It was extremely unfair. Since we are all family, let's be fair. Whoever captures the captives gets them. Those who slacked off definitely can't think of taking advantage..."
"Hurry up, finish this one and move on to the next one. After this wave, there will be no such good opportunity to increase your reputation!"
"Why did that green-named NPC come in again? Is there a mission?"
"They are just bystanders. If there is a mission, they will talk to us. The hidden missions in this game are not that easy to trigger. Just focus on the battlefield and don't think too much."
Agent Stanford had no idea what that monotonous "KABAKABA" sound meant, and it was a good thing he didn't know...
After confirming that the undead in the building would not attack him, Agent Stanford resisted the urge to run away and looked around calmly.
So he soon saw... the waitresses hiding in the corridor, peeking out nervously from time to time.
The waitresses, who were only in their pajamas, looked terrified, but they did not seem to have been hurt; the undead carrying prisoners and valuables up and down the stairs passed by them from time to time, ignoring them in the same manner as they did Agent Stanford.
Agent Stanford once again prepared himself mentally for a long time, suppressed his fear, stepped into the hall, forced himself not to look at the men lined up neatly on the ground, and walked through the hall and came to the corridor with strength.
"I'm Agent Stanford. What the hell is going on here?"
The agent showed his agent ID to the waitresses and when he asked this question, he found his voice was hoarse as if he hadn't drunk water for ten days or half a month.
The waitresses who were leaning against each other for a sense of security were very excited to see the detectives, and they all spoke hurriedly:
"I'm sorry sir, we don't know either. This all really seems like a dream."
"Ten minutes ago, the undead climbed in through the window and caught anyone they saw... no, they arrested any man they saw."
"They caught my guest, sir, look, that man in red underwear over there..."
"Oh my god, I opened my eyes and saw the dead. I was so scared!"
Agent Stanford listened patiently to the waitresses' chatter, and his brain, which had been so frightened that it could not think, gradually began to function again.
The information he heard from other people about Innadri and the Tarantan undead gradually overlapped with everything he witnessed.
"I thought the undead army borrowed by the female Countess would tangle with Count Ezekiel's family for a long time, but I didn't expect that the undead would come to the central city on the second day of the declaration of war..."
After figuring out the situation, Agent Stanford suddenly felt extremely complicated...
He and Agent Monk of Innadri City are old friends, and the two sides have maintained a long-term correspondence.
Because the church's Night Watch organization pays far more than ordinary local city agencies, talented people are mostly attracted to join the church as investigators. The number of detectives in each city who can be responsible for independently investigating cases is not that large.
There are only a few hundred agents in the entire Rhine Kingdom. In such a small circle of agents, there will be some connections between them.
After Innadri fell into the hands of the undead, Agent Stanford once extended an invitation to his old friend Agent Monk because he was worried that he might not be able to make it, suggesting that the other party could consider developing in Dutata City, and he could use his own connections to help Agent Monk get a job.
At first, Agent Monk did reveal pessimism in his letters, but after a few letters, he quickly became cheerful and described a lot of Innadri's current situation to him; some of the descriptions even made Agent Stanford envy this old friend...
Agent Stanford sighed secretly with mixed feelings, and said to the waitresses with all his strength, "The current situation is that the Innaderis have probably entered the city. You don't have to worry too much. Stay here first, don't run around, and take care of your belongings... Once the Innaderis have packed up everything, they will send someone to take over you."
After a pause, Agent Stanford said with a more complicated mood, and it was hard to describe whether he was happy or worried: "The business on this street should be stopped, and you will probably have a better place to go."
