Chapter 377 Prosperity Church Visiting Group
In the wilderness about forty kilometers west of the Exile Town, a team of about two hundred people was heading eastward.
This team was not the first time to come to the Tarantan Wasteland, but they had never gone so deep into it - when Brother Lowell was the supreme commander of the Holy Priest Cavalry Regiment, he only stopped at the Desolate Stronghold.
When the Holy Priest Cavalry came to the Tarantan Wasteland again, there were more than a dozen nobles with noble family crests on their collars.
"We should be able to see the town of the dead in another hour or two. We can replenish our supplies there and then cross Tarantan in one go."
At the front of the queue, the dignified-looking Paladin Joyce Andre, wearing full armor and a red cloak, put away the map and turned to the several noble sons in the queue who were not wearing armor.
After living in the open air for many days, the Shega nobles who came from the capital of the Shega Principality looked a little depressed, but they all became more energetic after hearing Andre's words.
"Finally I can see some people... This wasteland is so desolate that it makes people feel creepy. I wonder how the people in that stronghold can endure it." A young nobleman who wrapped his head and face with a cloak to block the cold winter wind and only left his eyes exposed sighed tiredly.
Joyce Andre pretended not to hear him, lightly stepped on her horse's belly, and ran ahead to explore the way.
The dozens of unfortunate souls who were struggling to survive in the desolate stronghold were all private soldiers sent out by Camor Town to hunt down civilians. As a paladin from Camor Town, Andre was unwilling to mention this to the nobles from the royal city. It was too embarrassing.
The Nightmare Butcher had promised the respectable people in Kamoer that he would release the person if they were willing to pay the ransom. But who in Kamoer would be willing to make a deal with the Nightmare Butcher? Are they afraid of being caught by others or what?
The respected Brother Lowell accepted the invitation of the Nightmare Butcher to stay as a guest, but was criticized within the Prosperity Church. Even the authority of the Holy Priest Corps was stripped!
Andre knew very well that if the reputation of the undead had not spread to the Principality of Shiga and attracted the attention of the Holy Land of Prosperity, the letters written by Brother Lowell would not have been taken seriously at all, and this visit would not have been possible at all!
Not long after, a paladin acting as a scout discovered the traces of the undead and rode back to report to Andre.
"We're very close, everyone speed up!" Andre turned around and shouted.
Andre himself did not realize that when he came to the Tarantan Wasteland again, he had already removed the Tarantan Undead from his list of enemies from the bottom of his heart...
This was not only because Andre had personally seen the undead taking care of the civilians of Kamor two years ago (in the other world time), the bigger reason was that the Kamor private soldiers seen in the desolate stronghold, although they were forcibly detained in the wilderness and lived a hard life of moving bricks every day, they did save their lives and were all well-off.
After all, the desolate stronghold was built with the help of these dozens of private soldiers, so Yang Qiu had to take care of their three meals a day. If they eat high-calorie and nearly expired food from Earth every day, they would have become a bunch of fat people if they hadn't done heavy physical labor to burn fat.
What Andre, the Paladin of the Prosperous Church, didn't know was that while he regarded the undead as friendly forces, the players of Exile Town regarded them as bosses that could be killed, and were shouting and trying to recruit a large group...
Ten minutes later, the Holy Priest Cavalry, who were determined to get on with their journey, met a large group of players who came out from the Exile Town to fight the BOSS.
The Holy Priest Cavalry who had seen the Tarantan Undead before were relatively calm. After all, they had seen the army of the Undead two years ago, and the black-robed ascetics of the Prosperity Church had been guests in the Undead's territory for two years. They would never have thought that these undead would turn against them.
The players... were all shocked.
"RNM, who is this idiot who said he was the boss? Aren't all of them green names?!"
"Which idiot did this?!"
"Could you please identify the NPC information before you start making such a fuss? Do you think it's fun to play tricks on people?!"
After the shock, these players who had rushed dozens of miles to fight the BOSS were so angry that they jumped up and down and cursed.
...Unfortunately, the player from the Cai Group who first discovered the "strange NPC team" didn't know where he had moved to, even his life skills had disappeared, so he couldn't vent his anger on these players.
So... the Holy Priest Cavalry, who had come from afar, looked at the group of undeads rushing to the front of the main force in confusion, and then dispersed...
It was also thanks to the "Online GM" who recognized the banner of the Prosperous Church flown by the Holy Priest Cavalry that a farce of the Undead army beating up the visiting delegation was avoided.
Master Liu, the "online GM" on duty in Exile Town, learned from the players' perspective through his GM authority that the visiting group was approaching, and hurriedly ran out of the Undead Canteen to ask the natives of the town to prepare to entertain the guests.
"A visiting delegation from the Prosperity Church? Is that what Brother Lowell mentioned in the letter?"
When Anthony, the tailor who was vaguely becoming the deputy mayor of Exile Town, heard about this, he immediately thought of the letter that Brother Lowell had asked the undead to bring from Westram not long ago.
The railway between Exile Town and Westram has not been built yet, but communication between the two sides is not difficult... Just pay a few undead coins and there will be plenty of undead to help run errands, deliver letters and things.
Hal, Tuttle, Pansy, Rogerm and the others left, while the rest of the former thieves stayed in Exile Town. Anthony and his gang were not without resentment at first, but as time went on, they gradually got used to it...
After all, life in Exile Town was much more relaxed than when they were bandits in the Sorenson Mountains. There was no need to worry about being attacked by fellow bandits one day, or a mercenary group suddenly appearing to take their lives - even if an army came, it might not be able to break through the undead's defenses, let alone threaten their personal safety.
Anyway, they still received all the benefits that Lord Yang promised, including salary, subsidies, and delicious food. After the railway is built, they can go to big cities for vacation and no one will stop them. Why should they rush out and work for Lord Yang as hard as Hal and the others?
Brother Lowell had gotten along well with them when they were in Exile Town, and he never said that he looked down on them because they were from a gang of thieves. Anthony remembered the kindness of this black-robed monk, so he took the initiative to agree with Master Liu's suggestion: "Since they are the guests of the monks, they should indeed be treated well."
"I have a lot of dried meat stored there . I'll ask someone to open the cellar." Butcher Manan stood up immediately.
There are few permanent residents in Exile Town, and although a lot of crops are grown on the land in the valley, the conditions for breeding are not met - but Exile Town has never been short of meat. The town can never finish eating all the wild animal meat brought back by players who have practiced the butcher life skill.
Manan went to get the dried meat, Anthony took people to make room for the guests to rest overnight, and Master Liu called a few people to go with him to pick some fresh vegetables - to entertain more than two hundred people, the vegetables usually available in the cafeteria would definitely not be enough.
The Holy Priest Cavalry, who were inexplicably despised by the undead, took the map provided by Brother Lowell and groped their way to the valley where the Exile Town was located. From a distance, they saw several men as strong as bears waiting to greet them on the loess road in front of the town.
"Good day, everyone from the Prosperity Church. I'm Anthony from Exile Town." Anthony, whose physique is similar to Wagner's, took the initiative to step forward and waved to the guests who were gradually approaching. "Who is Joyce Andre?"
Andre quickly dismounted, holding the reins and taking a few steps forward: "It's me."
Anthony was a resident of the capital of the Kenyan Empire. Andre, who was wearing a well-made full-body armor, could not scare him. He naturally stepped forward and stretched out his hand: "Brother Lowell mentioned you in his letter. Dear Paladin, please rest in Exile Town for a while before going to Innadri to meet Brother Lowell."
Andre couldn't help but look at Anthony twice before he stretched out his hand and shook hands with Anthony.
"Please come in, everyone." Anthony politely gestured for invitation and walked to the front to lead the way.
The several strong men who came with Anthony also smiled kindly and greeted the priests who had dismounted from their horses to walk into the valley.
Andre glanced at Anthony who was leading the way in front, then subconsciously turned back to look at the burly men standing on the side of the loess road.
The living residents of the Dead Town, if he remembered correctly... Brother Lowell mentioned in last year's letter that they all seemed to be a group of thieves coming out of the Sorenson Mountains.
Now that Andre saw this group of people, he could also feel the vague aura of banditry from them, but he had to admit that the calm and steady temperament revealed in their words and deeds also made him feel very fresh.
——After all, I have been working with veteran national team members such as Master Liu and Lao Geng for two years. It would be illogical if most of the banditry in these people could not be washed away.
Entering the valley with a sense of freshness, the visiting group from the Prosperous Church who had come from afar saw a town that not only met their imaginations before coming, but also shocked them:
There is no aesthetic sense at all, the streets are made up of randomly built bungalows, and the streets are full of dead bodies!
In addition to the undead that can be seen everywhere and cast curious glances at the visiting group, there are also a small number of them, but they are also hard to ignore - zombies!
Andre, leading the horse, followed Anthony into the town. When he turned his sight, he found a zombie standing upright on the side of the road, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
The Shiga nobles following behind Andre also saw the zombie with a particularly refreshing appearance, and suppressed exclamations came one after another.
It was not the first time that this group of people had seen zombies. When they passed by the Desolate Stronghold, some people had witnessed a zombie general issuing tasks inside the stronghold, but they had never been as close as they were now.
"It's okay. The zombies in this town don't care about the living. They only deal with the undead." Anthony turned around to comfort Brother Lowell's guests. "Even if someone approaches them, the zombies won't react, let alone attack people. They are safer than the undead."
Andre nodded silently and looked around calmly.
After the Holy Land informed Brother Lowell of the delegation, Brother Lowell, who had not written to Shiga for a year, quickly sent a letter back, happily providing a map of the route across Tarantan (drawn by the Undead Engineers) and the suggestion that they could rest and replenish supplies in the Town of the Dead along the way.
As for this suggestion... The Prosperity Church also struggled for a long time before accepting it reluctantly. After all, the Tarantan Wasteland is really desolate. If they don't get supplies in the Town of the Dead, they will have to carry a lot of supplies from the Town of Camor, which will undoubtedly slow down their journey.
If they didn't go through Tarantan, they would have to borrow a road from the Sokri Empire and cross the Sorenson Mountains, which would take even longer.
Because of the need to resupply in the Town of the Dead, the number of members of the delegation was greatly reduced to only a dozen people. Andre's cavalry of holy priests, who had once penetrated deep into Tarantan and met the Nightmare Butcher, was specially dispatched to serve as the escort for the delegation.
When Andre received this task, he did not have much aversion. He was also curious about how the black magician, who had once criticized him for doing nothing, could govern the territory under his protection.
Now it seems... as long as we can ignore the excessive number of undead and the zombies that are really hard to look at, this undead town doesn't seem to be too bad.
The roads in the town are all unpaved dirt roads, but there is no sewage or garbage everywhere. In terms of sanitation and cleanliness alone, it is better than Andre's hometown, Camor.
After all, there are only about a hundred living people in the town, which cannot produce so much sewage and garbage... and the undead in the town do not need to eat or drink, nor do they need to excrete, so naturally they cannot ruin the town.
Surrounded by the dead along the way, the visiting group was taken to Living Lane.
Living Alley was the place with the highest density of living people in the Exile Town. Most of the more than one hundred civilians from the original Camor Town who had not gone to Innadri lived in this street. Andre, leading his horse, followed Anthony into this spacious street and saw many civilians sitting in front of their bungalows preparing decorations for the winter celebration.
These civilians have obviously adapted to living with the undead and zombies. The undead coming and going on the streets do not attract their attention. Instead, the visiting group entering the streets arouses their curiosity.
"Mr. Anthony, are there guests in town?" A male civilian, with nothing under his right elbow and using his left hand to organize things, greeted Anthony who was leading the guests curiously.
"We are guests of Brother Lowell, a visiting delegation from the Prosperity Church." Anthony answered casually.
"People from the Prosperity Church?" The disabled civilian who asked the question was amazed, and looked at Andre and his companions with a bit of curiosity and nostalgia. "They are from the Principality of Shiga!"
"Hey, that knight seems familiar." Next to the male civilian who was missing his right hand, another male civilian with an empty left leg stared at the passing holy priests and blinked, as if thinking about something, and said in surprise, "Ah... Aren't these... the people who chased us in the past?"
Andre turned his face away silently. Among the holy priests, some white-robed ascetics and holy warriors, who recalled what happened two years ago, also lowered their heads with red faces.
The official visiting members of the team could not understand the embarrassment of these holy priests all day long. The young nobles who used their cloaks to block the cold winter wind pulled down the scarves covering their faces and frowned at the civilians on the roadside.
It was just past noon, and the winter sun was lazily emitting a light that was not dazzling. The civilians who had finished their lunch and had not yet started their afternoon work sat in front of their homes to organize decorations for the winter celebrations and food to be eaten during the festival.
The Shiga nobleman took a quick look and casually counted more than a dozen disabled men.
The combination of the densely populated undead settlement and the disabled civilians obviously made the young noble misunderstand something. He said with a gloomy face and a hint of anger: "Mr. Anthony, why are there so many disabled civilians here?"
Andrew and many other holy priests who heard this accusation were horrified.
Anthony turned around with a half-smile: "Well...why don't you ask them yourself?"
