Chapter 420 An Accidental Success
The lifting winch at the South Gate of Kata Town is actually a large-sized connecting rod-driven fixed pulley with a very simple structure. As long as the corresponding tools are prepared, a group of high school students with strong hands-on skills can repair it.
The game "Alien World" has a mandatory threshold that prohibits logging in if you are under 18 years old. There are no high school students in the player group, but there are many college students. There is no need for a top student to step in. A few poor science students figured out a maintenance plan after thinking for a while.
In addition, the "special summoning array for summoned creatures" used by players is NN times more economical than the teleportation array used by living people, and it is easy to get tools and replacement cables from the city of Dutata hundreds of miles away, so repairs can be done too quickly.
The townspeople who were setting up stalls in the market watched in astonishment. They saw the undead "summon" their companions and then the winch under the city wall started to toss and turn. In just over half an hour, the winch at the city gate, which had been broken for many years, started to "click and click" again...
The heavy city gate, which had been hanging in the air above the city gate after the winch broke, requiring caravans entering and leaving the town to pay attention to the height of their trucks, was also slowly rising with the teeth-grinding sound of the winch turning.
Higgins and his old neighbors were so shocked that they ignored their fear of the undead. They left the stall, huddled together and approached carefully, looking up blankly.
After all, this simple fixed pulley set for hoisting the city gate had not been maintained for many years, and when the heavy city gate was about to be lifted to the highest point, it suddenly got stuck.
The undead, who was lying on the city wall with his butt sticking out, checking the situation, lowered his head and said something "KABAKABA" to the people below.
Among the undead under the city wall , one of them picked up the lubricating oil in the tool kit, picked up a long brush, and climbed the wall with his bare hands.
Next, the two undead relied on their agility, skills and courage to hang on the four-meter-high city gate and oil the rusty bearings in mid-air...
After pulling the city gate to its normal position, the undead began to... climb up and down to clean the rust on the landing gear, replace the rotten screws, and lubricate the winch that was too noisy; they even replaced the rotten wooden handle on the winch with a hand-cranked generator handle purchased in Dutata City and produced on Earth.
——After discovering that Undead Coins can be used to ask for help from the undead, merchants in Innadri City, Dutata City, and even some foreign caravans have begun to consciously collect and store Undead Coins; when players come to the merchants with fancy and well-made Undead Coins that do not contain copper, the merchants are very welcoming.
"Okay, let's call it a day and move on to the next one."
Seeing the completion prompt pop up in the task bar, Qin Guan waved his bone claws and led his friends away, leaving the townspeople with a row of tall and majestic skeletons.
The undead had already disappeared without a trace, but the residents of Kata Town at the market were still staring blankly in the direction they had left.
Seeing with his own eyes the undead working for the locals without expecting anything in return (…), Huggins’s heart surged again. He quickly packed up his stall and pulled the cart home. Then, the feed farmer mustered up his courage again and headed towards the alley of the tinker’s house.
Passing caravans often talked about the undead. Although Hawkins was not as keen as his son to go to the tavern where the caravan guys liked to join in the fun, he also heard a lot of news about the Tarantan undead.
The Tarantan Undead enjoy exorcisms, hunting vampires, exterminating cultists, and fighting powerful enemies.
Hawkins knew nothing about the occult, and had no idea how damaging the undead's passion for exterminating dark creatures would be to those who understood the occult; but his simple survival wisdom from the lower classes told him that if the Talantan undead liked and valued Kata Town, then the undead governor of Dutata City would also value Kata Town.
Then the lives of the people in Kata Town will become better and better, just like those in the south.
With this simple yet extremely sincere and ardent expectation, Huggins plucked up his courage and stepped into the alley of the tinker's house again.
There were still undead coming in and out of the narrow alley. Most of them ignored Hawkins, the nameless NPC with green letters, and only a few looked at him.
Being watched by the undead with an average altitude of 1.9 meters at a very close distance, and having to bite the bullet and brush past these undead, for an ordinary person... is like jumping back and forth on the edge of danger - but this time, old Higgins persisted.
He trembled and shivered, forcing himself to ignore the cold gazes of those inhuman creatures. With the greatest courage of his life, he walked deep into the alley and stepped into the stone house of the tinker.
Then... this brave feed farmer saw the zombie Frank standing upright in the stone house which was completely empty of furniture and filled only with countless large boxes.
Hudgens Bernie: "..."
Sensing a living person approaching, the zombie Frank slowly turned around, and his gray dead eyes on his half-rotten face stared straight at old Huggins.
Old Huggins fell down limply without saying a word.
"oops?"
Miaobi Shenghua, who was in charge of the overall planning, quickly reached out and grabbed the civilian NPC who was about to fall to the ground. He looked at his friend in surprise: "What happened to this NPC? He fainted after running in?"
"You don't know?" Yang Ying, who had just returned from a collection mission with his team, reached out and supported old Higgins.
"Hey, I thought you guys brought this NPC back." Miaobishenghua looked around and waved to the player standing next to him to move a box over. "He just followed you in."
Yang Ying tilted her head: "Meow meow meow?"
On the Barcelo River, Yang Qiu, who was still on a boat, silently separated a trace of his consciousness and temporarily controlled the zombie Frank who encountered an emergency.
After the players helped the shaky civilian NPC to sit down, Zombie Frank slowly spoke: "Townsman, you seem to need our help."
The players looked in shock at this zombie NPC who ignored everyone except issuing quests.
"The plot has been triggered?!" Miaobishenghua was overjoyed, "Who has practiced alchemy? Do you have any alchemy potions that have not been handed in? Quickly give them to this civilian NPC!"
—— Yang Qiu arranges life professions for players... Only a small number of players can use the things produced, and most of them can only be handed over to NPCs in exchange for reputation.
For example, alchemy in the life profession is actually to use the player as the most affordable alchemist... Anyway, general alchemy can't make any high-end potions, so letting players practice the most basic and cheapest low-level alchemy potions is always more cost-effective than purchasing them from the alchemy room.
This low-level alchemical potion made from primary herbs (collected by players in the wild & seeds collected and planted by players themselves) can slightly stop bleeding, relieve pain, restore a small amount of qi and blood, eliminate the effects of heat and frostbite, and slightly refresh the mind (only effective for living things). Although it is not useful for serious illnesses and injuries, it can still replace common medicines.
Old Higgins was just over-stressed, so he pinched the undead's chin and fed him a tube of alchemical potion. The undead immediately perked up, and tremblingly looked at the zombies whose abilities far exceeded the ordinary people's tolerance limit.
"Townfolks, you seem to need our help." Yang Qiu, who was controlling the zombie Frank behind the scenes, repeated it patiently.
Unless there is an extremely important reason, it is difficult for ordinary people to break into a building where the undead come and go alone.
Old Huggins shuddered, slid down from the wooden box, and performed a kneeling slide on the spot: "Respected... I have, I have, I have something important that I need to tell you, tell you..."
"What's the matter?" Yang Qiu knew that this townsman had no idea how to address the zombie NPC he was temporarily controlling, so he took the initiative to take over the conversation.
Old Higgins pinched his thigh hard, using the pain to force himself to stay awake as he was about to faint. He said tremblingly, "Snake Fruit Village... to the east, a little past the Snake Valley... over there in the canyon, there is, there is, there is, there is a Taqia people, the Taqia people secretly set up an altar for the evil god."
Zombie Frank had a blank expression on his face.
Behind the zombie Frank, on a large ship travelling on the Barcelo River a hundred kilometers away, Yang Qiu was sitting safely in the cabin with a gleam in his eyes.
Opposite Yang Qiu, Captain Mace, who had just barely adapted to sitting opposite the black magician Yang, couldn't help but tremble in his hand holding the magazine.
Using the zombie Frank as a carrier, Yang Qiu watched the townspeople who informed on him from a distance, and countless thoughts flashed through his mind quickly.
The Territory of Tachia was the first territory to fall during the Rhine Kingdom's National Defense War two hundred years ago.
No matter which dimension, a war of aggression is never just, nor can it be full of tenderness.
Burning, killing, looting, plundering, raping, fornication, kidnapping, breaking into cities, massacring towns, and destroying villages are all things that the invaders on Earth (including but not limited to the so-called civilized countries such as the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, etc.) have done. The invaders in this dimension have done the same things.
When the Rhine Army finally drove the enemy out of the country, the registered population of the Tachia Territory, which had a population of more than three million before the war, dropped sharply to just over 400,000, only slightly more than that of the Innader Territory, which was still a den of bandits and robbers at the time.
The war dividends plundered by the enemy from the Rhine Kingdom made the surrounding countries jealous. More than ten years later, several countries found an excuse to jointly launch a war, and large tracts of territory were taken away, and the Kingdom never recovered.
But the damage that the Taqiya Territory had suffered from invasion and bloodbath could not be completely healed by time.
Among the four earldoms of the Rhine Kingdom (excluding Innader), Tacia is the territory with the largest number of standing troops and the strongest combat effectiveness. Given that the economic environment of Tacia is slightly inferior to that of Odysseus, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as warmongering.
The economy is not as good as that of Odysseus, but the number of troops (including private soldiers of nobles) is twice that of Odysseus. The people's livelihood in Taqia... is a matter of concern.
Life at the bottom is difficult, and there is little hope of improvement. So, just like the slums in Duta City before the diversion and resettlement, they have become a hotbed for the growth of cults!
But just like the choices made by Lord Adler and Ezekiel's family, no great noble would be willing to admit to the outside world that cults are rampant in their own territory (the same is true for countries on Earth, including Japan, the United States, South Korea, and old Europe).
The commentary magazines and newspapers in the royal capital were just about to point their fingers at the Ezekiel family and scold them for their poor governance, but the Ezekiel family still chose to play dead, only admitting that the people in Dutata City were rampant and the public security was in chaos, but they would never admit to the problem of cults.
So...what about the Territory of Tachia, where the scars of war are still engraved on it, and where maintaining a standing army that exceeds the economic capacity is considered "politically correct"?
The archives kept in Dutata City do not contain any controversial records between the Ezekiel family and the Taqia Territory regarding the spread of the Eternal Sleeper cult. The Night Watchman's archives only mention that "the Eternal Sleeper cultists came from the Taqia Territory" and there are no further records.
We know what the situation was like in Adler Territory during the time of Ezekiel's family, but what about Taqia Territory?
Obviously, the situation in the Taqiya Territory can only be worse than that of the original Dutata City - even the residents of a small border town know that the Taqiya people are conducting cult rituals. The "secrecy work" done by the Taqiya people can only conceal the upper level, but not the lower level.
"I see."
Yang Qiu said to himself: "This time it turned out to be a blessing in disguise."
Captain Mace was confused: "???"
