Chapter 448: Life and Death
The feudal nobles, consuls, and officials were able to abandon their homes and businesses and flee at the first sign of trouble because escape was the only way for them to survive.
It was indeed a great loss for a noble to lose his fiefdom, but as long as the title was still there, there would be no shortage of opportunities to make a comeback; if they were lucky enough to live to see the day when the evil undead regime was conquered by some "army of justice", they might even be able to get their fiefdom back.
If they were unwilling to flee because of their family property...the unfortunate nobles in Innadri and Adler who were dragged out for trial and either hanged or forced to build roads were their role models.
It is human nature to seek benefits and avoid harm . Those who choose the latter are foolish.
The consuls and officials of affairs more or less have "upper-class connections" or are originally servants of aristocratic families; they have connections, money, and professional skills, so they will never have trouble finding a job wherever they go, which is better than staying in the local area and being captured by the undead to build roads.
These people can survive if they escape and can make choices, but the local "wild" sects have no choice.
There are very few places like the Territory of Taqiya where people follow the example of others in worshipping foreign gods, condoning and even secretly supporting the activities of "wild" sects.
Even in the Adler Territory during the reign of the Ezekiel family, the Whisperers were the official target of crackdowns, and those who dared to show up would be killed. How could a "wild" sect that had been used to being the local tyrant in the Taqiya Territory accept living in fear and hiding like their counterparts from other places? !
A wealthy man who looks like a wealthy businessman and has absolutely no religious temperament is completely unacceptable.
Unfortunately... it's no use not accepting it, the undead don't act according to their expectations at all!
The ambush traps that the three sects had set up with great difficulty were completely useless, which would have been fine, but what was even more worrying was that the undead group bypassed the "heavily" guarded avenues and raided their villages one by one!
"Those bastards, don't you remember what I said? The undead came to our door and used the villagers as threats. Why should we be afraid of those broken skeletons when we have hostages?"
Loudly urging the believers to load their years of accumulated property onto the hastily vacated caravan, the wealthy man secretly cursed the people below for forgetting his instructions while covering his aching chest.
The pope of the "Lady of Joy" sect would naturally not "sympathize" with the difficulties of his subordinates...
The undead came suddenly, and there were so many of them (most player teams consisted of about a hundred people). The villagers were frightened by the large number of undead entering the village and fled in all directions. It was still unclear whether they could be caught and threatened by the undead. What was more important was that the undead could not speak the same language!
The believers rooted in the countryside could not remain quiet when they were captured by the undead. Some threatened to massacre the whole village in revenge, some claimed that the gods they worshipped would punish them, and some cried bitterly and demanded bribes to save their lives. However, the skeletons that captured them did not respond at all and even complained that they were noisy...
At this time, a wealthy man can only feel sorry for his inheritance - his wealth and his territory!
The Joy Sect has been developing in Rob Town for many years, and the local nobles and officials have tacitly accepted the Joy Sect's "governance rights" in the countryside; some small nobles even directly handed their villages over to the Joy Sect's jurisdiction... Such an excellent place can only be found somewhere else!
The wealthy man felt his heart bleeding whenever he thought of this.
The situation had deteriorated to such an extent that it was useless to feel distressed and reluctant. All the valuables that could be taken away from the headquarters were packed up and loaded into the car. The wealthy man did not care that it was getting dark and immediately urged everyone in the headquarters to set off.
"It's impossible for the nobles in Creek City to flee like they did in Lars City. They have to hold out for a while. We should take this opportunity to rush to the city and take a boat to leave!"
Stuffing his fat body into the van piled with bags and boxes, the wealthy man urged everyone to set off quickly while thinking about the road ahead.
In the territory of Tachia, only Lars City and Creek City have ports. Lars City is definitely not allowed to go. The only place that can be used as an escape port is Creek City.
What the wealthy man has to consider is whether to escape to the capital or run abroad.
Instinctively, he was reluctant to go abroad. No matter where they went, foreigners would inevitably be discriminated against. The Rhine people bullied foreigners happily. He didn't think he would have much luck if he led people to escape.
But going to the royal capital... is also risky.
That hateful black magician who summoned the undead conquered most of the Rhine Kingdom in just a few years. Who knows if that bastard will also lead his troops to attack the royal capital?
Wouldn't that mean another great escape?
Before the caravan drove out of the town, the wealthy man made a painful decision... Never mind, the Rhine Kingdom will probably "fall" sooner or later, so he might as well go abroad!
Although being a "stranger" outside is hard enough, it is better than living in fear!
In addition, he had called back a lot of people in order to "ambush" the undead. After taking all these people away, he, a "foreigner", could not be bullied by anyone!
The wealthy man, feeling that he had seen hope again, lifted the curtain of the covered wagon and ordered his subordinates who were serving as drivers to drive the wagon out of the town.
As the caravan drove out of the town, the men who were jogging around the caravan suddenly screamed.
"What are you yelling about?!" The wealthy man was so angry that he pulled open the car curtain and shouted at the people outside.
After seeing the situation outside clearly, the wealthy man's next scolding was immediately stuck in his throat, and his eyes, which were squeezed into slits by his fat, widened instantly.
Outside the town... there are only undead!
The road, the wheat fields on both sides of the road, the grass, the woods, and even the hills in the distance were all swarming with undead running around!
The followers of the Joy Sect who stayed outside the town to "defend" were chased by thousands of undead spirits all over the mountains and plains, leaving them with no way to go up to the sky or enter the earth...
The wealthy man was completely dumbfounded.
After coming back to his senses, the wealthy man even changed his tone of voice: "Back, back, back! Go back to town! Turn around quickly!"
On the side of the road not far from the town gate, the player who was assigned to guard the prisoners looked towards the town gate.
The carriage, followed by a large group of followers, was frightened by the undead after leaving the town and hurriedly turned around... It seemed to be just a normal "atmosphere group" reaction.
When the identification spell was used, all that was displayed was the ordinary yellow font "Citizen of Rob Town".
The player guarding the captive immediately lost interest and turned back to look at his friends who were busy snatching the "wild monsters".
That’s right, it’s just looting…
The hundreds of believers who were called back by the Cult of Joy to protect their lair are not a threat to the players at all.
What really made the players' blood pressure rise was that this group of "wild monsters" with big red names (they were seen by Yang Qiu, so they were displayed as red names) were squatting outside the town openly, and were discovered by more than a dozen teams rushing over from different directions at the same time...
It is certainly a happy thing to encounter such a large group of fat wild monsters, but it would be very unpleasant to find that there are N competitors in the group of monsters.
As a result, the situation has developed into what we have today, where players PK, obstruct, harass, and snatch "wild monsters" from each other - if there were no competition between players, these "wild monsters" would have been captured by the players long ago.
The Pope of the Joyful Sect, who was only thinking about escaping, did not notice in his haste that the undead army was in an "internal conflict" and saw that the coachman was busy and sweating and could not turn around on the spot in the narrow space at the town gate. He had to jump out of the car cursing, and while looking at the group of undead not far away who seemed not to notice them in horror, he yelled at his men to lift the car and turn it around.
The group of guys were busy surrounding the caravan full of religious treasures. The group of religious captives guarded by the players saw the "tall" figure of the Pope, standing out from the crowd, and struggled and shouted: "Help! Save me! Your Holiness! Your Holiness——!"
The dozen or so players guarding the prisoners could not understand what the prisoners were shouting and did not move.
But Yang Qiu, who was using the player's vision to observe the melee at the town gate, understood.
So… the group of people anxiously carrying the heavy covered wagon at the town gate turned around, and the yellow words "Rob Town Citizens" above their heads, which only the players could see, flashed and changed to "Suspected Cultists"…
Inside the caravan, the cargo that was originally not identifiable by the player and was only displayed as a "background board" was now listed in different categories with the item names and NPC recycling prices...
"Shit! There are monsters over there too!" The player who stayed on the side of the road to guard the captives was shocked and quickly refreshed the screen in his team, "Boss, Boss! There are monsters in the town too! There is a group of them at the town gate! They are especially fat!"
In the wheat field, you were busy PKing with others to grab monsters. You saw the information in the team channel, and very responsibly switched to the team command channel and spoke in your own blood alliance to remind your family: "Those who didn't grab the monsters, be careful, there is a group of particularly fat monsters at the town gate! Nearby teams, hurry over!! "
It is still not the peak time for players to be online, but as it approaches noon, the number of people online is much higher than in the morning. The large group of Lahong Ge's Blood Alliance has expanded to more than 600 people online.
The team led by the girl obsessed with studying was far away from Rob Town. They were the last to arrive. When they arrived, there were more people than monsters. They were in a state of confusion as they drew their swords and looked around. When they saw the ally's prompt, they rushed over without hesitation...
With each player running at Bolt's speed, before the Joyful Pope could finish dealing with the two overweight caravans, a large number of undead were already running straight towards them.
“How hateful!—!”
The wealthy man was almost going crazy. At the critical moment of life and death, he had to abandon his carriage full of wealth and goods and flee into the town for his life.
The men at the headquarters were not as stubborn as the lower-level believers. None of them were willing to risk their lives for the sect's property, and they all followed the wealthy man and fled.
"Wahahaha! It's better to come at the right time than to come early. There are so many props and they are so fat!"
When he was absorbed in studying and passed by the town gate, he casually scanned the identification spell. The dense prop information directly filled his field of vision. He almost died of laughter on the spot. He didn't even care about the fleeing monsters. He hugged the caravan tightly with both hands: "I'm rich, I'm rich! Don't worry about the monsters, hurry up and push the cart, push this treasure cart inside, don't let anyone find it and come to steal it!"
The players of the 100-man team rushed forward, and the monsters stopped chasing them. They pushed the caravan loaded with props directly to a secluded place in the town...
It is difficult to truly block information within the player group, and the news that the latecomer from the group obsessed with learning had surpassed them and grabbed a car full of treasures in one go spread to the dozen or so teams participating in the melee on the scene within two minutes.
After grabbing all the wild monsters, the players who were still engaged in the PK melee no longer cared about the anger caused by the friction during the grabbing of monsters. They all took the captives they had captured and rushed into the town in a hurry, fearing that they would fall behind and not even have soup to drink.
After they separated from the Joy Cult, they were blocked by the undead who suddenly appeared outside the town before they could leave. The hook-nosed old man and the skinny woman had to return to their hiding place in the town to take shelter temporarily. Before they could figure out how to escape, they found that the whole town was full of undead...
"Damn it, damn it! Why did the Church of Joy deploy so many people outside the town? Aren't they deliberately trying to attract the undead here?" The hook-nosed old man was furious.
At the same time, in the town hall.
The three court mages, the illusionists Sadir and Weber, and the fire mage Lamantha, stood stiffly and dully in the hall on the first floor, watching the endless stream of undead carrying one cultist after another with bound hands and feet, carrying backpacks of valuables and belongings, and rushing into the yard in a hurry...
