Chapter 475: The Outlaws and the People of Piraeus
Bilgewater, Rattown.
Trist arrived at his street shop early.
He lit up the sign at the door that read "Card Divination, Scientific Fortune Telling", brewed a pot of spiritual tea imported from Ionia, and casually placed a deck of cards on the desk. Then he lazily leaned back in his boss chair and read the newspaper comfortably.
Looking at his gentle appearance as he drinks tea and reads the newspaper, no one would have guessed that he was the legendary card master, once the most shrewd, cunning, and notorious thief and gambler in Bilgewater.
At this moment, Trist was away from the gambling table and the ups and downs of the underworld. If it weren't for his suit and tie that naturally exuded elegance and mystery, he would look like just an ordinary businessman.
"Ding!" The shop's welcoming bell rang.
Then there was the sound of a shop door being opened.
"Hello, how can I help you?" Trist put down the newspaper and greeted him without raising his head.
"Does the client want to calculate the risk of accidents, the catch, or his personal future, love, or marriage..."
"I'm going to take your life, Tobias!" The man's cold shout made Trist's smile freeze instantly.
Not many people know his real name. And this voice...
Trist suddenly raised his head, and sure enough, a black muzzle of a gun was pointed at his forehead.
The person who came was none other than his old partner whom he had not seen for ten years, the "outlaw" Malcolm Graves.
"Malcolm..." Drizzt's eyes were complicated, but his tone was as frivolous as ever: "Why hold a gun? It's not necessary to meet old friends, right?"
"Shut up, you traitor!" Graves' eyes were filled with flames of hatred. "Tell me, why did you run away? I treated you as a brother, and you actually left me to those cops?!"
He and Drizzt used to be close criminal partners. But ten years ago, during a robbery in Noxus, Drizzt ran away from danger and abandoned him.
So, Graves has been imprisoned in that Noxian prison for the past ten years, until he was lucky enough to escape recently.
As soon as he escaped, he immediately found a way to board a ship to Bilgewater and returned to Bilgewater, his hometown, which was also the place where Drizzt was most likely to appear.
When Graves returned here, he found that he didn't even have to spend time looking for this traitor.
Because the advertisements with Trist's headshot were posted everywhere on the Pier in Port Big Ben.
Graves followed the address on the advertisement and found the traitor's shop on the busiest commercial street in Rat Town in less than ten minutes.
"Well, you've retired from the business world and become a boss. But what about me?"
"Ten years! Do you know how I spent these ten years? Asshole!"
Graves' mouth is like the shotgun in his hand, full of firepower.
"Calm down! Calm down!" Trist raised his hands helplessly.
He really wanted to explain. Even if he hadn't run away, they would have been caught together. And he had tried his best to plan several rescue operations afterwards, but unfortunately they all failed.
But Drizzt knew very well that his stubborn old friend would not listen to any explanation.
After all, the game is not based on rational operation, but on social skills. Your teammates will not understand that you don't want to give the opponent a double kill, they will only blame you for selling him out during a team fight.
There was no point in explaining to a stubborn person like Graves. Instead of wasting time explaining, it was better to let him have a good fight and vent his anger.
But now…
"Calm down first and put the gun down." Seeing the busy street outside the floor-to-ceiling window, Trist could not help but persuade.
"Haha." Graves sneered, "Why, are you scared? After ten years, you've become a coward!"
"No..." Drizzt said helplessly: "I'm doing this for your own good, Malcolm."
"This street is full of people. If you rob a store with a gun in broad daylight and get noticed..."
"Bah!" Graves spat fiercely. "Who are you trying to scare? I don't know how many deals I've done in Port of Beirut. When has anything gone wrong? So what if I've been noticed? Would anyone still mind my business?"
Graves is a native of Piraeus. He was born in this lawless place and is used to the tough folk customs here.
In Piraeus, robbing is like eating and stealing is like drinking water.
There are countless shootings of all kinds, and every day is as lively as the New Year.
Having lived in this environment since childhood, the people of Bilgewater have long been accustomed to the sound of gunfire. Unless it is a group battle of more than 100 people or a pirate group-level fight, they are too lazy to watch the excitement.
Now Graves just rushed into a store on the street with a gun, and Drizzt used the pedestrians on the street to scare him...
"Do you think I'm a child?" Graves yelled at the top of his voice.
"Keep your voice down! Keep your voice down!" Drizzt's face turned black. If Graves's shotgun wasn't pressed against his head, he would have wanted to use a playing card to cover the idiot's mouth. "Breaking into the house with a gun... If you are caught by the people of Port Beagle, you will probably have to spend another ten years in jail!"
"What?" Graves thought Drizzt must be crazy.
When did Hong Kong have laws? You have to go to jail for such a small matter?
"Why, are you hooking up with some captain in Port Beacon and have a big brother backing you up?" he asked angrily.
"Malcolm..." Drizzt sighed helplessly, "After you came out of prison, have you learned nothing about the outside world?"
"Eh?" Graves looked confused.
He really didn't know much about current affairs. He had just been released from the prison in Noxus and immediately took a boat back to Port of Pike. After arriving at Port of Pike, he saw an advertisement for Drizzt's store as soon as he got off the boat. So...
"Then you should at least see how different the current Port of Beacon is from before, right?" asked Trist.
"This..." Graves also came back to his senses in a daze.
Indeed. Bilgewater was completely different from when he left it.
When he got off the boat at the slaughter dock, he thought he would see rotten and smelly pieces of sea beast meat, carnivorous rats crawling all over the ground, skinny fishermen being whipped by supervisors, cheap prostitutes welcoming customers at the dock, orphan thieves taking advantage of the situation, pirate thugs parading through the streets, and rows of rotten corpses hung by gang bosses for public display...
This was the Bilgewater he remembered.
But not long ago, when Graves just got off the boat, he was in a trance and thought that he had boarded the wrong ship and came to the "City of Progress" Piltover.
Slave laborers, pirates, prostitutes, thieves, orphans, gangsters...all of them are gone.
Instead, there were a group of well-dressed fishermen, sailors, and even many foreign tourists dressed casually.
The slaughterhouse dock, which used to be filled with foul odors and sewage, has now been repaired and is now extremely clean.
The filthy and chaotic Rat Town slums had now been transformed into a neatly planned, prosperous and bustling residential community.
Every passerby on the street looked calm. It was no longer like before, when walking on the street felt like crossing a line of fire, and one had to be on guard against dense gunfire that might burst out around them at any time.
The changes here are really huge.
"So... so what?" Graves still didn't think this would have any impact on his revenge plan: "I haven't been back to Port Beaconsfield for more than ten years. It's normal that it has changed a lot!"
"Ten years?" Trist smiled helplessly.
If Graves knew that all these changes had happened in less than two years, he would think he was lying.
After all, who could have imagined that the wind of change would come so suddenly and so swiftly?
Bilgewater was liberated early, and it is not large in size or population. It is also a semi-industrial city with a level of modernization second only to the Twin Cities, with fishing, shipbuilding, and arms manufacturing as its main industries.
The vast majority of fishing and manufacturing workers are the most solid and reliable allies of the leaders.
In the face of the hundreds of thousands of united fishermen, tens of thousands of notorious hooligans, pirates and gang members were quickly purged and reformed like a storm.
Today, Bilgewater has completely transformed from a pirate den controlled by warlords to a fishing and shipbuilding capital with a well-established leader regime.
"Times have really changed, Malcolm. It's not just the appearance of Port Harbor that has changed. If you still think it's the pirate den it once was, you're totally wrong."
"Today's Bilgewater is no longer a place where you can just pick up a gun and do whatever you want with your recklessness!"
"Don't even mention committing a crime in the street..." Drizzt pointed at the poker cards on the table helplessly: "Now even if you want to go to the casino to gamble, you have to go in and have tea!"
As soon as he finished saying this, he realized that there was a mistake in his words.
It’s not that you need to drink tea to play cards in the casino...but now, there is no casino in Hong Kong at all!
As soon as the leader arrived, he completely abolished the previously abnormally developed "special service industry" in Bilgewater.
Those women who were enslaved and controlled by the gangs have all become free people. Some of them found new jobs in the fishing factory, while others were arranged to go to other places where no one knew them and started a new life.
And those underworld bosses who opened brothels and casinos were also hung on the mast one by one by the leaders, and enjoyed the methods they used in the past to punish rebels.
There are no casinos in Bilgewater now.
No one would investigate if someone played a few games at a private party, but there was no fixed casino that needed a protective umbrella to open.
Because according to Janna's faith test, there will never be any "protective umbrella" in the leader's team.
"You'll know if you look at me..." Trist used himself to prove how radical the changes in Bigang were.
"Do you know why I'm quitting my business and opening a shop here?"
Because he can't do his old job anymore.
Drizzt was originally a professional gambler and bandit. He relied on his card magic that could reveal fate and teleport to other places to dominate the gambling table and roam the world, living a happy life.
He used to steal from pirates, gangsters, profiteers, and nobles. He had no psychological pressure to spend money on these bad guys.
But now, Bilgewater has become the territory of the leaders, and the bad guys have disappeared from Bilgewater .
If Trist continues to commit crimes, he will really become a bad criminal who has alienated himself from the people.
And it was not so easy to get on the wanted list of the leader. These people were too powerful and he could not afford to offend them.
Stealing is out, so what about gambling? That's not an option either.
Now that the casino is gone, where else can he go to gamble?
Drizzt had nowhere to go.
Forget about making money from this. Sometimes when he got addicted, he could only go to the newly opened board game store in Bilgewater and gamble with those little brats for a few "happy beans".
Helplessly, Trist could only use his expertise and rely on the mysterious and unique card magic to open a small fortune-telling shop to make money.
Fortunately, he made accurate calculations, and the fishing industry, which is the main business of Bigang, is a business that depends heavily on the weather.
So after Trist changed his career, he quickly became successful.
Many captains would come here before setting out to ask him whether the trip would be auspicious or not;
Construction teams from Zuan often come here to consult him about project safety.
Gradually, Trist even signed long-term consulting agreements with several large fishing companies and state-owned shipyards.
Even when the navy launched a new ship, they would invite him to tell fortunes and bless it.
"Look, even I was forced to quit my job and become a businessman."
"The era of fighting and killing is really over, Malcolm. Put down your weapons and don't cause trouble." Trist advised earnestly.
He really wanted this stubborn old friend to put down the gun immediately. At the very least, "At least speak a little more quietly."
"Huh?" Graves got angry when he heard it. "Who are you trying to scare? Coward!"
“You’re scared of the cops, and you’re trying to scare me with this? Ha! I don’t care which captain’s territory is in Bilgewater now, or what new rules that guy has made. Today…”
"Even if the Snake Mother comes today, she can't save you! I said!"
He shouted excitedly, as if he was about to pull the trigger in the next second.
But at this moment...
"Robbery! Robbery!" His shouting finally attracted the attention of passers-by outside the store.
"It's over." Trist rubbed his forehead helplessly.
"Put down the gun, I'll take you away now... maybe we can still make it in time." He said without much hope.
Graves really didn't listen: "Bah! What kind of joke are you telling here?"
"Do you think these passers-by can stop my revenge? Traitor, if this is your last words, then..."
He didn't even finish his sentence.
He only saw those passers-by outside the store who he had never taken seriously, those ordinary fishermen, sailors, workers, merchants, students, tourists...
"I'm the leader, follow me!" First, a man who looked like a fisherman stood up.
"Comrade, we are also leaders! We are here to help you!" Then came a group of sailors who had just landed and happened to pass by here.
"I'm the Wind Chaser! I can also provide support!" All the merchants across the street ran out.
There were students passing by on their way to school, tourists from Zaun... Even the street cleaners put down their brooms and rushed over aggressively...
"You, you guys..." Looking at this excited group of people, Graves was a little confused.
When did Hong Kong people become so righteous?
Didn’t the people of Bilgewater in the past never even glance at an orphan starving to death on the roadside?
"Boy, put down your gun and let that gentleman leave safely!" The fishermen and sailors standing in the front shouted at him fearlessly:
"Otherwise, don't blame us for being rude!"
"Huh?" Graves suddenly got angry.
Although I don't understand why my fellow villagers suddenly became so nosy and ignorant of life and death. But...
"You bastards, you dare to threaten me ?"
Even the fishmongers at the dock dared to point their fingers at him and scold him. Graves was an outlaw, and he had never been treated like this before.
"Ah!" Trist was already mourning for his friend in his heart.
He even dares to offend the people of Port of Beirut... Graves has no chance of leaving today.
Who are the people of Piraeus?
Last year, Ionia's great victory in the decisive battle of Baru was achieved by hundreds of thousands of Piedmontese people rowing in fishing boats.
Almost every one of them has signed up to join the temporary marines of the Leader and received comprehensive ideological education and military training.
There are shallow-minded wind-chasers everywhere here.
There are also many devout leaders here;
So, seeing that Graves not only refused to surrender, but also dared to threaten the people...
"Let's do it!" The leaders present chose to take action almost without hesitation.
They are all ordinary fishermen and sailors, weak mortals.
The air current that a mortal can create is weak.
But what about ten people? A hundred people? Everyone on a street?
"Goddess Janna's forgiveness!"
Under Graves' extremely shocked gaze, wisps of extremely weak air were summoned out of thin air from the hands of those inconspicuous people in Port of Beaufort, and quickly condensed into a powerful tornado.
Before Graves could even fire back, he was completely engulfed by the howling storm.
He was swept up into the air by the tornado, and flew in several big circles in Trist's shop until the wind gradually weakened. He then hit his head hard on the ground and fell down dizzy.
"Send him to the police station!" The people of Port of Piraeus rushed forward and captured the lawless outlaw in an instant.
"Wait, wait a minute..." Graves was still a little dizzy.
He still couldn't react, how did Port become like this.
"Sigh..." Trist sighed softly.
Now it’s good. He broke into the house with a gun to seek revenge and threatened the crowd with a gun.
Even if he took the initiative to offer forgiveness and explained the misunderstanding in detail, according to the current laws of Port of Beirut, Graves would definitely have to stay in jail for a while.
He had no choice but to walk to his friend who was pinned to the ground by the crowd, and sighed helplessly: "Malcolm, be nicer when you go in..."
"Work actively and accept reform."
