Chapter 77: The Tricycle Expedition Team Sets Out Again
The Exile Town, which was in the middle of night, suddenly became lively.
Mia heard the noise outside, threw back the quilt, got out of bed, and went to the window to look out.
There were no street lights in Exile Town. In the moonlight, Mia could only vaguely see a tall and thin figure running wildly on the street outside.
"Are those the dead gentlemen, Mia?" Martina, the roommate who couldn't see anything, stood up but didn't dare get out of bed.
"Yes." Mia leaned on the windowsill with her hands, squinted her eyes and tried to observe, "They seem to be cheering for something happily."
"That's great." Martina touched her chest and smiled, "Finally I can hear their voices again."
"That's right," said another woman with eyesight similar to Martina, sitting up in bed. "It's really disturbing that I haven't heard any noise from them for several nights in a row."
The former thieves hated the noise of the players, but these civilian women from Kamoer were just the opposite...
In the folklore of the Eastern Border of the Principality of Shiga, Tarantan is the embodiment of unknown fear, unknowable demons, and devils that tempt people to fall, all of which breed in this deserted wilderness adjacent to the people of the Eastern Border for thousands of years.
Not to mention following the tricycle convoy to the road of exiles, they saw with their own eyes the horrible monsters hunted by the undead...
Although they knew that the Exile Town was safer than the Kamor Orido district where they used to live, there would be no drunkards throwing bricks into their house, scaring them to scream and then laugh, and there would be no men from nowhere banging on their door in the middle of the night, making them tremble with heavy breathing sounds through the thin door panels, but they still couldn't help feeling uneasy if they couldn't hear the noise made by the undead who had been protecting them before going to bed at night.
Mia groped her way back to the bed and sat down, listening to the lively chatter of her roommates. She smiled quietly in the darkness.
She could understand the nervousness of Martina and the others. She felt the same way. Life in the Exile Town was far beyond their imagination. Everyone felt it was unreal and was afraid that they were dreaming.
Mia was deeply afraid in her heart, fearing that one morning when she woke up, she would be back in that dull and dark corner, with her family's disgusted voices lingering in her ears, and the old textile machine that consumed all her energy, effort and will, as if it was going to pull her into the grave, would be in front of her again...
Every time, the loom that her mother gave her when she was eight years old appeared in Mia's mind, she would be distracted for a long time.
She would never imagine herself returning to her old life, not even if she died.
She just wanted to maintain her current life. Every day, she and other women like her would mend and wash the clothes worn by the undead, and their used waist bags and backpacks (in fact, they were the players' worn-out suits and waist bags, which were recycled at a low price, refurbished and then sold at an 80% discount) in the small yard behind the sewing shop. They would also clean the streets around the sewing shop and the toilets and bathrooms they used. They would have three meals on time, and after finishing their work, they could take a break and chat.
They no longer had to worry about being blamed or beaten for not doing something right, no longer had to be looked at with disgust even when eating a small piece of black bread, as if they were not qualified to eat food at all, no longer had to sit in front of the loom and work late into the night with scars all over their bodies and tears flowing...
At night, they can live in a ventilated room without fleas or bedbugs. They don’t have to share even a tattered blanket with others. Everyone has a separate bed, mattress, sheets, quilt and pillow.
Mia's favorite thing is the mattress.
Soft, thick, and clean, without any odor or sweat or dirt.
When Mr. Anthony came carrying the mattresses to distribute to them, they initially suspected that he had made a mistake and no one dared to touch it. It was hard for them to believe that such a good thing was really going to be given to them.
Only when they were sure that Anthony had given each of the twelve of them a bed did they come to their senses and happily found bricks and planks to build their own beds, then carefully laid the mattresses they were given on top...
Well, this most popular mattress among female workers comes from Pin Shao Shao, a factory-direct seller. A 10cm thick, 1m2x2m single down mattress costs less than 20 RMB, and a full set including sheets, quilt covers, and blankets costs 100 RMB. Because Yang Qiu ordered hundreds of sets at once, the manufacturer also gave her towels, pillowcases, and mosquito nets...
Such a set of poor quality bedding, except for the bed, would not have been possible even if it was placed on the Earth 20 years ago, let alone in this world. Therefore, industrial development and productivity improvement are indeed closely related to the lives of ordinary people.
Of course, Yang Qiu was a man after all, and his care for the female workers only went as far as providing them with basic living supplies. He wouldn't think of anything more.
Even so, these women from the Weido district of Kamor have become anxious and worried. They are even uneasy about not being able to hear the noise made by the players before going to bed... This is probably something Yang Qiu himself could never have imagined.
The women still had to work at daybreak - the Chamber of Commerce canteen contacted the sewing shop with the most employees, hoping to allow the female workers to plant green onions, garlic sprouts, bean sprouts and leeks in the open space behind Life Lane. Anthony had already agreed - the women in the same room chatted for a while and then quieted down.
Mia had just laid down and closed her eyes when someone suddenly knocked on the door of their room.
"Mia, are you asleep?" Anthony's familiar, always slightly impatient voice came from outside the door.
Mia woke up instantly, jumped out of bed and ran barefoot to open the door: "I'm here, Mr. Anthony, I'm not asleep yet."
As the door opened, moonlight poured into the room.
Standing outside the door were Anthony, who was holding a lantern with an irritated look on his face, and... the lord, who was wearing a robe and had a smile on his face.
"I'm sorry to bother you, are you Mia?" The man who changed Mia's fate, the black magician Yang, politely bowed slightly to Mia who opened the door barefoot.
Mia was a little flattered. After a moment of panic, she remembered to lift her skirt and half-kneel in return: "Yes, it's me, Mr. Yang."
Yang Qiu squinted his eyes and looked at the lady in front of him...
His eyebrows are sparse and messy, his eyes are narrow and long, his skin is rough, and there is a large blue birthmark on his face. Overall, he looks quite old.
There was nothing good about his appearance, and his figure wasn't that great either... He was about 1.60 meters tall, with a big frame but not much flesh. His wrists that showed through his shirt cuffs were thick and bony, and the backs of his hands were covered in blue veins.
His only two advantages are that he is relatively young, and his eyesight has recovered well - he has only eaten full meals for a few days, and he can open the door in the dark without bumping into anything.
"It's you." Yang Qiu nodded with satisfaction and said seriously, "Mia, are you willing to fight for the future of Exile Town?"
Mia nodded without even thinking: "I do, Mr. Lord."
Tang Jia secretly used her phone to check the player forum during class in the morning. When she saw the game version update announcement posted by the administrator on the forum homepage, her breathing became heavy...
"Online Patch Update Version 1.07"
"Open exclusive professional tasks for combat professions."
"After difficult consultations, Assassin mentor Hal Maxwell, Ranger mentor Tattle Joe, Treasure Master Pansy, Knight mentor Jerome, and Weapon Master mentor Charlie Rex have decided to host an exclusive professional quest for the above professional players: "The Journey of the Brave"."
"The above-mentioned professional players who are interested in participating should interact with their respective professional mentors between 12:00 am and 2:00 pm on the 28th to accept the mission, and enter the expedition queue before 3:00 pm."
"The professional mentors will personally take the lead and lead the expedition team eastward, heading for the Rhine Kingdom."
“1: During the mission, players participating in the mission will automatically gain 30 points of territory reputation for every hour they are online.”
“2: During the mission, professional mentors will occasionally issue random missions to players, rewarding territory reputation, copper coins, basic equipment, etc.”
“Open a series of tasks related to the civilian NPC Mia.”
"1: Civilian NPC Mia will join the expedition."
“2: During the mission, players must 100% ensure Mia’s safety. If Mia unfortunately dies during the mission, all players who participated in the mission will have 300 points of territory reputation deducted.”
“3: Mia will occasionally issue random tasks to players, rewarding territory reputation, copper coins, etc.”
Tang Jia immediately checked the time and found that there was still more than half an hour before the end of get out of class. She was immediately anxious and fidgeted, feeling like she was sitting on pins and needles...
After finally making it until the get out of class was over, Tang Jia changed his usual habit of rushing into the cafeteria to fight and ran back to the dormitory at full speed. He didn't even have time to eat lunch before putting on his helmet and going online.
Tang Jia had just logged in to meet up with her online friends when Yang Ying suddenly said, "Hurry up and call Qingyue online," and she hurried back to the offline point.
By the time Tang Jia dragged the depressed En Bu Zeng out of the room, the Exile Town shrouded in darkness had become as lively as a vegetable market.
The tricycles used in the earlier expedition missions were dragged out from the warehouse and lined up neatly in front of the container platform; players who had formed teams with their friends lined up to interact with their respective professional mentors, accepting missions, receiving tricycles, and each team was responsible for the safekeeping of the transported materials, and then happily loaded the tricycles themselves...
This mission is called a professional mission, but the high-level NPCs don't care if casual players who haven't changed their jobs or players who play as wizards sneak into the team. Players who missed the mission of the last expedition are very active. Even those who don't have time to join the team on weekdays are eager to go online and stuff their "corpses" into the team of reliable relatives and friends...
The goods, packed in cartons whose contents could not be seen from the outside, were loaded onto the truck one by one. They were tied with ropes and covered with waterproof tarpaulin. Then, the high-level NPCs, except Rex,... rode on their bicycles and called for the team to set off.
When players including Ji Tang saw this group of NPCs dressed in medieval costumes and carrying various types of cold weapons riding bicycles, they almost burst into laughter.
"This is different from what I imagined an NPC going on an expedition! Forget riding a monster beast, how about a horse at least?!"
"I'm riding an all-terrain mountain bike with these guys!"
“Oh my god, why do these guys seem to be riding knockoffs?”
Tuttle looked back with disdain at the shocked undead, and muttered to his good friend Pansy, "These old-fashioned guys who came out of the dirt make a fuss when they see a nice bicycle. When they see electric cars, gas cars, and steam cars in the city, won't they be so scared that they fall apart on the spot?"
Pansy laughed: "Normal. The last time these undead saw a human city was many years ago. Maybe for them, those old-fashioned tricycles are the most amazing means of transportation."
Unlike the two who were relaxed, Hal was full of dissatisfaction: "That bastard Yang actually wanted us to ride our own bikes. Couldn't he give those ugly guys less good food and save some money to buy a steam car?"
Pansy reached out and patted Hal , then looked back, suggesting that Hal should stop talking nonsense.
Hal didn't bother to look back at the ugly woman Yang asked them to take with them. He snorted and said unhappily, "Let's go!"
This guy took the lead, and Tuttle, Pansy, Jerome and others who shared the same ideals with him immediately followed.
Rex, who was riding a tricycle like the other players, pulling Mia and some supplies, looked deeply at Hal's back, put force on his feet, and stepped on the tricycle.
Mia, holding a big package and with her head wrapped in a towel, lowered her head and said nothing.
As her eyesight deteriorated, her hearing became much sharper, and she heard everything Hal and the others said.
"Let's go!" Seeing the NPCs start moving, the players stopped complaining and quickly started the cars that their respective teams were responsible for.
There was a group of "senior NPCs" leading the way, and this time Yang Qiu did not come to see the players off.
As the tricycle expedition team passed by the street in a mighty procession, Yang Qiu was standing calmly at the intersection, watching from afar.
Unlike Yang Qiu's calmness, the black-robed inspector Lowell standing next to him couldn't hide the worry on his face...
Seeing that strange convoy disappearing at the end of his sight, Lowell couldn't help but say, "Yang, are you really at ease? Let these undead souls be taken away by those evil people?"
It wasn't for nothing that Lowell had been staying in Exile Town for so long. Although he couldn't communicate with the undead because he couldn't speak the same language, he had already figured out everything about the former thieves and Rex...
Rex is an upright young man. His pure and straightforward character can be seen in just one or two conversations. When he first meets the players, he is the only mentor who reminds the players, who are "undeads", that they are not suitable to choose the warrior profession.
In comparison, Hal and the others were very lame... These guys were used to being thieves who "took things for granted", and even though they had been lectured by Yang Qiu for so long, they still couldn't hide their scumbag nature.
Yang Qiu smiled slightly.
It is precisely because these guys are not good people that I feel at ease letting them take the natural disasters out for a stroll. As far as mutual harm is concerned, Hal and others are just younger brothers in front of the natural disasters - this kind of thing must not be said directly.
The reason why Mia, a healthy civilian, was allowed to go with them was not only because there was a need for someone who had truly experienced hardship, but also to provide a layer of insurance for the natural disasters, so that these guys would not be too unrestrained - such words could not be said.
So when he spoke, Yang Qiu's words became: "You have to trust others, respected inspector. I firmly believe that they can get out safely and come back smoothly."
Rowell: “…”
The black-robed inspector now feels torn apart, very torn apart.
When Rex, the only upright young man he had high hopes for, went to the town hall to explain the purpose of their action, Lowell instinctively wanted to stop this ridiculous thing - letting a group of notorious Sorenson bandits take the undead to the southeastern part of the Rhine Kingdom to save the poor people in desperate situations? What a joke!
However, in front of him, Yang, a black magician whose thinking was very different from that of normal people in his opinion, agreed to this matter.
Lowell began to wonder whether, as a church supervisor, he should pay close attention to and supervise this bizarre thing that had been put on the agenda. But he was also worried that this was a trick played by Yang, who wanted to trick him away and do something dangerous in private that he couldn't even imagine without letting him know...
After much hesitation, Lowell felt that compared to these bandits and undead who were wreaking havoc on the borders of other countries, Yang, who was more dangerous to the Principality of Shiga, was more important...
"Well, the goddess of prosperity can only protect her believers." Lowell comforted himself in his heart. He was too lazy to pay attention to Yang Qiu who was talking about magic steam trains, and went back to the town hall.
Yang Qiu didn't mind at all that the black robe inspector had begun to look at him as if he were an Arkham patient. As soon as Lowell left, he began to observe the players connected in the matrix.
The group of players going out on the mission will have to travel for at least a day and a night. On the way there are nothing but wastelands and monsters. They won't cause any harm to others, so they can be ignored for the time being.
Yang Qiu's focus at this moment is on the super casual players who are also not interested in this expedition mission.
There are quite a few players in this group... including the original number one player, Ou Yan, there are more than forty of them.
Ouyang was addicted to honing his skills as a butcher. After switching to this profession, he would carry the traps given by Manan and use the trapping techniques taught by Manan to squat on the mountain outside the town every day, catching a bunch of small animals like squirrels and rabbits to practice his skills. After that, he would enthusiastically sell the fur to the tailor shop and the meat to the canteen of the Chamber of Commerce. He had a lot of fun...
In the past, Yang Qiu must have hated this kind of "unproductive" players, but now Yang Qiu has begun to like this god-level player. At least his "output" is still considerable.
Next, there is a group of casual players headed by the "Your teacher will always be" players.
These players don't like to stay in combat occupation construction sites, but they still have a lot of fun in life occupation construction sites.
Especially the player with the ID "Your teacher is always", collectively known as Teacher Yuchi. Although he is not very active in large-scale event tasks, he teleports to the desolate stronghold on time every day to accept the cooking tasks of the zombie general and cook for the male civilian NPCs suffering there. After that, he will teleport back to the Chamber of Commerce canteen to complete the helping tasks. Although he obviously does not have a tool account, he is very active in being a tool. Yang Qiu likes this kind of players very much.
In addition, there are the "eight in one mouth" studio party, and semi-professional players who play the game as a part-time job... In addition to completing the logging tasks issued by Yang Qiu and the Zombie General every day, this group of people also transferred a lot of gathering masters and pharmacists with clear division of labor; although the players' crude rune skills can only collect and refine the most basic materials and potions, it also saves Yang Qiu a lot of trouble.
Now Yang Qiu is more eager for them to quickly train their life professions than the gold-farming party themselves, so that he can give them the magic potions they need when they go to the second level...
“Everything is under control.”
Yang Qiu pulled himself out of the brand matrix refreshed, turned around and prepared to go back to Earth to work hard... The two servants in the Chamber of Commerce cafeteria wanted to grow vegetables in the town, so he had to go find some vegetable seeds, cheap fertilizers and other supplies.
He was so short of RMB that he had to compare prices from different stores even if he had to spend a little. But it didn't matter, he would have more money when Rex came back - the tricycles pulled by the players this time were loaded with more goods than the last time they received civilians, and most of them were for Rex to take to the Rhine Kingdom to sell!
Without telling Hal and the others, Yang Qiu secretly gave Rex some advice... In case Hal and the others went too far and couldn't come back, they could also sell the knock-off mountain bikes they rode out.
He didn't want Hal and the others to die at the hands of players, but he couldn't do anything if Hal and the others insisted on giving their lives to outsiders.
As the tricycle expedition marched forward in the wilderness of Tarantan, in the eastern border of the Rhine Kingdom, a cavalry regiment with the emblem of the Church of the Fiery Sun printed on their armor was also leaving the small village where Yang Qiu used to sell clothes.
After more than two months of continuous waiting without any news, this cavalry regiment affiliated with the Inquisition of the Church of the Fiery Sun was hit hard...but this was not the first time such a thing had happened. The evil black magician, who was getting stronger and stronger, to the point that even the cardinal of the Inquisition was gradually disheartened, had given them too many .
After staying in the remote countryside for so long, the commander of the cavalry regiment realized that he had to let his brothers relax for a while, otherwise, not only the soldiers but even he himself would find it unbearable; after leaving the village, the commander sent the scouts of the regiment towards the direction of the largest city in the southeast without hesitation.
After traveling for half a day, three hundred cavalrymen and six hundred knights' squires arrived at Innadri, the largest city in the southeastern border of the Rhine Kingdom. The commander announced the disbandment and allowed the knights to lead their squires to relax freely, leaving only a few non-commissioned officers to follow him to the local church of the Fiery Sun Church.
The Rhine Kingdom is a very magical country. It was clearly despised by the Blazing Sun Church during the great voyages, and only a very small number of people were qualified to take a ride on the ship to the outer continent to make money. However, both the royal family and the people did not react to the Blazing Sun Church building a church in their big city...
The reason for this is because "they gave too much" - among the many churches on the continent of Baron, the Fiery Sun Church is indeed the richest one.
The Knights of the Goddess of Prosperity condescended to serve as thugs for local nobles for a little money, while the Knights of the Church of the Blazing Sun were even rich enough to hunt down the "Nightmare Butcher" at their own expense all over the continent. This was the stark difference...
In the Blazing Sun Church, a priest in a white robe with gold embroidery met with the leader of the Knights. After a brief greeting, the priest in a white robe lowered his voice and asked anxiously, "What's going on? Didn't you get any information about the origins of those vessels?"
The utensils that the white-robed priest was referring to were a set of bone china tableware found in a village a hundred miles away from the small village where Yang first appeared.
Yang Qiu spent a huge amount of money to buy this set of bone china handicrafts at a supermarket in Anshi for 59.9 yuan. Later, he found that the same set on Pin Shao Shao was only 19.9 yuan. He was very upset for a while...
In short...what really attracted the Knights was not the old clothes that Yang Qiu sold to Butler Barton that were bought and exchanged by residents of the community, but this set of bone china tableware.
The country noble who bought the tableware with a few gold coins did not dare to keep it privately. The next day, he went to Innadli City and presented it to the city lord. The city lord was so happy that he specially held an afternoon tea party to show off this set of handicrafts. As a result, the news spread to the ears of the Fiery Sun Church...
"No." The leader of the Knights said sadly, "We deliberately avoided the village of that country noble and only deployed spies on a few important roads... but that bastard was too alert and never showed up."
After a pause, the leader said in particular annoyance: "There is even less clue about that set of utensils! Damn it, we shouldn't have let the news about this set of utensils spread in the city in the first place, otherwise that bastard wouldn't have run away so quickly - he would definitely come out to sell these things that he got from who knows where!"
