Chapter 89 Male Mother
More than 1,800 living people thrown on the ground to be exposed to the sun, hundreds of prostitutes, both male and female, waiting to be resettled in various brothels, and more than 6,000 seemingly harmless Westram natives hiding in their homes... Anyone else would probably be at a loss when faced with such a mess.
In Yang Qiu's case, it wouldn't be a big deal...
First, he settled the reputation reward copper coins for the players to appease the two hundred huskies that had been waiting for too long and were on the verge of going berserk. Then, he opened the "recycling function" of "Lord Yang" on the spot and took away all the dozens of kilograms of gold coins and gold ornaments looted by the players with the game coins made in China...
He was all smiles, and the players were also overjoyed. Some part-time players even sold the copper coins they were given to the gold-collecting boss on the spot, making a small extra buck...
Yang Qiu, who had become rich instantly, quickly issued a series of tasks to make full use of these energetic players:
The first one is the assisting mission. Players who accept the mission will form a team to assist Rex and Mia's resettlement team to gather all the prostitutes and male prostitutes scattered in various brothels and centrally accommodate them in the former "Golden Coast" club building and the "Elegant Romance" club. Players must ensure that the prostitutes and male prostitutes are not harmed, do not run around or shout, and do not lose personal property during the summoning period.
The second one is the brick-moving mission. Players who accept the mission will form a team to assist Hal, Tuttle, and Jerome in classifying the "hostages" thrown on the street. Those who are worth ransom will be picked out and detained in the basement of the former "Elegant and Romantic" club, and those who are not worth ransom will be sent to the former militia headquarters (the original militiamen are of no value) and then arranged for re-education through labor... uh, labor reform.
Rex is kind-hearted, and Hal, the former leader of a gang of thieves, is a ruthless person. These two missions give them room to display their strengths... ahem.
As for the treasure master Pansy, he certainly won't be idle, the third task is given to him: to recruit the first-tier players to join Pansy's scavenger team, enter the streets where the townspeople live, find out the escaped fish of the original militia and arrest them one by one, to prevent these guys from doing anything irrational.
Pansy, the burly man who looks rude and violent, is actually the most inspired of the former thieves and is suitable for this kind of job of identifying dangerous elements from the crowd.
After these three major tasks were issued, all the idle players on the street started to move. Players who had wandered out of the town also rushed back, fearing that they would be left behind...
Lowell didn't know about the existence of the Brand Matrix (no matter how much the former thieves hated Yang Qiu, they couldn't tell others that they were tricked into joining the Spirit Matrix. How could they save their dignity?). He secretly observed in the Exile Town and asked questions everywhere. He only vaguely got the idea that "the undead are keen on completing quests and enjoy doing it very much", but he didn't have a very intuitive feeling.
This time, Lowell saw with his own eyes that Yang Qiu not only did not say anything inspiring, nor did he gather the undead for a mobilization meeting, but he just gave a few young people under his control a task, and those undead took the initiative to rush over from all directions, actively and enthusiastically helping these young people. He felt that his worldview was once again impacted...
"How on earth does he control so many undead spirits so easily? Obviously... these undead spirits have never shown enough respect for him?!" Supervisor Lowell was puzzled.
After gaining a certain understanding of the Tarantan Undead, people like Supervisor Lowell, who already possessed dark knowledge, would naturally believe that these Tarantan Undead were intermediate or even advanced monsters from a certain dimension of the demon world; that they had signed a certain contract with Yang, and were able to be projected into the material plane as weak undead - this could explain why the Tarantan Undead had a very high level of intelligence, equivalent to that of a great demon, and had no respect for their "master" Yang (players had broken into the town hall to hand over tasks without knocking or asking for permission more than once or twice, and Lowell was numb to it).
Lowell did not think that the undead's active participation in this expedition was due to Yang's will, but more like a collusion between the former thieves and these undead who were between madness and reason, disorder and order.
When the undead set out, he even worried that they would be led astray by the former thieves...
But now, Lowell was wavering.
He found that his previous conclusion was a bit hasty - regardless of whether these Tarantan undead of suspicious origins would show respect to Yang, the summoner, there was no doubt that Yang had the means to drive and use these undead at will.
The black-robed inspector silently looked at Yang, who had assigned everything and then lowered his head to give instructions to the civilian woman named Mia, and mentally increased the danger score of this guy by 10 percentage points.
"This guy will definitely bring disaster to the people around Tarantan!"
Yang Qiu gave Mia a few words of advice and then let her go. He called Lowell and walked towards the Westham Town Hall.
When the undead attacked the town, the mayor, who was nearly 70 years old, was invited by several businessmen to enjoy his second spring at the "Lover" Club, but now he was left on the street to bask in the sun.
When the first group of players rushed into the town hall, there were only two guards, a doorman, and four clerks living in the backyard in the small two-story town hall with a large courtyard.
Well... as representatives of local feudal forces, these people also enjoyed the treatment of being thrown out on the street to bask in the sun.
Yang Qiu, the black magician, walked into the highest authority in this official town of the Rhine Kingdom through the main gate. Apart from the nearby residents peeking nervously through the cracks in the door and windows, he did not encounter any obstruction...
After observing the terrain, Yang Qiu selected the town hall compound as the players' teleportation point. He searched the brand matrix to see which players had no tasks on hand, and sent the tasks of digging pits (tombs where the players' bodies were stored when they were offline) and covering them with earthen platforms point-to-point.
Next, Yang Qiu began to search the Westram Town Hall...
Because the undead came so suddenly, the furnishings in the town hall, property, tax reports, and official documents between the town hall and the superior city of Innadri were all well preserved.
Yang Qiu took a tour of the mayor's office and the clerk's office and obtained important documents including the population list of the town and the surrounding 23 villages, the head tax and land tax forms, the militia roster registration form, etc.
A large box of the mayor's personal letters was found...
"No wonder the caravans passing through the Sorenson Mountains are so keen to sell people here. Those who provide new blood for Westerham's 'special industry' can actually obtain Westerham's local tax-free license... This is really a good business. What do you think, respected supervisor?"
Yang Qiu smiled after flipping through the mayor's personal letter. "The tolls paid by the caravans are normal commercial taxes and need to be handed over to the royal family. However, Westham's 'special industries' are not taxed. The political donations handed in by brothel owners can go into the mayor's pocket as clean personal income... No wonder the mayor has been able to sit here for forty years. He is a smart man."
No matter how much the outside world mocks the people of the Rhine Kingdom for having no bottom line, the Rhine royal family still has to save face, and words like "sex trade is legal" will never appear in documents signed by the royal family.
The fact that the law on paper does not recognize it as legal does not mean that prostitution will disappear within the Rhine Kingdom. It is enough to just do it, not say it, and not put it into writing. As long as the government does not collect taxes, it means that the Rhine Kingdom has never recognized the legitimacy of prostitution.
Of course, this does not mean that running a brothel or club does not have to incur extra expenses. For example, the money that is handed over to Mayor Westram in the form of political donations and then distributed by the mayor to certain officials in the Innadri City Hall is not much less than regular business taxes.
Supervisor Lowell felt a little embarrassed by Yang Qiu's blatant mockery.
This kind of unspoken rule that is tacitly accepted in a pseudo-civilized society is not only prevalent in the Kingdom of the Rhine. A similar phenomenon also exists in the Principality of Shega... It's just that the Principality of Shega is more closed and xenophobic than the Kingdom of the Rhine, and will not openly welcome customers like Westram does.
"You and I both know what you are planning to do now." Supervisor Lowell changed the subject reluctantly. "But the accusation that the mayor used administrative privileges to open a back door for local brothel operators... cannot be a strong excuse for you to achieve your goal."
Not only did Yang Qiu send people to capture the local militia who had escaped the net, he also broke into the town hall and rummaged around, seizing the most important population list. If Lowell still couldn't guess what this black magician was trying to do, then he had lived like a dog for the past three hundred years - it was obvious that this black magician had taken a fancy to Westram!
Yang wanted to do this, and he could indeed do it. Lowell himself could think of the operation routine: Westerham had essentially fallen into Yang's hands. Next, Yang would just find a local impoverished noble in the Rhine Kingdom and spend a little money to support him to become the new lord of Westerham. As long as the annual tax paid to the royal family remained unchanged, the Rhine royal family would not care whether the border town had a new country lord.
Of course, even if the royal family doesn't care, Westerme's superior city, Innadri City Hall, will definitely take care of it, unless Yang Qiu can find a sore spot that will force Innadri to admit the change of ownership of Westerme's territory as a threat...
"Indeed, this kind of common evidence of power monetization is not enough to be a strong bargaining chip." Yang Qiu nodded, agreeing with Supervisor Lowell's opinion, and handed him a transaction list written on parchment, "So what do you think... How about this?"
Supervisor Lowell took the transaction list and his face turned cold after just one look.
This is a transaction list with the Lord of Innadri as the middleman, Mayor Westram and the real owner of the land, Baron Marcus, who has lived in the wealthy area of Innadri all year round, as the seller, and a young duke of the Rhine Kingdom as the buyer.
The items on the list... are bones.
The skeletons of humans and orcs.
Skeletons of young girls, skulls of adult men and women, spines and pelvises of young boys and girls, full skeletons of orcs with coccyx, lifelike mummies made after death of humans and orcs before their bodies decayed, miniature skulls of humans and orcs...
The transaction date on the list was half a year ago, and the "product catalog" listed on this list alone contained at least hundreds of corpses.
"For any red-light district, the 'update and iteration' of 'consumables' is a very normal thing. After all, the bodies of ordinary people cannot withstand many years of harsh treatment. Prostitutes who can live to the age of 30 are considered lucky." Yang Qiu's face showed no emotion, he was still very calm and even smiled. "From this perspective, the mayor and the Lord Westram who supports him are both business geniuses... They are very demanding in the utilization rate of 'consumables'."
Supervisor Lowell took a deep breath and slowly placed the light yet extremely heavy transaction list in his hand on the table.
Most ordinary people probably would never imagine in their entire lives that... the corpses of intelligent creatures can be bought and sold.
And contrary to popular belief, those involved in the buying and selling of corpses of intelligent creatures are not the black magicians that people fear, but rather those high-ranking dignitaries who are so high up that ordinary life of luxury and debauchery cannot satisfy them anymore.
"Handicrafts" made from the "fresh" corpses of intelligent creatures are still quite popular as a tool for showing off wealth and comparing with others in some extremely luxurious social circles.
"You are right." Supervisor Lowell said expressionlessly, "This land may indeed need a new owner."
Yang Qiu smiled and picked up the parchment list, folded it three times, and put it in his chest pocket: "Thank you for your words, respected inspector."
Looking at the big pit that the players had just dug in the yard, Yang Qiu stroked his chin and thought for a while, then said, "Supervisor Lowell, why don't we play a treasure hunt game?"
Rowell: “???”
"The mayor's wife is dead and he has no children. His huge savings has no place to go except to buy alchemical potions to maintain his body and prolong his life. He also has no relatives close enough to keep in touch with him on a long-term basis... So where does he hide the gold coins he fished out? Aren't you curious?" Yang Qiu said.
"No, I'm not curious." Supervisor Lowell's face darkened.
"Don't say that, my friend." Yang Qiu laughed and said generously, "I know that the things that can be exchanged for gold coins are no longer attractive to you, but what if it is something that gold coins cannot buy?"
"What do you want to say?" Lowell frowned.
"You should have discovered, respected inspector, that the things in the cabinet of the town hall of Exile Town, including the daily necessities I gave to Hal, Rex and the female workers, are not goods that can be bought on the market." Yang Qiu said with a smile, and... took out his mobile phone, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and turned the screen to Lowell, "For example, this one has the function of a camera, which can record and store up to half an hour of audio and video images, and can also store thousands of books that you have never heard of... Such a novel thing, even if you search all over Nabarron, you can't find a second one."
Lowell frowned even more tightly and stared at Yang Qiu without saying a word.
"Just like you once asked me indirectly, although I don't have a talent for space, I accidentally obtained a stable space-time rift leading to another mysterious dimension." Yang Qiu turned on the camera function on his phone and let Rowell monitor the real-time footage of him on the phone. "The world on the other side of the space-time rift is completely different from our material plane. The human race there has created a large number of unimaginable technological products...Aren't you curious about this?"
Supervisor Lowell stared at his own real-time image on the small mobile phone screen with horror on his face...
Color cameras have been on the market for decades, and the Kenyan Empire in the north of the continent also launched a promotional advertisement for the "latest magic stone camera" that can record images and sounds in real time in the past two years.
But whether it was a camera or the magic stone camera promoted by the Kenyan Empire, they were both quite large in size - at least Lowell had never heard of something that could take pictures being as small as the thin thing in Yang's hand.
Yang Qiu turned off the power button, put away his phone, and said with an unchanged smile: "Let's play this treasure hunt game, respected inspector. If you can find the illegal wealth that the mayor has illegally occupied, I will look for a sufficiently novel and unprecedented gift in the world on the other side of the space-time rift to thank you."
Supervisor Lowell swallowed his saliva...
Rex's work of sheltering the prostitutes was completed first. With the enthusiastic help of a large number of players, Mia's lobbying, and the personal experiences of Osrian and the other two, the prostitutes who had eaten a full meal from the undead did not show too strong aversion to centralized shelter.
Especially since the players enthusiastically helped them take their "personal belongings", which indirectly proved that these weirdos who controlled Westram did not object to their owning "personal belongings"... This was enough to reassure the prostitutes who had never felt respected.
This is not the end. After gathering everyone in the two requisitioned stores, Rex, a gentle, considerate and very good at "mass work" male mother, did not let everyone move in immediately, but asked them to stand on the street in front of the two stores and wait for a while.
Then, in front of everyone, he took down the "Golden Coast " and "Elegant Dream" signs and neon lights.
Throwing the two heavy signs and the torn neon lights to the ground, Rex raised his foot and stomped these symbols of malice to pieces in front of hundreds of poor people.
The prostitutes had different expressions on their faces. They looked at Rex in surprise as he stomped on the signs and colorful lights like a madman. No one dared to speak.
Rex, who had stepped on the signboard to pieces, stopped to straighten his clothes and said to these people in a deep voice: "Now that we are here, this town will never need these cannibalistic industries again. From now on, you are just ordinary Westram people. Your names will be registered in the town register, and you will live the rest of your life normally like everyone else."
The people who crowded the road looked at Rex quietly.
Many of them did not believe what Rex said...but they were also very self-aware and would not be stupid enough to jump out and accuse this professional-level strong man of boasting.
Rex did not require everyone to believe his promise. He just silently brought these people to the resettlement site, divided the rooms according to gender, took away all the sex "toys" in the private rooms and destroyed them on the spot.
After finishing the work he needed to do and settling the rewards for the undead with the copper coins that Yang Gang had given him, Rex sat down on the stairs under the resettlement building and suddenly felt very tired.
"Osrian seems to be feeling a little uncomfortable... Are you okay, Mr. Rex?" Mia came out of the building and saw Rex sitting on the stairs in a daze, so she ran over with concern.
"I'm fine, what happened to Osrian?" Rex forced himself to turn around.
"He's vomiting. He vomited out everything he just ate." Mia said nervously.
Rex nodded: "Don't panic, he must be tired. I will find an undead to cook some light soup for him later."
Mia nodded, thought for a moment, took two steps forward, and squatted down beside Rex: "Are you really okay, Mr. Rex?"
Because Hal's gang didn't think much of them, Rex and Mia had been taking care of each other since they came out of the Exile Town.
Mia is two years older than Rex. She wants a gentle brother like Rex from the bottom of her heart, but she feels that she is not worthy of him and dares not speak up... She just silently does what she can for Rex.
"I—" Cress tried to say something perfunctorily, but when he saw the concern in Mia's eyes, he could no longer say anything perfunctorily. After a pause, he said, "I just feel bad when I see these people. They shouldn't have such a life."
Mia nodded silently, her hands unconsciously clenched into fists and placed on her chest.
She could understand why Cress felt uncomfortable. She once thought that her life was painful enough, but when she saw the people here, she still felt breathless - these people were so beautiful, unlike her who was cursed by fate to be born ugly; such beautiful people were treated like livestock. It was like seeing countless tragedies that specifically destroyed beautiful things being played out before her eyes.
"Mr. Lord, there will be a way." Mia whispered, "Even someone like me can be saved by Mr. Lord, you will definitely not give up on them. They will live well in the future just as you said."
Rex stared blankly at the deserted place for a long time before he slowly nodded.
He only told Mia half the truth, and he felt bad, partly because he was reminded of his mother.
That silly woman who was equally beautiful, but who was not forced by others, but foolishly thought that she could rely on her natural beauty to exchange for a decent life from her father, the viscount who had everything.
His mother, who was much luckier than the prostitutes here, was quickly abandoned after losing her only bargaining chip, her beauty, and eventually died of depression, leaving him alone to face everything.
"God shouldn't generously give people extraordinary beauty. This is not... luck at all." Rex murmured in a low voice that only he could hear.
If his mother had not been so beautiful, and she came from a middle-class family, she might have chosen to marry a man of similar status and would not have had to experience such a shameful life with so many ups and downs.
If the people here were all of poor appearance, they might not have been sold to this place...
"Hey, Rex!"
While Rex was daydreaming, Supervisor Yang and Lowell walked in from outside.
Yang Qiu glanced at the pile of sign wreckage on the ground, smiled, and waved to Rex on the steps.
"Yang." Rex quickly stood up and nodded to the two men, "Supervisor Lowell."
"Mr. Lord." Mia also quickly lifted her skirt and squatted down, but she only greeted Yang Qiu and ignored Rowell who had wanted to take them back...
Yang Qiu smiled at Mia and said to Rex, "Shave your beard, tidy up your hair, put on some powder and make it whiter, then put on your most respectable clothes, go to the militia to get some horses, and we will go to Innadri."
"Yes." Rex answered first, then realized something was wrong and said in shock, "--Wait! Did I hear you right? You mean... go to Innadri?!"
"You heard it right." Yang Qiu said with a smile, "But don't get me wrong, we are not going to Innadri to fall into a trap, but to request that Westram's territory ownership be renamed."
Rex was confused, with question marks all over his face.
"You, Charlie Rex, are the son of a viscount of the Rhine Kingdom. Even if you are an illegitimate child, the noble blood of Viscount Rex flows in your veins, and no one can deny it." Yang Qiu began to talk nonsense seriously, "Charlie Rex, a gentleman with noble viscount blood, discovered that the Lord of Westram committed a dirty and despicable crime, and in anger launched a territorial war and actually occupied the Westram territory. Isn't it normal to ask the Innadri City Hall to change the ownership of the Westram territory and replace your name in the owner column?"
Rex: “…(° △° )”
