Chapter 93: Discovering New Tasks on Your Own
On Earth, the price of thickened blackout curtain fabric on Taobao starts at six yuan, and with a little help it starts at five yuan.
Yang Qiu must not purchase this expensive new style. After comparing prices from three different stores and bargaining everywhere, he bought this batch of unsold goods originally intended for the rural market from a textile factory on the verge of bankruptcy at a price of 2.4 yuan.
The rise of Taobao and Pinshaoshao is a dimensionality reduction attack on the physical market, and there is nothing wrong with this statement. Physical stores in cities can still survive, but the rural markets are really littered with corpses - anyway, this batch of curtain fabrics that mainly target the rural market have been piled up in warehouses gathering dust ever since every village has been connected by roads and express delivery.
Even if you want to recycle the waste and process it into ready-made clothes and bed sheets and then sell it, it won't work: the colors are too bright, the prints are too big and too old-fashioned, and the material is too thick and rough. If you process these curtain fabrics into clothes, you absolutely can't expect to sell them. You'd better be prepared to lose another processing fee.
These shortcomings... happen to be advantages in this other world.
Is the fabric too thick? Well, we all have to work hard for a living, so a thicker material will be more durable.
The colors are too gaudy, and the prints are too dense and rough? No, no, no! It’s obvious that the factory has a conscience and is willing to dye and print! How face-saving it is to wear clothes made of such beautiful fabrics!
After Jerome repeated the price of the new cloth three times, everyone within a 30-meter radius of their stall went crazy.
Vegetable sellers, vegetable buyers, shop keepers, anyone with more than ten copper coins in hand, all rushed over like crazy...
"Cut five meters for me ! Any color is fine! Cut five meters for me!"
"Sir, can you cut two meters for me first? I want thicker fabric!"
"Can you cut one and a half meters? I only have fifteen copper coins!"
With a "clang" sound, Hal drew out his long knife, pointed at the guests who were trying to loot and roared viciously: "Get in line! Do you want to die?!"
The former leader of the thieves' gang was full of bad luck... It came in handy at this time. No matter whether they were those who really wanted to buy cloth or those who wanted to steal things because there were so many people, they all behaved themselves. They hesitated, pushed and shoved, and finally formed a winding line.
Jerome wiped his sweat, picked up a ruler and scissors, and called the first housewife in line: "Madam, what pattern do you want, and how many meters do you want to cut?"
The housewife looked at Hal with fear behind Jerome, who had a ferocious face, and swallowed her saliva. Her love for the beautiful fabric temporarily overwhelmed her fear. While taking out the money, she opened her eyes wide and looked carefully at the stacked rolls of cloth.
The housewife's eyes were sharp. Even though she didn't dare to carefully select from the stalls of these gentlemen, she immediately spotted a roll of fabric with a pink base color, a large area of red roses printed on one side, and a thickness of one centimeter thicker than the other rolls. She pointed at it and said, "Please pull this for me. I want four meters."
This roll of curtain fabric is for the bedroom. It can block light. The thickness and material are both excellent...
Jerome had never learned tailoring, but he had been a knight's squire since he was a child and had learned needlework for the needs of life. When he was a teenager, he also altered the old clothes that the knight's master didn't want to wear to smaller sizes for himself. He had no problem cutting the cloth with a ruler. After taking the money, he conveniently cut out four meters of cloth for the housewife, rolled it up with his arm and handed it to her.
When the housewife touched the smooth surface and thick lining of the fabric, she felt so satisfied that she thanked the man repeatedly. She didn't even bother buying any groceries and ran home carrying the roll of fabric.
The second person in line was also a housewife. She had sharp eyes. She did not choose thick single-sided prints, but chose thinner double-sided prints with more complicated workmanship. She also chose the one with the brightest colors and a more three-dimensional 3D print at first glance...
"Make it into a skirt and it can be worn on both sides!" The second housewife said happily to her neighbor who came to sell vegetables with her, holding the cloth she had bought.
The neighbor's eyes lit up, and when it was her turn to choose fabric, she also bought double-sided printing...
In a world where productivity is underdeveloped, cloth is definitely hard currency.
The Chinese people disliked the rustic country-style flowery curtain fabrics, but the residents of this world were delighted; whether they were the townspeople or the farmers selling vegetables, no matter if they wanted thick single-sided prints or beautiful double-sided prints, they all pointed to the bright and colorful ones. They would not even look down on the occasional roll of plain and elegant fabrics that were not so old-fashioned...
Although Jerome cuts quickly, it still takes several minutes for each customer. People in the queue get bored and start to look at other items on the stalls besides cloth.
Colorful plastic cups, bowls, colorful plastic buttons in boxes, colorful sewing boxes in transparent plastic boxes, towels with stripes and simple prints...
The farmers became more and more excited the more they watched, and the townspeople gradually couldn't take their eyes off it.
There was a peasant woman who couldn't stand it any longer. She tilted her head and asked cautiously, "Sir, sir, how...how are these things sold?"
Jerome said as he cut the cloth, "Five copper coins each. Two cups and two bowls count as one. One box of buttons and one box of sewing boxes count as one. You can have two boxes of sewing boxes or two boxes of buttons if you want."
The crowd who were excitedly discussing the patterns of fabrics and regretting that they didn't have much money... suddenly became silent.
"That, that big basin, and, and those towels... are also five copper coins each?!" The peasant woman who asked the question was dumbfounded.
"Yes." Jerome nodded.
Except for the people who were waiting for the cloth to be cut, everyone in the back row started to pay and count their coins in unison...
Soon, the crowd began to wail, “Oh my god, why did I only bring so little money with me?”
Some townspeople who were at the back of the queue looked at the number of people in front of them, gritted their teeth and left the queue, running home to get the money...
Farmers who lived far from home and didn't have much cash were in pain. Some began to shout, "Who wants vegetables? Only half the price!"
"Madam, does your family need a shoulder pole and basket?"
"Should I buy the cloth first or the basin first? It's so difficult!"
There is plastic in this world, but due to incomplete development and utilization of resources, plastic products can only be obtained through natural rubber, and petroleum is only used as a raw material for fuel and lubricating oil.
Due to the scarcity of raw materials, the price of plastic products has naturally risen, and they are still a long way from being widely used by the public. Most people only know that plastic plates and basins are light and easy to use, but in life, the closest things to people are various pottery and inferior glass products - ceramic basins, ceramic jars, glass cups and bowls are daily necessities that most people cannot do without.
A few families do use enamelware, but... this thing is called enamel in this world. It is not affordable and is high-end - after all, metal is also very expensive in this world (if the earth had not fought two world wars and a cold war in modern times, and if China had not emerged as a super player, steel production would have been very painful).
Not to mention towels... Many people are willing to buy two new towels when they get married, and they won’t throw them away even if they have big holes in them!
The townspeople at the front of the line hurriedly took the roll of cloth home, searched the house for all the cash they could use, and then hurried to the market.
More people did not forget to inform their relatives and friends when they went home to get money.
So more and more people came to look for cash at home...
It was not even three o'clock in the afternoon, but half the town knew that three men were selling cloth rolls, towels, and plastic bowls and basins at the market, which were incredibly cheap and of high quality, provided by the new lord.
Ten hours after the fall of Westham Town... uh... welcomed its new master, most of the townspeople had begun to happily call the new lord "Master" - even though these townspeople still didn't know who the new lord was.
And this series of subversive changes in the town... in the eyes of players, are just part of the "new map plot."
As soon as the resurrection point (teleportation/online) in the Westram Town Hall was completed, players without any tasks on their hands rushed in impatiently and teleported back to the Exiled Town.
There are two reasons for being so anxious. The first is that this siege mission is so profitable that all the players who participated online have made a lot of money and are rushing to find the Undead Chamber of Commerce to buy clothes.
Secondly, the expedition and siege missions this time were very demanding on clothes, and many players' ugly T-shirts and shorts were in tatters. They had to go back to the Undead Chamber of Commerce to buy some rock sugar, and then have some fun with the female workers NPCs in Exile Town to repair their clothes...
Of course, not all players are in a hurry to change their clothes. Some players are impatient to wait for the half-hour transmission CD and are still wandering around Westram.
For example, Qin Guan, who went everywhere to get video materials - he filmed the red-light district, filmed the residential areas in the north and west cities, filmed the captive NPCs at the militia headquarters, and even wanted to go into the resettlement site to film those beautifully modeled NPC big sisters and little brothers... He was stopped by Rex.
Another example is Liu Meng, a lifestyle player. After completing Mia and Ben's purchasing team assistance mission, she ran back to Martin Street and curiously jumped around in the small shops opened by NPCs...
I went to the leatherwork shop, knife sharpening shop, tailor shop, pawn shop, food store... I went to all of them. Liu Meng, who was a fan of maps when playing the PC game, was so happy that she almost had bubbles in her nose: "This new map is awesome! The details are so perfect! It's as perfect as shopping in a small town in a foreign country!"
"It's a pity that we can't communicate in the language. Why doesn't this game allow for a common language? It's so weird that we can't interact with NPCs even though we're all on the friendly side!"
Liu Meng, who had scared a bunch of small-business townspeople into submission without realizing it and was still regretting that she couldn't interact with NPCs one by one to see if she could trigger the task, walked to the middle of Martin Street and saw the crowded affordable stalls from a distance.
So she squeezed in without saying a word...
At this moment, Jerome was not the only one busy at the affordable stall. Hal and Tuttle did not escape either. One of them stared fiercely at the townspeople who were picky about the thickness of plastic basins, the length of towels, and the plastic cups and bowls that were beautiful but not as practical as basins . The other one squatted beside them with a purse in his hand and collected money with a numb look on his face.
The townspeople who were in a shopping frenzy didn't care much when they found an undead squeezed in next to them. Those at the back urged those in front to hurry up while scanning the products with their eyes; those at the front were worried that they didn't have enough money to buy everything they wanted, and couldn't help but continue to be distracted by the things they didn't have enough money to buy...
Liu Meng squeezed to the front row without any hesitation and looked around.
She couldn't understand the language of the civilian NPCs in the new map, but in this kind of situation, there was no need for language communication... People who didn't understand English could understand what others were doing by watching the Black Friday shopping scenes on the other side of the ocean.
After looking for a long time and not finding any other players in the crowd, Liu Meng couldn't help but sigh: "Without players doing the quest, will the NPCs advance the plot on their own? The AI is too high."
After saying this, Liu Meng got out of the crowd and continued browsing the map...
There are not many players like Liu Meng who are as enthusiastic about running new maps among all players, but there are quite a few.
At this moment, Ji Tang followed these players fearfully, strolling through the streets and alleys of Westram without any relaxation...
"The scene of this new map is amazing. Walking in it feels like a real town." Tang Jia looked around with curiosity, pointing at a small wooden second floor of a family and shouted, "Hey Qingyue, look at that house, it's very stylish! The little fence under the attic window is so cute!"
"It looks nice, but it's not that good to live in." Yang Ying, who doesn't understand romance, said, "The wooden house is not insect-proof. There are mosquitoes everywhere in the summer and it's freezing cold in the winter. I've lived in a relative's house in the countryside before and I have a deep impression of it."
"It's important to have this in the game. It's enough to just look good."
"It's not practical. NPCs will get heat stroke and they will definitely be afraid of the cold. In winter when it snows, this kind of wooden house will be even more problematic."
"So if that's what you mean, there's no toilet in Tianyong City yet. Are you going to argue with Zhulong?"
"What is Tianyong City?"
"Oh, the one in the ancient sword—"
Ji Tang looked at the two heartless girls who were talking nonsense with relief. If all players were like this, he would have to worry less.
When he turned his attention to the third person, Ji Tang's expression became a little serious...
Visiting the new map with Tang Jia and Yang Ying...of course entropy does not increase.
After the rewards for the siege battle in the game were settled, it was already morning in reality, and many online students and office workers had gone offline. Logically, En Bu Zeng and Tang Jia should be in class at this time... But Tang Jia was so excited that she not only skipped class herself, but also ran to En Bu Zeng's dormitory in a different school to skip class, and forced Zheng Xueba to skip the morning class to play games and hang out.
So Ji Tang's tense time was brought forward...
The original two "game maps", Exile Town and Desolate Stronghold, had only a little over 300 "human NPCs" in total, so the density of contact with players was not too high.
Now in this "new map" of Westram, there are at least nearly 10,000 lively "Human NPCs", not to mention the level of close contact!
Ji Tang had been offline, but when he saw Tang Jia calling for a map tour in the WeChat group, he hurriedly logged back online...
He was not wrong to worry. He had just walked around half of the town's residential area when Entropy became noticeably silent, his eyes always scanning the residents' homes, courtyards, roadside corners, and the like...
Ji Tang, who seemed as steady as an old dog, was becoming more and more nervous.
The traces of life of living people can actually be easily exposed from a place that most people tend to overlook, that is... household garbage.
This world disguised as a game has a certain level of civilization, and is not like medieval Europe where human and animal excrement is littered all over the streets.
But that was the only thing that was gone... The streets were still far from clean, with household garbage everywhere. As they walked along the way, they saw that all the sewage ditches were clogged.
Fortunately, all supplies in Westram were in short supply and the townspeople had no room for waste. Otherwise, Ji Tang doubted whether the garbage in this town would have blocked the roads...
After discovering that En Bu Zeng had been staring at the garbage under a family's wall for more than five seconds, Ji Tang had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "I feel like this is a hidden mission, huh?"
When Tang Jia and Yang Ying heard about the mission, they stopped talking nonsense and looked over curiously at the same time, saying in unison: "What mission?"
Ji Tang pointed at the pile of garbage that En Buzeng had been staring at for a long time, and said in a very natural tone: "Have you noticed that this town is different from our Exile Town? You can see this kind of garbage pile everywhere."
En Bu Zeng also turned his head and looked at him with sharp eyes.
"So what?" Tang Jia didn't understand.
"Didn't the system show yellow text when we were settling the siege mission? The Westem we conquered is the new territory of Tarantan. So our player's faction leader, Lord Yang, is also the lord here and has to govern Westem, right?" Ji Tang said, "Westem originally relied on the red-light district for its livelihood. If we attacked and destroyed the red-light district, many people would be unemployed, right? If the player proposed to Lord Yang to set up a sanitation bureau here and hire the townspeople as sanitation workers, wouldn't that solve part of the unemployment problem?"
"Fuck! Can you play it like this?!" Tang Jia was shocked, "Qingyue Qingyue, is what Brother Ji said reliable?"
En Buzeng didn't say anything, but still looked at Ji Tang with his sharp eyes.
Ji Tang felt uncomfortable being stared at by this girl, but he had to pretend nothing happened. "This game has such a high degree of freedom, maybe it can work? If you have enough reputation with the Undead Chamber of Commerce, you can hire NPCs to form a caravan, and even buy land, build a manor, and build a factory. I think it's worth a try."
Entropy finally stopped staring at him, stroked his chin and thought for a while, then said, "Yeah - so, just now Rex also sent out a task for players to assist Mia, which seems to be a bit like reviving the economy and people's livelihood of this town. If we work in this direction, we might be able to find another way to come up with a hidden task."
Tang Jia was impatient to listen to her analysis and jumped up on the spot: "What are you waiting for? Go find Lao Yang to ask for the mission! Let's go, let's go!"
Ji Tang breathed a sigh of relief.
Unexpectedly, En Bu Zeng, who was pulled by Tang Jia and jumped several meters away, actually looked back at him.
Ji Tang: “…”
This girl really isn't that easy to fool, is she?
Lao Yang was not in the town hall, and Tang Jia couldn't wait and dragged her friends to the resettlement site to find Rex - in the eyes of warrior players, Rex was still quite popular, anyway, he was more reliable than that funny guy Har.
Rex highly praised Yang's proposal to hire townspeople to clean the streets and maintain a clean environment. He listened to the players' opinions very humbly and took out the rules for setting up a sanitation station and hiring sanitation workers on the spot...
This world also has positions similar to those of sanitation workers, but unlike China on Earth, this kind of street cleaning work is often subcontracted to street organizations by local affairs officers.
Well, street gangs...
Taking Innadri as an example, except for the rich areas (where servants usually take care of the sanitation around the mansions), all blocks where commercial activities are carried out are responsible for road cleaning and garbage incineration by street gangs. These street gangs can not only receive sanitation fees from local affairs officers, but businessmen doing small businesses in the block also need to pay protection fees.
As for ordinary residential areas with no commercial activities and no servants to take care of the area... no one cares about them.
The local government is rich and cares about the city's image, so every one or two months, the affairs officer will allocate a small amount of extra money to allow gang members to clean up the mountains of garbage in civilian areas.
If the local finances are tight and the officials don't have much money...then just let it go.
Anyway, when residents can't stand living in the garbage mountain, they will find their own way.
There are two streets in Westham that can barely be divided into commercial activity areas, one is the red-light district, and the other is Martin Street.
The red-light district has its own brothels, and each of them takes care of its own business. As for Martin Street, all the people with a little bit of fame and connections in the town have opened shops on this street. If the farmers who come to the town to sell vegetables dare to ask them for protection money, they can just not come into the town and set up stalls at the town gate to sell...
In addition, there is no affairs officer in the town - the mayor, as a political officer, has no intention of going against the lord at all. Instead, he colludes with the lord and the baron to make dirty money. It is enough to hire a sheriff and a militia to ensure public security. There is no need to hire an additional affairs officer.
Second, it is very close to Innaderi - brave and aggressive young people have the militia as a place to go and don't need to join gangs. If they really want to join a gang, it is easier to make a name for themselves in Innaderi than to stay in this poor town.
Adding the two together, there is no soil for traditional gangs to survive in Westham.
But garbage will not stop being generated just because no one deals with it. No matter how frugal and careful the townspeople are, they still have to sweep out a lot of garbage from their homes every month.
As a result, there were indeed many disputes among the townspeople over the issue of where to dump the garbage... such arguments as "your garbage was dumped under my wall" and "my garbage was blown into your yard by the wind". From time to time, you could always hear similar quarrels.
In short, spending a little money to hire a group of townspeople as sanitation workers to dispose of garbage can really increase the townspeople's favorability towards the new lord.
After solving the problem of signature of territory ownership, Yang Qiu did not rush back to Westram, but was purchasing magic materials at Innadri Free Market with a large amount of gold coins.
The three existing teleportation arrays are not real teleportation arrays, but filler undead summoning arrays; to put it bluntly, players' teleportation between the three places is nothing more than responding to the call of the teleportation array and traveling between the three places as "summoned creatures."
This teleportation function can only be used by "summoned creatures", and living people definitely cannot use it...
Since the town of Westham was taken over by this gang of players who created new plots and maps, there was no reason for Yang Qiu to give it up. He had to take it over. In this way, he would need a proper teleportation array that he could use.
In addition to consuming magic powder, a proper teleportation array also requires a large amount of magic materials. It just so happened that he not only robbed the red-light district but also took advantage of the mayor's secret coffers, so he had more money than ever before, so he had to make it happen.
Yang Qiu, who was bargaining with someone, was shocked when he received an application for establishing an Environmental Sanitation Bureau from Rex through the imprint matrix.
It's OK, players! You guys helped me figure out an operation that I haven't even thought of yet!
Yang Qiu was very happy. He calculated that tomorrow was the reputation settlement day according to Earth time, so he generously updated a system prompt online:
"【System Announcement】: The position of the mayor of Westram Town in the new territory of Tarantan has been incorporated into the mayor election. The mayor of Exile Town and the mayor of Westram will be decided by drawing lots from the two players with the highest reputation in the territory on the settlement day of each month."
