The now Exile Town mayor, Brother Lahong, who hadn't realized that the posting outcome via random draw was out and hadn't gotten the large town of Weisshem, didn't know whether to laugh out loud or to fume. Currently, he couldn't help feeling a little vexed.
When he logged out and waited for his mayor interface to load, Brother Lahong went to browse the forum while feeling a complicated mix of emotions. When he logged back in, he still felt that something was off.
After the completion of the siege quest, everyone had updated their equipment. Both Qin Guan and his own side were waiting for the peak hour to organize their manpower to do blood alliance quests.
In the afternoon, Brother Lahong had already brought his elite team to Desolate Outpost in preparation to farm Poisonous Marshlands for some backup materials before starting the blood alliance quest.
Guileless Gale, Study Obsessed, and Phantom were already waiting near the spawn point and came over when Brother Lahong logged in.
"How is it, Lahong? What's the mayor management panel like?"
"Don't rush." Brother Lahong accessed his character panel and examined it. "There's just a Mayor button added next to the character panel. When clicking on it, it opens a management panel with options for appointing officials and the map of Exile Town… Let me see, the lands that can be allocated to players are marked with white dotted lines—the heck?!"
"What?" Study Obsessed wished he could snatch Brother Lahong's panel for a look.
"F*ckity f*ck!" Brother Lahong was so worked up that his voice went off-pitch. "Th-this map… Exile Town's map is f*cking huge! The land for several dozen miles beyond that valley is all under my control!!"
His few companions got excited as well. "Whoa, so cool?!""Awesome!!"
"Wait a moment! Does the Weisshem mayor also control such a large area as well?" asked Phantom.
Guileless Gale answered decisively, "Definitely not. The outside of Weisshem isn't as spacious as Exile Town. There are villages and farmlands everywhere. The announcement made it clear that player mayors can only manage vacant land."
"So, doesn't this mean that Exile Town is a better deal?!" Study Obsessed exclaimed elatedly. "Even though Exile Town has fewer NPCs than Weisshem, it is larger with more vacant land and room for development. It's also quite difficult to set up a blood alliance stronghold in Weisshem since there isn't much vacant land. Only Exile Town provides this sort of flexibility!"
"Exactly!" Guileless Gale nodded. "Estates and farms are also difficult to establish in Weisshem unless the player mayor confiscates the local land. With the high degree of freedom in this game, that might be possible, but it would undoubtedly come at a cost. It can't compare to the convenience in Exile Town. In the future, players trying to boost their Undead Merchant Association reputation will have to head to Exile Town. Exile Town is the true core of this game!"
Brother Lahong felt the unease in his heart disappear, and an ambition to establish his grand town on the vast white canvas sprouted. Waving his bony claw in the air, he declared enthusiastically, "No more grinding monsters. Let's return to Exile Town and properly plan on how to develop our home!"
His few companions immediately called for assistance, and the scattered players of their faction located across all the different points teleported back to Exile Town…
Yang Qiu, who had been observing this group via the imprint matrix, calmly shifted his focus away.
Brother Lahong's own perception and what players had been spouting on the forums weren't far off. There had certainly been some manipulation behind the scenes when it came to the allocation of the two player mayors.
Brother Lahong was fundamentally a player equipped with a gamer mindset. Yang Qiu couldn't entrust Weisshem, which had thousands of residents, to him.
These, after all, weren't real official appointments like in the real world, and being assigned to serve a role in any town wouldn't impact players seriously enough that it would have impacted them for the rest of their lives. Thus, Yang Qiu had tossed the barren lands outside Exile Town as a consolation prize to Brother Lahong, who seemed content.
However, it was different for Ji Tang. Ji Tang wasn't a pure player but a patient using the game as a form of therapy. He had ample online time, unlike Unceasing Entropy, the student who had to log out for classes.
Furthermore, Ji Tang had a history of serving the nation as well as experts to advise him. A town with several thousand residents was nothing, and Yang Qiu was confident that even Indahl, with a population of over a million, could be handled by them without much issue.
Putting it plainly, were these matters not limited to the framework of the "game" and required discretion, Yang Qiu might really have handed all the authority over to Ji Tang without any reservation.
The town halls in both towns had been prepared for the player mayors to "inherit," so Yang Qiu, along with his shadow, Lowell, had moved into the former residence of the Weisshem mayor. After observing Brother Lahong, Yang Qiu turned his attention to Ji Tang… and realized the latter wasn't online.
Has he logged out to call for reinforcements? Yang Qiu rubbed his chin and immediately tried to locate the two, no, three tool players in Exile Town's Undead Merchant Association.
That's right. During the players' siege of Weisshem, "Director Lu" had arranged for another tool player to log in.
It was currently night in OtherWorld, and all three tool players… weren't online.
Hmm… "Director Lu" has probably sent me another email, mused Yang Qiu. He then got up, glanced at the shut guest room door, then opened a spatial rift, and returned to Earth.
Not long after the magical fluctuations caused by the spatial rift disappeared, the shut guest room door opened, and Inspector Lowell, clad in a sleeping robe, stepped out.
After staring at the vacant high-backed chair for a moment, Inspector Lowell rolled up his sleeves and started rummaging through the house.
The former mayor's residence had an unassuming exterior but an opulent interior, a single-story standalone villa with six rooms, and a spacious courtyard. The bedroom was larger than most regular households, and the hall could double as a classroom.
Yang had no need for a bedroom and hardly used the bathroom; he typically operated within the confines of the living room and study. Lowell searched both rooms thoroughly, but besides various snacks and tea, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.
Wouldn't he casually keep those books he usually reads where he lives… Lowell furrowed his brows in thought. No, wait… Does he really consider this place a residence…?
Don't tell me the place he genuinely treats as his abode… is that plane connected by his spatial rift?
This conjecture perplexed Lowell. It wasn't rare for high-level mages to travel between different planes through controlled and stable spatial rifts. The undead mounts that could occasionally be seen in the free markets of large cities were brought back by black mages from the Dimensional Realm.
In addition to the ten layers of the Dimensional Realm, there were also countless other planes. Since a stable spatial rift would disappear due to the death of the holder, even the palace mages of the Kenyan Empire didn't dare say for certain how many dimensions had ever come into contact with this plane.
But nevertheless, one thing was certain—all unknown dimensions had unimaginable risks. Very few stable spatial rift holders trusted other planes than their own.
Yet, an extremely wily and high-level mage like Yang had so much faith in that alternate plane that he even set up a stable residence there…
Even Lowell, who had interactions with other stable spatial rift holders in the past, found it difficult to comprehend.
He has more secrets than I thought. Lowell couldn't figure it out, so he stopped racking his brain and headed to the window, silently gazing at the street outside.
The former lord of Weisshem, Baron Marcus' anger could well be imagined given how Weisshem's ownership had changed hands without him actually knowing how it transpired…
Even though this baron couldn't contact the original mayor, sheriff, or militia captain (all of them were imprisoned), it didn't stop him from being able to take revenge.
Baron Marcus' first act of revenge was to cut Weisshem's power supply.
The power plant situated on the outskirts of Indahl that supplied electricity to Weisshem several tens of kilometers away was an arrangement that Baron Marcus' father had put great effort into establishing.
Although Baron Marcus chose to reside in the more convenient major city of Indahl instead of the remote and underdeveloped Weisshem, he still maintained good relations with the power plant. With his influence, it was easy for him to request the power supply be discontinued.
However, this sort of sanction had little impact…
The red-light district that required huge amounts of electrical power had closed down entirely, with the venues converted into town utility buildings. Oil lamps were once again used to light things up, and the original hostesses and attendants expressed no dissatisfaction.
As for the town's residents… These people had never used electricity and electrical wires; that sophisticated luxury had never been installed in their homes.
Even the artisans in the town hadn't laid a single wire. Not because the workshop owners couldn't afford electricity but rather because these small business owners lacked the manpower to protect the wiring. Electric wires, encased in rubber tubing with copper cores, were attractive to thieves.
In other words, Baron Marcus's retaliatory measures were like water off a duck's back. It had little to no effect…
Standing by the window, Inspector Lowell could make out faint figures moving about in the streets. The tireless undead had no need for electricity, and they continued their activities with ease, even in the darkest of nights.
Lowell observed for a while more, then returned to the bedroom, shaking his head.
He needed to rest well, stay vigilant, and keep a close eye on Yang and the enigmatic Taranthan undead. Gathering as much intelligence as possible was imperative.
Taranthan shared its borders with the Rhine Kingdom and the Duchy of Shiga. It was impossible for Inspector Lowell to not be worried about events unfolding in the Rhine Kingdom's territory that might also impact the Duchy of Shiga… He needed to be prepared for any contingencies!
———
Upon returning to Earth, Yang Qiu's first order of business was to make an order for takeout from the nearby noodle restaurant. Then, he shed his burdensome robes and sat at the computer to check his emails.
Indeed, "Director Lu" had sent him yet another email, and it was sent… ten minutes ago. It was likely that shortly after Ji Tang logged out, the bunch of experts had started considering how to exploit Ji Tang's position as player mayor to gather information about OtherWorld.
Yang Qiu opened the email, merely scanning the beginning, and instantly shuddered.
"Director Lu'' had probably written this email in a hurry and didn't even bother giving an "adequate" excuse this time. The first thing mentioned was that a state-owned mine in G Province had replaced a batch of 100kW diesel generators. These machines were automated, efficient, durable, low-consumption, and environmental…
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