Chapter 538 The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back
Chapter 538 The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back
Sperger originally thought that he was doomed.
His boss Weijia would definitely bribe the people in the prison to let him in vertically and out horizontally.
However, he did not expect that his fellow workers did not abandon him. They surrounded the prison gate and even alarmed the militia.
The prisoners in the prison watched the excitement inside and whispered curiously.
”God of the Bighorn Deer… I have never seen such a scene.”
”What do they want to do?”
”It’s better to fight!” A desperate man with a life on his back clenched his fists excitedly, ready to take the opportunity to escape from prison.
Sperger, who was sitting in the corner, coughed lightly.
”There won’t be a fight… I don’t think so.”
Everyone looked at him.
Sperger was a little scared, shrank back, and whispered.
”I… It’s in the story I read to them. The awakened Bol knew that killing Stephen would not solve any problems…”
The prisoners looked at each other.
Although they didn’t know what was going on, their intuition told them that those people outside might have something to do with the skinny guy in front of them.
The desperado walked in front of Sberg, squatted down, and stared at him for a while.
Just when Sberg was so nervous, he suddenly spoke.
”Boll? Stephen? What is that?”
Sberg was stunned.
”… Well, that’s a long story.”
The desperado sat on the ground and waved his hand.
”Don’t worry, just tell me slowly. Anyway, you can’t get out for a while, and I happen to be… We have plenty of time.”
Seeing that the prisoners were staring at him curiously, Sberg swallowed and nodded hurriedly.
”Okay… Then I’ll start from the beginning.”
Boll was born in the slums at the foot of the giant wall. He was an out-and-out country bumpkin from the outside city.
But who was in the city from the beginning?
The stone city was not built in a day…
He told Boll’s story in a leisurely tone, and soon he found that not only the prisoners in the prison, but also the jailers who were guarding the door were leaning on the railing to listen.
This is the story of a small person.
Just like the old man said, a mere awakener can’t make a difference.
But who is not a nobody here? After
the story was told for a while, the commotion outside ended and the jail was full.
Then another boss came over and pretended to take his workers back, but people were not willing to follow him.
”Go home, my children! The environment here is too bad, so cold and gloomy! Come home with me first, and we can sit down and talk if you have any requests… How about I play Mr. House’s radio for you? Your favorite channel.”
The guy with a big belly smiled and flattered, making the workers who were watching laugh. Everyone had never seen such a kind expression on his face.
”Home? Are you talking about your broken factory?”
”Hahaha, then I won’t go back with you!”
”That’s right! It’s warm here! Not only is it not gloomy, but it’s not leaky, and there are stories to listen to!”
”Why don’t you come in too!”
The boss was anxious.
Why are these people so stubborn?
Thinking of the deadline for the order, he cried out.
”Are you crazy? If I can’t complete the order, the factory will have no money! The IOU in your hand is real paper! In the end, you will hurt yourself! I will just walk away, and you will become poorer and poorer, and you can’t even afford the nutritional cream!”
No wonder they are poor!
Not smart, lazy, and mean!
”Then just treat us as crazy,” a young man looked at him with a hint of contempt, “We don’t care. Anyway, no matter how rich you are, you won’t give us a penny. It’s better to let you be poor, maybe you will love us more.”
”Haha, he is still trying to reason with us now!”
”Don’t talk, man, go to the top of the building to see if the wind is strong for us!”
The laughter that came one after another drowned out the boss’s pale and powerless arguments.
It has come to this point, no matter what he said, it was useless, even if he endured the pain and offered to pay some wages, no one would pay attention.
But he did not regret issuing IOUs, it was the greatest invention, he only regretted not buying some slaves for emergency.
The Stone City allowed slave trade, but the slaves were too stupid and always broke the machines, so no one wanted to use them over time. On the contrary, the free survivors worked harder and eliminated the slaves eight generations ago. He just didn’t expect such a fierce “unforeseen disaster” to happen today.
In fact, there were less than two hundred workers at the door of the beer hall, but in just one afternoon, half of the workers in the industrial zone became members of the workers’ union.
Everyone sat on the floor in the prison.
Seeing that they didn’t make trouble and just listened to the stories, the warden turned a blind eye to Sberg’s reading of stories, and even allowed them to leave the prison and walk around freely… After all, the prison couldn’t hold so many people, and counting the names of these people was enough for them to copy until tomorrow, so they could only allow them to make do in the corridor first.
It was crowded here, but also warm, and there were even electric lights and nutritional paste.
”Brothers, this is heaven!”
”We should have come here earlier!”
”When the nobles want to arrest everyone in the city, they have to build a prison as big as Boulder City.”
”Hahaha! Maybe they will renovate our house!”
Although it was just a way to have fun in misery, when a group of people had fun in misery together, it was not miserable at all, but full of fun.
Everyone discussed the sequel of the story together, and unanimously agreed that Kent was missing in the story of the awakened Bol, and shouted for Sperger to write this funny clown.
Sperger felt that it was too much to humiliate his comrades who worked together, so he persuaded the excited group to save some face for Kent, deleted a syllable, and changed it to “Ken”, with the note as “a person who loves to spit, and likes to stick his butt to the whip in the hand of Master Stephen”.
This is a compromise.
大家也点头同意了，毕竟欺负一个窝里的老鼠确实没什么意思，即便肯特不爱他们，发自内心地厌恶脏兮兮的他们，他们也不好真去揍他——那会让更多犹豫不决的孩子变成肯特。
大家做好自己就行了。
They didn’t have any lofty ideals, they just wanted their share.
These days, Sberg had an unexpectedly good time in prison, after all, he was the only one who could bring entertainment to the people here.
Sberg felt that although their warden always had a cold face, he actually sympathized with them in his heart.
That man had no black card and no chips. After all, he was a small figure and couldn’t make much money. Besides, the chips could not buy much things recently, and it wouldn’t be long before everyone was equally poor.
Later, at a story meeting, the warden intentionally or unintentionally interrupted in a teasing tone and asked the workers “Are the people who watch the prison considered workers?”
Without waiting for the workers to speak, Sberg immediately replied, “All people who receive salaries are considered workers.”
The warden did not make any comments at the time, but later the food in the entire prison was better, at least the nutritional paste was not diluted with water.
Another week passed like this, and in mid-December, the weather was getting colder and colder. The warden got a batch of cheap scraps, and the carpenter and blacksmith teamed up to make a heater for the prison with the scraps. Not only did the workers no longer have to endure the cold, but the jailers who didn’t want to squeeze together with the workers were also much warmer.
Sperger secretly wrote a letter and asked a familiar jailer to help send it to the Union embassy and mail it to his editor, Miss Dolly, asking the “Survivor Daily” to exchange his royalties for silver coins and buy some corn to send to Boulder City Prison. When he saw the piles of corn and bags of carrots and potatoes piled up like a hill on the open space of the prison, he was shocked.
He didn’t know that his royalties could buy so many things!
Later, the guys working in the flour mill made a flour milling tool, and the guys in the cannery made stews for everyone. After eating, you have to find something to do. The engineer in the repair shop simply gave everyone a class, and the master in the chemical plant talked about chemistry…
There is everything here. It doesn’t look like a prison at all, but like an orphanage. No one cares about the bosses’ pleading anymore. Although there is a component of anger, they have indeed proved with their actions that they can live better without Master Stephen!
Since he didn’t have to work on the assembly line, Sberg had more time to polish Boll’s story to make it more realistic.
At this time, someone suggested that they should establish a rule, or a program. After all, even the gangs outside the giant wall have rules, so they have to have one too.
Leading people to rush in and then disperse in a hurry is a bad move. In the end, there is nothing but a mess, which makes the real robbers and thieves in the prison laugh.
The workers’ union should discuss with everyone, solicit the opinions of every worker, use communication instead of threats, and make it clear what everyone wants, how to get it, and what counts as victory, just like fighting a war… Only in this way can there be real unity.
Someone suggested that Sberg be the president, but Sberg waved his hand and refused, saying that he was not suitable for that job, he could just be a secretary, and everyone should raise their hands to elect someone who can really take the lead.
But he felt that everyone was right, and he was extremely glad that he had written in the story of the Awakener Bol that day –
”…beating Stephen up won’t solve any problems, even if you unbuckle your belt and pee on him. Killing a rat will only add a corpse and a few flies to the street.”
”…One person is weak, but as long as we unite, Stephen will be afraid of us, all Stephens will be!”
The original premonition may be right.
This winter will not be too hard to endure…
…
One day after reading the story, Sperger yawned and went back to the prison to sleep.
The workers’ union had long ago separated the snoring workers from the non-snoring workers to make it easier for everyone to rest, and politely assigned him the confinement room – a small dark single room, so that he could calm down and write stories.
However, unlike usual, when Sperger walked into the small dark room and closed the door, he found that there was another person here.
The man was not tall, even a little short, with a pair of green eyes like a wolf, which scared him.
As if he wasn’t afraid of him running away, the man looked at him with a venomous snake’s eyes and said slowly.
”Someone wants your life.”
Sberg felt his hands and feet were cold.
This guy…
maybe he is a real awakener!
His Adam’s apple moved and he spoke.
”Who…”
”A big shot, I don’t know.”
”I’m asking your name,” Sberg swallowed and stared at him nervously, “You know my name, but I don’t know yours yet.”
The man played with the dagger in his hand and said casually.
”Xiaodao, since I can remember, everyone has called me this… Do you know what my name means? Wait until I go down and settle accounts with me?”
Sberg shook his head.
”No… Everything is over when people die. In fact, there is no big-horned deer god, and there may be no afterlife, although I only found out about it recently.”
”Hmm?” Xiaodao didn’t care much, but he wasn’t in a hurry to complete the task.
The wasteland is very lonely. The settlement is a jungle, and the jungle is still outside the settlement. There are whispers of wild beasts inside and outside.
It’s good to let this guy talk. Most people only say a few human words before they die. He likes the employer’s money and likes to listen to the last words of the deceased.
Sberg paused and continued.
”But… even if there is no afterlife, a person’s name will continue to live in the memory of others after death, so the name is very important and it is definitely not meaningless.”
”Are you stalling for time?” Xiaodao yawned, his eyes suddenly turned, staring at him and continued, “Actually, there is no need. To tell you the truth, another big shot also gave money. He is just the opposite. He doesn’t want you to die so soon. Let me kill you half to death, such as cutting off your hands and feet, making your voice mute… Anyway, just keep your breath.”
Sberg felt cold all over.
He had no doubt that the man in front of him had the ability. Just like Boll could beat up Master Stephen, the awakened are still very strong against ordinary people.
”Tsk tsk tsk, you are a coward just like everyone else, the only difference is that you haven’t wet your pants yet,” Xiaodao stared at his face, a little disappointed, and said jokingly, “I really don’t know what’s so great about a small person like you, with so many big people around you. This is the first time I’ve received two bounties on the same head… By the way, I heard that it seems that the big man in the northern suburbs has invited you to visit him?”
An interested expression suddenly appeared on his face, and his sinister eyes roamed on Sberg’s face like a letter spit out by a venomous snake.
”You said… If I take you to the northern suburbs, will the manager there reward me with a captain?”
Sberg coughed lightly.
”Cough… That lord may give you some money, but he probably won’t let you be a captain. These are two different things.”
Xiaodao looked at him disappointedly.
”That’s a pity… although the money is good.”
After a pause, he continued.
”You haven’t answered my question yet… What secrets do you have that make so many big shots stare at you? Do you know something, such as the location of the black box, or a valuable treasure hidden there?”
”No.”
”No?”
”I’m not lying to you,” Sberg stared at the dagger in his hand, “I’m just a nobody reading the newspaper… how could I have such a thing?”
”Haha… I believe it.”
Xiaodao smiled and got up from the hard bed, walked in front of Sberg, and turned the dagger in his hand.
”Okay, I’ll give you another chance to live. Write a letter to the big shot in the northern suburbs. If he is willing to pay a sum of money, I will consider selling you to him… Oh, by the way, I only want dinars or Cr.”
Of course, he was just considering it.
After all, the other two big shots gave a lot, and he could kill this guy and earn all the bounties from the three big shots.
The wasteland is so big that he can run away anywhere. He is just a wandering wastelander and is not interested in this twisted settlement.
However, what he didn’t expect was that this good-for-nothing coward in front of him actually rejected his proposal without hesitation.
”I can’t write.”
Xiaodao looked at him in surprise.
”Are you sure?”
Although he was very scared, Sberg didn’t retreat, staring at this guy intently.
”If I ask Lord Weijia for mercy, I can… but if you want to use me to threaten that lord, give up this idea as soon as possible.”
There is no doubt that he is just a small figure. He has been living like a mouse for the past 20 years. He can’t figure out why so many people are interested in his head, but if he must die, he would rather give his life to that lord.
No reason.
He thinks it’s worth it!
”Why? There must be a reason, right?”
”… Dignity.”
”What is that?”
”People like you won’t know, do it!” Sberg clenched his fists, intending to fight to the death, at least be a brave man and die like a hero.
Xiaodao curled his lips, stopped talking nonsense with this guy, and stabbed the dagger in his hand cleanly.
Seeing a sharp weapon stabbing at its head, the prey would subconsciously raise its arms to protect its head first, and this was exactly what he wanted.
He planned to cripple this guy’s two hands first, then pick his legs and make his throat mute… He had done similar work countless times, and he was confident enough to do it cleanly and neatly.
However,
this time he missed.
The dagger seemed to have hit a transparent wall. He tried to retract it with a cold sweat, but found that the dagger seemed to be stuck in the solidified air.
Sberg was also dumbfounded.
He just raised his arms to block, but saw ripples in the air in front of him, and a figure gradually emerged.
”Damn it – who are you?!” Xiaodao screamed in horror, looking at the figure that appeared in front of him like a ghost.
The dark mirror and helmet covered the person’s face. She seemed to be a woman, or she might not be a human at all.
She held the blade of the dagger quietly. The number X-16 was engraved on her slightly raised breastplate. With the logo of Giant Stone Military Industry, this number seemed to be endowed with some unusual meaning.
She seemed to have been here for a long time, even entering the room earlier than the two men, but neither of them noticed her existence.
Optical camouflage!
A trace of fear flashed in his beast-like eyes. Xiaodao loosened the dagger, pulled out the short knife tied to his leg, and slashed at the man in front of him.
There was no crisp sound of clashing swords.
He didn’t even see what the man did, and flew out like a kite with a broken string, hitting the wall on one side of the confinement room heavily.
”Ah…”
Many ribs were broken!
The spine seemed to be broken, the lower limbs were out of control, and urine leaked…
At the last moment, he wanted to beg for mercy, but before he could make a sound, a dagger pierced his throat.
He could only watch the man walk in step by step, grab the dagger nonchalantly, and pull out the bloody short blade and his consciousness.
The battle lasted only two seconds, but blood was everywhere.
However, the man standing in the pool of blood acted as if nothing had happened.
Having never seen such a bloody scene before, Sberg felt that his legs were filled with lead and his back was burning. It took a long time for him to squeeze out a trembling word from his stiff throat.
”You… killed someone.”
X-16 put the dagger away casually, ignored his question, and looked back at him.
”Someone wants to see you.”
Sberg swallowed.
”Who…”
”You’ll know when you get there.”
Hearing this, a trace of bitterness appeared on Sberg’s face.
The one who dared to kill people in this city casually, and in this prison, must be a big shot in the inner city.
To be honest, he didn’t want to see that dangerous guy, but he didn’t have the power to refuse.
After all, he saw with his own eyes that she executed the awakener like she was squeezing a grasshopper to death, and it would probably take only 1 second for her to kill him.
”Can I… say goodbye to my friends?” Sberg asked in a soliciting tone.
The dark and cold mirror surface floated out words that did not surprise him.
”No.”
…
It has been snowing in the River Valley Province recently.
And it’s snowing a lot!
In order to prevent the snow from crushing the roofs of farmers in the west district, Dawn City organized a group of players and local residents to participate in the work of clearing the snow.
Although the money given is not much, there is regional reputation to be gained, and some players who are interested in public affairs went there without saying a word.
It just so happens that they have the strength.
The number of alien species in the River Valley Province drops sharply in winter, and many monsters go to hibernate. Before the spring wave comes, Chu Guang also has to find something for these energetic little players to do, so that they don’t get bored and make trouble everywhere.
Seeing that the residents of the shelter rolled up their sleeves to help, the residents of Dawn City also went up to help, some holding ladders and some handing over shovels.
This winter is indeed much warmer than last year.
In addition to the internal affairs of the alliance, Chu Guang has been keeping a close eye on his neighbor next door.
It’s not that he is calculating to pick up a bargain, but he is afraid that this shit pot will explode.
There are about 200 players in Boulder City at present. They occasionally post their experiences in Boulder City to the official website.
These players are like eyes inserted in Boulder City. Chu Guang has asked Xiao Qi to compile these posts into a book and select some high-confidence clues from them.
According to the intelligence compiled by Xiao Qi, the situation in Boulder City is far more exaggerated than he expected.
If the external debt of the alliance is expanding at a geometric rate, then the inflation of Boulder City is almost over the towering outer wall.
There is no doubt that Melvin can no longer hold back the inflation.
Since the turmoil in the industrial zone, the false prosperity has erupted like an avalanche, and the fuse predicted by Chu Guang has finally been ignited.
Facing this crisis with no source, Melvin is not doing nothing, but he does not have many cards to play.
After trying his best to no avail, he could only ask Du Long from the City Hall to intervene in the production of the industrial zone with unintelligent administrative intervention.
For example, he forcibly intercepted a batch of goods that should have been sent to the Alliance to deliver orders, and forced the intermediate products to be sent to the downstream of his own industrial chain, or sent the finished products directly to the store, in short, he prioritized filling the shelves in Boulder City. The
Alliance’s factories didn’t matter.
The Alliance’s Ministry of Industry issued an early warning, telling everyone to prepare for the “earthquake” in advance, speed up industrial substitution, and purchase intermediate products from places outside Boulder City as much as possible to avoid the other party’s breach of contract and cause a chain reaction.
The factory owners in the Boulder City Industrial Zone had a very difficult time.
Originally, a large number of skilled workers were imprisoned and the workers’ collective slacking had almost stopped their assembly lines.
Now the masters finally remembered where the things on the shelves came from, but they were unwilling to use their little brains to think about it, and only came up with a folk remedy that treated the headache and the foot pain.
Of course, they could stop delivering the Alliance’s orders and give priority to satisfying the shelves in Boulder City, but the prerequisite is that someone can pay the penalty for breach of contract for them.
Unfortunately, President Melvin and Minister Dulong seemed unwilling to pay the penalty for breach of contract for them, and unwilling to make up for the price difference of raw material inflation. They even asked them to sell the goods they produced at a price below cost, but the loan they had previously lent them to expand production could not be stopped.
This is simply robbery!
They don’t have much oil and water to begin with, and now they have to use the few profits – or even pay money to help Master Melvin suppress the hyperinflation caused by “economic overheating”.
Although the Alliance also cuts the leeks of its own factories, they harvest in a methodical, organized and disciplined manner, at least they won’t chop them all over the place.
The profiteers in the industrial zone were forced to show their magical powers. Those who have connections found ways to circumvent the regulations of the City Hall and secretly sell the banned goods to their neighbors. Anyway, President Melvin and Minister Dulong would definitely not dare to intercept Master Sid’s goods.
Those who have no connections can only admit defeat, but admitting defeat does not mean admitting loss, because the means of production are in the hands of profiteers. If they can’t sell milk, they can pour it out. If they are not allowed to pour it out, they will kill the cows for meat. If they are not allowed to kill them with knives, they will starve the cows to death or directly take them to their neighbors’ homes.
And Dulong’s intervention did not really work. He and Melvin underestimated people’s “greed” in difficult situations.
The shelves were quickly swept away. When the crisis was triggered, it was like a black hole. No matter how much supplies were thrown in, they would be wasted.
The goods that should have been sold at a fair price became the first to get the moon and the highest bidder to get it. Those who got a large amount of supplies at a high price would not be satisfied with the food and clothing in front of them. They not only had to stockpile enough for half a year’s consumption, but also intercepted a part to sell and make back their capital.
Even squirrels know to stockpile pine cones that are several times larger than themselves to survive the winter, let alone more greedy people. Soap and sausages became hard currency first, followed by cigarettes and alcohol. If you really can’t buy hard currency, you can exchange the chips that you can’t spend for other things, such as bonds or the S-coin with strong growth.
The chips circulating in the giant wall are countless times more than the goods in the giant wall. The hot money with nowhere to go is running around like cockroaches.
Of course, all investments are not as good as stable silver coins.
Outside the giant wall, there are suddenly more small vendors selling food. They are all merchants from the alliance. They don’t want more and more chips, but only accept silver coins with stable purchasing power.
The rich people in the stone city often have to go to the black market to exchange a bag full of chips for a few silver coins, and then go to the gate of the outer city to buy potatoes, corn and daily necessities.
Those figures pushing carts have become a beam of light in the heavy snow, illuminating countless eager faces.
And under the shadows where the light can’t shine, there are still some people in a hurry.
They often wear clean cotton clothes, elegant and decent like businessmen. When they see some merchants from the alliance, they come over and hand out a brochure.
It says some “good stuff” that you can’t buy at ordinary times.
They are brokers.
They dare to sell everything and take everything.
Some of them are subordinates of small nobles or factory owners in the inner city, and some are simply militiamen in plain clothes.
In the hands of these powerful little characters, a thousand cotton clothes can be exchanged for a loom that produces 10,000 meters a day, and a few bottles of highly distilled liquor can be exchanged for a 90% new military exoskeleton. If there is no distilled liquor, a few boxes of beer or canned food will do.
Some people took out black cards and said that as long as they were given enough silver coins, they would take them into this “big casino” to find fun that the alliance could not find.
The casino is still operating normally, the Death Lotto is being drawn every day, and Melvin is still doing his best to put out the fire, but the flames burning on the firewood pile are getting stronger and stronger.
Everyone in this casino is more or less crazy…
and just when Chu Guang thought this was the limit, a piece of bad news suddenly came from his Foreign Minister Cheng Yan.
After listening to his report, Chu Guang’s face changed slightly.
”That Sberg… is dead?”
–
(I have to go out for something today, so I’ll update in advance. The Boulder City chapter will probably have three more chapters. By the way, it seems that Dianniang will have to live broadcast in a few days. I haven’t decided what to broadcast yet. There are too many games I want to play. It’s a headache.)
(End of this chapter)
