Conquering alien worlds starts from the game

Innad stands outside the North City Gate, a slum area adjacent to the Mule and Horse Market.

John didn't go to the city to look for odd jobs that day. He did chores at home all morning, and squatted at the door of the house to wash sheets and quilt covers.

Towards the afternoon, John finally cleaned the sheets, carried the dirty water, and dumped it at the gutter at the entrance of the alley.

Two strange men wearing flat hats and overalls walked into the alley where their house lived.

John, who was carrying dirty water, subconsciously moved out of the way.

Two strange men passed John, one of them glanced at John, and then looked away casually.

John didn't pay much attention to these two people, and waited for the two people to walk a little farther before tilting the bucket containing dirty water and pouring it into the ditch.

Amidst the splashing of the water, he suddenly felt something was wrong, tilted his head slightly, and secretly looked at the two strange men who walked into the depths of the alley.

At first glance, these two people seem to be no different from the residents of the slums - flat hats on their heads to block dust, dirty coarse pullovers and overalls, and worn-out leather shoes that have been worn for many years. From time to time, the grown men who come into the city from the slums to find odd jobs look alike.

But a closer look reveals a big problem... The size of these two people is too "strong" for the residents of the slums!

Few people in the slums can have such plump cheeks, thick arms, and thick thighs that can support the fat trouser legs of overalls!

There are nearly a thousand households in the slums divided into five blocks according to different streets and alleys. It is larger than the average small town. It is impossible for John to know everyone; but John, who grew up here, knows very well that such a healthy Strong, strong grown males don't last long here, either go off to get a job in a factory in the city and never come back, or get pulled away by street gangs.

John stared at the backs of the two people for a while, then silently poured out the dirty water, and went home with the bucket.

After finding a fairly clean sleeveless pullover and putting it on, John immediately rushed to his friend's house in the next alley.

Sanji, a boy with freckles, gets up in the early hours of the morning and goes to the city to deliver newspapers, and then stays at the newspaper office to do odd jobs, and he will go home at noon for lunch.

When John came, Sanji was giving slices of bread he had saved from the newspaper lunch to his younger siblings.

"I saw people I've never seen before." Calling Sanji out, John lowered his voice and said to his friend, "Two people entered the alley in our house, and they definitely don't live in this area."

Sanji's face changed: "Is someone here again?"

John nodded: "Those two people don't look like good people, they are much stronger than ordinary people."

"'Mr. Salt' has been targeted." Sangji said angrily, "The street gangs in Nancheng are recruiting people. I heard from my colleagues in Nancheng that those gangsters have taken a fancy to Mr. Yan's salt. You just saw I got it, maybe it's a member of the gang. What the hell, why can't some people keep their mouths shut?"

Since the day when John came back from doing odd jobs in the autumn harvest, Mr. Yan came every night and distributed salt to hundreds of families in the slums.

Everyone figured out the rule that Mr. Yan would distribute salt to the residents one by one. The people who got the salt were naturally overjoyed, and the people who didn't get the salt were waiting patiently.

However...the more people know the secret, the secret will no longer be a secret.

Although most people know that good things should not be spread to outsiders and keep their mouths shut, there are still some people who did not keep their mouths shut when they went to the city to find work, and let out the word that "someone in the slums sends salt".

Most of the people in Nadir have nothing to do with nightlife (no money, no electricity in the living area), and the days after dark are quite empty, and people will talk about any house that forgets to put away the pants and is bitten by a mouse. (Gloated) Talk about it for a long time, not to mention this new story of someone giving free salt to the poor in the slums, and it immediately spread.

Since the day before yesterday, there have been strangers wandering aimlessly outside the slums. As of yesterday, Sanji, who works as a newspaper deliveryman in a well-informed newspaper office, heard about the rumors circulating in the city from other newspaper deliverymen. , There have been big salt thieves in the slums.

Why Mr. Yan turned into a "big salt thief" in the rumors has not been verified. In short, in just two or three days, the rumors in the city have become "a certain big thief who stole the salt storehouse hides in a slum, Pay the poor ghosts with salt to keep his secrets."

This is a very outrageous variant rumor... In fact, from a certain point of view, it can be regarded as logically self-consistent-if you don't ask for something, why do you want to give salt to the poor ghosts in the slums?Hadn't a lot of salt been stolen, who would be willing to spread salt magnanimously to bribe the poor?

The people in the slums couldn't talk to Mr. Yan at all. Of course, it was very clear that the gentleman had never asked them, let alone bribed them, but their words really didn't carry much weight...

"Hi, you guys are here!"

John and Sanji were worrying when their friend Tommy, who was an apprentice in a workshop in the city, came to him sweating profusely.

"You came back so early?" John asked in surprise when he saw Tommy, "The workshop is closed?"

"Don't talk about it." Tommy waved his hand, looked around, dragged his two partners into the depths of the alley, and found an unoccupied shack.

"I was in the printing workshop, and I saw Mr. Yan's arrest warrant." After closing the doors and windows, Tommy wiped his sweat and lowered his voice mysteriously.

"What?!" John and Sanji were startled.

"Mr. Yan is really the big thief who stole the salt storehouse?" Sanji gasped.

"No, it has nothing to do with the salt." Tommy said with a strange look, "It is not the city hall that pays to print the reward, but the church. Mr. Salt's name is von Alphonse, and the people in the church claim that Mr. Salt is related to the evil black magic If you cooperate with a teacher, as long as you provide clues, you can get a bonus of ten gold coins."

Ten gold coins is the highest price that the Gold Coin Church is willing to pay for anger... This amount of money is undoubtedly a sky-high price in the ears of the residents of the slums.

"There are many people who have seen Mr. Yan." Sangji said dreamily.

Mr. Yan always comes at night and never talks to anyone, but he never deliberately avoids other people's sight. There are not a few people who have seen him out of curiosity and hiding in the dark like these three young people.

Tommy wiped his sweat again, but didn't make a sound.

John and Sanji vaguely noticed something, and they gradually felt a little dry.

They knew that Tommy seemed to have a heart...and they actually had a little heart.

There are ten gold coins for just reporting clues, who wouldn't be tempted by such a thing.

But... betraying a gentleman who was kind to them was still an unspeakable and shameful thing for these three young people.

John ruthlessly suppressed the raucous desire deep in his heart, and said in a hoarse voice: "When the arrest warrant is released, someone will definitely report it. Tell me, do we think of a way to remind Mr. Yan not to come again?"

"...It should be done this way. Mr. Yan sent salt to so many of us, we can't let him down." Sangji seemed to be a little regretful, but also seemed relieved to agree.

Tommy's face was bitter, probably because the heartache of losing ten gold coins made him feel suffocated, he clutched his chest and said uncomfortablely: "Then where should we go to find him, no one knows where he hides during the day."

"He always comes from there." John turned his head and looked towards the southwest direction outside the shed. "How about we go there earlier tonight and find a safer place to wait for Mr. Salt?"

Sangji hesitated for a moment, then said nana authentically: "But there are still some families who haven't got the salt...my family hasn't got their turn yet."

"If Mr. Salt is caught by gangsters or the church, then never expect to have any more salt." John patted Sanji on the back.

"Exactly." Sanji sighed.

Next, the three young men discussed the action plan for a long time in a dignified way—the matter of tipping Mr. Yan must not be known to others, let alone the church, the gangs in Nancheng can crush them to death at will, they But dare not expose it to offend people.

A few hours later, when the sky gradually began to darken, the three of John made excuses to leave the house and slipped out of the slums as unobtrusively as possible.

The slums are very close to the mule and horse market, and the stables built by some merchants and the crude warehouses for storing fodder are directly next to the slums; the three of them did not go far, and directly found a fodder storage warehouse to hide in— No one in the slums could afford cows and horses. Merchants in the mule and horse market were not worried about someone stealing fodder, and warehouses usually only had wooden pins and no padlocks.

After waiting for a while in the forage warehouse that smelled faintly of cow and horse manure, the three of them saw through the neglected wooden walls of the warehouse... a large group of gangsters dressed in pullovers and suspenders swaggered past outside.

"These guys are really here." Sanji shivered, his face turned pale quickly.

There is not much money to be made in the slums, and gang members are not interested in wasting their energy on these poor people who can't even guarantee two meals for themselves. Most residents in the slums only have the impression of gang members as "strong men can go with them." They eat their own food" to this extent.

But Sanji, who has worked as a newspaper delivery man for a well-informed newspaper for many years, knows all too well how brutal these gangsters are-every month, there will be one or two gang-related, nasty and deadly incidents in the city. event!

Not long after the gang members passed by, another carriage passed by the dirt road in front of the warehouse where the three were hiding.

On the body of this carriage, there is the coat of arms of the Church of Gold Coins.

Sanji and John stretched out their hands at the same time, and tightly covered Tommy's mouth, who was almost screaming.

The sound of the carriage wheels was far away, and the two dared to let go of Tommy, whose face was turning blue.

"People from the church came so fast... The arrest warrant that was printed this morning has already been seen?" Tommy was heartbroken and offered a bounty, but also worried.

John, who was still agitated before, let go of the entanglement, leaned to the crack of the wall and peeked out: "Then don't hesitate to betray Mr. Yan, it's not our turn to do it—" The car went straight in, and they already knew the trajectory of Mr. Yan's activities."

"Look, here we come, here we come!" Sanji suddenly reminded in a low voice excitedly.

Under the newly rising moonlight, a burly man wearing a hooded cloak and carrying a large backpack appeared outside the woods in the southwest direction.