socalfunplaces Chapter 66 The 4 Major Cities
Chapter 66 The 4 Major Cities
In the corner of the luxurious bedroom, Bolton huddled beside the wardrobe, his arms tightly wrapped around his knees, his teeth unconsciously biting his nails, making indistinct sounds in his throat.
Thirty hours of class reversal and survival pressure destroyed her will to resist.
Lynn stopped in front of the wardrobe, looking down at it: "Hand over the seal, the supply ledgers of the committee and the four major cities, and any other information that is useful to me. I don't want to repeat myself."
Upon hearing the command, Bolton's body convulsed in response. She abandoned any attempt to bargain, her fingers trembling as she raised them to point to the solid wood paneling behind the oil painting at the head of the bed.
"It's all inside the wall panel lining..." Her voice trembled. "Give me some water..."
Their psychological defenses completely collapsed, and intelligence extraction entered a one-way extraction process.
"Smash it open."
Standing to the side and behind, Xiaoyu pulled out a hammer she had prepared in advance and struck it several times. The wooden board broke, revealing a brass compartment hidden inside the brick and stone structure.
Xiaoyu pried open the hidden compartment and took out a brass tax official's private seal, as well as two kraft paper account books with severely worn edges.
"Boss, we found it." Xiaoyu handed the item to Lin En.
Lynn took the ledger and opened it. There were no smuggling codes or black market transactions as expected on the pages. Instead, it was a neatly recorded "Annual Tribute and Resource Allocation Details of Various City-States of Treasure Island".
The data will not lie.
Lynn's gaze swept across the cold, hard numbers, and a clear operational model of the real ecosystem of the four major cities was constructed in his mind.
The supplies handed over by the Warrior Tribe were all raw ore mixed with a large amount of by-product waste rock, and there was almost no energy consumption data for coal washing and primary smelting in the records.
The Magic Forest is mainly responsible for delivering potions. Their quota fluctuates wildly. Last year's notes stated that excessive rainfall caused the roots of plants in the Magic Forest to rot, resulting in a 70% reduction in production.
Because Archer Village is surrounded by hunting grounds, it mainly serves as a granary. Its natural loss rate during storage and turnover reaches 40%, and there is absolutely no logic in moisture prevention, rodent control, and scientific grain storage on the books.
As the only abandoned city on Treasure Island with basic handicraft and material recycling functions, the metal components and tool parts it handed over were of all kinds of specifications, and there was no standardization in its accounts.
The high scrap rate proves that the craftsmen there rely entirely on so-called inspiration and feel to polish parts, without any common sense about vernier calipers or assembly line assembly, and lack rust prevention and maintenance technology, resulting in a large number of high-value finished products rotting into piles of scrap metal in damp sewer workshops.
Lynn closed the ledger.
The four major cities are not some invincible iron-blooded empires; they are merely primitive societies with a large population but stagnant productivity.
This is a virgin land completely untouched by the Industrial Revolution, and a vast blue ocean market waiting for modern civilization to integrate and transform it.
"Lock her in the basement." Lynn spared Bolton's life. "Just provide her with 200 milliliters of drinking water and half a whole-wheat bread every day, and make sure she doesn't die."
Bolton's residual value was completely drained.
……
Lynn used the central square of Pearl Harbor as a temporary respawn point. Due to the large number of players who died in the battle at the Grand Steward's Mansion, Lynn chose this spacious area as the respawn location.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, he locked the cooldown time of several of the earliest dead players and set their resurrection time to a unified time.
Lynn stood on the high steps, with Little Rain and Iron Pot Stew, who had survived the previous defensive battle, standing beside him, waiting for their comrades to return.
As the countdown reached zero, the bodies of over a dozen first-test players, including Agent, Little Snail, and Wraith, underwent data reconstruction at the respawn point.
The agent sat up from the bluestone slab, stretched his slightly stiff neck, and joined Lynn and the others. His gaze swept around, and he noticed the changes in the environmental parameters.
The free ration points in the square disappeared, replaced by several temporary wooden exchange booths.
Indigenous laborers are moving building stones. After completing their assigned load, they receive stamped maple leaf coins from the recorder.
"The underlying code of this world is deducing things on its own." The goose lowered its voice. "The NPC faction has abolished the rationing system and completed the transition to a monetary compensation system."
"The position of manager is still vacant." The climbing snail looked around.
"Roasted Whole Lamb and Bucket Runaway haven't come back yet." Big Goose glanced at the location feedback in his friends list. "Those two are probably still pulling their carts, eating dust on the dirt road to Rainbow Village to pick up Old Village Chief Lucas."
The surrounding players nodded in agreement.
This dynamic social structure, which does not require player intervention, confirms the rigor of the MapleStory world's logic.
Just then, the agent brought up the personal status bar on the left arm emblem.
"Forget about the NPCs getting paid for now, check your individual character panels." The agent's voice carried a hint of seriousness.
Everyone focused their attention, their eyes scanning the bar representing experience points. The agent's level remained at 13.
"Holy crap! Wasn't it supposed to be level 10 for job advancement? I'm already level 13, does that mean all my skill points are going to be wasted?!"
"It's just that we have too much experience." Iron Pot Stewed Big NE frowned. "But it's true, according to our understanding of the game, if you don't change jobs at level 10, the skill points you lose when you level up later can't be made up for. Every bit of experience we gain now is a loss of skill points."
Adding even a little less skill makes your account practically useless in the game.
Use your brain.
The little snail sneered, "This game is so realistic that you can't apply the numerical thinking of regular MapleStory to it. Look at our melee moves; the point of force, center of gravity, and muscle contraction are all based on physiological feedback. Is it possible that skills and levels have nothing to do with each other here? As long as you find a mentor and meet his standards, you can learn whenever you want?"
"Regardless of the mechanics, judging from the battle the day before yesterday, warriors will definitely have [Powerful Attack] after their first job advancement!"
The little snail added, "Just imagine what it would feel like to unleash a blast of air from a spear using this holographic engine! Enough talk, let's get going and change jobs!"
The desire to explore unknown mechanics and the yearning for job-change skills have fueled the players' high level of motivation, making them eager to try their luck.
Just as they were about to head to the warehouse to retrieve their weapons, a few lines of steady characters appeared on the crest on their left arm.
[Guidelines for Establishing Diplomatic Relations in the Main City and Pre-Job Transfer]
[Current Mission: The original inhabitants of the main city retain ancient and simple traditions, rejecting the coldness of modern steel.]
[Execution Requirements: To gain the mentor's favor, please remove all standard weapons and armor. Change into coarse linen clothing and proceed on foot like a pilgrim, completing a basic survey of the terrain along the way.]
[Mission Token: Pearl Harbor Traveler's Referral Letter (already stored in backpack).]