MoP: Ch. 188

---Third POV---

"The Federation?"

Hedgehog couldn't help letting out a whistle.

"Is that the name of our territory? What's the full name?"

He had long felt that the name Watchers was far too conspicuous, basically a built-in buff that turned every neutral NPC in the area hostile on sight. It often got in the way and was really inconvenient. Changing the name would be great.

"It's the name of the nation. The full name is simply the Federation," Viktor replied.

In Aeltia, ruled by an imperial feudal system, they were the first federation. There was no need for any other title.

He turned his head.

"So? Have you thought it through?"

There were far too many players in Honeyvale Town now, and many NPCs were urgently needed to balance out the players' excess energy. The conditions for permanent immigration would be very lenient.

Cobb spoke up at the right moment.

"To take care of the original townspeople's feelings, obtaining Nary Town household registration isn't easy. But if you insist on staying here, I can provide you with a list of the materials you'll need to prepare."

Bloodbone fell silent. The more he interacted with them, the less he could understand their true intentions. His reason for pledging allegiance had been simple: to keep his tribe alive.

But The Watchers' ambitions were far greater than he had imagined. They wanted to take in all the refugees of the wasteland?

If they truly could build a city capable of helping tens of thousands of refugees survive the magic tide, it would prove one thing: The Watchers were establishing a settlement of their own, stepping out of the darkness.

He took a deep breath.

"The Radiant Church has been searching for your whereabouts. No, everyone is. There are rumors that killing the leader of The Watchers can resurrect a god."

Viktor nodded, still calm.

"I don't have a hobby of seeking death."

It was a completely unremarkable sentence, yet it strangely calmed Bloodbone's turbulent emotions. His clenched fist tightened, then relaxed.

"What are the requirements to obtain household registration in Sailing City?"

Viktor suddenly broke into a smile.

"Not belonging to a cannibal tribe, and obeying the same laws as Nary Town."

He glanced at the two chests on the ground.

"I'll designate a piece of land for you. The price... will be 100 hides of excellent quality."

Bloodbone let out a long breath and lowered his head.

"Thank you for your generosity."

He had already learned how difficult it was to obtain Nary Town household registration. It was hard, but after just having pulled off a major operation together with the players, the Bloodbone Tribe could afford it. Still, he wanted to take a gamble.

A wandering organization settling down together with refugees sounded like a good story.

Viktor's smile was full of confidence.

"Congratulations on making a wise decision."

He was certain that Sailing City, where new players were constantly being born, would become extraordinarily prosperous in the future.

Beside them, Hedgehog suddenly reacted.

"100 excellent-quality hides? That's only 5,000 magicoins! I protest! Why was the land we bought so much more expensive?"

The Bloodbone Tribe had over a hundred people. No matter how you looked at it, that was a huge plot of land. For players, the starting price for buying land was already 1,000 magicoins, plus contribution point limits.

Why were NPCs allowed to buy land so cheaply?

Viktor pretended not to hear. He raised a barrier to block out the noisy players and stepped aside to continue discussing details with Bloodbone.

Could the players' money-making ability really be compared to that of ordinary people?

---

Despite shouting so loudly, Hedgehog became cheerful again the moment he accepted a highly rewarding quest to help with the relocation, and was happily sent off.

The nearby natives, seeing the ant-like line stretching in front of the Nary Town teleportation array, didn't spare it many glances.

At most, they'd remark on it in passing.

"Why are there so many refugees in the city today?"

"They say the Bloodbone Tribe sold a hundred beast hides at The Watchers' shop and are preparing to move to the Great Oak Forest."

"Have they lost their minds?"

Refugees didn't need to buy land. There was plenty of free land in the wasteland. If they were paying for something, it was obviously safety.

What a joke.

With Nary Town right there, they chose not to go there, but instead moved to the Great Oak Forest and paid for safety?

They looked coldly at the long queue by the city gate. It was as if they could already see the scene a few days later, when those people would flee the Great Oak Forest.

Only the nearby refugees were cheering.

Once the Bloodbone Tribe left, the territory and junk they left behind would belong to them. If they took it into the city to sell, it might even be enough to exchange for a chunk of black bread they could gnaw on.

Unfortunately, a full week passed without any news of Bloodbone Tribe members fleeing back.

Instead, The Watchers' latest recruitment notice came out first.

---

"Full already?"

A Nary Town resident who had finally fought his way to the front stared in disbelief.

"How is that possible? Fewer than a hundred people were selected ahead of me! Shouldn't you need a lot of manpower to build the magic wall?"

Construction of the magic wall only hired short-term workers, usually one batch every ten days, with food and lodging provided and decent pay. After a month of promotion, this job had long since become highly sought after. He had been waiting nearby since before dawn, only one step slower than those who had stayed up all night. By all logic, it should have been his turn.

The staff member in charge of recruitment remained very calm.

"Because our recruitment at the other city gates and in the wasteland is being carried out simultaneously. We're full now."

"I know it's simultaneous, but why could I get in before, and not today?" the man demanded loudly.

People behind him immediately echoed:

"Yeah, why?"

"I went to check the other gates. They only recruited about a hundred people too, dozens fewer than usual!"

"You must have pocketed the quotas! There's no way you recruited a full thousand this time!"

The recruiter replied, "We were only recruiting 700 people this time to begin with. We never said we'd recruit 1,000."

He and his colleague began packing up the lists on the table.

"We're full. Those who were successfully registered, follow us. Everyone else, go home."

"Hey, you're not leaving!"

The man at the very front grabbed one of the staff members tightly, his eyes bloodshot.

"You always recruited 1,000 people before! Why only 700 this time, when the city wall is still far from finished?"

He had been so close, so close to comfortably getting through the next ten days. That sense of loss was more than he could accept.

The recruiter shook off his hand.

"Once we're full, we're full. Do you think sending people to the Great Oak Forest doesn't cost money? How many people we recruit is our business. Greed isn't a good thing."

He looked toward the constables maintaining order nearby. The man who had been shouting went silent at once.

Only after The Watchers' people had gone far away did someone speak up.

"There are 300 fewer slots. And over the past few days, the number of refugees moving to the Great Oak Forest has also been just over three hundred."

Relying on Bloodbone's strong influence, after the Bloodbone Tribe settled down in Honeyvale Town, refugees had gradually begun trying to follow them. Others might have acted indifferent, but their bodies were honest. They had been counting.

Once the topic was opened, more and more similar voices appeared.

"Living in the Great Oak Forest means you don't have to use the teleportation array back and forth for ten days. That advantage is huge..."

"You can save a lot of money!"

Everyone wore different expressions.

They had originally thought the refugees who moved there would come running back in tears.

Who would have thought that the first ones affected would be them instead?

Someone whispered, "I heard from the workers who came back this morning that The Watchers set aside a huge piece of land just for them. They're living pretty comfortably."

"Sleeping with the roars of monsters as a lullaby... How's that 'comfortable'?"

"But we've sent so many batches of workers over there, and we haven't seen a single one get attacked by monsters."

The crowd fell silent.

Indeed, recruitment had been going on for over a month. From their initial fear to their current acceptance, their greatest reassurance was the previous batch of workers who returned safely every ten days. So many days, so many people coming and going, yet not a single one had died in there.

Someone scoffed, "You thinking of moving over there?"

The person being questioned reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "How could I? I'm not going to gamble my money on that!"

The others' attitudes quickly became just as clear.

"You think you can keep cashing in on such a huge bargain forever?"

"Just wait patiently until that lord gets tired of playing landlord."

This job, which was practically money falling from the sky, was no different in nature from the food distributions every three days. As long as there was something to earn, they would cooperate.

Change their lives? Dig into their savings?

Impossible.

They joked with one another, as if the earlier silence had been nothing but a joke, and no one paid any attention to the so-called relocation plan.

Until the afternoon...

They hid animal pelts beneath their clothes and, taking advantage of the rain, came to The Watcher's shop, which should have been empty.

They exchanged glances with one another.

"Haha, I've been craving that vegetable soup they make that smells like meat. I came to trade for some magicoins."

"Same here. Their food really is delicious."

"I'm here to buy some salt."

They laughed awkwardly as they greeted each other, never mentioning that they had never exchanged magicoins before. Nor did they mention the animal pelts on them, whose value was far too high.

After trading for a few items, they hurriedly left.

Behind the counter, Hedgehog yawned.

"Why bother? You're still going to run into each other tonight anyway. Wanting to move isn't exactly something shameful."

---

Setting all kinds of conditions before hiring and fleecing job seekers, that was standard practice for exploitative employers.

Viktor's forced-buying-and-selling strategy was repeatedly complained about on the forums, spawning several towering threads.

[These days, even NPCs are being exploited by the game!]

[But it's not without benefits. There are way too many NPCs in Honeyvale Town lately. Tasks that players used to dislike can now be handed to NPCs, and tons of them rush to do the work.]

[True. The wages they ask for are also lower than players'.]

[With employees in place, I suddenly want to open a factory myself...]

No matter what, the strategy was extremely effective.

Every day, large numbers of refugees moved into the Great Oak Forest, and the construction efficiency of the magic wall soared.

Among them were even some residents of Nary Town. Once they left, Nary Town became even more empty.

Cobb took the opportunity to lower the requirements for entering the city, encountering little resistance.

Truly something to celebrate... probably.

---

At the monthly meeting.

Hawkes, who rarely left the blacksmith shop, slammed the core of the magic wall onto the table.

"Done! Thanks to the workers from Nary Town, we only need one more week of finishing touches, and the magic wall will be completely built."

Cobb spoke next. "The implementation of the Nary Town Act is going smoothly. The guard unit's training has already entered the second phase."

Edgar reported. "The population of Honeyvale Town is steadily increasing. Preliminary estimates suggest we can reach twenty thousand before winter."

David fiddled with the placard in front of him that read Minister of Finance.

"The price we're paying is that, in order to feed these twenty-thousand-plus mouths, The Watchers' finances are in a severe deficit... I sincerely hope this is the last time you drag me over here to do hard labor."

Viktor pondered for a moment.

"Twenty thousand? Didn't the previously recorded number of refugees exceed fifty thousand?"

And that was a figure obtained from a population census that couldn't even accurately count the true total of refugees.

David spread his hands.

"Obviously, The Watchers' reputation can only attract this many people. And in my experience, this number is just right. Any more, and you wouldn't be able to handle them."

"It's the Federation," Viktor corrected.

Although changing the name wouldn't alter their reputation, the necessary sense of ceremony still had to be observed.

David shrugged.

"Call it whatever you like. As a friendly reminder, three granaries can't provide unlimited backing. Sometimes, choices have to be made."

Viktor remained unmoved.

"As long as they can hold out until next spring, that's enough."

At present, Nary Town's food sources consisted only of the potato fields in the north that were about to mature, and the beast meat and wild vegetables players brought back from hunting and foraging in the forest. The potato genes hadn't been improved, so yields were limited, and the game brought back by players carried various hidden risks.

If it weren't for the former mayor of Nary Town being greedy enough, they might not have been able to make it through this winter safely.

He flipped through the reports submitted by the others.

"Forget it. Since those thirty thousand have no intention of joining, we won't force the issue. Prepare to seal the city. Also, take some of the teachers from the literacy classes over to Nary Town."

Cobb nodded in acknowledgment.

"Should we add a literacy requirement to the recruitment work as well?"

Viktor shook his head.

"It's still too early. We can add it after the first wave of the magic tide passes. For now, free up a few rooms to use as classrooms. Teach some basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. Make the rooms a bit warmer, and naturally a group of people will come in to sit and listen."

Just as the meeting was about to adjourn, he suddenly thought of something and looked at the only outsider present.

"The Ship-Carriage Guild's shipping efficiency has been getting worse and worse."

David raised an eyebrow.

"Do you think transporting divine sparks is as easy as transporting wine?"

The fact that he had been carrying a divine spark with him was purely a coincidence. Naturally, the efficiency of subsequent divine spark transport would be lower.

"I guarantee it'll be delivered before winter arrives. If it doesn't make it in time, I'll just stay here and spend the winter with you."

Viktor sighed. "That compensation would be better off not offered at all."

News of the city lockdown quickly spread through both towns.

In border cities where magic tides occurred frequently, "sealing the city" was nothing unusual. It often meant entering a period of closure lasting as little as one month or as long as the entire winter, during which no one could go out to search for food.

Each magic tide caused massive casualties.

Aside from total annihilation when a city fell, internal riots caused by food shortages were also one of the most critical factors. So after a one-month lockdown countdown was posted, the number of people leaving Nary Town surged dramatically, and revenues at major shops hit record highs. Everyone was using their own methods to stockpile food for the winter.