A few light beams flashed, and a few silhouettes appeared in the garden in front of the castle.
Aside from Tang Yu, the followers who returned to the castle were Tang Yu, Elaine, Winnie, and Shay. For the time being, the others stayed in Luoxia to help out.
Until they could recruit trustworthy personnel, the followers would have a busy time there.
Elaine and Winnie had to return early because they had a responsibility in the territory. And the burden of the followers who stayed in Luoxia was even heavier.
Tang Yu wasn't the kind of boss that likes to squeeze out his employees. He had promised to increase the benefits to all followers.
Aside from raising their wages, he tried his best to meet their personal needs.
For example, he gave Elaine a lot of books and webnovels. He had put in a lot of effort to meet Elaine's feminine suitable taste in books.
Only in a large shelter like Luoxia, he could find a lot of books in exchange for his pre-downloaded books. Cache? That kind of thing doesn't exist.
But…
Thinking that now that there's no internet anymore, even if they managed to find something from the past, there would be no updates.
Even the thousands of chapters of webnovels he read before the doomsday doesn't matter. As long as he could have it, he could expose it to the public.
Seeing the updates of hundreds of books on the bookshelf, all of which was updated more than a month ago, he, the Great Lord Tang, was satisfied.
How could he have survived all this time without these books?
He had an idea to develop some entertainment to satisfy the survivors, so they had a thing to vent their extra energy on. And also… to increase the territory's income.
"Let's save it for later."
He also gave Winnie plenty of custom-fit clothes that fit her size.
He gave Shay a variety of cigarettes.
He provided the Carmen Brothers Triplets their favorite liquor.
Foodies like Oguri were easily satisfied.
The Protoss Sister, Star, and Moon, however, didn't want anything in particular. But they requested an astrologist house in the future when they returned to the territory.
These were all small things, but Tang Yu cared every bit of them and wanted their satisfaction.
"Buying cigarettes, liquor, or books… all of them are done. So… what should I do next?" The Good-Boss Lord Tang fell in deep thought.
...
As the shelter's dutiful Leader, Tang Yu browsed through some of the reports submitted by Chen Haiping about the shelter's recent situation. He also signed some important documents.
His eyes suddenly widened.
A report on adventurer-related issues.
With the influx of Lindong hunters, the equipment sales had increased. But the problems were also increasing.
Where there were people, there was strife. Not to mention among the hunters who gained power in a short time. There were a lot of people who acted cocky all the time.
The patrol had dealt with many conflict incidents during this time. Sometimes, when two of the top teams in Lingdong erupted into conflict, even the members of the patrol couldn't stop it, which requires Roger or his other followers to deal with it.
For example, at the Night Bar. More than ten hunters were thrown by Lorraine. Tang Yu asked the details of Chen Haiping.
"Actually, these are all minor problems. In the beginning, many Lindong hunters were cocky and looked down on most weaker hunters in our shelter. Some even thought that the Tree Shade was lucky to find the weapon like the Demon Slayer Longsword, and didn't make it by yourself…" Chen Haiping explained.
Tang Yu nodded in silence. He wasn't surprised.
A lot of Lindong hunters came to the shelter. Only a few hunters who actually witnessed their power in the Secret Realms survived it.
So, hearing the news from other people's mouths was rather unconvincing. With the hunters' ruthless characters… well… the problem was inevitable.
That was the reason why he specifically instructed Roger to keep an eye out for the hunters.
Chen Haiping sighed and continued. "These were just minor matters. After killing the troublemakers and showing our shelter's power, the conflict in the shelter had been greatly reduced in the last two days…"
"…But the hunters that were restrained in the shelter immediately engaged in battle as soon as they were out of this shelter. I have discussed this with Captain Roger. It's a matter we can't easily solve. Fortunately, the conflict among the hunters didn't impact greatly on our shelter. But in the last two days, there was bad news. We found some hunters staring at our equipment here."
"Stalking?" Tang Yu wondered.
There's such a bold hunter?
Hearing this, Chen Haiping shook his head. "They had no guts to steal or rob at the shelter. But they lurked outside the shelter. When they saw a team who just purchased equipment and wasn't particularly strong, they committed murder and robbed them."
"And that group wasn't weak. They wandered freely in the wilderness but never actually came to the shelter. The patrols went out to look for them countless times, but they found no clues. The depleting number of weaker adventurers caused the Adventurer Guild's completion rate to decrease." Chen Haiping finished the sentence in one breath.
Tang Yu frowned. This was indeed a serious matter.
During the doomsday, things like killing people and seizing their belongings were not uncommon. Such incidents could happen just because of some verbal conflict.
A disagreement and a bloodshed.
Both Lindong and Luoxia, the mercenaries who died at the hands of humans, were not less than those who died at demonic beasts.
Even the Officials were helpless about it. It was hard enough to manage the things in the shelter, furthermore the chaotic place such as the wilderness.
"But that group's purpose was clear. They only target some team with rune equipment."
The money from looting an ordinary team wasn't that much. How many valuable items an ordinary team that went out to hunt carry with them?
Unless they discovered a rare mineral or a conflict broke out over a mutated beast carcass. Sometimes accidents happen. They would kill each other and take all the other's loot.
The chances were low, but it was inevitable.
But the teams that purchased rune equipment in the territory were certainly carrying dozens or even more than hundreds of spirit stones with them.
So they were easy to spot on. Once these people left the territory, the bad guys would take their chance.
If this trouble continued, there was no guarantee that other people would follow their path, and the Tree Shade Shelter could no longer become the center of the trade market. But a black market where traders sneaked in and sneaked out.
The territory's development progress would definitely become affected.
"We must solve this problem as soon as possible. We can't let those people do as they please!"
Chen Haiping, however, was having a hard time. "But Leader… we can't find them. Even if we send the patrols back and forth in the nearby area, we could only seize the movement here. It's not a permanent solution."
"I have a way to find those people. Listen to me carefully."
Tang Yu's eyes gleamed coldly. He had to let them know who's the boss in this area.