After adding the powder to her products, her customer base doubled in just a few days.
In the bright city, salt was the primary material used as currency. Some also used gold pieces as money, although coins were disallowed. Additionally, farming products like rice were also used.
Due to Bertha's decrees, plowing the land with animals was completely prohibited, as she considered it cruelty to animals. These restrictions made life hard for the people, but humans were always good at inventing things. They developed farming equipment that didn't rely on animals.
Fortunately, Bertha allowed farming on land as long as no animals were abused in the process.
Any farming product that could be used by humans was in high demand.
While some people had pets, strict rules were applied to pet owners. Spaying and neutering were completely illegal, as they were considered abuse. Essentially, if someone decides to have pets, they will be trapped in a money pit, responsible for the pet's care for life; even if the pet died, the police would come and investigate.
As a result, very few people had pets, and only the richest could afford them.
Bertha held contempt for the idea that people were allowed to kill and abuse animals. In her view, those who killed animals were as bad as murderers. While this was her perspective, many disagreed with her.
Still, her views were far kinder than other immortals who seemed emotionless, like robots.
Ironically, robots were considered more emotional than most immortals. In advanced cultures, robots could be granted the ability to feel emotions. The outdated belief that "robots cannot feel" was dispelled. In advanced cultures, robots can experience emotions more deeply than humans.
With enough work put into them, robots could surpass their creators. However, this was not true when considering the supernatural. Immortals: In terms of rationality and calculation speed, immortals far surpass robots.
To some extent, it could be said that as people advance further, they turn into perfect robots, powerful, rational, and ruthless. Fortunately for the residents of the Nature Paradise world, Bertha was an exception and didn't become a completely ruthless, rational robot.
...
Just three weeks after Ruby bought the first batch of the powder, it was all used up due to high demand. Not wanting to lose her new customer base, she set up another deal.
...
Looking under the big rock, Ruby went forward, took the much larger bag, and nodded. It weighed around 50 kilograms, enough to last for a month.
She was quite strong, so she could carry the big bag.
As she prepared to leave, something unexpected happened.
"Stop!" "Don't move!" "On your knees!" Shouts came from all directions.
"I got caught!" Ruby thought, and with that realization, she ran with all her strength.
If she gets caught, she will be executed without a doubt.
Returning to the city was a bad idea, so she started running to the forest.
Unfortunately for her, running to the forest is similarly a bad idea. The anti-powder unit mostly comprises wood elves, so wanting to run from them in the forest is like trying to swim away from sharks in the ocean.
Soon, the police officers caught her and dragged her to prison.
...
The police were mostly made up of wood elves, even in a city that was 80% human. The police have three general units.
The first is the city patrol unit, which investigates crimes in the city, enforces laws, and protects the courts, etc. Despite being overwhelmingly comprised of wood elves, the patrol unit wears clothes; they wear armor made of iron chains and carry swords.
Bertha granted the police exemptions to some of her decrees. Armor and clothes are extremely useful for the police; without them, they can be severely injured by any edged object.
The second unit is the forest patrol unit, which is entirely made up of wood elves. They cover the forests outside, investigate anything that happens there, and are completely clothless, as in forests, clothes only obstruct them.
The third unit is the powder control unit, which is comprised mostly of wood elves and solely focused on controlling meat powder. The meat powder business is very profitable, and as such, it is the most dangerous job among the units. The police members of the powder unit have the highest chance of dying.
In general, anything that is easy to make and can be sold for a price far higher than its production price will attract mafia and criminal gangs. That is just human nature.
To prevent it from the root, there are a few solutions.
First, the government can increase the production cost, making it unprofitable. Of course, the gangs would, in turn, increase the price, but if the prices increase too much, fewer will buy, and that would damage the gang's bottom line. The anti-powder unit tried many times in the past, but the forest is too vast; it is impossible to patrol everywhere. The gangs always found animals to hunt and grind to make meat powder.
Second, the government can try to decrease the price of the illegal powder; for example, if the anti-powder unit sold meat powder themselves at far lower prices, the gangs would have instantly lost their business, as nobody would buy anything from them anymore. Of course, the police cannot do that, as it is prohibited by Bertha's decrees; even the police cannot harm innocent animals.
The third way is to target the customers; this is precisely the method the anti-powder unit chose.
They target and arrest anyone who dares to buy, and this way, cut deep into the gangs' profit margins. After all, no matter how good your products are, if you cannot sell them, they are worthless.
To achieve this goal, the police confiscated meat powder, used it as bait to attract buyers, and then arrested them.
Nowadays, the chances of encountering police when buying the powder are over 10%!
In general, this method is extremely smart, but only if the news is spread widely. Sometimes, it's best to keep police operations secret, and sometimes, it's best to let everyone know.
One word: chilling effect.
Just knowing the powder dealer may be an undercover agent will deter many from even trying to buy it. Unfortunately for Ruby, she will be the example the police will set for everyone to see.
...
The next day, the entire town was informed of an impending execution in the city center, attracting many spectators. Throughout history, whenever there was an execution, many would be very interested and go to watch.
In the middle of the city, Ruby, naked, with the execution rope around her neck, stood on a stone platform. After the crowd gathered, a wood elf, the mayor, stood up and started talking, shouting loudly.
"Our great undercover agents disguised themselves as powder dealers and caught this criminal, who was trying to buy the product. Fortunately, she was arrested. Her cruel actions have caused the death of many innocent anima…" the mayor went on and on, detailing how the undercover police were everywhere.
He was exaggerating. The undercover police were present, but the way the mayor described it made it seem like the police were everywhere and knew everything. It was to create a chilling effect.
After a long speech, he signaled, and they dropped Ruby down from the stone platform. Her neck was unable to withstand the pressure, so she lost her head directly! her body and head dropped to the ground apart from each other.
Blood splashed everywhere, making everyone watching pale.
The mayor shouted, "This is what happens if you even think about the powder!" He was making an example.
To prevent crime, there is one way: to increase the risk.
Whether it is arming all of the citizenry, increasing punishments for crimes, threatening people with financial penalties, etc., all are the same; they make committing crimes more risky.
Every action in the universe is a trade; one gains something at a cost. If one is stealing something, they are gaining the product they want, and the cost is the risk they take while committing the theft. If the government increases the risk, criminals will have second thoughts.
However, that is only for rational beings; there are many chaotic and animalistic criminals who do not even think this deeply about committing crimes. For those people, the government, if intending to decrease the crime rate, must keep them away from society, either by execution or prison. The mayor chose executions, as he didn't believe in rehabilitation; he did have permission to execute anyone who harmed animals, so Bertha wasn't a problem. Those who believe in rehabilitation choose prison.
The mayor saw the pale faces of the people and smiled; he was enjoying the fear a bit. There will always be sick people in positions of power; that is just inevitable and unfortunate.
"Clean it up!" he ordered.
Some city servants came forward, picked up the body and the head, and cleaned around.
...
"You have done great, Crystal!" Maror said to a woman.
She was Ruby's cousin who ratted her out.
"Where is my money, Maror? I lost my cousin, so I at least deserve to get my reward as quickly as possible!" she said. Her face didn't look sad.
"Only if everyone were like you, solving crimes would have been a piece of carrot!" the mayor said while shaking his head. Wood elves, of course, don't eat cake, so they replaced a piece of cake with a piece of carrot, which is a favorite food of elves in this area.
Waving his hand, an officer brought a big bag full of gold! "Here you go!" the mayor said.
Crystal was stunned; the gold was even more than the amount they agreed on!
"But," the mayor said.
"What?" Crystal asked nervously.
"You can get extra, but only if you allow us to share that you are our informant!" the mayor said.
"Absolutely not!" Crystal shook her head, determined; her life would be endangered if everyone knew. Those gangs are no joke; they would kill her if they knew she did it.
"How about this … we are keeping your identity secret but will leak that someone leaked the information," the mayor said. He was very considerate of his informants and would never do something to lose their trust. Reputation is very important; once a bad reputation sticks to someone, it can never be wiped out; nobody would be his informant if he got them killed.
After thinking, looking at the big bag in her hand, she said, "If my identity remains a secret, then go ahead and do it!"
The mayor nodded and smiled, "The gold is tax-free; now, go and enjoy!"
Crystal also smiled and left.
...
Soon, it was announced that Ruby was arrested because someone ratted on her; many were furious. But after seeing the eye-popping amount of money the rat got, silently, many thought that if they saw a powder deal, they would also go to the police and leak it. The announcement clearly stated how to inform the police secretly.
The gangs, however, weren't going to stay silent. The mayor kept the secret regarding who ratted very well, but that wouldn't stop the gangs from responding.
They caught some innocent dude who was one of Ruby's customers and ripped him to pieces, putting the corpse in the middle of the city square with a message: If you rat, you will not just die, you will be ripped to pieces!
Again, everything is a trade; the gangs didn't want everywhere to be filled with informants, so with this act, they increased the risk of ratting exponentially. Of course, they didn't actually catch the real rat, but who will really care? After this, anyone considering ratting would think twice: Is money worth living in fear for the rest of my life?
Gangs are actually quite rational, profit-oriented entities; they are just like corporations; it's just that they have put away all the pretense of caring about morals.