October 30, 3:30 a.m., Earth time. Concurrently six in the morning on the 28th day of the 7th month, OtherWorld time.
The darkest hour before dawn had finally passed. On the town's main street, the owner of the inn nearest to the alley cautiously pulled back the corner of the curtain and warily peered outside.
This family-run inn, occupying only a fraction of the street frontage, was a two-story building with nine cramped rooms, each barely larger than the restroom of a club. Of course, the accommodations were quite cheap, costing only 10 copper coins a night. This also included the homemade black bread breakfast by Mrs. Doyle and fresh milk brought in daily by the Doyles' son-in-law.
The inn run by the Doyle couple in a place like Weisshem catered primarily to a single clientele. All of the rooms were rented on a weekly basis by prostitutes or gigolos who had been cast out of the upscale clubs. These guests were allowed to bring their clients back to spend the night, and the Doyles didn't charge extra, but of course, there wasn't a second complimentary breakfast either.
Starting at around five in the early morning, the commotion outside on the main street alarmed the Doyles. The intermittent screams from the neighboring club, especially, nearly gave Mrs. Doyle a heart attack.
The six long-term lodgers were equally frightened. Someone among their group mustered the courage to open a window and look outside. When groups of skeletons were seen entering and leaving the neighboring Lover Club, their anxiety escalated. No one dared to stay alone, so everyone crowded into the Doyles' room.
As Mr. Doyle pulled back the curtain slightly, the six huddling tenants craned their necks, just like Mrs. Doyle. The street outside seemed relatively calm, much unlike the chaos caused by marauder raids in the past.
However, the Doyle couple and their six tenants, who could see the street clearly under the morning sunlight, didn't feel the slightest bit reassured. Instead, their faces grew even paler.
In the entire inn, only the room of the Doyles had a street view. Under the 7th month's brilliant sunlight, over a dozen undead, clad in scale armor with knives at their waists and carrying bags of various sizes, were passing by the window.
Mr. Doyle trembled and let go, turning his head back stiffly, terror written all over his face. The expressions of the others were no different from his.
Although no one said a thing, everyone in the room knew that the others were surely thinking the same thing—why were those scary undead still here when night had already passed?!
All creatures of darkness would surely retreat in the light of day—wasn't it always put this way whether it was in the bedtime stories for children or in the epic novels that adults read?!
"O' Lady Gold Coin…" Mrs. Doyle raised a trembling hand to cover her face. "What are we to do? What are we going to do? Dear, Chris will be coming to deliver the milk soon. What are we going to do?"
Chris was Mrs. Doyle and Mr. Doyle's son-in-law, who reared some cows and sheep in the countryside. Each morning, he would ride the tricycle he bought in Indahl into the town to deliver milk.
Mr. Doyle shook his head helplessly. Then, reluctantly, he leaned closer to the window once more and gently lifted the corner of the curtain.
The bunch of skeletons from earlier hadn't gone far. They were gathered at the corner of the streets, heads bobbing as if they were in discussion.
Mr. Doyle clutched his chest in agony.
O' Lady Gold Coin, if this is a nightmare, please let me wake up from it quickly!
Mr. Doyle prayed desperately in his heart, but alas… it seemed as if the Lady he believed in was determined to screw with him. Mr. Doyle heard a series of rapid and chaotic rattling, and even more undead entered his field of vision.
Mr. Doyle's vision turned black, and he collapsed.
"Dear?!" Mrs. Doyle exclaimed in panic.
Blossoming Strokes raised her head, glancing at the drab two-story building with no signboards, which only had a partial frontage facing the street. Then, she turned to Qin Guan and asked, "Are there NPCs inside as well?"
"Yes, but we can't enter," Qin Guan replied. "Not just here. There are also several street-facing buildings with people inside that we are unable to enter. It's likely that those are residences of civilians unrelated to our siege quest."
Blossoming Strokes nodded. "Probably."
After the assault team she was in had secured the militia headquarters, their next targets were the town hall and the sheriff's office. The town hall was relatively easy to find, though it took some time before locating the sheriff's office that was hidden among a row of houses. During this period, the assault team encountered situations where the system issued red warnings when they attempted to forcefully enter residential buildings.
Players were generally understanding in this sort of situation and wouldn't have doubts. The dwellings where zombie NPCs and advanced NPCs lived couldn't be forcefully entered either, so they had gotten used to it.
Unceasing Entropy's team was slightly faster and waiting at the street corner. When she saw Blossoming Strokes, Unceasing Entropy waved and called out, "Sis Blossom, how do we divide out the [Capture Enemies] quest?"
Blossoming Strokes gave a nod to Ji Tang at the side and asked, "What do you think?"
"The battle results of each team vary, but everyone contributed to the mission, and no one slacked off. If we follow the previous temporary arrangement of assigning the spoils according to team performance, I'm afraid it would lead to disputes," Unceasing Entropy calmly stated.
Blossoming Strokes paused to think, then nodded.
This issue indeed gave Blossoming Strokes some headache… In this game with only 300 players, the concept of replacing players if they couldn't work together didn't exist. If internal conflicts among players arose due to disputes over the loot distribution, rallying the teams for future large-scale quests would be challenging.
Not going into detail, the assault team had first taken down 141 NPCs at the militia headquarters, then raided the town hall and the sheriff's office. On top of that, they had also intercepted three militia teams returning from patrol outside of town. All in all, they had captured between 300 to 400 NPCs.
If rewards were distributed according to results and the majority were going to the assault team, it certainly wouldn't sit well with others. Everyone had pretended to be ghosts—to scare, restrain, and capture NPCs—and no one wanted to hear nonsense about who worked harder or who sacrificed more!
"Let's divide it equally," Ji Tang suggested. "Whether it's the capture quest, rescue quest, or loot. Let's pool everything and distribute it evenly among everyone. This way, there would be fewer objections."
"Mm," Blossoming Strokes acknowledged, though she didn't sound fully on board. She had considered this approach before, but it was really challenging to implement.
Ji Tang knew what Blossoming Strokes was worrying about and thus said, "It's okay. If anyone feels that their contributions are more significant and disagree with the distribution, they can be put on a blacklist, and they won't be included in future large-scale missions. We will also notify all players who participated in the quest so that everyone knows why this person was excluded."
Blossoming Strokes and Unceasing Entropy fell silent, then nodded in agreement.
Indeed, unity was paramount with such a small number of players. Similarly, with fewer players, those who aimed to grab more for themselves would find it challenging to survive because they couldn't just move elsewhere after each time they attempted it.
With the distribution method established, Blossoming Strokes, who held the position of raid group leader, sent a notice in the group channel. She instructed each team to calculate their "battle achievements" and arranged for some players to return to camp and notify the NPCs for settlement.
This group notification system, which could only be used by players with leader privileges in the group, was temporarily added after the "Town Siege" began. The damned developers had even specified via an in-game announcement that due to server load limitations, the "group notification" function would only be available during the Town Siege quest and would be disabled after the event ended.
This seemingly convenient temporary feature still drove players to complain and grumble—if the server capacity wasn't sufficient, couldn't other useless unused maps just be closed?! Instead of improving the in-game chat, the devs added a bunch of wilderness maps that consumed resources. Did the devs have something wrong in their heads?!
Elsewhere, Hal left Finley to watch over the camp while he, Tuttle, and Jerome set off at daybreak to the outskirts of Weisshem.
After intense discussions, Hal had given up on the idea of having the undead cause trouble for Yang. Instead, he was now concerned with whether this ragtag group of undead would be wiped out recklessly during the attack.
There were still dozens of tricycles parked in the camp, and if all the undead were killed, they would lack the manpower to bring all these vehicles back.
As for taking the cargo on the tricycles and running away, Hal abandoned it as soon as it crossed his mind. He still had many comrades stuck back in Taranthan, and Tuttle, Finley, and Jerome might go against him if he decided to do so.
But when they saw the town gate… the former bandits were at a loss for words.
The gates of Weisshem certainly weren't as magnificent as those of large cities. It was just two sections of walls with a passage in the middle that could accommodate three carriages side by side. Normally, the town gate was wide open, and the iron gates affixed to the walls on both sides would only be pulled together and closed when the marauders or bandits raided.
As for curfews… these things didn't exist here. Weisshem's economy depended on nighttime activities, so any sheriff's officer that proposed strict curfews would likely be ousted.
Right now, when the morning sun shone brightly… several undead stood brazenly in front of Weisshem's town gates.
And other than that, several dozen men in militia uniforms were lined up by the walls, looking dejected…
Hal, who had been worried that the undead might be completely wiped out, suddenly felt an inexplicable anger rising within him.
Weisshem's militia consisted of several hundred, and with the help of enforcers from various brothels, at least a thousand able-bodied men could be mustered!
How could so many people let just over two hundred undead conquer the town overnight, and even let the town gate be claimed?!
Are they all fools? Even a thousand pigs can't all be caught by the undead in a single night!!
Utterly shameful! Bringing disgrace to humans!
While Hal was feeling rather annoyed, the players guarding the town gate became gleeful when they saw the former bandits approaching. "They're here! The NPCs are here!"
"Come to settle the quest, eh? Hal~"
Hal: "…"
Jerome, dumbfounded, muttered nervously, "Crap, I didn't bring those copper coins. How much did you guys bring?"
"Hell! I didn't bring any either!" Hal replied anxiously.
Jerome was starting to panic. "What should we do? These undead will tear us apart if we don't have enough copper coins to settle!"
Tuttle had started sweating profusely. "Damn it, who could have imagined that these undead could take over Weisshem overnight?!"
Hal was extremely frustrated, but he also knew that there would be severe consequences if there were problems with the quest settlement. Thus, he could only instruct his two brothers, "I'll keep them occupied for now. You guys hurry back and bring the copper coins."
Tuttle and Jerome wasted no time; they turned around and ran…
Hal watched his comrades disappear into the distance, then continued along toward the seemingly buzzing bunch of undead.
These undead were only enthusiastic about these instructors on two occasions: when they received a quest and when completing their quest for settlement.
Hal was led by this bunch of undead into the town. As soon as he saw the famous main street of this well-known red light district, Hal's jaw nearly fell to the ground.
On this relatively straight street, from one end to the other, men were orderly lined up with their hands and feet bound.
These unfortunate souls were mostly adult men of all ages, shapes, and appearances.
Even worse was that most of these men weren't properly dressed. At least half of them were only in their undergarments…
With a single glance, Hal could make out at least several hundred half-naked men, most of whom weren't in good shape. Some were blubbery and obese, while others were skinny like sticks. The sight was an eyesore to Hal, and he felt disgusted after one glance!
Even more exasperating for Hal was that he noticed those unfortunate men trussed up like pigs weren't just limited to those on the street. As Hal stood there silently cursing, he saw the undead carry more people on their shoulders and bring them over as if they were pigs for the slaughter.
"Hal, we will submit the [Capture Enemies] quest first. You can count them," Blossoming Strokes stepped forward from the crowd and, on behalf of all the players, approached Hal to interact.
Hal woodenly nodded.
He couldn't be bothered to ask why these undead had even tied up the pleasure-seeking customers to make up the numbers. In any case, the coins to be given out were provided by Yang, so he didn't care.
As for what would happen to these people, once the coins were paid, that would be given to Rex to fret over!
As Hal was doing a head count, in the wilderness over 50 kilometers away from Weisshem, Yang Qiu, who had been traveling overnight, breathed a sigh of relief after confirming via the imprint matrix that the "prisoners of war" were being "handed over."
While the carefree players were enjoying themselves to the fullest, Yang Qiu had been tearing his hair out.
While rushing toward Weisshem, Yang Qiu, acting as an online GM, was simultaneously monitoring over two hundred unpredictable players via the imprint matrix, constantly issuing warnings in red to players about to make a "violation," and frantically fixing any "bugs" that might surface during the "siege quest."
This degree of emotional exhaustion felt even worse than when he had infiltrated the Radiant Sun Church's sacred grounds for the first time!
One incident, in particular, when an insane brothel owner rushed out and fought desperately with the players, had greatly worried Yang Qiu. If he hadn't "patched" it in time and issued a warning that killing the brothel owner would result in a loss of 100 territory prestige points, that fella would have been cut down on the spot.
Though the players being able to take over Weisshem in one night didn't surprise Yang Qiu.
About 226 undead soldiers with a certain level of combat capability, organization, tactics, discipline, and fearlessness had attacked a small town at night. Besides the innate buffs of "scaring" and "shock," the players, as skeletons possessed, had also cleverly used their own strengths and adopted a tactic of dividing the battlefield into multiple sections during the attack.
Achieving such a result wasn't out of the ordinary.
Even if the theoretical military strength of the opponent was more than five times that of the players, it was useless if they couldn't quickly organize an effective counterattack; on this point, the tactical action plan put forward by the two brainy sisters to strike the militia headquarters deserved credit.
Had the players focused on creating chaos in the red light district instead of focusing on the key forces of the defending militia, this siege battle definitely wouldn't have ended so quickly and might even still be ongoing.
However, this didn't mean that the players had completely succeeded in their first battle. There were still many hidden dangers yet to be resolved, and that was why Yang Qiu was rushing to Weisshem as soon as possible to take charge.
Otherwise, even stragglers from the militia could cause great trouble for the players, let alone Indahl's garrison.
More importantly, by frantically patching the "Identify" ability during the raid, Yang Qiu had made use of the players to sneakily plunder a large amount of gold coins and jewelry from brothel owners and pleasure-seekers! Yang Qiu wouldn't feel at ease unless he quickly secured this large batch of gold!
Artifacts from this other world lacked the historical and cultural significance that people on Earth recognized, making them virtually worthless. Silver and copper coins circulating in the human nations were of no use to Yang Qiu either. Back on Earth, silver and copper trading was calculated by the ton, and he wouldn't earn much even if he went to great lengths to accumulate these metals. Only gold was hard currency!
With this batch of gold in hand, Yang Qiu wouldn't feel pressured even if he had to feed the entire town of Weisshem. Occupying this town as a stronghold and further expanding the territory of Taranthan wouldn't be a problem at all!
Black-robed Inspector Lowell, who was constantly glancing at Yang Qiu, found the latter's expression becoming more and more… inexplicable.
Spellcasters never prayed to gods. Lowell believed that this black mage wouldn't go so far as to become a cultist, but… the way this fella carried himself seemed really abnormal. First, Yang had shown signs of fatigue after riding for less than 10 hours, which didn't seem like the exhaustion a high-level spellcaster would show. And now, Yang had suddenly become all excited as if he had taken the wrong potion—Lowell just couldn't make sense out of it! He really couldn't understand what was going on in that black mage's head!
"Are you okay, Yang?" Out of gratitude for the hospitality and food he had enjoyed in Taranthan, Inspector Lowell expressed some concern.
"Of course." Yang Qiu smiled and nodded at the black-robed inspector. "In fact, I have some good news to share with you, revered inspector."
"Umm… What sort of good news is it?" Inspector Lowell asked cautiously.
"Our undead friends have saved Weisshem," said Yang Qiu with a relaxed smile as if he were basking in the spring breeze.
Lowell: "…"
Lowell attempted to grasp the meaning behind these words, and the corner of his mouth twitched. "Are you saying that… the Taranthan undead have taken over Weisshem?"
"It's 'saved,'" Yang Qiu corrected the inspector's choice of words. "Perhaps you've heard of the Weisshem nickname, revered inspector. That place, which was just an ordinary border town several decades ago, has gained the profane nickname of 'Men's Paradise' in recent years. I find it strange that the faith of Lady Gold Coin has turned a blind eye to it."
Lowell: "…"
There was nothing stranger than hearing a black mage use the term "profane," but… Yang was ridiculing the faith of Lady Gold Coin, not Lowell's.
"You can't imagine the plight of the people there, revered inspector," Yang Qiu said. "Young men and women are brought to that place against their will, treated like pieces of meat while losing their dignity and freedom. Many are afflicted with undignified diseases and don't even live to see thirty. In my opinion, this shouldn't be their fate. Don't you think so?"
Lowell: "…"
Why would those from the Goddess of Prosperity's faith care about the jurisdiction of Lady Gold Coin? This was something that Lowell couldn't say aloud.
All Lowell could do was suppress his strong sense of dissonance and nodded awkwardly. "You're right."
The more hypocritical a pseudo-civilized society, the better the banner of political correctness worked—as long as that political correctness didn't actually interfere with the interests of the upper echelons.
Yang Qiu spoke at length about the border city of the Kingdom of Rhine and criticized the Church of Lady Gold Coin, which had nothing to do with the Church of Prosperity that Lowell was from. So, naturally, he wouldn't refute.
A smiling Yang Qiu nodded while continuing, "Our undead friends once lost their lives and they understand the value of life better than those still living. They can't tolerate so many people being trampled upon like livestock, so they did what they had to do.
"Next, it's our turn to do what we have to do. We can't let our undead friends view us with scorn. I believe you share this sentiment, no? Revered inspector?"
Lowell who suddenly snapped back to reality: "??"
Wait a min— What do you mean "we"? Don't drag me into your madness! Lowell howled deep down.
But… on the surface, he was just utterly dumbfounded as he stared at the black mage ride alongside him on an undead horse.
Yang Qiu had a firm look on his face and gazed at Lowell with trusting eyes as if he was certain Lowell wouldn't object.
Lowell: "…"
Was it still possible for him to renege? Drinking tea and freeloading in Exile Town was rather nice…
———
Back in Weisshem, at Lover Club, Madam Shirley and over 20 hostesses stood silently at one side of the hall, watching blankly as skeletons came and went, carrying out the guests from various rooms as if they were pigs for the slaughter.
When the skeletons entered the club again a few minutes ago, Sherry and her colleagues were terrified and ran screaming to the restrooms.
However, the skeletons only gave them a curious glance and ignored them, making this group of hostesses, who were usually considered respectable among Weisshem's prostitutes, feel somewhat awkward…
Next, the skeletons acted as if they didn't exist, entering the rooms one by one and carrying away the guests who were bound like livestock, and occasionally seemed as if they were counting them.
Over a dozen guests, along with chefs, enforcers, the manager, and even the owner, totaling about 20, were carried away. The skeletons communicated loudly in some weird gibberish, then exited the club without paying any heed to the women.
The hostesses silently turned around and peeked outside to see the guests and enforcers on the street outside, who were now lined up…
"What are they… doing?" a young hostess asked in confusion.
"…I don't know," Madam Shirley said stiffly.
She was also puzzled as to why these undead were still roaming the streets after daybreak, but since these undead didn't seem to have any intention of harming them, there was no need to panic just yet.
These hostesses understood better than anyone how dark this world truly was. Women like them, even if they escaped from this nightmarish street, wouldn't find themselves in a much better situation.
The hostesses didn't understand what the skeletons were doing, but… it didn't stop them from enjoying the spectacle.
Even if they were from high-end establishments like Lover Club, these hostesses had all experienced humiliation, abuse, and even physical violence at the hands of their customers. Those who paid a high price for their services always had the mindset of trying to recoup their costs and rarely treated them with respect.
Seeing these men, who had been so arrogant, flaunting while riding atop them, being dragged out onto the street like livestock, was rather pleasing to these hostesses.
On top of that, the club's owner, who treated them like lifeless merchandise, was also among the men. The sense of satisfaction they got couldn't be described in words.
After watching for a while, one of the hostesses pulled over a chair and sat down to continue watching.
A while later, they dragged a sofa to the window…
By seven, when Rex and a group of players, who had received a quest to collect the tricycles, arrived in Weisshem, nearly all the male and female prostitutes from the entire street had gathered by the windows, eagerly enjoying the unprecedented and unique scene on the main street.
As the tricycle convoy returned to Weisshem, the mouths of Ossirian, Lyka, and young Brook never closed back the moment they passed the town gate.
The only one feeling awkward was the unmarried lady Mia as the half-naked men filling the street made her blush and she didn't know where to look.
Rex had the players park all the tricycles in an open space near the town gates. After they got off the vehicles and looked around at the unfit-looking people on both sides of the street, he issued an impromptu cooking quest while distributing settlement rewards to the players that were getting impatient…