It was not easy to be a puppet lord under the Tarantan system. Just look at how Charlie Rex had completely changed into a different person in less than half a year.
Other people's puppet lords might just eat, drink, and have fun, but this was impossible under Yang.
Tuttle obviously had no real power as a lord but had to shoulder the responsibilities of a lord. He had to do endless village surveys, endless public opinion surveys, endless meetings, and endless accounts. If he made any mistakes, he had to be terrified and worry about being in trouble with Yang. Was this how a human being lived?!
"Can I refuse?" Tuttle Joe put down the glass of milk and said very seriously.
"Probably not." Rex, who had come to inform his fellow sufferer personally, said sincerely, and did not forget to add sincerely, "You know I don't have the power to grant fiefdoms without authorization. It was Yang's decision to let you serve as the new Lord of Weisshem."
There was silence in the room with four people...
The City Hall had three buildings: the main building was five stories high, and the two subsidiary buildings were four stories high; the main building and the subsidiary building on the left were office spaces, while the subsidiary building on the right was the officials' luxurious offices with rest suites.
The owners of these luxurious offices were now waiting to be arranged in the prisoner camp outside the west city gate. The entire right-side annex building would, of course, be flexibly used by the new owner – bathrooms and toilets would be designated as public areas, study rooms, living rooms, bedrooms would be separated by partitions, and the furniture would be changed to make it a ready-made employee dormitory.
The three Hal brothers were the great heroes on the secret front of this battle to capture the city. If it had not been for their hard work, it would have been difficult for Yang Qiu to accurately eliminate all the merchants who were related to the nobles or gang members and engaged in illegal business activities. When allocating the rooms, Yang specifically told Rex a few words and allocated a living room with a dining balcony to the three brothers.
It was a bit shabby for three people to share a living room, but Rex's small bedroom was right next to it... so even Hal could not complain.
When Rex opened the bedroom door, he could see the three brothers having breakfast in the dining room in front of the living room. After getting breakfast, he told Tuttle the good news.
You could tell what Finley and Hal were thinking by looking at their faces filled with astonishment and disbelief...
Tuttle's reaction was easy to understand. He almost had the word "rejection" written all over his face.
It was not that Tuttle did not yearn for power and status. As long as he was a man, who did not want to be the master of a country or a city and have the final say in his own territory?
The problem was that becoming Yang's puppet lord would only turn you into a tool who was exploited even more harshly and had even less freedom!
"You really can't refuse?" Tuttle repeated mechanically.
Rex patted the poor ranger on the shoulder and said sincerely: "Don't be so pessimistic, man. Although Yang's requirements are often difficult, at least you can get an incomparable sense of accomplishment. Everything you get with is very meaningful. This is the best reward, isn't it?"
"No... I'm not an idealistic lunatic like you. I'm different from you." Tattle Joe stared with dead fish eyes. Although he looked calm on the surface, his slightly trembling lips revealed the excitement of this ranger. "You can achieve your long-term ideals regardless of the cost, but I can't. I'm a normal person who needs vulgar feedback to feel happy."
"Well... at least there's a salary. When we worked for Yang, we got the agreed compensation on time every month. Although we are often dismissed by Yang with physical goods... but the supplies Yang gave us were indeed very practical." Rex's eyes wandered.
"Which lord lives on a salary of one gold coin!!" Tattle shouted at the time.
That's right, when Yang Qiu tricked these indigenous tools into going to the depths of the Tarantan Wasteland to eat dust, he did promise to pay them one gold coin per month.
But... half a year had passed, and these brothers had not even seen a single copper coin, let alone a single gold coin...
Not only did they not get the money, but when the thieves tried to defect, Yang took out an account book and looked through it, and they found that their son still owed Yang a large sum of money...
Otherwise, Hal would not have been had to think of ways to get some money on him during his "business trip." It was really a pain in the ass that a group of adult men (even professional strongmen) could not find much money in their pockets.
Tuttle's protests had no effect. After eating the breakfast prepared by the Logistics Department, he was dragged by Rex to change into decent clothes, and went with Rex to show off to the local nobles.
Tuttle really wanted to find an opportunity to escape, but when he suddenly realized that Hal was staring at him with eyes that seemed to want to eat him alive... Tuttle did not resist too fiercely.
Hal did not care whether being a puppet lord was hard or not. This guy who only wanted to stand out and show off in front of others would definitely want to strangle Tattle to death right now.
Sure enough, as soon as Tuttle was pulled away by Rex, Hal asked Finley with red eyes. "What's wrong with that guy Yang? Can't he see that I have more leadership qualities?"
Finley said nothing and quickly cleared the dishes off the table to prevent Hal from getting angrier and smashing things… If they broke anything, they would have to pay for it, and Yang would have to add more entries to their account book.
Hal was furious. Then he was summoned to the auditorium of the main building of the city hall to meet the nobles of the new lord. Yang Qiu meanwhile put on a cloak and strolled to the Night Watch headquarters of the Gold Coin Church on St. Joseph Street.
The facade of the Night Watch headquarters was very low-key. In order to prevent ordinary people from accidentally entering, a not-so-conspicuous tobacco club sign was hung on the door, and below the sign was written in red letters: Members-only club, no strangers allowed.
The facade was inconspicuous and there was nothing special about the foyer: there was a set of dark brown cloth sofas on each side of the foyer, which was the size of an ordinary living room. Opposite the door was a concave counter similar to the layout of a hotel front desk. A woman wearing glasses was sitting at the counter reading a gossip magazine.
As soon as Yang Qiu entered the lobby, the old-fashioned woman behind the counter put down her magazine, rolled her glasses, and said stiffly, "Sorry, sir, we don't accept new customers here."
Yang Qiu put down his hood and looked at the other person with a smile.
Seeing this visitor who had come here once before and almost frightened the officials to death, the female receptionist who had scared away many intruders with her step motherly face suddenly changed her expression and quickly stood up and bowed slightly, "Excuse me, it turns out to be Mr. Yang."
"I'm very sorry for coming here without permission." Yang Qiu also bowed slightly in return and smiled, "If it's not an offense, I hope to visit Captain Clark and the officials of your department."
The female receptionist calmly said that she would of course not offend him. She politely invited Yang Qiu to sit in the inner reception room and prepared tea. When she came out, she immediately rushed to the counter and frantically called the officials in the organization and the captain of the night watch.
Most of the night watchmen were active at night. Early in the morning, no matter whether they were officials, clerks, or on-duty night watchmen, they were still sleeping in bed. When the female receptionist called them, they all sounded sleepy and their voices were muffled.
When they heard that the "Nightmare Butcher" was coming to their door, the gang suddenly woke up.
Soon, Night Watch Captain Lynch Clark and several headquarters officials appeared in front of Yang Qiu, sweating profusely.
After Yang Qiu explained the purpose of his visit, these people began to sweat even more.
"Excuse me, but if I understand correctly... Mr. Yang, do you hope that our department can open up our task registry to the undead?" Captain Clark said in disbelief.
"Yes," Yang Qiu said with a smile, "Our undead friends come from Tarantan. Everyone who has dealt with our undead friends knows that these Tarantan are very intelligent, humane, and helpful. If your department could abandon prejudices, not regard the Tarantan undead as aliens, and be willing to accept them, I could assure you that they would be very willing to help the Inhal people solve those difficult and dangerous tasks."
Captain Clark & other officials: "..."
"Of course, if we want to safely let them work to maintain the peace and stability of Inhal, it is not enough to just open up registration to these Tarantan undead; we also need to pay them as well," Yang Qiu added.
Captain Clark and the other officers showed an understanding expression, as if they saw through Yang Qiu's intention.
The Nightmare Butcher was lawless and had no ethics to speak of. He had repeatedly relied on his ability as a spellcaster to bully princes and nobles who were not even professional warriors. Equally famous as his bad behavior was his obsessive love for money – this guy had never been moral when it came to robbing!
Captain Lynch Clark sneered. Yang Qiu had just acquired the territory of Inhal, but he wanted to steal jobs already? He was too naive! The Gold Coin Church would never make deals with a blackmailer!
Under the gaze of these people related to the Gold Coin Church, Yang Qiu calmly... took out two copper coins produced by a Chinese manufacturer.
"The undead only recognize this kind of currency. They don't accept ordinary coins," Yang Qiu put the exquisitely crafted game coins with a very low copper content on the coffee table and pushed them to the leaders of the Night Watch. "Your department needs to exchange this kind of coin with Lord Rex before you can use it to hire the undead to do things."
Captain Clark & other officials: "..."
"In addition to this currency, the undead also accept weapons and equipment from professional warriors as compensation," Yang Qiu still had a warm smile on his face. "For troublesome and dangerous tasks such as investigating haunted houses and clearing monsters, you can pay a few hundred coins, plus one or two pieces of enchanted equipment, and hire ten to twenty undead teams to serve your department. Of course, if the difficulty is too high, please increase the reward as appropriate, otherwise the undead will refuse to accept it."
Captain Lynch Clark had a dazed look on his face, his mouth half open, and the officials' reactions were not much better than his.
Allowing undead creatures to register as problem solvers was like a dream for the Night's Watch.
But... if you thought about it carefully, it seemed like a good idea to let those immortal undead spirits help their own night watchmen to deal with landmines – usually they hired adventurers to do this job, but how could adventurers be as fearless as the undead?
"...We cannot act arbitrarily on such an important matter." After a fierce inner struggle for a while, Captain Lynch Clark said with difficulty, "I need to ask Bishop Gene for guidance."
"Of course." Yang Qiu smiled brightly.
Bishop Gene heard about this soon and immediately reacted very strongly. He rushed over in less than ten minutes.
After the host of the Inhal branch of the Gold Coin Church arrived at the scene, they inquired in detail about the safety issues of hiring the Tarantan Undead and the level of assistance that the Night's Watch needed to provide during the employment of the undead. He also argued with Yang Qiu about who would be responsible for the damage caused by the undead during their missions... After all, he was the boss of the place and his perspective on things was different from that of ordinary people.
After a difficult negotiation, Yang Qiu and Bishop Li Jin reached the following agreement:
First, the Night's Watch organization needed to exchange gold coins for Undead Coins – the exchange ratio was 1 gold coin = 200 copper Coins, which was equivalent to a 5:1 exchange rate between local copper coins and game coins. The premium part was Yang Qiu's income... ahem.
Second: Lord Charlie Rex would provide a venue as a registration place for adventurers of the Night's Watch organization that was open to the undead. The location would be chosen in the club area where all illegal operators had been sealed off, and the Night Watch organization only needed to pay a very low rent.
Third, the Night's Watch organization could not set any threshold for the registration of adventurers, and any Tarantan undead who came had to be approved.
Fourth, the Night's Watch organization had to provide detailed text intelligence support during the period of hiring the Tarantan Undead. If there was a large-scale mission, the Night's Watch would need to be dispatched to guide the operation. In return, the Undead would do their best to protect the safety of the Night Watch members on duty.
Fifth, If combat damage occurred during the mission of the Tarantan Undead, the Undead, the Night Watch, and Lord Charlie Rex would share the responsibility, with the ratio of 1:5:4.
If the players found out that they still had to pay money after completing the mission, they would definitely go crazy. Yang Qiu tried his best to avoid this kind of trouble...
After obtaining the employment contract and currency exchange agreement from the Night's Watch, Yang Qiu walked out of the Night's Watch headquarters refreshed and walked briskly to find the Bounty Association office.
The Indhal Underground Bounty Association's external window was located in the Oak Bar. The president, Ms. Kelly Simon, was stationed on the second floor for a long time, acting as a matchmaker between wealthy employers who needed people to do things and professional strongmen who needed money, and charging a certain amount of commission.
When Yang Qiu appeared in front of the lady with a smile, the branch president of the bounty association was stunned for a full five seconds.
"I'm very sorry for the intrusion, Ms. Simon." Yang Qiu bowed slightly in a friendly manner, "Is your bounty association willing to cooperate with the new Lord of Indhal, Charlie Rex?"