Surviving The Fourth Calamity

’Snow Cloud Peak’ finally chose the troublesome but lifelong beneficial second plan.

Compared to Hill, he understands his people better.

They would rather exert some effort to rebuild another section of The Great Wall than manage daily minutiae.

Moreover, they would prefer to spend money upfront to install semi-intelligent weaponry at the main entrance of the mine that can automatically distinguish friend from foe.

’Snow Cloud Peak’ truly understands why the game creators want to open up a world like Aesces to them... precisely for these crystalline energy tools.

Otherwise, the bases in Toril belonging to various Undead Tribe families would be incredibly troublesome.

Toril truly is a world without ordinary people.

Even those powerless civilians, given the chance to steal Gold Coins, most will do so without hesitation.

Hill is the smartest one... he doesn’t bother with grand principles like ’treat everyone equally and be fair,’ as Agleya and the affiliated territories only allow residents from the Kind Alignment, and Neutral Faction members can only stay temporarily.

Acts of theft would instantly erase all kindness.

No choice, in Agleya, starvation is not a possibility, and Lind, who manages the city, does so very fairly.

In Toril, some kind souls may steal food from wealthy and unjust Nobles to distribute to the poor, but that doesn’t mean they can also steal in Agleya.

That territory certainly doesn’t have food acquired through exploiting the poor.

And if there actually are hungry poor people from other regions outside the city, they could collect many edible berries and roots in the wild, and it’s perfectly safe.

No strong beasts would survive near Agleya.

So the result is that, upon violating certain rules, those who consider themselves as kind-hearted helpers would instantly become Neutral.

Agleya never considers personal feelings... who can go and discuss with the rule-setting Goddess of the Sea about maintaining human relations?

But the Undead Tribes establishing territories initially didn’t do so.

Even knowing the faction laws of Toril and Teraxil differ slightly, they still neglected it.

The final result is that city management becomes incredibly troublesome.

Petty theft is truly rampant.

Although the Undead Tribe can catch thieves and kill decisively, how many families can let their members live like exhausted police officers?

They have an omnipresent network and mechanical intelligent police assistance in the interstellar!

Those police are still exhausting jobs.

In situations where most people live without worries, few persist in police work.

No choice, in the past, many police were retired soldiers.

However, in the interstellar age, human aging is greatly delayed; tasks requiring strength are mostly done by machines, soldiers other than a few unlucky ones who have no choice, generally retire when retiring age arrives, so police have to be trained separately.

For most Undead Tribes, they really cannot persist in such frustrating daily jobs in the game.

They are here to play.

Hence, semi-intelligent tools fully relying on Crystal Stone in Aesces are genuinely significant for the Undead Tribes.

Compared to the rough Crystal Stone Blocks used by Aescians, the Crystal Stones held by the Undead Tribe are truly energy-filled.

Definitely adequate for the Undead Tribe to establish such a semi-automatic managed territory for themselves.

’Snow Cloud Peak’ stood at the city gate, silently watching groups of Alchemists directing construction vehicles to pile up a wide and long brick wall, then the Earth Mages behind them turning the brick wall into more solid granite.

With this aid, even though the Proud Sky Alliance didn’t bring many Earth Mages into Aesces, construction is easier!

Seeing this, ’Snow Cloud Peak’ relaxed with indifference.

Though Aesces may be somewhat irritating, at least this expansion truly has significance.

They weren’t tossed into this absurd world for no reason.

Moreover, to some extent, it can be considered a reward for their illustrious merits... although by the end of the storyline mission, those wishing to learn these Alchemy Skills can basically come freely.

But Alchemy is a process that needs accumulation, Proud Sky Alliance has already taken the lead, and all Skills have been acquired at once, indeed considered profitable.

In games, monopolized Skills simply cannot appear.

But first-comers always get the best share.

Feeling that he didn’t entirely lose out, Snow Old Dog slowly calmed down.

While unaware of what kind of self-conquest Mr. ’Snow Cloud Peak’ underwent to become much friendlier, Aesces hurriedly seized the opportunity to ask many questions.

Hill could also ask over there, but as someone with a bit of crisis intuition, Aesces didn’t want to get scolded again when Hill was obviously angry.

The most important thing is, as long as the benefits are enough, ’Snow Cloud Peak’ clearly won’t hold grudges, but Hill certainly doesn’t care about benefits.

’Snow Cloud Peak’ gave up on their self-discipline and self-comfort in just half a day.

If it weren’t for ’Susu’ quickly closing the doors and windows of the command hall, those few nobles still lingering at the camp might have heard the undead tribe’s commander cursing the World Master.

She finally understood... why ’Snow Cloud Peak’ was unwilling to meet other clan leaders when Aesces was around, preferring to let her relay messages back and forth.

Snow Old Dog certainly wasn’t trying to save face for Aesces but didn’t want so many people to see his rage and ferocious appearance.

How many people would have their tablets sparking fire!

If not for her selfish motives... ’Susu’ struggled to touch her tablet, then decisively turned and walked out of the command hall, firmly closing the door on the staircase.

She couldn’t stay any longer, for the first time, her reason and emotion conflicted in such a manner.

’Susu’ sat down heavily on the stairs... never thought she would rather give up a chance to be alone with Snow Old Dog.

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With the mining completed, ’Snow Cloud Peak’ naturally sent a signal to the outside world.

This time, he issued an announcement in the name of Cain Valley’s lord, Lind: Given the increasing threats from the ocean and the weakening resistance of the Moon Clan, they are turning their attention to those sea monsters.

Not just the gigantic ones, any marine life polluted by the previous Goddess of the Sea, Cain Valley is willing to accept those corpses as task objectives.

He extensively outlined a long purchase price list categorized by size and energy reserves... that’s something to thank the Youth Journey of the Wenjian World’s Ocean Academy students for, they really helped a lot.

Although species might differ, to the undead tribe, as long as they look similar, they can be considered the same species.

Sharks come in many varieties, but whether big or small, whether they eat fish or grass, they can all be called sharks, right?

And the task reward is not money but the time allowed to mine at Cain Valley’s crystal mine.

For such a large vein, ’Snow Cloud Peak’ never considered monopolizing it.

The Proud Sky Alliance has tens of thousands of people! How could they keep any secrets? Posting on the forum about how much ore one mined is a huge face-saving move for him, ’Snow Cloud Peak’!

But he has no interest in giving it away for free either.

All of this was gained through his suffering and hard work!

If it weren’t for William, who, despite being silent, quietly assigned him a portion of Cain Valley’s mining tax, ’Snow Cloud Peak’ would have quit long ago!

What ’Snow Cloud Peak’ appreciates most about William is this... though he uses people harshly, he never makes people work for free.

When commanding in Toril, his salary was very satisfactory to him.

’Snow Cloud Peak’ is not worried that there won’t be enough miners... those in Basia City wanting independence have probably been poor for a long time.

While the battles with the Moon Clan are fierce, and they indeed earn significant merit points.

But in Basia City, they can’t find many money-making opportunities... Tch, it might not even be as good as the two stores left by Lu Tai, after all, they opened early enough.

Do they really think Proud Sky Alliance sustains itself by doing business with the locals?

Only the money from the undead tribe keeps coming consistently!

The locals might initially snap up bargains in their eyes... but their buying volume is limited, and they absolutely won’t waste lightly.

Once their funds hit a certain bottom line, they won’t spend anymore.

Only the undead tribe would be willing to use potions more valuable than the merits they can earn, just to take down more enemies.

But even among the undead tribe, only a small fraction is willing to do so... most people hope to earn back the money they spent.

Especially in the game.

But the people in charge of Eden in Basia City now don’t understand these things.

The ordinary people there... even those from Eden, live miserably.

And not to mention those families trying to become independent without joining actions against the Proud Sky Alliance, following Eden’s footsteps.

They simply don’t understand why life is worse though they’ve driven away the Proud Sky Alliance.

Hey~ ’Snow Cloud Peak’, if not for needing more experimental subjects, wouldn’t have given them money-making opportunities at this time.

Letting them struggle for a longer period would reduce the number of fools playing ’watching the mantis stalk the cicada’ in the future.

But now more important matters are at hand, so troubling them can wait.

’Snow Cloud Peak’ quietly looked toward the ocean... His current focus is, when will Ismael’s Princess Scaret give birth?