The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 258: It’s So Easy to Please the Players

The players quickly eliminated the rest of the Skeleton Guardians.

As for the materials left after the skeletons died, they had all dissipated in the air as there was no way of preserving it.

The only harvest would be the frozen Light Chasing Beast, which Kafni had taken.

The lamp oil in her lantern was made from the Light Chasing Beast’s oil paste plus several alchemy stabilizers. Only this oil paste could maintain a stable and bright light in any environment. It also ensured that its light wouldn’t be too glaring, nor would the lantern overheat and catch fire.

Since it was already a curse material, it didn’t take much of an effort to produce a curse vessel with it.

“I can extract about five barrels of ‘white liquid fire’ with what we have.”

Kafni said to Annan seriously at the time, “I brought the tools, so please leave the refinery work to me. After I’m done, I will keep a barrel for myself and give the rest to you.”

I don’t mind. Take it all if you need it. That was what Annan intended to say at first.

However, he learned from Kafni that a “barrel” of white liquid fire, which was the size of a jar of tea leaves, could sell for about 40 to 60 pounds.

…That would be 200 gold coins.

Hearing this price, Annan silently swallowed back his words.

His entire wealth didn’t even amount to this number yet.

But then Annan thought through it again.

Since it was a valuable curse material, Salvatore might need it.

Anyway, since he wanted to sell it, he might as well sell it to the senior. It would be a win-win situation.

Speaking of which, how much did I owe him again?

Salvatore had never mentioned the money Annan owed, so he couldn’t recall the number right now.

Before capturing the ritualist whose alias was “the Father”, Annan didn’t forget to give out the reward of the time-limited mission.

All the participated players were awarded 200 experience points and 200 affection ratings. This number was enough to entertain those players who came over to “challenge a special game event”.

Suuankou and Citalopram’s main missions were marked as completed. The total experience points earned from the two missions allowed them to reach Level 7 directly.

They likely had to stay in their teachers’ place tonight.

As for their housing issues, they had to wait until the daytime. Only then could Annan go through the official procedure at the city hall and assign them houses from Crimson Water Street. Yup! Annan had distributed the players’ houses in Roseburg for free without any costs on affection ratings.

All the players had a 200 m2 house with three bedrooms!

Of course, the internal decorations weren’t provided.

This would probably be due to the rare conscience of the game designer. .

After all, he was a transmigrator too.

He knew well what these players wanted.

There were a lot of empty houses in Roseburg anyway.

After repelling the Rotten Man a few days ago, Annan finally had his time to deal with the garrisons in Roseburg, who stayed quiet as if they were deaf and blind.

He had risked his identity being exposed and went to the Green Water Street area in the south part of the city to speak with the commander of the local garrisons.

The commander was polite and didn’t trouble Annan. That showed that he didn’t know Don Juan Geraint at all.

He explained clearly that they weren’t subordinates to Count Geraint but under General Edwin’s direct command.

As the Head of the Intelligence Department, Count Geraint was the head of the national spy department, so they weren’t allowed to have any form of military power… So, they had direct orders from General Edwin to refrain from following Annan’s orders.

The general was only responsible for two matters. First, if the Austere-Winter Dukedom was being invaded, then they would defend Roseburg and ask for reinforcement from the capital as soon as possible.

At the same time, they would intercept any Austere-Winter Dukedom spies coming from the Freezing Water Port and stop the spies from going further south.

When Annan first heard it, he put on a baffled expression.

But you’re not stopping me in any way…

I seem to be the spy.

But since then, Annan had learned at least one thing. The general didn’t intend to trouble him, nor was he interested in being affiliated with the viscount. So, he wasn’t harboring any ill thoughts towards him.

They were just intimidated by the Geraint family… or rather, they didn’t want to have any unnecessary contact with the Geraint family to avoid suspicion.

Thus, things were simple.

Roseburg, which was rebuilt after the war, was like an asymmetrical four-petaled flower.

The Rusty Water Street on the east side was a mix of slum and ??industrial areas. Crimson Water Street, the largest area on the north side, was a dense residential zone. The smallest zone with the best environment was on the west side, Clear Water Street. It was the municipal area. Green Water Street on the south side was a commercial and entertainment zone with the city square in the middle.

Roseburg used to be a frontier fortress.

Crimson Water Street, in the north of the city, was divided into a military zone for storing garrison supplies and accommodating the garrisoned units during the war. But after the war and the withdrawal of the garrisons, these places were empty. After all, Roseburg was a border city. If there were too many garrisons, it would cause tremendous pressure on the goods transportation and the neighboring country.

The Freezing Water Port was the outpost and a buffer zone for invasions. Basically, there wasn’t a need to garrison military units there. In fact, the garrisons stationed in Roseburg only amounted to 2,000 elite soldiers.

After all, Roseburg had underground passages built.

The specific location was at No. 1 Clear Water Street. There was a steam machine similar to a subway in the underground passage, connecting Roseburg to the capital.

Noah Kingdom’s most elite Transcended troops could reach any major city in Noah Kingdom within half a day once the order was delivered. In the face of infiltration by small enemy forces, well-trained Transcended were more helpful than soldiers.

Transcended could only be smuggled through underground passages. Therefore, those who had infiltrated must be ordinary people. Let’s not forget that Transcended had an overwhelming advantage against ordinary people. Moreover, the Transcended units weren’t mobilized in large numbers, but they entered the city through underground passages that ordinary people couldn’t use. This made their arrival unnoticed.

Roseburg was much emptier after the garrisons were gradually withdrawn from Roseburg to the inland.

Roseburg’s viscount, who was still young at the time, made a wise decision. After obtaining permission from Count Geraint, he recruited construction teams from the inland area with high salaries to convert the military base on the north side into residential houses. At the same time, they focused on constructing commercial districts and selling expensive and high-quality goods and services to these highly paid workers.

The viscount hardly lost anything in the transactions. Some construction teams even stayed in Roseburg for a long time. After all, there were long-term urban reconstruction projects here.

This attracted a large number of residents.

To make room for the soldiers, Roseburg’s viscount also provided them with an area of villas in the center of the business district at a low price. His goal was simple — to turn the garrisons into their commercial zone’s security guards for free.

Although neither the Barber family nor the Geraint family had direct order over these units, these soldiers were human beings after all. After living in that place for a long time, it would naturally foster a sense of belonging.

The viscount had a smart plan too, or rather a forceful approach. He disbanded the original city guards in the commercial zones and forced the garrisons to provide security. Later, Viscount Barber tried to please them with an extra salary from the municipality, but this request was rejected. Even though Viscount Barber was warned at the time, the matter ended with only a warning.

With the benefits provided already, they could hardly turn him down. After all, this luxury housing wasn’t given away for nothing.

Hence, Roseburg had become the most prosperous city in the North Sea Territory with good public security and intensive commercial activities. Many small businesses from out of town would come to the Green Water Street area to purchase a house.

After all, it wasn’t easy to find a place that upheld law and order in this era.

Although Roseburg had a steady stream of residents coming in from the inland, the construction speed went ahead of the population growth rate.

Annan immediately used his power to assign all the residential areas under Viscount Barber to the players. The assignment went through in the forms of title deed and house deed that was typically used to repay the feudal lord after a construction team went bankrupt. Although Viscount Barber wasn’t the feudal lord, he lived in Roseburg like a feudal lord, so these documents were also handed over to him.

Also, these houses were treated as a batch of “foreclosures”.

This “community” had more than 40 well-maintained villas. Each villa was more than 200 m2 and the three-story luxury specification wasn’t affordable to ordinary people. It seemed highly probable that the construction team had an ill strategy. The houses weren’t sold even though there were a couple of wealthy people who lived in Green Water Street in the south already.

So Annan dismantled the single-family villas into three sections. With that, he could house three players for each villa.

This distribution system could last for a while.

The players were grateful for it too.

Annan didn’t pay them a salary last month, so much so that the players even forgot that they had salaries. However, they were pleased with the gifted properties.

Especially, after experiencing the narrow housing of 30 m2 at Freezing Water Port, they were in ecstasy with the new houses that Annan gifted them.

Annan also smiled in satisfaction.

It’s so easy to be in good favor of the players…

After earning their place to live, I think they will identify themselves further as a part of this world and have a sense of belonging.

As for now…

After the players returned to their respective homes, Annan took the ritualist to the viscount house.

He got some unexpected information from “the Father”.

Annan wondered if Kafni knew the name, but it wasn’t appropriate to let the players know these secrets for sure.

“The Father” said to Annan earlier that he came to the Noah Kingdom on orders from the Daughter of the Storm. His objective was to take note of the resurrection of Michelangelo.

Annan once heard the alias “the Daughter of the Storm” from Old Bread.

It wasn’t a deity’s name, but a title like “Time Stopper Eye”.

It was a title that only those with Gold Rank could have!

And, The owner of the title “the Daughter of the Storm” was Maria Austere-Winter — Annan Austere-Winter’s sister.

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Credits to MindMatrix for editing this chapter and improving the readability.