Chapter 769.2: You Are What You Eat! Yiwu!
Chapter 769.2: You Are What You Eat! Yiwu!
Partly, it was because the language of the Federation of Human possessed extraordinary compatibility. Otherwise, it could never have accommodated the many cultures of the old era. Also, it was because the game was realistic enough that people became immersed without realizing it.
However, knowing how to use a language and using it well were entirely different things. Even the small minority of experts were generally proficient only in everyday conversation.
When encountering unfamiliar technical terminology or cultural references, they could only interpret them from context.
As for most ordinary players, they naturally used whatever method was most convenient. As long as they selected the correct key words, NPCs could understand them even if the sentence structure followed grammar from another world.
Port Gallon was fundamentally a settlement transformed under the leadership of players. A series of advanced ideas, including equality, had been brought by players from the harmonious society of the real world.
Having benefited from modern civilization, Port Gallon’s newly rising citizen class and the former nobles who adapted to the changing times had unconsciously begun imitating the New Alliance’s Iron Men in their customs.
Under the subtle influence, the current situation had emerged.
The Iron Men of the Burning Corps had contaminated the local language with their fragmented Federation of Human’s language.
It was pretty much similar to Little Feather’s “Yiwus.” Originally, it was merely an exclamation, but the quick-learning creature had adopted it as a general communication tool.
“Uh, rationally speaking, what you’re saying does make sense. But I don’t say ‘fucking’ and ‘goddamned’ every single time... And why didn’t this happen in Dawn City?”
Facing the dude’s confused gaze, Two Moonlight began explaining with confidence, “Because the NPCs there mainly worship the administrator. No one worships you there. Xiaoyu is the most obvious example. Besides, Dawn City has a much broader variety of players, such as Miss Teng Teng and Yaya. When have you ever heard them constantly speak like you do? They’re civilized, just like me!”
“You’re civilized my ass.” Zero Rush rolled his eyes.
Two Moonlight grinned shamelessly. “Heh. Still better than a certain person who won’t even spare children.”
“You fucking...! God damn you, you fuc...!” Zero Rush’s nose nearly twisted from rage as he began cursing.
These damned bastards.
He had merely touched a child’s head by accident, and the misunderstanding had already been clarified afterward. Yet the rumors had only grown increasingly outrageous. Eventually, everyone looked at him with disgust.
Seeing Zero Rush lose his temper, Mountain River Dreaming sighed. “There are too many hot-tempered brothers in Port Gallon. It would be nice if we invited Yaya over.”
At that moment, Version Firstborn, who usually spoke little, suddenly shuddered and said, “Hell no. What if she comes here, decides the place is full of filth and corruption, and tags the doggy developer on the forum to launch an anti-vice campaign?”
Three pairs of eyes turned toward him simultaneously.
Mountain River Dreaming: “What did you say?”
Two Moonlight frowned. “Explain the filth and corruption you are referring to in detail.”
Zero Rush’s eyes also lit up. “Holy shit, I don’t understand. Brother, hurry up and explain!”
Facing their burning gazes, Version Firstborn subtly looked away and coughed softly. “Mission first... We’ll discuss the paid content offline.”
Mountain River Dreaming’s jaws dropped slightly. “...”
“Fuck you!”
...
The Rat Clan had 13 pronunciations for their surnames, and the Poro Province happened to have 13 states as well. The state containing Port Gallon was called Rowell State. Its name naturally originated from Camp Rowell in Port Gallon, and it was also the only state in the Poro Province whose name was unrelated to an animal.
Naksil State, where West Sail Harbor lay at the westernmost edge, meant ‘lion’. Directly north of Rowell State in the east was Tiger State, to its left was Panther State, and farther south was Snake State. To the right lay the Poro Sea.
A widely circulated theory among the local educated class held that although the states borrowed the names of animals, what they actually worshipped, or rather, sealed away were the gods behind those animals.
Rowell was not an animal, but he was a totem buried in the heart of every survivor in the Poro Province. He was also the only “human god” not counted among the Thousand Pillars.
According to the customs, every living being was a pillar, or rather, part of a pillar. They could be considered a “human pillar.”
Or perhaps, they could be said to be a sacrifice.
However, according to Ms. Han Mingyue’s interpretation, there was another explanation.
200 years ago, the Poro Province had been an enormous ecological preserve. Rowell State was the sole scientific observation site and visitor rest area at the time, while Tiger State was the principal habitat of tigers, Panther State the principal habitat of panthers, and the same applied to the various species of snakes, elephants, lions, cattle, wolves, and so forth.
For a long period, those wild animals had served as a source of food for the survivors of that era. After eating them nearly to extinction, the locals had sanctified them out of some form of gratitude.
Combined with the influence of old Animal World recordings, it eventually evolved into the belief in a thousand clans and a thousand gods.
The two explanations were merely different perspectives. One was an analysis that peeled back the layers of the spiritual dimension, while the other was a purely rational deduction based on scientific evidence. The distinction between them was roughly equivalent to that between an oil painting and a sketch. Both depicted the same apple, yet they were not entirely identical.
At present, the entire northern region of Rowell State was under the control of the Fierce Tiger Army, while its western and southwestern regions were controlled by the Black Panther Army.
The two armies had effectively become warlords. Although they still received military salaries from the Xilande Empire, in reality, they had already become estranged from the Xilande Empire while maintaining a superficial relationship.
Their relationship was sustained entirely by money.
The day the Xilande Empire stopped paying them would be the day those warlords tore away the last veil of pretense.
In fact, because of the Xilande Empire’s previous embargo against Port Gallon and the Baiyue Strait Development Company’s counter-embargo measures, the two major warlords along the border had long ago achieved financial freedom through smuggling.
And it was not merely financial freedom. Productivity within the territories they controlled had also improved considerably.
It was not because those warlords understood governance. Quite the opposite actually. Most of their officers knew nothing about governing and had no intention of doing so. In that respect, they were even worse than the Xilande Empire’s civil officials.
Yet precisely because of that, the officers simply adopted a completely laissez-faire economic model, allowing Port Gallon’s merchants and the local nobles to handle matters themselves. Whoever paid received a green light from the military lords. They even helped the merchants oppose officials dispatched by the Xilande Empire, marching into noble estates with guns to force purchases and sales.
Such barbaric conduct was naturally undesirable. It severely damaged the Xilande Empire’s economy and tax revenues, and if allowed to continue over the long term, it would eventually harm the warlords themselves.
However, those barbarians happened to have arrived at the right moment and accidentally enjoyed the dividends of Port Gallon’s development.
Productivity and development possessed regional spillover effects.
Port Gallon’s advanced productive capacity would inevitably travel in the opposite direction of the migrant flow, feeding back into the other regions of Rowell State and even neighboring Tiger State and Panther State.
After all, operating a dye works in Port Gallon required paying workers 1,600 Gallons in wages. Someone would inevitably have the idea of moving purchased sewing machines and dye vats to a location where labor costs were lower and the New Alliance’s reach was too distant to regulate, opening a small workshop to divert a portion of the profits from the industrial chain.
One should not underestimate that small portion of profit. A single workshop might earn little, but 100 workshops could rival a large factory.
Moreover, those owners, who differed from factory owners, would also purchase machinery to improve their productivity. The increase in productivity not only concentrated wealth, but also changed the relationships between people and between different groups.
In particular, after increasing numbers of former nobles tasted the benefits of greater productivity, and the bitterness of having guns pointed at them, they too began pursuing productive development.
Previously, the Black Panther Army’s provisions had depended upon the funding of the empire. Now, the tax revenue from Banana Head Bay alone was enough for the local general to support his subordinates. Occasionally, he could even distribute beef cans that New Alliance soldiers had grown tired of eating as benefits for his men.
Their lives were far more comfortable than when they had served as the Xilande Empire’s dogs.
As for the centurion who had once pressed a gun against Axin’s head, he now had to address Axin respectfully as his lord. After all, Axin had established connections with the man above his direct superior’s superior and no longer needed to include a minor centurion in his games.
However, Axin did not hold the earlier incident against him. He even courteously pulled some strings on the officer’s behalf, helping the arrogant man become a commander! He also arranged his marriage to the youngest daughter of a viscount’s family in Panther State and purchased a marital home for them on Tulip Street in Port Gallon.
He now possessed money, identity, status, and a beautiful young wife. Naturally, that reckless brute, who was even more impetuous than Laxi, was so grateful that tears filled his eyes. He was only one step away from calling Axin his father.
With the support of that commander and the other senior officers of the Black Panther Army, the Assassin Gang’s business continued growing until it had practically monopolized the entirety of Panther State’s cotton trade.
Although the Poro Province’s cotton could not match the Baiyue Province’s in quality or yield, it possessed the advantages of low cost and immense scale. It also occupied a considerable share of Port Gallon’s market.
Even after the ceasefire agreement was signed and smuggling no longer commanded the same high prices as before, they could continue conducting legitimate business through their now-mature border crossings and currency-exchange houses.
Their profits were even greater than before!
However, although Port Gallon’s “radiation effect” exerted a considerable influence upon the other regions of Rowell State, their pace of development still could not match that of Port Gallon itself, the only import and export harbor on the eastern coast.
At present, the 10,000 square kilometers actually controlled by Baiyue Strait Development Company accounted for only one-fortieth of the entire state, yet the rest of the state’s wealth were concentrated in Port Gallon.
If the distribution of benefits between the New Alliance and Port Gallon was unequal, like the relationship between Silver and Gallons, then the distribution between Port Gallon, Rowell State, and even the entirety of the Poro Province was even more extremely unbalanced.
The residents of Port Gallon were already riding bicycles as swift as the wind. Children reciting their lessons had begun contemplating humanity’s place among mountains and rivers and where people ought to stand many years in the future.
Yet in the Tiger State and the Panther State, many people still ate cakes made from mud and were forced to sell their sons and daughters to survive.