Natta County was the westernmost city in the Noah Kingdom.
It was best known for the fact that half of its downtown was exposed outside the Great Barrier of the Noah Kingdom.
A bird-eye view would display a sharp contrast:
At first glance, the city on the east side was no different from the Noah Kingdom’s other cities.
At the very least, the difference wasn’t exaggerated.
Crowded slums, noisy and dilapidated shopping streets, rumbling factories and mills, and vast wheat fields outside the city.
There were young girls selling flowers on the street, little boys and old men as beggars, and men with broken limbs who looked around at the rich people walking on the streets.
Instead, there was only one difference.
Natta County had no city guard, no police department, and no church.
This was a lawless city with three underground gangs in charge of the city.
Although chaotic and sinful, it was a living city, after all.
But the west side was different.
On the west side of Natta County, gray, rotten, dark green sticky mold clung to the surfaces of buildings. Even the rock tiles lost their color and turned dull gray. No one would stay there without any extra protective measures.
The ornamental plants on the street had withered. The withered white shrubs and trees had become dry and brittle as if they were untreated for decades. The carcasses of small animals scattered on the ground—such as dead mice, hedgehogs, and wild ducks. They had swelled up into clumps of wiggling meat that sat quietly like potted plants; all reaching the height of knees.
But the strange thing was that the factory outside the city on the west side was still running.
However, what it spewed was not grayish-white steam or dark yellow exhaust gas.
Instead, it emitted a thick blood fog.
The sky was covered with blood mist, and the clouds were dyed scarlet. This scarlet would penetrate the clouds at sunset and dye the evening light on the “East City District”.
This indicated that the carnival of blood and gunpowder was about to begin.
After sunset, there were no taboos.
In the dark alley, a gunshot rang. “Bang!”
If it were the other cities in the Noah Kingdom, the city guards would have been attracted to this place at this time.
But no one came to take a look.
Yokai Sensei grinned and frowned as he handed the smoking, rusted flintlock pistol to Delicious Wind Goose behind him.
Beneath his knees was a youth whose hands were severed, and his head exploded.
Before the youth’s skull bit the bullet, there were already two bullet wounds on his forehead.
Yokai Sensei fumbled through him and found a gray metal foil like a horseshoe, three copper coins, an empty syringe, a small bag of bullets, and a small aluminum can of “Black Fire”.
Liquid Black Fire was a high-ranking alternative to gunpowder. It was more stable than gunpowder, and it would fire devastating bullets. After throwing the aluminum can of “Black Fire” and hitting it with a bullet, it became a bomb.
That was dangerous equipment.
Luckily, just moments before the opponent shot, Dove suddenly jumped out behind him and kicked him on the back of the head, knocking him out directly.
“…As expected of Natta County.” After playing with the flintlock pistol seized from youth, Delicious Wind Goose muttered, “Even such a young child would engage in robbery.”
“You call this a robbery?” Yokai Sensei took out a silver coin and tapped the bullet wound on Anderson’s left arm, “If it weren’t for Anderson knocking you away, you would have died already, even when you have just entered the city.”
“Stop blabbering. Heal me!”
Anderson covered his arm and called out with grinning teeth, “Heal. It’s a bruise, and it didn’t hurt the bones…but maybe it hurt the tendons. My arm is twitching.”
“Let’s rest first. Who knows what’s going on here? Use the healing conservatively.”
Yokai Sensei said casually. As if tossing a stone, he flipped the silver coin onto the wound with precision.
The glinting silver coin melted into a ball of light when it touched the wound. The bullet wound on Anderson’s arm healed immediately. Although it was a little uncomfortable, it was able to function normally.
The wound was roughly taken care of.
It would take a little more than two silver coins to recover from this injury fully.
Luckily, Yokai Sensei was not plagued with the “obsessiveness toward healing” commonly found in priests.
Before entering the Mist Continent, he was a righteous healing trebuchet.
[TN: Trebuchet as the metaphor of showering the heals.]
Of course, he had now become a righteous healing glitter.
[TN: The coin is glinting, thus the nickname.]
This time, they went to Natta County to adventure the unexplored part of the game. Of course, they brought a lot of reserves—an overloaded elite squad of four people, one cat, and about 120 silver coins.
Serious injuries, such as broken limbs or large-scale fractures of ribs, would take about 10 to 12 silver coins for an immediate full recovery. This meant that they had a reserve of healing resources of about 10 Health Bars.
He was not so much a priest but a “human-shaped health potion”.
If it was a fatal injury like having the heart pierced, it was better to leave them to their demise rather than wasting the resources.
Anderson did not have the divine art ability to treat critical injuries like that yet.
Once it involves organs and the brain, the amount of silver coins needed increases exponentially.
This was the amount that they had gathered together with other players. Only then could they accumulate an adequate amount of silver coins. At the same time, nearly 40% of them were contributed by Longjing Tea alone.
“Should we look for a place to stay?” Yokai Sensei glanced at Dove and asked, “Let’s find an inn. I’m a little hungry.”
“No.” Delicious Wind Goose sneered, “You’re pretty courageous to live in an inn in this place. Do you dare to eat what’s served inside? Regardless of whether we will be turned into minced meat as food, I think these silver coins will be gone tomorrow. “
[TN: Reference to the Water Margin.]
“Then, what shall we do?” Anderson frowned, “Are we still stuck with dry food and jerky? Where can we go offline tomorrow if we don’t have a bed?”
“Are you stupid? Now you can go offline without a bed.”
Delicious Wind Goose squinted his eyes, “Hear my proposal… If you are not busy, the four of us should not go offline for the next two days. Whoever wants to eat, drink and poop can quickly go offline but return immediately. The rest will guard him.
“Are any of you busy?” The three people and one cat looked at each other, but no one spoke.
Anderson replied, “I don’t have any issue with it.”
“Great,” Delicious Wind Goose nodded immediately, “Then, that’s decided for now.
“Let’s revise our missions. Our main objective is to live here for a week, overcome three nightmares, and set up a teleportation waypoint for the rest of the players… preferably completing the mission within ten days.
“The reward level of the three nightmare dungeon instances, the experience in the dungeon instance, plus the extra reward experience of the teleportation waypoint. The experience points given will raise Anderson and Dove to about Level 16 and 17.
“The good thing about Natta County is that there are many wild transcenders and demons here. Most of the transcenders in Natta County are felons. We don’t have to worry about the laws and the guilty from our conscience for this place. My suggestion is to get Level 20 and advance to Silver Rank as soon as possible.
“The underground world is rich in resources but also dangerous. Compared with the unknown beasts, human beings are much more vulnerable. After hunting down a sufficient number of illegal transcenders, we refrain from the rank advancement at this place. Instead, we retreat directly through the teleportation waypoint, head back to the capital, and advance in a safe place.”
“Got it.”
Anderson concluded, “Kill some monsters, find nightmares, and clear the dungeons.”
Yokai Sensei added, “Also, find a place to sleep, at least not to worry about losing money.”
Dove let out a meow.
“…No, having a place to sleep in peace is impossible.”
Delicious Wind Goose was calm, “We should be prepared for the worst, having our money and gear could be lost at any moment.
“I smell lust here… This place is full of deceit, betrayal, rage, and jealousy.”