Empire of Shadows

At the foot of Horseback Mountain lies a city called Saige City.

Previously, Saige City was just a distribution center, very small, with a permanent population of probably less than five hundred people.

Because there was a silver mine on Horseback Mountain, it was said that someone had also discovered a gold mine on Horseback Mountain.

But for various reasons, the gold mine was not discovered.

Some also said that the gold mine had actually been discovered, but the president did not intend to develop it at present. He wanted to leave this gold mine for his children to develop.

Anyway, there were all kinds of rumors.

The Federation has gold prospectors, and Rapa also has them, and they are even more fanatical.

In the Federation, if people don’t pan for gold, they can do many jobs. Whether it’s being a security guard, a warehouse manager in a supermarket, or finding a job in a factory, they can find a way to make money to support themselves and their families.

But in Rapa, if people don’t pan for gold, then there is a high probability that they will not be able to find a job.

Gold prospecting has given many people a relatively decent chance to live. Moreover, the mountain goods resources in Horseback Mountain are very rich.There are mountain runners who collect various mountain goods in the mountains, and then sell them to the local purchasing merchants at the foot of the mountain.

After these purchasing merchants get these goods, a part will be sold in the country, sold to the ruling group and the privileged class.

There is also a part, and a considerable part, that will be exported to the Federation to earn foreign exchange.

With resources, and dividends, people will naturally gather, and the scale of this distribution center has gradually grown.

Once the scale becomes large, the Rapa’s government has to intervene. It has, from a distribution center with no management, gradually become a small village, a town.

And it has also obtained an official name, Saige City.

”Saige” is just a transliteration. In the local language of Rapa, this word has the meaning of ”gray forest,” just like the mountain behind it, continuous, dark, and gloomy.

It gives people an indescribable feeling of oppression.

Because the air humidity in Rapa is high, no matter when, Horseback Mountain always maintains a high humidity. Looking from a distance, it will give people a feeling that it has been swallowed into the belly of the clouds and mist.

It is shrouded in clouds and mist, and cannot be seen very clearly.

This famine has had a certain impact on Saige City at the foot of Horseback Mountain, but the impact is not very large.

There are many mountain runners here. When they go into the mountains, it is for ten days or half a month. Some may even stay in the mountains for a month.

Before entering the mountain, you need to be fully prepared, and grain is a very important part.

Although there is food in the mountains, no one can guarantee that on the path they are walking, they will definitely encounter food that can fill their stomachs, and that they can continue to eat for a long time.

Most people who enter the mountains will carry a considerable amount of grain, for example, if they plan to enter the mountain for a month, then they must bring at least twenty pounds of grain.

There is a saying here that expresses a good wish, called ”thirty pounds in, one hundred pounds out,” which means to bring thirty pounds of food into the mountain, and in the end, you can come back with one hundred pounds of mountain goods.

There are also things like ”a pound of wheat for a pound of gold,” which are all very good wishes.

The huge group of mountain runners has also created a large reserve of grain locally, which is more than in other cities, not less.

The people of Rapa, because their income is relatively low, and they do not have the habit of storing grain, so the grain in most cities is only enough to maintain a short period of daily consumption.

But Saige can maintain it for a long time.

So when other cities were already experiencing famine and people were starving to death, the situation in Saige City was still okay. It was just that the price of grain had risen a lot, and if you were not a local, it was very difficult to buy grain.

Pedro had already changed to a new pair of glasses. For this, he had paid 500 Paras, which was about seven-plus Federal Sols, close to one and a half months’ salary for a person from Rapa.

Because the lenses were imported, Rapa’s industrial foundation made it impossible for them to even make lenses.

In the development of the country’s science and technology, they had not unlocked the technology tree of ”hand-grinding lenses.” They lacked a Galileo, so all the lenses were imported, and even the eyeglass frames.

The price of these glasses imported from the Federation was less than a dollar. The Federation’s mature industrial production had made the price of these things very low.

Glass, how much can it be worth?

The legs of the glasses were also stamped parts plus rubber. At this time, they were all cheap industrial products.

But to sell, it would cost more than seven. This was the huge profit of a monopoly!

After changing his glasses, and changing his hairstyle, Pedro had just so openly entered Saige City.

He and his group were walking on the street, looking at everything here. Everywhere was filled with the traces of a ”government background.”

Gomez and his chamber of commerce were also here, buying all kinds of mountain goods and gold ore, especially gold nuggets.

Only the merchants with a government background, or a privileged class background, could survive here. The mountain goods here were the main export commodities, and they must, and could only, be in the hands of this small group of them.

As outsiders, strangers, the gazes of many people would linger on Pedro and his group for a moment.

Their gazes were not friendly, because with the outbreak of the famine, there were also some people who had fled from the surrounding areas to Saige City.

They had broken the rules in the city and were not likable.

This time, not many of them had come, mainly to observe.

Fifty guns, how can they be used to their maximum potential?

Pedro’s colleague, a common languange teacher, had been frowning all the way. At this time, seeing the scale of this city, and the people on the road, he clearly felt the pressure.

”I really can’t imagine how we, with so few people, can attack this city, and... control it?”

”God, that Mr. Lance must have wanted to refuse us, so he gave us a difficult problem that we can’t solve!”

His face looked very pained, and the expressions of the others were also very serious.

Pedro had told them that if they wanted to get subsequent aid, they had to hand in a suitable ”test paper.”

Compared to their depression, their uncertainty, their doubts about the future, Pedro, on the contrary, seemed very calm.

He was not depressed at all, and he didn’t even feel that these things couldn’t be done.

His colleague nudged him with his elbow. ”What are you thinking?”

Pedro’s gaze fell on the people who were huddled in the corners of the street. There was a high probability that they were refugees who had fled from other places.

There were also some local ordinary people, who had no savings themselves, and in addition, some of their bad habits. Although they were mountain runners, they could never save any money.

This city gave him a very absurd feeling, an atmosphere that he had never felt in other cities.

There were countless casinos, bars, red-light districts, all kinds of things that could wear down people’s will.

So much so that at times it made Pedro feel that this was not a remote area at all, but a microcosm of a certain block in Zhuolan!

Prosperous, lively, and full of an entertainment atmosphere.

He could understand.

Whether it was the gold prospectors, or the mountain runners, they were all risking their lives to make money.

After making money, they would certainly have the desire to consume, to find some girls to vent the agitation of having been in the mountains for ten days, half a month, or even a month, or to go to a bar for a couple of drinks to relax.

The local fruit wine was not worth much, including some of the small factory’s whiskey, he didn’t know.

There was no prohibition here. A bottle of whiskey was only a hundred or so Paras, which was just over a dollar in Federal Sols.

Of course, the price had gone up now, and it probably cost 200 Paras, which was about three Federal Sols.

They didn’t need to drink a whole bottle at a time. A glass, twenty Paras, was affordable for everyone.

Two hundred, tobacco, alcohol, and sex, and you could enjoy it to the fullest.

Some were interested in gambling. After doing these, they would go to a casino to play a few hands. In the end, they would lose everything, and the past half a month would have been in vain. Then they would find a dry place on the side of the street to lie down, and to wait for the next time to enter the mountain.

There were many such people. They had been working hard, but they had never been able to save money, as if a magic curse had been cast on them here.

In Pedro’s view, these people could actually be considered his helpers.

After he had taken a tour, he had led his men back outside the city.

This team of his had more than a thousand people, but a considerable portion of them were the old and the weak, women, and children.

The real, presentable adult males were only a little over two hundred.

After returning to the camp, he had picked up a cup and had chugged two mouthfuls of water. The men had also gathered around.

Pedro sat down and sorted out everything he had seen during the day. ”I have a plan...”

For the next few days, Pedro and a few of the more clever people around him had returned to Saige City.

They had gone to a few of the more famous local casinos, and had lost a lot of money—

With the financial aid from the federal people, their money had already been exchanged for a portion of Paras on the way.

Every time they had lost money, they would have a couple of drinks, and would find a place with many people in a similar situation as them, and would, in a complaining tone, guess if the casino was cheating.

”As long as the money I bet is not much, the probability of winning is very high.”

”But as long as I bet a lot, I will definitely lose!”

Pedro had made himself look a little drunk. He was holding a wine bottle in his hand, and his whole body was reeking of alcohol. He was complaining loudly, ”I’ve been losing for so long, and I’ve never heard of anyone winning money in a casino!”

”They must be cheating...”

The people around had all had similar experiences. In fact, a casino itself is a precise mathematical game.

To want to win money in a casino is not so simple, and maybe they really had cheated.

Even if they had, these people might not know.

Even if they knew, they might not dare to do anything.

After all, every casino has a background.

A person without a background is simply not qualified to do business here, even the porstitute, there is someone behind them who is supporting them.

Otherwise, they would have long since fought like dogs because of the fierce competition. How could they be so harmonious now?

Pedro’s complaint had quickly attracted the approval of many. When people are poor, they will always find a reason for their downfall.

They were not willing to admit that it was their own greed for the possible high returns of gambling that had eventually led to them losing everything. They were more willing to admit that it was the casino that had used some tricks that had caused them to lose the money they should have won.

If only one person had said this rumor, then everyone would have just treated it as a small matter, and it would have disappeared after a few days.

But today someone had said it, tomorrow someone had said it, and there had always been someone who was saying it. Then naturally, it would make some people have a feeling of ”this is the truth.”

For the people at the bottom, what is the truth?

The truth is what everyone recognizes, that is the truth!

Whether it is true or not is no longer so important. What is important is that everyone accepts this result!

It didn’t even take a few days, and the casino’s business was immediately affected.

Fewer customers had come, and the daily turnover had dropped a lot.

The owner of the largest casino in Saige City, after he had learned of this, had immediately grabbed two of the gambling dogs and had come to ask them if something had happened, so that people were no longer coming to the casino.

When he had heard that someone had said that the casino was cheating, and had caused everyone to lose the money they had risked their lives to get from Horseback Mountain, he had, for a time, also been a little unable to sit still.

To say that there wasn’t a single bit of a trick in the casino was clearly impossible!

Even if it was an extremely small probability, and the denominator was infinitely large, the numerator was also a ”1”!

As long as it exists, it will definitely be possible to be realized.

So in order to avoid this situation, the casino naturally had its own countermeasures.

This was very strange.

They couldn’t get their industry, their economy, their development going, but in the aspect of squeezing the public, they were able to keep up with the international leading standards.

So much so that some of the dealers had even gone to the Federation’s Paradise City or Golden Port City, to participate in the study of a dealer, to learn how to turn a hand that could not have been won, into a winning hand!

Now these rumors had harmed the casino’s interests. The boss, with his thugs, had begun to search the streets for the people who were spreading the rumors.

But the result was certainly that they couldn’t be found, so some of the ”suspected” rumor-spreaders, or those who had participated in spreading the rumors, had become their targets.

Those people had been beaten up for no reason, and the casino’s side had not only not solved the problem because of this, but had on the contrary, made the number of people in the casino even less!

A conflict had thus begun to breed.

Then, a new rumor had begun to appear. Someone had said that some of the precious fungi they had gotten from the mountains, when sold to the local merchants, could only be sold for 15 to 20 a pound.

But these fungi, when exported to the Federation, could be sold for up to a thousand Paras a pound!

These merchants had swallowed dozens, hundreds of times their profits!

These people had also said that they just had to save up some mountain goods, and at that time, to buy a boat ticket to the Federation, and then on the Golden Port docks, they could sell the things. This was much better than directly selling them to the local, entrenched merchants!

In order to make people believe that this was real, the rumor-spreader had also shown to the others a lot of the Federal Sol’s circulated old banknotes.

In their words, the money earned from one trip to the Federation was equivalent to a year’s work here!

The thought of so much money being transferred away by the black-hearted merchants had made these people, who were risking their lives to go into the mountains, stop. They had, one after another, demanded that the local merchants’ recycling price be raised.

Not to say that they had to give them, the mountain runners, most of the profits, but at least to split it 50-50!

These rumors had also touched on the interests of the local merchants. They were the ones who had been relying on squeezing and exploitation to earn a large amount of economic benefits!

Now that they had been exposed, some people, after they had come out with their mountain goods, and were just about to sell, had been pulled away by their relatives and friends.

And then, according to some of the intelligence they had gotten, they had calculated how much a bag of mountain goods they had brought out could be sold for!

There were also many more similar, small stories that had suddenly begun to circulate in Saige City. The originally stable order had, in an instant, become chaotic.

Even the porstitute had many rumors, such as that these women had actually been trafficked or kidnapped, and that they were not voluntary, and the like.

To have people, before they went to find these girls, to think about their families, the women in their homes...

”Fuck!” The oily and shiny hair was reflecting the light of the crystal chandelier. The mayor had forcefully slammed the table, and had cursed in a slightly local accent.

His eyes were wide as he looked at the people in the room. ”Who the fuck is working against us?”

”It’s been more than half a month. Have you not found anything at all?”

Sitting in the room were all the local bigwigs. Everyone’s expression was not good-looking. Their business had seen a sharp drop.

Not to mention that they couldn’t make money, the people behind them might also have a great deal of opinion about them.

Everyone’s heart was filled with a fire, wanting to destroy something, but they did not have a clear target.

The mayor had walked back and forth a few steps. ”The most important thing now is to restore order.”

He had turned his head to look at these people. ”Raise the price of grain.”

”Don’t they not want to sell things, not want to go to the casino, not want to go to the red-light district, and not want to leave their money behind?”

”Then let the grain price go up. What is the price of a pound of our wheat now?”

One of the merchants said, ”A pound of wheat costs 3.7 Paras.”

This was an increase of three times compared to half a year ago, an astonishing increase!

The mayor propped himself up on the desk with both hands, his body leaning forward as he looked at these people. ”Raise it to ten, and limit the supply.”

”And you have to tell them that the price will go up again at any time!”

He looked at the people in the room, his face stern, his eyes slightly bulging, giving people a feeling of great pressure. ”No one can take the money that belongs to us out of here!”

His fingers were forcefully poking the desk, making a ”bang bang” sound. ”No one!”

”If you find someone leaving with a large amount of supplies...” he pursed his lips, straightened up, and took a deep breath, ”then kill them.”

”A rumor, as long as it is not confirmed, is always just a rumor. Do you understand what I mean?”

Everyone nodded one after another. Of course they could understand!

If a person had really, with his mountain goods, gone to the Federation, and had sold the goods and had made a lot of money, as long as he came back, and had shown his gains, then Saige City, which had been created because of the mountain runners, and the mountain goods, would soon die out!

Without consumption, some of the mountain goods processing factories here would have no source of goods, the factories would have to stop work, and the workers would have to be dismissed.

The workers without a job could only leave here to find opportunities in other places. The people who had originally gathered would gradually disperse, and in the end, it would return to its original state.

Just a distribution center!

So no matter for what reason, for what purpose, these people could not leave here!

(End of a Chapter)

This chapter was translated by Nightjar Reads. For advance chapters and the newest releases, visit nightjarreads.com