When we arrived at the town, we learned through the road signs that this was a town with an unknown name in the northeastern part of the West Wilderness, called Black Mountain Town. The mountain that Wangshan Pawnshop was looking at previously refers to the continuous low hills to the west of the town, which belong to the northern branch of the Sentinel Ridge Mountains.
Oster has long known that in a real different world, it is impossible for an area to be like the few towns in the game. According to the simple map erected next to the road sign, there are more than a dozen towns and counties like this scattered at the northern foot of Sentinel Ridge alone.
Since arriving in the west, he has been traveling continuously for seven or eight days, walking, riding horses and riding cars, covering at least hundreds or thousands of miles. As a result, they did not leave the area south of Xiquan Bridge, which is the size of a fingernail on the map;
According to the data he measured with his feet, the real size of the world was more than thousands of times larger than in the game. The Western Wilderness must be at least a large state with an area of tens of thousands of square kilometers and a population of one million.
Auster couldn't help but sigh, this is just one state. The Kingdom of Stormwind has four or five states and regions of the same size. In this way, it only occupies a small corner of the southern part of the eastern continent; the real Azeroth should have How big. For a game to be like this, how high a configuration would it take to play it?
The area around Black Mountain Town is a county directly under the Kingdom, and the lion flag of the Stormwind Kingdom is hung. A large number of victims were still seen stranded in the town and suburbs. Auster had already known that the three most severely affected areas in the west were the central, western and northern regions. In the original game map, they were from the north of the Gold Coast Mine to the south of Jangorod.
The victims first followed the road north and east, and after a long journey they arrived at the northeastern corner of the Western Wilderness and the border of West Springs County, Irwin State. But the West Spring Bridge, the only way to Elwin, has been closed. The area where the victims were stranded is also where Oster landed after flying west for a day after fighting the Dread Lord. It belongs to a knight realm, and the lord is the Marquis. The name is Gareth Wishak.
Lord Vishak and the garrison of Xiquan Fortress jointly blocked the road. In name, they were executing the king's decree to ensure order in the royal territory and prevent smuggling and fugitives. In fact, they were misinterpreting the holy will to monopolize the pass to enrich themselves and exploit the victims. The team of victims had no choice but to turn back and head south. Along the way, many of the people they had originally used up their property and became homeless. Because they could not pay taxes or repay their debts, they were sent to the poor for forced labor. They even sold their children and became slaves. slave.
Many people choose to wait for an opportunity to escape, but the religious power of the Kingdom of Stormwind is greater than the royal power. The Skitarii and Knight Guards can directly cross the border to the Kingdom State County to arrest people. The picket team previously led by Knight Captain Landis Tomander belonged to Lord Vishak.
And those victims who finally walked out of the Knights Territory after going through all kinds of hardships, after arriving in the Sentinel Ridge Mountains, gathered in several towns near the main peak to seek relief. Black Mountain Town was one of them, and it was also the only way to the main peak of Sentinel Ridge. .
Most of the mountains in the western region are relatively low except for the southernmost boundary mountain of Stranglethorn Valley. Due to the relatively high terrain, the Sentinel Ridge Mountains can collect some rainwater. The surrounding precipitation is relatively abundant and the soil is relatively fertile. With many towns and fertile farmland, it is the most developed area in the west after Wolxi County.
The kingdom's western frontier state capital is stationed here, and the governor is a familiar name from Oster, Marshal Grian Stroman. He was originally the leader of the Western Wilderness People's Army, an autonomous militia organization. After several versions, he seemed to have been promoted to the highest officer of the kingdom in the Western Frontier State due to a series of achievements such as quelling the Defias rebellion and leading the army to participate in the Northern Expedition.
The troll's letter to the People's Army of the Western Wilderness should also have been given to him. The letter was full of cipher text, and I couldn't understand a single word. I didn't know why it needed to be so mysterious.
Oster planned to rest in Black Mountain Town for two days before going to Sentinel Ridge. Anyway, he had money in his pocket and was not panicking.
When he woke up in the morning and came out of the hotel, Oster walked around the town. Because the damage here was less severe, it is still prosperous. When the residents of the town saw the victims arriving, some helped them if they could, while others closed their doors. The number of victims was so great that no officers or soldiers were dispatched, so we expected civilians to do nothing.
Oster walked around for a while, his stomach growling, and he randomly found a street stall and ordered something. As soon as I sat down, I saw the old businessman I met on the train, the one who cursed the bandits for robbing his caravan, busy and shouting something in front of a shop facing the street opposite;
Even though this old man is quite old, after the robbers were beaten away by Oster the day before, he was holding his belongings and walking as fast as he could, as if he was afraid that the robbers would come back. He couldn't catch up with anyone along the way, and he arrived in town much earlier than Oster, who didn't bring anything with him.
This shop is obviously his property. The old man is instructing the servants to seal the door while cursing the victims as poor locusts. He also punched and kicked several beggars nearby and roughly drove them away from the front of the shop.
The beggars carried bamboo poles and supported each other across the street and in front of the restaurant, begging for alms from everyone they met, but no one paid attention. When he arrived in front of Oster, he couldn't bear it, opened his money bag, took out a few silver coins and gave them to them.
Soon after, the boss served the food, and Auster ordered something similar to pasta. The plate was brought, but no cutlery was given.
After asking, the restaurant owner said, "Guest, you are a foreigner, right? The west is hit by disasters, bandits are rampant, and trade routes have been cut off for a long time. It's good to have food, but knives and forks have been out of supply for a long time. Moreover, The dish you ordered is called hand-caught noodles. It is a special delicacy brought by immigrants from the Asan area. You can eat it directly as long as you wash your hands. Just be careful to use your right hand, because the left hand——" As he said, he used his left hand Patted his butt.
Auster quickly stopped him and said, "Okay, no need to say anything." Then he took out the dagger from his waist, broke off a clean branch from a nearby tree, peeled off the bark, split it in half, made it into chopsticks and started eating. noodle. The meal was so enjoyable that it attracted the attention of people around.
While eating, there was a commotion ahead. I walked over with my plate in hand and saw that hundreds of residents had gathered in a dark place near a small square with a fountain at the corner of the street. People were holding signs and shouting slogans and were marching against the enclosure laws.
Asking people around me, I found out that after the land trade was liberalized in the west, nobles and big businessmen worked with the government to misinterpret contracts and privatize large areas of unowned land under clever pretexts. Even going to the mountains to cut firewood and hunt was considered an infringement of private property. Coupled with food shortages and transportation obstacles, prices of daily necessities have skyrocketed;
The income that could originally support the whole family now accounts for more than 80% of the income spent on food and firewood. It also has to bear a series of additional heavy taxes such as the Northern Expedition Tax, Theramore Tax, Bandit Suppression Tax and Pirate Tax. The residents were busy all year round, and not only did they have no balance, they also owed a lot of debt to the nobles and big businessmen.
As they ate and watched, the parade gradually became excited and began to smash things, burn down shops, and make purchases for zero yuan. The order became extremely chaotic.
Auster took a sip of the noodles and was surprised that no matter which world he was in, no matter whether it was magic or technology that dominated the world, there would always be a lack of things where there are people.
At this time, the old businessman who had just beaten the beggar was looking around on the street for some reason, and was recognized on the spot. Someone in the crowd shouted, "That's the real estate developer who bought the real estate in Xishan to build a polo ground for the nobles!"
The old man hurriedly wanted to run back into the house, but the servants saw that the situation was not good, and a large number of people rushed towards him waving stones and sticks. They chose to ignore him and sealed the door directly. The old man couldn't get through the door, so he was chased by the crowd and ran across the street. He was hit by stones, his head was broken and bleeding, and he ran away screaming.
When he ran past the fountain, he recognized Auster and shouted, "Save me, I'll give you a reward!" Without any explanation, he hid behind Auster and jumped towards the chasing crowd. Shouting, "This is a powerful priest. If you dare to come here, your life will be lost!"
Oster was very depressed and wanted to walk away with the plate in hand, but the old man grabbed his clothes and used them as a shield.
At this time, a large number of officers and soldiers arrived, set up a shield wall at the street entrance, and clashed with the demonstrators. The officers and soldiers took out their rune guns and fired flash magic to disperse the crowd. The rioters gradually became unable to resist and began to flee in all directions. The scene became more chaotic and chaotic, with the sounds of collisions and screams being heard endlessly.
Things happened so fast, and Oster was watching at a loss when a thin figure passed him and ran away.
It took Oster a long time to realize that the money bag had been stolen.
