This Game Is Too Real-Chapter 778: Laxi Enters the City

Mammoth City is situated on the east coast of Mammoth State, less than six hundred kilometers in a straight line from Silver Moon Bay, while the distance from Silver Moon Bay to Jin Jialun Port is three times that.

Although the Tasang River’s currents are swift and its basin not as expansive as the Everflow River’s, it nevertheless has the capacity to bless two or three states, covering a population of twenty to thirty million.

With such an advantageous geographic location and in close proximity to a group of Cat people adept at trading, this settlement has still not developed, which is quite puzzling indeed.

The population of Mammoth State is said to be at least ten million, yet Mammoth City, the only inhabited area, has a mere eight hundred thousand residents.

Previously, the poverty in Jin Galun Port could be attributed to the Empire’s issues, but the poverty here doesn’t seem to be something that can be blamed on the Empire.

After all, the Empire’s control over the area has always been somewhat nebulous. Although nominally under the Empire’s territory and inhabited by Imperial nobility and citizens, due to the lack of a road network and river transport links, Tiandu itself would often forget it even owned this land.

In other words, the autonomy here has always been very high, and Witch Gu would only occasionally remember to take charge of the area.

Ms. Han Mingyue, a social science researcher from the Alliance Scientific Expedition Team, conducted an investigation into this phenomenon and preliminarily concluded that the serfdom system caused a portion of the population to be confined to the noble estates, hindering the "urbanization" process of Mammoth City.

Another issue is that Mammoth State’s "infrastructure accessibility" is so poor that agricultural products cannot be exported, nor can goods from outside be imported. Subsistence farmers need only to produce enough food for their own consumption, eliminating the need for exchange and naturally the need to migrate to the city.

The second problem is not something that can be solved in a day or two, but the first issue was swiftly dealt with by Uncle Lasi’s sharp and decisive actions.

The noble estates are all situated along the Tasang River, and even the levees for flood prevention and irrigation were built with funds raised by the noble lords.

If you blow up that levee, wouldn’t the problem be solved?

Now, both the land and the local armies nurtured by the nobles are submerged in the pervasive floodwaters.

The serfs, reluctant as they might be to flee the estates, had no choice but to surge into the crowds fleeing the disaster...

...

Outside Mammoth City.

The sudden overflow of the river not only destroyed the fences outside the city but also swept away the nearby village.

With the weather improving over the last two days and the floodwaters finally receding, the villagers who took refuge in the mountains began to return home, laden with large and small bundles.

And upon seeing the state of their homes, one by one, they fell silent, staring blankly at the collapsed wooden houses and fences, as well as the livestock that had vanished, at a loss for what to do next.

Gradually, it seemed people were beginning to come to terms with their reality.

Some began to shift their feet, numbly walking toward their collapsed houses, attempting to salvage anything still usable, anything not already taken by those who arrived earlier, at least to get their families through the day.

Others wandered about, either silently searching the ruins or asking passersby if they had seen their family members.

However, everyone knew that this was futile.

"Mom! Dad—! Where are you?"

Beside a collapsed wooden house stood a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old child all alone, staring blankly in one direction, occasionally calling out.

His voice was weak and hoarse from shouting, but no one paid him any attention until a group of people with white bandages tied around their arms approached.

With an LD-47 rifle slung over his back and the strap seared into his shoulder, Ackman stopped beside the kid, looking him up and down.

The kid, much like he had been a month before, without a father or mother, showed a timid face... He was probably the person Uncle Lasi was looking for.

He didn’t mince words and directly asked,

"Your name?"

The boy stared blankly at the fierce-looking guy in front of him, then glanced at those people carrying guns, unconsciously moving his lips.

"Udi."

Ackman continued to ask.

"What are you doing?"

"I’m looking for my mom... She seems to have been swept away."

Udi spoke softly, his face full of hope as he looked at these people, wishing they could take him to find his family.

However, to his disappointment, and even despair, the kid in front of him, who was about the same age, didn’t do so.

"She’s gone." Ackman took a Ripper Rifle acquired from their spoils and stuffed it into the boy’s hands, staring at him as he asked, "Can you use it?"

The boy gazed blankly at the gun in his hands, then looked up at him, a picture of confusion.

Ackman patted his shoulder.

"Don’t worry if you can’t, I’ll teach you, you’re my soldier now."

"But... I have to wait for my mom to come back." Udi took a fearful step back, but his shoulder was grasped firmly.

"I told you, she’s gone, as well as your father, your brothers and sisters. If they were still alive, would they leave you here all alone?"

Watching the child fall silent, Ackman squeezed his shoulder tightly, then let go of the hand that was gripping his shoulder.

"Everyone experiences this day, I’ve been through what you’ve been through, until a man grabbed my collar and told me that as long as the Empire still rules over this place, the things I’ve been through will keep happening over and over, and everyone close to me will go through them again and again, unless we hang those nobles and kill every last one of those who enslave us."

"...It’s the Empire." The boy murmured to himself, his breathing becoming rapid, his eyes reddening, his hand gripping the Ripper Rifle tightly.

Watching the little guy hold back his tears, Ackman gave him a pat on the back of his head and pulled him to his side.

"Yes, follow me."

...

The villagers outside Mammoth City had no idea what had happened, and the survivors inside the city were equally clueless.

Most people had just yawned when they heard someone shout "Water’s coming!", and then the floodwaters swept over.

The first to collapse was the fence wall outside the settlement.

It was only meant to keep out wild boars, wolves, and crocodiles; it stood no chance against the roar of the Tasang River.

Next to suffer were the city’s haphazardly built shanties and the brick homes built directly on the mud. The former were carried away by the first wave of the flood, while the latter simply crumbled as the river water inundating the streets soaked through them.

Apart from the economically well-off nobles, only the Silver Moon Church’s cathedral and some merchant houses in Silver Moon Bay were spared from the disaster.

As a habit formed from living in Luo Xia Province, they were accustomed to laying foundations under their buildings, so they could sleep soundly.

But seeing the entire city submerged, while only their own places remained unaffected, those merchants from Silver Moon Bay didn’t dare stay and quickly gathered their valuables to flee by boat. Only the fearless missionaries stubbornly remained in the cathedral.

The first thing Laxi did after entering the city was to send a unit to the church by the fishing dock to protect the clergy there.

It wasn’t because he believed in the nonsense that "the Moon Clan’s Moon God and the Silver Moon Church’s Silver Moon Goddess were from the same lineage," but purely because the development of Mammoth State needed those wealthy charlatans.

Whether he believed in that thing or not, at least he had to show some respect for the other party’s beliefs.

As for himself, well, he led people to directly take over Mammoth City’s castle to serve as the headquarters of the Resistance, while arranging for the Resistance’s subordinates to go for disaster relief, and commanded his trusted followers to "invite" those rich and noble families in the city over.

Sitting in the lord’s chair, Laxi looked down with a hint of contempt at the group of officials and nobles, who were hanging their heads and trembling, as he rested his military boots on his knee.

"Lads, I don’t care what titles used to hang over your heads, but starting from today, if anyone dares to act like a noble lord in front of me, I’ll chop off his titled head as well!"

Everyone was silent as the grave, feeling as if they were standing at the entrance to Hell, with two-headed Dogs on either side, too frightened to speak a word and knees too weak to kneel.

Seeing that no one opposed him, Laxi cleared his throat and continued.

"I’m here to do three things, but you only need to know one."

"From now on, Mammoth State Prohibition of Slavery, if anyone dares to keep a slave, I’ll have his head relocated!"

That voice was neither light nor heavy, but it echoed like thunder in the ears of all the nobles present.

Looking at the silent castle, when no one responded, Laxi narrowed his eyes slightly and suddenly raised his voice to rebuke.

"Did you hear that! Speak up!"

Startled by that shout, the nobles could no longer contain the fear in their hearts and, with a flutter, all knelt on the ground.

"Yes, yes! My lord!"

"I, I’ll go home right away and set free the slaves!"

"We won’t dare again!"

"We...we don’t mean to trouble the Moon people... it’s all the emperor’s... Spit! It was Witch Gu’s orders, we had no choice..."

After all, the Moon people were the nobility of the former dynasty, and although not every one of them was noble, their overall standard of living was much higher than that of the Snake, Rat, Insect, Bird, and a significant number were educated, therefore not lacking in handsome and beautiful men and women.

Because of the emperor’s edict, all Moon Clanspeople in the Empire were demoted to slaves, and indeed, they had not missed the opportunity to loot some "pretty canaries" to keep as playthings in their houses.

These deeds were indelible, just asking anyone in the city would reveal them.

Laxi looked down at them and said with a sneer.

"I wasn’t just talking about the Moon people, no slaves of any ethnicity are allowed. As of today, Mammoth State preaches equality!"

Having said that, he disregarded the bewildered looks on the faces of the kneeling nobles and slowly added.

"Also, I said no kneeling."

With that, he waved his hand.

"Drag them out, give each ten lashes before they leave."

"Yes!"

The Personal Bodyguard, standing to one side, flashed fierce glints in their eyes and marched forward, dragging the slumped nobles out to the yard like chickens.

They had been eager to take action.

If it weren’t for discipline, they would not have let these dogs of the Empire walk into this mansion standing.

One after another, they took the whip and swung with full force.

The nobles’ screams and the sound of whips cracking rose and fell in the empty courtyard, the ground stained with fresh blood.

Watching those nobles being whipped, the elders of the Resistance, though feeling uneasy, kept silent out of respect for Laxi’s authority.

Even though Laxi talked about preaching equality, the enforced equality they were giving was different from the equality they had imagined.

They had always thought there was a better way, like the Alliance did at Jing Jialun Port, promoting the transformation of Mammoth City through gentler means.

But now it was too late to think like that.

The numbers of the Resistance were no longer the two thousand from earlier, but were eyeing tens of thousands now.

That guy’s prestige in the Army was rising ever higher, almost all the young lads saw him as a spiritual leader and role model.

Even if they wanted to replace him, there was no chance now...

...

"Whoosh—"

Governor Baumet, who had been unconscious, woke up with a splash of cold water.

As he lifted his soggy head, he found that General Daxina and the other officers had disappeared, replaced by an officer with a bandit air and a few teenagers with eyes like wolves.

The murderous look in their eyes made him break into a cold sweat on his forehead, and he jarred wide awake.

Memories that were like a paste slowly seeped into his mind, and he vaguely remembered that when the flood came, he had clung to a crooked tree, kicked his Personal Bodyguard unconscious who was clinging to his leg, wrapped his sleeve around a Tree Branch, and then soaked in the muddy river waters, passing out soon after.

Later on, a raft approached, and a few guys with white bandages on their arms caught his arm and dragged him aboard.

After that, he lost consciousness.

As for the current situation, there was no need to ask, from the environment here it was obviously Mammoth City’s prison.

Obviously, he had been captured.

"Cough, I’ll pay my ransom..." Not having time to reflect on how he had been defeated, Baumet coughed and spoke quickly, "According to the sacred contract, you need to ensure my three meals a day and personal safety, of course, I will cooperate as much as possible..."

The teenagers laughed at his words, clearly amused and not taking him seriously.

A flash of annoyance crossed Baumet’s eyes, his clenched fist not daring to act, and he stared at the officer fiercely, trying to scare him off with his noble authority, but was unexpectedly slapped across the face.

The slap dumbfounded him, his eyes grew even larger.

"You! You dare to hit me—"

"Speak!" The officer suddenly shouted, cutting off his mid-sentence.

Startled by the shout, Baumet’s tone involuntarily softened, losing his noble composure and shrinking like a mouse.

"Speak, what?"

But the officer didn’t ask anything, just stared at him for a while, then sneered and said leisurely.

"Still got the gall to talk back, strap him!"

Baumet: "???"

Before he had time to realize what had occurred, Barmet heard a sharp "whoosh" slicing through the air, and immediately afterward, a whip lashed across his face.

It seemed that the whip had been soaked in saltwater, and the pain was so intense that he let out a horrific scream. His consciousness, which had only just cleared, felt like it was on the verge of slipping away again due to the agony. He tried to protect his head with his arms, only to discover that his hands were bound behind the back of the chair, rendering him utterly immobile despite frantic efforts to move.

Having been a noble lord all his life, he had only ever wielded a whip against others – never had he been on the receiving end of its sting. The sudden blow brought tears and snot streaming down his face, and he pleaded pathetically for mercy.

However, the soldiers paid no attention to his title and simply concentrated on lashing him with their implements.

"I... I’ll talk..."

Hearing that feeble voice, an officer raised his hand, and the young man holding the whip finally stopped, fixing Barmet with a vicious stare.

The barely alive Governor Barmet hung his head low and gasped for breath for quite a while before managing to squeeze out a weak sentence.

"Hold on a second, do you... do you know who I am..."

The onlookers exchanged glances and smirks crept across their faces.

At this very moment,

This guy was still living in a fantasy.

Even that officer couldn’t help but laugh at Barmet’s senseless remark. He walked over, lifted Barmet’s chin, and smiled at him affably.

However, to Barmet, that smile seemed anything but friendly. It appeared as demonic as that of a ghoul, terrifying him into swallowing back his words and not daring to make a peep.

"Who are you? Hah, don’t tell me you’re just some duke. Even if Witch Camel himself appeared here, I could make him squirm like a dog – he’d neither live nor die as he wishes."

Hearing these disrespectful words, Barmet’s eyes bulged, and the whites were veined with blood. Yet, there was no anger to be seen, only profound fear.

At this moment, he finally comprehended the gravity of the situation and realized his predicament.

These Moon Clan people had no intention of demanding a ransom nor did they care about it. They merely wanted to exact revenge for their own suffering upon him, a member of the Imperial Nobility.

Now, he regretted not taking harsher measures earlier.

He had allowed these Moon people to escape to the banks of the Tasang River and even to sabotage the dam there.

Not only had he brought suffering upon himself, but also upon the estates by the river that were now disaster-stricken.

Mammoth State was already poor, and now it was so destitute that there wasn’t even any grain left...

The officer had no desire to further the conversation and began to speak as soon as he saw Barmet regain consciousness.

"I’m going to ask you, and all you need to say is yes,"

"Yes..." Not daring to defy, Barmet spoke weakly.

The officer continued.

"Did you blow up the levee on the Tasang River?"

The moment the word "yes" was about to escape his lips, Barmet snapped to his senses, his body breaking out in cold sweat as he hurriedly spoke.

"No, no, sir... how could that be me—"

The officer raised a hand to silence him, simply looking at him coldly.

"What did I just say?"

That look sent Barmet into a profound chill, causing him to forget to breathe for a moment.

"It seems you still haven’t learned your lesson. I’ll come back later and ask you again."

The officer chuckled, stood up from the chair, and waved towards a few zealous young soldiers with a clean, decisive statement.

"Don’t kill him."

The soldiers’ eyes glinted with ferocity as they responded energetically.

"Yes!"

...

The heavy door of the cell closed with a thud, but the inch-thick panel could not contain the pitiful wails inside.

The officer didn’t bother to listen and walked outside expressionless, saluting Laxi who stood at the entrance of the prison.

As his trusted subordinate approached, Laxi returned the salute and casually inquired.

"How are things going?"

The man was named Shava, the commander of the charge team appointed by Laxi himself.

The so-called charge team was another force that, apart from the Personal Body Guard, reported directly to him.

It was a combat unit that carried out special operations such as infiltration, sabotage, assassination of enemy VIPs, and discipline within their own ranks.

Most members of this unit were young men over fifteen but under nineteen years of age, especially those from the Moon Clan.

Most had come from slave backgrounds, orphaned, and completely loyal to Laxi himself.

And Laxi treated them well; not only were they equipped with LD-47 assault rifles from the Alliance, but they also had a limited number of bulletproof breastplates and even exoskeletons. He was raising them to be the backup junior officers.

The creation of this force was necessary not only because the Moon Clan Resistance Army needed such a team but also as an emulation of the Alliance Managers.

Most people in Jin Galun Port were embracing the ways of the Alliance, whether consciously or unconsciously, including himself.

When he was still leading the Militia Group, he had heard about the Alliance Managers’ Guards Corps. Since then, he had been contemplating forming such a force of his own.

Now, having resigned to join the Guerrilla Team and with ample opportunity to flex his muscles, he could finally put all his thoughts into action.

A unit like ghosts, capable of deterring both enemy forces and internal dissent.

While the charge team only numbered one battalion, its firepower was on par with an Empire thousand team, and it was their operation that destroyed the Tasang River’s levee.

Of course, they couldn’t possibly take this dirty water upon themselves.

From the start, Laxi had planned to force the Imperial Nobility to swallow this putrid water.

"...He hasn’t cracked yet, but it should happen soon," Shava answered his boss with a sardonic grin, a look of disdain on his face, "These Imperial Nobles are all soft-shelled turtles – the higher the rank, the truer this is. I just touched his face, and he peed his pants."

How pathetic.

He had been hanged at the gates of Lowell Camp for three days and nights, burnt to a crisp, and yet had never begged for mercy.

At the beginning, he followed Laxi and took down the Lowell Camp, where he personally hung the warden on the tower road, avenging the ruin and death his family had faced.

He still remembered Laxi pointing at the warden hanging from the tower, saying that one day he would hang all the nobles of the Empire.

From that moment, Shava decided to follow this great person before him.

Whether the nobles were of the Sun People or the Mammoth Clan, they were all nobles of the Empire.

Their persecution of the Moon Clan was the same, and their estates were certainly not short of Moon Clan slaves.

In their eyes, the Moon people were like livestock in a pen, so naturally, he had no reason to be polite with these nobles.

Moreover, compared to the hardships he endured at Lowell Camp, a few beatings were far too kind for the Empire’s nobility.

Laxi nodded expressionlessly, then asked,

"Have they found Daxina?"

That person was the commander of the local Mammoth State military.

Originally, they had planned to pin the blame on him, but unexpectedly, he had slipped away quickly. They didn’t know if he had been washed away by the flood or simply ran off, but in any case, they hadn’t caught him.

Letting Baumet take the fall was a bit far-fetched since he was a great noble himself, with plenty of land by the Tasang River.

By contrast, the story made more sense with Daxina—

"A general who misjudged the rapids of the Tasang River tried to drown the Moon Clan people trapped by the river by blowing up the dike, only to be outsmarted by his own cleverness and killed in the process."

At least the story was logically smooth.

Shava shook his head,

"Not yet, but he couldn’t have gone far, his forces have been scattered."

While not finding him was a problem, Laxi didn’t care too much and simply instructed,

"Keep looking."

After a pause, he continued,

"Also, send a letter to both the Assassins Guild and the United Federation explaining that a new authority has been established in Mammoth State, and notify them of our victory. Then, mention the disaster and humbly inquire if they have any surplus grain. The residents of Mammoth State would be most grateful if they could lend us a hand."

Those people would definitely help.

He was sure of it.

"Yes!" Shava’s expression became serious as he stood at attention and saluted before turning to leave.

Watching his trusted aide depart, Laxi then walked in another direction, with a entourage of personal body guards, and stepped out of Mammoth City’s prison.

Baumet was just an explanation to the local survivors, which could be given anytime; there was no hurry at this moment.

The priority now was to establish the new authority.

Otherwise, as the officers of the Tiger Army sneered openly and secretly, bandits would always be bandits, and could never make a difference.

This surprisingly large-scale flood had offered him an excellent opportunity.

When he entered the city under the guise of disaster relief, he had almost effortlessly taken over Mammoth City.

From the local gentry and ruffians to those wealthy merchants with vast fortunes, even including the nobles who had been whipped, not a single one failed to comply with him, all promptly responding to the call of the Resistance, dismissing their slaves from their homes, and resolutely supporting every decision of the new authorities.

On one hand, the reason was that the disaster had been so severe that they truly could not afford those slaves anymore.

Another reason was that they all knew very well that a massive, locust-like horde of displaced people was on its way toward them.

Among them were serfs who had fled from the estates of the nobles, as well as free men who had lost their homes.

No matter what their previous status had been, a person with an empty stomach is the same, and these individuals were far more terrifying than a bunch of Resistance forces that looked like bandits.

The mere retainers of their households were not enough to stop these people. Without a powerful army to protect Mammoth City, they could be devoured by that horde of displaced people to the point where not even bones were left in mere minutes.

Barmet and his local army had already been defeated; they had no choice but to offer their loyalty to their new masters, and they had to cling tightly to the thigh of this new master.

Laxi was certain that even if he plundered the entire city, not a soul would dare utter a word of dissent.

Of course, he wouldn’t commit such a short-sighted and thankless folly.

Despite its name, Mammoth City was poor like a grand rural area— even the homes of great nobles had little to offer, nothing compared to Jin Galun Port with, at the very least, a crab market.

Even if he plundered, he wouldn’t acquire much, and it would negatively impact the United Federation’s view of him. Moreover, this was his territory now – what sense would there be in robbing himself?

He had three things to accomplish here next.

The first was the abolition of slavery!

Only by abolishing slavery could he implement compulsory education and unleash the productive forces of Mammoth State!

Next, while Barmet’s forces had been defeated, while the local noble forces that supported the Empire were experiencing an unprecedented decline, it was time to seize the land they had hoarded!

Thanks to that flood, these two tasks wouldn’t be too cumbersome to handle.

The nobles’ manors were mostly located by the riverside, where the most fertile lands had long been enclosed by them.

Most of these manors were severely affected by the disaster. The serfs who couldn’t escape had mostly drowned inside, and the value of that land had plummeted to next to nothing. With just a bit of pressure, the new authorities could effortlessly take control of the land, possibly without needing to shed too much blood.

A portion of these lands could be used to build large farms operated by the authorities themselves, while the rest could be distributed among the farmers and soldiers.

As for the last thing, it was the most important of the three he had planned.

Mammoth State was an agricultural province. Bullets and rifles couldn’t grow from the ground – to escape poverty, they must develop industry, and the first step in developing industry was acquiring foreign currency.

He had read every issue of the Survivor’s Daily carefully. Though he didn’t have a systematic understanding of how to develop industry, he at least had a vague concept.

The industrial boom of Jin Jialun Port was, to a large extent, due to the adoption of the outdated production capacity eliminated by the Alliance, leveraging its own population and raw material cost advantages, allowing these obsolete capabilities to experience a second spring on the land of Poluo Province. Later, it caught up with the great tide of establishing a new order in the Wasteland by the Sticky Community.

Mammoth State might have started a bit late, but it was not altogether without opportunity.

Coincidentally, the civil war in the Southern sea area had ended, and the Northern Islands were in dire need of revival—a stark contrast between a vast market for infrastructure and a severe shortage of labor.

It was said that local construction units even paid in silver coins!

Mammoth City had a population of eight hundred thousand, and the entire Mammoth State boasted tens of millions. The one thing he had in abundance right now was people, especially those poor who could not survive.

Even though the slave trade had been prohibited, a certain gang member who couldn’t come into the open had already set a fine example in practice.

There were plenty of ways to make money off of people.

In addition to "labor brokering," there was also the method of "labor dispatch"...