Chapter 348: Arcane Chorus

The next day, at six in the morning, Gao De, who had slept in his clothes, woke up on time.

He got up and came to the window, lifting a corner of the curtain to look outside.

The sunrise time in Lagos City was very early.

At this moment, the daylight was already bright, golden sunlight sprinkled on the street, and the figures of two or three people were pulled long in the morning light.

The small street vendors had already begun to get busy, and the vendors pushing small carts placed fried plantains and bean cakes on the stalls, and the air was filled with the smell of grease and spices.

Women wearing robes shuttled through the crowd with baskets on their heads, and the baskets were filled with fresh bread and fruit.

A few dilapidated carriages stopped by the street, and the coachmen were trying hard to solicit passengers.

Gao De withdrew his gaze and looked back at the little girl who was sleeping sweetly on the bed.

Climbing a snow-capped mountain with no one around, one would encounter a proud "man," and on a normal outing to execute a mission, one could inexplicably pick up a little girl on an airship.

Why did such strange and dramatic things always happen to him?

Truly a wonderful thing.

What was even more wonderful was that, clearly meeting for the first time, this little girl could have sufficient trust in him, sleeping so deeply beside a stranger without any guard.

Of course, what surprised Gao De even more was that this little girl who was only five years old knew an unusually large amount of things.

However, this was not important to him.

Because his personality was like this; since he had already made up his mind and promised to help Anna find her sister, he didn't actually care that much about the other party's family background.

Just like when he met Du Wei on the snow mountain, he also knew that Du Wei's background was not simple, but so what?

He had once asked Du Wei, "Are you going to be an emperor?" This was both teasing and an expression of attitude; even if the other party was a "crown prince," it did not affect his interaction with the other party.

And now it was the same; even if Anna was a "princess," it would not affect Gao De's promise.

Of course, this was an exaggerated assumption.

Gao De woke up Anna who was still sleeping soundly.

"Brother...?"

"Eat breakfast, then sleep after eating." Gao De laughed, using the "evil" famous saying commonly used by parents.

Then, he held Anna's hand, who was still confused, and came to the hotel restaurant to enjoy the free breakfast provided by the hotel: bread sprinkled with fine salt grains and a small dish of jam, plus a cup of steaming barley tea.

As a traditional agricultural city, even if it had declined now, the foundation was still there after all, so the bread was made of fine wheat flour, not rye, and the taste was excellent.

It was just that for Anna, this was still food that was difficult to swallow.

Looking at the little girl who had not fully woken up trying hard to swallow the bread, Gao De inexplicably missed Lady Fuluola.

After all, he had also left the Northern Realm for two and a half months.

After finishing breakfast, Gao De sent the little girl back to the room, rubbed Anna's hair hard, rubbing it into a messy "bird's nest," and then ignored the "resentful" look of the other party, instructing: "Wait for brother to come back in the room, don't run around."

The order of the Jin Quehua Dynasty was far from what the Principality of Xi En could compare to; at least in the city, Gao De was not too worried about Anna's safety, just afraid that her "naughty child" nature would recur and she would run out to find her sister again.

Putting on a cloak to slightly cover the Hai Shao Bing uniform on his body, Gao De left the Palm Tree Hotel and headed straight for the north of Lagos City.

Although the Makoko District was named a district, it was like a part of Lagos City.

In fact, it was a very long distance from Lagos City and was outside the Lagos City area, so Gao De also took a carriage to save time and energy.

The closer he got to the Makoko District, the more dilapidated and desolate the scenery on the side of the road became.

The stone road was gradually replaced by coal slag and mud, and when the wheels rolled over the potholes, mud splashed onto the carriage body.

However, before setting off, the coachman had already said in advance that going to the Makoko District required an additional fee, and Gao De also agreed.

So the coachman had no complaints about this, just whipped the horse to urge it to pass through this area where "even mice find it unlucky" faster.

The stench in the air became more intense, until it rushed toward them.

A gray lagoon had already come into view.

This was the northern estuary of Lagos City and also the starting point of the Makoko District.

A few scrapped, stranded fishing boats were tilted on the edge of the lagoon.

The hull was covered with barnacles, the canvas was already as broken as a spider web, and half of the hull was soaked in sewage, covered with blackened shellfish.

And behind the fishing boats was a large area of continuous, chaotic shanties protruding abruptly from the water surface, just like a deformed forest growing out of the sewage.

This was the Makoko District, a huge slum built on the lagoon.

The land route stopped abruptly here.

After the coachman collected Gao De's money, he turned around and left in a hurry, as if staying here for another moment would contaminate himself.

Gao De frowned slightly, covered his mouth and nose, and approached the shore.

In the lagoon, brown-gray sewage was rolling, and green bubbles occasionally gurgled out.

Floating on the water surface were fish corpses with white bellies turned up, rotting vegetable leaves, and various garbage, and bursts of stench rushed to the nose, which could be described as "refreshing to the nose," making people wish they could turn around and escape immediately.

It was no wonder that no Hai Shao Bing mage was willing to take this mission, which was not difficult but had double the military merit reward.

The Makoko District did not have roads in the traditional sense; the crisscrossing waterways were the "streets and alleys" of the residents.

The residents here relied on boats for their daily movements.

Gao De did not have a boat, but in a place like a slum, there was nothing that money could not solve.

He saw a dark-skinned man rowing a small boat not far away and hurriedly waved to the other party.

The man heard Gao De's shouting and saw Gao De's gestures, and slowly rowed the boat over.

He was shirtless, his skin was tanned dark and shiny, and his face carried an expression of mixed vigilance and curiosity.

Gao De took out two silver dragon coins from his arms, shook them in front of the man, and at the same time untied the tied cloak, revealing the Hai Shao Bing uniform inside, and said: "I have accepted the water beast expulsion mission and came here to expel and clear out magic octopuses and foul-smelling water salamanders. You act as my guide for a day, and this money is yours."

The man looked at the two silver dragon coins, and his eyes lit up instantly, but after greedily looking at the silver dragon coins for two glances, he waved his hand and said respectfully: "Master Mage, you came to expel water beasts for us, how could I be embarrassed to accept your money."

"You just get on the boat; I am at your disposal."

Gao De jumped onto the boat and directly stuffed the two silver dragon coins in his hand into the other party's hand, "This is as it should be."

The man was truly terrified of these two silver dragon coins, and his voice trembled: "Master, you are killing me!"

"Let's go; where have you recently discovered water beasts? Take me to see them first." Gao De waved his hand, directly skipping this topic, and entered the main topic.

Seeing that he could not refuse, the man had no choice but to row the oars and take Gao De toward the depths of the Makoko District.

Since getting on the boat, Gao De had already opened the Mandora Magic Eye and at the same time cast 【Detect Magic+】, carefully observing the surrounding water surface, looking for the traces of water beasts.

While observing, he chatted with the man to understand the situation in the Makoko District.

The man's name was Shama, born in the Makoko District and grew up in the Makoko District.

Because the Makoko District had no planning to speak of since its establishment, and the waterways were also formed spontaneously by the residents here, they were sometimes narrow and sometimes wide, twisted and crooked, with the narrowest point only allowing a small boat to barely pass, and the widest point being no more than a few feet.

Here, the simple and small boat that Shama drove, which was slightly wider in the middle and pointed at both ends, was the most important means of transportation in the Makoko District.

But even so, daily traffic in the Makoko District was unusually congested.

Not long after Shama rowed Gao De, they encountered two "traffic accidents," both caused by narrow waterways and small boats colliding.

The second traffic accident even caused a small boat to capsize, and the people on the boat fell directly into the foul-smelling sewage, making Gao De frown.

But the people who fell into the sewage didn't care about it themselves, cursing and turning the boat over, and then climbed onto the boat as if nothing had happened, as if they were completely unaware of the disgust on their bodies.

Watching this kind of scene, Shama was very calm.

Because in the Makoko District, colliding with boats and falling into the water was a very normal thing.

"Falling into this water, wouldn't it be inevitable to drink a few mouthfuls of this sewage?" Gao De felt uncomfortable all over just thinking about this scene, and his stomach subconsciously began to churn.

"Master," but Shama was incomparably calm, "In our place, there is no such thing as someone who hasn't drunk sewage."

"Children in the Makoko District all grew up drinking the sewage here."

Gao De raised his eyebrows slightly, and his first reaction was that drinking such sewage full of microorganisms, parasites, and bacteria should not lead to a disease?

How could the residents here look like they were all full of vitality, and it was impossible to see that they had any illness.

And then, he understood that human adaptability was strong, and people who grew up in this environment should have long ago evolved a powerful immune system, almost immune to all poisons.

In other words, if Gao De jumped into this sewage and drank a few mouthfuls, relying on the powerful ability of 【Self-Adaptation】, he could possess the same powerful immunity as the locals in the Makoko District in a very short time.

However, Gao De shook his head violently, not daring to think about that scene, only feeling a chill.

Seeming to see Gao De's curiosity about the Makoko District, Shama enthusiastically introduced the local specialty buildings to Gao De along the way.

"You say, that is your latrine?" Gao De pointed to a simple shanty not far away and asked, his eyebrows subconsciously raised.

"Yes." Shama nodded earnestly.

According to his introduction just now, that shanty was the only latrine shared by more than 100 people from 40 or 50 households nearby, and it was also non-flushing, because it led directly to the water area below, and excrement entered the sea directly.

In other words, in the water flow nearby, there were numerous feces floating...

In terms of structure alone, it was actually somewhat similar to the famous water city of Venice in Gao De's previous life, also a water community, also relying on boats for passage.

But the difference was that the former was a water city, while the latter was a water city full of shit.

And what made Gao De feel most incredible was that he saw with his own eyes that in the sewage next to this latrine, a child of about five or six years old emerged from it, with a "bright" smile on his face...

"Is he playing in the water?" Gao De confirmed with Shama.

Shama nodded affirmatively.

*Invincible. * Gao De could not describe the shock in his heart; everything in this place not only exceeded his cognition but also exceeded his imagination.

In addition to the water latrine, along the way, he also saw simple schools, restaurants, medical clinics, and other public facilities, and even taverns existed.

Of course, they were all very simple.

For example, the school, according to Shama's introduction, the entire Makoko District, with a population of 200,000 to 300,000, had a total of only two schools, which could only accommodate 200 children.

"What do you rely on for a living on weekdays?" Gao De couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Picking up garbage and fishing." Shama answered.

Picking up garbage was easy to understand, because the sewage and garbage of the entire Lagos City were discharged here.

Among the large amount of garbage, there were always some "good things" that the wealthy people in the city didn't like but could be recycled.

Collect these good things, then transport them to the land to sell, and then use the money from the sale to exchange for some daily necessities such as bread and clothes.

However, this job was generally done by children and women.

The main business of men was still fishing.

"Fishing? Are there fish here too?" Gao De pointed to the rolling brown-gray sewage and asked.

"There are none here, but if you drive the boat further away and reach the area where the shanty area has not yet extended, you can catch fish." Shama explained.

"Look, those are small fish." While talking, they happened to pass by a shanty, and a woman was smoking fish outside the shanty.

In the large oil pan, small fish connected head to tail were fried golden, making a sizzling sound.

"Smoke them and take them to the shore to sell; one can sell for one copper coin." Shama introduced.

Looking at the familiar "squid rings," Gao De almost couldn't help but vomit.

Just the next moment, he couldn't care about nausea, his expression became solemn, and a flash of light flashed in his eyes.

In Gao De's unique field of vision, in the turbid sewage ahead, a point of magic light was swimming.

Without a doubt, it must be a water beast.

Gao De's heart moved, and as mana surged, following the newly constructed magic pulse, it quickly reached the spell sea and triggered the spell model.

However, on the surface, there was no spell anomaly appearing.

"Stop." Gao De called Shama, who was still unaware and continued to row the boat, to stop.

"Master, what's wrong?" Shama stopped the rowing action for the first time, but asked subconsciously.

However, he was soon stunned.

The water surface in front of the boat rolled, and a dark green creature like a lizard emerged.

"Foul-smelling water salamander..." Shama pointed to the "lizard" and said with a trembling voice.

If it weren't for Gao De, who was wearing a Hai Shao Bing mage uniform, on the boat, he would have been scared out of his wits by now.

These water beasts with supernatural power were extremely dangerous and terrifying creatures for poor people like Shama.

Gao De was calm.

And this foul-smelling water salamander that emerged did not have any action, just emerged and remained motionless, seeming very "friendly."

【Arcane Chorus+】.

This was the spell Gao De had just cast.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 349 =====