Chapter 355: Life Under the New Regime (3)

"Your wine, protein, sugar, and cloth."

There's almost no packaging, let alone any service attitude.

The shop owner merely stands behind the high counter, with a hint of irritation from dealing with mud‑leggers, and piles the items Urkan wants onto the counter.

Then he takes the bag of starch from Urkan's hands, places it on a new scale, and takes the portion that belongs to him.

Throughout the process Urkan watches anxiously, fearing a sky‑high deal like the ones his friends once whispered about.

Only when the shop owner takes a very small portion of the starch does Urkan, after the other's repeated gestures, stare in shock at his half‑filled bag of starch and realize it can fetch so many goods.

When did prices in his own district become this cheap?

In fact it's not cheap; after all, using a three‑person family's five‑day survival expenses to obtain this little, it's not exactly expensive, but certainly not cheap.

But compared to the rumors Urkan once heard, this is a bargain he wouldn't even dare imagine.

After all, the information he heard before involved hoarding months of starch, only to find it insufficient and even end up owing a lot.

In the end the family was forced into a corner and had to sell the wife to the Corpse Guild, just to barely clear the debt.

And that was still less than what Urkan bought, only to exchange a piece of protein for his seriously ill child.

Thus, at this moment Urkan looks at the transaction and feels it's cheap to the extreme.

Urkan repeatedly bows and nods to the shop owner, saying:

"You truly are a great benefactor!"

Urkan, grinning, takes the overflowing goods and speaks to the owner. The owner, hearing this, stiffens, then glances vaguely toward the nearby street, forcing a smile at the corner of his mouth.

Urkan finds the reaction odd, thinking he might have misspoken, and can only continue his flattery, bowing and nodding as he walks back.

Soon, Urkan watches the scenes on both sides of the street and finally understands why the shop owner suddenly obeyed the law, and why he abandoned the heirloom scale for a new one.

"This is the new list; we need to speed up the hanging of people."

Along the passage, a squad of PDF is receiving rosters distributed by their commander.

Then they look at the rosters, draw their pistols, and in front of Urkan and the passing civilians, violently rush into numerous shops and stores.

Then, amid the victims' terrified pleas, they drag people onto the road, ignoring the surrounding onlookers, bind their hands, and hang them on the street‑side lampposts.

Of course, no one is shot dead during the whole process. After all, according to the Whisperer's orders, the big insects must be struck, and the small insects must also be dealt with.

Moreover, they aren't allowed to give the insects a quick death; they must first fully repent to the Divine Emperor and the First Saint before they can die.

Thus Urkan watches this group of shouting, pleading capitalists constantly claiming they were wrong and will reform, being turned one after another into lamppost ornaments.

Urkan subconsciously glances at the market boss behind him, who has just evaded another round, his face ashen; after a pause, the flattery on Urkan's face gradually fades.

Then, like the surrounding crowd, he surveys the street‑wide ornaments with a complex gaze, finally standing upright and striding home.

Meanwhile, deep down Urkan knows his tax‑payment deadline has been pushed further back!

Soon.

Urkan returns home; under his wife's incredulous stare, he gives the new cloth to her, the sugar to the child, and divides the wine evenly. His wife even lavishly prepares a stew of starch cubes and protein blocks, adding salt and oil. After a lunch of rice, "meat", wine and sugar, the meal ends.

Looking at his family's flushed faces, Urkan suddenly stands up, for the first time feeling the urge to go out.

Besides wanting to show his wife and child the spectacular lamppost ornaments on the street, he's also curious about the "medical office" and "district church" his wife mentioned.

The National Church is indeed a religion heavily promoted by the Empire, but don't misunderstand: praying before the Divine Emperor's statue in a church isn't open to everyone.

The Divine Emperor does indeed love all humanity mercifully, yet some humans always receive more of his benevolence than others.

Thus, although Urkan's family also worships the Divine Emperor, they lack the qualification to enter a church.

Now Urkan learns from his wife that their district actually has a church, and it welcomes anyone to pray.

Even those Low Nest mutants, tormented by mutations, are allowed to enter any church.

For civilians like Urkan, who have almost no entertainment and whose faith is their sole spiritual anchor, this is akin to detonating a nuclear bomb in the spiritual realm.

So, taking advantage of the half‑day holiday, Urkan directly brings his wife and child, steps out of the house cautiously, and walks toward this world his ancestors have inhabited for countless generations yet remains unfamiliar.

Along the way, the densely packed lamppost ornaments are shocking to behold.

Until they reach the newly completed district church, Urkan stops, unable to believe his eyes.

He is shocked not only by the existence of such a church, but also by the fact that people are hanging from the lampposts in front of the district church.

Moreover, unlike the market where the hung bodies are vicious merchants who devour people without chewing the bones, here the hung ones are various plump‑eared priests!

In front of these old‑school priests stand the new‑school priests dispatched in large numbers from the Holy World. They wear blackened divine robes hardly different from civilians' and warmly welcome every human.

Whether the person is a normal human or a Low Nest mutant with no other options.

Of course, not every new‑school priest is a saint; after all, Xisi really has no time to further reform the National Church.

But because the external situation has eased slightly, Luojia no longer needs to devote all his energy to the war.

Thus Luojia, bearing Xisi's orders, returns to the National Church and begins to genuinely use "love" to convert the former old‑school sinners.

So, upon discovering that among the ornaments at the church entrance there are also a few new‑school priests, Urkan follows his instinct cultivated over this period and thinks further.

He also realizes that the actual thoughts of these new‑school priests are irrelevant; what matters is that if they dare to displease the one above, the one above will force them to be "satisfied"!

The wife doesn't think that far; she simply begins praying far outside the church doors.

And Urkan's increasingly bright eyes look toward the side of the church that lies adjacent.

There, a building styled after the Mechanical Church also rises from the ground. Inside, countless mechanized servants in white coats employ the most rigid yet most advanced techniques to serve every arriving civilian…

providing medical care!

After confirming what he actually saw, Urkan's steps toward the church finally halt. In barely a moment, he grabs his wife and child with one hand and strides straight to the free medical clinic.

Meanwhile, deep inside he keeps asking himself:

"Full meals, holidays, church, medical care..."

"Am I really not in heaven?!"