Chapter 931: Light a Fire

There is a city under Ma Bei Mountain, called Sege City.

Before, Sege City was just a distribution center, the scale was very small, and the permanent population might not even be five hundred.

Because there is a silver mine in Ma Bei Mountain, it is said that someone discovered a gold mine in Ma Bei Mountain before.

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

Some people also say that the gold mine has actually been discovered, but the president does not intend to develop it for the time being, he wants to keep this gold mine for his children to develop.

Anyway, there are all kinds of rumors.

There are gold diggers in the Federation, and there are also in Lapa, and they are even more fanatical.

In the Federation, people can do many jobs without digging for gold, whether it is 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 Lapa, if people don't dig for gold, then they are very likely to be unable to find work.

Gold digging gave many people a relatively decent opportunity to survive, and some mountain goods resources in Ma Bei Mountain are very rich.

There are people running in the

After these purchasing merchants obtain these goods, a portion is sold domestically to the ruling group and the privileged class.

Another portion, and a quite significant one at that, is exported to the Federation to earn foreign exchange.

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

Once the scale grew, the Lapa government had to intervene, and it gradually transformed from a poorly managed distribution center into a small village, then a town.

It also received an official name: Saige City.

"Saige" is merely a transliteration; in the local Lapa language, the word means "gray forest," much like the mountains behind it—continuous, gloomy, and somber.

It gives people an indescribable feeling of oppression.

Because Lapa has high humidity, the Ma Bei Mountains remain very damp at all times; looking at them from afar gives one the feeling that they have been swallowed into the belly of the clouds and mist.

Shrouded in clouds and mist, it is not very clear to the eye.

This famine has had a certain impact on Saige City beneath the Ma Bei Mountains, but the impact is not very significant.

There are many mountain runners here; they dive into the mountains for ten days or half a month, and some may even stay in the mountains for a month.

Before entering the mountains, one must be fully prepared, and food is a very important part of this.

Although there is food in the mountains, no one can guarantee that they will definitely encounter something edible on their chosen route, nor that they can eat it for a long time.

Most people carry a sufficient amount of food when entering the mountains; for example, if they plan to be in the mountains for a month, they must bring at least twenty pounds of food.

There is a saying here that expresses a beautiful wish: "Thirty pounds in, one hundred pounds out," meaning that if you bring thirty pounds of food into the mountains, you can eventually return with one hundred pounds of mountain goods.

Other sayings like "a pound of wheat for a pound of gold" are all very beautiful wishes.

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

Because Lapa people have relatively low incomes and no habit of storing food, most cities only have enough food to maintain daily consumption for a short time.

But Saige can sustain itself for a long time.

Therefore, when other cities were already experiencing famine and starvation, the situation in Saige City was still okay, except that the price of food had increased significantly, and it was difficult for non-locals to buy food.

Pedro had already changed his glasses, for which he paid five hundred Pala, about seven-plus federal Sol, close to a month and a half's wages for a Lapa person.

Because the lenses were imported; Lapa's industrial foundation was such that they couldn't even manufacture lenses.

The development of national technology did not include the "hand-grinding lenses" tech tree; they lacked a Galileo, so all lenses relied on imports, including the eyeglass frames.

The price of these glasses imported from the Federation was less than one dollar; the Federation's mature industrialized production made the price of these items very low.

Glass, how much could it be worth?

The eyeglass temples were also stamped parts plus rubber, which at this time belonged to cheap industrial products.

But to sell them, they had to sell for seven-plus dollars; this is the exorbitant profit of monopoly!

After changing his glasses and altering his hairstyle, Pedro entered Saige City in such a bright and open manner.

As their group walked down the street, looking at everything here, traces of "government background" were everywhere.

Gomez and their chamber of commerce were also here purchasing various mountain goods and gold ore, especially gold nuggets.

Only merchants with government backgrounds or privileged class backgrounds could survive here; these mountain goods are the main export commodities and must, and can only, be held in the hands of this small group of people.

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

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

They broke the rules of the city and were not well-liked.

The group they brought this time was small, mainly to observe.

Fifty guns—how could they be used to exert the greatest effect?

Pedro's colleague, a common language teacher, had been frowning the whole way; seeing the scale of this city and the people on the road, he clearly felt the pressure.

"I really can't imagine how such a small group of us can attack this city and, furthermore... control it?"

"God, that Mr. Lanse must have wanted to refuse us, so he gave us a problem we couldn't solve!"

The expression on his face looked very pained, and the expressions of the others were also very solemn.

Pedro had told them that to obtain subsequent aid, they had to hand in a suitable "test paper."

Compared to their frustration, uncertainty, and questioning of the future, Pedro appeared very calm.

He was not frustrated at all, and he didn't even feel that these things were impossible to do.

His colleague nudged him with his elbow, "What do you think?"

Pedro's gaze fell on some people huddled in the corners of the street; they were highly likely refugees who had fled from other places.

There were also some ordinary local people who had no savings themselves and, coupled with some bad habits, although they ran the mountains, they could never save any money.

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

There were countless casinos, bars, and red-light districts here—all sorts of things that could erode people's will.

So much so that sometimes it made Pedro feel that this was not a remote area at all; it was a microcosm of a certain street in Zhuolan!

Prosperous, lively, and full of an atmosphere of entertainment.

He could understand.

Whether they were gold prospectors or mountain runners, they were all earning money with their lives.

Once they earned money, they certainly had the desire to consume—finding some girls to vent the irritability of staying in the mountains for ten days, half a month, or even a month, or going to a bar to have two drinks to relax.

The local fruit wine was not worth much, including some whiskey from small factories; no one knew.

There was no prohibition here; a bottle of whiskey was only a little over one hundred Pala, which converted to a little over one federal Sol.

Of course, the price had gone up now, needing about two hundred Pala, because food prices had risen, which was about three federal Sol.

They didn't need to drink a whole bottle at once; a glass cost twenty Pala, which everyone could afford.

Two hundred, and one could enjoy the ultimate in tobacco, alcohol, and sex.

Some were interested in gambling; after doing these things, they would go to the casino to play a few rounds, eventually losing everything, their half-month of hard work gone for nothing, and then they would find a dry place on the street to lie down and wait for the next trip into the mountains.

There were many such people; they were always working hard, but they could never save money, as if a curse had been cast upon them here.

In Pedro's view, these people could actually be counted as his helpers.

After he took a turn, he brought his people back outside the city. Their team had over a thousand people, but a significant portion were the elderly, weak, women, and children.

The number of adult males who could actually be counted on was only two hundred-plus.

After returning to the camp, he took a cup and gulped down two mouthfuls of water, and the men also gathered around.

After Pedro sat down, he organized everything he had seen during the day, "I have a plan..."

In the next few days, Pedro and a few clever people around him returned to Saige City.

They went to several famous local casinos and then lost quite a bit of money—

With the financial aid of the Federation, their money had already been converted into a portion of Pala on the way here.

Every time they lost money, they would have two drinks, find a place with many people in similar situations, sit down, and speculate in a complaining tone about whether the casino had cheated.

"As long as the money I bet isn't much, the probability of winning is high."

"But as soon as I bet a lot, I definitely lose!"

Pedro made himself look drunk; he held a wine bottle, reeking of alcohol, and complained loudly, "I've been losing for so long, and I've never heard of anyone winning money in a casino!"

"They must have cheated..."

The people around them had all had similar experiences; in reality, a casino itself is a precise mathematical game.

Winning money in a casino is not that simple, and perhaps they really did cheat.

Even if they did, these people might not know.

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

After all, behind every casino, there is a background.

People without a background had no qualifications to do business here; even those girls who needed help had people supporting them behind the scenes.

Otherwise, they would have already fought each other to death due to intense competition; how could they be as harmonious as they are now?

Pedro's complaints soon drew the agreement of many people; when people are poor, they always look for reasons for their downfall.

They were unwilling to admit that it was their own greed for the high returns of gambling that led them to lose everything; they were more willing to admit that the casino had used tricks, causing them to lose the money they should have won.

If only one person said this kind of rumor, everyone would treat it as a small matter, and it would disappear after a few days of spreading.

But today, tomorrow, if people kept saying it, then naturally, it would give some people the feeling that "this is the truth."

For 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 that important; what is important is that everyone accepts this result!

It didn't even take a few days for the casino's business to be immediately affected.

Fewer customers came, and the daily revenue dropped significantly.

After the owner of the largest casino in Saige City learned of this, he immediately grabbed two gamblers to ask them if something had happened, causing people to stop coming to the casino.

When he heard that someone was saying the casino had cheated, causing everyone to lose the money they had risked their lives to bring back from the Ma Bei Mountains, he couldn't sit still for a moment.

To say there wasn't a tiny bit of trickery in the casino was obviously impossible!

Even if the probability is extremely small, if the denominator is infinite, the numerator is still a "1"!

As long as it exists, it is definitely possible to realize it.

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

This is very strange.

They can't get industry, economy, or development up, but in terms of squeezing the masses, they can keep up with international leading levels.

Some dealers even went to the Federation's Paradise City or New Jincheng to participate in dealer training, learning how to turn cards that couldn't win into winning hands!

Now that these rumors were damaging the casino's interests, the owner took his thugs and began searching the streets for those spreading the rumors.

But the result was definitely that they couldn't find them, so some people who were "suspected" of spreading rumors, or who had participated in spreading them, became their targets.

Those people were beaten up for no reason, and the casino side not only failed to solve the problem but instead caused even fewer people to come to the casino!

Conflict thus began to breed.

Immediately after, new rumors began to appear; some said that the precious mushrooms they got in the mountains could only be sold to local merchants for fifteen or twenty per pound.

But these mushrooms exported to the Federation could sell for over a thousand Pala per pound!

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

These people also said that as long as they saved up some mountain goods, they could buy a boat ticket to the Federation, and then they could sell the goods at the New Jincheng wharf, which was much better than selling directly to local sitting merchants!

To make people believe this was true, the rumor-spreaders also showed others quite a few old circulating federal Sol banknotes.

In their words, the money earned from one trip to the Federation was worth a year of their hard work here!

Thinking of so much money being taken away by black-hearted merchants, these people who risked their lives to dive into the mountains were not having it; they demanded that the local merchants' recovery prices be raised.

Not saying to give them the majority of the profits, but at least half!

These rumors also touched the interests of local merchants; they relied on squeezing and exploitation to earn huge economic benefits!

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

Then, based on some intelligence they had obtained, they calculated how much money the bag of mountain goods they brought out could sell for!

More similar little stories continued to spread suddenly in Saige City, and the originally stable order suddenly became chaotic.

Even those girls who needed help had many rumors about them, such as that these women were actually trafficked or kidnapped and were not there voluntarily.

Making people think of their families and the women in their homes before looking for these girls...

"Fuck!" The shiny, oily hair reflected the light of the crystal chandelier; the mayor slammed the table hard and cursed in a dialect-tinged voice.

His eyes were wide open, looking at the people in the room, "Who the hell is working against us?"

"It's been more than half a month; haven't you discovered anything at all?"

The people sitting in the room were all local bigwigs, and everyone's expression was ugly; their business had plummeted significantly.

Not to mention not making money, the people behind them might also have strong opinions about them because of this.

Everyone had a fire burning in their hearts, wanting to destroy something, but there was no clear target.

The mayor paced back and forth a few times, "The most important thing now is to restore order."

He turned his head to look at these people, "Raise the price of food."

"Aren't they unwilling to sell things, unwilling to go to the casino, unwilling to go to the red-light district, and unwilling to leave their money behind?"

"Then let the price of food rise; how much is our wheat per pound now?"

One of the merchants said, "A pound of wheat is three point seven Pala."

This was a three-fold increase from half a year ago—an astonishing increase!

The mayor rested his hands on the table, leaning forward to look at these people, "Raise it to ten, and limit the supply."

"And you must tell them that it will rise 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 poked hard on the table, making a thumping sound, "No one!"

"If anyone is found leaving with a large amount of supplies...", he pursed his lips, straightened up, and took a deep breath, "Then kill them."

"As long as a rumor has not been confirmed, it will always be just a rumor; do you understand what I mean?"

Everyone nodded one after another; of course they could understand!

If someone really took mountain goods to the Federation and sold them for big money, as long as he returned and showed his earnings.

Then Saige City, which appeared because of mountain runners and mountain goods, would soon perish!

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

Workers without jobs would have to leave here to find opportunities elsewhere; the people who had gathered would gradually disperse, eventually returning to their initial state.

Just a distribution center!

So, regardless of any reason or for any purpose, these people cannot leave here!

(End of Chapter)