Chapter 932: An Easy Change of Hands

Undercurrents were surging in the calm city, with news constantly arriving that so-and-so had taken goods to the Federation and sold them for a hundred times the price.

So-and-so had planned to escape, but was intercepted halfway; the goods were seized, and the person was killed.

The atmosphere throughout Saige City had become completely different; people no longer discussed what "treasures" might be in the unexplored areas.

Their gazes were all focused on those local merchants.

The entire Saige City was like a giant powder keg, ready to explode at any moment!

Incredibly fast!

"Now, we are still missing a spark," Pedro said while eating.

Many people were gathered around him; they had spent a lot of effort during this time to push the situation to its current state.

They were those successful mountain runners, and also those "cullers" wandering outside the city.

They had played various roles, finally making the pressure in Saige City reach the point of explosion.

He swallowed the food in his mouth; the piping hot food made his breathing much clearer, and even his congested nasal passages cleared up.

Suffering from vasomotor rhinitis, he blew his nose, and a large, clear glob of mucus hit the ground with two "splats." He turned his head to look at the people around him. "Before lighting this powder keg, I have one last question for everyone."

"Are you all prepared?"

He pushed up his glasses, which were cracked on one side and had scratched lenses. "Are you prepared to risk your lives to fight, to fight for a future?"

The people around him looked at him with determined expressions; those young people, especially the dozen or so students of his, were trembling slightly with excitement at this moment!

Of course, they knew what the "future" Pedro spoke of was: a future where "the people are the masters of the nation," a future "without exploitation and oppression," a future "with social civilization and advanced systems like the Federation!"

Everyone nodded vigorously. At this moment, a sense of mission, a sense of epic scale, welled up spontaneously.

Some of them had a premonition that one day they would be painted on canvas!

They just didn't know what name they would give that painting when the time came.

No one backed down, no one avoided his gaze. Pedro pursed his lips and nodded firmly.

He stood up and smashed the bowl he had just eaten from heavily onto the ground.

The shattered porcelain shards flew everywhere, and the sound of the breaking was piercing!

People looked at him, and he nodded slightly. "Then let us be the ones to light the first fire that burns down the old era and welcomes the new!"

That afternoon, the area outside a grain station in the city was already crowded with noisy people. In just a few days, the price of grain had doubled repeatedly.

"Are they crazy, or am I?"

A mountain runner looked at the blackboard hanging outside the grain station; even the cheapest grain on it cost nearly twenty dollars a pound.

Things like wheat kernels and wheat flour were basically over thirty dollars. This was simply insane!

People had never imagined that the price of grain could be so outrageous!

Just as they were discussing this, a clerk suddenly came out with a blackboard eraser, wiped the prices off the small wooden board, and wrote them again.

In just this short while, it had gone up another fifty cents!

"Fuck, are you all crazy?"

Someone couldn't help but curse. The clerk just glanced at him sideways, then wrote a reasonable price next to the outrageous one: wheat was a little over three dollars and twenty cents.

The crowd suddenly became noisy, everyone discussing and debating.

The clerk turned to look at them. "The boss said the high price is the normal selling price, so don't complain about it being expensive."

"Even if you have money outside now, you might not be able to buy grain."

"If you don't buy it, there are plenty of people willing to spend that much money to buy it. Take it or leave it!"

He pointed vaguely at the other, reasonable price on the side. "This internal price is for 'our own people'."

Immediately, someone in the crowd asked, "Who are 'our own people'?"

"Do I count as 'our own people'?"

The clerk looked at that person. "You sell the things you get from the mountains to all the local merchants, and they will give you a card."

"Those holding the card will get the opportunity to buy grain at a low price."

"The more things you sell, the more grain you can buy."

"For every ten dollars worth of goods sold, you can buy one pound of grain for three dollars and twenty cents!"

Once this explanation was out, the crowd exploded!

They finally realized what this meant—waving a sickle in front of their faces to cut their flesh!

The amount of mountain goods the merchants had acquired in the past half-month wasn't enough, and they still had some stock in their warehouses to make up for it.

But what about next month?

What about the month after that?

Once they couldn't collect enough goods, would the big shots behind them think they were all useless?

Would they think they were no longer needed?

These marginal characters of the privileged class were like useful sheep intestine casings; they could be used repeatedly, just wash them.

But they could also be discarded after one use; they weren't worth anything anyway.

So, with the mayor's tacit approval, they began frantically raising the price of grain, and then adopted this method of requiring the sale of goods to qualify for grain purchases, forcing everyone to sell their belongings to them.

Not selling?

Fine, wait to starve to death!

The people's emotions suddenly became agitated. The two sides were already in confrontation, and having such a thing happen at this time would only cause people's emotions to continue spiraling out of control!

However, these merchants and privileged classes were certain that even if these mud-legged dogs were angry, they couldn't do anything destructive.

After all, the Lapa people... were used to being honest. Most importantly, they had no weapons to resist, no means of production, and once detached from this imperfect society, most of them would find it hard to survive!

This was typical of relying on the monopoly resources in their hands and looking down on others.

People roared loudly, shouted in anger, and cursed, but it seemed to be of no use.

The clerk glanced at them sideways, turned around and went back into the grain station, then sat down and picked up a book.

Between these people outside and the grain station, as well as the grain piled on the floor of the station, there was only a threshold about two centimeters high; other than that, there was no obstruction.

But this two-centimeter-high threshold was, at this very moment, like a high mountain that people could not cross!

People didn't quite dare to do that; they actually knew very well what it would mean if they robbed these grain stations, so they could only curse loudly outside the door, but had no way to deal with the people and things within arm's reach.

A mocking smile hung on the corner of the clerk's mouth. He shook his head, settled his mind, and continued reading the novel in his hand.

Just as he had fully immersed himself, he suddenly heard someone step into the grain station. He looked up sharply at the person. "If you don't have a permit, get out!"

The few people who came stared at him, and he glared back fearlessly. The other party got closer and closer to him. What he didn't notice was that the cursing outside the grain station was getting quieter, to the point where it could no longer be heard.

His attention was focused entirely on the few people in front of him.

He knew these people were likely tough, but long-standing habits, or rather his understanding of these mud-legged dogs, meant he didn't make any move to dodge.

He puffed out his chest and looked at these people, glaring back with an even fiercer gaze. "I told you to get out, didn't you hear me?"

The next second, the person standing at the very front suddenly pulled out the machete hanging at his waist and slashed it across his neck!

The clerk subconsciously lowered his head, wanting to look at the other person's hand, but the muscles on one side of his neck were completely severed, and only the muscles on the other side were exerting force.

We all know that if you are riding on horseback and pull both reins tight at the same time, the horse will stop.

But if you only pull one side, the horse's head will turn.

His head tilted toward the side that hadn't been slashed, directly causing the slashed half to lift up.

Fresh blood sprayed onto the other person's hand with a "puchi" sound. He tilted his head and looked at the bright red blood spraying out, his mind a blank, with only one thought—

I'm fucking going to die!

Yes, he was going to die.

Almost two or three seconds later, the clerk fell to the ground with a thud, twitching slightly. Countless cells in his body were making a final rescue attempt, and the rapid secretion of adrenaline caused his body to twitch instinctively, but it was already of no use to save him.

He lay there, and the fresh blood quickly soaked the ground around him, but he could only watch helplessly as those people stepped over his head.

These mud-legged dogs, how dare they?

A few people came out, each carrying a small bag of grain. They glanced at the silent crowd that had voluntarily cleared a path, and quickly passed through.

The people outside the door were like they had been cast under a spell by a witch in the jungle, standing in place without moving.

In their ears was the sound of their own drum-like heartbeats.

The clerk stopped moving completely.

Someone suddenly ran into the grain station and started stuffing grain into their pockets, then a second, a third; more people started rushing in, frantically grabbing everything they could grab!

This scene wasn't just happening here; it was also happening in other places where grain was sold.

Once the blood and killing started, one side had to die before it could stop!

The entire city fell into a carnival of slaughter. Among this group of people, there was a very special existence.

Pedro was wearing a trench coat he had snatched from somewhere. This time he wasn't wearing glasses, but had combed his hair back, plastered with hair wax.

He led people quickly toward the direction of the City Hall.

Moreover, these people were carrying guns; at least quite a few of them were carrying guns.

People in the chaotic city also discovered them, but these people didn't dare to come forward because they saw the guns.

Only the army had guns, but these people weren't soldiers, so they...

A crazy and exciting thought rose in people's hearts, and so their slaughter of merchants, casinos, and the masters became even more frantic!

Those masters who used to be high and mighty and wouldn't even look at them straight were tied up, hung on trees, and stabbed with knives or other things into their bodies, not letting them die so quickly, torturing them severely.

Those noble ladies who always looked at them like they were maggots were now being grabbed by their hair and pressed underneath, being slammed into severely!

The city's order was completely destroyed in just forty or fifty minutes!

Gunshots occasionally rang out in the city, but they were quickly extinguished.

Crazy, they're all fucking crazy!

The mayor's face no longer showed indifference or viciousness. He had already connected to the Presidential Palace's phone.

He was covered in sweat, and his hair, which was usually meticulous, was soaked through with sweat.

He held the receiver with both hands, bent over, tightened his knees, and stuck his butt out slightly, just like a victim who had just been buggered from the front. "Mr. President, please send troops as soon as possible. Those people have gone crazy!"

"They are attacking our grain stations, warehouses, taking away the grain and wealth that belong to you, and beating, even killing, some of the security guards."

"Police?"

"Some of the police have been killed by them, some have hidden, and some may have joined them..."

"I... I don't know, maybe we won't last until three days from now."

"I..."

Just as he was speaking, the mayor's butler ran in in a panic. His face was full of terror, and he pointed toward the direction of the main gate, gasping for air, not even having time to say anything.

Just as the mayor was looking at him anxiously, the sound of gunfire from the courtyard made both of them shiver.

The President on the other side of the receiver was also stunned. "What happened?"

"Why is there such intense gunfire?"

"Who are you exchanging fire with?"

He kept asking loudly, his emotions completely stirred up!

For a ruler, those opponents with weapons and those without weapons were creatures from two completely different dimensions!

He knew that the privileged class and ruling group of Lapa had private armed forces; he himself also had private armed forces.

But a poor place like Saige City couldn't possibly have so many private armed forces.

He knew the mayor had seven or eight bodyguards with weapons, but the gunfire outside now definitely wasn't the kind of movement seven or eight weapons could make.

But now, the mayor couldn't answer any of his questions anymore.

The mayor threw the receiver onto the table and ran to the window with long strides.

He looked at the people he had never seen before who were constantly exchanging fire and closing in in the garden, and a deep chill surged to the top of his head!

This fucking isn't something he can get involved in!

Until this moment, he hadn't considered that these mud-legged dogs were truly mud-legged dogs; he suspected whether there was another ruling group behind this, for example, some minister who was dissatisfied with Diego's rule and intended to overthrow him.

It was too difficult for ordinary people in a place like Lapa to get weapons; only this possibility could allow these people to come into contact with thermal weapons.

However, he no longer had the heart to consider these things. He turned and ran toward the table, as if he hadn't heard the President's constant shouting from the receiver.

He packed some valuable things, opened the safe, put a few large gemstones into his pocket, and then, holding a pistol and a box of bullets, ran toward the outside with the butler.

Every year, the gold nuggets and some gemstones mined here, the best ones, were kept by him.

Diego was too rich; he wouldn't care if he had one less gold nugget or a few more gemstones; he couldn't notice these things at all.

But these things were indeed precious wealth to the mayor!

The manor was full of people running around in a panic. He and the butler entered the garage, drove a car, and tried to leave from the side gate of the manor, the small gate where the manor staff entered and exited.

But just as the car was about to reach the small gate, he saw someone aiming a weapon at them.

The butler slammed the steering wheel, causing the car to crash into a rock on the side of the road and stop.

He looked at these people who were constantly closing in. Even though the pistol was right by his hand, he didn't have the slightest courage to fight back.

He watched these people open the car door, and he also slowly moved his butt out of the car and walked out. He held his hands high, his face full of fear and unease. "Don't shoot..."

Ten minutes later, the mayor saw the leader of this group in his house, the guy named Pedro.

No one could connect the Pedro of this moment with the Pedro of before. He turned to look at the mayor, his eyes revealing a trace of curiosity and contempt.

This was his first time having such close contact with a "big shot."

At the same time, he also felt deep disdain for the mayor's behavior of running away.

The mayor at this moment was like a dog whose spine had been broken, his face full of cautious, ingratiating fake smiles.

"Please sit, Mr. Mayor."

The mayor sat down slowly. After Pedro walked to his opposite side and sat down, he said, "I intend to take over this city. Do you have any good suggestions?"

The mayor looked at Pedro, who didn't seem to be joking. He had a brief moment of shock. Didn't the other party know that the risk of staying was much greater than leaving?

Perhaps reading the deepest thoughts in the mayor's heart at this moment, Pedro laughed loudly. "You thought we were just coming in to plunder and then leave?"

He liked this feeling, stepping those high and mighty masters heavily into the mud, and then stepping on them a few more times!

"No, we won't leave. The era is undergoing huge changes, everything is different, Mr. Mayor!"

The mayor fell into deep thought. After about two minutes, he asked, "The army will come soon. How do you plan to deal with the army?"

Pedro's face was full of confidence. "We will crush them!"

That intense confidence gave the mayor an illusion; perhaps what he said was true!

Another ten minutes passed, and many loudspeakers in the city rang out. "Hello everyone, I am Pedro. Perhaps you don't know me."

"But it doesn't matter, because from today on, I will take the position of Mayor of Saige City myself and manage this city."

"From now on, I will announce some new rules. Those who can accept them, do as I require."

"Those who cannot accept them, take your things and leave this city now."

"After the sun rises tomorrow, if anyone is still here and doesn't follow my rules, then I will kill them!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 933 =====