Chapter 141: Chapter 130, Selfish Desires

Jason Morgan, with a lump swollen on his forehead, felt he was out of luck.

He was a clerk at a small factory inside Revival City, doing some statistical work. With no special skills or power, he diligently performed his duties, earning his due salary. Life was much better than it was for starving refugees outside the city but was by no means wealthy. He could barely afford a room within the inner city and, with his wife’s income, just managed to support their three children.

After the war, his wife, taken in by some superstition, believed that the newly established government by the incoming governor was reliable. She not only joined it herself but also persuaded him at home for two days.

“We’re literate, we can do math, we have work experience—we can make it big.”

“It’s said that Lady Ossina got promoted to such a high position just because she could read!”

“The sooner we get in, the better. If we ingratiate ourselves early, we might also become important people someday.”

Bewitched, he agreed and, after initial political screening and training, was dispatched to the Immigration Bureau under the Civil Affairs Department.

At that time, he thought that though it was tough and he had to leave the city to work, just looking at the E9 rank set for him initially, combined with the basic rank quota with his wife, was enough to feed the family. Add to that the salary beyond the quota, their quality of life wouldn’t be reduced at all compared to before.

Moreover, just before this ‘business trip’, the newly appointed head of their bureau, encouraging them, said that this was a valuable experience. If they did the job well, it would all be counted as meritorious service. He promised to apply for the Rejuvenation Medal for those with the most outstanding performance and give priority to promotion in both rank and position upon their return.

Morgan was fed to the full by these promises. Coupled with the extra allowance for the trip, it all sounded advantageous. After discussing with his wife that evening, supported by her, he signed up that very night.

The next day, a work group was formed, and a vehicle took them, a group of people, to Major Perbov’s military force.

Dealing with the first settlement of about a thousand people, they were a bit frantic and encountered some difficulties and setbacks, but ultimately, they managed to handle it. They even became the first group to complete the relocation task, and when reporting to their leaders via telegram, they received commendation from their director.

He was in high spirits until, without any rest, they were sent overnight to newly liberated Sanchi Town.

Sanchi Town had a population of over three thousand. According to the former leader of the town, the name ‘Sanchi’ came from three large pools surrounding the town from which they could harvest some aquatic products that they relied on for a living. They would consume part of it and dry the rest to make dried fish and canned goods for export. Additionally, the town’s location was favorable, with traders passing through regularly. They ran a small tavern and provided food, lodging, and recreational services to traders, which kept the town’s livelihood modestly sustainable.

Following such a narrative, the first direction the work team took was that the town could be preserved. It could serve as a trade transit point, and the three productive lakes could also serve as aquaculture sites for food production.

They began their work along this direction.

However, after some field surveys, they quickly noticed that something was off.

There were ‘three pools,’ but they were just three ‘ponds.’ They couldn’t be called ponds, at most, very small lakes. There was some aquatic production, but it was clearly limited due to poor management.

And the tavern? There was indeed one, but adding up the rooms, there were probably only about ten, and the first floor had twenty or so tables—hardly a trading station.

If this were just a small village of a few hundred people, those three pools plus the tavern might just about manage to make a decent living.

But three thousand?

They would’ve starved long ago, relying on that, right?

The people of Sanchi Town had lied.

At first, Morgan didn’t understand why they would lie, but on the third night after the military left, leaving only their work group behind, he saw crates of weapons and equipment being moved out of a warehouse and the townspeople began arming themselves. That’s when he knew something was terribly wrong.

Those people had pretended to surrender unconditionally and show loyalty to the military as soon as they arrived, and as soon as the military left, they began to arm themselves.

Lately, he saw a large number of looters enter the town, getting along well with the townspeople.

Combining this with the previously investigated mismatch between industry and population scale, he finally realized that they had walked into a den of thieves!

No wonder how those three small pools and a run-down tavern could support three thousand people—the town didn’t rely on that for sustenance at all.

Trade route transit point… They indeed depended on trade along the route for sustenance, but perhaps not in the way he thought before.

Running shady inns, highway robbery… If they said their livelihood was related to merchants, that wouldn’t be wrong.

Add to that plundering and extorting other settlements, along with acting as a hub for robbers to deal with stolen goods, provide supplies, and hide out as a criminal center…

Well, then it wouldn’t be a problem to support a population of three thousand.

Jason Morgan, covered in cold sweat and not daring to finish urinating for fear of being noticed, tiptoed back to his room and told his other six colleagues about his discovery.