T0 Gaming Guild Saves the World

This level is useless; everyone is adapted to the game's character rank system, which only has 6 ranks.

Footsteps approached from afar in the corridor.

The person knocked lightly on the heavy, carved wooden door. Zhong Zemo paused for two seconds before getting into character under everyone's gaze.

Jiang Heyi urged, "This level clearly requires a combination of acting skills and business acumen to solve. You are the lord, and we are the guard knights, so everyone be on your toes!"

Zhong Zemo adopted the serious demeanor he displayed when standing on the podium facing his students, but he felt awkward fiddling with the purple-gold velvet robe that automatically adapted to his appearance.

It was unusually wide and dragged on the ground, making it hard to call it everyday clothing; it was more likely some kind of ceremonial attire.

Their identities were guard knights, while the others who entered the 4th floor maintained their original style of dress.

The jailer was very interested in buying a genuine medieval tin can set from the store specifically for this unique level, because that would make it more immersive!

Oh, so you can really shop in the Chaos Tower world! I'll place my order right away!

A second before the person knocking on the door came in, the jailer, a necromancer, transformed into a man in a tin can.

The visitor was an elderly man with white hair, dressed impeccably, and in excellent spirits.

Based on the limited background information provided by Yuru, players can refer to it as Navas.

Navas is the steward of the lord's castle. He has served the lord's family for many years and is capable and trustworthy.

However, he rarely took charge of matters outside the castle; the lord entrusted all matters concerning the territory to professionals.

Navas came to inquire about the banquet arrangements. Two days ago, he was instructed to make purchases for an exceptionally large banquet, and now it was time to ask further questions.

Information about the banquet immediately came to Zhong Zemo's mind.

He was a lord who indulged in pleasure and sensual pleasures, frequently inviting knights and mages from his territory to revel and socialize with nobles from surrounding territories, living a life of debauchery.

Such banquets were often extremely lavish, and the competitive spirit among nobles led invited participants to join forces to host even grander banquets after returning to their respective territories, creating a cycle that continued indefinitely.

Having figured this out, Zhong Zemo waved his hand righteously.

"No, I have more important things to do now."

Upon hearing this, Butler Navas bowed slightly: "Does Your Excellency intend to compete with the slaves in physical combat? I will arrange it for you immediately."

Everyone was stunned by this prescient response.

This part of the information was something that Yuu-dew did not give to the players.

Zhong Zemo could only feign composure and ask, "Why should I contend with slaves?"

Navas's voice trembled slightly: "I'm sorry, I misunderstood you. This is your usual entertainment activity, and it was my own idea."

Jiang Heyi sensed something was wrong.

As a butler, Navas is an old man who has served the lord for two generations. Zhong Zemo was trembling with fear after just asking him a question.

"It's alright. I want to inspect and understand the situation of the territory now. I'll leave it to my reliable subordinates. Let's start with the castle. You can assist me."

Navas nodded hastily.

The group had already divided up the tasks before the game started.

Zhong Zemo stayed in the lord's study, browsing through the piles of manuscripts, believing they contained a lot of useful information about the territory.

The others went their separate ways to gather information about the territory as quickly as possible.

Following Butler Navas, they arrived at the castle's food storage warehouse.

"All kinds of hunted meat, after being skinned and processed, are frozen and stored in the cellar. Meats that do not require special preservation techniques are basically stored here."

Listening to Navas's explanation, I was huddled in a mountain of wheat flour as I surveyed the scene.

As autumn draws to a close, the land's maids are working overtime to grind the seasonal grains and sort and store them.

As she, a knight, appeared here, the dozen or so maids who were working stood up straight like startled mice, their hands clasped tightly to their chests and abdomens, while lowering their heads as much as possible, not daring to look directly into the bed.

She actually knew nothing about grain processing, but suddenly felt that this step should be overseen by Orange Tea.

Considering that their actions would affect the game's progress, she pretended to walk up to the milled and bagged grain, grabbed a handful, smelled it, rubbed it between her fingertips, and then vigorously rubbed it.

Finally, she took out a small portion and put it in her mouth...

Hmm, it's really not very tasty. The grains are ground so coarsely that it's hard to swallow. The taste is alright, though, at least it's seasonal grain and doesn't have a musty smell... cough cough cough!

He inhaled the dust, choked, and coughed in bed, while the maids around him all knelt down and began to beg for forgiveness.

"Why are you kneeling? No kneeling! Keep working!"

She instinctively wanted to say that, but thinking of her role, she quickly changed her words and used a gentler tone.

"If I'm starving, I'll probably take a big gulp."

"Let's get back to work."

The little joke was like a pardon to the maids, who returned to their work positions. As they were about to leave their beds, you could still hear them whispering about themselves.

Once they reached a secluded spot, the woman in bed finally asked what was wrong.

“Mr. Navas”.

“You’re too kind. Please call me by my first name.” Navas was flattered.

"Alright, I just wanted to ask, since it's ground so coarsely, why not have a mage assist with the grinding?"

Navas was surprised: "Asking a magician for this kind of help is considered a provocation and an insult. Have you ever encountered anyone willing to help you during your travels?"

"Just grind it repeatedly, it just takes some time."

Okay, the person in bed understands immediately.

It's truly twisted that they're unwilling to use even the best productive forces.

"How long will the food stored in the castle last us?"

Navas hesitated for a moment and said, "First, I need to confirm who you mean by 'we'?"

"Of course, it includes everyone involved in activities within the castle."

"Based on the food data registered the day before yesterday, it is enough to feed only 39 people in the castle, which I think will last for a year."

Do you have any defensive magic arrays?

"It can withstand an attack from a 6th-tier mage, and the stored magic stones should last for 5 to 6 days."

"Besides us, how many high-level mages are there in the castle?"

"Two people, and both of them are elderly."

Therefore, in case of an emergency, the nine high-ranking officers represent all the available combat power in Silent Hill at present.

Having confirmed the strategic safeguards, Beiwo was the first to hand over the information to Zhong Zemo.

Jiang Heyi and French Fries arrived at the most chaotic area of ​​the territory, which contained an arena, a tavern, a brothel, and a slave trade, and was located at the southernmost tip of the entire territory.

The mixed nature of the area means that all sorts of people gather here. Although there are patrolling guards within the territory, they will not resort to obvious violence, but friction still occurs frequently.

Lowry, a short, gray-skinned ratman, is the tax collector and head of this region.

To be honest, Jiang Heyi's first impression of him was that he was an excessively fat rat that had learned to walk upright. His only key characteristic as a humanoid was probably his humanoid form. In the hybrid spectrum, he was extremely close to "rat" rather than human.

As a tax collector, Lowry made a fortune from this place, but aside from that, he did not do much to maintain order.

As a lord's knight and a trusted confidant sent by the lord to inspect the territory, Lori approached with a beaming smile and, without saying a word, took off the cloth bag hanging from his waist and stuffed it into Jiang Heyi's hand.

"The autumn winds have begun to blow; perhaps the knight would be interested in some fine wine?"

“We were just about to send some gifts to the lord, and now it seems we should prepare one for you as well.”

"Come, come, please don't refuse. The people here rely on the lord's protection. This is a small token of their gratitude to you, my lord."

Jiang Heyi wanted to refuse righteously, but he thought that pretending to be upright would only backfire when dealing with such a slippery guy.

He looked at Lowry, smiled knowingly, and stuffed the heavy bag of coins into his pocket with a "clink," while patting Lowry's shoulder twice.

Lowry laughed along, feeling much more at ease.

"I'm here today for the Lord's inspection, although we are..."

Lowry quickly replied, "Friend, friend."

"Yes, we are friends, but I am responsible to the lord after all, so you need to let me get some reliable information."

He muttered in a low voice, "The lord doesn't care anyway, does he?"

As Lowry entered the arena, a bloody and fierce battle was taking place.

Unlike the formal arenas established by the royal family of the Ana Empire, the fighting here has no rules, and there is no stopping point between people.

Winners live, losers die.

At this moment, the bear-shaped monster had an elf in its mouth, its teeth straining against its waist and abdomen, and its petite body would soon break and shatter.

The surrounding audience seemed to have activated a bloodthirsty frenzy, with everyone shouting and yelling "Kill! Kill! Kill!" The frenzied rhythm swept through every corner like a tidal wave, making everyone's inner desire to kill infinitely high.

This situation only improved when they entered the soundproof spectator stands built by Lowry.

“I’ve heard that you are all knights summoned by the lord from distant territories. Since we are all friends, I’m happy to answer your questions.”

Lowry sat down in a chair, picked up a piece of dried meat, and started chewing.

"Since I am new here, I would like to ask you how many slaves the people with titles and status here keep."

Lori's chewing speed slowed down, and her eyes narrowed slightly, but she saw Jiang Heyi holding the fries in her arms and sniffing her neck.

The intimacy shown to him, as if he were no stranger, made Lowry's lips curl into a smile.

"As expected, they are not upright people. Those who are summoned by the lord are all the same."

With that in mind, Lowry started talking.

The emphasis on "registered population" when Xilu provided the data was indeed significant.

Within the territory, there are two well-known forces. One is the Wilt mage family, which has several sixth-tier mages and existed long before the lord took over the area.

One is the Basque noble family, once powerful but now fallen from grace. Despite their wealth, they still wield considerable influence among the nobility.

Although the relatives of my relatives are not my relatives, within the territory, the lord is the most powerful. However, in the Silent Territory, there are exceptions. Both of these families are outside the jurisdiction of the previous lords and usually do not interfere with each other.

It is believed that each of them has between 1000 and 2000 hidden individuals.

As for their effective combat capabilities, that remains unknown.

Seeing that Jiang Heyi seemed to be deep in thought, Luo Rui continued.

“We don’t bother each other and have always gotten along well, so here’s my advice: just pretend you don’t see anything related to those two families.”

Before parting, Lori strongly suggested that Jiang Heyi check out the new elfin beauties at the next venue, vividly describing how hot they were.

Jiang Heyi kept stealing glances at the fries' reaction, and after promising Lori it would be next time, he finally managed to escape.

On the way back to the castle, Fries calmly said, "After Kshatriya, such a trivial matter won't elicit any reaction from me."

"Actually..." she hesitated, "I really want to see just how hot it is, and how far the game's boundaries can go?"

When they returned to the lord's room, Orange Tea and Jailer Brother, who were inspecting the granaries and tax collection in the territory, and the Four Primals who were conducting public opinion surveys, had also returned.

After gathering information from various sources, everyone's brows furrowed in worry.

First is taxation.

The tax revenue of the Silent Territory is the July 1st tax.

Upon hearing this tax rate, everyone fell silent.

Many medieval lords would widen their eyes upon hearing this and sincerely exclaim, "You're ruthless!"

Jiang Heyi couldn't understand how the people here could resist fleeing and continue to be exploited by the lord.

It feels like only games could design such bizarre conditions; it's unbelievable.

As for the granaries, they were full from the recent autumn harvest, but according to the tax officials, they would not be used to protect the territory's inhabitants, but rather for trade.

The Tetraprototype tells us that many people, after having their autumn grain requisitioned, barely had enough food to survive until the end of winter.

At that time, the tax officials would distribute food rations until the following autumn.

The food rations were enough to sustain life and work, but certainly not enough for people to travel far. This is probably why many people wanted to escape but were unable to leave.

"No one has any complaints?" Zhong Zemo felt like a tyrannical bastard, so he immediately inquired about public opinion.

"They're rather numb. Some are grateful if they're given food, but most dare not speak out against it."