freeallnovels Chapter 25 Good News from the Flying Squirrel Gang
Chapter 25 Good News from the Flying Squirrel Gang
After obtaining enough information from those gangsters, Miao Meng did not leave in a hurry. Instead, he took over the position of the behind-the-scenes boss of the Flying Squirrel Gang.
After all, the information obtained from these gang members was still too little, and it was not an easy task to open a breach in these forces.
He didn't want to actually confront the entire city's defenses. As things stand, the forces within the city are, on the surface, still largely following the kingdom's rules and acknowledging the Black Earl as the city's lord.
Therefore, instead of alerting these forces and diverting their attention to the gangsters, it would be better to make use of them and let them continue as before, treating it as if they had simply changed their leaders.
Although there were some setbacks along the way, Miao Meng managed to control these gangsters by relying on the little knowledge he gained from TV dramas and books.
Although he only used basic methods such as recruiting some and punishing others, and giving them a treat after each beating, the effect was quite good. Of course, the most important thing was his strength.
After all, these gangs living at the bottom of the city don't care about loyalty and righteousness. There might be one or two loyal people, but it's impossible for the entire gang to be 100% loyal to the leader.
After all, there are only people who betray their class, not a class that betrays people. For these lower-class individuals, a stronger leader who also guarantees their income is much better than the previous miser.
Miao Meng did not value the money in the dungeon too much, even though the currency they used included precious metals such as gold coins.
Of course, the real reason is that these gangs' profits are too low. Not counting equipment like razor blades, in terms of cash alone, even the former leader's entire fortune wouldn't be enough for ten gold coins.
In this city where four or five silver coins are enough to eat bread for a month, most of the lower classes have never even seen a gold coin worth at least 100 silver coins.
儘管王国的官方兑换比例是100比1，但私下里180乃至200比1的兑换价格，也不是不存在的。
So after they took down the remaining few of the original boss's trusted confidants, the Squirrel Gang's underlings became very accepting of their new boss, who was 1.9 meters tall, had a large build, and started throwing around lots of gold coins.
"Boss, here's some gossip for today."
Langte, the former leader of the Flying Squirrel Gang and now its second-in-command, respectfully delivered a note covered in writing into the house.
Miao Meng was sitting in a boss's chair with his back to the door. He wasn't paying attention to the people who came in, but was looking out of the second-floor window at the castle on the distant hilltop.
He deliberately made the other person wait a while, putting on airs, before casually saying two words: "Read it."
"Yes, recently the price of vegetables has increased by 3 to 5 copper coins, and meat by 1 to 2 copper coins. Various ores have begun to be sold in limited quantities. The city lord's mansion is hiring knights, saying that the next wave of pirate attacks will arrive soon."
Langte had gained some understanding of the new boss's temperament. When the other party asked him to do something, it was best to do so and not try to interpret it as he was clever.
Therefore, he simply read the information on the note without adding any insights or making any inferences about the vague or uncertain parts of the information.
"I remember it's almost October, the Warriors' Day, right? In previous years, those pirates would attack around this time to stock up on winter supplies and to show off their bravery?"
Recalling the history he had gleaned from the city library through various means, Miao Meng asked Langte with some uncertainty in his voice.
Langte gave an affirmative reply: "Yes, boss."
"You used to collect fees from the surrounding villages and the merchants on these two streets, right? Don't stop doing that work, but this year you can collect one or two fewer copper coins."
Considering the behavior of these gang members, Miao Meng did not cancel their original work, but only allowed them to reduce their protection money collection duties a little.
Having been here for about 10 days, Miao Meng felt there was no need to let these thugs, who were fairly easy to use, finish their job so quickly.
Just as snakes have their paths and rats have their ways, these gangs, who have very close ties with city residents, are truly exceptional at gathering information about everyday life.
Two days ago, he received an unexpected surprise. Not only did he successfully find the location of the Black Earl's manor outside the city, but he also found a friend who worked as a laborer in the manor through a six-person theory.
The estate was an integrated farm, mainly producing various crops and a small amount of rye beer. Of course, Earl Black would occasionally rest there for a day or two.
The Black Earl's arrival times at the manor were uncertain, but with the help of his worker friend at the manor, they had managed to figure out some of the Black Earl's little habits.
Count Bartholomew was quite satisfied with the rye beer produced on his estate, but disliked the more popular wines, which led to him being ridiculed as a country bumpkin by other established nobles.
Therefore, a few days after the monthly aristocratic gathering, Count Bartholomew would take some time to visit the manor and enjoy a good rye beer.
To others, this kind of news is just idle gossip among nobles, not even as common as news like some nobles liking to force themselves on maids. At least this is a kind of erotic joke, with a bit of flavor.
However, in Miao Meng's view, this was the perfect opportunity for him to assassinate his target. When his level was lower than the opponent's, he had to have the right timing, location, and people, otherwise he would be throwing his life away.
After making simple arrangements for the gang's affairs, Miao Meng turned his attention away from the distant castle, then lightly clicked to consume some of his accumulated experience.
[Ding! Your current level has increased to Lv3, your maximum Psionic Points have increased by 2, and you have gained one new skill point. You have acquired a new feat; please choose one of the following three feats.]
Battlefield Spellcaster: A general spellcasting feat. Provides an advantage to Concentration checks; Opportunistic attacks while casting spells do not disadvantage you. Even minor attacks do not affect your spellcasting ability.
Psionic Expert: Psionicist only. Gain one psionic spell (such as Mind Blast), 2 psionic points, and can use psionic points to enhance the spell.
Skill Experts: Limited to Psionicists, Spirit Craftsmen, and Magic Cannon Users.
+1 to one attribute, gain one skill proficiency, one tool proficiency, and double the proficiency bonus for that skill and tool.
Upon seeing the attribute enhancements brought by the skill expert, Miao Meng didn't hesitate at all and immediately decided on the level three specialty.
After all, battlefield spellcasting can be acquired through training, and its effects are not very noticeable to oneself. There's nothing one can do about it, since most of the magic cannon users' output methods are too fast.
Except for a very few skills that have a pre-cast animation and require incantation, most of the damage output is achieved by using various magical devices to fire light beams.
The Psionic Specialist isn't weak; all three of the class's initial Psionic spells are decent. However, the attribute points are still more appealing.
As for the allocation of this attribute, Miao Meng directly allocated it to the core attribute Willpower, pushing it to 17 points, just one point away from gaining another adjustment value.
The tools were skillfully applied to the magic carving knife needed for wand making, making the hand more steady and precise when using the relevant tools.
Skill proficiency was achieved by investing points in the core skill "Magic Theory," which unlocked a special effect of this skill ahead of time.
Magic theory and design: Magic cannon users can modify and create magical artifacts and spells according to their own will.
A precise unlocking function has been added. When faced with a massive database of knowledge and a compressed file that is difficult to access, users can use experience points to search for similar information.