The Creators: From Night City

Arthur, who was a little clumsy with his words, couldn't think of a good reason to refute for a moment and could only remain silent.

Dutch laughed until he had enough, then he said to Jiang Bing: "It is indeed a lot of money, Mr. Sabul, but this matter depends on Arthur's own wishes. The Van der Linde Gang will not force anyone."

Arthur clearly didn't want to go.

Chapter 207: Still able to move for the benefit

Although a few hundred dollars is not a small amount, as one of the top gunmen in the West, it is not difficult for him to get this money.

Being Jiang Bing's bodyguard was obviously a very troublesome thing for him who was used to freedom.

Jiang Bing has his own way to deal with this.

Jiang Bing took out the modified revolver based on the previous music, and performed a revolver gun flower dance in front of everyone.

After attracting everyone's attention, Jiang Bing placed the gun in front of Arthur and gently pulled the hammer, making the crisp sound of mechanical operation clearly audible in the night.

“This is considered extra compensation.”

The gun in Jiang Bing's hand uses a .45 caliber revolver bullet. This bullet, invented by Smith & Wesson in 1877, has been used to this day and has become one of the gold standards for common weapon specifications.

However, in order to increase the lethality, the bullets in Night City are all specially added with additives, which is far from comparable to the 0.45 bullets that still use black powder.

But it does not prevent it from using the 0.45 caliber revolver bullet of this era. Although the power will be weakened, the overall performance can still be ten blocks ahead of its competitors.

After all, there is a difference of nearly two centuries in design concepts and manufacturing processes.

There are many things that men can easily refuse, but they basically do not include fishing rods, model figures, guns and weapons, straight branches and neatly arranged cauliflower heads on the roadside.

Arthur Morgan (his real name) naturally couldn't refuse this heavy, cold and hard 'little guy'.

Before he could even react, his little hands were already playing with the revolver in their hands.

The first feeling when he picked it up was that it was heavy, and the thick texture gave him an unparalleled sense of reliability and security.

The second is convenience.

This living devil of the West examined the gun from front to back, left to right, with a habit ingrained in his bones.

He held it back and forth with his left and right hands, then pulled the hammer to check the smoothness of the structure. Finally, he threw out the magazine and rotated it to inspect the cylinder.

After finally signaling Jiang Bing, he carried out the final and most important gun inspection.

shot.

Arthur didn't even raise his gun to aim, but instead used the most common hip-shooting technique.

But he had just fired two shots when the huge recoil pushed him off his feet and he staggered.

The recoil is even greater than that of a Springfield bolt-action rifle.

He had been fooled by Jiang Bing's previous relaxed shooting performance and thought that this revolver was no different from those on the market.

But the bullets inside are original ones brought from Night City.

As for the weapon style of Night City, I can only say that those who understand will understand.

So the experienced gunman raised his gun and aimed, firing continuously.

After firing the remaining four bullets, his palms felt slightly numb.

At Jiang Bing's signal again, Arthur replaced the 0.45 revolver bullet in his bullet belt, and this time the shooting experience finally became smooth.

Black powder only allows the initial velocity of the bullet to reach around 300m/s, but while the lethality is drastically reduced, the maneuverability of the weapon is significantly increased.

Arthur fired all his bullets at high speed, and in just over a second, he evenly poured 6 bullets onto the six tree trunks.

It works so smoothly, it's just like using your own hand.

Perfect, so damn perfect, so perfect that Dutch’s eyes are almost red.

So Arthur put the gun back into the empty holster he had just emptied, moved silently, and stood beside Jiang Bing.

He expressed his ideas through practical actions.

........................

Van Horn Trading Post.

As the name suggests, this place handles a large amount of supplies from the west every day.

In this semi-industrial town, buildings are basically built along the railway and small ports, and most shops are opened on both sides of the railway.

Most of the residents are miners and porters, as well as their families.

Not far from the railway station, Arthur experiencedly found a small hotel and accommodated the three of them.

Jiang Bing went out for a stroll with a maid and a tall and strong bodyguard, curious about the customs and culture of the 19th century western industrial town.

The buildings at Van Horn Trading Post had a very chaotic layout, or rather no layout at all.

All buildings were built spontaneously by residents.

Apart from the various shops along the train tracks, the only relatively regular things left are the bars that are indispensable in the West.

Beyond that, there are rows and rows of miners' residences, densely and chaotically arranged together.

On the streets, miners returning from their shifts in the mines were all covered in dust, their masks and uniforms stained with tiny coal particles, making them look unrecognizable from black.

A few decades ago, he would probably have been mistaken for a fugitive slave and shot dead on the spot.

In the absence of qualified protective measures, coal miners could only rely on thick gauze masks to filter dust.

However, the harsh environment and poor ventilation conditions underground still make people working in this industry extremely susceptible to pneumoconiosis.

These coal miners, like the mining equipment, are industrial consumables. Frequent mining accidents such as mine collapses and gas leaks make their careers very short.

The dangerous nature of the work has caused some people to develop the habit of spending money lavishly, after all, they never know when they might die.

Consumer demand stimulates the birth of the market.

Before the trio had walked far, they saw several groups of prostitutes gathered in the streets and alleys.

The miners who got off work, one wave rushed to the tavern, one wave returned to their simple residence, and another wave rushed to them.

In an instant, a flock of chirping birds were startled.

"Southern Iron Equipment Supplier"

This is the name of a weapons store.

The gun shop, a wooden structure tucked away in the middle of Main Street, drew passersby's attention with its display of firearms and ammunition in the street-side windows. Above the door hung a wooden sign depicting two evocative crossed revolvers, with the shop's strange name scribbled below.

Jiang Bing stopped at the door, and the smell of gun maintenance oil hit him in the face.

Through the half-open door, you can see that the walls of the shop are covered with various firearms, including the currently very popular Remington, Winchester rifles and several Colt revolvers.

Behind the counter, a yellow-skinned shopkeeper with a melon-shaped hat and a rat-tail braid was busy showing a newly arrived lever-action gun to a customer.

He held a rag in his hand, wiping the gun while talking incessantly to the customer.

However, the customer was short of money and no matter how much the other party talked, he refused to buy the expensive lever-action rifle. In the end, he only bought a cheap cowboy revolver, paid a dozen dollars, put it on his waist, and left.

It is somewhat unusual for an Oriental to open a shop here, but Jiang Bing has no plans to deal with them for the time being.

After a quick stroll, the three of them finally ended up in a tavern.

Amid the clinking of glasses, the bustling noises and the chirping of maids-cum-prostitutes, a slightly hoarse voice caught Jiang Bing's attention.

"The people of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg have issued another reward for the missing little princess?

"What little princess?" asked his companion.

Chapter 208 Ghost Train

"It's the princess who disappeared nearby more than a decade ago. It caused a huge uproar at the time, with reward posters plastered all over the streets."

"It's been so long, how come you still remember it?"

The hoarse-voiced old porter took a sip of his whiskey.

"How could I possibly forget? The bounty on her head was a whopping $15000 back then. Not only me, but none of the old guys here can forget either."

His companion was shocked. "Oh my god, so much money! If only I could find this little princess, I wouldn't have to worry about anything in my life."

"Forget it. Back then, those who coveted the bounty plowed nearly the entire West, turning every cave and valley upside down, yet they didn't find a single hair. Not to mention it's been over a decade, and the princess's body is probably rotten by now."

"That's not necessarily true. Take me to that reward poster you saw there. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky one day."

Unable to overcome their companions' stubbornness, the two drinkers stood up and left, apparently to go and see the reward poster.

Jiang Bing called out to the two to follow immediately.

The bulletin board at Van Horn Trading Post.

There are no such things as owner groups in this era, and any news will be posted publicly.

Jiang Bing walked closer, passed the two people who were still talking, and immediately caught a glimpse of the eye-catching reward poster posted in the center of the bulletin board.

This is a statewide missing persons wanted poster issued by the St. Denis Police Department.

The content of the poster is roughly as follows: Princess Isabella Catherine Zinsmeister disappeared in June 1884 when she was visiting the United States from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. She was only 5 years old when she disappeared. On the 15th anniversary of the incident, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg launched a reward of $5000 to anyone who found the princess and escorted her safely to the Saint-Denis police station.

Apart from the text, the poster features a photo of the little princess at the age of 5 when she disappeared and some simple personal features.

To be honest, this information from 15 years ago is no longer of much reference value now.

Girls change a lot when they grow up, especially when the time span is 15 years.

But just these few pieces of information and a photo caused quite a stir in Jiang Bing's heart.

The content of the poster shows: The missing little princess has blonde hair and has inconspicuous birthmarks on her right hand and left cheek.

Although the little princess in the poster was very young at the time, Jiang Bing only took a glance at her and, with his understanding of the human body structure and his brain's powerful computing ability, immediately deduced that her appearance when she grew up would be very similar to Anna.

He was 5 years old when he disappeared in 1884, and 15 years later, he was exactly 20 years old.

Considering Anna's age, the same blonde hair, the birthmark on her left cheek, and the inexplicable curse, it is hard not to be suspicious.

More importantly, the identity of the missing person is a real little princess.

Combined with Eugene Weiger's retelling of the wish his wife Karlin once made, it is not difficult to guess what happened.

Good guy, Jiang Bing exclaimed in his heart, good guy.

The flattering man is really a straightforward boy with a very strong business reputation. When a customer said he wanted a "little princess", he immediately got it done on the spot and was determined not to make any concessions in the execution.

If you say you want a little princess, then she is a little princess.

What Eugene is hiding is equally easy to guess.

The couple had been infertile for a long time. After making a wish to the devil, they were sure to meet the missing little princess the next day, so they decided to adopt her.

In order to prevent the little princess from being found and to allow her to always be with the old couple, the devil also thoughtfully cursed the little princess, causing the birthmark on her face to continue to grow and expand, thus satisfying the requirements put forward by the customer and completing the public relations management of her self-image.

It was this style of doing things that made Jiang Bing a little suspicious.

It’s nothing, the taste is too strong.

A light mist suddenly filled the thick air.

The white mist was very thin at first, appearing and disappearing, and then it poured into this busy trading port along with a tourist galloping on horseback.

"Train~! Ghost train!"

An escorting worker jumped off his horse with a look of terror on his face. He stammered and his words were unclear.

"There's a ghost train!"

Before the crowd gathered to watch could fully grasp the meaning of the words, even more terrifying news came from afar.

"Landslide!"

A messenger ran out of breath, but still shouted at the top of his lungs,

"The mine collapsed!"

"Hurry up and save them!"

A large number of miners and their families rushed to the nearby mine in panic.

Panic and sorrow spread out and mixed with the thin white mist.

Everything in the world seemed to be covered with a veil, but Arthur and Margaret seemed to be unaware of it.