Arknights, but the family has fallen again

While this bounty hunter is happy, there must be other bounty hunters crying because of it. This is the bounty hunter's law of conservation of smiles.

thump.

Skadi expressionlessly swatted away another group of hunters.

Ding ding ding.

A handful of tempting, crisp gold coins flowed from their waists.

Chapter 306: As if Favored by God

Xiantan Village, the headquarters of the Knights.

"I just received a wanted poster from Zvonek, and there's a very conspicuous hornless Sarkaz on it. Tolan! Do you have any clues?!" Chesber tried hard to suppress his anger.

Tolan wanted to get away with it by saying a few words as usual.

But Ott put away his work tablet, glanced at it, and said, "It is said that the Sarkaz who have erased their horns and destroyed their recognizable features are assassins determined to die within their tribe."

Chesper thought Ott was just trying to excuse Tolan, but the Hornless Sarkaz froze. He even wanted to throw Chesper off immediately and ask Ott what was going on.

But he put his personal affairs aside for the time being.

Tolan said seriously, "I just brought belated justice to a widow."

He admitted the crime, even though it was forced upon him by Ott.

"Justice!?" Chesper slammed the table. "You assassinated the regional director during a protest against Gale Industries! What will others think? The whole city will be in an uproar!"

"No, you shouldn't be that slow, right?" Tolan asked in surprise.

"Even if this is all Gale Industries' own doing! But for the public, this is the truth!" Chesper rubbed his brow. "If the public is afraid and angry about this, no matter how many people there are taking Zhizhuotu's money, the situation will escalate!"

"This isn't even just a matter of the infected—no offense, Dr. Ott—this is going to be the whole city against the whole city!"

And this... is exactly what Chesper hopes for.

This is all going so smoothly!

It went so smoothly that Chesper had to follow his remaining sense of justice and responsibility and vent his strong dissatisfaction towards Tolan, Ott and others who "inadvertently" helped him put together all the elements and helped him destroy most of the evidence.

If I had to describe it in one word, it would be "smooth"!

If I had to use a short sentence, all of this would be simply "divine blessing"!

This chaotic situation in the city was the perfect opportunity for Chesper to ignite the Leica War! The only problem was...

"Even with the death of the head of the Gale Industrial Zone, the entire construction project of the Leithania-style plot will be delayed due to a series of handover tasks!" Chesper sat back in his chair dejectedly.

Tolan crossed his arms. "You can simply call him 'Zhizhuotu'."

"That would dirty my mouth!"

Ott asked, "I thought you hated that project."

Here comes the drama.

Chesper sighed. "As a knight of war, I certainly hate that kind of boring diplomatic project. Not to mention how much profit companies like Gale Industries have squeezed out of this project!"

But Chesper quickly said, "But as a person, I must admit that this project has brought a lot of trade income to Zwonek. Its success has benefited almost everyone in a short period of time."

But the nobility, who were already corrupt and degenerate, deceiving their superiors and subordinates, colluding with giant corporations to squeeze profits, and even the Knights themselves...

It will only degenerate further.

Only war can awaken a knight's duty, and only war can bring me... justice!

Really?

Deep down, Chesper's remaining conscience asked: What about the people?

The warrior knight shook his head.

Ott said, "Mr. Chesper, your prediction is too pessimistic. The death of a mere insignificant leader will not delay the progress of the project."

"The only things that will really delay the project progress are the delays in construction materials, delays in salary payments and conflicts between the construction team and local people."

This is a lie.

Having seen Zhizhuotu at work, Ott knew that he was a "plywood general." He was not an "insignificant leader."

"Yeah..." Chesper sighed. "To cover costs, Gale Industries hired a large number of infected people and withheld a considerable portion of their wages in the name of insurance. Plus, most of them don't have the habit of saving..."

"The level of infection among these young and middle-aged workers hasn't significantly affected their physical fitness. This has given them reliable working abilities..." Chesper glanced at Ott. "Excuse me, but it has also brought them terrible destructive power."

"If the project cannot proceed as usual, the Knights must move into Zwonek to prevent any accidents," he announced.

"Actually." Ott handed the tablet to Chesper.

"The person who will take over Zhizhuotu's work will be me."

"...What?" Chesper was stunned.

Tolan's eyes widened as well. "Are Gale Industries stupid?! You old bastard! Are you kidding us?!"

Chesper's eyes widened as he passed the tablet to Toland.

Tolan looked up, somewhat confused. "It clearly says 'Northern Industries' here, and it's not even near the land being built!"

"Procedurally speaking, this soon-to-be-established subsidiary, 'Northern Industries,' will be jointly controlled by Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals and Gale Industries!" Dester stood up, beaming. "However, after exchanging meaningless shares and bringing in Ursus's 'Rostov Industries' as a counterweight, Rhodes Island has gained full operational control of the subsidiary!"

"Rostov Industries... sounds like an industrial company..." Tolan muttered, "Could it be the kind capable of building mobile plots?"

"Whether you have the ability or not is irrelevant, because Zwonek now has a construction team fully capable of completing the project." Chesper said coldly, "As long as you have the qualifications, the name, the willingness to spend money, and sufficient leadership skills, you'll be fine."

"You really mean 'just'." Tolan rolled his eyes, but suddenly raised his head and looked left and right.

"Old man, you are not kidding us!?"

Chesper finally noticed Tolan's address: "Who is the old man?"

Ott spoke frankly, "This body's existence can indeed be called 'old,' but most of that time has been spent in a death-like slumber. Personally, I'm not 'old,'"

Tolan curled his lips.

"This body," "most of its time," "deathly slumber," you were certainly not lying!

But it’s not really the truth, is it?!

"Dr. Ott, how did you convince Gale Industries?" asked Chesper.

"During the tournament, all of Northern Industries' gross profits were taken away," Dessite said awkwardly. "They also borrowed a large loan from Gale Industries and signed a comprehensive betting agreement..."

Although Northern Industry could indeed fill this hole with difficulty if it could monopolize the infection protection products between Cavaleria bases, but after seeing and even experiencing Otto's true behavior with her own eyes... she increasingly felt Otto's intention to breach the contract.

Chapter 307 Help Again

When a person knows that he is doing something bad but still feels as if he is blessed by God, it is either because he is too self-satisfied or he expects God to punish him.

Which one is Chesper?

Probably the latter.

So, he decided to "help" Rhodes Island win this project by dispatching war knights into the city.

Just as the Zwonek bureaucrats feared, this border town did not have a "long tradition of anti-war knights" like the capital, Kavaleriaki, which was deeply controlled by the Chamber of Commerce.

On the contrary, once the situation becomes tense, the residents of this border town will even spontaneously invite the Knights to move in.

Tokushima quickly resolved the "riot," which was difficult to even give a proper name. Chesper's excuse for entering the city was extremely far-fetched. However, after seeing the War Knights' strict surveillance of the infected workers and feeling the sharp decline in infected crime, the citizens immediately convinced themselves:

The Knights are doing a good job, why not let them continue?

1097年03月23日，下午14:04:54，茨沃涅克，新地块。

On the bony metal frame, orange ants moved in an orderly fashion across the door. Only when I looked closer did I realize they were people entering the construction site.

As per usual practice, the soldiers and operators watched the infected workers put on their helmets, take inhibitors, and walk into the construction site.

"Your operators seem to be very familiar with this matter." Chesper placed his hands on his waist, ready to draw his sword at any time.

He is also the kind of person who is extremely wary of infected people.

"The second fastest way to securitize uncontrolled violence is to organize it."

Otto's ambiguous statement pointed to both the soldiers and the infected workers in front of him.

"What's the fastest?"

Ott said coldly: "That's what you are best at."

In other words, eradicate it completely.

"...Sometimes I always feel that you, Dr. Ott, are the one wearing the armor."

drip.

Terminal reminder.

Ott waved his hand, and a soldier immediately understood. He first bowed slightly to Ott, then pulled an infected person back from behind the door.

The Ursus punched and kicked the infected man roughly for a while, then took out the medicine from his mouth that he had never swallowed.

They are really skilled...

Ott turned around and said something that was very in line with the temperament of a knight: "Justice is my armor."

Don't say that this scumbag has impure motives, but he has never done anything purely bad according to Terra's current moral concepts.

But there probably is in the future.

The nun presented the two of them with helmets and followed behind them from a distance.

Looking at the gradually filling-in skeleton of the plot, Chesper said, "The frequency of theft and robbery by these infected workers has dropped to an acceptable level. Considering our surveillance efforts, the crime rate among citizens in some areas should actually be higher than theirs..."

"How on earth did Rhodes Island do it? They were in extreme poverty, their lives were in danger, and their mental state was extremely unstable. Not only did you quickly take over the project, but you also reduced their crime rate!" Chesper asked. "I mean, how did you do it in such a short time? It's almost impossible!"

"Remember that health insurance thing you mentioned earlier?"

"Yes," Chesper replied. "Gale Industries learned the trick from Columbia and made some changes."

The War Knight looked up, watching the giant engineering machine, like a feathered beast's beak, slowly turning, and said, "Whatever it looks like, Gale Industries has turned it into a cage for exploiting its workers."

Otte nodded. "In a country with strict legal provisions, some companies resort to playing games with words, having workers self-dispatch as individual companies, thus circumventing statutory insurance coverage."

"But the laws of Casimir are designed to serve the corporations and the knights," Ott said. "They don't even need to put on a coat of skin."

"Gale Industries forcibly converts 30 percent of infected workers' salaries into medical insurance, then uses its own low-quality products and high-priced medical services to offset this. This not only reduces wages but also finds buyers for the waste flowing off its production lines."

Ott pointed at the worker who had just entered and said, "The wages of infected workers were already cheap, so we raised them to the level of normal workers. At the same time, we changed the medical insurance provider to Rhodes Island."

One soldier mistakenly thought Otto was pointing at him and waved excitedly. He showed off to his comrades like a child and then got a slap from the centurion.

"You mean..." Chesper said with a strange expression, "You're doing the same thing as Gale Industries, only raising the base salary and replacing it with more reliable products?"

"That's right, but not entirely." Ott asked, "Do you know how much a kilogram of meat costs?"

"I don't know, but I suppose it depends on the type of meat?"

"For example, the meat of a Leitanian beast is equivalent to twenty hours' wages for a standard Zwonek worker."

“Is this expensive or cheap?”

"Lehtania has a long history of meat farming, and Zwonek has a frequent Le-Ka trade."

“It’s just cheap?”

"For infected workers, this wage and time have to be doubled, and at the same time, they have to pay minimal analgesia. Otherwise, for moderate patients, they may not be able to participate in the labor force at all."

"You mean..."

Ott turned around, his expression normal. "Through Rhodes Island's low drug costs, we can make meat affordable for the Zwonek-infected workers—if they're willing to pay for it."

"Is this your secret to reducing crime?"

"The other part is your surveillance," Ott said. "The transition from the brink of life and death to the fulfillment of spiritual needs, combined with the Knights' high-pressure surveillance, works together to make most ordinary infected people unwilling to engage in criminal activities again."

"It's the same Knights Templar, but the crime rate among citizens hasn't dropped that significantly." Chesper said absentmindedly.

The tall suspension tower cast a short, thick shadow in the slightly slanted sunlight, just enough to cover his face.

Along the way, he noticed another detail: