Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 221: One hundred and sixty-three: Observation (1)

Chapter 221: One hundred and sixty-three: Observation (1)

Last time the intelligence came in, it mentioned a group of people from some Church distributing drugs in the West City District. Malin and Faye seemed unprepared, but in truth, both boys had already set their coordinates and were holding teleportation scrolls worth thousands, with Faye also holding a Protection Spell—Anti-Evil Magic Array in his left hand.

Meanwhile, Malin was holding a violin case in his left hand, appearing like a child from the Church of Art and Beauty, but if it were opened, everyone would see that inside the box were two lever-action shotguns with their barrels sawed off.

Lever principle, four rounds loaded, gauge number eight, duckbill muzzle—it was designed to sweep away all manner of monsters and demons.

Then, upon reaching the location and exchanging a few words, Malin was almost ready to draw his weapon when a bald man emerged from the camp, looking helplessly at Malin, shaking his head, "I recognize you, child of the Goddess of Harvest. It seems that our trial of the new drug has caught your attention. We are a subsidiary of the Benevolent Church, currently conducting the latest drug trial operations."

The man then pulled a string of documents from his pocket, including identity verifications from the Benevolent Church, the Church of Justice, and the City Hall, as well as operation permits, even a letter of understanding from the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and an informed report from the royal family.

Faye confirmed that the contents of the royal family’s report were true, and then Malin, out of curiosity, asked the bald man why they weren’t making a big deal out of the operation.

The bald man replied—That the drug was still in the experimental phase, and considering that it was intended for males, they deliberately distributed it in such a place.

Malin was very curious, knowing there were so many men in the world, why did they choose the West City District, when the North City District had even more nobles and respectable gentlemen.

The answer was a 5% chance of adverse effects.

Yes, adverse effects.

They had to collect the individuals affected by these adverse effects to determine why they occurred.

This answer left Malin thunderstruck.

This intelligence was different from the last; the previous distribution of drugs took place in the central area of the West City District, but this time the youngsters had pinpointed a location nearer to the outskirts of the West City District. Those people seemed to have set up something in a warehouse, as citizens of the West City District were seen entering from time to time. Given that all those who entered were male, the youngsters relayed this information to Malin.

After analyzing the situation with the intelligence department—this was extraordinary, a covert location, specially guarded, receiving only male clients, and the men appearing extremely agitated upon leaving. Could this be some nefarious cult’s brainwashing ritual?!

So, this time Malin came just to take a distant look at everyone’s faction aura—after Malin brought back another tender branch, the Nameless God of Justice granted Malin a Super Ability—Faction Observation.

Malin could directly gaze upon a target, spend the Spiritual Energy required for a third-level Spell Formation, and confirm the target’s allegiance. With Malin’s current Spiritual Energy Pool, this was hardly a concern.

So now he was going to have a look, and if there was no issue, he would let the police handle it; if there was a problem, then he would have to call the Church of Justice and the Church of the War God to bust the place.

The warehouse was located in the central section of a street, with little to obscure the view. Malin could see people from a distance, and the first one he saw had a hint of red, indicating that this was an evil individual, but not thoroughly evil—more likely akin to a gang member, which was a common sight in the West City District.

After using a second portion of Spiritual Energy, Malin saw someone with a deeper shade of grey, indicating a person of chaotic behavior.

Chaotic, not Chaos—Chaos would be purple, while chaotic was grey, meaning this person had nothing to do with Chaos, but his actions did not seem quite reasonable in the eyes of Judge and police officers.

Needing more samples, Malin chose an individual standing on the second floor as a lookout. After spending a third portion of Spiritual Energy, he saw a light red shade.

Light red? What was this about? This light red signified that the individual was minorly evil, not even qualifying as truly evil. Often, such a person was merely a small-time thug; many mercenaries and bodyguards could be redder than him.

This odd place seemed to be different from what Malin had expected, so after some thought, he spent a fourth portion of Spiritual Energy, this time on a departing customer who left with a smile on his face.

In Malin’s eyes, this person was emanating a faint blue glow.

Light blue? This indicated that the individual was a basic, small-town citizen—blue was the color of order, and light blue represented a law-abiding, rule-following attitude, not intending to profit deviously, but also not eager to commit crimes.

"Did you see anything?" Clovis noticed the surprise on Malin’s face and asked curiously.

"It doesn’t seem like a ritual of a Cult of Chaos, we should inform the city hall and have them send a team specialized in handling paranormal events to confirm." On the battlefield, Malin would take down Chaos without even blinking, but in this situation, it’d be no fun if he accidentally hurt the wrong person.

After confirming the situation, Malin left with the girl, this time heading south along the street and then into the South Seaport District.

"The environment in the Western District is slowly getting better, huh?" Clover commented as she walked, noticing the much cleaner streets.

"I’ve already talked to the city hall officials upon my return," said Malin to Clover. "I told them to have the civilians clean up their streets, build public toilets and bathhouses. The cleanest district’s families would all receive five dollars, and if anyone was caught vandalizing another district, they would be exiled from the city." Malin explained, "A clean environment can effectively reduce the occurrence of infectious diseases."

"Is this money coming from us?" Clover asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Yes, but we can recover a small part through the public bathhouses, and the public toilets will provide us with fertilizer. The Lillim family has a lot of farmland outside the city. We leased it for five years and employed quite a few people to work it. Last year, we significantly increased our yield using treated fertilizer, and this year the Lillim family has already asked to order fertilizer from us." Malin continued, all the while keeping an eye on his surroundings. This district had improved a lot since his first visit when most of the pedestrians had a pallor and seemed generally unwell.

Now, although there was no change in their attire, their spirits appeared to be much better than before. Many families were also visibly living a better life due to the wages earned by their members.

Malin had already coordinated with various Churches. Apprentices who went out hunting could bring back the game, and Malin and Jessica were selecting a location for a food processing base. Malin intended to take the edible parts of these animals, sort them, and make them into various canned goods, along with assorted canned vegetables. These cans would be produced in Carterburg and sold to the human kingdoms to the east, and even the orcs of The Great Forest Land would like these cans if they could afford them.

Malin approached his own Church of the Harvest Goddess for this business venture. Hoffman, upon hearing Malin’s idea, greatly admired his initiative.

In Malin’s considerations, there would be three grades for meat cans. The highest grade, using the finest parts and best processing methods, would be sold to the middle class—a concept he brought from his own world.

The second-grade can, the mid-quality edible parts simply processed, would be sold to the military—human and dwarven armies alike. Malin even planned to sell to the orcs of The Great Forest Land, provided they could pay.

The third-grade cans would mostly consist of trimmings and fatty meats, processed in the simplest way and sold to those with little money who wished to improve their diet, or used in exchange for work, distributed to disaster victims.

Malin had discussed this with several major Churches and the Majesty of Mowish; all were optimistic about this idea, maximizing use.

The final result was Malin and Jessica holding 30% of shares in the entire venture, Church of Justice 10%, Benevolent Church 10%, Church of the War God 10%, Church of Harvest Goddess 10%, and Mowish royalty 30%.

The Bishop of the Church of Justice promptly handed over the certificate of rights to Malin, saying that Nameless admired Malin’s actions, and there would be no issue entrusting the shares to him.

Then came the Benevolent Church, not to be outdone. Malin’s emergency surgery had been highly acclaimed in the Benevolent Church, with real-life survivors in various places. The Mother of Mercy specifically issued an oracle to have Malin manage these shares.

The Church of the War God needs no mention. Malin had pulled off a big job in Parol City, and the War God declared Malin to be entirely to his taste, so it was no question that he should manage their portion.

And for the Church of the Harvest Goddess, it goes without saying, as soon as Hoffman signed the contract, he tossed the certificate of usage right to Malin.

As for the Mowish royalty, Judge held the certificate of rights.

In other words, Malin, Jessica, and Judge effectively controlled sixty percent, with another forty percent of management rights in Malin’s hands.

Once they selected the location, Malin could recruit extensively from the Western District. While this would increase costs, Malin believed that providing the people of the Western District with an opportunity to earn money would help them move away from an idle lifestyle. Why would anyone believe in those so-called wonders when their days are getting better?

And when they start making money, they’ll need to spend it—on new clothes, better food, and maybe even consider having more children. Then, that would be Malin’s time to shine again.

Money is always like that, rolling from one pocket to another.

What Malin wanted to do was establish a self-sufficient Syndicate Group.

To give the struggling poor, like those in the Western District, a way out and the chance to live a dignified life, even if they didn’t have much money.

In turn, this would corner the lesser skilled Cults of Chaos—digging up the soil they thrive on all the way down to bedrock, leaving them nowhere to go, and forcing them to face their end. That’s what Malin was aiming to do.