Chapter 674.2: Only Food Earned Through Labor Carries Dignity
A girl and a bear were watching and yelling from the next ship.
Meeting his gaze, the short-haired girl waved cheerfully. “Hey! Friends over there! Who are you?”
Song Haining squinted. He stared at both of them, his gaze staying on Roshan for a little longer before turning to look at their flag. He couldn’t help but find them slightly familiar. Eventually, he replied, “This is the Poor Bitch! And you are?”
Hearing the name, Tail and Roshan looked at each other and giggled.
“Oh!”
“Giao! He really called himself a poor bitch!”
Song Haining continued to look at them, wondering where he had seen them before. However, Tail took it as if he was waiting for their reply and she quickly responded. “We’re the Roro Boat! I’m Tail! She’s Roro!”
“... Tail? Wait, you’re the Tail?!” Mojave suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
“You know me?!” Tail lit up when she heard someone recognize her.
Mojave chuckled once and shook off Song Haining’s hand which was grabbing his collar. He yelled, “I’ve seen your portrait! Ah, right, at Sivermoon Bay, people from the Poro Province were asking about you and your talking bear!”
“GIAO?!”
“Why are we wanted now?!” Roshan gasped.
“Relax, there’s no bounty,” Mojave hurriedly explained. “But you might’ve offended some... unsavory people. Be careful.”
Tail sighed in relief. “Thanks for the info, we’ll be careful!”
“No problem,” Mojave said before glancing at Song Haining. When he saw the old man’s dark expression, he quickly turned to Tail and asked eagerly, “Are you heading back to Sivermoon Bay soon?”
“Nope,” Tail said.
“... That’s a problem,” Mojave mumbled while scratching his head. “The fellow I met at the French Fry Harbor told me to look for you.”
Smelling a quest opportunity, Tail’s eyes sparkled. “OH? Is there a mission... No, I mean, do you need help?”
“Something like that.” Mojave said while looking at the hide on board. With a helpless face, he sighed, “I managed to get my hands on good stuff, but because of that, I caused trouble for my olf friend here...”
“Who the fuck is friends with you? What the hell do you think this is? You think this is a problem about money after you shat on my beloved boat? Enough with this nonsense, take your rubbish and get off my ship!” Song Haining roared.
Mojave immediately tried to sooth the old captain. “Relax, relax, I got it! Calm down. I need to get some people to help but take these away, right?”
“Wait, wait, wait, do you need more manpower?” Tail leaped onto the side of her boat with sparkling eyes after hearing their conversation.
“Do you have the people to help?” Mojave looked at the Roro Boat which didn’t look much better than the Poor Bitch and frowned.
He could see sevearl sailors and mercenaries on board, but there were 30 of them at best. They might not even have as many people as the Poor Bitch.
To that, Tail revealed a toothy grin. “You found the right team! All we have here is manpower!”
“That... That’s great! I need 200... No, it’s better if you get 400 people to help. Help me to process and clean these hide. The method is really simple. Pour seawater on them before scrubbing thoroughly, getting rod of the blood and flesh and whatever nonsense is on them. I’ll deal with the equipment we need. Even if you don’t know how to do it, it’s alright, we’ll teach you. It’s just that... Do you really have enough people?” Mojave couldn’t help but stare at all of them suspiciously. He didn’t know if she was messing with him or not.
“Of course we do!” Tail grinned before running back into the boat. “Sisi! Come out here! We’ve got customers!”
A few minutes later, Sisi stepped out, and immediately wrinkled her face. “Tail, what’s the... BLUERG... Roro, did you poop on the ship?!”
Though she spoke softly, Roshan’s hearing was no joke. She roared instantly, “I WOULD NEVER! DO I LOOK LIKE SOMEONE WHO WILL POOP ANYWHERE?!”
Ignoring her, Tail grabbed Sisi excitedly. “That pirate boat needs help processing hide, they need a lot of people!”
Sisi walked to the railing and looked over calmly. She stared at the smiling Mojave with a suspicious look in her eyes. “How many people do you need? What’s the price you’ll pay for each of them? How are you going to pay?”
Mojave’s eyes lit up when he heard her questions. “The more the merrier! As long as you manage to process all these hide in two days, I’ll pay you guys 100,000 Dinars! We got cash!”
Hearing that he was planning to pay in Dinars, Sisi’s expression sank instantly. “We’ll consider it if you’re willing to pay 100,000 silver. Forget about doing business with us if you want to use Dinar.”
“Silver?! Are you guys pirates?!” Mojave’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “Absolutely not! We spent 100,000 silver buying these hide, why the hell will I pay so much to process them?”
“Heh, are you sure you only spent 100,000 silver to buy them?” Sisi narrowed her eyes as she slowly retrieved the ledger she had tucked under her underarm. She stared at Mojave with a smile that was scarier than the devil’s.
He didn’t know why, but the hair on the back of his neck stood on end when he saw the look on her face. Gulping once, he finally raised three fingers into the air and made another offer. “Come on, why do you care how much I bought it for? 30,000 silver... I’m going high on my offer because I’m negotiating with a beauty...”
No one gave a fuck about his flattery. Instead, Sisi tilted her chin to gesture to the hide nearby. “I think I’ve seen Saber Hide coats in the royal family of the Petra Fortress. I heard each one of them can sell for a million silver. You managed to buy what, four of them with 100,000 silver? Wow, you really are a good businessman.”
Facing her narrowed eyes, Mojave maintained his bravado but his back was drenched with sweat. He never expected to run into someone who knew about the value of the hide he bought.
“What do you want?” He finally sighed.
“Nothing much, I’m just saying... You don’t have to think too much about it.” Sisi grinned before she continued, “Right, by the way, the way you guys are dealing with the hide is terrible. You won’t be able to save them if you don’t process them right away. People on Ring Island have their own jobs and there’s also a war going on. Even if you can pay, you won’t be able to find too many people on their side to handle your business. None of them have any experience either.”
Mojave stared at her in disbelief. “What? Do you mean you can find me experienced workers to process the hide?”
“Not really, I wouldn’t say all of them are experienced, but there are at least several of them. Wouldn’t that be enough? We can ensure we clean them all for you.”
Well, that was the only truth she had told Mojave throughout their entire conversation.
There were quite a number of survivors in the Poro Province who made a living off hunting, especially among the Moonfolk who were skilled with using the bow. In a typical hunter’s family, the men go out to hunt while the women handle the pelts stripped from the prey. It was something quite common.
Among the survivors that Tail rescued at Gallon Port, a significant portion were hunters. Simple processing work was naturally no challenge for their wives.
Mojave hesitated for two seconds before finally nodding. “Alright, 100,000 silver isn’t impossible! But you have to promise me one thing, don’t tell the butchers at the French Fry Harbor about those sable hide.”
He still wanted to continue doing business there. If those people found out he had made such a huge profit from this deal, he was afraid they might skin him alive the next time he set foot ashore.
Hearing this, Sisi knew he had taken the bait and immediately revealed a pleasant smile. “Don’t worry. They’re all people who follow the rules. Even if they find out, they won’t say anything, at most they’ll curse you behind your back.”
A tenfold difference between buying and selling prices was basic NPC behavior. Most RPG shops worked like that. They would get used to it after playing a couple of games. In comparison, Wasteland Online was relatively more player-friendly. Players had the power to choose who to sell it to!
At the very least, once they realized they had been ripped off by an NPC, they could learn their lesson and deal with someone else next time.
Or, they could negotiate in a different way.
“Then let’s hurry and not waste time,” Mojave said, eager to proceed now that they had reached an agreement. He slapped the railing impatiently.
However, the captain beside him grabbed him by the collar. “Hold it. You’re not processing this shit on my ship! And after unloading, you’re cleaning my ship inside and out!”
Mojave looked helplessly at the woman standing on the opposite ship.
Understanding his look, Sisi smiled faintly. “Add another 10,000 silver, and we’ll handle the cleaning too.”
“10,000?! You might as well...” Mojave’s eyes bulged like a frog being grabbed. But before he could finish, the captain of the Poor Bitch cut him off.
“Deal! It’s settled!”
Seeing both of them staring at him, Mojave wore an expression as if he was constipated. But thinking of the stinking cargo on deck, he finally nodded. “Fine.”
“Great, that settles it, 110,000 silver coins. I’ll go inform the girls.” With a faint smile tugging at her lips, Sisi turned and walked back into the cabin.
Within minutes, a large group of raggedly dressed girls squeezed through the narrow hatch and stepped onto the deck.
The moment they saw them, both Mojave and Song Haining froze, and the way they looked at Sisi immediately changed. “... Be honest with me. What kind of business are you actually running?”
Brushing a strand of hair off her shoulder, Sisi replied casually,
“We do charity.”
Mojave looked at her with a strange expression.
Yeah, right... You do charity...
Too lazy to explain further, Sisi glanced at the opposite deck and then back at her own before speaking casually, “Go buy some plastic sheets from the port, or borrow some. They’re cheap.”
“There are plenty at the stalls selling fish feed and urea. I don’t want to dirty our ship.”
