Chapter 353 - 257: Zog Is an Insidious Dragon

Chapter 353: Chapter 257: Zog Is an Insidious Dragon

After the new regulations were announced in Deepwater City, the construction crews burst forth with astonishing enthusiasm.

In less than a month, the first Factory and its supporting residential area were already taking shape.

There’s a big difference between building a house for someone else and building one for yourself.

However, most of the Tieflings hadn’t yet decided to bring their families over. They wanted to see how Deepwater City developed before committing to a full move.

As for the local villagers, Zog had underestimated the purchasing power of Silver Coins in this area.

Lured by the Ten Silver Coins subsidy and the Five Silver Coins recruitment bonus, villagers from hundreds of miles around had emptied out their homes to come.

The number of arrivals far exceeded Zog’s expectations. With nowhere for them to live, he had to send them back to wait while temporary camps were urgently constructed.

There was always a need for labor on the construction site, so the villagers were all assigned simple manual tasks.

Those who wanted to take on more complex work for higher pay were also welcome, as the Zog Group offered training opportunities.

However, apprentices received no wages during their training period, though they were given free meals at the cafeteria.

At first, the villagers weren’t satisfied with the apprentice’s compensation. After tasting the food in the cafeteria, however, they immediately changed their minds. The benefits were just too sweet—no, that is, they were excellent.

It wasn’t just Zog boasting, either. With the addition of various spices cultivated by the Druids and paired with his mysterious Eastern recipes, the Zog Group’s cafeteria food couldn’t compare to the nobility’s in terms of rare ingredients, but it absolutely trounced them in flavor and variety.

This gave the villagers unrealistic fantasies about what nobles in the big cities must be eating.

’If a construction site cafeteria is this good, how unbelievably delicious must the nobles’ food be?’

Zog’s take on this was simple: ’They’d be humbled once they tried the local salt-and-vinegar flavor, which was salty, sour, and reminiscent of smelly socks.’

’Food from other kingdoms might have some redeeming qualities, but the Sutton Kingdom was suffering from a total sensory failure.’

Besides professional Skills, the apprentices’ other main task was to adapt to and follow the new work system.

Everyone operated in teams, and the entire team was responsible for the actions of each member. All completed work had to be registered and confirmed. Wages consisted of a small base salary and a larger performance-based component. Teams were required to compete with each other, and outstanding teams would receive additional rewards.

However, excessive competition was forbidden. Things like working unauthorized overtime during breaks or violating the safety manual to rush a job would not only fail to earn rewards but would actually result in penalties.

In short, as long as you followed the rules, the more you worked, the more you earned.

Humans are creatures of both diligence and sloth. When they see no hope, they inevitably slide into laziness.

But when they realize that a little more effort yields a little more reward, they can be diligent to a degree that surprises even themselves.

The villagers, for instance, even started asking for longer work hours.

Zog refused. A person’s health is the foundation of everything. Besides, if they spent all their time working, when would they have time to spend their earnings?

Spending creates a market. Once a population of nearly a thousand people had gathered, the merchant caravans responsible for transporting grain and building materials immediately spotted an opportunity.

The first to arrive was a post office. Cell phones weren’t yet common enough for everyone to have one, and besides, you couldn’t use a phone to mail things home.

Then came the bars, small vendors, and local specialty restaurants. As good as the cafeteria food was, eating it all the time grew tiresome; people needed a change of pace now and then.

And, er... "software hardening engineers."

Most of them were a bit older. Having fallen out of favor in the big cities, they were forced to develop more remote markets, or were perhaps hoping to find an honest villager and settle down.

Zog didn’t ban what was arguably the world’s oldest profession from his territory.

Banning it would be impossible anyway. Most of Deepwater City was one big construction site, and it was a well-known fact that construction sites and this particular industry usually went hand in hand.

So, they just had to pay taxes.

Zog also did a rather unconventional good deed by arranging medical check-ups for the "Engineers." Doing business was fine; spreading diseases and reducing the local labor force in the process was not.

The industry was also a breeding ground for crime.

A gang from another city came sniffing around, looking to carve out some territory.

And just like that, the gang was gone.

Zog found it strange. ’Is news that slow to travel in the remote regions, or are they just stupid?’ he wondered. ’How dare they serve themselves up on a platter?’

A few gang members rode up to the construction site on horseback, brandishing flintlock pistols—they couldn’t even afford cap-and-ball guns. They swaggered in and aggressively declared that the area was now under their control, but absolutely no one paid them any mind.

Honestly, Zog felt secondhand embarrassment for them.

Thanks to the combined efforts of all parties, Deepwater City quickly grew to the size of a small town. A railway company even came calling, wanting to build a line out to it.

Zog welcomed anyone who wished to settle there, as long as they followed the local rules and built on the designated plots.

He also called on Gelda, the former great steward of the Northern Domain, to practice her old trade by establishing administrative departments for the "town-level city."

Once construction in Deepwater City was on the right track, Zog returned to Twin Tower City.

He received a notice from the Church claiming the Mammon Sect had been completely wiped out. They also sent him a summary report of the operation.

Zog read it very carefully. The evidence was ample and the process was detailed. If he hadn’t made the trip there himself, he might have actually believed the Church’s account.

But the summary didn’t mention a single word about the machine the Soul Ascenders used to enter the Consciousness Space.

Clearly, the Church didn’t want Zog getting his hands on the Soul Ascenders’ technology.