Super Righteous Player
Chapter 718 - 259 Conspiracy, Selicia and the Slaughterhouse_1

Chapter 718: Chapter 259 Conspiracy, Selicia and the Slaughterhouse_1

Annan was still somewhat worried, wondering if the players could really bring Selicia back safely.

In the Underworld, Selicia was undoubtedly a celebrity in her own right.

—"The Digger among Diggers," "The Poppy Amidst Deep Rocks," She was strong, free and beautiful, neither greedy nor weak, brimming with desire yet sufficiently lucky... She was a young person who resolutely chased her dreams and ceaselessly explored new worlds.

Without a doubt, she was a superstar who thoroughly embodied the values of the Underworld.

Regardless of gender or age... Everyone wanted to become Selicia, and everyone wanted to possess Selicia.

Every child once had dreams of adventure.

Some were epic and turbulent, others were romantic and comforting as fairy tales.

But as they grew up, these dreams of adventure gradually dissipated when they realized travel and adventure were not as wonderful as imagined when they acknowledged their own life plans... when they realized they had no money, no time, no energy, no skills, and thus those unrealistic dreams of adventure naturally faded away.

The Silver Brigade was different, however.

They were living legends.

It could even be said that many young boys and girls wanted to become Prospect Diggers because of Selicia’s influence.

If the Underworld had a unified political body, then Selicia would surely have become a spokesperson-level high-ranking figure—providing her group with a hefty sum of funds just to continue their adventures.

Because if the story of the "Silver Brigade" were to end, it might even indirectly affect the pace of the Underworld’s expansion, causing it to slow or stagnate.

Being a Digger was never an easy job in the first place.

Even the term "dangerous" couldn’t fully encapsulate it.

A set of exploration equipment, including lanterns and positioning anchors, as well as enough food and water for a week—never mind a tent, there weren’t even sleeping bags.

If you wanted additional equipment, you had to purchase it from the only designated store.

Including tents, sleeping bags, portable bandages, nutritional supplements, extra lighting sources, cut-resistant gloves and so on, the "convenient series of equipment for Diggers to conduct exploration" came in a fairly complete variety and indeed performed quite well.

But to buy everything, you’d need quite a bit of money. Taking bandages and lighting as examples, their prices were more than double that of similar items on the surface.

Bear in mind, this was the most accessible part of the Underworld, the true "Center of the World."

Because of the subway linking various countries, many goods here weren’t much more expensive than their special local products, and could even be cheaper due to large import quantities. The Underworld also had the "Sage" mechanism, the group of the smartest among the powers that be—second to none.

These Sages indeed developed many advanced devices for exploration and excavation. Their level of advancement was unquestionably world-leading.

But this equipment sold to the vast number of "amateur Diggers" not only wasn’t cheaper, it became even more expensive; not just more expensive, but also limited in quantity...

However, no matter what, being a "Digger" was the only way for those in the Underworld who weren’t smart enough, lacked talent, or hadn’t received higher education to become someone important—it was essentially a gamble with one’s life.

And from this viewpoint...

On one hand, the Sages hoped the Diggers would help them explore more land; on the other hand, they didn’t want the number of Diggers to become too high—at least they always wanted to keep the total number of Diggers less than that of the Sages.

The Sages controlled law, medical care, education, among many checkpoints... But law enforcement, finance, and most importantly, the city ownership rights belonged to the Diggers.

Generally speaking, the Diggers usually had a clear understanding of their own limitations and didn’t interfere too much with the policies enforced by the Sages. If the Digger they aided was too stupid or tyrannical, the Sage would simply leave.

So a city might be without Sages, but it definitely had its Diggers. Even if the ownership rights were sold to a Sage, who then assumed the role of Digger, or if the original owner met with an unexpected death, there would definitely be a Digger in place, whether they were within the city or not.

However, no matter what, one fact remained unchanged—Diggers were much, much wealthier than the Sages.

If the number of Diggers became too many, to the point where there were more than one Digger in some cities, the "Sages’" influence in that city would significantly decrease. The political structure of that Underground City would increasingly resemble the cities in the kingdoms above... The Diggers would gradually become "lords," while the Sages would transform from "actual power holders" to "advisors."

Therefore, the only thing they could do... was to control the number of Diggers.

How to control it?

It’s quite simple... just control the amount of "high-quality equipment" on the market.

They would use the legend of Selicia to lure a large number of teenagers, who lacked the talent for learning, research, and politics and couldn’t become a part of the "wise men" class, to become Diggers. At the same time, they would further control the supply of "high-quality equipment" reaching the market, ensuring only a small number of people could become Diggers.

The rest?

Naturally, they would just die off.

Every time a Digger came back for supplies, they could receive a beacon fixed by ceremony, to help them "save their progress" on their way back.

And just within the first month of the Diggers’ departure, the "disappearance" rate reached a staggering 70%. On average, each Digger was able to set up less than three beacons.

In other words, despite the large number of positioning beacons set up by the numerous experienced Diggers and the "explorer groups" working together, the vast majority of the Diggers still lacked the ability to return three times.

In the first month, many Diggers would give up... or simply die in the lightless Underworld.

Once they lost their light source, they could never find their way back; within the exploratory layers filled with chaotic tunnels, without maps or structures, getting lost was a constant risk—their food and water were most likely insufficient, or might even be stolen by other Diggers; occasionally, monsters would appear in the shallower layers of the exploration strata, which ordinary people had no hope of defeating.

Their "romantic and great" enterprise of exploration had an even higher death rate than a battlefield.

And their survival rate was strictly controlled—without equipment, it was impossible to discover anything valuable. After all, this wasn’t a single-player game... if they fell behind others in efficiency, the "treasures" would be discovered first by others.

These young amateur Diggers would gradually realize... it was a conspiracy by the wise men. But if they managed to live long enough, they could gradually assemble a set of equipment... for example, by collecting it from the corpses of the dead.

Once they truly became "Diggers" and returned home, their stance immediately changed.

Not only did the wise men not welcome an excess of Diggers, but the Diggers themselves also didn’t want their peers to snatch away their power—the Diggers’ power was equal. For every additional person, it meant that their own power would be halved; if two more Diggers appeared, they could even directly take over a city.

No matter how much they hated the conspiracy of "controlling the number of Diggers" back in the day, by that time they would either actively or silently perpetuate it.

This was a bona fide meat grinder.

The tunnels were excavated by a vast number of "Prospective Diggers." Generation after generation of youth spent their lives in search of riches, but only the first person who set their beacon at the destination point could become a "Digger."

If they were lucky enough, they might come to their senses earlier and still have a life to return with; if they were unlucky, they would turn into a pile of bones and eventually be taken care of by the Bone Burier.

From this point of view.

Selicia could also be considered as one of the murderers, or at least an accomplice.

Even though she personally hadn’t done anything before she entered the Underworld, such a tradition had already been established over several generations... but the hate-filled survivors weren’t going to be reasonable.

——Because nowadays, the story of Selicia, the "Ship in Stone" captain, directly led to another surge of "Digger fever" in the Underworld.

Numerous children lost their parents.

Numerous parents lost their children.

Wives who lost husbands, brothers and sisters who lost elder siblings... while an unprecedented wave of pioneerism swept through the Underworld, a multitude of different tragedies were simultaneously unfolding in this place.

In fact.

There might be more people wanting to kill Selicia... than those who fell in love with her.

Not to mention...

That now, Selicia had renounced the destiny’s force that the treasure ship "Silver" brought her, and returned to the silver rank.